Persecution From Inside and Outside

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, February 9, 1992.

Sermon transcript

This morning we begin our scripture reading in Philippians 1, backing up a bit, reading once more from verse 12, and we will be reading through the 18th verse. Listen to the word of God. But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the fulness of the gospel, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places. And many of the brethren in the ward, 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. Do one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bounds, 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.”

Then in chapter 3, once more, beginning at verse 1, “‘Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord, for life is saying things to you. To me, indeed, is not grievous, but for you it is said, Beware of the gods, beware of evil workers. Beware of the concision, for we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I might have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more circumcised the eighth day of the staff of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law, a Pharisee concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless, but what things were gained to me?

Those I counted lost for Christ, no doubtless, and I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but done, that I might win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death.” if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

Pray with me now. We plead with you, our God, to build up the Church in far and distant places where your word is proclaimed this day. Do grant grace to ministers of the word, and may they preach with power, may they preach with integrity. Have fear, Lord, in our own land, and close at hand, even in our own community. May the word of God be proclaimed in all of its excellence. Lord, draw us to yourself, that we who are poor and needy may receive that which you have designed for us, in order that you may give to us good things out of your word. We ask, Lord, that we may be filled, and being filled, Lord, satisfied. We ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

In many ways, the key to Paul’s letter to the Philippians is the parallel that we find expressed in it, the parallel between Paul’s circumstances and those of these Philippian believers. This means, then, that the description Paul has given of himself, the description that he has given of his situation, in the so-called missionary report of the first chapter verses 12 through 26, provides the pattern for what he has to say to these Philippians in the remainder of his letter. Paul’s contention is this. What is happening to me is also happening to you. I cannot emphasize too often or too loudly the thirtieth verse of the first chapter, where Paul states that what these Philippians are experiencing is virtually the same conflict which they saw to be in him and now hear to be in him. Paul’s contention then is this. what is happening in me is happening in you. But Paul’s contention runs further than this, for he is also suggesting to these Philippians that the way in which he is responding to what is happening to him is the way they ought to be responding to what is happening to them.

Now, lest we think that this sounds awfully close to vain posturing, lest we think that this sounds awfully close to insufferable arrogance on the part of the Apostle, we need to keep in mind exactly what is transpiring in and through him. To be sure, the apostle does set himself up as something of a standard. He is calling these people to, in effect, be imitators of him. But while this is true, we need to remember at all times the magnificent self-effacing statements which the Apostle makes. For example, the way in which the Apostle speaks in the 18th verse of the first chapter.

There, he seems to be unconcerned or unperturbed about the motivation of certain unscrupulous as long as Christ is preached. And if Christ is preached, he is determined to rejoice. Christ, therefore, is foremost. Christ has a preeminence. The apostle goes further. He states uncategorically his preoccupation with his absorption into Christ himself. Paul gives expression, then, to this underlying foundation—union with Christ. And he expresses it In these words, in the 21st verse of that first chapter, words that I hope are being invariably impressed upon your consciousness. For what you need to live is Christ, and to die is gain. The apostle, therefore, deliberately gives way to Christ. He gives place to Christ. He boasts of and in Christ, and he calls upon these Philippian believers to do the same.

But how does this third chapter into which we have now entered, how does this third chapter of Philippians fit into this overall scheme of things? How does this chapter particularly bring out the parallel that the Apostle is endeavoring to underscore? How does it bring out the parallel between his position and the Philippians’ position?

Let’s take stock one more time of Paul’s description of his own condition. You will notice that Paul is faced with opposition. He speaks about that opposition in those verses that we read this morning. First of all, in verse 13, he tells us that he is imprisoned, and that for the cause of Christ. Here is opposition. Paul is in jail. He is in jail for the sake of Jesus.

