Work Out, Aim High, Host Fast, Hold Forth

Introduction: The Purpose of the Sermon

0:00 The following sermon was delivered on Monday evening, October 18, 2010, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey, during the Trinity Baptist Annual Pastors Conference. The preacher is Pastor Albert N. Martin.

0:19 Now may I urge you to turn with me to that portion of God's Word which Pastor Chansky read in our hearing, Philippians chapter 2, and I shall reread verses 12 through 16. Philippians 2 at verse 12.

0:43 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 great. 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 you shine 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. Now God delights to have us acknowledge our need of Him, so let's again pray and ask God by the Spirit to come upon preacher and lawyer, listener, and together, that we may be conscious of hearing

2:08 the voice of our great prophet, the Lord Jesus. Let's pray.

2:15 O Father, how we thank You for the great joys that we anticipate in that glorious day, when from east and west and north and south all of those for whom the Savior shed His blood and to whom the Spirit has come and transformed, transforming power, will be gathered together unto our blessed Redeemer and into the immediate presence of our glorious triune God. Surely we are moved to pray, even so come, Lord Jesus. But while we are here, we thank You. We have Your written word as a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway. Amen. Amen. Amen.

3:06 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

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3:07 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

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3:08 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

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3:24 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

3:24 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

3:24 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

3:24 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

3:26 jesus that you are delighted to give the holy spirit to your children who ask for him and we ask for his presence and power to be operative in the opening up and applying of the scriptures come to us oh god we pray we plead these mercies and bring our praise to you through him who even now is our advocate and intercessor even our lord jesus christ amen now those of you who attended upon my ministry here at trinity over the years and a number of you who in one way or another have been exposed to that ministry you will know that i have never been very adept at sermon titles whatever it is a man's brain that enables him to take a mass of exposition and reduce it to an accurate and and it's not wrong that it might be an attractive title to draw people into the message i covet

The Motive for Obedience: Holy Boasting

4:40 their gift but somewhere in my mother's womb or in my training and development i got short changed with what it takes consistently to come up with accurate interesting sermon titles so so often we just plunge into the text no title and go where the text takes us but i do have a title to my sermon tonight and the title to my sermon rather puritan in length but at least it's accurate it's not a catchy little phrase but i think it captures the truth of the word of god that i want to open up in your hearing and here it is how to live how to live as a christian so as to give your pastors grounds for holy boasting in the day of christ i'm speaking to you the people of god from the various churches i'm speaking to you as one who names the name of christ who has committed yourself to a gospel church and to a gospel ministry to a biblical oversight and i want to address you very directly to a gospel ministry on this subject how as to give your pastors

6:05 just ground for holy in the day of christ the titles derive directly from the closing words of the apostle in this paragraph verses 12 to 16 of philippians 2 having given specific directives to the philippians beginning in verse 12 through verse 15 or 16 a and then giving specific directives to the philippians he says among the various motives by which he's seeking to move the philippians to compliance with his directives he gives this motive do these things why that have whereup to glory of christ that i did not run in vain neither lay the old asv that greek word glory is a little more bold in its translation of that word rendering the phrase that i may boast in the day and the new ink is even yet more bold in translating that same word as follows so that in the day of christ i may

7:31 that i did not run in vain or lay that verb and its family of words in the noun form has a rich vein of biblical truth if you look it up in your concordances you'll find that there are many instances in the word of god where both legitimate granted we are told that we are to boast in the lord the true circumcision are those who glow in christ jesus but there are channels of sanctified boasting and here is one of them among the many motives by which paul has been seeking to urge the philippians into a path of gospel obedience here is a very strong motive you philippians you who have shown unusual love for me and the letter to the philippians clearly indicates there was a depth of love and interaction between the philippian church and paul that in a sense it was his pet church and they loved the apostle and they had shown their love in many ways and it's as though he comes at this point in the text saying now you philippians you profess to love me

9:00 you've proven your love many times in many ways recently the gift sent by the hand of epaphroditus and if you really love me let me give you another conduit to manifest your love to me do what i've just commanded you to this end that in the day of christ i may have just grounds to boast that my love for you that my love for you that my love for you that my love for you that my love for you that my labors on your behalf running the race for your benefit has not been for nothing it has not been in vain he actually wants the philippians when they bring to mind the directives of verses 12 to 16a to think among other things not only do we want to please our lord jesus not only do we want to manifest our love by a life of obedience to our savior but we want to store up for our beloved apostle just ground in the day when we appear before the savior and so i want to address you the people of god who have pastors who have been christ's special gift to you never forget it it is according to ephesians 4

