Steadfastness, Aggressiveness, Courage

Introduction to Paul's Exhortation and its Framework

0:02 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, February 1st, 1981, at the Trinity Baptist Church. Now may I urge you to follow in your own Bibles as I read again this morning from Philippians chapter 1. Philippians chapter 1, beginning with verse 27 and reading through to the end of the first chapter. Philippians chapter 1, beginning with verse 27.

0:39 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you or be absent, I may hear of your state, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one soul striving for the faith of the gospel, and in nothing terrified by the adversary. Which is for them an evident token of perdition, but of your salvation, and that from God, because to you it hath been granted on the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer in his behalf, having the same conflict which he saw in me, and now here to be in me.

1:31 We return this morning to our examination of this section. A section of Paul's letter to the Philippians, a section in which we find the first of his direct words of exhortation and commandment to this congregation in Christ at the city of Philippi. And the section begins, as we have noted over the past several Lord's Day mornings, with verse 27 in terms of a general exhortation. When Paul wrote the words, Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.

2:12 He was saying in essence, regardless of what happens to me, whatever happens, above all else, let your pattern of life be such as reflects the regulative power of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, the apostle is assuming that there is a direct, direct line from every facet of the gospel of Christ to every single detail of the life of a child of God. And by way of a gospel imperative, but an imperative nonetheless, he commands the saints to regulate their lives in such a way as to reflect both their understanding of and commitment to that principle. The principle of a direct line of obligation going from every facet of the glorious gospel of Christ to every detail of the lives of the people of Christ. But as a good preacher, he is not content to state general principles and leave specifics to the Holy Spirit. Perhaps you have heard that.

3:29 Well, I just preach the general principles, and I leave it to the Holy Spirit to make the, Well, the Holy Ghost does not work that way. As a wise and good preacher and pastor, the apostle then descends from the general exhortation to some specific manifestations of compliance with that exhortation, and each of those applications is tailor-made to the situation at Philippi. In other words, he moves from a general exhortation, to specific tailor-made applications of that general exhortation. But as we noted last Lord's Day, before he does that, he is concerned to articulate what I entitled the framework or the pattern of their obedience, both to the general exhortation and to its specific expressions. And he does so in these words, that whether I come and see you, or be absent, I may hear of your state. In other words, he indicates that he expects from them consistent obedience to the general principle and its specifics, and he expects an obedience carried on above all else, in the fear of God.

4:57 The apostle was concerned here, as in chapter 2 and verse 12, that these Philippians should not, have their obedience to this exhortation, materially influenced by whether or not, their spiritual leader and mentor was present or absent. Notice I use the term materially influenced. It would be unnatural, that the people at Philippi would not be stirred up to greater obedience, in the presence of the apostle Paul. But if there is any material difference, in their compliance with the directive, because Paul is present, and then a lessening of that obedience to any degree when he is absent, then they have yet to learn what it is to live out their lives, in a manner worthy of the gospel, in the fear of the living God. Well then we come this morning to take up, these manifestations of the general exhortation. It's as though someone, or Paul anticipates someone or someones in the congregation at Philippi, saying to him, Paul, what precisely does it mean, here in Philippi, here in the concrete realities of our real life situation,

Three Manifestations of a Gospel-Worthy Life and Call to Self-Examination

6:25 to live out our lives in a manner worthy of the gospel? And the apostle is answering that question, in these words, that ye stand fast in one spirit, striving with one soul for the faith of the gospel, and in nothing affrighted by the adversaries. Now to be technically accurate, we should view these three things, as a major manifestation, and it's two handmaidens or children, but for the sake of the gospel, and it's two handmaidens or children, and for the sake of our own memories, and the orderliness of presentation, I will consider them simply under the heading, the three major manifestations of a life worthy of the gospel. The three major manifestations of a life worthy of the gospel. Now as these things are unpacked this morning, every one of you who is a Christian ought to be doing two things. You ought first of all to be engaged in a wholesome experience of self-examination, and there is a form of self-examination that is perfectly wholesome.

