THE VALUE OF A CHRISTIAN LIFE

Andrew Martin

Philippians 1: 12-18; 27-end; 2: 1-11; 3: 8-12; 20-end; 4: 1-9

We live in a very confused world and in every aspect of society there is confusion. We see it everywhere, whether it is in governments or in business or even in the social behaviour of people. There is confusion everywhere. There is confusion too in men’s understanding and conduct in relation to God. When I go to work I am one of a team of five and besides me there are two people who would say they are Roman Catholics, one who is a Muslim and one who is an atheist, and of those four with whom I work there is only one who is passionate about what he believes and that is the atheist! What terrible confusion exists in the world, the world in which man has been placed for the glory of God.

Beloved, as thinking about the occasion this evening, what has been laid on my heart is to speak of the value of a Christian life. I am quite sure that most of us in this room, if not all, would claim to be believers in the Lord Jesus and could therefore claim in some respects to be living a Christian life. I wonder if there is anyone who is not. I wonder if there is anyone who has never had to do with Jesus. Is there anyone in this room who has never had to do with the Lord Jesus? Never faced up to the fact that you are a sinner and that apart from the work of Jesus you have no future at all, no hope? Is there anybody here in this room who has never looked at the Lord Jesus upon the cross, seen the One who suffered there and never claimed Him for themselves? Beloved, do not let another day pass if that is you. Do not let another day pass. See the value of the blood of Jesus; see the great value of His work, all that He has done in settling the whole matter of sin. Beloved, if there is anyone in this room who has never received peace in their soul based on having to do with Jesus, do not let another hour pass by – you cannot afford it. There is no reason why anyone in this world should not have peace with God. The work of Jesus is sufficient for every man, woman, and child on the earth and the blood of Jesus is there as a testimony before God that the work is sufficient and it pleases God, the work of Jesus, and that work is sufficient for everyone.

But then, if you have put your faith in the Lord Jesus and if you are conscious that you have received the gift of the Holy Spirit, you would desire to walk here pleasing to Him. It is not just a matter of profession. It is not just that we are here as Christians. People at certain times, (for instance if you were to go into hospital) would say ‘What is your religion?’ and a lot of people say ‘Christian’ because that is what they are brought up to say. That is not what a Christian life consists of. Today there was a little child who was placed on Christian ground, through baptism – that little child was placed formally on Christian ground. Now that little girl, as far as I am aware, has no work of God in her soul but she was placed on Christian ground. She was in a household, and knowing that household I am quite sure that her parents set themselves that she should be brought up receiving Christian teaching, she should be brought up in the light of the gospel, in the light of what God looks for in man, she should be brought up in the light of these things and shall have every opportunity to commit herself to the Lord Jesus. She will have that from her earliest days, I am convinced of that. But what about actually doing it? What about placing oneself, not just formally on Christian ground, but accepting for oneself that I am a believer on the Lord Jesus and I am going to live here for Him. God puts a great value on that and as I have said I want to speak about the value of a Christian life.

