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Welcome to our meditations to the Lord Jesus in the book of Philippians. We’re not here to learn the Bible; we’re here to see the Lord, and that’s why God has given us the Bible. We spent a necessary time in our double introduction. We did a theological introduction and then an historical introduction. The purpose for that two-fold introduction was because we had to see the distinctive revelation of Christ in the book of Philippians. Every book in the Bible presents Christ in a slightly different way that no other books presents in the same way. It’s very helpful to focus at the beginning on who is Christ according to this particular book. That’s why we looked at that.
I’m not going to review that introduction but last week we looked at two things. We looked at the theme of the book, in other words the revelation of Christ, and I suggested a little outline that we’re going to follow of the four chapters. Each chapter we’re going to take as a unit. The theme of the book of Philippians is very simple. Philippians 1:21, the Apostle Paul said, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” The theme of the book is Christ. Last week I showed you it’s Christ as our life and Christ as our environment. He is now the air that we breathe, He’s food, He’s bread, He’s water, He’s drink; He is our life. It’s not that God has called us to live for the Lord, as many would say. No, no; He’s not called you to live for the Lord; He wants to live for Himself; He wants to live through you; He wants to live through me. That’s the great message and why we needed to see Christ in this great book. We see Him as the exalted Lord of all.
Philippians, probably more than any of the thirteen epistles that Paul wrote, includes many topics: unity, peace, prayer, missions, heaven at the end, the resurrection, confidence, and so many themes, but they’re not themes. The theme is Christ, and those are by-products. Those are the outworkings. If in reality I’m looking to Christ, I’m not going to be anxious, I’m not going to be discouraged, I’m not going to have trouble being one with other Christians, I’m not going to have trouble manifesting Christ and proclaiming the gospel. It’s all fruit of the Spirit; it’s by-products and an outworking. If you have to work at anything in your Christian life, my guess is that it’s not real. It’s all automatic. Your one and only evangelical duty is to keep your heart and eyes on Christ. When your eyes are on the Lord, everything will fall into place. It’s a marvelous miracle of God. So, it’s Christ as our life, as our environment.
When we ended last week, I suggested this little outline. It’s a human outline. No big deal; it’s the one I’ve chosen. If you don’t like it, choose another. It just gets us into the section, and I through my study have seen that there seems to be one big topic mentioned in every chapter. The first chapter is full of confidence, and since the whole book radiates with the joy of the Lord, we’re going to call it “joyous confidence”. We introduced that last time and we didn’t get very far. That’s chapter one; joyous confidence.
Chapter two is a chapter on humility, and it gives us wonderful illustrations. For example, our big illustration is the Lord Jesus; He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. Paul is an illustration and Timothy is an illustration, and Epaphroditus is an illustration. So, joyous humility in chapter two.
Chapter three has an emphasis on focus, purpose, “This one thing I do; I press on, I keep on going,” so, we’ve called that “joyous pursuit”. And then chapter four Paul said, “I finally learned the secret; how to be content, and I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Generally we take that verse and apply it, “I can do all things through Christ; I can counsel, or whatever.” The first application is that I can be content through Christ who strengthens me.
So, we have that joyous confidence, joyous humility, joyous purpose, and joyous contentment. All through chapter one we’re going to see this joyous confidence. Let me read again Philippians 1:6, “I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect until the day of Christ Jesus.” All through chapter one, “I am confident of this very thing,” the confidence goes through. Confidence depends upon a person, and so we’re going to see four different aspects in chapter one—confidence in God because He’s faithful, confidence in God because He’s sovereign, confidence in the Lord because He is sufficient, confidence in the Lord because He’s full of infinite wisdom. We’re going to relate confidence to who He is in every case. The fact that verse 6 says, “He who began a good work in you, will perfect it until the day of Christ,” gives us awesome reason for joyful confidence because I’m going to make it to heaven, and so are you. But your confidence is, and this is why you can have joy, because the burden of making it, the responsibility of making it all the way to the end is not you or me. That which He has begun, He will complete. It’s not me and it’s not you.
