Substance of a Call to Unity

Introduction: The Imperfection of the Best Churches and Paul's Call to Unity

0:02 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, March 8th, 1981, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Will you turn with me, please, to Paul's letter to the Philippians, and follow as I read this morning the same portion which was read in your hearing last Lord's Day morning, Philippians chapter 2, verses 1 through 11. In the course of a verse-by-verse exposition of this wonderful letter of joy, we have come to the second chapter. Follow, please, as I read.

0:43 If there is therefore any exhortation in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and compassions, make full my joy. Make full my joy, that ye be of the same mind, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind, doing nothing through faction or through vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, each counting other better than himself, not looking each of you to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others. Have this mind in you which was always... ...also in Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped,

1:41 but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross. Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God. The Father. It has been said very tersely and accurately that the best of men are but men at best. And I'm sure we all understand what that terse little statement means.

2:53 The best of men are but men at best. In other words, sin and weakness and frailty attach themselves...

3:03 to the best of men because they are sinful men and not yet in a perfected state. Well, what is true of individual Christian men is true of corporate gatherings of Christian men and women and boys and girls, those gatherings being called in the scriptures, churches. And since churches are made up of imperfectly sanctified...

3:33 men and women and boys and girls, this principle applies to them as well. Now, few churches in the apostolic age were as free of moral defect or as full of moral virtue as was the church at Philippi. And yet there is more than a hint that there was a deficiency in this church, a deficiency in the area of realization. Most spiritual oneness and practical church unity.

4:09 A deficiency of which the Apostle Paul apparently became aware in the visit of Onesimus, I'm sorry, of Epaphroditus, and a deficiency which he takes up in this epistle, beginning with just a hint of it in the end of chapter 1, in which, exhorting them to a life worthy of the gospel, he commends, as examples of such a life, not mere steadfastness, but notice it is united steadfastness, that ye stand fast in one spirit. And he commands not merely striving for the faith of the gospel, but doing so with one soul. The emphasis, of course, upon corporate unity in the attainment and expression of these graces. Now, what is...

5:04 What is clearly suggested there now becomes the focal point of explicit exhortation in chapter 2. For the heart of the exhortation is one of a call to unity. Be of one accord, one mind, having the same love. And the introduction of this tremendous statement of the various states of our Lord Jesus is set before us as an example of those, as grace is essential to realized Christian unity and practical church oneness.

Sermon Structure and the Framework of Paul's Exhortation

5:42 And then again in the epistle we find the same thing dealt with in chapter 4 in verse 2. I exhort Iodia and I exhort Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. And so this church, which beyond most churches, the record of which is given to us, in scripture, was marked by its advancement in grace, by its great measure of zeal for the propagation of the gospel, by the absence of gross moral defects such as were found at Corinth. And yet in spite of that, there was a deficiency in this area to which the apostle addresses himself explicitly in the passage read in your hearing. Now in our initial study of this, section, chapter 2, verses 1 through 11, last Lord's Day morning, I briefly set before you its connection with what precedes. We have viewed the believer in a life worthy of the gospel with his face primarily towards the world in verses 27 to 30 of chapter 1. In the face of a hostile world, he is to manifest steadfastness,

7:03 aggressiveness in the propagation of the gospel and undaunted courageousness. But then in chapter 2 there is a shift of emphasis as we view the believer with his face not towards the world but towards his brethren. And with respect to that posture, the apostle commends now this grace of unity. Then we analyze the basic structure of the passage.

