Reasons for Not Murmuring

Introduction: God's Reasons for His Commands

0:06 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, May 31st, 1981, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now, will you open your Bibles with me, please, to the second chapter of Paul's letter to the Philippians, Philippians chapter 2, and follow as I read verses 12 through 18. So then, my beloved, even as you 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 is working 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, or better translated, among whom you are shining as lights, as luminaries, as stars in the world or universe, holding

1:30 forth the word of life, that I may have whereof to glory in the day of Christ, that I did not run in vain. Necessarily. Necessarily. Necessarily.

1:38 Neither labor in vain. Yes, and if I am offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and rejoice with you all, and in the same manner do you also joy and rejoice with me.

1:57 God, simply because He is God, has the right to command His creatures without giving any reason for the precepts which He gives them. However, God, as God knows our frame, He put us together the way we are put together. And He knows that our obedience to His word is made either easier or more determined when we understand the reasons for the commands that He gives us. And often in the scriptures, the precepts of God, that is, the commandments of God, both in the Old and in the New Testament, are the precepts of God.

2:40 In the New Testament, under different covenantal administrations, are either preceded with reasons for the command, or they are followed with reasons after the command is given. Let me illustrate how this works. It is perfectly right for a father, upon noticing that his son or daughter, let's call them John and Susie, are about to go out into the backyard to say, now Johnny, now Susie, don't take your shoes off when you're playing in the backyard this morning. Now, a father needs say nothing more than that.

3:19 He has every right to say to his children, keep your shoes off. Or, in the negative cast, don't take your shoes off. And, if there is a framework of biblical discipline in that home, the child should be inclined to obey, knowing that if he does not, there will be no punishment. There will be adequate and appropriate punishment for that disobedience.

3:45 However, if the father says something along these lines, it's more likely that the obedience will be more determined, or in some ways easier. He may say to Johnny and Susie, now, as you go out to play today, Daddy wants to tell you something that happened this morning. When I was mowing the lawn, I inadvertently, he wouldn't use that big word, this kid's, hit a soda bottle, and it broke into a thousand pieces, and I've raked up the larger pieces, but there are lots of little slivers of grass strewn around certain parts of the backyard, and because I don't want you to cut your feet, don't take your shoes off. Now, you see what he's done? He has preceded his precept with an explanation, going before explaining the rationality, rationale, the reason for that precept. Or he may reverse it and say, now, Johnny and Susie, don't take your shoes off while you're playing in the backyard this morning, because, and then he tells them the little incident about the splintered glass. Well, in the same way, when we read our Bibles, we will find again and again that God's precepts, His commands, commands which He, as God, has a right to make.

5:10 Without any explanations, yet nonetheless, He precedes them with explanations often, and many times He follows them with explanations. And that's exactly what we have in the passage that is under our consideration here in Philippians chapter 2. As one of the aspects of working out our salvation with fear and trembling, the apostle sets before us a plan. He sets before us a plan.

The Sweeping Command: Do All Things Without Murmurings and Questionings

5:40 He sets before us a plan. He sets before us a plan. He sets before us a plan. He sets before us by the inspiration of the Spirit, this command of verse 14, do everything without murmurings and questionings.

5:53 And as we noted last Lord's Day, it is a sweeping command that pertains to everything that we do in obedience to the precepts of God and in submission to the providence of God, all things be commanded. And He does that continually. He does that continually, doing without grumblings and without disputings or reasonings. And if some of you wondered where I got that word grouse, look it up in your dictionary.

6:23 It is a proper word, a synonym for grumbling. So many questioned it last week, or several did, that I wondered maybe if I used it in the wrong way. And I checked it up, and sure enough, I was using it correctly. Grumbling and grousing.

6:39 Grumbling and grousing. Grumbling and grousing. Grumbling and grousing. Grumbling and grousing.

