Good morning. All right, we're
going to be in Philippians chapter 1. Now Paul, as you know, is
imprisoned at Rome when he's writing this letter to the Philippians. And he now begins to settle the
brethren. He's settling the brethren by
refocusing them on the Lord Jesus Christ, on their service in the
Lord. And he's made it abundantly clear
to the brethren here in Philippi. that as far as he's concerned,
he's right where the Lord wants him to be. He's right where the
Lord has put him, and he's not ashamed of the chains of Christ. He's not ashamed to be in chains
for preaching the gospel of Christ, and we see that God has made
him very bold in the Lord. So now, Paul, as a faithful pastor,
He takes their focus and their attention on him, and he puts
it on the Lord Jesus Christ. He's directing them to their
continued service in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in this passage
here, what we're seeing here is Paul is reminding them that
they are one body, and that as the body of Christ, they are
to be unified, they are to have unity in that body. Our title
is, Striving Together for the Faith of the Gospel. So let's begin now with the believers'
conversation here. This is a passage of instruction
that Paul has for the brethren, and this instruction is helpful
for them given the circumstances that they're in. If you remember,
the church here is under great persecution at this time. The
church is being persecuted for their faith and for their love
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you can imagine that if we
were suffering persecution, if we were being attacked and people
were having their homes taken and their wealth taken from them
and some being put in prison and some being put to death for
confessing Christ, you can imagine how our minds might be scattered
and sent off into many different directions and we get caught
up in side issues and focusing on the injustices of what's going
on, but Paul focuses their minds and their attentions on the Lord
Jesus Christ. He says in verse 27, Philippians
127, 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. You notice that nowhere in any
of Paul's letters does he speak out against the government. He
doesn't speak of revolution. He doesn't speak of revolting
against them. He doesn't ask them to get together
a band of people and break them out of his prison. He doesn't
do any of that. And you look at our nation and
politically it seems like it's an atmosphere where we're greatly
divided and there's people in the mainstream media even that
speak very carelessly and seem to be stoking the fires and stoking
that division among the people so that they talk of foolish
things like civil war and that would be a horrible, horrible
thing. We should never, ever want that,
want to see that in our nation because it's awful. It really
is, it's awful wars. And so Thinking of that, we're
not to get caught up in the world. Don't be moved or disturbed or
put off or troubled by what you see in this world. Always remember
that the Brethren at this time in Rome were going through things
much, much worse than what we're seeing here, so we don't have
to be worried or afraid or troubled by the things that we're seeing
here. Pray that the Lord give us peace. Pray that the Lord
allow us to continue to meet together under the sound of the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. But don't be troubled or moved
by it. And Paul says, don't you get
caught up in what this worry is among the people. We're not
here under a social banner to write social wrongs and to correct
social injustices or ills. That's not our purpose for being
here. We're here to preach the Lord
Jesus Christ. And Paul said, our conversation,
later on in Philippians 3.20, he said, our conversation. And
that word is citizenship. Our citizenship is in heaven
from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. So, Whatever goes on around us,
no matter how fierce or intense the heat may get for us here
in our day, we're to focus on the ministry that the Lord God
has given to us. We have a ministry which he's
given to us and we are to send forth that gospel because that's
how people are saved. It's by the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. You can convince somebody that
God created the world. rather than through what science
teaches through Big Bang and various other things. You can
teach a person that abortion is murder and that you're taking
a life and you shouldn't do that. You could teach someone that
and they're still not saved. You could teach someone to agree
with you on many things that are wicked and wrong in this
world, but that doesn't save anyone. teach them Christ. And
if God saves them, if Christ saves them and brings them to
himself, all those other things are going to be taken care of.
They'll all fall into place as the Lord teaches them and grows
them in Christ. And Paul said, therefore seeing
we have this ministry, this ministry as we have received mercy, we
faint not. What ministry, Paul? What ministry
do we have? He said in 2 Corinthians 5, 18
and 19, God hath given unto us the ministry of reconciliation. to wit that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses
unto them, and hath given unto us the word of reconciliation."
