What Will I Do?

God’s Sovereignty and Man’s Will

Rob brought up a good question a week ago in class.  The question revolves around the will of God and how I exercise my will.  If God knows what He will do then why should I pray?  In other words, if God is sovereign then how can I be free?  Particularly in the light of my statement that you can pray and see things happen that would not otherwise occur.  As we discussed the actions and reactions of Jonah and God we found a good example of the interaction of man’s will and God’s will.

I’m sure that I’ll raise more questions here than I answer but some material that I’ve been listening to over the last week addressed some of these issues so I thought it might be good to get the material into the blog for the class.  

In what I consider to be an odd argument … the philosopher Sartre argued that there must not be a God because man, in order to be man, must have an autonomous will.  Sartre begins with the existence of man.  He says that if God is sovereign then man can’t be autonomous.  He says that for man to be man that his volition or will must be unencumbered and free from all influences.  I think that Sartre had an exalted view of his own will and the gaping flaw in the argument is in the definition of an autonomous will.  Sartre was an existentialist and felt that the exercise of his will was what validated him as a human.  The will for an existentialist becomes something of a demigod because it lets a human know that he is alive and can change the world around him.  But if I have an autonomous will then I am free to do whatever I please.   The word autonomous means that I live by my laws alone.  Sartre would say that if there are laws outside myself then I must not be independent and therefore I must not have a free will and therefore I am not a man.  Sartre is convinced by the exercise of his will that he is a man so he decides that must mean there is no God.  

Our wills are simply not autonomous but since Adam we have acted as if they were autonomous.  I was born with a fallen will but I’ve been born again and God is working within me.  However, every time I sin I’m saying, “My will trumps the will of God.”  Our wills are constrained in so many ways that it is strange that someone as smart as Sartre would argue that to constrain his will would make him less than a man.  The fallen nature produces a desire to reject a sovereign God in our lives.  This urge is so strong that even a smart man may grasp at straws.  If we stop and think about our lives for a minute we will realize that our wills are constrained by all sorts of things.  I can’t simply exercise my will to fly or walk through walls.  Physics and biology constrain me at every moment of every day.  In truth, God is sovereign and grants a degree of freedom to me.  I can’t have absolute freedom because God is still on the throne.  Sartre says that unless we are autonomous then we are not truly free.  He says true freedom requires autonomy and therefore God must not exist.  The argument he makes is false and is the argument of a desperate man who tried hard to eradicate God from his conscience.

My parents had two children with free wills but they placed limits on my will and on my brother’s will.  I had a chemistry set and I was allowed to do almost anything I wanted with the chemicals I bought at the hobby store.  Once, my brother and I wanted to buy some potassium nitrate while my father was on an assignment in Germany.  My mother was talking to him on the phone and asked him why his two children would want to buy that chemical.  He simply asked for her to put us on the phone and explained that if we tried to make gun powder he was going to come home and after his wrath fell on us our rear ends would glow in the dark and we would not be able to sit down for a longtime.  We only wanted to make a little gun powder.  He constrained my will.  He constrained my brother’s will.  And yet the truth was that we had free wills.  We considered his admonition and discontinued our efforts to acquire the last thing we needed to make gun powder.  My father was well within his rights to tell his sons what they could do and couldn’t do.  Even the Atlantic Ocean was not a great enough separation for me to violate the law he gave that day because I knew that some day I would be standing in front of him.  I had freedom to use my chemistry set almost anyway I could conceive of but my dad was still in charge and set limits and penalties for violating his rules.

