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Where is Safety By Stephen Bignall

01/12/1998
Phil 3:1-3

when you talk about a subject that was very dear to the heart of the Apostle Paul.
He's writing to a church. He's not just writing to the countless generations of people who read and have read and will read these words down through the ages. As he writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he's writing the people that he knows.
He's writing to a church that's in a Roman city in the province of Asia in Philippi. He's writing the people whom he has seen saved from the wrath to come. He's writing to a young merchant woman who had the habit of gathering for prayer on the Sabbath day in a city where there wasn't even a place of worship for the true and living God.
And he saw her heart open. He saw the Lord open her heart to receive the Gospel as he spoke by the riverside to those women. He has in his mind's eye a hardened man, a scarred man, a man who was a keeper of prisoners, a man who was an official in a hard government, a man who had a sword by his side and kept people in chains and knew what it was to scourge malefactors and criminals in the name of the state who fell on his knees and asked what he must do to be saved. He has in his mind's eye a young slave girl who was possessed of a demon and who did her master's beck and call, who used her to gain money and her as it were imprisonment to that spirit to profit by.
And he had in his mind's eye the fruit of that beginning, the fruit of the Gospel, the people like Euodia and Syntyche, the true yoke fellow that he speaks of, other people that have come and become part of that church. Paul is speaking to saints, to the excellent ones as we read in Psalm 16, the ones in whom is all his delight.
And so this morning we need to read these words
with that in mind.
In one sense this morning is a farewell.
Finally my brethren, that is the first thing
that we need to note, finally my brethren Paul is talking to someone,
to people with whom he is in a family relationship.
They've sprung from the same womb, they are closer than twins,
they are of the same body, the body of Christ.
That's where he puts them. Where are you this morning?
Who do you gather with this morning? Just people? Just friends? Just strangers?
Have you forgotten or have you ever known
that you are brethren? Each one of you who names the name of Christ
in truth this morning are brethren for whom Christ
died.
And he tells these brethren that there is a place
of safety for them. Where is he? He's in jail,
he's in prison, he's in chains, he's in Rome and they
are in Philippi. And he tells them that there is a place
of safety. To rejoice in the Lord is to be safe.
To rejoice in the Lord Christ is to be safe. That's why we know it's
Christ because he's told us in chapter 2 that God has
highly exalted him and given him the name which is above
every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord
to the glory of God the Father. So when he says rejoice in
the Lord he's saying rejoice in Christ. It's not tedious for him to tell them
this again and again and again.
He repeats it throughout this letter again and again and again.
He tells them to rejoice. He tells them that it's safe
and it doesn't bother him and burden him that his message is a familiar thing to
them. Because it's an extraordinary message.
It's an empowering message. It's a message that's full of deliverance, full
of safety, full of rescue in a world
that's full of destruction and darkness. In a world that leads ultimately for
those who do not know Christ to an everlasting death and destruction
and a shutting out from the presence of the Lord.
He is not tired of telling them of the place of safety.
He tells them to beware there are dangers and that is why they need safety.
He tells them who they are that they might understand their safety.
So let's look at this together.
Why is joy in the Lord such an important thing? Why is there
safety to exalt, to glory, to be happy in Christ Jesus?
Have you ever exalted in Christ Jesus? Where is your heart this morning? What is
it bound up with this morning? Things about Christ Jesus?
You've heard of him with the hearing of the ear?
Have you ever seen the light of the glorious gospel of God
that shines in the face of Jesus Christ? We're not just talking about him this
morning. We're worshiping him this morning. That
is where we've come. We've come to Mount Zion this morning.
We've come to the place of blessing. We've entered into the presence of God
not because we're in a school hall, not because we're in Australia,
not because we're even gathered under the name Christian,
but because we've come to the word of God. We've sought access to him by
his spirit. We've brought his name to our lips.
We've sought to open our hearts before him because we expect
to meet with a person this morning. The Christians that are here this morning
expect to meet with Christ. Do you?
Who do you expect to meet with this morning?
Paul told these people that they were to expect
to meet with Christ. They expect to live in Christ.
They have a new state, a new standing, a new privilege, a new existence,
and that's why they're safe. Salvation brings them
into a new life, a life from the dead, a life from darkness, a life from deadness.
