Well this morning I want to invite you to turn in your Bibles to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2, if you recall for the last few weeks now we have been looking, I think this is our third week looking at this passage, here in verses 14 through 16. And as we've been looking at this, we've been discovering again one of the hellish characters of Satan and how he uses discouragement, complaining, murmuring, those types of attitudes in our lives to displease the Lord Jesus Christ. Also, to hinder our walk. He's all about hindering the walk of the believer. He's all about producing confusion, frustration. He's all about tempting us to deny our God, even in the midst of adversity. Those are the times that I believe that His ways are exposed even more in that activity to get you to respond in the flesh instead of walking by the Spirit. And so as we've been looking at this, we've already looked at four characteristics of the enemy. We said that he is presumptuous, he is proud, he is powerful, and he is evil. And now we're looking at this next characteristic in that he is crafty. And we said that crafty, it means using or involving cunning or trickery to deceive other people. And certainly that's what Satan seeks to do in deceiving us. He uses all of these types of tactics that are right in line with his character to deceive you and me. And one of the ways in which we've been looking at this is found in Philippians chapter 2. And I want to just take the opportunity to read the section we've been looking at, but I'm going to back up to verse 12 just so you have the context. Paul is writing to the Philippians, he says, so then my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing. so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain." Paul is saying here in verse 12, He's not saying for them to work for their salvation. No, He's saying work out your salvation with fear and trembling. And this whole process of working to full completion our salvation is not something that is done in our own strength, but it's done by God's enabling power. As I've stated in the last two times together as we looked at this, it's like Galatians 2.20 where Paul says, in view of our sanctification, he says, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. We see there the work of salvation, that is, God doing His work. As Paul says in the first part of that verse, I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And then we see the second part of that verse, which is sanctification. The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. You cannot work to full completion your own salvation without God working in you. That is an impossibility. And just as we've also stated, Romans 8.13 talks about in dealing with the flesh, in dealing with sin in our life, it says that we have to put to death the deeds of the body by the Holy Spirit. It just doesn't work in terms of doing it in the flesh. The flesh doesn't want to crucify itself. And it will certainly give false errors and false means in thinking that you are conquering the flesh when the flesh is actually winning. And again, Satan is very good at leading us in this strategy. He's very good at getting us to trust our flesh, trust our own resources, trust our own means rather than trust the sovereign providential hand of God. And so, as we look at this passage here, we're noticing that there is a response that you and I are to have in this process of sanctification. We recognize, first of all, in verse 12, we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, and that is the attitude that we are to have. And we're to recognize that it is God who is at work in us, both to will and do of His good pleasure. And based upon that, in the process of being holy, the process of the things that God uses in our life like test, then we are not to murmur and complain. In fact, we are again to maintain that fear and trembling that he talks about in verse 12. If you notice down in verse 14, he basically says, in do all things without grumbling or disputing, he's basically saying, stop complaining. Stop complaining. Again, they were to have the attitude of fear and trembling as they worked out their salvation, not that of complaining. And everything in our life should be done in that manner, without complaint. Yes, there are days, there are weeks, there are months, there are years when things don't go the way we think that they should go. And they bring about a sense of stress, a sense of testing in our own lives that we can either yield to the testing, fail it, it now becomes a temptation, or we can pass the test. And in passing the test, that means that you endure through the trial. If you remember in James chapter 1, as we looked at that last week, James says to consider it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But on our part, we have to let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. And when you are perfect and complete, lacking nothing, guess what you are? You've reached at a certain level of spiritual maturity, not perfection. but a certain level of maturity. And that doesn't mean that you come to this level of maturity and that there is no room for growth. Believe me, that constantly gets tested as well. But we need to understand this. God