Hymn 155 L. F. Prayer.
The Epistle to the Philippians was written by Paul when he was in prison. With their feet fast in the stocks, their backs lacerated, and all the misery that man could heap upon them, their souls were not crushed. They were in fellowship with God's Son, and their hearts were feasting upon Christ, and rose up in prayers and praises till the prisoners heard it. It was He who could give songs in the night. That is Christianity. Christianity is not only knowing I am saved, but it gives me Christ, and it gives me Him as an object for my heart. Sometimes people seek happiness. One dear sister told me how happy she had felt, and then just as she looked at it, it fled. We are not to look at our happiness, or our feelings, but we do desire by the Spirit and will of God to be taken up with Christ.
In Num. 28:44The one lamb shalt thou offer in the morning, and the other lamb shalt thou offer at even; (Numbers 28:4) there was to be a lamb in the morning, and a lamb in the evening; and why? It was a type of Christ,—we should begin the day with Christ, and close the day with Christ. Paul wrote this letter to the Philippians from the Roman prison—a beautiful letter—as well as Ephesians, Col., and Philemon. His life was full of joy, full of Christ. In each one of these
Epistles we have that sweet renewing of joy. We perhaps are not called to pass through much suffering, but let us not shrink from what we have to pass through, proving the joy of our souls in finding our occupation day by day with Christ Himself.
The Philippian Epistle is divided very conveniently into four chapters. In the first chapter we have the affections of the new nature; then, the apostle and the Philippians were wrapped up together in one bundle of love; he in their hearts, and they in his heart; and he is counting upon the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ for something that he has before him, and what do you think it is? Take the 1st chapter. There were some preaching the Gospel out of contention, but in the 19th verse he turns away from that, to triumph in the love of Christ. This verse brings before us, as other scriptures do, the precious privilege we have of praying for each other; and here they were praying for Paul, and he knew it, and he counted on those prayers, and with the prayers come the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ; i. e., not that the Holy Ghost was not dwelling in them, for He was; but that Spirit was burning in them, and through the prayers of the saints he counted upon the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, that whatever he did, or whatever he said, or whatever was before him, it was the Spirit of Jesus Christ coming out of him. It was the fruit of grace in his soul, enabling him now, not to show Saul of Tarsus, but to show Jesus Christ in his walk and ways.
Then, in the 20th verse of Phil. 1, he says that it was all the same to him whether by life or by death Christ be magnified in his body, but through their prayers he expects to have boldness in what he does. Don't we need each other's prayers for that,—that Christ may be magnified in your body and in my body, whether by life or by death? That was all he lived for, that was his motive, his object. Christ was the One he had wanted to please, because he had been taken, as it were, captive in His chains of love, and all his delight was, as he had said, in the beginning, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" and he is doing it now. He is spending his life for Christ. Do you think that is too high for us? God has no other standard for us; the standard for every believer is Christ.
"He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked." No, whatever business we are connected with, wherever we are, there we are to abide with God, and, too, in our little measure, shine for Christ. We are not all alike; the twelve stones, the twelve foundations of the New Jerusalem, were all different, but they were all a reflection of Christ. Every one of us is different. He does not make two of us alike, but God is working in us; in you in one way, and in me in another, to bring out in us a reflection of Christ.
Put a prism into a dark place and let the sun shine through a hole on the prism, and you will get all the colors of the rainbow through that little piece of glass. The sunshine is composed of all those different colors, and so it is with Christ. All these little glories showing in the twelve stones of the New Jerusalem were in the Son. Just as all those different colors come from the sun, so the life in the different sisters and brothers comes from Christ; and as you see Christ in them, how precious! Are you looking for Christ in your brother and sister? That is what we should look for.
Then in the 2nd chapter we have Christ's obedience and the obedience of that life in us. The obedience of Christ is the obedience of love. It is never of law. The commandments of the Lord Jesus have never any penalty attached to them; it is our spiritual loss if we do not walk according to that new divine life. God has saved us in grace, and there is no penalty whatever attached; but "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." What we want is this: If He is your and my Master, you and I should learn to walk in obedience to Him. Is there any code of rules, that I may hang in my room, read in the morning to try to obey during the day? No; there is no law, but the Lord Jesus Christ is there Himself, and He wants me to speak to Him, and He wants to point out to me the way wherein I should walk. Sometimes one says, "How do you know what to do?" "You can find it in the Word, and by waiting on the Lord."
As with Queen Esther, she said, there was a law forbidding one to go in to the king unless summoned. But she was not under the law, and when she went in to the king she found that the coldness had been on her own side. So it is with us, dear friends; you yourself know how it is that this cold feeling creeps over your heart. Get close to the Lord. The guidance is lost, the grace is lost, if we get away from Him. The object of your life is given up. The Lord wants you to be an obedient child. What a loss it is if you are not abiding in Christ. Your life is practically a blank when you are not living close to Him. How much we feel these things sometimes. We want to know His mind, but we have to return to Him before He will give it to us. "Obedience is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams."
Let us never go on with a bad conscience. God has given us a perfect conscience, which we shall never lose; and a bad conscience we can get through disobedience and iniquity. If a little thing comes in between you and the Lord, if you are not faithful to judge it, Satan drives in a thin end of a wedge. There is no distance on the Lord's side; it is all on your side. And that is what the Epistle to the Philippians presents to us, i. e., the presence of Christ, in such a way as to make our hearts long to know Him.
