Fighting for Joy, Growing in Humility, Knowing Christ and the Peace that Passes Understanding: A Study of Philippians (31): Hold Fast to the Word of Life


Sermon by J. Ligon Duncan on March 9, 2008 Philippians 2:16-18

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Sunday, March 9, 2008

Philippians 2:16-18

Fighting for
Joy, Growing in Humility, Knowing Christ and

Peace that
Passes Understanding: A Study in Philippians

Hold Fast to the Word
of Life

Dr. Ligon Duncan

Amen. If you have your Bible,
I would invite you to turn with me to Philippians 2. We’re going to concentrate
on verses 16-18 today, but we’re going to read verses 14-18.

The last time we were
together we were looking at verses 14-15, all a part of an extended section in
which the Apostle Paul is encouraging us, exhorting us to live the Christian
life. And he is making very specific exhortations to us in that section
reminding us about what is involved in living the Christian life.

For instance, in chapter 2:14
last Lord’s day, we saw the Apostle Paul encouraging us to not grumble and
question in our living the Christian life. In other words, he’s saying, “Do what
you ought to do because you want to do it from the very bottom of the heart, not
because you think you’re being forced to do something that you really don’t want
to do.”

We have a new family member
in our house — a 5 Ѕ month old Lab-Heeler mix named Lass. And she is normally
very sweet as Derek Thomas will testify. She bathed him with kisses when he
visited the house this last week. But sometimes she nips at us and our little
puppy trainer that we go see on Saturday mornings at Pet Smart has told us a
little trick. When she starts nipping and biting at the hands and the arms and
at the nose, you take a pot, the lid of a pot, and a spoon and bang it loudly.
And she does not like that loud, metallic sound so when she starts nipping, you
bang it, and she stops.

Now, sometimes she’s very
good and she doesn’t nip at all and she’s doing exactly what she wants to do —
she’s just licking you and playing and having fun. But, sometimes she really
wants to bite you, but she doesn’t want that loud banging noise in her ear. And
so what she’ll do when she wants to bite you, but she doesn’t want the banging
noise is she’ll bite the air. She’ll just bite the air.

And the Apostle Paul is
saying, “Don’t live the Christian life like that. Don’t bite the air.” Do
what you ought to do because you really want to do it, unlike Lass who really
wants to bite you but doesn’t want the banging noise in her ear. Do what you
ought to do because you want to do it. Do it without grumbling and
without second guessing and without questioning. Do it from the heart with joy.

And then, he says, “Be the
children of God.” Did you hear Derek remind us of Paul’s words from Romans about
what we are. What are we? We are the sons of God. By grace we’re not only
forgiven, we’re not only justified, but we are brought into God’s family. We are
adopted. We are the sons of God. We’re joint heirs with Jesus Christ. We are on
the inheritance list.

We are the sons of God, but
Paul here says, “Don’t just claim to be the sons of God. Live like you
are the sons of God. Live out what it means to be the children of the living
God.”

And, he says, “Shine like
lights in a sin-darkened world. Let your light shine before men that they may
see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Jesus himself commands this to His
disciples in the Sermon on the Mount. And Paul is just picking up on that theme
in Philippians 2:14. So, he’s giving those three exhortations.

Now, what he’s going to do next
after verse 18, and don’t pass out because next week, God willing, we’re going
to go from verse 19 to the end of the chapter. Now, the reason we’re going to do
that is what Paul is doing in verses 19-30 is he is giving you two illustrations
in the lives of two men, Epaphroditus and Timothy. And he’s saying, “Look, these
men are examples of what I’ve been talking about so far. You want to see how
this works out in somebody’s life? Let me give you the examples of Timothy and
Epaphroditus because they are doing exactly what I have been urging you to do.”

So, we’re moving from those three
exhortations in verses 14-15 to the examples that Paul is going to give of what
it means to live the Christian life in the lives of Epaphroditus and Timothy
from verses 19-30.

But, today we’re going to be in
verses 16-18 where he’s continuing the exhortations about Christian living. It
may be helpful for you to actually look at those verses before we read

God’s Word out loud and follow along
as I sort of paraphrase them to you so that you can feel the flow and the force
of Paul’s argument.

So, look at verses 14-18 and let me
sort of paraphrase them for you before we pray and actually read God’s Word.

