Morning, everybody. Turn to Philippians chapter one. Philippians chapter one. A while back, I came to, I was
thinking, I came to the realization, Gene, that I really couldn't
tell you what the book of Philippians was about. You know, we all want
a general overall view of a book and to be familiar with it. And
I knew that it was a letter written by Paul to the church at Philippi.
And I could even quote a few verses out of it, but I didn't
know what that was all about. In the context of what Paul wrote
them, that's what I'm talking about. I had no real knowledge
of that context. So if I could describe this lesson,
study, message, it's a result of my reading a
number of commentaries, obviously. and trying to get an overall
understanding of what Paul was addressing in this letter to
the Corinthians, or to the Philippians, I'm sorry. I guess if it had
to have a title that I would say comfort and encouragement. And that's what I've titled it. I guess you could call it an
overview or an introduction to Philippians also. But I want
to, for the sake of time, And that's always a constraint. Maybe
all this will come together before I get to the end of it. I want
to read two verses. They might not mean a lot to
you, but maybe when I get finished, they will. I want to read two
verses in Philippians chapter one, verse six. Paul writes to these folks that
he is confident. I'm confident,
he says in verse six, of this very thing. that he which hath
begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ. And then in verse nine, he says,
I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge
and in all judgment. It's important, I think, to know
that this letter was written by the Apostle Paul while he
was in prison in Rome. It was sent to the Philippian
church in the hand of their pastor who had gone to visit Paul and
eventually would return to the church and he carried this letter
with him. Having heard that he was a prisoner
in Rome, they sent Epaphroditus, their pastor to visit him. And
along with that, they sent him a present, a gift, some form of support to him under
the bonds of his affliction there in Rome, something that provided
for his need. I don't know what it was, but
he talks about it. The purpose of Paul in writing
the letter was to personally express his love and affection
to them and their usefulness and how he had been supported
under them for, well, many times, I'll put it that way, which we'll
see. And he was concerned about the
persecutions that they endured for the sake of Christ. And he
sent this letter to excite them to love one another to live in
unity and to caution them against false teachers, Judaizers, those
who tried to bring them back under the law or to mix law and
grace. They were for these Judaizers
were for joining Moses and Christ. Yeah, believe in Christ, but
you gotta do this. So it tainted the gospel of grace. They advocated a mix of works
and grace together concerning salvation and to exhort them
to a conversation. becoming the gospel of Christ.
Look at verse 27 there in the first chapter. He says, only let your conversation
be as it becometh the gospel of Christ, that whether I come
and see you or I be present, else absent, I may hear of your
affairs that you stand fast in one spirit. with one mind, striving
together for the faith of the gospel. The church of Philippi had troubles. I guess that's where to start.
Both inside the church and outside the church. The troubles outside
the church were founded in the fact that they were living under
a the reign of Nero. Some of us studied that dude
in school. We read histories of him. He was a Christ-hating Roman
dictator who was absolutely, diagnostically insane. He was a tyrant. Inside the church,
They were suffering at the hands of these Judaizer lawmongers
who made a fair show in the flesh and questioned their Christianity. They wouldn't acknowledge that
in that they had no place in their gospel for works. They wouldn't submit to circumcision,
and these guys tried to bring them under the law of Moses as
evidence, as evidence that they were holy and that they were
Christians. And they struggled because the
Judaizers in that church were clearly preaching Christ, but
they were doing so in a way that divided the believers in the
church. and called into question the
former ministry of Paul. It was Paul, we need to remember
this. It was Paul who brought them
the gospel. To these things, Paul says that
they're not to worry. You believe that? Don't worry. Don't worry about it. He doesn't
suggest that Those who are confused in their approach to the gospel
are those who are outright enemies of the gospel, of the truth.
He doesn't say they're to be disciplined, nowhere. But rather they're to be viewed
in a much larger overall picture. If I can give this book a context,
I think that's what it's saying. In God's purpose, the plans and
the designs of all men are found to fit their ordained function. I think that's what Paul's saying.
Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. You don't
have to discipline. You don't have to kick them out
of the church. You don't have to de-church them or church them.
Don't worry about it. God has begun a great work of
salvation and he never sleeps. He has finished it and he will
finish it. Faithful is he that calls you,
calls you and calls you and who also will do it. First Thessalonians
5, 24. Everything that transpires. Now,
I know we have admonishments and instructions in other places
about come ye out from them and all those things, but in the
context of it all, in the context of it all, God's in control and
every muscle that flexes is toward the salvation of God's people.
