One of the things that comes to the fore or continues to come to the fore in our study of Philippians is just how practical this letter is as Paul writes to this church. And yes, it contains exceedingly rich theology, Pauline theology. We can go back just a few weeks to chapter 2 to Paul's account of Christ's humiliation in which Christ humbles himself unto death, even death on a cross. And we can see that this account of the incarnation is one of the richest and most profound in all the New Testament. But even that text, as it is set within the broader narrative, functions very practically. Paul sets it and writes it down for us to show how believers ought to live lives of humility, one with another. In other words, what we find is that the richness of Paul's theology is not unto more knowledge, but rather unto conformity to Christ. The entire letter is saturated with Christ from beginning to end. It is infused with exhortations to know Christ and thus to grow in our likeness and our conformity to Christ. No one can read Philippians correctly and not be challenged to look more and more like Jesus, to get down upon your knees, to confess your need of him, to confess your sinful ways before him and desire to follow the pattern of his life and the power of the Holy Spirit. And if we pause here for a moment and we ask, what does it look like to be more like Christ? It begins with an earnest desire to know Christ. If you desire to follow the example of Christ, but you do not desire Christ himself, you've missed the heart of the gospel. You've missed Paul's letter to the Philippians and you in fact end up with a form of moralism and even legalism that is foreign to Christianity. And yet on the other hand, if your desire is for Christ, you cannot simultaneously seek after Christ, but not want to be like Christ. See, the heart of the gospel is front and center before us again in this text. The specific issue that Paul is dealing with in our text this morning is that of worldliness. And he tells us how we are to stand firm when worldliness is all around us and encroaches into the very life of the church. And this is seen in chapter 3 in verse 18 and 19. In fact, the very final clause of verse 19, we get a virtual definition of what worldliness is. Paul says, with minds set on worldly things. And this worldly thinking is in fact contrasted in the following two verses where Paul reminds the church that we are citizens of another kingdom. We are citizens of heaven. And a believer's true status in this world is now more properly designated as being a resident alien who awaits his savior to come. And these two contrasting points of worldliness and heavenly citizenship are sandwiched in this text between two imperatives. The final verse of our text this morning, chapter four and verse one, Paul concludes the section with a command. And he says, stand firm thus in the Lord. In other words, Paul has given us, has provided a roadmap for how we are to stand firm in a context in which worldliness wants to steal your affection away from Christ. Whether it does that subtly or worldliness does that forcefully so that in the end you will be an enemy of the cross. Now, this might sound a little extreme. It's what Paul says. You might say, but I'm reformed. I believe in the perseverance or the preservation of the saints. Yes. And amen to that. But the God who works salvation in you is the God who exhorts you to work out your salvation in the power of the spirit, in fear and trembling. What we will shortly see towards the end of Paul's letter to the church in Philippi is a pattern. It's the way in which Paul typically concludes his letters. And he does so by including greetings from his co-laborers, those who work alongside him in the advancement of the gospel. We read at the end of his letter to the church in Colossae, We find him say the following, Luke, the beloved physician, greets you, as does Demas. Let's remember that name, Demas. Right at the end of his letter to Philemon, Paul says, Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends greetings to you. And so do Paul, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers. But in 2 Timothy chapter four, the narrative has changed dramatically. Paul says, for Demas, the same Demas in his letter to the Colossians or to Philemon, here for Demas, in love with this present world has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Friends, worldliness will change the affections of your soul. Someone who had worked so intimately with Paul, the apostle, in his labors for Christ and to strengthen the church has deserted him. It's almost incomprehensible. It's almost hard to imagine. Paul is said to have written letters to Philemon and to the church in Colossae in AD 62. And yet just four years later, Paul writes his very last letter before his death. He writes to Timothy. It's his second epistle to Timothy and Demas is gone. Friends, if Judas who is one of the 12 with Jesus, one of his closest could betray him with a kiss. And now Demas, a beloved, devoted coworker with Paul, leaves Paul in his darkest hour just before he's about to be martyred. This should sober us in the grace of God. And it's into this context of worldliness, whether through the false worldly teaching that has seeped into