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Write a song.
My honorable hand.
While we try and stand on sorrows and wake up.
My love of God.
Philippians chapter one I believe in the chapter we have that which gives further benefit to our souls on the matter we had before us in the first reading or the first address. And at the same time I believe the chapter also brings before us.
That which would be for the benefit of our souls in connection with the homegoing today.
Nancy and others. So I would suggest Philippians 1.
Philippians 1.
All and promote the servants of Jesus Christ for all the Saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons.
Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine, for you all making requests with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that he which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
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Even as it is meat for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, in as much as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you are all partakers of my grace, for God is my record. How greatly I long after you all in the vows of Jesus Christ. And this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in the knowledge and in all judgment, that you may approve things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offence to the day of Christ.
Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ under the glory and praise of God. But I would ye should understand, brother, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel, So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and all other places, and many other of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confidence by my bonds.
And much more bold to speak the Word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ, even envy and strife. Some also 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. What then? Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I there undo, rejoice, yeah, and will rejoice.
I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation of my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be life or by death. For to me to live with Christ and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor. Yet will I shall choose. I would not.
I am straight betwixt to having desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better.
Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you, and having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith, that your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again. Only let your conversation be as it is 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, and in nothing terrified by the adversaries, which is to them an evident token of petition, but to you of salvation and that of God. For unto you is given into the on behalf of, in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake, having the same confidence which He saw in me, and now here to be in me.
Verse 7 the apostle says I have you in my heart.
In verse nine he says this. I pray that your love.
God has bound us together.
So that our happiness and our joy cannot be separated.
And we are bound together in that as well. The joy of the Saints in Philippi was Paul's joy.
The sorrows and the Saints of Philippi was Paul's sorrow because they were linked together.
In this life and for eternity, in a way that one's happiness, if you will, or loss, was bound to the other in a more wonderful and perfect way.
Our lives are bound to the life of the Lord Jesus in the same way.
If we were all but one to get to heaven and the Lord Jesus were to look around and see one missing, his joy would not be complete.
His joy would not be complete, he would say, where is.
Sister where his brother so and so and so. It's well for us to.
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Always remember that in its practice, as Ken had in the remarks that made at the beginning, that we would recognize that independence is not of God in spirit and will not result in joy in walk either. And so our joys and our sorrows are connected with one another and with each other, and it's a foundation for us to desire to.
Because it's natural to us to be happy.
You recognize that interdependence and this chapter, in a very practical way, it's not a chapter of doctrine particularly.
But it is a chapter that shows the living, practical reality of Saints of God and their relationship to each other in life and in death.
Alice has often been pointed out to Philippians, brings before us our experiences as believers here in this world, here in this, as we often say, wilderness seen through which we pass. It's not Ephesians where we're seeing positionally seated in heavenly places in Christ.
It's not even Colossians where it's Christ in you, the hope of glory, but it's the believer here day-to-day.
Treading through this wilderness scene where there are all kinds of difficult circumstances, all kinds of problems and ups and downs in the path of faith. And I, it's appropriate that we take up a book like Philippians in this chapter because as we've already been reminded in the prayer meeting and some of the comments that have been made, there are brethren here whose hearts are no doubt troubled and burdened as you sit in these seats. We all have burdens and cares.
We come apart for a few days like this and we enjoy one another's company and a little sanctuary and refuge from the world and from the cares of life. But when we think if in the normal course of things, when the days are over, we're going to go back to those situations.
But Paul writes to the Philippians here not to tell them that they're going to be taken out of the circumstances this side of glory, but to tell them that there's a resource that can come in to give them joy even in the midst of circumstances and rather more and more as we reach the end and.
Trials and difficulties seem to abound on every hand. I realize that we're not going to, and we oughtn't always even to pray for the removal of the difficulties, but to pray that we would be so in the enjoyment of Himself that through the difficulties there would be that joy and rejoicing. The three Hebrew children, they weren't delivered from the fiery furnace, they were delivered through it. And He doesn't always deliver us from the trial, but He does deliver us through it, and there can be joy and rejoice.
In either case, whether he delivers us out of the trial or whether he delivers us through it in the measure in which Christ is precious to your soul and mind, we can take the next step in the wilderness journey. We can meet the next hurdle, the next sand dune, so to speak, with the joy of the Lord in our souls. And that, brethren, is really what's going to give us courage to press on. So there were some difficulties at Philippi. He takes up those matters very faithfully and delicately later on in the epistle.
But he reminds them of what's ahead and what they have for their present resource.
I'd like to just make one further comment in connection with what Don said and the apostle Paul who cared for the Saints. It was an interesting comment that he makes in First Corinthians, Second Corinthians 11, where he's forced by inspiration to give a list of the things that he suffered in the path of faith and service for Christ and service for his brethren. And it's a tremendous list, things that I and perhaps most in this room will never be called on to pass through.
