if you will, to the Book of Philippians,
Chapter 1. Chapter 1 of the Book of Philippians. Let us pray. Again,
we come into thy presence. What a blessed privilege you've
given us. The vilest of the vile, worms
of the earth, vessels of other fitted craft
of destruction, but yet we were snatched as a brand The Lord
Jesus Christ formed in our hearts, how precious he is to us. Oh,
we bless thy name, that thou hast so loved us, gave him, sent
him to pay our debt, to stand in our place, in our room, in
our state, to suffer all that the law of God had against Provide
us with the righteousness that we might stand faultless before
thy throne. O Lord, we bless thee, we thank
thee, and worship thee this evening. Father, in his dear name, our
good Lord, subdue our vain hearts. Subdue our rebellion. O Lord,
bring us to a place where we might be emptied of self, might
be filled with Thy Spirit, filled with Thee, filled with Thy love,
and can satisfy Thy mercies. Blessed Father, these Thy children
see. All of those fathers are not
with us, we pray for. Remember the aged with us, those
fathers that are confused, Worried and don't know what they're
worried about. Full of anxiety, but why they
do not know. Oh, Father, we pray that they
might be helped or taken hold of you in need. For our dear
missionaries from Mexico, Rome, England, Spain, Brother James,
Brother John, Brother Reed, these dear ones, Father, The first chapter of the book of
Philippians. Let me read some of it to you.
Well, we'll read it all. Paul and Timotheus, the servants
of Jesus Christ. That's very good right there,
isn't it? Now, Lord, just stop right there and talk about that.
Paul and Timotheus, servants. That describes who they are.
Not slaves. Slaves in a sense, servants of
Jesus Christ. They served him. What does that mean? serve Jesus
Christ. The scriptures say that the cherubim
in glory, day and night, serve Him. Day and night, serve Him. Well, it says that they were
servants of Jesus Christ and to all the saints in Christ Jesus. All the saints in Christ, not
out of Christ. Remember I told you last week
To be in Christ was glory, and to be out of Christ was condemnation. Any man that's out of Christ,
if he's not in Christ, he's in the first Adam. And if he's in
the first Adam, he serves his master, the devil. That's a hard
statement. You listen to me. That's a hard
statement. A man that's not in Christ. Now, this is according
to the Bible. I'm not trying to be a smart aleck. God help
me. You know, in my heart, I'm not
trying to be a smart aleck. But a man outside of the Lord Jesus
Christ, he's serving his father, the devil. You know that? That's
hard. He's serving his father. His
father is the devil. God in heaven is not his father. We're only the children of God
by faith in Christ Jesus, by adoption, by adoption, by the
sovereign mercy and the sovereign grace of God. Are we subdued
and brought place of resistance or self-resistance and give ourselves
wholly unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Those outside are serving their
father, the devil. Their bad works, even their good works, is of
the devil. All right. Saints in Christ.
That's where a man's got to be. He's got to be in Christ. We
sang that song, uh, uh, faultless to stand before thy throne, dressed
in his righteousness and his righteousness alone. Not in His righteousness, not
in Christ, plus my baptism, plus my good works, plus my holding
out faithful, plus my doing this, plus my not doing something else.
It's in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone, in Christ. Boy, we ought to just take up
that study sometime. Well, anyhow, it says, To all
the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, to the preachers
and the deacons, That's what that word, bishop, means. Preachers,
pastors, elders, evangelists, preachers, which are at Philippi
with the bishops and the deacons. Grace be unto you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God
upon every remembrance of you. Always and every prayer of mine
for you all making requests with joy. your fellowship in the gospel
from the first day until now, being confident of this very
thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform
it until the day of Jesus Christ. Favorite verse among those that
understand the gospel, being confident, being persuaded, Paul
said, that he which hath begun, the Holy Spirit has begun a work
in us. If he hath, in the operation
of God in the realm of salvation, the Holy Spirit begins a work
in this poor sinner's heart. And if he begins it, rest assured,
he'll not give up until the work is done and the work is complete.
That's what that verse means. He which hath begun a good work
in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. If God
ever He sets out to get us. Rest assured,
He's going to get us. He knows how to break the will. He knows how to put the stubborn
heart down. He knows how it's done. He'll
break us. He'll bring us home to Himself. Well, even as it
is meet for me to thank this of you all, because I have you
in my heart. That's where you're at, Paul
said, the Philippians. He said, I have you in my heart.
That's where you are. In as much as both in my bonds
and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers
of my grace. For God is my record. He's swearing
a vow here, taking God in as his witness to this. 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 ye may
approve things which are excellent, that ye may be sincere without
offense till the day of Christ, till Christ comes again, being
filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, unto
the glory and praise of God, But he should understand, brethren,
that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather
unto the furtherance of the gospel, so that in my bonds in Christ
are manifest in all the palace and in all other places. That
is, all things work together for good to them that love God.
That's what Paul's talking about here. He said, that which has
happened to me, I've been put in jail, put in prison, but he
said, because I've had more opportunity to preach the gospel, the gospel
is not bound, and I've had that opportunity. Well, and many of
the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much
more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ
even of envy and strife, and some also of goodwill. The one
preached Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add
affliction to my bones, that is, there's no genuine motive
in his heart for preaching the gospel. It's not for the glory
of God, but it's out of contention and spite and so forth. But the other of love, knowing
that I am set for the defense of the gospel, all are going
to defend him. What then, notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense
or in truth, Christ is preached, and I rejoice that the Lord Jesus
Christ is preached. He's preached. What should we
preach? Christ. That's what Paul preached.
He preached Christ always, under all circumstances, making difference
to middle-class people, to poverty-bound people, to kings in their palaces.
His one burden, his one message was Christ. and do rejoice, yea,
and will rejoice, for I know that this shall turn to my salvation
through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing
I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always,
so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by
life or by death, whether I live or die. So he said, for me to
live is Christ. If I'm going to live, he said,
Christ is the capstone of my life. He said, but to die is
better. It's gain. But if I live in the
flesh, that is the fruit of my labor. Yet what I shall choose,
I know not. For I am in a strait between
two, or betwixt two. I have a desire to depart and
to be with Jesus Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless,
to abide in the flesh more needful for you. That is, for me to be
here with you right now seems to be the will of God. And having
this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with
you all for your furtherance and joy of faith, that your rejoicing
may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to
you again. Only let your conversation be
as it becometh the gospel of Christ that whether I come and
see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye
stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for
the faith of the gospel, and in nothing terrified by your
adverse adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition,
but to you of salvation and that of God. For unto you it is given
in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to
suffer for his sake, having the same conflict which he saw in
me, and now here to be in me." Now that 27th verse is an interesting
verse, that. Only let your conversation be
as it becometh the gospel of Christ. I think to understand
that, we've got to understand what that word, or what it means
in the context of the word conversation. Now, conversation does not... well, it's not just bound to
one meaning, that is, a meaning that you and I have in this twentieth
century in regard to that particular word. Not just to talk one to
another, to converse one with another, that's not necessarily
all that's involved in that word conversation as it's found here
in the 27th verse of the first chapter. It means, or it has
something to do, I'm sure, with the whole course of our life
and behavior in the world. In fact, the word here signifies
the actions and privileges of citizenship. So we are commanded,
now in light of this definition of the word conversation, we're commanded to let our actions
and privileges as citizens of the New Jerusalem be such as
becometh the gospel. That's what he says. only let
your conversation. What is conversation? What does
it mean there? It means the actions and privileges
of citizenship. Now, in light of that, he commands
us, believers in Jesus Christ, he commands us to let our actions
and our privileges as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven or the
New Jerusalem be such our action and privileges be such as becometh
the gospel of Christ." Now, how can we compare this with
the gospel of Christ? Well, the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ is very simple, very simple in that respect,
very simple. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world born of a virgin. He was eternal God. Of course,
that's not simple. No man can understand that. We're
talking about the doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ
in the stead of sinners. Nothing so mysterious about it. It's not clothed with mysterious
words, is what I'm trying to say. The gospel is very simple
in that respect. So, the believer, He ought to
be very simple and very plain in his habits, in his conduct,
as he makes his way from earth to heaven. Very simple and very
plain in his habits. That is, in his mannerisms, in
his speech. In his speech, his mannerisms, In fact, in his whole behavior.
It ought to be very simple. No fancy airs needed to be added
to his life. His dress needs to be simple.