7:50 It is bringing your patterns of life to the touchstone of the word of God with the prayer of the psalmist throbbing in your heart, Search me, O God, and know me. Try me and see if there be, any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting there ought to be the prayer that God would show you under the preaching of the word if indeed your life is being lived in a manner worthy of the gospel so there ought to be I say a process of self-examination and then there ought to be a process of stored up direction in other words you ought to be seeking even as the word is preached to be laying up what it means to live a life worthy of the gospel so that in the given circumstances of your life when these words and these directives have peculiar relevance they will be there treasured up in the heart and stored up in the memory for the spirit of God beta. to bring them to remembrance, and to guide your feet into the path of holiness. What then are these three major manifestations of a life worthy of the gospel?

Unified Steadfastness: Standing with Resolution

9:12 Well, the first one to which the apostle directs himself, and it is the major one, is what I have entitled a unified steadfastness. A unified steadfastness. Look at the language of the text. Whether I come and see you or be absent, I may hear of your state, or may hear the things concerning you, that ye stand fast in one spirit.

9:46 Now the key words are obviously stand fast and one spirit. Now the word the apostle used for stand fast, is found once in the gospels with the simple significance of a person standing or placing himself in an upright position on his feet. I am standing about 14 inches behind this pulpit. But the universal usage in the epistles is one in which there is not merely the notion of someone being found physically in an upright position.

10:28 But the whole emphasis of the word is one of standing with resolution and with determination. The picture of a man who has planted his feet and says, over my dead body. That's the picture of that word. That's the way it's used in 1 Corinthians 16 and verse 13.

10:55 I'll give you but two specimen usages to, to let you feel something of the flavor of this word. Watch ye stand fast in the faith. Quit you like men, be strong. So you see the whole flavor of that exhortation is a summons to a manly posture in the Christian faith.

11:21 And then when Paul writes to the Galatians, you remember how his soul was stirred as the Judaizers sought, to move the believers away from their dearly purchased liberty in Christ. And in chapter 5 and verse 1 he says to the Philippians, Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage. Can you imagine how a man who for years had been a slave, and was suddenly granted legal freedom from his slavery, how he would stand his ground, if someone came attempting to put him in manacles and chains again. He would stand his ground with every bit of resoluteness, and all of the fiber of his being. Well that's the significance of this word. And as I was meditating upon it, I thought perhaps in extra biblical history, there is no clearer illustration of what it means to stand fast,

12:27 than that classic illustration that comes from the history of Martin Luther. And for you children who have never read the account, I want to read just a little bit that I hope will whet your appetite. Luther was called to stand before the great ones of the earth, both religious and political leaders. And he was being pressured to back off from the things he had written, and spoken with respect to the gospel, as it exposed the errors of the church, as it exposed the errors of the church, as it exposed the errors of the church, as it exposed the errors of the church, as it exposed the errors of the church of Rome.

12:59 And having made his defense at the gathering in a place called Worms, first of all he had given his defense in German, then he was asked to give his defense in Latin. And though he was exhausted and Daubene, the church historian writes in graphic detail concerning the evidences of his mental and physical exhaustion, he tells us how wonderfully God, the Lord, supported him. And Luther then, speaking before the great ones of the earth, in Latin, said, and this is translated, of course, into English. After he is told that he is not to question the decisions of church councils, Luther's answer was this, Since your most serene majesty and your high mightiness requires of me a simple, clear and direct answer, I will give one, and it is this, I cannot submit my faith either to the Pope or to the councils, because it is as clear as noonday that they have often fallen into error, and even into glaring inconsistency with themselves. If then I am not convinced by proof from the Holy Scripture or by cogent reasons,

14:23 if I am not satisfied by the very texts that I have cited, and if my judgment, judgment is not in this way brought into subjection to God's word, I neither can nor will retract anything, for it cannot be right for a Christian to speak against his own conscience. Then, turning a look on that assembly before whom he stood, and which held in its hand his very life or death, his final words were, I stand here and can say no more, so help me God. Amen. When Paul wrote to the Philippians and said, Let your life be worthy of the Gospel, he said, By that I mean that you, like Luther, come to the position where once your conscience is enlightened, not by prejudice, not by personal inclination, not by tradition, but by the word of God, you are prepared to say, Hear me God, I can do no other.

15:51 Amen. If it means death, then death must come. If it means imprisonment, then let the prison bars come. But my conscience is held, captive to the word of God.