is the one who tests our hearts. Satan is the one who seeks to tempt us. in failing the test. Seek to get us to not endure under the trial. And that's the difference that you find in James chapter one. And I find personally in my own life that when I'm trying to take these matters in my own hands, when I'm not letting endurance have its perfect word, when I am tempted to give up, tempted to sin, then there's certainly no way to have any joy as James talks about right there. And if there's ever any person that wants to kill our joy, it is the enemy. Especially when we fail the test. Because in felling the test, it's as if He heats those darts of doubts at us, as it says in Ephesians 6, that He fires those darts, and as if He seeks to confuse us, as He seeks to discourage us, and even getting us to believe that God is not faithful in His Word, that God will not forgive us as He says, as if He says to us, look, look at all the times that you keep felling Him. How could you keep felling Him? How could you keep thinking that He's going to forgive you when you do it over and over and over again? Well, the beautiful thing about this is that because we are the ones confessing our sins, 1 John 1, 9, He is the one forgiving us of our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness. We, as in Matthew 6 that we looked at the last time together, we come to our heavenly Father, we come to Him confessing our sin, we come to Him repenting of our sin, and God deals with us as a loving Father. You know, there is no condemnation now to those who are in Christ Jesus, right? All that condemnation was taken on the cross, on Christ. You and I, because of Christ, because of receiving Him and believing in Him, because of the new birth, have been forgiven of all of our sin, past, present, and future. But yet Satan doesn't want us to remember that. Satan wants us to go through this life constantly crumbling over everything that we experience, crumbling at every trial that we experience, everything that doesn't go our way. There are all kinds of things that constantly come about stealing our joy. You know that. And Satan will use anyone and he'll use anything to make that happen. He is sly. He's cunning. And that's why I think it's very important that we understand his character. In understanding his character, we can understand his ways because his character speaks about his ways. And just like in sports, they always study their opponents, folks, that's what we need to do. We need to study our enemy to understand how he works. And I think even more important than that, we need to study our Heavenly Father and what He is like and how He has delivered and will deliver us. Well, as we've been going through this, we've been pointing out that complaining should never be part of our attitude. And complaining is both emotional as well as intellectual. And we saw that basically in verse 14 where he says, do all things without grumbling. Grumbling, that's the word also translated murmuring. And that word is an onomatopoetic word. It expresses discontent. It's a muttering in a low voice. It sounds like the guttural, the mutteral sounds that people often make when they're disgruntled. It's a negative response to something unpleasant. It's inconvenient or disappointing. It arises out of a self-centered notion that it is undeserved. You're going through this difficult situation, and you start saying, I don't deserve to go through this. I don't deserve to experience this. I have done this, this, this, and this, and I'm getting this from this? All those thises, you know? Well, Paul, use of this word, it reveals that it's an emotional rejection of God's providence, an emotional rejection of His will and the circumstances for one's life. And we saw some examples. We saw how Israel, when they came to the Red Sea and they saw the army of Pharaoh approaching them, and they look behind them and they see this massive army coming after them, and they look ahead of them, and what do they see? The Red Sea, there's nowhere to go. either succumb to the enemy or dive into the sea and drown, basically. And so they murmured and they complained. And Moses said to them, stand back and see the salvation of God. Stand back and see God deliver you. Took his staff and touched the sea and it parted. They went across on dry ground and God took his cloud and left it behind them and it caused the armies to be confused and he left them like that till all the people crossed to the other side. And then the army came into the Red Sea, they came in there on the dry ground after them and all of a sudden the water came back upon them. And in chapter 15, what did they do? They sang praise because God had delivered them, rightfully so. But as soon as the praise was over, the complaining resumed. Chapter 15, verses 22 to 27, they began their murmuring again in Marah. But it seemed that complaining just continued to follow them. No matter what they were going through, they just kept keeping their eyes focused on the past. They kept looking back to Egypt. You know how it is when you eat onions and garlic and leeks and all this stuff, that doesn't seem to leave you, does it? It didn't leave them, they kept looking back and they kept singing that same Egyptian song, you know? And so, chapter 