Strength For Gospel-Gripped Soldiers

[0:00] the book of Philippians only has four little chapters, and today we finish chapter one, about a quarter of the book. I have to admit, this is a favorite for me, this little book.

[0:13] What a joy it's been to just to watch God do what he does, you know, take his living, active word and let it cut our hearts day after day, week after week.

[0:24] So I'm very encouraged once again today by seeing your faces, seeing us back here together under God's word and the time in Sunday school and now to study his word together.

[0:37] So I'm gonna read our sermon text for today. It's Philippians chapter one, verses 27 through 30. And I read this believing it's God's inspired, inerrant, infallible, clear and sufficient word.

[0:54] It's God's very own word for you. When I'm done reading, I'll say, this is the word of the Lord. If you believe that, you can respond. Thanks be to God. Philippians 1, 27.

[1:07] Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel.

[1:23] And not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation and that from God.

[1:35] Verse 29. For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake, having the same conflict which you saw in me, and now here is in me.

[1:53] The word of the Lord. You may be seated. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of the Lord stands forever.

[2:24] Let's pray. God, we ask that your Holy Spirit will illumine your word to your people today.

[2:39] We praise you for this active, ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, the living God, who dwells in your people, who breathed out every word of the Bible, and who now in a special way, mysteriously, illumines the meaning in a way that builds up, that edifies your body for your glory and for our good.

[3:05] You are so faithful, Lord. We ask that by your grace, you'll do this once again, out of love for your people. For Christ's sake we ask. Amen. Amen. Amen. If you'll let your imagination travel with me to World War I, there's a soldier in the trench, bullets flying above his head.

[3:33] He's tired. He's hungry. I don't know how many more days I can go on like this, seeing people getting picked off to the right and to the left. And in that trench, he ducks down one more time, pulls out the letter from his family, and just reads those words one more time, holds the letter back up, puts it in his pocket, pops up, and he has strength to keep on in the fight.

[4:01] Not because he hates what's in front of him, but because he loves who he's fighting to defend. Well, Paul is one such warrior.

[4:13] And if you caught it, that very last verse, verse 30, he says, you church now, about 10 years later, after Acts 16, about 10 years later, you church, you're in that same conflict which you saw in me.

[4:27] When you saw me get arrested, thrown in prison, being persecuted for the name of Christ, you're in that now. So I think this last little section of the first chapter is an overflow of Paul's prayers for the church, and he's understanding what's really going on.

[4:48] Look back in Philippians 1, starting at verse 3. You remember how the first verses, from about verse 3 to verse 11, is how he's praying.

[4:59] He's been praying for them, interceding on behalf of the church. And just think for a moment, what is prayer? Prayer is when the Holy Spirit is uniting you on earth.

[5:11] Here you are. I've left you on the earth, but you're united spiritually to Christ, who's at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. And from there, he's going to come with the host of angel army and all the saints to usher in the eternal state, the new heavens and the new earth.

[5:27] But in prayer, you're still in the earth, and you're praying. You're united to Christ. And what is Christ doing at the right hand of the Father right now? He lives to intercede for his people.

[5:39] So out of that overflow of Paul's prayers, his union to Christ, praying for the church, joining his prayers to what Christ is praying, he gives these exhortations. I think that's what these verses are.

[5:52] So what did Christ teach Paul through prayer in heaven? Well, he's giving him battle language. Verse 27, stand fast.

[6:05] That's battle language. Keep striving together. You'll see in a moment how that's battle language. He says, do not be in any way terrified by your adversaries.

[6:16] Why would you be terrified unless you're in a battle taking shots? Verse 29, you are suffering. You have the same conflict as I had when I was with you and as what I'm in right now.

[6:32] This is similar as to what Christ gave to the church in Ephesus, which was Ephesians 6, 11, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

[6:46] So here's the church at war, the church militant. Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, I want to give you this same strength.

