Philippians (3): Four examples of humility

In Philippians chapter 2 we'll read. I understand some of our readings have been repetitive and I understand some of the themes this weekend have been reinforced by some of the other ministry but I just like to be more clear on some of the stuff that we've been reading in Philippians and go back again to chapter 2. So Philippians chapter 2 and verse number 1. If there be or if there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercies fulfill ye my joy that ye be like minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind let nothing be done through strife or vain glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient on to death even the death the cross wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father wherefore my beloved as ye have always obeyed not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure do all things without murmurings and disputings that he may be blameless and harmless the sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom he shine as lights in the world holding forth the word of life that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain neither labored in vain yea and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith I joy and rejoice with you all for the same cause also do ye joy and rejoice with me now verse number 20 concerning Timothy for I have no man like minded who will naturally care for your state for all seek their own not the things which are of or which are Jesus Christ but you know the proof of him that as a son with the father he has served with me in the gospel in verse number 25 yet I suppose it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother and companion and labor and fellow soldier but your messenger and he that ministered to my wants for he longed after you all and was full of heaviness because that ye had heard that he had been sick I want you to notice the wording there for the the specific nature of this statement that ye had heard that he had been sick for indeed he was sick nigh unto death but God had mercy on him and not on him only but on me also lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow I sent him there for the more carefully that when you see him again you may rejoice and that I may be the less sorrowful receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness and hold such in reputation the idea there is high esteem or honor because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death not regarding his life to supply your lack of service toward me now we tried to make it clear from the beginning that the epistle to the Philippians with was wrote with a specific thought pattern or thought flow that indicates what the Apostles primary message is now I did not do justice to the thought flow because I began in chapter 4 and I went to chapter 3 and I skipped a chapter 1 and I went to chapter 2 but I would like for you to remember that from the beginning of the Philippian epistle to the very end of the Philippian epistle the Apostle Paul is concerned with harmony and unity among the believers it was brought to my attention yesterday and rightly so that there are some things that I was not absolutely clear on when I was showing how the Apostle sought to bring about or to maintain this harmony and unity among the believers so just very quickly before I get into the meat of my message I would like to say this there is a point in the epistle where he calls out two people by name I'm going to go slow with this and carefully with this because I don't want to to bring any disrepute upon the reputation of these dear sisters nor do I want to poke the bear when it comes to maybe people who are here today who are sitting under the ministry but there were two sisters and it was obviously known in the company that they were having difficulty getting along and Paul does mention these two sisters he mentions them and he refers to all the positive things in their history the positive things in their history from when they at one time had come together and and pulled together in unity in the gospel they were laborers together with Paul in the gospel so he brought their names to everyone's attention because he had to but he was careful he was careful to be gentle and to remind them of all of the good things and all of the potential that the odious and Cynthia he had to be workers together in the gospel and then he exhorts a brother I'm not sure which brother it is but he exhorts a brother to help those to help those to overcome whatever it is that it caused them to be disjointed in their unity so in order to bring this about Paul is very pointed in chapter 4 by using their names but I would say there is something that Paul does that transcends the direct nature of chapter 4 as we read in chapter 2 and that is this he gives them four examples of humility four examples of humility that helped in fulfilling the purpose of God four examples of humility that provided for harmony four examples of humility that provided for unity and you will see it and that really is going to be the meat of my message in chapter 2 working backwards you will find Epaphroditus he's an example of humility and then you find Timothy who's an example of humility and then we find Paul who's an example of humility and then we see the Lord Jesus as the supreme example of humility for the sake of others and if these sisters were to get the message they were going to get the message from those four examples of humility so now how does it break down for us today it may be now not always but there may be times when we have to bring it to someone's attention that their behavior is affecting the testimony but let's not forget to encourage them to better behavior not let's not forget