I'd like you to take your Bibles
and turn with me to the book of Philippians. Philippians chapter
one. Brother Fred read a passage of
scripture there dealing with prayer. Brother Gary got up and
led a song, and it was concerning prayer. And it gave me some hope. had the mind of the Lord for
the message tonight. I want to preach on the subject
of love and prayer for the saints. Love and prayer for the saints.
I'd like to look at verses 8 to 11 in Philippians 1, 8 to 11. And as I was reading this passage
of scripture a day or so ago, I began to have my heart tuned,
enlivened to that which the Spirit of God was saying through the
Apostle Paul. Paul said in Philippians chapter one, verse eight, for
God is my record. How greatly I long after you
all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. And this I pray, that your love
may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment,
that you may approve things that are excellent, that you may be
sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled
with the fruits of all of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto
the glory and praise of God. Paul said in verse 8, how greatly
he loved the saints. Loved the saints at Philippi. And he said in verse 8, for God
is my record. God is my record. How greatly
I long after you. all in the bowels, in the tender
mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. True God-given love for each
other, love for each other, is the evidence of our love for
the Lord Jesus Christ. The love we have for each other,
love as brethren, God-people, and the fellowship that we have
in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's evidence. True love. And I'm gonna look at it. You
know, I was going over these passages of scripture and I think
about how we have our brethren here. We love them. We love them.
We tell them I love them. I love you. I love you. I love
you. But I began to think on that
love that we have for one another in Christ and I thought, What
is the essence? As I was reading these passages,
what's the evidence? What's the essence? What's the
foundation? What is this wonderful thing
of love? I mean, you try to describe it. I was trying to give a definition
of it. I just fell so short being able
to describe. But the Lord said in John 13,
35, by this, Shall all men know that you are
my disciples, that you have love one to another. This is the evidence
of discipleship to the Lord Jesus Christ, that we love each other,
that we love each other and pray for one another. That's why I
named it love and prayer for the saints. Those at Philippi,
were Paul's brethren. You know, it just becomes a sweeter
and sweeter thought of the love that we have for each other.
We just, we've all said this. I've heard many of you say this.
I've said it too. I have friends, acquaintances,
you know, that I know, I mean, that I've known for years, and
we love them, we appreciate them, but there is a love for God's
people, by God's people, for God's people. There's a love
that is a miracle of God's grace, and those at Philippi were Paul's
brethren, and he loved them. Therefore, he could give no greater
witness or promise concerning his love for them than to declare
that which the Lord, who was his pledge and record. This is my record. That's what he said in verse
eight. God is my record. God's my pledge. He could pledge
by no greater. The Lord who could swear by no
greater, swore by himself. It gets no greater than he who
is great. Paul assured the church of Philippi
that he could appeal to no greater than the searcher of men's hearts
concerning his love and affection for the saints. He said, God
is my record. I love you. I love you. God's knit our hearts
together. So as we consider this passage
of Scripture, just a few verses here for tonight, consider the
blessing of loving the brethren. That is a blessing, that you
love God's people. By this shall all men know you're
my disciples, that you have loved one for another. To love the
brethren is an evidence of discipleship to Christ. that you love the
brethren. For Christ's sake, you love them
for Christ's sake. You love them because they're
the Lord's. You're the Lord's and it's a heart that's knit
together. So here's a question. A question for myself, a question
for you. What is the desire of our heart
for our brethren? Now we have brethren, we love
them. Paul said, This is my record. This is my record. It's my pledge.
It's my assurance. So what is it that we desire
for our brethren? Paul's gonna tell us what his
desire was for the brethren. And I looked at that and I thought,
that's what I want. That's what I want. I wanna know
what is the desire of our heart? What do we really want? for our
brethren. We love them, what do we want
for them? When you love somebody, you want them to have the best. You want them to have the best.