In the path of faith and service. But it's interesting that at the end of it, he says, and that which came upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Now I don't want to take away from the physical things that Paul suffered in the path of faith and service. He certainly never became callous to them. He felt them. He felt them very keenly as a man. But it seems to me that at the end of it, when he speaks of the care of all the churches.
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That was almost a greater burden to him than the things that he had suffered physically, and that was his care for the Saints of God, and not only his care for them in connection and his feeling for them in connection with what they passed through in a natural or physical way.
But what they passed through in connection with their spiritual well-being, Pauls desire. And as you read these epistles, there was something that even superseded their physical or natural well-being. He had that at heart, that's for sure. He delighted when Saints were were healthy and and circumstances were were good and so on. He thanked God for those mercies and he joined with the Saints in those things.
But I believe what really rejoiced the heart of the apostle more than even that was to see those that he had been used by the grace of God to bring into the truth. Those going on in the truth, going on happily together individually and as assemblies gathered to the Lord's name. Like John said, I have no greater joy than to see that my children walk in truth. And when Paul prays for the Saints in these epistles.
It's not usually about natural things, but it's for their spiritual well-being. Brethren, I trust everyone of us covet that care for the Saints, that we would have that same care and love one for another that would minister not only to the natural but would desire the blessing of the spiritual.
If we start with ourselves, things usually.
Don't workout right in our thoughts or in our lives. We always need to begin our thought patterns.
And everything else with God. And if we start with God and give him his right and proper place.
We'll come to right conclusions for a right walk. I say that because of verse two. It says grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul begins his epistles with.
The Father and with the Lord Jesus Christ and their thoughts.
And his desire for them from that which only could flow from God.
And so he says to them, Grace and peace be unto you from God.
Our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, that's the source of peace.
That's the source of good, that's the source of grace, that's the source of true love. And it starts with God. And if we miss that point and immediately are into the trial and the difficulty and the sorrow and the dissension and whatever else comes along in life, but lose that fact in our souls.
Our thought patterns are not going to come to right conclusions, but if we recognize that good is in the heart of God toward us and believe it, then we can face that which God has to teach us, that which we have to bear with, that which is in connection with any service for Himself, and so on, whatever comes along in life.
Verse 6 carries along the same idea, being confident very thing he who has begun a good work in you will perform it till the day of Jesus Christ. When we look at our Christian life and I have a lot of Christian so-called Christian friends outside the assembly. Often they're looking at the mirror to grow in the Christian life. And yes, we have responsibilities. Yes, we should read our Bible, yes, we should pray, yes, we should share the the scriptures and etcetera.
But the Christian life is centered in one person, our Lord Jesus Christ. God's the one that began the Christian life in us. We didn't save ourselves. God saved us. I wasn't reaching and jumping up toward the sky trying to get to heaven. I was digging a hole, trying to go underground when God and his sovereign grace and love that he bestowed upon us reached down and saved us. We'll run to that a little bit more in chapter one, verse 29, but.
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Here, when we get that straight.
He who begun the good work in you. Well, if we were saved by grace, if we were saved by God, how do we live the Christian life? By good works, by the law, by the power of the flesh. Of course not. As we've begun in the Spirit, we're going to continue in the Spirit. The Galatians problems were that they began in the Spirit, but they wanted to continue by the flesh. This verse is telling us that our growth and grace, our love toward God.
Isn't coming from something in us. We love Him because He first loved us. And when we center our Christian life not on what we do for Him, but what He does for us, His love for us is what makes me love Him. What He's done for me is what causes me to do for others. It's the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And here we see that. We know that the grace and salvation is unconditional. And here this verse emphasizes.
That the grace in our Christian growth is unconditional grace.
When I fail, it's my fault. When I succeed, it's because of God's grace in my life.
My very first carries with thought of assurance.
We've heard that the Book of Philippians is about being joyful.
And the word joy or rejoices in it. 12 * 5 of them are in this chapter.
It is not superficial joy, it's true joy.
I can have superficial happiness and put on a fake smile.
And look happy on the outside and be miserable on the inside. This is not superficial joy. This is true joy.
In order for me to have true joy in my salvation, I have to have insurance assurance. Excuse me, I have to have assurance. It says that He hath begun past tense a good work, and He will perform. That carries with the thought of it the present tense, that He's performing it now and he will in the future continue to perform it until the day the Lord takes us off of this scene.
Be it in death or whether we're raised up alive so we have assurance at the moment of salvation. When we're brought from darkness into light and we are so saved, we automatically start to receive assurance, don't we?
And the woman that touched the hem of the garment of Jesus turned around and started to walk away. And he called her back, and he asked her to tell her all.
And brothers and sisters, when we tell somebody about our salvation and about the Lord, it thrills our heart and it helps to build our assurance. We can pick up verses after verses after verses. Psalms 29 and 11. He's going to give His people strength.
And peace, we are standing on the promises of God.
Our assurance, and without that assurance, we could not be joyful.