Word to preach that God receives sinners through Christ, that
he sent Christ to shed his blood, to lay down his life, to be a
propitiation, the means of our forgiveness through the Lord
Jesus Christ. So Paul's desire for the Philippians
is, Only let your conversation, your walk, be as it becometh
the gospel of Christ. That word, when you look it up,
it has to do with how one conducts themselves, how one leads their
life, how one fulfills their duty. And in the lexicon and
the concordance it speaks of one pledging oneself to fulfill
the law of life. Now, I want to talk about that
law of life because a lot of people have different understandings,
different views or beliefs about what that means when the scriptures
speak of the law. Now, believers are not under
the law of Moses. The law of Moses is not our rule
of life. In 1 Corinthians 9.21, Paul says,
that doesn't mean that we are without law. We're not lawless.
We're not lawbreakers. We're not lawless ones just doing
what we want. He said in 1 Corinthians 9.21,
being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ. So what's he speaking of, the
law to Christ? One place we saw in Romans 3.27,
where our brother was reading, go over there to Romans 3, because
we'll be looking in a couple passages in Romans. But in Romans
3, 27, Paul said, he asks, where is boasting then? And then he
tells us, it's excluded. By what law? Of works? Are we justified by the law of
works? And he's saying there, by the
law of Moses? Is that what law we're under,
the law of Moses? Nay, but by the law of faith. We're saved by faith. Our law
is in faith, not in looking to the law, that old letter of the
law of Moses. Turn over to Romans 8. Romans
8, verse 1. We'll read a few verses here.
Romans 8, we'll go from 1 to 7. And Paul tells us, There is
therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, for the
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. That law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is the law of God. That's what
he calls it later in verse 7. We'll get there. He calls it
the law of God. But this is the law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of
sin and death. What law is the law of sin and
death? That is, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. That's the law of sin and death.
You who are sinners, and that's every one of us, we shall die. for what the law could not do.
Now this is the law of Moses, for what that law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh. And that's where religion
deceives many people. Because religion teaches, well,
we're going to teach you the law and we're going to help you
get your life straight and get your life ready so that you can
walk according and call yourself a Christian and confess Christ
and you can call yourself a Christian because you follow the law. of
Moses, but he says the law couldn't do that. The law can't make any
one of us righteous. All the law can do is tell you
if you are righteous or if you're a sinner. That's all the law
can do. It doesn't make us righteous, because in Adam, we all died. We fell in Adam, and when we
sinned in Adam, we all died spiritually. There's no life to the things
of God. We don't know how to worship God. We have no desire
to worship God. We have no thought of Him. We'll
gladly worship the God of our imagination, but not the God
of these scriptures here. So what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in
the flesh. And so what we see is that Christ
is the very salvation that God has provided for his people.
Christ delivers us from the condemnation of the law, Because by nature,
we were obligated to be righteous and to fulfill the law. But our
flesh is weak. We couldn't do it. We couldn't
do it. So God sent his own son to be the very propitiation,
to be the sin-atoning sacrifice, to put away the sin of his people,
to purge them of their sin, to take us out from under. the condemnation
of the law, and to take us out from the reigning dominion of
sin in our hearts and the lusts of the flesh, he delivers us
from that working there. In Romans 8.4 it says that the
righteousness of the law, that law of the spirit of life in
Christ Jesus, might be fulfilled in us who walk, not after the
flesh, but after the spirit. for they that are after the flesh
do mind the things of the flesh, and that refers to anyone who
is outside of Christ. Anyone, whether you are as a
Gentile or Greek who love to fulfill all the lusts that the
flesh lusts for, or if you're a very religious person like
the Jews who were very religious and had the Law of Moses and
looked to the Law of Moses and did their best to follow it.
