In the previous chapter, Paul has been talking about the Christian life in terms of service and sacrifice.  And he gave us several examples of how we are to do that, starting with following in the footsteps of Christ, and then following the examples of Paul, Timothy and Epaphroditus. 

But there is an important point in our service and sacrifice that needs to be clarified, and  that is what Paul is emphasizing today.  And the point is that there is a real Christianity which is marked by righteousness accomplished by the Spirit working  through my flesh, and there is a false Christianity which is marked by my attempting to attain righteousness through works of the flesh.  And this is a very important distinction.  Because one is the result of a true salvation based on faith and the other results in a false salvation based on works.

Now this distinction is extremely important.  We need to be discerning in regards to the truth of the gospel and guard against deviations from the truth which can result in the shipwreck of your faith.  It’s important to know sound doctrine, and furthermore to be able to discern between truth and error. 

The proper Christian walk must be guided by what the Word of God actually says, as opposed to a knee jerk reaction that is based on sentimentality or emotion. So Paul is going to balance this out for us as he goes through this text and we are going to look specifically at the first three verses today.  He starts by saying “finally”, which is a preacher term that means getting a second wind.  It doesn’t really have anything to do with the amount of time it will take to finish.  In this case, it means Paul is only half way done.  So finally, in my case, I’m ready to leave my introduction and start the exegesis of the first verse.

Paul says in verse one, “finally then brethren, rejoice in the Lord.”  And by now we should know that rejoice or joy is a key word in this book.  Paul uses it over and over again.  And what it means, by way of a reminder, is that we find our joy in the Lord.  Not in circumstances which may change from day to day.  We don’t find joy in some fleeting happiness due to external situations that we find ourselves in.  But our joy is in the constancy of our relationship with the Lord.  He never changes.  His promises are everlasting.  Our joy is found in the hope of His appearing.

 But I don’t want to just string a lot of platitudes together in a row and hope it sounds spiritual.  I want you to understand the faith that finds joy in the Lord whether in pain or sorrow, sickness or health, fortune or poverty.  That can only be found in keeping your focus on Jesus Christ.  That can only be found when I am surrendered to Him completely.  And that can only be experienced when I have completely given Him my heart to do with what He wills.  When my life is committed to live for Him and for His purposes.  A joy like Paul and Silas had when they were flogged and thrown in prison and they sang hymns all night.  A joy like Peter and the disciples had when they were flogged for preaching about Jesus and they rejoiced that they were considered worthy to suffer for Him.  That kind of joy.

Paul continues in vs 1;  “To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you.”  Paul had either written them before or more than likely, some of his earlier letters to other churches had circulated through the church at Philippi as well.  But the point that Paul is making is that repetition is an aid to learning.  I sometimes am accused of repeating things from week to week.  I suppose that comes with getting old.  But part of that comes from the fact that the same doctrines and principles are repeated over and over again in the Bible.  And so if you’re preaching book by book, you’re going to be repeating some of the same principles in each book.  Paul is alluding to that here. 

 And secondly, repetition is a great aid to learning.  This is how you memorize songs, or verses or your multiplication tables for that matter.  This is one of the benefits of good hymns by the way.  Through repetition you can learn doctrine.  And so repetition is a safeguard for us.  It’s like first responders practicing a rescue maneuver over and over again so that when they are actually in a dangerous situation they know exactly what to do.  So Paul is saying “I don’t mind repeating these things because it will result in your confirmation.”

So much effort is being spent today in churches trying to find some new way of presenting the gospel.  But the true ministry of the gospel is not born out of novelty, but out of repetition.  Newness is something that the Holy Spirit brings to light through passages and pathways worn out with familiarity.   Each time you read some of these well worn passages, God can bring out something new and exciting and revelatory. 

And then starting in Vs. 2 Paul is going to compare and contrast true Christianity with false Christianity.  He says,  “Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision;   3  “for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh…”

First, he describes the character of the false teachers of false Christianity.  He says they are dogs.  Today in our culture, dogs are thought of as slightly superior to people.  We love our dogs.  I’ve even seen a prayer which says, “Lord help me to be the kind of man my dog thinks I am.”  But in Paul’s day, dogs were not viewed with the same kind of sentiment.  Dogs were not pets, they were vicious, unclean, snarling, barking feral animals that roomed the streets in packs.  Interestingly, the Jews of that day called anyone that wasn’t a Jew a dog.  It was a term of disdain, a slur on one’s character.   And this is what Paul is getting to here.  These false teachers were Judaisers.  They were people that were trying to lay Jewish ceremonial laws upon the backs of these people in Philippi, claiming that in order to really be of the real family of God, you must include rituals like circumcision.  And Paul turns the tables on these people who called the uncircumcised Gentiles dogs, and instead he calls them dogs.  He sees their character as unclean, vicious, snarling, barking dogs that bring unnecessary worry and distractions upon the church.

I’ve always had a fear of dogs which I think was brought on by being bitten by a German Shepherd when I was about 3 years old and having to go to the hospital.  But when I was a young boy I had a paper route that seemed to have a vicious dog on every street.  My brother also had a paper route.  But he never seemed to finish his route.  Dad would come looking for him before dark and he would be playing football with some kids and his bike would be laying there with all his papers.  I tried to be conscientious and do my work, and for my labors my dad made me take over my brother’s route as well.  So I had two paper routes.  