6:40 our study last week that these are not minor aberrations of Christian character, but that Paul's mind, steeped in the Old Testament as it was, was fully aware that for grumbling and disputings with God, the nation of Israel, the generation of that nation that came out of Egypt, never entered the promised land. And therefore we must look upon these sins in all of their ugliness, the murmuring being expressions of unbelief and rebellion against God, the reasonings being the attempt of the mind to justify the state of the heart. But now it would have been enough if God had said, do all that you do without murmurings and questionings, full stop, I am God, I've said it, now get to it and obey me. But now like a loving father. An understanding father who would encourage us in our obedience by giving us reasons for that precept, we find in verses 15 and 16, two fundamental reasons for the precept of verse 14. And the first reason is couched in these words, in order that you may become.

Reason 1: Attaining a Consistent Testimony Before a Needy World

8:09 So the first reason is that you may become. The first reason has to do with something that the Philippians will become if they obey the commandment of verse 14. If they do all that they do without murmurings and disputings or reasonings, the first reason for that command so to live is bound up in what they will become. And what they will become is obvious from the language, a consistent testimony before a needy world. But then the second reason has to do with the apostle himself, verse 16b, that I may have whereof to glory. That you may become and that I may have. And the second reason then is the securing of a joyful account by the servant of God.

9:09 The day of Christ. Consider with me then this morning these two reasons why we as the people of God should self-consciously set ourselves to do all that we do without murmurings and without these sinful reasonings. Reason number one is the attainment of a consistent testimony before a needy world. Do all things without murmurings and questioning, in order 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 the word of life. Now this matter of attaining a consistent testimony before a needy world is something which the apostle says, and the apostle says, and the apostle says, and the apostle says, and the apostle says, and the apostle assumes will touch a very tender spot in the hearts of the people of God. And if you sit here this morning indifferent to whether or not you have a consistent testimony in the eyes of a needy world, in all likelihood you're an utter stranger to the grace of God. If you profess to

10:34 be basking under gospel privileges and do not have a jealous concern for the consistency of your testimony before a needy world, in all likelihood you're a stranger to the grace of God. You see, the child who has no concern as to whether or not he cuts his feet up and has splinters of glass sticking in them, there's something wrong with that child's head. When daddy gives a reason for his command, he's assuming that that reason will cut some mustard with his head. He's assuming that that reason will cut some mustard with his head.

Qualities Essential to a Consistent Testimony: Blameless, Harmless, Without Blemish

11:10 And when the apostle says by the spirit, do all that you do without murmurings and without questionings in order that you may become, and then outlines what is involved in a consistent testimony before a needy world, he's assuming that he's touching a very tender spot in the hearts of the people of God at Philippi. And that consistent testimony has five strands in the text. Notice the first one. The qualities essential to this testimony. If we are to have this consistent testimony, what qualities must mark our lives? Look at the text. In order that you may become blameless and harmless children of God without blemish. And in the original, the apostle uses three words, each one of which has what we call the alpha privative at the front. In other words, you have a word which means a certain thing, and then

12:16 you have this one letter in front that means without the thing that follows. And so he describes the qualities essential to this testimony that is real and convincing before an onlooking world in terms of what we translate blameless, harmless, better rendered pure, sincere, or unmixed, and then without blemish. Now, what is the meaning of those words? Well, blameless means there is no just cause for reproach. No just cause for reproach. It is said in Luke chapter 1 and verse 6 concerning Zacharias and Elizabeth that they walked in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, not sinless, but not sinless. And they walked in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, not sinless, but blameless. If you would watch Zacharias and Elizabeth and scrutinize their lives in the light of the standard of that law under which they lived at that period in the history of redemption, you could watch them from morning to night, and at no point could you point the finger and say, aha, you claim to love God's holy law. You claim to be subject to the law of his covenant. Look at this. Look at that. I don't want you to be subject to the law of his covenant.

13:40 I can censure you justly for your deviation from the norms which you profess to be obeying. No, no. The scripture says they walked in all the ordinances of the Lord, blameless. Same word.