First I would like to speak about the value to God of a Christian life and I think we see in this epistle to the Philippians, Paul writing as a Christian to other Christians. The assembly here in Philippi when Paul wrote was not in the early days of pristine power, with Paul acting in apostolic authority. Paul was in prison. He was unable to act freely in relation to the local assemblies; not as in Corinth where he could lay out what had to be done and say ‘I am coming to you and I am going to put things right’. It was not like that in Philippi. Paul was in prison. He was taken out of action. In a sense it was looking on to another day when the apostle would no longer be here. Here was a local assembly and they were trying to work things out. They were doing very well and things did crop up, as they do everywhere. They were doing very well and Paul writes to them about normal Christian life. He is not in any great way addressing issues and problems that crop up. He mentions one or two things but they are personal. He is not devoting the epistle to that. The epistle is effectively a thank-you letter, a letter of thanks. The Philippians had sent Paul a gift and he was writing back to thank them. That is the context of the letter. What a letter this is! I have never heard a letter like this read out. We know it is difficult to write letters. Paul writes from normal Christian experience. Paul writes as one who has the light of another world in his soul, who has a goal before Him, who has something He is striving after. You might say Paul comes out as a Christian in this epistle. So as he starts off, he does not even call himself an apostle. He is a bondman. He is writing as one Christian to a company of other Christians. Where I have read from verse 12 he is referring to his circumstances because the brethren were feeling, I am sure, very sorry that Paul had been taken out of action. He was there in prison and the brethren felt it – how much they felt it. They loved Paul. We can understand the Philippians’ affection for Paul when we read Acts 16. You see what he went through for them, you see the sufferings he endured, they owed their spiritual existence to one who was prepared to suffer for the Name of Jesus. He says ‘I know you are sorry about my circumstances, but I am rejoicing in them because they have turned out for the furtherance of the glad tidings.’ Now that is something that God values very much. A believer, a Christian, is marked by supporting and promoting the work that God promotes. Divine light has shone out from heaven, has shone out in Jesus, and you might say that was wonderful sovereign light coming out from God. Here we have a man who says, “I am set for the defence of the glad tidings”. I am set for it. It is as though he would say ‘my whole life is geared up for this: I am determined to be here for the defence of the glad tidings, that come what may, for me the important thing is the glad tidings’. How the apostle relates himself to the very heart of God Himself. ‘I am set for the defence of the glad tidings’. Think of what that meant. What value that was to the heart of God that there should be a man on earth who could actually use those words. I do not believe this was any proud claim on the part of Paul – this was true – his very life bore it out. He was set for the defence of the glad tidings. What God finds in a believer is one who is sympathetic with Himself; one who has the same object as Himself and that is that men should come to an appreciation of His beloved Son. Is that not wonderful? No wonder God puts a value on a Christian life. Paul here displays it. He says – ‘I’ve been put in prison, think of how it has worked out. I can see what God is doing here’. He is sympathetic with the way in which God is acting. He says, ‘First of all there are the people in the praetorian’ – that is Caesar’s household. They have heard the gospel. Is that not wonderful? It is because I am a prisoner they have heard the gospel, and moreover because I am a prisoner others are coming out and they are speaking about the gospel. They may not have pure motives, but it does not matter, I am rejoicing because the glad tidings are being announced. I am rejoicing about it’. He says, So long as Christ is being presented’. God places great value on a person who is sympathetic with Him and is set so that others can share in His appreciation of Christ. Wonderful thing God’s valuation of a Christian life that is set for the defence of the glad tidings. And this was regardless of the cost to him. For him, all that mattered was that Christ should be announced.

Later in the passage he speaks about God’s plans for them. He speaks about their salvation, which has come from God. Every believer would understand and know that, that salvation has come from God Himself. It could not have come from any other source, but he also speaks of something else that God has given the believers. “For to you has been given as regards Christ, not only believing on Him but the suffering for Him also.” You see, the Christian takes everything from the hand of God and God values that, God appreciates that. How often we kick against things, how often we resent maybe the restrictions that come upon us. How often we wish that God would act in another way, but here is someone who is living a Christian life. Here is Paul and he is demonstrating a Christian life and he is saying, ‘Whether it is my salvation, whether it is the very fact that I believe or whether it is the sufferings that come from God, I am taking it all from God – it is a gift’. Whatever the circumstances it is a gift from God and I am tracing it all back to God who is the source of all. How God values that, a soul who is able to accept whatever the circumstance may be, to accept that there is One who is above, who has ordered them, and has even given them for our blessing. God values one who lives his life in the light of the acknowledgement that everything he receives whether it be bright or sad, whatever it be, he receives it from God and he accepts it as a gift from God. How wonderful. What faith Paul had, but how great the valuation that God would put upon a life like that, that was led in the simple acceptance of everything from divine hands.