Anyhow, these routes were full of dogs that just ran loose back then.  There were some houses that I was scared to death to deliver the paper to.  I would try to creep down the street as quietly as I could until I got a house or two away, then I’d get my paper ready and start peddling as fast as I could and throw the paper.  I didn’t care if it landed in the street, my focus was on getting past that house as quickly as I could.  And sure enough, that dog would hear my bike clanking down the street, baskets shaking and chain rattling and he would come out like a bear after her cubs.  It was a scary thing. I was so afraid of those dogs that I would never collect money from those houses.  I had to deliver the paper cause they would call the office and complain, but every week or so we were supposed to go from house to house and collect 25 cents.  And I wouldn’t go to those houses because their dogs would come out and try to bite me. 

That’s maybe the gist of what these dogs Paul was describing were doing to the church at Philippi.  They had them so worried and confused.  And what Paul was afraid of  was that they would end up depriving the church of the joy and peace that should have been theirs. So dogs describes the character of false teachers that worry and cause the believer undue alarm.

Secondly, Paul describes the conduct of the false teachers.  He calls them evil workers.  The word for evil can also be interpreted as depraved.  It’s referring to the inward motives of these false teachers.  Not only were they men of bad character, but they were men of bad desires that was worked out in their actions.  Their words promised peace but inwardly Jesus said in Matthew 7 they were ravenous wolves.  In  Matthew 23:28 Jesus said to the false teachers “So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

Thirdly Paul describes the claims of the false teachers.  “Beware of the false circumcision.”  And the word used for false circumcision is “karatome”.  It literally means mutilation.  It was used in the OT to describe the prophets of Baal as they whirled and danced and slashed themselves with knives hoping to appease their gods and goad them to action.  So Paul is saying here that these Judaisers, these false teachers who are trying to add that in order to be saved you needed to be circumcised and keep the ceremonial laws of Moses, Paul is calling these guys mutilators. 

See, Jewish people distinguished themselves as a nation by the fact that they were circumcised.  The actually referred to themselves as being “of the circumcision,”  meaning they were Jewish.  They called Gentiles the “Uncircumcised”.  For them, circumcision had lost it’s spiritual significance, and become a cultural, nationalistic significance.  They believed that it was a means of grace.  A means of securing God’s blessing.  And they failed to understand that like all the ceremonial laws, it was merely intended to be symbolic, an outward sign of what had happened inwardly.  So Paul uses a play upon words and calls these false prophets the mutilators rather than the circumcision. 

And this is still going on today in our modern churches. There are rituals and ceremonies that certain false teachers are trying to lay on people by saying that to be full citizens in the kingdom of God, as a condition to full righteousness, then one must  add certain rituals and ceremonies and laws.  And perhaps they don’t call it circumcision, but they may call it baptism, or they say you have to take the sacraments, or you have to keep certain dietary laws, or keep the Sabbath, or keep certain feast days or holy days.  And to the degree that any of those things are a means of obtaining right standing or righteousness before God, they are in fact nothing less than this false circumcision that Paul is talking about here.  They teach a dependence upon a ritual for salvation and consequently Paul says they have fallen from grace. Paul said in Gal 5:4 that if you had circumcision as a requirement for salvation then “You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.”  He says, “Christ is no longer any benefit to you.” 

It’s like the guy trying to swim across the Atlantic.  And a boat comes by and offers him a ride.  Nope, he says, I think I can make it, thank you very much.  He may have all the best intentions in the world.  He may even be a good swimmer.  But there is no way he’s going to swim the Atlantic.  And as the boat, his salvation, sails away, that offer of salvation is no longer any benefit to him.  It’s no benefit to him because he is not in the boat which was his salvation.  He has chosen to try to make it in his own power. So it is with salvation.  It’s either by faith in Jesus Christ by which we receive His righteousness as a gift of God, or it’s by our own efforts at righteousness, by which no one the Bible says will see God. Rom 11:6 “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.”

Now let’s look at what Paul says the true Christian life looks like.  Vs. 3. “for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.”  First of all, we need to know what circumcision is, or what it was supposed to be.  It was an OT law given to Abraham and for his children, which preceded the law given to Moses at Mt. Sinai, and therefore was considered by Jews to be of greater importance than any of the other laws.  At 8 days old, a baby boy was to be circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.  And though it is believed that it has some physical benefits in terms of hygiene, the main purpose that God imposed this ordinance was to be a symbol of salvation.  The act itself had little benefit.  It wasn’t exactly something that could be seen by the average person, so it obviously was not meant to be some outward manifestation of righteousness.  But it was an individual symbol of obedience to God, separation unto God, cleanliness and purity unto God, but most importantly  a reminder that there needed to be a cutting away of the flesh, so that we would be able to produce spiritual fruit for God.  It was a physical reminder that in the flesh, in our own efforts we could not produce true fruit for God.  It was also a reminder that this reproductive member of our bodies would always produce in it’s natural state, another sinful seed, just as from Adam’s seed,  so the sin nature was passed on to every man that has been born.   So circumcision pictured the spiritual cutting away of the flesh, that enables the work of the Spirit.  Circumcision is the symbol of salvation, the cutting away of the flesh, so that we might walk in the Spirit.

So Paul says we, the New Testament believer, primarily Gentiles,  are the true circumcision.  The true Christian is one who has been circumcised in their heart. Col 2:11 says, “ in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ;”  Rom 2:29 says,  “But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.”

In the new covenant, the ceremonial laws were set aside. What had been pictured in the ceremonies and rituals of the law had now been replaced with the actual.  Jesus had come in the flesh and fulfilled all the prophetic pictures in the law.  We no longer needed to ascribe to these veiled images that we performed in rituals and ceremonies.  At the cross, the veil of the temple was torn into from top to bottom. 

Hebrews 8 tells us that there were priests in the old covenant  “who offered the gifts according to the Law; who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things,” but “if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second.” However,  “THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS INTO THEIR MINDS, AND I WILL WRITE THEM ON THEIR HEARTS. AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.” 

