Notes of Lecture 6 on Phil. 4. – 1869
The first chapter shows us the life of communion which Paul had, expressing itself in all his service, and the marked feature about it, is his triumph in and trial by the way. Every step of his way was a step of triumph though also of trial. In the second chapter we get the perfect standard of life down here, not as in the first the picture of the measure to which men of like passions with ourselves could attain; but the Son of God, the Son of man—no imperfection whatever, and that alone what the standard could be of the eternal life put down here.
Then in the third chapter he gives where all the power for this is found—all that Paul saw in Christ is what gave his soul its strength and liberty before God.
It was the same thing molded all his thoughts and affections. In the fourth chapter he shows more to us the bearing of these things on those to whom he was writing; and in verse 2 that which may have guided his mind in the line he took in the epistle.
I do not think the scope of what was present to the apostle, when he spoke of any one as “his crown,” can be understood except by turning to the Thess., “What is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? are not even ye,” &c. It is a most beautiful expression of the perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ in all His unselfishness. We think He only puts Himself before us as our crown and joy. True, in its highest sense certainly; but it will be joy to the heart of the Lord to see all these Thessalonians gathering around Paul, and recognizing that he was the vessel through whom they got all their blessing. Directly He can, the Lord brings in His disciples into company with His work. It is the beauty of the Lord’s love in it I want to point out. He does not want a place for Himself, He likes to see His people in every way associated with Himself, verse 4. He puts forth the Person of the Lord as the matter of joy. There is nothing that will get us over our difficulties, or over our sense of rights, as joy in the Lord. If the hearts of Euodias and Syntyche had been flowing over with Christ, they would have stood back like Abraham with Lot. The consciousness Abraham had that he and God were together put him in complete freedom to Jet Lot choose what he liked—God was quite enough for him. So with these two individuals if the heart were full of Christ, the heart and hand would have been open to let everything go, because they had Christ. God does not tell us what kind of thorn Paul had; people then might say, “oh, it is not what I have.” Everything that discovers to the believer his own weakness in the presence of God, is a thorn, verse 5. It is just what we see in the Lord, just what the apostle did himself, verses 6-9. Here we get what brings the peace of God into the soul. We are passed through very difficult circumstances very often; and very often we are called to look forward as Paul, who had to carry the whole state of the church in his heart. Well if he had done that, as a man, there would not have been strength for it; but in the midst of all, he had the bosom of God to turn to, and he could let out all his heart there, and so he could have confidence in God about even the Corinthians. He lets all his heart out to God, and there is God in his heart, and there is perfect peace “the peace of God.” It is no new thing, for the Lord says, “My peace I give unto you.” What was His peace? Never did things appear more right to him, than when they were perfectly wrong, as to the circumstances He was in; even the very cup gave Him the opportunity of showing out the compassion and mercy of the Father above—there was perfect peace in His heart. You take care to empty out all your wants to God. A strong current may trouble the waters, but it cannot trouble the rock. (verse 8, 9). Here there is another thing, are we so walking with God as to find Him with us? the heart looks up and knows Christ as the only answer to every need; but Christ says, if you treasure up my words I will come to you, and the Father will come to you and you shall have a bright light shining all around you. It is not only that you are to roll all your care off, you have a certain walk. God is absolute in His breaking in on the soul. Saul of Tarsus could not keep Christ out. The same power that broke into the dark covering of Saul’s mind, called that man to walk along a certain path, and he chose to walk along it. Will you walk in that path? Israel refused. It is a most glorious thing for God to say to a people, “I have chosen you, now will you walk with me?” We are the choice of God, and He expects to be our choice, and that in the midst of this world, (v. 10, &c.). A strange life is the life of a Christian, he never finds himself so full as when he has got nothing. If we had asked Paul, “What have you got now?” he would have replied, “I have got Christ, and Christ and I understand one another well.” Let