1Timothy 1:12, “For this reason I suffer these things, and I’m not ashamed; I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced He is able to guard what I’ve entrusted to Him until that day.” Philippians 3:20&21, I won’t read it, but we have there all the way to heaven a new glorified body. So, confidence is based on Him and His promises to complete what He began. In that connection, 1 Peter 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy, has caused us to be born again to a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled and will not fade away.” Here is the part I love, “Reserved in heaven for you who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed at the last day.” Just that expression, “reserved in heaven for you.” You’ve got to make a reservation, and we have one, and it’s reserved in heaven for us, because what He began, He is going to complete.
I’d like to develop that a little bit more. We started because He’s faithful I can have joyous confidence that I’m going to make it all the way to the end. That’s where we began. But before we look in a bit more detail on that, I think it’s important to enlarge on a very important truth, and God will keep to the end the work He has begun. That’s the only work that He’ll keep until the end. If He hasn’t begun, we have no reason or confidence, let alone joyful confidence. It’s got to be the Lord and there’s got to be reality. From start to finish it’s His work and not ours. Titus 3:5, how did it begin? “He saved us not on the basis on deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy by the washing and regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit whom He poured out upon us richly through Christ, our Lord.” How did it begin? It was Him. How does it continue? Galatians 3:3, “Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are you made perfect by the flesh?” He started it and He’s got to continue. You can say, “Yeah, but the Bible says that we’ve got to obey the Lord, and keep His word, His commandments. Indeed! But how? How do we obey?
I love the book of Romans because that’s God’s book on three-fold salvation. It tells you all you need to know about sanctification, justification and glorification. It begins one way, and it ends one way—the terminal points. It begins with obedience; it ends with obedience. But it adds this little phrase, “The obedience of faith.” That’s how we obey. Faith needs an object, and the object is Christ. Romans 1:4&5, “We’ve received Jesus Christ our Lord through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the gentiles, for His name sake.” The books ends in Roman 16:26, “According to the commandment of the eternal vow has been made known to all nations leading to the obedience of faith.” We work in the Spirit, and that’s how we obey the Lord. Even Philippians 1:11, “Having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.”
How did your salvation begin? It was not by you and not by me. It was grace; it was Lord. How does it continue? Not by you and not by me. It’s the grace of God. He has to give you the grace. How will it end? Some Christians believe in what they call a pre-tribulation rapture. In other words it’s possible today that those who are alive will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. Well, are you prepared for that? Have you taken jumping lessons? How are you going to be prepared? That’s His work, and He’s going to raise the church up; only He can do that. If the Lord calls you to go to heaven through death, how are you going to get out of that one? Death is man’s most unsolvable problem, and if there’s going to be a resurrection, it’s not going to depend on you, or depend on me. He’s starts it, He continues it, and He finishes it, but we need to understand because there is a doctrine that’s out there, and has been abused, misunderstood, and the theologians call it “the doctrine of eternal security”. Have you ever heard of that? Once saved, always saved. That’s what they say that doctrine teaches. So, if you were five years old at your mother’s knee, if you trusted the Lord, and then you went off into the world and lived like the devil, it doesn’t matter because once saved, always saved. The doctrine, as a doctrine, the doctrine of eternal security, has never secured a flea; it cannot secure. There is no security in a doctrine; there’s only security in a Person who keeps you. It’s not doctrine, “I believe this and I believe that.” Many think just because they made a decision, salvation is a decision, “Decide for Christ.” If they made a decision, if they raised their hand or signed a card or went forward or threw a stick in a fire, or had some other experience that they are basing it on, I’m suggesting that you might not be saved at all because it’s not based on a decision or on some experience; it’s based on revelation. It’s says that God revealed His Son in me. Until God begins it, you have no confidence that you are going to arrive safely. Nobody does. But if God has actually begun it and it’s real, it’s genuine, then you can have, rest assured you can have joyous confidence that He’s going to complete what He’s begun.
