Good morning, everybody. Again, we're in a Philippians chapter three. Philippians chapter three. You know, sometimes at work, I'm asked to show guys how to work the program that we use for scheduling these turnarounds and things like that. And this past couple weeks I've been asked to show a few guys how to build schedules and how to properly do it and all that. And part of that, this software is pretty sophisticated. You need to know what you're doing. And so part of what you do is you kind of sit behind these guys and you say, well, here's how you do it. Here's how I would do it. Do it like me. And then they always ask questions. Well, I've seen this guy do it this way or this guy do it that way. And sometimes you say, well, you know, that's not maybe how I would do it. But at the same time, that's not the wrong way to do it. And then other times you say, no, that's the wrong way to do it. You shouldn't do it that way. this way and the ultimate goal is to get to the end where you have this plan and this schedule that is workable. And that's how we train people at work, that's how we train people in life. And that is exactly what Paul is driving at here in Romans chapter 3 beginning in verse 12. Last week we talked about pressing on. This week, we move on and we talk about how to press on. He doesn't just tell us to press on, He doesn't just say He's going to press on, but He helps us to know how it is that we can press on. Let me read it to you, beginning in verse 17. Brothers, join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many of whom I have often told you and now tell you, even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction. Their God is their belly, and they glory in their shame with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself. And then chapter 4, verse 1, Therefore, my brothers, my love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. Let's pray. Father, we do ask that You would be here now We ask that Your Spirit would be here to open our hearts, open our minds, to receive what You would say to us in Your Word. We ask for the ministering, sanctifying power of the grace of the Holy Spirit to come upon us. I pray for this moment that You would say to Your people what You would have said this morning, not to say more or less. We can leave here knowing that the Lord has truly spoken through His preached Word. Knowledge we ask in the precious name of Christ. Amen. So last week, as I said, we talked about pressing on. Paul talks about how he presses on. We saw five aspects or characteristics of that pressing on in verses 12-16. We saw the need to press on. He hasn't obtained this. He's not perfect, and therefore he needs to press on. He needs to move on into maturity. We saw the foundation of it. Because Christ has made me His own, Paul says. The foundation of it is the work of Christ on His behalf. of it. Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. The goal of it, the prize of the upward call of God in Christ. And then finally, the maturity of it. This is how the mature Christian thinks. Pressing on, moving on, being sanctified, being or pursuing holiness. And then as I said, He doesn't leave us in the dark to know what this pressing on can look like. How is it then if we are to press on? How is it that we are to press on? It begins with godly leadership. The first point of pressing on is imitating godly leadership. He says in verse 17, brothers join in imitating me. Imitate him in what? What does he mean by imitate me? And what are we to imitate Paul? We're to imitate him in his pressing on. That's what he's talking about in this overall argument. I press on. And therefore, brothers, join in imitating me in pressing on. This is an interesting phrase that Paul uses here. The word that he uses is a compound word in the Greek. Sumimates, and it means to be co-imitators, joined followers. You hear the word mimetes, mimic? It means to join in imitating Him. Single word, by the way, that one word mimitates, that he uses in 1 Corinthians 4, 6, and 1 Corinthians 11, 1, when he says, be imitators of me as I am of Christ. That's the single word. He told the Ephesians the same thing concerning God. Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children. But here in Philippians, it's the compound word, and it means to be co-imitators, fellow imitators. So once again we see the concept of the unity of the body of Christ. Not only individually should you imitate me, but join together in that one-mindedness that we saw back in chapter 1 and chapter 2. One-mindedness, one goal, one love. Complete my joy by being of the same mind, full accord and of one mind. That's the unity of the body of Christ. And here he says it again, join in being co-imitators. Join together in this. And then he adds, not only of me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example that you have in us. Literally it's take aim at, which of course figuratively means to watch them. to put your eyes upon them, to regard them, to watch these people closely. What people? The people who have in them the same example that you have in Paul. This is interesting because Paul, once again, is deflecting a potential claim to his own authority. You remember Paul is the one who established this church in Philippi. We read about it in the book of Acts. We've looked at that a few times. and he's deflecting any potential claims of authority because he established the church. He's also potentially deflecting any potential claims of authority because of the direct revelation from Christ that he had received right back from the very beginning in his conversion. He had seen a vision of the resurrected Christ at his own conversion on the road to Damascus. And then we know from Galatians and so forth that it was under the tutelage of Christ Himself, the resurrected Christ, that Paul received the message of the Gospel for ten years as he was off before he began his missionary journeys. but he's deflecting any potential claims to soul authority in the church by saying, not only me, but keep watch on them from whom you have this, or those who walk according to our example. Imitate me, but also imitate them. Who are the them? Timothy and Epaphroditus, which we've already looked at. He's sending both Timothy and Epaphroditus back to this Philippian church. You remember that from back at the end of chapter 2. What good would that do? What good would it do to send Timothy and Epaphroditus back to this church if their message would just simply be, imitate Paul? Paul's not even there. Paul says to ignore us and only worry about him. What good would it do to send them back as leaders of the church if that would be their message? Who else? Not only Timothy and Epaphroditus. but also the deacons and the overseers from Philippians 1, right? That's who he addresses this letter to. Back in chapter 1, verse 1, Paul and Timothy, service of Christ Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the overseers and deacons, the spiritual leadership of the church. That's who he's talking about. Join in imitating me and keep your eyes on those who have the same example that you have in us. This is how important true, biblical, godly, spiritual leadership is in the church. The Hebrews were told in chapter 6 verse 12, so that you may not be sluggish, talking about the sluggish and dullness of hearing, you remember that from our study in Hebrews, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. No, don't be sluggish, don't be dull of hearing, but imitate those who persevere and patiently inherit the promise. Later in Hebrews we read in chapter 13 verse 7, remember your leaders, Those who spoke to you the Word of God, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. A lot of preachers that I have heard preach on those types of verses like it because to them it means that the people should just shut up and listen, fall in line, get on the bus, or get thrown under the bus, but this bus is going to keep on rolling. They're the head honcho. They're the man in charge. They're the CEO of the corporation, if you will. What they say goes. Their decisions reign supreme. But those who would apply these verses that way fail to see the flip side. And the flip side of the many commands throughout Scripture to the people of churches to submit to leadership, to listen to leadership, to imitate the leadership, the flip side of those verses is that the leaders are leading in a way that is worth imitating. Much the same way we talk about husbands loving their wives as Christ loved the church. And that being the flip side of wives who joyfully submit to the spiritual authority and headship of the husband. Paul, if you'll notice, never commands anyone to imitate his imperfections. And here he's specifically telling them to imitate his own pressing on in the midst, you remember, of his own imperfection and pressing on. But imitate him anyway. Paul understands that he's not perfect, and yet still he calls these Christians to imitate him. as he presses on. Here's what Peter says about that side of biblical leadership, being a leader that is worth imitating. He says in 1 Peter 5 verse 1, I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed, shepherd, remember he's talking to elders, shepherd the flock of God that is among you. exercising oversight, not under compulsion but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples for the flock. That's the flip side of leadership, being examples to the flock, being leaders that are worth imitating. What is your life? Watch your life and your doctrine closely, he told Timothy, for by doing this you will save both yourselves and yourself and your hearers. Imitating godly leadership is the first way that Paul gives us to press on. There's a flip side to that as well. What do you do when it's ungodly leadership? What do you do when it's false leadership? So we imitate godly leadership. But number two, we evaluate ungodly enemies. We evaluate ungodly enemies for many reasons. Verse 18, "...of whom I have often told you, and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ." There's that for again. Why should you be diligent in imitating these men who are worthy of imitation? Why should you be diligent? in imitating those who have the same example of Paul. Why should you be diligent in imitating Paul himself as a true minister of the Gospel? Why should you? Because there are those who walk around as enemies of the cross of Christ. And of those, you need to be wary. You need to be aware. You need to be ready. Don't blindly follow anybody. This is a scary thing, isn't it? Men and perhaps even women who appear to preach the Word, who appear to have a form of godliness, who appear to preach the truth. Many of them maybe even actually do open the Bible from a pulpit or a stage. And yet every word that comes out is a lie, every word that comes out is a twisting of the Word of God, a distorting of the true message of the Word of God. And Paul said this reality moves him to tears. I have often told you and now tell you even with tears there are many who walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. It moves Paul to the very core of His being and it grieves Him to the very core of His being that there are those who are carrying the church into doctrinal error, into doctrinal impurity, into many times perhaps even heresy. We know of the battles that Paul faced in his own ministry. The battles against the Judaizers that he fought against in Galatians, that he went to the Jerusalem council in the book of Acts to fight against. The legalism of the Judaizers that one of the basic tenets was in order to become a Christian you had to be circumcised according to Moses. Adding works to faith. You weren't truly a Christian until you had done that. And Paul fought against that, and he ultimately won the day. We must subject everything that anyone ever says to Scripture. Anything that anyone says must be subjected to the authority of Scripture itself, and that includes even me. Don't come into this place with an open mind. Come into it with an open Bible. Be like the Bereans in Acts chapter 17. Remember the noble Bereans who searched the Scripture to see if what Paul was teaching was true. And their final evaluation of it was that it was true. And Paul called them noble, not because they agreed with him, but because they tested him with the objective truth of the Word of God. And ultimately they came to faith because of it. Jesus taught us about false teachers and how to discern them in Matthew chapter 7. Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. What's the picture? They look like they belong in the flock, and they don't. They're wearing the right clothes. They look right. They may even, in many ways, say the right things. They look the part. Inwardly they are ravenous swolls. You will recognize them how? By their fruits. You won't recognize them by how they look. You won't recognize them by how they dress. You won't recognize false teachers because they're carrying around a book with a pentagram on it instead of a cross. You will recognize them by their fruit. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes? Are figs from thistles? Every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down, thrown into the fire, thus you will recognize them by their fruits." You get what he's saying. If it's a good tree, it's going to bear good fruit, and if it's a bad tree, it's going to bear bad fruit. That's how you determine a false teacher. And the number one fruit that we can look at is, does what they say square with what the Word of God says? Or does it contradict it? Does what they say falsely speak for God, or truly speak for God from His Word? Paul said the same thing to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 11, verse 13. Such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it's no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds. They're in the church, Paul said. They are infiltrating into our ranks. They disguise themselves as apostles of Christ. And inwardly, they're not. It's exactly what Jesus warned us about. And it's exactly what Paul is warning us about. He even connects their work to the very work of Satan. Even Satan disguises himself as what? An angel of light. But inwardly, he is darkness. This is how a false teacher infiltrates the church. Sometimes sprinkling truth with error, so that the error cannot be discerned as easily. And then they get a foothold, and then the total falsehood finally comes out. But by then, the discernment of the people has been so seared that they can't see it. And that goes all the way back to the very beginning, right? A little truth mixed with error plunged Adam and Eve into the fall. Did God really say, You can't eat of any fruit of the tree. Questioning the veracity, the truthfulness, the believableness, the trustworthiness of God's Word. That was the ploy of Satan back at the very beginning. And it is still his modus operandi today. It's still the way he works today. But we have a more sure Word Peter tells us the Word of God, that we subject all of this to. Jude also talks about it. One more, then we'll get back to Philippians. Jude also talks about false teachers, I thought. I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, but I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. Four, so why does he feel he needs to write to them to contend for the faith? Four, certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our Master and Lord Jesus Christ. I'm writing to appeal to you to contend for the faith, because people have crept in and they've done it, and they're unnoticed, and they're walking around among you, you're breaking bread with them, you're praying with them, you're listening to their teaching, and you don't even know it anymore. This is what false teachers do. They creep in, and the people don't even see it. What are some characteristics of these false teachers that Paul gives us? This is all in verse 19. He gives us four of them. Number one, their fate is set. Their fate is set. That's the first phrase. Their end is destruction. This is what awaits false teachers who preach lies. It's what awaits all who are outside of Christ. But these men who preach lies will receive an even greater condemnation. You know, it's a solemn thing to be a teacher and a preacher of God's Word. and no one should ever take lightly the preaching and teaching of the Word of God. Whether you are a pastor who stands in the pulpit and preaches, or even whether you're a teacher, a Sunday school teacher, or a small group teacher, or a Bible study teacher, this is a solemn