Morning, brothers and sisters. Can we turn to Philippians chapter 1?
Philippians chapter 1. We know that in Paul’s letters there are some very precious prayers. Paul has a relationship with each of these assemblies that he writes to, so these are not just general types of prayers. They are very specific prayers for specific situations.
Paul has, as we know, a wonderful relationship with these dear ones in Philippi. It started out in love, and we will touch a little more on that. There is an openness and a fullness in this relationship where Paul can really bear his heart. So when Paul writes to these dear ones in Philippi, he writes to them not just in flowering terms, but with something that is very specific for them.
And I think that, as it was specific for them, it is also very specific for us in the hour that we are living in. So, in Philippians chapter 1, we will read this prayer, starting in verses 9 through 11.
“And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment,
so that you may approve the things that are excellent,
in order to be sincere and blameless 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 this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment.” Now, verse 10 in some translations reads a little differently. I will read the other translation this time:
“So that you may distinguish between the things that differ,
in order to be sincere and blameless 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.”
Let us have another word of prayer.
Lord, we do come with hearts overflowing with worship and adoration unto You today. Lord, we thank You for the table. Thank You that we have this wonderful open way of entering into Your presence.
Lord, everything that would try to hinder us from coming in, You have settled at Calvary. You have made that great declaration that it is finished. And, Lord, even from that, You arose, and You are seated on high today.
Lord, we thank You that, as we gather today, You are ever making intercession for this time. Lord, we thank You that as we pray, You are praying even that much more. Lord, how jealous You are for this time. Give us Your heart of jealousy for this time.
Lord, give us Your heart of passion and desire for Your Word. We thank You that this is a day that we can still hear. Lord, we want to redeem this time through the enabling power of Your Holy Spirit, that You would truly be satisfied this morning.
Lord, we come. We put aside the things that would distract us. We put aside things that would occupy us. We come with a fresh heart, looking off unto You. In the spirit of Thy servant, we would say, “Speak, Lord, for we want to be those that hear.”
And not just hearing, but, through the enabling power of Your Spirit, being doers of Your Word in this day. In Jesus’ name, amen.
As our brother Stephen was sharing last week, it brought these verses to mind. Remember, he was sharing on this matter of judging and discerning. He distinguished the two types of judging: the one type that is not healthy, when we are kind of elevating ourselves, almost in a judicial way, looking down upon one another.
But there is a healthy judging—or we can use the word discerning, to distinguish the two words—a healthy discerning that is greatly needed in the hour that we are living in.
I think we all know that the days we are living in contain a lot of confusion. And not so much even confusion in the world, but confusion within Christendom. How we need to have this spirit of discernment.
I appreciated how he was sharing that this is actually a ministry. We talk about loving one another. One of the greatest ways we can love one another is for this ministry of discerning to be very active within our lives, individually and together.
Actually, at times, when we overlook things, thinking that we are loving one another by overlooking that which is evil, that which is unhealthy, that which is the leaven that dissipates us so much, it is not love at all. It is actually hate.
Would the Lord truly enable us in this hour? We always talk about loving one another. Then we get into the practice of it: are we willing to allow that love to be manifest in many different ways?
We talk about love. There are a lot of wonderful loves that we like to talk about, but then there is this discerning love. There is also, in Hebrews, a chastening love. Those two usually are not at the top of our list when we talk about love, but they are very much essential and vital if we have the true love of God manifest within our lives.
In 1 Corinthians 6, our brother was sharing how all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. Well, how do we know the difference? How do we know, in this hour, when we have this wonderful freedom that we have entered into in the Lord—when we have been set free from so much and given so much—what is profitable for the hour and the situation we are living in?
This is why this prayer really touched my heart so much. Because as Paul prays for these ones, he is praying for us. Love has been so distorted and twisted in our minds in the days we are living in. There is so much confusion even over this matter of love, that we could really enter in and see: what is this love that Paul is praying about?
As we look at these verses, Paul is in prison, and he prays a very specific prayer. As you look at verses 9 and 10, he prays that their love would abound in real knowledge and all discernment.
But why is that? Why does he want their love to abound in knowledge and discernment? So that they can approve the things that are excellent, or distinguish between those things that are different.
And it does not even end there. Why do we need to know what is the more excellent way? Why do we need to be able to distinguish? So that we will be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; that the fruit of righteousness, the fruit of His life, will be formed within us and be manifest not only in this day, but in the day He comes.
That is what he is desiring. We all want to be sincere and blameless. We want this fruit of righteousness. But where does this start? The origin is through that abounding love being full of real knowledge and true discernment.
