CONVINCING A WICKED WORLD - Clover Sites
CONVINCING A WICKED AND LOST WORLD
PHILIPPIANS 2:12-17
Need: The world in which we live is naturally inclined to rebel against God.
Proposition: We are to so live that our world will become convinced of the reality of our faith.
Objective: To motivate Christians to be become what they are in Christ so they can convince the world of its need of God.
Introduction:
God has a plan for demonstrating to the world that He is real. He has a plan for revealing His love, mercy, and grace to the world. And YOU are that plan.
It is true that God has revealed Himself to the world in the creation. There is enough proof of His existence and his greatness in the physical world around us to enable anyone who will consider it to bow before Him in worship. But thousands of years of human history demonstrate that man consistently ignores this witness, and makes his own objects for worship.
It is true that God has given the unbelieving a wonderful book that we all love—the Holy Scriptures. Unfortunately the world about us does not read the Bible. And as the history of the world goes, a Bible in the hand of every person in his or her own language is still a fairly modern phenomenon. It was not until the printing press was invented that it became a possibility. God knew this so He had a better idea—He would convince the world through us.
Paul has a metaphor by which he demonstrates this. After setting forth the nature of the world in which we live—“crooked and depraved”—he writes, “In which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life.” The word translated “stars” literally means “heavenly luminaries” like the sun and the moon. This surely agrees with what Jesus said in his most famous sermon when He declared, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in Heaven.” Do you see the point Jesus makes? The unbelieving world is to see something in us that will cause them to offer praise to God. They will become so convinced of the richness and reality of His goodness, that they will begin to worship Him.
This metaphor reminds us of the nature of the world system in which we live—it is a world of moral and spiritual darkness. It has the need for light and we are that light in the Lord.
You need to understand this. It will help you understand what God is doing in your life. He is doing His saving work in you so that you will really shine in this old world. You are to work out your salvation with fear and trembling—that is, you are to give full attention to your life to make it really shine in this wicked world.
Where do you begin? These words of Paul will help us focus on three areas of our lives.
I. By our ATTITUDE.
Paul calls our attention to our attitude first—“Do everything without complaining or arguing.” The focus of these words is on our attitude toward God. The Apostle points to negative attitudes that are forbidden to us. We are to render to the Lord obedience in “all things” without these two negatives.
1. No complaining.
This word has a rich Old Testament background. The word is appropriately translated in the older version “murmuring.” For those of us familiar with the Old Testament, that word provokes bad images. All you have to do is just check out the first time this word appears in the Bible. It comes right after the people of Israel have celebrated the mighty deliverance at the Red Sea. They have sung and danced before the Lord with great joy. But the next step on the journey brings them to Marah, and the water is bitter.
What do they do when the water is bitter? They complain, “So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, ‘What are we to drink?’” (Exodus 15:24) That sounds natural enough. God met that need by showing Moses how to sweeten the water by putting a tree into the water. No big deal!
A few days later they encounter another crisis—the food supply begins to be used up. What do they do when there is a food shortage? They grumble and complain. “In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.” There is just one thing wrong with all of this—Moses was not responsible for their water and food—God was.
So the Lord meets their need in this crisis and Moses says to them, “He has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we, that you should grumble against us?” (Exodus 16:7) This confronts us with a basic life issue—who is in charge of circumstances? Who do you blame when things don’t work out like you had planned? When you get passed over for a promotion, whom do you blame? When the stock market goes down, whom do you blame? We must never forget—God is in charge of circumstances. When you are grumbling and complaining, you are complaining against the way the Lord is ordering the circumstances of your life.
You need an attitude adjustment. You are to do all things without complaint—or to put it positively, you are do all things joyfully and with gratitude.
2. No arguing.
My first inclination was to interpret this word as the way we respond to each other—being hard to get along with. But when I did some research on the word, it was obvious that the focus is still on our attitude toward God. If the first attitude adjustment involves moving from murmuring to joyful gratitude, this one involves moving from inner questioning of the way of the Lord to one of trust in the Lord. It is one of submission—meekness would probably be the proper word.
Meekness means that I approach every circumstance with the confidence that God will teach me something through this circumstance, that He will bring something good out of it.
Now if you want to catch the attention of the world in which we live, begin to demonstrate such an attitude in your daily life. When you find yourself in an unpleasant circumstance, let it be obvious to everyone who knows you that you are still ready to do the will of God joyfully, and that you know the Lord will accomplish good in this circumstance. Such an attitude will cause them to set up and take notice. That is not the way our world does it.
