Getting Our Spiritual Bearings (Part 2 of 2)

We are continuing our Encore 2022 series on Truth for Life, featuring some of the most requested messages from the past year. Today, Alistair Begg urges us to wake up, step up, and speak up. We'll find out what he means as he concludes a message titled, Getting Our Spiritual Bearings. We're in Philippians chapter 2 verses 14 and 15.

Bill. Our world is diseased. Our world is searching for a cure—a cure that is only found in the gospel. Do you believe this?

Listen. You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, writes Paul in Ephesians 2. Following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. And we were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind, alienated from the God who made us, on two fronts—by our own rebellion and by his settled reaction to sin.

Therefore, unless there is the opportunity of reconciliation, we remain in a dreadful state. Well, you say, Well, that's not the whole story, is it? Doesn't the psalmist say that we are fearfully and wonderfully made?

Yes! And we are. Look around. Look at your neighbor. Fearfully made.

Wonderfully made. But the psalmist also is honest enough to say, I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Now, you see, that's a big help when you're thinking about raising your children.

Because if we have a biblical view of the doctrine of creation and a biblical view of the fall, then we realize that what we're dealing with is not simply a bunch of little angels but angelic-looking little creatures who will defy you as quick as look at you. What is that? Did they go to school for this? No! What's the problem? Crooked! Warped! It's not a straight line. Now, you see, what the Bible actually does is then make clear—and this is what Paul is doing—he's reminding these people as they live in Philippi, Listen, you must remember the fact that you live in a crooked and perverse generation, that you live in an environment that you have been actually removed from spiritually, and yet you live in that.

You go to work in that every single day. And so do we. And the Bible's explanation of the darkness is not simply politely ignored. No, not now. It is vehemently opposed. All the things that I've said so far, if I were to get an opportunity to say them down in the public square, the people would shout me down in an instant.

They'd probably come and take me away. How could you say such things? No, we have another credo that we live by. We got rid of that old stuff. No, no, no, no, this is a much nicer program.

You can navigate your life by using this. First of all, number one, humans are inherently good. That's what they say. The problem is all the environment. The problem is your grandmother. She should have taken you to the zoo when you wanted to go, and you have never recovered from it. What a shame!

What a thing that she would do such a thing! You find yourself in such a mess. And you, such an inherently good little boy! Secondly, individual freedom and personal happiness is the ultimate good.

Check it out! It's Friday, I'll do what I want. She's available, I can do what I choose.

No one will ever know. And furthermore, it's all about me. It's about my happiness.

And ultimately, I will be the arbiter as to what is good and helpful for me. And the notion that if individuals are given maximum freedom in every aspect, then eventually all will be well. Just let us go. Just let us be free. Why do you have to have these frameworks?

Why do you have to have these structures? Now, you sensible people, in this way, you see, God is dethroned. Man takes his place. Philippi lived in the first century experiencing the pressure of an alien culture. We live now, in the twenty-first century, a very short journey from the inception of our nation to today. And yet, the Judeo-Christian principles, which undergirded the establishment of our nation, which actually undergird the whole of Western civilization, those principles are no longer dominant, really, in any place at all. And people find themselves saying, Well, it's better that we be done with this, the God-given boundaries.

We should at least blur them, if not remove them. Now, it would be one thing, loved ones, if the culture was clear about this in its opposition and the church was equally clear in its pushback. But guess what? The church isn't. Church with a big C. And you don't have to go looking around for this stuff.

It will meet you in the third affair of life. I speak now concerning the United Kingdom, about which I know a significant amount, and particularly the response of the established church in England to the influence of a culture that has dismantled the boundaries that are established by Almighty God from the very beginning of civilization, from the very structure that he has made the universe. So, for example, a liturgy within the framework of the Anglican Communion that is fashioned particularly to make sure that people of various gender persuasions will not feel uncomfortable with the language that is used by the vicar or the priest or the minister. Writing of this, one of the Anglican clergymen says, it is now expected that churches simply accept that a trans person is not just identifying a gender different from his or her biological sex but that he or she is ontologically different. This, he writes, is a new narrative, no longer is a transgender person someone who feels trapped in the wrong body. This, now, is a new variant of what it means to be human. The boundaries of creation have not simply been set aside.

They have been wiped away. A crooked and a perverted generation. Philippi, Cleveland, Paris, wherever you want to go in the world, there is no question but that the very threshold of opposition to God and to his rule is manifested with a clarity that is unavoidable when it comes to the very foundational elements of what it means to believe in Jesus, to trust in the gospel, and to be those who submit to the Bible.

