Do All Things Without Murmurings

Introduction: The Importance of Heart Disposition in Hearing God's Word

0:07 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, May 24, 1981, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. May I urge you to follow, please, in your own Bibles as I read this morning from the second chapter of Paul's letter to the Philippians. Philippians chapter 2, verses 12 through 18. Philippians chapter 2, beginning the reading with verse 12.

0:38 So then, my beloved, even as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and questionings. That you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without blemish, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you are seen as lights in the world, holding forth or holding fast the word of life, that I may have whereof to glory in the day of Christ, that I did not run in vain, neither labor in vain. Yes, and if I am offered upon the sacrifice, in service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all, and in the same manner do you also joy and rejoice with me. As we come to this crowning activity in our hour of worship, this time when the word of the living God will be expounded and applied,

2:03 I want to ask you several very pointed and personal questions. Do you come to this time? Do you come to this time this morning, and by the grace of God, every time the word of God is opened, inwardly crying to God that he would give you light and understanding in the word of his truth? Is the disposition of heart that you bring to this time that, expressed in the language of David, open thou my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law?

2:38 Do you come? Do you come to this exercise, resolutely determined to receive with meekness everything that is revealed in this book, even as we are commanded in the epistle of James to receive with meekness the engrafted word? Do you come to this exercise, wholly resolved to obey immediately every demand made upon you by the word of God, even as the sun is setting? Or, as the scripture says, be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves?

3:18 Or, in the example of David, who could say, I made haste and delayed not to keep thy precepts?

3:27 Now, let those questions do their work. Is that how you come to this crowning element of our hour of worship? Do you come to the exposition and application of the word of God, inwardly crying, crying out, Lord, whatever the preacher says or does, you must open my eyes, or I will not understand your truth. And, Lord, all that you show me by your grace, I'll receive with meekness and humility.

3:57 I don't care how it cuts across the grain of every preconceived notion, every prejudice of my heart, every perspective of the society in which I live. Lord, if you say it, that settles it. I'll bow in meekness before your word. Is that the attitude with which you come to this book?

4:17 And do you come with the attitude, Lord, whatever you tell me to do, by the grace that you give me, I will obey? Well, if you can't answer yes to those questions, will you even now, as I lead in prayer, pray that the Holy Ghost will work those in you? Because apart from those attitudes, the word preached will not profit you. It will not profit you.

4:41 It cannot. Only in the language of James, add to your self-deception to think you've done something noble because you tolerated 50 minutes of preaching.

4:52 May we cry to God that he will give us that threefold attitude of dependence upon him, determination to receive with meekness what he says, and the resolution to obey all that he lays upon our consciences. Let us pray.

5:12 Our Father, we confess this morning, that we have come so often to the ministry of the word with an inward disposition that has been so dishonoring to you. Forgive our creature confidence, which has again and again betrayed us. Give us the heart of your servant David, who cried out, Open thou mine eyes. Give us the heart of a Paul who pleads, for the Ephesians that you would give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of yourself, that the eyes of their hearts would be enlightened, that they might know. O Lord, we would come in that attitude. Be our teacher this morning. And then, humble, we pray, all of our pride, sweep away all of our prejudices, all of our preconceived notions as to what reality is.

6:15 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

6:16 Amen. Amen. May we receive with meekness your holy word. And then we pray that we may be given grace to run in the way of your commandments.

6:26 Oh, that we may be obedient hearers and not self-deceived listeners this morning. Meet us by the power of the Spirit, working by and with the word, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Amen.

Review and Transition: From God's Inworking to Our Outworking

6:48 Now, last Lord's Day morning, we began to examine this paragraph, the second major unit of thought in Philippians 2, and our concentration was upon verses 12 and 13, a passage in which there is a central command, work out your own salvation, two conditioning aspects to that command at all times, in my absence, not only in my presence, but also in my presence, and then with all seriousness, with fear and trembling, and then there is given not only the central command and its conditioning aspects, but its comforting basis, the assurance that God is at work in us, working certainly, working extensively, working sovereignly, to will and to work for his good pleasure. Now, in drawing out some of the fundamental doctrines of the Christian life, contained in that text, I asserted at the conclusion of our study last Lord's Day morning, that this passage teaches us that God's working, in its reality, its extent and sovereignty, is to be the basis of our dependence, of our prayerfulness, as well as of our spirit of gratitude.

