Philippians (Lesson 36)

And a very, very pleasant good day to each and every one of you.

I'm Brother James, and I greet you one more time in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

Praise his name for that.

I welcome you once again to the Preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast.

This program is a ministry of the Bible Baptist Church in Deland, Florida, heard by the grace of God on this radio station and by way of radio, internet, cassette recording, disc recording, and printed literature.

God is enabling us to reach and be a blessing to people in over 140 nations around the world.

We thank God for that.

We thank you for your help in that great work.

And we just rejoice in the privilege of being able to speak on behalf of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and to try our very, very best to urge men and women and boys and girls to trust Him, not only for the saving of their soul, but to govern their day-to-day lives.

Jesus said, I came that they might have life and that they might have it more abundant, and surely both of those, life and abundant life, are to be found as one follows the Lord Jesus Christ and lives according to the teachings of the Blessed Holy Bible.

Thank God for this old book.

The Bible, a light to our feet, a lamp to our path, a sure and certain guide through this troubled world.

We are studying together the Bible book of Philippians, and quite honestly, we have been in this book for so long I can't even tell you what number of broadcast this is in the series.

What I do know is we are in the middle of Philippians chapter number three and have been for many, many programs.

But there's no point in rushing through.

You may as well enjoy it.

If you went to a beautiful uh resort location uh to uh take a little recreation and vacation time, you wouldn't want to leave it in a hurry.

You'd want to stay there as long as you possibly could.

And here we are in the midst of a beautiful portion of God's word, and there's no reason to race through it and move on to something else.

Not that not that all parts of God's word aren't wonderful, not that we wouldn't move to an equally blessed portion of Scripture, but we may as well enjoy what we have here while we have it.

Now, on the last program we were talking about this matter of our inheritance.

We're on in Philippians 3, Philippians 3, and uh we've been looking at verses 13 and 14, really on down to this matter of our inheritance.

And the Bible says the Bible says that uh our inheritance is incorruptible, it's undefiled, it fadeth not away.

It is reserved in heaven for us, and thank God for that.

What a what a marvelous thing that the Lord has provided for us a future that is sure, a future that is blessed, a future that is wonderful indeed.

Now, verse number fifteen.

The Bible says, Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, that is, fully mature in the Christian faith.

We've established that on prior lessons.

Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded.

Remember chapter one, we've got to allow the Holy Spirit through the Word of God to govern our thought process.

So we have to learn, this is the whole idea of this book of Philippians, we have to learn to think of ourselves and of our lives in tur in biblical terms, in the sense in which God has made them.

The reality of our lives is not just temporal trials, troubles, difficulties, hardships.

Everybody knows that.

But saved people have more than that.

They have the working of God in their lives through these troubles and trials to bring them to the place where they are like the Lord Jesus.

And so he wants us to think that way, to be thus minded, have a biblical, a God oriented, truth oriented mindset.

Be thus minded, and if anything in anything he be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

Now you've got to remember that God wants you to be a mature, fully developed, completely blessed Christian.

Those areas of your life, those areas of my life, where we are not living in agreement with and in accord with the will of God, according to the Word of God, the Lord said he would bring those to our mind.

Now, first of all, what God can do, and then secondly, what God can't do, okay?

First of all, God can bring to our minds those areas where we are lacking in Christian duty, Christian obedience, lacking in faith, and so forth.

How can he do this?

First of all, he can do it through the convicting work of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

God can just nudge our hearts, nudge our consciences, and make known to us that something isn't right, and the Lord is perfectly capable of addressing that something directly through our conscience.

He can tell you you're not going to hear voices, you're not going to see visions, you'll just know in the depth of your heart that something in your life is causing spiritual trouble and unrest.

Now, there's only one way to know for certain that's the work of God.

And so here's the second way that God brings these truths to our minds.

When we begin to be troubled and bothered, convicted or stirred regarding something, we immediately search the scriptures to see what the Bible says about that matter.

For example, let's suppose that I am really having some tough and difficult times in my life, and I begin to sense inwardly that God is displeased with something in my life and would like to correct it.

I imagine in the night seasons that God is unhappy with me because my hair is brown.

And I imagine as I search my heart that it must be that God wants me to change my hair from brown to blonde.

Now, does he or does he not?

You say, Well I feel like it, I sense it, I think it might be so, but there's only one way to try that spirit and see whether it be of God.

I open the Bible and I search the Bible from one end to the other to find out what God says about brown hair and what God says about blonde hair.