I want to add a little bit to this because we’ve got to make room for, I don’t know what to call it because I don’t want to give a wrong idea… There are times you are going to take your eyes off the Lord. I know there was a season of almost a year and a half that I took my eyes off the Lord and I got in big, big trouble. We’ve got to have room for restoration as a Christian. There’s got to be something in the Bible that would teach that if a true Christian, one that He’s begun a work in, turns away, backslides, or whatever you want to call it, he can repent and come back to the Lord again. If that weren’t true, where would Abraham be? Where would David be? Where would John Mark be? Where would Peter be? Where would the prodigal son be? In fact, where would Ed Miller be? Where would you be, if there was not room for restoration?
We can’t see the heart; we can’t judge another person. I know that 2 Timothy 2:19, “The Lord knows those who are His, and everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness.” The Lord knows who are His. When the Apostle Paul was writing to the Corinthians, there were some that said, “I’m a Christian,” and they were living like the devil. But they said, “I’m a part of the family; I’m a brother.” Here is how Paul addresses that. 1 Corinthians 5:11, “Actually, I wrote to you, not to associate with any so-called brother, if he is an immoral person or covetous or idolator, reviler, drunkard, and so on.” He doesn’t say, “He’s not saved; look at his life,” because he doesn’t know his heart. We can’t see each other’s heart. He doesn’t judge, but he won’t call him a brother. He won’t say, “He’s a Christian, but he’s messed up.” He said, “He’s a so-called brother. I’m not sure he knows the Lord or not. God knows. I can’t judge and you can’t judge, and you can’t judge me and I can’t judge you.
In this connection, 1 John 2:19 says, “They went out from us because they were not of us. If they were of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out from us to make it manifest that they were not of us.” So, there are some Christians that believe that they had it, and they lost it; they lost their salvation. There are others that say, looking at the same people who are living shipshod, and say, “They really never had it.” So, you’ve got those two things; they had it and they lost it or they never had it. Which is right? Those who said they had it and lost it or those who say they never had it? The answer is, “God is right.” He’s always right. Just because I incline to one view, and you might incline to another, the truth is going to be the truth. It doesn’t matter what we believe. I can’t make something true by believing it more. I can’t make something false by not believing. God’s truth is truth and God’s word will stand. I incline toward that they never had it in the first place. Others’ do not incline toward that, but it doesn’t matter, because it doesn’t depend upon my inclination; it depends on God’s word.
I praise the Lord, however, that there is restoration for the backsliding Christian, because I was in a lot of trouble, and I mean in the streets of Chicago, and down on Madison Avenue where all those houses of ill-repute are. I was in real trouble. I went very far from the Lord, but there’s restoration. I wouldn’t trade all the stars in heaven laid twice in silver for Psalm 23:3, “The Lord is my shepherd; He restoreth my soul.” Restoration is wonderful. Micah 7:8&9, “Do not rejoice over me, my enemy. Though I fall, I will rise. Though I dwell in darkness, the Lord is a light for me. I’ll bear the indignation of the Lord because I’ve sinned against Him, until He pleads my case and executes justice for me, He’ll bring me out to the light, and I will see His righteousness.”
If you are inclined to think they had it and lost it, whatever verses you use, I’d advise you to stay away from Hebrews 6 because that proves too much. Hebrews 6 says that if you’ve tasted of the Lord, and the good things of the world to come, and you fall away, it’s impossible to renew them to repentance. If you see that as a Christian, then there is no hope of repentance. It’s not possible. That has to be describing someone who has completely rejected the only way of salvation. If you reject the only way of salvation, there’s no other sacrifice, and no other possibility.
A Christian needs to be restored. There’s no such thing as an apostate Christian. That which He has begun, the real work, He will complete. You might fall on the deck but you’re not falling off the ship because He’s going to keep us restored.