the church through its pulpits, or various offerings of books, or more generally, the pervading influence of this world in which we now live. It's into this context that Paul comes to our aid. And with apostolic insight, revelation, his own testimony, his own experience, and a shepherd's heart for the church, he says, stand firm thus in the Lord. Or we could write, in this way, stand firm in the Lord. And this takes us back to verse 17, our opening verse, where there is a command unto imitation. Our first point. Paul says, brothers, join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. Now at first, this imperative to imitate Paul might come across as a little high and mighty. Even possibly narcissistic or self-serving, a kind of, Paul has it right, he's got it all together and thus you need to be like me. And such arrogance if the case would be incredibly off-putting to most if not all of us. What we see in this text is this certainly is not the case. Paul has literally just told us in the previous verses that he has not yet already been made perfect. His remaining sin within him, just like you and I, in the light of his consummate and basic desire to know Christ and to attain the fullness of Christ, He disciplines himself as an athlete running a race to win the prize. And it's here that Paul says, do likewise. Follow my manner of life as I seek Christ. This is the way of the mature. See, the language of imitation is not actually unusual within Paul's writings. He says in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, be imitators of me as I am of Christ. And here's the pattern. It's not an imitation of Paul as if Paul was the end. We imitate Paul as unto Paul. No, we imitate the manner of Paul's life as he follows Christ, who is our true end. Paul is quite possibly the most helpful example in all of scripture of what it looks like to follow Christ and to follow him in the midst of the pressures and the realities of this very world. His aim is to reflect Christ. He wants to be a type, a copy, an image of Christ as any disciple wants to image, reflect his master and teacher. Yes, there is a difference between you and me and Paul. There's a difference between us who are in Christ and Paul in some regards. He has apostolic gifts and remarkable revelations that none of us have. Though we have the Word of God written down in all its fullness. But like Paul, we have the same Spirit. We have the same Christ. We have the same faith. We have the same baptism. And in this, we are all exhorted to press on and to gain the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. And do this when life is most challenging. How does he respond? That's our question. If Paul is our example, let's consider him. How does Paul respond to unjust or overwhelming suffering? How does Paul deal with loneliness, with abandonment, with betrayal? How does he deal with persecution, with hardships, with sickness? And how does Paul deal with indwelling sin, with temptations that come to him from outside? How does he handle being falsely accused by believers, by being ignored by others? How does he handle being disrespected and sidelined by the Corinthian church for those so-called more impressive super apostles? All of this and so much more is found in the New Testament for us to see. You know that most of acts, the acts of the apostles, the book written by Luke to Theophilus is about Paul and his ministry from chapter 13 all the way on to chapter 28. That every letter between the end of Acts and the beginning of Hebrews is written by Paul? One could very easily say that after Christ's ascension into heaven, that Paul is the dominant figure, dominant apostle, disciple, ministry leader in the New Testament, even beyond and above Peter and John. His life is not perfect. He has not yet fully attained that which lies ahead. And in his quest to know Christ consummately and to see the church share in the richness of Christ, which is for all believers, he says to the church in Philippi, imitate me. This is the language of discipleship. And this is why the command to imitate Christ is not framed as an optional extra, but it's to be true of all believers. To follow in the footsteps of the one who follows Christ well is one of the primary biblical pathways to know Christ and to be like Christ. And what's interesting is that when he writes to the Philippian church and he talks about imitation, he adds an additional element that is not found in the rest of the New Testament. In verse 17, Paul adds a prefix to the noun, imitators, so that the text doesn't simply read, be imitators of me. He says that in first Corinthians 11, he says that in first Corinthians four, he says that in first Thessalonians, but here he does something different. What he does is he brings into view a corporate solidarity. He brings a togetherness that goes along with his exhortation to follow Paul as he follows Christ. We need to remember back a number of weeks, if not a couple of months back to chapter two of Philippians, where the underlying concern or one of the underlying concerns of Paul as he addresses and relates with his church in Philippi has been the issue of disunity. And so he's stressed in chapter two, the need for humility and for them to have the same love as one another, the