Alright, brethren, let's turn
to Philippians, the book of Philippians. I'm going to try to begin a series
of messages through Philippians, and I'm going to try to preach
verse by verse, more expositional than anything else. Tonight I want to just look at
the first two verses. Philippians 1, verse 1. Paul
and Timotheus, that's Timothy, Paul and Timothy, the servants
of Jesus Christ, to 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. Philippi
was a large city in Macedonia, and you remember Paul was on
his second missionary journey and he was going somewhere else,
but the Spirit of the Lord forbid him, wouldn't let him go where
he intended to go. And he saw a vision saying, come
to us, saw a man in Macedonia, and he said, we gathered assuredly
that the Lord had called us to preach in Macedonia. And so they
went there, and they went out there by the river where Lydia
and some others were gathered to pray, and Paul preached the
gospel of Christ to them. And the Lord converted Lydia
and several others there. And then the rulers heard about
it, and they were offended, and so they arrested Paul. And they
beat him, treated him shamefully, him and Paul and Silas. Is that who it was? Was it Paul
and Silas? It escapes me right off hand. Anyway, it was Paul
for sure. And put him in jail. Beat him
and put him in jail. But the Lord was ruling that.
The Lord did that because he had an elect child who was the
jailer. And had many in that man's family
who were his elect, Christ's redeemed. And God sent an earthquake. Paul preached the Gospel to that
jailer and the Lord opened his heart and gave him faith in Christ
and many in his house and saved him. And that's how the church
at Philippi began. That's how it began. And so these
Philippian brethren were very dear to Paul and Paul was very
dear to them. Now at the time Paul wrote this
letter, some say it was probably around 61 AD, And at the time
he wrote this letter, Paul is in prison in Italy. And he's been bound for preaching
the gospel. He's under house arrest. And
while he was there, the church at Philippi sent Paul a gift. And their pastor was a man named
Epaphroditus. And he brought the gift to Paul.
And while he was there visiting with Paul, he got sick. He almost
died. Paul was informed by this man
that the church at Philippi was under a great trial because they
were being tried by the devil. He had caused some divisions
among them. They were being persecuted for
the gospel's sake. And so Paul writes this letter
to him to encourage him. Now you consider the situation.
Paul's in prison. He's in prison, and any time
he can be executed. And he'll tell us in this epistle,
he don't know if he's going to live or he's going to die. And
he knows any time he could be executed. Epaphroditus had been
sick, almost died. There's division in the church,
he's heard about that. They're under attack by the devil,
their adversary is attacking them. And yet, amidst all of
this, Paul writes to them and speaks about his joy in the Lord
Jesus. That's the theme of this book,
his joy in the Lord Jesus Christ. He encourages them to rejoice
always. He tells them how much joy he
has in Christ and how much joy he has for them in Christ. And
he encourages them to rejoice always. And really, brethren,
we have reason to rejoice always. Because if we are suffering,
no matter what it is, just like they were, the Lord is doing
it to teach us more and more that Christ is our King and our
Savior, that our salvation is accomplished, that He is working
all things for the good of His people, that He is bringing glory
to His name, and He will successfully get that lesson across to you
and me. We will learn that in everything He's working in our
life. He's going to bring each of His children down to His feet
to worship Him and know Him better than we did before we went into
the trial. So there's always, and Paul said,
rejoice always. And there is always reason to
rejoice. More reason to rejoice than there
is to be discouraged. Always. Now, the subject tonight
is more than a greeting. These two verses right here,
some might read through this and just think this is just a
mere greeting Paul gives. There's no filler in the Word
of God. There's nothing unnecessary or
unneeded in the Word of God. Everything in this book speaks,
if we just can see, it's all directing us to Christ. Everything
in this book. And this is no mere greeting.
We have the entire gospel of God's grace right here in these
two verses. In what some might just consider to be a greeting.
There's much more here than a greeting. Much more. Now first of all,
we see here Paul includes every believer in the church. That's
who he's writing to and he includes every believer in the church
here. Look at this, read it again. Paul and Timotheus, the servants
of Jesus Christ, to 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. Paul
wrote this letter. Timothy didn't write it, Paul
wrote it. But he mentions Timothy because Timothy was with him
when he went there, and Timothy was with him where he was now,
and he was going to send Timothy to them. And so he speaks of
Timothy. The Lord used Paul much in that
way, to send faithful men to the local churches to preach
the gospel. That's how the Lord used Paul.