charge to teach the Word of God to people. James 3.1 says, Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. It is a solemn charge to be a teacher of God's Word, whether you're teaching 3-year-olds or 30-year-olds or 70-year-olds. It is a solemn charge. I solemnly charge you, Timothy, in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing in His kingdom, preach the Word. It's a solemn thing. The false teachers that Paul is mentioning here will end with destruction. Their fate is set. It will be destruction. So their fate is set, but secondly, their God is self. Their God is self. That's what he says. Their God is their belly. That's who they worship. He uses the term figuratively, the same term for belly there in Romans 16. He's talking about those who cause divisions by preaching falsehood in Romans 16. And he says, such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. And by smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the hearts of the naive. Same word. They suit their own passions. They serve their own passions. Their God is their belly. Who do they worship ultimately? They worship themselves. They don't worship God and they don't worship Christ. They worship themselves. You remember Jude 4? I just read a minute ago. They are people who pervert the grace of God into sensuality and deny our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. sensuality, sinful passions, covetousness, these are the marks of a false teacher. They have a horrid preoccupation with carnal things, a horrid preoccupation with fleshly things, with earthly things, and we'll get right back to that in a moment. Their God is their self, and their fate is set. Thirdly, their glory is sin. Their glory is in sin, if you will. Their glory and their shame, which is quite a statement. Our shame is what should cause us to bow before God and plead for His mercy. Our shame is our unrighteousness. Our shame is our sinfulness. Our shame is our own proclivity for sensuality and worldly passions and evil desires and covetousness and anger and malice and slander and gossip and all of these things. And they should cause us to run to the foot of the cross and to the feet of Christ and throw ourselves upon the mercy of Christ. But not so for these false teachers. Instead, these very things that should cause them to prostrate themselves before Christ are the very things that they glory in. They revel in it. They take pride in it. They don't just love it. They exalt it. And somewhere along the way, they've even twisted it enough, many of them, to think that they can present it to Christ and to God as something to be proud of, to bring before His holiness. It's a complete 180 turn from what it should be, which should be as no surprise from a false teacher. This is a quote from one of my commentaries. Shockingly, the false teachers boasted in the very things that brought them shame. This is the most extreme form of wickedness. When the sinner's most wretched conduct before God is his highest point of self-exaltation. Their glory is in their sin. Their end is set, their God is self, their glory is in sin, and finally, their minds are seared. Their minds are seared with minds set on earthly things. This is the bottom line issue. False teachers do not fix their minds on Christ or the things of God, but instead they fix their minds on the things of this world. We see it in our day. The prosperity gospel runs rampant in our culture. constantly calling people to set their minds on the things of this world, health, wealth, prosperity, riches, blessings in this world, promising everything to us in this earthly life while completely ignoring the eternal perspective of the Gospel and of Scripture. Paul told the Colossians to seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth. And just here in Philippians, Paul just said, back up in the beginning of chapter 3, he counted everything in this world as what? Rubbish. Loss. in order that he might gain who? Christ. This is a very different mindset than these false teachers that he's talking about. Instead they have their minds set on earthly things. You remember James. James chapter 4 gives us a perspective on true faith. Maybe you remember that from our study in James, but I'll read it to you. Verse 4 of chapter 4. You adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Friendship with the world makes you an enemy with God. Blocking arm in arm with the things of this world and loving the things of this world makes you an enemy of God. Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. And then further down in chapter 4, He talks about this mind that is set on earthly things instead of eternal things. What you're going to do tomorrow and your perspective of what you're going to do tomorrow is always based on this earthly nonsense instead of the eternal perspective. Paul doesn't want the Philippians to be like them. He doesn't want teachers to be like them. Instead, we find leaders to imitate in order to press on, and we evaluate the enemies of Christ in order to guard ourselves from them as we press on. There's one more point for how we press on. Imitate godly leadership, evaluate ungodly enemies, and finally fixate on our citizenship. Fixate on our Citizenship. This is in direct contrast to the false teachers in verse 19. But, contrasting word, but, our citizenship is in heaven. They have their minds set on earthly things, but, our citizenship is in heaven. And from it, we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We await Him. That's a strong word, by