7:31 We have the framework of the exodus, exhortation, verses 1 through 2a, and then the very heart or substance of the exhortation, 2b through verse 4, and then in verses 5 through 11, we have the example and pattern or the means by which the exhortation is to be fulfilled. Now all we had time to do last Lord's Day was to open up the framework of the exhortation, of the exhortation, of the exhortation, of the exhortation, a framework comprised of the assumed existence of these spiritual realities, exhortation in Christ, consolation of love, fellowship of the Spirit, tender mercies and compassion. Paul assumes the existence of those realities and then he adds to them the powerful pressure of a unique personal relationship in the light of these realities, fill the cup of my joy to the brim. And then we have the example of the exhortation, and it's in that framework that we now come this morning to take up an examination of the substance of the call to unity. Make full my joy that, now here is the substance of his call to unity, that you be of the same mind, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind, doing nothing through faction or vain glory,

8:59 but in lowliness of mind, each counting other better, and in the same way, not looking each of you to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others. Now it's obvious that what we have in these words is a call to unity and to its root graces of humility and self-forgetfulness.

Analogy of the Football Coach: Understanding the Passage's Structure

9:27 A call to unity with its root graces of humility and self-forgetfulness. Now in order to fasten the structure of the passage in your mind, let me use a very down-to-earth illustration or analogy. Picture with me, if you will, a coach who has just seen his high school team win the state championship in the past football season in the fall. He's gathered all the returning players together in the last week of school, and next year will be his last year as a coach.

10:07 After that, he's going to retire. And when he's gathered all the returning players around him, he says something like this. Now, young men, if you have any love for your school, any personal pride in your ability as football players, any desire to win the state championship next year, then make my last year my best. Keep yourselves in your own hands.

10:33 Keep yourselves in good shape over the summer by eating a balanced diet and getting plenty of exercise. Now that's the structure of Philippians 1.1 as 2.1 through 2.4.

10:47 You see what he's doing? He's going to set a framework for his appeal. Now his great burden is that the fellas keep in shape throughout the summer. That's the central exhortation.

10:59 Keep yourselves in shape. But now he wants to set a framework of motivation. So he says, if you have any love for school, he knows they do. It's not an if of doubt.

11:09 It's an if of assumption. You do have love of school. If you have any personal pride in your ability as football players, well, he knows they do. He's assuming that that's there.

11:19 If you have any desire to win the state championship again, and he knows they do. Having tasted it once, they're not satisfied with coming in second place. I know that by experience. We were state champs in my junior year and we weren't in our senior, but we sure tried.

11:34 And then he says, adding this personal appeal that would have tremendous power. And if you want to make my final year of coaching a delight. Now, what's he done? He has set a framework for his exhortation.

11:47 Keep yourselves in shape. And then he tells them the root graces they will need to cultivate if they're to keep in shape, a balanced diet and sufficient exercise. Now, I hope that will help you to hold together the structure of these four verses. Paul said, that's the framework of his entreaty.

12:06 If there be, assuming these four realities were there in the hearts of these Philippian Christians, then he brings that to a focal point in terms of the pressure of their personal love for him. Make my joyful. Now, what's the central exhortation? That you be of one accord.

12:28 That's the central thrust and the focal point of his concern. But he brings in, the matters of humility and self-forgetfulness as the root graces without which the exhortation can never be realized. It is impossible, the apostle says, for you to comply with my exhortation to be of the same mind unless the graces of humility and self-forgetfulness are both implanted and continually grow and flourish within your heart. So then, we have in the passage this central call to unity and the call to its root graces. But for the sake of simplicity in preaching, we'll just consider three heads this morning. The call to unity, the call to humility, and the call to self-forgetfulness. But remember now, the structure as it is given to us by the Holy Ghost in the text itself.

The Call to Unity: Thought, Affection, Soul, and Goal

13:29 First of all then, the call to unity. Look at the language. Make full, make full my joy that ye be of the same mind, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Now to whom did this call for unity come?

13:54 Did it come to a gathering of officious-looking clerics with all of their fancy clerical garb and crosses? Around their necks and miters on their heads and turned collars at a large ecumenical meeting in Geneva or Amsterdam or some other central place in the world? No, it did not. It came to an apostolic church founded upon the truth of apostolic gospel.