It is precious, as Paul is writing to these ones in Philippi, that he is not praying that they may have love; he is praying that their love may abound. The church in Philippi has a tremendous testimony of demonstrating love to Paul and to the brothers and sisters.
Remember in Acts 16, when Paul and Silas went to Philippi the first time, he met a dear one there named Lydia. He shared the gospel with her, and she was saved. What was her response? In love, she took him and the saints into her home. She cared for them. She demonstrated that love. It was not merely a theory to her.
We know that, because Paul had cast out that demon from the fortune-telling girl, he was thrown into prison. But then, in that moment, in the middle of the night, there was that great earthquake. Those prison doors were opened, but Paul stayed there.
The jailer was ready to kill himself, and Paul said, “No, we are all here. We are safe. We are here.” The jailer came to salvation—he and his household—that precious household salvation.
Again, immediately, you see the demonstration of love. They took Paul in. They cleaned the wounds of Paul and Silas. They cared for them. So we see within this church of Philippi, among the brothers and sisters, that their very origin was one in which there was a demonstration of love.
Even throughout the history of this church, we hear of different times when they continued to demonstrate their love for Paul through their prayers for him and through their financial gifts for him.
What even prompted Paul to write this letter was that, twelve years after he had been there, they had sent another financial gift through Epaphroditus. As Paul was there in Rome, he received this gift. He was greatly refreshed, and he was sending this letter back to them to encourage them.
So I think this prayer of Paul is very significant for us in the hour we are living in. On the one hand, we have love which is so greatly distorted, and how we need to allow the fullness of real knowledge and all discernment to come in, so that we can walk in a way worthy of the calling into which we have been called.
Now, if we are all honest, when we think about love and then think about knowledge and discernment, we usually do not equate those two together. A lot of times we will pray, “Lord, I could have more love. May my love abound.” Then we pray, “Lord, I pray that my real knowledge and discernment would abound.”
We almost treat them as two separate entities within the Christian life. But they are not. That is what Paul is trying to convey to us in this hour: these are very interrelated and interdependent upon one another.
There is the saying that love is blind. Oh, we know that love is not blind. Do you know what true love is? True love sees everything and still loves you.
It is interesting: at times we will be talking with young people who are thinking about marriage, or ones will start falling in love with one another. They will have this question: “Gee, I wonder if they love me. If I tell them about this, I wonder if they will still love me.” That is the true test.
Our Lord knows everything about us, and He still loves us. Love has its eyes wide open. Love sees all of our faults and still loves us.
If you talk to ones who have been married for many years, you do not have to tell them the faults of their husband or wife. They know them more than you do. They can tell every one of them. But there is that love, that love that knows us and loves us in spite of what it sees.
That is what God did when He looked down. He saw us just as we were. He did not fix us up first. He looked and saw us just like we were, and He sent His only begotten Son. He demonstrated that love.
Oh, that we would know of that love. This is what Paul is praying for.
Remember when Peter was restored at the end of John 21. Three times the Lord went through this with Peter: “Do you love Me?” What was Peter’s last response? He finally said, “Lord, You know all things.”
Peter had come into this place of saying, “Lord, You know all things, and I know You love me. I just have this brotherly affection for You.” He knew what Peter’s heart was. It was for Peter to see.
Thank the Lord, we have that. But how we need this love abounding with real knowledge and discernment. When love does not have knowledge or discernment, it is simply fanaticism.
Saul had a love for God. But how was he demonstrating that love? He was killing the believers, because he did not have real knowledge and discernment of what God’s heart and will were.
The disciples—two of them—were with our Lord one time in the Gospel of Luke as He was walking through Samaria. The disciples went ahead and told them to receive the Lord, and they said, “No, we do not want to receive Him.”
What did James and John do out of their love for Christ? They were going to call down fire from heaven. And the Lord rebuked them. They had a love, but it was not with any knowledge or discernment.
Sometimes, if we do not have knowledge and discernment in love, we are simply fanatics, killing one another. It is tragic. But the Lord is calling us that this knowledge and discernment would be so interrelated with our love—His love coming forth from us in that full way.
It is the same way with knowledge and discernment. If we do not have love, but we have knowledge and discernment, all we have is pride and self-righteousness.
If we have this knowledge and discernment and think we know, there is an elevating of ourselves: “Oh, look at that poor little guy. He does not know what I know.” In a sense, though, that is not true knowledge. That is self-knowledge.
But we see how the Lord is crying out, how He wants us to really enter into this fullness of our love abounding with knowledge and discernment.
We are studying about that now in 2 John. All through there: love and truth, love and truth, love and truth, love and truth. There is this interrelationship in this hour that is so important.
If our love is not full of truth, if it is not full of real knowledge, we simply get deceived and follow our own natural affections and go off the rails.
