Let us turn again then to God's
Word in that portion that we were considering this morning. Philippians 1, verses 28-30. Philippians 1, verses 28-30. And in nothing terrified by your
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 hear to be in me. I remarked earlier on the significance
of those four words at the end of verse 28, and that of God. And there is a sense in which
those words govern all that we've just read in this text of scripture. It reminds us of the absolute
sovereignty of God. He is sovereign with regards
to the salvation of his people, that is plainly declared as we
saw this morning to you of salvation and that of God. Salvation is
of the Lord. That was the great confession
that Jonah was brought to make from the belly of that great
fish. Salvation is of the Lord. It's all in accordance with his
own great purpose, His eternal purpose of salvation, as we have
it there in the first chapter of Ephesians, according as He
hath chosen us in Him that is in Christ before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. All is in accordance with that
good pleasure of the will of God, that predestination, that
choice, that election that He has made of His people. And so He grants to them in the
appointed time, in the fullness of the time, that gift of faith. It is the gift of grace, by grace
You say, through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the
gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And this
salvation had come to the Philippians. Paul, under God's gracious hand,
was the instrument whereby the Gospel was brought to them and
through the preaching of that Gospel as we have it, recorded
in the Acts of the Apostles, there were those at Philippi
who believed. Lydia, whose hearts the Lord
opened, remember that she attended to those things that were spoken
by Paul and Silas, and so he can write here, 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. God is sovereign in salvation,
but then we spoke this morning also of the decree of reprobation
those whom God has passed over when he made choice of his people
there were others that God passed over and then he has appointed
them to condemnation because of their sins God is sovereign
in reprobation and so we have it here these adversaries in nothing terrified by your
adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition. And that's of God. Salvation
is of God, so their perdition, their loss, their condemnation
is also of God. It is, as Calvin says, the dreadful
decree. Vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. Peter, remember, speaks of them
in the opening of the second chapter of his opening epistle,
1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 8. He speaks of a stone of stumbling
and a rock of offense to them that stumble at the word being
disobedient. Whereunto they were appointed. Whereunto they were appointed. Oh, how dreadful, how solemn
it is that there is such a decree. And now we have to examine ourselves
and prove ourselves and know ourselves that Jesus Christ is in us except
we be reprobates as the apostles self-examination is so vital
is it not that we are those who would give diligence to these
things to make our calling and our election sure we're not to
take anything for granted or that we might be those who are
truly exercised before God in these vital matters. God is sovereign
in reprobation as God is sovereign in salvation and I said that
we would come tonight to see how God is also sovereign with
regards to those sufferings that come into the lives of his children. Having made this statement and
that of God, at the end of verse 28 he then goes on in the following
verses to say, for unto you It is given in the behalf of Christ,
not only to believe on Him. This is how their salvation was
brought into their souls, experienced by faith, and that faith, the
gift of God. But he says, 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 you saw
in me, and now here to be in me. Well, as we turn to these
final two verses of the chapter, first of all to say something
with regards to the sufferings that are associated with faith. We see here that faith is sovereignly
bestowed, but also together with the gift of faith comes the trying
of that faith. And so, initially to consider
these two things, the true faith and the trial of faith that is
associated with it. It is given, it says, in the
behalf of Christ to believe on Him. It's in the behalf of Christ. What the Lord Jesus Christ purchased
by his death is applied by his pleadings, by his intercession.
The Lord Jesus Christ, you see, has not only procured salvation
by all that he endured there upon the cross when he made that
great sacrifice for sins, that atoning sacrifice, He's not only a sacrificing priest,
he's also a praying priest. He intercedes for his people.