13:54 Now, Paul could do this with regard to the external requirements of the law so that in Philippians chapter 3, describing his pre-conversion condition, he could say as touching the law, blameless. Nobody could point a finger at me and say, hey, wait a minute, Paul, as a Pharisee, you claim to be bound to the law of God. Look at this area and this area where you are utterly insensitive to what God has required. No, no. He says, touching the law, I was blameless.

14:23 There was no just basis to point the finger of accusation. Blameless. Perhaps the clearest example of this in terms of Old Testament language is with respect to Daniel. It says they could find no reason to be bound to the law of God. They were bound to the law of God. They were bound to the law of God. There was no fault in him except in the matters concerning the law of his God. When they looked at the life of Daniel, they could find no just cause to censure or to reproach him. The apostle says, oh, Philippian Christians, why am I concerned that all that you do be done without murmurings, done without these sinful reasonings? It's because I want you to have a consistent

15:12 testimony before a needy world, and you will have no testimony if the world looking upon you can justly lay the finger of accusation at your door. Then he says that you may be harmless, and I don't know why they translated it harmless. The word means pure, sincere, or unmixed. In secular literature, when you wanted to use a word to describe pure wine or pure metal, wine that had not been diluted with water, metal that had not been debased by another metal being mixed with it, no foreign substance, this is the word you would use. You would call it unmixed wine, unmixed gold or silver. And in the New Testament, where it's used only two other times, something of this emphasis comes through. Jesus said in Matthew 10, 16, be wise as serpents, and, here's our word, harmless as doves. Now, you see the contrast? What do you think of when

16:18 you think of the serpent? You think of that which is devious. You think of that which is subtle. Jesus said, with respect to holy guile and wisdom, be wise as serpents. But in terms of the basic disposition of your soul, harmless as a dove. When you think of a dove, what do you think of? You think of that which is, unmixed gentleness, unmixed softness, from its gentle cooing to its purity, if it's a white dove, it is what it appears to be. Be harmless. Be pure, sincere, unmixed as a dove. And it's used in Romans 16, 19, in which the apostle says that he would have them to be wise concerning that which is good and simple with respect to that. which is evil. In other words, their whole attitude of soul with regard to that which is evil should be one of unmixed abhorrence, pure, simple rejection and abhorrence of all that is evil. Now he says to the Philippians, if you are to have a consistent testimony before an onlooking world, you must not only be in terms of your external patterns of life blameless, no just cause for reproach,

17:43 but in the inward disposition of the soul, there must be this holy singleness, this unmixed purity of commitment to a life of holiness at any cost. So that in a sense, the explanation for what makes you tick ought to be very simple to give. Someone ought to be able to describe what makes you tick in a very few words. He is sent.

18:10 He is set upon pleasing his God in everything at any cost. Pretty simple, isn't it? Is that you?

18:20 Paul says if you are to have any testimony, that must be you. Then he uses a third word, children of God without a blemish. This is the word used in Ephesians 1, 4. We were chosen in him that we should be holy and without blemish before him.

18:40 Again, in Ephesians 5, speaking of the work of Christ who died that he might perfect the church, this very language is used that it should be presented without blemish.

18:55 It's used in 1 Peter 1, 19. Christ is the Lamb without spot and without blemish. There is no defacing defect or mark. Now, we're coming to that time of the year where, where weddings become very prominent in our announcements and in some of our Saturday hours.

19:21 I want you to imagine with me one of our young ladies who's gone to the bridal shop and she's picked out that which she's dreamed about from her infancy, her wedding gown. And after so many weeks, after the initial work has been done and it's been fitted and all of the rest, the day to pick up her bridal gown comes. And she goes to the bridal shop, and there the proprietor or proprietress takes the plastic covering, garment covering off the gown and holds it up and she examines every fold of the fabric to make sure everything is stitched properly, that there are no blemishes upon it, no wrinkles. And she sees her bridal gown, and it's just as she had hoped it would be.