10:29 the present activity of the living christ the present activity of the living christ that gives shepherds according to his heart to his church when he ascended on high he gave gifts unto men and he gave some pastors and teachers fulfilling that promise of jeremiah 3 15 i will give them shepherds according to my heart who shall feed them with knowledge and with understanding and so assuming that you love your pastors you will be given and you want to express your love in tangible ways i want to preach to you from this passage how as a christian so as to give your pastors just grounds to boast in the day of christ that their labors on your behalf were not in vain of their god-opted task was not in vain and so we come to this passage and as we attempt to think our way through the passage i want to do so with you under three very non-puritan simple headings work out aim high hold and hold forth very simple work out

First Command: Work Out Your Own Salvation

11:55 and hold out first of all then verses 12 and 13 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 at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure now let's take just a moment to unpack briefly how paul transitions into this first new duty laid upon them to work out their own salvation salvation in verses two to four in this chapter he calls them to a life of spiritual unity humility and mutual deference in their dealings one with another not looking each one of us to his own things but to the things of others he then sets forth christ as manifesting the disposition of both mind and heart that must be present in the spirit of God if a group of God's people are to continually cultivate spiritual unity humility

13:23 and mutual deference in their dealings with one another and so he sets forth the Lord Jesus as the one who embodies and fully manifests that other mindedness and as the servant of Jehovah in pursuing the good of his people he was obedient obedient even to the death of the cross so then verse twelve having him as that example of one who was so that he voluntarily submitted himself to the will of his father in a life of meticulous obedience I do always the things that please my father that obedience carries him to death even in the life of his life even in the life of his life even in the life of his life even the death of the cross so he says in the light of that example of your savior as you always obeyed he assumes that these people described in chapter one in verse six as people in whom God has begun a good work the evidence that a real work of God has begun in them that their lives have been patterned by consistent

14:48 obedience to the will of God he says that of all of those who are in Christ at Philippi in whom God has begun a good work as you have always obeyed he doesn't say as you are under obligation to obey and as you ought to have obeyed he says you're the real deal as you have always obeyed they were simply manifesting the rudimentary elements of being incorporated into the will of God into the new covenant according to Ezekiel 36 and Jeremiah 31 and Jeremiah 32 all under the benefits of the new covenant not only have all their sins and iniquities removed from them but God removed something else he says I will take out the heart of stone I will give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to keep my statutes and to obey my judgments and so if a good work has begun in us the fundamental evidence is we have been brought into a pattern of conscious deliberate obedience to the God who has in Christ graciously redeemed us and so he says as this has been the pattern of your life

16:16 in my presence I've seen it with my own eyes I've experienced it as I observed your lives now much more in my absence making it evident to everyone that your obedience was not just to gain my approval to elicit a smile upon my face but that your attachment was truly an attachment to Jesus Christ himself in faith and obedience much more in my absence and now we come to three things in the text first of all then the fundamental command work out your own now obviously not here radically overturning everything that scripture teaches from Genesis to Revelation that our acceptance with God our salvation in terms of the ground on which a holy God forgives us and accepts us as his sons and daughters declares us righteous and as his sons and daughters has nothing to do with our performance it is in Christ alone embraced by faith alone set forth to us in the gospel by grace alone rather what the apostle is saying having already told them

17:43 in chapter 1 in verse 6 he that has begun a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ he has brought you into the orbit of his gracious salvation he will consummate that work in the day of Christ but he has not suspended his working he is the God who is going to tell them is continuing to work but in his working he engages your working work out your own salvation with fear and with trembling in other words you have a responsibility to make continuous conscious effort to see God's saving work in you percolate outward and penetrate into every single facet of your life and by this present imperative this is to be part of the mindset of a true responsible to work out towards completion this salvation into which I have been brought by the sovereign free grace and mercy of God he reminded them at the end of chapter 1 that even their faith was the gift of God