His speech needs to be simple. He needs to be plain in all of
his habits. Plain and simple. As becometh,
he said, as becometh the gospel of Christ. No need for a step. Act like
we're showmen or members of the Hollywood stage or New York stage. We're simple, plain people. I read here the other day in
the newspaper a church, I don't know whether it's a colored church
or not, but he was inviting folks to come to church and in his
advertisement were these words. I've come to a church where everybody
is somebody. Well, that's contrary to what
I'm saying. Everybody's nobody. I mean, in
the light of who we are, we're nobodies. What do we have that
we could brag or boast about? What do we have that we did not
receive? If that be the case, if we're nothing, if we're less
than nothing, and all that we have we owe to
Him who loved us and gave Himself for us, then we ought to be plain
and simple in our conduct, in our behavior, in our habits,
like He was plain and simple, or like the Gospels were plain
and simple. It says, let your citizenship, or let your conversation,
let your privileges, let your actions, your mannerisms, and
all of that, You, being a member of this heavenly Jerusalem, has
become at the gospel of Christ. Well, another thing about the
gospel in light of what he said here is this. The gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ is preeminently true. It's gold without frost. And I'll tell you this, that
the believer's life is valueless apart from truth. It doesn't
mean a thing if there's no truth to our lives. Paul said, you
are living epistles. You're living letters. And that's what we ought to be. If our lives don't square with
our profession, why? We ridicule. We ridicule and
mock the grace of God and the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There ought to be a consistency in our lives, not to go to church one Sunday out of
the month or two Sundays every six weeks. There ought to be
some faithfulness in our lives, not only in our attendance to
the worship services, but attendance to religious duties in everyday
life, in our conduct and deportment before those on the job, those
that we—honesty prevailing in every area of our lives. Honesty,
honesty. Honesty to the man we work for.
If he pays us, let's work for him. Let's don't steal from him. That's to tell me that that's
the thing that men do now on the job. Steal from their employers,
figure they've got something coming to them. That is, if we
work for this fellow over here, he's got a feed storewife, we'll
take home a dinner bucket full of horse and mule feed of an
evening. Well, he's got plenty of it.
If we work in the mines, we'll take home a dinner bucket full
of nails. What do they care? They've got
lots of it, or we'll steal a wrench, or this and that. No, what I'm
saying is, brethren, and you know this as well as I do, that
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is preeminently true. It's truth without the mixture
or taint of error. It's truth and nothing but the
truth under God, so help us. And our lives ought to square
to this. Truth ought to be prevalent in
every area of our lives. We ought to be honest and straight,
brethren, honest and straight that men could say about us. I don't necessarily believe what
he preaches or what he practices or what he's identified with
religiously, but I'll tell you this one thing, if he says something
to you, you can bank on it, you can count on it, he'll tell you
the truth. He won't lie to you, he'll tell
you the truth. If he works for you, he'll give
you, if he works for you for eight hours, he'll give you eight
hours' work. Equal pay for equal work. He'll
do it. Now to be said about Christians. Christians have a bad name now.
Did you know that? They have a bad name. They say,
well, he calls himself a Christian. Why, he cusses just like other
people. He'll lie to you, he'll steal,
he'll cheat from you. He'll beat you if he gets a chance.
A lot of people say that about Christians. They've got a bad
name. And the Scriptures say here that
our conversation, our citizenship, our actions, our privileges,
as being the members of the Kingdom of God, ought to be true, ought
to be true, as become of the gospel. Make a difference whether
we're scrub persons. We work at some lowly, lowly
menial job that there's no recognition to it. It looks like it's the
filth and scum of the earth as far as jobs are concerned. We
ought to work with our hands the best that God has given us
the ability to do. And be honest about it. Honest. Honest. Upright. That's right. I know it's easy
for me to say. I know that it's easy for us to talk like this.
But it's not so easy to put it in practice. But we ought to
make an earnest attempt to live in such a manner that our lives
would not be offensive to the gospel. That our lives would not offend. That's the reason that we need
to be very cautious and very slow about blowing off about
what we are and how much we believe and how much we know. We ought
to be very, very cautious about that because if our lives are
not consistent, see, because I'll tell you, people will find
that soft spot in you. They'll find that. You go telling
someone great big long stories about yourself and how wonderful
you are, and criticizing him and his religion, he'll find
that sore spot in that cheek in your armor if you got one.