He's done that through the ages. He'll use men pastors to send
faithful men to preach to a local congregation. And it's very helpful,
especially when a church doesn't have a pastor. Some people don't
think that's scriptural, but it's very scriptural. We see
Paul do it numerous times, numerous times. But notice Paul here,
he doesn't call himself an apostle and then regard Timothy as an
evangelist or just a preacher. He doesn't say that. He doesn't
say, I'm an apostle and Timothy here the evangelist. No, he says,
he regards both of them as the servants of Jesus Christ. The servants of Jesus Christ.
He puts himself as much as Paul was used by the Lord. He wrote
three-fourths of the New Testament. He was the pastor to the Gentile
churches, the apostle to the Gentile churches. God used him
to establish the gospel in the Gentile world, used him greatly. But Paul puts himself on the
same level with this young man named Timothy and says, we're
both servants of Jesus Christ. Servants of Jesus Christ. God's
preachers are won by the Spirit of God. We're born of the same
Spirit of God, given faith in the same Lord Jesus Christ, robed
in the same righteousness of Christ. We have the same gospel
that we're preaching. We're won. God's preachers are
won. We are His willing bondservants. Now, believers are told in Scripture
to submit to those pastors that Christ has given to have the
rule over you. Scripture clearly says that.
We just read that in Hebrews 13. He said, submit to them to
have the rule over you as those that must give account, because
we must give account, that we may minister to you with joy
and not with grief, because that's not profitable to you. But while
that is so, we're never to exalt one preacher over another preacher. We're never to speak like they
were doing at Corinth and, well, I prefer that preacher and I
don't care for that preacher. We're never to do that. That's
exalting one over the other. And you know what that is? That's
carnal. That's not spiritual. That's
carnal. Go over to 1 Corinthians 3 and
let's see that. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. 1 Corinthians 3. Paul said there in verse 2, I
fed you with milk and not with meat. People want to go to 1
Corinthians and they think that's the meat. Paul, he had to go
back and deal with just carnal things, things that are just
milk. just to get them from being so distracted to be able to hear
the gospel. And that's what he's dealt with
all through 1 Corinthians. But he said, I fed you with milk
and not with meat, for hitherto you were not able to bear it,
neither yet now are you able. He's speaking very directly,
isn't he? He's speaking directly to them. There's no mistaking
that he means what he says and he's saying it to them directly.
And he says, for ye are yet carnal. For whereas there is among you
envying, and strife, and divisions, are you not carnal, and walk
as men? For while one saith, I am of
Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, one said, I like the preacher
Paul, and another, I like the preacher Apollos. And they divided
over that. They split over that. They said,
are you not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is
Apollos, but ministers? They're servants, by whom ye
believed, even as the Lord gave to every man." The Lord gave
His preacher. He says, I've planted, Apollos
watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth
anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that
watereth are one. See there? God's preachers are
one. We're one and every man shall
receive his own reward according to his own labor. We're one. We're one. So Paul calls himself
and Timothy the servants of our Lord Jesus Christ. He puts himself
on the same level with Timothy. We're servants of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Christ makes his preachers his
willing bondservants. Let me show you where that came
from over here in Exodus. Let's go back over to Exodus.
You know, everything the Lord has brought to pass in providence
is to glorify Christ. And it's so with masters and
slaves. You know, the reason God had
in the law that there were such a thing as masters and slaves
was for the benefit of men. Because when they would be poor,
they could become servants and work off their debt. This was
for their good. It's been abused because man's
depraved, a man abuses everything. But it was God's glory for the
good of those poor folks who had to be servants. It was for
their good. And it was all for the glory
of Christ to show me and you, He's the master, we're the servants. But you know, He came down and
He took the place of a servant. He came down and took the place
of a servant. Paul's going to talk about that
in Philippians 2. He came down and took the form
of a servant. And everything that's said here,
first of all, applies to Christ. Look here, Exodus 20. It says
there in verse 2, I'm sorry, Exodus 21, verse 2. If thou buy a Hebrew servant,
six years he shall serve. And in the seventh, he shall
go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he
shall go out by himself. If he were married, then his
wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him
a wife, his master gave him a wife, and she born him sons or daughters,
the wife and her children shall be her masters, and he shall
go out by himself. in that seventh year. And if
the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, I love my wife,
I love my children, I will not go out for him, then his master
shall bring him unto the judges. He shall also bring him to the
door, or unto the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear
through with an awl. He opens his ear, puts a mark
on him, and he shall serve him forever." Now he's not a slave
anymore. He's a willing bond servant now. He loves his master. He loves
his wife. He loves his children. He wants
to serve the master. Well, go with me to Isaiah 50. Our Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world and took the form of a servant. And God gave him
a bride, God gave him a wife, and gave him children. And he
came and served, and he didn't have to go to the cross. He didn't
have to. He was free. He didn't have to
go to the cross. But he loved the Father, and
he loved his bride, his elect, and he loved the children, and
he said, I'm going to lay down my life for Him. I'm willing.