same mind. And here in verse 17 of chapter three, he returns to that topic ever so subtly, but most profoundly. And he says, I want you to join together to act as one in imitating me as we strain forward as runners in stride together to gain Christ, eager to gain the ultimate prize, which again is Christ Jesus himself. Friends, this faith is not simply an individual pursuit, which, let's be honest, can be quite challenging to our Western individual mindset. The church is to act as one, the household of God, each having the same intention as the other, each spurring the other on to like-minded imitation, each knowing how to stand when the alluring offerings of worldliness are repeatedly come our way, wanting to draw you and me away from knowing Christ. Paul goes on and he says, there are some among you who walk according to the pattern that you see in us. There's a reference likely not only to Paul, but to Timothy into Epaphroditus, whom the church knows. And so his exhortation, this imperative, this command is to imitate him being Paul, but also to look around at others among you who are walking in the same manner as Paul is walking. See in the, in the end, what we find in this text this morning is a contrast. There's a contrast between two kinds of people. with two differing walks, two differing directions, two different gazes, two different ends, though at times it can be very different or difficult to tell the two apart, just as when Demas, who with an apparent love for Christ and for Paul, actually fell in love with the world. And so our second point is, as we see in verses 18 onwards, is to set our minds, do we set our minds on earth or on heaven? In my teenage years, worldliness was typically defined in the church by external things. the kind of clothes that you wore, the kind of music that you listened to, how long a man's hair was or wasn't, who you hung out with, and whether or not you drank. In some senses, these rules, some vocalized and others far more implicit, were quite well-meaning. But in time, they typically took on a legalistic character. Though I'm sure that many of the originators of such thoughts weren't trying to be legalistic at all. Many were simply trying to guard the church from worldliness, the very thing that Paul is trying to do with this church in Philippi and by extension to each one of us. See, worldliness, dear friends, is far more subtle and cunning than the color or the length of your hair, or the tempo, the intensity of your music style, when music and hair have both been created by God. See, worldliness is an issue of the heart. There's a sense in which This should terrify us all. Jeremiah said, the heart is deceitful above all things. And who can understand it? Friends, our minds are so often set upon what our appetites desire, what we crave, what we long for, what we truly want. If you're Fleshly appetites rule you and so become a God to you. As Paul states, your mind will be set upon those desires and you will necessarily become worldly. You are not free, though you may think you are, rather you are enslaved to your own desires and passions, which will rule you and ultimately harm you. For what you will now glory in will in the end be your shame, as Paul writes in verse 19. And the question to each and every one of us is, what is it that you truly, truly want? I didn't ask you for the answer for what we are supposed to say. so-called right answer, but what is it that your hearts want above anything else? When you push all the noise aside, all the busyness aside, all the distractions aside, and you are honest enough with yourself, and you see what your mind truly thinks upon and desires, the question is this, is it worldliness? John Flavel, the Puritan, commenting on 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 10, which speaks about Paul and Timothy as having nothing yet possessing everything. Flavel says that these men only possess things, whereas others are possessed by the world. They are possessed by everything. Flavel goes on to say that Christian saints use the world and enjoy God in the use of it. Others are deceived, defiled, and destroyed by the world. Richard Baxter asked the penetrating question, one that cuts through much of Christianity that is served up today. And he asks, can you truly say you use the world for God and for heaven and do not serve God for the world? You see, to use God to gain the world is worldliness. Whereas we are to love God and to use the world unto holy ends. And in this way, you and I will be free. In other words, as Thomas Manton says, we may use the world as a means to sweeten our pilgrimage. but not to weaken our hopes. A man may use the comforts of this life to draw good out of them, to employ them for God as encouragements to piety and instruments of mercy and of bounty. Do you know that the Bible does not tell us to separate ourselves from the world like the Amish or monastic orders? though it does tell us not to be worldly. We are to be in the world, but not of the world, nor like the world. We are to be salt and light. The world cannot have our affections, for it will soon pass away, O Demas, now buried in the ground. What folly to love this world when your citizenship was to have been in heaven. That worldliness in the church