Philippians (Lesson 31)

I'm Brother James, and I greet you as always in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world, and I welcome you one more time to the preaching of the cross radio broadcast.

We are in the midst of a study of the book of Philippians that has taken us from the heights of heaven to the depths of Calvary, to the glories of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and now into a consideration of the difference between a sincerely devout religious individual and one who is saved and on the way to heaven.

We have seen from Philippians three verses one through eight that it is possible for a man to live outwardly, morally righteous in the eyes of men, as he strives with all his heart, soul, strength, and mind to obey the law that God gave to Moses and through Moses to the Hebrew people.

We have also seen that such an one who sought to earn God's favor by the keeping of God's law found himself in need of a righteousness superior to that which was available in the law of Moses, and that righteousness was to be found in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And the Apostle Paul's testimony, given to us by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is that everything other than Jesus Christ would leave one short of eternal life.

Now today we combine Philippians chapter three with a portion from James chapter number five, and hope that you will be able to stay with us and follow along if at all possible in your Bible.

Now, again, Philippians three, verse number four, we'll start there.

Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin and Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching the law a Pharisee, concerning zeal persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless, but what things were gained to me those I counted loss for Christ.

Now on the last broadcast we saw that this man, Paul, was allowed by the Holy Spirit to testify to the exceeding righteousness that he attained as a keeper of the Old Testament law.

He pointed out with God's approval that no one ever lived in accord with the commands and the statutes of the law to the same extent that he did.

And then he was forced to testify, because it was so, that being the greatest of all law keepers, he was still a lost man and on his way to hell without the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thus it is quite evident that no man could be saved by keeping the law, for here's a man who kept it like none other, and yet that man was not saved.

The Lord Jesus Christ stated in no uncertain terms, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man cometh unto the Father but by me.

That's in John fourteen and verse number six.

That's why those who lived and died in faith before Jesus came had to wait until the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ to go to heaven.

They had to sleep in Abraham's bosom because they couldn't get to the Father but by him.

But in this passage, in this passage, we have a most interesting Bible word.

In verse six concerning zeal persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

Now if you know even a little bit about the Bible, you know that no one but Jesus Christ is sinless.

Romans 3.23 says, All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

The Bible says in 1 John 1 8, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

The Bible says in Romans 3 10, there is none righteous, no not one.

In Isaiah 53, all we like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned every one to his own way.

So the claim as touching the righteousness of the law, in that regard, sinless, sinless, is one that Paul nor another man could ever make.

Nobody is sinless but Jesus Christ.

But here is a man the Holy Spirit says is blameless, and so without controversy, the Bible word blameless cannot carry the definition of sinless or without sin.

Blameless in dictionary terms is without fault, not meriting censure, fault being a failing, a missing a mistake.

The apostle Paul could not say that he was sinless, but he could say you could find no fault with me.

You could not see me missing the mark.

You could not observe something in my character and my conduct that merited censure or rebuke.

How about that?

Censure is a judgment involving condemnation, opinion, judgment, the act of blaming or condemning sternly.

And so this man sets forth for us the idea, and it's supported throughout scripture, that blameless is an outward observable righteousness.

To be blameless will not get you to heaven.

But if you are on your way to heaven, God would have you to be blameless.

I cannot be sinless, but I am commanded to be blameless.

I cannot make myself righteous in the eyes of God, but I am ordered to make myself righteous in the eyes of men.

That this is attainable is testified to by the fact that the Apostle Paul and someone else that we'll look at in just a moment could say that the Holy Spirit recorded in the Bible that they were blameless before they even knew the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.

So if an unsaved man, without the indwelling Holy Spirit, could be without rebuke, without censure, without fault, outwardly as men observed him, how much more ought you and I, who are saved and indwelt by God the Holy Spirit, how much more should we endeavor to attain to this biblical standard of blamelessness?

Now look with me in James chapter 5.

James 5 · chapter mention

James chapter 5 and verse number 16.

James 5 · chapter mention

James 5, 16.

Confess your faults one to another, not your sins, not your sins.

Wouldn't be a frightening, frightening thing if the Bible said, confess your sins one to another.

I've been around the brethren a long time.

I don't want to confess my sins to my brothers and sisters in Christ.

It's all we can do to love one another while we are presenting our best front.

I'd say it would be virtually impossible to love one another if we all knew about each other what God knows about each of us.

Now some of the modern perversions that call themselves Bibles have changed confess your faults to confess your sins, to support the blasphemous uh Roman Catholic system of confessing your sins to a man.

But that's not a biblical truth.

It's not commanded by God, required by God, recommended by God, suggested by God.

It's a very, very bad idea indeed.

But here we are told to confess our faults.

Confess our faults.

