THE Epistle to the Philippians is to the saints in general what the Epistle to Timothy is to the servant. The apostle has not been delivered out of prison, and his voice from the prison tells us to " Rejoice in the Lord." There is nothing here on earth to rejoice in; but that is what people are very slow to learn.
Now one of these chapters is in relation to yourselves; the other in relation to things around you. Some may say, It is not my state that depresses me, it is the things around ins. Well, the third chapter treats of your state; the fourth of your circumstances.
There are three things I must notice in the first of these chapters. First, Christ is the object, second, He is the mark, and third, He is the hope of the saint.
The 'apostle begins with a warning; "Beware of the concision. ' The concision are those who try to correct themselves; and they stand lower in the sight of God than even the self-indulgent. The apostle writes much more severely to the Galatians, who tried to mend the flesh, than to the Corinthians, who indulged it. The great attempt of the present day is to Christianize man; but God's way in Scripture is to make man a Christian. The attempt to Christianize man is all wrong. A Christian is a man of an entirely new stock and a new lineage; he is of Christ, who is "the beginning" of all. Hence, in the third chapter of Revelation, He is spoken of as "The beginning of the creation of God." There was the Laodicean Church boasting itself that it was rich and increased with goods, and had need of nothing, and knew' not that. it was wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. And what was to come in to correct such a state of things? Why, "the Amen-the faithful and true Witness, the beginning of the creation of God."
Then he says, " We are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and boast in Christ Jesus,"—not "rejoice," it is a stronger word than " rejoice,"-" and have no confidence in the flesh;" that is, the flesh is-practically set aside. This is what you must start with. The thing that was insisted on as soon as ever the people of Israel got into the land,-the first thing, as you may remember,-was, that they were to be circumcised; and that was to set forth this fact, that in heaven we have no will of our own. Abraham brought in Ishmael by his own will; and the rite of circumcision was to show that he altogether ignored the flesh that had brought him in.
Now-in the following verses (4-6), we have the good state of man,—human righteousness, everything that is good in itself,-and we find this: that man, not only in his bad state, but in his good state, has no sympathy with God; so that the apostle-ends by taking God's side against himself, and saying, "I count 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, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ." Christ is the object and what. I seek is, "that I may have Him for my gain." The apostle says in the first chapter, " I long to depart and be with Christ, which is far better," and "to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.' The gain would. be to be with Christ:. it would be gain to him if he were to die. But here, in the third chapter, he shows what it is that leads him to this,-even that Christ is his object.
Now it is a great moment to the soul when Christ first becomes your object; it is then that you can count all things but loss for His excellency, so that He may be your gain.
But many persons ask the question, How can I have Him in such a distinct way that I may know Him as my object? Well, there are two ways. When Jonathan saw David with the head of Goliath in his hand, and knew that he had delivered him-brought relief to biro,-he loved him as his own soul: He stripped himself of his robe, and his garment, and his sword, and his bow, and his girdle, and put them on David: It might have been said, What an improper thing for the king's son to do! But Jonathan cared not for that. His heart was won by David because of what he had done for him, and he loved him as his own soul.
But there is another kind of devotedness, of which I will also give an example in the Old Testament which will make it clear to you. Ruth says to Naomi, "Where thou goest I will go, and where-thou lodgest I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God." This is a deeper thing. It sets forth one to whom the Lord becomes the object of the heart for what He is, not only for what He has done.
Now you will find that saints rarely arrive at the second of these, though every true-hearted saint knows something of the first. You may know Christ as your relief, but it is quite another thing to know Him as your resource. It is one thing to know Him as the One who has relieved you from every pressure; it is another thing to know Him as the one attraction of your heart. If I know Him thus, I ascend as a balloon with not a string left to tie me to earth. All my links were to earth, but now I have Him, not only as my relief from the death on myself, but as my resource from the death and ruin on everything around me. I will try to explain the difference.
I might say to Jonathan, Do you know David? No, he says, I do not know him, but I love him; he has relieved me from the dreadful pressure that was upon me. I love him as my own soul.
I say to Ruth, Do you know Naomi? Yes, she says, I know her, and I love her too. I say to her, “Where you go I will go, and where you dwell I will dwell; your people shall be my people, and your God my God."