14:28 It came to a people whom Paul could describe in verse 5 as those who were in the church as those with whom he had fellowship in the furtherance of the gospel from the first day until now. This was not a gathering of people who had no idea what the gospel was. A broad spectrum of religious leaders with the broadest conceivable spectrum of religious convictions and ideas about truth and reality. When these appeals to oneness are used to buttress the ecumenical mentality, it is a travesty upon the teaching of the word of God.

15:10 The modern ecumenical movement has not a thing to do with the biblical doctrine of unity. None whatsoever. This came to a people who understood, believed, and were committed to the propositional facts of the apostolic gospel. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.

15:32 He was buried. He was raised again the third day according to the scriptures. Now to such a people comes this clarion call to unity. Let's notice how the apostle breaks it down.

15:48 It's first of all a call essentially and primarily to unity of thought or perhaps a better word is disposition. That ye be of the same mind. Now the word used here for mind or be of the same mind it's a verb is exactly the same word used though in a different form in verse 5. Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

16:24 Now you see our Lord did not simply have some thoughts in his brain with respect to the redemption of his people. The mind of Christ, was the thought patterns of Christ molding the inward disposition and attitudes of Christ which in turn directed the activities of Christ. Let this mind be in you which was in Christ who existing in the form of God thought not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped at but emptied himself or better translated made himself of no reputation taking the form of a servant. You see there is in this matter of the mind of Christ not just thought but there is thought giving birth to inward disposition and attitude which in turn gives birth to concrete activity expressive of that thought and attitude. Do you see it? Now the apostle says this call to unity is a call to unity of thought or of disposition.

17:41 In other words it is a call to an identical perspective of what constitutes reality and it is a call not only to an identical view of what constitutes reality but an identity of inward disposition shaped by that reality and of activity dictated by that reality. So that in the Bible you rarely have this idea of any virtue in abstract theoretical thought. There is this direct line between what we understand reality to be and our yielding up of ourselves to the power of that reality and its regulative impact upon every facet of our lives. So this call to unity in the Philippian case is a call to unity. It is a call to unity. It is a call to unity.

18:37 It is a call to unity. In church as it came to them was a call to unity of thought and of disposition and then as though the apostle would simply beat the matter out and flesh it out coming out of that general exhortation come these other three aspects of the call to unity. It is a call to unity of affection. Look at the language.

19:04 That you not only be of the same mind but have having the same love. You see this immediately indicates that he is not thinking of their being united in the pure white light of understanding alone but in the warm pulsing light of holy love. And here he uses the word for love which expresses that highest kind of love that self-giving love that comes to us to its supreme expression in the giving of the Son of God for our salvation. Here in his love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. God commanded his own love to us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. So it is a call to unity that begins with thought and disposition but a unity that will bring within its orbit the deepest kind of self-giving affection.

20:15 Not the cheap tawdry love that is to be understood so often in the language of love in our day. I can't live without you baby you gotta be mine. That's not love that's lust saying I want what you have to gratify me. Instead of saying I am prepared to give what I am fully to live for you.

20:46 That's the concept of love and it's a call you see to the unifying power of that kind of love that selfless principled affection that wills and seeks the good of its object even at personal cost. But then the call goes on in terms of a call to unity of soul and here in the original it's just one word the word for soul and the word for together and so he's calling them to soul togetherness if we might coin a word. The call to unity is a call to unity of soul. Now perhaps the best biblical commentary upon this is to be found right here in the preceding context. I take you back to verse 27 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 you stand fast in one spirit now here you have two words in the original with one soul. Now what is the soul in relationship to the body? Well it's the animating principle of life as the body apart from the spirit or the soul is dead.

22:06 So faith apart from work, works is dead. So the unity to which he calls them is not only a unity that in general terms is a unity of thought and disposition and a unity of selfless affection but a unity of the entire animating principle of life. It is a unity of soul so that there is as it were going out from every believer to every other believer a hundred hooks by which their lives are bound together. According to Acts 4.32 this was one of the predominant marks of the church in Jerusalem. The multitude of those who believed were of one heart and of one soul. Think of it. There were thousands at that time and Luke can write saying of the thousands they were experiencing soul togetherness.