Now the objective is that we be blameless before God and man.

I can't stand without censure.

I can't stand without sin only through the righteousness given me by God through Jesus Christ, but I can stand without blame.

We'll never be sinless.

But as regards our relationships to others in the home and on the job and in the church, our standing in this wicked world, we can be without blame.

We can be in a place where the whole thing might fall apart, but everybody knows it was in spite of our best effort.

That's what the Lord's getting at here.

Ask my neighbors, said Paul.

Ask my family, ask my fellow Pharisees, ask my fellow citizens.

He said when testifying one time in the book of Acts, ask anybody that knew me from my youth up, and they will tell you that I lived without blame as touching the law.

Look with me now at Luke chapter one and verse five.

Luke chapter one verse five.

There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias of the course of Abbiah, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth, and they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless.

Now they had two things, and God wants us to have both of them.

They were righteous in the eyes of God, and then as they walked before men, they were blameless, as touching the ordinances of God.

That is, God looked in their heart and said, They're right, and then men looked on their life and said, They're right.

And that's what God's after.

Nothing could be clearer from the Bible, according to Romans 4 and Galatians 4, that God justified Abraham by faith.

If you read Genesis 12 and Genesis 15, nothing could be clearer.

He's righteous in the eyes of God.

Then in Genesis 22, as referenced in James 2, Abraham was justified in the eyes of men.

God said he was righteous.

And then men said, You know, uh, I see that.

Now do you want it the contrast?

Look at Abraham's nephew Lot.

God said in 2 Peter 3 he was righteous.

Nobody in Sodom agreed.

When Lot the righteous man said, Hey, the Lord told me we better get out, he's going to send judgment.

They all laughed at him.

Why is he going to get you out?

Why would he burn us and not you when you're just as rotten as we are?

Now he may have been righteous, God said he was, but he was not blameless.

You know what the Lord wants from saved people?

He doesn't want us to just receive his imputed righteousness so we can go to heaven.

But he wants us to walk in a visible, evident manifestation of that righteousness.

So when you tell somebody you're a Christian, they don't go, uh, you are?

Well, thanks for telling me, I never would have known.

The Lord wants us blameless, not just righteous, but blameless.

Alright, look at Philippians 2.

Here's that middle ground.

If you ever get to the middle, you'll be right where God wants you to be.

On the one hand, you have uh Baptists and other fundamental groups who say as long as you trust Jesus as your Savior, you have God's righteousness and you're going to heaven, so it doesn't matter how you live.

And then you've got groups on the other side that say if you don't live it, you're not going to go to heaven.

And somewhere right in the middle is the Word of God that says, If the Lord gives you his righteousness, you are going to heaven.

Now live it so you can take somebody with you when you go.

As we've said many times, people don't reject the gospel because of atheists.

They reject the gospel because of Christians who don't live blameless lives.

Now, Philippians 2 12.

Wherefore, my beloved, as ye 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.

Notice he didn't say work for your salvation.

He said work out your salvation.

If I'm trying to work out a stiff neck, I've already got one.

If I'm trying to work out my problems, I've already got them.

If I'm trying to work out my salvation, I've already got salvation.

But God wants what he gave me on the inside to show up on the outside, so my family can see it, so my friends can see it, so my neighbors can see it.

That's the idea of blameless.

Verse thirteen for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure, do all things without murmurings and disputings, that ye may be blameless and harmless.

The sons of God without rebuke.

Where?

The judgment seat of Christ?

No.

Where when we stand before the Lord?

No.

Where?

That ye may be blameless and harmless without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation.

God does not want my business associates to be able to rebuke me.

He does not want my co workers to have to censure me.

He does not want my next door neighbor to be able to point out the hypocrisy in my life.

I have salvation on the inside, God said work it out.

So that as you walk through a crooked world you stay straight.

So that as you walk through a perverse world you stay clean.

So lost people can't point at you and say, Oh yeah, why do I need God?

He says he's got God and He's just like I am.

That's not the judgment seat.

That's people judging us now.

And if they are going to judge us now, let them find us blameless, without fault, living the Christian life as it's supposed to be lived.

Let's finish that verse.

That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.

See, that's the whole idea of blameless.

Zechariah shone, Elizabeth shown, Saul of Tarsus shone, every saved person is supposed to shine.

Wow, look at that guy.

Wow, look at her.

Let's mess them up.

That's what the world does when they see purity, they try and throw dirt on it.

That's what the world does when they see holiness, they try to defile it.

The Lord said you just stay right there.

And when they can't defile you, and when they can't make you impure, and when they can't drag you down to their level, then they will know that you've got something more than a religion that you talk about.

You've got something that has made you without fault, without blame, without censure in this world.

