Open your Bibles if you went
to Philippians. Philippians, the book of Philippians. Paul
wrote this book while he was imprisoned in Rome. And he was
under house arrest. He had a guard with him, 24 hours
a day chained to him. And we looked at earlier in our
studies that that would mean there would be six different
Praetorian guards that would be with him in a 24 hour period. And you know what he did. He
spoke about Christ. He didn't care who was in his
presence. He spoke to visitors about Christ,
and I imagine he even spoke to those Praetorian guards about
Christ, and so much so that the Lord used that, and that the
word spread through the Praetorian guard why Paul was imprisoned,
because for preaching Christ. And then the word of God spread
even more in Rome, as the brethren waxed bold to preach the gospel.
I ask you today, do you need to be encouraged? All the time, right? Amen, sister. All the time we need to be encouraged.
We see things in this world that we just shake our heads and wonder
what's going on, but the Lord is in charge, isn't he? He's
in full control. And we have a piece about that,
don't we? Well, today's message is entitled,
Encouragement in Christ. And I know we all need encouragement,
all of us. Doesn't matter the strongest
saint or the weakest saint, we all need encouragement going
through this world. And we battle the flesh, don't
we too? Our flesh, oh my. Let's look at verse 27 from chapter
1 all the way to chapter 2 verse 3 because the reason I want to
do this is because in verse 1 of chapter 2 is the word therefore.
So we have to go back up and read in chapter 1. This is where
you wonder why they put the chapter breaks where they did because
they're not inspired are they? They're just put in there by
the translators. If you can ever get your hand
on one of those Bibles that they have the whole letter without
chapter numbers and verses, it's absolutely incredible. I wish
I could find a whole bunch of them and put them on here. But
it's incredible to find that where they still use the King
James text, but it's all in one letter. It's fantastic if you
can get your hands a hold of one of those. It says here, in
verse 27, only let your conversation in our previous studies, we found
that out to be citizenship, be as it become at the gospel of
Christ. That whether I come in 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.
Now notice there he brings forth that you stand fast in one spirit,
right? That's the Holy Spirit of God,
one mind, Having the mind of Christ. One mind in doctrine. One mind in salvation. Knowing
that Christ alone is our salvation. Striving together for the faith
of the gospel. So no matter where we're placed,
we're here for the furtherance of the gospel. No matter what
standing we find ourselves in life, No matter where we find
ourselves working, we're there for the furtherance of the gospel.
Everything centers around the gospel. It's absolutely amazing. And look at this, and nothing
being terrified by your adversaries. You remember they were being
attacked from within, right, by the Judaizers, and they were
being attacked from without by their own Roman citizens. Remember,
these folks are Roman citizens, too. That's why citizenship when
it says only let your conversation citizenship in the Greek, Roman
citizenship came with a lot of privileges. As we saw how fearful
those folks got when they had beaten Paul and he said, I'm
a Roman. Oh man, what did we do? Came with a lot of privileges. And so they'd know about that.
And think of this in light, they would understand the privileges
that we have in Christ. and to be justified of all our
sins, to be fully pardoned, to be sanctified in Christ. They
would understand all those privileges. And we have a lot of privileges,
beloved. And remember, too, all the promises of God in the Old
Testament are yea and amen in Christ. They're ours, beloved,
in Christ. Oh my, blessed, blessed privileges. So he says, don't be terrified
by those who come against you, which is to them an evident token
of perdition, but to you of salvation in that of God. Notice he puts
in that of God there, salvations of the Lord. It's not of man's
works. We see it clearly even in that
little verse right there. But to you I have a salvation,
and that of God. It comes from God. For unto you
it is given on behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but
to suffer for his sake. Having the same conflict which
you saw in me, and now here to be in me, last week we looked
at how suffering is a gift. It all comes from our King, right?
It's providentially sent to us. And what's the one thing it does?
Somebody tell me. It makes us look to Christ. Amen,
sister. Draws us to Christ. Keeps our eyes on Christ. Okay,
now let's read verses 1 to 3. Verse 1, what we're only going
to be going through verse 1. There's so much packed in this.