When I finish my search and realize that God says nothing about the color of my hair, I chalk that up to my imagination, and I say, Well, there's something God is dealing with me about, but it certainly can't be that, because there's no scriptural support for such a notion.

Now, let's suppose as I continue to wrestle with this uneasiness in my soul, I begin to think maybe, maybe God doesn't care what color my hair is, but it might bother God that I as a man have very long hair.

That my hair is why I could put it in a ponytail, I could put it in a bun, I could braid it, I could do all kinds of things with my hair, and I think maybe, maybe that's the problem.

And so I begin to search and study my Bible.

And I come across in my Bible reading the Corinthian passage that says, If a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him, just as it would be a shameful thing for a woman to close crop and shortly cut her hair.

Now, I have a scriptural reason for my spiritual uneasiness.

There is something in my life that is displeasing to God as stated by the Holy Bible.

Now, the next thing that happens God could speak to me, can speak to me, does speak to me through His people.

Let's suppose I haven't searched the scriptures, and I go to church, and I sit there in my church clothes with my ponytail, sitting next to my wife with her crew cut, and the preacher reads the Corinthian passage and says, According to the word of God, it is a shame for a man to have long hair, it is a shame for a woman to have short hair.

Now that is God using a saved man, could use a saved woman to point out to me something in my life that is lacking or incorrect.

Now, how do I know if that person's telling me the truth or not?

How do I know if I should hearken to that individual's attempt to correct me?

Well, did they quote from the Holy Bible in its context?

If the answer is yes, we see illustrated how God uses people to bring to our mind those things which are not yet perfect.

Now, let's suppose by contrast, after that church service, Christians are gathered round about the church property as they do, and some of them are boldly denouncing what the preacher preached.

No sooner have they left the church house than they are denouncing what the preacher preached and saying, Well, I don't see why it matters if a man has long hair.

I don't see why that preacher has to meddle in how long a woman's hair is, and and so you could consult with those people who may well be saved, but they would direct you or instruct you to go against the word of God, because in their lives they don't love the Lord and aren't interested in living according to his word, but would rather live it accord with their own opinions.

So God can speak to me through my conscience, but that would be verified by the word.

God can speak to me through other Christians, but that would be verified by the word.

God can speak to me directly through his word.

In all cases, why would I take offense and be angry?

Rather I should thank God that he wants me perfect, I should thank God that he wants to teach and instruct me, and I should thank him for using any means at his disposal in order to bring about my spiritual benefit.

So that's what God can do.

Now, here's what God cannot do.

You ready?

Well, God can do everything.

No, he can't.

He can't save a sinner that doesn't trust Jesus.

He can't lie.

He can't remember the sins that are under the blood of Jesus Christ.

There's plenty God can't do.

Now here's something God can't do.

He cannot force you to correct that which he shows you to be lacking in your life.

If you are willing, God can make you able.

If you have a sincere desire, God can and will enable you.

But he is not going to force you to serve him against your will.

You better get that.

People say, Well, I just believe if God doesn't want me to do it, he'll stop me.

You're wrong.

Well, I just believe if it's what God wants, uh sooner or later I'll end up doing it whether I want to or not.

You're wrong.

You're wrong.

God is not willing that any should perish.

But people wake up in hell every day.

God desires that all men come to the knowledge of the truth.

Many never do.

God is not going to force you against your will to go on to spiritual perfection.

Now he'll make it possible if you so desire.

But there's got to be a willing heart.

So the Bible says here God so revealed even this unto you.

Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule.

Let us mind the same thing.

So here's the objective.

Everybody doesn't know everything.

That's a given.

Every Christian does not have every detail of the Christian life worked out yet.

That's a given.

But the scripture says those things we know to be true, those things we have seen to be right.

God expects us to be walking in those proper paths.

That's what he wants.

That's what he desires.

God wants me to be obedient to all truth that has been revealed unto me.

Now this why, my brother and my sister, you've got to avoid getting on the criticism railroad and setting yourself up as the judge and jury as to who's spiritual and who's not, and who's serving God and who's not.

Here's why.

You don't know how much light that person has.

You don't know how much truth God has revealed to that particular individual.

They may be, they may be sincerely walking in all known truth and not be living anywhere near the depth of Christian experience that you're living.

That doesn't make them guilty.

Now let's suppose, let's suppose you know for a fact, well, let's just stay with it.

Let's just suppose you know for a fact that the Bible says it is a shame for a man to have long hair.

If you know that for a fact, you've seen it in the Bible, you have read it with your eyes, you know that's what the Bible says.

If you, sir, have long hair.

