Philippians (Lesson 38)

All right, now greetings to one and all in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.

I'm Brother James, and I'm welcome you once again to the Preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast.

Glad that you've tuned into the program today.

I hope and pray that you'll be able to stay with us for the full half an hour as we study together once again from this marvelous Bible book of Philippians.

We come today to one of those words, one of those words that is used in God's word, that is rarely used outside God's word in the same sense.

And so we're going to be very careful as we read and study together, starting at Philippians 3 and verse number 20, the Bible says, For our conversation is in heaven.

Now why should we, for those of you that have not been with us, we'll go back and review some context here, why should we press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus?

Why should we count those things that pertain to our old life as dung?

Why should we carefully shun the enemies of the cross of Jesus Christ who would have us live after fleshy pursuits rather than spiritual pursuits because our conversation is in heaven.

Now the objective here, the idea here is that our manner of life should be governed and controlled by the resurrection life that we will enjoy when we reach the other side.

That we should not have one manner of living, thinking, acting, dealing with man down here, and a completely different way of doing things once we leave this world and go to heaven.

Conversation doesn't just mean what you talk about.

Conversation, the Bible, is the word that means the general course of manners, of behavior, of deportment.

In other words, in the Bible, conversation is the way we live our lives.

Now the Bible says we not only have a heavenly inheritance, as we've discussed on past programs, but that we are supposed to have a heavenly conversation.

That is, my manners, my behavior, my deportment is not to be dictated by earthly things, but it is to be dictated by heavenly things.

So on the program today, we're going to run through the New Testament and see what the scriptures have to say about this matter of our conversation.

Let's look first of all at Ephesians chapter number two.

Ephesians chapter number two.

As we said on the last program, the Bible calls for a changed life.

The Bible evidence of salvation is a change in behavior.

Ephesians 2, verse 2 says this, wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Ephesians 2:2

Now, when God says, Those of us that are born again, when he refers to the born again Christian, he speaks of the course of this world as something the Christian took part of in the past.

When he speaks of the Prince of the Power of the Air dictating behavior, he said for the child of God, such took place in the past.

When he said there was a spirit in an individual that made them disobedient, he says the control of that spirit was in the past.

Why is it that so many preachers and Christians today want to make God a liar and say, oh no, it's the present.

That's not the Bible.

The Bible says you used to be following the lust of your flesh.

You used to be fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.

You used to be the children of wrath.

And that course of action is summed up in the word conversation.

Now the Bible clearly says the saved man has a manner of life, a pattern of behavior, a general course of action.

But it's not the one that he had before he got saved.

It is no longer the rule, it is no longer the controlling influence.

You know, I'm so afraid that our churches are filled with people who have been converted intellectually, but not in reality.

They have assented to the facts of the gospel, but they have never surrendered their heart to the power of the gospel.

And that's evident because there's clearly no distinguishable past life and present life.

Now look what the Bible says in Ephesians chapter four.

Ephesians four and verse number twenty two, that ye put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

Now look, here's a conversation, but what's it called?

Here's a manner of life, but what's it called?

It's called the former conversation.

It's something that a man put off when he came to know Jesus Christ as Savior.

So it's clear from the Bible that conversation has to do with the entirety of how one lives.

And it's also clear from the Bible that how one lives after they are saved is going to be markedly different from how they lived before they got saved.

Galatians chapter one.

Galatians chapter one, verse thirteen.

For you have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted it.

Suppose Paul came to town and threw a bunch of Christians in jail and persecuted a group of believers, and then had a few saints put to death on Friday, and after doing all that he said, Oh, and by the way, if you'll come back Sunday, I'll be preaching about how Jesus changed my life.

Would you believe him?

Who would want to hear him?

What credibility would he have if he talked about his former life but was still living just like he lived before he supposedly messed Jesus, you wouldn't believe him.

It's not entirely the fault of Hollywood that you can't give out gospel tracts anymore.

It's not entirely the fault of the news media and atheists and Satanists that you can't get lost people to come to church.

Oh, they've played a part in it.

But the primary difficulty we face today is the rotten lives and hypocrisy on the part of those who claim to be Christians.

The world wants to see a difference, they want to see a change.

And when they don't, when they don't, they know you don't possess the genuine article.

If you're not being persecuted by the world for your faith, your faith is not evident to the world.