19:10 to it has been given not only to believe on his name but to suffer in his behalf so these Philippians are well grounded in the fact that their acceptance rests on the doing and the dying of another it was embraced by faith and faith alone but having been brought in the orbit of that salvation that they are now commanded to work out completion that salvation that's the fundamental command work out your own salvation but then secondly Paul emphasizes what I am calling the attendant disposition in what manner are they to work out this salvation and the attendant manner is so vital in the apostles thinking that in the structure of the original he emphasizes that first if we were to give a literal rendering of the Greek text it would be with fear and trepidation continually work it out that's the way Paul wrote and when they would hear one of their leaders reading the epistle they would hear these words first of all so then might

Attendant Disposition: Fear and Trembling

20:37 even as you've obeyed not as in my presence only but now much more in my app with fear and they would know whatever followed was serious business there was no room easy going a shuffling perspective about the Christian life the attendant disposition was to be that of fear and trembling and this is a favorite Pauline phrase it's found with little alterations at least four times in his writings and perhaps one of the most helpful parallel passages to give us the sense of what this fear and trembling is is the parallel usage in Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 4 here Paul says in Ephesians 6 4 servants slaves be obedient to them that according to the flesh are your masters when they are with fear and trembling in singles of your heart as Christ not in the way of our services men pleasers but as slaves of Christ doing the will of God from the

22:05 with good will doing service and to the Lord and not unto man knowing that whatsoever good things each one does the same shall he receive again from the Lord whether he be bond or free you see the emphasis on the Christ centeredness of the obedience to which he calls these slaves look beyond master you're a servant of Christ you're doing the will of God good will doing service as to the Lord when the Lord comes you'll receive the reward in other words we are to comply with this central this fundamental command work outvation with such a sense of the Lord's grace and the Lord's grace and the Lord's grace of the seriousness of the task of being an instant Christian before the eye of our blessed Savior we are to give ourselves to this task with something far bigger the occasional thought throughout the day in this action or that particular action what would the Lord have me to do? no, this is to be the dominating focus of our lives it is the feeling and the trembling of recognizing that we stand before

23:34 an awesome holy majestic God who is our but it doesn't change the nature of who our God is that's why Peter could say pass the sign if you call on him as father who without respective persons judges each man pass the time of your sojourning in fear knowing that you were redeemed so this is not the fear of the guilty criminal whose conscience accuses him for his crime wondering every time he goes out of his house will I be discovered? will I be apprehended? he looks around every corner he's constantly looking behind him left and right constantly under the dread of his impending apprehension not that fear but it's people conscious I've been redeemed but redeemed at such an awful price because God is so holy and God is so just that he would not compromise his character even to save people from hell past any shadow upon his stainless character he must conceive a way of salvation

25:01 that will protect the integrity of his holiness of his justice of his pure character and wonder of wonders he has done that in the Lord Jesus and rather than create the attitude I'm saved by the doing and dying I'm secure he's become a good work in me he'll perfect it at the day of Christ and now my great job in life is to find out what are the margins of all liberty and lids of the unbelief my sloppy life under the guise of Christian liberty it's a curse upon many of our churches it doesn't fit with this text work out your own salvation with fear and with trembling with a sense on the one hand of the majesty of God the awesome price for our redemption and on the other hand and it's probably this nuance that Paul has when he uses the phrase in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 we know we've discovered painfully discovered that when Jesus said without me you can do

26:29 nothing knowing without me you can do nothing and we've discovered our native impotence and before a command like this work out your own salvation we say oh God I'm not up to the task who is sufficient for these things and it's that fear and trembling that is born of a sense of our own impotence and weakness we know that in our flesh dwells no good thing without him we can do nothing surely that must be something of what's in those words and I brethren was with you in weakness in fear and in much trembling I know the blindness of the Jew and of the Gentile I know that my preaching will be foolishness to the one and a stumbling block to the other how in God's name can I stand and preach and hope for anything but scorn and laughter and opposition I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling knowing if God didn't bear his almighty arm and work in your hearts nothing would be done except my message would rebound on me in the way of persecution

Encouragement: God Works In You

27:59 and opposition brethren that must be the attendant attitude as we give ourselves to work out our salvation fear and trembling but then thirdly thirdly we not only have the fundamental duty work out your salvation the attendant disposition fear and trembling but look at the wonderful encouragement it begins with the little gar some of you sitting here had a Greek teacher who was famous for saying let gar be gar don't drop out the connectives like the NIV does again and again in order to make short sentences if the Holy Ghost has put logical connectives translators need to be true to the mind of the spirit and so Paul has a little gar he said now I've laid heavy stuff on you work out your own salvation work it out to completion do it with all seriousness and engagement of mind and heart and I'm calling you to do this for it's not a call upon your ability notice what he says for God for God is

