Storms Creek Church 11-26-2023

None

Episode Transcript

(00:16):
Good morning, and welcome to StormStreet Missionary Baptist Church this Sunday morning radio
program. This morning, we'll bejoining Pastor Kenny Hurts because we once again
open the scriptures and study God's way. Okay, today we're going to be
in the Book of Philippians. Iwant to begin by reading verses seventeen and

(00:42):
eighteen of chapter two. So it'sPhilippians, Chapter two, Verse seventeen and
eighteen. Yay. And if Ibe offered upon the sacrifice and service of
your faith, I enjoy and rejoicewith you all for the same call,
Also, do you joy and rejoicewith me. Now we've been looking at

(01:07):
the doctrine of sanctification. We've donethat over the last several weeks. I
said a couple of weeks ago,when we were dealing with verses fourteen through
sixteen, that that was going tobe the final message on sanctification. Well,
after looking at the rest of thechapter, verses seventeen through thirty,

(01:27):
I don't think that's going to bethe case, because I do believe that
we can tie these verses in withthe previous verses that deal with sanctification.
That is kind of a way ofa quick review. In verses twelve and
thirteen, we look at the inspirationbehind sanctification. Now we're told there that

(01:51):
sanctification is both of men and God. Both of us have a part in
sanctification. We are to work outour salvation, but God is the one
who works in us. Well,we see there that God is the main
worker, so that's why he's theinspiration behind sanctification. And then we looked

(02:15):
at John chapter seventeen, verse seventeen, where we have our Lord's great high
priestly prayer, and there we talkedabout the instrument of sanctification. There,
Jesus praise to his Father that hewould sanctify them through thy truth. Thy
word is truth. So the instrumentof sanctification is the truth. It's the

(02:38):
word of God. That's why wepreach the word of God. That's why
we spend much of our time dealingwith the word of God. That's how
we are sanctified. And then backin Philippins chapter two, when we looked
at verses fourteen through sixteen, lasttime we talked about the importance of sanctification.

(03:00):
We focused on three reasons why it'simportant for us to be sanctified.
One, it pleases God. Andthat's a good reason, isn't it.
Number two, it proves that weare the children of God. And number
three, it provides us an opportunityto proclaim Christ. Well, then we

(03:23):
get in now to the next part, and that's verses seventeen through thirty.
And what we're going to do hereis going to look at the way that
we identify those who are sanctified.So if you want to look at all
of them together, we have inspiration, we have the instrument, we have
the importance, and now we havethe identification of those who are sanctified.

(03:46):
What we're going to do is goingto look at just some of the marks
that identify to us someone who issanctified. Now, before we go any
further, I think it would begood just once again to remind you just
what sanctifications is. Sanctification really hastwo meanings. One is it means to
set apart. It means to setapart for God. When we are justified,

(04:09):
when we put our faith and trustin Jesus Christ, when we're saved
at that very moment, not onlyare we justified, but God begins a
work of sanctification in us. Hesets us apart. For his own use,
but also in that setting apart,we're also set apart from sin.

(04:30):
We are to be pure, we'reto be godly, we're to be holy.
In other words, we are tobe more and more made into the
image of Christ. So when weare being sanctified, we are being made
in Christ's image. Now, earlierwe looked at the beginning of chapter two,
and really it was the end ofchapter one two where we talked about
the importance of unity unity in thechurch. See, Paul was writing this

(04:57):
letter, and one of the reasonsis is because there with some strife they're
in the church. Two ladies weredivided and it was causing the division in
the church. Well, to helpto be unified, what Paul does is
he uses our Lord Jesus Christ asan example a model of how we are

(05:18):
and how we can be unified.You notice that in verse five he says,
let this mind be in you,which was also in Christ Jesus.
What was the mind that was inChrist Jesus. Well, Jesus didn't think
about himself. Jesus didn't put hisneeds above other people's needs. No,

(05:42):
Jesus put others above himself. Hehumbled himself and so he's the supreme example
of what one looks like, whohas been well, who has been set
apart for God. But you know, someone might look at our Lord and
say, well, that's true.He is a model. He is the