If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, so in light of what
we just read about adversaries and all that, right? If there
be any consolation in Christ, If any comfort of love, if any
fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill
ye my joy. Remember what he said earlier
about being like-minded in unity? Look at this, that you be like-minded,
having the same love, being of one accord and of one mind. He
keeps setting that forth before them, right? Just keep being
of one accord. And we've been seeing that in
the book of Acts too, right? They were of one accord. One
accord. Oh my. Let nothing be done through
strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other
better than themselves. What a verse, oh my. Shows you
the humility that God's people have wrought in us by the Holy
Spirit, because we are not by nature like that, are we? We
do not by nature esteem others better than ourselves. No, no. But by the grace of God, we do.
Oh my. So chapter two is an exhortation
to unity of the spirit. Unity of the spirit, mutual affection
and love for one another, for God's people, humility, lowliness
of mind, and real concern and care for one another. Real, genuine
care and concern for one another. My oh my. What a blessing we
have. Not only are we going to be here
together on this earth until the Lord takes us home, but beloved,
we'll be in glory together forever. And that love we have for one
another is going to be magnified even more because there'll be
no sin. Wednesday night we were talking
about what's it going to be like to never sin again. My, what's
it going to be like when there's a new heaven and a new earth
where indwells righteousness? We can't even fathom that, can
we? So our love for each other is going to be magnified. Our
love for Christ is going to be magnified. Oh my, it'll be absolutely
amazing. And we will see him face to face
who was pierced for our sins, who gave his life for our sins.
It'll be absolutely amazing. So let's read again verses 29
and 30 of Philippians chapter 1. Now let's read verse 1 along
with it. if there be therefore any consolation
in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the
Spirit, if any bows and mercies. So Paul's been bringing forth
before the suffering saints at Philippi that all that they're
going through is all ordained by God. It's all ordained by
God. Remember that, whatever we go
through is ordained by God. And our sufferings are the same
in the sense that we're all believers, right? And that we're all human,
but some of us go through different trials and tribulations than
others, right? And isn't it amazing to see,
look how we've seen with Dan and Kathy. I'm not trying to
boast you guys up, but look what we've seen with Dan and Kathy
both going through cancer. And how every time I talk to
them, they're just like, we're just hanging on to the Lord.
We're just looking to Him. Now that's God giving them grace.
Giving them strength to do that. And we were praying, and praise
God, we've got some good reports. But even if we hadn't got good
reports, God's still good, isn't He? Yeah. But those were things
you guys had to go through that God ordained. And my, I'm just
amazed at how He carries us. Sister, you were flatlined at
one time, but it wasn't your time. Isn't that amazing? God's so good to us. I'd have
never known yet that that had happened. No, because I think
that happened even before I got here. Yeah. my oh my look how
good God is to us my oh my oh my take note of verse one now of
chapter two in light of the suffering for Christ's sake in light of
us suffering for Christ's sake in light of us going through
the things that we go through I ask you can we find any Consolation anywhere else but
Christ? And consolation there is encouragement
in the Greek. Can we find any encouragement
outside of Christ? We can, can't we? Now, our brothers and sisters
in Christ may encourage us, right? And our spouses may encourage
us, and our children may encourage us, but I'll tell you what, it
doesn't come close to the encouragement that we receive from our King. Knowing this, when you're going
through things, that he says, I'll never leave you. I'll never
forsake you. I'm right there with you. Just
as a shepherd with a sheep, I often think of that. As a shepherd
with a sheep, he's right beside us, beloved. Watching over us,
caring for us, giving us strength as we go through various trials
and tribulations or suffer for our very faith, what we believe.
People telling you, if you believe that, you're not saved. Well,
I believe in the grace of God alone. What Spurgeon said, sink
or swim, I'll cling to Him. That's one of my models. Sink
or swim, I'll cling to Christ. I'm not going to cling anywhere
else, right? I used to cling to works, did you? I used to
cling to works. I found out, man, those would
make me drown. They'd make me perish. But praise
be to God, Christ revealed himself to us, didn't he? And now we
cling to him, don't we? We cling to him. So can we find
encouragement, beloved of God, anywhere but Christ? Like true
encouragement that he gives us? Can we find anything like that?