29:27 what a wonderful encouragement the apostle sets before us he says in essence to the Philippians you need not be dispirited before the magnitude of the duty and the reason is this my dear friends the God who calls you to is the very one who is at work in you and this is an amazing statement both to work for his good pleasure in other words as I call you to this lifestyle of working out your salvation doing it with the utmost seriousness and engagement of all of your redeeming you may set yourself to a life of obedience in the confidence that the very God who calls you to that life is at work in you giving you what that kind of life means and not only does he give you the will when the will is set to do so he gives the power to perform he works in you both to will for his good pleasure well is it his working or my working it is his working manifested and expressed in my working

30:56 the fruit of his working is my working and the root of my working is his working you say that's double talk no that's bible he works in you both to will for his good pleasure for his good pleasure as Sinclair Ferguson has so beautifully expressed it in his lovely little commentary in the let's study series from the banner I quote him now in the past he began the good work of salvation in the Philippians in the future he'll bring it to completion that's 1.6 he who has begun a good work in you will perfect it at the day of Christ and then he says to you he said this this God who began the good work in the future will bring it to completion in the present he is pursuing it with vigor a vigor that is continually at work in all of the people of God in whom he began the good work in whom he will complete the good work he is working in them now both to will and then he adds those marvelous words for his good pleasure that phrase and similar phrases like it always point us to God's free

32:22 sovereign loving purpose we are saved Ephesians 1.5 according to the good pleasure of his will and Paul says the reason I can call you to such a lifestyle and I can declare to you that God is at work in you to will and to work to the end that you may live this kind of life is that God in free sovereign grace has set his love upon you determined to save you he's begun the good work in you he has carried that work forward that's my first heading which is work out now let me ask you church members you want to give your pastors grounds for boasting in the day of Christ don't go on living a half-hearted half-Christian life more concerned about some new expression of your liberty than some new progress in holiness and obedience and usefulness asking what's wrong with it and begin to ask what's good in it that will help me to work out my salvation to completion because if your pastors are biblically oriented in their desires this is what they run for

33:50 this is what they labor for and if you're not if they see it in you in the day of Christ they can say Lord Jesus look at my people they should be Lord Jesus for your glory in my people are you there's grounds to do that in the day of Christ don't tell if you're causing them to face that day your hands and say in the case of that one or this one I ran my gospel course for nothing I spent my strength for nothing that's the emphasis of the passage he says give me give me just grounds to boast the glory in the day of Christ but then we come to my second head work out secondly aim look at the text we read Paul writing

Second Aim: Aim High (Avoiding Murmurings)

35:16 do all things without murmurings without murmurings and questionings 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 aim high as I try to unpack these two verses consider with me several things number one first of all the apostle sets before us what we might call the scope of our aim in working out our salvation he begins the verse verse 14 not with the verb but with the words all again if we read the text in the way it comes in the original again their ears would be hit as it was read to them with these words after saying God is doing this for his good pleasure all the words and immediately every thoughtful Philippian would say whatever's following it's to touch every single thing my my compliance with this directive is to be comprehensive it is to be meticulous

36:44 it is to be scrupulous it is to be serious it is to be contentious continuous it is to mark my life all that's the scope of this goal what then are two specific sins he identifies that need to be avoided all things specifically now are to be done without murmurings and questionings I think it's quite safe to say murmurings Paul would use that particular word and with his familiarity with the Septuagint that Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures and that that's the word that's used of the children of Israel in the wilderness wandering Paul uses it in 1 Corinthians 10 when he says neither murmur ye as some of them murmured they murmured and what was the focus of their murmuring and their grousing well basically two things they were constantly murmuring against God's providence to them in terms of things no water no meat murmuring in terms of the leadership God gave them too much Moses and Aaron those were the two focal points

