No grumbling or disputing

Okay, Philippians 2, 14 through 16. So picking up where Bob left off last weekend, we are calling this the holding fast. Holding fast. I'm just going to pull this up on my phone so I can have it. Let's read together these three verses. 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 no reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain. He says, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason Yep. So this is Paul writing to the Philippians. And he starts off with an imperative. And we talked a little bit about that last week. This whole do this all the time. Do all things without grumbling or griping.

I want to take a big picture stab at these three verses. I actually think that these three verses are very, very interesting and have a lot to do with walking by faith in Christ and abiding. And so we're going to dive into that this morning and I hope that you see some of the things that I saw here and are able to apply it in some neat ways in your walk. Let's get a big picture of these three verses. You've got verse 14. It says, Do this now. What does it say to do? All things without grumbling and griping. Disputing. That's right. I say griping. It just kind of rolls better for the kids.

As a result of doing this right now, this will happen. You will put yourselves to be blameless, innocent children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you appear as lights in the world. So do this. This will happen. And then finally, this is the result. This is the ultimate result. Holding fast the word of life so that in the day of Christ we'll have reason to glory because I, Paul, did not run in vain nor toil in vain. Okay, so we're going to take a look at this, but this is the big picture. Do this so this happens with this result. Verses 14, 15, and 16. Let's look at the word do.

And I'm not going to go and pronounce all the Greek terms here, but they are there for you to type in the Blue Letter Bible and do your own search online if you want to. I did find out that the Blue Letter Bible does the pronunciation of Greek words for you, so if you ever want to know how to pronounce these guys, you can listen to that little audio clip on the Blue Letter Bible. I think there's another one that does it as well, but I was pleasantly surprised that I wasn't too far off on some of these. Nonetheless, I won't go into those.

But here, I wanted to go into the word do here just because it does strike us instantly as something that brings to mind a law. It brings to mind this idea of living a certain way and doing a certain thing, and especially when you add the all things to it. And all of a sudden you have a verse that's often taken out of context and used to basically set law on someone's Christian life. And is the idea that we carry these things out in our life?

That is the idea. That's what Paul has in mind for sure. But I want to talk a little bit about how the doing gets done in a little bit. But let's first of all just make sure that we understand what this is. This is a present active imperative which means do it now and keep on doing it into the future and you must do it. See, it's not a choice thing here. Paul is saying this is something that should be a present constant for you of doing.

To adopt a way of expressing by act the thoughts and feelings, it stands for a number of such acts, chiefly to make, produce, create, or cause. So create these things in your life. Do these things in your lives. Produce these things in your life. And if you're talking about production in the Christian life, again, you've got two, at least in terms of the context of our studies, you've got two different ways that you can attempt to produce fruit and do things.

And in this case, not grumbling and disputing. So how do we get past this? That's one of the questions that I had in my mind and we talked a little bit about that last week. The all things here just has the idea of every kind of thing. So do in every kind of thing, that's the idea. Let's look at that. Do this now. This round, huge circle represents all the things that you do.

So do all things, and inside all that you do, do not allow grumbling and disputing to be a part of all the things that you do. If this represents all the things that you produce in your Christian life, grumbling and disputing is not a part of it. And that's what this verse is getting at. And so, where does the grumbling and disputing belong in terms of all the things that you produce in your Christian life?

It doesn't belong in there, it belongs outside of there. That's right. So, we can kind of refer to this big circle diagram here as everything that happens in your walk with Christ doesn't include grumbling and griping. So what are some basic principles that we can gather just from the initial look at that verse? If you're grumbling or disputing, where are you? You're thinking of yourself. Okay. You're self-minded. Okay. Where are you in your walk? Are you in Christ or are you in the flesh?

Pretty sobering thought. to think that Paul is saying to the Philippians here that the grumbling and the disputing that takes place, and we'll look at grumbling and disputing, what those things are, so be sure to know that they don't belong in a walk of faith. However, he's clearly pointing us, at least at this stage, that they don't belong, and they don't look, and they don't belong in the sphere of being in Christ.

And does that mean that every time that we have a frustration, we're grumbling and griping? No. I think the grumbling and the griping is a next level from a frustration. It's one thing to be frustrated in Christ. It's another thing to allow yourself the external and even possibly the mental, as we'll see, the grumbling and murmuring that the word grumbling means. But it's one thing to be initially tempted with. It's another thing to find yourself engaging in it. And that's what Paul has the idea of. If you're grumbling, if you're griping, you're not doing all things in Christ.

And we know that that has that in mind because in the previous verse, Philippians 2.13, that we looked at last week, where is the doing getting done? And who's doing it?

For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. So you hear the word, do all things, and you should immediately think in your mind, God is going to do all things in me without grumbling and griping. God is not maybe in me, but He's literally going to do all things without the grumbling and griping with me trusting Him and Him doing the work. And we can hang our hats on the previous verse. I mean we're one verse away from doing all things without grumbling and griping.