the value that every brother and sister has in the work of God for the gospel sake let us not write them off and say we better if so-and-so wasn't here did you ever say that you ever say that no I I know I'm challenging you I'm challenging you first of all to keep your eyelids open nobody knows here today but I am exceptionally thin-skinned and when people sleep during my messages hey some people are doing this now they're trying their best when people sleep during my messages I I lose sleep at night over it I start thinking my was I preaching that boring that that that there no but you'll stick with me right I want you to think with me just think have we ever had that attitude toward a fellow believer we better if he wasn't here or we better if she wasn't here now I want you to think in these terms there are certain attitudes that believers are carrying that are affecting the testimony and affecting their ability to get along with other believers I'm just being as real as rain here right those attitudes make it difficult but our desire is not that that person wouldn't be with us but that the attitude would be adjusted so that that person could function in harmony with us again in the gospel and maybe just maybe that person is me so let's not be be too quick to judge and let's always be very quick to encourage them back to usefulness but let us never forget the real solution now the real solution to address personality issues is to take the focus of brother X and Y off of their condition off of their conflict and to place their focus on Christ I would say my brethren and sisters that is the solution to almost all of our spiritual problems is that we would take of our focus off of the brother and the issues that we have with the brother that we would take our focus off of the condition that we would take our focus off of the problem and place our focus on Christ and not just the doctrine and the theology of Christ but his person and his character and his beauties and all of the things that are of Christ so that we can have our attitudes adjusted so that's how Paul did it but you will remember and I'm going back now to chapter one because in chapter four we talked about the beginning of the gospel in chapter four we talked about the laboring together in the gospel in chapter two we mentioned that Timothy is a son with a father served with Paul in the gospel in chapter 1 in verse 27 we talked about behavior that is becoming or worthy of the gospel and we talked about striving together for the faith of the gospel and there's only four more times where the gospel is mentioned in the book of Philippians and they're all found in chapter 1 and we just want to look at these to see what normal gospel outreach looked like it got quiet in here all of a sudden what what typical normal scriptural gospel outreach looks like because sometimes we need to calibrate what we see out here by what we see in here I'll say that again we need to calibrate how we function out here by what we see in here and what we see in here is a man who is praying we see a man who is praying even under the circumstances of imprisonment and he's not just praying in an urgent way to be delivered from this imprisonment he's giving thanks and he's giving thanks to God for the faithfulness of others and as we come down now to verse number five he had given thanks making requests with joy for their fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now now he's taking them back to that first day that we talked about yesterday and I believe he's encouraging them to remember what it was first like when they first got saved there was a joy in their heart there was a softness about their character there was a willingness to work together and when he uses this word fellowship in the gospel he's not just talking about their participation with him in the gospel by supporting him financially I would take it the wording could also mean their partnership for the sake of the gospel from that first day when he came into Philippi preaching the gospel those who were saved began to work in unity and in harmony and in partnership with Paul for the sake of the gospel and as others were saved they would understand that part of the fellowship of a local assembly means that we are in partnership for the sake of the gospel there are no rogue gospel preachers sometimes today we see them don't we usually marked by a past history of going to many different churches and many different organizations and being able to find fault with every place that they have ever been I'll say that again so that we can all think about it you know people like this don't you they go here and they figure they know what's wrong there they go here they know what's wrong there they know what's wrong here they know what's wrong there they show up to the assembly meetings and they ask you all of the points of doctrine that they believe and then they start to point out everything that's wrong with the assembly and sometimes that brother or that sister comes into the fellowship of the local assembly and then they begin to air their grievances and the next thing you know they say I can do what the Lord wants me to do without the local church I'm not sure when I'll be back to Garneville oh I just don't know I'd love to come back but I will give you from now until then to read your Bible and find a gospel preacher who is preaching the gospel while protesting local church fellowship it's not in here I believe that there were men who went out from a local church into an area where there were no other people who were saved into an area where there was no assembly testimony but they did so in perfect fellowship harmony and partnership with their brethren and sisters in the local assembly I