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, November 22, 1992.

We are reading this morning from Philippians chapter 1. We begin our reading in chapter 1. Yes, we are backing up, and I’ve decided to preach again for the entirety of Philippians. Now, this is chapter 1, verse 12. We’ll start here this morning. But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places.

But many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife, and some also of goodwill. For one preached Christ of contention, not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds, but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. What then, notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached.

And I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. And then turning over to the third chapter, starting with verse 17.

“‘Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now shall you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction.’ whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, for once also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and my crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.

I beseech the Odia and I beseech Syntyche that they be of the same mind in the Lord, and I entreat thee also, true yoke fellow, help those women which labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellow laborers, whose names are in the book of life.

Father, whether we are young or old, help us with your word. We who are older and mature in our faith, may we be responsive to the word and a help to those who are younger. And we who are younger, Lord, may we give our attention to your word that even at this point in our lives we might learn who you are, what you would have us do, how we might love you and serve you better even all the days of our lives. Our Father, may we have attentive spirits then as you would speak to us from your word granting us grace by your Spirit.

And such prayer as we offer presently, we also ask that it may be echoed throughout the world where your people are gathered, that your word may have free access to your own, and your people may be responsive and obedient. We pray it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

I want you to understand that my messages in Philippians do not all rise from within me and me alone. It’s not as if I am responsible for all of the thoughts on this epistle that I have been giving to you throughout the course of our study in this epistle. Yes, I confess it. I use commentaries. I have been paying attention specifically to two commentaries on Philippians, written recently and, by and large, very, very fine commentaries indeed. They come from the Reformed and evangelical community. and their treatment of this epistle is quite thorough and very helpful.

There is a problem, though. There is a problem. The problem has to do with those that the Apostle identifies within this epistle as enemies or detractors. The problem has to do with those the Apostle identifies in this epistle as enemies or detractors.

Commentators cannot avoid the Apostle’s descriptions. They have to face his treatment of these groups, these individuals. Invariably, their descriptions of these enemies or detractors leaves them so remote from anything with which the Christian Church can identify with today as to virtually place these enemies and detractors in a world far removed from our own and distant from us. How are we to identify, then, with Paul’s extreme, seemingly, comments which he directs against these various individuals and groups?

For instance, looking at the 18th verse of the third chapter, you have Paul describing there those whom he calls the enemies of the cross. Going on into verse 19, he speaks about their end being destruction. He talks about their God being their appetite, their glory being in their shame. He says that they set their minds on earthly things.

Some have described these as being what are known as libertines, those who are given over to license, those who feed their appetites, those who use religion as a screen behind which then they are guilty of the most profane kinds of activities. So you have these enemies described here the enemies of the cross in verse eighteen of chapter three, but then backing up the chapter chapter one backing up the first two of that same chapter, you have those who are described as the dogs. Beware of the dogs, and some have suggested that here Paul has specifically in mind those who have what are called Judaistic or Judaizing tendencies. That is, they are importing Jewish ceremonies into the Christian religion and demanding that the adherence to Christianity be subservient to those Jewish ceremonies. The problem is, as you think about these enemies, have you run into any Libertines recently?

Or has anybody come up to you and said, oh yes, I’m a Judaizer. I want you to know it. In fact, I’m proud of it. That’s the heart of my message, and that’s the message that I am committed to distribute. The commentators that I’ve been using do a fine job in giving us historical background for who these enemy or detractors might be. But as I say, in moving through their description and painting the picture in such extreme measures, these enemies and detractors are removed from our world of consideration.

We don’t identify, therefore, with the Apostle as he describes these enemies, for we know no such enemies. The same thing can be observed in commentaries on the Gospels these days. There are those enemies of Christ, there are those detractors that he confronted. But again, these are described in such a remote fashion, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, as to remove them from our field of vision, from our consideration.

Unfortunately, the feeling that we get as we read through these commentaries is not only that There are no longer any enemies, such as are described by Paul in the Gospels, but, as a matter of fact, there are no enemies, period. There are no enemies whatsoever, and to admit that there are is somehow a mark of deformity within oneself. The suggestion seems to be that the only enemies to the Church of Jesus Christ with which we need to be concerned are those who say that there are enemies.

Now, all of this is a particularly amazing phenomenon and development within evangelical and Reformed circles. It is particularly amazing because you see what the evangelical and Reformed world has been through in this century. We are not that far removed from the struggles in the earlier part of this century, when the battle lines had been drawn between truth and error, between orthodoxy and heterodoxy, between right thinking theologically and that which was blatantly an error and wrong. And yet now we have the descendants of that Reformed and Evangelical world speaking publicly as if there were no enemies at all out there to be considered to be addressed. But these commentaries and their conclusions, or their tone, are even more amazing. because of the general commitment within evangelicalism and within the Reformed world to the method of application, a method that they subscribe to, it seems, without fault, without faltering, without exception.