that word from verses 10-13 go home to your heart. In detail it is more full than what we have in Ephesians. Many a saint has missed seeing that everything that wears them so, if walking in the Spirit, is a matter of thanksgiving— “I know how to abound.” It is part of the Lord’s wisdom in dealing with us, to let us abound; it is the same Christ that is required in power to enable me to walk in abundance as in other circumstances. Changes of circumstances are often allowed because He will not allow a mere habit formed; what he wants is life. We find the same Christ in Bethany as in the temple and on the cross, because there was the power of life (verse 14). He saw Christ in their contributions. Do we know the power of praise? Because the apostle was very fond of praising, and so was the Lord. If you can get hold of what is Christ in a person, and point it out to him, you have no idea how it cheers the heart (verse 18). Paul was not a man who used language at random. Everything that has been the expression of a saint down here, having tasted His love, is counted by Christ. He knows exactly what His people have been here. How He will surprise them by and bye; they will say, “When saw we Thee an hungered,” &c. Ah! but He knew it all, and will mention it all too (verse 19). We never really give, till we come to deny ourselves before we give; if the thing we give cost us something, it is the offering of love; and the effect of it on the hearts of those to whom it goes will be to move their hearts with a savor of Christ, if they know it comes as the expression of self-denial. We are so very little living in the liberty of the life of Christ, that we do not know the difficulty of the heart in viewing such an expression of love.
Perhaps a poor widow has put in her two mites. Well, says the apostle, I cannot refuse it; but “My God,” the God that gave me to His Son before the foundation of the world, the God that sent His Son into the world for me, the God that I have well proved ever since He called me by His grace, the God that will just do for me according to His own perfect wisdom, that God shall supply all your need. He was perfectly sure that God would care for the people who had stripped themselves for Him. What was the limit to Him? It is not only the God that has been true to me, the God of the wilderness—but now it is the God of the glory, of Canaan, of the land flowing with milk and honey. It is one thing for Paul to say, the God that has never failed me; but another to say, He has a land of His own, a blessed place to which we shall come, where everything that can satisfy the mind or the spirit is communicated, and that is the God that shall uphold you, and there is my comfort. And then, in concluding, he just expresses the desire of His own heart for Him, that there should be glory to God, “forever.” Well! the time state was part of that “ever.” We often forget that. How are you, Paul, walking to His glory NOW? We can glorify God in the wilderness; it is part of the eternity. Now it is that all the love that is in Him flows into our souls, enabling us to do all things here to Christ, and for the Lord Jesus Christ. The joy of salvation, while we are triumphing in all the trials of a wilderness course, is never tasted more than then, because of the very contrast. “How shall I get,” says the world. God has given me to Christ, says the saint; and the heart passes through it all, making the wilderness to resound with songs of joy, giving a special sweetness to the soul, who, having nothing, yet possesses all things. ·
His Place Ours, in Heaven or on Earth.
One place have I in heaven above,
The glory of His throne;
On this dark earth, whence He is gone,
I have one place alone.
And if His throne in heaven I know,
I joy to find His path below.
We meet to own that place alone,
Around the broken bread;
The “dead” whose life is hid with Christ,
Remembering Jesus dead.
For us is quench’d all earthly light;
Above, the glory—here, the night.
Dear as the place beside Him there,
His footsteps here below,
Where He has gone thro’ scorn and ·wrong,
There also would I go.
Lord, where Thou diedst I would die;
For where Thou livest there am I.
One lonely path across· the waste
Thy lowly path of shame;
I would adore Thy wondrous grace,
That I should tread the same.
The stranger and the alien Thou
And I the stranger, alien, now.
Thy cross a mighty barrier stands
Between the world and me:
Not yielding with reluctant hands,
But glorying to be free
From that which now is dung and dross
Beside Thy glory and Thy cross.
I see Him there amidst the light,
The Father’s blessed Son,
I know that I am with Him there,
That light and love my own.
What has this barren world to give,
If there in His deep joy I live?
Sent hither from that glorious home,
As He was sent before,
Of that great love from whence I come,
To witness evermore.
For this would I count all things loss
His joy, His glory, and His cross.