If you would turn with me in your Bible to Philippians chapter 1...Philippians chapter 1 this morning, we're going to be looking at verses 27 through 30...Philippians chapter 1, verses 27 through 30. If you found your way there, I'm going to invite you to stand with me for the reading of God's Word. Again, the Apostle Paul writing while imprisoned in Rome. And he says, only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. in no way alarmed by your opponents, which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too from God. 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 here to be in me." You can be seated. Just a reminder as we have looked over the opening chapter of this book, we have been talking about Paul's letter that he has written there to the church at Philippi, a letter to encourage them in their faith, a letter to encourage them in their resolve, and a letter to encourage them not only of their faith and of their resolve, but of his as well. Now the church at Philippi was concerned about the Apostle Paul as he sat in prison in Rome so far away from them. They loved him and they were concerned about him. And it's striking that in this moment where Paul could have written a letter back and really just said, oh, woe is me, you know, how bad the things are, how difficult the situation is, that Paul writes this letter back and all the way through this letter, his letter is just one of joy and encouragement to them. He wants to encourage them to continue to resolve and to stay strong in the fight for the faith. And there are three things that I want you to notice in this passage this morning as we look at it, and that is how we should live, how we should suffer, and how we should fight. How we should live, how we should fight, and how we should suffer. Three profound things, because this really encompasses the entirety of what it means to be the Christian. How we should live our lives, how we should fight in the battle which God has put us in, and then, in the end, how we should suffer in this world. So first, I want you to notice verse 27, how we should live. Notice what Paul says there at the beginning of verse 27. He says, only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. The first thing that Paul emphasized here, he says, only conduct yourselves. He's really trying to emphasize that this is what he wants them to make their first priority. They've been given a task, they've been given an idea of which they are to do, and that is to live their lives in a way that is different from the rest of the world. Now Paul says here that the first thing that they should do is to conduct themselves. Now, if you're reading the King James or some other translations, that word there at the beginning may be, let your conversation be. And in our day, in vernacular, that doesn't make sense because when we talk about conversation, we're just talking about what we would say to one another as we speak words. That's generalized how that is taken, but in former generations that actually meant the entirety of life. It didn't mean just the words you spoke to one another, but your conversation was the way you carried yourself in every situation. So in the translation here in the New American Standard, it says, only conduct yourselves, because what Paul is talking about is talking about the entirety of how we live our lives. And in fact, the original word that Paul used was taken from the political life and actually meant to be a citizen. So as Paul is talking about how you live your life, how each day, day in and day out, how you conduct yourself, how you live as a citizen in this world. That's a...be a good citizen was a... A relatively easily understandable concept for the church at Philippi. If you remember back from our introduction to this book that Philippi was a Roman provenance. And even though it was far from Rome, because it was a providence of Rome, all the citizens there were considered to be citizens of the great city of Rome. And the city itself, if you were just picked up and put there, and just to look around, you would almost think that you were in Rome itself, because they dressed as if they lived in Rome. They spoke and ate and acted, and even the architecture resembled that of the Roman city. And in this period of time, to be a citizen was an important aspect of culture. You desired to be a good citizen, no matter whether you were Christian or non-Christian. You took pride in the place that you were from. You took pride in the fact that you were a citizen of a certain town or country, and so you lived your life in a way to betray that to other people. And so what Paul wants the citizens at Philippi to understand, he says, I understand how important it is for you to be citizens of Rome, and you love your country, you love and desire to be that way. He says, but more importantly, you need to understand that you are citizens of a heavenly kingdom. It was the citizens that had far more to offer to the church at Philippi than anything that Rome had to offer. Paul wanted them to understand that as Christians, they should live as model Roman citizens. but that He expected them and that God expected them to live most vividly as citizens of heaven. No matter where we are as Christians, whether we are here in the United States as citizens of America, or whether we live in another country. Maybe God calls you to be a missionary somewhere else, or your job would call you to move to another country. No matter where we are as Christians, we should strive to be good citizens of the place in which we live. We should strive to live in such a way as to be good citizens of that country. But more importantly, We should live our life as citizens of heaven, that when people look at us, they see that we are different than anyone else, that we're different than the regular citizens of that nation. And when Paul calls them to live as citizens of heaven in Philippi, he's not calling them to live this out specifically just by rigid regulations, but most importantly, by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. Their attitudes, their thoughts, their conduct, their habits, everything that they do should demonstrate the inner change that Christ has brought about within them. The Scripture tells us, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. That means everything about us has changed. The way we think about things, the way we speak about things, the way we act, the way we respond when somebody makes us angry. The way we respond