23:08 Now you see there are about 350 or 375 people sitting here this morning who are manifesting a degree of external body togetherness. You're sitting under the same roof many of you sitting with just a matter of three or four inches between you. You can't even keep a six inch rule here because the chairs are put together so closely. But now you see the question is this.

23:35 Is there a togetherness that runs right? Right single row of God's people. An invisible cord that knits every single heart together as really as every stitch in a sweater is attached to the one preceding and following and the one above and below. That's the picture.

23:57 The souls of the people of God knit together. That's the unity to which he calls them. Not a mere external unity. They had that or they wouldn't have been listening to this epistle all at the same time in the same place.

24:09 But he says this is the burden of my heart in the light of those great felt spiritual realities those experiences you share in common make my joy full that you experience a unity not only of thought and disposition in these general terms but a unity of selfless love a unity of soul and then he goes on and completes the call to unity with a call to unity of God's goal and perspective look at the text of one accord of one mind now in the original again the same verb is used as at the beginning but it's in a different form with the addition of two other words and a legitimate rendering would be this setting your minds on the one thing setting your minds on the one thing now one thing what the one thing is is debated but one thing is clear that their minds are to be subset together upon the one thing they are all to be pressing towards an identical spiritual goal and so I'm calling it a call to unity of goal or perspective so that there is not only the internal

The Significance of Unity and Its Witness to the World

25:38 unifying power of love and of the felt oneness of one soul but there are objective goals to which they are together pressing as one man now you see that's the most extensive kind of unity imaginable it touches the deepest springs of redeemed humanity thought affection internal perspective and the whole inner principle of animating life and yet it is all joined to the one thing that together they seek in the will and purpose of God so in summary we can say by piling up words and concepts the great apostle pours forth his heart in longing to the Philippians calling them to this unity now isn't this an amazing revelation of the values and spiritual perspectives of the apostle Paul here he is in a jail at Rome and he says if you have any of these felt spiritual realities and I know you do fill my joy to the brim now what follows you do not find following something that exhorts them to great and impressive numerical increase in the church that would make his heart full to the brim

27:07 with joy you find nothing about their financial advancement and stability as a church and even at this point nothing about their influence upon the world about them he says this is the thing that will fill the cup of my joy to the brim that there will be deep pervasive extensive genuine unity amongst the people of God at Philippi marshalling all the pressure that their spiritual experience could bring upon them and all the pressure of their personal affection for him he calls them to this unity now remember to whom this call came not just any church it was the church at Philippi which from its very beginning had brought within its scope a great diversity of religious and cultural backgrounds you remember in Acts 16 you have the record of the conversion of Lydia who's a proselyte someone who had this contact with the Jews faith who had the influence we would say the elevating influence of the truth of the Old Testament and the Lord opened her heart and she attended to the things of Paul then you had the conversion of that poor demon possessed pagan slave girl and then you had the conversion of the Roman soldier in his household now what a broad

28:34 spectrum of cultural religious sociological attitudes and perspectives you had the full gamut and Paul issues this plea oh dear Philippians if you would make my joyful be of the same mind have the same perspective and disposition have the same love be of one soul press toward the one thing now the question comes why was this so important to him well he understood something of the significance of the prayer of our Lord is given to him in John 17 verses 20 and 21 in which our Lord prays for his own and for those who are yet uncalled but are his own in the purpose of grace and in the purchase of redemption he says this in his prayer neither for these only do I pray but for them also that believe on me through their word that they may all be one even as thou father art in me and I in thee and I in thee that they may be in us that the world may believe that thou didst send me and the apostle as he clearly indicates down in chapter 2 verses 14 and 15 and 16 he has not forgotten the posture of the church