Paul was trying to encourage these dear ones at Philippi because they were having some problems. We know in chapter 4 how there were a couple of sisters there who were fighting. But he has to lay this foundation so that these dear ones could be restored.
In the hour we are living in, we need this restored and manifest within our midst.
Paul was praying here for this love to be a love that is abounding. This wonderful word abounding does not mean merely that they would have a little bit of it, but that it would overflow, that it would flow from within them to the benefit of others.
He is praying this in such a way that they would not rest on their past accomplishments. They had been very faithful, even like the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2. They had many good works, they had been faithful, but they left their first love.
The same with Laodicea. They thought they were rich and had need of nothing. Oftentimes, as we have gone on with the Lord, we can rest on past accomplishments and think we are in a better place than we are.
Paul was warning these dear ones in Philippi: do not rest on that, but let that love continue to abound more and more.
Paul, within his own testimony in chapter 3, shows us his zeal and fire. Paul was never satisfied. Proverbs tells us that fire is never satisfied. Fire never says, “Enough.”
There is a fire of the Lord within us, this holy fire of love that is never satisfied. We become too satisfied too often. Would the Lord continue to enable us in that holy fire within us?
Look over at Philippians chapter 3. It would be wonderful if we could read the whole chapter, but I am just going to pick one verse. After all that Paul had been through and many of his experiences, his testimony is found in Philippians 3:12:
“Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect,
but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.”
Paul was pressing on. Even through the relationship he had with the Lord, and the many precious testimonies he had of the Lord’s faithfulness, he was pressing on. He desired this love that would abound more and more within him.
Because this abounding love flows out for the benefit of others.
The precious thing about love overflowing: if we think of ourselves as a vessel of water, the picture of this word is water overflowing. Once the water overflows, it is no longer helping the vessel. The vessel is full, and it overflows to others. It helps others.
But this is not like a river run wild. It is not merely water out of control, because that is just destructive. Oftentimes our love, out of control, can simply be destructive.
But when we think of water being useful, how is water useful? Think of a dam. You have these huge rivers, but then it has these sides. It gets narrower and narrower, and the power of that water increases. That power continues to grow as it moves toward its goal and purpose.
We could say that the sides, the boundaries of our love that keep us on the rails, are this real knowledge and all discernment. As we allow this knowledge and discernment to become real within us, it is also allowing the power of His love to achieve His heart and purpose in our lives individually and together.
How we need this to be growing, that this love would be useful. There is a love, and this love is a love with purpose. He desires that we become that bride, that we become prepared, that we become those vessels of honor, vessels fit for our Master’s use.
As we allow the love of Christ to work within us, it is doing this ever-refining work.
We talk about this knowledge and discernment. What is it? Are we simply talking about a mental knowledge?
No. This knowledge is a full knowledge. It is a full knowledge of knowing His will and His heart. It is a discernment that has spiritual insight. As we will see, it is Christ growing within us more and more.
But how do we keep this love abounding? How do we enter into this?
To me, this is one of the precious things Stephen has been sharing with us. The secret of allowing this love to abound is knowing our calling: that we have been called into the fellowship of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.
As we are in that fellowship, we come to know Him. The more we come to know Him, the more we come to know of His love. How do you love someone you do not know? You cannot. You cannot love someone you do not know.
But as we get to know Him, we begin to see that His very character and nature is one of love. As we saw in 1 John, God is love. We love because He first loved us. How do we love one another? Because He has loved us.
As we spend time with Him, as we are in fellowship with Him, as we are in His Word, we come to know Him, the power of His life, the fellowship of His suffering, and being conformed unto His death. Then we can be those who allow this love to grow.
The more and more we know of Christ, the more this love abounds. How do we come to know Him more and more? By determining to know nothing else but Christ and Him crucified.
It is so precious. We can try many different ways to enter into this life, but as we determine to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified, what do we learn of? We learn of the love of God.
Why is that? Because the greatest display of love in the history of the universe was Calvary.
When you see Calvary, we see our Lord Jesus singing us a love song from there. He sang us a love song that declared, “It is finished,” and everything that would try to separate us has been settled once and for all.
The very heart of Calvary is a heart of love. The motivation for Calvary, the motivation for our Lord being crucified, was out of a love for His Father, a love for us, and a love for His church.
Oh, we want to know of the love of God. We want this love to abound more and more. As we remember and have the preciousness of taking this table every week, that love is reminded right in our face.
To me, the table is used so often to refocus us, because we get so out of whack with what we think is important and essential. But praise God, He draws us back to that. As we are brought back to that, we see this display of love. Then we enter into not only loving the Lord, but loving one another.