believe we need to remember that because as I move out from the assembly in Rosebank PEI I am doing so in fellowship with my brethren if my brethren were not in harmony with the work that I am doing then they should never have written a letter commending me and if there comes a point in time where I begin to move independently of their advice and their oversight because I still move under their oversight when I am here in Garneville oh if there comes a point in time when I am doing that they have the full right to withdraw that commendation now I'm not getting into what a letter of commendation means but brethren sometimes we look at a letter of commendation as a license to go and preach and we make it a condition for coming on a conference platform if I could just be absolutely blunt and honest we have applied a significance to that letter that the Bible never did that letter is designed to let people know where I travel that my brethren have confidence in me in the preaching of the gospel nothing more but thank God nothing less and I am to move in harmony with them in doctrinal harmony with them believing what they believe I am to move in partnership with them that they share my exercise to take the gospel out but when I am taking the gospel out I am taking it out in full harmony and partnership with my brethren in my home assembly and when I preach the gospel in Garneville Oh connected with the assembly here I am now functioning under the oversight of the assembly in Garneville Oh and I'm functioning in partnership with you all in Garneville Oh and I remember what it was like to do that last year now remember with me please those of you who are part of the work here in Garneville Oh and some were coming from Wisconsin and some were coming down from from the Manchester area and from over in the West Union area and there were people coming and they were interested in the work of the gospel they were bringing their children to hear the gospel they were bringing their friends to hear the gospel we were praying together in the basement over there before the gospel meeting and the brethren were interested not just in sitting in the seat that's the least you can do but if that's the least you can do do it please but coming with an exercise to support the gospel with encouragement with their words with their prayers with their activities devoted to the partnership that is the design for gospel work now we're going to get to the furtherance of the gospel in a second but let's not lose sight of the value of the partnership and brethren who preach the gospel you don't lose sight of the value of your brethren and sisters and their support morally yes prayerfully doctrinally but that partnership is essential Paul talks about their fellowship or partnership for the sake of the gospel and here we have down to the next one he talks about the defense and confirmation of the gospel I'm not going to spend much time on that it's just the idea for sure that he is he is ready for defending the gospel confirming the gospel the defense of the gospel I believe was with words that were used in order to logically defend the faith of the gospel I see Paul going into synagogues when he went into synagogues he opened the scriptures and he reasoned from the scriptures that this Jesus was indeed the Christ as he is doing that the word apologia or where we get our word apologetics from does not mean that he was saying he was sorry for the gospel it means that he was defending the gospel he knew how to defend the gospel how because he knew the scriptures now I'm all for I also think Brandon's brethren were quite hard on him to be honest and and sometimes I feel like my brethren could have been a little harder on me and it would have wouldn't have produced what you see today but I want you to think with me I want young brethren to come with me to preach the gospel now you're thinking what but you're a young man yourself you must be not much older than 20 I want young men to come with me to preach the gospel I don't like to talk about personal experience but I will tell you this part of the reason I'm preaching the gospel today is because older men took me with them when they were preaching the gospel and those men taught me how to work and they taught me how to preach and sometimes they taught me what to do by good positive example and sometimes I saw what they were doing and I said I'm glad that I saw that because now I know not to do that but you know the benefit of that is that the older man should know the scriptures and the younger man should be learning the scriptures but because when it comes to the defense of the gospel it will hinge on how well we know the scriptures now I understand that the realm of Christian apologetics takes in philosophy and history and science and all of those things today to where we are extremely intrigued with a man who can stand up and defend that the veracity of Christianity from a philosophical standpoint or we put a lot of weight on a man who can take creation and compare it with real science I I'm all for that but the apologetics the real defense of the gospel is impossible if we don't get people to the Word of God and Paul was to defend the gospel and he could show them from the Bible what he believed the confirmation of the gospel I would take it as he went back over things with the believers it could be the defense of the gospel is against those on the outside and the confirmation of the gospel is building up the faith of the Saints but we move on there's a partnership in this gospel work and let me tell you this I should have told you from the beginning I am very happy to work in fellowship and partnership with you you don't have to reciprocate that all the time but I want you to I