when we hear something that we shouldn't hear and we turn our head from it and turn our face from it. We're living differently now. And so we should be easily identified by our behavior. Now I'm not going to put you on the spot this morning, but if I were to go to your place of employment and nobody there knew me and I walked in and I asked the first person I saw, point out to me here in this building who are the Christians. Would they point the finger at you? and say, oh yeah, that guy over there, or that gal over there, she's a Christian. Because brothers and sisters, they should be able to. They should be able to readily identify us as citizens not only of this country, but citizens of that country which is to come. We should be easily identified because we are sojourners here. We're strangers in this land and citizens of a city, as the scripture says, which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. I remember reading a story one time, and I don't even remember how I came across it the first time. I like to research interesting and intriguing things, and I was reading a biography, and there was a passing reference in this book that I was reading about a church that used to exist in New York City back in the 1800s. And I attempted to do some research on it, but the knowledge of it out there is scant, just except for a few passing references. And it was a church, again, founded in New York City in about 1868, called the Church of the Strangers. And I always found that to be an odd name for a church, right? The church of the strangers. It doesn't sound very seeker-sensitive, does it? You know, you can't really picture anybody naming their church that today, nobody wants to be around strangers. But as I studied this passage this week, it really began to make more sense to me because we are strangers in this land. We're strangers passing through and we are walking towards that country that we desire and hope for and cling to. And as much as we love this country, as much as we love the fact that by God's providence that we were born in a place where we have freedom of religion and we have freedom to worship, we must much more love that country which is to come. And we must live our lives as citizens of that country upon which we have yet to set our feet. But we have to be continually reminded of this fact, that to live our life as citizens of that country, to live our life in obedience to Christ, to live our lives and to conduct ourselves in such a way, is not something that we can do in our own strength. We can't live as obedient servants of God and do it ourselves. We can't get up in the morning and just by our own confidence. Now, and see, this is the part that's difficult because as Americans, let's be honest with ourselves. We have been taught from a young age that to be an American means to do it yourself, to raise yourself up and by the power of your own will and by the power of your own bootstraps to make something of yourself, to do something with yourself, to make something of your life. But to be a good citizen of the kingdom of heaven is to say, I can do nothing without the power of the Holy Spirit working within me. I can't do it on my own. I must not do it on my own. We can't accomplish what God is calling us to by mere human willpower and determination. And Paul is pointing out the necessity of the life lived as citizens of heaven are lives that are lived in the power of the Holy Spirit. When Paul says for them to conduct themselves in a manner that's worthy of the gospel, again, he's talking about the entirety of their life. One commentator said, the rules of the gospel are to be applied to all of our conduct, to our conversation, business transaction, modes of dress, style of living, entertainments, etc. There is nothing which we do or say or purpose that is to be accepted from those rules. You know what we're often guilty of? We're often guilty of telling the Lord as if we could tell Him anything. But we're often guilty of saying to the Lord, well, Lord, I will let You have control of this area of my life, but I still want to maintain control of this area of my life. I will let You have this part, but not this part. But what the Scripture helps us to understand is that to conduct ourselves in the manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, to conduct ourselves as citizens of that heavenly kingdom, is to say, God, I'm going to give everything over to You. Everything about the way that I live my life, I'm going to strive to do it in a way that pleases and honors You. Those brothers and sisters, people see us. They see the testimony of our life. And if we have proclaimed to be a believer, we proclaim to be a Christian, that even causes us to come under even more scrutiny because the world knows what it's like to see a lackadaisical Christian. The world knows what it's like to see a lazy Christian, one who is just Christian in name only. They maybe go to church on Sunday or a few times a year and they claim the name because they want to feel important, but their life is no different than the lives of any other person around them. What we want the world to see is Christianity which makes a difference. Christianity that makes a difference in the way that we talk and act and live and practice. We want it to be different. Paul says here that we need to conduct ourselves in a manner. This is talking about, again, all of our actions, and the idea applied here is the effect of a Christian community on a lost world. As we live out our lives as obedient Christian citizens, it will have a noticeable impact on the world around us. What Paul is calling for them to hear is to stand firm and resolved and to live in such a way that it makes a difference. We talked about this when we were looking at the Great Commission in Matthew chapter 28. What we are working towards in this world is not something that we will always immediately see. As we share the gospel, we don't always immediately see someone come to faith in Christ. But we trust God and know that He's doing His perfect work and that it will come to pass. As we're sharing the gospel, we do know that God does save people, and when He saves people, it transforms their heart and their lives into new creatures. And as more and more people are transformed in the gospel of Christ, it begins to have an impact. If you read back through the book of Acts, Most of Paul's trials and tribulations came because when he preached the gospel, people got saved and it changed things. The