What is the longing for those that we love in Christ? What do we want for them? What do we want for them and
what do we want for ourselves? I think scripture sets forth
that we Love one another and we long for one another. What is it? Hold your place right
there. Well, you might have just turned
a page or two. Philippians chapter three, verse
7 to 11. This is what Paul wanted for
himself. And he said his longing, greatly I long after you. In
the bowels. in Jesus Christ, in the mercy,
in the seat of mercy of Jesus Christ. This is what Paul wanted
for himself, and this is what God's people want for each other. Now, you just think about what
we're about to read. Philippians chapter 3, verse
7 to 11. And what things were gained to
me, those I counted loss for Christ. And I count all things but lost
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 done that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection,
the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his
death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection
of the dead. That's what Paul wanted. That's
what I want. I want to know him. I want to
know him. I want to be found in him. That's
what I want for you. You that know him, you that love
him, We that love one another, this is what we want. What is
it that a believer wants, what he wants? And I tell you, not
only does the scripture sets forth what a believer desires,
as we just read concerning the Apostle Paul, but scripture says
in verse nine of chapter one of Philippians, and this I pray,
this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge
and in all judgment. This is what Paul wanted, and
this is what he did, and this is what we do for one another. What about that passage of Scripture?
Paul said, brethren, pray for us. Pray for us. Pray for us. Oh, the blessing of prayer. Prayer. Prayer. offer prayers, and this I pray,
Philippians 1.9, this I pray, this I offer prayers for. There
is no greater example, evidence of love found within the heart
of a needy sinner. There's no greater evidence than
to desire to seek the Lord in prayer for another believer. Paul told him, he said, I love
you. And this I pray, God's people, everlastingly loved of the Lord,
chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, redeemed by the
precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary, called by
grace in regenerating mercy and compassion. God's people are
people that pray. It's a it's a precious thing. They pray. When you pray. It's somewhere by yourself. I've
said this before. It's a hard thing to pray in
public. It is for me. It's a hard thing
to pray. You're just, believers are those
that know something about the weakness of the flesh. Let me
tell you what you're thinking. For those of you that don't pray,
let me tell you what happens. Your flesh is warring with you,
and here's what you're thinking. Everybody's listening. Everybody's
listening. They're hearing what I'm saying.
I have to make this sound as good as I can. You say, well,
Marvin, that's just a little bit too honest. Well, I'm just
telling you the way it is. Everybody knows that everybody's
listening. So we're doing the best we can.
But I'm telling you, when you're somewhere and there's nobody
there but you and the one to whom you speak, the Lord himself,
and you find yourself getting real honest, Real, real honest. Lord, you know what I'm thinking. I'm not fooling you. I may not
say that in front of you, but I'll say it to him. Paul says,
in this I pray. God's people are those that pray. Hold your place in Philippians
there and turn over to Acts 9. Acts 9. You know, Paul the Apostle,
before he was a Pharisee, Oh, he was circumcised on the right
day, and he was from the right family, and he knew all the right
things to say in front of people. Acts chapter 9, verse 10 to 12. When the Lord stopped this former
rebel, an object of God's mercy on the road to Damascus, Acts
9, 10 to 12, and there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias,
and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias, and he said, behold,
I am here is there and probably implied, but behold, I, Lord,
and the Lord said unto him, arise and go, into the street which
is called straight, and inquire in the house of Judas, for one
called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he prayeth, has seen in a vision
a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hands on him,
that he might receive sight. The Lord called Ananias, and
he said, Lord, I, Lord, I hear. I want you to go
and there's a man there, his name's Saul. You know the story. God's people pray, behold, he's
praying, he's praying. Before conversion, you know,
we may recite little repetitious words of a religious nature,
I remember, you do too. You're coming up in church, you
know, and they teach you these little prayers, and we would
say them and recite them. I knew him, I knew him by heart.
But with heart, I didn't say. I just knew him. I knew the,
you know. So before we're converted, one
that doesn't know God is dead in trespasses and sins. And therefore,
he knows nothing of praying to one. He doesn't know the Lord.
