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October 8, 2024 12:00 am

Modeling a Godly Response to Mud Part 2

Wisdom for the Heart / Dr. Stephen Davey

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October 8, 2024 12:00 am

When faced with criticism, misunderstanding, or misrepresentation, it's essential to respond biblically and prioritize the gospel. Paul's example in Philippians 1:12-18 shows how to graciously resist retaliation, refocus on the priority, and intentionally choose to rejoice, even in adversity.

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Have you ever been unjustly criticized or had your character questioned?

That's probably happened to you. The question is not will you ever hear criticism. The question is not will you ever feel the pain of a lonely perseverance. The question is not will you ever be the subject of misunderstanding. The question is not will it happen to you. The question is how will you respond when it happens and it will.

Welcome back to Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey. We're talking today about those times when someone accuses you or tries to make you look bad. One of the things we're not going to hear in this message is a list of strategies for avoiding those kinds of attacks. The question we want to look at today is how do we respond biblically when that happens? Today, Stephen's going to show you from the example of Paul how to respond biblically when people sling mud at you. This is part two of a message Stephen began yesterday entitled, Modeling a Godly Response to Mud. John MacArthur in his commentary on Philippians did a wonderful job just sort of imagining all the possible things that people could have been saying about Paul's imprisonment. That would eventually cause them to abandon him. We know they did. He said it so well I've just sort of edited it down from pages to a paragraph or two.

Let me go through them quickly as bullet points. He said this, Well like Job's friends, counselors, there would have been envious preachers in Rome claiming that Paul's imprisonment was the Lord's punishment for some secret sin. I mean if we could see behind the scenes there's probably something going on. Or still others might have thought that the Lord kept Paul in prison because of his inadequate and misleading preaching of God's word. They just needed to shut him up. Others may have thought that Paul was old fashioned and that a more relevant approach was needed to reach the sophisticated people of Rome.

He's outdated. Others may have argued that if Paul had been completely uncompromising and true to the faith, he would have been martyred long beforehand. He's evidently made a deal with the Romans to protect his life and secure favorable treatment. Today many of them probably didn't know the Philippians were paying the rent on the apartment. Paul's in an apartment. He's got a deal going on.

He's saving his neck. Still others might have maintained that Paul was in prison because he lacked the victorious faith that would have gained his release. Others in the past were more powerful.

Now they aren't. He's still imprisoned. He's obviously failing to tap into the Holy Spirit's power. Others would have claimed that the very fact that they were free to preach and Paul was in prison was proof enough that God was finished with Paul and was now going to use them instead.

It's well put. Paul is out of the way and now those of us who matter to God can get on with it. Those who loved Paul, were willing to think the best, knew he wasn't in prison because of secret sin or an impure life or a lack of faith or because God's Spirit was finished with him. Now in fact, beloved, listen, these Philippian believers would have known that Paul is receiving his most difficult assignment from God ever. An appointment from God that would require the greatest faith. An assignment that would depend upon the purest life, the most persevering trust in the Spirit of God that he has not abandoned him. Listen to what he wrote Timothy during these days.

I only read you the first part so I could save this part until now. He writes with chains around his wrists to Timothy just months before his execution and he says, everyone has deserted me but the Lord stood by me and strengthened me. These chains are not a disgrace.

They are a grace from God for his gospel and his glory. Paul openly identifies the problem. He boldly reveals the motive and I think we can begin to appreciate now the third point and that is this.

Paul graciously resists retaliation. Verse 18. Look at that first phrase. What then? Stop there. That's a sermon. Oh, it was tempting. What then?

You could translate that. So what? Well, so what?

What about it? In other words, what does it really matter if I'm loved or hated? This is God's assignment. Maybe for you, beloved, this morning, this is the message you need from God more than any other right now. Those handcuffs, those chains, those misunderstandings, those misinterpretations, that dishonor, that abandonment. You came in here, we can't see it, but you're splattered with mud.

Verse 18. Look, it should have opened with something more like, well, let me tell you a thing or two. Let me set the record straight and go on for a chapter or two.

Wait till I get a hold of you guys. I mean, he could have skinned these Roman Christians alive, but he resists self-defense, self-promotion. He could have rattled off his resume. Have you forgotten who I am? The apostle of God to the Gentiles? Have you forgotten my epistle?