So what Paul is saying here is the exact same thing.  The circumcision of the old covenant has been replaced by a circumcision of the heart in the new covenant which marks the true child of God.    So firstly then, a true Christian has been circumcised in their hearts, the cutting away of the sinful flesh by the work of the Holy Spirit, as we yield our hearts by faith to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

And then secondly, notice that the true Christian is marked by true worship. Vs.3 “for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.”  Worship is such a misused, misunderstood term today in the church.  I hear pastors and music leaders refer to “leading worship” as a time of singing songs or listening to the singing of songs.  I can assure you, that is not what worship is talking about. 

Notice that it says, “who worship in the Spirit of God”.  And in some religious circles that gives license to all sorts of crazy, weird stuff that is believed to be of the Spirit simply because it’s crazy and weird.  But 1John 4:1 says, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

So first, let’s define our terms.  Here is the Greek concordance definition of worship. 

Worship; latreuō: 1) to serve for hire.  2) to serve, minister to, either to the gods or men and used alike of slaves and freemen.  a) in the NT, to render religious service.

b) to perform sacred services, to offer gifts, to worship God in the observance of the rites instituted for his worship.  c) of priests, to officiate, to discharge the sacred office. 

Obviously, this is a term used to describe the duties of a priest of God.  To minister to God by rendering service.  Now, you could make the point that praising God in song may be a part of that, and I would not argue with that.  However, I would qualify that point with the verse found in Matt. 15:8   ‘THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME.  BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.'”

Once again, we see this constant emphasis on the heart, the soul of man, the seat of the mind and emotions which must be changed, circumcised by the Holy Spirit in order to produce fruit for God.  People often wonder what it means to be in the Spirit, or to walk in the Spirit, and the best way I have been able to describe it is that it is the result of crucifying the flesh.  When the flesh is cut off, when the flesh is crucified, when the flesh is put to death every day, then the Spirit can work through my dead flesh to perform services to God.  It doesn’t mean that somehow I don’t struggle against sin.  It doesn’t mean that  a spiritual life does not take any effort or discipline on my part, it doesn’t mean that the Holy Spirit is somehow going to overwhelm me and I just need to put it in neutral and let the Holy Spirit move me like I’m some sort of robot or puppet. 

No, it means that when I submitted my life to Christ as Lord, the Holy Spirit changed my desires.  He has written God’s laws upon my heart.  I now want to do the things of God, to be pleasing to God. Ephesians 6 tells us that the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God.  And Hebrews 4:12 says that “the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”  So the Spirit, working through the Word of God cuts away the flesh that we might walk in the Spirit.  To walk in the Spirit requires a sacrifice, a crucifixion of my flesh. This is what Romans 12:1 is talking about when it says, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” 

See, we’ve been saved to become instruments of God, ministers of God, priests of God, that render true worship to God.  You were bought and paid for, you were ransomed from sin to become priests of the Most High God. Do you not realize that you are a priest of God?  1Cor 6:19 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?  For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”

1Pet 2:5 says, “you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”  What sacrifices is Peter talking about?  What kind of services are we supposed to be rendering to God? 1Pet 2:9  “But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”

We are to be a light unto the world that is in darkness.  Our behavior is supposed to be exemplary. Remember Phil. 2:15?  We are to “prove ourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world.”   We are to let no unwholesome word come out of our mouth.  We are to be witnesses of the gospel of salvation.  We are to be about the ministry of the kingdom of heaven, and not enslaved by the kingdom of this world. We are to pray lifting up unsoiled hands, living holy, exemplary lives in our communities, to our neighbors, to our fellow workers, under the authority of our leaders.  This is our ministry.  That’s  the short list of our priestly service.

Finally, there is that word again finally… finally, vs. 3 sums it up with the two simple phrases which characterize the true Christian  “who… glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.”  A true Christian glories in Christ Jesus not in his flesh.  See the false teachers glory in the flesh.  Their spirituality is nothing but a mask of pride in their flesh.  But the true Christian puts no trust in the flesh.  He sees the flesh for what it is, a sinful heart which needs to be cut away by the power of the Holy Spirit, which results in a transformation of our heart.  The unconverted heart of flesh has desires which are sinful, depraved, debased, lustful, prideful, constantly sinning, and which sooner or later are displayed in the body.  Whereas the transformed heart has desires which have been changed by the Holy Spirit because He has written the laws of God upon their hearts, and they result in works of righteousness, service to God, obedience to God, and true worship of God as priests as they continue to crucify the flesh and live in the Spirit.

Folks, until you have had a circumcision of the heart, you cannot please God.  You cannot serve God.  All your righteousness is nothing but filthy rags.  But the heart that submits fully to God in repentance, God will not turn away.  He will come in, and cleanse our hearts, and change our desires.  I hope that you have had that change.  A circumcision made not with hands.  A work not of the flesh, but of the Spirit.  Let’s pray.

We come upon this passage after being introduced by Paul to the principle in verse 5  that we are to have the same attitude, the same mind as Jesus Christ.  That although Jesus is our sacrifice and our substitute, and only He could atone for the sins of the world, yet at the same time, Christ is also supposed to be our example, our pattern for how we are to live.  As Christ humbled himself to be obedient to the Father’s will – so are we to be obedient to God’s will.  As Christ laid down His life on the cross – so should we crucify the lusts of the flesh.  As Christ served the church – so should we serve the kingdom of God.  If we are to one day be glorified with Christ and reign with Him, then the Word tells us that we must also suffer with Him. Rom 8:17 “and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”

But there is a possibility that because Jesus was the Son of God, we might think ourselves excused of really trying too awfully hard to follow Christ’s example.  After all, we might say, “I’m just human.”  Christ was Divine. Since I don’t know what He knew, and I can’t do what He did,  we might feel justified to let Christ do all the sacrificing and serving, and we’ll just settle down comfortably on the couch and let Him do all the work while we watch TV. 