We have to have that assurance, don't we? We have the assurance that we're going to see him face to face. We have the assurance that we are going to be in heaven, the great hope that lies ahead of us. And we can go on and on and on about the assurance. But He hath begun a good work in us, a work that is trying to perfect us, to mature us in maturity. That's what perfect means in Scriptures, in maturity.
He's taken us from milk, taken us into meat and he's really feeding us and he's performed a good work in our lives. And if we have?
The life of Christ in our mind.
And the way that we are living on this world, we can be joyful inside with a true joy and not a superficial joy. And that's what we've been hearing from our brethren here before us. But we have to be able to pick out these verses of assurance. He's not going to leave me today with this good work. He's not going to leave me tomorrow. He's going to keep at it continually until the day of the Lord.
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Suppose we get this difference in the thought between the servant and the bondservant.
What is the difference between a servant and a bond servant? The bond servant, I believe, is one who has the affection for his master and is willing to serve him forever. Whereas a servant may be one who is who has been being paid for his services and he can leave at any time. And so if we don't have the assurance in our souls of.
The love of the Lord Jesus and the love of God towards us, then we, we could probably pull out at any time in our, in our pathway. But if there's that affection in our souls that like, like that we get in, in Genesis or Exodus 21 where he says I love my, my, my wife, I love my Master and I love my children and I will not go out free. And so the, the, the affections of the Lord Jesus in our souls will keep us. It's the love of Christ that constrains us.
And so we find the apostle, the apostles here saying, calling themselves not apostles, but.
Bond servants, it should be of Jesus Christ. And they named themselves the same with the Saints and with the bishops and deacons. They're all on the same, shall we say, on the same level. And it's not, it doesn't say here that it's under the bishops and deacons, but with them.
They are, they are not under them, they are under, they're all servants of our bond, servants of Jesus Christ. And it's as we walk in that capacity and that consciousness that we can go on together in our pathway until the Lord comes.
Another aspect that sets the right attitude in the very beginning as he not only speaks.
As from God, grace and peace be unto you, from God our Father, and so on. But also Paul's own spirit is immediately expressed in verses three and four. I thank my God for every remembrance of you. Do we have that same spirit when we go to God, or when we think of our brethren? And verse four, it's in every prayer when he spoke to God.
About the brethren there was that in which He found joy, and when he spoke to them.
He about them to God, he said I I thank my God and it's an incredibly important thing to start right and how we look at things and here the apostle Paul's heart was that in which he found that to be thankful to God and and yes, we see things that needed correction and so on but.
It started with a thankful spirit and I would just make this backup comment if for any reason 1 can't.
Thinking about any other brother or sister in the body of Christ expressed verses 3:00 and 4:00. Then I suggest to you that every day of your life you bear that specific person by name before God in prayer, seeking God's blessing.
Not God's righteousness, but His blessing, because you need to have that heart for that soul.
Not that God's going to do what they have to, you know, just set them right, but that you have the God's heart toward them.
Even though God's government in ways might require other things to come in, but God always acts first according to his own heart of love.
And all those in Asia turned away from fall. We don't find them condemning them.
He thanked God for those that were left, but he didn't condemn the others for leaving him.
It's a great test, isn't it, to get down on our knees and pray for our brethren, and not just in a general way or by assembly or area of the world. It's easy to pray for the brethren in such and such an assembly. It's easy to pray for the brethren in the northwest or the southeast or in Western Europe or something like that. But it's quite a test when we get down on our knees and pray for one another, name by name and need by need. And it's even stronger in the book of Romans because when Paul wrote to the Romans.
There in that first chapter, he said, I thank God for you all. Now that's quite a test, isn't it, for you all. We might thank God for certain brethren that we kind of click with and get along well. And I'm not saying there aren't those things too. There are. There are brethren that perhaps we feel a little more comfortable with and in natural things we perhaps click a little better and so on. But Paul was thankful for all his brethren at Rome. He prayed for all his brethren at Philippi.
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And I believe that if we would do that honestly before God, and I say this to my own heart, brethren, if we would do this honestly before God, name by name and need by need, we would not be able to hold grudges and bitterness against those brethren. And it would give us the grace to each esteem other better than himself. How can I get down on my knees and pray for you and get up and speak I'll about you to someone else?
How can I get into the presence of God and supplicate on your behalf and thank God for you and at the remembrance of you, and harbor some bitterness in my soul toward you? Pretty difficult. In fact, I suggest it's impossible. And so it's a great remedy for many things, isn't it? We so tend to talk about one another and to discuss situations, and certainly Paul did that on occasions too. There were times he gave warnings about certain brethren and certain situations.
But so often in doing that, we forget to get down on our knees and pray for one another.
You know, we know little about a man at Colossi by the name of Epifras, but one thing we know was that he labored in prayer not only for the Saints at Colossi, but at some nearby assemblies, Heropoulos and Laodicea as well, and he was praying for the Saints. And I think, again, it wasn't just in a general way.