Have you forgotten my past? He could have reminded them of it all. No, that's how you respond if you want to jump into the political fracas and Paul refuses to play the game. Preaching Christ is not a race for spiritual scalps. It isn't a contest to see how and who gets the most delegates on the convention floor.

Paul refuses to play pastoral politics in the parish among the pews. He won't join their game and you're left thinking, no, Paul, they've abandoned you. You should hear what they're saying.

You should hear what they've concluded. He knows. He knows.

For those of you who lead a ministry or a part of a ministry in leadership, for those of you who step up to serve as elders, for those of you who volunteer to serve as deacons, for those who lead a men's Bible study or a woman's Bible study or an ABF, you volunteer to set up the soccer nets on Saturday and you're leading in that or you're volunteering to lead the PTA. The question is not will you ever hear criticism. The question is not will you ever feel the sting of mud. The question is not will you ever feel the pain of a lonely perseverance. The question is not will you ever be the subject of misunderstanding. The question is not will it happen to you. The question is how will you respond when it happens and it will. How do you handle the mud?

How do you handle the mud splattered on your face? As many of you know, I enjoy reading biographies. In many ways, it's simply reading the suffering of others and how they respond. And I encourage it for your own spiritual discipline. But I've often wondered how I would respond were I given the amazing breadth of ministry like that of Charles Spurgeon who would preach on a Sunday to thousands of people.

And his church in London, England was a wonderful church still communicating the gospel to this day 150 years later. But Spurgeon would receive every Monday morning by courier an anonymous letter of a man ripping his sermon to shreds. Now not that sermons are beyond criticism.

They are not. Or pastors or leaders. But I've often thought every Monday? Every Monday.

I rather enjoy the story of D.L. Moody who preached for Spurgeon, Moody pastor in Chicago as you know. He was often the recipient of derogatory demeaning male.

Most often anonymous. All sorts of accusations. He was picked on for everything from his lack of education. He only went through I think the eighth grade. His grammar was interesting.

And his bearing and appearance. On one occasion, he was sitting on a platform about to preach to several thousand people. He was a guest somewhere. And an usher came up and handed him a note. It was folded over once. Moody opened the note and it only contained one word.

Fool. He folded the note back in a moment or two. He stepped up to preach and he brought the note with him and he said, you know, I have a note with me with a single word, fool, written here. I often receive unkind messages that are unsigned.

The strangest thing, the author's forgotten to write me a message but has merely signed his name. That's probably not the best illustration of refusing to retaliate but I knew you'd enjoy that as much as I did. Chuck Swindoll in one of his books that I read recently said, what do we do when a harsh word is spoken to us or about us? We usually shout back, louder. The truth is, if Paul had chosen to retaliate, he would have had far more mud to throw back and it would have stuck.

He refuses to shout back. Here's why, number four, Paul wisely refocuses the priority. What then?

What about it? Only that in every way, whether in pretense, that is out of rivalry and envy, or in truth, that is out of good will and love, Christ is proclaimed, that's the issue, in that I what? Rejoice. In that I rejoice. Even if they preach out of pretense, false motives, rivalry, envy, competition, accusation, even if they preach Christ in truth, out of good will and love for me, as long as the gospel is preached in that, the priority, I will rejoice. I mean, at this point in the text, especially when we've come to understand Paul's painful circumstances, you would almost forgive him for at least a verse that says, oh man, are these guys a pain in the neck.

I am hurt. He does that, by the way, to the Corinthians, bears his soul. Here he wants to focus on the priority.

This is a short letter, not much time, but you need to understand here what you would expect of some sort of depressed, discouraged, despairing acknowledgement. But Paul isn't Superman. He's not wearing a Teflon outfit. He simply has a grip on his assignment from God and an understanding of the priority. Even though the church had written him off, even though pastors and church leaders and Christians in Rome didn't come to see him or encourage him, or worse, they're telling everybody, yeah, you know, that old Paul is out of touch. He's probably guilty of some sin that only God knew, and he's getting what he deserves, and he's out of the way anyway.

It's time for us to get moving. Paul is effectively saying, I'm aware of that. I know the deeper recesses of their motive, but as long as they are preaching the gospel of Christ, I rejoice.