No. Listen to this verse 1 of chapter
2 in the Greek literal Bible. It says, therefore, if there
is any encouragement in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any
fellowship of the Spirit, if any afflictions and compassions,
the only place we can be encouraged, truly encouraged, soul encouraged,
is in Christ. Is in Christ. I ask you and me,
beloved of God, do we need more consolation, more than the consolation
of Christ? Do we need anything else? No,
we don't, do we? Oh, my. Do we need more than
the fellowship of the Spirit? Do we need more than the fellowship
of the Spirit? No, we don't, do we? My, do we need more than the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit who tells us and reveals to us
Christ's everlasting love for us? And how he came to this world
and died for us? Do we need anything more than
the mercies of God and Christ? What mercy he's showing us? Oh my, we were rebels. in our actions, saying, I hate
you, God. Maybe not by our voice, but by
our actions. And yet he says, I love you.
And I've loved you with an everlasting love. Oh, my. See, when that's revealed
to us, right, doesn't it just make us, as Scott used to say,
just put all our arms down in front of us and take sides with
God against ourselves? I'm guilty, Lord. Oh, what mercy
you show me, though. What grace, what compassion,
what love. Our cup runs over, beloved. Our
cup runs over. We're daily loaded down with
benefits, the scripture says. And we can say like David, my
cup runneth over. Oh, it runs over in mercy and
grace. It's overflowing. When we think
about the compassion of the Lord towards us, our cup runs over. When we think of the everlasting
love of God for us, our cup runs over. When we think of all our
sins pardoned and washed clean by the precious blood of Christ,
our cup runs over, doesn't it? Oh, it's marvelous. And what encouragement we can
find in this world of woe. Right? Though we're but saved
sinners, what encouragement can we find in the fact that all
our sins are forgiven, that they're all washed in the precious, precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he redeemed our eternal
souls? What encouragement, what comfort
we can find in that? And think of the love and the
compassion that drove Christ to go to Calvary's cross to bleed
and die for us sinners. He's the sinless one. He's the
perfect one. And yet he goes and dies in our
room and place. And oh, what encouragement and
comfort we can find in the fact, the fact that Christ has redeemed
us. The scripture says of him in
Isaiah of the Messiah, he shall not fail. And he didn't, did
he? He accomplished the work that he came to do, which was
to save us from our sins. That's the whole reason he came
here. To live the perfect life, to
save us from our sins, to deliver us from the wrath and justice
of God and the law that justly said, you're condemned, Wayne,
or you're condemned. Put your name in there. And he
delivered us out from under that law, so the law has no claim
upon us anymore, because the wrath of God is being extinguished
in Christ against us. And here we are, justified, redeemed
by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it leaves
us in awe, doesn't it? It leaves us speechless sometimes
when we really contemplate it. And all we can do is weep sometimes
over it. My, what a Savior. What a Redeemer
is Jesus Christ our Lord. And how did He redeem us? By His shed blood. And remember,
every human being on this earth has an eternal soul. An eternal soul. And what did
he do for his people? He purchased our eternal souls.
He obtained eternal salvation for us, didn't he? Do you know
we're his? We're his. We're his by creation. He created every one of us, right?
And we're also his by purchase. It's not so for the whole world,
is it? But it's so for God's people. Oh, what a savior, what
a redeemer. And he did it by the shedding
of his precious, precious blood. Do we have anxiety and that comes
upon us because of the happenings in this world? We do, don't we? Well, let us find comfort in
the fact that the government is upon his shoulders. It's upon Christ's shoulders. Do we lack peace? Do we lack peace? Well, let us,
we who are the redeemed of the Lord, bring to our minds the
fact that Christ is our peace. And we now have peace with God
through the Lord Jesus Christ. Peace, now who did we sin against?