20:05 And so the protected garment bag is placed over it again and she very carefully, gingerly places it over her arm and takes it off. And she puts it in her home and hangs it in a special place in the closet until that special day. Well, on that special day her mom and some of her close friends help her adorn herself in her bridal gown. And everything is perfectly in place.

The 'Grease Spot' of Murmuring: A Blemish on Testimony

20:28 And she looks at herself and something perhaps she's never done before, she weeps with joy before the sight of herself in her full-length mirror in her bedroom as she's ready to leave for the place where she will be joined to her beloved. And she very carefully then makes her way out into the car and she and others helping her make sure that the train, if it has a train and the outer folds do not scrape the ground, they're all held up so that she will appear before her husband absolutely spotless in her garment. And she gets into the car and she makes her way to the church and as she's getting out of the car she's so careful to make sure that she doesn't step with her feet on the front part of her, the bottom part of her gown, that she picks that up and leans back and as she's stepping out of the car her back, right smack between her shoulder blades, leans against a greasy door latch. And there the size of a quarter is a grease smudge. Well, lo and behold, the wedding is about to start. There's no time to do anything.

21:39 She's got to line up at the back with her attendants and come down the aisle. With a grease spot the size of a quarter right between her shoulder blades. Now when the time comes and the music plays and the ushers are standing here and the groom's attendants and the padre in the middle and then the bridesmaids and maid of honor come, then that moment of truth when the bride herself starts to walk down and the mother stands and all heads turn and everyone is oohing and aahing as they see her in all the splendor and beauty of her bridal gown. But then as she begins to make her way down a frown begins to creep across the faces of the people. And the preacher who's watching people's faces notices that wherever she gets far enough for people to turn from seeing her face and her side to her back their smile becomes a...

22:35 Because what has happened? Well, by the time she gets to the front everyone is...

22:42 What's happened? Every eye has been drawn to that one grease blot between her shoulder blades. Now if we were to take the total square inches of that garment that grease spot may only be .005% of all the fabric but there's one thing to which every eye will be drawn her spot and her blemish.

23:16 And the Apostle Paul said if you and I are to have a consistent testimony before an onlooking world we must not only be blameless and pure, sincere and unmixed as to moral intention and commitment we must be without any grease spots between our shoulder blades. Because when an onlooking world sees that grease spot they don't care that there may be many other areas of true godliness. The eye is drawn to that moral imperfection and they point the finger and say if that's Christianity you can have it I don't want it. And what's this bound up in avoiding bedding down with another man's wife? Well certainly that. Bedding down with another woman's husband?

24:25 Certainly that. Cursing and swearing? Certainly that. The inordinate use of alcohol?

24:32 Certainly that. But look at the context. He's saying do everything that you do without grousing without grumbling without sinful questionings and reasonings that you may be without blemish. And the blot, the grease spot between the shoulders of some of you is not some large spattering of a whole grease gun gross immorality gross deviation from the most commonly accepted biblical norms of behavior it's that you're tolerating that inward disposition of unbelief and rebellion that constantly pumps out from your lips and your spirit a grousing grumbling a grumbling disposition and there is constantly coming forth from your mind the sinful reasonings to try to lend credibility to your sinful grumblings and those murmurings and disputings are your grease spot Christian friend it is that to which the eyes of your friends are drawn the eyes of your work associates and those at school and in the university

26:00 and in your normal interaction in the neighborhood that's the thing they see and the apostle says to these Philippians all that you do be doing it without grumbling without these sinful reasonings in order that you may become and the attainment of a consistent testimony before a needy world involves first of all those qualities essential to that testimony. Now isn't that reason enough? Does that move you? Or can you sit there and say okay I'm still going to grouse still going to complain my friend if you can go on in the face of something like that you better really ask the question whether you know anything of the grace of God because you bear the name of Christ and he didn't force it upon you you voluntarily took it upon yourself when you went into those waters of baptism as three shall do today you voluntarily and joyfully declared Christ in grace has arrested me he's come to me in mercy and made me his own and I want the world to know that in union with Christ I've died with him to sin's dominion in the virtue of his death my sins are washed away and I've risen with him to newness of life