We can never be taught how to love one another, but we can learn it from Christ. Man cannot teach us about love, but the Lord can show us, and He will reveal it to us within our hearts as we see His great love.
Paul has this tremendous testimony, not only of knowing Christ. Paul’s testimony is: “For me to live is Christ.” That was it. He summed it up. He said, “For me to live is Christ.”
As he allowed the Christ-life to guide him, he was entering into more and more of the fullness of this and allowing this love to abound in him more and more.
Why do we not know of the love of God? Why is this love growing cold? Why is it not abounding? It is because we are not in this place of fellowship. We do not recognize the relationship, the privilege, and the blessing that we have been called into.
As that fellowship is nourished, as that fellowship with our precious Lord and Savior is entered into in a fresh, daily, practical way, we are overwhelmed by His love. We are captured by His beauty, and we display that within our lives.
Now, this real knowledge that Paul is praying for is not merely head knowledge. It is experiential knowledge. Paul has been through something, and it has become a reality within his own life.
Mental knowledge is something that we can acquire, and we hold on to it, and it puffs us up. But this real knowledge that our Lord is speaking of acquires us. It acquires us and holds us.
How was David able to go through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil? Because God had captured him, and the Lord was holding him through the valley of the shadow of death.
David did not merely have it in his head: “Well, if I go through this, it will be okay.” No. He knew, as he went through the valley of the shadow of death, that he did not need to fear evil because God was with him. This was a reality within his life.
We can know many truths, but then we enter into the reality of them, and the subject can never be taken away from us.
Many of us always talk about the Lord being our peace and our rest. Many of us are at the age where our mothers and fathers are going to be with the Lord. Before that, we can talk about the Lord being our peace.
But once your mother or father goes to be with the Lord, even though there is a missing of that companionship, you know what the God of peace is really like within your heart. There is a peace that passes understanding. You have entered into a reality of it.
This is what the Lord is calling us into in this hour: to enter into this real knowledge.
Turn over to the first chapter of Colossians. This real knowledge is knowing the heart of our Lord. It is not merely mental knowledge, but knowing the heart of our Lord, knowing His purpose, knowing His will, and knowing our calling.
The same word is used in Colossians 1:9. Paul is praying that they may be:
“Filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.”
This is a knowledge that knows His will. This is a knowledge that knows His heart. This is a knowledge that has captured us in such a way that there is a reality there.
Remember when Solomon went to the Lord? Solomon prayed that he would have a hearing heart. Some say that this real knowledge is a heart knowledge, a reality within. Solomon was praying for a hearing heart to know the heart of God.
What is the heart of God in this situation? Paul, in his letter to those in Ephesus, prays that the eyes of your heart would be opened to know the hope of His calling, the calling that we have been called unto.
We have been called into this fellowship. Oh, that we would not merely have a mental knowledge, but a real heart-felt knowledge, a knowing within us of what the Lord’s purpose is and the call that He has upon our lives individually and together.
Now, what is this discernment? This is really the only time this Greek word is used in the New Testament. It means to have insight, to be able to discern, to have judgment, and to have an instinct.
It is often equated to a sense of smell: that there would be a spiritual smelling, of knowing, “That is right,” and, “That is right.” There is a fragrance of Christ that comes forth and leads to life. There is another fragrance of death.
There is a spiritual discerning, an instinct, a judging, a knowing of what is real. We see things in this hour that can look alike. This judging looks beyond the outward and looks within. What is the inner reality? What are the true hearts and true motives?
It is being able to recognize His life in this hour and allowing Him to train us. This does not come naturally. He has to train us.
It speaks of having our spiritual senses trained. Look over at Hebrews chapter 5. The writer of Hebrews is also talking about this being trained, that we would not be distracted by mixture and dissipation, having other things that would weigh us down.
At the end of chapter 5, verse 13 talks about babes:
“For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.”
But look at verse 14:
“But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.”
This is a spiritual exercise of having our senses trained. How do we enter into this training? How does He train us to know what is of Him and what is not?
Again, to me, the training ground is this fellowship that He has called us into. As we learn of Him, as we have fellowship in His Word—He has given us His Word—and as we feed upon His Word, we learn what is of Him, what is really satisfying to Him, and what is not of Him.
As we have our senses trained, we become more and more sensitive to the effect that things have upon the One we love and care about. We begin to appreciate and learn what His will and desires are.
This is one of the great challenges of marriage. You are in love with someone, but you are desiring to be trained: what satisfies them? What is their will? What are their desires? We also learn what is not pleasing to them.
Before we were married, smoke never bothered me. I could be in a smoke-filled room and it would not bother me a bit. Someone could be smoking, and I would not even notice it.