I wish I could tell you that I never disobeyed my dad.  I disobeyed plenty of times.  However, I’ll freely admit that when I disobeyed it was because I set my will above his will.  When my father exercised authority over me it didn’t make me less human.  On the contrary, it was a lesson from God preparing me to be a man who would walk with Him.  I know my dad could sometimes guess when I was going to disobey.  While growing up many of us felt like our parents could read our minds.  God can read our minds and because of His transcendent nature He knows which action His children will choose.  He isn’t predicting our behavior like our parents did from their longsuffering exposure to our natures.  God sees the end from the beginning but that doesn’t take your decision away.  God gives us tremendous freedom in living.  He rejoices as we exercise our wills but our wills are not a law unto themselves.  He tells us to exercise our will within His sovereignty.  As we saw in Ephesians Paul urged the church in Ephesus to “… pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.” (NIV; Eph 6:18-20).   Paul wasn’t wasting his time or the time of the Ephesians when he encouraged them by saying, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (NIV; Eph 3:20-4:1).

Philippians Lesson 3

Philippians 2:1-11
Chapters 10, 11, and 12 in Motyer

Last week Paul said that even if Christ was preached out of envy for Paul’s gifts that at least the Gospel was preached. This week he gives the high call for how we are supposed to serve. Paul knew that some were preaching because they didn’t like him and were jealous even while he was imprisoned for the Gospel. Paul wanted the Philippians, who he loved, to have pure motives and to be a testimony in their life and service. Of the things you do for Christ here are some guidelines for your behavior.

Philippians 2:1-2 If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.

Let’s list the things that Paul identifies for our motivation:

1. encouragement from being united with Christ,


2. comfort from God’s love,


3. fellowship with the Spirit, and


4. tenderness and compassion.

Paul says our minds should be like this when we serve God and that we should have God’s love as we serve in one spirit and purpose. That is a high call. The Trinity is implicit in the motivation we have. We may ask, “What is the point of meditating on the nature of God?” but here is another sign post in Scripture telling us how to think. Being united with Christ must enable us to live serve. Knowing God’s love gives us confidence in our salvation and an ability to rest in His ability to deliver us from evil. The fellowship we have with the Godhead comes from the Holy Spirit in us who gives us the Spirit of adoption that causes us to cry “Abba’ Father. We could spend a lifetime on each of those topics and I’ve gone fast but an awareness of the actions of our God in all of His threefold nature is effective for producing tenderness and compassion in our hearts. If we are aware of the work of God the Son, God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit we will be changed. It is the knowledge and depth of insight impact from Paul’s prayer in chapter 1. Transformation comes from knowing the truth and having that depth of insight which causes us to grasp the significance of the truth.

Philippians 2:3-3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

He says to do “nothing” out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. That is another really high call in our service to God. God will back us off and slow us down when we are working outside His leading. That is what I mean when I say that “burnout” is a gift from God. He doesn’t leave us alone when we are running down rabbit trails. He will interrupt our lives and bring us back to an attention to the Holy Spirit, the comfort of His Love, and our ability in Christ. Jesus said “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” John 15:5. That being the case, if you know this to be true, you’ll be careful how you serve God. We are commanded to “in humility consider others better than yourselves.” This isn’t a command to help those with poor self esteem or to enforce mediocrity in the church. Think about what God has taught us. He is the vine. He enables us for service. As a result you can expect God to move and you can expect Him to move in the way He wants to move. He doesn’t need special skills but He needs people specially yielded to Him. If I consider someone better than myself then I’m not pretending. On the contrary, I’m acknowledging that it is God in us willing and doing His good pleasure. If we get puffed up then He knows were all the pressure release values are and he’ll deflate us for our own good. And … if you keep all truth in mind then it is easy to look after the interests of others and not just your own interests because you’ll realize that the health of the whole vine or the whole church is necessary for your health too. You’ll serve naturally because your heart will be right.

Philippians 2:5-7 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

Well here is another high call for our walk in Christ. He is our example for humility and service. He pointed that out himself. When we lead it is to be by service. There is no place for us to play the “most high holy” and be served by the masses. The life of Christ is to be our constant example of a life spent for others.

Philippians 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!