church at Philippi, that young fortune-telling woman who got saved and now no longer could her owners make money off of her and it caused a problem. In different places, people would turn in all their idols, they would burn those, and then the silver makers were upset because now they couldn't make money off the people worshiping the idols, and it caused an uproar in the city. The gospel transforms not just people, but cultures as well. And just as a soldier in battle doesn't see the ultimate victory at the end of each battle, but nevertheless he keeps fighting, knowing what he is fighting for. And as Christians, we don't always see the victory at the end of each time, but we keep fighting the battle because we know that what we are longing for and looking for right now may not be something that happens at the end of our life. It may be something that happens in the life of our children or our grandchildren, but nevertheless, we keep living and walking and fighting in that way. Paul says for them to live in a manner that is worthy of the gospel of Christ. And this is something that Paul repeated over and over again in his writing. In Ephesians he says, I implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling. In Colossians 1 it said that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. First Thessalonians, so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His Kingdom and glory. And he repeated it at the end of that. He says, finally, brethren, we request and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ that as you received from us instruction on how you ought to walk and please God, just as you actually do walk, that you excel still more. Our lives should be different than the world. Our lives should be different from those who do not know Christ. And this is really a call to holiness. Now, when you say that word, That word has oftentimes become a no-no word inside certain Christian circles. Because when you say the word holiness, oftentimes what people equate that with is legalism, right? Oh, well you're just going to become legalistic and you're just going to give me a list of rules of do's and don'ts that I can't. No, I'm not going to do that outside of what the Scripture says you can and cannot do. But the word does tell us that we should live in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Now, let's think about that for just a moment. What is the gospel of Christ? The gospel of Christ is that although we didn't deserve it, that God in His love and His mercy sent His very own Son to come to live upon this earth. To face the scorn and the hatred of human beings and to go to the cross and to suffer and to die and to face the very wrath and anger of God for sin on our behalf. God was willing to sacrifice His own Son for you and for me that we might have redemption and forgiveness of sins and be reconciled back to Him. Now when we understand that and we consider what that is, and I don't even know that in a moment, just briefly walking through it, that we can even wrap our minds around the gloriousness of the gospel the way that it needs to. But just for a moment, consider that, and then consider how do we live our lives in such a way. as to honor and to recognize what God has done. That means that we have to give up ourselves. That means that we have to turn aside those things which maybe our sinful flesh wants us to do, but we realize that it is displeasing to a holy and to a just and to a righteous God. When we understand how great the gospel is, we understand the high expectation that God has for us and how we live our life. Because, brothers and sisters, how we live matters. Again, I'm not calling us to legalism this morning. Pastor Wes and I are not going to give you a list of approved things for members of Barberville Baptist Church, again, outside of what the Scripture already teaches us. But we either live for the glory of God, or we live for the glory of self. We either bring honor to God in the way that we live our lives, or we bring disgrace to His name. None of us are perfect in this. There's not a person in this room who can stand up and say, I have done this perfectly. Even Paul would admit to his failures in certain points and times. But just because we can't do it perfectly doesn't mean that we shouldn't strive to do it perfectly. Even though we can't be sinless, doesn't mean we shouldn't strive to sin as little as possible. Let us work in our lives to be obedient to what God has called us to. Paul says, let us conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Second thing I want you to notice is how we should fight. Now this is rather interesting for Christians. Rather interesting to hear this phrase, how we should fight, because oftentimes when people think about Christians, they don't think about fighting, they think about love, right? We hear that God is love, and we know that God is love. God showed His love for us, and while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And so oftentimes people think that it's contradictory to talk about Christians being...serving a God who loves and God who has...brings people to Himself, but then also on the other side talking about fighting. And not just talking about fighting in a very low sense, but talking about warfare, talking about real battle and real fights. Not so much in a physical sense as in a spiritual one. But nonetheless, all the greater. that this spiritual war that is being fought is just as serious and just as dangerous and just as important as a physical war that might be fought. So we need to understand that as Christians we are going to have to do this, that we're going to have to fight in this life, and we need to know how to do it. The first thing that we recognize about how we should fight is that we fight regardless. Look at what Paul says. He says, "...whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you." Paul was uncertain in this moment what was going to happen to him. He didn't know whether he would live, he didn't know whether he would die. But regardless of what happened to him would have no bearing on what the believers at Philippi should do. regardless of whether Paul came to them again, or regardless of whether he died in prison. The believers at Philippi had a task that they had to accomplish, and so Paul is writing them to say, listen, this fight, the fight that you have, you're going to have to do regardless of whether I come back to you or not. It doesn't depend on me, it depends on what Christ has called you to, and you must trust in Him, and you must obey Him. John Calvin paraphrased Paul's words in this passage and said thus, "'But as for me, the Lord will provide, but as for you, whatever may take place as to me, let it be your care nevertheless to go forward in the right course.'" So we should fight regardless. It doesn't matter what happens to the church down the street, it doesn't matter what happens to those we know and to those we love. Because the fight is the fight, regardless of what happens around us. It doesn't change. The same fight that Paul was encouraging the church at Philippi to is the same fight that we have today, and we must be willing to stand and to do what God has called us to do. So we should fight regardless, and secondly, we should fight by standing firm. Standing firm is a military term. And it meant to keep your ground in battle. And it's not a mistake that Paul would choose such a term because we understand that the Christian life is one of war. And the key to standing firm, the key to a military being able to do what they need to do is to have a solid ground on which to stand. Imagine for a moment if you had a battle and you had two opposing armies, and on one side they're standing on solid, firm ground, and on the other side they're in muddy terrain. You know what I'm talking about in the mountains. You get into mud and it sinks you up to your ankles or to your knees. Now I want you to imagine who is going to be the victor in that battle. The ones who can stand firm. The ones who are on the solid ground. And so a foundation that cannot be shaken or destroyed, that's what we need as Christians in order to be able to fight in this war. And by God's grace, He has given to us a firm foundation in Christ. He has given us something on which we stand. And so when Paul says to them that they are standing firm, he says, I want you to be standing firm on everything that you know about who Christ is, the things that I've taught you, the things you've learned from the scripture, the things which the Holy Spirit has illuminated in your heart, that's what you stand firm upon. Don't stand firm upon me, Paul says, but stand firm upon those things which I have taught you. Don't stand firm upon the things that you have learned from this world, but stand firm upon the things which God has showed you to be true. They must stand firm. Standing firm is the idea of not moving, of being unresolved or not being resolved to depart or to flee away. Standing firm means that we stand upon God's Word and His truth, no matter what the world may have to say about it. One commentator said, the world is full of Christians on the retreat, who when things grow difficult, play down their Christianity. The true Christian stands fast, unashamed in any company. And how true this is. We see this happening so prevalently in our day. Right, because we know what the Bible says, we know what the Word says about certain sociological and political issues. We think about abortion. We think about the LGBT movement. We think about all these things that the Scripture is so crystal clear on. There is no gray area. It's very, very black and white what the Scripture says about those issues. But culture says, oh, you can't be so convicted on that. You can't have such an opinion. You've got to be more accepting. You've got to be more tolerant. You've got to be more considerate. And what begins to happen is so many Christians, when the world begins to oppose them and it grows difficult, they begin to say, well, you know, my denomination may believe that, but I'm not sure what I believe. Or, you know, my pastor may say this, but I'm not really sure how I feel about this. We must stand firm upon the truth of God's word. We must stand firm upon what God has told us to do. And we must not relent. We must fight. Paul uses war language here because he wants us to understand how difficult it's going to be. I didn't serve in the military, so I've never been in conflict. But I've talked with men who have, and I've heard them share stories of what it's like to be on the battlefield, and the terror that it can strike in the heart, but of the firm resolve that you have to have as a soldier to keep pushing forward, even when all around you is destruction and terror and fear. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, God gives us what we need. This world is going to continue to push against us. This world is going to continue to tell us that we are wrong, that we're backwards, that we're bigoted, that we're narrow-minded, that we're wrong. But God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, gives us the courage and the strength to stand firm in the midst of all that and to continue to do what He has called us to do. I love what Matthew Henry said. I've read this quote over and over again this week, and I've sent it out to a bunch of people. He says, it becomes those who profess the gospel to strive for it, to use a holy violence in taking the kingdom of heaven. The faith of the gospel is the doctrine of faith or the religion of the gospel. There is that in the faith of the gospel which is worth striving for. If religion is worth anything, it is worth everything. There is much opposition and there is need of striving. A man may sleep and go to hell, but he who will go to heaven must look about him and be diligent." As much as we want to, we cannot relax. As much as we want to, we cannot take a break. We must keep fighting for the cause of the gospel. We must keep moving forward. Paul said, therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain. So we must continue moving forward. We must stand firm. But notice what Paul also says. He says that they must not just stand firm, but they should stand firm in one spirit. This is a call to unity and harmony together. In order to fight this battle, we must all be working together and we cannot work together if we cannot get along. We must have unity. And this unity centers around the gospel, not our opinions. There are things, even in this room this morning, brothers and sisters, that we may disagree on that are unimportant. To use the joking terms, like the color of the carpet in this room does not matter. We don't have to have unity around the color of the carpet in the sanctuary. But we must have unity on the virgin birth. We must have unity on the sinlessness of Christ. We must have unity on Christ's work on the cross. We must have unity on the Scriptures. We must have unity in all those things. Sometimes