But when he went into his closet, he strove at the throne of grace name by name for the people of God. And so Paul here, he says, I thank God upon every remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine, making requests for you all. I want you to notice that for you all making requests with joy. And so let's pray for all the Saints of God. And I don't mean just in a general way.
And learned in the presence of God his own worthlessness. And it's helpful if in some measure we learn our own worthlessness. Then when we run across the worthlessness of those around us, it won't be so difficult.
We get all we we we can we can put up with.
The shortcomings of our brother and if we have a sense of what we are that God has shown us.
And that's really what grace does, isn't it? You know, it's, it's remarkable that no matter how well an assembly was going on, no matter how high the truth he could give them, by the Spirit of God, he always brings in grace first. Because it's a sense of grace in our souls that does two things. Grace adjusts us in our practical relationships to God and to the Lord Jesus and in our practical relationships with one another.
Because it's grace that teaches us to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present evil world, in this present age. And so it's grace that teaches us to walk before God in that which is right and according to His mind and His word. But as you say, it's also grace that gives us a sense of what we are. And to Him that's to whom much is forgiven, the same loveth. Much if I can see myself as to what I am naturally speaking in the presence of God.
And what I have been brought into solely on the grounds of grace that adjusts my relationships to my fellow Christian, that doesn't puff me up, that doesn't make me feel better. What that does is it again, helps me to practically esteem each other better than better than myself. And so that's why I believe the Apostle Paul so often he stresses grace and at the end, at the beginning of each of his epistles, and usually at the end too.
He brings in that grace that is needed for the practical Christian pathway because grace is what meets us in our present need. The Lord will give grace and glory. Glory is what comes at the end, and He's going to bring that out in this chapter. But grace is what meets us in our present need and in our relationships, one with another.
I believe there's a nice order too for the gym. You you brought before us the the verse in chapter 2 and it's.
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It's in verse three. It says let nothing be done through strife or Vainglory, but in everything but in loneliness of mind let each esteem others better themselves. The apostle Paul is going to probably correct a few things in this.
This epistle that had to do with personal interrelationships one with another in the assembly, but we see that the Apostle Paul was prepared to do that by the Spirit that he displays that Brother Don just brought out.
In the first chapter.
The Apostle Paul had the right spirit concerning his brethren. He he felt a love for them. He didn't have a sense of being above them and so he was a vessel that was fit to be used of God to possibly correct a deficiency that was existed in that assembly.
And that's true. If we're going to be helpful and used to correct things within our assembly, we have to first have been brought to the point where we have that spirit of loneliness and love for our brethren.
He was thanking God for their fellowship in the gospel from the first day until that day. Turn over to chapter 4 when he gets very specific about difficulty in the assembly. It's on the gospel and fellowship in the gospel. I think it's very significant that here he's saying when he thinks of God and he gives thanks, it was with respect to fellowship in the gospel, but then in chapter 4.
He says in verse two, I beseech Yodius, I beseech sent a key, that they may be of the same mind in the Lord.
And I entreat thee also, true yoke fellow, help those women which labored with me in the gospel. And then back in chapter one where he says in the next verse, being confident of this very thing. And then he speaks of his confidence that the work that the Lord was doing he would perform to the day of Jesus Christ. Here again is something that sets the pattern for the rest of the epistle. And that is even in an area where there was a problem.
The apostle, even in that, was giving thanks to God in every remembrance of that fellowship, which was now brought into some matter of question. But at the same time, why could he give thanks? Because he had confidence in God's work.
That was going to do that work to bring about a good result. And sometimes we see something, it's not the way it should be, we recognize we may be part of it and so on and so forth. But.
Do we lose confidence in the one that can and Paul had not and consequently he could give thanks even in this matter because he could be confident that the one that had begun the work in them. He's not talking here about a soul being saved. It's in you fellow believer that are not yet a finished product that God is going to continue that work to its perfect and end result. And so it is with us we.
We need to have confidence in God with respect to His work in each of us, that it will come to that good end.
Speaking of them here as to the assembly, isn't he when he says having begun a good work in you. That's plural. And so it's to the assembly. And then over on the in the second chapter, it says verse 13 for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure and do all things without murmurings and disputings. And so he was about to he was not going to be able to be with them. And so he was confident that the work that God had begun in what in them was going to was going to be completed. It would be fulfilled.
And because it was him that worked in them both to will and to do of his good pleasure. So as you say, sometimes we refer to this as the individual in in, in the soul being saved or being being brought into the being quickened and then being saved and brought to the knowledge of the truth and being eventually getting to glory. But, and it may be applicable in that way. But here it's that plural thing. It's the the assembly that he's talking to here.