Paul is saying here, “Philippians,
live the Christian life out willingly and joyfully from the heart so that you
show yourselves to be God’s adopted children even in this dark and dying world
in which you are to be lights. How? By holding fast the word of life in your
living so that on the day of Christ, I can boast in you seeing fruit from my
labor. And even if I die, even if I am, as it were, poured out like a drink
offering on your sacrifice of faith, I’m glad and I rejoice together with all of
you. But you must rejoice with me, too.”

That’s the flow of Paul argument in
this great passage. Let me draw your attention to four things that we’re going
to learn together today, God willing. Paul is saying four more things to us here
about living the Christian life.

First of all, he’s saying if you’re
really going to live the Christian life, you need to learn how to live the
Bible. Not just say that you believe it, but live the Bible.

Secondly, he’s saying that if you
really want to learn how to live the Christian life, you have to learn the
principle of delayed gratification. Now, I’ll explain that in a minute. Those of
you who have an MBA or have done business courses have no doubt heard about the
principle of delayed gratification. Well, there’s a spiritual aspect to that as
well. And Paul mentions it here in this passage in verse 16.

Then, he says, “If you’re really
going to live the Christian life, you need to understand sanctification is
expensive. Sanctification is expensive. It costs others much in order for
you to grow in grace. And you need to appreciate how important sanctification
must be because God spends a lot of the capital of His most precious children so
that we will be more like Jesus Christ. So sanctification is expensive.

And finally, he says you have to
learn how to rejoice in the self-giving of others. If you really understand the
gospel, if you really understand grace, if you really understand what God is
doing in sanctification, you’ll learn how to rejoice in the self-giving of
others.

Now, we’ll look at those four things
together in this passage. But first, let’s pray and then we’ll read God’s Word.

Father, this is Your Word and
we need Your Holy Spirit if we’re going to be able to understand it. So open our
eyes to behold and believe and then to embrace and do the truth of Your Word.
This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.


Hear the word of the living God
beginning in Philippians 2:14:

“Do all things without grumbling or
questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without
blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine
as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of
Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Even if I am
to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your
faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Like wise you also should be glad and
rejoice with me.”

Amen. And thus ends this reading of
God’s holy, inspired, inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our
hearts.


I. Live the Bible…practice the truth.

The
Apostle Paul is continuing to exhort us in living the Christian life. He is
concerned that we would want to grow in grace and that we would want to manifest
our faith to the watching world. It is so important for us to remember again
that Paul in this passage is not telling you how you are made right with God.
He’s not telling how you’re justified. He’s not recounting to you the gospel. If
these things are the gospel, then all of us are going to Hell because none of us
do these things well enough to be accepted by God.

Paul is not saying live the Bible and
God will accept you. Live the Bible and God will forgive you. Practice the truth
and you will be saved. If he were saying that, all of us would be condemned, but
he is saying, “Christian, having received God’s grace in Jesus Christ, now live
out the truth. Having been forgiven by God’s mercy, now live this way.”

And so, the Apostle Paul is giving us
instructions on how to live the Christian life. And he tells us four things here
following up on what he’s already said in verses 14-15.

And the first thing that he says is
simply this — practice the truth. You see it in verse 16 — “holding fast to the
word of life”. Now, that little phrase is actually completing a sentence that he
started at the end of verse 15 “shine as lights in the world, holding fast to
the word of life”.

In other words, Paul’s telling you
how it is that you’re supposed to shine. How is it that you are supposed to be a
witness in your life to a dying, sin-deadened world around you? By holding fast
to the word of life — the word of the living God is to be your rule for faith
and life. Your practicing of the truth is the way that you bear witness to this
sin-darkened world.

In other words, Paul’s saying, “Don’t
just say that you believe the Bible, live the Bible.” He’s saying, “Don’t just
honor God’s Word with your lips, honor it with your lives or you’re not honoring
it at all.”

Very recently, Francis Schaeffer’s
son, Franky, (as he was formerly known. He calls himself Frank now.) has written
a very, very demeaning biography of his parents called Crazy for God.
Frank isn’t even sure whether he believes in God any more. And Francis Schaeffer
helped so many of us come to embrace the truth of the gospel. But it is a very,
very scurrilous biography in which he trashes his mother and father.

And there have been a number of
reactions to that biography. One was in a review that was just published in the
journal Books and Culture by Os Guinness. Now, some of you have read Os
Guinness, an outstanding evangelical writer, and Os Guinness knows a little bit
about this family. You see, he lived in L’Abri with Francis and Edith Schaeffer
and with little Franky as he was known then. In fact, he was the best man in
Franky’s wedding so he knows this family well. And he has written a review of
this book calling into question the gross untruths and unfairnesses which
Frankie has heaped upon his parents.