But the Lord wants us to follow Him. He wants us to mature spiritually.  He wants us to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.  So in addition to the example of Christ Paul gives us three earthly examples of humility and servitude and sacrifice.  Examples of men just like us that lived like Jesus lived.  Of men that were purely human.  So number one, Paul gives us himself as an example of sacrifice.  Number two, He gives Timothy as an example of a servant, and number three he gives Epaphroditus as an example of a soldier.  And so we’re going to look briefly at the characteristics of these three men as their lives correspond to the example of Christ.

First of all, Paul presents himself as an example of a sacrifice.  Vs. 17 tells us “But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all.”  The drink offering that he is speaking of there is the wine that was brought with the burnt sacrifice in the Old Testament.  When they offered a burnt lamb for their sins, there was also the requirement that a certain measure of wine would be added to the sacrifice as well.  It was the crowning finish to their sacrifice.  God spoke of it in Numbers 15 as a sweet smelling aroma.   So Paul sees himself as something added to the main course, which is their sacrifice and service.  He was humble enough to recognize that he wasn’t the main thing, he was merely an instrument in accomplishing the finishing of their sacrifice of faith, being the aroma that is quickly burned up to bring them to perfection.

Paul speaks of this sacrifice in 2Cor. 2:14 “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.  For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing;  to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.” 

So the purpose of Paul’s sacrifice is to enhance and finish the service and sacrifice of the church at Philippi.  And he not only is modeling it, he is calling them to it as well.  He is saying that the sacrifice he is making is his joy, and he is rejoicing in being found worthy to be offered in sacrifice.  He sees this sacrifice as an opportunity to better serve Christ and not a burden, and so he rejoices. Back in chapter 1:29 he spoke of this –  “For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me.”

We see a similar example of that rejoicing in trials in Peter and the apostles who were flogged and released with orders not to preach Jesus Christ in Act 5:41  “So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name.”

So Paul also tells the Philippians in vs. 18; “You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me.”  Paul considered it a joy to be called upon by God to render service as a sacrifice, and he is telling the church at Philippi, that great joy comes through great sacrifice. In fact, the greater the sacrifice, the greater the joy. 

What a contrast to the popular message of the church today.  In modern Christianity there is very little mention of sacrifice.  Instead, the gospel is presented as a means of gain, usually financial gain.  “Come to Jesus and live your best life now.” That’s the popular message today.  And if you preach that message, you can fill a football stadium with people who want to have their ears tickled.  But try preaching Romans 12:1,2, “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service,” and you will empty out the church.  And if any one is left, add the next verse;  “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed, by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”  

Folks, to be a disciple of Christ you are going to have to sacrifice some things, but Paul says thats where you find true joy.  The world tells us that joy is found in obtaining possessions.  Whoever dies with the most toys win.  But simply watch your children or grandchildren just a few hours after opening all their toys on Christmas morning and it doesn’t take much deductive powers to recognize that obtaining things of this world doesn’t bring joy.  Real joy, Paul says, comes from sacrificial living in Christ.

Secondly, starting in vs. 19 Timothy is presented as an example of a servant.  Timothy’s whole life had been spent in service to the gospel.  His mother and grandmother had raised him and taught him the Word of God since he was a small child.  And at some point at a young age, Paul leads him to the Lord, and he begins to follow Paul and serve in ministry with Paul.   Note vs.22  “But you know of his proven worth, that he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father.”  And I believe the emphasis there is on serving.  Serving Paul.  Serving the churches.  Serving the gospel.  This was a young man whose entire life was dedicated to the service of the gospel.  And notice the word “proven”.  That ties in with the verse I read from Romans 12, “that you may prove what the will of God is.”  Proven means to have gone through testing and come out the other side still believing, still faithful, still standing.  Timothy proved his faith by service to God.

As far as we know, Timothy did not have a wife, did not have children of his own, did not own  a home, did not have a career.  He left his home, his mother and grandmother at an early age and went on the road with Paul, serving Paul, learning from Paul, sharing in almost all of Paul’s trials and tribulations from Athens, to Corinth, to Thessalonica to even Rome.  He had proven himself faithful.

He shared with the Apostle in all of his trials, and all of his triumphs.  Look at vs. 20: “For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare.”  I remember when my kids were in college, there was a weekend that was designated as parent’s weekend.  And I really felt it was important for us to go see them and support them physically and emotionally.  There is only so much you can do by phone.  I think they were missing home a little by then, school was starting to feel a lot like work, and I felt  it was important for us to reaffirm their commitment by our being there. 

But there were a couple of problems with that.  One, their school was in California, and secondly, there was the matter of my ministry here.  I really haven’t been able to take a Sunday off in 20 years and so I knew that I couldn’t go.  But the next best thing to me going would be if my wife could be there.  And I thought then of this verse in this passage where Paul says, “No one else has a kindred spirit.”  No one else is going to have the same degree of concern for my kids welfare like my wife.  After all, they are her kids too.  And so no one else could possibly feel the same way about my kids and look after my interests than my wife.  I knew she was the next best thing to being there myself.