8:15 But that our working was to be the focus of our work, of our work, of our work, of our work, of our work, of our work, of our work, of our work, of our conscious endeavors, that we are not to wait for some felt impulses of the divine inworking, so that we may have a catalyst, as it were, to obey the injunction, work out your own salvation. Now, as we come to verses 14 to 16, it's as though the apostle himself was conscious that some might abuse the teaching of verse 13 and think that God's work was the basis for some kind of a passivity. If it is God who works in us to will and to work for his good pleasure, then the conclusion we must draw is that we sit back, rely and relax, and wait for God to will and to work in us. And I say it's as though the apostle was determined to correct any such notion, for the very next words he penned are these, do all things without murmurings and questionings, and if we were to give a more literal rendering, it would be, all things be ye continually doing. Now, wait a minute, Paul, you just said it's God who works in us to will and to work, and now you turn around and say all things you must be continually working.

9:43 He says that's precisely correct. There is no call to passivity. There is a call to the most arduous, concentrated endeavor in the working out of our salvation, and now the apostle begins to expand upon some specific avenues in which we are consciously and deliberately to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. And what we have in verses 14 to 16, then, is a precept given, verse 14, do all things without murmurings, murmurings and questionings, and then two major reasons for compliance with that precept.

10:28 One has to do with the Philippians, that ye may become, and the other has to do with Paul himself, verse 16, that I may have whereof to glory. And so we have the precept given, verse 14, and then the reasons for obedience to the precept, verses 15 and 16. Now this morning, we'll only have time to examine the precept given. And the key words in the text are obviously these.

Defining 'Murmurings': A Sin of Unbelief and Rebellion

11:03 All things be continually doing, and we must understand what that commandment means, and then the words without murmurings and questionings. This brief clause, with which the text begins, all things be continually doing, brings within its scope everything pertaining to a Christian's duty as revealed in the Word of God. In the context, it pertains to everything that constitutes an aspect of working out our salvation with fear and with trembling. It pertains to every realm of revealed duty, that is, personal, domestic, church, the relationship we sustain to the world with reference to every revealed duty in every realm of responsibility laid upon us by God in His Word. This precept has something to say about it. All things be ye doing, that is, all things with respect to the revealed duty, that is, all things with respect to the revealed duty, that is, all things with respect to the revealed will of God are to be done in a certain way, but it also brings within its scope every reaction to an imposed providence. You see, it not only pertains

12:32 to our response to revealed duty, but our reaction to the imposed providences of God. Those things which are brought upon us not because we have deliberately planted our feet in a field of sin, but because God has sovereignly hedged us up in that sovereign exercise of His will of which we read in Ephesians, so that we find ourselves relating to a given set of circumstances through no choice of our own. Now, with reference then to every revealed duty, and in relationship to every imposed providence, this text has something to say to us. All things be ye doing, and now these two key words, without murmurings and questionings. Now, let's examine first of all this word murmuring, and then the word questioning. And let me underscore as I do how vital it is to understand the meaning of these words.

13:44 Because the Apostle tells us in verses 15 and 16 that the key to our effective witness before an onlooking world is a lifestyle characterized by the absence of these two things. We cannot become sons of God without blemish in a crooked and perverse generation unless our lifestyle is marked by the absence in all things of murmurings and disputings. Now, do you want a consistent testimony before an onlooking world? This text says you cannot have it apart from ridding yourself by the grace of God of all murmurings and questionings. Furthermore, the Apostle goes on to say that his own joy in the day of Christ when he gives an account is dependent upon the Philippians complying with this injunction. Verse 16 be that I may have whereof to glory in the day of Christ that I did not have. Do not run in vain neither labor in vain.

14:52 Now, how vital is it that those who labor for your spiritual well-being give an account in the day of judgment with joy? Well, this passage teaches they cannot do it unless those amongst whom they labor are characterized by the absence of grumbling and questioning. So these are not secondary issues brothers and sisters. They are vital.

15:16 They are fundamental issues and we must bear no pains then to recognize the beasts. How can we comply with the injunction? All things be doing without grumblings and questionings unless we know precisely what grumblings and questionings are. And once we have described these two beasts then by the grace of God and in the power of the Holy Ghost we will be prepared to deal with them. Alright then, what did the Apostle mean when he said, let all things be continually doing without murmurings or grumblings? Well, in its usage in the New Testament this word brings together the ideas of an undercurrent of speech generally of a negative kind. Turn to John 7 and verse 12 where we find this word used. John 7 and verse 12.

16:22 We can back up to verse 11. The Jews therefore sought him that is Christ at the feast and said, where is he? And there was much murmuring among the multitude concerning him. Some said, he is a good man.

16:39 Others said, not so. But he leads the people astray. Yet no man spoke openly of him for fear of the Jews. Now you see the contrast?

16:51 There is this mumbling going on. This whispering amongst the people. Someone whispers to the person next to him. What do you think about this Jesus?

16:59 Ah, he's a good man. The other says, no, he can't be that. But they won't speak openly. So the murmuring in this context has the connotation of an undercurrent, a low-keyed grumbling and whispering and speaking.