[6:57] I want to pass it on to you. I think these verses are strength for gospel-gripped soldiers. These verses are strength for you and me as part of the church today as well.

[7:12] I don't always do this and it wasn't even on purpose until I got done. I realized there are five B's here. So I looked up really quickly this morning, what does vitamin B even do in us? And it helps your nerves.

[7:24] Well, that's fitting. He says, don't be frightened in any way. It gives you energy and it makes your immune system strong so you can keep going. So here are five doses of vitamin B for the church.

[7:38] Number one, be citizens. Be citizens. And this is so, so beautiful of the gospel. It's an exhortation for you to do something.

[7:50] What is it you have to do? You have to be a citizen. It's something God does to you. He makes you a citizen. So number one, live out who you truly are no matter who's watching.

[8:02] Be a citizen. Live out who you truly are no matter who's watching. Look at verse 27. It says, only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ so that whether I come to see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs that you stand fast.

[8:21] Philippi, it had belonged to Macedon and it had been named after Philip II who was the father of Alexander the Great. So it's got this rich Greek history and now it's called Little Rome.

[8:34] It had been built back up by the Romans. But it was a city much like Vanity Fair and Pilgrim's Progress, much like Denver. Every distortion known to mankind of a good desire that God gave is available and it's calling for your attention, your time, your energy, your money.

[8:55] And the exhortation is be a different kind of citizen within Philippi. Be a different kind of citizen within Denver, within the USA.

[9:06] the Christian Standard Bible translates that phrase as citizens of heaven. That's what he's getting at. As believers who were called out of the world into Christ but left in the world.

[9:19] Be that. That's who you truly are. Be a gospel colony, so to speak. The church is a gospel colony. And that command, let your conduct be worthy of.

[9:35] Six words. But in Greek it's just one word. I don't need to say what it is in Greek. You need to know that the root of that one word in Greek is polis.

[9:48] Polis. Like a city-state in the ancient world that belongs to an empire or a kingdom. So if you belong to a city-state, you know the laws, you know the manners, the values, the customs, the traditions of this city or this kingdom to which you belong.

[10:09] And in the ancient world to belong and to truly be a citizen, that was the best thing you had going for your life. It really defined you. And Paul says, you be a gospel citizen.

[10:23] You be a citizen of heaven. This collective mentality of all of us together, we are known by what we value, by the laws we hold to, by our customs.

[10:35] It rallies the troops and it incites action. It's such an ironic twist because in Acts 16.21, and Acts 16 is the whole chapter about how this church got started, read these words, Acts 16.21.

[10:51] Paul and his company were arrested because, quote, they teach customs that are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.

[11:02] This was the opposition that Paul and his team of missionaries received. They were disrupting the order of this Roman city. And now he's using it as an encouragement, as strength for the church within the city.

[11:16] I love how the King James puts it. So we say, you or ye, what's the difference in that old English? Well, ye is plural. So it says, be ye being.

[11:28] That would be the word for word translation. Be all of you together collectively, being citizens. It's in the second person, passive.

[11:39] Again, it's an exhortation, but it's passive. God is the one who makes you a citizen. You are the one who keeps being what he made you. He's reminding them of who they are. You all, saints of the church at Philippi, with elders and deacons, that's his audience.

[11:55] That's who he's been talking to. Be, being, citizens, whose loyalty belongs not to Caesar, but to Christ, not to Rome, but to heaven, whose eyes are set not on the troubles of this world, but on the joy of the next.

[12:13] Be, being, that. That's who you are. And he wants them to do this because it's who they are, not for man's approval.

[12:25] That simple statement, whether I come to see you or am absent. Well, here's this little battalion, this little congregation, an outpost of the kingdom of heaven. Wouldn't it be wonderful if they could see Paul, you know, one of the great commanders under Christ, calling them, rallying them up, sending them to fight.

[12:43] Wouldn't that be encouraging? Paul says, you're doing this for Christ. Whether I'm with you to see it or not, don't do it for me. But that's who you are. Keep being who God made you. Here's why I think this is God-breathed strength for you and me also, for the church.