so often starts out with a very subtle thing. Often with you and I not even knowing that it's in our hearts. But if you let it stay there, the world will change you and begin to use you rather than you use it for the glory of God and the good of His purposes. Now, one thing that is true of all of us here is that worldliness begins in our hearts and it is always evidenced in what you set your minds upon. And in the end, as Jesus said, You will either love God or you will love money, which is code for the world. Worldliness. Our final point is awaiting a savior from heaven. See, Paul's goal is for the church in Philippi to stand firm and not to be lost to worldliness. The answer to worldliness is not the employment of a set of external rules. Do this and don't do that. Be good and don't be bad. That, my friends, is ineffective against the lusts of the flesh. What we need more than anything else is the power of the gospel that is at work within our soul. Where repentance is truly unto life. where we hold on to God, knowing that He holds us in His hand. And yes, there are times in which we need to sell this thing or give that away. We need to stop watching these kind of movies or frequenting those kind of stores. We need to trim our calories count in half while others of us might need to stop being so conscious about calories, seeking rather to find our comfort and our identity in God. And yes, scripture says put off sin and put on the new self in Christ. Put off selfish ambition and pride infused ladder climbing where our goal is recognition, status and affirmation from others, but not from God. These practices can and may be beneficial in our wrestle of sin, but this is not how we are principally, most basically to stand firm. We stand firm, Paul says, because we know that this world is no longer what it once was for us. That this world is no longer our home. That we no longer live like we used to. Having the same goals, the same rewards, the same recognition that is given and offered by the world. We stand. We've been converted. We've been made new. We're new creations in Christ Jesus. And our status in this world now is like resident aliens awaiting the savior to come. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And as that marvelous old hymn states, the things of this world will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. We will stand because we join together as one in imitating Paul as he follows Christ. And adding to that, we will stand because we look around in humility, around the room, hoping and longing for godly men and women who God has placed in your life, whom you can observe of how you can walk unto maturity. Yes, they may be imperfect, just like Paul, but still, in the power of the Holy Spirit, they press on. They seek first to take hold of Christ and all His fullness. Friends, our ultimate goal is not behavioral modification, but Christ who transforms the heart and the mind. If you have Christ, your life will display a hunger for Him, a pursuit of Him, and a consequent conformity to Him. Many today, almost strangely, somewhat oddly, try to follow the example of Christ as to living a good life. They have no interest in professing Christ as Savior, but they want to follow Him as a good example. What an absolute impossibility. You will lack the power of Christ, you will lack the power of the Holy Spirit, And some here this morning, you might not in fact know Christ. You might be young, you might be old. You might have even entertained the idea that if you could just be a little bit more like Jesus, then you'll be accepted by him. But dear friend, that couldn't be further from the truth. Growing in one's conformity to Christ is a fruit of being in Christ, of being saved by Him. We do not fix up the dirty room so as to welcome Him into our hearts when everything's nice and clean. Not only are we wretches and a mess and filthy, we are dead in our sin and transgression and we need a Savior. who then in uniting us to Christ makes us like himself because there is no higher good or more perfect one. What in all the world, friends, is like him? What is there truly on offer that is better than him? Know that the antidote to any and every error in the church, whether it's a legalistic teaching of the Judaizers or the worldly lawlessness that arises from our own hearts is nothing else but the gospel of Jesus Christ. And this is what we need in this very hour when we have trials, many on our doorstep, including this pandemic. And I personally am quite sobered by this. I fear of myself that not enough of Christ is being produced in me during this time. Which is one of God's intended purposes for it. I cling to Him, asking Him to be at work in me. to be more patient, more gracious, more kind, more loving, more self-controlled, more at peace. In these days, dear friends, let us humble ourselves before the face of the living God, rending our hearts and not our garments as we cry out for Christ and in turn see the fruits of Christ more and more in your life and mine When we look at how we were just 12 or 18 months ago, we have seen the marvelous faithfulness of our God in your life and mine, as we stand firm, prizing Christ, and by the Spirit of the living God, being made more like Him. Oh, may that be. Let's pray.