Philippians 1:8 "For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ."
The word bowels is offensive to some folk.
They think it is crude.
But that is the way it is in the Bible, and that is the way it should be read - just as it is.
Bowels really means tender feelings.
This is really a marvelous statement.
Apostle Paul says that he longs for all of them in the tender feelings of Jesus Christ.
Actually, it is quite accurate to use the word bowels for tender feelings.
The ancients were accurate when they talked about our feelings being in the region of the bowels.
The average person thinks that everything he does is because he has thought it over and he is very smart.
Yet very little really takes place up here.
The brain is really a very marvelous telephone exchange.
A message comes up through the sensory nervous system, up through the synaptic connections from the hand to the brain. Immediately there is a transfer made over to a motor neuron, and the message goes down over a different set of synaptic connections.
For example, when you touch a hot stove, immediately the message goes up to the brain, and the brain returns the message,
"Take your finger off."
We react instantly. We do it without even thinking, but there was a connection made up in the brain.
The moment we are distressed or even given wonderful news our first reaction is in our tummy.
That is where we live and move and have our being.
Here we have the apostle Paul expressing his most tender feelings.
"I long after you."
It is not because they have given him something.
His reaction is not mental but emotional.
Oh how I truly love this.
This is a wonderful expression.
Philippians 1:9 "And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment."
There is a lot of silly thinking about this word love.
There are certain preachers who spread damnable heresies.
Doesn’t Jesus say in His Holy Word that we are to love our enemies and do good to those who hate you? Of course He said that, but we need to notice to whom He said it.
The Lord Jesus had some very harsh things to say about the religious rulers of His day.
He said
John 8:44 "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do …"
He also said,
Matthew 23:33 "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?"
The Lord Jesus
called the Devil their father and there mother a snake!
I don’t think any person could be more extreme.
The apostle Paul prayed that
" ... your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment [or discernment]."
We are to love all believers in Christ.
Some of the believers are a little difficult to love.
Some of our friends are even difficult to love.
We are to love the unlovely, but we are to love with knowledge and with discernment.
That does not mean we just let our love slop over on every side.
It is to abound with discernment.
Apostle Paul says we are to let our love abound more and more, but we are to let it abound in judgment - being able to discern.
We ought to say each and every new day, "Lord Jesus, I am perhaps going to meet new people today, and I do not know them. Some of them I will be able to help.
Others of them will put a knife in my back.
Lord Jesus please help me to distinguish between the two.
Show me which I should help."
Actually this verse rescues a Christian from being naive and gullible.
Our love is to abound in knowledge and discernment.
Philippians 1:10-11 "That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ. Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God."
The "fruits of righteousness" are the fruits of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is producing fruit in the lives of the believers.
Galatians 5:22–23 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance …"
Philippians 1:12-13 "But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel. So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places."
Not only did Paul’s imprisonment enable him to reach into Caesar’s household with the gospel, but it also accomplished something else:
Philippians 1:14 "And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the Word without fear."
WE ARE TOLD TO PUT ON BOWELS OF MERCIES.
WE ARE TO PUT ON CHRIST JESUS.
"bowels of mercies,"
This is an accurate translation from the Greek, indicating that the insides, the internal organs, are the seat of our emotions.
I think that even psychology is moving to the view that not much emotion happens in the head, but a whole lot happens down lower.
Our tummies hurt when we are in a very stressful situation.
We do not hurt in our minds - we hurt in our tummies.
And it is down in the viscera area where you and I are to be merciful.
The point is that mercy is the thing that the believer is to exercise.
"KINDNESS" - that is a positive thing.
Am I known as a believer who is kind?
Am I kind to people?
Colossians 3:12-15 "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering. Forebearing one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.
And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful."
"Perfection" is completeness or real sanctification.
This was the truth that brought John Wesley to conviction and eventually to saving faith in Christ. John Wesley was a fine young man and practicing Christian. In fact, at Oxford he and his brother organized a society for spiritual improvement known as the "Holy Club." These men had rigid rules, and they refrained from doing certain things. John Wesley thought he was a believer. He was the son of a preacher, he had a godly mother, and he went to America as a missionary to the Indians and colonists.
But on his way over there the ship he was traveling on got into a terrific storm. Wesley, although it wasn’t visible, was terror stricken. As he watched the German Moravians on board he saw that they had the peace of God in their hearts, something that he did not have.
It brought John Wesley under such conviction that when he got to this country, according to the account, he never did any mission work. He was a failure here. His record in Georgia was nil; he did nothing at all.
His cry was this when he returned to England: "I went to America to convert the Indians, but who shall convert John Wesley?" He knew that he didn’t have anything on the inside.
He thought he was sanctified, but in truth he was not even saved.
It is not what is on the outside, but what is inside.
Sanctification is like taking off an old garment and putting on a new garment. And this figure of speech in the Scripture is a good figure.
We are to lay aside our old garment.