38:12 of their murmuring God's providence in terms of things and God's will in terms of leadership and he says do all things without murmurings that mumbling and grousing with respect to God's providence as it is manifest in the things he gives us the things he withholds from us and the leaders that he sets over us and then questionings most likely refers to an internal sin of bringing God's providential dealings with us to the bar of our human judgment and interpretations we're tempted to ask why this why that how this how that how that Lightfoot suggests that it's intellectual rebellion against God it has to do with an inner disposition perhaps the murmuring since the record of it in scripture is always something that is manifested in words and perceived attitudes that this other sin is more an internal sin of the heart but whatever it may be he says everything is to be done and never to be tinned with murmurings and questionings

39:35 then thirdly as the apostle has set before us this aiming high we have what I call the standard we pursue and what is it the text says that you may become blameless and harmless children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverted world verse generation he says to these ordinary believers you must aim high in this call that in all things you do without murmurings and questionings it is to this end that you may what you are you are sons of God you are children of God now reflect the likeness of your heavenly father the father who says you shall be holy as I am holy you talk about aiming high how much higher can you than the impeccable holiness of God as your standard be ye perfect as your heavenly father is perfect and the apostle sets before

The Standard: Blameless, Harmless, Without Blemish

41:03 these people that high that they may be in the total lifestyle manifest in Christ increasing likeness to their heavenly father and what will that mean in specific moral and ethical lifestyle he gives three words all of them are words that have the alpha privative they begin with the A with the alpha not this not this not this notice the first thing he says that you may become what kind of children of God blameless and harmless without blemish that you may be blameless that you may have no legitimate blame for observable moral and ethical inconsistencies blamelessness is not an unattainable standard of personal practical godliness did you hear me my bible says using exactly the same Greek word concerning that man living under the limited provisions of the old covenant that man and his wife were walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord here's our word blameless blameless

42:31 you could not go to Zacharias and Elizabeth and find anything in the requirements of the civil or moral of Moses concerning which you could put your finger under their nose and say you're to blame you're not walking according to this you're not walking according to that you're not walking did they keep the full spiritual extent of the demands of the moral of course not that's why their sacrifices were not empty forms for the true Israel within Israel they looked beyond the animal to provision of a redeemer but in terms of observable conduct were in this very epistle what does Paul say of himself as touching the law what here's our word again blameless blameless blameless and begin to cry out your salvation with fear and trembling with this and then to show you're serious you start with your wife and you say dear wife when you read

44:00 what God says I'm to be as a husband where can you legitimately blame me that I'm being bullheaded and insensitive and unconcerned to press after that standard quick to own my sin when I fail when you or the kids point out my failure you know I'm not given to rationalizing and justifying I own my sin my dear one a son of God blameless as a husband blameless as a father not sinless but blameless Paul is not holding out an unrealistic unattainable sin blameless then he says harmless better rendering is pure it's the word you would use if you were to speak of wine that had not been diluted with water it was this it was pure wine if you were to speak of gold that had no other metal mixed in with it it was pure gold this is the word you would use most likely it's in the family of those other biblical words blessed are the pure in heart singleness of heart not halting

45:28 between two opinions in one sense I don't want the world that has nothing to offer but neither do I want the scorn of the world by being so radically different that I'm mocked you mean I've got to be prepared for someone to come up to me and say you mean you don't have your place on Facebook and look them in the eye and say bless God I have friends with depth of relationship that you know nothing about I have a savior who's told me as his child I'm to redeem the time I'm to buy up opportunity not with drivel that other people are putting to their Facebook place I scratch my ear at 317 big deal goes at 4-0 seriously dear people this electronic technology is swallowing up radical serious fear trembling working out of salvation among God's people and it's time some of us relax and say

46:57 to these things I'm Christ free man I'm Christ free man some of you men have become addicted to your blogs wasting your time hundreds and thousands of pages of books that have proven their worth over centuries lie unread on your shelf and you're reading the drivel of men who are pouring out half-baked thoughts at the end of their fingers and pushing the send button in God's name get serious about working out your salvation with fear and trembling pursuing the standard of blameless and single-mindedness and then he says not only blameless harmless then he goes on to say I'm trying to remember how this translation gives it my old ASV that you are to do this without blemish without blemish you're not content to look in the mirror spiritually and say well I don't have a rash of 50 zits oh yeah I've got 15 one of them on the end of my nose quite prominent or say you know I don't have 25 moles what are 6 or 7

48:25 this says without blemish and here Paul is thinking probably in his devotions that morning he may have read from Numbers chapter 32 I ask you to turn there with me Numbers chapter 32 I'm sorry Deuteronomy did I say Numbers Deuteronomy