That's what God is looking for.

1 Timothy chapter 3.

1 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

This also shows up in Titus 1.

These are the qualifications for leadership in God's church.

1 Timothy 3 1, this is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.

A bishop then must be blameless.

Now that can't be sinless.

You could never find a sinless man to put in leadership in a church.

But do you know what we're looking for?

We're not looking for a man about whom it could be said that everything he's ever done has been right, but we're looking for a man about whom it could be said and everything he's ever done he has tried his best to be right.

And when that fell apart, and that didn't go just so, we know the details of that thing, and it was not his fault.

He confessed those faults, and we prayed about those faults, and God helped with those faults.

And this thing may have gone wrong, but he's blameless.

She's blameless.

That's what we're looking for.

The Bible says, a bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given hospitality, aptitude, and so forth.

Now look down to verse ten.

And let these also first be proved, and let them use the office of a deacon being found blameless.

And there it is again.

God is looking for men whose outward testimony and outward character matches their profession of faith.

If you save, let's see it.

If you're a Christian, it ought to be observable.

God has given us his righteousness, but he didn't hide it so deep that no one's able been able to discern where it went.

It ought to be visible that we are right by virtue of God's working in our lives.

First Timothy three.

Now again, the context will define the phrase.

What is it to be blameless?

First Timothy three, seven.

Moreover, he must have a good report of them that are without.

How about that?

How about that?

People on the outside give testimony that your life, your conversation, your conduct, they may not like it, they may not appreciate it, they may not agree with it, they may not believe it, but they know that your life is consistent with the life they expect a Christian to live.

That's what it is to be blameless.

Look on down in first Timothy chapter five.

And here in verse number three we read, honor widows that are widows indeed.

But if any widow have children and nephews, let them learn first to show piety at home and to requite their parents, for that is good and acceptable before God.

So here's the situation a man dies, he leaves his wife in unfavorable circumstances.

The church is not to take her in, if there are children or nephews.

Now she that is a widow indeed, no children, no nephews, and desolate trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day, but she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth, and these things give in charge that they may be blameless blameless.

How about that?

No blame.

So it is possible for a woman to get to the end of her life, having a husband, having children, having relatives, having church fellowship, and none of them none of them has any blame to hurl in her direction.

She may not have been sinlessly perfect, no one is, no one is, but she is above reproach in her conduct in the eyes of the unbelievers, and believers as well.

Now First Thessalonians five.

Watch, watch carefully.

First Thessalonians 5 22.

Abstain from all appearance of evil.

You know what that is?

That's what people see when they are watching you.

They're looking for you.

After you have spoken up for the Lord, they are they have put you under the microscope from that day forward.

And you need to live a blameless life before them.

Because anything you say or do can and will be used against you, in accord of public opinion.

Verse 23, and the very God of peace sanctify you holy, and I pray God your whole spirit and soul, now those two that'd be God, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Is it sinful?

Is it corrupt?

When people are observing my appearance, they're not looking at my spirit, they're not looking at my soul, they're looking to see if what I do in my body lines up with my profession of Christian faith.

Saul of Tarsus did.

Alright, one more verse of scripture.

1 Corinthians 1.

1 Corinthians 1.

It is possible to live a blameless life.

Verse 6 says, 1 Corinthians 1 6, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, there's salvation.

So that you come behind in no gift, there's our enabling, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, there's our position, who shall also confirm you unto the end that ye may be blameless.

That's pretty good, isn't it?

Now when I do stand before the Lord, wouldn't it be nice if all the time that my Savior had been watching me work out my salvation down here on earth that he was pleased with what he saw, that I could stand before him and hear him say, Well done, thou good and faithful servant.

Wouldn't that be wonderful?

If Jesus Christ, if Jesus Christ could observe my life and be pleased with what he saw, if I had lived my life and conducted myself in such a way that God as he looked upon me, God as he observed me, could say, could say, This is a blameless individual, not only possessing the inward righteousness that I freely gave him by grace when he trusted my son the Lord Jesus Christ, but one who yielded to that indwelling Jesus Christ and allowed him to so control his thoughts, his words, his deeds, that his life was lived above reproach.

That's the glorious objective for the tr for the Christian, for the child of God.

I hope, my friend, that you're not just using Jesus as a way to heaven, though he is the way to heaven, the only way to heaven.

But I want you to do more than that.

God wants you to do more than that.

The Holy Spirit instructs us to do more than that.

He wants us to live under the influence and control of the Lord Jesus Christ so that others not only see that we are saved, but by seeing and observing the life that God makes possible for those who are saved, that they too will desire a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, and through our life as well as our testimony, and through our testimony as well as our life, God might use us to draw others to Himself that they might know the joy of the Christian life.

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