17:16 But generally, both in this form and in its verb form, it is in a very negative context. For instance, Acts chapter 6 and verse 1. A very familiar passage. Now in these days when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose, and here's our word, a murmuring of the Grecian Jews against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.

17:51 We had a situation, or have a situation in this passage, in which the church was caring for its needy widows. But in the administration of that benevolence, the Grecian widows were being neglected in this predominantly Hebrew church situation. Now what happens when someone feels he's not getting a fair deal? Well, there's a grousing, there's a grumbling, there's a murmuring, and that's precisely the word used here.

18:19 There was a grumbling, a murmuring of the Grecian Jews against the Hebrews. They began to complain about the inequity in the administration of this benevolent service. And it's in that same sense that Peter uses the word in 1 Peter 4 and verse 9. He is enjoining upon the people of God the privilege and responsibility of the grace of hospitality.

18:49 And he says in 1 Peter 4 and verse 9, using hospitality one to another, and here's our word, without murmuring. In other words, it is not enough that people open their homes and their hearts and their tables to one another, but they must do it without grousing and grumbling. Why do I always have to be the one that entertains? Why can't some of the other people do it? It isn't fair to just a few. Ever hear that kind of language before? Human nature hasn't changed. Showing hospitality without grousing, without murmuring, without mumbling and grumbling. But now when we find this word in its verbal form, the negative idea dominates and points us directly to one of the cardinal sins of the children of Israel in their wilderness wanderings. In 1 Corinthians chapter 10, and I urge you to turn to that passage with me, we find the apostle in this chapter describing the great privileges of the nation of Israel. Then he sets forth that nation showered with tremendous privilege as an example of what happens when people abuse their privileges. And he

20:14 says in verse 6 of 1 Corinthians 10, Now these things were our examples to the intent, and then he lists the sins which characterize that nation, which ought to be as warning signs to us, that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. Verse 7, Neither be ye idolaters as were some of them. Verse 8, Neither let us commit fornication as some of them committed. Verse 9, Neither let us make trial of the Lord as some of them made trial. Verse 10, Neither murmur ye, and there's the same word in the verb form, neither grumble, neither grouse, neither complain, neither murmur ye as some of them murmured. Now notice what it says, and perished by the destroyer. Now these things, it happened unto them by way of an example, and they were written for our admonition. Now the order in which the apostle places these things is significant, and as we look at the Old Testament record of what it is to do things with a murmuring,

21:42 a complaining, and a questioning spirit, you will see that it was this very spirit that constituted the shameful, shameful, frowning sin of Israel, and resulted in that initial generation which came out of Egypt being hindered from entering the land of promise and dying in the wilderness. So that when we are done our study of what it is to murmur in the light of these Old Testament incidents, I hope we will no longer look upon this kind of grumbling and murmuring and grousing as a kind of, well, perhaps something less than a sanctified reaction, but a relatively innocent and human pastime. I trust we will look upon it as an ugly sin that is a blot upon the witness of the church, and can only bring grief and shame and pain to the hearts of the true servants of the living God. Turn then, please, to the Old Testament as we make a very quick survey of some of the key passages in which we find this murmuring going on. What does it mean?

Old Testament Examples of Murmuring: Israel's Wilderness Sin

22:59 Do all things without murmuring. What is that murmuring? How can we locate it precisely? Well, God has given us the Old Testament history.

23:10 At least in part, His purpose is that we might understand the nature of the beast. Now turn, please, to Exodus chapter 14.

23:22 Now you children will remember from your Bible stories that the people of God were down in Egypt for over 400 years, and then God brought them out of Egypt. The Bible says, with an outstretched arm by those mighty signs and wonders accomplished through the instrumentality of Moses, opened up the Red Sea and brought them across on dry ground. Well, here in the 14th chapter of Exodus we find them out of Egypt, but not yet. Across the Red Sea.

23:55 And we read in verse 10, And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they were sore afraid. And the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord. Now that's fine. When you're sore afraid and your back is against the wall to cry out to God, say, Oh God, help me! I'm in desperate straits! Nothing wrong with that. The Bible commands, says, Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will answer thee, and thou shalt glorify me. So there's nothing wrong with what's recorded in verse 10. But now look at verse 11. And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore have you dealt thus with us to bring us forth out of Egypt? Is not this the word that we spoke unto you in Egypt, saying, Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians?

25:00 For it were better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in this wilderness. You see what they did? They cried out to God, and then they began to grouse to Moses, and began to grumble and murmur and complain and say, This providence should not be! Barrow behind us, mountains either side of us, Red Sea in front of us, and Moses, it's all your fault!