That's where the end of it is. He has staged all of it for the
good of His people and the glory of His name. And there's not
anything out of His control. Everything that transpires between
now and the end of time and even into eternity is nothing but
the performance of the things that He staged. Period. Period. That's who we have to
deal with. Look at verse six again. Paul is confident of this very
thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform
it till the day of Jesus Christ. These occurrences in Philippi,
these problems, are mere occurrences to me, they're just happenings.
They're just occurrences. But God, with God, every incident
in our lives eventuates in the salvation of God's elect. Look at verse 19. What does it say? I know, I know
that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer prayer. He's
talking about his own trial there. He's in prison. I know this shall
turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of
the spirit of Jesus Christ in this comfort. and assurance being
sent to these people by Paul, he had all of time and eternity
in his view. That's the context of what he
was saying. Seeing this and understanding
this, he sets out to encourage and instruct this church in how
to live in and understand the times in which they live. The
answer in a nutshell was see our Lord in all of it, in all
of it, and consider Him as the first cause of everything. The origin of this church, I won't take you there, but if
you want to read it, the origin of this church is in Acts chapter
16. It's kind of interesting to put
things in order. Get more to that later. But Paul
had intended to go to Asia Minor. You may remember that story.
But it says the Holy Ghost forbid him to do so. This didn't work
out. He couldn't go. He wanted to
go. to Asia Minor, but he did not in some hindrance, and it doesn't really say what
it was, but he was not allowed to go in God's purpose and in
the circumstances at the time. They just didn't work. Shortly after he was prohibited
from going there, Paul saw a vision and he saw
a man in Macedonia, and that's where this church was, crying
for help. And Paul went to Philippi in
Macedonia. And after arriving there, this
is kind of interesting, after he got there, he was at the river,
sat down by a river and he was praying, and guess who walked
up on him? Lydia. That's where this woman named
Lydia encountered a man who preached the gospel to her. And he was
sent there. That was his purpose in being
there. Not sure he knew it until the time, but that's what happened. This is why Paul was called to
Macedonia. After hearing the gospel and
having her heart opened, she and her household were baptized. And after that, she asked Paul,
would you stay here? Just, I'll give you my bedroom. I'll give you a place to sleep.
And he did. And the result of that is the
first church ever formed in Europe, in Europe. The gospel had been
taken to the Gentiles. This is also where the Philippian
jailer was saved too. And his house, just like Lydia's, were converted and they became
members of this church that he was writing to, both of them. By the time of this letter, verse
one, look at verse one, Paul and Timotheus, it's addressed
to the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ who
are at Philippi with bishops and deacons. Now, I'm not sure
what that's saying, but I think what it is saying is since the time that he had confronted
or met, better word, Lydia and the jailer and establishing that
church, the plural of bishops and deacons means that that church
had grown to a number of locations. There were several of them now.
And that's who he was addressing with these words, all of those
churches. And if he's addressing them,
he's addressing us. These things pertain to us. Paul considers them special,
these folks in Philippi, for several reasons. I think the
first reason was a reaction to their suffering. They were beloved
of Paul. They were his sons and daughters
in the faith. He speaks of sons in the faith. They're the offspring of his
preaching, his missionary work, if you will. Paul felt and realized
exactly what these believers were feeling, having that empathy,
not sympathy, but empathy. He was not unlike Christ, our
great high priest, because being touched with the feeling of their
infirmities like Christ was with ours, he wanted to comfort and
encourage these folks. in the sure providence of God's
sovereign grace, reminding them that they and he as recipients
of that same saving grace of God. Look at verse seven. Even
as it is meek for me to think this of you all because I have
you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my bonds and in the defense
and confirmation of the gospel, You all are partakers of my grace."
There he is. He loved them as you would your
kid or husband or anything else, fleshly speaking. The second
reason that these folks were special, I think, they were to him a great joy. Look at chapter four and verse
one. This is the way he considered
these folks. This is the way he addressed them, complimented
them, longed for them. He said, therefore, my brethren,
dearly beloved, and longed for my joy and my crown. So stand fast in the Lord, my
dearly beloved. His desire for them was that
they should rejoice in Christ. But whatever happens to them,
because whatever happens to them, or to him, is for the good and
for the glory of Christ. The third reason they were special,
was that they have been especially generous toward Paul, and this
is interesting, for the gospel's sake. In the face of some who
were preaching Christ in a manner that was designed to increase
Paul's bonds, to make him more miserable than he was, these
brethren were, Yet, they were yet faithful in seeking to supply
the needs of Paul as he was in prison. Now, look at verse 10
in chapter four. I rejoiced in the Lord greatly
that now at the last, your care of me has flourished again, again. wherein you were also careful,
but you lacked opportunity. Look at verse 15. Look at verse
15. Now ye Philippians know also
that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from
Macedonia, when I departed from you, no church, watch this, No
church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving
except you. They're the only ones that were
faithful to him. They were the only one that was faithful to
him. These Philippians were a generous people, and even in the midst
of those trials that they were suffering from, their generosity
never lessened, never diminished. Now I want to get to the bottom
line. What's the real aim of this letter?