Brings them into relationship with God. That's how he addresses them
to all the saints in Christ Jesus. Who are the saints? They're the ones who
are clothed in the holiness of God. They're the ones who are separated by
the gospel of God. They're the excellent ones in God's
estimation. Those who are in a state of grace, those
who have been taken from darkness into life are
excellent. Gold refined in the fire, pure
and holy and acceptable in his sight. What a place of safety, what a place of
wonder. What were these people by nature? They
were sinners.
We have a description of what a sinner is.
In chapter 3 and verse 18,
For many walk, many conduct their lives, of whom I have told you often,
now tell you even weeping that they are the enemies
of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction.
That's the end of sinners, whose God is their belly.
That's the God of sinners. They serve their appetites.
They're what they need, what they want. They worship
whatever will give them what they look for.
They set their mind on earthly things.
Where are saints? Their citizenship is in heaven.
They don't set their minds primarily on earthly things.
They don't worship their appetites. Their end isn't destruction.
Their citizenship is in heaven. Their citizenship is in heaven. That's why
he told the Philippians, if you then be risen with Christ, sorry
the Colossians, if you then be risen with Christ,
set your mind on things above, where Christ is seated
at the right hand of God. How are you going to be
safe as you walk this earth, as you seek to live your life? You're only going to
be safe if your mind is in heaven.
That's the only place of safety that there is. Salvation
brings your mind to heavenly places. You are actually this morning, if you are
a Christian, seated with Christ at anything that
tends in your thinking to cause a division or some sort
of tension between the idea that Christ is in heaven
and you are upon the earth and that you are separated from him
is hurtful and harmful and will cause you just to look
into the dust constantly. If you set your eyes on earthly things,
if you make your appetites the motivation by which you live your life,
if you seek to grasp this and that and to try and find satisfaction
and take your thoughts away from the fact that Christ
is seated in heaven, reigning, waiting, fulfilling every one of his
purposes, the end of which will be your exaltation to him at his right hand,
the end of which will be your perfection reflecting his perfection,
the end of which will be him being glorified in your presence before his
father in heaven. That is why you've been redeemed, that
you might reign in heaven with him. If you lose sight of that, you're in
great danger. You've set your mind on earthly things.
You're in danger of idolatry which is covetousness,
grasping after earthly things. Come to the place of safety again.
That is what he's saying to these people. He's saying, my brethren,
rejoice in the Lord. And there are real people here
who are having real problems. There are women here
who are separated, women who laboured with Paul in the Gospel.
These weren't women who were characterised by
an unbelieving attitude. These weren't women who were characterised by
a weakness of faith. These were women, who were dire in
sin to care, laboured with him in the Gospel.
And now there's a division between them. They're alienated.
The church is suffering. Where does he tell them to come? What is the solution
to these things? Rejoice. Remember.
Remember from what you've been brought. Remember the degradation.
Remember the hopelessness. Remember the condemnation
of God because of your unrighteousness. And look to heaven.
Remember that Christ has borne in his own body
your sins.
Look, he lays it out there, doesn't he? He says if there's any consolation in
chapter 2 verse 1, if there's any consolation in Christ, if
there's any comfort of love, if there's any fellowship
in God's Spirit, if there's any affection and mercy to be
found in God himself, fulfil what?
My joy. My joy. By being like-minded,
having the same love, being of one accord,
being of one mind.
That is safety. Having the mind of Christ. Being in that state
where you have the mind of Christ. That is what the church seeks.
Do you think there's any consolation in Christ?
What consolation is there in Christ? Well, everything. You're not going to die.
You're not going to be punished by God.
He loves you. If you're a Christian this morning,
he loves you. He delights in you. He purposed in eternity to save you.
He saw you in your darkness and he loved you. He sent his son,
the only son he had, the very image of God,
the only one in whom he delighted, the only one with whom he and the Spirit
had communion before anything was created. He sent
this one into the world.
He sent him. What a consolation is that? He sent him
from eternity into a fallen, darkened, rebellious, unthankful world
to save people, to rescue people. That's the strength of the everlasting
love with which he has loved each saint that
he calls. He loved the world of men, the fallen,
rebellious, hateful world of humanity. He loved the race.