(06:04):
supreme example of what it means tobe set apart for God. But you
know, Jesus is the son ofGod. Jesus is divine. Jesus always
did everything that his father commands.Jesus was perfect. I'm just a mere
man, I'm just a human being. I can't follow jesus example. It's

(06:30):
impossible, you know what. That'strue. It is true in ourselves we
cannot do that. So when welook at Jesus as an example, some
of us say, I just Ican't relate to that, because he's too
far above us. Well, whenyou look at verses seventeen through thirty,

(06:51):
as the spirit of God inspires Paul, it's almost as if, okay,
if you think the example of Jesusis too hard, then let me give
you some examples that you can relateto. And so what he does he
gives three examples of those who aresanctified, those that we can better relate

(07:12):
to. You notice that it's himselfuses himself as an example, and then
Timothy and Epaphrodite. So these arethree examples of men who were sanctified.
So Paul starts with himself, whichis interesting because we might ask, Paul,
why did you start with yourself?How can you have such confidence in

(07:36):
yourself? I mean, Paul's beenwriting about humility. He wrote about having
the same mind that Jesus had amind of humility, stressing the importance of
being humble and not exalting ourselves.And so you've just written that, and
now it looks like you're doing theexact obbosit That looks like you're exalting yourself.

(07:59):
You're using yourself as an example.Paul, aren't you guilty of the
sin of pride? We know thatPaul had a sense of his own weakness.
In one Timothy, chapter one andverse fifteen says, this is a

(08:20):
faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Now listen towhat Paul says next. Of whom I
am chief, Paul says, I'mon the top of the list. I'm
the worst center of all, I'mthe chief of all sinners. In First

(08:41):
Corinthians, chapter fifteen and verse eight, Paul writes, and last of all,
he speaking of Jesus, was seenof me also as of one born
out of due time. For iam the least of the apostles. That

(09:03):
I'm not meet to be called anapostle, because I persecuted the Church of
God. So you see there Paulhas a sense of his own weakness.
He says, I'm the least ofthe apostles. So Paul didn't have an
inflated view of himself. But thenif you go on and read verse ten,
he says, but by the graceof God, I am what I
am, and his grace which wasbestowed upon me was not in vain.

(09:26):
But I labored more abundantly than theyall. Yet not I but the grace
of God which was with me.So Paul realized that, yeah, he
was weak, but he realized theLord was strong. He knew that the
Lord had worked through him. TheLord had accomplished mighty things through Paul,

(09:46):
but Paul was just the instrument.Paul didn't boast about his own strength.
Now, he boasted of the strengththat the Lord gave him. In First
Corinthians, chapter eleven, and verseone, Paul will say, be followers
of me, as I also followChrist. So we can see that when
Paul uses himself as an example herein Philippians chapter two, he's not guilty

(10:11):
of He's not guilty of pride ofthinking to highly of himself. You notice
that even though he does use himselfas an example, he does so only
briefly. Did you notice he reallyonly uses one verse there just to describe
himself, where he uses several versesto describe both Timothy and at Paphroditis.

(10:37):
Also, some would look at Pauland say, Okay, I know you're
telling us that Paul is an exampleof sanctification. He's an example that we
can relate to more than we canour Lord Jesus Christ. But even Paul,
it's kind of hard for us torelate to Paul. Paul is so

(10:58):
much greater than any of us are. Paul was the greatest of all men.
He was an apostle, he wasthe great missionary. He was a
person who was inspired to write abig part of the New Testament. And
so can we really relate to Paul? I think when we think about Paul

(11:20):
or any mere human, that Godhas used. I think we need to
remember what James writes in James Chapterfive and verse seventeen in regard to Elijah
the prophet. Now, Elijah Ibelieve was the greatest of all the Old
Testament prophets, and he too didgreat and mighty things. But it says