16, the first 12 verses record that they murmured at the wilderness of sin. Chapter 17, the first six verses, they murmured at Rephidim. And even in Numbers chapter 11, they murmured in the wilderness. In chapter 14, they murmured at Kadesh Barnea. The scriptures warn us over and over about this type of attitude. God dealt swiftly with complaining, just as I believe He does deal with it in our lives. You and I are not under the judgment or the condemnation of God any longer because of the new birth, because of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross that has been applied to you upon your believing and repentance. But the Bible also teaches, like in Hebrews 12, Proverbs 3, it mentions about chastening for sin. When you and I give in to sin, God chastens us. And again, you take into account Matthew 6 and how he deals with his children as a loving father. And we're told in Scripture, like 1 Corinthians 10, 9, When we have that example of not complaining, and God, the Holy Spirit, uses the example of Israelites' complaint, and he tells us, nor let us murmur, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Or Psalm 106, 24, which says, Then they despised the pleasant land. They did not believe his word, but complained in their tents. They did not heed the voice of the Lord. Therefore he raised up his hand in an oath against them to overthrow them in the wilderness. If all of this is written for our example and admonition, our learning, then why do we never get it? You know, they say about history, history repeats itself. We're the ones repeating it. We're the ones that sometimes just don't get it. And we keep going back through it over and over and over again. And that's why I think the devil comes along and says, listen, look at yourself, look at your life. You never overcome anything. You never finish anything. You never complete anything. Look at you now, doing it again. And you think God's gonna deliver you? You think just because you get contrite in your heart, you think just because you get on your knees that he's gonna forgive you? That's why it's so important that when you're going through a trial that you have to stay in the word. It is the word that is your deliverance. It is the word that keeps your mind and your heart and your emotion intact. That's why we say when we look at these two words that are used there in verse 14, we see that complaining is both emotional as well as intellectual. That second word that he uses in verse 14, disputing, That word right there means to think or to deliberate in yourself. It's an inward reasoning. In fact, it's used in various ways in the scripture. But here it's referring to the intellectual rebellion against God. It may reflect, again, the conduct of the Israelites in the wilderness. That word is translated 14 different ways in the New Testament. Listen to how it's translated. It's translated evil thoughts, reasoning, dispute, doubts, speculations, opinions, dissensions, arguments. That's just some of the ways that you find this word being used. And as James Montgomery Boyce says, dialogue has become a popular word in our day. We think well of it. But it's not such a virtue in the Bible, at least not between people and God. God does not want us to argue with Him. He wants us to listen to Him and to do what He says. In this context, the word points to that reasoning that goes on in the human heart in rebellion against God's will. When such reasoning begins to express itself externally, it becomes complaining. The other word that Paul uses. We must get out of the habit of arguing or complaining when God asks us to do things. God says, I want you to do this, and we are silent because a dialogue is going on inside of us. We are saying, does God really mean that I have to do it just like that? Or can I do it some other way? Or are we saying, does God mean that I have to do it now? Maybe I can do it tomorrow or next year. This is what Paul means by arguing. Then God says, I mean for you to do it now and to do it my way. So we complain. Paul says that we are to live as Christians without complaining or arguing in the midst of an ungodly world. When God says that we are to do something, we are to do it because we trust him and want to obey the one who knows what is really best for his children. Whereas grumbling is essentially emotional, disputing is essentially intellectual. A person who continues to murmur and grumble against God will eventually argue and dispute with Him. You say, I'd never do that. Well, is that true? Go with me to James chapter one. Look at verse 13. You remember the first 12 verses that he is talking about trials. He's telling you to count it all joy when you encounter various trials, many different kinds of trials that a Christian will experience. He says, listen, no matter what kind of trial you experience, that you can count it all joy. And as I shared with you last time, the only way that I know of that I can count it all joy when I'm going through the trial is I have to relinquish any control that I have over it. You can't control in any way, can you? You can't control when a trial comes in your life or when a trial leaves your life. let alone can you control any of the details of the trial. And what we do is we worry as we go through