His humility and obedience was perfect in service. Note here that humility didn’t mean that Jesus pretended to be less than He was. Humility meant that He didn’t consider Himself too good to serve in the way God led. He lived a perfect life and died the life of a sinner. The world was not worthy of Him. If you feel too good to serve in the way God calls then meditate on the life of Christ and example of perfect submission.

Philippians 2:9-11 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Christ’s perfection is without limit. God demonstrated perfection in both ends of continuum from the perfect servant bearing the sins of undeserving sinners to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. There is no real name for His exalted position. King of Kings and Lord of Lords hardly does justice for the One at whose name every knee in the heavens and earth will bow to the glory of God our Father.

Philippians Lesson 2

Philippians Chapter 1:1-30
Chapters 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 in Motyer

This week we start with another prayer from Paul. In this case, we have an apostle praying for people he loves as inspired by the Holy Spirit. We should naturally pay attention to all of Scripture but when we have this week’s situation we really need to pay attention if only from a selfish point of view. We are going to find out what an inspired apostle prays for those he loves.

Philippians 1:8-11 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

First of all Paul acknowledges that the basis of his pastoral care is the affection that is within him from Christ Jesus. Paul is always careful to acknowledge the work of the Holy Spirit within him. The desire for blessing in the lives of the Philippians that Paul feels is a product of the Holy Spirit. We all have various gifts from God to use in the world and we need to remember where these gifts come from. This isn’t false humility on Paul’s side but we need to guard against false humility on our side. When God uses us, and He will, then thank Him and acknowledge the Holy Spirit in your life. It isn’t just being humble it is being truthful.

Secondly, Paul prays that they would abound in love. Paul is asking for a continual progressive growth in love. This means we are to be increasing in the fruit of love for all our lives. According to Paul our love is to grow, not in a fuzzy warm feeling of bluebirds and bunnies, but rather in knowledge and depth of insight. We need to know and grasp the significance of it. We need to have more than knowledge of facts. We must grasp the significance so that our hearts are moved by the knowledge. How does that work? Well God’s love has been shown in all points of scripture and is demonstrated in nature and in our lives personally. You could memorize all those facts but not be changed. Grasping the significance of God’s love is transformative and changes your behavior. You will never exhaust the knowledge and depth of insight of His love available to you in scripture, if you did, then nature would remain and our knowledge of His love as shown in nature is still limited, and if you finished with those two then you would still have your one life to live and you won’t be finished experiencing His love until you are finished and standing before Him. It is really easy to be slack about our understanding of His love in grace, justification, sanctification, and Old Testament sacrifice and deliverance but they all testify of God’s love for us. We are new creatures in Christ and we are told to let love grow. We are not told to be what we are not; on the contrary, we are told to be what we are in Christ Jesus.

When God had gotten my attention again in about 1973 after being saved as a child years earlier, we had a pastor on staff doing nearly all the foundational teaching. He was very good. Somebody asked him one time how they could get knowledge and insight in scripture. He said something like, “get a pick and shovel and go at the Bible for 30 years or so” that will help. We aren’t praying for a short cut. If we are then we are wasting our time. What we are praying for is that we would run with patience the race that is set before us. Motyer says, “The Christian, then, is a person with an objective, a deadline to meet, a Lord to please, or, in Paul’s harvest metaphor, someone with fruits of righteousness to produce to the glory and praise of God.”