And we see it, of course, in what we call the Great High Priestly
Prayer in the 17th chapter of John. I pray for them, he says,
speaking of his disciples. I pray for them. I pray not for
the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they
are mine." He is very much aware of those that the Father had
given to him in the eternal covenant, the children. Behold I and the
children which God has given me, says the prophet Isaiah. He speaks of those children being
for signs, a part of his message. But remember how the words of
the Prophet are taken up by the Apostle in Hebrews, and they're
taken up there by Paul, and that statement of the Prophet is applied
to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's Christ who ultimately says,
Behold I and the children which God hath given to me, and God
prays. The Lord Jesus Christ, He prays. for those that the Father had
given to him. All of his priestly work, of
course, is a particular work. When we see him there in John
17, 9, not praying for the world, but for those that the Father
had given to him out of the world, that is just one aspect of his
priestly office. But what is true with regards
to his intercession as a priest is also true with regards to
his sacrifice. The sacrifice that he made is
not for the world, but for them that the Father had given him
out of the world. And how important it is that
we recognise the truth that is stated then here in the text. in the behalf of Christ. The gift of faith is in the behalf
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is that that Christ has
purchased for a particular people, purchased by the great sacrifice
that he made and now applies as he prays, as he intercedes
on behalf for his people he is able to save to the uttermost
them that come unto God by Him. And so, who is the one that we
look to for faith? We have to look to the Lord Jesus
Christ. It is from Christ that faith
is received. The familiar words of Hebrews
12, 2, looking onto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And you know the force of the
verb that he uses here at the beginning of that verse, looking
only onto Jesus, we look nowhere else. We look only onto Jesus,
we look away from every other object, looking away onto Jesus. He is the author, He is the finisher
of our faith. And that is the true faith. It's
not the faith that any man is able to give himself, or to exercise
in and of himself. By grace are ye saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. The Scripture is so plain with
regards to true faith from whence it comes, how it is to be obtained. It is that faith of the operation
of God we read in Colossians 2.12. Faith of the operation
of God who raised him, that is Christ, from the dead. There
is that connection between the resurrection of the Lord Jesus
Christ and that operation of God in the soul of the sinner
whereby the sinner is brought to saving fire. Not only in Colossians
chapter 2 but also of course in Ephesians chapter 1. It's
the exceeding greatness of his power to us who do believe according
to the working of his mighty power which he wrote in Christ
when he raised him from the dead. or the power that is there in
the soul of the sinner who is brought to faith. It's according
to which in like manner, it's after the same fashion as was
there when the Lord Jesus Christ was dead and Christ was raised from the
dead. Thy dead men shall live, he says,
together with my dead body shall they arise. Unto you it is given in the behalf
of Christ to believe, to believe on Him. That is true faith. That is saving faith. It's not duty faith. It's that
faith that comes only by the mighty working of the Spirit
of God in the soul of a sinner. No man As I said just now, no
man can produce that faith of himself. In fact, in bringing
us to that faith, what does God do? He makes us feel our complete
and utter inability, our impotence. He shuts us off to our unbelief.
He concludes, I mean, unbelief makes them feel, you see, that
they cannot believe. except God himself should work
that faith in their souls. But then, besides the gift of
faith, we also have here, and the emphasis is really placed
upon this, the trying of that faith. It is given in the behalf
of Christ, he says, not only to believe on him, but also to
suffer for his sake, and this suffering surely is part of that
trial of faith. James speaks of such in his opening
chapter. James chapter 1 and verse 3,
we read of the trying of your faith. And as the apostles speak
with one voice, there are some who suggest that James speaks
a different language, sheds forth a different gospel to the apostle
Paul. That's nonsense. James doesn't contradict Paul
in any sense. All of the apostles speak with
one voice. They are all speaking under the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And as James speaks of the trying
of your faith, so too does Peter. In the portion that we just read
in the opening chapter of 1 Peter, the trial of your faith being
so much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it
be tried in fire. is to be found and to praise
and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus. God, in his inscrutable
wisdom, brings these two things together. He is the author and
the finisher of faith, and that faith that God is pleased to
give, that faith that comes by his operation in the soul, is
the very faith that God tries and tests, and what God has joined
together, let not man put asunder." Oh, this is one of the marks,
is it not, of that true faith. It will be tried. The hymn writer says, true faith
is the life of God. Deep in the heart it lies, it
lives and labours under load, though damped He never dies. God is proving, always proving,
the faith of his children. And that faith, of course, brings
into the believer's soul the experience of union with the
Lord Jesus Christ. There is an eternal union. They
were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
That's the election of Christ. they are eternally united to
the Lord Jesus Christ but they must come to experience the blessings
of that union and this is what they know by faith and when they
come to know that blessed union with Christ they are altogether identified
with Him and this is what Paul speaks of in the third chapter
where he has so much to say with regards to himself. As we said this morning, chapter
three is one of those portions of Paul's epistles where we have
what we might term the experimental part of the epistle. There's
not just doctrine and practice in Paul's epistles, there are
these portions in which he opens up something of his own experiences.