Who was our sin against? I know we sin against each other,
but ultimately, who was our sin against? God, amen, brother. It was against God. We broke
his law. And Christ came and satisfied
it in the room and place of his people. And then he purchased us out
from under the law by his precious, precious blood. Do we struggle
with depression? Yeah. I don't know anybody who
doesn't get down sometimes. Let's be honest, right? We're
not in religion. You ever get down? Yeah, me too. Let us gaze by faith at the Lord
Jesus Christ, who was wounded for our transgressions and was
bruised for our iniquities. My, that'll lift our hearts and
minds up, won't it? David said, why art thou cast
down on my soul? David's depressed. I remember
Joe Terrell and I having a talk about that, because we both had
suffered from depression a lot. And he said, Wayne, anybody ever
tell you David was depressed? And I'm like, no, no one's ever
told me that. He's supposed to be a super saint, right? Like all the characters in the
Bible are supposed to be super saints, right? But Elijah's out
there going, oh my, she's after me. I'm the only one left. And the Lord says, now there's
5,000 that haven't bowed their knee to Baal yet. It's okay. And David, he's cast down. He
says, why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted
in me? He's depressed. And he says this, hope thou in
God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. See, he got his mind off himself,
right? And his mind on Christ. Oh my. But we do. We suffer through depression.
We're humans, beloved. We suffer anxiety. We suffer
all these things. They're real, too. Do we need
comfort? Let us look to the Lord Jesus
Christ who was sent by our Heavenly Father to save us from our sins. What comfort we can glean there.
And let we who are the regimed rejoice. We've received mercy. Do you know that? We've received
mercy. We don't get what we deserve. If we got what we deserve, we'd
be going to hell, wouldn't we? My, oh, my. But we've received...
Paul said, I've obtained mercy. He didn't obtain it by any works,
did he? It was given to him, beloved. It's a gift of God,
not of works, lest any man should boast. My, what a, oh, what a blessed
encouragement. The believer can say, God has
saved my eternal soul. Oh, what encouragement. We can
say that. God has saved my eternal soul.
He sent his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, to
save me from my sins. My, what encouragement we can
glean from that, beloved. What comfort we can get from
that. Look at verse 2 again, or verse
1 I mean, of chapter 2. If there be therefore any consolation,
so comfort in Christ, if any comfort of love, or encouragement
I mean, in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of
the Spirit, any bowels and mercies. So Paul desires, we see this
in the whole portion we read, Paul desires unity among the
believers. And unity can only come through
fellowship of the Spirit, right? And that comes for we humans
by putting aside our flesh, too, and esteeming others better than
ourselves. See, the natural bend of man is, I want attention. Right? But when you're born again,
you want to give God all the glory, don't you? You want to
give him all the praise. He gets it all, beloved. And remember, these saints, their
unity was being affected by these false teachers, the Judaizers
in Philippi. And then that was happening within
the church, and then without the church, their own countrymen
are persecuting them because they're still idol worshipers.
Their own countrymen, they're wondering, why did you turn to
this Jesus fella? Why aren't you worshiping the
old gods of our fathers? Well, because there's only one
true living God, right? And they've turned from idols
to serve the one true living God, like the saints at Thessalonica. My, oh, my. So we see that he
desires them to find their encouragement in Christ, right? Because that
really is the only place that we're going to find our encouragement,
especially when we have people coming at us for the gospel sake,
for our faith. Or some people causing trouble
even within the midst. Our only encouragement is to
look to Christ, isn't it? And to give it to Him. Oh my. And the love He speaks of here,
it says, if any comfort of love, that's agape in the Greek. That's God's love. Remember,
I've said in the past studies of other books that this love
is foreign to us. Because, now think of this too. Think of the verse three where
it says, esteem others better than yourself. Our natural love,
right, is all about me. The love of God spread abroad
in our hearts, the agape love of God spread, shed abroad in
our hearts, is all about Him. And esteeming others better than
ourselves. And unity comes that way. You know why? Because no
one's looking to be number one. There's only one who's number
one, right? What did Scott used to say? We're
all a bunch of zeros except for the one, right? It's true. But the Lord has to show us that,
doesn't he? He has to show us that. So this
love shed abroad in our heart is a foreign love to man. And it only comes by regeneration. You must be born again. You must
be. And the reason they think of
this too, Before we were saved, did we
find any encouragement in Christ? That was the last thing I wanted
to hear. My encouragement was in indulging in the flesh, or
people telling me certain things. Oh, you're a good guy, Wayne.