Thirdly then Paul explains why we want to know and have depth of insight in the Love of God. It is so that we can discern what is best and be pure and blameless until the day of Christ. We typically spend lots of our resources deciding what is best in sports, sports equipment, and vehicles. If, “Hey y’all watch this” are the famous last words of many guys (and you may want to stop what you are doing if you find yourself using that phrase) then “Well it seemed like a good idea at the time” is the famous lame excuse for an activity. I still remember the newspaper story of the land owner near Lake Oconee who turned loose a bunch of emus and figured he’d have a game ranch. They started turning up all over the county. When asked why he did that he just said, “Well it seemed like a good idea at the time.” We will give a full accounting of our life decisions. I’m afraid I’ll be tempted to use that phrase in front of God. He will probably not be amused. The Means of Grace, if applied diligently over time, crying out for more Grace are powerful. If I can stand before God and know that I sought Him in prayer, I studied scripture, I was in fellowship, I worshiped him, I made use of baptism and communion as He instructed … well at least then if I say “it seemed like a good idea at the time” it won’t ring so hollow. However, if I haven’t, and God asked me what would make me think that whatever I came up with was the best course of action, then I’d hope to have the guts to just say it was dumb and inexcusable and not offer an excuse because I won’t have one worth hearing. Of course, after reading this and praying it, neither will you.

And if I work with God who is at work within me to will and to do His good pleasure, then on the Day of Christ I will be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. His glory and His praise because the foundation to my progress is to daily and moment by moment submit myself to His lordship. Boy is that hard to remember to do. Motyer says, “We are often neglectful, frequently failing, ever inadequate; yet the end is secure, for God is at work.”

Philippians 1:12-14 Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.

Paul wants to point out how his imprisonment has actually been a good thing. He was seeing the Gospel spread at Caesar’s Palace so he was rejoicing. He makes me feel like such a whiner. He has led the charge and in the middle of the battle looks back and gives thanks that others are following and showing courage and fearlessness. Paul was unjustly imprisoned and lied about. Nothing was “fair” about the way he was treated according to the laws of Rome. Yet He looks past the treatment of men to the impact on the Church and the success of the Gospel. He had his eyes open looking for opportunities to minister while in chains. I hope that from my back row seat in heaven I get to see him someday. According to him, he was the least of the apostles.

Philippians 1:15-18a It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.

Paul is good at seeing the big picture. He is leaving motives to God for judgment as long as the Gospel is being preached. This reminded me of a scene in the movie “Lord of the Rings”. It was written by a Roman Catholic and has lessons in courage and values. However, there are two of the main characters that are always in competition in the battle so they keep score on who is taking care of more of the bad guys. At one point the bad guys come mounted on elephants and one character climbs up an elephant fighting and shooting arrows and finally gets in position to shoot into the back of the elephants head and bring it down and he sort of surfs down the head and lands on the ground as the elephant crashes down. Then the other character who has been on the ground the whole time shouts, “That still just counts as one!” Paul has taken out elephants in opposition to the church and he really doesn’t care about anyone’s count but God. We don’t need to worry about someone else’s success because God is the one who is in control and He is the one we serve. When we stand before God we certainly don’t want to be found to be, as Motyer says, “people whose hearts were at war with their testimonies.”

Philippians 1:18b-20 Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.

Paul does cherish the prayers of the Philippians. Remember that by prayer you can change what would otherwise be. You can’t usurp the sovereignty of God but He will respond to your yielding yourself to pray in accordance with the Holy Spirit. Paul looks for deliverance as a result of their prayers and the Holy Spirit. When you pray for your pastorate it isn’t a pointless activity. You are participating with God in spiritual battle. Whenever we pray we need to realize that we are acting as God has commanded us to and we are participating with the Holy Spirit as part of the Body of Christ. We should never think that God is so limited that He can’t be sovereign AND respond to our prayers. I praise God that He is sovereign and omniscient so that I can pray. I can’t think of anything scarier than a God who was sovereign and yet not omniscient. He’d be likely to give me something dumb when I asked for it.

In Paul’s mind (and in our minds as we grow up in Christ) deliverance is equated with displaying courage in the face of the enemy whether he lives or dies. Now call me crazy but I have a little different view of being delivered. But I know I’m wrong. I need the attitude of Paul and of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Daniel 3:16) that says God will deliver me by taking me through the fire; however, my body may or may not be usable afterwards. In any case, I’ll pray for sufficient courage so that Christ will be exalted whether I live or die. I don’t have any desire to be a martyr (I don’t even want to be yelled at) but I will admit that scripture and history show that martyrs for Jesus Christ don’t waste their lives. I pray God would take us as we are and make us all what He would have us be.