You say how long is long?

You know, you know.

If you if you have read that and know that for a fact and you have long hair, you are living in rebellion against God.

If you, sister, know that the Bible says long hair is the God given glory of a woman.

And you choose, you choose to dispatch that glory contrary to the word of God, you are violating God's word and willfully disobeying the plain teaching of the Holy Spirit.

Now, next to you in the church house may be a man with hair down to his belt, and sitting next to him may be a woman with her hair looking like she just joined the United States Marine Corps.

But in the three weeks they've been saved, the Lord certainly didn't see fit to address that issue.

Not yet, not in their lives.

Now, to those individuals who are not willfully violating known truth, God is going to deal with them in an entirely different fashion than he is going to deal with the person who knows the truth and has rejected it because they are Lord of their own lives.

They have not submitted themselves to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Now you must, you must be able to see and understand that difference, that distinction, or you are going to walk about a critical, self-righteous Pharisee that causes nothing but trouble everywhere you go.

That's pretty plain.

But that's my job.

My job is to come on the radio and talk plain and give you the parts of the Bible nobody else is going to give you when you turn on the Christian radio.

That's my job.

Somebody's got to do it.

So I sure like the preaching of the cross program because they never ask for money.

What good would it do?

The way I preach, the topics I cover, we gotta foot our own bill.

The Bible says in verse number 17, brethren, be followers together of me and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensemble.

Okay?

Now we're pressing toward a mark.

There are some people who are running the race in the proper way, and we should identify them as persons worthy of being followed, and we should follow them as closely as possible.

Again, these self-righteous Pharisees say, Well, I don't follow any man.

Well, then you're not living according to the Bible.

The Bible says men that are going the right direction that are farther down the road than you are, you ought to be following them.

They are showing you the pathway, they are setting a good example for you, and you would do well to follow their example.

Now a person that wants to be a skilled musician gladly takes instruction and correction from genuinely skilled musicians.

A person who wants to be a master carpenter gladly takes instruction and correction from a master carpenter.

A person who wants to excel in any field gladly takes reproof and direction from someone who has excelled in that field.

I would say to you, and I say it without apology, I say it without any condition because it's absolutely true, if you desire to be a good Christian, you will follow, listen to, take correction from, learn from good Christians.

And if you won't take rebuke, won't take correction, won't follow anyone's example, you have no desire to be a good Christian.

Now, that's the fact of the matter.

It can't be denied.

Now, in your Bible we have this word, verse 17, as so also as ye have us for an N sample.

Now, if you don't have a King James Bible, somebody misled you.

You might be deliberately rejecting the truth of the purity and perfection of God's Word, or you just might not know any better.

But but in the in the Holy Bible, the King James Bible, we have words like this one, an sample.

And people come along and say, Well, we need a modern Bible, we need to rewrite the Bible because that word and sample is hard to understand, and we don't use that word much anymore.

Well, sure we do.

I use it every time I read Philippians chapter number three.

I use it every time I teach from Philippians chapter three.

It's not an archaic word.

An archaic word is a word that's no longer in use.

This word is still in use.

Every time a Bible preacher preaching from the Bible comes across this word, they use it.

And that's frequently.

So this word is still in use.

It's not an archaic word.

In fact, in less than two minutes, I'm going to show you what this word means, which will be cheaper than getting a new Bible.

And you will see that having and using this word is better than getting a modern Bible that doesn't have the word because you'll miss truth.

Are you ready for this?

Example, the modern word.

E X A M P L E.

That is one person or one thing serving as an example.

N sample.

This word E N and then sample.

Not EX, E N.

N sample.

You know what that is?

That is a plurality of examples.

One man is an example.

A church full of men, they are n samples.

So you see what you have?

You have two words, one the singular form, one the plural form, and it gives the Bible a greater depth of meaning than if you threw out one of the words because somebody didn't know what it meant.

Now you know what the word means, you have the deeper and fuller meaning, and you don't have to abandon the pure and perfect word of God for a corrupt modern translation.

So we are to follow not just one man, the preacher, but every man, every woman, even every child that is walking in the right way, we should follow them in that right way and learn what we can learn from everyone who is going in the direction of that mark toward which we are pressing.

I'm glad that God has given me so many good people, so many good ensamples to follow in my life, to help me on my way.

The more the merrier.

I'm all for it.

I need all the help I can get.

People say that and then get unhappy when you try to help them.

I mean it.

I need all the help that I can get, and I thank God He has provided it in this wonderful body of Christ, His glorious church.

Alright, we've got to stop there.

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