we have to let go of our desires if they interfere, but we cannot let go of those things which are so critical to the faith, and we must be unified together. in order to accomplish what God has called us to do. Can you imagine, again, using another war analogy, because this is what Paul is pointing to, can you imagine an army of soldiers who, when the general stands up and says, we must march into battle, a quarter of the regiment says, well, General, we understand what you say, but we prefer to go to the left instead of the right. And another quarter says, well, you know, General, we know you want to go tomorrow morning, but we think tomorrow afternoon would be a much more convenient time for us. They're never going to be able to succeed in battle if they're not unified together. And our general, King Jesus, is calling us to be unified around Him. It's a sad fact that something such as unity, which is given to us so often in the Scriptures, something that's such a key characteristic of the church all throughout the New Testament. Jesus tells us a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. Paul says, I exhort you, brethren, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you. The psalmist wrote how good and pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity. All throughout the Scriptures we see this call of the Christian characteristic of unity and that the church should demonstrate unity of mind. But so often the one thing that many churches seem to be lacking is unity. You know, Satan oftentimes doesn't need to go so far as to bringing false doctrine into a church to split it or to drive it apart or to cause it to be ineffective, only a spirit of disunity. It's a joke among pastors that whenever you see a church with unity in the name, that usually means that it's split off of another church. And it's sad. It shouldn't be this way. Because the church, when seeking to follow Christ, is granted a unity and fellowship that cannot be found anywhere else in this world, for it is a unity from the Holy Spirit. It's amazing when you go into a church and you see how broadly diverse a congregation can be, from all kinds of backgrounds, from all kinds of places, and that yet we can be unified together around the gospel. And you can't find that kind of unity in any other group or any other type of gathering together. Because it is a unity that is granted to us by God Himself. This fight calls for a unified offensive. We must be working together in one spirit. But he also says, not only should we be working together in one spirit, but also of one mind. We have to have the same focus and goal on our mind. And this is not the success of ourselves. It's easy to think, even as Christians, well, I'll do all these things so that I will be seen as great. I want to do all these things so that people will look at me and say, hey, what a great Christian that person is. Look at all the things that they've done for the Lord. But if we have that mindset, we're wrong. It can't even be about the success of this church. If we're doing things because we want attention and honor to be brought to Barberville Baptist Church, We don't have the right mindset. The mindset must ultimately all be about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Remember what Paul said in that text just a few weeks ago? He says, whether in pretense or strife, I rejoice because the gospel is being proclaimed. Paul wasn't concerned about his reputation. Paul wasn't concerned about how great he was. Paul's overarching concern was that the gospel was being preached. And brothers and sisters, we must be the same. We must have this mind about us that no matter what people think about us as individuals, no matter what people think about us as a church, we're going to preach and proclaim the gospel because that's the only thing that matters. In the end, nobody's going to remember Chris Eastep. In the end, nobody's going to remember Barberville Baptist Church, but in the end, everybody should know who Jesus is. And Paul says that we stand firm with one mind and with one spirit, striving together. This word was a word that was used both in military terms and in athletic terms. In military terms, it was the idea of gladiatorial battle, of all of these men fighting alongside one another. In athletic terms, it was the idea of a team running alongside of one another, competing in an event. And actually, this word that Paul uses here for striving is where we get our English word athlete from. So you think about a sports event. Think about a team of players on a football field, and this is one area where I am least capable of making an analogy, but I will do my best. Think about those players out there on the football field, and they have one task in mind, and that's to get that piece of pigskin from one end of the field to the other end across the touchdown line. And they can't do it as individuals. They have to do it as a team. And even they line up there, just like as in warfare used to be, they line up across from one another, two teams on the side by side, and they charge at one another. And it's the defense's job to keep that ball from moving, and it's the offense's job to get that ball as far down the field as they can. But they must work together. They are striving together. And as Christians, we are on the same team. And we are contending together against all that the enemy may bring against us in order that when the end, we might see the faith once for all delivered for the saints. And this is not just a striving together amongst the members of Barberville Baptist Church. We are striving together. We are all together collectively on the same team, seeing the gospel push forward in Waynesville and in Haywood County and to the ends of the earth. But we are striving also together with Christians of the universal church all around the world. Imagine that this morning. It can be tempting to look around and to see the size of our church and then to look at the world and think about how could we ever do what God has called us to do. But all across the world, there are millions of men and women, our other brothers and sisters in Christ, who are striving along with us in this same fight for the gospel. We don't see them to our left and to our right, but they're there. They're praying alongside of us, they're praying with us, and we are all striving together. William Hendrickson said, Paul is interested not only in fending off attacks, but also and mainly in spreading God's