Philippians 1:21-26 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you again your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me.

This Scripture is one that convinces me that this epistle was written late in Paul’s life. This is a guy who has been faithful and knows he doesn’t have much longer to work before he’ll be with Christ but also has a deep love for the Philippians and wants to see them again. We’ve noted it before but here again Paul shows a real pastor’s heart. Paul’s purpose was Christ in death or in life.

Philippians 1:27 Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel

To live in “a manner worthy” we must be engaged in the things of Christ. The means of Grace will not be absent. We’ll be running with patience. Motyer points out that the Philippians would have taken this in the context of their Roman citizenship. They would have thought of the ways they functioned with the privileges and responsibilities of Roman citizenship. They were privileged as children of the King of Kings and a member of the household of God. They were responsible to live a holy life and be true to the Gospel.

We know that Paul never compromised on the Gospel message but he also stressed the importance of unity. We shouldn’t let things that are not a fundamental part of the Gospel, such as types of buildings, pews, and room colors split us from other brothers. If we can contend for the gospel without compromise then we should stand firm in one spirit and not allow ourselves to be separated by nonessentials. Only the Gospel is essential to our service in a place. Other matters need to be handled by “esteeming others better than yourself” and by serving others.

Philippians 1:28-30 without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God. For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him, since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.

I was studying this scripture years ago and I still like to think of it in the King James Version. I had just found a subway token. It was a New York subway token and looked like a little coin with a star cut out in the center. I got it in change somehow. I read verse 28 in the King James that says we should be “in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God.” I really liked the idea that when the enemy of my soul attacks and I’m not scared it is as if I gave him a token that on one side says, “you are going to hell” and on the other side says “because this one is saved by God”. It doesn’t even matter which side he reads first. Of course the KJV didn’t mean a subway token and the NIV is clearer. We are not to be frightened so that it will be a sign to them that they are going to be destroyed and we will be saved.

While we are not suffering to the degree that Paul and the early Church suffered we still are called to go through the same spiritual struggles they went through.

Philippians Lesson 1

Philippians Chapter 1:1-7
Chapters 1, 2, and 3 in Motyer

Background:

I remember attending a special set of bible studies that covered Philippians at the Malheur Butte Baptist Church in Ontario Oregon in the late 70s. I’m sure I learned more but the one thing that stuck with me for 30 years was that Philippians does not include correction in the sense that Galatians and certainly Corinthians does. The Philippians didn’t need correction (apparently) but they needed encouragement and a clear sense of the goal of their salvation as a church. There is a little correction for a couple of individual Christians but not for the church as a group.

As Motyer points out, Philippians is largely joyful with the only exception being the fairly sober comments that Paul makes about his mortality and imprisonment.

Philippi, was named after the father (Philip of Macedon) of Alexander the Great. Part of the reason it was made a “colony” (giving it special Rome in miniature status) was that it was the scene of the battle in which Octavian and Mark Antony defeated Brutus and Cassius.

Paul was having trouble figuring out what God’s will was. God was closing doors and not opening them. Finally he had the Macedonian call. It should be encouraging to us that even Paul struggled waiting on God and finding God’s call for his life.

Acts 16:12-15
From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days. On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.

“Suddenly” God starts to move and Lydia is saved and baptized. She becomes the first member of the Philippian Church. Paul must have been excited since things were looking up and God was moving.

Acts 16:16-24
Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, “In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!” At that moment the spirit left her. When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.” The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

So things were looking up till Paul rebuked a disruptive girl and put her in her right mind. That got them arrested, stripped, beaten, and thrown in jail. And things were going so well. They followed God’s call. They were preaching the word to the Philippians and instead of God protecting them from all harm they end up in prison. I’d be pretty discouraged and probably question why I was there and what I had done wrong. By midnight I’m pretty sure I’d be sleeping. But when the Holy Spirit is moving people do things that they wouldn’t do otherwise.