And then he goes on, There is something that is important and that is the way you regard one another because that is precious to God as well. He says, “let nothing be in the spirit of strife or vainglory but in lowliness of mind.” Lowliness of mind. You say, ‘Well I can put on an act’, but it is lowliness of mind. This is inward, this is genuine. “Each esteeming the other as more excellent than themselves”. I heard of a brother who had a family and whenever the family would start talking about somebody this brother would not let them leave the table until they had all said something good about that person. That is a wonderful thing to do, but even that is not lowliness of mind, is it? Lowliness of mind is inward, it is not even trying to think of something that is good, it is inward, it is genuinely regarding everyone else as exceeding me in some feature or other, that I can see something in everyone that is more excellent than in myself, and this is sincere lowliness. Paul goes on to say, This spirit has been seen, this has been demonstrated in perfection, it has been demonstrated in Jesus, the One who of all had no need to esteem everyone highly, One who had no need to take the lowest place. He came in in lowliness of mind. Think of what he says, “let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who subsisting in the form of God did not esteem it an object of rapine to be on an equality with God but emptied himself”. Think of the mind that was seen in Jesus, the One who was seen here as a man. He had become a man emptying Himself, though He was equal to God. Even in the days of His flesh He could still claim that, “I and my Father are one”. He had come into manhood’s form because of that attitude of mind which was demonstrated in manhood, that attitude of mind was seen in the days of his flesh, but He had come into manhood’s form in order that that mind should be displayed. He, subsisting in the form of God (see Phil. 2: 6) – that is how great He is. He came into manhood. He was entitled to take up another condition. That is how great He is. Subsisting in the form of God, – He could claim equality with God. He was taking nothing from God to be on an equality with God because of Who He is. Satan alas put himself in the place of God and thus robbed God of all that He had looked for in man but Jesus in manhood could claim equality with God and that took nothing from God. Think of the greatness of the One who was there. He emptied himself, taking a bondman’s form. That is the lowest place, one that would take the place after everybody else in the household. You think of Him in John 13 going to the disciples one after the other and washing their feet. That was the work of a bondman to wash their feet – the feet of the disciples – and He says, “Do you know what I have done to you?” He says, “Ye call me the Teacher and the Lord, and ye say well, for I am so. If I therefore, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet”, John 13: 13-14. He could set an example. He had shown them lowliness of mind. He would say, If I could do this to you, then surely you are able each to esteem the other as more excellent than yourselves. He took a bondman’s form, taking His place in the likeness of man. There He was, beloved, indistinguishable naturally from other men. You think of Jesus. He had to be marked out. It always affects me to think of that. You read it in the gospels. Who needed him to be marked out? You know that suggestion did not come from the priests. It did not come from those who came to take Him. The suggestion came from one of His own. One who had kept company with Him for three and a half years and had seen the works of power that He had done and seen the demonstration of grace ceaselessly throughout all that time. He had seen the compassion that He had for man and His power demonstrated in all that He had done, that one who had witnessed so much said ‘You will need some means of distinguishing Him from others’. What terrible darkness that such a one who had seen so much would say that. But the Lord Jesus in grace took His place “in figure as a man, humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death.” That is the extent of the obedience. It was not obedience to death. He was obedient to His Father, and the obedience to His Father led Him to death. That is why He came – He came to die. “And that the death of the cross”, the most awful form of death that man had devised. His lowliness was even as far as that “and that the death of the cross”. Nobody has ever suffered in any way that exceeds what Jesus has endured. See the place that He has been given. The Lord Jesus said Himself “He that humbles himself shall be exalted”. “Wherefore also God highly exalted Him and granted him a name, that which is above every name.“ There is God’s pleasure in the life of lowliness of mind, a life of subjection, a life of self-denial and of humility under the hand of God. There we see God’s pleasure, “God has highly exalted him, and granted him a name, that which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.” Wonderful thing to think of that glorious Name ringing out throughout eternity and every knee will bow and every tongue will proclaim that it is right that He should be given the highest place. As the hymn writer says:

No place too high for Him is found,

No place too high in heaven. (Hymn 451)

Because He went to such depths, He demonstrated such lowliness, He has established His claim to the highest place in heaven and Paul says, ‘This is the mind that God values, this is the life that God values’. Is it going to be found in you? Well, we find examples in the scriptures and I suppose as Paul was writing this he would send this letter by the hand of a beloved brother, Epaphroditus. There was a brother esteeming the brethren more excellent than himself. This brother had been very ill and what concerned him about his sickness was that the brethren might be concerned about him. What lowliness of mind. One might say Epaphroditus, how are you today, are you feeling any better? And he would just be interested – Are the brethren at rest about my condition or are they still distressed? That was what concerned him. You think of the lowliness of mind that was seen in Jesus being seen in others and that, beloved, is a feature of a Christian life, a thing that God values and looks for in you and in me. What a testing thing that is to say, but God is looking for it because He will have the life of Jesus before Him eternally and no other life will do.

