This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Philippians” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, May 5, 1991.
About this sermon
Paul’s prayer for the Philippians differs in emphasis from his prayer for the Colossians, and the difference is instructive. ‘Approving things that are excellent’ in 1:10 means far more than vague moral discernment. New Testament Christians pray with that same discernment.
Sermon transcript
Here is the word of God. Israel is an empty vine. He bringeth forth fruit unto himself according to the multitude of his fruit. He hath increased the elders according to the goodness of his land that they have made goodly images. Their heart is divided. Now shall they be found faulty. He shall break down their altars, he shall spoil their images. For now they shall say, we have no king, because we feared not the Lord. What then should a king do to us? They have spoken words, swearing falsely and making a covenant. Thus judgments bring us up as hemlock in the furrows and fields.
The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Beth Adam. For the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof shall rejoice on it for the glory thereof because it is departed from it. It shall be also carried unto Assyria for a present to King Jeroboam. Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own temple. As for Samaria, her king is cut off as the foam upon the water, the high places also of Aden.
And the sin of Israel shall be destroyed. The thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars, and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us until the hills fall on us. O Israel, thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeon. There they stood, the battle in Gibeah against the children of Iniquity did not overtake them.
It is in my desire that I should chasten or chastise them. And the people shall be gathered against them when they shall bind themselves in their two furrows. And Ephraim is a heifer that is taught and loveth to tread out the corn that I pass over upon his bare neck. And I will make Ephraim to ride, Judas shall prowl, and Jacob shall break his claw.
Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord till he comes and reigns righteousness upon you. You have plowed wickedness, you have reaped iniquity, you have eaten the fruit of lies, because of this trust in thy way in the multitude of thy mighty men. Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people, and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled, and shall men be spoiled as shall men spoil Beth Arba in the day of battle. The mother is dashed in pieces upon her children. So shall Bethel do unto you because of your great wickedness.
In the morning. Of Israel. Turning over to the Philippians. One. Nine eleven. And this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment, that she may approve things that are excellent, that she may be sincere and without offense to the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. Let’s pray together.
Our Father, exalt Yourself here with us, that we might be impressed with Your glory and know that You are the true and only God. We pray that we might rejoice in the revelation of Yourself that You are Father and Son, Holy Spirit. We ask that we might marvel at Your Word and be benefited by Your Word. We are praying, our Father, that we might be found obedient to You and that to defend us. We may hear if You speak to us. May peace surround us as a fortress. May we be quieted within, knowing that our God holds all things together for our good. We pray these things through Jesus our Savior. Amen.
Now we have been working on Paul’s petition proper in Philippians chapter 1 and that petition proper is found in verses 9 through 11 which we have just read. We have identified the drift, the center, the substance of this from Paul on behalf of these Philippians in this way. But Paul in praying for these Christians is concerned for their sanctification and their service for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Set back as the cornerstone for the prayer of the apostles.
We have tried to encourage ourselves with respect to prayer in light of this petition. We have asked ourselves, how do we pray? What is our concern? Are we preoccupied with ourselves when we pray? Or, in our prayers, even for others, are we taken up with matters of health and wealth? while the Apostle is taken up with matters of sanctification of service preoccupied with those matters. So as we think of the Apostle’s prayer we want to do so taking into consideration our own prayer matching ours with his taking our cue from him, learning something about prayer for our benefit and our spiritual good.
So here it is. He has set out then the substance or the drift of the Apostle’s petition. His request of God for these Philippian Christians’ progress in sanctification and service for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, the Apostle prays, this is what he prays, that your love may abound more and more in all knowledge and in all discernment.
Now those just aren’t pious words from this man. They are filled with substance. But as we reflect on these sentiments from the apostle, these words which he speaks now as the summary of his prayers, we might find ourselves a bit mystified. We have to do some translating. from interpreting.
What, after all, is this love that he wishes to see abound more and more in these people? What is he talking about? What is he speaking of when he talks about this real knowledge and this discernment that is to accompany the love? What does he have in mind?
We’ve been working our way through the positions in order to open up the statement by the apostle for our benefit. He speaks about these Philippians’ ability to approve those things that are excellent. Verse 10. He talks about their sincerity and their blamelessness. The same verse. until the day of Christ. He speaks to them about being filled with the fruit of righteousness, which comes through Jesus Christ, through the praise and the glory of God. Now, in order to understand the Apostle a little better, it might be well for us to check in on what he has said.