Acts 16:25-40 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole family. When it was daylight, the magistrates sent their officers to the jailer with the order: “Release those men.” The jailer told Paul, “The magistrates have ordered that you and Silas be released. Now you can leave. Go in peace.” But Paul said to the officers: “They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out.” The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed. They came to appease them and escorted them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city. After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and encouraged them. Then they left.

What a start to the Philippian Church. At first Paul can’t get anything accomplished but then God’s direction becomes clear, Lydia is saved and then God uses prison to save a jailor. God doesn’t use a formula. He requires that we pay attention to Him and exercise patience.

Philippians 1:1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:

It is likely that this letter was written fairly late in Paul’s life during his imprisonment in Rome. At points it sounds as if Paul figures he doesn’t have much time left.

I think the way that the Philippian Church came to be makes Paul’s use of “servant” especially appropriate. At that point in his ministry he was certainly working to serve God and, as a servant may not fully understand what his master is up to, Paul seemed to just be along for the ride when he first ministered there. It is a good idea to remember that we are servants. If you start feeling large and in charge then you need to seek God pretty quickly. I pray you’ll repent before you need correction.

Here we find out what anyone who has been a deacon very long has already figured out. Deacons are not saints since they must be identified separately in the salutation along with the overseers (deacon chairmen). Well seriously, we are all saints who are Christians. It is important for us to note this point since the common utilization of the term differs from the scriptural use of the term. We sometimes use it with names like Augustine or Aquinas. Strictly speaking we should avoid this since we may forget that God considers us just as subject to the process of sanctification as Augustine and Aquinas. God sees the end from the beginning and calls that which is not yet as though it were already. You are “in Christ Jesus” can praise Him for His Grace and patience as He works in you to set you apart and make you holy.

Philippians 1:2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

As we have discussed before, Grace precedes peace. The Grace (undeserved blessing) of God puts us in right relationship to God and Jesus Christ so that we can have peace. Without Grace there is no peace. Without God’s purposeful Grace, you are set in opposition to God. With Grace you have peace, God is your Father, and Jesus is your Lord. Remember that if you call Jesus Lord then you shouldn’t be surprised when He acts as Lord of your life. The Holy Spirit will work in you to set you apart and create a desire to be like God.

Philippians 1:3-6 I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Paul is thankful for partners in the gospel. Think of Lydia. She was the first convert and gave them a place to live and I’m sure the jailor continued to work with Paul.

Notice the basis of Paul’s confidence. It wasn’t Lydia and the Jailor’s faithfulness but it was God’s faithfulness that was the basis of Paul’s confidence. It was God who opened their hearts as Acts states clearly. I’d never have any peace in my life if I thought it was all me. Motyer says, “The human will blows hot and cold, is firm and unstable by fits and starts; it offers no security of tenure. But it is the will of God that is the ground of salvation.” God tells me that it is Him working in me. That is a tremendous source of peace in my life. Now it also means that I need to cooperate with the Holy Spirit and it means that I’m subject to being disciplined by my Him. He is my Lord and it is my responsibility to follow Him and my being subject to His correction is all part of that. I’m eternally thankful (literally) for His work in my life.

Philippians 1:7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me.

This is a personal letter. Paul is in prison missing his friends and yet so deeply thankful for the faithfulness and promises of God. He would love to be out defending and confirming the Gospel with the Philippians but in either case they share in God’s Grace. We have the assurance that God gives in Scripture but we also should be thankful for the assurance that the Holy Spirit places in our hearts. We stand on the rock of God’s revelation in scripture but we also rejoice when we feel God’s work in our hearts. As Scripture says, “Romans 8:15-16 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” The Spirit testifies in Holy Scripture and in the heart of a Christian.