glorious redemptive truth, which centers in Jesus Christ and salvation in Him. We are striving together for one cause, and that is the truth of the gospel. In the book of Jude, it says, Beloved, while I was making every effort to write to you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. We're fighting a battle. We're fighting a war. And it is a relentless and endless war until the Lord Jesus Christ returns. And we must not and we cannot give up. And we must have hope and the joy in knowing that alongside of us are our brothers and sisters in Christ, but ultimately that we have the one who Jesus promised would be a helper to us, the Holy Spirit. And when we feel weak and when we feel tired in the midst of the battle, it is the Spirit who gives us the strength and the help that we need that we can continue to endure. Paul not only shows us in this passage how we should live, and not only how we should fight, But finally, I want you to notice that He shows us how we should suffer. Now, when we begin to talk about suffering, it's an interesting idea and a concept, because to suffer for the Lord Jesus Christ is, by all accounts in the Scripture, considered to be a blessing and an honor. But if you were to tell that to the world, They would think you were crazy. I can't even imagine in my mind of any person sitting down for a job interview and them asking the question, okay, what are the benefits that I receive from this company? It's like, oh, well, you receive retirement, you receive a great 401k package, you receive health insurance and benefits, you receive a per diem every year for months, and then also we're going to beat you beyond comprehension at least once a year. We're going to make this workplace the most toxic work environment that we can just to cause you to suffer each and every day." No person would say, sign me up, right? Let me put my name down on the list. I want to be a part of this team. But to be a Christian means to know that in this life we will suffer persecution. We will suffer for Christ's sake. Sometimes that may be physical. Sometimes that may be words that are spoken to us. Sometimes it may just be difficulty of circumstance, but we will suffer in this world. And so thanks be to God that here Paul tells us how we should do it. God has not left us alone in that, He has not left us hopeless, but He says, here is how you should suffer. And the first thing that Paul says is that we should be fearless. Look at verse 28, he says, in no way alarmed by your opponents. There's a repeated scene in many westerns and TV shows that are set in the Old West. where a person's riding down the road on a horse, minding their own business, and suddenly something happens and the horse is startled, usually by a snake or something lying in the road. And in that moment, the horse rears back up on its leg and begins to toss to and fro and pitch the rider off the horse. And the word that Paul uses here to be alarmed is a picture of that idea, of a horse being startled by something and flailing all about. And Paul's choice of such words tells us there's going to be things in our lives that cause us great and terrible fear. But he says, don't be alarmed. Don't be fearful by your opponents. Don't be fearful of your adversaries. And again, I want you to catch that the emphasis here is that the only way that we can do this is by the power of the Holy Spirit. In our own strength, we will be afraid. In our own strength, we will be terrified. But by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can be as bold as lions. Paul tells Timothy, God has not given us a spirit of timidity or of fear, but of power and love and discipline. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord of me as prisoner, but join with me in the suffering for the gospel according to God. The writer of Hebrews said, the Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. What will man do to me? Paul says, don't be terrified of your opponents. Don't be alarmed by them. Don't be scared by what they can do. Notice he doesn't say, if you have opponents. He just assumes that it's going to happen. Because he already knows that the church at Philippi is already suffering in such a way that he suffered. Who were their adversaries? Well, first the Jews. We know that at any place in the New Testament that the Jewish authorities were opposed to the gospel of Christ, so as the church had continued to grow in Philippi, no doubt the Jewish authorities were causing them much trouble and tribulation. But also the Gentiles, the Roman citizens. In the early days of the New Testament church, the Christians were considered cannibalistic because they celebrated the Lord's Supper. They were considered paganistic because they only worshipped one deity instead of many. They were accused of all kinds of heinous things by the Gentiles and by the Romans, and so Paul knew they were already suffering for the cause of the gospel. But Paul says, don't be afraid of them. Don't be alarmed by what they can bring. Don't be terrified by what they say they're going to do, or perhaps what they have already done to you. But who is our adversary? Who is our opponent? Our opponents is anyone who would oppose us, those who would fight against the life that we live, those who would fight against the work that we are seeking to perform, those who would fight against the proclamation of the gospel, those who would fight against the truth of Scripture. And ultimately, our adversary is the one who controlled these individuals, the devil. For we must understand that there are only two sides that you can fight on in this world. You are either for Christ or you are against Him. You're either serving God or you're serving the devil. This is a hard concept for many people, sometimes even Christians, to understand that if someone is not a Christian, if someone is not actively serving the Lord Jesus Christ because they've repented of their sins and trusted in Christ, they are serving their father, the devil. No matter how sweet they are, no matter how kind they are, no matter how genteel they are, if you are not serving Christ, you're serving Satan. There are only two teams. Jesus says, He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who is not gathered with Me scatters. So our opponents are anyone who are outside of Christ. And this does not mean that we're just going around nitpicking everybody because they're outside of Christ, but we must understand that those who come against us, it is a testimony of