During the same period in his life when he was a prisoner in Rome, and he wrote to the Colossians. You turn over to the official to the Colossians, the first chapter, you will note there that there is a prayer from the apostle, particularly verses nine through fourteen. in which the apostle then gives us the substance of a prayer prayed on behalf of these saints in Colossae that parallels well the prayer that he has offered up on part of the Philippians in his epistle to them. You’ll note the progress of that prayer, and it’s almost a one-to-one correspondence, as if you could place the prayer from the letter to the Philippians, compact as it is on one side, and the expansive version of it, the form that you have of it from Colossians on the other side of a piece of paper, go right down, as if you were making a list and see the parallels that match up cross page. Paul says this to the Colossians, for this reason also since the day we heard of it, not cease to pray for you, and to ask,” this is verse nine, “…ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding.”
So you note that in the Philippian epistles, there is this prayer that there might be increase, that the love of these Philippians may abound more and more. Well, there’s increase here, too. that these people in Colossae may be filled with the knowledge of his will. As that love in Philippians was joined to knowledge and all discernment, so this knowledge that is spoken of in the letter to the Colossians is matched with all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
And there’s a purpose statement. so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please him in all respect. You can match that up with the purpose statement that appears in the Philippian prayer, verse 10, so that you may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of trial. And then in that tenth verse of the first chapter of Colossians, you have a statement speaks about bearing fruit, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. So it is in verse 11 of Philippians 1, having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ.
The Colossian prayer progresses, strengthened with all power, verse 11, according to His glorious might for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience, joyously giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in life. And that statement there, Verse 12 matches well with what Paul has in mind when he says at the end of verse 11 in Philippians 1, to the praise and the glory of God.
So if we are mystified by the language of the apostle in Philippians, something that we can do is to turn to his letter to the Colossians and try to understand better the substance of his prayer in light of what he says there, matching these phrases back and forth.
So even at that, we might remain in a trance. We might still be mystified after we have done all the matching we can do moving from Philippians to Colossians. Not exactly sure that we’re getting at the root of what the Apostle is speaking of. We must keep in mind that the context with which we work is much greater than that which is simply apparent at the surface of things in Philippians and in that prayer specifically. The Apostle Paul is speaking out of a greater context.
And it is that context that is bringing to bear upon him and the formulation of his prayers these particular sentiments, these particular expressions, these particular words. So it won’t be merely a matter of matching Philippians with Colossians, it’s going to be a matter of matching Philippians with the entirety of the history of salvation.
Then you’re going to be able to grasp hold of something of the weight, significance, and meaning of what the Apostle has in mind. You bring the entirety of your knowledge of the Word of God to bear upon this particular text, these three verses. That, you say, may be quite a task. But to give you a few clues, I want you to note what the Apostle says in that 10th verse of Philippians 1, and the purpose clause that he has there at the opening of that verse.
He wants their love to abound more and more in real knowledge and in all discernment, so that they may approve the things that are excellent. It’s a phrase, actually, that appears elsewhere in Paul’s writings. So that you may approve the things that are excellent. Now, you may know where that is, if you have one of those nice, convenient, proper reference systems in your lodging.
If you turn over to Romans, the second chapter, you’ll find the phrase there. It is in the second chapter that the apostle is setting out God’s justice in judging, and he’s speaking about what advantage the Jew may have, or at least what advantage the Jew may think he has, or what prize the Jew takes in his credit category. You start at verse seventeen there, and Romans two, and this is what you hear the apostles say.
But if you bear the name Jew, and rely upon the law, and boast in God, and know his will, and approve the things that are excellent or essential, same phrase, being instructed out of the law, and are confident that you yourselves are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having the law, the embodiment of knowledge, and of the truth? You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one should not steal, do you steal, etc., etc.?
The claims that he uses here, with respect to the Philippians, appears in that Roman context as he applies it to the Jews. Now hold on to that for a minute. Let’s move on in the prayer, one more step. Move on to verse 11 in Philippians 1. Here you have the statement, having been filled with the fruit of righteousness, Again, the Apostle Paul isn’t just grabbing words out of the air, he’s speaking out of the background in which he has been framed. He’s been brought up in Judaism. And if the Jews have been framed to think in terms of their approval of the things that are excellent, the Apostle Paul has been framed in that as well. But here, with respect to this matter of being filled with the fruit of righteousness, the Apostle Paul is actually reaching back into the Old Testament Scripture for a text, and now he is bringing it out of that context and placing it here for the benefit of these Philippian Christians.
What text might it be? Well, your cross-reference may not help you here, but hopefully the morning Scripture lesson did. Hosea chapter 10. We read it this morning. See, I didn’t have a reason for reading it. And I’ll bet you know which verse it is. It’s that verse that stands out so wonderfully, so marvelously, in this chapter. God brings his case to bear upon Israel, upon Ephraim, the northern nation, which is under judgment, and then gives this appeal, brings to bear upon them this command, verse 12 of that tenth chapter, So, with a view to righteousness, reap in accordance with kindness, wake up your fellow brown, for it is time to seek the Lord until he comes to raise righteousness on you. That’s the task. Now, what is the apostle saying in all of this?