Motyer says, “The great and true doctrine of Christian assurance is thus no friend to pride. The salvation we are assured of is wholly wrought by God for helpless, hopeless sinners.”
We are;

1. not complacent, for our assurance increases as we see evidence of spiritual progress,


2. not lazy, for part of the evidence is our commitment to the gospel, and


3. not independent of one another, for we need one another’s prayers to maintain and further our walk with God.

Motyer says, “Assurance, biblically understood, keeps the saints on their toes.

Oaths and Vows

Study of Oaths and Vows with Movie: The Terminal

As I watched the movie “The Terminal” I was struck by the contrast that was drawn between the relationship to oaths and promises of the main character named Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks) and his “love interest” Amelia Warren (Catherine Zeta Jones).

In the story Viktor gets stuck in the airport in New York because while he is in the air on the way to the US his country undergoes revolution so he can’t get a visa. He stays in the airport with a mysterious Planter’s Peanuts Can.

See Movie at time 00:03:17 - A Crack in the System

Viktor has a real adventure. He learns to speak English, lives in an abandoned part of the Airport, and makes money first by returning luggage carts, and then by working on a construction project. Eventually he meets and develops affection for a stewardess named Amelia who admits to him that she is involved in a long term adulterous relationship and whose first line in the movie is to take God’s name in vain.

Viktor is law abiding and devoted to his word which other than Catherine Zeta Jones being pretty, it begs the question of what Viktor would see in her except as guys thinking they can fix all the problems for a woman. Some of us grow out of that but some don’t.

Most of us have heard the fabled account of George Washington and the cherry tree. When young George was confronted by his distressed father concerning the destruction of a cherry tree, the boy said, “I cannot tell a lie; I cut down the tree.”

Of course what Washington said was itself a lie. To say “I cannot tell a lie” is to lie about one's ability to lie. There were many things George Washington could not do: he could not fly; he could not be in more than one place at the same time, etc. But George Washington could tell a lie. He was a man.

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

All human beings are capable of telling lies. This does not mean that everyone lies all the time. We also have the ability to tell the truth. The problem arises when we are called upon to trust someone's word, and we do not know for sure if he is telling the truth.

Exodus 20:7 (Deuteronomy 5:11) You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

Amelia’s first words in the movie are to blaspheme God when she breaks a heel on her shoe.

God’s name was a gift of grace to Israel. Not through an idol, but in the name, Israel had access to God in worship. God’s name is therefore to be revered. This command forbids the use of God’s name in false worship, for incantations or divination, as well as for attesting falsehood or speaking blasphemy (Deut. 28:58). Jesus taught His disciples to pray that God would hallow His name, and Jesus hallowed the Father’s name on the Cross (Matt. 6:9; John 12:27, 28).

To emphasize the importance of truth in the making of promises and the giving of important testimonies, we resort to the swearing of oaths and vows. Before offering testimony in a courtroom, the witness is sworn in. He or she promises to “tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God.”

See Movie at time 0023:05 Unhooking the Fish – He won’t try to break out

Viktor had vowed to wait because of a promise that he had taken as an oath.

In the vow, appeal is made to God and to God alone as the supreme witness of the statement. God is the guardian of vows, oaths, and promises. He Himself is the fountainhead of all truth and is incapable of lying. What is false about George Washington is true of God; He cannot tell a lie (Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:17–18).

Neither can God abide with liars. He warns against taking rash or false vows: “Pay what you have vowed—better not to vow than to vow and not pay” (Ecclesiastes 5:4–5). The Ten Commandments include a law against bearing false witness (Exodus 20:16).

Since our entire relationship to God is based upon covenant promises, God sanctifies the matter of vows, oaths, and promises. Trust in human relationships (such as marriage and business agreements) is necessary for the welfare of society. A lawful oath is a part of worship wherein people, seeking to assure the veracity of what they speak, call upon God as a witness of what they assert and promise. The implication is that if those taking oaths are found to be lying, God will punish them.

