9/24/23 Philippians - Part 9 “Passport, Please!”

Passport, Please!

Philippians 3:15 – 3:21

Have you ever been in a situation where you and a friend (Or maybe a group of friends) were singing a song from memory and when you got to a certain part of the song, you each sang different lyrics?

This situation was especially common back before the internet when there was no convenient way to confirm the official lyrics of a song.

Many times, if a lyric was hard to understand, one just went with what sounded right…and some of these postulated lyrics could be quite funny.

For instance, one of the most mis-heard song lyrics of all time is from a song called “Bad Moon Rising” by a band called Creedence Clearwater Revival recorded back in 1969.

The song has a refrain that is repeated several times. The official lyrics of the refrain are as follows: “Don’t go around tonight, well it’s bound to take your life, there’s a bad moon on the rise.”

When listening to lead singer John Fogerty’s unique vocal stylings, some people thought that instead of saying “There’s a bad moon on the rise”, he was actually saying “There’s a bathroom on the right.” !! 😊

This is just one example of how one’s ears can hear something different that what is actually being said.

I remember, as a kid, hearing the song “Folsom Prison Blues” by Johhny Cash and thinking that it was called “Wholesome Prison Blues”…. “I’m stuck in Wholesome Prison…and time keeps draggin’ on”

I have no idea what a “Wholesome” prison would be like, but somehow it made sense to me as a kid…maybe the inmates sang songs and played Yahtzee all day or something…I don’t know.

Well, if two people are singing different lyrics to the same song, one of them has to have the lyrics wrong, right?...There can’t be more than one correct set of lyrics to any given song.

I remember when I finally learned that it was actually “Folsom” Prison, not “Wholesome” Prison, I was a bit embarrassed in the moment, but, ultimately, I was glad to finally learn the proper words, so I was no longer singing the song incorrectly.

Someone who had a better understanding of the song pointed my error out to me – and from then on, I knew what the actual words were.

In our passage for today, Paul begins by addressing a similar situation as it has to do with a proper interpretation of the Christian life – something that he describes in the preceding passage.

If you remember from last week, we covered the first 14 verses of chapter three where Paul exhorts us to exercise discernment in the areas of proper doctrine, humility, prioritizing Christ in our lives, sanctification, and striving to live the Christian life with integrity – much like an athlete strives for the finish line in a race.

Now, in verse 15 (Philippians 3:15) Paul reminds those of us who have been in the faith awhile that, as “Mature” believers, we should be like-minded in the pursuit of these admirable qualities and convictions.

We should be unified in our attitude regarding Christ-like character and the fervent pursuit of righteousness and personal integrity.

Paul also understands that we are human – and that, as flawed humans, we will not always agree with each other regarding certain aspects of the Christian faith.

….kind of like singing different lyrics to the same song.

When this happens, what are we to do? Where do we go for clarification?

We read here in verse 15 that “If on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.”

So how exactly does God go about clearing up some faulty understanding of the Christian life?...In other words, how does he teach us the correct lyrics pertaining to various aspects of our faith?

In scripture, I see God providing us with 3 main resources:

1)     The first resource for obtaining a proper understanding of any aspect of the Christian faith is scripture itself.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 reminds us that “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Not only is the Bible a user’s manual for life, but it is the inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of God.

This means that if the Bible makes a statement of truth of any kind – we can be absolutely certain of its truthfulness….there is simply no other interpretation that would also be true.

If we simply take the Bible at its word and believe what it clearly states, we will experience the lifting of the fog of misunderstanding and misinterpretation – and it will be replaced by the clear skies of proper understanding.

Then, as Paul tells Timothy, you will be equipped to teach others about how to live the Christian life in a way that honors God.

2)     The second resource for obtaining a proper understanding of Christian living is the Holy Spirit.

Jesus tells his disciples in John 16:13 “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.”

As believers, we have the person of the Holy Spirit living within us…If we submit to His guidance & direction, He will give us the wisdom needed to understand God’s Word – His timeless truth.

One very important thing to remember: the Holy Spirit will never prompt us to act or believe something contrary to scripture.

If you feel the Holy Spirit is telling you something that contradicts God’s Word, then, guess what -  its not the Holy Spirit!....Remember, Satan can also whisper things in your ear that can sound really logical & very enticing.

We need to be sure that we are listening to the God’s voice – and we do that by comparing what we hear with scripture.

3)     The third resource for obtaining an understanding of how to properly live out the Christian life is through other, more mature believers.

This is why churches hire pastors and place mature believers in positions of leadership.

Scripture tells us that we are to submit ourselves to the authority of our church leaders because, hopefully, they have had the opportunity to acquire a good deal of spiritual wisdom and understanding through the studying of God’s Word, through listening to the Holy Spirit, and through learning from  more mature Christians along the way.

Hebrews 13:17 has a good reminder for us: “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account….”

That being said, we also need to continually compare what a pastor or church leader proclaims with what scripture teaches….there should always be agreement and harmony between the two.

In Acts 17:11, we meet the Bereans, a group of mostly believing Jewish people who “Examined the scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”

The leadership of this church - myself along with the Deacons - we need all of you to be good Bereans….we need you to search the scriptures and hold us accountable for what we proclaim.

What you hear from this pulpit should always match up with God’s Word – and if at some point it doesn’t, it’s your job to let me know!

I would much rather be corrected than to be found guilty of teaching something that goes against the Word of God!

