Open—C. Hendricks, B. Schoen, J. Kaiser
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In my heart.
Strings of blood screams no worries feeling.
All my sleep last night.
Sleeping by the sun.
When I pray for.
My heart of heaven.
I I always.
Are to believe.
Thank you.
Turn with me to Philippians.
Philippians one and verse 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 you stand fast in one spirit.
With one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel.
Philippians has been oftentimes referred to as normal Christianity.
And the mind that's spoken of in the first chapter is the gospel mind.
That is the desire to reach out with the good news, the glad tidings reached the lost, and bring them into blessing.
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That certainly ought to be the first desire of anyone that comes to know the Lord. They want others to know Him too.
And that's what we have in this first chapter I just want to touch upon.
As certain parts of Philippians not take all the time.
The gospel mind reaching out.
The proclaiming the good news to others.
And I especially want to dwell more on the second chapter, verse 5.
Let this mind be in you, which was also.
In Christ Jesus.
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus.
Every knee should bow of things in heaven, things in earth, and things under the earth.
And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
I think the most important part of this passage is where it begins.
It begins with the mind that is in Christ Jesus. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
It's often spoken of that this is the lowly mind, and that's so true.
The lonely mind, the mind that makes nothing of itself and everything of him.
The mind that was in Christ He. We read that passage in Matthew.
Today the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.
And to give his life a ransom for many. He came to serve. He came to give himself.
He came to present the Father to us and it cost him everything.
The mind that was in Christ. Just the opposite to what you have presented to us in schools nowadays.
When you're supposed to.
Promote yourself and exalt yourself and.
But Christians have bought into that and it's called self esteem. Think well of yourself. The very opposite to what the Bible teaches.
The Bible teaches, and the best example that God could bring before us in the Old Testament was Job.
Hast thou considered my servant Job a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and his cheweth evil?
And he was put through very, very, very severe tests.
In the middle of the book he says all that I might have an audience with God, that I would present my cause before him, and he would listen to me and he would justify me and I would come forth as gold. That's what he said.
That's what he said.
He had very high thoughts and very high opinion of himself, and you might say rightly so, because he was, as he was, a real example of, of humanity. And the Lord points him out to Satan.
And Satan throughout you just, you put a fence around him. You shielded him from all mishaps. Just take away those, those things, those blessings that you have and, and see what he'll do. He'll curse you to the face. Well, God says you can do that. Only you can only go so far. You're not to touch him, but to touch him. And so he took away his properties, He took away his flocks, he took away his possessions, even took away his sons and daughters.
And the job he said, the Lord hath given.
The Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord in all this. Job sin not with his lips. And then Satan came again, and he said, he said, let me touch him, let me touch his health, let me take away his health. And the Lord said, all right, you may do that, but you can't take his life. And he smoked Job with the boils from the head to the foot, and he scraped himself, and he sat down, and he was miserable.
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His wife said to him, curse God and die, commit suicide. He was such a picture of misery. And he says, I'll speak as one of the foolish women speak. Shall we receive good at the hand of God and not evil and all this job sin not with his lips. He was quite a man. I don't measure up to it. I don't even come close.
I wonder if any of you do come close to that man. So God picked the.
He picked the best man he could find, and you'll have to say as you listen to his defense of himself, he was indeed.
A remarkable man.
But he really didn't know God.
As he should.
He had one thing, one defect, that it's not a thing like lying and stealing and.
And murdering and adultery. It's not something like that. It's.
It's something that you can't see.
It's called pride.
And it's something that affects all of us, infects all of us. We we're all proud in one way or another. And the man that that is, is the job of the Old Testament. The man that was just like that in the New Testament was Saul of Tarsus.
He was.
He was a model Pharisee religious man.
He kept the law, he says, touching the righteousness which isn't the law. Blameless he was.
Real role model if you can consider it. So just like job.
And when Joe got into the presence of the Lord, he said, I've heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee.
Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in destination.
Saul said that he was the chief of sinners, less than the least of All Saints, not fit to be called an apostle because he persecuted the Church of God. He considered himself after he'd gotten saved and come to know the Lord Jesus, that that righteousness which he had, the law keeping righteousness, he said, accounted for nothing. That I might have Christ as my righteousness. Well, we'll see that in the next chapter.