the fact that they do not know who Christ is. They are opposed to us because of who we are. They're opposed to us because Christ is in us and Christ is not in them. Now, Paul tells us two important things about these individuals. One, he talks about their destruction, and two, he talks about our salvation. And both of these things come from the same source, and that is God. Notice what he says. He says, "...no way alarmed by your opponents, which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too from God." God will see to it that those who have opposed us as His messengers and so greaterly have opposed Him will face judgment and punishment." Jesus says when trials and tribulations, when your opponents come to get you, that is a sign of destruction for them. Some of them may realize it and some of them may not, but by the fact that they are opposing you, it is a sign of My judgment and My wrath hanging over their head. And then ultimately it will be completed. But it's also a reminder of our salvation. When we are opposed to the gospel of Christ, we are reminded of the fact that we are in Christ and that He has called us to this battle. And the reason for this reminder is what Paul is going to relate to them next. The reminder of God's ultimate knowledge of His perfect judgment and reward is a hope that we need when we face difficulty. Notice what he says. in no way alarmed by your opponents, which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too from God. 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 you saw in me, and now here to be in me." We should not be surprised when we suffer. Jesus told His disciples, "'But before all these things, they will lay their hands upon you and persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name's sake.'" He says, "'You'll be betrayed by even parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you'll be hated by all because of My name.'" Jesus says, "'Don't be surprised.'" When suffering comes, don't be surprised when opposition comes. Don't be surprised when difficulty comes. If they hated me, they will hate you. But isn't it interesting how oftentimes the church desires to be loved by the world? How oftentimes the church, and sometimes even as Christians, we want to be loved by the world. And so we soften our stances, we soften our resolve, because we want to get along. We don't want to face the difficulty and the trials that Jesus has promised to us. But Jesus says that we will. And Paul says that it has been granted for Christ's sake. Now, what's interesting about that word, As that word granted could also be translated, it is a grace to you. Or it has been graciously conferred. God has given two things to us. Number one, belief in Christ. He says it has been granted for Christ's sake. It is a grace to you. It is, in a sense, a gift to you. Number one, not only to believe in Him, but to suffer for His sake. So God has gifted to each one of us as Christians the knowledge of who Jesus is, the knowledge of the gospel, the knowledge of understanding who Christ is, what He accomplished, and the ability to believe in Him. That is a gift from God, and we rejoice in that. As Christians, every single day we probably wake up and thank God, thank you so much for saving me. Thank you so much for rescuing me from where I was. Thank you so much for giving me the gift of Jesus Christ and forgiveness of sins and everlasting life. We see that as a gift from God. But do we see suffering for the sake of Christ as a gift from God? Paul did. And we should as well. Because it is a blessing and an honor to suffer for Christ. It is a high honor to suffer for Him. Listen to what one gentleman said. He said, the privilege of suffering for Christ is the privilege of doing the kind of work for Him that is important enough to merit the world's counterattack. Now, I've said this before and I'll say it again. If you suffer for Christ because you're a jerk, that's not what Paul's talking about here. There's a difference between being a jerk and being obedient to the gospel. The gospel is offensive enough. We don't have to make it more offensive by the way that we do it. We just proclaim the truth of God's Word and let God's Word be the stumbling block for sinful mankind. But to suffer being a blessing, to suffer is a high honor. Listen to what the scriptures say, and I want to read multiple scriptures here because it's so rich and replete and it can say it better than I can. Jesus in Matthew chapter 5, blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. I don't know about you, but I struggle with what people think about me sometimes. I don't think anybody wants people to hate them, wants people to talk bad about them, wants people to say all kinds of wrong things about them. But Jesus says when it happens, when somebody insults you to your face or insults you behind your back, when somebody does something to physically harm you or to persecute you, when they're saying all kinds of lies about you because you're being faithful to the gospel of Christ, Jesus says rejoice and be glad. He's saying, celebrate! Throw a party! That you've been counted worthy to suffer the same way that Jesus did, and the same way that all the Old Testament saints did as well. Brothers and sisters, when we suffer on behalf of the gospel, we are in good company. Not just the saints in the Bible, but all the saints who have come afterwards. Those brave men and women who have laid down their lives for the sake of the gospel, those brave men and women all around the world in this very moment who are suffering for the cause of the gospel. Paul says that what we suffer here are momentary light afflictions. In Acts chapter 5, after they had been flogged and ordered not to speak, It says that they went out on their way from the presence of the council rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name. And every day in the temple and from house to house they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. Now maybe you're sitting there thinking, well, I think I could suffer and rejoice if it was just somebody saying hurtful things about me, right? We all learned the adage growing up, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. I can deal with people saying hurtful things about me, but here what we find is not only were they saying hurtful things about them, they were beating, they were flogging them. And immediately after they're released, they are praising God and rejoicing Him for the fact that they could