this. We just carry this thing, we worry, and obviously there's no way to have any joy. The only way I know to have joy is that I just relinquish all control over this trial. I just give this to the Lord, and I say, listen, I'm not gonna let this kill my joy. I'm not gonna let this cause me to fail this test, to not endure. to give in to the temptation to flee, I'm not going to do any of that. By God's grace, I'm going to endure through this. By God's grace, I'm going to give this to Him. By God's grace, I'm not going to carry this trial. I'm going to let Him carry it. His resources are supernatural. If this is a test for me to reveal the strength or the weakness of my own faith, then I have to look at it in that way. Like it says in chapter 1 verse 3, he says, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Our faith has to be tested. It is subject to testing. And listen, the testing is not for God. It's not for God to find out something about us because he knows everything about us, right? The testing is for us. It reveals to us the weakness or the strength of our faith. You're going through this. You're tempted to give up. You yield to give up. Guess what it revealed? The weakness of your faith, right? It shows the weakness of your ability to endure. And the sad thing about this is that when we give up, we think it's gone. It's not gone. You're still going to have to learn it. And each trial is geared to teach you that. And each time God tests us, He promises us He will not give us more than we can bear. He promises us continually, 1 Corinthians 10, 13, that He is faithful. That's what we have to remember. That's why I say you gotta keep your nose in the Word as you go through this, to remember God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, beyond what you're able to bear. So he tells you, count it all joy, he tells you that you know the testing of your faith produces endurance, but you gotta let endurance have its perfect work. And he also tells you in verse five, if you lack this wisdom, and the arrangement of the Greek grammar here basically says this, if any of you lacks wisdom, and he does, What do you do? You ask of God. That's prayer. You ask God. You ask God and He gives to all generously without reproach. Without reproach means He doesn't scold you for asking. He wants you to ask. He is a generous, giving, loving God. He wants His children to ask. And He's willing to give you what you need, the wisdom, to go through this trial. But you have to ask with conditions. In faith, without any doubting, And don't expect that if you're doubting, you're going to receive anything from the Lord. That is, that wisdom. Well, notice the blessing in verse 12. Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial. For once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him. It's a promise here of reward, a promise here of blessing from enduring through the trial. But notice verse 13. You ask the question, would I ever say to God that He has put me in a situation, He's put me in circumstances that I cannot handle, I cannot bear, and I wouldn't be here if God wouldn't have put me here anyway? You say, I never say that. Look at verse 13. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself does not tempt anyone. Understand this. He's using this in the middle voice when he says, let no one say when he is tempted. It means let no one say to himself. It's not that you're out announcing it. You're saying this in your mind. This is going back to the reasoning, the intellectual aspect of complaining. You're reasoning in your mind and you're going, God's put me in this situation. In God's providence, I am here, and if it wasn't for God's providence, I wouldn't be in this situation, therefore I would not have failed this test, therefore I would not have yielded to this sin. That's what he's saying. He does point out that God does not tempt anyone. He cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself does not tempt anyone. God does not lead you into sin. Psalm 23, verse three says he leads you into righteousness, not sin. Amen for that, right? It's the devil that leads you into sin. And not only is the devil the one that leads you into sin, verse 14, it is your own lust. Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin. When sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing given, every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. The good things come from God. The evil things come from your flesh, and they come from the enemy. Things that God give, verse 18, is that he brings us forth by the word of truth that we would be a kind of first fruits among his creatures. So he says, listen, you know this, but you must be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. The anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. So put aside all filthiness, all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word and plan it which is able to save your souls. I find that in the midst of trials, this is when I am really tested at doing the word. You know, it's one thing, we come into church, we come sit down, we listen to the teaching of the word, we walk out and sometimes we think in our mind we've applied the word just because we heard it. No. You haven't applied it just