25:28 Don't you remember we said we'd just as soon live in Egypt? What a lie! It says their cry came into the ears of the God of heaven. They were crying out in Egypt because of their sore bondage.

25:41 Now the first time God puts the squeeze on them in order to teach them valuable lessons of themselves and of himself. What do they do with this providence imposed upon them? They grouse and complain, they murmur and they question.

25:58 Then God mercifully intervenes and brings them through, and they no sooner get on the other side of the Red Sea, and what do we find them doing? Look at chapter 15, verses 23 and 24.

26:11 And when they came to Marah, they'd just come over the Red Sea, through the Red Sea, and they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, what should we drink? First thing they did was to grouse against Moses. Think of it.

26:37 With the vivid memory of seeing that wall of water on either side, and they pass over on dry ground, they turn back and they see the two walls of water enclosed over the entire Egyptian army, and Pharaoh included, and they're drowned in the sea. That mighty manifestation, of the grace and power of God, with that vividly stamped upon their minds. The first thing they do when they meet a problem, this side of the Red Sea, is they begin to grouse. They begin to complain. It says they murmured against Moses. Chapter 16, here they are, true to character again. And they took their journey for Elam, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of sin, which is between Elam and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness. And the children

27:44 of Israel said unto them, Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, when we did eat bread to the full. For you brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Now you see what their grousing and grumbling involves. There is this unbelieving complaint with their present lot in Exodus 14. They don't like this difficult providence, and so they complain to Moses. In Exodus 15, it's discontent with their present provisions. All there is, is this bitter water, and so they grouse against Moses. And now there is an expansion of that discontent with their present provisions, and they are longing for the days when they could reach their hand into a pot of boiled flesh back in Egypt.

28:39 And now in chapter 17, the murmuring breaks out in terms of rebellion against their constituted leaders. Chapter 17, verses 1 to 4. And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of sin by their journeys according to the commandment of the Lord. And in camp in Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink, wherefore the people strove with Moses and said, Give us water that we may drink.

29:08 Moses said unto them, Why do you strive with me? Wherefore do you tempt the Lord? And the people thirsted there for water, and the people murmured against Moses and said, Have we heard this language before? Wherefore have you brought us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?

29:29 They were so desperate that Moses cried to the Lord, saying, What shall I do to this people? They're almost ready to stone me. You see, they couldn't get their hands on God, so they took the next best thing, the servant of God. Their real complaint was with God.

29:47 But they weren't about to either blaspheme, and since God had no bodily form and no physical ears, they take the servant of God, and they say, Why did you bring us out into this terrible situation? And they're ready to stone him. They're murmuring, grousing, complaining, a spirit of unbelief and rebellion. And then we turn to the book of Numbers, and we look at three or four classic examples of what murmuring is, as recorded in the book of Numbers. Remember now what we're doing. We're trying to understand what it means to set this standard before us. All things we are to do without murmuring. Numbers, chapter 11, and verse 1. And here

30:36 is a summary statement of that nation. And the people were as murmurers, speaking evil in the ears of the Lord. And when the Lord heard it, his anger was kindled in the fire of the Lord, burnt among them, and devoured in the uttermost part of the camp. Here the crowning description of them is, they were as murmurers. If you wanted one word to describe them, call them a bunch of murmurers, complaining and grousing and discontent with the ways and will of God. Chapter 14 of Numbers,

31:23 verses 26 and following. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying, How long shall I bear with this evil congregation? Now notice their predominant evil, that murmur against me. You see, the ultimate murmuring was not against Moses and Aaron. It was against the Lord himself. I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel, which they murmur against me. Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord, surely as you have spoken in my ears, so will I do to you. Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number from twenty years old and upward, that have murmured against me. Surely

32:11 ye shall not come into the land concerning which I swear that I would make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones that ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which you have rejected. But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. Now do you see the point?

32:37 For what sin above all others is this generation kept out of the land of promise for the sin of murmuring? It was the sin of discontent with the providences of God expressed in this grousing and mumbling and complaining and this rejection of the constituted authority through which the will of God was revealed, and implemented amongst them. We turn to number sixteen and verse forty-one, and we find the same sin coming before us. But on the morrow, all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron saying, You've killed the people of the Lord. Discipline had been exercised in the camp of Israel. And it was God who in an unusual way brought death and judgment upon those who had rebelled against his rule through Moses. But they have the nerve to turn and say, Moses, you did it, and you were too harsh.

33:46 You see again, their grousing was not against Moses, but it was against the living God himself. And when we turn to a summary statement of the history of Israel in Psalm 106, this will be our final passage as we consider what murmuring is, what grumbling and complaining are. In Psalm 106, there is this celebration of God's faithfulness in the face of Israel's rebellion.