You got that?

Alright, 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse number 7.

2 Peter 2 · chapter mention

2 Peter chapter 2 and verse number 7.

2 Peter 2 · chapter mention

The Bible says here that God delivered just Lot from the destruction, the fire that fell upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

And God delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked.

You know what God calls the manner of life that is lived by those who do not love Him and believe on Him?

He calls it filthy.

If you ask me for a drink of water, and I said, Here's water, but before you drink it, I'm gonna put some mud in there, and I'm gonna put some trash in there, and I'm gonna put some poison in there, and then I'm gonna scrape some stuff off the bottom of my shoe and put it in there.

If I handed you that glass of water, you'd say, That's filthy.

I'm not drinking that.

Well, this world offers you a manner of life that is complete with dirty and vile and filthy and profane and abusive and wicked, living of every variety.

And they see here, drink this.

Their thoughts are vile, their language is vile, their approach to relationships is vile, their attitude toward God is vile, and they say, Come on, drink it up.

We're really living.

God said, Why would you want a conversation, a manner of life that is filthy?

You wouldn't drink out of a dirty glass, you wouldn't eat with a dirty fork, you wouldn't take a meal that was saved to you on a dirty plate.

Why would you go to the church and want a preacher that wouldn't preach against filthy living?

Why would you want to go to church and fellowship with people who called themselves Christians whose lives were filthy?

I don't understand.

First Peter chapter one, verse eighteen says this.

I don't care what you pursue in this world, it may be legitimate, it may not be legitimate, it may be acceptable, it may not be acceptable, it may be moral, it may be immoral, but you're going to come to a point someday in your life when you will have to realize if Jesus Christ is not in this thing, it amounts to absolutely nothing.

It's totally empty, it's worthless, it's a waste of time.

You can have no money, or you can give it all away and live in a monastery, or you can be a millionaire.

You can wake up one morning and look in the mirror and say, Is this it?

Rich or poor?

You can be famous or you can be a nobody.

But you'll wake up one morning and say, What's the use?

Now I'm asking you, I'm asking you, my friend, that life that you lived before you met Jesus that amounted to absolutely nothing that would carry with it any value into eternity.

Nothing about that old life mattered at all to the host of heaven praising the Lord of glory.

Now let me ask you something.

Since you supposedly got saved, what's any different about your life?

The way you spend your time, the things you do, the desires and longings of your heart?

If none of those things have changed, what do you mean by I got saved?

What do you mean when you say I've been born again?

In Second Corinthians chapter one and verse number twelve, the Bible says, For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world and more abundantly to your word.

Okay, here's what we're after.

God wants us to be in the world, but to be possessed of a heavenly conversation.

God wants the world around me so that I can proclaim the gospel to that world, but He doesn't want the world influencing me, He wants me influencing the world.

There's no problem when the ship is in the sea, but when the sea is in the ship, you've got troubles.

There's no problem when a Christian is in the world, but that when the world is in a Christian, you've got troubles.

There's no problem when the church is in the world, but when the world is in the church, it's a mess.

So God wants me to have a former conversation, one that's over and done, one that brought him no pleasure and no glory, and he wants me to have a present conversation while I'm in this world, one that brings honor and glory to the Lord.

Okay, Philippians 1 27.

Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ.

I'm not big on fashion.

Not at all.

Not at all.

Uh something, you know, something matches, that's that's how it's supposed to go.

You're supposed to be color coordinated.

You know, the shirt, the jacket, the pants, the shoes, the belt, the socks.

I suppose those things only matter in countries where people are rich enough to actually be able to choose what they wear.

But anyway, anyway.

Um something doesn't match, it gets noticed, it stands out, something's out of place.

If you hit every note right in a song, but one, chances are pretty good the one note would be more noticeable than all those that you that you got correct.

Now, God says, Go to church, that's good.

Sing hymns of praise to the Lord, that's good.

Read your Bible, that's good.

Pray, that's good, work hard, that's good, pay your bills, that's good.

Be kind to your family, that's good.

Right in the middle of all that, I can't control my temper, and I have these violent outbursts.

What happens on my job?

All other things that were good fade into the background, and that which is not becoming the gospel of Christ gets noticed.

It stands out, it attracts attention.