He is saying, that in which Israel prided itself, the ability to discern those things which were excellent, and to approve of them, and that which God expected of Israel, these two things are coming to expression now in the Philippian faith and in the Church of Jesus Christ. The pride and the vanity and the boast of Israel which fail, which fall, is now being brought to fruition in the Philippian Christians and in the Church of Jesus Christ. And Paul is praying that whatever Israel wants might, in fact, appear gloriously amongst these things. what God expected of Israel of old.
He expects of her no more. But he expects that of his people, his church. Israel has been judged. The focus of God’s activity now is his church, and she is the apple of his eye. This Jew called prayer. And there’s a certain Jewishness about his prayer. But as there is this prayer, it is a marvelous translation of the things that he prayed for. As much as his view and our history stand in the background of this, are us focusing now upon the Church of Jesus Christ. that in which Israel prided herself, her ability to discern those things excellent and approvable, and that which God expected of Israel. These two things are coming to expression in the Church of Jesus Christ, and that becomes the focus of the prayer of the Apostles.
When you pray as Christians, you do not disregard the Old Testament. For the words and the phrases and the sentiments you find there even now inform your prayer statement. Why is the Psalter still a prayer book? for the people of God in our day? Why is it that you turn to the Sons, to the Sons themselves, when your heart is crying out to God, or you are setting yourself to prayer?
Why, these are people from olden times. These are archaic prayers and songs, that are laid aside. My friends, the Reformed Church has been right all along. You find patterns of prayer and praise in the Psalter, and that’s why we sing so many psalms in this church. And that’s why so many of the prayers in this church have formed after the parody of the psalms. Apostle Paul is not ignorant of the Old Testament Scriptures as he prays. It’s not just the Psalms and the Psalter, is it?
It’s the whole Word of God is abused to direct us in prayer. Not just New Testament, not just our circumstance today, not just what I learned this morning, but the whole Word of God is abused to direct us in prayer. How do you work at your goal? Are you reading through a portion of the Old Testament? Can you not see the applicability of that text from the Old Testament as you pray after you’ve read in your personal devotions?
Here is a man then that seeks out of the reservoir of the entirety of the revelation that God While the Apostle is speaking out of his Jewish background and out of that Old Testament background, he is not praying as one who is part of the old situation and former circumstances.
He is praying as a new man. And if this process of demystification with regard to the Apostles of Prayer is going to be complete, we’re going to have to understand what it means to be a new man, a new creature, to find ourselves in a new world, to find ourselves as participants in a new age. Because while is informed by his Jewishness. He does not pray as a Jew. He prays as a Christian.
So what are these things that are excellent that we approve of? What is this fruit of righteousness with which we are to be filled? It is that which is found, says the Apostle Paul, in Christ Jesus. He says it comes through Christ Jesus. Those things which are excellent, which are approved of by us, are the things that are mediated unto us by Christ out of His glorious kingdom. Those things that are true in His kingdom. Those things that are now made to be true for us because we are in His kingdom. Do you hear what the Apostle says in that Colossians prayer? Do you read it to the end? It’s marvelous stuff. Look at that Colossians 4, chapter 1.
He says, giving thanks to the Father, verse 12, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in life. He’s glorified us. To share in that inheritance. And then he goes on to say, As if to say, it’s not something that you merely must wait for, it’s something that’s already asserting itself in your life presently. For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and He translated us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
You have been placed in a new environment. That is the exaltation of grace. It’s not something that you did. It’s not something that you could work for. It’s not something that you could go to God and say, you owe it to me, God. It’s something that he has done sovereignly and graciously for you. He has made you new and he’s placed you in a new world. And now you pray as one to fade out of that new world and with respect to it.
The things that are excellent are the things that belong to me and God. So some of the language may be old. But listen to how it becomes me. When spoken by those who have been made me. Regenerated. Even your words are an expression of your regeneration. even more prayer on expression of their new birth. You have been born from up above. You are a citizen of heaven and now you pro-life them.
Well, the sanctification and the service that take shape in thinking of the Apostles Prayer in the lives of these saints and in our lives too are expressed in words like love, knowledge, discernment, saying excellency, sincerity, blamelessness, truthfulness, unrighteousness, and all of these terms are a multiplicity of description of eternity and the regions of time which now are expressing themselves in all the strength of God until the day comes. God will give us a heart to bring you forward to bear upon our prayers, but also may there be love to bear upon our souls. That state of regenerative, our regeneration, our rebirth in Christ, whereby we have been glorified to share in the impermanence of the saints in life. So is it not true, then, that we have been translated out of the domain of darkness and into the kingdom of your beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, where forgiveness is gained? We glorify you in Christ, knowing that our prayer, as all our lives, are unto the praise and glory of our God. Amen.
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