Word of Salvation – Vol. 26 No. 37 – July 1981

 

Victim Or Victor…?

 

Sermon by Rev. Keith Moerman on Phil 4:13

Scripture Reading: Phil 1:3-11; 4:4-13

Phil 4:13 – I can do everything through Him Who gives me strength

Psalter Hymnal: 287: 1,3 and 4; 395; 411:1,2 and 5; 417

 

Boys and girls, young people, congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Paul’s letter to the Philippians is a little gem…. a DIAMOND…. sparkling and shining. It’s called by some, ‘the loveliest letter’ Paul ever wrote; or others say, ‘the letter of joy’; it is a letter of a friend to his friends;of a caring, loving, spiritual father to his children.

And, no doubt Bible Study Groups, who have studied this letter, must have greatly benefited by the CLEAR MESSAGE of Paul’s letter to the Church of Philippi. Yes, there are benefits for their own Church, the Church of today. But this letter may also be MISUNDERSTOOD.

‘PAUL, WHAT A MAN?… A BOASTER… ARROGANT… BRAGGING… A PROUD MAN.’ He is a man with whom I cannot identify myself, for I am NOT like him; I can never climb the mountain of faith that high; I can never come that far. And what right does he have to say, ‘Join with others in following my example…,’ and ‘…if anyone has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I HAVE MORE…; or again ‘…rejoice always’. Life is not always that funny and such a joyful affair is it?

And is it not the height of folly if a man can say, yes even dares to say, ‘I can do EVERYTHING; EVERYTHING? Ridiculous…………! Is it? Let us look at our text using the theme: vicTIM or vicTOR…..?

Do you sometimes feel DEPRESSED, DISCOURAGED, DOWN in the DUMPS, sort of DEFLATED like a balloon in which you put a pin? You know – nice and shiny one minute, and the next: ppsssttt….. nothing left.

Isn’t it true, that even as Christians we can feel so helpless at times, so crushed, hemmed in by the circumstances of which, we say, we have no control. And if the circumstances are BAD, WE feel bad; if circumstances are GOOD, WE walk on cloud nine, only to be thrown deep down again into a bottomless pit the next day when the circumstances become BAD AGAIN.

So we are RULED by the situation, and THAT can make us feel so weak at times so helpless, or even useless and powerless: we are like a chip of wood tossed about by the circumstances of life. Is THAT what we are? Is there NOTHING WE can do? Are we worthless? Who are we? What are we worth?

Dr. A. A. Hoekema uses somewhere in one of his books an illustration of a boy putting up in his bedroom a banner. And the banner reads, ‘I AM ME and I AM GOOD ‘CAUSE GOD DON’T MAKE JUNK….!’

GOD DOESN’T MAKE JUNK…. Hear that?

If you are in Christ, YOU ARE A NEW CREATION; if you are IN CHRIST, ‘you CAN turn the world upside-down’; if you are IN CHRIST, you may KNOW what you are WORTH; if you are IN CHRIST, you may know that THROUGH HIM YOU are in CONTROL; if you are IN CHRIST, YOU CAN and MUST aim to live a VICTORIOUS LIFE; if you are IN CHRIST, YOU CAN walk the mountain tops of faith, and…. have beautiful visions from there…..! And THAT…. and NOTHING LESS than THAT is what Paul is writing to his friends in Philippi, to you and to me…..!

‘I’ can do EVERYTHING….. I am ON TOP; I am a WINNER, and I do not have to play in Tattslotto to get a prize; I have THE PRIZE ALREADY, I AM A WINNER NOW – And Paul is writing these words NOT AS A SUNDAY CHILD; NOT AS ONE BORN with a silver spoon in his mouth; not as one who had never been treated badly in life; BUT …. as one who KNEW what it meant to SUFFER.

He lived a very tiring, busy life. His life had peaks but also plenty of valleys. With sicknesses and health, with plenty and want, with hunger and cold, he had a life which was filled with PASSION FOR JESUS CHRIST which drove him mercilessly from land to land; it landed him in prison; it caused him floggings and beatings; he was (almost) stoned to death AND if there ever was a fellow with a RESTLESS, DIFFICULT and HARD life, it was Paul…..

But He knew his strength. I AM NO JUNK, ‘CAUSE GOD MADE ME…. and HE makes no junk….. and therefore I CAN DO EVERYTHING……’, he really speaks for what ALL Christians CAN say and EXPERIENCE.