No, I wasn't. And even now, I'm just a safe
sinner, right? Saved by the grace of God. I
had a fellow tell me yesterday, oh, you're going to hell, da,
da, da, da, da, da, da. Because I believe in the sovereign
grace of God. And I'll tell you, this guy,
you're going to face judgment. No, I'm not. No, I'm already
being judged in Christ. I won't face nothing. Praise
the grace and mercy of God. And we were having a talk about
what comes first, faith or regeneration. He said, well, you have to have
faith and then you're born again. I said, you can't have faith
unless you're born again. It can't happen. Wow. And I'll tell you what, when
someone's losing an argument or losing, and I don't argue,
I just present the facts now. I don't argue, I just say, okay,
here's the scripture. When someone perceives they're losing, they
start calling you all kinds of stuff. Well, you heard this and
you heard that, you're lost, you're lost. No, I'm secure in
Christ, okay? My, oh my, what do you do? What
do you do? You just keep putting the truth
in front of them. Right? That's all you can do.
Because that was me. That was me before the Lord saved
me when I was all religious. I always remember that when you're
talking to someone and they're coming against you about what
we believe. If you came out of religion, you can look and go,
yeah, that's me. That was me before the Lord saved
me. or just even natural man. You
say, oh, that was me, natural man or woman. That was me, because
we were all there. We were all there. My, oh, my. So he declares to them that they
can find encouragement in Christ, and they can also find encouragement
in their love for one another, in their love for one another, and in the fellowship of the
Spirit. That's why it's wonderful when we're all together. We feel
that encouragement, we feel that love that we have for one another. And it encourages us, doesn't
it? My oh my. See the word if in
the text? If there be any, therefore any
consolation in Christ? It's a translation of a conditional
word referring to a fulfilled condition. there is encouragement
in Christ. It's already fulfilled. For the
believer, there is encouragement in Christ. It's not a matter
of if, it's a matter of there is. Oh my. Weiss brings forth that one could
translate it since or in view of the fact if there be any consolation
in Christ, in view of the fact that consolation and encouragement
only is in Christ. Oh my. And think of this. What's being brought forth in
this verse is not hypothetical. He's bringing forth facts. He's bringing forth facts. If
you're born again, we're gonna find encouragement in Christ.
If we're born again, we're gonna have a comfort of love, the love
of God shed abroad in our hearts. Oh my, if we're born again, we're
gonna have fellowship in the spirit. If we're born again,
we're gonna have compassion and show mercy to others because
of what Christ done for us. See, it all goes back to him.
It all takes a route right back to Him. My, oh, my. Look at this. The first fact
brought forth in this, that there's a certain consolation, there's
a certain encouragement in Christ. See the word any? The translation
is in the Greek. You know what it means in the
Greek? See, any for us is, well, there might not be, right? But
you know what it is in the Greek? A certain thing. It's a certain thing that there's
comfort in Christ. Have we not felt that? Have we
not tasted that the Lord is gracious? We have, haven't we? The word
consolation is a translation of the Greek word, which has
various meanings. It means supplication, exhortation,
admonition, encouragement, consolation, comfort, and solace. My, oh,
my. We find all that in Christ, don't
we? And the Philippian believers
here are being exhorted by Paul to look to Christ and to live
for him amidst the suffering that's going on. Don't be terrified
by your adversaries. It's an evident sign of their
perdition. It's an evident token of their
perdition and of your salvation, which is of God. See, he's reassuring
them. Every believer is going to go
through this. You're going to suffer for our faith. Oh my. But the only comfort we will
find in those times is Christ. Is Christ. And where do we find
unity as a group? Someone tell me. In Christ. That's the only place we find
unity. We don't find unity anywhere else, do we? We're bound up in
Him. Right? He's the head, we're the
body. And that body composes of all the believers of all the
ages, Old Testament and New, all the elect of all the ages.