I'm willing to be the bondservant of my Father to save my house. And this is what he said right
here, verse 5, Isaiah 50 verse 5, "...the Lord God hath opened
mine ear." They took the willing bondservant to the doorpost to
the judge and they opened his ear with awe. He said, "...the
Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither
turned away back." I gave my back to the smiters. I willingly
served the Father. And my cheeks to them that plucked
off the hair. I hid not my face from shame
and spitting. For the Lord God will help me,
therefore shall I not be confounded. Therefore have I set my face
like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is
near that justifieth me. Who will contend with me? Let
us stand together. Who is mine adversary? Let him
come near to me. Behold, the Lord God will help
me. Who is he that shall condemn me? Brethren, that's what Christ
did for His people. That's what He did for His Father. That's what He did for His wife
and His children, the elect, the church, and the children.
That's what He did for us. And now that when He reveals
Himself to us and opened our ear, And when He opened our ears,
He makes us willing now to suffer for His sake. He makes us willing
to be His willing bondservant. To give our body to be persecuted
if need be. And to suffer for the sake of
preaching the gospel of Christ. But we say what Christ said.
The Lord Jesus will help me. I'll not be confounded. I won't
be ashamed. He's near that justifies me.
Who will condemn me? My Lord and my Savior will help
me. That's where this thing of being a servant came from. Paul
said, me and Timothy, we servants together. Willing bond servants
of the Lord Jesus. And that's what every pastor
is at Christ's ends. Sent by Christ to serve one Lord
and one Savior. We preach salvation by our triune
God in Christ, by Christ alone. And we're one in and by Christ. One. And then notice how he dresses
the brethren at Philippi. Go back there now to Philippians
1. He greets them this way. All
the saints in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi with the bishops
and deacons. That office of bishop, that's
the same as the office of elder and pastor. It's the same office. Bishop, elder, pastor. There's
one pastor, the Lord provides one pastor for his church, but
the Lord provides men who can help to preach. And that's who
he's addressing here. There may have been more than
one local assembly at Philippi. It was a large place. But the
Lord will give one pastor to be the elder, to be the bishop,
but He gives others to teach and to preach, to help with that.
And deacons are those that the Lord raises up that are faithful
men who serve the Lord's table, they take care of secular things,
they take care of the building, whatever needs to be done, they're
just faithful men willing to help so the pastor can give his
time and his attention to prayer and study and preaching of the
gospel. But each sinner saved by God's
grace, every sinner saved by God's grace is a saint, is a
saint. It means we've been sanctified.
We're a saint, sanctified by God. To be sanctified means to
be set apart and consecrated to Christ. To be set apart and
consecrated to Christ. Now, how are we sanctified? How
do we become saints? Did we do it? We didn't do it. We didn't do anything to be saints.
God's people don't do anything to make ourselves saints. God
the Father sanctified us in eternity. He sanctified us in eternity
when He elected to save us in Christ Jesus before the world
was made. If you look at Jude 1, if you
want to look there with me, it says, Jude 1. In the first verse there
it says, "...Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother
of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved
in Jesus Christ, and called." That all took place in eternity.
That's what Paul was talking about in Ephesians 1.3 when he
said, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
who blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
according as He chose us in Christ. That's when He sanctified us.
God the Father sanctified all His people choosing us in Christ.
Then Christ Jesus, the Son of God, sanctified us by His blood
on the cross. I read that to you in Hebrews
13. He suffered without the count that He might sanctify us by
His own blood. He declared that He came to do
the will of the Father. to lay down His life to honor
the law on behalf of all those God the Father sanctified into
Him in eternity. You notice here, all the saints
in Christ Jesus were sanctified in Christ Jesus. God the Father
sanctified us by separating us into Christ Jesus in election.