So the Lord said, I'm gonna let my behavior, my course of conduct match in every way the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That would settle a lot of questions, wouldn't it, about what's right, what's wrong, what's acceptable, what's not acceptable.

If it doesn't fit the testimony that brings honor and glory to Jesus Christ, do away with it.

Look in 1 Timothy 4, 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse number 12.

1 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

Here the Bible says, Let no man despise thy youth.

But be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

So people ought to be able to look at how I live, how you live, how we conduct ourselves, how we behave in a given situation, and see without reading a Bible, and see without studying the word what a believer in Jesus Christ is supposed to be.

Okay?

We should show the world what Jesus can do for a marriage.

We should show thou what Jesus can do for a father, a mother, a bossman, a working man.

We should show thou how Jesus can take a filthy life and a vain life and make it a clean life and a meaningful life.

It should be evident in our conversation governed by centered upon heaven.

Hebrews thirteen verse five.

Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye have, for he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.

Now your money doesn't say that.

It says bye bye.

Your health doesn't say that it says see you later.

Your friends don't say that.

Often they'll bail out on you.

Because only the Lord will never leave you, and only the Lord will never forsake you, we should stop coveting after things which we know to be temporary, things which we know we can't put our full and complete trust in.

And we should rather let our conversation be governed by the sure and certain knowledge that the one thing we have in this world that we can count on now and forever is the abiding presence of a loving God.

Amen.

First Peter 1 14, as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts, in your ignorance, but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy.

First Peter 21.

Dear Loved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims as stain from fleshly lust, which war against the soul, having your conversation honest among the Gentiles.

See, I walk among, I walk among lost people, but I am to live so that lost people see that I am not under the controlling influence of the lust of my flesh like everyone else around them, but there is a kind and loving and gracious and merciful and clean and pure and holy God in heaven who governs my conversation.

First Peter three one.

Likewise ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, back, if any obey not the word.

They also may without the word be one by the conversation, the conversation of the wives.

Now watch, I'll show you.

Conversation is not what you say.

He said, Without the word, but by the conversation.

It's manner of living, it's your way of life.

While they behold, verse two, your chaste conversation coupled with fear.

So the Bible makes it very, very clear.

People want to see your Christianity in evidence.

And God wants them to see your Christianity in evidence.

You say, will that make them all get saved?

No way.

You say, will that turn them all to Jesus?

No, it won't.

But it'll please God.

And it'll keep you from being someone's excuse for going to hell.

1 Peter 3.16 proves this, having a good conscience that whereas they speak evil of you as evil do as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.

Now it doesn't matter how you live, unsaved people are going to criticize you if you're a Christian.

But the Lord says, I want you to live so that when they accuse you, it's not true.

You can't stop them from speaking against you, you can't stop them from saying bad things about God's people, you can't stop them from trying to tear down the gospel witness, but you can live.

So that when they say those things, they've got to lie.

Because the charges they're making and the accusations they are making are not true.

Jesus stood before Pilate.

Pilate heard all the accusations and said, I find no fault in this man.

That's the objective.

I cannot live in this world without men accusing me, without men condemning me, without men speaking evil of me, it is not possible.

It happened to Jesus Christ.

But here's what I can do: this is what God wants me to do.

He wants me to live so that the charges are false.

And when I live in this present, evil, ungodly world as a clean, pure, holy, righteous, godly, decent individual, that brings pleasure to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And that brings evidence that all may behold that Jesus Christ has done a genuine work in my life because that's not the way I used to live.

That's not the way I used to conduct myself.

That's not the type of activity, behavior, language, and so forth that once characterized my life what made the difference.

It was Jesus Christ.

It was Jesus Christ.

Now, I hope, I hope that you know Jesus Christ is your Savior.

And you are not going to be saved by your good works.

Don't, don't for a second misunderstand what I've said.

I have I am not, I am not in any way suggesting that your good works will get you to heaven.

But I am reading you what the Bible says about your conversation, and it's pretty clear that if you are going to heaven, there will be some indication thereof in your life.

There'll be an old life that's not yours anymore, and there'll be a new life that is yours, that you didn't produce, but that was produced by the indwelling Holy Spirit, ministering to you the mind of Christ and the love of God, and you will praise the Lord, be different.

That's what God wants to do.

He wants to take an old vain, useless life and make it a life that results in his getting praise to his name, and he sure is worthy of it.

Amen and amen.

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