But I I want to dwell a little upon the mind that was in Christ. He's a.
In order to understand that expression, let's read on verse six, Who being in the form of God.
Thought it not robbery to be equal with God? That's a little hard to grasp what is meant there.
Thought it not an object of robbery or rap in an object that one sees. I think of an invading army comes into a city and the soldier goes into a house and he sees something that that he wants and he grasps it, he grabs it and he says this is mine, I've always wanted this and that's that's an object of robbery. He comes in and he grabs that and makes it his own.
He didn't esteem the Lord, didn't esteem his being in the form of God.
Like that he didn't say I am God and I will never consider being anything less than God.
He didn't esteem it something to be grasped and tenaciously held onto. Now it was just the opposite of Satan. Satan saw that there was one above him and he aspired after that and he wanted to be like God. And here was God the Son in the form of God. And he, he said, I'm going down.
I'm going to take the low place. I'm going to give up the surrender the form of God and take the form of a servant.
That's the that's an infinite descent from the form of God to the form of a servant, from being in the position where he always obeyed. He was the sovereign of the universe, where no one obeyed, that He never had to obey anyone else. Everyone obeyed him. He told the angels what to do, and they did it, and now he comes into his own creation.
As a man, as a servant.
He was willing to do that in order to reach you and me.
In order to come to where we were because He couldn't have saved us had he remained in the form of God.
The distance was too great. He had to assume the form of a servant and he had to be a man.
And that's exactly where he came. That was the mind that was in Christ Jesus.
That's the mind that Paul says to you and to me. Let this mind be in you.
Which was also in Christ Jesus, the willingness to be nothing.
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The willingness to take the very lowest place.
It says in our King James translation.
It says he made himself of no reputation. That's a paraphrase.
Pretty much gets at the thought. Literally it's he emptied himself.
Now what did he empty himself of the form of God?
By taking the form of a servant.
That was the greatest step down that we have in this portion. The next step down is when he was found in fashion as a man. He humbled himself still further, didn't go through this, this world as a Prince or a king.
Or the King's son. But he went through it in lowly circumstances.
He humbled himself and became obedient. He'd never obeyed before.
When He was in the form of God, everyone obeyed him, but now He comes into the place of obedience.
Place of obedience.
The place where he doesn't do his own will, always the will of his father.
I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me.
Wonderful.
When we think of who He is, who he was from all eternity, He was in the form of God and nothing else.
And he assumed the form of the servant by emptying himself of the form of God.
And we followers of this one.
How is there any room for you, for me, for any of us to have a particle of pride?
When we were nothing, he was everything and he became nothing.
Satan was below him and he aspired after that.
Higher position. That was the first temptation that he presented to Eve. He said to eat of that fruit and you will be as God, knowing good and evil.
And you'll notice that all the false religions that are promoted in Christendom present that to us.
I met a couple of Mormons when I was in Nova Scotia some years back and I knew who they were and I stopped them.
When I engage them in a conversation, offered them some gospel tracts and I said you teach in that book, the Book of Mormon.
That as God is, so we shall be, and as we are, He once was.
And I said that's utter blasphemy.
I said show me that in this book and I held out my Bible to him.
And they said, oh, it's not in that book, but it's in this book. And they started to pull out the Book of Mormons.
And I said, put that away. That's of the devil.
And I pleaded with them, and I urged them, and that they repent of their evil.
Religion.
They teach that God was once a man like we are.
And one day, we'll be like God.
Well, that's the lie of Satan, and it's amazing how that feeds the pride of man.
He likes to hear that. He doesn't like it when the word of God says.
And God looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek Him, and he saw.
What did he see? They're all together become corrupt. There's none that doeth good. No, not one.
He saw the wickedness of man, that it was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
And repented him that he'd man on the earth. He made man on the earth. And it grieved him at his heart, and he destroyed.
The human race, except for eight souls, Noah's wife, their three sons, and their three wives.
God is the God of judgment.
And yet he wanted to save us.