And Christ sanctified us Himself, in Himself. Listen to Hebrews
10.10. Christ said He came to do the
will of the Father. And it says in Hebrews 10.10,
By the witch will we are sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all time. By the will of Christ we
are sanctified through His one offering. For by one offering
He perfected forever them that are sanctified. He did that.
And then we are made to know this and rejoice that we are
sanctified in Christ when God the Holy Spirit regenerates us
and gives us a new Holy Spirit when Christ is formed within
us and He separates us and consecrates us to Christ in the heart through
faith. Listen to 1 Peter 1.2. 1 Peter
1.2. It's not far to your right there
if you want to look at it. 1 Peter 1.2. This is what we
call, elect according to the foreknowledge, foreordination
of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace unto you
and peace be multiplied. Look at 2 Peter and look at chapter
1 and look at verse 4. whereby are given to us exceeding
great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is
in the world through lust. He has given us a new nature
that we might have union with Christ and be consecrated to
Christ. 2 Thessalonians 2.13 says, We
are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the
truth, whereunto He called you by our gospel to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, by this sanctifying
work, when we partake of this spiritual regeneration and this
new heart is given to us, God makes us to know that this work
is entirely of God. We've been sanctified. We've
been set apart from eternity in Christ Jesus. We were set
apart by the blood of Christ. We were set apart when the Spirit
quickened us and opened our eyes and made us understand this by
grace. We've been made will and bond
servants of Jesus Christ. Now, what's the difference in
justification and sanctification? Justification is Christ's work
for us, whereby it's before the judge, whereby he made us legally
righteous and perfect before the law of God. That's justification. No sin, past, present, or future.
Perfect righteousness. We can't be condemned. No charge
can even be laid against us because we're justified by Christ Jesus
and in Christ Jesus. Sanctification is Christ's work
in us as the great physician. He comes and our understanding
was dark and now He's given us light in the Lord. Light to know
the Lord. Our will was contrary to God. Our will was set on sin, on the
lust of the flesh. Our will was set on just living
for this world, and that's all we cared about. Getting all the
money we can, canning all the money we get, and sitting on
the can. That's all we were concerned about. And then the Lord came
and He gave us a new heart and now our will is to follow Christ
and to serve Christ and to honor Christ and to see His gospel
go forth in the world, see His people called out. We want to
see them brought to the joy of knowing Christ just like He's
done for us. Our affections were set on this world. Now our affection
is set on Christ Jesus. That's how come Christ said,
a man's foes will be they of his own household. Because you
can't separate a sanctified child of God from Christ. Nobody can. Nobody can. There's something
thicker than natural blood. It's the blood of Christ. And
that will keep you separated unto Him, come what may. He will
work that in the heart of His people. He works that in the
heart of His people. Before we were the servants of
sin, now we're the servants of Christ our righteousness. That's the work of sanctification.
And it's all in Christ. When you're sanctified, you stop
looking at yourself. You stop looking at your works.
You start looking at Christ and His and following Him. That's
the difference. Now secondly, go back there with
me to our text. Paul's prayer for them is for
more grace and for more peace. He says there, Grace be unto
you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
God's people are saved by grace. We are saved by grace. God the
Father, when He chose His people, when He sanctified us in eternity,
He did it by grace. Not based on anything in us.
We just looked at Romans 9, Last time, children being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God according to election might stand, not of works, but
of him that calleth. He said, the elder shall serve
the younger. He said, Jacob have I loved,
he so have I hated. That's not making God unrighteous,
that's His glory. He said, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. So then salvation is not of Him
that willeth. It's not of our will. It's not
of our works. It's not of Him that runneth.
It's of God's grace and mercy. That's salvation. Salvation is
by grace. When we fell in Adam, The reason
God's regard toward His people did not change is because He
didn't choose us because of anything in us. So when we fell, it had
no bearing on what God purposed to do for us because He chose
us freely by His grace, not based on anything in us. The basis
of God receiving us was Christ Jesus the Lord, the Beloved in
whom we were perfect before the world was made. If you supplied
all the need of a poor, helpless beggar, You gave him everything
he needed. That would be undeserved. You
just gave it to him. That would be a form of grace.