because you heard it. You just now have the information that has been put in. It's been put in your mind, put in your heart. It's been informing your conscience. But now you have to apply it. You have to do it. And sometimes the application of that word you've heard is not immediate until you go through a trial. How many of you have been in trials this week? I think probably all of us should raise our hands, don't you think? In one way or another. Maybe it was a small one. Maybe it was something that came and went pretty quickly. Maybe that's the one you forgot about. Or maybe it's one that's been prolonged. Maybe it's one that started this morning. But you know, we have the promise that God says he's faithful. Isn't that a wonderful promise? The faithfulness of God. Great is thy faithfulness. He's a faithful God. Well, Paul doesn't leave us right there. He doesn't just point out the problem without giving us the reasons why we have to stop complaining. Go back to Philippians 2. And if you look there at verse 15, In verses 15 and 16 he gives us the reasons to stop complaining. Verse 14 was the command to stop complaining. Verses 15 and 16 give us the reasons to stop complaining. And it begins with a hint of purpose clause in Greek which it translates in two words in verse 15, so that. You could translate that with the purpose of. So he says this, do all things without grumbling or disputing for the purpose of proving yourself to be blameless and innocent children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you appear as lights in the world holding fast or literally holding forth the word of life so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I have not run in vain nor toil in vain. So he gives us this purpose here. Four reasons why they should stop complaining. Four reasons that you and I can apply as well. The first one's in the first part of verse 15. He says, so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and harmless. And we mentioned this last time. The word blameless has the idea that they needed to be without defect or blemish in their character. It means that there is nothing that could be charged to them. Not necessarily that it couldn't be charged with them, but it was nothing that could stick. People all the time make charges against our character, do they not? But your character should be such that no matter what charge they make against you, it just doesn't stick because it's not true. Now there may be some days when it is. It's like when you get one of those hate mails, hate emails or something like that and someone just rips you. Before you throw it away and before you dismiss it, do what, I love Chuck Swindoll, he cracks me up sometimes, but he was reading one of these hate mails that he got. He was reading it to his wife and he got toward the end of it and she said, well honey, they have a point. He goes, what do you mean they have a point? And all I want to do is say this, before you throw it in the trash, realize that there may be something there that God is revealing and God does want you to glean from this. There's always something that we can learn even from our critics, right? It's just that we don't want to admit that because we don't want them to be right in any way because they, after all, are our critics. But when they do make a charge against you, let's make sure it doesn't stick. Make sure that you're above board. Make sure that you're consistent in things that you say, that you don't say one thing and do something different. Make sure that you don't hold one part of the truth back or misrepresent the truth, that there's no occasion for scandal. Listen, we read this morning in Daniel chapter 3, these three men, no compromise. Were they guilty of the charge of not falling down and worshiping the golden calf or the golden image? Yes, they were. But that's a good thing to be guilty of, right? If you had flash on the TV this afternoon, which would be easy to do where everybody would see it and also take over your computers, everyone on the internet, everyone that has any kind of wireless connection, which would cover the rest of us with cell phones. But what if it flashed over there that the government said that they had erected this image? and all the people of the world were to bow down to this image at a certain time. You have a cell phone, a ringtone will be made on your cell phone reminding you that at this moment, at this time, you're to bow down and worship this image. And if you're having trouble with the concoction of this image, we're going to put it right there on your cell phone. We're going to put it right there on your computer screen because After all, Al Gore created the internet, right? So we're just going to have that flash up right there. We're going to have it take over all of your television sets. We'll take over the radio airwaves. This doesn't sound like an impossibility, does it? Not in the age of technology that we live in. This is right here in the realm of possibility. What will you do? Will you do like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and say, listen, we're not gonna fall down and worship your gods, because we know from the word of God that we're only to worship the one true God, right? Even if the consequences are death. You