He's saying that's the carnal mind. That's the mind that thinks
that it can that it can sin with impunity or rather look to the
law to make a righteousness for themselves. That's the flesh
that teaches that, and it's death. It's death. You'll die, come
to God in that own righteousness of your own. But to be spiritually
minded is life and peace. That is looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ alone for our righteousness. Verse 7, because the carnal mind
is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be. And so that's why, as our brother
was reading earlier, that we, in our flesh, are sin. We are
sinners, and we don't do the truth of God. We don't know the
truth of God, and there's no desire in us to know the truth
of God. until the Spirit, the Holy Spirit
of God comes upon us and regenerates us and gives us life and causes
us to see Christ, to see I'm nothing, I'm a sinner, I'm a
filthy dog, worthy of hell and eternal condemnation, but God
is merciful, God is gracious, and He's provided His Son, Jesus
Christ, to do that work for me, to do that which I could never
do for myself. Romans 7, please, we'll go over
to Romans 7 verse 1. Remember, Paul is saying, only
let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ. And that's because believers
are under the gospel rule. The gospel rule. We walk by faith,
not by the law of Moses for our salvation. We walk according
to the gospel, the good news of our Savior Jesus Christ. who
worked salvation, who wrought salvation for us. He says in
verse 1 at the end of that verse, the law hath dominion over a
man as long as he liveth. And then Paul gives this illustration
in verse 2. For the woman which hath been
husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth,
but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her
husband. So, take for example, you have
a woman that you know and she's now remarried. Her first husband
has died and she's now remarried to another man. And they get
back from their honeymoon and the husband says, honey, I'm
going to be home at 6. I'd like you to have dinner ready
at 6 and we'll have dinner together. And she says, well, you can get
home at 6 if you want, but I'm going to have dinner ready at
5. Dinner's going to be ready at 5. Why is it going to be ready
at 5? Well, because my previous husband expected dinner to be
ready at 5, and so it's going to be ready at 5. It might be
cold and you can eat it, but that's when it's going to be
ready. And you say, well, what are you doing? You're married
to me now. Why are you still living under the rule of your
former husband? He's dead, and you're dead to
him. And that's what Paul is saying to us. We're no longer
under the rule of Moses. Christ is our husband. We're
under his rule. And we look to him and we walk
by faith, that the spirit of faith and righteousness, that
righteousness which comes by faith. And that's how we walk.
Wherefore, he says, verse four, Romans 7, four, wherefore, my
brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of
Christ. When he was crucified, we were
crucified with him. that ye should be married to
another, even to him, Christ, who is raised from the dead,
that we should bring forth fruit unto God. So that, just as married
couples, when a couple is married, that wife brings forth fruit
of her husband. They do what married couples
do, they bring forth fruit, and the woman, the bride of Christ,
the church, brings forth fruit of the seed of her husband. Because
all that which we produce now is not of this dead flesh. It's
of the working of the spirit of Christ in us. It's of his
seed, of the new man, that he creates in us. For when we were
in the flesh, the motions of sin which were by the law, that
is that law of Moses, that when we heard it stirred up that rebellion
in our flesh and caused us to say, oh I shouldn't covet, I
shouldn't want those things in the world, that's exactly what
the flesh then whipped up, covetousness, because the law said, thou shalt
not covet, and that's the weakness of the flesh. And he's saying
they did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death
so that all this flesh can do is bring forth that which is
rotten and smelly and dead and corrupted. This flesh doesn't
bring forth anything good even to this day. If there's anything
good that you see that fruit of righteousness that is love
and joy and peace and hope and kindness and thankfulness and
love and faith, all those are the working of the Spirit of
Christ in us. All through the gospel that's
declared to us, he works that righteous fruit and brings it
out in us. And he says, verse 6, Romans
7, 6, but now we are delivered from the law that being dead,
wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit
and not in the oldness of the letter. So we're not looking
to the law of Moses. We're walking by faith, looking
to Christ, and He's the one who teaches us and draws us to Him
and brings forth those righteous fruits that glorify Him and that
speak well that He's our Husband, He's our Lord, He's our Savior
and we want to walk in a manner that's pleasing to Him and He
brings that forth from us. So when Paul says, only let your
conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ, we remember
that He's our Husband And as a bride, what springs forth from
the bride is the fruit of her husband. That's what she's bringing
forth, not the fruit of another. So, specifically here, Paul lists
it at the end of that verse. He says, Stand fast in one spirit
with one mind. Back in Philippians 1. Stand
fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together. That is in
unity, not against, not striving against one another, not warring
and fighting against one another, but knowing that our purpose
for being here is in the gospel. And so it's a blessed thing when
there's peace among us, because it's the Lord who works peace
among us. So, you know, it's not, I pray that the Lord, as
we grow, as the Lord grows us that that he established peace
among us under the gospel because you hear of things where people
