Enemies Of The Cross
Our Bible passage, introduction to Sunday 6th September service and hymns are below.
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Our principal verses are:
Php 3:17 Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample.
Php 3:18 (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
Php 3:19 Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)
Php 3:20 For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:
Php 3:21 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
Enemies Of The Cross
In calling upon the Philippians to be his followers the Apostle is not at all implying that he be viewed as the leader of a party or regarded as the head of a faction. Sectarianism within the church was always a thing detested by Paul. Unity in the body and love one for one another were great principles with him. Paul’s meaning is that he would have the church at Philippi follow his example in the matters about which he has just been speaking.
Follow Paul
Paul would have every believer look to Christ alone for righteousness as he now did and, with him, to regard their own works as dung. He would have us know the excellency of Christ as he had come to know it, and with him to ‘press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus’. He would have us discard all confidence in the flesh and serve Christ, not according to the arbitrary, subjective rules of men, but ‘according to the rule of God’s word’.
The mark of faith
To be a follower of Paul is to walk together with God’s people in union of heart and spirit, in conformity of doctrine and practice as followers of Christ. Paul would have the church mark, identify and notice all who are faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ and to seek to emulate their example in character and behaviour. It greatly distressed the Apostle that many in his own day walked contrary to the gospel and he calls them ‘the enemies of the cross of Christ’.
Enemies of the cross
The Apostle is not referring to openly wicked people. He need not caution the church against those who lived plainly immoral and dissolute lives. He is referring to those whose crimes are not against the law but against the gospel. They are against the cross of Christ and opposed to the doctrine of redemption solely by Christ’s blood. What the Lord Jesus accomplished on the cross is the heart of the gospel. Those who seek salvation in anything other than Christ’s blood and righteousness are enemies of Christ and enemies of the church.
What makes Paul weep
Paul grieves to behold such characters. He laments that they are many. Their enmity against the cross is not a denial of the fact of the cross but rejection of what it achieved. All who imagine their works contribute in any way to acceptance with God, or their holy standing before God, deny the uniqueness and efficacy of Christ’s death on the cross. Their end, says Paul, is destruction. Their confidence in themselves must end in disaster because they oppose and reject the sole means of obtaining salvation.
Wrong priorities
Such individuals make natural, outward conformity the measure of their acceptance with God, their rule of life. Matters such as what to eat and drink, what to wear, how to behave and other endless religious practices are construed as a means to please God when they are really a matter of shame. Instead of focusing on spiritual things and things already accomplished in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, the attention of these enemies is focused on earthly things, with endless self-examination.
Faith and hope
Our conversation is in heaven. Believers have a lively hope of eternal life with the Lord Jesus in heaven. Though we continue to live here on earth we look forward in reasonable faith and eager expectation to the mansion being prepared for us in our Father’s presence. We already share fellowship in spiritual truth with those who have gone on before and we delight to anticipate our actual entrance into that heavenly realm. We look for the return of our Saviour. He will call us presently by death or upon His return for the church that remains.
Glorified bodies
Paul’s final comment upon this subject is of great comfort to all the Lord’s people and a great confirmation of our gospel doctrine. At Christ’s return for His church the earthly bodies of the saints of God will be instantly changed into glorious bodies without passing through the grave. For those who have already died and are presently with the Lord their spirits will accompany the Saviour on His return. Their bodies will be raised from their graves, changed to glorious bodies, and body and soul reunited by the same Almighty power.
Amen
Hymn 237A
Matt. 26. 36-46; 2 Cor. 7. 10
J. Hart 8.7.
1
Great High Priest, we view thee stooping
With our names upon thy breast;
In the garden groaning, drooping
To the ground, with horrors pressed;
Wondering angels stood confounded
To behold their Maker thus;
And can we remain unwounded,
When we know ’twas all for us?
2
On the cross thy body broken
Cancels every penal tie;
Tempted souls produce this token,
All demands to satisfy.
All is finished; do not doubt it;
But believe your dying Lord,
Never reason more about it,
Only take him at his word.
3
Lord, we fain would trust thee solely;
’Twas for us thy blood was spilt;
Bruisèd Bridegroom, take us wholly,
Take and make us what thou wilt.
Thou hast borne the bitter sentence
Passed on man’s devoted race;
True belief and true repentance
Are thy gifts, thou God of grace.
Hymn 180
Christ the Believer’s All. Acts 5. 31; Gal. 6. 14; Eph. 1. 7;
J. Hart 8.7.
1
Lamb of God, we fall before thee,
Humbly trusting in thy cross;
That alone be all our glory;
All things else are dung and dross;
Thee we own a perfect Saviour,
Only Source of all that’s good:
Every grace and every favour
Comes to us through Jesus’ blood.
2
Jesus gives us true repentance,
By his Spirit sent from heaven;
Jesus whispers this sweet sentence,
“Son, thy sins are all forgiven.”
Faith he gives us to believe it;
Grateful hearts his love to prize;
Want we wisdom? He must give it;
Hearing ears, and seeing eyes.
3
Jesus gives us pure affections,
Wills to do what he requires;
Makes us follow his directions,
And what he commands inspires.
All our prayers and all our praises,
Rightly offered in his name,
He that dictates them is Jesus;
He that answers is the same.
4
When we live on Jesus’ merit,
Then we worship God aright,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
Then we savingly unite.
Hear the whole conclusion of it;
Great or good, whate’er we call,
God, or King, or Priest, or Prophet,
Jesus Christ is All in All.
The Apostle Paul is eager to stress the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ and the complete sufficiency of that work for His people’s full salvation. However, Paul does not wish to appear complacent or self-satisfied so as to rest on his laurels. He has a race to run, a prize to receive, a glory to obtain and he presses on to follow Christ according to the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.