Smoke really bothers Stella. Over the years, my old sniffer here has been trained. I can now spot smoke a mile away, you know? We learn. It is having our senses trained. There is a spiritual sense of training, of knowing.
This reminded me of the verse in 1 Corinthians that we spoke of earlier: all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable.
We spoke earlier of Paul in Philippi. When the earthquake came, Paul was in prison. It would have been “lawful”; Paul could have walked out of that prison. In fact, the guard had already assumed that they had walked out.
But it would not have been profitable. If Paul had left that prison, the jailer would not have been saved. We can get into the argument that some way or another he would have gotten saved, but I am not going to get into that.
Given the story, by Paul waiting upon the Lord and having discernment, he realized, “It is more profitable for me to stay here.”
We see this exercise in our Lord’s life upon the earth. Think of the death of Lazarus. When Lazarus died, it would have been lawful for the Lord to go and be with Lazarus right away and raise him up. But it was more profitable for the Lord to wait those four days.
When our Lord was in Gethsemane, our Lord could have returned to heaven. He would have been that perfect Man in heaven, but it was more profitable for our Lord to say, “Not My will, but Thy will be done.”
One of the things that always comes forth in distinguishing between what is lawful and what is more profitable is the cross. The Lord used this same word in the Gospel of John: “It is to your advantage that I go,” and then the Helper can come.
When we are faced with many things in our lives that are lawful and that we are free to do, as we find the Lord training us, we see: is it really profitable?
We gather around the Lord’s table to remember Him. It is lawful to do many things, but you will notice that most of the time we do not make prayers for ourselves and our own needs. It is more profitable for us to offer thanksgiving and praise to Him.
If somebody prays for themselves, it is not unlawful. But it is a time in which the more profitable thing is remembering our Lord and His preciousness.
To me, one of the most beautiful examples of this is in the Old Testament, in the life of Joseph. We know many of the trials Joseph went through, and all of them were used for training, just as the trials we go through. The Lord is using them for training us in the learning of Him.
We could say Joseph went through many spiritual exercises to learn the very heart of God, to learn this real knowledge and discernment.
We remember that after Joseph was released from prison because he had interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams, he was the number-two man in all of Egypt. He had all the power that he needed. It would have been lawful—Joseph could do anything.
One of the questions I always have about this story is: why, at that point in time, did Joseph not contact his father and say, “Hey, Dad, I’m okay”?
We know he loved his father. There was a natural love there. Why did he not immediately send a messenger or go in person? His entourage could have gone in person and let his father know, “Hey, I’m okay, Dad.”
But Joseph had been trained. It would have been lawful, but it would not have been profitable for Joseph to do that. It was more profitable to wait upon the Lord’s timing and His way.
By Joseph waiting and denying his natural love for his father, and allowing the love of Christ to control him, his brothers were restored. That relationship was restored. His relationship with his father was restored.
Through that, the nation of Israel was saved. Joseph was not only the savior of the world, but that lineage of our Lord—the heritage, the seed of Abraham—was saved because it was more profitable for Joseph to deny his natural affections for his father, so that the very love of Christ could be manifest to the entire world.
One of the greatest stumbling blocks within our life can be our natural affections. That is why the Lord tells us, “He who loves mother or father more than Me cannot be My disciple.”
When we are placed in a situation involving someone we love with such a natural love—and that natural love came from God—do we entrust even our natural loves and affections to the things of the Lord, so that what He desires will be accomplished upon this earth?
Not our will, but Thy will be done. We cannot do that in ourselves. It is the working of the cross and the enabling power of His life.
This is why the Lord is calling us to have this real knowledge. It is a knowledge of His will and His purpose. When Joseph was there, he remembered those dreams. Those dreams kept Joseph. He knew God had a purpose for his life.
That dream kept Joseph throughout his life. He knew God would fulfill it. God had trained Joseph, not only in real knowledge but in real discernment, through suffering, the betrayal by his brothers, the prison he was in, and then the greatest test: exaltation to the throne.
Through this, Joseph’s spiritual discernment was trained to know what his Father’s heart was. Then, at that time, it was manifest upon the earth.
Would we really enable the Lord in our lives? Would we yield to that, so that His will could be done in this hour and we could truly be a people testifying unto Him?
Would we allow our own selves to be trained in this real knowledge and discernment, and not kick against the goad or resist that training? It is all for our profit. It may not seem profitable at the moment, but it is profitable in the end.
Again, why did Paul pray this prayer? Was it simply that they would have real knowledge and real discernment? No. We see again in verse 10 that there are two aspects. He prayed it so that they could approve the things that are excellent, or distinguish between the things that are different; and secondly, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ.