Now, what is the method of application? The method of application is this. The text is here. You are here. See a problem? The assumption that seems to be pervasive now within the Reformed and Evangelical community when it comes to interpreting the Bible is this. The text is over here and it belongs to an ancient world. But you are over here, and you belong in a modern setting. How is this text from an ancient world going to address you in your modern setting?

By the method of application. The means by which you overcome the distance between yourself and the text is by applying the word to you and your circumstance. By accommodating the word to you and your circumstance. By tailoring the word to you and your circumstance. By making the word over so it fits into your circumstance. You get the drift? You get the drift?

The evangelical and reformed community, when it comes to biblical interpretation today, is committed to the method of application which assumes the distance between yourself and the biblical world. You are not living in the same world as the figures that you read about in the Bible itself. You are living in a completely different circumstance, and therefore the Bible must be applied to you and your circumstance. You have to go to work on the Bible.

So you see why this is a particularly amazing phenomenon when Reformed and Evangelical commentators on Scripture fail to make application with respect to these enemies and detractors that were encountered in the first century to our circumstance in the twentieth century.

It’s almost as if there’s a failure of method here, or a refusal to follow through on the method. It’s almost as if you’re dealing with a certain form of hypocrisy. People who are not then willing to be true to their method, possibly because the costliness of their method at that point is too great, they’re going to have to say some things that are going to get them into an awful lot of trouble. Especially with a respectable academic community. Especially with what they consider to be the responsible hierarchy of the Church.

This is a particularly amazing phenomenon because it sets before us a failure A failure within the evangelical and Reformed world to live up to its own principle and method of application. Now, before I go on, it might be helpful to you if I were to set before you an alternative to the method of application. Is there an alternative?

Do we really live in a different world and environment and circumstance than the first century Christians? Is that what the Bible tells us? The Bible tells us, rather, that we are those upon whom the ends of the ages have come. It doesn’t matter where we live, short of Christ’s second coming. We are in precisely the same age, from God’s point of view, as those first believers. The Bible is always relevant and applicable to us in our predicament and situation because we are living in precisely the same age as those who originally received it. And more than that, we are participants in the drama that is there to thrive. Now, this is telegraphed for us in the Old Testament already. I have brought this to your attention before. I do not weary of doing it. I will say it to you again.

How did the Jew look upon the redemptive events which God had accomplished on behalf of Israel? How did the Father speak to his children on the Passover eve, when in fact he was instructing his children with respect to the meaning of that ceremony? He says to them, regardless of how far removed from the event in time he is, this is what the Lord did for me. when he brought me out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, as if you were a participant in the event itself.” Now, how does that translate over into the New Testament? You have the Apostle Paul, Jewish in mind, speaking in the same fashion. He talks about the death and resurrection of Christ, does he not? He speaks as if when Christ died, he died. When Christ was raised, he was raised. that he has become a participant in those events.

There is no gap between then and now. From the biblical point of view, the distance between ourselves and those events is overcome in the saving work of God by the Spirit by which we are made participants in those events themselves. Those events become self-applicatory, and we become then those who are specifically and directly addressed by the text. You are not a spectator to the events of salvation, you are a participant in those events. Neither are you simply reading in your Bible an account of an ancient civilization or an ancient way of life or an ancient view of religion. You have become a participant in those very things. This text is speaking directly to you.

Well, the problem then that is faced, that is to be faced by us, is no less than the problem that was faced to be faced by the Saints in Philippi in the first century. And as there were enemies and detractors, then there are enemies and detractors presently, and I dare say they are the same enemies and detractors. When all is said and done, they are the very same enemies and detractors.

Now, the Bible doesn’t present them in a very flaring fashion. In fact, from the biblical description of them, they wouldn’t recognize themselves at all. You get down here to the 19th verse in the 3rd chapter, do you really believe that any of these people are going to stand up and say, yes, my God is my appetite? I admit it. And I’m proud of it. Yes, in fact, I glory in my shame. shouldn’t we all?

And I don’t know a dog yet who has confessed to the fact that he’s a dog, much less a wolf. Therefore, we do not judge Paul’s descriptions by the estimations which these people then might give of themselves. Nor do we assess Pharisees and Sadducees by the descriptions or estimations that they might give of themselves.