In chapter 3, I would like to speak about the value of the Christian life to the Christian. You might say, What do you mean by that? What I mean is that the Christian life gives you much more than any other form of life could give you. I remember a time many years ago I was speaking to a man. He wanted to know why my manner of life was as it was. I would have to say that I was not a very good example of a Christian, but he wanted to know anyway why I did not have certain things. I tried to explain and he said; But what is in it for you? Paul here has no hesitation about the value of the Christian life to the Christian. He has no hesitation about that. The first thing here is that he has certain goals before him. He is not aimless; he is not going through this world being fed with the diet of corruption and pollution that is in this world as men are. Men have lost the idea of a standard. There is a generation that is growing up now and has grown up which has been fed a diet with no concept of a standard to aim at. It is a diet of everything which exists around us, all the worst forms of pollution and violence. That is the diet that a whole generation is being fed on with no concept of a standard, nothing to aim for. Paul had something to aim for. God would have a goal for men. Paul says, naturally I have many advantages. These were not bad things, these were good things, nothing that would condemn him, but he says, I count it all loss, I have seen something better, I have seen the light of a man in the glory, I have seen something which outshines everything which I had before. It is all become of no account, it has all become meaningless to me because I have the light of something before me and that is what I am aiming for, that is my goal and that is what I am pursuing and I am not going to be diverted from that. Beloved, let us pursue. He says, “I count also all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.” That Man in the glory shone out in all His grace on the Damascus road. Paul could claim Him as His own. My Lord, “the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.” This is the one to whom every knee will bow, every tongue shall confess that He is Lord. But Paul says, He is my Lord, on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Him nothing else matters. Everything pales into insignificance. The things that I regarded as good and that appealed to me, I count them as filth. Why would he count them to be filth? Because they might become a hindrance, they might divert his eye from the One who was before him. They might turn His eye away from Christ. You see, he could say, “I was a Pharisee,” something he could be proud of. He says, “I was zealous”. That was something else he could be proud of. While he is saying those things he is not looking at the goal. He is not looking at Christ. ‘I count them as filth; I don’t want anything to do with them’. He says, “Surely I count also all things to be loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all, and count them to be filth”. He says ‘I am better off without them, that I may gain Christ’. What do you mean Paul, that you may gain Christ? I think it means fully to gain Him. When the Lord Jesus takes us, or if He delays and we should die, we shall be with Him and we will have nothing before us but Himself. He will be our all. There will be nothing that can hinder us. There will be nothing to come between Him and us. We will gain Him fully. And Paul here is on the pilgrim journey and here in his Christian life He says he has a goal “that I may gain Christ”. He says ‘I am looking away from everything else. It is that I may be found in Him not having my righteousness. I am not going to try to work out something myself to make myself acceptable’. He says there is another righteousness, “the righteousness which is of God through faith”, that through faith we have been brought into a righteousness that we could never attain through effort. If we try through our own effort to please God all we will find is disappointment, disappointment, and disappointment. But it is through faith, and faith is the power of the Christian life, one of the great resources of the Christian life, for without faith it is impossible to please God. And if we are to go through this life it must be a life of faith. Remember those in the Old Testament. Some are marked out for us in Hebrews 11. There were many others who lived a life of faith and I believe that living a life of faith meant they constantly had God before them. They were living in the light of the way that God had been made known to them and they were seeking to