48:56 Moses song notice what he says they have dealt corruptly with him they are not his children it is their blemish and the Septuagint uses our word from that we have in Philippians 2 the word found in Ephesians 1 Ephesians 5 he says without blemish we're not content that we don't have a face full of moral and ethical zits we want clear skin as the people of God we don't want a rash of moles we want the Lord Jesus by his blood and by the power of the Spirit to cause us to be a people who are aiming high we desire to be sons of God children of God without spot pure intention single-minded in our devotion to the Lord Jesus without blemish well now notice in the fourth place the context in which we pursue this standard what is the context look at the text all of this in the midst of and the language is very precise Paul is a realist he's been to

The Context: Crooked and Perverse Generation

50:25 Philippi that Roman colony he knows the moral degeneracy he knows the climate he says and you are to carry this out in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation language taken from the Deuteronomy 32 5 passage and in that context Israel God says she's not my child not my son she has become perverse part of a perverse and crooked generation and for Israel what was it it was abandoning the true and living God and worshipping false gods making their own gods and he says in essence you Philippians were once part of a generation crooked and perverse but God has begun a good work in you taking you out of that generation now are to be blameless and harmless children of God without blemish in the of that crooked and perverse generation he knows we are not unaffected by the environment in which we live and in which we are called upon to live out our Christian lives to work out our salvation with fear and trembling there's a gutsy realism in this directive Paul is not sitting as it were somewhere in an ivory tower

51:55 spinning out a theology of the Christian life unrelated to reality you are in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation but he says here's the influence this is the fifth observation from these two verses here's a picture of the influence in vision from such lives among whom you are seen as lights or luminaries in the world holding forth or holding fast the word of life you shine or you are seen there's a syntactical or an exegetical philological debate how should we translate it but the overall emphasis is clear that crooked and perverse generation is in darkness by contrast you are luminaries either giving forth light or reflecting light Jesus said you are the light of the world the world is in darkness we win the world not by being light but by being so unlike it that we shed light upon what man was made to be in the image of God reflecting the character of our heavenly father as revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ and this is the influence we will have this is not an imperative you ought to shine he said you will shine you are seen as luminaries in the midst

Third Action: Hold Fast and Hold Forth the Word of Life

53:24 of this darkness brethren we need to aim high that our lives when we are not speaking a word will indeed be issuing forth that light of a life I'll describe by the apostle in this passage well let me hasten as I look at the clock briefly hold fast and hold out he says by the use of a participle a present participle all of this while you are holding forth or holding the commentators the linguists the lexicons are about evenly divided and you are shall that verb be translated in its participial form as holding fast to the word of life or holding the word of life some of the commentators point out that it was the verb used for someone holding out a cup of wine to someone else and they would insist it's holding out others say no the context and its overwhelming use in other settings it should be holding fast well whether it's holding fast or holding forth the commodity is the same it has to do with the word of life the word of the living God that announces life

54:54 that conveys life Peter says you've been begotten again by the word of God that lives and abides forever it's by that word we are sanctified sanctify them in the truth thy word is truth it could be that what the apostle is saying is you Philippians if you take seriously my command to you manifesting a spirit of obedience in my absence that you abundantly manifested in my presence and you are setting yourself in the strength of God to work out salvation with utmost seriousness and intensity given who God is the glory of your redemption is the realities of being a Christian in a wicked world this is the effect your commitment to that kind of a life will have and the only way to maintain it to cultivate it and develop it is to hold to the word of life what we heard last night it's embracing the word of the men with beautiful feet loving preaching yearning for preaching that searches that blesses that thrills and fills you with wonderment and awe and grief and pain and the full range of holy emotions

56:23 holding to this word which alone can give life or it may mean you shine as luminous in this crooked and perverse generation and there goes forth from you the light that comes from a life committed to do everything without murmuring questioning seeking to aim high aimless harmless without blemish people can look at your life for a millennium and still be lost to hear the message of life and this could be one of those few passages in the New Testament that gives a very clear directive to the rank and file of God's people to seek to communicate the word of life verbally and I'm personally persuaded that there are those words in our Bible where God says we're God who has so governed the minds of the biblical writers that they speak in words which the Holy Spirit teaches 1 Corinthians 2.12 that there is an intentional ambiguity because both are true and sometimes we need more of the privilege of holding and in others here is an opportunity to hold forth

