Too soon to quit

Paul writes in Philippians 1:25: “And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith.”

This is the companion verse to II Cor. 1:24 where Paul says, “Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand.”

Jordan says, “Many years ago those two verses completely transformed my ministry when I realized my ministry wasn’t what brother Johnny was talking about earlier—‘Beat ’em up, kick ’em around, make ’em do, put the standards in and if they don’t live up to it, smack ’em,’ and don’t have much else without that. That’s called legalism. That’s called performance-based acceptance. It’s performance rather than who we are in Christ and the joy of what God’s made us in Christ.

“It’s in that mindset that Paul comes to Philippians 1:27: ‘Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.’

“In that word ‘conversation’ you see the word ‘converse’ and ‘concourse’ in the middle of it. That doesn’t just have to do with speaking. When you’re conversant with something, you’re intimate in the way it works, and you know how it happens and how it’s accomplished, and you can become conversant with a book, or a subject, or with a computer, or whatever it is you want to be conversant with and you have a thorough knowledge of it that you’re able to live it and handle it and deal with it.

“The word ‘conversation’ is more than just being able to talk about it. It’s that you get right into it and into its life and let what’s at the basis of who you are, and the way you live, be as becometh the gospel of Christ. Let your manner of life, your lifestyle, who you are be becoming, adorned, make look good…

“Let who you are down inside adorn the doctrine. It’s Titus 2 terminology. That, here’s the reason, ‘Whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs . . .’

“Can I tell you that I want to hear about you what Paul hears about these people? When you go away from here and I hear about your ministry and your life and your testimony, Paul said, ‘Whether I’m there with you or not, I want to hear about you. I want to hear about your affairs,’ and that’s not Bill Clinton doctrine. It’s ‘Whatcha doin' in life?’ I want to hear whether you’ve got your manure spreader out or not. You still shoveling dung or washed some of that stuff out? That’s Philippians 3:

[8] Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
[9] And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
[10] That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

“Just three simple things that he said he wanted to hear about them and you know, Paul said, ‘The things which thou has heard of me, commit . . . ’

*****

“There’s a very interesting event that takes place in the ministry of Apostle Paul. There’s a sense in which this passage is very encouraging and enlightening. Acts 15:36. These two guys, Barnabas and Paul, have been ministering together since Acts 13, actually since Acts 11 when Barnabas went up to Antioch and got Paul and added him to the ministry and Paul, in essence, became the teacher and the pastor there and they were consistently working together up to this point.

“John Mark went out with them on the first apostolic journey in Acts 13. He went a ways and then he turned back from the work and went home. He quit and Paul obviously didn’t think it was a good idea to take a quitter with him. But Barnabas was determined to take him.

“You notice in verse 37 it says Barnabas determined to take him. Verse 38. What you have here is a clash of wills. One man’s will wants to do something that the other man’s will says, ‘I’m not going to do it; we’re going to do something else.’ This is not a doctrinal clash; this is a clash of opinion and will and personality.

“This passage is comforting in a sense because what you see here is the humanity of Paul and Barnabas. You remember back in chapter 14:15 when Paul was talking to these people at Lystra, he says to them, ‘Sirs, why do you do these things, we also are men of like passions with you’?

“Sometime you get the idea that Paul and Barnabas, and Paul especially, never would have made a mistake! They would never have got mad or cross with anybody or angry or anything of that nature and it’s pretty obvious they were men of like passions like you and I!

“They’re humanity was just as real as yours and mine is. They disagreed; they lost their temper. They had strong words between them and they departed. They separated. They got mad enough and determined enough, and dug their heels in enough, that they separated. One went one way and one went the other.

“But there’s a lesson here. The disagreement they had was an illustration about how to disagree agreeably and that’s almost a contradiction in terms. I’m not talking about doctrine; this is a personality clash. They disagreed in grace and then they pressed on. This was not a sectarian kind of thing; it was a very practical application of grace.

“You see that in verse 40. When it says about being ‘recommended by the brethren under the grace of God,’ that’s not talking about the brethren taking Paul’s side over Barnabas’ side. In fact, it’s almost the opposite of that.

“Because when Barnabas and Paul left, both of them are recommended. It’s not that the brethren are commending them; what they’re saying is, ‘Look, guys, don’t spend the rest of your life taking pot shots at each other. Paul, don’t try to justify what you did and condemn Barnabas and Barnabas, don’t take shots and lob scud missiles over there at Paul. Just get on with it! Get over what’s happened and press on with the word of the ministry!’

*****

“Titus 1:4 says, ‘To Titus, mine own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.’

“I heard a sermon years ago about that verse and the guy called it, ‘It’s too early to quit!’ and I’ve always thought about that when I read that passage. Paul writes to Titus and says, ‘Titus, don’t quit yet! Keep going! This is why I left you there in Crete! I left you there to do a job so get on with the job! Don’t lay down and quit!’

“It’s always too soon to quit. You quit when the Lord takes you home and until then it’s too early to quit. And the thing that he left Titus there to do is in verse 5: ‘For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee.’

“There were some things in the ministry on Crete that Paul expected to be accomplished by the local churches that they hadn’t done. There’s some things that are wanting. It had to do with getting the local church structured in a way that it would do the things that God wanted it to do.”