And perhaps that’s as good an illustration as any of how Paul saw Timothy.  Timothy was as close as a son to him.  And we need to realize that this illustration is an example to us of what Paul is saying should be the attitude of the church.  We should be so unified in our purpose that we have the same love, the same kind of spirit, the same purpose.  We have to lose this type of mentality which sees a separation between clergy and laity.  The Bible doesn’t make that distinction.  There may be different functions, different roles, but there is one body and one purpose.  My hope is that as you spend time in the Word with me, spend time in this church with me, that you will adopt the same love for this church as I have.  And that you will commit yourself fully to serve the church.

Unfortunately though, the modern church has a misconception that the church body exists only to be served by the clergy, instead of being taught that their purpose is also to serve one another as the Bible teaches.  Congregations in many modern churches today are practically anonymous, walking into a darkened auditorium, watching an entertainment driven spectacle on stage, and walking back out again blinking at the sunlight in a confused daze, wondering what it all really has to do with me.

Which leads the average churchgoer to think that Christianity doesn’t really have much application to real life.  It’s presented as some sort of experience where once a week or so you clock in: you go to church, have some sort of emotional driven experience which they call spiritual, and then clock out and go back into the real world.  And that compartmentalizing of what is thought to be spiritual leads to living out our lives in a fleshly, selfish existence. 

I was struck by the phrase, “I have no one of kindred spirit”.  Sometimes it’s easy to get discouraged in ministry when I look around at the lack of commitment, and also at the lack of men and women that are still pressing on for the Lord after being in church for years.  It’s easy to let that get you discouraged.  But in a backhanded kind of way, this statement by Paul is an encouragement to me.  I’m not even 1/10th the man of God that Paul was.  And yet at this time in his life he has very little people around him that are still standing strong.  In 2 Timothy he says, “for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.”  Titus we know was a pastor.  But it seems that Paul is saying here that the lure of this world is so strong, and many people who start out on the journey don’t stay on the path.  They fall away.  And I guess the encouragement for me is that if Paul experienced this, then it should not be thought uncommon if I experience this too.  So instead I thank God for the people that are still standing firm as we continue to preach the Word, in season and out of season, going on our 20th year now.

Far too often the state of the modern church goer  can be summarized in vs. 21: “For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus.”  At best, Jesus is some sort of addendum that serves to help us achieve our earthly goals.  But that theology is in direct contradiction to the Biblical view that our earthly goals should be subjected to the service of Christ Jesus.  A servant is concerned first and foremost with his Master’s concerns, rather than his own.

And then the third example Paul presents is that of Epaphroditus as a soldier.  If the examples of Paul and Timothy seem unattainable because we think they are something of giants in the faith, then Paul gives us another example who is simply an average guy in the church. A man virtually unknown in history other than in these few verses.  And because of that he is really our best example.

So Paul describes Epaphroditus as a soldier, but he also calls him a brother, and a fellow worker, and a messenger and a minister.  Additionally, I think you can easily make the case for Epaphroditus also as an example of a servant as was Timothy, and a sacrifice as was Paul.  But I have chosen soldier as the best description of Epaphroditus because I think the position of a soldier encompasses all of these things.

A soldier is commonly referred to as being in the service.  They are someone who has left the comforts of civilian life to live a life dedicated in service to their country. They are trained and conditioned to perform their duty, even to the point of risking their life.  So I feel like a soldier encompasses so many of the characteristics that Paul wants to model for us.

Not a lot is known about Epaphroditus.  He is mentioned again in chapter 4:18 and it is clear from that verse that Epaphroditus was sent by the church at Philippi to minister to Paul by the means of delivering a monetary gift for his support.  But vs. 30 of chapter 2 gives us a little more insight into what this mission cost him.  It says that he risked his life to complete what was lacking in the church’s service to Paul.  What that means is that the gift that had been taken up by the church for Paul for his financial support could not exactly be sent by registered mail, or by Fed X, and so somebody had to be willing to travel from Philippi to Rome to take this money to Paul. By foot, that would have been an 800 mile journey that would have taken two months. That’s just going one way.  To return would take another two months.

So they had chosen this man Epaphroditus as someone who was willing and able to make the sacrifice and undergo the rigors of travel, and willing to leave his home and friends and family for the sake of the gospel.  I think the scripture is telling us that he went on this trip at some great risk to his own life.  Travel in those days wasn’t easy.  It was a long, dangerous trip.  He was carrying a good deal of money, and it would not be inconceivable that there would have been people who were willing to murder him to get their hands on that money.  And so he risked his life, perhaps traveling alone for a great distance, to faithfully bring this money to Paul. 

I think the thing that makes Epaphroditus such a great example for us is his ordinariness.  He wasn’t a pastor.  He wasn’t an apostle.  We never hear of him again.  And yet God used him in a great way and his name is preserved forever in heaven because of his service to Christ, to his apostle and to his church.  So Paul calls him a fellow soldier.  Perhaps he had actually been a soldier.  We don’t know, but we do know that he was something of a risk taker. 

In fact, vs. 30 uses a term for the phrase “risking his life” which was “paraboleuomai”, which during the days after the formation of the early church was the basis for a group who called themselves “The Paraboleuomai” which meant the Gamblers. They took as their hero Epaphroditus who gambled with his life. And it was their aim and their mission to visit the prisoners, to visit the sick, especially those with infectious, dangerous, communicable diseases. It was their mission to unhesitatingly, unflinchingly and boldly proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ in every environment without any hesitation.

Epaphroditus was a name that among Greeks was connected with the goddess Aphrodite,  and they called upon her for luck when playing dice games or gambling games by using the name Epaphrodite.  And so Paul is using a play on words here, saying Epaphroditus gambled his very life in service to Christ.  

