Joy That Never Runs Out: Abiding in Christ's Love - Phil 3.1-2

Good morning, and what a great blessing it is to be worshipers of the Lord and God, Jesus Christ.

It is through Jesus that our joy is derived.

It is through Jesus that we can live and rejoice in Him always throughout all situations.

My name is Pastor Simon Flynn, and here at Dillingham Moravian Church,

we delight in making disciples for Christ as we learn God's Word together with you.

As most of you know, my wife loves gardening. In fact, right now,

we have three gardens and one greenhouse on the go.

However, with the almost continual rain this summer, our outside gardens,

especially the one by the parsonage, are stunted.

Although the plants in the greenhouse

are doing better, even they are not growing as well as they could.

But when we do get sun. It is such a joy to see the vegetables,

the berries, and the flowers go from shrunken to unfurling their stems and leaves and flowers blooming.

It is such a beautiful sight. Not only that, but with the sun shining,

the plants begin to bear fruit.

It's almost like the garden rejoices when the sun comes out.

My point is that as Christ believers, as we stay in the presence of the Lord, we rejoice.

And as we rejoice, we bloom and bear fruit for our precious God.

Let's pray. Oh, Heavenly Father, we thank you for your love for us in Jesus Christ.

And thank you for your word, your word that rejoices our heart,

your word that teaches us and guides us.

May you give us your spirit so that we can be able to apply what is spoken here, what is taught.

And may you teach us. May you be the one that is speaking.

May you grow our faith and our joy in you. In your precious son's name,

Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.

For a while now, here at Dillingham Moravian Church, with a few breaks,

we have been studying in Paul's letter to the Philippians.

Today, we'll be starting in chapter 3.

The background to this chapter was that Paul wanted to send Timothy to the Philippians

so that he could be encouraged as to their well-being.

You see, Paul saw the Philippian congregations as his spiritual children.

Paul loved the Philippians, and like a father or a parent that hadn't heard

from their children for such a long time, he was worried for them.

We have to remember that the Philippian believers were one of the most persecuted

churches in the known world.

The extremely pro-Roman populace

of Philippi believed fanatically in the deity of the Roman emperor.

Since the Philippians believed that Jesus Christ was the only true God and King,

the Philippian Christians were under heavy opposition from the citizens of Philippi.

Therefore, Paul, out of his love, was genuinely concerned and sent Timothy and

Epaphroditus to find out how the church in Philippi was faring.

Before Paul sent Timothy and Epaphroditus, Paul included a resume, if you like,

of both men's characters in his letter to the Philippians, of proving Timothy

and Epaphroditus to be worthy of ministering to the church in Philippi.

Paul applauded Timothy as a kindred spirit to Paul, who sought the interests

of Christ as he furthered the gospel of the Lord alongside Paul.

For Epaphroditus, Paul approved him as a fellow brother in Christ,

a fellow worker in the gospel, and a fellow soldier for the spiritual kingdom of Christ.

Epaphroditus was also sent by the church in Philippi to minister to and be a

messenger to Paul while he was in prison.

Epaphroditus also worked so hard at sacrificially loving and serving Paul that

Epaphroditus almost died due to a deadly illness.

Paul also applauded Epaphroditus' character for his ability to deeply and emotionally

love those he cared about, including the Philippians and Paul himself.

Turn with me to your Bibles today in Philippians 3, verses 1-2.

Philippians 3:1–2

Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is

no trouble to me, and it's a safeguard for you.

Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision.

There are three biblical truths that I want to bring to your attention in this passage.

The first point is that Christians are to rejoice in the Lord.

And Paul wrote in verse 1, Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.

I want you to notice that Paul began this verse by writing finally,

to refer that this command to rejoice in the Lord was the last of a set of commands

that he was given the Philippian church.

The word that Paul used for rejoice meant to enjoy a state of happiness and well-being.

However, Paul did not tell the Philippians that they were to enjoy just any

state of happiness and well-being.

Rather, Paul qualified his command within the Lord. And this changes everything.

You see, the believer is only able to enjoy and live out joy unless they are

living within the relationship with the Lord.

Later on in Philippians 4, verse 4 through 5, the apostle Paul also commanded,

Philippians 4:4–5

Rejoice in the Lord always.