say, well I'll give you a thousand bucks as long as I can choose
the color. I'll give you a thousand bucks as long as I can choose
the color of the carpet or what type of carpet. Keep your thousand
bucks. We don't need that. We want to
just come together in unity and seek the Lord in peace and under
his gospel rule. Turn over to Ephesians 4. Ephesians
4. And when he's writing in Ephesians
4, he's saying the same things that he's speaking to the Philippians. And in Ephesians 4.1, it's just
that he's elaborating it. He's giving a little more detail
here than what he wrote to the Philippians. He says, Ephesians
4.1, I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that
you walk worthy of the vocation, the calling, wherewith ye are
called, with all lowliness and meekness and longsuffering, forbearing
one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit
in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit,
even as ye are called, and one hope of your calling, one Lord,
one faith, one baptism. One God and father of all who
is above all and through all and in you all but unto every
one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of
Christ and so Paul speaks of those gifts in it the more administrative
gifts such as apostles and pastors and teachers that are given to
the brethren and he says verse 13 that Ephesians 4.13, till
we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of
the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ. So this unity and that is the
faithfulness that he works in us in a unified spirit, in a
unified mind, that our chief interest is to lift up and to
exalt the Lord Jesus Christ, to declare his gospel and to
declare Christ crucified, to declare how God saves sinners. and not to speak of our works,
not to glory in our works, not to lift up social banners and
things that we're supposed to be doing in the community, we
declare Christ. Because we know that when Christ
rules the heart of his people, when he saves them, he's drawn
them to himself. They're going to be good citizens
in the world because they're not looking to cause trouble
in the world. They're going to be kind and
gentle and they're not going to be people that are seeking
to do harm of other people, of other neighbors and things. They're
going to be good neighbors and good citizens here because their
citizenship is in heaven with the Lord. And so he works that
piece in us. But when the body departs from
Christ, when the body loses confidence that Christ is able to save to
the uttermost all his people, that's when they begin to declare
other things. That's when they lift up the
law. That's when they start lifting up the banner of anti-abortion
and start lifting up against this social issue and that social
issue because they don't have Christ anymore. And they've left
the love of Christ all for preaching to the flesh and teaching the
flesh how to be a better citizen. And that's not what we're about. We trust Christ. Such trust have
we through Christ to God Word, that we continue to preach Christ.
That's how confident we are that Christ saves his people to the
uttermost, that we can continue to declare his gospel and what
he's done to save his people, knowing that that's how God instructs
us and teaches us and chastens us and directs us and leads us
through this wilderness till we come home to him in heaven. So, the body of Christ, he says,
stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for
the faith of the gospel. And that's what he wants to see,
that unity worked in the body of Christ there, in that local
assembly there in Philippi. Alright, now, bearing witness.
If living unto our husband in that manner where we bring forth
those fruits to him is what we do, there will be a witness born
in the people. And in nothing terrified by your
adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition,
but unto you of salvation and that of God." And what he's saying
is, if you walk by the Spirit of Christ, if he's made you alive
and brought you to confess the Lord Jesus Christ, to confess,
Lord, I'm a sinner, I can't save myself, help me, Lord, save me,
wash me in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. If he's brought
you to that and made you faithful to look to the Lord Jesus Christ
alone, The fruit that the Spirit will bear in you is to stand
with Him, to not be ashamed of Him, and to confess Him before
men. It goes back to what Paul was
saying. We see the fruit that the Spirit
bears in His people. And he said in Philippians 1.19,
where he says in boldness, I know that this shall turn to my salvation. And remember we saw that he's
saying, I know that the Lord will keep me faithful to him. I trust that the Lord's keeping
me faithful to looking to him, not forsaking him, not denouncing
him, not to save my own neck. I'm not going to I'm not going
to denounce the Lord Christ. And he says, I know this because
I see the witness through your prayer that the Lord has you
praying for me and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
which he testifies to my own heart. According to my earnest
expectation, verse 20, 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. So that fruit that the
Spirit's bearing in Paul is that even in the face of death, he's
not forsaken Christ. And he's trusting that the Lord
is going to keep him faithful until that sword falls on his
neck. He's trusting the Lord is going
to keep him faithful and he's not going to forsake him like
so many in the world were doing at that time. And he says, whether
it be by life or by death, for to me to live is Christ and to
die is gain. So that he knows that if I live
any longer, I'm just going to bear more fruit in Christ by
preaching his name. I'm just going out to preach
Christ crucified. But if I die, I'm not ashamed.
If that's what the Lord has determined for me, if that's his will for
me, then so be it. I die and I trust him. I'm not
worried that with me dies the gospel, but rather he sends that
gospel forth to draw in his people. Turn over to 1 John chapter 2.