But the grace of God is entirely greater than that. If you supplied
all the need of somebody who slew everybody in your house
and slew your child, your only begotten son, robbed you of everything
you have, That's a better illustration of God's grace to us. Because
when we fell in Adam, we weren't neutral. We became God-haters. And Christ Jesus came into this
world and laid down His life for sinners who were entirely
opposed to Him. The heart was enmity against
Him. That's the grace of God. That's the grace of God. It's
more than undeserved or unmerited. It is grace in the face of all
demerit and all opposition. For us who were God-haters, Christ
Jesus, the Son of God, came down and made Himself the least. We
saw a Sunday passage from 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. You know the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ, though He was rich. Yet for your sakes
He became poor, that you through His poverty might be rich. That's
the grace of the Lord. By grace He took our nature.
By grace He went to the cross, He took our sin. By grace He
took the wrath of God, the curse that we deserve. And with His
stripes we've been healed, brethren. Justified. completely righteous
before God. Romans 3.24 says, "...being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. That His sin hath reigned unto
death, even so my grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord." By His righteousness. That's
how His grace rang to us. In our carnal hearts, we were
crying out, no God. We were going through this world,
we'd hear this gospel preached and we'd say, that's not fair!
I don't want anything to do with a God like that. And we knew
it all. This is how I think God is. God
is love. He wouldn't condemn people. Look
to the cross. That's what every one of God's
people deserved. And He has to bring us to see
that's what we deserve. He has to bring us to see that
is you hanging on that cross and make you see that's what
you deserved. And yet Christ Jesus came and,
boy, in the room instead of His people. That's what He has to
make us behold. And He does that by the Spirit
of God, beginning us again by His irresistible grace. And it's that same grace by which
we're kept. That's why Paul's praying for
more grace for them. Grace, grace, grace. Ephesians
1.5 said, "...having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will,
to the praise of the glory of His grace." That's how come we
are regenerated and enter into the adoption of children. It's
by the praise of the glory of His grace. In whom we have redemption through
Christ's blood, the forgiveness of sin according to the riches
of His grace. Ephesians 2.5 Even when we were
dead in sins, at the quickness together with Christ, by grace
are you saved. You had nothing to do with it.
It's by grace. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that's not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. If we put one work involved in
it, we would boast, brethren, and it's of grace. It's either
grace or works, but it's not grace and works. Paul said if
it's grace, it's all grace, and it's no more works. If it's works,
then it's no more grace. They don't exist together. We're
either saved by grace, or we can attempt to be saved by works,
but we're going to fail. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. We're His workmanship. It's all
the workmanship of our God. He created us in Christ Jesus. We're not talking about what
you are in Adam. What you mainly see about yourself
is what you are in Adam. We're not talking about that.
We're talking about the new you that believes God and trusts
Christ as all your salvation. That's the workmanship of God.
And when this flesh falls and we go back to the dust, that
new spirit that is of God is going to go be with Him immediately
and then one day He is going to raise a new body entirely
created in His righteousness and His holiness and perfection.
And when we see Him, we will be like Him because we will know
Him and we will see Him and be like Him. That is all grace. It is all His workmanship. All
his workmanship. That's why Paul didn't exalt
himself over Timothy. This is why God's people are
one. We're sinners saved by the grace of God. He said, Paul wrote
in Ephesians 4.1, he said, I therefore the prisoner of God beseech you
that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you're called with
all lowliness and meekness. We don't have a reason to be
anything other than lowly and meek. Nothing is of us. It was
all freely given to us by God's grace. do all things with long-suffering.
And we will when we see how gracious God was to be long-suffering
with us, for bearing one another in love. We will when we see
the grace of God for bearing with us in love, even now as
believers. Our peace with God is also in
and by Christ. He prayed for grace and He prayed
for peace. This is all of God. By Christ's work of righteousness,
we have peace with God. We had offended God. We were
at war with God, and now we have peace with God, and we have peace
in our conscience. We know we have peace with God.
Isaiah 32.17 speaks of Christ and it said, the work of righteousness
shall be peace and the effect of righteousness, quietness and
assurance forever. When people are all disturbed
and their conscience is disturbed and they're all troubled and
upset and striking out at everything and everybody, you know why?