And those three areas are sex, marriage, and family. When you think about it and you read your newspapers and you just go through the thing, goodness gracious, it doesn't matter, you can be watching a golf tournament now, and you're subjected to this. In the realm of business, corporations bending over backwards to say, essentially, we do not believe in the doctrine of creation. We do not believe there is a living God.

We do not believe that God knew what he was doing when he made the universe. And so what has happened? Reason and evidence have been set aside, and emotion begins to take its place. And when that happens, reality becomes whatever you want it to be. Now, loved ones, this is not a political statement, you understand that. Everything has been now turned to a political agenda. We're not talking politics here.

We're talking first-century Philippi. Who are you? The people of God. Where is your allegiance as citizens of the King?

Where are you living your life in the middle of a crooked generation? Well, come to the last one. Turn the corner.

Get a little positive, the people said. Well, what are we to be doing? What are we to be doing? Well, let me tell you, first of all, he says, this is what you're not to be doing. And this is a real blow to some of us, because we've already started doing it under our breaths. There's a word, actually, in Greek that just is translated like that. It's like … And some of us are very, very good at it.

Okay? Verse 14, whatever you're doing, do it without grumbling or disputing. Do it without grumbling or disputing, or complaining or arguing. Paul, when he writes to Timothy, says, and I want that in every place men should pray, lifting up holy hands without arguing and complaining.

You see, it's much easier to let your holy hands fall down for the people of God to neglect a place of prayer and instead simply to champion our own particular agenda and cause and to give voice to the things that disturb and distress us and give us the grounds to have a right, good disappointment with everything and complain about everything that we ever meet. You will notice that in the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth verse of chapter 1, where he says your manner of life should be worthy of the gospel of Christ, he says—let me tell you what that means. It means that you're standing firm in one spirit with one mind. There is a unity—a unity that is not a political unity, a unity that is a gospel unity. We do not all agree on a political agenda. Just be honest about that. If you knew what I really believe about certain things, you probably wouldn't listen to me preach.

And if I knew what you believe the half of you, I wouldn't even waste my time preaching to you. That's the facts. All right? So the issue is not politics here.

No, what is the issue? Striving side by side for the faith, of the gospel. For the faith of the gospel.

That's why I began as I began. Paul is a gospel man. You can't explain his life apart from the gospel. You can't explain his ministry apart from the gospel.

You can't explain his letter apart from the gospel. Standing side by side for the faith of the gospel. Speaking to our society. Augustine in the fourth century says the problem with us is that our desires are disordered. They're disordered.

Yes, that's it. They're disordered. Instead of it being here, as God says, it's over here. Instead of it being a straight line according to the purposes of God, it is a crooked and a deviated line, expressed manifestly in our day in the matter of human sexuality. This is not a story—I'm not here to talk to you this morning about that—except that it is illustrative of what Paul is saying. It's unavoidable. And so our friends and neighbors are seeking substitute gods that can't save, longing for a unity that can't be found, settling the issue of their guilty consciences.

But it can't be done. Only in Jesus. The drama of salvation, a kind of divine shock, an undeserved gift. You see, this would be a complete waste of time this morning if I was saying to you something along these lines.

Now, things are in a dreadful mess, and I want you to go out and try and do your best, and try and fix them. No, if you hear that at all, you don't have a touch of the Lydia in you—not even a touch of it. You're not paying attention. Paul says, I want to make sure that you are unashamed and that you are unafraid. Unashamed and unafraid. Are we going to stand passively by as we make our way to the end of our earthly pilgrimage? Are we going to pass off to our children and our grandchildren all of this without a word spoken against it? Are you willing to just be struck dumb for the sake of a coercive culture? You say, well, it's easy for you.

You just stand up there behind that box. If you should see where I go to work, you wouldn't be so quick to say it. My dear friends, I acknowledge that entirely. But in the arts, in journalism, in science, in education, wherever you are set, here is what we are to be. Standing firm, striving side by side, holding firmly to the Word of life.

You see that there in verse 16? Holding fast to the Word of life. You say to our friends, this is the Word of life. The reason you are as you are is because you need the Word—the Word of life.

In him was light, and the light was the life of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness is unable to put it out. It can't put it out.

It won't put it out. Because Jesus said he would build this church, and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. And so Paul is really clear, and we must be equally clear. He says, when he writes to the Colossians, he says, See to it, he says, look out, make sure, see to it, that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive arguments. Make sure you don't get trapped by that, he says.