(11:41):
there that he was a man oflike passions as we are. So I
think we need to realize as greatas Paul was, he had his flaws,
he had his weaknesses, and hewas just like us. He was
just a mere man. So hecan be an example for us. F.
B. Meyer said, I haveonly one ambition in life, and
that is to be God's aaron boy. I think that would describe the apostle

(12:07):
Paul as well, that he justwanted to serve the Lord. He just
wanted to be the Lord's aaron boy. So, as we then get started
here, see here just simply twomarks that are found in this passage that
identify him as one who is sanctified. Now, again, you can look
into other places in the Bible andyou can see other ways to identify him,

(12:28):
but we're just sticking to the texthere and just looking at these two
verses. And so the first markis as he was truly humble, which
we've already really touched upon that factverse seventeen. Yay, and if I
be offered upon the sacrifice and serviceof your faith, I joy and rejoice
with you all. Now you gotto keep in mind that Paul was a

(12:52):
Jewish man writing from a Jewish standpoint, someone who was raised under Jewish law.
He says there he was offered asa sacrifice, offered upon the sacrifice.
The word offered there this means tobe poured out. This has reference

(13:13):
to the drink offering, which waspart of the Old Testament sacrificial system.
In Levitica's chapter twenty three, wesee a list of sacrifices. In fact,
I think there's five sacrifices that arementioned there in a meal offering,

(13:35):
and so they all had to dowith either sin, the removal of sin,
or someone who was devoted toward beingdedicated to God. Well, you
also, in addition to those fivesacrifices, also have what was called drink
offerings, and they're mentioned in thatsame chapter in verses twelve and in verse

(13:58):
thirty, Team talks about drink offerings, a drink offering. What happened was
after the priest would place an animalon the altar to be sacrificed. That
priest also sometimes would take usually winein a cup, and he would take

(14:22):
that cup and he would pour itout either directly on the sacrifice that was
burning or on the ground in frontof the altar. Both would be really
hot. This was called a libation. And what happened is is that when
that drink, when that liquid waspoured out on that altar, well,

(14:43):
it would quickly turn to steam andwould quickly rise. And that rising would
be that which would go into thenostrils of God and it would be a
sweet smell. It would be somethingthat would be pleasing, pleasing aroma to
the Lord. So you have asacrifice and then you have a drink offering
that's poured on the sacrifice that wouldascend up into heaven. That would be

(15:09):
pleasing to God. It would besomething that God would take the light in
a sweet smell to him. NowHere in philippings too in regard to the
apostle Paul, there are different waysto interpret exactly what Paul has in mind.
Is Paul saying that he's a sacrificehimself as being the drink offering,
and he's looking at the church atPhilippi as the actual sacrifice, the ones

(15:33):
who are doing the sacrificing. Nowwe know that Paul was a man who
sacrificed greatly in order to serve theLord. The fact, when you listen
to what he writes to Timothy andtwo Timothy chapter four, Versus sixty eight.
Paul knowing that he was just aboutready to depart this life, his
life was about ended, his ministrywas coming to a close. And here's

(15:56):
what he says to Timothy. ForI am now ready to be offered,
and the time of my departure isat hand. I've fought a good fight,
I finished my course. I havekept the faith. Henceforth there is
laid up for me a crown ofrighteousness, which the Lord, the Righteous
Judge, shall give me at thatday, and not to me only,

(16:18):
but to all of them also thatlove his appearing. So we see here
that Paul is in anticipation to hisdeath. He realizes that he's about to
depart, and so he's passing thebaton off to Timothy. Timothy, I'm

(16:42):
I'm being offered as a sacrifice.Now I want you to carry on the
work that I've started. But herein Philippians chapter two, I think it's
different. Paul is not looking athimself as a sacrifice. He is looking
at himself as the drink offering that'sbeing poured out on the sacrifice. So

(17:02):
what you see here is you seethat well, Paul sees the faithfulness of
the Philippians as a greater sacrifice.And so that's why we see Paul as
a man who was humble. That'swhere we see his humility. Paul looks
at the Filippians and says, Ibelieve that you're often a greater sacrifice than

