Standing Fast - A Summary

May 21st 2023

Philippians 4:1-9

What kind of men are we, fellow brothers? What kind of women are you, sisters? We, the children of God, with the undying fire of the Holy Spirit forever fixed deep within the softest tissue of the softest tissue of our hearts, are called to be the hands and feet of Him who saved us. To be His action. To be His love. To be His justice. To be His grace and forgiveness and compassion and liberty. We are to be the visible manifestation of the outworking of the Will of God.

We are His means. Clay within the hands of a Mighty Potter. We are His tools, for Him to use as He sees fit, using us in the manner in which He created us to be used, and setting us down upon His heavenly workbench when the work that He is setting out to do, no longer requires a tool such as that we are.

Do you want your friends and family to know who Jesus Christ is? Do you want them to see the forgiveness that is offered within His holy bosom, that washes us clean of the darkest and most vile stains? Do you want, with a heart full of His righteous indignation, to stand against the wickedness and depravity that has been bubbling up from the sewers of this world, leeching the innocence from the children of our towns? Do you want to look that same evil, in its yellowed eyes, and say with a loud voice that here, upon this line that I have drawn around my family and I, is where you stop. I will not give in, I will not bend, I will not break.

Though an entire culture may stand before you with disgust and anger pouring from their gaping mouths, will you, instead of feeling hatred towards those whose sin that causes them to hate you, because of the name of Jesus that you wield; instead of feeling hatred towards those whose sin has blinded them…will you extend to them the offer of eternal salvation through the name of Jesus Christ?

Will the God-hating pagans that besmirch your good Christian name, hear from your Christian mouth, that they themselves can be forgiven of their sins and be redeemed by the golden blood of Jesus Christ?

They must, brothers and sisters. They must. They must hear you speak of Jesus Christ. They must hear the story of who He is and what He has done. They must hear the good news that they can be forgiven, regardless of the evil they have done. They must be told of the golden blood of Jesus Christ, dripping in crimson ribbons from His nail marked hands and flowing in rivers of love from His stripped back. They must hear that upon that cross 2000 yrs ago, He drank dry the cup of His Father’s wrath for all who will ever repent and believe, be they upon their own crosses, beside His on that very day, or be they 2000yrs in the future. All who repent and believe in Jesus Christ, will have the punishment that their own sins have earned them, accounted to Christ, and the blood and water from the spear-born wound in His side will give to them the righteousness of God.

The world must see this, oh saints. They must hear from you, with your words, that Jesus Christ is God, that we are not, that our sins have separated us from God and that we have earned nothing but His heavenly anger because of them. But they must also hear, that that same God, who dwells in unapproachable light, is not only full of wrath and anger towards sin, but that he is also full of mercy and patience towards His children. Towards those who repent and believe. Which is why He sent his only begotten Son, so that whosoever believes will not perish but have eternal life.

You must stand fast against the multitude of sins that this world offers up, but how?

How…can we, fallen sinners, whose hearts of stone have been replaced, how can we stand fast against the sin in the world?

Before we answer it, and I am sure that because of where we are in Scripture this morning, you already know the answers, but we need to ask another question. Yes, we must ask how we can stand against lions and tyrants when their teeth and their swords are sharp. Yes we must ask how we can ever speak light into the culture that we currently live in. A culture so dark that they have propped up fake suns and fake stars, given them names like love and acceptance, and then in their own fake world they worship the fake god of their fake suns. How can we stand with righteous indignation against those that hate our God, while simultaneously extending to them the Gospel of peace? How can we hate evil, and hate the things that God hates, while showing them patience and grace? How can we stand against the sin in the world, oh loved ones, when the sin in the world is so strong? How can we ever stand against the tidal waves of wickedness, promulgated and propped up by even our federal government? How can we stand fast against the sin in the world? Is a question that must be answered.

But there is another question. There is more to ask. And in fact, the next question, is part of the answer to the first. It is not the full answer. It is not the complete answer, it's not the end all solution against the perverse and prideful sins that run rampant upon the shores of America. But its answer, will help us answer the first question.

If we ever wish to stand fast against the sin in the world, that swallows entire families and Nations…we must first ask how we can stand fast against our own sin.

If we want to go out into God’s world, and declare God’s truths to the people there, we must first and foremost stand fast against our own sin. We must look into the depths of our heart, and see what is there. We must be so incredibly honest with ourselves, about not only the actions we take with our bodies, not only the thoughts that we allow to run free in our minds and in our hearts, but we must be honest about the motivations behind our motivations. 