16:09 But now notice, he qualifies his description of this steadfastness. He says that I may hear that you stand fast in one spirit. You see, Paul is not addressing himself to an individual here or there. To one or another in the church at Philippi, who may have more native gumption and courage, or some who have outstripped others in their spiritual advancement.

16:44 He is writing to the entire church, and he says this quality of steadfastness that is a quality indicative of a lifestyle worthy of the Gospel is to be manifested in one spirit. That is, that the entire church at Philippi is to stand fast in the unity described by one spirit. Now the commentators differ as to the precise significance of the words in one spirit. Is it a reference to the Holy Spirit, who alone produces this unity and this resolution? Or is it a reference to the human spirit, in which the Holy Spirit operates to give these highest levels of human, I'm sorry, of religious conviction? Or is it in one spirit, in the sense that the human spirit is the seat of the understanding and of religious commitment? Well, in a sense, it really doesn't matter, does it?

17:56 The sense of the passage is unaffected, no matter what interpretation we take of the precise significance of the word in one spirit. This much is clear, that a life worthy of the Gospel for the Philippians is a lifestyle marked by this unified steadfastness in which pervading the entire church is this one animus, this one spirit of resolute determination to stand for the truth of the Gospel at any cost. Now then, the question naturally arises, having examined the meaning of the words, what is the relationship between unified steadfastness and a life worthy of the Gospel? Paul, obviously, was making that connection. He says, only let your life be worthy of the Gospel that whether I come or hear the report of you, it will be evident that you are standing in this unified steadfastness. Well, what was the connection in Paul's line between the Gospel and a group of people in the condition of unified steadfastness?

The Gospel's Basis for Unified Steadfastness

19:22 Well, we don't need to look far for the answer. When man was created by God, his feet were planted in the way of God, he was given an inward disposition to adhere to the way and word of God, and he was given external commands by which to regulate his life. And man, in conjunction with his wife, had what Paul is describing here, a unified spirit of steadfastness with respect to God and to His ways.

20:04 And among the many tragedies of sin is to be seeing the vacillation that has come to man, the creature, with respect to the ways and the will of God. His feet are no longer planted in the ways of God, but they move as dictated either by his carnal passions or the pressures of the world or by the deception of a wicked devil who is out to destroy. And with that movement away from steadfast adherence to God and His ways has come this crass, wicked individualism in which man will pursue his own ways at the expense of his fellow man's feelings, possessions, sensitivities. He cares not. And in the classic descriptions of universal sinfulness, the horizontal dimensions of sin are often brought forward in all of their ugliness. Hands swift to shed blood.

21:16 Feet that run in paths of unrighteousness. Eyes full of adultery. Tongues full of lying and bitterness. So there is no sense of unity.

21:29 Mankind has become fragmented and every man is at his brother's throat. But now what has the gospel done? The gospel has come proclaiming the mighty works of the incarnate God, the Lord Jesus, who by His perfect life and His substitutionary death has so fully satisfied the demands of God's law that a way of access is now open for man, the guilty sinner, to enter again into loving communion with God. And the gospel proclaims a marvelous provision in the person of the Holy Spirit in which the heart of stone that is given over to following sinful passions that is at the whim of the pressures of the world and the frowns and smiles of men, God has said He'll give a new heart and He will implant within that heart an adherence to His ways, a determination to serve and love and follow the God of grace. One of the great provisions of the gospel is not only that great inward work that brings man to stand where he once stood in Adam before the fall, committed to God and to His ways and an internal principle

22:55 of delight in that God and in His ways, but whenever God does that work in an individual, He incorporates him into the body of His dear Son. He causes him to drink of the same Spirit which all who have experienced that work have also drunk. And so there is a solid basis for this unified steadfastness. Now those are some of the provisions of the gospel.

23:28 So when the apostle says, let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel, let it be evident that the gospel is come to you as individuals and you are no longer marked as those who vacillate under the pressure of carnal principles and under the whim of every lust and passion and every itch and craving of your depraved remaining corruption, make it evident that you are possessed of another spirit, a spirit that says, Almighty God who could have damned me, Almighty God who could have justly consigned me to hell and sealed over the pit of destruction forever, He has rescued me. He has put my feet into the way of righteousness and given me a heart to love Him and to serve Him. Granted, He has left in me as in these Philippians remaining corruption, which answering to temptation from without and the pressures of the world creates an inward agony and a struggle, but what is to mark one who is living worthily of the gospel, the fact that he is committed to say, here I stand. Let my remaining corruption plead and beg and even scream to be satisfied.