Too many Christians are SATISFIED with living a life in the valleys, or rather, ‘in the caves’, in the dungeons, in the ‘gloom’ of Christianity. Their thinking is guided by, ‘I CANNOT AND I DO NOT ‘, and they are DEPRESSED; it gets them down. And 1981 sees them exactly the same they were in 1971, and….. in 1991, if the Lord has not returned by that time they will STILL be the same.

Their bad sins and habits THEY CANNOT BREAK, they think; their EXPERIENCE of FAITH which is little now, or hardly existing at all, REMAINS THE SAME; their RELATIONSHIP to THEIR FELLOWMAN is weak and DOES NOT CHANGE; their selfishness and greediness (maybe which they really dislike) DOES N.O.T. ALTER; and their never-ending slogan is: I CANNOT CHANGE MYSELF, I AM HUMAN…. and YOU HAVE TO ACCEPT ME FOR WHAT I AM. BUT THEY FORGET that they CAN CHANGE.

They forget that there IS tremendous JOY in Christian living and that this is ‘potentially theirs’; they CAN have it…. for: GOD MADE THEM GOOD, and THEY ARE NO JUNK, for God makes NO JUNK.

I believe that too many Christians continue to live ‘under a cloud’ which prevents them from seeing the enormous strength they have, and as result WHAT THEY CAN DO….!

To borrow a term from Prof. Hoekema, ‘all too long we have been writing our CONTINUING SIN in capital letters, and our newness in Christ in small, hardly readable letters.

Too often we emphasize our sin and guilt, and we forget about our FORGIVENESS AND RENEWAL. Too long we have stressed our UNHOLINESS and DEPRAVITY, (prof. Hoekema) ‘even to the extent that we think we need to practice it to live up to our reputation. Whereas we hardly DARE to stand up and say ‘I AM holy IN CHRIST’….. and ‘I AM A NEW CREATION’. And what is the result?

Our self-esteem takes a beating; our self-confidence as a Christian suffers, and our self-image becomes one of a Christian ‘with no high expectations, for…… I cannot change myself. And we remain forever ‘babes in Christ’ and quite willing to remain so.

You know that this is a slap in the face of our Lord? It is an insult to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit? Christian, know what you are worth; KNOW what you CAN do; KNOW that He considered you and me worth dying for, THAT HE CAN HELP US TO ‘LIVE’ IN THE LIGHT and with THE JOY and the POWER of His marvellous salvation. I can DO EVERYTHING…! An overstatement? I wouldn’t think so. It is a statement of power. This power is available to us. I ‘CAN’ kick the habit, whatever the habit might be if I know and feel it to be wrong and sinful; I CAN fight against my sin, and…… OVERCOME; I CAN accept ALL circumstances in my life ‘as USED by God’ and BE ON TOP OF THEM. THINGS and EVENTS and CIRCUMSTANCES are NOT going to get me down…. What?? Yes… sickness, and death too; and unemployment; and loneliness; and losses; and ridicule and poverty I can bear it all, and NOTHING of that is uncommon to man.

I can do EVERYTHING…. If the Lord calls me to serve Him in the work of evangelism ‘I am available’. I do not say I cannot speak or I am scared, but: I CAN DO EVERYTHING. If the Lord lays upon me to start a program in the community to care for the homeless or the unemployed, and I see the tremendous need and it stares at me from all directions, then I do not say, ‘that is impossible for the task is so huge and enormous, but I say, ‘I CAN DO EVERYTHING’. As Paul could travel from country to country and labour and work and struggle, planting the banners of the Gospel, so I can say: I CAN DO IT… for ‘nothing’ is impossible with God. Through the power of the Holy Spirit I CAN EVEN BE CHANGED ― and that’s the greatest miracle. O yes, I CAN, for I am IN TUNE WITH MY MASTER and therefore through HIM I can show my newness IN HIM, rather than my old nature which is sinful and rotten. And I can even show CHRIST AT WORK IN ME, for I am good and no junk, for GOD RE-MADE me in HIS IMAGE……..!

And I am not afraid for the future, for He holds it in His hands. I am good and I can do EVERYTHING, because…… I AM IN CHRIST, and that’s the secret.

Christians, of course, should never have a high or exalted opinion of themselves because of what THEY are. Unfortunately some DO have HIGH THOUGHTS of themselves, even feeling spiritually higher, more mature, better….. and boasting on, may be, some spiritual gifts) … BUT rather believers should KNOW their REAL STRENGTH, AND THAT is a strength which comes from Christ…!

A believer may never-ever think of himself APART from Christ. Jesus said, ‘apart from Me you cannot do anything’, and that means absolutely nothing. As soon as we start doing things in our own strength it utterly fails; it breaks down even before we have started to build up.