The Context of Testimony: A Crooked and Perverse Generation

27:26 and I've set myself upon a walk that is blameless a walk that reflects a heart that is unmixed that amidst all of the conflicts with remaining sin the bottom line is for me to live is Christ to please him is more than life itself I am determined to have a life that is without blemish I'll not be content that I come to some degree of external holiness that lifts me above a sordid world or that even lifts me above fifty percent of my fellow believers I'll be content with nothing less than that for which he chose me in Christ and that for which Christ purchased me to become without blemish but then there's a second thing in the text not only does the apostle set before us the qualities essential to this testimony but secondly he sets before us the context in which this testimony is to be born what is the context in which this testimony of a blameless harmless witness without blemish life is to be born well he says it is to be born in the midst of and the word in the midst of literally means in the context or environment of

28:52 it's the word used in the familiar text in Matthew 16 16 I send you forth as sheep in the midst of in the environment of in the context of wolves it's the word used in Luke 8 7 some seed fell among in the midst of in the context of in close proximity to the thorns now Paul says this testimony is to be carried on in the context of in the midst of and now notice the vigorous language a crooked and perverse generation and he got that language directly from the Greek translation of the Old Testament scriptures the Hebrew into the Greek you've heard the term the Septuagint before well this is the very linguistic structure of Deuteronomy 32 and verse 5 and you will notice in this passage God speaking of that grumbling grousing generation whose carcasses rotted in the wilderness this is what God says of that generation through the song of Moses Deuteronomy 32 and verse 5 they have dealt corruptly with him they are not his children now notice

30:19 it is their blemish they are and here's the language a perverse and crooked generation the grumbling reasoning disputing generation whose carcasses rotted in the wilderness are called a perverse and crooked generation so you see what Paul is saying Israel of old was not what she ought to have been the nation by the act of God was the adopted nation but God says in essence I disclaim them as my children why? they are a perverse and crooked generation and their perversity and crookedness came to its great expression in their murmurings and disputings he says now oh Philippians as the true Israel of God notice the language as the true children of God you must be what ancient Israel never was in that generation you must be true sons of God in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation the word crooked is the one used in Acts 2.40 save yourselves from this crooked generation Matthew 17.17 Jesus said oh faithless and perverse generation

31:47 and we must not look for some fine distinction between these two words together they simply mean the epitome of depravity suppose I had some modeling clay this morning and I were able of that modeling clay to make the figure of a man or a figure that at least anyone aged three years old and upward with reasonable intelligence would gather was something like a man alright and I set my clay figure before you and then right at the point where his waist is seen I bend him thirty degrees to the left what have I done to my man I've made my straight man a crooked man now suppose I take his nose which is in proportion to the rest of his body and I pull it out three inches I've distorted I've made a caricature and suppose I take his right arm and I make it four inches longer than his left arm you see I've now made him a perverted man a crooked man and then a perverted man now the description of any generation as it exists out of Christ is crooked and perverse with regard to the standard of God's holy law with regard to what man was to be as an image bearer of God he's a crooked and twisted distortion of what God intended him to be

33:13 and so the apostle says to these Philippians you are to do all things without murmurings and disputings that you may have a testimony that is real and vital before an onlooking world and the description of that world is always the same crooked and perverse generation there may be some of you who sit here saying look that standard's too high blameless no just cause for reproach unmixed in my basic spiritual perspectives no grease spots between my shoulder blades that's too high a standard you'd have to retreat from the world to ever attain it Paul says no you're to be this in the midst of in the context of in close proximity to a wicked and perverse generation there is nothing in scripture to warrant monastic withdrawal nor the pipe dreams of those who see the situation of the world ever becoming such that righteousness will predominate prior to the coming of Christ the people of God are always called upon to be these things in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation

The Figure and Activity of Testimony: Shining as Lights, Holding Forth the Word of Life

34:39 but then the third thing he says about this testimony is this it's what I'm calling the figure by which the impact of this testimony is portrayed look at the figure by which the impact of this kind of testimony is portrayed the language is this among whom you are seen or better translated among whom you are shining as luminaries or stars in the world the new international version gives a rendering which linguistically is warranted among whom you shine like stars in the universe you see the imagery the imagery is that of the blackness of empty space God uses that with regard to the state of the lost he says to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever what a frightening description of hell the blackness of darkness forever darkness as thick as the darkness that fell upon Egypt in one of its plagues now that's the picture of this perverse and crooked generation described now in terms of imagery it is like

36:06 the vast darkness of space with no luminaries the world John says is in darkness and oh how refreshing to see in the midst of that darkness the bursting forth of the light of a star the twinkle of a heavenly luminary Paul says that's the image of the Christian who does all that he does without murmurings and sinful reasonings who manifest his faith in the livingness and the lovingness of his God who submits from the heart to his precepts embraces his providence such a person in a crooked and perverse generation stands out like a spangling dazzling brilliant star against the inky black darkness of empty space that's the imagery among whom he says you are shining as luminaries in the universe of God oh child of God isn't that enough to stir you up to press after this standard the privilege of being light in the midst of darkness the privilege in the home in the shop in the school in the place of business amidst that set of providential circumstances

37:31 that have literally ripped your heart open and leave it like an open wound bleeding day after day but in the midst of it to see people look upon you with your open wound and that's like Job saying the Lord gives the Lord takes blessed be the name of the Lord to see you embracing from the heart the unfolding of divine providence no matter how bitter it may be to all of your native inclinations embracing it without murmurings and disputings and reasonings what do you become in that situation you become like a brilliant star in the midst of the Stygian darkness of this world then I must hasten on to underscore the fourth aspect of this testimony I'm just trying to open up the text homiletically rather than taking you into complex grammar lessons there is what I'm calling the attendant activity of this testimony we not only have you see the qualities essential blameless harmless without blemish the context crooked and perverse generation the figure by which the testimony is portrayed light shining in darkness but now notice the attendant activity of this testimony verse 16 holding forth the word of life

39:00 now here there is a difficulty the word translated in the 1901 holding forth is a word that is found several other times in the New Testament and is found quite frequently in secular literature and no less an astute commentator than William Hendrickson has to confess in a footnote the most competent commentators and linguists are about evenly divided 50-50 as to whether the word should be translated holding forth or holding fast well when you find 50-50 division by those who know the ancient language best you better be very careful about dogmatizing unless you've got good reason to now I personally having considered the various linguistic arguments with the tools available to me feel that the more likely rendering is not holding forth but holding fast to the word of life but in either case whether it's holding forth the word of life or holding fast to life's word Paul describes the attendant activity of this clear burning testimony as bound up with the word of life it's either an activity of holding forth that word which would point in the direction

40:30 of the lifestyle style speaking the gospel joined with the verbal witness or holding fast to that word showing that no one can live this kind of life apart from coming under the tenacious influence or I should say the influence of a tenacious grasp upon the word of life so in either case you see the attendant activity of this testimony is bound up with the word of life and that word of life is nothing other than the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and the truth as it is in Jesus and it gives us at once you see the key to answer the question how at the grass roots level can I live such a life blameless and harmless without blemish right in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation that bombards my ears with its music bombards my mind with its thought patterns bombards my remaining sin with its seductions how in the name of the God of heaven can you live like that in a world like that holding fast to life's word that's how blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly nor stand in the way of sinners nor sit in the seat of scoffers