They don't know anything about what it is to be made righteous
in Christ. If you know that you're righteous
in Christ, the effect of that will be quietness, and it will
be assurance. Because you know, if somebody,
the worst anybody can do to you is take your physical life, that's
the worst they can do to you. And that's the very best thing
they could ever do to you, because you'd be with Christ immediately.
Because you're righteous. And when you know that, You may
get troubled and you may get shaken at first, but God will
settle you. And it will be peace and assurance
knowing just what we saw the Lord say and just what He brings
His people to say. The Lord is for me. I will not
be confounded. He'll help me. He'll help me.
That's why the Gospel is called the Gospel of Peace. Mercy and
truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Christ reconciled His people
to God. And He came and made us to know. And now, Romans 5,
verse 1 says, being justified, beholding we've been justified
by faith, by Him giving you faith to know you've been justified
by Christ, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have peace with God. He is
our peace, Paul said. Go to Ephesians 2. I want you
to see this. And not only is He our peace
with God, He is our peace with our brethren. Ephesians 2. We were using the law. We were
using the scriptures. We were using good works and
bad works and we were using the law of the Ten Commandments.
We were using those things to exalt ourselves over others and
try to say we were better than others. Now, whether we were
religious or not, in some regard, we all did that. But look at
this, Christ came and fulfilled the law for His people, and He
made you know it. And by taking that law out of
the way, making you know that in yourself you're nothing but
a worm, a dead dog sinner in yourself, and that He did it
all, now you don't have any reason to exalt yourself over anybody
else. He made you one. Look at this,
Ephesians 2.14, for He is our peace. Talking about between
brethren, Jew and Gentile. He had made both one. He broke
down the middle wall, a partition that divided us. Having abolished
in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained
in ordinances for the make of himself of two, one new man,
so make in peace. He's saying he took an elect
Jew and he took an elect Gentile who hated each other and used
the law as the enmity between them to exalt each other over
the other. and He come and fulfilled that
law, and now He arose and in Him that elect Jew and that elect
Gentile are one in Christ. And He's your peace. He's your
peace. and he formed Christ in you,
he came and preached this peace to you, verse 17, and he came
and preached peace to you which were far off unto them that were
nigh, for through him we both have access by one Spirit unto
the Father. Now therefore you're no more
strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints
and of the household of God and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone. You're fellow citizens with the
saints and you're of the household of God. your fellow citizens
in the same city, and you've got your all brothers and sisters
in the same house, in the family of God. Paul told the Corinthians,
he said, now we used to know people after the flesh. That's
what all that was, he just talked about in Ephesians 2. Taking
the law and exalting ourselves, the Jews would say, that's a
Gentile dog, don't have anything to do with him. And he took that
out of the way. And now we don't know one another
after the flesh. We don't look at the outward
and determine. We don't know each other that
way now. Now we know brethren in spirit who are rejoicing in
this one common thing we have together and that's faith in
our Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation by Christ. You've put
on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image
of him that created him where there's neither Greek nor Jew.
There's no room for racism in God's church. There's no such
thing as a Greek or a Jew. Circumcision or uncircumcision,
we're not using the law. Barbarian, Scythian, we're not
using educated and uneducated to exalt ourselves over one another.
Bond nor free. But Christ is all and in all. That's the difference right there.
That's our unity. That's our peace right there.
Christ is all and He's in all. I can't do one thing to Adam
without doing it to Christ. That's right. This is the great
blessing for which Paul prayed for his brethren at Philippi.
Grace be unto you. and peace from God our Father
and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Brethren, let's pray to God our
Father through our Lord Jesus for this, because all grace and
all peace comes from Him. Every bit of it. All grace and
all peace comes from Him. And let this be our attitude
toward one another. Saints. That's my brother there
is a saint. My sister there is a saint. as
God calls them a saint. They're holy. Paul knew there
was division in this church of Philippi, yet he calls them all
saints. He didn't judge after the flesh.
He called them saints. He judged by what God had done
for them. Servants of Jesus Christ, one by the grace and peace of
God given us freely in Christ Jesus. Let that be our attitude
toward one another. We're one. And let this be our
prayer for one another, for grace, and peace from God our Father
and our Lord Jesus Christ. You see how much more is there
than just a greeting? That's far more than a greeting,
brethren. That's our gospel. That's our
gospel. I pray God bless that to you.
All right, Brother Adam.