And put on the new garment, and it is this new garment which is such an important part of sanctification.
Sanctification means that we take off the old and it means we put on the new. This is the goal for a believer. These are the things we are to put on.
What is the old - negative list?
Anger, malice, blasphemy, lying, and so on - we recognize that there are certain things there that we have not put off. .
What is the new - positive list?
Tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, and bearing with one another - sanctification ought to mean a great deal to us.
None of us, regardless of who we are, have reached perfection.
We are all guilty, lost sinners in our natural state, but when we come and trust Christ, our standing before God changes.
God, who had to pronounce us guilty, now says that we are not guilty, that we are accepted in the Beloved, accepted in Christ our Savior.
Our standing is changed by justification.
Regeneration means that God has not only done an exterior job of decorating, but He has also done an interior job.
We have been given a new nature if we are a child of God.
Sanctification has to do with the character and the conduct of the believer.
Justification is an act; it happens one time.
Sanctification is a work.
Justification is what God does for us;
Sanctification is what God does in us.
And they both go together.
God wants to sanctify us.
He wants to develop us.
He wants us to be like His Son the Lord Jesus.
But there are 3 dangers to which we must be alert.
1) There is a danger that we interpret our sanctification by our experience.
A great many people do this today.
They feel that if hey have had some overwhelming experience, they have been sanctified.
THIS IS SIMPLY NOT TRUE.
The Bible interprets our experience, but our experience does not interpret the Bible.
It is so easy for us to have an experience and use that experience to interpret the Word of God. But the Word of God must interpret the experience that we have. There is a danger in getting the cart before the horse.
2) There is a great danger in thinking sanctification means sinlessness, that is, to reach the place where we do not sin.
Sanctification does not mean sinlessness under any circumstances.
3) There is a danger in thinking that sanctification is an act.
It is not a single act but a continuous work.
It is without ending as long as we are in this world.
God desires for us to grow.
We on the other hand have frail flesh!
We will never reach the place in this life where we do not need to progress in our Christian walk.
Romans 8:6 "For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace."
"For to be carnally minded" means that you are separated from fellowship with God and that flesh is death here and now.
The Spirit who indwells the believer brings life and peace.
When we sin, we are to come to God in confession and let Him wash us.
This restores us to fellowship.
There is one thing for sure: if you are living in the flesh, and you are a child of God, you are not having fellowship with God.
You can’t.
The Lord Jesus said to Peter in the Upper Room,
John 13:8 " ... if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me."
God will not have fellowship with us if we purposefully commit sin and continue to live in the flesh.
1 John 1:9 tells us, "If we confess our sins"
Who is "we?"
It is we Christians.
"God is faithful and just …" - it will take the blood of Christ to cleanse us.
We do not know how wicked the old nature is.
We need to go to Him for cleansing.
"The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, keeps on cleansing us from all sin" ( 1 John 1:7).
The old nature is totally depraved.
God has no plan to redeem it.
He gives us a new nature.
We cannot live for God in the old nature.
If we continue to live in our old nature, then we must not be a child of God.
The child of God, if he commits sin, will cry out to God,
"Oh God, I hate myself for what I’ve done! Please have mercy upon me."
And this idea today that you can somehow train your old nature, and live in it, is false.
That’s the thing that leads to legalism.
Legalists are those lovely people who are trying to control the flesh - they are so pious! They are the worst gossips you have ever met.
We need to see ourselves in Christ today and realize that only the Spirit of God moving through us can accomplish the life of Christ Jesus in and through us.
No good thing is going to come out of the flesh, we are to stop believing in ourselves, and believe that the Spirit of God alone is able to live the life of Christ in us.
We need to lay hold of it.
We have no standing before God in ourselves.
We ought to see ourselves as God sees us.
We haven’t anything to offer God.
God blesses us because of His marvelous grace.
THE ELECT OF GOD ARE TO BE WELL DRESSED.
If you have trusted Christ, then this is the garment you have on.
The elect of God are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Paul mentions the fact that the garment is the fruit of the Holy Spirit
We cannot produce this fruit in our lives.
We are weak and powerless, unable to "put on" these fruits.
We are in the same position as the bride in the Song of Solomon.
She had been kissed with the kiss of peace.
Our peace has been made with God.
He has kissed us, and told us that our sins are forgiven us.
We are safe and secure in Christ.
O safe to the rock that is higher than I,
My soul in its conflicts and sorrows would fly;
So sinful, so weary, Thine own would I be;
Thou blessed Rock of Ages, I'm hiding in Thee.
Chorus.
HIDING IN THEE, HIDING IN THEE,
THOU BLESSED ROCK OF AGES,
I'M HIDING IN THEE.
In the calm of the noontide,
In sorrow's lone hour
In times when temptation casts o'er me its power;
In the tempests of life, in its wide heaving sea,
Thou blest Rock of Ages, I'm hiding in thee
How oft in the conflict,
When press'd by the foe,
I fled to my refuge and breath'd out my woe;
How often, When trials like sea billows roll,
I've hidden in Thee O Thou Rock of my soul.