want you to be in happy harmony and fellowship with me there is no one and no place that I would rather be connected with in the preaching of the gospel than with the Lord's people who are gathered onto his name in a local assembly and in the defense of the gospel we work together brethren by using the scriptures but then Paul talks about the furtherance of the gospel and it very well could be that there's another Roman colonial connotation here in the furtherance of the gospel not only did the Romans set up an empire that was marked by peace but they continued to take new ground and in taking new ground that meant they had to conquer new territory and I believe Paul has the idea of taking new ground when he says the furtherance of the gospel now he's not saying that the furtherance of the gospel rests entirely on Paul he is saying that every single person who is preaching Christ every person who is preaching Christ whether they are doing under the pretense or truth brings rejoicing to the heart of Paul but he does say that there's a specific way in which the gospel can take new ground now to be clear I believe that regularly and consistently an assembly should preach the gospel from I was going to say this platform but the platform in a local assembly gathering so if that takes the form of a weekly gospel meeting it does if you have more than one weekly gospel meeting it does but be careful that we don't lose the consistent habitual regular preaching of the gospel in the assembly you say well people aren't coming go on out and work the area and try to get people to come build relationships pray to God and keep preaching you say it's just a Christians kids the Christians kids need to hear it you say the kids are grown up and now it's just us we need to hear it keep preaching the gospel in the assembly but let's not lose sight of the big picture scripturally the gospel is designed to go out and take new ground the gospel is designed for furtherance and Paul paints a picture now of a man who's going ahead of the armies into a place that that has never been conquered before and in order to get there he has to cut a path now I'm not sure what he used to cut a path but he's cutting a path that will allow for the furtherance of the Roman Empire and now Paul is applying that to the gospel that there are men and women who go before and they cut a path for the furtherance of the gospel I think we all should be exercised urgently urgently to pray the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into his harvest I'm not sure if that alarmed you and Brandon said so many men under 70 in the United States of America alarms me I'll tell you all of my brethren could tell you this while we try not to pay attention to our phone all the time there were very few weeks that pass where you don't get many invitations to go and help assemblies preaching the gospel and I can't I came to talking to my brother Eric Fowler and I said you're going to this conference in that conference I said I've got an invite for there and an invite for here for gospel and there and I really want to be here but there seems to be so much need and I said I think the brethren are getting active again after Colbert he said yes they are he said but there's a lot fewer of us to help and he's right that should urgently alarm us to pray the Lord of the harvest encouraging young brothers and young couples to be engaged in the work of the gospel now I don't think we need to look for a bunch of Spurgeons to send out if you have a Spurgeon very good and I don't think we need to look for a bunch of Oliver Smith's to send out but if you find one that's fantastic we need laborers laborers and now if you're a laborer be very careful I'm trying to I'm trying to stay on track here but it's not working and if you're a laborer be very careful if your brethren see potential in you to help in the spread of the gospel full-time don't take that as a license to be a conference preacher don't take that as indication that you are the most dynamic speaker that there is they're encouraging you in the gospel not because we need dynamic speakers but because we need laborers people that will go and go door-to-door door-to-door it's not everyone's thing I understand that there was a time when I said to my older brother mr. Burden we're about to go out with some tracks I said I'm not really good at this it's hard to admit you're not good at something right I'm not really good at this he said well there's only one way to get better let's go right on that day there was a lady invited him in and he did a very wise thing because she was home alone he called me over from across the street and we went in the house together and we had tea and we gave them the gospel and her husband came up from the basement and we had a good chat we went out we went down the street a little further and he saw a large German Shepherd dog that large German Shepherd dog he said here you you go get that one I said I said I went and helped you with the little old lady and you're leaving me here with the dog all alone and you know how I feel about dogs we need workers sometimes I look on the map there are certain people move into our community who are immigrants from across the sea and I see their country and and I know that they have contacts in their country and I think who is there who's there that I can support in the gospel so that they can bring the gospel to those families and I research it I look on the Gospel Trust website and sometimes they have a contact and then I email around and see if there's anyone and sometimes I'm ashamed to say I come up empty I'm not saying God doesn't have workers there but what I'm saying is this we should be exercised about sending our workers there the