Be on the alert. When he writes to the Corinthians, he turns it around the other way, and he says, Listen, we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ. Or, as Phillips puts it, we even fight to capture every thought until it acknowledges the authority of Christ. Our battle is to bring down every deceptive fantasy and every imposing defense that men erect against the true knowledge of God. It's time to wake up. It's time to step up.

It's time to speak up. Our message, the message of the gospel, in its essence, is timeless, and it is unalterable. Therefore, truth is what is found in Christ.

Relationships are as defined by God the Creator. It is timeless. You see, the chances are that you and I have begun to embrace what C. S. Lewis referred to as chronological snobbery—the idea that something that was before is inevitably obsolete just because it was then. You hear this all the time from Pupis—well, this stuff about the husband's role and so on. But that was back then, in the first century.

We know that's not the case. Children obeying their parents—what a crazy idea! Haven't you heard what they've done in Scotland?

Anybody that would dare to give their child a little pow-wow treatment will be taken off, will be taken off to jail. That's the facts. That's how it works.

Why is that? Well, you don't believe that old stuff, do you? Well, yeah. Yeah, we do. And we believe this, that there is salvation in no one else, for there's no other name given among men under heaven by which we must be saved.

So what are we to do? Shine! Shine! Shine on, you crazy diamonds! Shine!

Shine! Paul says, Make me proud. This is a legitimate statement by Paul as the pastor of the church at Philippi. He says, Do this so that I will know that I haven't run the race in vain, that I have not worked in vain.

That's the call of pastoral ministry—to teach the Bible. I can't go to your place of work. I'm not bright enough, organized enough, skillful enough.

I have no excess. You go. You say no when no is right. You say yes to truth. Try it!

Try it! I have a sneaking suspicion that others might join you. Actually, Jesus, when we began in John 17, Jesus says, You know, Father, I haven't taken them out of the world. I've left them in the world. And as you sent me into the world, I've sent them out into the world. Nobody then says.

Do you know why? So that the world might believe that you sent me. How will the world come to believe that God sent Jesus to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins, one person at a time? Not by a political agenda, not by a pulpit ministry, but by the people of God, the children of God, citizens of heaven, in the midst of crookedness and darkness, standing firm, striving side by side and shining as lights in a dark place. As I finished up my studies this week, I said to myself, You know, I think when I went to DC, I saw at the railway station there in DC these things carved into the wall.

And I went and looked it up, and I was right. There at the Great Railway Station, there are three texts, at least these three. One from Isaiah 35.1, The desert shall blossom as a rose. One from Hebrews 2.8, Thou hast put all things under his feet.

And one from John chapter 8, verse 33, The truth will make you free. Loved ones, we don't need to be ashamed. We don't need to be afraid. We need to wake up, step up, speak up, shine. You, in your small corner, and I in mine. So the question for each one of us is, are we shining like a diamond for Jesus in our corner of the world? You're listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life.

Alistair will be back in just a minute to close with prayer. You certainly realize the Bible is not like any other book, not only because it is God's Word, but because it contains so many different types of literature. The various writing styles can make studying the Bible confusing at times, maybe even a bit overwhelming. If that's been the experience for you or someone you know, let me encourage you to request a copy of a book called Read This First.

This is a book that will provide great help. It's a short guidebook. It begins by explaining why everyone should read God's Word. No other text gives us insight into God's thoughts the way the Bible does. And the author of this book explains why that matters and how reading and understanding God's Word will shape our lives. And as Alistair put it at the end of the sermon, help us shine.

Request your copy of the book Read This First when you give a donation online at truthforlife.org slash donate, or you can call us at 888-588-7884. Now, if you are eager to start applying some of the helpful study tips that are outlined in the book Read This First, we have a Bible reading plan that can help. This is a one-year guide that'll take you through the entire Bible. You can download the Bible reading plan for free, or you can purchase the booklet for just $1 at truthforlife.org slash store.

And if you download the Truth for Life app or visit our website at truthforlife.org, you can access the entire ESV Bible to use during your study time. Now here's Alistair with prayer. Jesus bids us shine with a clear pure light, like a little candle burning in the night. In this world of darkness, so we may shine, you in your small corner and I in mine. Oh God help us, we pray. Save us from ourselves. For Jesus sake, Amen. I'm Bob Lapine. How do your neighbors or co-workers know that you're a Christian? Tomorrow we'll learn how we are to stand out in our world. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.