Let me tell a little story. I wasn’t going to do this but I’m going to do it. I had friend who is heaven now, so I can tell his story. Maybe some of you know; his name was William Barrow. He went into a real slide from the Lord. He was in the navy in Rhode Island where I met him and he went to Texas. He wanted to get right with the Lord, and he said, “I’m going back to Rhode Island, and I’m going to talk to Ed and maybe he can help me get back to the Lord. I need to come back to the Lord.”
At that time I was studying Newton poetry, Newton who wrote “Amazing Grace”. He lived a horrible life; he was a wild man before he came to the Lord. And a guy name William Cowper is my favorite. I just like him. He had depression, and he finally took his own life. He got very depressed. He joined up with Newton who was the pastor at that time at the Church of England. Cowper went in and everytime he got discouraged, Newton would say, “Go in the other room and write a hymn.” And he said, “I can’t write hymns because I’m a poet.” He said, “No, you need the Lord; you go write a hymn. So, he would go and write a hymn. Newton actually started a book called “Olmney Hymns”, and in that he has one hundred and twenty five of his own, and about sixty of Cowper’s.
So, that was what I was doing when I got a knock at the door and it was my friend, Bill. Bill came in and he said, “You need to help me come back to the Lord.” I heard a little of his story, and I said, “Go in the other room and write a hymn.” I really did, because I didn’t know how to answer his case. Have pity on me. I’m not a singer; I don’t have a good voice, but I want to sing a verse and chorus with what he came out with. He actually wrote the tune, too. He came out singing. Forgive me again, “Oh, how the mighty have fallen; God’s beautiful, oh how they’re slain. They’re scattered before the enemy, but they shall rise again. The seed of the woman shall conquer; the seed of the woman shall win. The seed of the serpent may bruise them, but they shall rise again.”
God is going to keep His people, and if you fall, you are going to come back, if you are really His, you are going to come back. Because the exalted Savior is in your heart and in mine, we can have joyous confidence in His faithfulness, and He’ll bring us to the end.
Let me introduce the second reason for joyous confidence in chapter one of Philippians; it has to do with the sovereignty of God. Verse 7, “It’s only right for me to have to feel this way about you because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment, in defense and confirmation of the gospel, you are partakers of grace with me.” “Defense of the gospel.” Philippians 1:12-18, I won’t read it now. Because the exalted Savior lives in our heart, remember when we were in chapter 2, we saw that He has a name above every name, and at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, every tongue will finally confess Him, some in time and some not in time but eternity, but every knee will bow. It’s not a matter of should I; it’s when because every knee is going to confess Him. So, He is Lord, absolute Lord of all.
I showed you last time that first of all because Christ is our environment, we’re in Christ, and then we’re in other things; in Christ in trouble, in Christ in death, in Christ in a crisis. We’re in Christ and in circumstances. Paul wrote this when he was in prison in Rome, but notice the way he says it. He doesn’t say, “I’m in prison in Rome.” He says, “I’m in Christ in prison in Rome.” He’s always in Christ first of all. Then he says in verse 13, “So that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole Praetorian Guard and everyone else.” Because he was in prison, he just left that with the Lord, the Praetorian Guards are coming to the Lord. The book ends, Philippians 4:22, “All the saints greet you, especially those in Caesar’s household.” It’s in the oval office! It’s in the royal palace people were coming to the Lord. Why? The answer is that they put Paul in prison to shut him up. How did that work out? He didn’t shut up. The guards came to Christ, and people in the palace came to Christ. While he was in prison, he decided to write Philippians and Ephesians and Colossians and Philemon! How many people have been blessed by that! They couldn’t shut him up even though they tried to.
Acts 12:24, after James had been beheaded, here is what we read, “The word of the Lord continued to grow and be multiplied.” Acts 13:49&50, “The word of the Lord was being spread through the whole region, but the Jews incited the devout women of prominence, and leading men in the city, and instigated a persecution against Paul and Barnabus and drove them out of their district.” Verse 52, “And the disciples were continually filled with joy and the Holy Spirit, and the more they were scattered, the more the word of God was spread.” Acts 8 begins with that great persecution. Christians were scattered everywhere. Verse 2, “On that day, a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem; they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea, Samaria, except the Apostle.” Verse 4, “Therefore, those who had been scattered, went about preaching the word.”