But that’s not what I’m raising this
for. The reason I’m mentioning this is because towards the end of that book
review, he says this about Francis Schaeffer. He says, “Having lived with this
man and knowing his sins, knowing that he had many, many blind spots and
weaknesses and sins, nevertheless, I have never been around a man in my life who
more embodied love for God, love truth, and love for people all at the same
time.”

Boy! Isn’t that a glorious
description of a Christian — ‘love for God, love for truth, and love for people
all at the same time.’

Well, what is that but living out the
Bible? How does Jesus summarize all the commandments? Love God and love your
neighbor. And what is loving God and loving your neighbor? It’s living out the
truth of God’s Word which commands you to love God and love your neighbor.

And so, what that beautiful
description of Francis Schaeffer’s life and the words of Os Guinness, “he loved
God, loved truth, loved people”, that’s what Paul’s exhorting the Philippians to
do here — to practice the truth of Scripture by loving God, loving the truth,
and loving people.

Many of you had to read Geoffrey
Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales perhaps in a high school AP English class
or maybe in college or maybe you just did it for fun. And you remember some of
the strange characters that you encounter; some of them not altogether filled
with integrity. Now, there are some hypocrites in The Canterbury Tales,
but one of the characters that Chaucer clearly respected was the man that he
calls The Poor Parson.

Remember what he says about the poor
parson? He says this:

“He gave this noble example to
his sheep that first he practiced and then he preached.”

Isn’t that a great compliment of that
poor parson’s serving in his local parish church that he lived the truth that he
preached before he even proclaimed that truth so that they knew that there was
integrity from the life of the one who was proclaiming to them the Bible.

And that’s exactly what the Apostle
Paul is exhorting the Philippians to do — practice what you preach. Practice the
truth.


II. The principle of delayed gratification

But he doesn’t stop there. He goes on
to say in verse 16, “Do this so that in the day of Christ, I may be proud that I
did not run in vain or labor in vain.”

Now, you say, “What in the world are
you talking about, Paul? I thought you said we were only to boast in Christ.
What do you mean you want us to live in a certain way so that you can boast in
us on the day that Jesus comes?”

Well, what the Apostle Paul is saying
is this. He’s saying, “Look, Philippians, there are both Jews and pagans all
around you who are telling you — look at Paul. What a waste! He’s in prison.
He’s likely to be executed. There was a man with great potential, great
intelligence, and look at him. He’s thrown his life away. It is valueless. He’s
about to die. His mission has failed.”

And the Apostle Paul is saying to the
Philippians, “No, no, no. My mission will not have failed if you walk by faith
and live by faith and grow in grace and bear a witness to the world. If you do
that on the last day, I will not be put to shame, but the Lord Jesus will say,
‘Look, Paul, look at the fruit of your ministry in the life of these people.’”

In other words, Paul is saying to the
Philippians, “Remember my final report card won’t come until the end of the term
and the end of the term is on the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s when the
Lord Jesus comes again. And then, he’ll judge whether life has been lived to the
fullest or not. Not all of these people around you who are telling you that I’m
a failure because I’m in prison or I’m a failure because I’m not free to go out
preaching my gospel or I’ve wasted my life.”

No, the Apostle Paul is saying, “I’m
not living life for short term gains.” Paul is teaching the Philippians the
principles of delayed gratification.

Now, you know that delayed
gratification means passing up a short term gain for a long term reward.

Let’s suppose that you have two very
intelligent coeds, one female and one male, and they graduate from an excellent
college and maybe they go on to do a Master’s degree in business. And then they
launch out and they get a good job in the job market and they both get a good,
handsome salary to start with. And he decides because he’s got a good salary
that he’s going to buy that car that he’s always wanted. So, he gets a loan and
he’s paying what? Ten percent, 12 percent and he’s got a car payment and it’s
going to take him five years to pay it off.

And she says, “You know, I don’t
think I’m going to buy that car I’ve always wanted. I’m going to drive the old
rattletrap that I’ve been driving in college and I’m going to invest that money
in a Mutual Fund.”

Five years later, she can go out and
buy the car that she wanted to buy with cash and have money left over to make
their first investment in property. That’s called delayed gratification.

He’s just paid off a car. Now he has
a five year old car that has depreciated in value to nothing and she’s got a
brand new car paid for with cash and she’s got a little money in the bank to
invest and make more money. It’s the principle of delayed gratification.