Now this is an example of a heart not only attracted by what a person has done, but by what he is.
There are four stages in a soul which is led to this happy, practical association with Christ. In the case of the widow of Sarepta there was first relief from the pressure that was upon her and her son; the barrel of meal did not waste; neither did the cruse of oil fail; it supplied all their need for a whole year. But, though it did not waste, neither did it increase. Then, at the end of the year, death comes in. The prophet takes the death upon himself,-bears the child up to his own room, and from thence delivers him alive to his mother, and he becomes the solitary witness that the power of death was broken. Then she says, and not till then, "Now I know that thou art a man of God." She had learned so far, even that there was power over death. We have more; we have eternal life, and the witnesses to us of it are the Spirit, and the water, and the blood. I have not only got power over death, but there are witnesses to me that I have eternal life. I have first relief from death, and secondly, I have eternal life.
The next thing I find is that there is death on all around me. Jonah finds, when he gets out of the depths of the sea, that there is death all around him; his gourd withers. Where then does the heart find comfort? Where did Mary of Bethany find comfort, when every light was, as it were, gone, out? It was then, as she trod that solitary path to the grave, that she found that He walked beside her,-not only as a relief to her, but a resource. And, fourthly, in the next chapter, she takes the costly ointment, and anoints the Lord with it.
Is it thus with you, or have you a hundred other things to delight in beside Christ? Paul might have -had attractions down here to bind him to earth. But would he stay here? Yes, he says, I would stay for the church, but not for myself. “To depart and be with Christ is fax better “for me.
If I look at the Lord I ought to be able to say, Come"; because I answer to the wish of His heart, but, if I look at the earth, I have nothing to tie me down here, and then my wish is to depart to be with Him. How was it that Hezekiah, when be bad to face death, said, " Like a crane, or a swallow, so did I chatter "? It was just because he had all his links to earth. The apostle was quite different; he had nothing to detain him here.
Christ is not only my relief, but He is my resource. If I have nothing down here but a dreary waste before my heart I can say, He has-relieved my conscience, He has satisfied my heart. If you have net Christ thus as your object, you cannot count all things but loss for the excellency of His knowledge; but. if you have, when you get up in the morning, your thought is not, I hope I shall behave myself well to-day; but, I have to live Christ to-day. You ought to begin your day with this confidence that you have enough in Christ to meet every difficulty that may befall you, just as you know that you will have light enough to do your work by; you never think of wanting another sun the day may be more or less bright or cloudy, but all you want is clearer light, not a new light.
If you do not know this you are not enjoying eternal life. I have a new condition altogether. I am in a region where I can enjoy God, and the proof of it is that death is not on me only, but it is also on all around me. Have you ever seen the world a -bleak barren desert, and you yourself left alone in it like a solitary tree? And could you then say, Well, there is One who sits on the throne, and He is enough for me, though all else has withered? -I make Him my object; and as I cannot yet depart to be with Him, I shall try so to win Him while I am on the earth that I may be as truly with Him in spirit, and as truly see Him by faith, as if I were gone to Him. When we see a man without an object in life we say he is an aimless man. Now here is a man with a purpose, with an object: " that I may win Christ, and " that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death."
And now comes another thing. It is not only that he has an object, but he has a mark. It is not only that I know what He has done and what He is, but I must be in association with Christ where Christ is. Then it is that I come to understand what the mark is.
The mark is what gives steadiness to the walk. If a man is a stranger he shows by his behavior that he is strange in the place; if he is a pilgrim he shows by his behavior that he is going to a, place. Now Paul says: I am going on my way to do a service; I have started from a place, I am going on a circuit, and I shall come back to that same place again after I have done my work. I do not expect to grow old here; if I look forward I see myself die as a martyr; I see the stake before me. But when I think of what I have to comfort my own heart, I see Him before me. There is no steadiness in your heart unless you see Christ in glory. When my heart gets the sense of seeing Him where He is, it acquires a certain definiteness. It is vain to talk of a mark if you do not see it.
Now what people say in answer to all this do not see what you say! Well, have you ever spent a night praying to God to show it to you? Have you ever been thoroughly in earnest about it?