The principle is this, why can I have joyous confidence because God is sovereign? The answer is because everything is redemptive. Everything that takes place in your life and mine is redemptive. He’s sovereign. These bad circumstances caused a spreading of the gospel. I love in that connection Acts 19:20, “The word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing.” Philippians 1:14, “Most of the brethren are trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment.” It’s not only the unbeliever who is going to be blessed because all this is redemptive, but even the believer, even unworthy instruments. Listen to verse 15, “Some to be sure are preaching Christ, even from envy and strife, and some from good will.” Philippians 1:17, “The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment.” Others were being blessed. Paul said, “What took place in my life is redemptive, not only for the unbeliever but also for the believer.” He went a lot further than I could have ever gone. He said, “Even though they have bad motives, Christ is preached, and therefore I rejoice.
I tell you, sometimes when I hear people preaching, I get heartburn because I can’t say that they’re preaching Christ, if they’re preaching legalism or something else. I get angry, but not Paul. Paul said, “I tell you with tears, they are enemy’s of the cross.” He was broken hearted over them. He said, “My heart is on the message, and not the messenger. God will use unworthy instruments.” I’ll again say it honestly, if that were not so, if God didn’t use unworthy instruments, you would not be gathered here today. I praise God that He uses unworthy instruments.
So, all things are redemptive. Let me just begin this—I’m so thrilled with this part of chapter one—the revelation of the Lord is that He’s all-sufficient. Philippians 1:20, “According to my earnest expectation and hope, I’ll not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness Christ will, even now as always, be exalted in my body whether by life or by death.” Paul speaks of “earnest expectation and hope”. I want to begin with the word “hope”. Let me just say a few things and illustrate it wonderfully from the Bible.
For us hope usually is a wish. We say, “I hope it doesn’t rain. Maybe it will rain and maybe it won’t rain.” “I’m going fishing; I hope I catch something.” Hope there is just a wish; I might and I might not. When I was going through my college years, I was continually hoping I would do better on the next exam than I did on the one before it. It was just an uncertainty. A couple of weeks ago Lillian was hoping against hope that the Red Sox would do better than they did, but it was just a lame wish that didn’t come to pass.
The point is, the way the Bible uses the word “hope” is not a wish—maybe, maybe not. It’s an absolute certainty; it’s a confidence. The word is “elpis” and it means “confidence”. It means absolute. The word “hope” is sort of airy. In other words, it’s not substance. If I said, “I have hope,” you can’t say, “What does it look like? How big is it? What does it weigh? What color is it?” It’s out here; it’s hope, and it’s something that isn’t physical. It’s so abstract and intangible, it’s hard to believe that God chose that word in order to teach how to be steadfast; you’ve got to have hope. I find that’s a rather weak word until I went to Hebrews. Hebrews 6:19, “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope sure and steadfast.” It’s an anchor. As I go through this, if any of you are inclined to be artists, I would love see this, what I’m about to describe, on canvas. Hope, an anchor. An anchor we all know is just a heavy object on a boat, a sea vessel, connected by ropes or cables to give stability to the ship, and so it won’t drift away.
When I was in Rhode Island we used to go fishing, and we had a thirty pound anchor, and that was to keep the boat from going away when we found a spot. I only mention that to show that for the Holy Spirit to choose an anchor of the soul; hope is an anchor of the soul, it’s anything distant from shadowy and airy and illusive. It’s quite a graphic picture in Hebrew 6.
The aircraft carrier known as the USS Ford named after Gerald Ford, they have an anchor that is 30,000 pounds. It’s nothing compared to hope; hope is heavier than that. When my wife was watching “Titanic” they made mention of the fact that their anchor was 15 tons. Hope is a greater anchor than that.
