In his sermon 'Lights in the World,' Jason Dohm explores Philippians 2:12-18, emphasizing the need for Christians to work out their salvation with fear and trembling, as God works within them for His good pleasure. He highlights the importance of conducting oneself without complaining or disputing, thereby becoming blameless and shining as lights in a dark world. Dohm suggests that Christian conduct should reflect the Gospel and advance it, as it is not merely a word-only message but one that promises transformation. He underscores the call for Christians to be distinct from a 'crooked and perverse generation' by imitating God's holiness. The sermon also touches on the joy found in mutual sacrifice and service, as exemplified by Paul's relationship with the Philippians. Dohm encourages believers to hold fast to the word of life consistently, ensuring their lives adorn rather than detract from the Gospel.

Sermon text for today is Philippians chapter 2 verses 14 through 18, but we're gonna start in 12. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence alone, 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 do for His good pleasure. Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless children of God, without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain. Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.

For the same reason, you also be glad and rejoice with me." Let's pray. Oh God, as Jason brings this text to us, I pray God that you would Fill him with your Holy Spirit right now. Lord God, that the words that he speaks would come directly from you and from your word. Oh God, please strengthen him so that he might preach the Word of God with your full authority behind Him. Lord God, I thank You that You've given us this text.

I pray that we would be a people that hears and does, that we would apply it to our lives. Lord God, may we not be like the man who looks in the mirror and walks away and forgets what he looks like. Please help us now as we hear your sermon preached. In Jesus' name, Amen. The title of the sermon this morning is, Lights in the World.

This comes right out of the text, and I think it's the heart of the text that the people of God in following Jesus Christ who is the light of the world, would become lights in the dark world themselves. So I think this is really what the whole text is about. The section that we're concluding with our text this morning began in chapter 1 verse 27 where Paul begins to develop the thought of conduct that is worthy of the gospel of Christ. In other words, There's a pattern of life that matches the Gospel. There's a pattern of life conduct that is worthy of the glory of the good news as it is in Jesus.

And so Paul's been developing that since that time. We will conclude this section with our text this morning. Last week, Paul commended the Philippians for their obedience. He had witnessed it himself first hand. He said, you obeyed when I am present.

But then He says, much more in my absence. Over the last decade since Paul brought the Gospel to Philippi, he's been gone more than he's been there. And The reports about them are such that he's convinced that their obedience has only grown in his absence, which is a glorious thing all by itself. But even so, he has exhorted them to work out their salvation in fear and trembling. In other words, keep making progress.

Don't take your foot off the gas, so to speak, but press forward all the more to make progress to become more and more and more and more conformed into the image of Christ. And then he says, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. In other words, if you find an inclination towards doing something that pleases God, you know where that came from. God did that. If you have the inclination to do something that pleases God, it came from God.

And if you find yourself with the power to do something that pleases God, the power to do it, to carry it through, came from God. So yes, we are told to press forward and to strive to make progress. But when you do make progress, know that it depended on, and it does depend on the faithful God who begins a work and then brings it to completion. That's what he said in chapter 1 verse 6. He who started a work will bring it to completion on the day of Jesus Christ.

In other words, all the way to the end. This week we have an additional fleshing out of conduct that is worthy of the Gospel. In other words, we have a concept that there is a pattern of life that is worthy of the good news of Jesus. Now what does that look like? So Paul is going to just continue to speak about this and help us to understand what it does and what it does not look like.

And he's going to take us right to the point which is that this kind of conduct makes us bright lights that shine into a dark world. That's the heartbeat of the text. Conduct a pattern of life that is worthy of the Gospel makes us a bright light shining into a dark world so that Christ would be exalted. So as we go to the text, let's go to the text in prayer. Our God, how we long to shine for you.

How we see the patterns of our lives and in many ways, many times we're grieved seeing that we don't obey you as we should. But we know that it is possible to make progress, to be conformed more and more into the precious image of your Son. And as it happens, the world who was watching looks and marvels, and our Father is glorified. This is what we desire. Make us lights that shine brightly, O God, in Jesus' name.