There's one more way to handle the mud that gets thrown your way. Number five, Paul intentionally shapes his attitude. Notice the last statement of verse 18, and my text is sort of tucked into verse 19, still a part of verse 18.

Underline that, marvel over this, learn from this. He ends this text by saying, yes, and I will rejoice, as if to say, in case you wondered if you read it right, as long as Christ is proclaimed, in that I rejoice. I want to make sure you get it. Yes, I did say it.

I will rejoice. The verb is what linguists call volative. That means it's a verb that refers to the decision of the will, of volition. It doesn't mean that Paul, you know, you might be tempted to think, he's just such a happy guy. Wow.

Two years under house arrest, handcuffs, a whole deal of people accusing him, and he just wakes up on the sunny side of life. Read his letters. He is saying here on this occasion, however, I want to make sure you get it. I am choosing to rejoice. In fact, this is a future tense verb, which means Paul is saying that this is his decision, not just for the moment while he's writing a letter to believers, because really the missionary letter ought to look like this. He's saying, I'm going to take this attitude into the future with me as well, which lets you know that all of those other pastors and church leaders and Christians are fighting on their feet. Paul is effectively fighting this battle on his knees.

It's the only place you can find this kind of strength. Everyone's deserted me, but the Lord stood with me. It is tragic, and I do want to add a thought here, that these believers in Rome really had no idea, did they? In fact, many of them really didn't know Paul all that well. We forget that we have the benefit of the entire New Testament.

We can study his missionary letters, travels, his visions, his tour of heaven, his assignment. We can even know that the Philippians are paying for that apartment, which would have created misinterpretation. He's in the pocket of the Roman government. We knew it.

No? There are some Christians that are paying his rent. We have that benefit. Most of the believers in Rome would have no idea. Many of them would have just reached the assumption, I guess this old apostle isn't all that valuable to God or the church anymore. God's moved on, and we will too. Can you imagine the apostle Paul just two blocks away for two years, and we could go see him?

I mean, wouldn't that be great? Wouldn't it be great to go to Paul and say, you know, you wrote this stuff in Romans 8, 9, and 10, but I'd really like you to just clear up election. Let's take an hour or two, or three or four. I'd really like you to explain the battle that you expressed in your letter to the Romans in chapter 7, the things I want to do, I don't do, the things I don't want to do, I do.

Would you fill in some blanks there, because there are a lot of people that don't think you were talking about yourself. I wonder what we're missing today with each other. None of them came to see him, but they all rallied to accuse him.

Let's do the opposite, beloved. It may not be the apostle you're throwing mud at. It may be another Christian or believer, but learn the lesson, not only of Paul's wonderful response. Learn a lesson from the tragic mistake of these believers in Rome and what they missed. Whenever you throw mud, you are taking your eyes off the greater priority, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let me give you an illustration from Spurgeon's life again. During the 1800s, he pastored this downtown church in London, it had enormous weight as a leading voice for the gospel.

The church would develop institutions and ministries that are remarkable even to read of this day. In fact, I'll give you one, it wasn't in my notes, it just came to my mind. One was an orphanage that he built, and he just didn't build an orphanage. He built a magnificent place to occupy these orphans, and on the bottom floor he built an indoor heated swimming pool, and he was vilified for it.

How can you waste that money? An orphan wouldn't say that. He gave them the best. At any rate, during his later years of ministry, Spurgeon denounced the growing liberalism within the Baptist Union, which he belonged to and his church belonged to. There were pastors now. The majority of them were denying inspiration of scripture. They were denying the sufficiency of Christ's atonement, and works was creeping into the plan of salvation. Since Spurgeon's voice carried such significant weight, all of the pastors and churches in London, when he challenged them in their doctrine, they responded with anger. In fact, in his magazine that they published as a church, he called on the Baptist Union to do a cleanup of their doctrine. Well, it created a firestorm, as you can imagine. Over the years, envy had done its silent work in many of these men's hearts, and now, instead of rising to Spurgeon's warning and challenge, these church leaders and pastors instead turned around and challenged Spurgeon, accusing him of exercising authority he didn't have, and that he didn't have the right to challenge them, and all he did was make them look foolish.