[13:02] We are to live out who we truly are, no matter who's watching. To be a gospel-gripped soldier means we keep being who God made us to be, no matter who's watching.

[13:19] What comes to mind with an illustration for this is there was this story, I never got to meet them, but there's a brother and sister from a tribe in Africa.

[13:31] And they had the opportunity because they were of a high class, educated class in Africa and they came to college in the USA. And I was still hearing stories about them from this old couple, like grandparents, that opened their home for college students who wanted to pray for missionaries.

[13:46] And they described these wonderful, beautiful people as just conducting themselves differently, not even in a spiritual sense, just how they carried themselves, how they walked with their shoulders back, their heads held high, the courtesy they showed and how they, you know, served one another and helped.

[14:06] And they told me later that they were humble about this, but they came to find out in getting to know them, their father was considered a prince of this tribe. They were noble, noble, you know, royalty.

[14:17] And so they acted like a prince and a princess, even though they're in America, totally different culture. That's who they are, that's how they were, were born into and that's how they wanted to live and conduct themselves no matter where they were, whether or not their royal father and mother were watching them.

[14:35] Isn't that a beautiful picture for us as Christians who Christ has left in the world? We are royalty. Our father is the king of kings. We belong to him.

[14:47] And he's saying, be being who you are. In English, we can put it that way, though it's different. It's let your conduct be worthy of the gospel.

[14:59] You are gospel citizens. Live this way. When you're gospel gripped, your conduct does not depend on man's observation.

[15:10] The reason we read John 17 earlier as part of our liturgy is because what I hear here are these echoes. John 17 is Christ's high priestly prayer, his prayer for the church.

[15:23] And when we're told he's praying now at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, that's a little picture into how Christ prays for his church. And listen to the similarity of how Christ prays in John 17, 9 with these first words of our sermon text today.

[15:38] Jesus said, I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. There is a people in the world that belong to God that are separated for him.

[15:50] All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. It's the reputation, the name of God, the glory of Christ that's being revealed through his gospel colony, his people, the church.

[16:09] So number one, be citizens. Live out who you truly are no matter who's watching. Number two, be one. Be one.

[16:20] From the harmony of your shared faith, fight aggressively as one soldier. Be one. From the harmony of your shared faith, fight aggressively as one soldier.

[16:33] I really believe that's the picture. Verse 27, he says, you stand fast, he says, in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel.

[16:45] We can infer here there's a challenge against this little congregation in Philippi. Potential disunity or division within the body.

[16:59] In Paul's tactical mind, this would be a spiritual loss. Sinclair Ferguson, who has so much experience with churches and laboring toward churches to be biblical and healthy and thriving, he made this observation with this passage in mind.

[17:14] It continues to be an issue where personal agendas creep in and ends up costing the church an incredible and unhealthy amount of energy that could have otherwise been spent on advancement.

[17:30] And so he says, stand fast in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. That phrase, striving together, it's in the plural, present active, meaning all of you together continuously working at this right now.

[17:51] Do it. Advancing the cause. Labor toward the goal. Striving together. It's most often used in secular literature for competing.

[18:02] Like in the Greek Olympics, striving together toward the prize. I don't know what image you have of the Apostle Paul, but through him, through the personality and the background God gave him and through all of his travels around the Roman Empire, he loves these images from the Roman world.

[18:23] Racing, boxing, wrestling matches. In 1 Corinthians 9.26, he says, I don't shadow box. I'm here beating my body. I'm not just a guy, you know, theorizing about theology.

[18:37] I'm in the MMA. I've taken black eyes. I lost a tooth, you know. My leg, I walk with a limp. He's in it. He's in the fight. And he says, you church, strive together.

[18:48] One mind. One spirit. Like one soldier aggressively fighting this spiritual battle. What does it look like to do that?