Amen. I'm going to divide the text into two today and the first section will be verses 14 through verses 16 and a half, or the halfway point of 16. So hopefully your finger is already in Philippians chapter 2. Follow along as I read 14 part way through 16. Paul writes, Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation Among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life." We'll end there for now.

In this section we have our conduct and its testimony. So if you're taking notes on the handout and you're filling in blanks, it's conduct, testimony. Our conduct and it's testimony. In other words, our conduct is making a declaration of some things. So that's the question for us today.

What is our conduct? What is our pattern of life declaring to the world? And we're told what it ought to be in our text. I believe there are four main considerations in this part of our text. Here they are.

Number one, how we are to do the things we've been given to do. This is the first of four things that are in this part of the text. How we are to do, how we are to go about the things that we've been given to do. Without complaining and without disputing. In other words, there is what we do and it's important it matters but there's also how we do it.

How we go about these things that we're given to do and that is also very important and Maybe you could argue that it's even more important. Parents, don't you know that how your children go about the instructions that you give them is as relevant to you, is as important to you, as they're actually doing it? I'm already getting amens on the parenting front. That's going to be a good sermon then. Here's an example.

Son, would you take out the trash? Or daughter, would you take out the trash? And their body starts to do it. And so there is physical action that is consistent with the instruction that is given, but it is accompanied by huffing and puffing. Does this ever happen in your home?

This occasionally happens in our home where the body is doing the right thing, but the body is accompanied by noises. Size. Shhh. You know, like you have asked them to take the trash the length of the continent. Like the trash can is right around the corner.

I haven't asked you to take the trash the length of the continent. Okay, but you don't know, like the trash can's like right around the corner. Like I haven't asked you to take the trash the length of the continent. It's just like you go out the front door and you take a left and then like in 20 steps you're at the trash can. What is the huffing and puffing about?

And when you're a parent, even if the body is obeying, If there's huffing and puffing and groaning, then you don't really feel like you've been obeyed. What Paul is telling us is that it's the same with God. It's the same with God as it is with us. If our bodies spring into action, but there's a lot of huffing and puffing and groaning about it, then it's not really counted in the same way. It might not be obeying at all.

So let's look at these two individually, without complaining and without disputing. Let's look at them individually and we'll keep using our example of taking out the trash as we go. So do all things without complaining. The King James renders this murmurings. Without murmurings The NASB and the ESB and the NIV render it grumbling, without grumbling.

Here's what you find in the Greek lexicon. A secret displeasure not openly avowed. So that's the Greek lexicon, a secret displeasure. I am displeased, but I keep my displeasure secret, not openly avowed. In other words, I won't come out and say it so I I think I think in for me the King James sort of wins the translation war on this one murmurings really gets at the heart of what the Greek word is trying to communicate.

It's an under the breath... Can you take out the trash? It's a displeasure, but it's a secret displeasure, and it is not openly avowed. It is a murmuring or a grumbling. It is a complaining, but a complaining under the breath.

Turn to 1 Corinthians 10. 1 Corinthians 10. 1 Corinthians 10 is an interesting text because Paul in 1 Corinthians 10 is giving a history lesson, a history of Israel lesson, and he's recounting many of the things that have happened throughout the centuries in the life of this nation the children of Abraham and And he says we have this history on purpose meaning God had something very specific in mind when he gave us this history Listen to this it's first Corinthians chapter 10 I'm going to read verse 6 and then I'm going to skip down to 10 and 11. 1st Corinthians 10, verse 6. Paul says, Now these things, this history, became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.

In other words you can look at the life of history and you can see the bad things in that history and it was intended, it was given to us by God to be an example so we wouldn't make the same mistakes that the children of Israel made. Skipping down to verse 10. This is, I'm picking up right in the middle of the list of things that we're to stay away from and learn not to make the same mistakes. Verse 10. Nor complain as some of them also complained and were destroyed by the destroyer.