30:02 before an onlooking world he wants the church to shine with bright light in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation and he knows that few things would be more calculated to bear witness to the power of the gospel than that motley crowd at Philippi dwelling together in this kind of multi-leveled spiritual unity if people come by and see Jew and pagan and Roman bound together as one soul thinking the same thing the same concepts of what constitutes reality and their affection and their goals shaped by that reality if they see them pressing toward the one thing they look at them and say hey wait a minute the Roman is always looking down his nose at the Jew and the Jew is looking down his nose and it's usually a longer look at the Roman and the pagan stands back and he looks down his nose at both of them but you go to that crowd there called the church at Philippi and you're not there long before you sense they're not just sitting in the same building tolerating one another why you can almost feel when you walk between two of them that you're snapping an invisible but real cord of love and commitment that binds

31:31 them together as one what in the world has happened to these people what has brought the Jew down from the lofty pinnacle of his self-righteousness in which he looked down his nose at the pagan world steeped in its idolatry and its ignorance what has been working in that pagan that he no longer looks upon the Jew in the light with which he once looked at him well you see the answer is the power of the gospel has been operative to create amongst these people on the basis of apostolic gospel a unity and a oneness that is in the the likes of which is utterly unknown by the world now the application to us as a church is quite obvious isn't it I know a few congregations in this area in which there is as it were an extension of the complexion of the church at Philippi culturally racially ethnically sociologically educationally we've got the whole gamut in this place the whole gamut and we're even being told by certain church leaders that it is impossible to have true unity and an effective witness

33:00 unless you have the so called homogeneous cell of the church that is you must all basically be appealing to one particular segment of society age or culturally or racially my friends that's a denial of everything that is here in this passage when people come amongst us and begin to talk and realize that we have many who are in their sphere of labor what people call of the artisan class and others who are executives and some who have college degrees and others who never finished grade school and they find that there is every kind of racial and cultural background and yet in the midst of that it is evident that we are thinking the same thing our minds are all under the grip of objective revealed reality in the scriptures and our spirits feel the impress of that reality and our actions are under the dictates of that impression and they sense our self-giving outgoing love to one another and that we actually delight in one's another we are of one soul and that when goals are set before us from the word of God we pursue the one thing you don't have any idea

34:30 the tremendous power this has upon the conscience of the unconverted and that's why you must never view the effectiveness of gospel preaching detached from the context in which that preaching is carried on if you people don't validate by your relationship to one another the gospel preached from this pulpit it will be shorn of its power in great measure it is upon you as a congregation to validate and to manifest in your relationship to each other the realities proclaimed from this pulpit and so the apostle says do you want to fill my joy to the brim take my joy take my joy take my joy take my joy take the cup of my joy and fill it to the top why then hear my call to unity be of the same thought or disposition the same affection one soul seeking the one thing but now Paul's a realist with all of that burning visionary biblical idealism he's a realist because he knew his own heart and he worked with people too long to be sitting up in an ivory tower even though he was there at a prison in Rome he was a realist and he knew that in the church at Philippi there was remaining corruption

The Call to Humility: No Selfish Ambition or Vain Glory

35:59 the best men are but men at best and so he no sooner issues this call to unity but there is joined to it this call to unity's two root graces look at them and we'll touch upon them very quickly humility and self-forgetfulness notice notice each one he gives a negative and a positive the structure is exactly the same we've looked at the call to unity now secondly the call to humility negatively look at the text I've got to get it before me so I can look at it as well verse 3 if you have the 1901 edition you'll notice the word doing is in italics indicating that in the original there's no verb a literal translation would be having the same love being of one accord of one mind nothing through faction or through vain glory there is no verb the emphasis falls upon the fact that this call to unity involves a call to humility in which negatively nothing is carried on according to the principles of selfish ambition or empty conceit that translation captures more accurately