[19:00] To aggressively go to battle as a church? I think we have a wonderful example in a man named Epaphras.

[19:12] In the letter to the Colossians by the inspiration of the Spirit, Colossians 4.12, we read this. Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Jesus Christ, he is always striving or struggling on your behalf in his prayers.

[19:29] That you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. He uses that same phrase, striving for you, to describe Epaphras praying, interceding.

[19:44] So if you know someone who prays on behalf of others aggressively, you know a true prayer warrior. And he says, do this together, at the same place, at the same time, in concert.

[20:02] So interwoven should your prayers be fighting for the advancement of the kingdom that it's like a singular prayer. Do this together, one spirit, one mind.

[20:18] I think this gets at the same description of the early church, Acts 4, 32. Now the multitude of those who were believing were of one heart and one soul.

[20:30] See, the way that God started the early church, Acts 4, the pouring out of the Spirit, the same thing continues now from city to city to city to city. Decades pass, and God is still working in the same way.

[20:44] So it's possible, no, it's biblical, and to be expected that we as a church would be able to be described that same way, so full of the Holy Spirit, that His mind, the mind of Christ is working its way into all of us, and to the extent that we share the mind of Christ, we are sharing one mind.

[21:02] To the extent that we are praying together for the advancement of God's kingdom and doing those simple, ordinary things He's told us to do, we are such a church as well. We're fighting aggressively as if we were just one soldier.

[21:15] What about the phrase for the faith of the gospel? I think in this meaning here it's a singular article, so the faith of the gospel.

[21:33] This means like what Jude said in Jude 1, 3, contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. It's the body of teaching about Christ, it's the faith that we received from Christ through the apostles breathed out into the New Testament.

[21:49] Contend for this truth. Contend for the doctrines about God and salvation in Christ alone by grace through faith in Him. 2 Thessalonians 2, 15 gives a similar instruction.

[22:04] He says, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter. So we're not holding on to these Jewish traditions or traditions of man, but we're holding on to what has been handed down within the church.

[22:20] That's why it's very appropriate for a congregation now, 2024, to still read the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, from our confessions and we share this rich heritage that's been handed down through the church and preserved by the Holy Spirit.

[22:36] Ferguson again commented, any distortion to the faith handed down will result in failure to live as citizens of heaven. You see the connection between the two.

[22:47] You distort the doctrine, you're going to mess up the way people live. Any distortion to the faith handed down will result in failure to live as citizens of heaven.

[22:59] Our Lord Jesus prayed in John 17, 11, Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world. I come to you, Holy Father, and keep through your name those whom you have given me that they may be one as we are one.

[23:18] Jesus prays for the Father by the work of the Spirit to keep his church, preserve them, and may they be one, sharing in the unity of God himself.

[23:32] Well, the second command is to be one from the harmony of your shared faith. Fight aggressively as one soldier. Do you have this shared faith?

[23:47] Do you follow this same Christ? There's no room to sit on the sidelines. Jesus says, either you're for me, or you're for the enemy.

[24:01] If you're not following Christ, if you're taking a wait and see, let's see how this all turns out, there will be no hope for you in the end. You follow Christ. You join his army.

[24:14] You serve him now. You don't know what tomorrow holds for you. This is the hour, he says. Today is the day to follow Jesus. Don't put it off to tomorrow.

[24:25] Your flesh wants to have other excuses. This is the day to make your allegiance to Jesus, the King of Kings, certain. Walter Gentry, he made a connection with this command to strive together with the church to an old fable, Aesop's fable, probably would have been familiar to this church in Philippi as well.

[24:50] There was a battle in this fable between the beasts and the birds. Each one had issues against the other. Those who were prey of one were angry at the predators of the other.

[25:02] And so they go to war, the beasts versus the birds. Well, there were the bats who fly like a bird, but they're mammals, like beasts. And they didn't pick a side in the battle.

[25:13] Whoever was winning a little bit, they would drift over and stay close to that side. Well, finally, when the battle was over and they're deciding who gets which land, they had to decide what do we do with the bats?

