Before we get started today, I want to make you aware that the first of Stephen's two-volume set through Revelation is now available. If you've ever struggled to understand Revelation or you just want to dive a little deeper into the book, information is in the show notes.
Now Here's today's program. Ball comes full circle. He began his letter by wishing The Philippians grace And now it closes. with the same theme, it's run throughout the letter. Verse 23, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your Spirit.
Not your circumstances. They may not change. Not your trials. They may remain. Add your afflictions.
They may continue. But his grace can profoundly influence and affect the way you meet all of that as it profoundly affects your Spirit. As Paul closed his letter to the Philippians, he wished them God's grace.
So let me ask you this. What do you deserve from God? Do you deserve to be his child and to be used by him? Do you deserve His attention or His answers to your prayers? The reality is that God relates to us on the basis of His grace, not on the basis of what we deserve.
This is one of the important lessons Stephen will show you today. This is Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davie. It's the final message in the series entitled, Extravagant Grace. Stephen entitled this message, ordinary saints. Take your New Testament copy.
of Paul's letter to the Philippians. And let's turn one last time. To the last chapter. And the last few verses.
Now, what we're going to do as we cover just the last few verses is we're going to sort of work as an outline the fact that Paul is addressing four different groups of people. The first group is the church, of course, in Philippi. Verse 21. Greet every saint. In Christ Jesus.
Let's stop for a moment. This is customary for Paul. This is how he often wraps up his letters. He gets greetings. Uh sends his affection.
In this phrase to these believers, and he's doing this with the Philippians.
Now, he'll say the same thing in his letters, for instance, to Rome, to the Roman believers. He ends it that way. And to the Corinthians, both of the letters we happen to have, 1 and 2 Corinthians. He ends it the same way, although in those letters he adds that phrase, with a holy kiss. with a holy greet one another with a holy Kiss.
A greeting with a kiss. Wasn't inappropriate. It was cultural. It was a lot like a hug or a big handshake to us, or maybe a slap on the back. Um It it was In fact, you can travel.
If you travel and you go to other assemblies that I've had the privilege to go to, really outside of this culture. They do this to this day. Kiss.
Some countries it's one cheek, other countries it's both. Cheeks. And you're really not kissing their cheek. You're sort of kissing the air. Just on either side.
And when I go and preach, for instance, in South American countries where the messages are broadcast in Spanish. In many of those countries, we'll have a meeting or a rally, or I'll preach at a church, and afterward, there's a long line, and it will take. forever because it's a kiss on both sides of And and very, very endearing effect. It it I I thought of in this study my A daughter, Candace, our oldest daughter, is married to a Chilean. They're going to go to an assembly this morning.
Uh with their time, uh they're just wrapping it up. And they will go into that assembly, and everyone. will greet each other. With a kiss. On both cheeks.
Very affectionate, very kind. Very gracious.
Now here in this letter to the Philippians... Paul drops the holy kiss part out. I mean, what fun is that? He drops that part out. He just says, greet.
One another. And he does that probably because he doesn't need to say it. We're guessing. More than likely, it's part of their culture, they're going to do it anyway. But I think there's something here.
He may have left it out because, in all his other letters, if you look at them carefully, he's telling the assembly to greet. one another.
So as you greet one another. Just as you came in and I hope greeted each other, maybe it's a handshake or a hug. He's telling them to greet one another, but here in this letter With the context he's established in chapter 1, he's telling the elders and the deacons, more specifically, to do the greeting. And he's emphasizing the verbal part. of this affirmation.
He's stressing, in fact, the word every. Greet every one of them. Greet each and every. Member of the Philippian church. I want each and every one of them to receive from the leaders on my behalf.
A warm, affectionate, verbal affirmation as if to remind every one of these dear, faithful, praying, supporting church members that he loves them and that he prays for them and that he cares for them and he appreciates every single one of them. And would you notice what Paul calls them here? He writes, Greet. Every Saint.
Now you might be tempted to think, well, this just got easy. That line's going to be really short. Only a few, probably. have arrived at this, you know. Sainthood status.
And we frankly think that way. Because we've been influenced by centuries. of Iranian The Reformation didn't clear everything up. The Western Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Eastern splinter, the Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox Church, canonizes those rare individuals who are very remarkable, have decades or a lifetime of some kind of service and even miracles attested to them. And if you got all that in your resume, after you're dead, by the way, you can't be a saint when you're alive, after you're dead, you could be given the status of a saint.