Now all these things happened to them as examples and they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come. So Paul realizing that many things about the history of God's people haven't been put down in writing. In other words, we only have access to a very small part of the history, but God had something very intentional in mind when he gave us that history, and It's that we could learn from the good things that he accomplished among them, and also learn from their sins and errors and mistakes and unbelief. And one of those things is complaining. Now, think about your Old Testament history.

How often were the Lord's people murmuring? They had secret displeasure, and they had been asked to take out the trash, so to speak. Sometimes their bodies were in motion, but they were mumbling under their breath, and complaining against God, sometimes very openly. How many times in the Old Testament does the anger of God break out against his people because of that? Many, many, many times.

We could stack up the examples of when God became so angry that his patience was exhausted and he disciplined his people and judged his people and brought death among his people. Here in verse 10, it says, Nor complain as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer. This is how it often ended. They're complaining what it led to in the Old Testament accounts over and over again. Pop quiz.

If God is sovereign, if God is reigning over all things, if nothing comes into your life except through the hands of a sovereign God, when you complain, who are you actually complaining against? There is no complaining against circumstances. You thought you were complaining against circumstances, but God thought you were complaining against him because he rules the universe and he brought that circumstance into your life and it's because he's wiser than you and he knows how to disciple you and he's doing the right thing but you won't allow for it. This is the nature of our complaining. If the Bible is true, God is sovereign.

If God is sovereign and you complain, you are complaining against Him. Not against some nameless, faceless circumstance. We would like for it to be that. Then we'd just be free to complain. When we complain against a certain God, we're really complaining, God you have no idea what you're doing.

Now isn't that jarring? To hear this translated into that, to hear our complaining about difficult circumstances in our life be translated into, I'm really saying, God you have no idea what you're doing. We won't openly lay claim to that being what we are saying, but that is what we are saying. This is God's verdict on the matter. So we are to do all things without complaining.

Now let's look at the second thing. Do all things without disputing. Here's a great example of this from Luke 9 verse 46. Listen to Luke 9 verse 46. Then a dispute, it's a variant of the exact same Greek word, then a dispute arose among them as to which of them would be the greatest.

I'll be the greatest. No, I'll be the greatest. No, I'll be the greatest. This is just the kind of disputing that is being spoken of by Paul here in our text in Philippians 2. There's not to be this spirit of disputing in the things that we do.

Disputing comes from self-concern, self-focus, self-exaltation. It's in Luke 9 verse 40, self-exaltation happens to be the one on the table. But it's selfishness. It is self-focus. So when I'm asked to take out the trash and I'm disputing, it's her turn to take out the trash.

I always have to take out the trash, right? This is disputing. Or like Luke 9, when I initiate the conversation about who does the most work in the house and my conclusion is me. Because I'm always taking out the trash. And I use my service as a platform for self-exaltation.

That's what it is in Luke 9, right? Using service as a platform to say, I'll be the greatest. This is just a different form of selfishness and self-focus. It's introducing contention into our service, introducing contention into our obedience. So we really have the inward and outward versions of giving voice to our discontent, either murmuring inwardly, right, you won't openly avow your displeasure but you're you grumble it under your breath, or the disputing outwardly.

And again this is just looking to self and honoring self. We should be looking to God and honoring God. You have to pick. You can't have it both ways. Now what is really at stake here?

The heart. That's what do all things without complaining and disputing is about. It is about the heart, the condition of the heart. Yes, what is important? The things that we have been given to do our bodies should get in motion And we should be about those things amen and there's no substitute for actual motion Amen, and yet how we go about these things is of equal or maybe even greater importance because true obedience starts in the heart.