[25:24] And no one wanted the bats on their side because they're not loyal. They don't pick a side. They don't fight for either. So bats were relegated to the caves. The moral of this story is if you're a Christian, you can't be a bat.

[25:39] I love how Charles Spurges pointed out, every man must serve somebody. We have no choice as to that fact. Those who have no master are slaves to themselves.

[25:51] Depend on it. You will either serve Satan or Christ, either self or the Savior. You will find sin, self, Satan, and the world to be hard masters.

[26:04] But if you wear the crest of Christ, you will find him so meek and lowly of heart that you will find rest for your souls.

[26:15] Wear the crest of Christ. Fight in his army. And from the harmony of our shared faith, we fight aggressively in a spiritual sense as one soldier.

[26:27] Number three, be unrattled. Be unrattled. Paul tells the church next that to suffer opposition is proof you are advancing together.

[26:39] Be unrattled. Be unrattled. To suffer opposition is proof that you are advancing together. Verse 28 reads, Not in any way, a double negative there, not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation and that from God.

[27:03] Christians in the ancient world, much like today, were suspicious. The world would look at them and say, Those people are weird. You don't want to be like that. They were considered odd by the Roman masses, which made them an easy target.

[27:20] There was one thing that had happened. It's that when Paul got converted in the first decade or so of his ministry, Caesar Augustus was the emperor of the Roman Empire. But after the church in Philippi was planted, there was a change in power and Nero came in.

[27:36] And under Nero, the persecution ramped up extremely. And Christians, especially in Rome, who were considered odd and weird outcasts, many were arrested, burned at the stake, thrown to the wild beasts or to the gladiators for show, desperate attempts to keep a momentum going within the Roman Empire, and others were crucified.

[27:59] So, in Philippi, there's an implied need that there's opposition, not only threats of division from the inside, but true adversaries coming at the church from the outside as well.

[28:15] And Paul doubles down on it. He says, never in no way be affrightened. The words there, it's don't be affrightened by your adversaries, but the word by is under.

[28:27] Don't be ever in any way thinking you are under these adversaries. These ones who are opposing you are not above you. Don't be afraid. And the word afraid is often used to describe a horse when it startles.

[28:44] So if you're going on a path and there's a rattlesnake, the horse will rear up, buck you off. It'll get rattled. But a horse that's on a military campaign that's charging forward and advancing the cause, it has to be a horse that's well broken in that won't be rattled.

[29:01] It's going to keep putting one foot in front of the other. It will not flinch in the face of opposition and adversaries. He says, be like that Calvary. You're advancing together.

[29:13] Don't rear up and freak out. Don't get paralyzed by fear. No matter how intense it gets, never stop charging forward. When you think of trembling with fear in the context of this church in Philippi, there's one person who probably comes to mind for you.

[29:33] That's exactly how the Philippian jailer was described. Do you remember that? The Philippian jailer, he trembled with fear in Acts 16 and he fell down on the ground. He was ready to take his own life.

[29:47] That same word, affrightened. And God takes people like that, so afraid of losing their career and their life, but he says, no, tremble in the fear of God and believe.

[30:02] What must I do to be saved? That's the only thing he needed to know now. And this is good news for people like you and me because anyone who has trembled in the fear of God never needs to tremble out of fear of man again.

[30:18] When you are opposed for Christ, Paul says, this is proof. It's a testing fire. Your suffering is a sign of perdition for the enemies, that they will be destroyed, but for you of your salvation.

[30:40] That word sign or proof, it can be translated as it's really a token or an omen of their destruction and living proof for you that you will live.

[30:55] In other words, a token or a sign like this, it's to take all of the available evidence, line it all up on the table, then arrange it in a logical order and come to a conclusion.

[31:07] That's a proof. So he says, look at this church, what's happening. You're advancing. Christ is praying for you. I'm praying for you. You are striving together.

