Philippians 1.1, Paul and Timotheus,
the servants of Jesus Christ to all the saints in Christ Jesus,
which are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons. The apostle Paul was an apostle
and Timothy was not, but Paul introduces them both as servants
of Jesus Christ. teaches us something, in whatever
capacity any believer serves the Lord Jesus Christ, service
to him is such a high honor in any capacity that it transcends
all titles, distinctions. He didn't say Reverend Paul and
Timotheus or distinguish them from one another in any way. but just gloried in Christ alone
to be his servant. David said in Psalm 84 that he
would rather be a doorkeeper in God's house than to... That that was above all the privileges
of this world. The world could never bestow
a greater honor than that, just to be of service to the Lord
somehow, just for him to let us in on what he's doing in this
world. He doesn't need anybody. He's
the all-sufficient, self-sufficient God. But he does us a great mercy to include
us and use us in his ministry. And I pray that even in that
small lesson, we would not take that
privilege lightly. To be a servant of Jesus Christ,
Timothy was just a young man that Paul was teaching the gospel. But to be a servant of Jesus
Christ in any capacity at all, May we never take that lightly. And notice the phrase, to all
the saints in Christ Jesus. Saints are saints in Christ Jesus.
That's the only way a saint's a saint, not voted saints by
other sinners. Worms vote you the best worm
among worms. That's not an honor that God
recognizes. It's not by achievement of some
earthly status. The word saint means a most holy
thing. Never ever think of anybody,
yourself or anybody else in that light except exclusively in the
person of Jesus Christ himself. We're saints in him. There's
one reason and one only that we bear that name, a saint. It's because God put us in his
son. Of God are we in Christ Jesus,
who is made unto us righteousness and all we need. Philippi is
where Paul found that group of women down by the riverside whose custom
it was to come together and pray down by the river. And among them was a woman named
Lydia, a seller of purple whose heart the Lord opened. And the Lord established a church
there. And now Paul mentions bishops
and deacons. So what started out as just a
group of women together, worshiping the Lord and praying
together, apparently had grown considerably into a church that
Paul is writing to here. Verse two, 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. Now this is Paul's usual
salutation that God's grace and peace was and would be upon those
to whom he writes these letters, and we're reminded here that
where those things come from. Grace and peace from God our
Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. From God, but not apart
from Christ. There's no grace and peace from
God apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's not apart from the Lord.
Notice that from the Lord, Jesus Christ. And I want to expand
maybe a little, a little bit far reaching from
our text on that because the Lord's impressed something on
me lately here about this word,
this title of our Savior, the Lord. We've seen the definition
of that, it's one who owns. The one who owns and the one
who has the power of deciding. Grace and peace come from God
and from the Lord, Jesus Christ. There is this arrogance in religion and in
assaying religion. We're not picking on religion. I'm talking about all of us are
religious by nature. We have a form of godliness but
deny the power thereof. We know God, Romans 1, but we
refuse by nature to glorify him as God. So everybody's religious. We'll turn God into a bird or
a creeping thing and worship an idol. But everybody's religious
by nature, that's our nature. But there is this stalwart arrogance
in religion, an attitude that comes from a belief that God
is some kind of a wingman, you know, it's our life, but it's
our world, it's our It's our life, but God is there to keep
us out of trouble. He's there to support us in our
life and to get us out of trouble when we get in trouble, to supply
our needs and things like that. And that's the attitude that
we see in ourselves by nature and especially in religion of
our day. We've made it convenient, haven't
we? God is just a convenience. a support mechanism. Somebody
told me one time, I keep God in my pocket. They said that
to my face. And I wanted so bad to say, my
God won't fit in your pocket. But I just walked away. But that's
how people think of God. You know, when I need him, I'll
take him out and use him. You know, he's my co-pilot. He's not even flying the plane.
He's just helping me fly the plane. That's the attitude I'm
talking about. There's grace and peace from
God in the one that owns you and has power of deciding concerning
you. If it pleases him, he'll put
you straight in hell. Maybe today. If it pleases him,
he'll save you and have mercy on you. He said it that way,
didn't he? I'll have mercy on whom I will. on whom I will. It's not of the
will of man, the will of the flesh, but of God that showeth
mercy on whom he will. And think of it this way, grace
and peace, which result in happiness and fulfillment and rest and
resting from the bondage of our sin, and enjoying the free forgiveness
of sin by his precious blood, that's found at his feet. That's
found at his feet. It's not found in the pilot seat,
and he's over there in the copilot. Grace and peace from the Lord,
from the Lord. Those things are found at the
feet of the Savior, and only there. And I may have to preach
a message soon just on that word, Lord, because the Lord has really
impressed this upon me lately. Sinners need to know who he is. And that's not a bad thing, he's
the Lord. If you're helpless and hopeless,
that's good, because the Lord has the power of deciding. He
can decide to have mercy on you, even though you richly deserve
hell. He just decided to have mercy
on you. God's favor and salvation, always
remember, are found at the feet of Christ. found at the foot
of his throne. Paul said that here in verse
three, I believe, he thanked God every time he remembered
them. He thanked God. And this remember,
the word remember, I believe refers to him praying for them
in verse four. He remembered them in prayer.
And every time he did, he thanked God for them. In every prayer, he remembered
them. This teaches us something. Prayer is not a formulaic recital
of repetitive or rehearsed words. This religious world has turned
it into that, haven't they? What a tragedy that is. When a sinner can't just come
before God and open up his heart and say, God have mercy on me. Thank you for what you've done
for me, but I have needs and they're not gonna be met except
you have mercy on me and except you bless me. I can't let you
go until you bless me. The scriptures are clear that
it is never repeated or rehearsed words, never, don't ever do that. God's people have real needs
and real prayers to be made for them unto God. That's the instruction
we have from God. And I know many of, especially
probably the older folks here learn to pray childish prayers
when they were little that were kind of just repeated every night. But I recommend teaching your
children very young to pray for specific people and specific
needs that they have. To thank God specifically for
certain blessings that they enjoy. Teach them that way. Teach them
that prayer is not just repeating something. There's more to it than that.
It's pouring out your heart before God. Thank Him for what He's
done for you and then ask Him for what you need. because only He can give it to
you. Verse four, always in every prayer
of mine for you all, making request with joy. And look, I'm not an
expert on prayer, but I've mentioned this to you before. My prayer
is, Lord, teach me to pray. Teach us to pray. But I think as the Lord teaches
me to pray, it takes a lot longer to pray. It's not that we're
not repetitive and just, you know, just saying our prayers, but in every prayer of mine for you
all, for you all, that may take a little while. We tend to pray at times when
we're distracted by something else and maybe we have to limit
our prayers or we just do. I don't know of anything more important
that we do in this life. The effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man, somebody that's in Christ, availeth much. Not much else does, does it? You know why it avails much?
It's not my prayer that gets things done, it's I'm praying
to the one who gets everything done. Prayer in the context of our
verse here, and about the passage of our focus this morning, is
an act of love. I remember you in prayer, always,
in every prayer of mine, for all of you, making requests with
joy, It's an act of love. Paul rejoiced in them because
of what God had done for them. And he requested that God would
do even more for them with joy. He rejoiced to be included in their number. We'll see in the
next verse of the fellowship. He rejoiced to have a part in
God saving them. Not only in God may have well
used him to preach the gospel and save many of them by that
means of Paul's preaching, but God saved a group of people and
Paul considered himself part of them. He worshiped God with them. And
that's what we see in verse five, for your fellowship in the gospel
from the first day until now. Uninterrupted fellowship, boy,
that's something to pray for. From day one until even now,
we've fellowshiped together in the gospel. That's something really precious. Christ and His truth are our
common ground, our fellowship is in the gospel, and the gospel
is a person. Christ is our fellowship. The
word fellowship is interesting, the definition, the share one
has in anything. I'm in on it. We're shareholders in something, and that something
is Christ and his gospel. And also the word means this, community. Community,
somebody used the word community recently, and I won't tell you
how, I know exactly, I just read it yesterday. Somebody mentioned
the word community, and I thought of this verse, fellowship, community. Maybe this is just me, but I've
always cringed a little bit at the word community. It's not
a word that I like very much the way people normally think
about it. And I'll tell you why. When the
word community is used in this world, it means the same thing,
but it's talking about a community that I'm not part of. I'm just
not. And I don't want to be. I don't
want to be. And this is not just being an
introvert or a hermit, which I am anyway too. I don't wanna be a part of the
community of this world or any particular community in this
world. You've heard the saying, it takes a village. I don't live
in that village and I don't want to. I don't want any part of it. The truth of the matter is there
really is no such thing as community except in Christ. You see this
world all getting along together and let's just all be friends. You can't get a group of three
people together that'll last a week in this world. In anything. There's exceptions to that, but
it's just that they just endure one another. This world doesn't
have any community. There's no fellowship in this
world. I'll give you a little example.
I'm a member of an online group of gardeners. I thought joining
a group of gardeners, people ask questions on there and there'll
be answers and it'll be helpful. It was suggested on there one
time, if we all grew different food and we all shared together,
nobody would ever be hungry. And my response to that is the
problem with that is people. People. Take a look at this world. Any community group is a macrocosm
of this evil, self-destructive, spiteful, hateful, wicked, vile
world. It's just little worlds within
a world. People ruin everything. And my
point is this, I wanna have community with one group of people in this
world, God's people. It's the only community there
is, I'm telling you, you think about it. And we even strain the limits
of that, don't we? Because we're yet sinners. You even see the effects of our
flesh in such a small group as ours, and we have communion in
Christ, real communion. We have trust that this world
doesn't have, and we still strain the boundaries of the word community. I don't want this world coming
anywhere near my children, do you? Does it take a village for
you? I don't want this world having
anything to do with my children any more than absolutely necessary. And I'm gonna be real careful
about that. I don't wanna enter into any kind
of alliance that's not absolutely necessary with people who hate
God. I just don't. And some of it is necessary.
As we saw recently, Paul taught that in 1 Corinthians 5. You'd
have to go out of this world not to fellowship with fornicators
and adulterers and evil people. And we are one. It's not about
that. It's not about us being better. It's about the Savior,
isn't it? It's about Him. We have a bond
that nobody else has. And it's the only real true bond
that will unite hearts. that will knit hearts together,
fellowship, community. The point is simple, that there's
fellowship in Christ and not really anywhere else. There can
be surface camaraderie among people, and that's fine to a
point. And you know, a believer can
have a deeper relationship. I'm talking about between two
or more people that hate God. There's camaraderie, I'll buy
you a beer, whatever. But we're talking about fellowship.
We're talking about hearts united here. And a believer can have
more than just surface camaraderie with somebody that's lost, because
we actually care. We actually care. We don't want
to get down in the mud with them, but we want to pull them out
if we can. Isn't that what the scripture says, dude? Some saved with fear, pulling
them out of the fire. And you look at the kind of people
he's talking about you pulling out of the fire. So when Paul says, I thank God
for your fellowship, I told you, Don't I? I thank God upon every
remembrance of you for your fellowship in the gospel from the first
day. It doesn't take long, does it? Thank God for that. You remember
when Elijah said he thought he was the only believer in the
world? He told God, I'm the only one left. But listen to what
he said. in that context in 1 Kings 19,
four, but he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and
came and sat down under a juniper tree. And he requested for himself
that he might die. He politely requested that God
might kill him because he was the only one left
and they sought his life. And he said, it is enough now,
oh Lord, take away my life. And when the Lord asked Elijah
what he was doing there, he said, I'm the only one left that bows
to you alone. I thank God for your fellowship
in the gospel. And notice it again, it started
on day one. My love develops, love grows. It's not something that doesn't
take time, it does. But when it comes to the Lord's
people, God knits their hearts together right away. That will
increase, that will grow with experience, with testing. But from day one, God did something
special, didn't he? Verse six, 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. Paul said, I pray for you, I
make requests for you with joy, knowing that the Lord has begun
a work in you. And this is my confidence. We worry about one another, don't
we? I worry about you. In particular times of trouble. You can't hurt the heart of a
believer, can't hurt without the hearts of other believers
hurting. It just does, doesn't it? It hurts. to one degree or another, we're
gonna enter into it because our hearts are one. So we worry, we pray for continued
grace and peace as he did, but we do so with this confidence, that the gifts and calling of
God are without repentance. He doesn't change his mind, he
doesn't start anything, and then leave the continuance or the
completion of that to somebody else. It's not ever up to you, and
that's my confidence. He didn't wind the watch and
just let it run. Everything moves at his will, second by second. And if he started a good work
in you, if by his Holy Spirit, if his Holy Spirit came, as the
Lord told Nicodemus, he goes where he wants to. He goes where
he wants to and he births the heart and he takes, as our Lord
said, he takes the things of Christ and reveals them unto
us. If God has done that for you,
you'll never be forsaken. He said, I will never leave you.
I will never forsake you. He finishes what he starts. And
when we worry about our children, you know, we worry about specific
things and we pray for specific things, but there's really one
concern. Though our worries might take many avenues, here's the
thing. Has God done a work in their heart? Pray for that. You can pray that the Lord deliver
them out of this trouble, get them away from bad influences
or whatever. Problem is we are the bad influence,
isn't it? We need Christ. Our children
need Christ. Our friends, our loved ones,
our families, they need Christ because if Christ begins a work. Look, he which hath begun a good
work in you. It's not a work you do, it's
a work he does. When he opened Lydia's heart,
we referred to Lydia. When Paul first visited Philippi,
And right away, you see the effect right away, don't you? It's not
that we're not fully saved the moment He saves us. The work
was finished on Calvary. And God applies the finished
work of Christ to our hearts on Calvary. This beginning of
the work, that's just in our experience. But that experience
now continues. Is the Lord any sweeter to you
today than He was 10 years ago? a believer that long or even
a few years ago. Are you growing in grace and
in what? The knowledge. If we're growing in grace, that
means growing in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul
said, of the one he knew, that I may know him. But the result of the work in
Lydia, he opened her heart and what happened? She took heed
to the gospel that Paul preached. And she was baptized in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the name of the Father, the Son
and the Holy Spirit. And can you imagine what kind
of blessing that the Lord must have made her in the church after
that? When even having just met Paul and those that were with
him, she constrained them to abide with her. She invited them
into her home and no doubt took cook for them. There was love immediately, wasn't
there? Strangers, come on in, sit down. Would you like something
to drink? What a sweet confidence it is
that depends upon the Lord's faithfulness and not ours and
not that of those we love. It's his faithfulness to finish
the work that he began. Paul's confidence was well-placed in the one who did the work,
and I pray that ours will be too. The Bible's very clear that even
our good works are his good work. We are his workmanship. Created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which the Lord hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. a good work, full, perfect, complete salvation
wrought by God's in us. Amen, let's pray.