Philippians

Your Salvation is Ongoing

May 26, 2022 by Tim Sherfy

We do a great disservice to ourselves if we consider our salvation in Christ to be something that occurred in a single moment of time. There is, of course, the moment when you accepted Christ and committed your life to Him, but salvation doesn’t begin or end there. Your salvation has a past. Before you ever heard about Christ, He had already done the work necessary for your salvation on the cross.

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Once you accepted the Lord’s offer of salvation, you spend the rest of your life working out that salvation in the present (see Philippians 2:12-13). Finally, our salvation is secured in the future when we meet Christ and are glorified in Him and with Him. Your salvation is ongoing, and we must never become lazy thinking we prayed a prayer and that’s all there is to it.

Darkness

May 9, 2022 by Tim Sherfy

Something’s wrong in the world today. You can feel the darkness encroaching on every side. Many feel powerless to stop it. Worse still, too many don’t even know what to call the darkness. As followers of Christ, we recognize the problem as sin, but we are facing a generation who have grown up not understanding what the word even means.

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For those who are a little older and grew up in a time when there was still a biblical foundation in our culture, it seems unfathomable that anyone would not understand what sin is. And yet, this is the world in which we find ourselves. The foundation of God’s Word and God’s laws have been stripped away, leaving us both ignorant and vulnerable to the darkness pervading our world.

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Salvation

May 2, 2022 by Tim Sherfy

Reading through the “MacArthur New Testament Commentary” on Philippians, I came across this comment from Pastor MacArthur: “Tragically, evangelicalism today seeks to remove the effects of preaching on sin and repentance, holiness and humility, in an effort to make the message more acceptable to fallen, depraved human nature. A growing number of churches intentionally play down the biblical elements of salvation and the demands of true discipleship.”

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Tragic indeed. Even more frightening is the fact I have witnessed this trend in churches over the past 20-30 years. No longer do you hear the old “fire and brimstone messages”. Is it because we are better off now and less in need of a Savior than in the days past? Far from it, I would say. The need has not waned, but the conviction has.

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To Live is Christ

April 25, 2022 by Tim Sherfy

In his letter to the church in Philippi, Paul wrote that for him, “to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). A life devoted to Christ means death is irrelevant and even better than life. If we spend our lives in devotion to Christ, we fulfill our purpose by glorifying our Lord and Creator. And if we die, we get to meet Him face to face, spending eternity in His glorious presence.

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This is a no-lose proposition. We serve and glorify Him in life, and we serve and glorify Him in death. There is no better deal anyone could ever offer you. Nothing else you could spend your life on offers the same consistency and reward.

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A Meditation on Psalm 121

February 21, 2022 by Tim Sherfy

What do you do when worry overtakes you? Where do you turn? The author of Psalm 121 knew the answer. He lifted His eyes towards Heaven and knew His help came from the Lord (Psalm 121:1-2). We must never forget this truth when the troubles of life threaten to overwhelm us. The very One who made all of Heaven and the earth is an ever-present help in our times of need and distress (Psalm 46:1-3).

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God never leaves or abandons us (Deuteronomy 31:6). If God is for us, no person or circumstance can stand against us (Romans 8:31-32). Jesus defeated death itself on our behalf (2 Timothy 1:10; John 11:25; Hebrews 2:14-15; Revelation 1:17-18). There is no longer a reason to fear anything. It’s difficult to feel overwhelmed when you are fearless!