Do we want to live our life, free from any manner of outside influence? Do we think that we, ourselves, are the end all be all of our own life? Do we want to give lip service to God, even call Him “God”, and then do nothing holy with our life? Do we desire to keep our sins in that back corner of the basement of our heart, locked out of sight from our friends and families, so that when temptation rises, we can, with longing eyes and quick feet, descend into the basement of our heart, eager to grasp and indulge in our favorite sin?

We must stand fast against our own sin, in the exact same way that the tax collector in Luke 18 did. Knowing that he was unworthy of heaven, he beat his chest and cried out “Lord have mercy on me, a sinner!” Is this our cry to our King? Do we say with tears and pain: “I am guilty before you God! I have lived in ways your Word says not to, I have thought things Your Word says not to.” Or do we attempt to placate Him? Do we make excuses and reasons why it’s ok to live a certain way, or think a certain way, knowing full well that those ways are contrary to the Bible? Do you think yourself to be worthy of heaven, and are well prepared with long lists of why? Do you claim you are worthy, because of the amount of pain it brings to your heart and mind to think that you are unworthy?

Hear me clearly this morning, Jesus only came for the unworthy, for the sick. If you are “OK” before an all-knowing God…if you have lists and lists of reasons and reasons why you are worthy of heaven… then Jesus didn’t come for you.

Are you like the father of the sick child in Mark 9, who tells Jesus that he believes, but that there is still a lingering doubt within himself? Do you admit that Jesus Christ is God, that He is the only means by which anyone can be saved, but still, itching upon the back of your mind are words of doubt, words of fear, words of worry and anxiety…words of unbelief? Do you find unbelief in your heart? In your mind? If you do, what do you do with it? Do you explain away the aspects of God that your unbelief has convinced your heart…are not true? Do you read the words long written down, and then your unbelief twists and distorts them? Or do you cry out, like that father in Mark 9, “Lord I believe! Help my unbelief.” ? If you do, ask yourself where your unbelief comes from.

Do you stand fast against your own sin? Or does it stand fast against you?

Could the reason why your unbelief whispers its song into your heart, be the exact same reason why you are not standing fast against your own sin? Is the weight of your sin’s shame, too much? Is its guilt…too strong? Are your arms feeble, oh sinner? Is your back, too weak to bear the burden of that which you have done, and to acknowledge how God views it, would be to increase its weight and thereby crush you under its rightful condemnation? Are you ashamed of your past? Ashamed of your present? Do you look back in regret and the tears which fall over our past choices blur your vision of Jesus Christ? Does your past haunt you, laughing at your attempts to be a new person? Does it remind you of who you are and what you have done, and gently speak into your ear that you are nothing more than a sinner undeserving of the love of God?

Does the absolute neon majesty of God and His infinite towering power, echoing into one ear, while your past is being whispered into the other…cause you to fall to your knees in paralyzing fear? How can I be made righteous, when my sins are so dark? How can I be made clean, when my life is filled with dirt? How can God ever look at someone like me, let alone love them?

Because He is not like us. Where punishment is due, He gives mercy. Where wrath is due, He gives love. Where anger is due, He gives patience. Where the undying fires of hell are the just punishment we deserve for our sins, He gives the undying love of a perfect and holy Father who knows no limits, who has no boundaries, and who sits in the heavens and does all that He pleases. 

We can stand fast against the sin in our life that grips our hearts with more strength than our weak fingers can ever summon forth, because “thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.” (Isaiah 57:15).

We can stand fast against our own sin, because Jesus Christ is God, and He lives with those whose spirits are crushed, those who are remorseful over their past, and when we have no strength, no courage, no understanding, no plan, no future, no grit and nothing to fall back on, nothing to look forward to, nothing to hold within our hearts and minds as something that can be relied upon in the midst of this worlds darkest storms….He revives our hearts and gives strength to the weary.

He does this not because we are worthy, but because we are not. He does this, not because we have earned it, but because we know that we can’t. He does this, not because we are better than others, but because we are worse. Not because we loved Him first, but because He first loved us.

Stand fast against your sin, oh saint, stand fast! Look to heaven! Look to the throne room, whose angels all fall in worship of the King! Look to that old wooden cross and its blood stained beams held up over the Earth that He created, carrying His broken and bloodied body…for it was there, thousands of years ago, that the full punishment your sins have earned you…those sins which have haunted you for your whole life and separated you from God…it was those same sins that were given to Jesus Christ, so that He would die under the punishment from heaven that you deserved, and He would take them into the grave. There is therefore now no condensation to those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1), because He did not remain in that grave, but rose back to life. He left your death below the Earth, and rose again victorious over it. 