34:16 And in verse twenty-four we read, Yea, they despised the pleasant land. They believed not his word, but murmured in their tents, and did not hearken to the voice of the Lord. Therefore he swore unto them that he would overthrow them in the wilderness. Of all of their sins, that which is mentioned as precipitating the oath of God, that that generation would not enter into the land of promise, it was the sin of their murmuring.

The Wickedness of Murmuring: An Attack on God's Attributes

34:52 Now do you begin to see and feel something of the tremendous seriousness of murmuring and grumbling? That it is not to be regarded as a minor and innocent human frailty. But you say, Pastor, what makes this murmuring such an evil thing in God's sight? Well, the answer is it is because it is a high-handed wickedness, the out-breathing of the twin sins of unbelief and rebellion, both of which are directed to God.

35:32 This murmuring cannot exist. Apart from unbelief and rebellion, both directed to God. Think of the incidences that we read in Exodus and in the book of Numbers. And in every situation there was the nation in its need, and the living God in their midst.

35:58 The God who was well able to meet that need. But what did their unbelief do? Their unbelief was a form of deicide. The God is dead theology was not spawned in the 20th century.

36:14 We see it among the Israelites. No sooner does this living God in all the livingness of His power and the awesomeness of the display of that power bring them out of Egypt but what they face, a body of water, mountains and an army and they act as though God were dead. That's why it's so wicked. This spirit of murmuring is permeated with unbelief.

36:51 Unbelief that says the circumstances are bigger than God, or that the situation is unknown to God, or that the need is a matter of indifference before the face of God. And all of those things are an attack upon the fundamental attributes of God. Either His omnipotence, the circumstances bigger than God, His omniscience, the circumstances are unknown to God, or His love, He's indifferent to my circumstances. And you and I cannot grouse, we cannot murmur, we cannot complain with respect to the revealed will of God in His word or imposed providences until first of all we fall prey to this wicked sin of unbelief.

37:40 Unbelief with respect, to the livingness of God in His power, in His knowledge, or in His sympathizing love.

37:50 And that's what makes it such a wicked thing. And then it is always joined with the spirit of rebellion.

37:59 You see, God says, I've heard their murmuring, it is against me. You see, God was their leader. God was the true captain of the host of His people. Moses was their appointed head, yes, but Jehovah Himself married Himself to His people, and He was their husband. Thy maker is thy husband. And in their growing rest against Moses and the way by which Moses led them, there was a deep-seated spirit of rebellion against God Himself.

Defining 'Questionings'/'Reasonings': Justifying a Wicked Heart

38:36 That's why this murmuring is such a cursed sin, because it cannot exist apart from unbelief and rebellion. Now then, very quickly, what are these disputings or reasonings to which the murmuring is joined? Look at the text. All things be continually doing without murmurings and disputings or reasonings.

39:05 Now, what are these reasonings that are the handmaiden of sinful grumbling? Well, in Matthew 15, 19, where our Lord describes the foul effusions of a depraved human heart, the first characteristic in that list of descriptions comes down upon this very issue. Matthew 15 and verse 19. For out of the heart come forth evil and here's our word, evil reasonings.

39:45 Out of the heart come forth evil reasonings. You see what Jesus is saying? He's saying the gymnastics of your head are determined by the condition of your heart. Out of the heart proceed evil reasonings.

40:07 Now, for an example of these reasonings, and here you have the verbal form of the word, turn to Luke chapter 5. Luke chapter 5 verses 21 and 22.

40:23 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason. There's the word saying, who is this that speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone? But Jesus perceiving their, here's our word, reasonings answered and said unto them. He perceived their reasonings. Here they're figuring out, you see, according to their sphere of reference, that when one who has the form of a man and all the marks of a true humanity, whom they know as Jesus, the carpenter's son out of Nazareth, when they hear him say to a person, your sins are forgiven, their wicked hearts blinded by unbelief and rebellion, see nothing but a carpenter. They see nothing but a man. And so they begin to make their perception of reality the measure of reality and they start reasoning.

41:23 And now their reasonings surface. Who can forgive sins but God only? This person is only a man. Therefore, he's a blasphemer.

41:32 You see what the reasonings were? They were the actings of the mind under the influence of the blindness of the heart. That's the reasonings. In 1 Corinthians 3, we have a statement that helps us to see this even more clearly, I trust.

41:52 1 Corinthians 3, where the apostle is dealing with the wisdom of this world, verse 19, that is foolishness with God. For it is written, he takes the wise in their own craftiness, and again, the Lord knows, and here's the word, the reasonings, the disputings, the questionings of the wise that they are vain. They are emptiness. They are nothingness.