Again, I will say rejoice. choice, let your considerate spirit be known to all men.

How can the Philippians do this amidst extreme hardship and persecution?

Let's look at what Paul says next.

The Lord is near. You see, it's in the proximity to our Lord Jesus Christ that

we are able to live and enjoy a state of happiness and well-being in the midst

of any trial or circumstance.

We need to remember that the Philippian church, again, was so badly persecuted and treated.

And yet Paul commands the congregation to rejoice in the Lord,

fully believing that not only is it possible to do, but it's also completely attainable.

The question is, how are we as believers in Christ able to rejoice in Him in challenging times?

One of the greatest passages that explains how to live in the joy of the Lord

is from John 15 verse 9 through 10, where Jesus commanded His disciples.

John 15:9–10

Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you.

Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love,

just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.

Here's what I want you to see. Verse 11. These things I have spoken to you so

that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.

We're going to camp on this passage for a little while because it's so integral to joy.

What Jesus was referring to in verse 11, when he said, These things I have spoken to you,

was the entirety of John 15 being summed up in abiding in Christ our vine and

in our Father the vine grower, as we trust in the love of Christ and imitate

Jesus' love for the Father as we obey Christ,

as he obeyed his Father.

And as we abide or make our home in the love of Christ and live continually

in his love, christ's joy is

then produced in us and is produced in us to the full the word that joy or.

The word that john recorded for joy meant to experience gladness joy is brought

to the highest degree and here's christ's promise,

As we persist in abiding or making our home in Christ's love,

as we stay in the presence of Christ, Christ will give us his joy and his joy never runs out.

And the question is, what is this joy? The joy that Christ gives us is the joy

of abiding in fellowship with God.

The joy that Christ gives us is the joy that comes from being part of Christ's

mission and bearing fruit for Christ's kingdom.

The joy that Christ gives us is not just a small trickle of joy,

but is always complete and full to the overflowing, like a tidal wave that never runs out.

C.S. Lewis wrote this, Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.

We are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition

when infinite joy is offered to us.

Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because

he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.

We are far too easily pleased.

The truth that we are to learn from in the first part of Philippians 3,

Philippians 3:1

verse 1 is that to live in the state,

where we enjoy true happiness or gladness, we must be staying in relationship

with Jesus Christ our Lord.

However, if you wish to know this joy that Paul taught in Jesus' promise,

this joy can only be given by God,

and only to those who are part of Christ's vine by the grace of God through

faith in Christ as your only Lord and Savior.

The world can know some temporary happiness, but they cannot know real joy because

joy comes from the Lord as we live and abide or stay in relationship with Him.

Again, for us as believers in Christ, to continue in joy, we need to obey God's

Word as we trust in the love that Christ has for us.

We are to desire and long with our affections to abide in a relationship with

Christ as Christ does with His Father.

Do you know what I mean by affections? Our affections are our love and desire

for something as our only treasure and our only joy.

This is the reason that we are to obey Christ's commands, not of obligation

or to earn God's love, but because we so,

desire strongly to be in a deep relationship with Christ Jesus, our God most high.

And as we fall more and more in love with God and obediently conform our thoughts

and our actions and our feelings to fall in line with God's word and God's mission,

then the more Christ's joy is produced in you and me, and the more we rejoice.

What a wonderful cycle this is.

The second point I want to show you is that God's truth is repeated to safeguard us.

My wife Abigail and I have two little boys who are nine and six years old.

We also have had many foster kids over the years.

As parents and guardians, we often say the same truths to our children over

and over again in different ways to get our children to know and be able to

apply these truths or principles in their lives.

Truths like, you need to brush your teeth.

That principle is told multiple times a day. Another principle repeated in our

household is you need to eat your food so you can grow big and strong.

Do your chores. For our boys who love the rough house, we're constantly saying

like, be kind to your brother. Get your hands away from his neck.

Get off your brother's face. Please share your toys.

Last one that I had to do today was that.

Get that corn out of your nose.

When there's time, and there's not always time, Abigail and I would teach the

boys why the principles we were commanding are important.

But I share these examples with you because not only do parents repeatedly tell

their children the principles and truths that children need to learn,

but God does in His Word as well.

God uses His prophets and apostles and scriptures to teach and remind us His

truths over and over and over again. And that included Paul.