But in this, you see, he is experiencing opposition from those who are outside of the Church. Those who are not believers are set against him who is a believer. There is that opposition then, experienced by Paul, described here by him in that first chapter. But there is a second form of opposition that Paul faces. He tells us further that he is victimized by some who are inside the Church, not just those who are outside, not just those who are unbelievers. He is victimized, he is opposed by some who are inside the Church, these who are claiming to be Christians. In fact, some who are preaching Christ. These Paul describes. as those who are driven by envy and strife and possessed of selfish ambition.

So that’s Paul’s situation. But our thesis is that there is a parallel between Paul’s situation and the Philippians’ situation. And so it is, as we review Paul’s speech to the Philippians, we find, we discover, that their predicament is the same. Notice chapter 1 verse 28, where Paul speaks about the opponents to these Philippians.

Here Paul is making mention of those who are outside of the church of Philippi, who are troubling those believers. And in the following verses, Paul deals with the problems this external pressure has produced upon the assembly. And as he runs through the course of dealing with their problems, he periodically will of his own reaction to his own circumstances, and in it all always pointing to Jesus Christ and Christ’s paradigmatic service, which was rendered even to the point of suffering, a suffering that peaks in the cross. But when we reach Philippians 3, the focus shifts away from the enemies who are outside of the Church, causing these pressures and difficulties within the assembly, to that enemy that threatens from within.

Just as Paul then must deal with enemies from within at Rome. These Philippians must deal with potential enemies that will arise from within at Philippi. But who are these potential enemies who rise from within? At the beginning, at the outset of our consideration of these enemies, it is important that we make certain things clear.

It must be said to start with that Paul’s church enemies, that is, his enemies from within the church at Rome, are most likely different in certain ways from those leaning in Philippi. Paul, for instance, could still rejoice in the preaching of these church enemies at Rome. He contends in verse 18 of that first chapter that as wicked as these men might be, they are still preaching Christ, and in that he will rejoice. But it is safe to say that Paul would never rejoice in the preaching of the gods, the evil workers, who are the object of his remarks in Philippians 3. So there is, in certain ways, a difference between those whom Paul faces and those whom these Philippians will face.

But despite that fact, these two groups, the one in Rome and the one potentially in Philippi, have something in common. And here is the tie. The selfish, ambitious preachers of Rome in chapter 1 are more or less the champions of than the dogs at Philippi in chapter 3. In the end, it will be proved that these two distinct have a great deal in common. They have a common bond, they have a common goal, they share a common commitment, and thus they are common enemies to the cause of Christ and his Church. Indicative of them is their commitment to the flesh.

That which Paul says no true Christian can glory in will be the source of their glory indeed. Paul will go further in the nineteenth verse of the third chapter to speak of these people as those who are hopelessly, critically, earthly-minded. And the earthly-mindedness of these people stands over against the heavenly citizenship that Paul speaks of then in the twentieth verse, following upon the views of that nineteenth in the third chapter. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior. If there is anything the Church needs to be set straight on more desperately than this, especially in light of the fact that regardless of who the enemy may be from within, that enemy will always be characterized by a fleshliness, a worldliness, an earthly-mindedness. I’m sure you’ve heard the old adage, the old proverb, that people delight in throwing in the face of those within the Church who would dare mention heaven with any seriousness whatsoever.

It doesn’t matter that these self-same people sing lustfully the hymns in their hymnal, hymns that repeatedly underscore the heavenly orientation of the Church of Jesus Christ. That doesn’t even seem to bother them. The inconsistency of it doesn’t seem to affect them at all. It doesn’t seem to deter them in their freshliness, their worldliness, and their hopeless, earthly-mindedness. So it is that we can always count on them to come up with that old adage and throw it in their face.

You people who take heaven seriously are so heavenly-minded that you are no earthly good. Well, we’ve all heard of heavenly. Well, let me say that the Church has become so earthly-minded that she is no good to heaven whatsoever. Let me go further. If the Church is not heavenly-minded in the biblical sense, she will be of no earthly good in the service of her Savior.