This is how God loved the world, John 3 16 tells us.
He sent his only son into the world. That's how much he loves humanity.
He could have left us justly to our folly and our shame,
the only creatures on earth, the only creatures
upon this planet who have rebelled against him
and who do not know him. The sparrows know more than we do.
They sing to God in their every song and we as sinners turn our back on him.
What consolation that he should call us by name.
What consolation that he should not only call us, he should forgive us
and wash us and cleanse us and make us like Christ.
To have the love that he has for Christ poured out upon us. To have the intimacy
that he has with Christ made ours. To have the wisdom that he
shares with Christ made our wisdom, the understanding
that we know all things. He's revealed all things that his
father has revealed to him. Christ has shared them with us, the most
important things, the greatest things, the highest things,
the things that tell us about God. That's the consolation. We don't live to
ourselves anymore. Paul was willing to leave behind
everything that he once gloried him simply because Christ was worth more
than at all. That was it. Christ was worth more than
at all to him. And he had a lot of glory and he was in
a good situation. He could glory in his heritage. He could
glory in his family. Pharisee of the Pharisees. He'd come down
generations of faithful men in his own estimation. But he kept,
he left his heritage behind. He left his relationships behind.
Why? Because he pressed towards the mark. Because he counted all things
lost, we're told in verse 8, for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ
Jesus his Lord. That's the state Paul was in. It's a
wonderful state, isn't it? He wasn't pretending, wasn't clapping
his hands and working himself up into some false, vapid sort of passing
happiness. He was joyful. It was in his gut. He knew what it was to
be happy, supremely happy. He could sit in his jail and he could
tell his jail. He could tell the household guard. He could
tell Caesar to his face like he told King Agrippa.
He could stand in chains and glory in Christ because he had a
heavenly aspect. He set his minds on things above and not
on things that are upon the earth. That was his state.
And that state, that standing, led him to a new conduct.
It led him to a new way, a new way of living, a new
conduct. There's safety in a new conduct. There's safety in a new conduct.
We're called to be different now brethren.
What profit do we have in those things of which we're now ashamed?
The attitudes that once marked us. Do you know if you're not a Christian
this morning, your whole life is profitless in the eyes of God?
It's bringing down judgment upon you. Your attitudes
deviate from his attitude. Your desires deviate from his desires. Your conduct
is like a warfare against him personally.
And the end of that is destruction. But Christians have a new conduct. That's
why he says in verse 27 of chapter 1, only let your conduct be worthy.
Be worthy. Worthy of what? Worthy of the gospel of Christ.
This is the new conduct to which we are called this morning,
as believers, as Christ's church, gathered from
from what I can see many different communions presently, or several
different communions this morning. But what is to typify our communion
together as saints and our profession in this world?
It's a worthy conduct. A conduct that's worthy of what God has given us.
His gospel.
Glad tidings of great joy to all peoples God has given us in his gospel.
The one light and hope for time and eternity is in his gospel.
Paul says unto me, who am the least of all saints,
was that great privilege given that he should
preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. How do we preach Christ?
Do we preach Christ as censorious, embittered, obsessed people?
Who cannot see beyond our own inclinations to argument?
Who cannot behave with the love of Christ that passes understanding?
Or do we preach Christ in a conduct that is worthy?
Do we wonder why we're weak when we set our eyes
upon earthly things? When we want to perpetuate
earthly things? When we want to have to have comfort in earthly things?
Paul had no comfort in earthly things. The Philippians had to send something to
him. That he might have some comfort. Had to
send him a gift. That he might have some joy in earthly
things as it were. That he might that he might feel some
comfort in his prison cell. They sent some needful things to him. His
earthly life was abased.
And yet he could say that he rejoiced in the Lord.
That their care for him had flourished again.
That they were his joy in the Lord. That's what he said to them didn't he?
Fulfill my joy. Be like-minded. Where are you going to find
the conduct and the confidence to be like-minded?
Well it's not going to be found if you look to men.
It's just not going to be found if you look to men.
And any clever ideas that they have or any personality
that they might possess to draw people after them.
You've got to conduct yourselves in a way that's worthy of the gospel of Christ.