42:24 He knows the reasonings of the wise, but they are nothing. When the heart is under the influence of unbelief and rebellion, the mind will always come to its surface and attempt to give a rational justification for what unbelief and rebellion are dictating. Isn't that what happened in the wilderness? Unbelief and rebellion are in the hearts of the nation of Israel. Therefore, their reasonings begin to work, saying, God has brought us out to kill us. We would be better off back in Egypt. That was their reason that grew out of unbelief and rebellion expressed in the grumbling, and then coming to full flower in their reasonings. Now, you see, this is why the apostle can describe the folly of the nations who have never even had the written revelation of God in the language of Romans 1. They became

43:36 vain in their reasonings, and their foolish heart was darkened, professing themselves to be wise. They became fools. Now, listen carefully to what I say at this point. This is not speaking of the faculty of reason as a divinely implanted faculty of accurate thought processes, functioning in humility under the impress of divine revelation.

44:03 Reason is a noble and a blessed thing. That faculty which God has given us for proper and logical thought, when it operates in humility under the impress of God's revelation, general revelation and special revelation, God is not speaking of that kind of reasoning as being sinful. His own word comes to us in that context again and again. I could not speak meaningfully to you without the function of reason. A person without reason is an insane person. You can't communicate meaningfully. But it's speaking of reasonings in the sense of what happens when these minds of ours begin to function detached from the postures of humility before divine revelation apart from the posture of faith in the living God and submission to Him.

45:07 And that's why the apostle joins the two things together. There was a better way back in Egypt. We could have better leadership. We could have a better menu. All of these things were the manifestations of sinful reasonings. Now do you begin to get a feel for how evil these things are? Coming back now to our text. All things be continually doing without murmurings, without this grousing, grumbling attitude born of unbelief and rebellion and the reasonings or disputings that are the attempt of the mind to justify the state of the heart and the activity of the lips and the disposition of the spirit.

Application: Living Without Murmurings in a Crooked Generation

45:56 The meaning of the precept. I want in the few moments that remain this morning, seek to bring home something of its present application to us. When Christ by His spirit calls the people of God to this lifestyle, through the pen of the apostle, was He being unrealistic? What kind of a world did the Philippians live in? Well, Paul describes it in the very next verse as a wicked and perversed generation. So you see their world was no different from ours. They were a people experiencing the trauma of open persecution, the latter part of chapter one, in nothing affrighted by your adversaries. He speaks of the sufferings which were in him and were presently in him, in which the Philippians shared.

46:49 They had difficult providences. God allowed the enemies of the gospel to break out into open opposition against the church. God had permitted many of them to bear great hardship for His name's sake. And yet He says to this people, All things are continually to be done without murmurings and without disputings.

47:15 If you would have any testimony in your community, if you would shine as light in a dark world, if you would indeed be blameless and harmless sons of God without blemish, you must, you must learn to perform the revealed will of God without murmurings and disputings. You must embrace imposed providences without murmurings and disputings. Now begin to apply this in specific realms. Imagine what would happen if every member in every household in this place this morning took this injunction seriously.

47:54 All things be continually doing without murmurings. That means when as a husband I set myself by the grace of God to love my wife as Christ loved the church, to nourish her and to cherish her, I don't grouse and complain that she's not more lovable.

48:17 That's a complaint against the providence that brought her to my side as my wife and not someone else's.

48:27 And all the inward complaints saying it isn't fair. God, you hate. Why did you tell me to love a witch like that? My friend, that is high-handed treason.

48:40 It's rebellion. It's unbelief. And it's time some of you stopped it.

48:51 God knew all about your wife when he said, Love her as Christ loved the church. You weren't the prettiest thing in the world when he set his love on you.

49:02 And we're not very pretty even now.

49:06 We're not very lovable. The most sanctified here this morning has enough in him to make God wretch.

49:16 And yet he loves us. Ephesians 5 says he nurtures us. He cherishes us with all of our imperfections. He doesn't go off in the corner and say, I'm tired of trying to love the likes of you.

49:28 Thank God he doesn't. That's what some of you husbands are doing. I'm tired of putting up with that quirk in my wife. I'm tired of putting up with this characteristic, external or internal or attitudinal or anything else.

49:42 Husbands, love your wife. And there's no...

49:46 There's no condition after it if she's this and if she's that. She's your wife. Your duty is clear. Get on with the task of loving her.

49:57 When I don't feel like it, I don't care. God doesn't care. When she's not, God doesn't care. But, stop your reasonings.

50:10 That's what the text is saying.

50:13 Do all things without murmurings and reasonings, disputings. Love your wife. Right where she is. Right now.

50:25 What she is. In all of her imperfections. All of her quirks. All of the things about her that irritate and grind your thoughts.