And that's one of the things that I think is important. Again, you take that verse, verse 14 and what we're looking at, you take it out of context and you don't have verse 13 with it. And all of a sudden, you've got a law, you know, a Christian imperative that really weighs pretty heavy. It's like you can train your children.

Hey, the Bible says, Jesus says, Paul says, don't write, don't grumble. So don't do it. And all of a sudden, they're thinking, I got to somehow you know, behavioral modification 101 here, you know, and I've got to make mommy happy so I'm not going to do this. I've got to make daddy happy so I'm not going to dispute with my sister or my brother.

But actually it is only as we are in Christ that all those things are not being done in this case. All the grumbling and the griping and disputing are not taking place when Christ is doing the work. Okay? Does that make sense? disputing. This is just dissension, contention, expressing disagreement. And again, this has the idea of being wrapped up with the grumbling, the murmuring, the kind of outward, I don't want to do this. My boss, my co-workers, I don't want to do this. This is really, God says, this doesn't belong in the Christian who is abiding. It just doesn't fit in Christ. Do I grumble? Do I dispute? And I think about these things? Do you? I'm not looking for a show of hands, but the reality is that we do. We grumble. I mean, a lot.

And I think that, if anything, it's not a, oh my goodness, I've done something that's horrible here. It's a matter of, okay, this is a reality check for whether or not I am trusting in Christ or I'm trusting in myself here. Or some other source of mindedness, that we might put it. But he warns about this grumbling and disputing, not because that it was just a household rule for the church, but because those are neither consistent with the life of Christ and the believer, nor spiritually productive.

And so when I think about grumbling and disputing, which I've taken part in even just recently, it's like, wow, it happens. It can happen so quick. It's so easy, especially in the workplace. Grumbling can be so destructive. If you're trying to get a job done and people are like, I don't want to do this, I'm too good for this. I should have a different job. It's refreshing and there's such a wonderful opportunity to just rest in the Lord and say, This is totally below me, but I'll change the toilet paper if that's what needs to be done. Whatever.

That's right. And it's neat that I don't sense that Paul is, in the overall context of identification truths in general, it's not a matter of getting down on oneself for being in a state of grumbling and griping. It's a cue that your mind is in the wrong place. And that's what's encouraging to me is that you don't have this, you know, Self-loathing and pity for yourself. Oh, no, I grabbed again.

I just can't do this anywhere It's it's a recognition of okay This is something that doesn't belong in the life of Christ and I you know The life of Christ is not what I'm presently trusting in and so this is an opportunity for first John 1 9 to confess and find myself walking again and And that's why all the imperatives, the do's, the do's, the do's throughout the New Testament as believers, having the joys of the identification truths at hand, it's not a matter of breaking oneself down in self-pity with the things that we don't do. It's a matter of, okay, this is a cue. This is a cue for, you now recognize you're not producing the life of Christ, you're producing the life of you. you know, and it doesn't have any value whatsoever.

And that's one of the things that Paul's concerned about in verse 16 is that you don't lose out on the opportunity to gain reward in the day of the Lord's coming for his church, the rapture that we will talk about in verse 16. He's produced, he's concerned that we don't toil and bane, you know, that what we do produces eternal value. And we'll talk about that. So when we find ourselves not grumbling and not griping, not disputing, murmuring, getting into the dissentious kinds of conversations, as a result of trusting the Lord, you'll find yourself being blameless and innocent children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.

You'll appear as lights among them in the world, and you'll hold fast the word of life. And I'm looking forward to getting to that part. That's really interesting. So here I've color-coded these things that are a result of doing all things without grumbling and disputing. The green are the things that you show yourself to be, and the darker orange or red there are the places that they take place.

So Paul is saying to the Philippians, it is 100% accurate that you are not to grumble and to gripe when God is doing the work for you, verse 13. And when you're not grumbling and griping, as a result of those things, you're going to find yourself being blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the middle of this kind of world that we're going to talk about, crooked and perverse, and you're going to appear as lights and you're going to hold fast to the Word of Life. Now, are these the kinds of things that we think of ourselves doing? Because that's what Paul was challenging the Philippians with. Batra? Yeah, it's been...

I'm behind you. I'm sorry. That's okay. I was thinking of the word that is used here of disputings and contentions. It's through words. It's disagreements. I have a hard time with that because if you go to some fellowships that are not teaching the truth, there needs to be correction about words. But it has to be done in love and it has to be in submission to one another under the work of God in each of our lives, recognizing that God's at work in them just like he works in us. And you know that's a fine line between disputing about things and giving corrective teaching from the word. I'm not sure how you say that. Okay, I'll take a stab at it. So, dialogue, dialogusmos, however you might pronounce that properly. I should have looked that one up. I told you I wasn't going to say those things.