It's to center, it is to center the minds of those Philippian
believers and any believing reader of this letter on the person
and the work of Christ. The most difficult thing in a
trial is to refrain from trying to fix the problems ourself.
The flesh, our masculinity, our ego, and our tendency towards
self-justification immediately causes us to double our fists
up in rebellion when trials come to us, troubles come to us. I'm not talking about big things
such as catastrophes. Earthquakes and tsunamis and
volcanoes and control of the universe, we got all the faith
in the world. That's God. He's doing those
things. Ain't nothing we can do about
that. And we're proud of the fact that it falls within the
parameters of our faith. But the small things, the everyday
occurrences, The disappointments and discomforts seem at first
to have something, nothing to do with our faith, but our ability
to overcome them. In our own strength, but our
ability to overcome, well, we're just plain stymied
by what we think we can fix. In our flesh we rush to find
an answer and then to act, when in truth there's not even a problem,
no question, no question even exists. But we'll try to fix
it anyway. My friend who's gone now used
to say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Paul saw and understood
the problems that plagued these believers, and he was aware through
his own experiences that he had suffered through, the trials
that had come to him, that these reactions was merely the flow
of being a human, having been through many such testings and
the same experiences himself. Look at four in verse 11, chapter
four. Not that I speak in respect of
want, And here's what's important. I've learned in whatsoever state
I am therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased
and I know how to abound everywhere and in all things I am instructed
both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer.
Need. I can do all things through Christ
which strengthens me. The solution to trials, the remedy
of trials, for trials, is not a how-to lesson on fixing them. You just can't take a seminar. They can't be fixed. They are
designed to fix. They're fixing things to set
the heart and the mind of the believer on Christ. Let this
mind be in you, which was also in Christ. This is a fact that
every believer knows and is experienced through, though it seems with
every new trial, our memories lapse. I won't have you turn there,
but in Joshua chapter four, when the children of Israel, God's
people, God's elect, crossed over the Jordan River, to possess
the promised land. The Lord told them to place a
memorial, memorial, of 12 stones in the Jordan. It was heaped
up and they was going across it on dry land. He said, when
everybody's across, you go back in there and set 12 stones in
that river. And he told them, he said, after
you've crossed and come out the other side and the ark's out,
all that stuff, you take 12 stones and you make a memorial on the
Promised Land side. In Gilgal, where they were going.
Joshua says this. I should say first. Those memorials
were there for a reason, and what was it? In verse 21 of Joshua
4, Joshua said this to the children of Israel, when your children
shall ask the fathers in time to come saying, what are these
stones, dad? Then you shall let your children
know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land. That
was a memorial memory. Memorial. To remind them, to
call to their memory, that God had saved them there. They crossed
over dry land. For the Lord your God dried up
the waters of Jordan just like he did the Red Sea, which he
dried up from before us until we were gone over. that all the
people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord that's almighty
and that you might fear the Lord. These were reminders, these memorials,
memory of our death in Christ and birth
and resurrection into a new life with Christ. There are numerous
instances all through the Old Testament where these memorials are set for the
purpose of remembering. It's interesting to run a search
for memory and remembering in the Old Testament. The design
of trials in our life is to awaken our memory It fixes our eyes
on Christ. It gives us something else to
think about. If we go where we properly should
go and acknowledge his lordship, his sovereignty, his control,
and his providence, the design of these trials in our life is
to awaken us to cause to remember that what occurs in our life
is at the hand of our sovereign. He's just tweaking our existence
a little bit to fix our eyes on Christ. And that's Paul's
design in this letter written to his sons and his daughters
in the faith of Philippi. Inspired by the Spirit of God
to help and strengthen their hearts and their minds. Now in closing, I want you to
look at chapter two of Philippians. Look at verse nine, and we'll
read to verse 13. Wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him, now he's reminding them, and given him a name which is
above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things under
the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Wherefore, wherefore,
my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence
only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling. For it is God that worketh in you both the
will and to do of His good pleasure. So, when trials come, any kind, you
name them, when trials come, any trial, don't worry. Be confident and be encouraged. Our Lord's saving His people.
in all of it, in all of it. As Brother Don used to say from
the pulpit very loudly, he shall not fight. Okay.