Let me continue the picture. I don’t want to get too far from the idea in Philippians but in Hebrews the church is pictured as a floating church; it’s on troubled waters. There are storms and the wind comes and there are currents, and so on. It’s a church on a stormy sea. How are you going to make that floating church steadfast and immovable. You are going to need an anchor; and the image is the anchor of hope. Again, in Philippians that hope can be anything. It can be property or health or lost plans or disappointment or something like that, or an inward storm and the old sin nature, lust and pride and self-confidence, and so on. Standing at the graveside of a dear loved one; we’re going to have storms, and we’re not exempt from storms.
I opened this lesson with 1 Timothy 4:10, “We have fixed our hope on the living God.” Hebrews 6:18, “Who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us, that they may be greatly encouraged.” Have you ever heard the song, “My Anchor Holds?” Anyway, Martin wrote this song. I’m just going to read one verse and the chorus. It says, “Though the angry surges roll on my tempest driven soul, I am peaceful because I know wildly though the winds may blow, I have an anchor safe and sure that will evermore endure; and it holds, my anchor holds. Blow your wildest, that old gale on my bark so small and frail, by His grace I shall not fail, for my anchor holds, my anchor hold.” Once again, hope is an anchor, not based on our wishes, “I hope this happens,” but based on His Person, His will.
Here is the rest of the picture. If you have an anchor, you’ve got to have something holding it to the boat. Hebrew 6:17, “Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs to what was promised, He confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us, may be greatly encouraged.”
So, picture the church on the water, on a troubled sea, and picture an anchor called “Hope”, but now we’ve got to attach it. According to Hebrews there is a double cable holding it. One of the cables, verse 18, “By two unchangeable things which it is impossible for God to lie, we’ve taken refuge.” The first cable is the character of God Himself. It’s impossible for God to lie, so that’s a cable holding our hope. Titus 1:2 says the same thing, “In the hope of eternal life which God who can not lie promised.” Hope is a Person, Psalm 71:5, “You are my hope, oh God.” 1 Timothy 1:1, “Our Savior Christ Jesus who is our hope.” That’s our first cable. David asks and answers, “Why are you in despair, oh my soul? Hope in God. For what do we wait? My hope is in You.”
Alright, what’s the other cable? The first is God Himself. I would think that would be enough; I don’t need another cable. But God said, “No, let me give you another cable.” Verse 17, “In the same way, God desired even more to show the heirs of His promises the unchangeable purpose and interposed it with an oath. Verse 13, “Since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself.” Do you understand it? It’s so marvelous. God said, “I want you to have a hope, an anchor for your soul. I’m going to use as an anchor my character and since God could swear by anybody greater,” we say, ‘I swear to God,’, who is God going to swear to? So, God raised His right hand and swore to God; God swore to Himself. He said, “Not only do you have My nature and I can’t lie, but I’m going to give you My oath besides, ‘I swear to God you can be secured with this anchor.’” That is some kind of security!!
But right now the Holy Spirit takes a turn, and that’s where I’m calling on you artists to come in because I’ve got this picture, the church on a troubled, stormy sea, and things are going wrong. I’ve got an anchor, solid, hope, and I have two cables holding it to the boat; His character and His oath. How does the Holy Spirit finish the picture? I would expect that they would drop anchor; it would finish the picture. But He doesn’t drop anchor. The anchor does not go down into the troubled sea. The anchor goes up. Verse 19, “We have a hope; we have an anchor of the soul, a hope, sure and steadfast, one which enters within the veil where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us.” The anchor has nothing to lay hold of on this earth, and so it goes up; the cables go up and behind the veil. You know from the Old Testament there was only one piece of furniture behind the veil, and that was the ark, the throne of God. My dear friends, we have a hope and we’re anchored to throne of God in the heavens. If someone would paint a ship on a troubled sea, where the anchor is going up, connected to the throne of God, that’s the picture that God is giving us, so that we would have a hope.