Application: Giving Pastors Grounds for Boasting

57:52 what good is the life I've lived before this neighbor if I don't have the privilege of exegete the reason for that life hold forth the word of life which has imparted that life to me holding fast holding forth and then Paul concludes by saying and I end where I began an hour ago that I did not run in vain neither labor in vain three closing words of application dear people of God many of you who were my sheep along with my fellow elders for many years and in so many ways I have such a treasure chest of memories of your love verbally expressed without embarrassment but more than verbally expressed manifested in ways too numerous to mention so that I feel I'm a wealthy old man do you love your present pastors show your love by telling me by taking this passage to heart tell God you're going to be done with wasting hours every week

59:20 texting conveying mere verbal drivel in prostituted English life is too serious too many magnificent glories in Christ to be explored if you take that time and begin to dig into your Bible to true the word of God so that you can know that as Paul said to the Colossians the word of Christ dwells in you be done with banality and shallowness and the things that eat away at the very tap roots of any vibrant vigorous Christian experience don't cause your pastors in the day of Christ to say I ran my God-given course in vain with respect to that one and that one I labored unto pain I labored arduously that's the verb that I did not labor that wasn't just ordinary work labor unto pain and suffering I did it for nothing I longed to see Christ formed in my people I longed to see them working out to completion their graciously given salvation with fear and trembling

60:49 aiming high to be the children of God without redemption without the power without the power without the power shining as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation and yet by their sloppy lives they blended in there was no light coming forth from them or precious little dear people if you love your pastors take this passage seriously and begin to live out its light and for you my brothers you see as long as you're committed as we were reminded last night by Pastor Donnelly again by Pastor Chansky this morning that my ministry is not determined by how my people respond to it or what they want it's determined by the word of God I'll always run the risk of being a failure and Paul had no backup scheme to make sure he hadn't run and labored in vain his ministry was entrusted to him by God he was assigned as a steward and he said I'm running the course that God marks out I'm laboring along the path that God has cut and I'm either a success or a failure in that course and in that but I have no other course I have no other path

62:16 and so you find that motif in Paul's letters he said I fear lest I've bestowed labor upon you in vain I've travailed that Christ would be formed in you I fear lest I fear that I've labored in vain but that didn't cause him to change what he was working for because God had marked it out for him the Colossians 1 passage he says I strive according to his working which works in me mightily to what end that I may present every man mature in Christ present all those who sit under my ministry to whom I minister I want to see them serious about my ministry without working out their salvation with fear and with trembling doing all things without murmuring and disputing blameless harmless children of God without blemish shining as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation and to you who sit here tonight you are not in Christ you know it you may be in church but you're not in Christ you're not vitally joined to the Lord Jesus where are you? you're part of a crooked and perverse generation you may not be expressing the most gross forms of that reality

Application to Unbelievers and Call to Repentance

63:44 but you're either one who has been brought into union with Christ in whom God's begun a good work or you're part of a crooked and perverse generation do you really want to live in that generation? die in it and be cast off with it God grant that what you've heard tonight would make you jealous say by God's grace I want to be one of those who is not just sucked in and drifts along with the crowd and it's indifference to God and his word and truth and may God enable you to do what the prophet Isaiah said you should do seek the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he's near let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord for we will have mercy upon him and to our abundantly pardon as we heard last night everything almighty God can do to be able to receive guilty, vile, deserving sinners into favor with himself without disrespect of his character done it in Christ

65:12 my son take my son take my son it's all in him and not only does God not stain his character in the way he has worked he has magnified every one of his attributes to their seat has provided salvation nowhere does God's love and justice and holiness and goodness and mercy shine more brightly than from the cross of his son and from Joseph's empty tomb God grant that you'll run to Christ and find him to be everything he said he is to sinners who come to him let's pray together our Father how we thank you for your word thank you for these words of the apostle and oh how we pray Holy Spirit write them upon our hearts and we pray and may we by your grace mark this night as the night when we made serious resolutions in your presence and as you work in us both to will and to work so work Lord that our lives will be different we look to you for your blessing

Concluding Prayer

66:41 upon your people and for your mercy to be shown to sinners who are not yet your own hear our prayer dismiss us with your blessing we ask in Jesus name Amen