I’m a very fine person. Can’t you hear the Pharisee saying, I’m a very fine, I’m a very moral person, I’m a very religious person? Isn’t it obvious? The apostle’s description of these people runs the string out to the end, as does Christ’s description of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. He runs the string out to its end so that you are able to see these people in light of their conclusion. In light of the consistency that when worked out bears the very fruit of which Christ’s All of these people, I am sure, would be upstanding. They might even wash daily, genteel. I’m sure they all had children above average.

They would not recognize themselves in the descriptions that either Christ or the Apostle gave of them. The measure, therefore, is not their understanding of themselves, their description of themselves. Even with respect to the extremes that are given in Christ’s descriptions or in the descriptions that Paul renders.

There is something, you see. There is something that binds them together. In fact, the binding is of such a character that it takes us from the third chapter back to the first. Even though there are those in Rome where Paul is presently imprisoned, even though there are those there that preach Christ honestly and out of love, there are also those, he tells us, who preach Christ out of envy and strife and are driven by selfishness and by crude ambition. These whom Paul describes, even though they are yet preaching Christ as he confesses in the 18th verse of that first chapter, are moving in the direction of those that are later described in the third chapter, the second verse, and in verse 18. And the thing that binds them together is the category that the Apostle Paul mentions at the end of the 19th verse. These are they that mind earthly things.

There’s the stamp. There’s the identifying mark. It doesn’t matter whether you are a Judaizing dog or you are a Libertine. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a detractor who is driven in your preaching of Christ by envy and strife, or selfishness, or vain ambition.

The bottom line is that what binds you together with all of these other characters, with all these other critters, is your earthly mindedness. You mind earthly things. Your religion is of the earth, it’s unto earthly ends. you set for yourself earthly gains, you are concerned nearly and solely for those things that belong to this creation. What then separates Paul, even separates our Savior, from those who are earthly-minded is a heavenly-minded First of all, their mind is set upon glory and upon God himself in glory. Their mind is set upon that which transcends. Their mind is set upon the end to which they press.

You hear about that end to which the Apostle presses earlier on in that third chapter? He says in verse 13, Brethren, I do not regard myself as having weighed hold of it yet, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. What do you think that upward call of God in Christ Jesus is? What do you think the goal and the prize are that Paul speaks of there?

Nothing short of the resurrection. And it is that, then, that controls the apostle’s mind, enabling him to describe these enemies and distractors in the most extreme form as he sets them over against what the gospel is all about, what Jesus Christ is all about, what the kingdom of our Christ is all about.

But the threat, you see, doesn’t come to the Philippians nor to us simply because we are faced with flesh-and-blood enemies who would come in, those who would derail us or detract us from our goal. There is that within us against which we must also struggle, against which we must wage war. There is an earthly mindedness that takes its toll in us insofar as we are unwilling to give up ourselves to God and His glory and resolute in our determination not to give ourselves up or be of service to anyone else but ourselves. The danger is real to the Philippians. The threat of the onslaught of flesh and blood enemies is real because presently they are caving into an earthly-mindedness within their race. An earthly-mindedness that expresses itself in selfishness, in a refusal to give. the refusal to love, in an insistence upon place and privilege.

And thus the apostle presses on his case for the need to live as Christ, to die as God, which means that he likewise is willing to sacrifice himself in the interests of the heavenly kingdom. He does not hesitate to set himself out as an example to the people to whom he writes there in the seventeenth verse of the third chapter, simply because he is setting before them the glory of that heavenly state to which they are all called. And he presses his case specifically in the matter that has arisen between Yogi and Siddiqui, verse 2 of chapter 4, because they are succumbing to an earthly mindedness in this competitiveness that has arisen between them. So yes, we living in the same situation as the Philippians faced with, yes, real flesh and blood enemies and detractors, but likewise prepared for the reception and welcome of those enemies and detractors, if in fact an earthly mightiness triumphs in us, whereby we are given over to a selfishness and envy that is capitalized upon those who traffic in a religion of the same. My contention with you has been that heaven is a category beneath which can be subsumed the totality of Paul’s understanding of the Christian life. Not only is this something that the Apostle puts before these people for their consideration, He is setting it before them as an imperative that they ignore or deny or refuse to their power.

Our Father, we would not think that we have any strength within ourselves to resist the earthly mindedness of which the Apostle speaks. For surely the blessings of heaven, a life, a citizenship in heaven, these are conferred upon us by grace, but Lord, we would pray that you would persevere by your mercy in this grace which you have given. On the alert, watching out for those intrusions, Lord, that would come upon us and into our souls so as to cloud our vision. Father, direct our attention heavenward. And Lord, from there may we be concerned to live here as a colony of heaven and earth, demonstrating the very blessings, even the duties and responsibilities of that citizenship before those that we see, before those with whom we work and with whom we live. O God, encourage us then to this end, we pray, for the sake of your Son,

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.