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, April 28, 1991.
For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will with all wisdom and spiritual understanding. that she might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.
Strengthened with all might according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering, with joyfulness giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us these to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in Christ, who hath liberated us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son, in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.
For by Him are all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or divisions or principalities or powers. All things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. He is the head of the body, the Church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence. For it pleads the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself.
By Him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated, enemies in Her mind by wicked works, yet now have been reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, present you holy and unblameable and unapprovable in His sight.
If ye continue in the faith, rounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereinof I, Paul, am made a minister, do now rejoice in my sufferings for you. fill up that which is behind the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the Church, for of I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of God, even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his face. to whom God would have made known what is the richest of the glorious, this mystery of all the Gentiles, which is Christing in the hope of the world, whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus, whereunto I also labor, striving according to his working, which worketh in me.” I thank my God upon every remembrance of me, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making a quest with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing. that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Even as it is neat for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my arms and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of my grace.
For God is my record, and how greatly I long after you all in the affections of Jesus Christ.”
I think that it is apparent to you, if you have been here for some of these messages, if not all of them, on Philippians thus far, it is apparent to you that Paul is full of surprises. Paul is full of surprises. There are surprises for us as we look at his prayers. We have noted, for instance, the way in which he gives thanks. The opening of this Philippian letter is a prayer. And you have Paul’s thanksgiving in verses three through eight of that opening chapter. But the surprise for us here in these verses is the manner in which this man gives thanks. Do you know this? Has it settled in upon your conscience yet? Are you carrying it about in your heart? In fact, are you carrying it with you when you are praying?
The very example of this man, this apostle, this emissary of the Lord, as he prays. Well, the surprise in his thanksgiving is that he gives thanks for others, and he starts with others. as if those others have a priority, and thanks for them has a priority.
It is marvelous to watch the discipline at work with him, the apostle, as he prays, and in his prayer gives thanks for others. I’m thankful for you. This could help greatly many a minister, many a servant of the Lord in his approach to the Church. If he too would learn that discipline from the Apostle, opening up his prayers with thanksgiving for others. And not only for ministers of the Word, but for the saints, as they would learn from such examples. You too, starting your prayers with thanksgiving for those who are about you. Even the folks that are here with you in this congregation.
Well, I think that you have noted with me some of the dynamics of this unique, remarkable thanksgiving from Paul. His thanksgiving has the effect of elevating those for whom he gives thanks. He says, in the process of the Thanksgiving, those for whom he is thankful are actually elevated, exalted.
He expresses it in this text in terms of their participation with him in the proclamation of the gospel. Verse five, they are exalted to the level of participating with him in the proclamation of the gospel, as if they were raised to the level of apostleship themselves. So magnanimous is he, so generous is his spirit, And not only so, this participation by them he views as indispensable. It is a necessary participation, a mandated participation, an essential participation on their part.
He wouldn’t be without it. There is also the measure of this thanks as it comes through in this thanksgiving from him for these Philippians. So much is Paul bound to these thanks. He says and carries them about in his heart. They are so intertwined. His thanks for them, then, is no less for them than it is for himself.
How thankful, you imagine, the Apostle Paul would be for the grace that he has received, the grace which he has received in the Gospel. He is thankful to God, surely, for his own salvation and for the grace that has been showered upon him. But he is no less thankful for these Philippian sayings, with the thanks that he is thankful for God, thankful to God for his own salvation, with precisely that same thanks he is thankful for these Philippians.
We are well instructed by this man in proper prayer. But as we say, Paul is full of surprises. There is this unique twist that he instigates that is so very instructive, so powerfully instructive. But then we come to the matter of that for which he prays. Not only is there the question of his thanksgiving and those for whom he is thankful, there is also the issue of the prayer itself, the petition that he makes, verses 9 through 11. We pointed this out previously. Do you see what’s of concern to you?