1 John chapter 2 and verse 26. And John is also writing to persecuted
believers. And so when you're reading Paul,
and you're reading John, and you're reading Peter, you see
they say the same thing. They have the same spirit, and
they're instructing and strengthening the brethren with the same comfort
that we have in Christ's gospel. And it's the same word that we
preach to this day. And he said in 1 John 2, 26,
these things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce
you. They were seducing many of the
people. There were many that confessed
Christ initially. Many that said, that sounds wonderful. I want eternal life. I want to
be raised from the dead. and live with God. And so many
confessed and many were baptized in the early church, but now
there were many that were falling away because of the persecution
that was rising up against them. It was showing the testimony
whether or not they were the Lord's or not. And so he says
to those that are seducing you, whether they're turning you back
Because of persecution, you're going back to the world to make
a living and to not have your things taken from you. Or to
the Jews who are being turned back to the law and back to the
sacrifices in the temple, you know, the Judaizers. He says,
this is the fruit which the believer bears in Christ, verse 27. But
the anointing which he hath received of him abideth in you. And that abiding is Christ and
his father abiding with the child of God, as he said he would.
And ye need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing
teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and
even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. And now,
little children, abide in him. And he strengthens strengthening
the brethren, saying, Don't forsake Christ. Don't forsake Him who
is your righteousness, Him who is your very standing before
the Father. Don't turn from Him. Abide in
Him. And the fruit of the Spirit will
keep His people abiding in Him, even in the face of opposition
and persecution. that, and here it is, that when
he shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him
at his coming. So that if you know that he is
righteous, and God is righteous, the angels declare, Holy, holy
is the Lord God Almighty. He is holy. He is righteous. Ye know that everyone that doeth
righteousness is born of him. Now, John has just said, abide
in Christ. And the seducing of religion
is to teach you, to turn you away from Christ. Those who aren't
resting in Christ, those who take his name upon their lips,
What they do in seducing is they turn back to the Law of Moses. They turn you away from Christ
and resting in Him and believing Him that His blood is sufficient
to save us to the uttermost. And they turn back to the Law
of Moses to supplement their righteousness. It's like a supplemental
insurance. And Paul said to the Galatians,
he said, He said, having begun in the Spirit, Galatians 3.3,
having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Do you really need to turn back
to the law for your sanctification? Did Christ just justify you,
but now to sanctify yourselves you have to turn back to the
law? Having begun in the Spirit, is God now turning you back to
the flesh to save yourselves and to keep yourselves holy before
Him? Christ is sufficient. For Christ
alone is our righteousness, and he is our sanctification. As
Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 1.30, 1 Corinthians 1.30,
when he said, For of God, of him, are ye in Christ Jesus,
who is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. God has made Christ everything
to the believer. There is nothing that we need
outside of Christ to make ourselves holy and accepted with God. That's the good news, that's
the rejoicing that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ, that he
has provided everything necessary for our hope and our salvation
and our joy, and that's why we rejoice in him and continue to
preach him, because we have trust that he is sufficient. We don't
have to preach other things to to stir up the people and to
keep them engaged, we preach Christ because he shows them,
you're a sinner, you can do nothing apart from me. You can do no
thing apart from me. And so he teaches us that and
he draws us and keeps us stayed upon him. Remember, Christ said,
for you who want to look to the Law of Moses for your righteousness,
He said these very words in Matthew 5.20, I say unto you that except
your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven. And those people, while they
adhered to the Law of Moses in all parts, going even excessively
beyond what the law was saying in the flesh. I mean, they went
way out. They were baptizing couches and
chairs and all kinds of instruments and doing all sorts of things
just to make sure that they were righteous before God. But why
were they doing that? Why were they doing that? Paul
tells us in Romans 10, verses 3 and 4, for they being ignorant
of God's righteousness are going about to establish their own
righteousness which is by the law, established their own righteousness,
they have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. And he tells us that Christ,
for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to them
which believe. Them that believe on God, that
they believe him, he's the end of the law for righteousness.
He's everything you need, both your justification and your sanctification. Your wisdom, you're learning,
you're instruction, you're chastening, he's everything to the believer. And Paul went on to say, say
in Philippians 3, 8, 9, Yea, doubtless, and I count all things,
all my religion, all the good works that I did, 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 he
was suffering loss because he wasn't speaking like the Pharisees.