[31:20] Keep doing that. And yes, you're facing opposition. Let that be proof that the kingdom of Christ is advancing and will not fail. And if the kingdom of Christ is advancing, you can know that the Father will make all of the enemies of Christ crumble under his feet.

[31:38] They will be destroyed and you will be victorious with Christ. your foes will fail for sure. King Jesus prayed in John 17, 14, I have given them your word.

[31:58] The world has hated them because they are not of this world just as I am not of the world. And I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but you should keep them from the evil one.

[32:10] for they are not of the world just as I am not of the world. And when your gospel grips like that Philippian jailer, like every true believer, then you learn to practice your faith without the fear of man.

[32:26] You don't need to ever be rattled again if you're a Christian. And when we do face opposition and most likely in our lifetimes we'll feel more and more of this ratcheting up, we need to remind ourselves you're going to need to remind me this is proof that the kingdom of God is advancing.

[32:45] Well, the fourth dose of vitamin B for today is be kept. Be unrattled and now be kept. It is God who has gripped you and he will hold you by his gospel.

[33:03] Be kept. It is God who has gripped you and he will hold you by his gospel. You can lose the thread of the theology.

[33:15] Why is Paul anchoring all of these exhortations? It's exactly this. In verse 27 he says you're going to live in a manner worthy of the gospel.

[33:25] It's the gospel that defines you. In verse 28 he reminds them salvation is from God. Don't forget that church. In verse 29 he says for to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ.

[33:40] It's for Christ's sake that you're saved. And it was granted for you to believe. The implied need here for this church in Philippi is that through the opposition and the hardships like us they can ask those questions.

[33:59] If my suffering continues to be this hard will I be able to keep going? Maybe I never belonged to Christ in the first place.

[34:12] Maybe God started this work in me but I don't know if I can finish it. That's what's so common for a flesh to ask and that's what he's been answering so far in chapter 1.

[34:23] Christ started this he will finish it. And he gives him the strength in verse 28 he says your salvation is from God. It was God who granted for you to believe in the first place.

[34:35] Verse 29 God gives you faith to receive the gospel on behalf of Christ. You believe for Christ's sake. He confirms this to the church in Rome as well.

[34:48] Romans 5 2 Through him Jesus Christ we have also obtained access by faith to this grace in which we stand. Be citizens.

[34:59] He who made you a citizen will keep you as a citizen. See the Roman citizenship could be bought but it was much better if you didn't have to go buy it or work for it.

[35:10] If you could simply have it granted to you. And that's the word he uses. Your faith has been granted to you. You belong because God gave it as a gift. Remember in Acts 22-28 the centurion said with a large sum I obtained this citizenship to be a Roman and Paul says but I was born a citizen.

[35:31] It was granted to me. So God is the one who will keep you. Be kept church. Remind yourself of this. Well there's that little boat in the ocean being tossed with big waves.

[35:47] Even the grown-ups are afraid perhaps. But there's a dad standing his feet are shoulder width apart holding the three-year-old. the three-year-old is holding on to that dad's neck as tight as he can.

[36:01] But the dad is holding on even tighter. See we hold on to Christ but it's Christ who keeps us. King Jesus prayed in verse 12 of chapter 17 of John.

[36:12] He said I kept them in your name. Those who you gave me I have kept and not one of them is lost. So church you too be kept.

[36:24] when your gospel gripped you grow in your assurance of salvation and this is proof of his faithfulness to you. Well the fifth and final dose of vitamin B for us today is be compassionate.

[36:41] Be compassionate. Keep receiving Christ and suffering upon him together. Be compassionate. Keep receiving Christ and suffering upon him together.

[36:56] Verse 29 reads it has been granted on behalf of Christ for you to suffer for his sake. Verse 30 having the same conflict which you saw in me and now here is in me.

[37:11] It has been granted on behalf of Christ. That word granted could be translated graced. It has been graced to you to believe and it has been graced to you to suffer.