know, so easy for us to say, I would not cave in a situation like that. But we cave in trials. Is the trial any different? I mean, you're not being tempted by God or tested by God to fall down and worship a golden calf. Are you? Or a golden image? I keep saying calf, I keep thinking the wilderness. Calf, image, whatever, same thing. But do we not do that already? Are we not tempted as believers to abandon and run from the trial? And to fall down to whatever will give us deliverance? Whatever will release us from this turmoil that is going on inside? Well, he says, that you need to make sure that you're not murmuring and complaining, that you may become blameless and harmless. If you're a murmuring and complainer, and you're out trying to share the love of Jesus Christ with someone, and they know that you're a murmuring and complainer, haven't you just discredited your testimony? Haven't you just discredited the gospel in some way? Now, I know how we can recover from something like that if someone points something like that out, which, believe me, people do. They're really quick to point out hypocrisy in other people's lives, but not in their life, right? But they're quick to point that out. You know, when they say to you, I thought you said you were a Christian, and I just heard you five minutes ago over there going through some kind of little fit. That doesn't make sense. You can recover from that, believe it or not. It'd be hard, but you can. Just admit that they were right. Admit that it was sin. Admit that they did, that you did sin against God. And that they too could be forgiven of all their sin, just as you are. The second word, harmless, or innocent, has the basic meaning of being unmixed or unadulterated. Here, it means to be absolutely pure without sin and evil. Again, let's don't have this sticking to us. Let's don't have this charge to where it would stick, that we are guilty of this charge. Look at what else he gives. He says, stop complaining that you may be blameless and harmless. Secondly, that you may become children of God without fault...without fault. That's the second part of the verse. Verse 15, without fault means without reproach, closely related to the meaning of the word blameless. Both of these words describe what is without blemish or imperfection. The first word, blameless, refers to being without blemish in your character before others, while the second word, without fault, seems to refer to being without blemish in your character before God. Notice in these following verses, where it says here that these believers are blameless, notice who they are blameless before. Go with me to Ephesians chapter 1 and look at verse 4, and look at what he says there. He says, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame, that's the word without fault translated there in Philippians 2.15. Before who? Before Him, before God. Go to chapter 5, look at verse 25. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish." That's the word, Philippians 2.15, translated without fault. Who was it before? Present her to Himself. A glorious church. Go to Colossians, it's two books over, Colossians 121, it says there, and you who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death to present you holy and blameless, that is without fault and above reproach in His sight. And then, of course, over in Jude, verse 24 says, So, like I said, the word blameless that's used in the first part of the text in Philippians 2.15, it seems to be referring to without blemish in your character before others, while this second word, without fault, is referring to being without blemish in your character before God. Again, James Montgomery Boyce writes, this does not mean that there will ever come a time in our lives when we shall be without sin. Real sanctification lies in the increasing realization of how sinful we are. It means that our lives will be lived in the sight of God in such a way that they will be open before Him. There will be no barriers between ourselves and God. If we live this way, we shall be able to pray as David prayed. Search me, oh God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. So in terms of your character before the world, blameless. Before God, blameless. We hear Paul. on occasion saying, listen, you can accuse me, but my conscience is not accusing me of this, and who are you to judge anyway? God is the one who will judge all men in that day. And of course, that doesn't let anybody off the hook, you know that? But he says, listen, I'm just not gonna put a whole lot of stock in your judging of me, because I know God is the one that's gonna judge me. And I know in my conscience I don't have anything accusing me. It's like in Nehemiah's day, they're building the walls, And they're over there and they send out this open letter. And they're accusing them of things. And Nehemiah says, listen, you're making it all up. It's not true. You have a time in your life where your conscience does not accuse you. You are above reproach. You're without fault before God. And the only thing that people can say against you is something they have to make up. Go back to verse 15. As children of God, they are to be above reproach in what? In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. That