He'll find it. He'll point it out. He'll be
a sore spot to you. That's right. Well, so much for
that. The gospel is preeminently true. It's gold without frost. Our
lives ought to be the same way. As I said, they will be valueless
without truth. Truth is the jewel that makes
up the beauty in our lives. It's truth. Truth. Boy, that's
hard. I want to dwell on that a little
bit. Listen. That's hard to tell the truth. The whole truth and
nothing but the truth is a hard and difficult thing. And don't
you think it's not? Now, it is. To tell the whole truth. You
just have a conversation with someone. The first thing you
know, you'll get yourself exaggerating some point. That's right. You'll do it. Why do we do that? Why do we exaggerate little points
and things that don't mean it doesn't add anything to us? We
don't need to do it. You think, well, I'm such a dull
person if I don't exaggerate a little bit. Very dull. soul, you're not dull. You're
a child of God. Why? Angels rejoice in heaven
when you repent it. All right. Now, another thing
about the gospel. The gospel is a very fearless
gospel. It boldly proclaims the truth. And that's the way we ought to whether men like it or not. We ought to be equally faithful
and true as the gospel is equally faithful and true. True to us,
fearlessly proclaiming, not caring whether men accept our persons
or not. We're not seeking favor of this
world. I know some preachers will come along to churches and
they'll kind of water things down a little bit and kind of
steer clear of some hard areas in order that they might be invited
back. Brethren, let us, as we tell
the story on the job and as opportunity under God presents itself, let
us be faithful and true to tell men the truth about themselves.
That's right. Tell them the truth about themselves.
Don't lie to them. You can't save them. You can't
save them. Your exaggerations, your slighting
of the gospel cannot, cannot help that much in saving a poor
soul from hell. You can't do it. Tell him the
truth. Tell him the truth. The whole truth about himself. Don't slack off. Don't slack
off. God won't use a lie to save anybody. God uses the truth and
nothing but the truth. You tell Him the truth about
Himself. You tell Him how hopeless and helpless He is. Tell Him
He can't save Himself. Tell Him He's a poor, poor, poor
sinner, a worm of the dust, and He can't save Himself, and that
every work that He does, both good or bad, is obnoxious unto
God Almighty. Tell Him that. Oh, boy. Tell them about Jesus. Tell them about Jesus who is
mighty to save. Saves a man by His substitutionary
work, by His atonement. He saves him. He keeps him saved
through time and eternity. Well, it's a fearless gospel.
But it's a very gentle gospel, too. Very gentle. I know that some preachers I
certainly am guilty of it from time to time, and have been guilty
of it, maybe more so in days gone by than I am right now,
but some preachers, professors of religion, they make the gospel
to be sharper than a headstone. Sharp, fierce, and all of that. But, we ought not to make it that
way, just preach it like it is. We wouldn't make it any harder
than what our Master sets forth here in the truth well and the
gospel too is very loving very loving the gospel is too a dying
world a dying world of sinners in fact if i remember right the
last command that our lord jesus christ commanded his disciples
to do was this what do you think it was? to love one another Love one another. Last commandment. We ought to
love one another. We ought to actually, here, in this fellowship
right here, we ought to love one another. Give ourselves one to another.
Prove our love one to another. Help one another. Not criticize
one another. Love one another. Come to one
another's rescue. Pray one for another. If we've been brought into that
body, into that one body, and made of His bone, of His flesh,
in union with Him, we're all together. We ought to love one
another. I'm not talking about a blind
love that doesn't see one another's faults. We've got faults. My soul, every one of us has
got faults. We'll have faults until the day
we die. But let's love one another in
spite of our faults. I'm not saying overlook one another's
faults. I'm saying forebear with one
another. I'm saying bear ye one another's
burdens. That's what I'm saying. Love one another. Overlook or
forebear with our difficulties, our faults. Man, we are not perfect.
We're not perfect. There's no church on the face
of God's green earth that's perfect. I don't care how big a congregation
they are, and I don't care how big the preacher is. I don't
care how long he preaches. I don't care how much he knows
of the Bible. I don't care about every twist that he has on every
scripture. He's sinful, and his church is
sinful. That's right. You can mark it
down, brethren. But in light of that, let's be
loving one to another. Undertake one for another. Well,
another thing. Lastly, in light of this, only
let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ.