The Subjects of This Testimony: Only Children of God

41:58 but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water and no shortcuts my friend there must be this attendant activity of holding fast to the word of life and then I hasten to point out the fifth thing that's said about this kind of testimony the subjects of this testimony who can live this kind of life and thereby be blameless harmless children of God without blemish well the key is that little phrase children of God he says do all things without murmurings and disputings that you may become blameless and harmless children of God without blemish they are already the children of God he's exhorting them to a certain lifestyle that they may become children of God characterized by a by these things that we've already expounded that word children of God is exactly the same construction in the familiar text of John 1 12 how did these Philippians become children of God well you say they were God's creatures no this term children of God does not point to that element of truth

43:25 that we are all God's children by creation he is speaking of a spiritual parentage which only comes in the framework of John 1 12 but as many as received him that is the Lord Jesus to them gave he the right to become here it is children of God only those who in the self-consciousness of their sin and need turn from all confidence in saving themselves and embrace God's offered salvation in the person of the Savior as many as received him to them gives he the right to become children of God even to them that believe on his name and it is only the children of God who are the proper subjects of this testimony and if you're here this morning and you've never come to grips with the most elementary issues of your sinfulness of God's mercy to sinners in Christ the claims of God in the gospel the demand to receive the demand to repent and believe my friend you cannot begin in this school that we've talked about this morning until you are constituted a child of God until you embrace the Lord Jesus as your Savior and as your Lord

44:53 but oh for the many of us who have and are the children of God the appeal to us is as children of God to become such children as will bring honor and praise to our Father we bear the family name dear people of God and bearing that name we must be done with all lesser standards of consistency than is set forth than are set forth in this passage and the proper subjects of this testimony is to be understood as only the children of God but the other side of the coin is it is a standard for all the children of God not just for a select few not just for a few who are going to quote full time service not just for a select few who have a little more native motivation to holiness no no my friend if you're a child of God then it's God's will that you become a child of God who is blameless without a grease in your shoulder blades that you may be a shining light in the midst of darkness holding fast to the word of life

Reason 2: Securing a Joyful Account for God's Servants

46:20 that's the will of God for his people not for a few of them not for some of them not the majority of them but for every single one of us now I've tried to open the text up in your hearing that's the first great strand of motivation the second one I'll touch and cover in five minutes it's the securing of a joyful account by the servants of God look at the language Paul says I've told you not to take your shoes off children I've given you one reason don't want you to cut your feet that should be enough but he says I'll give you another reason why should you take my command seriously do all things without murmuring and disputing not only that you may have a consistent testimony before an onlooking world but verse 16b that I may have whereof to glory in the day of Christ that I did not run in vain neither labor in vain more literally translated that I did not run for nothing and that I did not labor for nothing you see what Paul is saying he's saying oh Philippians listen if you have any regard to me as your spiritual father and he was their spiritual father if you have any regard to me as your spiritual shepherd

47:47 and he was a shepherd to that people he said look when you're tempted to think well in this situation I can indulge a little murmuring I can indulge a little grousing I can let my mind take off in some of its undisciplined questionings and reasonings about why this and why the other he said oh dear Philippians listen knowing that I with you am on my way to the place of great unveiling the day of Christ the day of the Lord's return he said oh Philippians in that day as a servant of Christ whose works will be tried 1 Corinthians 3 and verse 13 the day will declare every man's work of what sort it is oh Philippians do you want me in that day to have the joy of being commended as a faithful servant who did not run for nothing who didn't labor for nothing and he likens the work of the ministry to a race and to a labor again and again in his epistles he says then take this standard seriously in other words to state it negatively he says do you want to break my heart do you want me to come to the end of my days and then face the day of Christ not with joy and with exaltation but with a sense of grief and pain that I've spent my labor for naught then just take lightly what I've told you just sit there