24:58 I shall defy it in the name of my Savior, who took my corrupt flesh to the cross and nailed it to that cross in His own death. Let a world flirt with me. Let a fawning seduce me. Let a seductive world its breast and its leg and seek to bring me into its bed of spiritual fornication.

25:32 I am determined to put my hands upon my eyes and say, in the way of holiness, no matter what it cost me in terms of self-denial of my remaining corruption or the ill-timed indulgence of legitimate God-given appetite. And that is to be not just the mark of a super-duper spiritual individual here or there in Trinity Church. It is to be a unified, steadfastness. That I may that ye stand fast in one way it can be the unified spirit is when every one of you who names the name of Christ and claims to have come under the power of the Gospel begins to live self-consciously in the light of this principle. No one can do it for you. And Paul says, O my dear Philippians, whether I come and see it with my own eyes, whether Epaphroditus or some other messenger

26:59 comes back to me here at Rome with a report, how I long to hear or to see that you are living lives worthy of the Gospel. That is, that you are standing fast in one spirit. Unified steadfastness. And then growing out of that, we have the second of this trilogy.

Harmonious Aggressiveness: Striving for the Gospel

27:23 Look at it. It is what I am going to call a harmonious aggressiveness. The language of the text is this, Philippians 1, and in verse 27, that ye stand fast in one spirit with or in one soul strive for the faith of the Gospel. Now again, we have got to unpack the key words.

27:56 And the obvious word that is the key to everything is this word, striving or striving together for the faith of the Gospel. This word is used only one other time in the New Testament and it is used in this very letter, chapter 4 and verse 3. Yea, I beseech thee also, true yoke fellow, help these women for, here is the word, they labored with me in the Gospel. But the root of this word goes back to something that Paul obviously was fascinated with, the Grecian races, wrestling and boxing matches.

28:39 Now some of you may have your opinion of Paul's spirituality greatly altered when you know or find out or are informed that he obviously admired a boxing match and a wrestling match, and he also loved to watch races. Now I doubt it was horse races and if it were, I doubt he was putting his two bucks on catch-em-if-you-can or whatever else was running on that particular day. But we find the Apostle frequently making references to those realities of the Grecian games. 1 Corinthians 9, he speaks, he said, I am not a shadow boxer, I don't just fight the air.

29:22 He says, I am a boxer. I buffet this body and keep it under. And he speaks of athletes who, when they are in training, they exercise a discipline that meets them from the moment their feet hit the floor in the morning to the time they go to bed. They've got in their minds that on a certain date, six months away, I think of it particularly with men who run the short races, the dash men.

29:44 Here, a hundred yard or a hundred meter dash is going to be over in less than ten seconds, and yet a man has set his heart upon coming home. Upon coming off from that race with the gold around his neck, and for six months of his life is regulated by the ten seconds of that race that is yet to come. Paul uses that analogy frequently. And there is good reason to believe that he chooses this word purposefully to underscore something of the athletic vigor that is involved in that which is a manifestation of a life worthy of the gospel. The idea is one of close and vigorous struggling, often with complex obstacles. So that's the significance of the word striving together. But now notice he says, with one soul.

30:50 Now again, some have tried to find some great and fine distinction between the use of the word spirit in the first characteristic and soul here, but I doubt that such is warranted. This is the language we find in Acts 4.32, the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul. If the soul is considered as the animating principle of life, then the apostle is urging upon the Philippians as a manifestation of a life worthy of the gospel, this close and vigorous struggle in beautiful harmony with all of their common enemies and toward the pursuit of their common goals. And notice what that common goal is and by inference the common enemies. That ye stand fast in one spirit with one soul striving for the faith of the gospel. Now again, does he mean striving for the faith which the gospel elicits and demands, that is, that men would believe the gospel and be saved?

32:14 Or does he mean striving for the faith, that is, the faith, the body of truth comprised in the gospel? Or does he mean striving in faith, that faith which you Philippians have, a faith which is intimately connected with the gospel? Well, these are some possibilities. I am personally convinced that in the light of the context of Philippians, he is speaking of their striving together with respect to the defense and the propagation of the faith, that is, the body of truth given by God, which is the gospel.

32:54 Because you remember in this letter it is fellowship in the gospel which is one of the dominant themes. Chapter 1 in verse 5. He is thankful before God for their fellowship in the furtherance of the gospel. He is convinced that God will be pleased to release him and let him go back to the Philippian church for what purpose? Verse 25.

33:21 That he might aid their progress and their joy in the faith. And therefore it appears that the apostle is saying this. Oh, my dear Philippians, a life worthy of the gospel is a life in which you stand together with one soul committed for the defense and the propagation of the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That's why I use the terminology harmonious aggressiveness.

The Gospel's Basis for Harmonious Aggressiveness

34:00 That together they are aggressively with all the vigor and energy of athletes engaged in races, in wrestling and boxing matches, given over to see the gospel triumph at Philippi and unto the ends of the earth. Now the question is asked again. What's the connection between a life worthy of the gospel and this harmonious aggressiveness in seeking to spread the gospel? Well, again, the answer is quite obvious and lies on the surface of the whole teaching of Scripture.

34:42 You see, the gospel comes not only promising wonderful blessings, forgiveness of sins, the pardon of all of our past, the imputation of a positive standing of righteousness before God on the grounds of the obedience of Christ, but the gospel comes making some pretty serious demands. And those demands are that a man deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Christ. And Jesus said in Mark 8 that it is impossible to deny self, take up the cross, and follow him without not only losing the self-centered life with regard to positive sin, but with respect to the concerns of others. He said, whosoever will lose his life for my sake and the gospel, the same shall say it. My sake and the gospel. While there is an indifference to the gospel and to its propagation, like the beggars recorded in the book of Kings,

36:10 who came upon the spoil of the Syrians whom God had destroyed, they looked at one another and said, We do not well. This is a day of great tidings. We do not well to stand here, lepers and beggars who were about to perish, who have come upon this great bounty, and simply lavish it upon ourselves. They were constrained to spread the news that there was bread and food enough to spare for others.

36:43 And so the apostle says, Let your life be worthy of the gospel, that whether I come and see it or whether I hear about you, there may not only be an evident, unified steadfastness, but that there will be an evident, harmonious, aggressiveness, no crass individualism, no spiritual thumb-sucking, pacifier-licking kind of relationship to the gospel, where we come to hear the gospel preached, and isn't it lovely and isn't it nice, and feel comfortable in hearing that gospel again and again and again. But where there is the consciousness with one animating principle committed to God by our brethren, determined that everything at our disposal will be used to bring the gospel of the grace of God to our fellow sinners who perish in their darkness and in their bondage. With one soul, not just one or two here who go to the mission and a few who go to the hospital and a few others who go to the park to witness and a few others who go bed to bed, we're not thinking in terms of some kind of a cookie-cutter, artificial organization

38:10 of every member of Trinity Church so that on a given night everyone is banging on doors going through a canned presentation of the gospel. No! There's nothing in the word of God to teach that as a duty that any pastor has a right to lay on the consciences of his people. But that every person who's part of the body of Christ, be gripped with the self-conscious awareness that he holds this gospel not only as a treasure to look at and to admire for his own benefit, but to share with others as gift and opportunity and station and growth and a host of other variables dictate. Not one is exempted from the sense of the gospel. It's a sense of obligation for Jesus said, if you're not losing your life for the gospel, you're not his. Now what are you doing to lose your natural self-centered life for the spread of the gospel?

Undaunted Courageousness: Not Terrified by Adversaries

39:21 You see, a text like this should be one for self-examination. Paul says a life worthy of the gospel is a life that reflects liberation from self-centeredness and smugness, a life that finds its delight in denying self in order to impart the message of life to others. But I must hurry on and touch very briefly on this third quality that the apostle mentions. He not only commends unified steadfastness as one of the ways that a life worthy of the gospel will be seen, not only does he commend to them this harmonious aggressiveness, but notice he closes or concludes this trilogy with what I'm calling undaunted courageousness. Now the key words again are fascinating. He says, verse 28, and in nothing affrighted by the adversaries. Now it's the only place he uses this word.