People can burn candles to you, venerate you, you might have a little statue in your likeness or whatever. The Western Church is right now in the process of doing that with Mother Teresa. She's been dead. A little over 20 years. And already they are validating her.
in their quest to make her a saint. with these the needed two miracles. One is a woman who claimed to have been healed by her photograph. And she had a locket, her pictures inside, Teresa's pictures inside, and she claimed that. She laid it on the tumor and a beam of light came out of the locket.
and healed her, and this has helped the Vatican. affirm her candidacy For sainthood.
Now, I don't want to get off track here.
Okay. Um Because, what I really want to do is point out the fact that even for us, we tend to think of saints as those amazing people. And you know, they've arrived, spiritual celebrities. would be the saints. Even outside the religious system, out there on the street, people will say, you know, that guy's a saint.
You know, he's what a great guy. That gal is a saint. What are they saying? And they're just nigh under perfection. I mean, what chance do any of us have?
Well, for starters, you need to understand that all of what I just said about religion. And what it requires has nothing to do with Scripture. It's all entirely. Completely. Man-made.
Not a shred of scripture. And for those that are canonized and arrive at this status of sainthood that the church believes they're let out of purgatory, that's man-made too. According to the Apostle Paul, This term saint In fact, the term is hagios. It means separated one. Holy, it means separated.
Holy is something dedicated to or set apart, sanctified unto. That's what it means. It's a reference not to special Christians. It's a reference to every Christian. Because every Christian has been separated unto God as one of his own.
In fact, the term saint happens to be the favorite term of the Apostle Paul for the believer. He uses that term for Christians 40 plus times. in his letters. He addresses all the believers here in Philippi. The letter started.
By writing to all the saints. Chapter 1, verse 1, and including the overseers, elders, and deacons.
So the deacons, the elders, and every member of the assembly, obviously implied in that is they're united with Christ by faith. They happen to be, all of them are saints. Saints. Even to the problem-ridden. Immature congregation in Corinth.
Paul literally shreds any doubt about this term because he writes to them and he says, You are saints by calling. You are called A saint. The Saint is not a superhero. It's not someone that has miracles connected to them or their photograph or whatever. A saint is anyone who has entered the life of Christ by faith in Him alone.
In fact, you notice that's the basis here. He writes in Philippians chapter 4. Paul clarifies, greet every saint.
So, yeah. Christ Jesus. Because of your union with Jesus Christ, your status immediately is. Sainthood. You're a saint.
Right now. You're not a saint because you've got it all figured out. You are called a saint because God called you to Himself by faith in Christ, and all who are in Christ are called a saint. Saints. A special possession of God.
By the way, there's nothing in scripture that would encourage you or anybody to venerate or pedestalize or burn candles or incense to or pray to any past or living saint, that also is entirely man-made. Saints are not people to be worshipped. Saints are people who worship. The true and living God. All right, secondly, Paul acknowledges A group of people here.
In his closing remarks, the second group, notice verse 21, greet every saint in Christ Jesus, the brethren who are with me. Greet you. In other words, the brothers who are with me right now just don't want to be left out of the greeting, they want to say hello to. They want to express their affection and appreciation for you.
Now, Paul doesn't mention here who they are. We do know, putting a few pieces together, This would have included Timothy. In fact, if you go all the way back to chapter 1 and verse 1, Paul makes Timothy the co-author. of this letter. They're together.
Writing this. We're also told in chapter 2 and verse 25. Paul is sending Epaphroditus to them from his side. He's the one carrying the letter to the Philippians. With him, this man who who really risked his life and his health.
The serve Paul. And the church as unto Christ. And there are others we could we could uh we could Suppose but he doesn't mention them. He simply calls them, though. The point I want to make is this.
He calls them brothers. Brothers. In Christ, we happen to be in the same family because we belong. to Christ.
So who are you? You're a saint. You're a saint, and you're also a brother or sister to all the other saints in the family. around you. We not only belong to God, we belong to each.
Each other. And we need to guard that perspective. And to exalt Christ.
So nobody's a big shot. Everybody is a brother. or a sister. In the family.
Now, Paul acknowledges a third group. He writes at the beginning of verse 22: all the saints. Greet you. The context indicates Paul is now including all the saints in the churches in his area here in Rome. where he's under house arrest.