phrase, crooked and perverse generations, borrowed from Deuteronomy 32.5 where Moses describes unfaithful and rebellious Israel as a people who had become a perverse and crooked generation. Paul applies that description of Israel to unsaved corrupt humanity. The word corrupt there, it comes from that... it's where we get that word scoliosis, that curvature of the spinal column. Here, the term was used metaphorically of anything that would deviate from the standard or the norm. And in Scripture, it's often used of things that are morally or spiritually corrupt. It's like in Proverbs 2, where the word is used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, and it says in verse 13, It says, from those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perversity of the wicked, whose ways are scolios, whose ways are crooked, and who are devious in their paths. So it's this idea of a moral and spiritual corruption deviating from the standard. Look at the second word, perverse. It means twisted, distorted. It denotes an abnormal moral condition. It intensifies the meaning by referring to the one who has strayed so far off the path that his deviation is severely twisted and distorted. And here, again, Paul applies this condition to the sinful world system. How did Jesus respond to it? Well, Matthew 17, 17, he says, all faithless and perverse generation. He uses the same word. Luke even used the word to describe the ways of Eliamus, the sorcerer, in Acts 13. Here as children of God, they are to be above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world. To shine as a light in the world is to metaphorically declare that Christians are to be moral and spiritual luminaries who radiate God's truth, the Word of Life, in an otherwise sinfully darkened universe. There should be a clear distinction in our life about who we follow and who we refuse to follow. There should be a clear distinction in our life showing the holiness of one's life versus the unholiness of one's life. We're told in Matthew 5, 16, to let your light so shine before all men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. We minister in the midst of an ungodly world they should be able to see the godliness of our life. And any persecution that you experience should not come at the hands of your own sinfulness, it should come in your life because of the godliness. 2 Timothy 3.12, yea, that all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Notice the next area he mentions, verse 16. He says, stop complaining, just reminding you where he's coming from, that you may be blameless and harmless, that you may become children of God without fault, and third, that you may hold forth the word of life. He says there, holding fast the word of life. Holding fast, that means to hold towards, it means to hold forth, to hold it out there. It refers to believers holding out and offering something for others to take. Here you have a blameless life before others and before God, and you're holding out the word of truth with clean hands and with a pure heart. You're offering the gospel. That's really what it's referring to. It's referring to the gospel of Christ, the word of life. We are to continually hold forth the word of life. We are to offer God's salvation to a lost and dying world. That's why you want to make sure that you're not one who is known for complaining and having these inward arguments, this inward rebellion. against God because of the providential affairs of your life. And then the last he mentions, he says in verse 16, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain. In other words, the reason to stop complaining is that you may become blameless and harmless, that you may become children of God without fault, that you may hold forth the word of life, and then lastly, that you may cause your pastors to rejoice. He says, so that in the day of Christ, I will have reason to glory. He wanted to have reason to glory. Of course, the day of Christ, that's not a reference to the day of the Lord. The day of Christ, the day of the Lord, that's two separate events. The day of Christ is a reference to the judgment seat of Christ, where believers will receive rewards, or either receive them or lose them. And Paul is speaking specifically of the glory or the joy that he would experience at the day of Christ. Here he is speaking also of the genuineness of their faith. He says here, so that in the day of Christ, that is at the judgment seat of Christ, I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain. In other words, you were genuine people. You were genuinely saved. You genuinely received the love of the truth. You genuinely repented. You genuinely believed. Let me ask you this, when you're around somebody that's murmuring and complaining, it's kind of hard to tell if they're Christians or not, isn't it? It's kind of hard. Then they try to get religious and they'll complain and use words that are biblical words. I don't know why Jesus put me in this situation, you know, use words like that. Put a little spiritual religious twist on it, you know. It's so important because of the work that we have to do of leading others to Christ, of sharing the gospel with them, that we make sure that we are not caving under the trials in our life. That we make sure