40:39 And the word in secular literature was the word you would use if you tried to describe what happened to a horse who was very quietly being ridden down a bridle path and all of a sudden a rattler snake suddenly began to click his rattle. And some of you have seen in an old western, the great heroes are riding down the trail and all of a sudden the snake comes out and the horse rears back and he goes off on his back and all the rest. Well that's the picture here of what happens to an animal that is startled or is caused to shy or to draw back. Now Paul says, a life worthy of the gospel is one in which no matter what you meet in the path of the will of God, you're not spooked, you're not terrified, you're not caused to draw back in that kind of shyness. Now notice, we have a case again. We often have told you that what is allowable in Greek is often bad English and I heard a lot of you then promptly excused your bad English by saying you had some Greek blood in you. I heard some of the young people did this when I spoke about certain piling up of words much more better.

41:59 I said bad English but good Greek. One of them whispered to another and said that's my problem, I'm too much Greek I guess. I used poor English. Well, here you have the double negatives.

42:10 If we were to render it literally it would be this. And not affrighted never by your adversaries. In other words, under no circumstances will anything your adversaries do cause you to panic. And the adversaries are any who set themselves against you because you are a child of God committed to the advancement of the gospel of Christ.

42:44 So I've called it undaunted courageousness. Now again, what's the connection between that and a life worthy of the gospel? Well, follow it. A Christian is a man who became a Christian because he took seriously somewhere along the line that his greatest enemy was God and who experienced as his greatest fear the fact that he might fall into the hands of the living God still in his sins.

43:19 Now if you're a Christian somewhere along the line God made those two things very real to you. That your worst enemy was God, that your sins provoked and that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Well, when that same God who showed you those realities through his word pointed you to his son through his word and you saw that all of his holy wrath and anger was vented upon his well beloved one as we read this morning, he the sinless one who knew no sin by personal stain, who knew no sin by inbred corruption, who knew no sin by personal commission, yet by imputation, by substitution he became sin for us. As one said in a shocking way Jesus Christ became the greatest sinner who ever existed upon the face of the earth. When our sins in all their guilt were charged to him and the father broke upon the back of his son the rod of his holy anger when he emptied out all the vials of his holy wrath,

44:46 and satisfied all the infinite claims of his holy justice. Well, you see a Christian is someone who has come to understand that and when God his greatest enemy has now in Christ become his greatest friend now in a sense he is afraid of nothing. Jesus put it this way do not fear those that kill the body and after this have no more that they can do but fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Yea, I say unto you fear him and that person is God.

45:26 Well, you see the connection. Paul says if your life is lived worthy of the gospel lived in a manner that reflects the power of the gospel it will be a life of undaunted courageousness not because you had programmed into your personality a great amount of native courage. No. But because the gospel has taken hold of you.

45:54 And you say if God who was my greatest enemy and the wrath of God which was my greatest dread if those things have been resolved in the gospel what can man do to me but guard me and send me to hell because there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ. And if any man hates me and turns against me because of my attachment to the Savior who turned away the wrath of God all he can do in the language of the old covenanters I saw it etched in one of the tombstones all he can do is chase us up to heaven. What a wonderful picture to have of the wrath of man. If somebody sitting here this morning is filled with such hatred of God and you've been offended that you've been told you're a sinner and under divine wrath and if all of that hatred focused upon me right now and you were to pull a pistol from your belt and plant a bullet right between my eyes all you could do would be to chase me up to heaven. You're my friend. You just chased me up to heaven a bit more quickly than I thought I might go. Now you see that's the spirit of a man who's come under the power of the gospel.

47:15 Paul says now you Philippians I know things are getting hot for you. They were hot right from the beginning. Philippi was a hot town for the gospel right from the beginning. You remember Paul was in prison singing hymns and praises to God when the whole thing all broke loose and God sent an earthquake to say amen to what was going on down in that prison house at night and God wonderfully saved the jailer in his household and then the church was planted but from the very beginning they suffered.