(17:26):
I have. Now, when wehear that, or when we read that,
we might be tempted to say,Paul, you're just being modest,
You're just being You're just being modest. You know, was Paul truly sincere
when he wrote this? Well,I think as he looked at himself and

(17:49):
he looked at the church at Philippi, I think he truly believed that they
had made a greater sacrifice then hehad. He's just a drink offering being
poured out of upon the sacrifice thatthey've made. Look over in Philippians chapter
four and verse fifteen, At theend of the letter, he says,

(18:11):
now you Philippians know also that inthe beginning of the Gospel, when I
departed from Macedonia, no church communicatedwith me as concerning giving and receiving.
But you only for even if,Asalonaika, you sent once and again to
my necessity. Not because I desirea gift, but I desire fruit that
may abound to your account. ButI have all an abound. I am

(18:33):
full having received of Pathhriydites, thethings which were sent from you, an
odor of a sweet smell, asacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God.
What happened is is that the churchat Philippi had given to Paul. They'd

(18:53):
helped to take care of his needs. They gave a generous a gift to
him when others were not doing that. In that Paul talks about it being
a sweet smell, it's a sacrifice. It was well pleasing to God.
So he looks at their giving asand the reason he does is because the

(19:14):
church at Philippi was not a wealthychurch. In fact, they were poor.
They were very poor. When youlook over in Second Corinthians chapter eight,
where we see Jesus writing to someof the churches of Macedonia, and

(19:37):
those two chapters, chapters eight andnine, deal with the subject of giving.
The churches there in Macedonia were givingto help relieve the saints in Jerusalem
who were going through a very difficulttime. So they were taking up an
offering, and Paul was traveling aroundand was collecting money for this offering to

(20:00):
take to the saints at Jerusalem.Well, the churches there in Macedonia,
they were really not in a positionto give. They were poor, they
were dirt poor. They had losttheir jobs, they had been kicked out
of the trade unions because of theirfaith, and so they were people who

(20:22):
really needed somebody to help them.And yet we see them begging Paul.
See Paul was trying to discourage them. Paul knew the situation and knew they
really couldn't afford to give because theywere in such need themselves. But he
said, they just begged Paul toallow them to give, and they did
give, and they gave liberally,and they gave cheerfully. Now, the

(20:45):
reason I'm bringing this up is becausethe churches there in Macedonia that probably the
first church you would think of isthe church at Philipipe and so Philippians.
They were. They were one ofthose that Paul was writing about there in
Second Corinthians. See, they arean example for all of us on how

(21:11):
to give. Now, I know, he said, appreacher, you're getting
off you're getting off course here becauseyou're not talking about the Church at Philippi
as an example. But you're lookingat Paul, And that's true. But
what I'm trying to do is I'mtrying to let you see why Paul had
the attitude that he had about thesacrifice that have been made, why he

(21:33):
looked at the Philippians as making agreat sacrifice, one even greater than himself.
You know, we are to giveto the support of the Lord's work,
or to give to the support ofour churches, the churches that we
are a part of. In additionto that, we are to also give
offerings to help others as they ministerfor the Lord. How much we give

(21:59):
is that's between us and the Lord. But I think we all could probably
give more than what we actually do. And I think the Church at Philippi
would be a church that would bean example of that. They would put
us to shame a lot of timeswhen it comes to our given we say,
we why just can't afford to givea lot of times we ought to
have the attitude that can't afford notto give. In fact, talking about

(22:22):
sanctification, I think that one ofthe marks, one of the ways that
we identify someone who is sanctified,has to do with how they handle money
and their view of money. Thatsays a lot about your spiritual condition,
your willingness to give and help thosewho are need and give to the Lord's

(22:44):
work. Well, let's get backand look at Paul, because we're looking
at Paul's humility and the sacrifice thathe made im Already Han says about humility,
it is something we should constantly prayfor, yet never thank God that
we have. Or it's that gracethat when you think you have it,

