Lights In The World
Our Bible passage, introduction to Sunday 12th July service and hymns are below.
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Our principal verses are:
Php 2:14 Do all things without murmurings and disputings:
Php 2:15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
Php 2:16 Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.
Php 2:17 Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all.
Php 2:18 For the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me.
Lights In The World
The Lord’s people work out their own salvation in fear and trembling when they live out the new life God has placed in them. They live by faith and shine as lights in the world. They serve the Lord God, not out of imposed duty but from inward desire, not bound to legal obligation but in loving obedience. They understand they have been crucified with Christ and raised to newness of life. They say with Paul, ‘the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me’ (Galatians 2:2).
Christ changes us
The inward attitude of the Lord’s people has been transformed. Conversion does something real. It makes all things new. Being a new creature does not mean we are sinless or immune to temptation; it does mean the Holy Spirit dwells in us and with us. He convinces us of sin and makes us feel the need of constant applications of Christ’s cleansing blood. Believers are not lawless, the law is written in our hearts and that work of inward transformation affects our values and the way we live.
Living before God …
The new birth motivates and enables God’s people to serve from the inside out, with a renewed soul and a right spirit. No form of outward conformity to God’s will is acceptable to Him if it be without inward change. God’s work within us affects what we do, how we do it and how we feel about doing it. God’s will is not to be disputed or debated, it is to be embraced. His ways, His providences, are not to be murmured against. A believer’s service is borne of gratitude and indebtedness. Obedience is not acceptable to the Lord when it is performed grudgingly.
… as lights in this world
Similarly, what is true for our attitude towards our glorious Head is true for our attitude towards His body the church. Our dealings with our brethren should not be marked by contentions, murmurings and disputings against each other. Love, patience and tolerance ought to characterise our general attitude with the Lord’s people while sympathy and kindness ought to distinguish our approach to those around us in the world. Imitating the meekness and humility of our Saviour is a wide-ranging principle.
As becomes the gospel
Paul calls the Philippian believers to live blamelessly and harmlessly amongst men. This becomes the gospel we profess and the Saviour we follow. We are God’s representatives in this wicked world, amidst a crooked and perverse generation. We are Christ’s ambassadors. He is the Light of the world and we reflect His goodness and beauty as we hold forth the Word of Life, preach the gospel, profess our Saviour and live according to His ways. Who can tell but that our witness is as close to Christ as some people ever come.
Sacrificed in service
The Apostle did not know if his present imprisonment would end in his execution or release. Yet, whether he lived or died he believed his joy would be greater on the day of Christ’s return because of the witness and testimony of the Philippian church. Their dedicated service to the Lord Jesus Christ and their witness to the world was evidence to Paul that their profession was genuine and their conversion a work of effectual grace.
True joy
Here the Apostle Paul returns in this little epistle to his recurring theme of joy. His joy and the joy of the church does not rely upon the things of this world. It relies upon possessing the faith of Jesus Christ. Whether the Apostle lived a while longer, or died as a labourer in the work of the gospel, he would rejoice in the faith and testimony of the Philippians as they rejoiced in knowing Christ by Paul’s labours amongst them.
Rejoicing in loss
Nor would Paul have them sorrow for him in death if, indeed, they should hear he had been poured out as a sacrifice in the cause of the gospel. Paul gloried in serving Christ and serving the church of Christ. He would count it all joy to be sacrificed in such a cause and the Lord’s people should rejoice with him. He had run his race and gained his purpose, especially among the Philippian believers for which he rejoiced with thanks.
Amen
Hymn 246
On Love to Christ as a Redeemer. John 14. 21
B. Francis 8s
1
My gracious Redeemer I love;
His praises aloud I’ll proclaim,
And join with the armies above,
To shout his adorable name.
To gaze on his glories divine
Shall be my eternal employ;
And feel them incessantly shine,
My boundless, ineffable joy.
2
He freely redeemed with his blood
My soul from the confines of hell,
To live on the smiles of my God,
And in his sweet presence to dwell;
To shine with the angels of light,
With saints and with seraphs to sing;
To view with eternal delight
My Jesus, my Saviour, my King.
3
In Meshech, as yet, I reside,
A darksome and restless abode:
Molested with foes on each side,
And longing to dwell with my God.
O when shall my spirit exchange
This cell of corruptible clay
For mansions celestial, and range
Through realms of ineffable day?
Hymn 246
On Love to Christ as a Redeemer. John 14. 21
B. Francis 8s
4
My glorious Redeemer! I long
To see thee descend on the cloud,
Amidst the bright numberless throng,
And mix with the triumphing crowd.
O when wilt thou bid me ascend,
To join in thy praises above,
To gaze on thee, world without end,
And feast on thy ravishing love?
5
No sorrow, nor sickness, nor pain,
Nor sin, nor temptation, nor fear,
Shall ever molest me again;
Perfection of glory reigns there.
This soul and this body shall shine
In robes of salvation and praise,
And banquet on pleasures divine,
Where God his full beauty displays.
6
Ye palaces, sceptres, and crowns,
Your pride with disdain I survey;
Your pomps are but shadows and sounds,
And pass in a moment away.
The crown that my Saviour bestows,
Yon permanent sun shall outshine;
My joy everlastingly flows;
My God, my Redeemer, is mine!
Believers are lights in this world because we dwell in Christ and serve His cause by faith. Believers shine in the darkness of this world not because of what we do and don't do but because of who and what we are and, especially, whose we are.