47:46 Paul later on in this passage says it's been graciously granted to you Philippians not only to believe but to suffer. You have the same conflict in yourselves that you saw in me from the beginning and you know is going on in me now here in a Roman prison but all Philippians let your life be worthy of the gospel and the only life worthy of the gospel is a life of undaunted courageousness. People who having trembled before God do not tremble before their fellow mortals.

The Necessity of Courage in a Hostile World

48:19 People who know that the anger of God has been turned away know that God will sustain them in facing the anger of any fellow creature. And again by way of application as I close this morning do you see how necessary this grace is in our own day? The grace of undaunted courageousness. Any body of people who are determined in the language of our beloved brother who was with us a week ago any, any group of people determined to live by the book are going to pay a terrible price in our day.

49:02 The erosion of common grace the erosion of general respect for biblical norms and follow me the intrusion into the very citadel of God evangelical which would spurn some of the things said from this very pulpit in the previous hour. When Pastor Nichols said whatever we say about the qualifications for an elder this much is clear he must be a man. There are leading evangelicals in our day denying that with every fiber of their being and bringing all the genius of their specious scholarship to prove their point. There's been wholesale sellout to feminism in the evangelical church in many areas. Wholesale sellout to biblical norms concerning human sexuality. We have evangelical groups organized and actively propagating their gospel of homosexuality male and female as a bonafide Christian lifestyle. And I could go on and make the list so long that you'd be sick and I hope you'd be angered.

50:11 My friends if you and I are to stand firm in the ways of God with one spirit some of you may already be affected with that and that's why you're not 100% with us. You say when are the elders around? You say when are the elders around here going to catch up with the spirit of the tithe? I hope God will catch us away and take us to heaven before that happens.

50:35 Maybe some of you have already been affected with some of that spirit. Why can't we run a little looser ship around here? The days for authoritarian leadership are gone. Not as long as this book says take the oversight and charge his elders with that solemn responsibility.

50:57 We need undaunted courage to stand firm with one spirit to be involved in this unified cooperative aggressiveness for the advancement of the faith of the gospel and then undaunted courageousness in nothing terrified by our adversaries and mark it once people begin to realize we're not content to have just a nice little building here and a nice little lot in the middle of suburbia but that we're going after them with a message that we feel they need. It isn't going to be long before we're going to be labeled and some of the labels aren't going to be too sweet. They aren't the kind you write on your wife's anniversary card. And there will be open adversity. Oh dear fellow members of Trinity hear the word of God.

Source of These Qualities: Abiding in Christ

51:55 Let your life be worthy of the gospel. Let you stand with undaunted courage. Let you stand with undaunted courageousness in nothing affrighted by the adversaries. Now you ask where in the world do I get those qualities?

52:12 Pastor Martin they're not in me. These are the fruits of a life worthy of the gospel. And you get them in the gospel. You get them from him who is the lodestone of every facet in truth of the gospel.

52:30 You get them by going to him in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily and in him and in whom you are made full. It is by feeding upon Christ abiding in Christ drawing from Christ the virtues that are not native to your own heart. Let your life be worthy of the gospel. There's only one way that that can be obeyed.

52:57 Let your life be governed by the gospel. Let your life stand and soak its strength from the gospel. Thank God we're coming to the table again tonight that here again as we contemplate all the provisions of our gracious Lord we may find in him what is needed for these three tangible expressions of a life worthy of the gospel. This unified steadfastness this commitment to wholehearted prayer cooperative aggressive effort in the gospel and this undaunted courageousness may God grant that we as a church may live lives that indeed are worthy of the gospel of Christ. Let us pray. Our Father we are indeed grateful that we have the scriptures as a lamp unto our feet and a light to our pathway. We ask that the Holy Spirit will take the word preached this morning and so write it upon our hearts that we as a people

54:24 may experience increasingly these tangible practical expressions of a life worthy of the gospel. Our Father we pray for those who have yet to take seriously their greatest problem the problem of their unforgiving sin give them no rest until under a troubled conscience they flee to Christ and find the forgiveness that is promised to every sinner who will look away from himself and trust only in the Lord Jesus Christ. Hear our cry seal the word to our hearts and continue with us in all of the opportunities for public ministry and testimony given to us this day. We ask these mercies in Jesus name. Amen.