Helpful in understanding what's not about. Our chapter precedes what you said in chapter 2. Wherefore, my brother, and as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more my absence, look at your own salvation with fear and trembling. We understand that in the context of the assembly, it becomes much clearer. It's just exactly what you said. The apostle was in prison. He couldn't be with them. He had a real concern for them. And I always liken this book to Joseph. When he sent his brethren back to their father, he said two things to them. Regard not your stuff.
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And see that you fall not out, by the way, really that's the subject of Philippians. And so the Apostle Paul in this letter was responding to fellowship that they had sent to him.
And we find out at the very end of the book, and I just read it from the new translation in the 4th chapter, verse 10, that I rejoice in the Lord greatly, that He now, however at length He have revived your thinking of me.
Though surely you did also think of me, but lacked opportunity. And then again in the 4th chapter a little later, he says, not because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. So the apostle have plenty of reason to rejoice, didn't he?
He gives them credit. He doesn't say you stop thinking of Maine, but he was confident by the gift that they had sent him. Not because he desired a gift, but he desired to see fruit.
And I think that's what we've been talking about here, that if we look at our brethren, we can always find fault with them, can't we? But if we just look for an look for that fruit that they have, that they're producing in their life, we have plenty of reason to rejoice, don't we? And so the the apostle here takes this occasion of them sending him a gift to write this letter to address these frictions that were developing within them, amongst them. And yet he can be so thankful for the regard that they had shown to him because it was evidence of fruit in their life. I think that's also.
Somewhat into that in the fifth verse of the first chapter for your fellowship in the gospel from the first to answer. Now not all fellowship in the gospel is in going out and preaching, is it? It can also be done in practical ways.
That first day was.
Washing his stripes.
He'd been beaten and put in prison.
What a memory.
The tender love that would rush those stripes.
Speaking about prayer, it always makes me happy when I hear a brother at the local prayer meeting.
Praying for everyone that is present.
That it shows us that this brother has got nothing against me. We might sometimes sink over this brother. I haven't talked for him for weeks and now all of a sudden now he's praying for everyone that is present. So they must be including me.
It it makes a closer bond with each other and another thing also.
It makes everybody feel that it is important to be at the prayer meeting.
Because.
You might get into a condition where we think, oh, prayer meeting we can skip.
And we pray only about those that are sick and that need special prayer.
But in our hearts we show that we are close to each other when we pray like that.
There's something special in your own name being used in that way.
Rather than just generalizing, but when your name is mentioned, God calls. It says about the stars. He calleth them all by name. And if you and I are stars in God's Galaxy, shall we say in his house, well, he knows us all by name and, and we love to know that. And someday he's going to call us all by name in glory.
He knows every here that's in our head by number. That means he cares about us in the smallest detail because we don't even know how many we got ourselves. It's nice to look at this epistle and we have to remember that Paul, on his second missionary journey, saw Lydia saved. He saw the little damsel girl who used to have a different master get a new master. He saw the Philippian jailer get saved.
So he saw some converts, didn't he?
00:45:00
And many years later, he wrote this epistle. Why do I know it's many years later? Because it includes bishops and deacons in verse one.
As well established assembly was, wasn't it? And we heard from Brother Dawn about the further or the fellowship of the gospel in verse five. And we're looking at an epistle to an assembly, aren't we? The local assembly at Philippi and they had fellowship in the gospel together. Now look at verse 12, which speaks about the furtherance of the gospel.
The local assemblies are going to continue the gospel together until the last soul is saved and the Lord shuts the door. Aren't they the furtherance of the gospel? Now look at verse 27, breaking into the verse.
I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. We see unity in the assembly, don't we? Here we see one spirit, one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel. It was definitely beyond his mind and his heart when he wrote this little epistle in chapter one about the gospel.
The fellowship of the Gospel, the Furtherance of the Gospel and the faith of the Gospel.
It's important to recognize that God has saved us.
And each of us he has brought in such a way that our lives, especially in the local.
Sense of it, but even here at the conference too, in a greater sense, he has brought our lives to commingle them. That is to make them mesh together as a common whole with common interests, common desires, common object as we have in this epistle. And he puts that back before them later on, that their object is Christ and so on. And so Paul here in the beginning, again setting the framework for what he's going to have to correct later, he said.
It's a righteous thing for me to think about you in this way, because I have you in my heart.
And he had them in his heart. He had been there. They had joined together. They had fellowship in common, activity in the gospel itself. When we come together, for example, to pray in assembly, we come together to join together in a commingled sense of uniting and bringing that which is important to God, we trust and important to us, not individually, but together.
As a unified voice to God as to that matter which is before our hearts, Well, if we don't have.
It's an important thing to cultivate that practical common interest and fellowship and activity that tends to unite, or if there's a difficulty, tends to bring a burden about it that it might get resolved to go on in that sense.
And Paul had that with the Saints in Philippi. And it's a normal, proper, healthy.
Aspect to desire, and if it's not present then to say, Lord help us that it be that.