As we get ready to close, let’s go back to verse 20 again, “According to my earnest expectation and hope.” What is earnest expectation? We meditated on hope, but now “earnest expectation”. The root idea is with an expectation, I don’t have it yet. It’s expecting and is going to come. Hebrews 11:1, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, and conviction of things not seen.” I don’t have it yet. We have evidence. God’s word, we have assurance. Conviction is not seeing. When a woman is pregnant, we say, “She’s expecting.” In one sense she already has a baby, but in another sense, she doesn’t have it yet. My grand-daughter-in-law just gave birth yesterday. So, I’m a great-grandfather for, Rachel says, the twenty-third time.
Anyway, the Apostle was giving a testimony. What he was saying is, “I have earnest expectation and hope; I don’t have it, yet, but I have earnest expectation. When the day comes, whether life or death, I will have what I need at that time, whether in life or death, as always, so forever.” That’s what he was saying.
At first, I was thinking, “Oh, Paul, he’s a super saint. Lions don’t scare him; nails don’t frighten the Apostle Paul. You can’t turn him around just because of a threat of fire. He doesn’t worry about stones and swords. That’s not him; he’s not saying, “Go ahead burn me like you did the men in the furnace, or boil me like they say John was boiled, or torture me or crucify me, upside down, whatever.” He’s not saying that. He’s saying, “I have not arrived; I’m pressing on. I’m chicken hearted at the moment; I don’t have what it takes, but I have who it takes, and I have earnest expectation and confidence that by the time I need it, it will be there, and the Lord will show up. I will have patience when it is needed and strength and love and wisdom and faith and courage and loyalty and whatever else is needed.”
Christianity is not me in my weakness trying to be brave; that’s not a Christian. It’s not me in my fear trying not to be afraid. That’s not a Christian. It’s not me in my anxiety trying to not be anxious and just relax and trust the Lord. No, no, it’s not that at all. It’s not me in my emptiness trying to be full, or me in my sadness trying to be happy. No, He’s promised dying grace to dying people. He’s promised aging grace to aging people. He’s promised that he would give suffering grace to suffering people. It’s sufficient grace when it’s needed. You say, “I don’t have it. I don’t know if I’m being faithful.” You have earnest expectation and hope that when you need it, you’ll have that anchor of your soul to run and stand, or to suffer or to flee or to endure or to die, whatever it is. He’s is faithful, and He’s sovereign, and now He’s all-sufficient.
Let me just identify, so you don’t misunderstand. What is our hope? It’s an anchor, but what is the hope. It’s not something we’re hoping will happen. It’s not something we’re wishing for. It’s the absolute confidence and assurance that by the time that thing comes into my life, I will have everything I need to meet that need at that moment. I have earnest expectation.
Many of you know that I love poetry, and often vent my heart to the Lord Jesus through poetry. When I was meditating on this earnest expectation, let me just share this.
Earnest Expectation
I have not the strength or courage
From the storms I still must face.
I have not the least endurance
For the last lap of the race.
But I do not fear the future,
What I have I’ll share with you.
I have earnest expectation
That the Lord will see me through.
I have earnest expectation
I can any trial bear.
I have hope of grace sufficient,
Anytime and anywhere.
As my day the Lord has promised,
So, my strength shall surely be.
I have earnest expectation
That the Lord will be with me.
Not before the sore temptation
Will the way to flee appear.
He will walk upon the water
When the tempest is severe.
Grace is not like earthly treasure
Which a man can keep and store.
God dispenses grace from heaven,
When you need it and not before.
Why should my heart be anxious,
Why torment myself with care?
I have earnest expectation
When I need Him, He’ll be there.
Every saint can share a story,
How by grace they have prevailed.
We all share one testimony—
Jesus Christ has never failed.
Father, thank You so much for Your sufficiency, that we can have this anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast and anchored inside of the veil to the throne of God, held by Your character, and by Your oath, Your promise, Your word. Oh Lord, there couldn’t be a greater security. So, we thank You, Lord, for Your revelation of Yourself in the book of Philippians. Once again, not what I think it means, but will You work in our hearts everything You’ve inspired it to mean, regardless of anything I’ve said? We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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