Now whether or not Epaphroditus was somehow injured in this journey and his wound became infected and he almost died, or whether or not he put himself at risk in some other way to bring the gospel to people, we don’t know for sure.  But we do know that Paul tells us that he got very sick, unto the point of death.  Vs. 27 tells us that “For indeed he was sick to the point of death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow.” 

And notice, by the way, that there is no mention of Paul healing this soldier of Christ.  By this time, this is nearing the end of the Apostolic period, a time when the Apostles had been given certain miraculous abilities for the confirmation of their gospel. 2Cor. 12:12 tells us that “The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles.”  They were a miraculous attestation from God that He was speaking His gospel through these specific men.  But now it’s near the end of the Apostolic period and you begin to see these powers begin to wane.  Paul tells Timothy in another passage that he should drink a little wine for medicinal purposes because Timothy had stomach problems.  He didn’t send Timothy a special handkerchief that he had prayed over and told him to put it on his stomach.  Instead, he tells him to drink some medicine.  And in this case of Epaphroditus, we understand that God spared this man and he recovered from his sickness.  Paul seemed to have nothing to do with it.

But the thing we should take away from the illustration of Epaphroditus is this example of a soldier.   A soldier who was willing to give his life in service to his King, for the sake of the Apostle Paul and Timothy, his ministers, and for the sake of his church at Philippi.  Now that he is well, Paul says in vs. 25, I am planning on sending him back to you.  And Paul is obviously sending him back with this very letter, this Epistle to the Philippians.  First, Epaphroditus risked his life bringing this gift to Paul, he is injured and becomes so sick he almost dies, and now he is headed back home again, willing to put his life at risk once more for the sake of bringing the Word of God to his church.  This trip was about 800 miles one way, and would have taken about two months to complete, including travelling part of the way on ship which could only be done in certain weather.  And so it was no easy task, and it was no small sacrifice.

John McArthur said and I quote, “ultimate joy comes from the ultimate offering of one’s life to the will of God.”  God does not always require the ultimate sacrifice of losing your life for the sake of the gospel.  Paul and Timothy would eventually die in service to Christ.  Paul was likely beheaded, and his statement that he was being poured out as a drink offering was probably prophetic in that he was looking at shedding his blood for the cause of Christ.  Timothy would go on to Ephesus to be it’s first pastor, and while speaking out against a lurid worship of the goddess Diana he would be bludgeoned to death.  Epaphroditus we don’t know how he died.  We might assume that he died a normal death in his old age.  But one thing we do know, he was willing to lay down his life in service to the kingdom of Christ.   He risked his life repeatedly. 

We may not be called upon to risk our life, but we are called upon to be willing to lay down our lives as a living sacrifice in service to the cause of Christ.  We are called upon to be a servant to the body of Christ.  And we are called upon to forsake this world and all it’s enticements for the austerity of soldiering in the service of the King.  Paul said in 2Tim. 2:3  “Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.  No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.”

Paul said to the Philippians concerning Epaphroditus, when he completed this life risking trip to carry the epistle back to the church at Philippi that they should “Receive him then in the Lord with all joy, and hold men like him in high regard.”  And this is the hope and joy set before us as well, when we are willing to live our lives like Paul, like Timothy, like Epaphroditus, Jesus promises us that there will be a day when we will be received at our home in heaven with joy.  When the Master will say, “Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.”

Phil. 2:5   “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,  who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,   but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.  Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,  so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

In our culture today, we are constantly hearing about some new workout that is being touted as the latest surefire way to get in shape.  There is the Pilates workout, the Zumba workout, the Crossfit workout.  Many years ago I tried to do the Navy Seal workout.  Unfortunately, it didn’t really work out.  Rather than getting stronger I just wore myself out. Nowadays I’ve started doing the YouTube workout. It’s pretty easy.  You just watch other people work out on the videos.  But we are increasingly recognizing as a culture that while we may have been given relatively healthy bodies when we were born, if we want to stay healthy we need to exercise them.  And a similar principle is true in our Christian life as well.  We must be born again into a new life, but God’s intention is for us to grow and mature and become stronger spiritually.  So today we’re going to be looking at what I have titled the Salvation Workout.

In our ongoing study of Philippians we have been looking at this passage which contains one of the premiere portraits of Christ in the Bible.  Last week we looked specifically as Christ as our Sovereign, as the Son of God, as a Servant, and our Savior.  And today I would like to continue that series of illustrations with Christ as our Example.  Christ is presented in vs. 5 as our example for us to pattern our lives after.  Christ is not just our substitute, which indeed He was, but He also is the pattern for us to live our lives even as He lived His. 1Pet. 2:21 confirms this; “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.”

And the key to how  we  accomplish that is found in vs. 8 in the word obedient.  It says that Christ humbled Himself by becoming obedient even to the point of death.  And though Christ being obedient may sound strange to us, we need to understand that Christ was obedient to the Father for our sake, for the sake of our salvation, and also for our example.  Hebrews 5:8 confirms this point.  “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.”

So even though Christ was equal with God, yet while in the flesh He humbled Himself to be obedient to the predetermined will of the Father.  Hebrews 10:7 “THEN I SAID, ‘BEHOLD, I HAVE COME (IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME) TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.'”  Jesus himself said in John 12:49 “For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.” 

This is how Jesus  could say “I and the Father are One.”  Not only were they equal in position, but they were united in purpose, in word and in deed.  But lest  we think this is just some theological treatise that Paul is propounding here, we need to remember the context of the passage, and realize that Paul is using the example of Jesus’ obedience to the Father as an illustration for how we are supposed to live.  Too often in our selfish, human nature, we are more than content to let Christ be our sacrifice, to let Him be our substitute, to let Him pay the price so we can live our lives any way we want.  But what Paul is really saying here is that even as Christ humbled Himself, so we too are to humble ourselves.  Even as Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice, we too must offer our lives as a sacrifice in service to Christ.  Even as Christ was unified with the Father in purpose, word and deed, so we are to be unified to Christ in purpose, word and deed.  “Have the same attitude, the same understanding, the same mindset as Jesus Christ.”  That is what Paul is saying here. 