Paul continued to teach in Philippians 3, verse 1, To write the same things

Philippians 3:1

again is no trouble to me, and it's a safeguard for you.

After Paul urged the Philippian believers to rejoice in the Lord,

Paul added that for him to write the same truths to them over again was a safeguard

for the Christians in Philippi.

And more than that, Paul considered the job to repeatedly teach the same truths

as no trouble, or as beneficial.

The word for safeguard meant safety or cautionary, pertaining to a state of

safety and security and hence free from danger.

Meaning that from Paul's perspective, writing or teaching the same truths over

and over again to believers keeps them in a state of safety and security,

free from spiritual danger or failings.

What things was Paul referring to? In the initial context, I believe one of

the truths that Paul repeated in his letter to the Philippians was the command

to rejoice or live in joy.

I say this because in the previous verses, Paul wrote about joy or rejoicing seven times.

And in the whole letter to Philippians, Paul wrote about joy and rejoicing 15

times, making joy the main theme of this letter.

And half of them were just and the last verses before the ones that we're on now.

Why joy or rejoicing? Why is that such a safeguard for believers in Christ?

We cannot rejoice without realizing

that the object of our joy and the source of our joy has to be God.

You see, rejoicing gets us out of ourselves and focuses us outward towards God,

and what He has done, what He is doing, and what He will do in the future.

It's important for us to understand that sin is always inward or self-focused,

and rejoicing is outward towards God.

The reason why joy is such an amazing weapon to fight Satan's attacks is because

God himself is outward-focused. He's not focused on himself.

Living outward towards God and others guards us from the inward focus of sin

and temptation because God is our greatest worth, and He values us so greatly.

And we then can value others as greater than ourselves. And this is love.

Rejoicing helps us love others and love God more.

Additionally, as we learned earlier in John 15, when we trust in the love of

Christ, We are given God's joy to the full, and that joy is the fuel in which we obey God's commands.

Back in Philippians 3, Paul wrote to write the same things, and this is in the

plural, meaning that there were more truths that Paul repeated to the Philippians.

Another main truth that God has not taught yet in this letter,

but will later on in chapter 3, is the righteousness from God through faith in Christ.

This is also a main theme, not only in Philippians, but also in Paul's other

letters, especially in Romans and Galatians,

where Paul made the case that righteousness from God through faith.

Is one of the core themes of the Old Testament and the way in which God gives

salvation to His people.

The main truth that we can apply to ourselves is that God repeatedly teaches

us the same truths over and over again in His Word.

One of the pastors that I trained under used to say to me, Simon,

one of the main things we do in preaching is to meddle over and over again in

people's lives in different ways using the truths of God's word.

The Bible does have a lot of truths and prophecies contained in it,

and it does have doctrinal systems taught within it that may seem complex.

But by and large, the same core truths and principles are taught in God's Word

from beginning to end in different ways.

One reason for this is that there is a oneness to the teaching of the Bible.

There is one story from beginning to the end. God is very fond of unity or oneness.

For example, in Ephesians 4, verses 4-6, Paul explained,

Ephesians 4:4–6

There is one body and one spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of

your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all,

who is over all, through all, and in all.

Moreover, there is only one Word of God. There are not multiple Gospels out

there that are equal in truth.

Not only is there only one Gospel and one Word within the Word of God,

that core doctrines and truths are one as well. They are in unity with one another.

Another reason why I believe that the scriptural truths repeat continually in

Scripture is because God's truths are easier to understand and live out when

they're not complicated, and we learn it over and over again in different ways.

So far, we've seen that Paul says.

Taught the same types of truths over and over again to believers to keep them

in the state of safety and security, free from spiritual danger or failings.

And lastly, we as Christians are to beware of evil workers and false teaching.

Paul continued on with Philippians 3, verse 2, Beware of the dogs,

Philippians 3:2

beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision.

As we study this verse, who was Paul referring to as dogs and evil workers?

And what is the false circumcision?

According to John MacArthur, during the first century, dogs roamed the streets

and were essentially wild scavengers.

And because dogs were such filthy animals, the Jews loved to refer to Gentiles as dogs.