He wanted to have a family in heaven just like his son. And so his son said, I do, I do want that and I would go down. I will become one of them. I will be just like them. Sin apart, of course.
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And I'll win them. I'll die for their sins. Had he remained in the form of God, he couldn't have died for our sins. God cannot die.
And he became a man.
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. This descent downward begins with the mind that He had the willingness that He who was the greatest in the universe had to take the lowest place in order to win you and me.
He was made in the likeness of men.
Took upon him the form of a servant, became a man, and then.
He went down further. He humbled himself and became obedient.
Unto death.
Even. And we had it last night in the Gospels, portrayed before us so vividly.
The death of the Cross.
Cross of ignominy and shame and reproach and dishonor. The greatest sin that man has ever committed.
Was when he nailed the Son of God to a cross of ignominy and shame?
It tells out the heart of man, It tells out the heart of God, that He would give His beloved Son to such treatment in order to win hearts such as ours.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
The gospel mind is to go out to the lost and to bring them in to the blessing that God has in store for everyone that receives the gospel. The lonely mind, the mind of Christ, the willingness to become nothing, a servant.
In order to save us and to win us.
In the third chapter, we have the perfect mind.
We have Christ in glory.
The calling on high.
Verse 15 it says, let us therefore as many as be perfect.
Be thus minded.
If in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
Christ in the third chapter is our object.
The second chapter he is our.
Example.
Of loneliness.
And in the first chapter, he is our life.
For me to live as Christ, Paul says.
In this third chapter he gives a catalogue of the things that that he had attained to as a man, as a Pharisee, as a religious man.
He says in verse four of chapter 3. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh.
If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh I more.
He wasn't a Skid Row bum. He wasn't a Galilean fisherman.
He was a very intellectual, trained, educated man sitting at the feet of Gamaliel.
And he was a Pharisee and he was looked up to just like Job was.
Verse four he says that I might have confidence in the flesh.
If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh I more.
And then he lists his credentials. He says circumcised the 8th day of the stock of Israel.
Of the tribe of Benjamin in Hebrew. Of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee.
Concerning Zeal, now these are pluses as a Pharisee, as a religious Jew, these are all pluses concerning Zeal persecuting the Church. He was so zealous he was going to get rid of that new religion of the Nazarene whom he had thought was false, a false Messiah.
Persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. That was Job.
Blameless man, and yet he had to come into the presence of God.
And when he came into the presence of God, he said, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear.
But now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I abhor myself.
And repent in dust and ashes.
And saw.
What does he say of himself?
He says mercy was shown to me.
I want to read it so I don't mistake it. Make a mistake on it first Timothy one.
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Verse 12 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me for that he counted me faithful.
Putting me into the ministry, who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor, and injurious in the new translation that reads in an insolent, overbearing man.
But I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly, in unbelief.
As Saul the Pharisee, he thought very, very highly of himself as Paul the Apostle.
He thought nothing of himself.
He'd come to realize that he was a wretched Sinner.
The Lord had said in John 16, he said the time cometh when he that killeth, you will think that he doeth God's service. And when Saul of Tarsus was persecuting the Christians even to death, he thought he was doing God's service, that it was a good conscience.
He says I verily thought within myself to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus and his followers, but he was wrong.
He was wrong.
When Job got into the presence of God, he found out how wrong he was. He said, oh, if I only had an audience with him, he would listen to me, he would justify me, I would come forth as gold. But when he got that audience with God, he laid his hands upon his mouth and he said, I'm vile.
And vile.
Now that I see thee, I've horn myself.
Repent and dust and ashes. And that's what happened to Saul of Tarsus. He came into the presence.
Of the Lord Jesus, who art thou? Lord, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest.
What wilt thou have me to do?
Lined for three days, three nights, Ananias finally came to him and he said brother Saul.
The Lord, even Jesus that appeared unto thee in the way, has sent me, and he's going to make you.
A servant.
It's going to make you. It's going to use you marvelously.
But what happened to that man's soul in those three days of darkness?
When he was going over in his mind all that I was doing, all my religious energies, all that I was so proud of as a religious Pharisee.
Was for nothing. I was dead wrong.
I was deceived.
By my own self importance. And that was true repentance. The word repentance isn't found with Saul, but it was true repentance.