II. By our CONDUCT.
The basic verb in this admonition is a present tense verb—“Do everything”. This means that it is to be done this way continually. We are to demonstrate such an attitude in everything we do. It is to be done as unto the Lord. Why? “So that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation.” The Apostle uses three words that point to the conduct that will convince this world that God is real, and that He is someone that they ought to consider.
1. Blameless conduct.
The three terms used by Paul point to our relationship with this wicked, depraved world in which we are called to live out our days. Blameless means just that—as the world looks upon you they cannot find any just cause for accusing your morally. You are blameless! You are walking by the highest standard.
2. Pure conduct.
The word translated “pure” is also translated “harmless”. Some would translate the word “simple” or “sincere”. The root idea in the word is “unmixed”. It was used in that day of the diluting of wine with water, or mixing metals so that the strength and the value of the metal was reduced. The word means that you are exactly what you appear to be—you are the real thing.
All of us have known individuals who were not what they claimed to be, or even what they appeared to be. I am thinking of a man who was widely used in ministry for a number of years. In the pulpit he appeared to be dedicated, consistent servant of the Lord. Actually however in his personal life, he was an unfaithful husband, a failure as a parent, sometimes profane in his speech, very self-willed. When you got close to him, you discovered that he was not the real thing. He was impure.
We are to always be becoming who we are in Christ. Our character is to be demonstrated in conduct that reveals the goodness and glory of our heavenly Father.
3. Without fault.
The third word comes from the priestly vocabulary of the Bible. “Without fault” translates the sacrificial word, “without blemish”. No animal could be offered to God as a sacrifice if it was blemished physically in any way. It must be the very best from the herd or the flock. The word here is not referring to our physical makeup, but rather to our conduct. It is to be above reproach—from men and from the Lord.
All of this brings me to my burden this morning. It bothers me that our modern day version of the Christian faith is so unconvincing. In many cases we have not even convinced our children and grandchildren. In most cases we have not convinced our neighbors and the people we work with. Our lives are so much like theirs that they fail to notice any difference. The truth is that there is a big gap between what we profess on Sunday and what we practice in the rest of the week.
If we claim to be the children of God, and we do, then those who watch us ought to be able to notice the family likeness in our conduct. They ought to notice that we respond in love and mercy like God. They ought to notice that we are quick to forgive, just like our heavenly Father. They ought to notice that we keep our word just like he keeps His word. They ought to hear the same kindness in our voice that the world heard in the voice of the Lord Jesus. They should be able to take notice that we are free from the prejudice of the world, just like our heavenly Father. This the way we shine in the darkness. This will convince them that God is worth considering.
III. By our TESTIMONY.
“In which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life.” Shining in the world does involve holding out to the world the word of life.
1. Holding out the word of life as the explanation for our lives.
These words can be translated in different ways. Some translate it as if the word of life is something that we hold on to instead of something that we hold out to the world. Actually I like a combination of these two ideas. Surely one thing we do is offer to the world the gospel as the explanation for our lives.
I understand “word of life” to be an expression for the gospel. It is the word that gives life. Why do we think like we think? Why do we react in the manner we react? Why do we do the things we do? Why are so quick to demonstrate love and mercy? Why are so quick to forgive? When the world wants to know, we tell them the word of life. We explain to them what our life was like everyone else before we heard the word and it gave us life. We are different because the Lord God has raised us out of a life of sin and depravity into a life of hope through the Gospel of His dear Son! God in His kindness has caused His life to be in us. This is our testimony to the world.
2. Holding out the word of life as the promise to the world.
This they must hear! God has forgiven us, and He will forgive them. Christ died for us, but He also died for them. We are the children of God, but they can be the children of God too if they will believe in Him. This is our loving testimony to the world.
You will probably never be able to write a learned book on apologetics that will convince the world that they need God, but you can convince them through your attitude, your conduct, and your testimony. I remember the story of a young skeptic who began to attend church. The pastor reached out to him and offered to him wise arguments for the Christian faith. He preached a series of sermons on the proofs for the Christian faith with the young man in mind. Finally after some months the skeptic came forward making his profession of faith.
In his follow-up with the young man, the pastor asked him, “Which truth was it that convinced you and led to your faith?” The young man surprised the pastor by declaring, “Pastor, I am sorry. It was not your preaching that led me to faith. It was my mother’s practicing. I finally came to the place that I could not deny the reality of God in her life. I realized that I desperately needed what my mother had.”
This is what the Apostle is calling for in our text. He wants us to so live that we will be like a guiding star in this dark world, guiding the steps of men to the Savior who has saved us, leading them to bow before our God in humble worship.
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