Now Paul goes on to show Christ’s reward for this sacrifice, for this humiliation that He suffered.  And again the same principle of Christ as our example applies to us in this passage as well.  As it was for Him, so it will be for His followers. Romans 8:17 tells us that if we are children of God, then we are “heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”  But notice the order.  Sacrifice comes first, then exaltation comes afterward. 

So then in vs. 9, it says, “For this reason…”  For what reason?  The reason is because Christ humbled himself, became a servant, was obedient unto death, for this reason, “God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,  so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” 

Because Christ was obedient even unto death, God raised Him from the dead, He ascended into heaven, and He took His seat at the right hand of the Father above all principalities, above all rule and authority. Eph. 1:20 says God “raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.  And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church,  which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”

So God exalted Christ by giving Him it says, a “name that is above every name”.  And what is that name above every name?  It’s not Jesus.  Note it doesn’t say that at the name Jesus. But it says that at the name OF Jesus. And what is the name of Jesus? The name of Jesus is Lord.  In Hebrew, the name of God was written as a tetragrammaton for Yahweh which spelled out L O R D. In the Greek that word Lord is kurios, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess Jesus Christ is Lord.  

This is the confession that every creature in the universe will give one day.  And this is the confession that Romans 10:9 says is necessary for salvation today; “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

Unfortunately, in our society today the word Lord has come to mean just another name for God which has little significance for us.  But when Paul wrote to the Romans, as well as to the Philippians which was also a Roman colony,  that they must confess Jesus as Lord, the full significance of these words meant a lot to those Roman citizens because Caesar had been declared to be god.  And men and women of the Roman Empire were eventually forced to swear an oath of allegiance to Caesar as Lord and Savior of the world.  The early Christians saw this as idolatry and refused to bow the knee to Caesar as Lord and consequently many of them lost their lives.  So when Paul says to the 1st century Gentiles that they must confess Jesus as Lord, they knew that this required absolute surrender and submission to Jesus Christ as Lord and King of all, and they knew that it would cost them everything to make that confession. 

And for the 1st century Jew it had a special significance as well. Because Paul is quoting  these words from Isaiah 45: 23  “I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.”  And for the Jew, they knew from the context of that passage that the One speaking in Isaiah was Yahweh, the most sacred name of God which they refused to even say, so instead it was translated LORD.  So Paul is making a direct quotation here from the OT saying that you must confess Jesus Christ as Yahweh, and every knee will bow to Him.    For the Jew then, to confess Jesus Christ is Lord was to recognize that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, the Son of God in the flesh, the promised King of Kings from the line of David, the One in whom all their blessings resided in, and whom they had crucified. 

This confession that Jesus is Lord Romans 10:9 tells us results in being granted the  righteousness of Christ.  This is the way man becomes saved.  By faith in Christ, that is believing all that He was, all that He came to do, that He was God in the flesh, that He was our substitute, that His atonement on the cross was sufficient for our salvation, but also confessing Jesus as Lord.  Confessing Him as King of our lives, ruler of our lives, and surrendering our will, our purpose and our lives to Him, willing to be changed by Him, and willing to be used by Him.

Not just to say I’m sorry for the mess I’ve made of my life.  I’m sorry that I haven’t been all that I could be.  Or to wish that God would change the circumstances of my life.  Or to wish that God would bless my finances.  Or to say I want to go to heaven when I die, because the alternative sounds a bit dreadful.  None of those things are confessing Jesus as Lord.    But a total capitulation of all that I hold dear, surrendering everything for the sake of knowing Jesus Christ and being found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own, but having His righteousness. Phil. 3:8 Paul said, “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things [all he once counted as gain], and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

This confession is more than just a mere acknowledgement that Jesus lived, or even exists, for the devils also believe and tremble. But salvation, righteousness realized, depends upon a broken and contrite heart, that is wholly dependent upon grace, and fully cognizant of my own unworthiness and inability to be righteous.  A willingness to bow my knee before Christ in repentance, a willingness to turn over all of my heart to Him.  To come to the end of yourself and a willingness to become all that God would have me to be, and follow the example of Jesus Christ.

I’m afraid that isn’t the kind of salvation that is being espoused in modern Christianity today.  I’m afraid that there is a desire to be ok with God, but keep the world and all that comes with it as well.  We want to be in the ballpark, but not in the game.  We want to be somehow on the sidelines and let others do the playing and we remain spectators.  But real Christianity isn’t like that.  IF we are willing to suffer with Him, then we get the right to reign with Him. 2Tim. 2:11 “It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; If we endure, we will also reign with Him.  “And the things that you must be willing to suffer is the loss of the priorities of this world and the pleasures and lusts of this world for the sake of following Jesus Christ.  And for those who are willing to suffer the loss of those things which are dear to them here, God promises to exalt those people to rule and reign with Christ in the world to come. 