In that connection, well, and when you speak of the assembly prayer meeting, that is the opportunity for every brother there to exercise his priesthood. He may not be a gifted brother, but if you can pray, you can pray on behalf of the assembly in a collective way and exercise your priesthood. It's important brother for us to do that, to exercise that priesthood that God has given us. It's different than having them being a teacher or a, or a pastor or a, an evangelist. Those are gifts that are given by the head, but.
The other requires no gift.
Unless you're tongue tied, but other than that it's our responsibility.
And it also, it also, as you mentioned, it unites the assembly as one, and we come before the Lord on behalf of the assembly and behalf of the gospel and his people or whatever it might be as one voice. So I, I would encourage every young brother and older ones too, that have not opened their mouth. And you don't have to wait until you come to go someplace else to do it in your own local assemblies where it begins.
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And those things are important, I believe.
Paul's desire for his brethren, which is so often expressed in the various prayers that are given to us for them in various of the epistles, was not only that they would go on individually, but that they would go on collectively as assemblies and as an already expressed. That was really his burden for the Saints at Philippi. Wasn't it because there was a great testimony had gone out from Philippi. There was real joy and freshness in the assembly at Philippi.
And others had heard of that joy, and there had been a great testimony in the gospel. But Paul knew that that was the very assembly that was going to need extra prayer, if I can put it that way. In fact, this is just a little parenthesis, but it is interesting to note that the times that the apostle Paul prays for his brethren are not usually times when they're going on badly, but for assemblies when they were going on well. Ephesians.
You have his prayers, Colossians, Philippians. It's at times when there was real freshness, appreciation and going on in the truth of God. And here we find, as we said, there was a real testimony and a joy in the gospel that had gone out and been recognized even by other assemblies. But Paul said that's an assembly that's vulnerable. And we know it's been already alluded to and from what he takes up later on in the epistle, that the enemy was already trying to get a wedge in to spoil that joy and testimony.
Because the enemy doesn't just attack us, brethren, as individuals and families. That's true, but his desire is to spoil and smash if he can. Any testimony that there is collectively by those gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus, or any testimony there is by Saints going on together in fellowship in any measure. Satan hates that he knows it's a testimony.
And he's right there to get a wedge. And Paul, later on, he reminds the Philippians, you're our joy. I've told you that in the first chapter, you're our joy. Now don't allow something to come in with there, particularly between two sisters. But he doesn't have to be between two sisters, but.
He says don't let something come in now to spoil that testimony.
And to mar our joy and what we see is being accomplished in and through you collectively there at Philippi. And if I can just say this to brethren and I've seen it and you've seen it to our.
To our sadness and to our shame, and it ought to humble us, that when there is a gospel, a testimony in the gospel, the enemy is right there. And often the work of the gospel is hindered and even stopped by contention and dissension.
Coming in amongst the people of God. You know, we often say that gospel work is individual exercise, and that's true. But isn't it wonderful when brethren have an exercise and they go on in the path and in the truth, and then they go on together and strive together for the faith of the gospel? That's real power and testimony. Satan hates that. And if he can bring something in to get us occupied with one another, to get us occupied even with the problem, as necessary as it may be to be occupied with the problem.
What it does is it hinders or even stops a work and a testimony in the gospel. Brethren, are we going to let Satan have the victory in that regard? Or are we going to seek to go on in the joy of the Lord and pray for one another, not just individually, but collectively, and seek to go on and strive together for the faith of the gospel, that there might be power and testimony?
What you mentioned there, Jim, too, I was thinking of what we get in Galatians. Do we find anywhere in Galatians that Paul prayed for those for that assembly?
Instead, yes, but we aren't. It's not mentioned here. Instead he says he says in verse in chapter one and verse.
Six, I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that have called you unto the great, into the grace of Christ, unto a different gospel. So in Philippians we find them laboring with him in the gospel here, that they have been removed to another gospel. And so there's no mention of him praying for that assembly.
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Because they're in such a sad condition, he went right straight to the point when he started writing to them and dealt with that matter.
Find verse 8.
Extremely challenging and humbling.
The apostle says for God is my record or God is my witness.
That I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.
Here's a man that had a sense in his own soul before the eye of God.
That the affections of his heart were as an expression of the affections of the heart of the Lord Jesus toward them. What more could we want, brethren, than that? That there was active in our souls before the eye of God that expression of the heart of the Lord Jesus toward one another.
Is that the right spirit? We couldn't ask for a better spirit than that, in other words.
Is my heart loving you with the same kind of love that the Lord Jesus loves you and is am I acting toward you in the same practical expression of that love? The apostle here could have that sense in his heart that his feelings, his thoughts, his expressions of it was that which.
Was representative of the heart of the Lord Jesus. To me, that's tremendously humbling.
Almighty said I long for my freedom, that I could come and visit you. And that would have sounded very well. But Paul longs after several things in this epistle, and it's always in connection with the blessing of the Saints at Philippi. And so Paul did long after these ones, and long that they he'd be able to minister to them, be amongst them, longed for their going on in the truth and collectively and so on. But he it isn't for himself.