In the same way that as parents we might not feel like we have been obeyed when the trash goes out but there's been huffing and puffing all the way around the corner, God knows that He doesn't have our heart when our bodies are in motion to do the things He's given us to do, but there's an unspoken discontent in it, or maybe even a spoken discontent in it. The how we go about the things we've been given to do often reveals what is really happening in the heart. And true obedience always includes the heart, begins in the heart, is governed by the heart. That's why it's so easy to counterfeit obedience. Meaning do things that look like obedience to God when they're not really obedient to God at all.

Because you can do the outward thing without having no heart in it. And that is not what the Bible defines obedience to be. So that was number one. How we are to do the things we are given to do. How we are to do the things we have been given to do without complaining, without Disputing.

Number two. The reason it matters. Children of God must become distinct from the world. Here's why it matters. The reason it matters.

Children of God must become distinct from the world. Different from the world. A peculiar people. Strange to the world. This is our calling.

Now what kind of world do we come out of? What waters are we still swimming in? Paul tells us. A crooked and perverse generation. That's what we came out of, but we're not in heaven yet, agreed?

Meaning, like, our neighbors to a large extent are still in that world. Our co-workers to a large extent are still in that world. Our co-workers to a large extent are still in that world. Living that way. Conducting themselves towards us and each other in that way.

And so yes, in a sense we have come out of that, out of the kingdom of darkness, into the kingdom of marvelous light, but in another sense we're still swimming in those waters, right? We were not in heaven yet. And so those influences, we're imbibing those influences all the time because we swim in those waters this side of heaven. Now, everyone here will acknowledge that's true. What was it for the Philippians?

In other words, in America, when we're still spending, it was in large part a godly heritage and still have the influences of godliness, even if the heart of it, much of it is gone. What was it like in Philippi? Where they were drowning in overt, on the surface paganism. Whatever it is for us, it's times many for them. So this is a needful warning for us, but more so, even more so in this letter to the Philippians.

We're not to be like that. We serve a holy God. When we talk about the holiness of God, what it means for him is that he is separate and different. The Bible says over and over and over again that there is none like him. When you go to find something to compare God to, you are at a loss.

You can say he is sort of like this is the best you can do. Because the things that we know are never completely like him. Because he is the perfect version of everything that we know that is good. He is holy, he is distinct, he is different, he is separate. And If we are to be His people, we are to become holy.

We are to be holy. It's better to say we are to become holy. Paul actually uses that in the text. Verse 15. That you may become.

Christians are becoming. They haven't arrived. We are to make progress. We need to make progress. There's so much progress left to be made.

We are becoming. That you may become. The world, the generation that the Philippians lived in and the generation that we live in is warped and twisted. The things that God's Word says are good, oftentimes the world and our generation says that's bad. And the things that God's Word says is bad, oftentimes the world and the generation that we live in, oftentimes it says no, that's good.

That's what warped and twisted means. It's like it's turned upside down. So that good becomes bad and bad becomes good and you're swimming in those waters. You can't help but to be affected by that. So Paul brings this exhortation.

You're in a crooked and perverse generation. But you have to be holy because God is holy. You have to be separate and distinct because God is the most separate and the most distinct. And we're to become like him. I think Paul captures this in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 1.

It's a very simple short verse. Listen to what Paul says in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 1. Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children. So immediately you see the connection to our text where the calling is for the Philippians as children of God to be distinct. So Paul is talking about the same thing in Ephesians 5 verse 1.

Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children. Children who have a good dad, love him, and long to become more like him. Isn't that true? Children with a good, grounded, dutiful, loving father look up to him and want to become more like him. So Paul is seizing on that and saying, God is your father, imitate him.

As dear children, as loved children, and those who love their father, become more and more like him. Imitate him. We are to become something. Blameless, harmless, children without fault. That's what we're said, that we should become this in our text in Philippians.

Blameless, harmless children without fault. Turn to 1 Peter chapter 2. Peter I think really unpacks this for us in 1 Peter chapter 2. I think it's a great companion text for what Paul is teaching us in Philippians too. 1 Peter chapter 2, I'll be reading verses 9 through 12.