50:34 She's your wife. Work out your own salvation in regard to loving her. And do it with fear and trembling. And without murmuring and disputing.

50:48 Or all your talk about wanting to be a testimony is a lot of hot air.

50:53 It is only... It is only thus that you become blameless and harmless.

Application: Wives and Children Without Murmurings

50:57 A child of God without rebuke. What about you wives? Wives, be subject to your husband. As the church is subject to Christ.

51:08 So let the wives be to their husbands in everything.

51:14 Some of you are grousing and complaining and grumbling and rebelling.

51:20 I went after the husbands first.

51:24 Don't say I'm being prejudiced and I've got the pulpit and I like to lay on a piece. Don't any of you. Women say that. That's wickedness.

51:31 That's reasonings. That's reasonings against the word of God.

51:37 And it's time some of you got alone in your closet on your knees with an open Bible and said, God, by the mighty purging power of this rebellion to my husband's authority. Burn it out.

52:00 You only submit when your judgment is such that you think he's right. Well, that's not submission. That's just agreement. When you say, if he loved me, he'd say, yes, that's right.

52:08 If he's loving you as Christ loved the church. He'll be considerate of your feelings. He'll seek the input of your sensitivity granted. But the Bible does not say submit to him only if he meets the standard of what he's to be as one who loves you as Christ loved the church.

52:27 You show me in the Bible where it says that. Even when he's most unlike Christ, you're to submit to him up to the point that he demands something that is clearly contrary, not to your subjective judgment, but to a clear precept in the word of God. If he tells you go down and rob the local bank, you say, honey, I love you, but you're going to have to do this job on your own.

52:48 You be Clyde, but I ain't going to be Bonnie.

52:52 You rear back in your hind legs and then call the cops and tell them to get him. Throw him in a hoosk out. That's right.

53:00 But on matters that involve subjective judgment, everything in you may be convinced he's wrong. And whether he has or hasn't sought your input and shame on your husbands if you don't. But even if he hasn't. If he hasn't, wives be subject to your husbands in everything.

53:17 Now that's the word of God.

53:21 Thou grumbling and disputing.

53:28 What about your children? It says children, obey your parents.

53:37 Yeah, but God doesn't know my mom and dad. They're so unreasonable.

53:43 Oh, Jehovah, he didn't know. There's a red sea out here. We wouldn't hear that before.

53:51 Hmm? You see, that was the complaint of the children of Israel. God doesn't know about my serpents. If he did, he'd treat me different.

53:59 And if God knew what my mom and dad expect, he never would have said, children, obey your parents. So he wouldn't. What makes you think he wouldn't? He knows all about them.

54:08 And he says, obey, obey your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise. Honor thy father and thy mother. Children, children, do all things without murmurings and disputings. And if there was one text we were forced to memorize as kids, it was this one.

54:27 My mother had about a half a dozen of them that she pounded and spanked and preached into our ears and into our hearts. And this was one of them. I can remember times when I was given a task and I went to do it, but I had my lower lip out. You know what it's like when you put your lower lip out?

54:48 And I can remember my mom saying to my dad, give him some more, dad. He isn't sweet yet.

54:54 We were never spanked enough just to do a task or spanked only when we refused to do it. If we didn't do it cheerfully, without murmuring and disputing, we got spanked until our attitude caught up with our action.

55:08 And then this verse was quoted. Do all things without murmurings and disputings.

55:15 Not enough that you do what you're told. You've got to do it the way God says you're supposed to do it. Cheerfully, without murmurings, without disputings. Now does that mean that there may not be wrestlings?

The Nature of Obedience: Not Stoicism, but Sanctified Submission

55:26 No. Look at our blessed Savior. The will of God for Him was the cross. And there, the shadow of the cross is cast upon Gethsemane.

55:37 And when He sees the will of God laid out before Him, the path of obedience cutting itself right through hell, He recoils in all of His holy humanity and says, Oh, my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass. There was the agony. There was the struggle. There was the trauma of bringing all of His humanity into line with a wholehearted, embrace of the will of God.

56:06 I'm not speaking of some kind of stoicism that causes us to skip, as it were, into every path of revealed preceptual will. I'm not talking about an attitude that takes every providence, no matter how dark it is, and whistles Dixie while we go through it. No. But in the midst of the trauma, standing by the bed of a loved one who's dying, standing by the intensive care, standing by the unit where a little one is clinging for every breath, though there is agony and pain, there is that disposition that says, Oh, my Father, not my will, but Thine, be done.

56:52 And a sanctified effort to keep our hands upon our mouths and not charge God foolishly.

Application: Work, School, and Church Life Without Murmurings

57:01 You children, that's what God calls you to with Mom and Dad, husbands and wives to each other. Remember, what about our place of work? Why, it's accepted. Everybody grouses.