the way. I love it. A lot of translations stick eagerly in there. We eagerly await Him, which is good, because that conveys the tone of the verb. We aren't just waiting. We're eagerly awaiting our Savior. Romans 8.23, not only creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. We groan as we wait eagerly. for that day. Galatians 5.5, through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. Hebrews 9.28, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who what? Eagerly wait on Him. And over and over again, we are told to eagerly wait for Christ. This is important, this eagerly adverb, because you can wait for something and not wait eagerly for it. You know, when I go to the dentist, I'm not sitting in the eagerly waiting room. More like dreadfully waiting room. Especially when I go. They always find stuff. But Paul says that we eagerly wait for Christ. Come now, come quick, don't tarry. It denotes the imminence of that great moment. Imminence, it could happen at any moment. It could happen now, right now, while we're in church. It could happen when we leave here. It could happen tomorrow. It could happen any moment. But it also denotes our eager expectation and hope of that great moment. It could happen at any moment. And if we had the choice, it would happen now, at this moment. What will He do? He will transform our lowly body, verse 21, to be like His glorious body by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself. This is our final glorification. Our lowly body, our perishable body, like He talks about in 1 Corinthians 15, will be raised imperishable. What is lowly will put on glory. We will be like Him, John tells us, for we will see Him like He is. That's, of course, for those of us who are still alive. What about those who have passed on before He returns? What is that going to be like for them? Well, their bodies will be raised as well. We know this from 1 Thessalonians. We who are alive, 1 Thessalonians 4.15, who are left until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. The Lord himself would ascend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, with the sound of the trumpet of God. The dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. So the dead, those who have passed on before then, their bodies will be raised. I remember hearing someone ask one time, what about cremated bodies? Look, if he can raise a body in a normal grave from the dead, I'm sure he can raise a cremated one too. Our bodies will be raised, and then all of us who are still alive will go to meet them in the air. You say, well, where are they now? If they're waiting on their bodies, where are they now? They're in the presence of the Lord, in the Spirit. In this age, in the church age, those who pass on are separated from their bodies for a time while they await for the second coming of Christ. Paul made that clear. right here in chapter 2, didn't he? It's far better that I depart and be with Christ. It's actually in chapter 1, verse 23. Paul understood if he died, he would go to be with Christ. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. Yet we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. Once again, when we die in this life, our spirit is brought to heaven, but our bodies are put in the grave. In the great consummation, the bodies of all those who have passed on before them will be raised and glorified and be reunited with their spirits. And those of us, perhaps, who are still alive, We'll meet them in the air with our glorified bodies as well. And so we set our minds on that great day. We eagerly await for the coming of our Christ for His people. I'm pressing on. Pressing on. In this we press on like the man, I know I've told you the analogy before, like the man who has inherited a great sum of money. And all he has to do is make the trip to go pick it up in his car. And he presses on through that trip because the reward at the end is worth the struggle to get there. He's not going to be dissuaded to give up. He's not going to let a flat tire get in his way, right? He's not going to let a little traffic get him down when he passes through Houston in the middle of 5 o'clock traffic. He's going to press on. He's not going to get halfway and then go and get tough and he turns around and goes home because it's just not worth it to keep going. He's going to press on. And so we too fixate on our heavenly citizenship. We keep our minds, you know, got a mansion just over, we sing it. Do we believe it? Do we fixate on it and press on? We stay focused on that great reward So after telling us to press on, and giving us some of those characteristics of pressing on, Paul outlines three ways that we press on. We imitate godly leadership, we evaluate godless enemies, and we fixate on our citizenship. And as we do these things, we press on toward the goal of the upward call of God in Christ. Let's pray. Father, we do pray that You would make us people who press on, who pursue holiness, who pursue righteousness and pursue godliness. Help us not to be discouraged or disheartened or dissuaded in this world. We live in a dark and sinful world. It's a painful world. So we pray that You would help us in the power of Your Spirit. strengthen us, guide us, embolden us, prepare us for what lies ahead, and help us to keep our eyes upon our Christ, so that all the things of this world, whether it's the beauty and the riches and the glory of this world, or even the painful things of this world, will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory. and grace. Amen.