There's not a dividing line between the Old Testament saints and
the New Testament saints. No, we're all the bride of Christ,
beloved. Spurgeon has an excellent, excellent
message called the Bride of Christ, if you can get your hands on
it. And he brings that forth. That the bride is composed of
Old Testament and New Testament saints. It's wonderful. So in view of Christ's supreme
sacrifice of himself to redeem his people, to redeem us, his
born-again, blood-washed saints, we can find great comfort at
any time when we think about that. When we think about that. Just
think about how merciful he is to us. Oh, my. What comfort we
can find. And note in verse 1, That encouragement,
again, is only found in Christ. If there be, therefore, any consolation,
encouragement in Christ. Now, any certain encouragement
in Christ. If any comfort of love, if any
fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies. Those
words, any, are all the same Greek word. It's certain. It's
certain. Oh, my. And again, the word love
in the text is used of God's love, agape. That's the love
of God shed abroad in our hearts. And this will produce comfort
for the believer. Because this love is of a tender persuasion,
isn't it? A tender persuasion with encouragement,
and it brings unity. The only reason we have unity
is because of our fellowship in the Spirit. That's why. Oh, my. And it's sacrificial
love, too. It esteems others better than
ourselves. Now, look at verse 1. We see, if any, fellowship
of the Spirit. There's a certain fellowship in the Spirit which
believers in Christ have. Fellowship in the Spirit is the
result of the Holy Spirit's regenerating work in us. We don't have fellowship
outside of Christ. We don't have fellowship outside
of regeneration. That's why the Lord said you
must be born again. You must be. My, oh, my. And then what does this bring
about? It brings about a submission for the believer to the full
control of God in our lives. We used to shake our fist at
Him. Why does God do that? What? Oh, my Lord, your King,
you do whatever you please. We have a total change of mind,
don't we? We have a total change of mind. My and Paul appeals
in for the believers to be like minded in the fact that each
of them is born again. Each of them has the Holy Spirit.
They have fellowship in the spirit. And since we have fellowship
one among another by the Holy Spirit of God, then then care
should be taken to keep this unity in the spirit of of the
spirit in the bond of peace. Care should be taken. And if there's any fellowship
of the Holy Spirit of God, any communion with Him, then we have
fellowship also with the Father, don't we? And fellowship with
the Son, you see? It all comes from Him. No wonder
Paul said, I've obtained mercy. My, oh, my. And then saints are
baptized into one body by the spirit. That's not being baptized
when we're a baby. That's the circumcision of the
heart, beloved. That's being born again. That's
the heart operation that God does upon us. And we're made
to drink of the same spirit, aren't we? We have the same spirit. So it behooves us to be of one
mind. and to stand fast in one spirit,
look again at verse 27 of chapter 1 and what Paul wrote them. This
is amazing. Only let your citizenship be
as it becometh the gospel of Christ, that whether I come with
you or else be absent, look at this, I may hear of your affairs
that you what? Number one, stand fast in one
spirit. Number two, with one mind. Striving together, number
three. Number four, for the faith of
the gospel. My oh my. And then now let's read verse
one again. If there be, of chapter two, if there therefore be, if
there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of
love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies.
We see the words bowels and mercies there. To close with this verse,
think about how much God has loved us with an everlasting
love. Think of how rich his mercy is
towards us and his grace. Are we not to be the same with
others? Even more the household of faith,
but to everyone, right? That's hard to do when someone
cuts you off in the road, isn't it? Right? Oh my. Oh my. See, we're all the same.
We're all the same. But let us strive. Let us strive to show compassion
to others and show mercy to others. Not as a work, but just thinking
about what Christ has done for us. And how merciful he's been
to us. Especially let us put on vows
of mercies to one another. To one another. and express the inward tender
and compassionate concern for each other's welfare, both temporal
and spiritual. Next week, Lord willing, we'll
look at verse 2, where Paul continues to exhort the Philippians to
unity and love and being of one mind. Let's read that to close.
Fulfill ye my joy, that you be like-minded, having the same
love, being of one accord, of one mind. See, he's just circled
back from verse 27, hasn't he? Of chapter one. He just keeps
setting this before them. No matter what you go through,
be of one mind, be of one accord. He's taught us that, hasn't he?
And the wonderful unity we have, the Lord is so good to us. So
very, very good to us. My oh my. Brother Dan, would
you close us in prayer?