Eccl 5:4-5 When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay.

In the movie there is one thing that Amelia gets right. Amelia rightly says that all men are liars. We need to acknowledge that our hearts are desperately wicked and that we don’t know them. We can ask God to help us live in the truth all the time.

See Movie at time 1:16:03 to 1:18:16 Promises; If I stay then you stay.

Viktor doesn’t try to escape and waits and even tries to win Amelia’s heart.

Amelia is told by the “bad guy” that Viktor is a bad guy and that he is a suspicious type.

See Movie at time 1:35:13 to 1:40:00– Keeping a promise; how could a modern woman understand a man like him.

Now in the discussion of vows and promises I hope you thought about the following:

James 5:12 12 But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.

Matthew 5:33“Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

On first read you could say no vows of any type ever. However, (Using Scripture to Interpret Scripture) there is a biblical provision for sacred vows and oaths; that is, there are lawful places and lawful kinds of vows and oaths that we take.

In fact, a covenant is not a covenant without a vow, and that's what we're doing when we take vows in marriage and in other situations, such as those involving contractual agreements—we are entering into a covenant. The whole basis of our relationship to God is based on vows and oaths, oaths that God swears, because he can swear by nothing greater than himself.

Based on the totality of scripture, there's nothing intrinsically wrong about the swearing of oaths and taking of vows, it seems that Jesus was objecting to was that the Pharisees were trying to fudge in their vows and their oaths by swearing by lesser things than God.

The swearing of an oath unto God or before God is an act of worship because in that vow we are saying, “So help me God,” which is what we say in the courtroom: “I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God.” I'm taking an oath before God.

I am acknowledging at that moment that God is omniscient, He is there, He sees everything that I do, He can hear the words that I'm saying; God is sovereign over my vows, and He has authority over my vows. I'm recognizing God as God at the moment I take an oath. It's a religious act at that point.

If I say I swear by my dad's grave, I've just now committed an act of idolatry because I have presumed to think that my dad's grave has the ability to hear my vows, to judge my vows, and to be sovereign over my vows. I've attributed deity to the grave of my dad, which is a crass and pretty stupid form of idolatry. That's what Jesus was objecting to when he said, in essence, “Don't swear by the altar. The altar can't hear you. The altar can't judge you. The altar isn't God.” The only thing you can swear by that's a legitimate vow is God himself in an act of worship.

In the courtroom, we're actually taking a vow to God, not to the Bible. We don't ask the Bible to bear witness to our vows. We don't ask that book to listen in on us, to be the judge of our consciences or be sovereign over us. I don’t know where we ever got that symbolic practice of placing the hand on the Bible. In my mind it is to acknowledge having received God’s revelation of Himself and His demands and in particular His promise to punish sinners and especially liars. As long as you don't swear to or by the Bible it is legitimate to swear on the Bible if you want to.

An additional stipulation is that an oath should not be made with equivocation or mental reservation. God does not accept crossed fingers, but expects honesty. An oath is not to be taken lightly. It should be saved for solemn occasions, for solemn promises. Even governments recognize this in insisting on oaths for weddings and before the giving of legal testimony.

Even in less solemn instances, moreover, a believer is called to honesty—that one's yes be yes, and one's no be no. That is the responsibility of a faithful disciple of Christ.

Summary

1. Human beings have a capacity for telling lies.
2. God, the source of truth, cannot lie and is the guardian of truth.
3. Oaths and vows are a lawful part of worship.
4. Oaths should be sworn by God alone as the ultimate witness of truth.
5. Vows should not be made rashly or with reservations.

Movie at time 1:57:47 to Credits – Viktor makes good on his promise at 161 Lexington

Amelia chooses her adulterous affair over a man of his word; Viktor has the victory and Amelia, like her namesake Amelia Earhart is lost in the air with a man navigating for her.