Verse 9 starts with the word but, so he's drawing a contrast, and he's contrasting from the people of the world who stumble over Jesus Christ and can't get over that stumbling block. So he's speaking of the unregenerate, the members of this crooked and perverse generation. This is who he's just been speaking of and now he contrasts the people of God with it. Starting in 1 Peter 2 verse 9. Peter writes, But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people that you may proclaim the praises of Him, who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, who were once not a people, but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy." Verse 11, Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works which they observe glorify God in the day of visitation." So starting in verse 11, Peter is calling the Lord's people out of the crooked and perverse generation.

Come out of that fleshly, lustful living because you're pilgrims and sojourners. You don't belong here. Your citizenship is elsewhere. And then he says why? That when the Gentiles speak of you as evildoers, when they call good evil, they may, because of your good works, glorify God in the day of visitation.

So your life confounds their accusations, Because though they want really, really bad to call your good evil, they see you living out your life for the glory of God according to his word, and they have to glorify God in the day of visitation. They end up forced to admit that God is wise and good. Because of the way that you're living. This is why our conduct must be honorable among the Gentiles. So when they try to accuse us of evil, that they'll be forced to confess that God is good and wise in the end.

This is why. This brings us to the third point. So that was the second point in this part of the text. The reason it matters, children of God must become distinct from the world, leads us right into number three. The result, shining as lights.

This is where all this is to take us. This is where all this is to result, that we would shine as lights. Verse 15, the end of it, among whom you shine like lights in the world. Turn to Matthew 5. You knew we were going to Matthew 5.

And being the light of the world. Paul is teaching what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew chapter 5 verses 14 through 16, Jesus says, you are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket. But on a lamp stand it gives light to all who are in the house.

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." This is what God has in mind. This is why it matters that God gives his people progress. This is what God has in mind out of the progress is that we would shine in a dark world in a crooked and perverse generation. They wouldn't be left just to their crookedness and their perverseness without a witness, but our living to the honor of God becomes a witness to His goodness, to His wisdom, to His greatness, and to his ability to transform people through the gospel, that they may see and glorify your Father. This is the point.

The reason it is so important that we cultivate conduct worthy of the Gospel is that this advances the Gospel. I think that's actually the punchline of the whole sermon. If the sermon is a joke, this is the punchline. I hope you don't think the sermon is a joke. I'm not encouraging that.

Here's the punch line. The reason it is so important that we cultivate conduct worthy of the Gospel is that this advances the Gospel. This is essential to the Great Commission because the Gospel is not to be a word only Gospel. Yes, there are words. The Gospel is words, but it is not words only.

The Gospel makes promises that the forgiveness through Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit transforms you. That is the promise of the gospel. That if you forsake everything you've hoped in to hope only in Christ that His blood will cleanse you and His spirit will indwell you and you will be transformed. That is the promise that the gospel makes. And so anyone with a word only gospel that says all those words, good words, true words, should be words of life, but they have a life, they're cultivating a life that contradicts that, it impedes the Gospel.

So cultivating conduct worthy of the Gospel advances the Gospel. And having a life that is not worthy of the gospel, having patterns of life, conduct that is not worthy of the gospel, impedes, it becomes an obstacle to the gospel. The gospel is not a word only gospel. Because a promise is made by the God who gives the gospel that He'll transform His people. When His people don't live transformed lives or when fakers say they're his people, and they live like they always lived, they are like they always were, then this becomes an obstacle to the Gospel.

Listen to, I think I'll be done reading it by the time you can get there. It's Isaiah 42 verses 6 and 7. So you might note it because it's wonderful. Isaiah 42 verses 6 and 7. This is God speaking to his people about his people.

I the Lord have called you in righteousness and will hold your hand. I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people as a light to the Gentiles. To open blind eyes to bring out prisoners from the prison. Those who sit in darkness from the prison house. I just want you to, I'm going to read it again.