furtherance of the gospel is scriptural in 2023 so he talks about their partnership for the sake of the gospel and he talks about the defense of the gospel from the scriptures the confirmation of the and the furtherance of the gospel and then he talks about the defense of the gospel again but that I believe is in the forefront of his mind when he's encouraging these believers to get along in harmony and unity to bring forth the gospel and now we come to chapter 2 with these four examples of humility that are designed to get these people to think in these terms Epaphroditus was sick I told them in Cedar Falls the other night when you're sick you usually think about yourself and how you feel right how I feel and I told them that back home some people have what's called the man flu anybody know what the man flu is in Iowa some of my brethren have their wives staring them down right now to where a woman can have the flu and the cold and and and be be down and out and still get out of bed and still take care of the kids and still do all the work that she has to do and as soon as a man gets the sniffles he's in bed for three days thinking about himself you wouldn't be laughing if it wasn't true but it's alright I would encourage people to take care of themselves if you have a significant disease or sickness by all means you need to think about yourself and take care of yourself and you would think that Epaphroditus would take care of himself or that at least the distress that he was experiencing would be because of his illness but that's not what it says it says Epaphroditus was heavy with heaviness because they heard that he was sick in other words he wasn't concerned about his feelings going through the sickness he was concerned about their feelings because they were sad about him being sick it almost makes no logical sense until you get inside the mind of the man he was willing to sacrifice for the good of others and their feelings came before his feelings that is an example of humility that is a challenging example of humility but I would say with Epaphroditus and with Timothy and with Paul these are examples of humility that it is possible for us to attain to we need to start to think of others better than ourselves but then he speaks about Timothy and he says for I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state for all seek their own and not the things which be of Christ Jesus I would take that the literal rendering we took a survey today I would say in the heart of every believer now I'm not I'm not just going by your words I'm going about what I believe the Bible teaches in the heart of every believer there's a love for the Lord Jesus but in the lives of most believers we care about our own things first and then the things that belong to Christ Jesus and Timothy was an effective partner in the gospel read it in its context he was an effective partner in the gospel because he put the things of Christ before the things of self that meant that he put the Lord's people before himself that's why it says he will naturally care for your state your state so we are sitting in Philippi and we're having trouble getting along because you want to bring a lemon pie and I want to bring a chocolate cake now you can take a lemon pie and a chocolate cake and smoosh them together they taste just as good that way by the way but we're having some kind of difficulty and now we're listening to this and Epaphroditus was sick but he cared about me more than he cared about himself and Timothy Timothy cares about us and the things of the Lord more than he cares about himself and my little pie issue is starting to get smaller and smaller isn't it and then he talks well I say then but we're working backwards of course then he mentions an offering and he says I am willing to be poured out upon your offering very simply he's saying this in terms of the Old Testament tabernacle system the Philippians were the big offering let's say the Philippians were the Bullock now with the offering of a Bullock there would be a meal offering and a drink offering that will be offered on top of that or beside that big offering and Paul is saying I may be the Apostle to the Gentiles I may have seen the risen Christ in glory I may have been given all of the different mysteries of the faith that I've been able to expound to you in different epistles but when it comes to the work of God I am more than happy that you are the big thing and I am the little thing see how it makes sense in humility he is saying I love working with you I love working in partnership with you I long for that fellowship and partnership to take new ground for the gospel and as long as Christ is preached and as long as the furtherance of the gospel is reality I am willing to have a small little part I'm not here to be recognized as the big thing as long as the gospel goes forth you see that's humility I know I'm not speaking to people here today who want all the platform time I'll tell you this the more you get the more you'd rather be sitting down right that's what Murray always told me when we're waiting for the weather to change for flying I know you pilots know it right I'd rather be down here wishing I was up there than up there wishing I was down here all right I know I'm not looking for people who are looking for glory in preaching or glory in doing all the this and all of the children's meetings and all of the gospel working but Paul is an example here that even if we can just be a small part let's rejoice that the gospel is going forward and of course the supreme example of submission and humility is the Lord Jesus and we spend just a couple of minutes now on this passage that many believe to be a poem or a hymn the language seems to be such that it is