answer to the way in which God had come out in grace. God had shone in their hearts. The work in their hearts was His own work, it was the work of faith but they had received His word and answered to it. And that is the beginning of Christian life and it brings us into a righteousness that is far beyond anything that man could work up to. It says the righteousness of God, because it is the righteousness that causes us to be acceptable to God. Not a righteousness that causes us to be satisfied with ourselves, but a righteousness that causes us to be acceptable to God. Is that not blessed? Is that not what the sinner needs? That is what troubles the sinner. That is what troubled me, that I was going to face God and how could I stand before Him? But there is a righteousness that is not just acceptable for me, not just for my conscience but acceptable to God, and “through faith” says Paul “I have that righteousness”. And he says ’The goal I am pursuing is the goal where there is nothing to becloud that’. I will be before Him not in my righteousness but in Him, “that which is by faith, the righteousness which is of God through faith, to know him, and the power of his resurrection”. What a mighty power that was, the power of His resurrection. In a way the eleven disciples had an advantage here. They had seen Him in flesh and blood conditions, and then they saw Him out of death. They could see it was the same Jesus; the One who had gone into death was the same Jesus who had come out of death. The Lord Jesus assures them as to that – read the end of Luke. He goes to great lengths to assure them that it was the same Jesus they knew in flesh and blood conditions. Paul says he wants to know something of the power of His resurrection, that mighty power with which God wrought, the surpassing greatness of this power, which He wrought in the Christ. Somebody said that the surpassing greatness of His power has been exercised only once and that was in raising Jesus from among the dead. Paul says “to know Him and to know that power”. He tells us elsewhere that the power is working in us. How is it working in us? It is working in us by the Holy Spirit, the other great resource for the Christian life. Not only do we have faith but we also have the Holy Spirit. A Divine Person Himself, taking up His abode in the hearts of believers, guiding them, leading them, giving them power, giving them resource, giving them refreshment. O beloved, what a resource we have in the Holy Spirit. What is in it for us? The light of a man in the glory, the light of a righteousness which is eclipsing everything else, the light of the power which works in resurrection, working in us through the Holy Spirit. How greatly we have been blessed and not only that but there is a pressing on to the glory. Paul says, “I pursue”. He says “not that I have already obtained the prize.” He says ‘I am not completely like Jesus yet’. We will be like Him. Because of our condition we are not completely like Him but He says I am pursuing, I have one goal before me and that is what I am pursuing. Beloved, let us keep that goal before us. Let us not find other attractions. I remember my father telling me about a man who needed a driver (I think it was in the days of horses and carriages). He said that he wanted a very good driver and there were two men who had excellent references and lots of experience. He did not know how he was going to distinguish between them. So he asked them both a question, separately. If we were going along a mountain road and there was a precipice on one side and the mountain rose up on the other, how close could you drive to that precipice? The first man said ‘I could drive within inches and you would be perfectly safe’; the other man said ‘ I would keep as far away from that edge as I could’. Well, you know who got the job! Do not run your life on the edge. Do not take risks, have that goal before you. Paul says ‘I am pursuing, I am not taking risks with my life’. When pursuing you do not run your life on the edge. It will bring in sorrow, it will bring in disappointment. I know what I am talking about. Keep your eye on that goal. Paul said ‘I have one thing before me. I am not concerned with running along on the edge, looking out to see what else there is’. He says ‘I have one thing before me’. He says, “I pursue, forgetting the things behind and looking towards the goal, for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus.“ What a goal he had before him! To be like Jesus, to be called on high, to be caught up to have part in association with Him and being like Him. What a goal he had before him!