[37:25] The word suffer could be word for word translated as be emotioning. The root is like the passion. So compassionate means to suffer with.

[37:38] Be compassionate. Keep suffering with Christ. The implied need for Christians who are suffering is to question the goodness of God.

[37:53] Why did King Jesus call me to him and to his church just to suffer? It's so hard. Is he a good king? Well in verse 29 and 30 Paul says that you believe in him and you suffer for him.

[38:15] and the preposition for could be upon. You suffer upon him. So as you're going through a suffering Christ is right there under you sustaining you carrying you through.

[38:30] That's how much you are suffering together with him. It says it's been graciously given to you. Exceedingly with you for the sake of Christ to suffer together.

[38:48] Jesus warned every disciple Matthew 10 39 whoever finds his life will lose it and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. In John 17 18 he prayed as you sent me into the world I have also sent them into the world.

[39:05] So to be a Christian is to lose your life for living for yourself but to find eternal life living in Christ. And just as Christ came on a mission to lay down his life for the sake of others and for his kingdom to be a Christian is to lay down your life and follow Christ following him as he advances his kingdom even through suffering.

[39:32] We have so much encouragement in all the New Testament that the Christian church is a suffering church and God doesn't waste a drop of suffering. I won't read these for today but I want to encourage you God does at least three things every time we're going through seasons of suffering.

[39:51] Number one as you suffer King Jesus refines you 1 Peter 6 and 7 describing the suffering like being tested by fire to purify and refine number two King Jesus comforts you 2 Corinthians 1 5 do you suffer in Christ well you can know for certain you will be comforted in Christ to be comforted by Christ himself is worth any suffering and number three King Jesus enables you and I to rejoice 1 Peter 4 12 through 18 that same letter see the suffering starts and it feels like a refiner's fire but on the far side of that is joy and rejoicing you know Christ on such a deeper level the illustration for me to sum up this last point of being compassionate keep receiving Christ and suffering upon him for his kingdom together and summarizing the theme of the sermon of a soldier aggressively advancing the cause it came to my mind about Uriah

[40:59] I was thinking about how you know David a man who God used so mightily and through the line of David would come the great king Jesus but at the end of David's life he's an anti-hero and instead we have this foil this contrast which is Uriah the Hittite David has power Uriah is a man under orders David stays back in the palace Uriah is on the battlefield the front lines David takes what's not his Uriah restrains himself from taking what is his when his nation was at war and his fellow soldiers were in battle and David called him back to try to entrap him you remember how Uriah actually slept on the hard floor in the steps outside of his home and he said how can I be enjoying inside the comfort and being with my wife when the army of God is fighting and even when his adversary in this case David intended evil

[42:02] Uriah obeyed those orders went to those front lines and fought to his death he suffered and Uriah the Hittite died as a citizen of heaven so in this example Uriah is a shadow of Christ he did not take the privileges that he was entitled for but for the sake of his mission for your life for your soul for eternity Jesus Christ fought for you to the very end he showed the greatest restraint and he's victorious in his battle he crushed the serpent's head and he will come back for his own when your gospel gripped you suffer with King Jesus with his people in Christ's name Charles had in

[43:04] Spurgeon's last sermon right before he died his last little paragraph his last point reads like this King Jesus is the most magnanimous of captains magnanimous means great hearted there never was his like among the choices of princes he is always to be found in the thickest part of the battle when the wind blows cold he always takes the bleak side of the hill the heaviest end of the cross lies ever on his shoulders if he bids us carry a burden he carries it also his service is life peace joy I'll add my testimony to Spurgeon's in 40 years I know Christ to be nothing but love is that true for you can you say amen follow Jesus he's good Spurgeon wrote

[44:04] God help you to enlist under the banner of Jesus even this day King Jesus has gripped you by his gospel Christian you follow as his soldier and he promises he will always be your strength glory be to God let's spend some moments in prayer responding to the word that you've heard today to pray maybe