poetic or hymnic in the text it's like the Apostle Paul is taking a hymn that that they may have sung in their gatherings and he's taking it to the pages of Scripture to remind them about the supreme example of submission and he says let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus in the most literal of senses we need to understand he's talking about the attitude the attitude so he is saying this you think as Christ Jesus thought now he's not talking about all of the thoughts of the Lord Jesus Christ he is talking about the specific attitude of humility that was found in Christ wherever you find a passage like this dealing with the deity and humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ it is placed in the text in the context for a specific reason I would say if you go to the Colossian epistle in chapter 1 or you read about him being in the image of God the firstborn of all creation the first in rank over all creation the firstborn from among the dead ones I believe he is proving there the deity of Christ and the perfect humanity of Christ to refute the false teaching of the agnostics if you come to John's Gospel chapter 1 in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God down a little further in the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glorious of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth and John is seeking to prove the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ in light of the false doctrine that was prevalent in that day in the book of Hebrews we are introduced to the the the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person why because he is proving to the Hebrew listeners that the Lord Jesus Christ is better than the angels and he is better than than than Moses he's superior to all the old tabernacle system but he's proving the humanity of the Son of God but here is different here he's not refuting false doctrine he's trying to encourage humility the form of God that says thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant who was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself how much time could be spent I would suppose on the words and their theological significance I think we need to be careful with words because words have meaning I think if we had more time or this was a Bible study that that dissecting these words and finding out their their meaning in their semantic range for this particular purpose would be helpful but I want to give you a summary he is not necessarily trying to prove the deity of Christ here he's assuming it all of the people would know being in the form of God God in absolute essence God in reality God never having a beginning never having an end eternally existing in the form of God and you're going to watch him from that eternal existence in the form of God we have some help with that in the words of the Lord Jesus when he speaks to his father in John's gospel and he says glorify thou me with the glory that I had with thee before the world was eternally existing in the presence of God as God himself he is exuding glory he is displaying glorious transcendent must have been quite a thing to be in eternity before the world was created and to see there the Son of God in all of his glory and to be worshipped there of the angels and you see him displaying glory and he's going to take us from that display of glory to a voluntary down stooping to where he voluntarily becomes a servant to where he voluntarily makes himself of no reputation now the first two words form of God in form of a servant are the same words when we get to the likeness of men it's the same word you find in Romans chapter 8 in the likeness of sinful flesh and I believe what he is protecting there is the sinless humanity of the Lord Jesus because I believe that the Lord Jesus is absolutely God from the Bible and you do too but I also believe that it wasn't his deity that dictated the fact that he was impeccable because his humanity was sinless his humanity was different than our humanity he is not born of man he is born the seed of the woman so that he's protecting that the likeness of sinful flesh that is in every way and in every way a man absolutely a man was he really God before he came yes was he really a man when he came down yes but no sin no sin in his mind no sin in his deeds no sin in his mouth no sin within him he could say the prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me what was he saying he was saying that it was impossible for him to sin he was saying it was impossible for him to be contaminated by sin remember him absolutely impeccable but he left heaven and he comes down and he's a servant and that's not the end of it being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself he goes further and he became obedient unto death now the wording there may mix us up at times but he became obedient to his father and God to the point of death even the death of the cross there is no greater distance than from the glory of heaven to the death of the cross and that is the ultimate in humility but think with me now for a second as my time is gone wherefore God hath highly exalted him given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow we believe that don't we in a coming day God rewarded the humility and obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ by highly exalting him giving him that name above every name in a coming day whether they want to or not every knee shall bow and then he says wherefore brethren work out your own salvation with fear and trembling what is he saying based on the ultimate example of humility you make sure you work out your own problems in interpersonal relationships with fear and trembling with this attitude thinking as Christ Jesus thought