First, that we may approve the things that are excellent. This approving is simply the testing. We fellowshipped about this in 1 Peter: the testing of our faith is proving that which is genuine.
You are putting something to the test, like a piece of metal, and it passes the test. We see its value. We see its strength.
Who is this proving for? Is it for God? Does He need anything? It is proving to ourselves that we would know, because we are so weak in the faith. Through the proving, we see its genuineness.
Just as we have been looking at in 1 John, it says, “Test the spirits,” so you will know which ones are from God. There are many spirits in this day. How do we know which ones are of God?
We go back first: our love is abounding in real knowledge, knowing the things of Him, and discernment. Then we are able to test the spirits, as we know what our Father’s heart and ways are.
It is not merely testing them, and it is not merely approving them. It is then choosing them and allowing them to be applied within our lives. It is saying, “I know this is the better way. I know this is of the Lord. This is what I am choosing, and this is the way that I am walking.”
Paul also says that we could approve those things which are excellent. This word is used two ways within the New Testament. One is to distinguish between the things that are different, and that is one of the translations we have read here in Philippians.
It is also approving the things that are more central or more vital. They are really saying the same thing.
Some would say this is distinguishing between right and wrong. That really does not take a lot of discernment. We generally know the difference between right and wrong.
But as the days become more and more evil, even that is becoming harder and harder. Now we say right is wrong and wrong is right. A family of just a husband and wife—that is wrong. A family is any two people living together—that is right. That is what the world tells us, right? Right is wrong; wrong is right.
We have to discern. We have to know. In the past it was a little more simple, but as the days become more evil, even right and wrong become more difficult.
But really, what Paul is saying here is not merely the basic right and wrong. It is discerning and knowing between the good and the better. There is a better way.
We have heard how good is the enemy of better. The letter to the Hebrews was waking those dear ones up to say, “There is a better way. There is a better covenant. There is a better mediator.”
All that we have been called into is Christ, and He has a better way for us. Paul wanted them to apply this within their lives.
We look at this letter to those in Philippi, and we see how Paul gives them a precious, perfect example of this discerning love being applied and manifest within their lives.
There are two sets of workers going around in Philippians 1 and Philippians 3. In Philippians 1, verse 15, it speaks of those going around preaching Christ:
“Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from goodwill.”
Then look over at Philippians 3:2:
“Beware of the dogs,
beware of the evil workers,
beware of the false circumcision.”
Here you have two sets of workers going about. Paul is allowing this real knowledge and discernment to come forth.
In chapter 1, these ones may have some wrong motives, but what are they preaching? They are preaching Christ. Three times it says that Christ is proclaimed. Their message is right.
Their motives and some of their intentions may be wrong, but their message was right. Paul simply leaves them with the Lord. Christ is being proclaimed, so he leaves them with the Lord. We see ones proclaiming Christ out of selfish ambition.
But then look over in chapter 3. When Paul speaks of these evil workers, he has discerned that the message these ones are proclaiming is a false gospel.
He has discerned that these ones are evil workers. They are these Judaizers who are trying to take Christ and then add all of the law to Him.
Stephen spoke of this last week, when he talked about the Pharisees and all the leaven of the Pharisees trying to add on to Christ, add on their traditions, and add on everything else. So you have Christ plus the law.
Paul says, “No.” When we begin putting Christ plus the law, when we do anything that either adds to or takes away from the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have a false gospel. We have false teaching. We have false apostles.
We are warned in these last days to watch out, to be aware, and to stay away from those.
How much does it take to make something a mixture? Sometimes we say, “Oh, that is 98 percent good.” We have products that advertise, “Ivory soap, 99-and-something percent pure.”
In our day of relativity, we say, “Hey, that is pretty good. That is close enough.” We do that too much in Christianity. The truth is the truth, and what is not truth is a lie.
We love relativity in this day and time. Paul, in his discerning, hears the message of some and says, “They are preaching Christ. They might be trying to hurt me. They might be doing it to get money and selfish ambition for themselves, but they are preaching Christ. Christ goes out—let it go. Leave that with the Lord.”
Then he hears this other message. That spiritual instinct, that spiritual discernment, says, “That is a false gospel.”
Jerry spoke a couple of weeks ago about those who were trying to deny what was done at Calvary. Whenever we take away from the completeness of the work of our Lord, that is a false gospel. Whenever we try to add more to it, when we bring in and add all these other requirements, we need to beware of the dogs.
They are evil workers. They are not acting with the intent of bringing ones to Christ, but actually leading ones away from Christ.
This is why we need to have our senses so trained and discerning. How can we test and prove these matters if our love is not abounding with real knowledge and discernment? Otherwise, we are likely to be deceived.