And therefore when Paul says, ‘I can do EVERYTHING through HIM who gives me strength’, he is not pointing to himself, BUT TO JESUS CHRIST. For CHRIST is the KEY, the SECRET of HIS SUCCESS, of HIS STRENGTH…. and therefore he is NOT boasting, bragging or proud. On the contrary HE HAS BECOME THE MOST DEPENDENT PERSON, the MOST HUMBLE PERSON; he utterly and wholly depends on the strength of Jesus Christ. How can you boast ‘for what you have received”? Paul’s boasting that he can do everything IS A SIGN OF THE GREATEST HUMILITY, for HE DEPENDS ON JESUS CHRIST for every ounce of it, for every minute of the day and night.

But, he is saying that he KNOWS and EXPERIENCED that the POWER OF GOD has enabled him to DEAL WITH ALL CIRCUMSTANCES HE HAS FACED, and that THAT power, that strength made it possible for him to do everything. And by that POWER he is content and happy.

Paul could face anything BECAUSE IN EVERY SITUATION HE HAD CHRIST and the man, the woman, the boy or girl WHO WALKS WITH CHRIST ‘CAN’ cope with everything.

Paul is showing us here the HIGHWAYS of FAITH AND TRUST AND STRENGTH; he is telling us THAT THERE ARE VISIONS FOR every Christian so GREAT AND SPLENDID; he is teaching us VICTORIOUS LIVING and being in CONTROL OVER ALL SITUATIONS and CIRCUMSTANCES.

Paul is sharing with us the TOTALITY of the CHANGE WHICH CHRIST BRINGS ABOUT IN OUR LIFE: now we CAN do EVERYTHING, for…. we are a new creation, because we are IN CHRIST. And now the old has passed away, the NEW HAS come.

People of God, if you ARE IN CHRIST, please do not forget that YOU ARE DIFFERENT, and that IN HIM you CAN DO EVERYTHING. And you do not have to knock yourself ‘I cannot do anything, I can do nothing.’ There is NO NEED TO BE DEPRESSED, to be DISCOURAGED, TO HAVE FEAR, because if you are IN CHRIST ‘you are good and no junk, ’cause God doesn’t make junk’…..!

John Bunyan, the writer of Pilgrim’s Progress wrestles and struggles with his crushing and terrible load of sin on his way to the cross. And he knocks himself and regards himself a worm and the greatest wretch and a no-hoper. “But then Christ found me, and turns me around,” John Bunyan says, “he took my sins away and now my soul leaps with unspeakable joy”. He had become a new creation, and now he started to live ‘by grace, and John Bunyan says – “I could understand the joyful message of the Bible that it is the triumphant message of redemption and TOTAL RENEWAL!”

I am GOOD, I CAN DO EVERYTHING, for God doesn’t make junk…! Of course, to be able to say that YOU MUST HAVE FAITH, and that FAITH MUST BECOME STRONG, and needs to be exercised; it must be nourished and grow. No longer must we be children tossed about by every wind of doctrine or anything that throws us off balance. But to come that far you must walk IN CLOSE FELLOWSHIP with the LORD Who wants to infuse that strength to you.

And you CAN if you are faithful IN PRAYER, IN BIBLE READING, IN FELLOWSHIP. If you are feeding and feasting on the Word of Life, walking and talking with your Lord, and remaining in touch and in tune with Him in ALL your circumstances, you are able to do everything in Christ.

But there are no shortcuts. Sure, many are trying to survive with the least possible effort and the lowest calorie diet they can find. What is the RESULT? They can do very little; they do not walk on the top of the mountains, but let themselves be controlled by whatever comes their way. They are VicTIMS rather than VicTORS…! And life becomes depressing, joyless and without great visions.

But….. PRAY WITHOUT CEASING; TRUST your LORD; live in constant FELLOWSHIP with THE LORD and HIS PEOPLE, and then…. only then He will allow you to lead the most exciting Christian life; you will become a different man, a different woman. You will be able to live a victorious life; You will be able TO DO EVERYTHING through Jesus Christ, the GREAT SUPPLIER of ALL THE STRENGTH YOU NEED….!

“Grant us Your strength, for our life, O Lord;”That wherever we go “No danger shall scare us, and we shall fear no foe.”Give us Your strength O Lord,”And let us trust Your Word “That we CAN do EVERYTHING through Him “Who allows us to live joyfully and even conquer sin;”Walk with me Lord, and hold my hand “So shall I not fear tomorrow and the unknown land “My life shall be filled with joy and happiness and be strong,”For you are by my side all my life long.”And help me to believe that You made me like You,”And therefore I CAN be good and a conqueror through YOU.

Amen.