When he judged himself in the light of the holiness of God.
And so he goes on to say.
What things verse 7?
Were gained to me.
Those I counted lost for Christ. That's the past tense accounted them lost.
Ye doubtless, and I count. I continue to count, present tense, 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. I doubt that any of us in this room this afternoon can say that. I certainly can't. You haven't suffered the loss of all things. You haven't suffered the loss of parents, children.
But he did.
Saul lost everything.
For him.
For whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dumb.
That I may win Christ, or that I may have Christ as my gain, He had found in Christ again, so infinitely superior to anything that he had down here in earthly things.
He might have Christ as his game.
And be found in him not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law.
He had just said, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless, He had kept it as perfectly as you can.
But now he had found a righteousness which was infinitely better.
And he tells us in Romans 7 that he was guilty of the sin of covetousness, as we all are.
That last commandment thou shalt not covet kills every single one of us.
And the word of God says that he that keepeth the whole law, and yet offendeth in one point he's guilty.
Of all so the law can only condemn us because we're not perfect.
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Paul and Job were as near perfect as you could get to show how bad man is. He doesn't take the Skid Row bum to show it, he takes a job.
And the Saul of Tarsus.
And he turns them into Saints of God. But what did he say to Ananias? He said I will show him.
What great things you must suffer for my name's sake.
Paul was given a thorn in the flesh.
He pleaded with God to take it away three times and the Lord said no, no, no, you need it, Paul.
You need that thorn in the flesh. The more natural qualities of excellence that we have, the more we need the thorn in the flesh.
Keep us low before him. He's going to use us.
We have to be nothing in our own eyes and then He can use us for His glory.
To be found in him, verse 9 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.
That I may know him.
Didn't he know him? Oh yes, he'd come to know him. But he all, he wanted to know him in every, every detail of his life.
And the power of his resurrection, that's a power which lifts us.
In resurrection, power out of this scene into a new world.
The power of His resurrection and when the Lord in John 20, he breathed into his disciples the breath of his resurrection life.
And said receive the Holy Spirit and Paul wanted to have more of that.
The power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.
He knew he was going to have to suffer and I don't believe there's anyone in the history of the church that suffered.
Like Paul the Apostle.
The fellowship of his sufferings, he says in the first chapter in connection with suffering, he says.
Verse 29.
Verse 28 in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition.
But to you of salvation and that of God, For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake, having the same conflict which he saw in me, and now here to me to be in me.
Yes, he suffered and he didn't. He didn't try to avoid it.
And I may know him in the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.
Conformable unto his death.
The most ignominious kind of death that man has ever devised for one of his fellows.
The cross if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection.
Of the dead that should read the out Resurrection from among the dead.
That's the Christian resurrection. It's not the general thought of a general resurrection, but it's the resurrection of those who are who who died in faith. He'll they'll raise, He'll raise us out from among the dead and will be with him.
Not as though I had already attained either. We're already perfect, but I follow after.
If that I may apprehend that for which I also am apprehended of Christ, Jesus Christ had laid hold on Saul, and changed him into Paul, a little one.
And used him mightily in the establishing of the church.
Saul of Tarsus.
Becomes Paul the Apostle.
He says, Brethren, I count on myself to have apprehended those that would say that they have arrived, they have achieved the highest pinnacle of holiness. They're not telling the truth. He hadn't and he doesn't claim it. Brethren, I count on myself to have apprehended.
But there's one thing I do.
For getting those things which are behind.
All his attainments, whatever they might have been.
The bad things as well as the good things.
And reaching forth unto those things which are before oppressed towards the mark for the prize of the calling on high.
Of God in Christ Jesus.
He had an object now, Christ in glory, and that was all absorbing to him. He didn't take his eye off of that.
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That one object he is going to be with him and that was what was before him.
The going out of the gospel, chapter one. The going down with Christ to the very lowest place.
Chapter 2. The Mind that was in Christ. Chapter 3.
The perfect mind, Christ in glory, is the object before our souls. And then in the 4th chapter we have Christ as our strength.
And I just want to close with.
His final word in this epistle.
