Bible Study (6) - Set Apart for the Journey - Philippians 3:12-21 - August 20, 2023

 

Bible Study (6) – Set Apart for the Journey – August 20, 2023

This is the final lesson in this series of study.

Our focus scripture is Philippians 3:12-21.

Growing in CHRIST is a lifelong journey.

When did GOD choose us to journey upon earth to receive eternal life?

Let’s read Ephesians 1:3-14:

³ Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ. ⁴ For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him.^[c] 5 He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One.

⁷ In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace ⁸ that he richly poured out on us with all wisdom and understanding.^[d] 9 He made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he purposed in Christ ¹⁰ as a plan for the right time^[e]—to bring everything together in Christ, both things in heaven and things on earth in him.

¹¹ In him we have also received an inheritance,^[f] because we were predestined according to the plan of the one who works out everything in agreement with the purpose of his will, ¹² so that we who had already put our hope in Christ might bring praise to his glory.

¹³ In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed. ¹⁴ The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.

As an eighty-five (85) year old man, I think I fully understand the above statement, “Growing in CHRIST is a lifelong journey.” Just when you think you have figured what living the Christian as a Spirit-born Christian is, something unexpected pops up. I have lived long enough that when these unexpected things pop up, our LORD uses them for teaching us. Often, it is only after we get on the other side of an issue can, we appreciate its teaching and strengthening. The issues of life bring us closer to GOD, when we see HIS workmanship in our lives.  

I know as a child growing up, my parents and I lived with my grandparents in a large two-story house. We lived just inside the city limits. It was, in essence, a small farm. We had a pasture, a few chickens, hens, hogs, smokehouse, big garden, etc. The pasture would get bitter weeds in it, which my grandfather would use a sling blade to cut and remove them. When the milk cows ate bitter weeds in the pasture, the milk would taste bitter.

My grandfather would use an iron file to keep the sling blade sharp to cut the unwanted plants in the pasture and remove them.

GOD cuts the weeds in the lives of those who are or will become HIS Children.

Life is an ever-growing and learning process as we encounter life. When we think we have arrived Spiritually, often, we encounter something new or different. Does GOD use these encounters to defeat us or to make us stronger and wiser? It is the latter. GOD desires for us to be sharp, rightfully dividing HIS Word. GOD’S Word is sharper than a two-edged sword. A two-edged sword cuts both ways and opens us up to the teaching of the Holy Spirit.

I accepted JESUS when I was about 9 years old. I was not Baptized until I was a sophomore in college. I had numerous milestones and ups and downs along my Spiritual journey. Some were positive and others I considered negative but all worked to help me know GOD through faith in JESUS.

Just when I thought I had my relationship with GOD figured out, Wack, HE sent me a zinger. It took me awhile but I began to see that most every zinger GOD sent my way was a learning experience. They led me to explore GOD and learn about HIM. I love GOD’S name, YAWEH.

Our next big event upon earth is the rapture of the church from earth. No one, including JESUS knows when that will take place. What is GOD revealing to us? Life is uncertain and when the last trumpet sounds, the Spirit-born believers will be taken up, (removed, raptured) to Heaven. We are getting closer to that instant every day.

What does one need to do to be ready for this world event? Ask JESUS to forgive you for your sins, believing that the death of JESUS and HIS shed blood paid in full, your sin debt. GOD raised JESUS from the physically dead to live eternally as the Savior of all who place their faith in HIM.

How does faith in JESUS change a person’s eternal destination from Hell to Heaven? Through Spiritual birth into GOD’S Family, thus the term “Born-again.”

When a person asks JESUS into his/her life, HIS Spirit bonds with our human spirit and a miracle takes place quicker than the twinkle of the eye. That person is Spiritually born into GOD’S Family, never to be Spiritually unborn. When a person accepts JESUS as his/her Savior that person is born into GOD’S Family. It is a Spiritual birth confirmed by the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. So, glorify God with your body.

Romans 4: ¹³ For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. ¹⁴ If those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made empty and the promise nullified, ¹⁵ because the law produces wrath. And where there is no law, there is no transgression.

¹⁶ This is why the promise is by faith, so that it may be according to grace, to guarantee it to all the descendants—not only to the one who is of the law^[g] but also to the one who is of Abraham’s faith. He is the father of us all. ¹⁷ As it is written: I have made you the father of many nations^[h]—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, the one who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist. ¹⁸ He believed, hoping against hope, so that he became the father of many nations^[I] according to what had been spoken: So will your descendants be.^[j] 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered^[k] his own body to be already dead (since he was about a hundred years old) and also the deadness of Sarah’s womb. ²⁰ He did not waver in unbelief at God’s promise but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, ²¹ because he was fully convinced that what God had promised, he was also able to do. ²² Therefore, it was credited to him for righteousness.^[l] 23 Now it was credited to him^[m] was not written for Abraham alone, ²⁴ but also for us. It will be credited to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. ²⁵ He was delivered up for^[n] our trespasses and raised for our justification.