It wasn't his intention. Spurgeon, over the months when this firestorm was raging, resigned from the Baptist Union, and that only made these leaders more angry. A movement grew within the Baptist Union to censor Spurgeon.

It doesn't mean a whole lot to us today, but back in that day, that could affect your credit rating and the borrowing of money and your housing and certainly your reputation. They wanted to publicly denounce him, diminish his standing among the believing churches in and around London and beyond. A meeting was called.

It met at the Temple Church, the second largest church in London, pastor by Joseph Parker. One man by the name of Henry Oakley attended the meeting and fortunately wrote down in detail what happened. He described the bedlam of that meeting that afternoon with several thousand in attendance. He wrote, possibly the city temple was as full as it could be.

I was there very early but found only room in the aisle of the back gallery. I listened to the speeches. The only one of which I have any remembrance was a pastor who spoke in favor of a liberal theology and the justification of doubt. A moment came when the motion to censor Spurgeon was moved and seconded and then the vote came. When the motion came up then a forest of hands when the vote was called went up thousands of hands. Anyone against the motion called the chairman. But I did not see any hands. All the history records there were seven, only seven who voted not to censor Spurgeon.

Oakley writes, without any tally of numbers or announcement it was obvious. And the vast assembly broke into tumultuous cheering and cheering and cheering. From some of the older men I saw their pent up hostility and envy against Spurgeon found full vent. It was a strange scene.

I viewed it almost with tears. I stood near a graduate from Spurgeon's own college whom I knew very well. Mr. Spurgeon had welcomed him from a very lowly position and he was going wild with delight at the censure of his generous teacher.

I say it was a strange scene. That this vast assembly should be so outrageously delighted at the condemnation of the noblest and grandest leader of their faith. When he learned of the vote, Spurgeon wrote a friend and ended it by writing, Pray for me that my faith fail not.

He would fight the battle on his knees. Today Charles Spurgeon is revered as the most effective English pastor in the last 150 years. His sermons are still being published even the ones that were ripped apart every Monday morning.

And today the Apostle Paul is revered as the greatest missionary statesman and defender of the faith in the history of the church. And it isn't going to change. Jay Oswald Sanders wrote in his classic work entitled, Spiritual Leadership, The crowd at large does not recognize a leader until they are usually gone.

And then they build a monument for him with the stones they threw at him when he was alive. When mud comes flying through the air in your direction, don't stoop to throw it back. Don't throw it back. Identify the problem, clarify the motive with those that need to know. Refuse to retaliate, refocus on the priority, and intentionally choose while you're on your knees. Make a choice to rejoice so that in the end and ultimately Jesus Christ receives glory and the gospel moves forward.

That was Stephen Davey and this is Wisdom for the Heart. Today's message is called, Modeling a Godly Response to Mud. I trust that you found the five principles Stephen shared today to be practical and helpful.

We all face times when others accuse, misunderstand, or misrepresent us. We need to know how to respond when that happens and that's what today's lesson is all about. If you joined us late or if you'd like to listen to this message again, we've posted it to our website. You'll be able to listen free and on demand at wisdomonline.org. You'll also find it on our smartphone app that you can install to your iPhone or Android device.

Look for the app called Wisdom International. It's not just today's message, but all of Stephen's teaching is posted on both of those platforms and you can access that anytime. Stephen's working his way through a series called, Moving Forward. The series comes from the book of Philippians.

You may know that Stephen has a series of books that we call the Wisdom Commentary Series. There's ten volumes in total and Philippians is one of those. If you'd like to dive deeper into your study of this practical book, I think you'd enjoy having a copy of Stephen's book entitled, Philippians. We can give you information about that resource if you call us today at 866-48-BIBLE.

That's 866-482-4253. Philippians and all the other volumes in the Wisdom Commentary Series are also available in the resource section of our website. That address, once again, is wisdomonline.org. Sharon from Harvest, Alabama wrote to say this, This radio broadcast is such a blessing to me as I'm in the middle of a very difficult situation. I find great encouragement every morning by your preaching of the word. Thank you, Dr. Davey. Well, thank you, Sharon, for writing to us. We were glad to hear from you. Join us next time as we continue this series on Wisdom for the Heart. Copyright © 2020, NET Foundation for Television
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-10-08 01:05:16 / 2024-10-08 01:14:31 / 9

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