He wasn't speaking well of the law of Moses. He preached Christ
rather than circumcision. He preached Christ in the gospel
rather than looking to the law. And so he was suffering the loss
of all things. And do count them but dumb that
I may win Christ and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness,
not having supplemented my righteousness with any works that I have done,
but trusting him, my righteousness which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ. through the faithfulness
of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that
faith which He's given to me. So the faithfulness that Christ
works in us is that we abide in Him, we continue in Him, continue
looking to Him and trusting Him for all things, and He will evidence
that we are his, and he will evidence in those that are not
his their hatred for us. They will know, it will be evident
that they hate the light, they hate the truth, they hate the
God of the light and truth, and they hate his people. And it
will be evidence among them. As it says in Daniel 3.9, when
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego would not worship the idol that
Nebuchadnezzar had set up, it says that the form of his visage
was changed against them. It changed. And that's what they'll
do. They will evidence their hatred. And Christ said, it shall
turn unto you for a testimony. You're going to see it. You're
going to know that day when I abide in you and keep you faithful
to me, it shall turn to you for a testimony. And he said, Settle
it therefore in your hearts not to meditate before what ye shall
answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries
shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. All right, and that
brings us to our final point, the believer's blessing. The
believer's blessing. It says in Philippians 1, Philippians
1 verse 29 and 30, 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. So the bride of Christ which
has the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, making her alive, causing
her to look to Christ, to continue in Christ. She's going to bring
forth the fruit of her husband, and the Apostle reveals that
you who abide in Christ inevitably, you're going to suffer. You're
going to suffer persecution. It's going to be a cost to your
flesh, not for your salvation, but just as a result, he gives
it to you. He gives it to his people to
suffer persecution with him. And we see that, as I said, throughout
the churches. We saw John speaking of it, but
turn over to 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. And go to verse 3. 2 Thessalonians 1, verse 3. And Paul says, We are bound to
thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your
faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity or the love of every
one of you all toward each other aboundeth. So there you see,
I'm reading that just to show you that the Lord is producing
fruit. He's bringing forth the fruit
of love and the fruit of faith in these believers. Verse 4,
so that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for
your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations
that ye endure. And Paul's saying, we're boasting
of you. When we go to other churches,
we're speaking of the persecution that you brethren there in Thessalonica
are enduring. Because we're using that to say,
hold your ranks. In the face of the fire that's
coming at you, in the face of the persecution and the opposition
that comes against you for your faith, and your steadfastness
in the Lord Jesus Christ, hold your ranks." Stand fast. Don't
be shaken by it. Don't depart from the truth of
the gospel. You continue to preach Christ. Don't depart from Him. Hold your ranks. And the fruit
we see there is that patience and that fruit there, and it
says, verse 5, which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment
of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God
for which ye also suffered. And what a blessing that is that
God would count them worthy and give them that blessing and that
boasting there in the scriptures for us to see that the Lord has
kept them faithful so that we who may one day go through that
kind of persecution and opposition can remember he's kept them faithful. Lord, I trust, keep me, keep
me faithful to stand with you. keep us faithful to stand preaching
the gospel, to not depart, to not put on puppet shows and cantatas
and various things to entertain people and draw in crowds or
change our message that we can engage a younger crowd or try
and pull in this people or pull in that type of people who think
this. We're not moved by what the world wants to hear and what
they think that we should be saying. We preach Christ. Because
that's how sinners are saved, through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Remember in Acts 540, we read that, it was Acts 540 through
42, when they had called the apostles and beaten them. They beat the apostles, they
commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and
let them go. And they departed from the presence
of the council rejoicing. They departed, rejoicing that
they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And daily
in the temple and in every house they ceased not to teach and
preach the Lord Jesus Christ. So that beating only emboldened
them and encouraged them to preach Christ, because it showed, it
testified to them, we're speaking according to the truth. The Lord
has given us this ministry and we're going to preach this word.