And let me just pause. Don't Don't miss the graciousness. of this man. Who is obviously being motivated by the Spirit of God? Don't miss his gracious spirit.
We've already learned in former studies that the believers in Rome had abandoned them. Even the church. Informally had written him off. Many of them believed he was imprisoned because he was getting what he deserved. They weren't visiting him.
They weren't caring for him. They weren't financially providing for him. It would be this gift from the Philippian believers that would pay his rent. I mean, Paul could have backed the truck up here and said, you know, I wish there were some saints around here. Who would greet you too?
There aren't any. Uh that's Stephen's epistle. He is a bridge builder and how gracious he is He's building a bridge that these churches can walk across. in fellowship one day. And with the best of intentions, and I think with a rather optimistic spirit, he says, I, the unwritten word is, I, I know they'd want to say this if they could, and we're not talking, or they're not talking to me, so I'm just going to speak for them.
They want to send you greetings. as well. How? Gracious. is that.
All the saints here. Great, you two. The fourth and final group. that Paul acknowledges Makes an appearance in the text. They're mentioned at the end of verse 22.
All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's. Household.
Now here Paul becomes a little bit more specific. Yet, at the same time, not mentioning any names, and more than likely, that's for their own protection. It wouldn't be wise for Paul. He's an enemy of Caesar. And Nero's going to put him to death.
He's an enemy of the state. He's considered treasonous. He will not. He will not worship any Lord but the living Lord. It's not going to be wise for Paul Who is an enemy of Caesar, to mention by name friends of his who are evidently embedded within the administration of Caesar?
So he just kind of generically says and gets his point across. Uh there are There are some saints that want to greet you too, and they're working for... for Nero. And the effect would have been the same. That would have been wonderfully encouraging to Philippi.
And the believers there. Paul is effectively saying there are people getting saved Right under Nero's And with that, Paul comes full circle. He began his letter by wishing The Philippians grace And now it closes. With the same theme, it's run throughout the letter. Verse 23, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your Spirit.
Who are you? You're a saint. A separated one unto God. By his own choosing. To whom do you belong?
You belong to God and his family, your brothers and sisters. What do you have? Grace It is grace capable to meet every need. That you'll have. In fact, I love the fact that he writes it this way.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your. Spirit. Not your circumstances. They may not change. Not your trials.
They may remain. At your afflictions. They may continue. But his grace can profoundly influence and affect the way you meet all of that as it profoundly affects your Spirit. Grace.
Grace is that unmerited Undeserved. Favor. from God. None of us earned our way in. Sweet testimony of this Couple Earlier it came to faith in Christ leaving their Amish community.
A merit-based religious system, discovering that it's a gift. and receiving it. By faith in Christ. Grace is undeserved. Grace is not merited.
Grace isn't earned over a long period where you have a perfect track record. Maybe I can pray to God today because I've had a couple of good days leading up to today, and maybe He'll give me some attention. Maybe I can reach Him. Maybe He'll listen to me. See, we run that through our minds.
Do I really deserve to pray to God today? Are you kidding? It's grace. Do we deserve to be used by God? Are you kidding?
It's grace. Unmerited And failing and deserved Love and favor. From God. Just a byline in a newspaper. But it kind of said it all.
Lily Boltrip was her name, and she had a perfect record as a bus driver for the Houston School District. And according to the Fort Worth Star Telegram, she was going to receive an award. For her safe driving. Her colleagues wanted to go along and cheer her on, and they were very proud of her, as they should have been. And so they all piled on a bus and And uh to go to the awards ceremony and and and Lily drove.
On the way to the awards ceremony, Lily turned a corner too sharply. Must have been exciting in there, there's her bannering about, and then flipped the bus on its side. Sending not only yourself but 16 others to the hospital for minor emergency. Treatment. She had gone her entire career accident-free, and she's on her way to the award ceremony.
Do you think she got that award? No, she did not. Because you are on the committee. Yeah. No, she didn't get it.
One author said it this way: award committees do not operate. on the basis How did you receive this undeserved grace? Paul writes, it belongs to, it's dispensed through and by means of. The Lord Jesus. Christ.