And the Apostle Paul is saying, “That
works in the spiritual world as well. I’m not doing what I’m doing, Philippians,
because I think my report card is now. My report card won’t come until the day
of the Lord Jesus. And when you and the other churches that I have planted live
out the truth of the gospel that I have preached to you and by your faith live a
life of service to God then, my report card will say, ‘A+’.”

So, the Apostle Paul is teaching them
that our real rewards await the coming of Jesus Christ. And so, he doesn’t
particularly care that he’s in prison as long as they grow in grace because as
they grow in grace and live the Christian life, on the last day the Lord Jesus
will say to the Apostle Paul, “Look at the fruit of your ministry. Men and women
and boys and girls, spiritual descendants of the legacy that you wove and sewed
into the lives of those little churches in Asia Minor, from around the world are
here at my throne worshiping me. A+, Paul.”

And that teaches the Philippians a
lesson. They are never simply to live for the approbation of their
contemporaries. What they want to hear is what? “Well, done good and faithful
servant. Enter into the inheritance prepared for you from the foundation of the
world.”

What a huge message that is for us!
We live an instant gratification society. Success is measured by what happens in
the next five minutes. And the Apostle Paul is saying, “That’s not how it is
with me, Philippians. I’m waiting for the final report card then my success will
be measured.”


III. Sanctification is expensive.

But he
says a third thing as well. Look at verse 17. He says, “Even if I am to be
poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I’m
glad!”

In other words, he’s saying,
“Philippians, you understand what’s happening here? Your sanctification is very
expensive. God so wants you to grow in grace and be like the Lord Jesus Christ
that He is willing to pour my life out so that you will be more like Jesus
Christ, so that you will live the Christian life.”

And he says, “You know, I really
don’t mind that. If you are living a life of faith which is offered up to God
like a sweet-smelling sacrifice, I’m happy to be the drink offering poured next
to that sacrifice.”

Now, we don’t do drink offerings.
That’s something that we don’t do. Even Jewish people today don’t do drink
offerings because there’s no temple. But in both Jewish culture and in
Greco-Roman culture they all understood drink offerings. Drink offerings were a
part of the total sacrifice that would have been offered in either the Jewish
temple or in a pagan temple. You would have slain an animal whose blood would be
sprinkled on the altar and then the carcass of the animal would be consumed by
the fire on the altar.

And then in the Jewish sacrificial
system, the drink offering would be poured out next to the altar. In a
Greco-Roman pagan sacrifice, the drink offering might be poured out on the
animal that had been burned and consumed on the altar, but either way the drink
offering was sort of topping off the whole offering that was being offered to
God.

And Paul’s saying, “You know, if you
will live the Christian life as your sacrifice of faith,” (Notice in the New
Testament the old sacrificial language is never applied to our offering
sacrifices in a temple. It is either applied to what? Jesus’ sacrifice on the
cross or to our living the Christian life so that our worship is to be in all of
life living by faith for God.) – and Paul is saying, “If you’ll live by faith
for God, I’m happy to be the drink offering poured on your sacrifice of faith.”

In other words, Paul is saying, “If
my life simply becomes a component of your living to God for His glory, it will
all have been worth it. And I’ll be more than happy, in fact, I’ll be rejoicing.
Paul is teaching the principle here of how expensive our sanctification is.

In order for us to grow in grace, God
throws gifted and godly ministers and pastors and elders and Christians into the
service of our growing in grace and they live and they bleed and they ache and
they die all so that we’ll do what? Grow in grace.

Can you imagine being in the
Philippian congregation and standing before God on the Judgment Day and hearing
the Lord Jesus recount to you how He had given Paul to you so that you would
become more like Jesus?

Now, Paul didn’t contribute a thing
to their being accepted by Jesus. Paul didn’t contribute a thing to their being
justified by grace. The Lord Jesus Christ did all of that, but Paul was part of
God’s plan for them to do what? To mature them as disciples.

Jesus caused them to be justified.
Grace caused them to be saved, but Paul was part of God’s plan for those
Philippians to be sanctified, to be matured, to grow in grace. And the Apostle
Paul is reminding you and me how expensive our growth in grace is.

God cares about our growth in grace
when He gives gifted and talented faithful ministers and elders and pastors and
other Christians to us so that we will become more like Christ and causes them
to live and bleed and die so that we will grow in grace.