And Paul said to the Philippians, he said, if I'm released, it's
the fruit of my labor. I'm going right back to preaching
the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not going to keep my mouth
shut. I'm not ashamed of these chains. As he said in verse 22,
but if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor. So
the Philippians, they saw what Paul had went through. If you
remember, I almost forgot this, but he was beaten and thrown
into prison when he was in Philippi. When he first went there, and
Lydia, the seller of purple, was saved, and then he went to
the jail, and that's where the jailer was saved. That was the
sea, that was the nucleus there, the beginning of that church
there, those people. And they saw, he said, that conflict
which he saw in me, and then the conflict which they now hear
to be in him was they're hearing that he's now also in prison
in Rome itself. And I don't know that any of
us will ever, we may never see that type of persecution in our
lifetime. We may not go to prison for preaching
Christ and believing the true and living God. But the Lord
God will always prove His work. He does a work and He will prove
it. And like what we read in 1 John, we see it in this letter
here in Philippians 1.6 when Paul said, being confident of
this very thing. that he which hath begun a good
work in you will perform it until the end, till the day of Jesus
Christ. He that began that work is going
to hold us. He's going to abide in us and
we're going to abide in him till the day of Jesus Christ when
he returns. And Peter said the same thing.
I just want you to see it. Go to 1 Peter 1. John said it in 1 John. Paul
says it there in Philippians 1 6. And then Peter says the
same words. It's a little differently, but
the same meaning, 1 Peter 1, verse 5 through 7. He says, We
are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time, wherein ye greatly rejoice,
though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through
manifold temptations. At the trial of your faith, being
much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be
tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory
at the appearing of Jesus Christ. He's going to keep, and just
as he has for 2,000 years, he's kept this gospel going and reaching
his saints, calling them out of darkness, calling them out
of the prison and the dominion of sin under the call of his
free grace. in the Lord Jesus Christ, so
that we know that salvation is not by our works of the flesh,
but by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's according to what He provided
for us in His Son, the salvation that is in Christ. Now, let me
just say that, you know, in speaking to some young people, I've heard
them say, you know, if I get married, I don't know that I
want to have kids. I don't know that I want to bring any children
into this world because it's such a wicked and corrupt world. And that's their choice. I remember
I said the same thing when I was about 18 or 19 years old myself.
And I didn't know if I wanted to bring kids into this fallen
world because of how wicked it appears. But whether we bring
forth kids or not, one thing that the Church of Christ will
do, the Bride of Christ, she will bear fruit. She is going
to bear that precious fruit of her Lord and her Savior. She's
going to confess the Lord Jesus Christ. She's going to bear the
fruits. of his righteousness through
faith and hope and love which he works in her and all the other
blessings to minister and serve with the brethren. And that's
what Paul was saying when he said, Only let your conversation
be as it becometh the gospel of Christ, that ye stand in one
spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the
gospel. So be encouraged, brethren. brethren
right there who suffered opposition and persecution but were kept
faithful. And so you know that that same
working that he worked in them is worked in you who believe
and hope in him and have no confidence in the flesh. You keep looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ till the day that he returns again
for you and his bride. All right, let's pray. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you. for the salvation which you've
provided in your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, help us. Help us to see
our need of the Lord Jesus Christ and reveal him to our hearts,
Lord, by your power, by your divine power. Give us faith and
hope and love for him. And Lord, that you would continue
to abide in us, Lord. Let us not just simply taste
that the Lord is good, but Lord, that we would indeed continue
feasting upon our Savior. For Lord, without him we can
do nothing. We pray that you would work faith
in the hearts of your people. Help us to remain steadfast in
you, Lord. Help us to abide in you, for
apart from you, Lord, we could do nothing and we would just
fall away. But Lord, we thank you for the work that you're
doing here. We thank you for the gospel. We thank you, Lord,
for teaching us, for the patience that you show with us, for instructing
us, chastening us as we have need of chastening, and showing
us mercy and tenderness and forgiveness in your Son, Jesus Christ. We
thank you for that, Lord. And Lord, we just ask that your
name would be glorified among us, no matter what opposition
or persecution arises against us, but that Christ and his gospel
would sound forth from this pulpit always, Lord, and that we would
not be turned away from you. We pray this. Also, Lord, we
ask that you would be kind. Remember your people that are
suffering with various illnesses, Lord, various troubles, various
sorrows. Lord, you know what we have need
of. Help us to see Jesus, to see
our Lord, and to see the comfort that he gives his people and
to know him. We pray this, Lord, that we also might be a comfort
to others in their time of need. It's in the Lord's name that
we pray and give thanks. Amen.