57:14 Everybody grouses. The employer grouses because of the meager output of the...

57:23 I'm sorry, the employee. He grouses because of the situation in which the employer has placed him. He feels it's not the best situation in which to expect a certain output. And then the employer is grousing because of the meager response of the employee.

57:40 And so you've got grousing everywhere you turn. Grousing, grumbling, complaining.

57:47 You find it in school.

57:51 My teacher's unfair. He gives too much homework. He gives homework over the holidays.

57:59 Grousing, complaining. It's a way of life, isn't it?

58:04 And you see why Paul says, You want to shine his lights? You go out into a society and embrace imposed providences and the revealed will of God. With all the inequities that are there in a crooked and perverse generation. Paul had that in his mind.

58:19 That they had to live out their life in a society that was full of injustice and inequity. But he says, Christians, all that you do, be doing without murmuring and reasoning.

58:36 Then surely if there's any place this ought to be seen, it's in the house of God.

58:42 If ever there is a society where people ought to do the will of God, cheerfully, it's the society of those who claim to love the living God. To have been rescued from the Egypt of their sinful bondage and state of spiritual death unto the liberty of the privileges of the sons of God. What a frightening thing when there's grousing and grumbling in the house of God. Grousing and grumbling.

59:11 All you get at that church is preaching and praying and reading the Bible. We've got to spruce things up a little bit. Why can't we have this? And why?

59:22 We've heard that grousing and grumbling. That's grousing and grumbling against God. That thing you'd like to see here at Trinity, where do you find it taught in this book?

59:35 Where do you find it taught in this book? Well, they're harsh at that place and people don't walk straight. They discipline them. We should be compassionate.

59:46 That wicked one from your midst! That's the language of the Bible. What are you grousing about this morning? What are you reasoning about?

59:59 Reasoning based on your own sentimental prejudices, not upon the word of God?

60:08 Oh, dear people, may we be marked as a congregation who do all things in our church life without complaining and reasoning.

60:19 And then, of course, in the details of our personal lives, dark providences, obedience to the precepts of honesty, and equity, and sanctifying the Lord's day. They cost us something. They cost us something. But oh, what a privilege to obey so gracious and glorious a God is our God.

Objection Answered: The Grace for Obedience

60:40 Well, I close by just answering an objection that I'm quite confident is present in someone's mind.

60:47 You say, Pastor Martin, nobody can live like that unless he's a Stoic.

60:53 No one can live like that, do all things without murmuring and disputing. They didn't actually live that way. That's right, they didn't. This injunction follows verse 13.

61:05 God works in you to will and to work for His good pleasure. My friend, if you're not a Christian, one in whom God has come in the person of His Spirit, one in whom there is not the very life of Christ through union with Him, you cannot comply with this injunction. Try as you may, it will simply show you that old Adam is not up, not up to this standard of life. But thank God if we are united to Christ, this is not an unreasonable demand.

61:38 For in a sense, it is but a demand upon the grace of God in us. It is but a demand upon the grace of God promised to us. And child of God, stop your evil reasonings that say I simply can't live that way. Left to yourself, you can't.

61:59 But there is grace and strength in our blessed Lord who by the power of His Spirit is able to give us grace to comply with this precept. All things be continually doing without murmurings and disputings. That's the precept. God willing, next week, we'll examine the reasons the Apostle gives for compliance with that precept.

62:27 May the Lord help us during this week to pray that He would search our hearts, show us where there is anything of this sinful grumbling, born of unbelief and rebellion, any of this sinful reasoning that is the outgrowth of the perversity of the heart, looking for justification in some form of rational explanation for the path that we're walking. May God help us to mortify these cursed sins and become a people who are blameless and harmless without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation shining as lights in this universe. May God grant that we take the precept to heart and look to Christ for grace to fulfill it. Let us pray.

Closing Prayer

63:22 Our Father, we cry to You this morning that You would look down upon us in grace, in pity, and in mercy. We take our place with the public and then cry, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. We're ashamed of our wicked murmurings and reasonings. We confess that unbelief and rebellion have too often dictated our responses to Your Word and to Your providences.

63:54 Lord, cleanse us and purge us. O come by the fire of the Spirit and purge our hearts. And we pray that You'd have us have dealings with husbands and wives and children, with those who have been marked by grumbling and reasoning in school, at work, at home, at play, in our relationships here in this assembly. O God, make us a people who do all that we do with a sense of joyful submission to You and in the confidence that You are to Your people all that You've said You are.

64:31 Lord, write Your Word upon our hearts, and grant that our lives may reflect the very impress of this text until the Lord Jesus comes and takes us to Himself. Hear our cry and answer us for His name's sake we pray. Amen.