suffer alongside of Christ. And I love what it says, and every day they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus. Suffering did not cause them to give up in the fight. In fact, what suffering does in the life of a Christian is give us firmer resolve and greater strength to keep on enduring and doing what God has called us to do. William Hendrickson in his commentary gave five reasons that suffering for Christ is a blessing, or as he called it, a gracious privilege. He says, number one, suffering brings us nearer, it brings Christ nearer to the soul of the Christian. See, in the moments when we are suffering and we have no one else to depend upon, all we have is Christ. All we need is Him. And it brings Him nearer to us because we understand and now know because we are suffering alongside of Him. As He suffered for us, now we know and understand just a little taste of what that is like. Secondly, it brings assurance of salvation. When we suffer for the cause of the gospel, we suffer because we are in Christ. And if we are in Christ, we have assurance of sin forgiven. Thirdly, He says, it will be rewarded in the hereafter. When we suffer here on this earth, there is stored up for us in heaven a reward greater than we could ever know and understand." Fourthly, he said, it's often the means of winning unbelievers for Christ and of encouraging fellow believers. Church history is replete with stories of those who stood by and witnessed Christians be thrown to the lions or burned at the stake or torn asunder. And because of their confidence and because of their firm resolve, there were those who were not believers who were convinced of who Christ was, that He was true and that He was to be worshiped, and there were those fellow believers who were strengthened in their faith. And fifthly, Hendrickson says that by all of these means, it leads to the frustration of Satan. When we suffer for Christ and we stand firm for Him and we are resolved, it frustrates Satan to no end. Because He desires to cause us to be cast down and discouraged. But what Paul says is, in the midst of all this, rejoice and know that God has called you to do these things. And as he would write to the Romans, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance. James writing, consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encourage various trials. We stand firm. We stand resolved. And finally, I want you to notice that in the midst of this, we stand united. We suffer on a united front. In Philippi, the believers had watched Paul suffer firsthand. As he was there planting that church and preaching among them, he was slandered, he was mobbed, he was stripped and flogged, he was thrown into a dungeon. They had heard from His own mouth of His sufferings elsewhere for the kingdom of God, and they had read in His letter of His own present trials. But Paul says that you are now experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear to be in me. Paul says you're not alone in this fight. You're not alone in this suffering. And brothers and sisters, what an encouragement to know that we are not alone as we suffer for the gospel. Whatever God calls us to in this world, as we look around this room, none of us know what our life has in store for us. We don't know what trials God may ask us to walk through, what sufferings we may endure for the cause of the gospel. But what we do know is that when those things happen, that we are not doing it by ourselves. Ultimately, the Holy Spirit is with us, but also we are brothers and sisters in Christ who are right there alongside of us. They have endured, and we can endure. They have fought, and we can stand alongside of them and fight with them. There was a story told one time of a veteran French soldier who, in the midst of a war, came across a younger soldier, a private, who was trembling with fear in the midst of the battle. And as the story is told, he stood down alongside this young man and he said, come, son, and you and I will do something fine for France. And in this moment, what this young man needed was somebody to come alongside of him and say, let's do this together. Not just you go do it, but let's do this together. And this is what Paul is encouraging us. We have hope in Christ that He is walking alongside us in every moment, and we have hope that we are walking alongside one another to fight this battle. Paul said, what will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril soar? Just as it is written, for your sake we are being put to death all day long, but we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered. But in all things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. Let me give you just a key point of all of this. We win. There's not a battle that's ever been fought that from the very beginning they knew who was going to be the victor. But we do. We win. And more importantly, Jesus wins. He is the ultimate victor in this battle. And so as discouraged as we may be, as hard as the fight may be, we must live our lives in a way that honors Christ. We must live our lives in such a way so as to fight by standing firm with a unity of mind, with a unity of spirit, and fight together, fearless at what the enemy may throw against us, fearless at what opposition we may face, knowing that to suffer for Christ's sake is a blessing and an honor to our lives. Let's pray together. Father, this morning, we thank you for this time. We thank you, Lord, that you have given us such sweet and precious promises. Lord, it doesn't make sense to our earthly mind that to suffer for Your sake would be a glorious thing. But we know Your Word tells us that it's true, and so we trust it. We know that the testimony of countless men and women who have endured for the cause of the gospel testify to the fact that it is true. And Lord, we know we are in a time and in a world where opposition is increasing against us as Christians. Lord, help us to do as Paul said here. Lord, and to live our lives in such a way as it is clear what we believe. And then Lord, we would stand firm and not back down from the truth. Lord, help us. We need the strength of the Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit in our lives every day to help us to do this. We cannot do it on our own. And Father, we rejoice that you have promised your Holy Spirit to us. And then in the end, you've already promised how it's all going to work out. We ask all these things this morning in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.