There needs to be a fellowship of the Spirit.
There needs to be a fellowship of the Spirit you see.
Christ in you is the hope of glory. Christ in you is the spiritual reality
that you have as a Christian. And that should influence your conduct.
The Holy Spirit indwells you this morning.
And he indwells those for whom Christ has died.
How will that influence your conduct towards your brethren?
They will do things wrong. They will make mistakes.
They will sin against you.
How will you conduct yourself? Will it be worthy of the gospel of Christ?
Not a great long list of precepts and laws and
statutes and commandments. That's not the gauge
of Christian conduct. The gospel of Christ.
That's the worth to which we are to look. Christ fulfilled all commandments.
He was so excellent and holy and obedient and loving and sacrificial.
What worth there is in the Son of God. And that worth is expressed in the gospel
of Christ. And that is how we are to live.
Thy mercy my God is the theme of my soul. That's how the old hymn writers.
The joy of my heart and the boast of my tongue.
Thy free grace alone from the first to the last
has bound my affections and held my soul fast.
Thy mercy is more than a match for my heart.
I wonder to see its own hardness depart. It was Jesus my friend when he hung on
the tree who opened the channel of mercy for me.
Do you see what conduct that calls to? There's your motivation. There's safety
because it's a joyful conduct. It's a happy conduct.
It's an expectant conduct. It's a thankful conduct.
It's a sacrificial conduct. Paul's joy wasn't just exemplified
in the fact that he could get up in front of people.
So much of that passes for worship today. Joy isn't just exemplified that you can
stand up in the aisles now and appear happy to everybody else or
boast in some gift in front of a group of people or be seen
to be doing something marvelous. Joy is when in every circumstance
you can find consolation and happiness that Christ is seated at the right hand
of God. That your sins are done away with. That
henceforth you live not to yourself but to him who loved you and gave himself
for you. That all things are lost. That you might
have the excellence of Christ Jesus. That you might pursue godliness. All
things are but loss. That you might have the excellence of
Christ Jesus. There's a confidence isn't there?
Paul's confident. He told the Philippians that he's confident.
Being confident of this very thing. That he who has begun a good work and you
will continue it until the day of Christ Jesus.
Paul's confidence influences his conduct. And he's not worried about appearing
predictable. He's not worried about appearing
repetitive. He's not worried that he hasn't got
something new to bring to these Philippians.
It's not tedious to him to talk about Christ.
It's not tedious to him to preach Christ. For Christ is in prison.
He says that in chapter one doesn't he? He says that it's become evident to the
whole palace guard and to all the rest that my chains are
in Christ. My chains are in Christ. His freedom was
in Christ. His roman citizenship was in Christ. His
chains were in Christ. His trials were in Christ. His joys were
in Christ. His service was in Christ. Because he is in Christ. That's the
perspective. That is where the Spirit of God dwells.
You are in Christ. You have the Word of Christ.
Let it dwell in you richly. This is what is before us. Paul was writing the Word
of God to these people. What a blessing. These people may have
only ever got this letter. What do you have? You have the full
revelation of Jesus Christ and many of you have it
in your laps or in your hands this morning.
Where are you going to go to find purpose and what you are going to pursue
in this life? Because I tell you a state of safety
leads to conduct that is worthy and that conduct is channeled into a
pursuit. A calling this morning. Purposeful.
Face set before set to it. Jesus said his face is a fleet.
He set his face towards Jerusalem. You know you read
the accounts in the gospels where he's he's traveling
towards Jerusalem and it continually says he must needs go to Jerusalem.
He must go up to Jerusalem, to Jerusalem, to Jerusalem.
Why? Because that's where the cross was. That's where the place was. Where he was
going to do his father's will. That's where he was going to glorify
God and bring salvation to sinners. And he set his face toward him.
Why are we told to take up our cross daily? Because we're meant to bring glory
to God and salvation to sinners.
Christ said that his disciples would do greater works than he
because he had gone to his father. That is where our pursuit and our
profession lies. Why did Paul want to be
one who was taken up with the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his
Lord? Why was he willing to suffer the loss of
all things? Why did he want to be found in him?
Why did he boast in the righteousness that came from Christ
and not from himself?