This is what God has in mind in transforming a people. So in these verses we have the promise that He will keep us, hold us, and transform us and then He says what He'll do with that transformation. Listen again, I the Lord have called you in righteousness and will hold your hand. I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles. In other words, God's people are given as a gift to the Gentiles as a light.

To open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison. Those who sit in darkness from the prison house. So God knows that the unregenerate are out there in darkness, he gives them a gift. It's called his people. He calls them in righteousness.

He upholds them. He transforms them and he gives them as a light to the Gentiles so that prisoners can be brought out of the prison to add to his people. I believe Jesus is drawing on Isaiah 42 in Matthew chapter 5. It's like he's just giving an exposition on Isaiah 42. And It's a wonderful exposition.

So that was number three, the results. Shining as lights, what God has in mind in giving us progress in the faith. Number four, a final consideration, persevering and continuing. A final consideration, persevering and continuing. A final consideration, persevering and continuing.

Holding fast the word of life. These things, this learning to do all things without complaining and disputing and shining as lights being blameless and harmless and without fault in a crooked and perverse generation. All these things must not be temporary and must not be seasonal. You bring out the Christmas stuff and then around January 1st it all goes back in the attic. Okay, like these things cannot be like that for us.

They cannot be temporary, meaning we can't abandon them after a while, and they must not be seasonal, meaning coming and going. Here, not here. Here, not here. Here, not here. Here, not here.

These things are meant to be persistent, meaning we just keep going with them. And they're meant to be consistent. Not ebbing and flowing so much as they often do. We are to hold fast to the Word of Life. Brothers and sisters, the words of the Gospel are words of life.

They are words of new life. It means that you're born again when you embrace this Gospel. You're born again, meaning that the old things have passed away, the new things have come. Is that what your life says? We started by saying, our conduct and its testimony.

So what declarations is the pattern of your life making? Is it making a declaration that the old things have gone and the new things are here and they're here to stay? It's what God intends for us. Brothers and sisters, hold fast, persist in it, cultivate a life of walking consistently in these things. Walking consistently in these things.

I'll close my remarks on this section with the question, with an obvious answer. Is not Jesus Christ our best example of a life lived without complaining or disputing and shining into the world, into a dark world. If you want to know what this looks like, go to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Listen to Isaiah 53 verse 7. Isaiah 53, of course, is the classic text in Isaiah about the suffering servant.

It might be the best text in the whole Bible about substitutionary atonement and the innocent dying so that the guilty could live. I think it's the best text in all the Bible about Jesus going to be a substitute for sinners. Here's Isaiah 53 verse 7. He was oppressed and he was afflicted Yet he opened not his mouth. No complaining, no disputing.

He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before it sheers in silence, is silent. So he opened not his mouth. No complaining, no disputing. If anyone had justification to complain and dispute because of treatment that they didn't deserve it was Jesus Jesus was being subjected to oppression and affliction simply because you deserve it. Sinner.

I deserve it as a sinner. To be oppressed and to be afflicted as my sins. So what right have I to complain and dispute? But Jesus was completely harmless and blameless and without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. He was actually that.

Not a word. Because he knew that his father was sovereign and was working out glory through these things. Jesus said, I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life." John 8 verse 12. Jesus says, I'm the light of the world, if you follow me, you're the light of the world.

We're supposed to follow him. That's what our text is about. Jesus is our example for all these things, for not complaining, for not disputing, for being blameless and harmless and without fault in the middle of a crooked and perverse generation. Jesus is the ultimate example of all that, and now we're to follow him. And as we follow him, we're lights in a dark world.

We're a gift to the Gentiles. Back to Philippians. And to the rest of the text. We're part way through 16 now, So try to follow along. So that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.

Yes, and if I am poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. For the same reason, you also be glad and rejoice with me." Here in this section we have Mutual sacrifice, mutual rejoicing. If you're filling in blanks on the handout. Sacrifice, rejoicing. Mutual sacrifice, mutual rejoicing.