And we remarked this morning, you see, Oh, here in chapter
3, he speaks of the great sinner that he was. He was a persecutor. Chapter 3, verse 6, persecuting
the church. Oh, he was bent on the destruction
of those who were the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
I said then, that this reminds us, does it not, that there is
hope for the greatest of sinners. When we were looking you see
at those words in verse 28 here in chapter 1. These adversaries. In nothing terrified by your
adversaries which is to them an evident token of perdition.
You might have concluded that that was the case with Saul of
Tarsus. He was a great adversary. But
that was not in his case an evident token of perdition. He was of
the election of grant. He was saved. Then is salvation
for the greatest of sinners. And Paul, who is the pastor,
tells us that, does he not, in 1 Timothy 1? Of whom I am the
chief, he says, with regards to sins. Thank God for these portions
wherein the apostle then opens up something of his own experiences
and his experience of the grace of God and the richness and the
fullness and the sovereignty of that grace of God. And here
in chapter 3 he also speaks of what it means to know the blessing
of that union to the Lord Jesus Christ. See how he expresses
his desire in verse 10 that I may know him and the power of his
resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made
conformable unto his death. He wants to be altogether identified
with Christ. I am crucified with Christ, he
says to the Galatians. Nevertheless I live, yet not
I, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. All this blesses you and yourself.
Did Christ, my Lord, suffer? Shall I reply, asks godly John
Newton, or with those friends who are one with the suffering
Christ? And we will therefore have to
endure something of suffering in this world. As Christ was,
so are we in this world, if we are those who have true faith.
Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe
on him, but also to suffer for his sake. Paul knew it. Paul experienced it. I bear in my body, he says, the
marks of the Lord Jesus. The superstitious Romanists might
speak of stigmata. You know how they say that Francis
of Assisi had the stigmata. He had the wounds of Christ in
his hands. That's not what is being spoken
of by Paul there at the end of Galatians, when he speaks of
bearing the marks of the Lord Jesus, his sufferings in his
own body. He's not speaking of any superstitious
vain thing like that. He's saying that he was altogether
identified with Christ, always bearing about in the body the
dying of the Lord Jesus. that the life of the Lord Jesus
might also be manifest in our bodies. Dying with Christ, rising
with Christ, that is the believers experiencing, that is the life
of faith. To know that power of Christ's
resurrection constantly, always, as we live our lives in this
sinful world. But then In the second place,
observe how in verse 30 he says something really with regards
to a certain sameness in the trial of faith. Having the same
conflict, he says, which he saw in me and now here to be in me. The same conflict as Paul experienced,
the pattern to them which should hereafter believe. Now, with regards to this, can
we not here observe a number of ways in which there is a certain
sameness in the experiences of the godly? There were past trials. Paul can speak of that that had
happened to him in times past. He says to them here, which he
saw in me, he's speaking in the past tense. Remember what had happened to
him when he was there at Philippi, when he was engaged in that ministry,
as the apostle to the Gentiles, when he's preaching there, in
Philippi there was a cost, there were sufferings that he had to
endure. And we are told, are we not, in the 16th chapter of
the Acts, Verse 22, the multitude rose
up together against them, and the magistrates went off their
clothes and commanded to beat them, this is Paul in silence,
who when they had laid many stripes upon them, cast them into prison,
charging the jailer to keep them safely, who having received such
a charge, thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet
fast in the stocks. What sufferings! And yet we read
in the very next verse and that midnight Paul and Silas prayed
and sang praises unto God and the prisoners heard them and
suddenly there was a great earthquake and there was a miraculous deliverance
was there not. as a result of the prayers and
the praises of Paul and Silas. But what suffering, do you see?
And the Philippians, of course, were aware of these things. He
speaks of those conflicts which he saw in Man. When he writes
to the Thessalonians, he also makes reference to what he had
experienced at Philippi. the opening words of the second
chapter in 1 Thessalonians. Yourselves, brethren, know our
entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain, but even after
we had suffered before and were shamefully entreated, as you
know at Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you
the Gospel of God with much contention. His experience at Philippi didn't
put him off the ministry, the preaching of the Word. Though
the cost was so great, he was still bold. When he goes amongst
the Thessalonians, he doesn't hold back. He is still determined
to declare the whole counsel of God, whatever be the consequences. And so he speaks here of trials,
trials that have been experienced in the past, but he also speaks
of present, present trials. Which he saw in me, he says,
I am now here to be in me. Even now you see, the hearing
of certain things that this man is having to endure. He is still suffering for the sake
of the Lord Jesus Christ. This, of course, is one of the
prison epistles. We were looking on Thursday evening
at those words at the beginning of Philemon. Paul, the prisoner
of Jesus Christ. Well, Philippians like Philemon
is one of the prison epistles. In other words, it was written
when Paul was there in Rome under some form of restriction, he
was not a free man, And so writing here in this chapter he several
times makes mention of his bonds. In verse 7 he says, Even as it
is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you
in my heart, inasmuch as both in my bonds and in the defence
and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of my grace. Verse 13, he says, so that my
bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all
other places, and many of the brethren of the Lord who act
in confidence by my bonds are much more bold to speak the word
without fear. He speaks endlessly of his present
circumstances, the situation that he finds himself in, and
it's still a suffering that he is having to endure, having the same conflict which
he saw in me and now here to be in me. Oh, there is a mutuality
here, is there not? John Fawcett, in that lovely
hymn, I know it's not in Gatsby's, but it's a beautiful hymn, is
it not? Blessed be the tide that binds. And it has that verse,
we share our mutual woes, our mutual burdens bear and often
for each other flows the sympathizing teeth. We are to rejoice with
them that rejoice, we are to weep with them that weep. There is a mutuality with regards
to the experiences of the people of God. This is what Paul is
speaking of. They were sharing in some measure
with those things that he was having to endure. They were desirous,
of course, of ministering to him, as he says in the final
chapter. Verse 14 of chapter 4, notwithstanding,
he says, ye have well done that ye did communicate with my affliction. Or they wanted to minister to
him in the midst of his trial and trouble. Verse 18 there,
he says, I have all and abound. I am full, having received of
Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an order
of a sweet smile, a sacrifice acceptable, wealth, pleasing
to God. All they sent, Epaphroditus,
and now Epaphroditus on their behalf that ministered to them
and Paul is now going to send this man back to them. Remember
chapter 2 and verse 25 he says, I supposed it necessary to send
to you Apatroditus, my brother and companion in labour and fellow
soldier, but your messenger and he that ministered to my wife. So they sent him there to Rome
from Philippi that he might minister to Paul, they wanted to be identified
with him. They were aware of his past troubles
when he went amongst them preaching the gospel, all that it had cost
him. And they are aware still of the great cost as he is now
restricted in his movements under some form of arrest there in
the imperial city of Rome. These are the trials you see,
past trials, present trials, in fact constant trials, ever,
always the need to be delivered. When he writes to the Corinthians
in the opening chapter of his second epistle, he speaks of
God who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver,
in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us. For we've known
deliverance is in the past, we experience it in the present,
and we must anticipate it in the future. This is the life
of the Christian, is it not? The Lord Jesus Christ himself
has said as much. In the world ye shall have tribulation. There's no escaping it. We must,
through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God, echoes
the apostles. that those words of the Lord
Jesus Christ, in the world you shall have fibrillation. But,
he says, be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. In the midst of all his trials
and all his troubles, what does the child of God learn? He learns
the life of faith. He must be looking always to
Jesus. This is why the trial is a constant
trial. that he might live that life
of faith. And that life of faith means that he must be at every
moment drawing all grace from Christ. As it is a constant trial, so
we see here that it is also an illiterate trial. Now, we've
referred to those things that the Apostle had to endure of
the contradiction of sinners, be it the mob there in Philippi,
or be it those things that were befalling him there when he was
in Rome, but doesn't he here in this last verse of the chapter
really speak of something that is inward? Having the same conflict
which he saw in me, you see, and now here to be in man. Oh,
it's an inward trial. It's not just external. It's
that which is transpiring in the believer's soul. It's that
constant conflict between the old nature and the new nature.
And you know how the apostle has much to say with regards
to that, that spiritual warfare. He speaks of it of course in
great detail in the seventh chapter of Romans and we ought to be
thankful to God that such a chapter as that is left on record in
Holy Scripture. Otherwise we'd have to conclude,
some of us, that we've never known anything of the grace of
God. when we're made to feel what we are in our fallen nature,
would he not fill us with despair? Oh, but when we read, you see,
of Paul, the good that I would, I do not, he says, the evil that
I would not, that I do, feels the wretchedness of his fallen
nature, oh, the wretched man that I am. And not only in Romans
7, but when he writes to the Galatians, does he not also there
speak of that conflict, that inward conflict? And the flesh
lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh,
and these are contrary, he says, one to the other, and ye cannot
do the thing that ye want. Or we want to be holy men and
women. We want to be true believing
men and women. Or could I not believe? Then
all would easily be I would, but cannot, Lord, relieve. My
help must come from Thee. That's not just the experience
of those who first come to find. That is the life of faith, is
it not? We need constant supplies of that grace of faith from God.
And we can't do anything of ourselves, we have to learn by all these
experiences our complete and our utter dependence. Look at
how Paul writes again there in chapter
4 and verse 9, he says, those things which you have both learned
and received and heard and seen in me do, and the God of peace
shall be with you." He knew much of what we were speaking of last
Lord's Day evening, that inward kingdom of God. It's not meat
and drink, it's righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost. That kingdom is not in words
only, it's in power, it's the power of God, it's that life
of God in the soul of a man. The believer knows it, he's wrestling
all his days, wrestling not with flesh and blood, but principalities
and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, spiritual
wickedness in high places, that's all the forces of darkness. Now
that's all the legions of demons, that's Satan and his hosts who
set themselves against the people of God. How the believious is called
in to fight and to fight the good fight of faith. There is an inward trial where
there is that true fight of God's elect having the same conflict
which he saw in man and now here to be in its past, its present,
its constant, its inward. It's the common experience of
God's children. It's the same. It's the same. Having the same conflict, he
says. Beloveds, think it not strange
concerning the fiery trial that is to try you, as though some
strange thing happened unto you. This is a believer's experience,
with regards to temptation. What does the same apostle Paul
say to the Corinthians? There hath no temptation taken
you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, It
will not suffer you to be tempted above it, ye are able, but will
with the temptation also make a way of escape, that ye may
be able to bear it. It's common, it's the experience
of God's children, it's the same experience that they have, not
the same in every detail, but there's a blessed likeness, there's
a likeness the commonality we might say, and yet there's a
great variety. Now we see it, do we not, all
around us in creation. This season of the year when
the trees begin to cast their leaves and we can pick a leaf
up and we know what sort of a tree that leaf might have come from.
But if we pick up a leaf from an oak tree, We'll never find
another leaf identical to that leaf. All their similarities. We know the difference. But every
one of those leaves that fall to the ground is different. The
same is, and yet a variety. And so it is with the people
of God. My trials are not your trials, your trials are not my
trials, we're all different. But we thank God for that blessed
sameness, it's the mark of those who are the sheep of Christ. The prophet Zechariah speaks
of them as the flock of slaughter. The flock of slaughter, they
know trials, they know troubles, they know conflicts. As it is
written, for thy sake We are killed all the day long. We are
counted as sheep for the slaughter we read in Romans chapter 8.
That's the experience of those who are the true sheep of God,
the flock of Christ. They have that true faith. And
how do we know that that faith is a real faith? The work of
God's Spirit in their souls, the gift of God, because with
the faith comes the trial, the sufferings. In nothing terrified by your
adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition,
but to you of salvation, and that of God, all that salvation
that comes from the sovereignty of God, unto you which is given
on 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. Amen. Using him is number 236. He begs
a convincing proof, a substance so unsure, that keeps the soul
secure enough, but makes it not secure. Number 236. Faith's a convincing proof, a
substance sound and sure, that keeps the soul secured in earth,
but makes it not secure. Notion's a hallowed test, by
which the truth's reviled. The child of fancy, finely dressed,
but not the living child. Faith is by knowledge fed, and
with obedience mixed. Notion is empty, cold and dead,
and fancy's never fixed. True faith's the life of God,
deep in the heart it lies. It lives and labours on the road,
though damned it never dies. Opinions in the head, through
faithless heart excels, As body defests from a shade, or kernels
from the shells. To see good bread and wine is
not to eat and drink So some who hear the word divine do not
merely but think True faith refines the heart and purifies with blood,
takes the whole gospel not apart, and holds the fear of God. The Lord bless thee and keep
thee, the Lord Make His face to shine upon thee, and be gracious
unto them. The Lord lift up His countenance
upon thee, and give thee peace. Amen.