Throughout the book of Acts, we see Peter with Ananias and Sapphira. They came in, and Peter had a spiritual discernment. He said, “Why have you lied to the Holy Spirit?” We know what happened there.
Priscilla and Aquila, that dear couple, heard this dear servant of the Lord, Apollos, preaching. Their spiritual ear was quickened because they knew real knowledge and spiritual discernment.
They had a love for Apollos, and they said, “You are only preaching up to the repentance of John, that baptism of John. There is a fuller gospel that you need to be aware of, Apollos. Let us share that with you.”
Praise God, he came and received that, and he was teachable. That is exercising discernment within the body of Christ, as our brother was sharing about last week.
How we need this. It is a great demonstration of loving one another as we have this discernment working within us.
Again, why are we having this real knowledge and discernment, our love abounding, that we can approve the things that are excellent? Why? Is it simply so that we can know this?
No, that we would be. Look at that word in verse 10: “to be.” That speaks of our inner condition, not our doing but our being, that we would be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ and filled with the fruit of righteousness.
He is the sincere and pure One, and He desires His life to be manifest within us. He desires the fullness of that life to be manifest within us.
This thought of being pure or sincere was touched on last week when we talked about leaven, that we would have the unleavened bread—that sincerity, that purity. No mixture; transparent, open, honest before the Lord.
It is interesting: this word sincere is a beautiful word, and it means sun-tested, or actually sun-judged. It is a compound word, and the word judged is the same word used in 1 Corinthians 5 for judging. It means sun-judged.
What did that mean back in their day and time? If we look at the way they used it in those days, many merchants, if they were making a piece of porcelain, for example, and they made a crack in that porcelain, would take a piece of wax and rub it into the porcelain to cover up the crack.
They would have it in their little tents, and as you went down to the market, you would look at it and it would look beautiful. But then the astute buyer would take that piece of porcelain, jewelry, or sculpture and put it out in the heat of the sun.
As the sun shone upon it, if it was pure, it would be sun-tested. There would be no melting. But if there was wax in it, the heat of the sun would melt the wax. It was impure.
You knew whether something was pure or not as long as it was sun-tested. That is what sincere means.
Actually, the word sincere that we use comes from a Latin word, sine cera. It means “without wax.” Anybody who knows Spanish or Portuguese recognizes something similar even today. It is without wax.
It is being sincere, without hypocrisy, without the wax, being transparent.
Brothers and sisters, just as sincere means sun-tested, today we are to be S-O-N tested. The light of our Lord, the Son shining upon us.
The beautiful thing is that the light of His life, the testing of the Son upon us, because He loves us so much, will show the leaven.
As we present ourselves to the Lord, as we heard last week, we need to get rid of the old leaven—get rid of any leaven, old or new. How do we get rid of leaven?
We simply present ourselves to the Lord each day as a living sacrifice, and we allow ourselves to be exposed to the light of this Son. As the light of His life shines upon us, it will touch those areas of leaven. It will touch the wax within us.
What is leaven? In a general way, leaven is anything that allows us to appear more spiritual than we really are.
Anything within our life that gives us a facade, that allows us to appear more spiritual than we really are, He will touch—if we have that sincere, honest heart to allow Him to touch us.
In this day and time, we need to allow the light of His Son to be working within us. We know that one day, as we all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, we will be dealt with—not losing our salvation, but those things which are of Him and those things that are not of Him will be touched.
But as we allow the light of life, the beautiful thing about the light of His life is that it is such a light of love. It is His love shining within us to set us free from the things that we are leaning and trusting on, the things we are substituting, and the areas we are trying to cover up.
We do not like being transparent. It is not a very comfortable thing. But if we really know what His love is—that love that knows all things and yet still loves—we allow ourselves to be put before His throne to be tested.
If we present ourselves each morning as that living sacrifice, the light of His Son, the life of His Son, comes in and shines upon us and sets us free from all hypocrisy and the wax facade that we have.
As Christians, we are really good at putting on our wax facades and coming to meeting. We can put on our wax facades and go through life looking so spiritual and looking so great.
I loved it: I asked a brother the other day how he was doing, and he said, “Terrible,” and I rejoiced.
I always worry about people who never have any problems. Everything is fine. Everything is great. I always worry about those people. It is like, what world are you living in?
Now, I know that in Christ everything is wonderful. I am not taking away any of that. But in this earthen vessel that we are living in, we go through trials.
Paul himself spoke about how he was distressed unto death. He got depressed, but it never stops there. He was knocked down, but he was never knocked out.
Yes, we can have a terrible day, but thank the Lord, He picks us up, and He continues to allow us to go on.