What is justification? “JUST AS IF I NEVER SINNED

Romans 4:16:

This is why the promise is by faith, so that it may be according to grace, to guarantee it to all the descendants—not only to the one who is of the law but also to the one who is of Abraham’s faith. He is the father of us all.

Nicodemus was a Rabbi and a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin who came along with other Jewish colleagues to JESUS at night. They wanted to ask JESUS a very important question. They sought truth. Let’s read what they were seeking to know as we read in John 3:1-21:

Jesus and Nicodemus

3 There was a man from the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. ² This man came to him at night and said, “Rabbi (JESUS), we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him.” 

They were seeking truth!

JESUS, The Truth, was standing right there with them.

Verse 2 is profound and gives us insight into what some of the Jewish religious leaders saw in JESUS.  They saw truth but many could not accept or support the truth they knew because the Jewish system would not allow it. JESUS did not fit their model for their Messiah; therefore, HE must be an imposter. Yet, the miracles performed through HIM could not be explained.

³ Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again,^[a] he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

⁴ “How can anyone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked him (JESUS). “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?”

Great Question!

⁵ Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water (Born as a human) and the Spirit (GOD’S power), he/she cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶ Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. ⁸ The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So, it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

⁹ “How can these things be?” asked Nicodemus.

The human body will die and decay unless changed by the power of GOD. The Spirit from GOD IS ETERNAL and will never die. JESUS redeemed the born-again SPIRIT for all humans who place their faith in HIM – JESUS PAID IN FULL FOR ALL OF OUR SINS AS AN INDIVIDUAL, WHEN WE PLACE OUR FAITH IN HIM. His DEATH UPON THE CROSS PAID IN FULL THE PENALTY FOR ALL OUR SIN BUT EVERY PERSON MUST ACCEPT AND ACKNOWLEDGE THIS GREAT AND ETERNAL GIFT. This is when we are born-again in our Spirit and will live eternally with JESUS.

¹⁰ “Are you a teacher^[b] of Israel and don’t know these things?” Jesus replied. ¹¹ “Truly I tell you; we speak what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony. ¹² If I have told you about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven —the Son of Man.^[c]

¹⁴ “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness (Number 24:1-9), so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵ so that everyone who believes in him may^[d] have eternal life. ¹⁶ For God loved the world in this way:^[e] He gave^[f] his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. ¹⁹ This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it,^[g] so that his deeds may not be exposed. ²¹ But anyone who lives by^[h] the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”

As Spirit-born people, we are to reflect GOD as we walk with GOD and grow in HIM. We never stop growing Spiritually. Just when we, as a Spirit-born person, think we have arrived, GOD sends us a challenge to strengthen our relationship with HIM.

Let’s read Philippians 3:12-14:

Reaching Forward to God’s Goal

¹² Not that I have already reached the goal or am already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not^[b] consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, ¹⁴ I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly^[c] call in Christ Jesus. 

When we think we have arrived Spiritually, we haven’t. The Apostle Paul did all he could to live the abundant life. When he thought he had achieved all that could be achieved, GOD showed him another level for him to achieve.

Why do you think GOD works in our lives like that? Could it be that we could get self-confident and begin to examine Spiritual matters from a human perspective. GOD knows our human nature.

But notice what Paul tells us - But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, ¹⁴ I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly^[c] call in Christ Jesus. 

When a person knows that he or she has been Spirit-born and has no unconfessed sin in his/her life, we are to learn from our past but not let our past keep us from serving and reaching forward for a deeper relationship with GOD. When a person has been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, Satan will attempt to make them feel unworthy of being a Child of GOD. But what do we read in GOD’S Word?

Let’s read Philippians 3:15-19:

¹⁵ Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you. ¹⁶ In any case, we should live up to whatever truth we have attained. ¹⁷ Join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us. ¹⁸ For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. ¹⁹ Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame; and they are focused on earthly things. 

Let’s consider verse 3:15:

Paul was using “mature” in the sense of Spiritually mature. The Spiritually mature person is well grounded in GOD’S Word and is not being tossed about by every form of doctrine. This person abides (lives in JESUS and JESUS lives in him or her). He/she knows that the HOLY SPIRIT still has more to reveal as the Spirit-born person continues to walk with and learn from the teaching of JESUS. The Spiritually mature person is to live by and practice what he/she knows.

We as Spirit-born Christians should encourage new Christians to follow the example of mature Christians as we read in verse 17 -- ¹⁷ Join in imitating me, brothers and sisters, and pay careful attention to those who live according to the example you have in us. In other words, watch me and do as I do. We who are Spirit filled are to be examples for others to follow. That is the ultimate witness to others. Join in imitating me! WOW! Now that is commitment!

Let’s read Philippians 3:20-21:

²⁰ Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. ²¹ He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his (HIS) glorious body, by the power that enables him (HIM) to subject everything to himself.

JESUS is waiting for GOD to tell HIM to return to earth and extract all who are SPIRIT-BORN.

Are you prepared for HIS coming? If not, do so now.

Blessings!!!