Paul is rejoicing, and Paul is looking forward to more rejoicing, and Paul is calling for the Philippians to join him in rejoicing. That's what we have in these few verses. First he speaks of the day of Christ. The day of Christ is the day when Jesus comes back and he is entrusted with the judgment of the living and the dead by his Father. And so the flow of thought is this, if you hold fast to the words of life, if you hold them fast to the end, then my running will prove to not be in vain.

In fact, it will prove to be fruitful. My laboring will prove not to be in vain. In fact, it will prove to have been fruitful laboring, fruitful running, and I'll be happy about it. I'll rejoice. Meaning, there's a final exam that tells the story of the whole semester so to speak.

And if you hold fast to the end then you prove that the Spirit of the Living God really lives in you preserving you, upholding you. And it'll prove that all that running and laboring on Paul's part for more than a decade now, right? Remember he brought the Gospel to Philippi more than maybe 10 or 12 years earlier. And he's been back through a couple of times and my guess is this isn't the first letter. Anybody think this is the first letter Paul wrote to the Philippians?

Not me. And that laboring, that running is going to accrued his benefit. It's going to lead to his rejoicing and joy in the day when Jesus comes and judges. And they're shown to be real. Then Paul speaks about being poured out as a drink offering on their sacrifice, on the Philippians sacrifice, and on their service, on the Philippians service, which is flowing from their faith.

Look again at the words that are used. I'm in verse 17 now. Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering, so Paul is thinking about his running and his laboring, and he's saying, okay, This is like me being poured out as a drink offering on you, but specific things. On the sacrifice and service of your faith. So It's the Philippians sacrifice and the Philippians service that is flowing out of their faith.

Service, sacrifice and service of faith. They have real faith, they have saving faith, they have transforming faith, and it is causing them to sacrifice and serve. Paul says, I'm being poured out as a drink offering on all of that. This is the same thought as 2 Corinthians 12 verse 15. Listen to what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12 verse 15.

And I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls. So I think he's meaning the exact same thing. Being poured out as a drink offering on the service and sacrifice of their faith, is for over a decade I have spent, I have spent, and the tenses don't work that way, sorry. I have been spending and I have been spent over a period of a decade, and it's resulted in genuine faith in you, which is flowing forth in your own sacrifice. My sacrifice is flowing forth into your sacrifice.

And that is making Paul happy. He's rejoicing in that. I think this makes it all clear. Listen to Romans 12.1. This is very familiar territory.

Romans 12.1. Now think about how this relates. Paul writes, I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." Let me read that again. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." What's the connection to our text? We have been bought at such a great price that it is a privilege to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice.

By the mercies of God, I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, in view of the great price that has been paid for you, the blood of Jesus Christ spilled to buy you up out of sin. That great price and the contemplation of that great price makes it a privilege to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice. Not something to be done grudgingly with complaining, with disputing. When we think about the price paid to have us, it is an honor and a privilege to offer ourselves up to give back in some small way, not as payment, but as gratitude. This is such a reasonable service, it's called in Romans 12.1, Because the bargain is so much in our favor, isn't it?

So much in our favor. This ought to be a source of rejoicing. That we can offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to this glorious God is a privilege and it ought to be a source of our rejoicing. So Paul sees the Philippians doing that. He sees the Philippians offering themselves as a living sacrifice to God, and he has sacrificed for that.

Meaning, he played a part in that. He paid a price to bring the Gospel to Philippi. And he views this as being poured out as a drink offering on that. So his sacrifice for their sacrifice makes him happy. That's what this is saying.

His sacrifice, the sacrifices that he made to bring the gospel to Philippi and then to continue in their discipleship and progress for 12 years. And now he sees them offering themselves up as a living sacrifice, that whole picture makes him happy. And it causes him to rejoice. And he calls them to enter into that because he's saying it's such a privilege to labor for you in this way. Rejoice with me that that God has counted me worthy to offer myself up in this way.