And yet Paul referred to Jews, specifically the Judaizers, as dogs to describe

their sinful, vicious, and uncontrolled character.

The Judaizers prided themselves on being workers of righteousness,

and yet Paul described their works as evil,

since any attempt to please God by one's own efforts and draw attention away

from Christ to accomplish redemption is the worst kind of wickedness.

This concept of being wary of false teachers and teaching, especially the Judaizers,

was another common theme for Paul, which would safeguard believers from being

caught in the snares of the devil.

What Paul was so disturbed about the Judaizers or the circumcision party was

that they believed that a person could be a follower of Christ as God,

but could only be saved if they

followed the works of the Mosaic and Abrahamic law to the very letter.

Especially in the dietary laws and in getting circumcised.

And yet Paul in Galatians 3, verses 1-8 warned, O foolish Galatians,

Galatians 3:1–8

who bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?

This is the only thing I want to learn from you. Did you receive the Spirit

by the works of the law or by hearing with faith?

Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Did you suffer so many things for nothing? If indeed it was for nothing,

so then does he who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you

do it by the works of the law,

or by hearing with faith? And here's what I want you to see.

Just as Abraham believed God and was counted to him as righteousness,

So, know that those who are of faith, those are sons of Abraham.

And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith,

proclaimed the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, All nations will be blessed in you.

There are two truths that God, through Paul, is teaching us as Christians in this verse.

The first truth is that we must beware of any faith or belief system that incorporates

believing in Christ as Lord and being saved from God's wrath by our own works.

This is super dangerous, and Paul calls these teachings and their teachers as evil.

We must be very wary of beliefs such as this.

Secondly, in order to safeguard ourselves, our families, and our congregations

from this type of false teaching and any false teaching, we,

you and I, must be like the Bereans,

and study and search the Bible to see if any teaching that we hear or read is based upon.

What God's Word teaches.

Let's look at Acts 17, verse 10 through 11. And the brothers immediately sent

Acts 17:10–11

Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived,

they went into the synagogue of the Jews.

Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica,

for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily

to see whether these things were so.

However, in order for us to be able to study and know the Bible well enough,

to be able to know when a teaching is a false one, we as Christians must know our Bibles.

We must be reading and studying and learning the truths of God's Word,

partly because the truths of God's Word will safeguard our hearts and our minds

from sin and from false teaching.

So what has God, through Paul, been teaching us today in Philippians 3, verses 1-2?

Philippians 3:1–2

The first main truth that God has taught us is that as believers—.

We are only able to enjoy and live out joy unless if we are living within an

abiding relationship with the Lord.

Secondly, God repeatedly teaches us the same truths over and over again in His

Word so that we can be safeguarded from sin and evil teachings.

And lastly, we must beware of any faith or belief system that incorporates believing

in Christ as Lord and being saved from God's wrath by our own works.

As human beings, it's easy to be tempted to go after the things of this world

in order to find happiness, meaning, and purpose.

However, God through Paul teaches us that we are to rejoice or to stay in a state of joy forever.

That God gives us as we abide in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I want to encourage us today to also stay in God's Word, the Bible.

I urge this because we cannot stay in Christ unless we are reading and studying

and learning the Word of Christ.

And the Holy Spirit through the Word will help guard us from the temptations

of Satan and our own sinful nature.

But God's Word also brings us joy when we, by faith, obey God's commands.

I'll leave you with this scripture from Psalm 18, verse 8.

Psalms 18:8

This is what the psalmist wrote, The precepts of Yahweh are right, rejoicing the heart.

Commandment of Yahweh is pure, enlightening the eyes. Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the great and wondrous mercy that You've given us in Jesus Christ.

Thank You for Your Word that teaches us and guides us, and Your Holy Spirit

that enables us to understand and learn and grow by and through your word.

Thank you for your grace, O Lord, that you sent in and through your Son,

Jesus Christ, that you have given us so that we may be able to save based on

what Jesus Christ has done.

Thank you. Thank you for the ability to be able to trust in You, trust in Your Son.

Thank You, Father. You are our God.

Lead us, guide us, and use us for Your glory. In Your precious Son's name,

Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

I'll leave you with this benediction from Romans 15, verse 13.

Romans 15:13

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,

so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope.

Have a wonderful Sunday. May the Lord bless you all.