The problem for most of us  is that this world seems so appealing, so promising, that we have no appetite for heaven.  Heaven is not enough of a motivation for us to sacrifice everything that we see here for a future we can’t see there.  So Paul gives us an allusion to another motivation.  If the positive motivation of heaven is not enough, then perhaps the negative motivation of a judgment to come will help.  He says, “at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” 

Some have wrongfully concluded from this verse that somehow at the end of the ages everyone will have a second chance of being saved, of  confessing Jesus is Lord.  But that would render salvation worthless wouldn’t it?  That would discount the priceless sacrifice of Jesus to the value of a yard sale leftover, the stuff that they leave on the side of the road for free.  No, what it means is that on this side of Christ’s coming again salvation is obtained through faith, faith in what isn’t seen.  But one day, every eye will see Him come again not as a baby in Bethlehem, not as an ordinary looking man, but every eye will see Him coming in the clouds with fire and all His angels with Him, and Matthew 24 tells us then that the whole earth will mourn, because it will be too late for confession resulting in righteousness, it will be a confession that results in condemnation and a sentence of eternal damnation for rejecting the Lord of all creation when He gave His life for our reconciliation. 

Matt. 24:30 says “And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory.” But on that day, it will be too late for salvation by faith.  Christ comes on that day not to save, but to judge the world.

Paul says, “those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth.”  Those who are in heaven refers to the angels of heaven, 10,000 times 10,000 times 10000, or untold millions of angels. Revelation 12 refers to angels as stars of heaven, and I think that the number of the angels in heaven may approximate the number of the stars.  The estimated number of the stars is between 10 sextillion and 1 septillion stars. That’s a one with 21 zeros after it.   The stars comprise and are organized into about 80 billion galaxies.  So it’s possible that God created angels of that number as well as they are often referenced in the scripture being as plentiful as the stars.  All this innumerable multitude of heavenly creatures worshipping Christ as Lord.  And one day, the Bible says, those of us who reign with Christ will judge angels. 

And in the earth obviously refers to men and women who are living on the earth at the time of Christ’s second coming.  And under the earth refers to the dead, both those that are dead in Christ and those that are dead in their sins, that exist in the subterranean abode which the Bible calls Hades and Paradise, which Christ referred to in His story of Lazarus and the rich man who both died and the rich man was in torment, while Lazarus was being comforted in Abraham’s bosom.  

So, there is a negative motivation for surrendering to Christ now, and that is that there is coming a day of judgment, a day when Christ will judge the living and the dead, when He will separate the sheep from the goats as spoken of throughout the Bible.

And then finally, Paul gives an exhortation for us to continue in Christ’s example.  Vs. 12  “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;  for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” There is that principle of obedience again, not only for Christ, but for us.

So then, Paul says, since God has shown us the example of Christ that we are to follow, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.  Now, Paul isn’t contradicting all the gospel that he has previously given regarding salvation as a work of faith.   For instance, Paul says in Gal. 2:16  “nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.” 

So if Paul isn’t talking about working for your salvation, then what does he mean?  I think a good illustration of what he is talking about is when David was brought before King Saul because he had volunteered to go out and fight Goliath.  And Saul gave David his own armor to wear.  And David said, “I cannot wear this, because I have not proven it.”  And what he meant by that was he had not proven it in battle.  He had not worn it in battle.  The armor had not been tested in the trials of war.

And this is what Paul is getting at here.  He is saying your salvation which was won for you is not to put on a shelf. It’s not for sitting on the sidelines.  But exercise your faith.  Live out your faith.  Take your Christianity into the field of battle and use it and wear it and prove it to be worthy.  It’s a command to exercise your salvation.  You were saved to live out the righteousness that God granted to us by doing deeds of righteousness within the sphere of the world that we exist in.

So we could say the first aspect of it then is to work out or exercise in daily conduct what God has put in. Walking by faith.  Day-to-day holy living, that’s the idea. I am to be committed to the process of my salvation coming to fruition in the sense that it’s manifest in my conduct, my behavior.  We are to pattern our lives in the same pattern that Jesus laid for us, to be obedient to God’s word, to be a servant to the church, to live like a child of God, to be concerned with the salvation of men and women.  This is working out our salvation.  In Jam 2:22, speaking of Abraham it says, “You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected, completed.

And then vs. 13 gives us the other half of the equation for sanctification: “for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”  Just as Jesus didn’t do anything that wasn’t the Father’s will, didn’t say anything that the Father did not tell Him to say, so it is also to be with us.  Now that we’ve been made righteous by faith in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit lives within us.  We become temples of God.  And God lives in this temple to do His will, to work for His purposes, His good pleasure, and not to be diverted to do our pleasure.  This is the purpose of God, to sanctify us, to use us to live for Christ, for His glory. 1Cor. 6:19 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”

The purpose of the Holy Spirit is not to give us goose bumps, or to give us some ecstatic experience.  But God in the presence of the Holy Spirit lives in us so that we might live as Christ lived.  Our obedience is evidence that God lives in us, it’s the fruit of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells in us so that we might do the works of righteousness, that which God has prepared us for.  So that God might use this once sinful, selfish body for His glory. 

So what is Paul’s message here for us this morning?  One is that salvation and righteousness, in other words acceptance by God, is only possible when we come to a place where we are willing to confess Jesus is Lord.  Jesus as our Savior, our Substitute and our Sovereign.  And God promises to grant us the full measure of Christ’s righteousness to those who have faith in Jesus Christ and confess Him as their Lord.  But then secondly, the next essential part of our salvation is our sanctification, wherein we follow His example and in obedience to His will, follow Christ in humility, in obedience, in servitude and sacrifice and even if necessary suffering for His sake, working out this great salvation that we have received with fear and trembling, full of reverence and awe for the great responsibility and stewardship that God has entrusted us with.   

And finally, the message is that if we suffer with Him, we will also reign with Him.  That as God exalted Jesus Christ and gave Him a name above every name, He has also reserved an inheritance for us, that one day we will be fellow heirs with Christ and sit on thrones with Him in glory and share in all that the Father has planned for those that love Him.