37:28 the significance of the original nothing nothing done according to the principles of selfish ambition or empty conceit you see Paul knew that remaining in the hearts of believers at Philippi were these ugly ugly things called selfish ambition and empty conceit and to the extent that they had any rootage in the hearts and lives of the people and any manifestation of fruit at Philippi there could be none of this unity of which he has spoken so passionately and so eloquently he knows that in the human heart part of remaining corruption is to be found in the form of that cursed hellish devilish thing called pride and its ugly ugly distorted children of ambition and vain glory you remember when he spoke to another one of his choice churches the Ephesian church represented by its elders he said in Acts 20 I know that after my departure grievous wolves shall come from without not sparing the flock and from among your own selves

38:56 will men rise up notice now to draw away disciples , after them commenting on that passage John Calvin said ambition is the mother of all heresies you see they couldn't stand simply to be of one mind with the rest of the congregation they couldn't stand to take the place of self-giving love that never draws attention to itself they could not stand to simply be one stitch in that fabric of one's soleness lending the weight of their shoulder and back to the one thing oh no not enough chiefs gonna be heaping chief so where does it start they begin to have a differing judgment about what constitutes reality they came up with a heresy a new wrinkle why not because they saw it in the bible but because they had the itch to have a following and they spawned their heresy to have an occasion to get a following Paul knew that that was latent in the church at Philippi so he calls them

40:26 to the grace of humility that's why Solomon in his wisdom said in Proverbs 13 10 by pride comes only contention the mother of church contention is pride so he says nothing according to the standards standards of vainglory and ambition but positively look at the language but in lowliness of mind each counting other better than himself now it's very interesting this word lowliness of mind all of the students of the Greek language are agreed all of those who have written about the meaning of words that in the the vocabulary of the average Greek of that day this word if used at all always had a very thumbs down connotation if you talked about someone being lowly of mind you meant he's you know few bricks less than a full load it was a demeaning description of someone it is only in the language of the New Testament and of the Christian church that this word becomes a virtue it was unknown among the Greeks with their pride of intellect

41:53 because it basically means humility between the ears the humility of mind and so the apostle says if there would be unity there must be humility negatively described nothing done according to the standards of selfish ambition and vain glory the puffing up of oneself but positively in this lowliness of mind this grace that Paul describes as characteristic of his own ministry in Acts 20 19 which Peter says is essential among the leaders and the rank and file of God's people 1 Peter 5 5 in lowliness of mind now notice how it expresses itself each counting other better than himself literally each one looking up I'm sorry that comes in the next verse each one counting other , better than himself now this does not mean that according to Romans 12 when we make a sober self-assessment of our gifts that if God has endowed brother A with five talents and brother B with two that brother A is to regard himself as only having two and brother B as having five no no we're to judge soberly we're not to judge

The Call to Self-Forgetfulness: Not Looking to One's Own Things

43:21 above or below the reality of what we're doing here in the Bible this is not speaking in terms of a sober self-assessment of gift but it's speaking you see in a positive way of that attitude that we have to our brethren in which we are willing to stoop and serve him in self-giving love I regard him as better than myself that is his concerns and his needs are worthy of my self-giving love and service lowliness of mind each counting other better than himself there's the call to humility and then notice the call thirdly to self-forgetfulness again the negative and the positive verse four not looking each of you to his own things that's the negative the word for looking means to look with attention keep an eye upon here you've got a little one you've got to go off to do something and you say to a friend will you please keep an eye on my son or daughter you don't mean that once in a while they might just glance in the general direction of your kid you mean keep an eye on him fix your attention on him and let it register in your noggin if he's doing something he ought not to do if he's going to grab your precious antique vase and leave it in a bunch of pieces at the floor keep your eye upon him watch him that's the sense of the verb so the negative aspect of the call