The idea of dialogue, the idea of exchanging back and forth and Is it, you know, we think about apologetics and the role that we see of ourselves having to give a reason for the hope that we have, having a dialogue and possibly even a dispute with someone about truth. Is that what Paul has in mind here? And is that what this word outside of this context is? I mean, I'm sorry, not outside, but within this context, what's it paired with?

It's paired with the grumbling, which does have a negative murmuring, and it is consistently used in a negative sense of grumbling. It's got a very negative connotation to it. Whereas the disputing side of it, when coupled with the grumbling, you can very, I think, clearly see that in this case, the dialogue has to do with, it's something that you're not supposed to do, Paul says. when paired with the grumbling side of it, you've got a dissentious kind of murmuring and a dispute almost that has left the realm of gracious tolerance towards a person's unbelief or possibly incorrect thinking, and you've entered into literally a negative kind of dispute. And that word grumbling that's associated with the disputing here, I think, give us a better picture.

Just personally, I've been in a fellowship that teaches allegorically, and I'm sitting there grumbling to myself. I mean, literally, I'm saying, that's not true. Lord, that's not true. Over and over. You know what I mean? Let's ask ourselves about it. Let's put the Lord Jesus in that situation and just imagine for a moment the Lord sitting there listening to things about himself that weren't true.

And what's his perspective on non-truth being propagated amongst a bunch of confused, potentially professing believers? What is he going to do? He's probably not going to be happy about the reality of that. factually that there were instances where he corrected truth and he did it in a very matter of fact kind of way. I think about clearing the money changers tables and so forth. dissatisfaction with lies and falsehoods, I don't think is a wrong thing. But how you might, in this case, go about expressing that dissatisfaction or frustration with another person, you know, this particular verse has to do with things that were going on between people. In the church. In the church. Right. And so, go ahead, Roger.

In your case, you were kind of saying, and I've been in a position too, I've been in a body where I didn't agree with their teaching. Eventually I left. But it's difficult. But that's kind of an inward struggle where you're saying, Lord, this is not right. I don't agree with this. I didn't jump up in the middle of the service and say, this is wrong and make a big spectacle. I just said, I have to go someplace else. I just don't agree with what you're teaching here. I'm sorry. And I tried to do it graciously. But inwardly, I was doing what you... How can they say that? But the other half of this is you have concern for them. And you do.

But at some point, you make your case and you say, Lord, we're not on the same page here. They're going down this path and I believe that's the wrong path. There's only so much you can do in many cases. In trying to convince somebody differently is very difficult unless they want to be convinced or want to understand, right?

And yet among that fellowship there are those that do want to know. And there are. I know in our case, actually, Courtney and I came out of a different fellowship. And we were the only two that that left. I mean, some of the left for the reasons, but I mean, so I don't know. It's hard. It's great. And it's not any fun. I didn't enjoy going through the high periods when they were, you know, so it's. I don't think that's really what he's talking about. Well, this is a Christian fellowship that may have disputings about what is being taught or what they understand.

I think you mentioned last week just the spiritual apprehension of a situation when you're in Christ. And I think that when you get down to a potential disagreement in how you might handle it within the church and with another believer, there's still that spiritual apprehension that the Lord provides to you through His Spirit, and based on the words that you've beheld in Scripture. And at that point, you're going to know that I'm not going to, based on what Paul's saying here, I'm not going to find myself in a grumbling and a griping mode, but I might find myself being in disagreement, in a gracious disagreement. But the result of not doing these things has this in mind here. I mean, if you're grumbling and you're griping in a way that, you know, you think, oh, this is a Christian way of grumbling and griping. This is permitted.

Well, what about blameless and innocent? What about children of God above reproach? What about appearing as a light to them? And what about holding fast the word of life? So, In many ways, I believe that there's a lot of opportunity for growth in this one little subtle area of grumbling and disputing in our minds, because these are the results of not doing those things when walking in Christ. My solution in that environment was to present the positive side, that there's intimacy with Christ, there's identity with Christ, and I just did it whenever there was a chance to do it. Like if they were talking about salvation in the previous verse here, work out your salvation. I just said, do we need to be careful that we're talking about our salvation in the present time, not in eternity, not in the past, now? And everybody just sort of stopped. It was like, oh yeah, okay. And then they moved on. I just tried to make it a focus on Yep. Rather than a dispute.

Yep, and sometimes you have to realize that people are looking to pick a fight. And those are the instances where you almost have to ask them a question and let them go work it out. Other times you have to realize, look, they're venting. And this is just words in the wind and I'm not going to dig in. at this particular point. So having that ability to conversate with fellow believers and unbelievers, ultimately it has to do with the Lord Jesus actually guiding moment by moment in that instance. We have parameters of thinking. Here's one of them, grumbling and griping.

How it gets applied literally and in every instance is spiritually apprehended, I think, through the life and intimacy with Christ. We've got these results here, blameless, innocent, children of God, above reproach, and so forth, and the places where they're supposed to take place. Interestingly, where are these things taking place? Are they taking place in a nice, very safe fellowship of Christians?

It doesn't seem that would be the case. No! In fact, It's so nice for us to be able to get together and find agreement where we don't have the grumblings and the gripings and the opportunity to do so, but it's Paul's intention that the Philippians see that that's not where this stuff's taking place. Interestingly, it's outside of your fellowship where you're to be seen as blameless and innocent. It's outside of your fellowship that you're to be seen as children, both inside fellowship, but specifically in this case, outside of fellowship. In the world, appearing as lights, holding fast the word of life.

We're going to talk about that. Blameless and innocent here. Not blamed free from fault or defect and it's again another phrase that's paired together and this idea of innocent not mixed based on a root word for mixing liquids or metals. But the idea here is that pairing up these words is that the first of it, blameless, relates to the external purity and the second to internal purity.

So Paul's saying that as a result of doing all things without the grumbling and the griping, you're going to be seen as pure on the outside and pure internally as well. And I really like that the grumbling is such a subtle thing and we can think about doing it in our mind, because it does happen. But in a lot of ways, that kind of mental grumbling has nothing to do with a conversation with the Lord. It's almost just a selfish satisfaction thing.

That's not conversation with God. I mean, when was the last time you said, hey God? I mean, you know, the conversation is actually, you may have found yourself like, I don't get this and I don't understand this, but if you're grumbling with the Lord as you're walking and talking with Him in your walk, you're actually not beholding Him in the way that's intended in the scripture. And some people say, oh, just you could just lay it all out to the Lord and complain and gripe and these kinds of things.

I don't think that that's actually a clear picture of how we deal with things that frustrate us. And I don't think that it's an external thing that happens with unbelievers or believers. And I don't think it's something that happens before the Lord. It doesn't mean that you can't be hurt and completely out of tune with how this is and why this is happening. but it is still a intimate trust and a sovereign and all-knowing omnipotent God that causes you to say, I don't understand.

But a grumbling and griping is going to get me nowhere in this situation. You have a plan for me and you have an ultimate destination for me in terms of my likeness of you. And so, I don't get it, and it doesn't mean that I like it, but I'm not going to sit here and argue with you, and I'm not going to grumble to you about it. I'm going to find myself beholding you and trusting you.

And is that a mature interaction with the Lord as a believer? I think that it is. Does it always happen for us? No. But is that a mature kind of intimacy? I think it is, because the grumbling and the grapping is not allowed by Paul in Christ with other people. How would it be allowed with an intimate conversation with the Lord.

But again, don't hear me saying we can't be frustrated or overwhelmed or confused. Those are all things that we see believers taking part in all through the scripture. But the way that we talk about it with the Lord and the way that we talk about it with other people doesn't have this kind of effect. There's a blameless and innocent way to go about it. And maybe we need to just continue to search the scripture and grow in our understanding in order for that conversation with the Lord to become more intimate. I think about it with our spouses too.

The grumbling and the grappling, that's a great place to kind of get an idea of how this is not to be done. That's right. The fear and the trembling we talked about last week, that being really related to self-distrust. You're grimly griping, hey, that's a good sign of, you know, you're trusting in yourself here.

Even in a conversation, I took this both externally and internally, all the way down to this doesn't belong in the life of Christ. So it doesn't belong in my life, and when I see it, I know very clearly where I am and where I need to be. But this is the result, external and internal purity. And that's why I brought up the internal purity side of it.

We can't see internal purity, but the Lord sees it and he expects that that innocent side of it, I mean, we can't look at one another and say, you're blameless and innocent. I may say you're blameless. There's no way for me to give you fault for this because I can't find it. Maybe you are guilty externally. But this has the idea before the Lord, there's a blameless and an innocence.

And there's also a relationship here that has to do with us positionally being related to God and a family. And the phrase children of God is being used. And Paul uses that term five times throughout his works. And then it's also mentioned by the disciple John in both of his books as well. or at least two of his. And so, to get a better context of that, we see across those verses, we can come up with a definition for the children of God. And this is also already been mentioned to some degree in the class, but it assumes that the believers are related to God as his children positionally. And just to pull out John 1, 12, but as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God. So for those that do all things without the government grappling, you're blameless, innocent, and you'll be children of God. Who is he talking about here? He's specifically talking about those that have received him. So he's again talking about believers, and he's just qualifying the positional state of these believers. Blameless and innocent.

Guess what, you're children of God. Since when was the last time that you thought of yourself as a walking and talking child of God? That's what he's saying here. Think of yourselves as such because that's your position. So the blameless and innocent is paired with a positional title. that you have, a familial title that you're given positionally with the Lord. Does Paul, in this verse, have position in mind? I think with the mention of children of God, he does. He has a family position and relationship with him that you are to have in mind as you carry out the walk in everyday life amongst believers in this case. Romans 8, 16, the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. So who gets testimony from the Spirit? Believers. So believers are called here in their condition to live from their position. How in the world do you carry out the condition of a child of God?

We have to understand positionally what it means. And the only way to do that is to understand the scripture based on that. So once you understand it, your condition can then be carried out as a child, which results in literally looking like they are related to him. And I like that. When you think about being a child of God, it means that you have a resemblance. to the very life of Christ. There's a, hey, you look a lot like, or in some cases, and I say this in the most sincere way, but sometimes people might say, you and so-and-so that I knew in the past who was also a Christian, you guys sure talk and think a lot alike, and you remind me of him. And that might be a real slap in the face, or it might be the fact that you both were children of God, and there was that familial relatedness that a person was able to perceive.

Yeah. Well, I find it interesting too, you know, sometimes you don't meet somebody, but you have that, I don't know, that, I don't want to say feeling. Kindred spirit. Exactly. You know that they are a believer. Sure. You know, without saying anything. And then, you know, as you finally get into the conversation, you know, you find out that each other are, but you have that You're right, that kindred spirit. Yeah.

I think it's really cool that initially it's a kindred spirit concept. Initially it's something that's literally kind of a supernatural thing. I mean, you're like, wow, okay. And then once you find yourself fellowshipping in the truth of God's Word, that's when a deep richness of opportunity comes between you. But I think you're right. There is that, and I've had that experience a number of times.

And so just to kind of sum up the children of God as a part of this verse, there should be, spiritually speaking, a family resemblance that will be evident to others. I like that. Whether I like it or not is probably not important to you, but I'm encouraged by this because it harkens back to intimacy. And I think that's where we're really trying to get is not to find ourselves in this doctrinal depth of understanding that has a big boardroom kind of educational, academic feel.

This is family stuff. This is intimacy stuff. I'm a child. He's my father. And yeah, we walk and talk and act a lot like each other because guess what? I'm sourced in him and he does the living. It's his pleasure to do it too, and he's prepared it all for me. I just get to walk in it by trusting him. It's really exciting. There's an intimacy here that's being drawn out by Paul.

Above reproach, this word is used in the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint. It's used there to describe sacrificial animals which were without blemish. So the idea of above reproach being without blemish. In Hebrews 9.14, Jesus himself was described as being above reproach, fully qualified as without blemish to be the sacrifice for us. Above reproach, when you think about being above reproach, you think about that, the sacrificial lamb that was, you know, the qualifications for that lamb. I think going back to the Passover, and you're to find a certain kind of animal, it's to be a male, sheep, without blemish, above reproach.

And so Paul is bringing us back to that way of thinking with this particular... How in the world do we do all things without grumbling and disputing so that we can be blameless and innocent, inward and outward, children of God, having a family resemblance to Him, and now being literally above reproach?

How are these things possible? For the believer who doesn't understand the identification truths, they are left with a very tall order of law. And man, it can weigh heavy. And I'm so thankful to have the Scripture that frees me to trust and let Him do the living. And that's what's going on here. Am I to be above reproach? You bet. That's what the life of Christ looks like. A hundred percent. All the time. Every single moment. Believers are called to be in our condition, of such a character as Christ, without blemish, since we have that position of righteousness in Him having been identified with Him. I wonder, do we really believe God's perspective here? Do we? That has to do with the level at which we behold Him through His Word. I mean, how much do we trust? And you know what?

I see in my own life a taking in of the truth and not believing it for some long periods of time. In fact, we often talk about time and need. as being the ingredients for a truth really, in God's perspective on us, really hitting home. You know, you need your needs and the timing is right for you to recognize the death of the identification part. The fact that, you know, I'm literally dead to these things and alive in Christ and Christ is doing the living. Those spiritual truths that come straight out of the word are not in the walk for some time. I see this in my own life. I see it with people that I try to communicate identification and positional living to.

The first time you start talking to them, they're like, okay, and then they start grasping what you're saying. But they're not grasping it spiritually for many, many months, in many cases, in many years. I mean, again, time and need have to bring those realities to them so that they can actually go through the decision process of trusting him or not. And it's different things and different circumstances that each person needs to challenge them to believe that.

And that's how God is so uniquely guiding each of his children through their life and transforming and conforming. And he's doing that to bring about what we've, in many cases, already heard in Adult Collective 101, being this class. Thoughts? It's just amazing how patient God is with us. And certainly he understands that He knows way better than us what it's going to take to teach us these truths. And that's why He's constantly bringing these things in our lives. I mean, everything in our life, God uses to teach us more about Him.

And we have such a short-term perspective sometimes, with ourselves and with others, where, you know, why aren't we or why isn't somebody else learning this right away? You know, it's clear to me, it should be clear to this other person. And then we look at our lives, and I know this, but then it's not affecting my walk, but I don't think God has that perspective. I think he's just patient with us as children, and teaching us through all these things that are in our lives, what we need to know. I grew up in churches where they had this revival meeting perspective, where once you're charged a year, you have this week-long revival meeting, and you're supposed to get everything right, get charged up during that time, and now we have to have it twice a year, or once a year, or whenever, because But that doesn't at all seem to be how God looks at us. It's that steady growth process where all these things are in our life. He's using them to teach us these truths. And yeah, sometimes it takes years. There's rarely that moment of epiphany where we just wake up one day and, oh, that's what it is. And that affects our life.

It doesn't seem to happen like that for most of us. No, I think each of the disciples had a different timeline and a different set of circumstances they needed. Even though they were watching the Word of God living and active in front of them, they didn't believe right away. It took time and need, circumstances to challenge their faith at the levels that they needed to grow and discover intimacy with Him, even though He was right there. And we're the same way. And we're talked of as being additionally blessed for not seeing him face-to-face and yet trusting him. So, good points.

Well, let's look at the crooked and perverse concept here that where these things are to exist. The realm, the context, the environment. of being blameless and innocent children of God, and above reproach, all happen in a crooked and perverse environment. That's where this stuff goes down, Paul says. And this phrase is also used in the Greek Old Testament to describe the nation of Israel in the wilderness. Here they are. What else are they doing there? Grumbling and griping in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation. In Paul's writings, he brings out these same two words.

The Greek word used for crooked and perverse are also used in Acts 2.40 and Acts 20.30.

In Acts 2.40, in talking about the crooked aspect, he says, And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, Be saved from this perverse generation.

So, coming out of. It's where we all were. So, it's not like you don't know. about where this life of crisis to go back into, because that's where you came out of. You came out of a perverse people. And that's definitely the way that Paul viewed the people there in Acts. I'm sorry. Yeah, Acts. Acts 20, 30 there.

And from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things. That's the word perverse. Twisted. Crooked and twisted. You think about trying to have conversations, man, they're twisted. They got the presuppositions all backwards. You know, it's all messed up here. I can't even have a logical conversation. Emotionalism is just too much to bear.

I mean, it's twisted. And then they take what you say and they twist it to draw away the disciples after them. So it's used to literally lure. You know, this way of speaking in this environment is a luring away and a deceptiveness and a twisting. You know, you think back, who twists? Who's the ultimate twisted speaker? You know, that's the Father of Lies.

That's how he does things. He mixes in a little truth and he twists it. And he's saying that's where, you know, that's the environment that your life, the life of Christ is to be. It occurs to me that today's word is the spin of it. Yeah, spin. They spin it. Yep. Twist it, spin it. Jim? Yep.

Just looking at the Greek words at the top, there's scolios and diastropho. Those are both medical terms applied to people with various dwarfisms, where the bones are twisted. Scoliosis is curvature of the spine. And diastropho is other types of deformities in the body and the bone structure and so forth.

And it just caused me to think about a lot of the little people that when you go into a group like that and some have terrible, terrible twisting and it causes great problems in their lives. Mobility and just living day to day and to take that over as maybe a physical picture of what is meant by this kind of twisting. and perverseness just really messed up. You need to try to live in that kind of an environment where everything about it is twisted and perverted.

Not physically, but spiritually. Spiritually, that's what's happening with the truth. Literally, the scoliosis, the curvature. My wife, she had to have a Harrington rod put in her back. She's got an 11-inch scar to keep her spine straight. Had she not, she would literally be walking bent over today.

And I mean, just a really good picture of how the environment that Paul had in mind looks. If you were to apply that analogy to the way that they speak and the way that they talk and behave. Thanks for sharing that. I think that's really, really neat analogy as far as understanding.

So just to kind of sum up this crooked and perverse side of things, That is the sin nature through and through. That's what it is and that's what it does. So, if you find yourself being frustrated for having to be in a context of the sin nature, this might be a good set of verses to remind yourself of. That's where blamelessness, the child of God that you are, the above reproach is to exist.

I just thought about the word generation. I remember last Sunday I think Vern mentioned this generation shall not pass. And he was talking about the generation of the tribulation period as I remember. But he gave us an overview. Everything since the fall has been this generation. and then the generation to come is under Christ as King.

That's sort of a contrast, isn't it? It is. It is. I think that's a good point. Yep. It's a good contrast. So, blameless and innocent, children of God above reproached in the midst among whom and in the world. Okay, we talked about that. Now let's talk about the appearance of lights. Because this is just something else that you're to do and be. Remembering verse 13 and how the doing is done and where it's done.

But the word appear, or in the English Standard Version, shine. I think that's King James as well. But this idea of shine to appear takes place with the sense of this just illuminating. And the word lights there, used in the Greek Old Testament for the luminaries or the light sources in the book of Genesis when God does the creating.

And the only other use of the word Phoster for lights in the New Testament is in Revelation 21.11 describing the glorious lights of the New Jerusalem having the glory of God. So you mentioned the generations. Also, the lights here are seen as literally being in that next generation too. The illumination and the glorious lights of the New Jerusalem are literally related to the light that you are to be right here in a crooked and perverse world.

Again, this is all positional stuff. Imagine trying to comprehend this without that. I mean, it's positional with conditional effects, mind you. I'm not saying that it's pie in the sky and you can just hang your hat on and walk away. Faith has a result of carrying out the life of Christ, and God does that for us. He delights in doing the living. But nonetheless, there is an outward perspective of the believer here that is really intense.

Jim, I find it interesting that, at least in my translation, it says, among whom you appear as lights in the world. And it seems like the legal perspective is you have to be a light. That that's the goal. Be a light to the world. But here it's saying, from your position, you are going to appear as light unto the world.

It's not an intentional act on our part. It's, like you say, it's the life of Christ that's coming out to us. We can't help. That's right. In fact, I'll just sum it up this way. I think it's a good point. You want to be blameless and innocent, inward and out, trust the Lord to do the living. You want to be above reproach and a child of God, you trusted the Lord for salvation, now trust Him to be above reproach in your life. It's not a matter of you carrying it out, getting up your blameless, clothes on, and your innocent t-shirt that says, I am innocent, I am blameless, I am above reproach.

It's not these things. It all goes back to, I've been crucified with Christ, and no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. This life I live by, and the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. That's where it's all going down. You want to be a light in the world? Here's a hundred ways you can do it. Nope. Wrong class. It isn't interesting how the greater body of Christ put so much energy into doing that.

They put their all kinds of meetings and I think of youth especially. A lot of youth pastors, they want to pump up their young people and they'll use things like this and say, let's go out and be lights to the world and we're going to do this and that. So much energy is put in there where God is already, He's waiting. He's waiting for you to, by faith, trust Him so that He can do the work. The flip version is, let's pump these people up and we'll go out and we'll be lights for the Lord.

Yeah, we gotta get on the streets so they can see us. It isn't that we do this, it's that He does this. That's right, He does it. And that we are. Do we really believe that we are luminaries in the world? Right. Do we really believe? That's a good question for me. It's a good question for us. These are the truths that we are coming into contact with in the scripture, but believing them and trusting them is yet another thing.

And I have to say there are times that I don't, and there are times that I do. And when I do, I've got nothing but thankfulness for the Lord to do what He did, because that was not me. This wasn't me I would I had nothing to do with that had it been me But the idea here of Shining and appearing, you know in this way. I think is it was a really good point Jeremy.

I appreciate bringing that out Let's look at the word holding fast. We've got about 10 minutes left here a little less This was really insightful to me because it just brings back home all that I've been learning for the last several years that I've been here and as I've been with you guys and Vern's drawing my attention to these New Testament truths of identification, but this holding fast, holding forth in the King James Version.

I think there's a lot missed out here, but the word literally has been translated holding fast in this particular verse, and it implies an appeal for tenacity. It's like, don't let down that Bible. Hold fast the Word of God. I just remember growing up in the Southern Baptist Church and it was, you know, taking that Bible and going, you gotta listen to what I'm saying. I appreciate those guys' tenacity and I appreciate their appeal for holding fast the Word of God and literally doing it.

I don't think that that's what's in mind here, nor do I think it's this idea of holding forth or implying an appeal for evangelism. You gotta take the word out there and, you know, propagate the message. We gotta evangelize. But the word is not used that way in any other scriptural context, and it seems to fall short of the clearest meaning of the word here. Literally, apeko means to hold upon and conveys the idea of give attention to.

That's cool to me. And I'll show you why. We're holding up. Check this out. Acts 3, 4 and 5. Here, Peter and John. The context is their healing of the lame man. And it says, But Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, Look at us. And he began to give them his attention. Apeko. Give them his attention. He gave Peter and John their attention. Expecting to receive something from them. An expected attention. I just expected a word, expected.

In 1st Timothy 4, it says, and then Paul is writing to Timothy, take pains with these things, be absorbed in them so that your progress will be evident to all. Pay close attention. Same word, apeko, to yourself and to your teaching. Preserve in these things, for as you do this, you will ensure salvation for yourself and for those who hear you. So this word, apeko, elsewhere, if you take how it's used elsewhere, it's behold him, give attention to the word.

And again, it just goes back to 2 Corinthians 3.18, the beholding that we often mention regularly here.

So do this now, do all things without the grumbling of your God, remember God's doing it, and in the sphere of walking with the Lord, In the sphere of being and abiding in Christ, there is no grumbling or disputing, not in your mind, not outwardly with others. It just doesn't fit there. And as a result of doing all things without that, you'll prove yourselves to be blameless, 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 is the result, literally paying attention to the word of life, What's the result of that?

So in the day of Christ, I Paul will have reason to glory because I Paul did not run in vain nor toil in vain. So Paul's references to running and or laboring in vain, we have that being used as well. Throughout eight times he talks about running or laboring. The athletic terms in Philippi were really appropriate contextually. There's a lot of athletic events that took place there and so they would have understood this to some degree. Here's some of the other athletic terms used. Strive together, contest, race, run, reaching forth, mark, goal, press forward, prize, the victor's crown.

These are all mentioned just in the book of Philippians itself. But in the day of Christ here, we just go back to Philippians 1, 9-11 that we've already covered. So I'm not going to actually go into the day of Christ, we've already done that. But being mentioned here, he talks again.

So that you may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless. Again, another one of those positional meets conditional qualities. Until the day of Christ. Having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

And again, Philippians 1.6 also mentions the day of Christ. It's internal and external again, isn't it? Sincere and blameless. Yep. That phrase has the inward and outward.

In the day of Christ, I think it's appropriate to look at first Corinthians 3 12 through 15 I'm not going to read that for the sake of time, but it goes back to the day of Christ where we will find ourselves Being judged not for salvation But for the works that were produced in the flesh versus the works that were prepared beforehand and produced in the in an abiding relationship with Christ or a fellowship rather What's that? Bring marshmallows. So let's read the expanded translation of these three verses and try to drive home what these verses are saying and then maybe a couple questions.

In keeping with the spiritual unity, verse 14, in keeping with the spiritual unity which each of you already has in your position of Christ, now that's, what we're doing there is we're saying, do all things, well this is the context, the spiritual unity that Paul's been talking about in previous verses. And about your position in Christ, remember verse 13? God does the work, okay? And a result of that position of Christ, do all things continually in your condition without an undertone of grumbling or disputing founded in suspicion and doubt, which springs from and produces spiritual death.

Verse 15, in order that you will become people with whom nobody can find blame regarding external behavior, and unadulterated at heart, you're being related to God, being evident to others, and being as free of blemish as Christ himself. Wow. That being true while you are right in the very midst of people who by character are morally and spiritually crooked and twisted, among whom you appear as shining lights in the darkest world. This is the Amplified Version, according to Verne, which I find very helpful. Verse 16, everyone among you giving their utmost attention to the message which springs from Christ, remember that's the paying attention, giving their utmost attention from the message which springs from Christ, who is our very life and the only hope of life in them, so that in the day when all believers stand in judgment before Christ, I will have reason, and your having been rewarded as well.

And that's Paul. Paul's saying that in the day that we all stand in judgment, I will have reason, and you're having been rewarded as well, because I get to sit there and witness this, to glory, because I did not run in vain, nor toil in vain, because you did not run in vain, nor toil in vain either. We're going to be rewarded, and it's going to give me a sense of satisfaction from an eternal perspective. This isn't a selfish sense of satisfaction Paul's looking at. It's an eternal satisfaction.

And because of the context of rewards, it's permitted. Paul can have a future satisfaction in having not toiled in vain with believers and having them not toiled in vain either. And I think that same kind of satisfaction can be extended to us as we raise our children, as we work with those believers and try to clarify the Word of God together in contexts like our church classes, meetings through the weeks, and well, just conversations over coffee and also conversations with unbelievers. Not necessarily unbelievers in this context, but it obviously extends to that. But Paul has this idea of having satisfaction for toiling and running.

I mean, again, without a positional perspective on this, you're left with such a tall order that any Christian would be just literally in fear and trembling and probably just throw their hands up and walk away. That's what I've done. That's what I've seen. It's like, I can't do this. Forget it. I'm just going to take my chances on the end result. Whatever. Well, hopefully it drives people to see that the Christian life is an impossible life. And it takes the Lord living that life to accomplish it. Many times it does not. Many times it just results in... Good point. I think that's a good point to end up on. The Christian life is perfect. Well, wait a minute. Yeah, that's right. Because God does it. And that's the difference. Let's pray.

Lord, we just thank You so much for the truth of Your Word and how by paying attention to it And giving our mind attention to the very words of scripture, we can understand those areas of truth that we believe and those areas that we still struggle to believe.

And as a result, we can understand how you want to transform and conform us based on our circumstances even today. and how you challenge us to trust you, and that you want to do through us all the toiling, all the running. You want to be the blameless and the innocent through us. You want to be above reproach through us. You want to be the light in the world for us.

And Lord, it is all based on an intimacy and a very real, clear understanding of your word that results in faith. nothing else, nothing more. We just thank you for the grace and the patience that you have with us as you do your work through us and in us. It's in your name that we pray. Amen.