And it isn't for some credit to himself, either. You know, it's like our children.
Those of us who've had children perhaps have had to grapple with the fact, do we desire that our children go on well for the Lord so that it looks good on us, that it's some credit to us or we do we desire that they go on for the Lord, for his glory and for their good and blessing? There's quite a difference. And I think you see that with Paul's children in the faith. He never desired that they would go on for the Lord, that it would look good As to his ministry, commend his ministry.
But his desire was that they would go on well for the Lord, for their blessing, for the Lord's glory first.
And for their blessing, Well, as you say, what a, what a motive it is. I'd like to just say this too, in connection with confidence.
Paul, not only does he not have confidence in their ability, but he doesn't have confidence even in his own ministry. Paul might have thought, well, I've ministered the word in such a faithful way to these Philippian brethren that they can't help but take hold of it and go on together in the in the good of it. No, it wasn't in the confidence of the way he'd been presented the truth to them or how he had behaved himself amongst them or so and so on.
Those things were no doubt very commendable, but his confidence was in the Lord. His confidence was in their God. And brethren, if we have that confidence, maybe we go out and we preach the gospel and we preach it with we feel we have such power in preaching and wonderful, if we feel feel the power of God and preaching the gospel, we say, Oh, I have every confidence. The Lord will bless his word. We minister to our brethren in some way and we say we feel the power of the Spirit of God behind it, and we say, oh, we have every confidence.
Because of the way it was presented, no.
It's not our ability to present the Word or to minister to our brethren in any way that is going to bear fruit. But our confidence is in His desire and His ability to bring about blessing which in whatever he's been sown in ever so feeble away in gospel or in ministry, or in practical help to the Saints. The blessing is only going to come in the measure in which we have that confidence in Himself and His desire to bless, which far supersedes any desire that may be in the.
The grace of God in our hearts to see fruit and blessing in our brethren.
See how the spirit of of the apostle here that I think you alluded to that, Jim, that there really wasn't any indication that he was complaining that he was imprisoned or that he desired to get out of there or that he was unhappy about his circumstances. He said that he had he had learned and what whatsoever state he was in there was to be content and I believe he meant right there in prison. And so he was content to know that God was working in them.
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That which was his will and he could stay right there in prison and he could write this epistle for you and me to read today that just think of the loss that would have been if if he had a had a pressure. Shall we say, if it's possible to say this, the Lord into getting him out of prison so he could go and help those dear brethren out there.
What a loss that would have been for us.
In verse nine, he speaks.
About love.
This I pray that your love may abound yet more and more knowledge and all judgments.
Now, what knowledge does he mean here? Of course knowledge of the scriptures, but also knowledge of each other.
And in judgment, not judging each other, but first of all, judging ourselves.
And then in all the circumstances, after he got get into, let it not be circumstances of stretching each other, but loving each other and and that connection. I I think of a verse in first John where he says he that loveth his brother abideth in the light and there's no occasion of stumbling in him.
There's too much of judging each other, even at home sometimes.
In the family, that can happen too.
What you say is true there and but I wonder if in verse 9 the better work or judgment isn't intelligence.
So that.
That your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all intelligence. That was what they needed was the intelligence and the things of God and the intelligence as it goes on to say that you may approve things that are excellent or the marginal reading, I believe is correct, which is that try or differ things that differ. And there are things that differ, you know, brother, and sometimes.
We tried to put everything into the same mold.
But if their true intelligence in the things of God and true dependence on Him, there are some things that that differ that we have to to make a judgment about.
Different than something else, if you know what I mean. It's.
Circumstances are not all the same.
And so it wasn't with the Philippians.
And So what his desire was that they might, rather than judge, as you were saying, they might judge it properly, realizing that there are things that differ and they need intelligence in those things, and God only could give it to them. And so that's how you and I can bear with one another, is that that I don't judge you according to myself or myself against you, or this brother, that brother or sister against that sister, or whatever. There are things that different in each circumstance.
And that's what we have to have intelligence in and dependence on the Lord to learn. And otherwise that's why he goes on to say, I believe in the later on in in the epistle where it says.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended no further back a bit, not as though I had already attained, neither were already perfect, But I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which I also am apprehended of Christ Jesus. And then he says.
Verse 15 there let us therefore as many as be perfect, or have that full perfect object before us. Be thus minded, and if anything you'd be otherwise minded. God shall reveal even this unto you. We're not all at the same level of intelligence or spiritual knowledge, and so we can't judge everything on one level as you know what I mean. It's there are things that differ.
Discernment. Discernment is discernment. That's why it ties in with the next verse, that you may approve things that are excellent.
So you discern those things.
You use your wisdom and your knowledge and what's been given you from above that you may be sincere and when he's talking about.