44:51 to self-forgetfulness not looking not constantly paying attention only to your own things now you see why this would be such an enemy to unity if in every situation all you can do is look down the narrow end of the funnel at how this decision affects you your likes your dislikes your feelings your perspectives your inclinations your background your sensitivities can you imagine a church full of people who can only look down from the wide end into the narrow end of the funnel and every decision every principle is viewed in terms how does this affect number one me things and everything how can you have unity in that context utterly impossible so he says negatively the call to self-forgetfulness is to be understood in this not looking each one fixing his eye upon his own things but positively looking literally at the things looking up to the things of others looking but each of you also to the things of others and there's a construction that's almost untranslatable and it ends up with saying that is each of you for added emphasis

46:19 he's saying this again is a duty that every individual in the congregation must feel every segment of the congregation must feel now can we bring it all together and then hopefully drive it home with a point or two of application Paul's call couched in the framework of assumed spiritual experience the powerful pressure of his own unique relationship is a call to unity what kind of unity not some kind of undefinable undefined nebulous thing in which once in a while you just sort of feel a nice togetherness no no a unity of thought of one mind but not mind in abstraction but unity of thought as it in turn shapes affection and disciplines and molds perspective and action unity of thought of the same love pursuing the same things one soul if we're to have that we must hear the call to humility that unity cannot be realized in a situation where there is pride and unmortified ambition it cannot be realized in a situation where everyone is sitting around and looking at his own thumb and sucking his own thumb and looking down the narrow end of the funnel it cannot be realized

Application 1: Discipleship on Christ's Terms

47:48 there must be as it were a constant infusion of the graces of humility and self-forgetfulness now in the light of that teaching and I trust you can think through the passage now that I've tried to preach through it with you let me say these final words by way of application the first one is very obvious only those who have embraced the call to discipleship on Christ's terms can hope to live in this way only those who have embraced the call to discipleship on Christ's terms can hope to live this way and I'm not making discipleship an advanced stage of Christian experience if you're not a disciple you're not a Christian and if you're not a disciple on Christ's terms you're not a Christian and what's the bottom line of discipleship in Christ's terms if any man will come after me let him deny himself on the threshold he must say a fundamental and basic no to living on the principle of self-centeredness he's got to say no to himself take up a cross what's a cross for not a piece of jewelry to compliment your dress a cross is an instrument on which people

49:18 experience execution vile in death Jesus says take up a cross follow in my train death to yourself death to self-centeredness my friend no church built and gathered by a message by a message of easy believism a message which makes no demands of repentance and secures in those who profess to believe and receive that message no evidence of self-denial is it no wonder that such churches are filled with disunity and disharmony if self has not been dealt a death blow on the threshold how can such a group of people be molded into one there's enough problem when the message is pure as it was under Paul even that church had problems in this area if you want to know why our churches evangelical churches are marked by disunity and splits and disruption here is in great measure the answer the defective gospel that has been preached has left a climate in which true unity is impossible but then there's a second line of application that I want to draw to your attention some of you such a call to unity radically contradicts

Application 2: Contradicting Society's Self-Centered Climate

50:47 the dominant climate of our society and oh hear me hear me this morning such a call radically contradicts the dominant climate of our society I am getting to the place of internal nausea with the terms self-realization the attainment of personhood self-expression doing your own thing becoming your own person am I making up those words aren't you sick of them to the point of vomiting all the emphasis in our day is upon this crass self-centered individualism my personhood if I have to mother a baby to make somebody happy fine but I'll attain my personhood totally independent of my husband and my child and I'll know who I am when I have my career that's what's being poured into the ears of you dear mothers till you begin to feel like you're some kind of a second class citizen that you find joy in your identity not as a person but as a woman who's a wife and a mother and those of you who would long to be a wife and a mother and in the providence of God you are not you're being made to feel you can't find your true significance