He stopped Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus. Saul of
Tarsus was a Pharisee. He was a religious man. And he
called him Saul, Saul. Why persecutest thou me? What
did Saul say? Who art thou? Who are you? Who are you? Here, we know that
God's people, they pray, prayer, is the result, is the action
of a new heart. Mr. Spurgeon said this, the essence
of prayer lies in the new heart. New heart of God's making, drawing
near to Him. Prayer, prayer is dealing with
God, conversing with the Lord from a new heart, a new mind,
Reasoning, a new man, he prays. He prays. Those that know him
pray. And those that know God and have
the brethren, like Saul of Tarsus, like Paul the Apostle, was talking
about back in Philippians. He's praying for, and he wants
the best for them. Those we know, those we love, be our brethren,
we pray for them, we pray for them. And so Paul's prayer for
them back in Philippians chapter one, verse nine, this I pray.
This is what he prayed, that your love may abound yet more
and more in knowledge and in all judgment. I pray that your
love, love, that God has imparted to you. God is love. We didn't
create it. Love is of God. Love is the Lord. Love the Lord. Lord that has
imparted love. I pray that your love, love that God's given you, may
abound. It might be abundant. Abundant. Overflow. yet more and more in knowledge
and in all judgment. He prayed for those at Philippi
that they might abound in this love that had been imparted of
God in the knowledge and the keen insight. That's what he's
saying, that they might be more and more acquainted with the
things of God I mean, some of us here, I've been here coming
up, won't be long, 22 years. Some of you have been here since
you was kids, little bit of kids. And you came up listening to
Brother Scott, he's preaching the gospel of God's free grace.
And the message has never changed. It's out of a different passage,
It's out of a different book, but we preach Christ and Him
crucified. And we see Him, we look for Him,
we long after Him, we proclaim the riches of Christ. It's the
same message that Paul is saying, that you that have been called
that I love, I pray for you, I pray that you might abound
more and more. I think of the 22 years that
we've been together and the books that we've gone through and how
we've studied and looked at the words and we're looking for him
and we're asking. Lord, as Paul was asking, this
is what he was saying to those in Philippi, this is what I want
for you, this is what I want. I want you as far as your love
knowledge and understanding that you might know more and more,
grow more and more, be enlarged experientially, that you might
possess a greater discernment for spiritual things, having
a greater understanding of them. That the Lord might teach us.
Isn't it amazing how sometimes we'll hear something and we've
heard it before, But there's times when the Lord, the Spirit
of God, will just teach us something and give us some understanding
on something you think. I get that. I understand what
you're saying. Paul, because of his love for
the brethren, desired the same thing that Peter. Apostle Peter was directed by
the Spirit of God to pen in 2 Peter 3.18, he said, but this, this
is what I want for you, this is what I want, what I want for
us. But grow in grace, grow in grace,
and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to
him be glory both now and forever. That's the desire, that's the
desire of God's people. Paul, he said back this, he said,
for God's my record, I greatly long after you in the bowels
of Jesus Christ. In this I pray that your love
may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment
that you might know him, be found in him. He said in verse 10,
that you may approve that ye may approve things that are excellent,
that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ
Jesus, that you may approve things that are excellent. What was
he saying? He said that his prayer, those at Philippi, was that they
may approve, but actually the word is prove, that you may prove,
that you may I don't wanna say set your approval on it. That's
what came to my mind. That's not what I wanna say.
It says that you may approve, but it means that you may prove,
that you may prove things that are excellent, that you might
be able to prove what I am saying concerning our love for one another.
How do you prove? How do you prove something? What
does God say? Proof. This is it. This is it. That you may approve.
That you may prove things that are excellent. Things that matter. That's what it means. Things
that matter. Things that are better. Better. and that you
might know the difference. I'm reading you what I've got
out of Blue Letter Bible concerning what this means, that you may
prove things that are excellent. You might taste something, you
know, some good Cajun food and say, that's excellent, excellent. That's not what he's saying. That you might prove the things
that are excellent. making being of a matter. Actually,
it means to know the difference between right and wrong spiritually. You hear what I'm saying. You hear what I'm saying. I'm
talking to you about the sovereign grace of God, the love of God
for his people and his people for the Lord and his people for
the other people. And I'm talking to you about
things that can be proved, how do you prove this, that we prove
them by what God has to say about them? Paul was saying, I'm praying
that you might learn spiritually the sense, S-E-N-S-E, the sense,
that you might prove the sense, the real value of what I'm saying,
that you might prove this. I can talk to you about love
and I can talk to you about things, but buddy, when we see it in
God's word, we find the foundation of it. This is what it says.