Stand fast against your sins brothers and sisters. Stand strong. In open defiance against the demons around you who remind you of your sins…in open defiance against the people in the world, who remind you of your sins…in bloody rebellion against your old self…take up the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God, read the words long written down, and day by day, hour by hour, leave your sin bruised and bleeding upon the ash heap of your past. Go to Church, every week. Sing LOUD the psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, standing side by side with other redeemed sinners. Confess your sins and weaknesses to one another, asking for help and prayer. 

If we ever want to stand fast against the sin in the World, then we must first stand fast against our own sin. 

And because God is gracious and loving, He has given us practical, tangible steps whereby we can make progress in our standing fast, in our verses this morning. If you missed the Sunday we talked about these, and today’s summary of them is insufficient, I urge you to go back, re-watch or re-listen to the Sermons from the past few weeks.

The first step He gives us, though the sanctified pen of the Apostle Paul, is unity in the local Church.

Be united with the other Christians in your local Church. Let disagreements about everything that isn’t heresy, break as so many waves against the walls of your Church, as you stand united with the other saints within them. Put their needs before your own, knowing they will put yours before theirs. Being united with other Christians in your local Church, when disunity is ripe for the taking, is the first step in standing fast. Because it admits that our understanding is not perfect and complete, and acknowledges that others hold value. Humility is a presupposition of unity, and unity calls other brothers and sisters to our side when we need help.

The next step he gives us to stand fast against the sin in the world and the sin in our life, is rejoicing.

Rejoice in the Lord, always, and again I will say, rejoice! Joy is the foundation of the Christian life, because the truth that we have been made to be in right standing with the God whom we sinned against, will fill our entire life. Independent from circumstances, situations, and happenings, the joy of the Lord reigns supreme in the life of a believer. No matter what happens in this life, God is still God, and He will use everything that comes against us for our good. (Rm. 8:28) Rejoicing in the midst of sorrow, loss, and confusion, or happiness, love and peace, is the second step in how we stand fast, because it acknowledges that we are at peace with the God who holds together the very fabric of reality.

The third step, is gentleness.

Let your gentleness be known to all men, the Lord is at hand. Not jumping to conclusions and always assuming the worst, but carefully and slowly taking in everything about a situation before we react, is how we can stand fast. Not forever standing on our rights, but, like Christ Himself did, allowing wrong to be done against us, because other people are sinners just like we are, and He is going to judge them with perfect judgment. He is at hand, here and now with us. And He is at hand, in the future, when He will split the sky to retrieve His Bride. Stand fast by letting your gentleness be known to all men.

The next way to be able to stand fast against the sin in the world and the sin in our life, is to be free from anxiety. This is a sensitive one, so, again, I urge you to go back and listen to our Sermon on Anxiety if this summary leaves you hungry.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Anxiety, as we talked about it a few weeks ago, is the opposite of joy. It is the absence of peace. It is the “running around inside of our minds”. It is the lie that God is not in charge of every molecule in all of reality, and that we are the end all be all of everything that happens in our life, and everything in our life depends on us. Spend more time in prayer, than you do on social media. Pray until you have mentioned every single one of your sins, twice. Pray until your knees are sore. Pray in front of your kids. Lead them in prayer. Teach them to pray. Let them catch you praying. Pray until the tears fall, and then wipe them off and pray even more. Prayer is the cure for anxiety because it acknowledges that God can do whatever He wants, whenever He wants, with whatever He wants, and that He chooses to use our prayers to make it all happen. Prayer fights anxiety because it is a manifestation of our free will…that God who uses for His intents and purposes, and admits to Him that we are ok with Him doing so. If the sin of anxiety runs free within your life, you will never be able to stand fast, because we will be living in constant fear, constant doubt, and constantly sinfully assuming that everything in our life depends on us.

Lastly, we looked at what it is we feed our minds with. What grows our thoughts and nourishes our hearts?

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue, and if there is anything praiseworthy - meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in the Apostle Paul, these do, and the God of peace will be with you. The final step given to us in Philippians 4, to help us be better able to stand fast against the sin in the world and the sin in us…is to feed our mind with high and honorable things of God. Refuse the endless consuming of “neutral” nonsense. Do not define yourself, or find your identity in, your hobbies and likes. Be more than a passive bystander in the things which wiggle between your thoughts and feed your mind, but instead, intentionally and carefully seek out the beauty in this world. Look for people who stand up for the things of God, and then imitate them, so long as they imitate Christ. Feed your brain with good books and good art. Feed your soul with stories of knights and dragons. Of sheriffs bringing justice to a lawless town. Swipe past the impure images of your smartphones, no matter how tempting the amount of skin you may see, will be. Feed your mind with things that are pure. Feed it with things that are lovely and of good report. Reject mindless gossip. And when the high and mighty things of this world that are able to feed our minds with the things of God…are hard to find…seek them out. Be not satisfied with the garbage and tar of what this culture props up as good and beautiful, but instead, dig until you find gold. Look to generations long since dead. Read books written by people who stood before literal tyrants and literal lions, because they professed the name of Christ. Go talk to your grandparents and great grandparents, about how they first came to know God. Train your brain and your body to be able to sit still and pay attention to a Sermon that lasts longer than 15 minutes. Hold your duty as a Father or Mother or child so close to your heart that the ways in which your duty unfolds, does so in syncopation with its beating. Feed your mind with beauty and grace, reject modern smoke and mirrors meant to distract you from the evil behind them. Meditate on the high and mighty things of God, if you ever wish to stand fast.