Sankey's Sacred Songs & Solos 519.
SermonAudio
Oh how wonderful!,
How simply glorious, that is!
But as the children of God we still sin.
Then we need to remember the boy who got away from his father and his home, who lived in sin and wasted his fortune in riotous living. When he came back home, his father saw him afar off and ran and fell on his neck.
What did he do?
He kissed his son.
That is the kiss of pardon, the kiss of forgiveness which God gives to His children.
We are in the position of the bride who says in the Song of Solomon,
"Draw me, draw me" (see Song. 1:4).
We are not able to attain to this wonderful position that we have in Christ. We cannot do it ourselves.
So we find ourselves casting ourselves upon God.
This is where the Spirit of God moves in and enables us to walk in the Spirit.
Today we are enjoined to walk in the Holy Spirit.
Galatians 5:16 "… Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh."
God has given us more than a walking stick.
He has given us the indwelling Holy Spirit.
To walk in the Spirit means to utterly and absolutely depend on the Spirit of God. This gets right down to where we are today.
We are to get down from our highchairs and start walking.
We learn to walk in the Spirit as we learned to walk physically, by placing one foot in front of the other. Of course we fail.
Time and again we fail and fall flat on our faces.
We often loose our balance in this world.
BUT WE GET UP AND WE DUST OURSELVES OFF AND START OUT ALL OVER AGAIN.
We learn to walk in the Spirit by keeping at it and by asking the Lord Jesus to walk in us.
WE SURE NEED OUR LORD JESUS DESPERATELY AND WE NEED HIS MERCY AND COMPASSION CONSTANTLY.
King David said to God,
1 Chronicles 21:13 "And David said to Gad, "I am in great distress. Please let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are very great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man."
OUR GOD IS RICH O SO RICH IN MERCY!
YOU CAN GO TO HIM RIGHT NOW.
HE IS TRULY THE ONLY ONE THAT WE CAN GO TO.
Bowels of mercies means a heart of compassion.
How heartless this world is today.
How indifferent and mechanical it has become! Most of the time we are simply a number. The bank we do business with has as much heart as the computer. In fact, the computer is the heart of the bank.
Apostle Paul says that as believers we should have a heart of compassion in our relationships with those around us.
Kindness is a word that Paul uses that carries with it the thought of being "profitable."
It means to be helpful to others.
There is another Greek word for kindness that has an element of sternness in it and sometimes in order to be kind, we have to be stern.
Gentleness and that is the word that Paul uses here.
Humbleness is "meekness." Meekness does not mean weakness.
Notice here Paul’s emphasis is "humbleness of mind."
Meekness the emphasis is "meekness of spirit."
Longsuffering is the Greek word makrothumia, which means "long-burning"it burns a long time.
We should not have a short fuse with our friends and Christian brethren. We should not make snap judgments.
Quarrel actually is "complaint."
Paul is including situations where there is blame involved and the complaint is justified.
What are we to do in such circumstances?
"Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye."
This does not mean that you become a doormat.
But it does mean that when we have a complaint, we are to go to the individual and strive to work out the matter.
There are always going to be some people with whom we simply cannot work things out - we must realize that.
When our Lord Jesus denounced the Pharisees, there was no mention of forgiveness.
He just denounced them.
They of course, did not seek His forgiveness.
Apostle Paul says that Christ has forgiven us so much that it won’t hurt us to forgive somebody who has stepped on our toes.
We are to forgive others in the same way that Christ has forgiven us.
Charity is love.
WE ARE TO PUT ON LOVE.
Rule means "to umpire."
The peace of God should govern our hearts.
WE ARE TO LET THE PEACE OF GOD RULE IN OUR HEARTS.
Colossians 3:16 "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord."
"The word of Christ."
The Lord Jesus said,
John 15:3 "Now ye are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you."
The best bath that we can take is to study the Word of God.
Dwell means "to be at home, to be given the run of the house."
We should be familiar with the Word of Christ.
We are to study it so we will know what God is saying to us.
That is where He is going to speak to us today, - in His Word.
"Teaching and admonishing one another"
- in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs."
"Singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord."
We are to let the Word of God have this marvelous influence in our lives.
Colossians 3:17 "And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him."
Do you want a norm for Christian conduct?
Do you want a standard to go by?
Do you want a principle to live by?
Paul gives us such a standard right here.
He does not say what we should or should not do.
He simply says,
"Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him."
Whatever we do - at our place of employment, in our homes, and in all our relationships with others - can we truly say,
"I’m doing this in the name of the Lord Jesus?"
If you can say that, if what you are doing, you are doing in our Saviour's precious name, then go right ahead and do it.
Philippians 1:8 "For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ."
AMEN!
Reply to Caryl@cherith.co.za.
THIS PAGE UPDATED: 18-10-2007.