The bottom line will be futility, vanity, emptiness. even for wickedly motivated preachers, of whom it can still be said that they preach Christ. In the end, does it really matter whether we are talking about envious, contentious, ambitious pastors of Rome, or dogs at Philippi? Does it really matter whether we are talking about those weevils, the Pharisees, or the disciples, who in their gross and dark immaturity fight among themselves as to who is greatest in the kingdom, or who might be destined for chief seats? Does it really matter whether we are talking about the domineering, gospel-denying, ecclesiastical hierarchy of the Middle Ages, which had forsaken the city of God for the city of man, or the worldly, moralistic, establishmentarian sophisticates of the Protestant Enlightenment, who had done the very selfsame thing? Does it really matter whether we are talking about current liberalism and its gospel of social betterment and its promise of justice, but especially wealth for all as the sum total of all religion, or the current evangelicalism and its gospel of personal peace, popularity, and prosperity, if you will but come to Jesus?

And what about pray tell? And I’ll try to contain myself here. And what about pray tell? These modern church-growth gangsters, and I am not equivocating here, these modern church-growth gangsters, these goons, and bullies. You know the ones that are determined to sell your Church protection against stagnation and boredom, the greatest sin of our age, I might add. Sell your church protection against stagnation and boredom, and at the same time promise you a full house and a bigger parking lot. If you will just play along. Sounds like something right out of Faust. Or maybe more to the point, something very much like what happened in the wilderness mountains of Judea when Jesus was tempted by Satan.

Here are the ones that will tell you what kind of bulletins to use, what kind of paint, I’m What kind of paint to buy in order to spruce up your buildings so that they will be attractive enough to the unbeliever? What kind of signs to put up? What kind of music to play so that everybody knows that your church is a happy place? What kind of message to preach so that no one is driven away? What kinds of clothes to wear? We’re still talking about dressing for success, believe it or not. In the 90s we were talking about dressing for success. So that you so that your church can make an impression, make a sale, and build your little wonderful corner of the empire within the great big empire.

I ask you, what is the difference between these? Some of whom I tell you with tears. are in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. What is the difference between some of these, between these and a carnival flim-flammer? I think I’ve insulted the carnival flim-flammer. But more to the point, with respect to the passages that we are looking at this morning, what is the difference between these?

And the carnal, fleshly, worldly, envious, contentious, ambitious, earth-bound whores of Rome. What is the difference between them? and the earthbound dogs, evil workers, mutilators at Philippi. They are all panderers of the flesh, who mind the things of man, not the things of God.

May we beware of them all. May God in his grace deliver us from them all. But it is necessary, in conclusion, for me to say something else here at the beginning of our consideration of these enemies that rise from within. Paul’s detractors at Rome are a real and present danger for him. While those mentioned in Philippians 3 are a potential threat, a threat that has not as yet materialized, in Philippi. Paul is certain that they will. They are liable to appear momentarily. Wolves may scavenge the countryside far from the fold, but invariably, inevitably, they smell out the sheep. Paul’s words, therefore, are warnings of the most severe type. He is sounding the most serious of alarms.

With these words and by his ministry, a loving ministry, I might add, Paul stands opposite the so-called sweetness and light crowd, which itself has been such an internal threat to the people of God. all along. The Sweetness and White Crowd, you know who they are? These are the people who deny that wolves exist, and cruise blithely on their way, but especially bitter to anyone who might suggest that wolves actually do exist, and are a threat. The difference between these folk, the sweetness and white crowd, and the wolves, are that the wolves are merely wicked, while the sweetness and white crowd are both wicked and stupid.

May we, by the mercies of Christ, be neither. Let’s pray. Our Father, do protect us May we be well warned by your word and also kept from foolishness by which we would be deceived. May it please you not only to grant great strength to us in your spirit, but greater strength still to all of your people who in sincerity seek you and profess with integrity that they love you. Hear us, Lord, unto the day when we shall be brought into your presence, safe from all those who would oppose us, be they external or internal. Amen.

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