Because he wanted to be conformed to his death.
He wanted to live in confirmation to what Christ had done
in his death. What had Christ done in his death?
He purchased the only deliverance that this world will ever know.
The only deliverance that human beings can ever have
from the destruction of God's just anger against their sins.
And he wanted to be conformed to that death.
Its purpose was to bring glory to God and glad tidings of great joy to all
peoples and they're never at odds those purposes.
They're never never at odds and if you take one
and you set it against another you are dividing what God
has not divided. The work of Christ glorifies him
in the salvation of sinners and do not divide them never think that
they are somehow irreconcilable.
So what are we going to pursue? Well
we're to pursue our salvation. See your salvation wasn't just a past act
it wasn't that you're saved because you were saved
last month or last year or last decade. Your salvation is a present reality.
It's a continual thing. You're delivered every day as a Christian.
His mercies are new every morning. Every morning there is deliverance for the
child of God. Deliverance from the world. All the
enmity of a system that was permitted to exist
in opposition to God. God decreed the fruits of man's sin
in the garden. The world as it were in that use of the word came about.
A system of human society in rebellion against God
and you're safe from the world. Your great enemy
is a human society in which God is rebelled against.
As it has been in every age you're no different
from this man Cinesius of Cyrene who in the fourth century wrote the hymn
that we just sang in translation. 704. Lord Jesus think on me
and purge away my sin. From earth born passion set me free and make me pure
within. 375 to 430. You're no different from
Cinesius. The world isn't any different from the
world in which Cinesius lived at its heart. Or they may have used
styluses and clay tablets instead of notebook computers.
They may cook on microwaves instead of convection ovens.
They may speak a different language. They may wear different clothes. They may have
had less of a scientific understanding of the way the world was framed.
But they were sinners and the world in which they lived
was in rebellion against God. Same enemy. And the flesh is your enemy. All your
desires and passions as a sinner that seek to find satisfaction away from
God. Outside of God. Anything but God. Anything.
How do you know if something's conduct worthy of the Gospel?
Well is it glorifying to God? Can you enjoy it with him?
I mean let's not muck around you know we can come up with all the excuses in the
world. Suppose I can relax a bit and talk to
Australians. I'll have to be a bit more circumspect
perhaps in England. Let's not muck around.
There is a world and a flesh and a devil and they're our enemies.
And if we give ground to our enemies we dishonour Christ and we pierce
ourselves through with sorrow and weakness.
There needs to be a pursuit. There needs to be a strength that's an unearthly
strength. It's a heavenly strength. It's a glorious
strength. It's a joyful strength. That's what Paul had. That is your
inheritance. You have the fruits of the Spirit. The
preeminent one is you have the unconditional
peerless glorious love of Christ dwelling in your hearts.
And you have the joy of the Holy Ghost. You have the joy the same joy that was
set before Christ when he endured the cross and despised
the shame. That is the joy that should be set before
you. The joy that he set in John 16 cannot be
taken away. No one can take it. It's yours. Taste it this morning.
Rejoice this morning. Glorious Christ is your friend.
The King of Heaven. He's there standing for you, reigning for you that you might
come to him. Causing you to serve him in a way that is
pleasing to him. Washing you, taking away your sins, giving
you a new beginning every morning. Grasp it.
Live in it. Exult in it.
It could be like John Cooper or John Cowper as we say over here.
You know where is the blessedness I knew.
When first I saw the Lord. Where is the soul refreshing view
of Jesus and his Word. Return oh Holy Dove return.
Sweet messenger of rest. I hate the sins that made thee mourn and drove me from
my breast. We need to confess our sins. We need to
turn from all these things that haven't
profited. The answer to the present situation is
found in Christ and the enjoyment of the state
that we are in. The enjoyment of the conduct that we are permitted
to undertake that is worthy of the Gospel and the joy of the pursuit.
The warfare. The warfare. The sowing of the seed.
The running of the race. All these things that picture the Gospel.
Now the farmer has expectation doesn't he? He loves the seed that's in his hand.
He loves to feel it and he loves to cast it into the furrows.
And the seed is the Word. The sower is the Son of Man.
And the vehicle is his body the Church. Now we should rejoice in that.