Everything ties back to him. We could have spent a sermon just reiterating how it all ties back to him. In fact, Paul will mention the Lord, the Lord Jesus, Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ 40 times in this little letter. It all goes back to him. every responsibility of the believer.
every desire of the believer, every benefit received by the believer, all of it is summed up in what Christ does or who Christ is or what Christ has given us or what Christ is going to do. For us. Paul opened this letter by writing that he was a slave of Christ. Chapter 1, verse 1. His imprisonment was for the gospel advancement, to glorify Christ.
Chapter 1, verse 13. For Paul, living was all about Christ, chapter 1, verse 21. Dying was nothing more than being with Christ, chapter 1, verse 23. Paul exhorted the Philippian believers to adopt this humble attitude of Christ. Chapter 2, verse 5, to find their greatest joy in Christ, chapter 3.
Verse 3, to eagerly anticipate the coming. to wait eagerly for him. Christ to come, chapter 3, verse 20, to anchor their contentment, anchor it to Christ. Chapter 4, verse 13, to find their identity in Christ and all the grace they will need. In their spirit, for anything they face in Christ.
The letter ends. As Paul writes this letter, it Occurs to me that his quill is dipped in the ink. of grace and everything he writes. spells out. The Lord Jesus.
Christ I heard this from John Walvard, who's now with the Lord, the President of Dallas, where I attended, and Stanley Toussaint. One of my professors The incident was recorded in a book that I've read. by Chuck Swindahl, the chancellor of Dallas Seminary.
Sort of give some specifics, and I want to close our study with this. Swindall's book is entitled The Grace Awakening. It's a good book you ought to read. And he writes. I never knew Lewis Sperry Chafer.
the founder of the seminary I attended. Or Dallas. He died a few years before I began my studies in 1959. Swindall writes, some of my professors knew him well, and without exception, they knew that he was an articulate defender of the doctrine. of grace.
One of my mentors tells of the time when this dear man of God had concluded His final lecture, and he was lecturing on grace. It was a hot springtime afternoon in 1952. He was an older man, now 81 years of age. He was teaching this particular semester, which would be his last. From a wheelchair, And when he ended his comments, no one in the class moved.
Class was over, session was ended, but no one Moved. Two men I talked to were in the class. It was as though these young church leaders were basking in what they had heard, awestruck. with the insights and enthusiasm regarding God's Grace. Then this Grey haired gentleman rolled his chair over to the door.
and as he flipped the light switch off, The class spontaneously broke. into thunderous Applause. He wiped away tears. His head bowed, and then he lifted one hand, gesturing them to stop. And as a hush fell over that class, he spoke He spoke softly and unforgettably Gentlemen, For over half my life, I have been studying this truth.
And I am just beginning to discover. With the grace of God. is all about. And a few weeks later. He was with the Lord.
He was only beginning. to discover. The grace. of God. I have to tell you And with you, we have studied this letter, and I would have to say we are just beginning, right?
to understand The grace of God. Who are you? You're a saint. You didn't earn it, deserve it? It was given to you, the status.
as a called out, separated one Unto God So to whom do you belong? To God. For as many as received him, Christ, to them he gave the right to become children of. God And you got a lot of brothers and sisters around here. To get to know.
to encourage And what do you have? Grace. Whether we recognize it or not, beloved, we are living under a lavish downpour of grace. Grace enough to meet every need Grace enough to face every day. Until that day when we see Christ face to face, and then And then the extravagance of his grace will begin to be unveiled in spectacular dimensions we cannot Imagine.
He is reserving Incredible glory to reveal to and in us. And he will forever amaze us and grace will always and forever define us. We are who we are. And we are where we are. This is just a prelude.
Forever. Because of his grace.
So in the meantime, Between now and then. Don't forget who you are. Yeah. With that important reminder, we conclude not only this message, but this series. This is wisdom for the heart.
The Bible Teaching Ministry of Stephen Davie. Today's message is called Ordinary Saints. The final message in a seven-part series called Extravagant Grace. If you'd like to own this series on a set of C D s, give us a call today. Today's the last day that this series is available at a deeply discounted rate.
We've taken all the lessons in Extravagant Gray series and packaged them as a set, and we can make a set for you. if it would encourage you to be able to listen whenever you want. Call us at 866-48 Bible. As always, you can listen to this series online at wisdomonline.org or on the Wisdom International Smartphone app. Stephen will be in Romans chapter 4 starting tomorrow.
So join us on Wisdom for the Heart.