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His tender mercies back in in ate his bowels things of from the great depths inward inside of us. You see, he he's talking about those things inside of us, how we can can have those tender mercies from deep down and how we can discern things spiritually.
You see, and you're sincere about it.
When we put our trust in the Lord Jesus, we're born again.
And we become babies. Really.
In the family of God, but we are children that have the full potential because of the very life and nature that is given to us. We understand this in natural things. You see a little baby born and you look at it and it has all the capacities that it will ever have in the sense of what its potential is. But it has to grow and.
The desire of the mother and the father is that that child is going to grow to the day when they will be, you might say, equals in the sense of knowing and understanding and sharing and fellowship with one another. Because the child is full grown now and can has entered into the heart and thoughts of its parents and their conscience and so on. What's true with us and God's family? When we're born, we have to grow. And Paul always in his epistles in Ephesians, we have the same thoughts expressed even more than here.
Of that thought of growing in the knowledge of God.
The true knowledge of God. And I say true knowledge because another scripture says knowledge puffs up.
But that's not the same knowledge. The knowledge that puffs up is that knowledge that is factual and man learns to his own glory.
And if I can memorize more scriptures than you have, and I can recite them, then maybe that kind of knowledge I'll be proud of, in fact, probably would be. And it's wrong. It's not the true knowledge of God. It doesn't tell me God's mind or heart.
But to grow in the true knowledge of God is a humbling thing.
Because the more I have the mind of God, the more I see myself as I really AM and the more truly I see myself, then the more I'll recognize the grace of God. And, and what Phil mentioned early in the meeting about, you know, if you, if you recognize what you are in the flesh, if you really learn that, if we've learned any of us, I don't know if anybody has the flesh profiteth nothing. And it's full practical reality then.
That's not going to puff up the soul. That's a very humbling thing to the soul. And so the apostle wanted to see these dear brethren continue to develop and grow in that work that in their souls. Why? Because he wanted them to know God better. He wanted them to know the truth of what God had done in the assembly, in the gospel and so on. And so it's God's desire for us gathered here this for this weekend.
That we will, when we leave, know him a little better.
That everyone of our hearts will leave and as we go back to our homes.
There'll be, maybe we won't be specifically conscious of it. Child doesn't know, doesn't watch itself grow. It's a work that's taken on unconsciously, but the desire is an apparent desire is to see that child grow little by little. And so a conference is an opportunity.
For God.
To continue his work in US.
Rather interesting that he says that your love may grow, that your love may.
Abound yet more and more in knowledge, and I'll read it from the new translation, because it seems so much clearer. And this I pray that your love may abound to get more and more in full knowledge, and in all intelligence, that you may judge off and approve the things that are more excellent, in order that he may be pure and without offense for Christ's day being complete as regards the fruit of righteousness.
Which is by Jesus Christ, to God's glory and praise. I read the whole thing because it's one sentence. But it's rather interesting that he says that your love may abound yet more and more in full knowledge and in all intelligence. Because we live in a world today where we're told that love accepts everything. And yet here we find that there is an intelligence and knowledge that's associated with love that we might be pure that says.
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That we might be pure and without offense for Christ's day being complete as regards the fruit of righteousness, which is by Jesus Christ, God's glory and grace.
Just comment that to that in John's first epistle, first John, when you read through it, the light God is light and God is love and the God is love is not separated in John's epistle from God is light. And in other words, what God exposes holy and his character is totally connected with his love and so.
As Nick said, you there's an intelligence to the love of God.
That is the expression of the fullness that he is like.
A Greek word.
Sincere here means without wax.
And the word is used in connection with pot making.
When you make a pot to add, in order to that the pot be strong, you have to.
Put it in the fire and put heat to it and when you put heat sometimes to the pot you don't want to do but you get some cracks in it.
So there were those that were dishonest pot makers. So they get a little crack and they cover it up with wax.
So that it looked like a good pot.
So if we remember here that this epistle is written to an assembly, even though these truths can be applied in in a certain way to individuals, us as individuals, it's really we're looking at a whole assembly and the Apostle Paul wanted the assembly to be.
One that had a true testimony of the work of God in them, the work of grace in them, so that there weren't people that shook their heads when they thought about this group at meat over here. Isn't it assembly because there's some people there that aren't what they ought to be. So that's what this means that.
The Lord really wants those of us who are in the assembly to pray for the whole assembly and, and to realize that we're part of an assembly and, and what our individual lives do and what the lives of others in the assembly puts forth is a testimony. And we're to be really concerned about the testimony that our assembly puts forth.
And.
The Lord wants us as it says here to be sincere, the assembly sincere. We really are an assembly want to please the Lord. We want to an assembly that wants to to be real and real in our concern and love for the unsaved and and going on together in the assembly we get on in love together.
Without having the things going on in the assembly between us as individuals, that that really have an effect upon the whole assembly and its testimony. So the Lord wants us to be as an assembly, sincere, without wax.
In 172.
In #172.