Conversation has to do with citizenship. He says, you being a member of
this heavenly Jerusalem, this kingdom of God, you being a member
of that, let your life and your conduct, your action and your
privileges mannerisms, your whole behavior, not just your conversation
as you talk to one another, but your whole behavior. Live in
such a manner as it becomes the gospel, as it becomes the gospel. The gospel is true, the gospel
is loving and tender and kind and gentle and all that, but
the last thing that we can say about the gospel this evening
is the gospel is holy. The gospel is holy because the
Lord Jesus Christ is the gospel. He's the holy and undefiled one. Now, in light of that, in light
of that, the gospel is holy. It never excuses sin. It pardons sin. It doesn't excuse
it. It doesn't excuse it. It pardons
it. No man will ever get to be where
the Lord Jesus Christ is on the basis of God excusing his sin. Oh no, sin's got to be paid for.
It never excuses sin, it pardons it, but only through an atonement. God can only forgive a sinner
through a blood atonement, and there's only one blood atonement the holiness and the righteousness
of God, and that's the blood that flowed from Calvary's land,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if our life is to resemble
the Gospel, then we've got to shun everything and anything
that would hinder our conformity to the Gospel, or our conformity
to the Lord Jesus Christ. We're being conformed to this
image which is known as progressive sanctification. We're just a
little bit better in attitude today than we was last year. That's right. You're a little
bit better now in attitude than you was 20 years ago when you
first made a profession of faith. I'm not saying that this old
man ever gets any better. He doesn't get any better. He
doesn't get any better. but there's some things about
you that progressively gets a little better. See? And when it, getting
better, this is what I mean, when you, when you get, when
you're getting better, you're going to have a dim view of yourself.
That's what I mean about getting better. When you're getting better
in your own eyes, you're going to have a dim view of what you
are in your eyes. See? You're going to say, oh
my soul, I'm such a poor, sinful, creature of the dust, I wonder
how in the world God could put up with me for one minute. Oh,
everything about me is false and deceitful and full of sin.
I'm a sinner. Bottom of my... You're getting
a little better, I think. See, when you was first saved,
you never had that view of yourself. You thought maybe that you had
something to do with your salvation. Didn't you? Everyone's that way.
I thought, well, it's because I made a decision or because
I made a choice. It was kind of up to me. But
as you make some progress in knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ,
you come to the place that you... You say, well, I didn't have
a thing to do with it. It was all of God. It wasn't of me.
He made me willing. Well, you see what I'm talking
about. Let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel
of Christ. Now listen to this. That, whether
I come to see you, or else perhaps, whether I'm able to come or I'm
not able to come, that I may hear of your affairs." Hear of
what? Hear how your life is being conducted
in light of the gospel. Hear of your whole tenor, your
whole conduct of your life that might become the gospel. "...I
may hear of your affairs." Now he says, "...stand fast in one
spirit." United, united in one spirit,
in one mind. And what's your purpose? What's
your purpose? Striving together for the faith
of the gospel. That's what Paul meant when he
said, I'm set for the defense of the gospel. That's what he
means right here. Striving together for the faith
of the gospel. Set for the defense of it. Well,
all right. We'll meet again, Lord willing,
this Sunday morning. I trust the Lord will help us.
I trust He will. Pray to that end. Let's remember
to pray one for another now. Pray one for another. Pray that,
listen, you're getting older. You're getting older and I'm
getting older. We've been here a long time. A long time. Now listen to me. You ever stop,
just stop and when there's nothing else to bother you, you just
kind of You just kind of look at your heart and just lay the
thing bare. Just lay it right out before
you and say this to yourself. Did you ever say, am I going
to go through life and be useless? Did you ever say that? Useless. I say that about every
day. About every day I say, am I going
to go through this life? Here we've got opportunities,
advantages, and all. Am I going to be useless? Useless.
Oh, pray that God will use us. Pray that God will use me. God
will use you. God will use this church. I'm
not talking about great soul-winning evangelists. I'm not talking
about that. God will use us to glorify His name. Glorify His
name that He'll be glorified. I don't care if nobody ever hears
about you or nobody ever hears about me, I don't care about
that. I'm not looking for a name anyhow, are you? No. Alright.