that we're not giving in to the temptation to flee the trial. that we are a joyful people. Joy is something that each of us have to stir up. If you go on later in the chapter, and I've told you that this epistle here, the epistle to the Philippians is really referred to as an epistle of joy because of how many times he mentions joy. Look there at Philippians 4, look at verse 4. This is something that you and I are commanded to do. He says, rejoice in the Lord, Always, and again, I will say, rejoice. I can't make you rejoice. You can't make me rejoice, though we can do things in each other's life that can bring joy, right? It's a joyful thing to see God's people obey Him from a pastor's point of view. I would say it's even a joyful thing from a believer's point of view, right? To see people growing in the Word, loving the Word, not loving this life, not hanging on to their life in this life. Isn't that joyful? But this is something we're to stir up. Verse six, we're to be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Say, well, how can I do that? Well, you need to guard your thought life. Verse eight, you need to think on the right things. Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence, and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. And if that's not enough, follow the example that Paul has given. The things you've learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things and the God of peace will be in you. You say, well, I'm finding it very hard to practice somebody's life in this life because just as I get a little close, something happens. Well, we have to remember when we're following someone as they follow Christ, to remember that they're sinful and they're not Christ. And we have to allow for that, right? But if you're having trouble with that, go to the scripture, follow Paul. Follow Christ. He's the example. And here's the human example. You think Paul never messed up? Yeah, he did. Sure did. Spoke out of turn on one occasion and got his lips handed back to him and they smacked him right on the face. He didn't know that he had just reviled a high priest. Scripture demanded, forbade, such an activity. And when he found out that that was a high priest, he was quoting Scripture saying that you shall not revile the high priest. And he said, I didn't know this was a high priest. So there was a little bit of willful ignorance there, you know? Maybe not willful ignorance, but there was some ignorance there. He didn't know. But that doesn't always excuse us, does it? Well, I want to encourage you. I want to encourage you not to give in to your flesh, not give in to the enemy. The enemy is crafty, he's sly. He wants to lead you astray. He wants to lead you astray from the truth. He wants you to stay discouraged. He wants you to complain and murmur. But you've got to realize that we are holding forth the gospel of Jesus Christ and we've got to make sure that our lives do not in any way hinder it. And really, our lives will not hinder it. It's like a sun, the sun shining on a garbage dump. The garbage dump doesn't affect the sun, does it? Any more than the sinfulness of our life affect the purity of the gospel. There are people that will be turned off from the gospel off of a dirty vessel that's trying to offer it. So I would encourage you, make sure that you are blameless and there's nothing that can be stuck there if you're charged. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your word this morning and we pray, God, that we truly would realize that we are those who hold forth the word of truth, the word of life, that we shine forth in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, and that we will let our light so shine before all men, Lord, that they will see our good works and glorify our heavenly Father. Lord, I pray that you would Forgive us if we are guilty of this. We're guilty of complaining. We're guilty of murmuring. Lord, if our lives are filthy at such a point that we have not been able to offer the word of life purely and truly because of the dirtiness of our heart, I pray that you would forgive us if we have forsaken your word in any way as we go through trials. Help us to recognize this when it's going on, Father. Help us to see this, especially so we don't repeat it, so that we give you glory and praise. Lord, thank you for your deliverance. Thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you that you rescue us. Just when we think we can't handle it anymore, you rescue us. We thank you for that. And we thank you for what you're producing in our lives. And we thank you that we can glory in the cross. We can joy in you. We can rejoice. We can be of good cheer because you've overcome the world. We don't have to be those who succumb to all of the feelings that are produced by these trials. We can truly overcome them, but only supernaturally. We thank you for that, Father. We pray that you will cleanse our minds and our hearts right now. And I also pray too, Father, if there's anybody in our midst this morning that has never received Christ, Lord, I pray that you would cause them to receive you even now, that today would be that new beginning, and all their sin had been taken away, forgiven, Thank you, Lord Jesus, we pray all this in your name now, amen.