Chapter 4, verse eight. Finally, brethren, he says.
Whatsoever things are true.
Whatsoever things are honest.
Whatsoever things are just.
Whatsoever things are pure.
Whatsoever things are of good report.
Whatsoever things.
Are lovely, I miss that.
And then good report.
If there be any virtue, if there be any praise.
Think on these things.
Commit that verse to memory, beloved, and the repeated over and over.
Whatsoever things are true.
There's so much untruth today.
In the political arena, the social arena.
The most common sin I encountered when I was in the workforce was lying.
What sort of things are true? He was the true one.
He was and is the truth.
Honest.
Honest, venerable, esteemed of high moral character.
Wonderful thing that when you meet someone, you can take his word for what he says. You know that he's going to hold fast to it and you don't have to have it written down. We don't live in that kind of a society because the spoken word means nothing in a court of law. It has to be written. Nice to find someone that is of an honest character that will say what he means and mean what he says.
That's the way it ought to be with us.
What sort of things are just righteous?
Do the right thing.
No matter what the cost.
Do the right thing.
What sort of things are pure?
The young men When you look upon a young lady, may it be with all purity, The same with the young ladies to the young men.
Pure.
Timothy was told to do that with all purity.
Whatsoever things are lovely, wonderful to be occupied with that as we think of our brethren, as we think of.
I know one of the most lovely things in our little assembly in Lawrenceville are all the little children.
They're lovely, beautiful, beautiful to see little children so, so innocent.
So precious.
And how we ought to pray always for the parents.
To raise them for the Lord, shield them from the world.
So many lovely things, lovely features in our brethren that we can dwell on. Not the ugly ones. It doesn't take any spirituality to see the flesh in another, but to see Christ, that which is lovely.
And whatsoever things are of good report.
So often we get together and all we talk about is bad things.
And that doesn't edify and it doesn't make you feel good. It makes you feel pretty poor.
Good report, good report, someone said to Mr. Darby once. Oh, what will become of us?
And he said, I know of no end for the Christian but glory.
Glory, The glory seen above.
Be occupied with that which is ours, which is eternal, and shall never be taken from us.
If there be any virtue, virtue is moral courage, the ability to take a stand for the Lord in the midst of an evil and corrupt generation.
Virtue.
Peter says add to your faith, virtue to virtue, knowledge, and so on. Moral.
Courage.
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If there be any praise.
We have so much to praise the Lord for.
Someone was really down and a Christian came to him and he said, why are you so down? He said, oh, and he enumerated all of the things that were bothering him, and he said, he said to him, are your sins forgiven? Yes. Do you have eternal life? Yes. Are you sure of heaven? Yes. Does the Holy Spirit still dwell in you? Yes. Is Christ still your Savior? Yes.
Is God still your Father? Yes.
When at dwell on those things.
Those things that are ours, that never can be taken from us.
Those eternal realities that we have in Christ. Are you redeemed? Yes.
Are you reconciled to God? Yes. Are you justified from all things from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses? Yes. And the person started to rejoice and praise God for all that he had in Christ.
Think on these things.
Turn with me, if you will, to sink in, Peter.
Second Peter, chapter one.
And verse 2.
Grace and peace be multiplied unto you.
Through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, according as His divine power.
Hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life.
And godliness.
Grace and peace be multiplied unto you.
I was reading something and there's a little phrase in there where they were asking this person who's been in contact with a lot of people, what do you think characterizes society today?
And the person said trouble.
Everywhere you turn people are troubled and bothered, but we have such a privilege.
That we can have peace in our hearts and we can have peace in our hearts.
Through communing with the Lord, our dear brother Benji as he read those verses and prayed really called us to be close to the Lord and have the Lord before us as our object and Lyle talked about.
How we can maybe let things creep in among us from the world and I would look.
Out here at each of you and would encourage you that you can have peace.
I've been saved for almost 20 years and yet the Lord has taken 20 years to teach me some very basic things.
And I'd like to share a few things with you and ask you do you respond by what you know and believe?
And respond by faith, or do you not?
Let's look at Mark Chapter 9.
Mark's Gospel, Chapter 9.
And we'll begin with verse 20.