The apostle brings these things before them so that they may be able to rejoice always. I find that if there is one thing that marks the saints in general, it is absence Of joy in the Lord. How can you get joy in the Lord? By making use of Him You will never know the value of Christ until you use Him. The Lard likes you to use Him. He says " Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee," ' and "'casting all your care upon Hun; for He careth for you."
I find when I sit down with people quietly to have 'a talk that they begin at once to speak of the trials of the way! And after that, if I say, Suppose we change the subject and talk of the 'things of God;-then I find that they can talk of nothing but the mercies of God to themselves, but it is all the temporal mercies of God they talk of.. And they get no higher than this. How few can say, The Lord has shown me wonderful things lately about the Lord Jesus Christ!'
Lastly as to our hope: " We look for the 'Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ!' This is what we are looking for; we have no country but heaven, and we are looking for the Lord to come and take us to it. And when He comes forth the first thing He will do will be to raise the bodies of His sleeping saints He will raise them in likeness to His glorious body; and as to us, He will also "change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body." That is our hope, and you see it is all connected with Himself.
And thus we are brought back again to the teat that we started with, "Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say, rejoice."
Well, so fir, it is all about myself, but what about circumstances outside? Now we come to them; and the first thing is, "let your moderation be known unto all men. A man jostles you in the streets: let him. " The Lord is at hand." You can " be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving" -do not forget past mercies. Is my child sick? I. remember how one was before, and how God succored me then. Keep up the recollection of His goodness; there is nothing so good for the soul as to keep up the remembrance of the goodness of God. “With thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus:" All your requests are to be made known. What! pray about everything? Yes. I am sure the saints would not have half the foolish things they have in their houses if they made all their requests known to God: Make known everything to Him.
In public, as well as private, we often troubled with the thought as to whether we are expressing God's will. Now the first question is, Have you been to God about it? And, having been, do you know that God's ear has taken in what you have requested? The moment that you have got the sense that He has heard you, you are satisfied; you want no more, and need not repeat it; just as a man says to his child,—You have talked to me about that before.
The great importance of prayer is, not that you may get your request, but that you may have the sense that God has to do with your affairs. You have got a sense of what it is to go to Him and get an audience. I have taken, as it were, the whole of the contents of my heart, and poured them out before Him I say, I know He has them; I need not tell Him about them again. The fact is people lose their time saying a great many words to relieve their consciences, and not to ask for what they really need. When I ask anything according to His will I know that He hears me, and that I have the petition that I desired of Him.
The first great parable about praying is that in the eleventh of Luke. The man would not go away without his friend giving him the loaves, because he wanted them, and had no other way of getting them. Do not go to God if you have any back door; do not have any plan of your own if you are going to pray to Him That is the principle of real prayer. What makes people so often not gain in prayer is that they have some plan in the background. They go to some place for their health, and pray about it, but all the time they are thinking that if this place does not cure them ' they will go somewhere else and try another.
Well, how can you know when you have had an audience?-when you have gained God's ear? You can know at once; I will tell you how. The most wonderful favor that ever was conferred upon man by God will be yours. You will have the peace of God. Have we any troubles at this present time? We have. And why do we go about troubled with them? Because we do not go to God with them. When I go to God with
my troubles and get an audience of Him, He gives me His own peace about them. I am in the state that God is in. What a wonderful thing! Here is a man who was troubled this morning he has gone to God and got an audience. And has he got his prayer answered? Perhaps not. But he has come out in the state of God.
Well, do your work like a horse in a mill, and go on. Circumstances are not to bear you down. We all fret and worry until we can go to God with it and say to Him, Settle it as you like; and then we can go out with the peace of God. The effect of it is, first, to bring us into a calm from a state of perturbation, and next, into the peace of God.
Now, if your own state is not right you cannot rejoice. Your own state which you find in the third chapter, must come first. You must have Christ as the one object of your heart to supplant everything else. Then as to the things around that try and afflict you, if you tell them all to God you get rid of them. The point is, Have you had an audience? What a solemn blessed sense it imparts! A man can go about in the world saying, I know I have the ear of God! And thus this most wonderful favor that ever God conferred on a man on earth is his. It is the most wonderful favor, because God might have given me all the world and not have given me peace.
And “the peace which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Amen.