That we could be those who are sincere and blameless. This word blameless is applied in two ways: that we would not be a stumbling block to others, that we would not do something to our brothers and sisters to cause them to stumble; and that there would not be something within us that makes us stumble ourselves.
May we not be those who stumble ourselves or cause others to stumble. Would that we would be those sincere and blameless ones.
But again, what is the goal? Is it simply that we would be sincere and blameless? No, that the fruit of righteousness would be formed within us.
Who has been made our righteousness? It is Christ. It is not our fruit. It is not us doing all these works in ourselves that we bear fruit. No, His life is within us, and He has been made unto us righteousness.
As we yield ourselves to Him, that life comes forth. He is the fruit of righteousness. He is the seed. As we deny ourselves and allow His life to be manifest within us, we allow that life to come forth.
It is the testimony of Himself. It is the fruit of Christ being formed within us, to His glory and honor.
That is why it is so essential in these days. I keep going back to 1 Corinthians, where we have been advised to be careful with what we build.
We must be careful with what we build, that we would be wise and not build with wood, hay, and stubble. It is trouble—stubble. That is a new word.
But we build with gold, silver, and precious stones, because that is the building material.
As that building material, as that life of Christ, is working within us, we use the right material. Not only are we allowing one another to demonstrate His life, but there is a building together. There is a completing of one another. There is a building up of one another.
That goes on because this life within us is jealous for fellowship—jealous for fellowship with the Father and the Son, jealous for fellowship with one another. It is jealous that we would be those who have that relationship with Him.
But again, so often we look at the end product and say, “Oh, we want the fruit of righteousness. Isn’t this going to be great?” How does the fruit of righteousness come about? By being sincere and blameless.
How does that come about? That our love would abound more and more in real knowledge and all discernment. These are very interrelated.
As we yield ourselves unto Him, we allow His life to be brought forth within us.
Why is that? So that when we appear before the judgment seat of Christ, which is called here the day of Christ, we would appear with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
We would appear in that day of Christ, when we are appearing before that judgment seat, as those who reflect His life and His very character, and as those who hear the words of our Lord, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
Oftentimes we say, “Oh, I want to hear those words: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’” But do you know that our Lord is so much more yearning and jealous to say those words?
He is just dying—in fact, He died—so that He could say those words to us. We look at it in such a self-centered way: “Oh, that I could hear those words, ‘Good and faithful servant.’”
Look at it from His perspective. He is just dying. He is jealous to say those words to each and every one of us.
How can He say those words to us? As we have yielded unto Him, as the fruit of His life is formed, then He will be able, with such a joyful heart, to say those words: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
He is jealous that He could say that to each and every one of us.
So, brothers and sisters, as we consider these verses, they are, in essence, our prayer for today: that we would remember that this love that we speak so often of does not travel alone.
It has its traveling companions: real knowledge and all discernment.
As we allow this real knowledge and all discernment to be so interwoven with love in every aspect of our lives, it will keep us on the right track.
There are many things trying to pull us to the left and to the right. Our natural affections try to pull us. False teachings and false gospels pull us. Many servants of light, angels of light disguising themselves as those of the Lord, are trying to pull us away.
There is a great battle out there, and the Lord has simply said: as you come and remain in the fellowship that I have called you into, as My life is developed within you, then you will be able to distinguish.
You will be able to tell apart that which is of Me and that which is not of Me, that which is counterfeit and that which is true.
We have shared before, even in mentioning the word counterfeit, that as people go through training to identify counterfeit money, there is one thing they never see during their training: a counterfeit dollar bill.
The only way FBI and other agents are trained to spot counterfeit money is that they learn the real. As you learn the real, then you know what is not of Him.
As we learn of Christ, as His love abounds more and more within us with real knowledge and discernment, when something is put before us, we say, “That is not real. That is not the Christ I know.”
Then we continue to follow faithfully unto Him.
Thank the Lord that there were ones who approached Apollos—Priscilla and Aquila approached him—and we can learn much from him because he displayed a teachable heart.
Are we teachable? Are we correctible? When someone exercises discernment out of this heart of love, are we willing to respond to that, continue, and get back on the path that the Lord has called us to?
The Lord is jealous for His return. I pray that we in this hour would be found as those who are teachable and those who can be trained by Him, to really hasten His return.
I would like for us to close by singing a hymn. There is a hymn, number 477. It is a simple little hymn, if we want to call it that, but it is simply entitled “More About Jesus.”
We see in this hymn that there are many aspects to which He calls us, that we would know more of Him. We would know of His will. We would know of His discernment. We would allow the Lord to lead us into the fuller measure of His life being formed within us.
Amen.