He prays for the Philippians that their love may abound more and more, that their love may abound more and more. The focus of his petition, therefore, is the sanctification and service of these Philippians for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. That’s the focus. And this is what he’s praying for with regard to these people. Not only Not only is he then in his prayers focusing upon others, not himself, but in his prayer for others, he’s focusing specifically on those things that pertain to the spiritual well-being of the saints. I believe that our habit of mind, and I know this is true of myself, is to be primarily concerned with the health and general well-being of those for whom I pray. Now, surely those issues are important, and they cannot be laid aside.
But the matter of primary concern when the apostle prays is the sanctification and service of the saints, as they live for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. If there is anyone that stands over against the contemporary health and wealth gospel, it is this. The Apostles’ prayers. For most laity, he is praying for their sanctification and service, not their health or their wealth.
As important as those matters may be. The Apostle is full of surprises, and even his prayers of surprises come through. Now, as we look further at the content of this prayer, we are surprised again. And this, I pray, says that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge, real knowledge, and all discernment. We are surprised here because the Apostle joins love to knowledge and discernment. Apostle Paul, therefore, is not merely praying that love may abound, but love is now joined to these other factors, and it is appropriate to see this love expressed then in terms of these factors as they come to expression in the lives of the people. The reason we may be surprised by the apostles’ formulation at this point is because we tend to put love to one side and knowledge and discernment on the other.
We almost treat them as if they are mutually exclusive. You can’t have both at the same time. You can’t be exercising love and exercising your intelligence simultaneously. In fact, you have to shelve your mind, you have to leave your brain at the door when you enter the house of prayer.
We’ve talked about what happened in the Church with respect to fellowship in the fifties. We know what happened. Fellowship was ushered out the door of the sanctuary into the special building that was built for house fellowship. We had fellowship halls. The same thing was done with regard to edification, or education, or matters of the mind. Intelligence left the church and was sequestered by the Sunday school, when? And if there was going to be anything intelligent that took place in the church, it was going to take place in the Sunday school hour.
It would not happen in worship. Don’t ask me to exercise my mind or my brain in worship. That’s work. And I don’t come to worship to work or to expend any energy. I don’t come to church to worship to work up a mental sweat. I come to church to relax, to lay back, to have it done smoothly. Love’s on one side, brain on the other.
Neutrally exclusive, they cannot be brought together. And how well this plays into the spirit of our age. We are living in an age of manifest ignorance. And the spirit of our age is being encouraged by the Church, for the Church itself has been overtaken by a cloud of anti-intellectualism. How serious is it?
Let me tell you. There is not one world-class theologian in the Christian Church today, anyways. Now, it may not be your habit to sit down and meet world-class theologians. That’s fine. But it is a tragic and desperate day for the Church when there are no world-class theologians for the people of God. There are no hajis. There are no burfis. There are no mages. There are no vampires. There are no bosses. There are no prophets, there are no lawyers. They are all gone, and there are none seeming to take their place. Some have now suggested, in their approach to the faith, Christianity equals ignorance, and they’re happy with that. We believe in ignorant bliss.
Well, that pertains to the knowledge aspect, as it’s related to love. Paul is asking God that these folks may abound in love more and more, but that this love may be informed by knowledge. At the same time, he adds discernment, all discernment, or, in the King James, judgment. And here we go.
Just as it is true that in the minds, functionally, of a number of Christians that are pious, Christianity equals ignorance, Christianity also equals gullibility. It is a virtue to be gullible. Our love that abounds more and more is to be characterized by discernment, the ability to make proper and good judgments, to know the truth from falsehood, to recognize a whole human being, to not be deceived by sheep’s clothing, To not be taken in by words that sound good, by rhetoric. To not play fast and loose with wickedness. Isn’t this how it goes for the modern church in our time?
On the one side is set love, On the other side is set discernment or judgment, or, if you will—let’s go this far—discipline. You can’t have both. If there is anything that is doing the Church of the twentieth century more than the fact that ignorance has been turned into a virtue, it’s the fact that gullibility has been turned into a virtue, and discipline has been chased right out the door of the congregation. Discipline does not exist. Dissent is evaporating. It’s gone. I plead with you.