49:16 May 31st 1981 and say oh that's Pastor Martin hollering, screeching and thumping I get tired of it oh my friend some of us to go to our graves feeling that we have literally burnt our energies for nothing for nothing then just go on the way you are with your grease spots between your shoulders learn to be comfortable with your grease spots that's the description of some of you your grease spots it's nothing other than your own spiritual laziness that you've got your grease spots between your shoulder blades after all these years sometimes some of you stop moaning and groaning about those besetting sins and went to hewing and hacking in the name of the Lord to put them to death don't come to me and say Pastor Martin can't get victory over lust then you sit in front of your television and feed your weakness and walk to the local shop

50:38 where you know the filthy magazines are there for you to pick up and look at you're not sick enough to quit you're sick enough to feel uncomfortable why do some of you have something less than that unmixed that unalloyed spirit you can't be described in simple terms and I'm going to say some things that may grieve some of you but I say them because they break my heart if someone were to ask me about some of you and say describe them it would take me paragraphs because as I've seen the pattern of your life over the years you've been a pattern of vacillation just when we begin to think we see you taking hold with singleness of eye singleness of purpose what do we see we see a major decision to indulge your flesh and it cripples you and you come to a screeching halt in your growth and all your gains are lost and we've seen that pattern for years with some of you there are others of you you can be described in a very short sentence that man, that woman unless he or she is the best hypocrite the devil's ever spawned that man, that woman lives to please Christ

52:05 supremely that's it and thank God for many of you that's the description I could give if I were asked now it's the concern of any true shepherd that he'll be able to say that of all his people because he knows in the day of Christ the only fruit which will abound to his credit in that sense is fruit which is measured up to God's standard and what is God's standard? He chose us to be holy Christ died to present us without blemish and it's only amongst those the apostle says for whom this standard is something that is more than just wishful thinking concerning them he says he will have occasion to glory in the day of Christ that he didn't run in vain that he didn't labor in vain now that won't have much of an appeal to some of you your visitors you've not been here long but for those of you who've been here any length of time whatever else your instructors and teachers and preachers and elders have been one thing your conscience tells you even at the point where you don't like it we have labored for your perfection in Christ

53:29 we've not sought yours but you and we have been willing to impart not the gospel of God only but our very souls because you are dear to us and if that has any pull upon you in the language of this text do everything without murmuring and disputing that we may have whereof to glory in the day of Christ that we didn't run in vain that we didn't labor in vain some of us are increasingly convinced that every time we preach with all our heart and mind and soul and strength we're cutting a fraction of an inch off the other end of the candle I'm not being a prophet but I doubt I'll live the length of days that my genes say I should live and frankly I don't care if it will only mean that in so running and so laboring you will be as a people blameless harmless sons of God with no grease spots between your shoulder blades then if we never see our 50th birthday in the day of Christ there will be joy that we did not run nor labor in vain

Conclusion and Call to Action

54:55 I think it would be painful to me to live to be 80 if some of you go on at the same rate you're going now that's plain talk isn't it why do I speak plainly because we seek not yours but you why should we do all things without murmuring and disputings two reasons that we may attain to a posture of consistent testimony before an onlooking world and that we may give the servants of God grounds for joy in the day of Christ oh if those motives move you at all then have dealings with God today that he would make you blameless single, unmixed with no grease spot between your shoulder blades shining as a light in the midst of darkness holding fast to the word of life let us pray oh our Father when we think of our Lord Jesus in his love to us loving the church dying for the church that he might sanctify and purify the church

56:22 present it to himself without spot or wrinkle or blemish oh how we pray that the Lord that the sight of his dying love will move us it will break the power of indifference and insensitivity we ask that as a people we may pant after greater degrees of holiness that we may guard our every step every relationship every reaction oh Lord help us individually and corporately to be a people of God who do indeed shine as lights in the midst of this universe of darkness oh that in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation we may be children of God who do reflect the likeness of our Father for those who are not your children oh God may the brief word addressed to them find its mark in their hearts may the day of Christ reveal that on this day some for the first time began to seek in earnest what it is to know the living God bless then your word and to your name be praise and honor through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen