AUGUST 6

OUR PERSONAL PROMISES:

Ps 33:18

“The eyes of the Lord are constantly on me  for He who watches over me will neither slumber nor sleep” (Ps 121:4).

CHARLES SPURGEON:

I am continually in His hand and “No one can snatch me out of my Father’s hand (John 10:29)

My name is constantly on His heart as a memorial, just as the high priest constantly wore the breastplate bearing ‘each of the names of the sons of Israel’ over his heart (Exodus 39:14).

You have set me “like a seal on Your arm; for Your love is as strong as death….many waters cannot quench Your love; rivers cannot wash it away. (Song 8:6-7).

What astonishing grace that You see me in Christ!  And that in myself alone would be abhorred by You, but that You see me clothed in Christ’s garments and washed in His blood:  thus I stand accepted in Your presence.  Consequently, I am always in Your favor – “always with you”

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This month we will continue the book, “Whatever Happens – How to Stand Firm in Your Faith When the World is Falling Apart.”  By a contemporary author of many best-selling Christian books, Robert J. Morgan.  He took care of his wife when she had MS, until she went home to her Savior.  “He knows of which he speaks.”  I pray that this book blesses you.

WHATEVER HAPPENS…..BE CAREFUL WHO YOU ADMIRE

Philippians 3:17-21

“17 Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. 18 For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: 19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things. 20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.”

LOOK FOR PEOPLE WHO CAN STRENGTHEN YOU

Notice in verse 17, Paul told us we will only find a few people in this world after whom we should pattern our lives.  I would suggest the entire letter to the Philippians hinges on this thought.

As we’ve noted before, the first 26 verses of Philippians are extended introduction in which Paul told us what and how he is doing.  The actual formal content in the letter begins in vs 27, “Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel,”

In Chapter 2, Paul gave us Jesus as an example and told us to have the mind of Christ.  He also held up Timothy and Epaphroditus as examples for us.  Then in chapter 3 he offered himself as an example, telling us to model ourselves after him.  Paul finished the formal content of his letter in chapter 4:1 by saying:  “this is how you must stand firm in the Lord.”  That’s the sequence of the letter:  stand firm –like Jesus, Timothy, Epaphroditus, and me – STAND FIRM.

Today, when the forces coming against the followers of Christ are relentless, the Lord wants us to stand firm for the Truth.  In doing so, we must stand firm against:

Our own fallen natures with their tendencies to sin and bitterness and division,

The culture: sexual immorality, pornography, the vile nature of our society,

The efforts of our enemies to intimidate us or persuade us to compromise our Biblical worldview,

The theological errors of the false teachers and the erosion of doctrine in our churches,

The attitudes of fear and hopelessness that can plunder our joy.

It’s vital that we find men and women who are also standing firm, who are holding to the apostolic faith, who are victorious, who are joyful and Biblical, and who have developed the habits and attitudes of true Christianity.  We need their examples.

Do you have someone in your life who provides you such a pattern?  Sometimes we find them in their writings…especially the good old, stable writers of the past, whose works have survived until today.

AVOID PEOPLE WHO CAN MESS YOU UP

The next thing Paul told us is this:  While we’ll only find a few people living apostolically and Biblically to follow, we’ll find a large number who will mess up our lives very quickly and we must avoid being influenced by them in any way.  Paul described these people in five ways in verses 18-19:

They are enemies of the cross of Christ, hostile to the message of Scripture and the gospel.

Their destiny is destruction.  They are hell-bound, in direct contrast to what Paul said about himself earlier in chapter 3, that he is straining forward toward the upward call of God in Christ.

Their god is their stomach.  They are controlled by appetites and desires.

Their glory is in their shame.  They’re proud of what they should be ashamed of.

They set their minds on earthly things.  They don’t study the Bible or ponder the truth of the Lord or the things of God.  They don’t think about heaven.  They are absorbed with this fleeting earth.

I don’t need to elaborate because this is the world we see every day.  These are the people that populate our culture.

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