In verses 18 & 19 of our passage for today (Philippians 3:18-19) Paul transitions into a discussion about individuals he describes as “Enemies of the cross of Christ” (v.18)

Scripture says these people are bound for destruction as they live to satisfy their own sinful cravings and desires – They are characterized by possessing an insatiable appetite for the things of this world.

Now, certainly, Paul could be describing all non-believers in these verses, as anyone who is not in Christ is technically an enemy of God.

But If we look a bit deeper, it appears as if the specific people who are being described here are false teachers within the church - those individuals who work their way into leadership positions and knowingly attempt to teach doctrines that are contrary to what scripture clearly states as truth.

False teachers have always been a problem in the church, and they were already prevalent in the early church as well.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warned us of these individuals when he said “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” (Matthew 7:15)

2 Peter 2:1-2 says “But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them – bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.”

Paul says in 2 Timothy 4:3 “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”

One might wonder why false prophets have been so successful in deceiving people in the church for 2,000 years now….

Well, the problem is that sinful man naturally wants to hear these anti-biblical messages because they appeal to our fallen nature – our old self likes what it’s hearing.

Our ears can be easily itched when we hear messages that speak of the Christian life as one of comfort, prosperity, limitless blessings, minimal effort, individualism, friendliness with the world, perfect health, nationalistic identity, and spiritual consumerism.

Unfortunately, what we read in scripture is that the Christian life is actually the opposite of these things – and our old nature doesn’t like to hear that.

Our old nature craves comfort and self-indulgence over discomfort and sacrifice.

If we don’t keep our old nature held in check through the consistent reading of God’s Word and through prayer – the old man (or the old woman) will begin to gain the higher ground on the battlefield of our minds – and that’s when an individual can succumb to some of these pleasant-sounding, but soul-condemning, doctrines.

The two primary camps of false teachers in Paul’s day were the Judaizers (Who we talked about last week) and the Gnostics.

If you recall, the Judaizers were legalists. They taught that observance to certain ceremonial rituals and traditions were necessary to be saved.

On the other end of the spectrum were the Gnostics. The Gnostics were libertines. They taught a false doctrine that described humanity as consisting of a righteous spirit, but evil flesh.

Their message was that since the flesh was incurably evil, It didn’t really matter what a person did with it.

Everything from gluttony to homosexuality to drunkenness to adultery would be seen as acceptable to the Gnostic because these things were of the flesh – and the flesh will always be evil regardless of how we use it.

As you can imagine, this would have been a popular message to worldly people who wanted to indulge their fleshly desires, and at the same time, appear to possess a modicum of religiosity.

Sadly, Gnosticism is still alive and well in many churches today.

When churches begin to ignore or distort God’s Word, the first passages that hit the cutting room floor for Sunday’s message are those verses that speak of our moral responsibilities as believers.

Gnostic preachers will teach that saving faith need not result in a life of holiness or obedience. They will say that since Jesus died for all of our sins, it doesn’t matter how we live because they’ve all been paid for at the cross.

Sadly, not only is this doctrine grossly antibiblical, but it misses the entire point of why we live our lives in obedience to the moral teachings of Christ.

True believers desire to live in obedience to their savior in gratitude for the sacrifice that he made for them on the cross….we gladly live in humble servitude as we strive to emulate Jesus who gave us a perfect model of what obedience to the Father looks like.

In John 14:15, Jesus simply says “If you love me, you will obey what I command.”

Likewise, 1 John 5:3 states: “This is love for God: to obey his commands. And His commands are not burdensome.”

Whereas the Judaizers added to the gospel message, the Gnostics (And other gentile false teachers) subtracted from it.

Lastly, in verse 20 of our passage for today (Philippians 3:20) Paul draws a line of distinction between the false teachers, and those who are true followers of Jesus.

Paul uses the word ‘Citizenship’ here in verse 20 to drive home the truth that genuine believers don’t belong to this broken world of sin and hedonism….that our true homeland (Our true citizenship) belongs to that of another Kingdom – A Kingdom of truth, righteousness, grace, and love.

(Hold up Passport)

Do you all know what this is?

Yep, it’s a Passport.

A Passport is needed to travel outside of our home country, and it is also needed to be granted admittance back into our home country.

On page 3 of my Passport here, there is a very important line. It’s a line that contains my signature.

If my signature isn’t on that line, the Passport is invalid and worthless.

By signing the Passport, I am stating that I agree with all of the terms and conditions that go along with having the privilege of being able to pass from one country to another.

Scripture says that Heaven is our homeland – it is where our true citizenship resides.

On the cross, Jesus provided every single human being with a Passport – this is called the Atonement.

But the thing is, in order to be usable, the Passport needs to be signed.

And sadly, the majority of people in this world never sign their Spiritual Passport. Most people simply don’t want to subject themselves to the terms and conditions that will be required of them.

We’re back to obedience, aren’t we!

Our sinful nature simply does not want to submit to the authority of God.

The majority of people would just rather live distracted lives of self-indulgence and sin than to submit to living a life of self-lessness and obedience.

So in conclusion, I’ll ask you one question this morning:

Is your spiritual Passport signed?

When the Lamb’s book of life is opened someday, will your name be written in it?

Will you be granted access into the Heavenly Kingdom – or will you be told that your Spiritual Passport is invalid because you chose to never sign it ?

What a Tragedy that would be!

I implore you.…If your Spiritual Passport still needs to be signed – sign it today!

This world of death, sin, and decay is not where you belong – and you were never meant to live for eternity away from your creator in a place of pain and torment!

Your true home is in a land of eternal JOY, and by signing over your life to Jesus Christ, you will be welcomed in – and you will live with your savior for all of eternity.

Let’s Pray.