To pour myself out for you in this way. It's such a privilege. Rejoice with me is what Paul is saying. The Reformation Heritage Study Bible has this in the notes. So the Christian life is often one of sacrifice.

There is to be joy and rejoicing. Amen to that. Both are true. And there's no problem with their both being in true. They're not really in conflict.

Is there sacrifice in the Christian life that's called for? The giving up of what you might have preferred? You bet ya. Does that mean that there's no joy or rejoicing in the Christian life? In no way.

In some ways it compounds the joy, because it's a privilege to offer this up, because of the great price that's been paid for us. This is not contrived to joy, make-believe joy, paint on a smiley face joy. It's a privilege to offer back a little bit to God because he's purchased us with his own blood. So they are both sacrificing and serving. Paul is sacrificing and serving.

The Philippians are sacrificing and serving. So they both have reason to rejoice. Paul is saying, I'm rejoiced, join in. Applications. I offer applications at the very end because I want us to think about how this should matter to me tomorrow.

We're thinking about the sermon, It's good to hear and to think, but like tomorrow we're going to have to make choices about how we spend our day. And make choices within the day. So this should impact that. The hearing and thinking about the Word of God should make a difference in the choices we make Monday, and Tuesday, and Wednesday, and Thursday, and Friday, and Saturday, and next month. So we're trying to apply this to daily life.

Number one, ask yourself two questions. At what points does my daily life adorn the Gospel? At what points? In what ways? Does my daily life, my conduct, my patterns adorn the Gospel?

Again, the Gospel isn't to be a word only Gospel, but it is to be adorned, made lovely by the lives of those who preach it. Made attractive, made magnetic by the lives of those who preach it. At what points does my daily life adorn the Gospel? The second question, At what points does my daily life adorn the Gospel? The second question, at what points does my daily life detract from the Gospel?

At what points is my daily life an obstacle to people receiving the Gospel because it makes the Gospel unlovely? Because it looks like God is not delivering on his promises to transform. And complaining and disputing is a good place to start that research. If we're going to answer that question, at what point does my life not adorn the gospel, or does it detract from the gospel, let's look first at where am I complaining, where am I disputing. Number two, How consistent is your Christian walk?

Are you holding fast the word of life? Are you holding it close? Are you going to it over and over and over again? Are you meditating on it? Are you memorizing it so that it has more influence over you?

The things we think about influence us. If you want to be more influenced by the word of God, then you have to have more of the word of God. It's very simple. How consistent is your Christian walk? Consistency is one of the great marks of maturity.

Don't miss this, this is a really important point. Consistency is one of the great marks of maturity. New believers can experience spectacular days, spectacular weeks, sometimes spectacular months, but not usually. But then the next day, they might be as low as they were high. I'm not saying We should despise that.

I'm not despising people who are young in the faith. I'm saying a sign of growth is that those peaks and valleys level out. Not through just being satisfied with low. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying the consistency comes.

There's a steadiness to our service of God. There are less crashes. This comes with holding fast the word of life. Number three, is your sacrifice and service a source of rejoicing? Is your sacrifice and service a source of rejoicing?

Hey, if it's all drudgery for us, something's wrong. Jesus came to give us life, and life abundantly should not be all drudgery. Our sacrifice and our service should be a source of rejoicing for us. Christians should not have a martyr complex. Now it's a glorious thing to be a martyr.

If God should ever give you the privilege to lay down your life for Him, you'll have a special place of honor. But a martyr complex is something different. The martyr complex says, woe is me, no one knows what I suffer. No one knows what I suffer if people only knew, but I just soldier on. These things are not for us to elicit pity from others.

These things ought to be a source of rejoicing for us that we have the privilege to be a living sacrifice. God, we thank you for your word. We pray that you would use it to change us. In Jesus' name, Amen.