So this 2nd chapter of Philippians tells us of those who gave themselves up. The 5th verse starts out with "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." Christ himself is set before us, and went down to the lowest; He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, and that the death of the cross, "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name." So the more you go down and down, humbling yourself before God, the higher up you will be with Christ in glory. Think of all the marks put upon that thorn-crowned brow. If you and I have to go through anything for Christ, it may bring rejection upon ms, and have others look down upon us, but can't you put Christ first? Why, He is going to have you in that glory, let your heart be possessed by it now. We find Paul does that. He was willing to pour out his life that he might see the joy of Christ in that day. As he says in Phil. 2:1717Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all. (Philippians 2:17), "Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all." That will be in the day of Christ.
It is very beautiful, in the 3rd chapter, how Paul gives us to see his object in the glory. He says, I am a pilgrim here; I have no home here; my home is where Christ is, in the glory, and I am just running on day by day; and I can't forget that I saw Him once; and I will see Him again, and I am going to be with Him up there, and "I press on toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
Christ apprehended Paul; and he said, "I want to know what I am apprehended for!" and he laid hold of what he was apprehended for; so you get him pressing on; and in this chapter you have that brought in. "We look for the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior" (chap. 3:20, 21). Salvation in this Epistle is looked at as at the end of the journey. We shall be saved out of this, into the glory, and these bodies of ours will be changed and made like unto His body of glory. What a blessed, blessed moment that will be! Christ will have His joy, we shall have our joy, but His joy will exceed, and He will present us to Himself, as He tells us in Ephesians, “a glorious Church". Paul sees that this body of humiliation is to be fashioned like His own body, by the same power with which He is able to subdue all things unto Himself.
Then in the 4th chapter is brought out complete dependence. I can't do what you are talking about; I am not able to; I am too weak. I am too weak to take one step by myself; I would be sure to dishonor my Lord; I don't want to; I want to put my hand into His, and let Him lead me on. And so in the 4th chapter we have the means right at hand to do this. The first verse reads:
"Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved." Isn't that beautiful language! That is the language of heaven, right here and now. The heart is filled with the love of Christ. In the 4th verse he says:
"Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice." Here you have something to always rejoice in. There are lots of trials, sicknesses and troubles of many kinds, and you can't rejoice in them. When the blessed Lord sat down to the table with His disciples, and they had the passover sacrifice before them, and He instituted the Lord's Supper, the word says, "Having sung a hymn." How could He sing at such a moment as that? Because the joy of the Lord rose above it all in this, that He saw what He was going to do, and the blessed effect it would have!
When he says, "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice", doesn't it mean the same to us? We see others in sorrow. "The Lord is good, and a stronghold in the day of trouble", and "He knoweth them that put their trust in Him." Well, if you and I occupy our sunshiny day with the Lord Jesus, and a storm comes on, we find a refuge at once in the presence of God. We pile the trouble all back on Him, owning His blessed hand in it all. The heart knows, and loves to say,
"My times are in Thy hand."
"Tis with believers well."
We sympathize with all who sorrow, weep with those who weep, but we rejoice in the Lord above it all. We find ever that blessed One as the object of our hearts, and then we find what to do with all our cares and difficulties. The 6th verse says: "Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God."
Our cares, our worries, our troubles, come in, and He says, Now you must get rid of them, and the way to get rid of them is to cast all on the Lord, "In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving." You will notice it deepens, it grows more intense, and when the heart comes in thanksgiving to God, what a mercy it. is, the bitter waters have become sweet, and everything comes from my Father's hands; whatever He orders must be best, the heart bows and joys in that He plans all things for us. The heart is immediately filled with the peace of God.
A little boy was born blind. A teacher asked him, "Why did God make you blind?" The little boy, with his eyes closed—he had eyes of a different kind—thought for a moment, and said, "Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Thy sight." Wasn't that beautiful! That soul reached God's presence. He had learned what made the bitter waters sweet. He had learned that subjection to the Father's will is the sweetest thing on earth. It makes every cross sweet, it turns every bitterness into blessing, it turns everything that might be a curse, into a good, useful thing, and that is the kind of Savior we have.
In this 4th chapter you get our dependence so fully brought before us. You find the sufficiency of Christ coming in. So he says in the 13th verse: "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." "I can do all things through Him who gives me power." He hasn't a bit of power of his own, but his heart clings to the Savior, and the blessed Lord answers him for every circumstance in life. Remember, this was written by a Roman prisoner, and the prisoner who wrote it did not know when the ax would fall on his neck, but he was a prisoner of the Lord, not of men.
"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." (Verse 8).
Now, just think of that—this refers to our minds. Your mind and mine belong to ourselves. We need to turn our minds to profitable things. If we are occupied with good, we shall become like it. If we allow ourselves to be occupied with trifles, we shall become like them. "Set your minds," as it is in
Colossians, not affections; it should not be affections there. Your affections will be sure to follow, just like the tail of a kite. If a boy gets a kite to go up, the tail will follow. Set your mind on things above, and then your heart follows. What is your mind occupied with? Is it to please the Lord? Is it to be the joy of your Savior's heart, to give Him pleasure? A verse like this would forbid us to give up our mind to all the trifling, light reading matter we have today. All this turns our mind away from Christ. We find in this 13th verse that Christ is to be our strength from day to day. I heard of a man engaged in business who conscious of his own inability said, "I can't trust myself to do this work." The superintendent replied, "I will stand at your elbow while you do it." "Well", the man answered, "if you stand at my elbow, I think I can do it." The Lord Jesus stands at our elbow. He is right at your elbow—"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."
Then from the 19th verse we learn that everything is supplied for us according to the will of God. "My God shall supply all your need, according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus"—what a measure! The love of Christ is sufficient to carry us along, constrained by His love; carried along on His bosom. May the Lord give us to know more of this love of His.
Hymn 72, App. L. F. Prayer.