Paul says, I'm praying for you. I'm praying that you might abound
more and more in knowledge and judgment, that you may approve
things that are excellent, that you might be sincere, that you
might to know, be grounded in. that they might test, prove,
or scrutinize what you're hearing is so. Here's what I want to
do. This is what I want for you. I want you to hear what God has
to say to all of us and prove it, not because you heard Marvin
say it. You prove it by the word of God.
You prove it by what God has to say. Paul said, this is what
I want for you. Don't take my word for it. Well, yeah, but
that was the apostle Paul. Paul was saying what God had
to say. This is the final word right here that you might prove
it. That's what they did. In Book
of Acts, chapter 17, verse 10 to 11, the brethren immediately
sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea, who coming thither,
went into the synagogues of the Jews, and these were more noble
than those in Thessalonica, and that they received the word with
all readiness of mind. You can receive it, but they
searched the scriptures daily. Things were so. I can tell you
something, and I'm telling you right now, I've told you this
from the beginning. Don't take my word for it, look it up. Get
you a Bible dictionary. Get you a strong concordance.
Get you a blue letter Bible. Look up what I'm saying and find
out if what I'm saying is so. Why? Because your eternal soul
depends on it. I'm just a mouthpiece, a fallible
mouthpiece. And I'm telling you, when I stand
up here, to set forth these things. I'll be standing up here for
about 30, 35 minutes, but I tell you what, it took days looking
it up, finding out what is being said here. Paul said, this is
what I'm praying for you, that you may approve things that are
excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the
day of Christ. This is the desire of every God
called preacher of the gospel. Those who hear need to hear and
consider the message that they're hearing with such weightiness
that they would check it out. Check it out. Find out if what
I'm saying is so. Paul long and had the desire
and the love for those at Philippi. He said that you may be sincere
What does that mean? That you may be sincere. That
you may be unspoiled. That's what he was praying for.
I want you to be sincere. I want you to be unspoiled. And
the only way that we're gonna check out whether or not we're
spoiled or not spoiled, by God's word. And found to be pure. I love that, he said, that you
may approve all things that are excellent and that you may be
sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, that you might
be pure. And when you look at the definition
of that, it was talking about proving something to be genuine
and without offense, like holding something up to the sunlight
and examining it. That's what he's talking, that
you might prove it to be sincere. You look at what we're hearing
according to God's word. Know what it's saying. Paul said,
this is what I want for you. This is what I want for me, it's
what I want for you. I want to know what I'm saying
is so. For my sake, for your sake, for
the glory of almighty God, until the day of Christ that you might
be found to be sincere, that is unspoiled, be pure when examined
in the light of God's word. That's what he's saying. And
without offense, that means nothing that would cause to stumble.
God forbid that I say something that would cause a brother to
stumble, that I said something that was not so, that you might
be found to be judged and proven faithful according to the word
of God. That's what he prayed. And then
in closing, verse 11, being filled with the fruits of righteousness,
which are by Jesus Christ. Being filled with the evidence,
turn over to Galatians 5. You knew I was going there. Galatians
chapter 5. He was saying that, he said,
this is what I'm praying for you. You'd be filled with the
evidence of God's regenerating grace and mercy, the fruit of
God's spirit. Galatians chapter 5. 5 verses 22 and 23. It's what Paul desires for the
brethren there at Philippi. And as I said, it's what I desire
for me and desire for you. But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such, there is no law. I pray that the Lord might teach
us, fry us, and that we might, by God's word, scrutinize what
we hear. Paul said, this is my desire.
This is about my love for you in Christ Jesus. This is what
I desire for you. This is what every believer desires
for each other, for himself. I want to know him. I want to
be found in him. I want to know what he has to
say. For Christ's sake and our eternal good.