(23:06):
you just lost it. You know. Sometimes people I think are guilty of
being proud of their humility, whichthose two don't go together, do they.
So we see that Paul was ahumble man, just like our Lord
Jesus Christ was humble. The Bibletalks a lot about humility and the need
for us to humble ourselves. Infact, if we're saved, we had

(23:29):
to humble ourselves, for the Lordacknowledging our sin, acknowledging how that we
had rebelled against him, that wewere condemned, and there was nothing that
we could do to save ourselves.We humble ourselves. We're beggars, asking
Jesus to provide that which we cannotprovide, to do for us what we
cannot do, and that is toperfectly keep God's law and offer a sacrifice

(23:56):
on the cross that pays our sindebt. Real quickly, let's look at
the other way that we identify someonewho is sanctified, and that was with
Paul. He was joyful. Again, look at verse seventeen. At the
end of the verse, he says, I joy and rejoice with you all
for the same cause. Also,do you joy and rejoice with me.

(24:19):
Notice how many times the word joyor rejoice is used there four times in
these verses, and if you goback to verse sixteen you'll see it used
even a fifth time. There's notvery many words found in verses seventeen and
eighteen, but four times you seethe word joy or rejoice. Paul writes

(24:41):
as one who was filled with joy, he experienced joy. He wanted the
church at Philippi to experience that samejoy. What evidence that the Holy Spirit
is at work in us is thatwe will rejoice, we will be filled

(25:03):
with joy. A fruit of theSpirit in Glatians chapter six is love and
en joy. So if we're goingto be sanctified, if we are going
to be people who are truly sanctified, then one of the marks, one
of the ways we will be identified, is because we are a joyful people.

(25:26):
We are a rejoicing people. Youknow, there's just something about joy
that when we experience something that givesus joy, we want other people to
share in that joy because it kindof increases our joy. If you like
to go out and hike, andgo out and look at nature and you

(25:47):
find joy in that, you likesomebody to go with you. You want
somebody to be there to experience thatjoy with you. Well, I think
that's the way it is with Paul. Paul's true joy was in the Lord.
Because keep in mind, Paul's circumstancesare not favorable, Paul's circumstances or

(26:07):
anything, but that Paul's in prison. Paul is going through a very difficult
time, and yet he writes aboutthe importance of joy. You know when
we think about joy and all finishup with this this morning. When I
think about joy, one of theways that we are able to rejoice is

(26:30):
simply by thinking about what God hasin store for us, what God has
done for us, what He's doingfor us now, and what He's going
to do for us in the future. We think about the fact that we
were sinners, we were condemned,we were under God's wrath, we were
without hope, and God called usto salvation. He justified us, He
adopted us all through our faith inthe sacrifice of his son, and he

(26:55):
gives us eternal life. He givesus an eternal home. He has promise
missed us a glorious future. Sowhen we realize, as the people of
God, what God has done forus, how can we not rejoice?
We should be of all people,of people who rejoice, who are filled

(27:15):
with joy. If you've been forgivenof your sins, I pray that you
will rejoice. And if you've notbeen forgiven, you have no reason to
joy to rejoice. So what we'vedone this morning is we've looked at two

(27:38):
ways that Paul was identified as aman who was being sanctified. He was
a man who is humble. Hewas a man. We'd like to thank
you for listening to our program thismorning. We pray that God has used

(28:00):
this message to draw you closer toHim. Storms Creek Missionary Baptist Church would
like to take this opportunity to inviteyou to any of its services. We
have a Sunday School which starts atnine thirty am, Sunday Morning Worship ten
fifteen, and our Sunday Evening servicestarts at six pm. We also have

(28:21):
a Wednesday Night Bible Study which startsat seven thirty pm. Storms Creek Missionary
Baptist Church is also on the internetunder Sermonaudio dot com. You can go
to www. Dot sermon Audio,look for Storms Creek Missionary Baptist Church and
listen to any of our sermons infull length audio at the side. Again,

(28:45):
we'd like to thank you for listeningthis morning, and may God bless
you throughout the week.