And they brought him unto him. And when he saw him, straightway the spirit tear him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming. And he asked his father, How long is it ago since his child? I'm sorry, since this came unto him. And he said of a child. And oftentimes to cast him into the fire and into the waters to destroy him. But if Falcons do anything, have compassion on us and help us.
Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
And straightway the father of the child cried out and said with tears.
Lord, I believe.
Help thou mine on belief. Do we really respond with faith?
And trust to the Lord.
And I'm thinking of some things that we know, but do we respond like we know them?
I'll say something here. Let's turn to the scripture that says the Lord makes mistakes.
Nobody even begins to turn the page right. Nobody thinks about that the Lord would ever make a mistake in our life.
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Turn to Psalm chapter 18.
Psalm chapter 18 and verse 30.
As for God, his way is perfect. The word of the Lord is tried, and he is a buckler to all them, all those that trust in him. For who is God, Save the Lord. For who is a rock, save our God. I think it's just such a wonderful, wonderful thing that we belong to the Lord Jesus and that we have such a loving, wonderful God. But speaking to my own heart.
Do I really respond that way in my life? Do I really have the confidence in the Lord that I should?
And perhaps, like for me, it's been 20 years and I'm still learning and will learn as long as the Lord leads from here. Perhaps some of you.
Have been thinking about this as well. Do you respond the right way in the Lord to the things that the Lord brings in your life?
As for God, His way is perfect.
Let's turn to the verse that says the Lord surprised by what happens in our life.
Nobody thinks about Turn it There first because there's no verse like that.
The Lord is never surprised by anything that happens in our life. Our whole life history is ordered of God in love to do us good. Turn with me to Isaiah 46.
Doesn't exist.
We know how much the Lord loves us, says in John 15/9 The.
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.
Continue ye and my love, what a wonderful, wonderful position we have.
So now we have this. We know God doesn't make any mistakes. We know God knows the end from the beginning.
And we know that he loves us. Yet let's look in John's Gospel, chapter 14.
John's Gospel, chapter 14.
And verse one, I'm particularly encouraged by this. And there are so many places in the Word where the Lord encourages us to not be troubled or to have peace.
He says let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also on me.
In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. What a wonderful portion that is. The Lord says, let not your heart be troubled, and the best is yet to come. I was talking to her brother between meetings, who was encouraging me to look up to glory, for that's what's before us.
That's really where our life is. But yet, even while we're left here, the Scripture tells us God has given us all things.
That pertain unto life and godliness. And so He helps us and gives us very practical messages here, so that unlike people who are troubled and concerned on every side, we have the opportunity to be at peace. Let not your heart be troubled.
Let's go to verse 27.
Same chapter Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you.
Not as the world giveth, give unto you, Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
Well, how do we avail ourselves of this? There's only one way to do it, and it says our brother Benji was mentioning being in the word and communing with the Lord. Now if you take a look.
With me at First Thessalonians chapter 5.
First Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 16.
Rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing in everything.
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Give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
I really love verses that have things like everything or nothing in there because it's pretty easy.
To decide when those verses apply.
In everything, give thanks.
For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
Turn with me, if you will, to Philippians Chapter 4.
Philippians chapter 4 and verse 4.
Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say, rejoice, let your moderation be known unto all men.
The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with Thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known unto God, and the result and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Be careful for nothing.
Beloved, this really speaks to my heart. People who know me know I worry about everything.
I don't sleep. I'm learning this as I said for 20 years and still trying to learn more.
I have found these verses to be a real encouragement to my heart and to think about those three things, that God doesn't make mistakes.
That God knows everything, he's not surprised by anything, and that he loves us with an infinite love. And so we can bring these things, bring our situation, bring our concerns, bring our questions, bring our decisions. Whatever it is, you can take it to the Lord. And if you really cast it before the Lord, the peace of God, which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Turn with me to.
First, Peter.
First Peter, chapter 5.
And verse 7.
Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. Once again, that theme, you've got to bring it to the Lord. And lastly, in closing, it says he cares for you. Let's take a look at a few verses. First in Ephesians.
Ephesians chapter 3.
Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 16 that he would grant you.
According to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. And that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think.
According to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the Church.
By Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without.
And Amen.
We've had some wonderful ministry.
I'd like to conclude with a testimonial.
Not my testimonial because I've got a better one.
But I happened to notice, just struck me, and I should have struck me years ago.
The just listening to a radio commercial the last week. How much?
How effective a testimonial is.
Some.
Car dealer can get on the microphone and tell you the virtues of his vehicle and it's just another car salesman. So then he gets an athlete on there and the athlete just simply says, well, I drive this car and everybody thinks it's the greatest.
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And our brother Chuck took us through the book of Philippians.
And we've been back there again with brother Brian.
Year and let's go back there again because the Book of Philippians has six statements.
Of testimonial where the apostle Paul.
Tells what effect the truth he's been ministering and the truth that he's been taught has had on himself.
They're very simple statements.
But I've enjoyed them, and I trust they'll bring us each something lasting to take home with us. So let's look. Look back again at the Book of Philippians.
Just six simple statements.
The first is found in Philippians chapter one, verse 17. We'll go back to verse 15 to get the context. Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife, and some also of goodwill. The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds, but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. Just those 3 words there in the middle of verse 17.
I am set.
Now, the Apostle Paul had been arrested on the road to the Damascus. He'd gone through a number of a lot of different experiences in his life.
He had the revelation of God's truth.
And each of us, in a measure I trust, have had that experience.
Maybe you haven't. And if you're not saved, if you don't belong to Christ, you can't enter into what the apostle Paul expresses here. You're outside it. But the apostle Paul said, I am set. I'm committed.
We are in a world which doesn't know the meaning of commitment.
It used to be that people took peace treaties seriously. It used to be that people took contracts seriously. It used to be that the word of a gentleman meant something other than something nice.
The apostle Paul said I am set, he was committed. He said I am set for the defense of the gospel.
I trust each of us who are the Lords here this afternoon? The.
Will say in our hearts, I am set for the defense of the gospel.
It's one thing to know it. It's another thing to stand for it, to preach it, to proclaim it as we have opportunity.
And to defend it because it is under attack.
The Apostle Paul said I am set.
That's his test for his first testimony. I am set. He found something worth living and dying for.
And he was committed to it.
Verse 21 For me to live as Christ and to die as gain, but if I live in the flesh.
This is the fruit of my labor, yet what I shall choose I want not, for I am in a straight betwixt 2 having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better, he said. I am in a straight, I'm in a tight spot.
What tight spot was he in? Well, to him, the issue was whether he would.
Depart and go to be with Christ.
And have Christ all for himself, or to stay with the Saints and share Christ with them.
We know what it is to be in tight spots. Everyone of us from time to time is in a tight spot.
Apostle Paul was in a unique tight spot. Here I am.
In a Strait betwixt 2.
It's a challenge for us. Is that the tight spot that occupies our hearts and thoughts this afternoon?
The opportunity, a choice between the opportunity of staying here and witnessing for Christ or being called home. Those are the two things.
That Paul, shall we say?
Was looking at those are the two things that made his tight spot. What is our focus?
Being with Christ, sharing the gospel, the good truth, the good news of the gospel with others.
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Then on to Chapter 3.
Verse 12.
Not as though I had already attained either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Paul said. I'm caught.
He wasn't just committed, he wasn't just in a wonderful straight he was caught.
Are each of us here caught?
Are we caught by Christ?
The Apostle Paul can say and 2nd Corinthians 5 The love of Christ constrains us. It grips us. The Apostle Paul felt himself caught by Christ, caught for a purpose.
And that purpose was not fully yet accomplished in his life. It wasn't fully achieved.
He said, Brethren, I have not.
I count on myself to apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting those swings which are behind.
And pressing and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press.
Toward the mark, Sometimes we get pretty occupied with our circumstances, our failures.
And we hesitate, perhaps as we've been exhorted to do, to exhort one another. The apostle Paul didn't exhort from an ivory tower. He admitted he had not yet attained that for which Christ had caught him. But he said, I pressed toward the mark. And we can all do that and encourage one another along the way.
Chapter 4.
Verse 10 But I rejoice in the Lord greatly, that now at the last, your care of Maine.