Listen to this apostle who will not allow himself to juxtapose love and godly knowledge, nor will he allow godly discernment to be chased out the door of the Church. Rather, he sees the love for which he prays on behalf of his saints, filled full of knowledge and of discernment, the ability to make critical judgments. Don’t be fools. Don’t be fools. He is wise as serpents. The pharmacist does, but don’t be fools. Well, I think that you realize that there are those times, in Paul and elsewhere, where he goes to town and goes to people who are insulted, toughed up in their knowledge.
And in her case, knowledge is no virtue. I think you’re well aware of how he ridicules those who boast in their knowledge in 1 Corinthians. In fact, you could read the entirety of the letter of Paul, the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians, and see it as entirety from the Apostle against vain, empty, conceited knowledge. Those who are priding themselves in knowledge, and we can also find those texts in Paul and elsewhere in Scripture that invade against the hypercritical spirit, being judgmental just for the sake of proving yourself right and exercising your power. Nothing is more antithetical to the spirit of New Testament than that.
I know that you’re fully aware of that. Here we have knowledge and judgment, critical judgment, matched with love, hand in glove, going together, in fact, inseparable in the apostle’s mind. There’s over a step now in this whole analysis that we have to take if we’re going to get a hold well of what the Apostle is saying for us. I think you realize full well the Apostle doesn’t have common, ordinary knowledge in mind here.
He’s not just interested in cognitive ability, and he’s not merely interested in you being shrewd in your dealings within the Church. That isn’t what he has in mind when he’s talking about moral discernment. Is that religious and that ethical direction to the knowledge and the discernment that he has in view? This is what he prays for on behalf of these Bolivians.
But just settling down into the ethical and mere religious connotations of the words that the Apostle Paul uses here will not settle the case for us, nor bring us full circle, bring us into the heart of what the Apostle was giving us. The real knowledge and the discernment that the Apostle has in view here is grounded well in his commitment to the God who has acted mightily in and through my Jesus Christ. The knowledge that he has in mind has in view that knowledge that comes to us specifically through the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. And this discernment that he has in view comes to us through the revelation that God has made of himself in and through Jesus Christ the Son. Thus, if knowledge and discernment are to grow in keeping with love within us, they must grow in our appreciation of God’s actions in His Son for us. that at this point Paul has merely an ethical vision in mind, that he is relying upon his Old Testament background, and the exposition of these words would be exhausted by some sort of detailed analysis of the law that had been given to Israel.
But that’s not the case. In fact, That’s why Paul’s prayer here is expressed in such a compressed manner. He’s not interested in doing case studies with regard to special instances in the lives of particular Philippians. He’s not interested in sitting down and telling you rules, giving to you rules of thumb for your behavior. How are you supposed to do this or that, or in this situation or that situation, discern the will of God? No, that’s not it at all.
The knowledge and the discernment that comes to expression here, in keeping with this love for which he prays, is that which is consistent with what God has done in Christ, in manifesting Him to His people. It is the broader issue that is the greater concern. And at the heart of it, you see, is what Paul then goes on to express and expound in the Philippian Epistle, that you might have, if you knew, that Mark, which was also Christ Jesus, that you, regardless of the exalted state which has been conferred upon you in Christ, might, in imitation of your Lord, humble yourself for the sake of others, and give yourself a servant. The love that abounds more and more in knowledge and in all discernment is virtually Christ himself coming to expression in you. You being appreciative now of those depths and ridges of grace manifest in and through Christ on your behalf.
That we would pray like this. That we would give ourselves discipline by a short three verse prayer, a petition. Pray for these things with regard to others. You know, I think that’s happening here. I enjoy Wednesday night prayer meetings. Now, I know there are a lot of health and well-meaning prayers that are prayed on Wednesday night, and sometimes I pray myself. At the same time, there is an incredible magnanimity expressed within that small group as it comes together to pray. Great concern for us. And truly, at the heart of it, There is that desire all around that Christ would be more perfectly formed in each one of us. To the praise and the glory of God.
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.