At the end of the chapter, he says that is where our life is, “our commonwealth has its existence in the heavens.” He says we do not have a commonwealth here – that is not where our life and associations are, beloved. That is all finished in the death of Jesus. We have a new order of life. A believer here has a life, which has its existence in the heavens. What an advantage that is to the believer. The Christian life assumes great value to the believer as he realises that all his associations of life are in heaven and that he does not have to be preoccupied with all the things that are going on on earth which make people fear, which make people concerned. The believer’s life is centred in heaven “from which also we await the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour who shall transform our body of humiliation into conformity to his body of glory.” Can you think of that – our body of humiliation, His body of glory. Can you think of two greater contrasts, but it will happen, beloved. It will happen in an instant. Transformed, “according to the working of the power which he has even to subdue all things to himself.” Paul says, that is the goal I have before me. What value every Christian should place on the Christian life because he has a goal in heaven and he has his associations of life there.

So Paul says, we have still got to work out things on earth. We are not exactly taken out of our circumstances, although we have such a hope. He says, the brethren are here and I exhort them to be of the same mind. He goes on. “Yea, I ask thee also, true yolk-fellow, assist them.” There is another thing that is of value in a Christian’s life. He has others. He says ‘assist them’. Helpers abound. How would any of us fare if we were left alone, if we had to work things out in this scene on our own, without any links or communications with anyone else? He says ‘assist them’, be one of the helpers. If somebody has a difficulty, if somebody has a problem, help them. Is that not simple? Well, beloved, what a system of help there is that exists today. Helpers one of another. He speaks of another “she has been a helper of many and of myself also”. Beloved, I look round this room today, and I can identify brethren who have said things and done things and they may not be aware that they have been a helper to me. But let that be our attitude, that we should be helpers of one another. Then he goes on with this wonderful section, we often speak about. “Rejoice,” he says, “rejoice in the Lord always: again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known of all men. The Lord is near.” The Lord is near. Do you always remember that? The Lord is near. What a cause for rejoicing. The One who loved us so much He died for us is near. It says, “Let your gentleness be known.” Let the features of Jesus come out. Let them be manifested. He says, “the Lord is near.” The One whose moral qualities are to shine out in the believer is the One who is near us. Be careful about nothing – that is to say do not be preoccupied with anxiety about things. They are all in the Lord’s hands. We know that He can take care of us. We know that He can order things for our blessing. It says “but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God”. Prayer and supplication – that is what we do with problems and difficulties. There is Someone on whom we can cast them. We can put them on Him. Scripture says, “Having cast all your care upon Him.” What a wonderful expression that is, casting all your care on Him – as if to say I am going to have nothing more to do with that. I am going to cast it on Jesus. He says “by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” We can give thanks because we know that God to whom we are committing them. We know the God to whom we are committing our lives and He says, “the peace of God, which surpasses every understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts by Christ Jesus.” Blessed thing to have peace. Blessed thing to know the peace of God. Let us enjoy it! That peace which is not known and cannot be known by anyone who does not go into His presence and cast all his anxieties and cares upon Him but as doing so that peace not only fills your heart but it guards it. You can come out again from His presence and you know you have gained something there. That peace, the peace of a realm which nothing can disturb. You have that peace and it is guarding your heart because the problems, the difficulties and the fears you knew before have all been committed to Him and in their place He has given peace. What a God we have! The peace of God, which surpasses every understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts by Christ Jesus. Then he says “for the rest brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are noble, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are amiable, whatsoever things are of good report; if there by any virtue and if any praise, think on these things.”. You say, where do I find them? You find them all in Christ. They are all in Jesus. True, noble, just, pure, beloved you find it all in Him. Think on these things. Make time to do it. In this world where everything is so hectic, make time to do it. Maybe you have to use time when you are on the underground, or on a train or driving (with care), make time to think about the things which concern Jesus, the things which are pure and noble and true and holy. Think on these things. He says, “what you have both heard and learned and seen in me, these things do and the God of peace shall be with you”. So you have the peace of God guarding your hearts, and you have that God, the God of peace being with you. What is the value of the Christian’s life to the Christian? How much does he have?

I have only touched a few things, but have we some impression of the value of the Christian life? Think of its value to God as He looks down and sees believers in the Lord Jesus pursuing their lives here, pleasing Him, and displaying features of Jesus. Think of the value to a Christian. He has glory before him, he has a goal before him, he has the righteousness of God before him, he has the coming of the Lord Jesus before him, he has surrounding him a whole system of help and helpers, he has One on whom he can lay every burden and care, he has things to occupy him to feed his mind and his heart, things which are pure and holy and which would build up his soul, he has the God of peace himself being with Him. Beloved, there is nothing like the Christian’s life.

May we enjoy it increasingly for the Lord’s Name’s sake.

MALVERN

20 July 2003