What if a young man or a young woman
graduated from a good school with great grades and went to medical school at
University Medical Center and after medical school said, “You know, I think I’m
going to go to Reformed Seminary and do a degree, an M Div, and I want to pursue
missions and do medical missions in some part of the world”. And after
graduating with honors and going off to the mission field to Pakistan in a field
hospital, in three months a radical Muslim killed that man or that young woman.
Wouldn’t your tendency be to say, “What a waste, what a waste?”

And the Apostle Paul is saying, “No,
no, no. Don’t you understand? God is ready to pour out expensive gifts for the
sake of building up His people.”

And that three months of ministry is
an indication of how much God wants us to grow in grace. He’s ready to take that
kind of an expensive gift if only we will become more mature in Jesus Christ.
Paul is telling us here that he was poured out like a drink offering over the
lives of the Philippians and he’s exhorting us to realize that the investment of
our elders and our pastors in us, the investment of other Christians in times
past is all part of our sanctification. And it is worth it!

Do you realize the cumulative
investment that God has now made in your sanctification? He sent Augustine into
the world and Athanasius into the world and Martin Luther into the world and
John Calvin and John Owen and Jonathan Edwards and John Murray and every other
saint whose name you can think. All for what? For your sanctification.

He sent Jesus into the world for your
justification. He sent Jesus into the world for your sanctification, too, but to
that great work of the Lord Jesus Christ, He has gathered around a cloud of
witnesses to do what? To urge you on in growing in grace. Very expensive, very
expensive gifts.

And Paul wants you to realize that.
How much must God want us to grow in grace if He has spent this much to help us
to do it?


IV. Learn to rejoice in the self-giving of others.

Fourth
and finally, in this passage Paul says, “It’s not just that I’m glad that I’m
being poured out. It’s not just that I’m rejoicing that I get to be poured out
as a sacrifice for you.” He says that he wants you to rejoice and be
glad with him.

Listen to what he says in verse 18:

“Likewise you also should be glad and
rejoice with me.”

In other words, Paul is saying, “If
you don’t rejoice as I’m poured out like a drink offering and as my life ebbs
away and as I’m executed on your behalf and for the sake of the gospel. If you
don’t rejoice in my gospel self-sacrifice, you just don’t get it yet. You don’t
realize how valuable what we have in Jesus Christ is and how that changes the
whole of life.

You remember the story of Jim
Elliott, who quoted the old Puritan in his journal, and that journal entry was
found after he had been martyred and left behind a young wife and children.

And you remember the phrase, “He is
no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.

And the apostle Paul is saying,
“Don’t you understand how life reorienting that truth is?”

He’s saying, “When you have already
been given everything in Christ, you can’t lose anything that matters. When you
have already been given everything in Christ, you can’t give away anything that
matters. When you have already been given everything in Christ, no one can take
anything from you that matters.”

And so he’s saying, “As I’m being
poured out, you need to rejoice with me because everything that I could possibly
want, I have in Christ. And as I’m being poured out, I’m being poured out for
you! So rejoice, Christian. Rejoice when you see God pouring out expensive gifts
in the persons of His people for the sake of your sanctification because they
can’t miss anything. They can’t lose anything that matters and their
being poured out is for your everlasting good and gain.

And that’s why though, yes, tinged
with sorrow when we see a medical missionary go off and lose his life or her
life to radical Muslims in three months of service, yes, we sorrow. We sorrow
for their families and what has been left behind, but we do not assume it was
wasted. It’s never wasted. God just has very expensive gifts to give to His
people for the building up of them in Jesus Christ.

And we need to learn the importance
of gospel rejoicing because when we rejoice in those kinds of sacrifices, it
says to the world that we’re not here to delight in what you have to offer
because you don’t have anything to offer to us. We have everything that we could
possibly need or want in Jesus Christ and this world can take none of that away
form us. And it can offer nothing to us to augment it.

And so if our lives are poured out
for the sake of the gospel, for the building up of the saints, it is gain!

But, I’m getting ahead of myself
because Paul will say that in Philippians 4.

Let’s pray,


Heavenly Father, we thank You for the
truth of Your Word and we ask that You would open our hearts to embrace it and
live it. It’s so easy for us to say these things, but it requires your Spirit
for us to do them. So give us Your Holy Spirit that we might live the truth of
the word of life and rejoice for Your glory. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Let’s take our hymnals in hand and
turn to 154, Thou Art the Way.

[Congregational hymn.]

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