In closing, as we not only read through Philippians 4, but as we slow down, take a seat, and take in the wonders of the forest that it is, and admire each of the trees of Unity, Joy, Gentleness, Peace from Anxiety, and Feeding our Minds with the Good…as we slow down and study scripture, taking time to chew and digest, taking time to wrestle with the things that are hard to understand, the things that challenge us, the things that hit a part of our heart that cause us to shudder because we realize we haven't been living how we ought…when you take time to study Scripture and let it be nourishment to your soul…you will be brought to a decision.

We, members of Christ Community Church, have been brought to a decision.  A point of contest. A fork in the road stands before us, and we stand before it with all of the gear we have been gathering and collecting and organizing and packing away inside of our hearts and minds from Philippians 4:1-9. We have the gear of Unity and Joy. We have the tools of Gentleness and Peace from Anxiety. We have dug out of the mine of Scripture, the precious gems of Meditating upon the things of God, and have been able to store them in safety within our hearts and minds to use when we must walk through the storms of life.

And so we stand.

What kind of a person are you? Are you one of integrity? Strength? Determination? Not just on the surface, where everyone can see…but deep down within the bottom of the bottom of your soul…who are you? Will you stand fast against your sin? Will you admit that you are unworthy of eternity with God, and thereby have your sins paid in full by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ? Or will you foolishly claim that you can handle them on your own? Will you stand fast, oh sinner, oh saint, against your past? 

Will you be able to look backwards at your life, see that which God hates, and leave it there…in your past? Will you listen to the whispers of your past, doing all that it can to convince you that you are still unloved by God, just like you were when you were who you were in your past? Will you hear his soft voice, lulling you back into who you used to be? Will you hear her tender song, pulling your heart down into the sin you used to love? 

Will you be able to stand fast against not only your past…but against your present? Against those sins that only you and God know that you struggle with? What kind of a man are you? What kind of a woman are you? Are you a Christian that others can look to, and imitate? Are you someone that others can go to, in their hour of need, asking for prayer and seeking guidance? Can you feel the weight of temptation, pulling your thoughts towards things unholy and wicked, and fight that temptation?

Are you unsure of where you stand in this fight? Do you desire to be a man of God, a woman of God, but when you think about the times in your future when the snakes of sin will strike, you are unsure of if you will be able to stand in that day? If so, then take heart. For the desire to love the things that God loves, and hate the things that God hates…can only come from God. And God will always revive the heart of the weak and afraid, the lost and the weary.

You can stand fast, because God lives within the very hearts of those whom He saves. 

You can stand fast, because it is His glory that will be mocked if He doesn't either give you the strength to do so, or to use your failure for your good.

Stand fast against your sins, children of God, for when you do so, you will be able to stand fast against the sins in the World. 

You will be used by God, as His hands and feet. As His justice and mercy. As His love and compassion. He will equip you with His holy armor, and place you exactly where upon the battlefield of this world a Warrior of God such as yourself must be, so that His will comes about in the life of His world. 

When you see tyrants running free, stand fast.

When you see pagans pushing their perversions upon your community, stand fast.

When you see child sacrifice held up and encouraged, stand fast.

Make your choice, brothers and sisters, what kind of a person are you?

One who caves to fleshly desires? Or one who is afraid of caving to fleshly desires so you cry out in prayer to God to give you strength against them?

One who lives in shame of their past? Or one who brings that shame to the foot of the cross and asks God to free you from it?

Are you a Christian who will stand fast against their own sin, repenting of it whenever it shows its ugly face? One who stands fast against the sin the world, no matter how big and ugly it may be?

Are you someone who is united with other Christians in your Church?

Are you Joyful, regardless of what is happening in your life?

Do you jump to conclusions, act unreasonable & assume the worst…or are you Gentle?

Are you free from Anxiety because you are full of Prayer?

Do you feed your mind with the high and mighty things of God? 

Do you want to be?