And the soldier why does he sharpen his armour?
Why does he sharpen his sword and gird on his armour? Why do men become soldiers?
Because they've got courage. Because they love to battle. Because the cause
to them seems just. And they know that they have strength and
they want to ply it against another. You have an unearthly armour. An unearthly
strength. And you wrestle not against flesh and
blood. And too often we wrestle against flesh
and blood. They aren't our enemies. They're our
principalities and they're our powers at work in this world.
You see the final enemy is the devil. There's the world.
There's the flesh but beneath it all and behind it all there's the creature who
saw our race die. In the garden he watched and he exalted
as they ate of the fruit that they were
forbidden. As their souls shriveled up and died and
they feared God because of their sins. He exalted.
That's why we've got an armour. And that's why we've got a sword.
Because we don't just wrestle with human beings. We wrestle with
Satan and all his hordes. All the angels that left their first
estate.
And we run a race that is set before us. You know, I came to a mascot
airport and everything's changed. There's great banners everywhere and
things have been erected. And everybody's saying oh it's because
of 2000. No, Sydney 2000.
We're a nation taken up with sport and we should understand this more than
anybody else when we're told that we run a race that
is set before us. We exult in the athletes. We know what
drives them. You know we vicariously sit and watch
our televisions and we take on board their race
and their run and when they stand on the podium some of us weep.
What about the race that is set before us? Where Christ has gone before.
He stands on the podium and he bids us come down that road
and he's made it open before us. He's made it possible for us to lay aside
every weight and the sin that so easily besets us
and to run.
What a glorious joyful thing. What a joyful thing it is and what a safe
and wonderful place it is to be. But this morning this may have just been a
rather animated Australian to you who's heading home.
Just a man that maybe your friends invited you to hear
or a friend that you've come to see because of this church you may have been
loosely associated with or intimately associated with.
But think of your state this morning. Have you ever known what it is to have
joy in Christ? To see clearly that you've passed from
darkness into light, from death into life, from ignorance
into wisdom, from uncleanness into purity, in the sight of God because of what
someone else has done because Christ has died.
Have you ever thought what it is to conduct yourself
in a way worthy of the gospel? Have you ever been animated
by anything other than natural desire to please others
and to do something dutiful and worthy? Have you been animated by the gospel?
By the Spirit of God? Have you felt the fellowship, the comfort,
the consolation?
Have you got a purpose that isn't bound up in housing,
and isn't bound up in families, isn't bound up in buildings,
isn't bound up in a perpetual identity in the community?
It's bound up in pursuing Christ and glorifying God
and seeing the fruits of Christ's death issue forth in the salvation of sinners.
You know Paul told those Philippians that they shone as lights in the midst
of a crooked and a perverse generation, harmless,
blameless children of God without fault. Have you ever seen yourself like that?
That's the glorious righteousness of the children of God. That's their
portion. That's their purpose. That's their joy.
Have you ever experienced that? Rejoice in Christ Jesus.
You are the circumcision if you are a Christian this morning.
God's covenant seal is upon you. His promise
that He will never leave you nor forsake you, that He will call you
His child forever is upon you. That's what Paul tells them.
We are the circumcision who, this is how you worship God in the Spirit,
those three things. That's how you worship God in the Spirit.
You rejoice in Christ Jesus. You make no confidence
and no provision in the flesh. May God grant that if this is the first
time you have ever heard this, it will be the
last time that you ever, ever reject it. That you will never
reject it. That you will accept it this morning.
If you have rejected it time and time again or for the first time heard this
message and you can feel your antipathy welling up within you,
cry out to God this is the only salvation, the only deliverance, the only
rescue. How many people have drowned this past
two weeks? Just little children drowning. How many
people have died on the roads? How many of you have to go home after
this break? Where will you be if death overtakes you?
And my dear brethren,
dearly longed for brethren, where are you this morning?
Have you worshipped the Lord in the beauty of holiness?
It's your inheritance.
Don't allow the enemy of your soul to snatch it away from you.
Rejoice in Christ. For me to write the same things to you
my brethren is not tedious and for you it is safe.
And if ever we needed a place of safety there it is.
Why would we seek anyone else? Why do we need anything else?