52:16 with any kind of standards imposed upon you by a sexist society with its fixed and rigid concepts of roles throw it all off your body is to do with it as you please it's your body and if you want to lay with a man and get impregnated then you can kill the life conceived it's your body and if you don't want your belly getting big with a baby kill it it may warp your personhood that's plain language but that's the climate of our society it's your body if you carry the child to full time kill it if it stands in the way of your own selfhood that's the climate of our society it comes to you men that's the playboy philosophy what's a woman thing to be used and played with you have what you do with bunnies stroke their white little heads and their sweet little ears and if you want them for next Sunday dinner kill them

53:37 males and females constantly pressured now look at this passage I say it radically contradicts the dominant climate of our society it calls us to a oneness a oneness in terms of objective reality oneness of mind that objective reality is the revealed truth of God in Holy Scripture it calls us to self-giving love it calls us to be so bound to our brothers and sisters that their concerns become mine and mine become theirs it calls us to pursue goals that are objective to us and revealed in Scripture and to walk over the belly of our own appetites and desires if necessary in the pursuit of those common goals and it says we'll never have that unity unless there is the grace of humility no selfish ambition no empty conceit no empty conceit but looking and regarding the things of my brethren and my sisters as of greater importance than my own perspective and the attainment of my own personhood whatever that's supposed to mean my friend this is radical Christianity and in one sense I thank God for the privilege of living in this crazy mixed up age

Application 3: The Gospel Centered in the Cross as the Context for Unity

55:05 because as never before the church can stand out in bold and jagged relief as being the supernatural institution that she's meant to be but it's radical you young people my heart bleeds for you you're pummeled with this perspective day in and day out aren't you but if you're going to be a Christian you've got to learn to detect see it for what it is and have these words of Scripture burnt into your heart by the power of the Holy Ghost and then I close with this third line of application only the God gospel centered in the cross of Christ can create a context for the realization of this kind of unity only the gospel centered in the cross of Christ can create a context for the realization of this kind of unity Paul no sooner gives the call to unity with its two root graces of humility and self-forgetfulness but also of what he takes us where have this mind in you which was in Christ Jesus and everything he says about Christ has a direct line to his cross

56:32 all of the successive acts of humiliation lead to the cross all of the subsequent stages of exaltation look back upon the cross and it is a cross centered doctrine of Christ that is the only context in which this grace of unity can be realized I trust you as a people never grow weary of preaching on the cross we draw our life from the cross from beginning to end we draw all our perspectives from Christ crucified we draw all that is worthy of retention in our concepts of what it is to be virtuous what it is to be well pleasing to God ultimately they are drawn from the cross and may God grant that that context will ever be the climate of the life and ministry of this congregation you dear men preparing for the ministry if you ever are accused of anything with an accusation in which you ought to glory be accused of making too much of Christ and him crucified there is no root of morality true morality true ethics but what it soaks

58:01 up its life system at the foot of the cross and the moment you detach any aspect of Christian experience individual or corporate experience from the cross you have detached it from its source of life so Paul is very careful to give his call and then to hook as it were all the life drawing systems into the cross and God willing next Lord's Day we'll begin to examine that great doctrine that is set before us by which he gives the example and the pattern for the attainment of the graces of humility and self-forgetfulness without which there can be no unity verses 5 to 11 are not a pattern of unity they are the pattern for the humility and self-forgetfulness without which the unity will never be attained let us pray our Father as we contemplate our Lord Jesus in the beauty and in the glory of his humility and self-forgetfulness we see the ugliness of our pride

59:29 of our selfish ambition and vain glory we see the ugliness of self centeredness oh as we behold our Lord Jesus will you not give us the mind that was in him that mind of humility that he looked not upon his own things the retention of that glory that was his with you before the world began but he looked upon us in all of our state of undone this oh Lord what can we say when we behold such self-forgetfulness in pursuit of our salvation oh grant us that grace not in pursuit of each other's salvation but in pursuit of that unity which will be the monumental witness to the world that the Lord Jesus has come to be its Savior write your word upon our hearts deal with those who are strangers to the power of the cross of Christ dismiss us with your blessing resting upon us we ask in Jesus' name Amen