Has flourished again, wherein you were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. I am content.
There's one thing I shouldn't say one thing, but one outstanding thing that characterizes this society. It's a lack of contentment.
Man is restless and merchants and politicians.
Capitalize on man's discontent, they say. Have this, you'll be happy. Elect me.
And I'll make you happy.
The Apostle Paul was writing this from a prison cell.
He didn't say comfortable, he didn't say I'm comfortable, he said I'm content.
He had heartrest. He was where he knew the Lord meant him to be.
He was doing what he knew the Lord meant him to do. His future was secure, his present was secure in the Lords hands and he says I'm content.
How do you get that way?
Said I have learned.
In whatsoever state I am therewith to be content.
We can learn it. We need to learn it. Possibly the biggest lesson in life is to learn to be content.
Learn to accept the circumstances the Lord gives us gratefully.
As our brother Brian mentioned, and we all echo in our own hearts, we're still learning.
It's a wonderful testimonial, though.
Verse 12 I know both how to be abased. I know how to abound.
Everywhere and in all things, I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need I am instructed.
Well, we say the Apostle Paul certainly was instructed. No one knew as much as he.
Yes, but he was instructed in a practical way, and that's where the instruction really counts.
Isaiah 50.
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Verse 4.
The Lord has given me the tongue of the learned or the instructed that I should know how to speak.
A word in season to him that is weary. He wakeneth morning. By morning he awakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned or the instructed. The person who is instructed is receptive.
The Apostle Paul was receptive. You and I have heard a lot in the last couple of days that can do us a lot of good.
I need it. You need it. The Lord knew just what we needed.
Are we receptive? If we're receptive, we'll be instructed.
And verse.
15 Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as to concerning giving and receiving, but ye only.
For even in Thessalonica he sent once and again unto my necessity, not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. For I but I have all and abound. I am full, having received Epaphroditus, the things which were sent from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable while pleasing to God.
I am.
Are you and I full? We ought to be. The Apostle Paul didn't say he was well fed, but he was full. I don't suppose that you and I would have any interest in the kind of diet he had in that prison.
We've gotten up from the table full probably most of the time in our lives.
How about from these meetings?
Have we been taking in what we've been given? Are we full?
The Apostle Paul was for what? What filled the Apostle Paul? He was refreshed by the Saints.
He had received from Epaphroditus, of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odorous, sweet smell of sacrifice, acceptable, well pleasing to God. He had enjoyed the fellowship expressed by his brethren. His He was full. It's God's desire that every one of us should go home from these meetings full.
And if you're sitting in your seat this afternoon and you said I'm not full yet, it's not too late, the apostle Paul here says in verse 19.
But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
You can get full awfully fast, you know, if you pull the stopper out of the bottle what you can put under the faucet.
A lot of times there's something in our lives, something in our hearts that's that we know is a hindrance.
When that hindrance gets out of the way, the Lord can fill us very quickly.
So these are the testimonies, the Apostle Paul in the book of Philippians. If you want more food for your soul, look at the Apostle Paul's testimonial in Second Timothy. There's a number of IMS in Second Timothy that are equally precious. We don't have time for them now.
Lord, thou hast run.
To me.
Never forever.
My brothers and strands are comfortably.
Rise now by the whole the heart swallowed in his heart.
Our presence is a lot more dear. No more sin has gone dear.
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Our grandson's day.
Your life, Lord, is Lord sin and our families.
Couple verses.
Move.
Chapter 2.
I'm sorry, Luke, Chapter one.
Luke, chapter one.
Verse 53.
He.
Asked filled the hungry with good things.
The rich he have sent away empty.
And then in Genesis?
Chapter 40.
5.
Genesis chapter 45.
Verse 15.
Moreover, he that's Joseph. Moreover he kissed all his brethren and wept upon them, and after that his brethren talked.
With him.
And then a little further down.
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In the middle of verse 21, Joseph gave them wagons.
According to the commandment of Pharaoh and gave them provision for the way to all of them.
He gave each man changes of Raymond.
Verse 24.
So he sent his brethren away.
The end of that verse he said unto them, See.
That she fall not out, by the way.
Let's commend ourselves.