Go with me, if you would, again,
to Philippians chapter 1. Philippians 1. Tonight is one of those nights where It's just us. We stream over
the internet and we're streaming right now. And whoever's out
there on the internet watching, they can be one of us. They can
just come on in here and be one of us. But this is just us tonight. We have a brother who has not
been able to meet with us for quite some time now. because
of a heart condition and a blood condition that he's been suffering
from, and I'm talking about Brother Charles Carr. And I talk to him often. He and
I talk quite often. And every time he tells me, would
you please tell my brethren, every time, He said, I think about them.
He said, I run them through the pews in my mind where everybody
sits. And he says, would you please
tell my brethren how much I love them and miss them? And I always tell him I will,
but sometimes I fail to pass it along. Sometimes I tell you
and sometimes I fail to pass it along. But he says that every
time. Well, Tuesday I was talking to
him And he said it again. And he said he was reading Philippians
chapter one, and when he finished it, he thought, that's exactly
how I feel about that sweet congregation there. And he said, would you please
tell them that that's how I feel about them? And I said, Charles,
I will tell them. I will tell them." He was going
through some of the verses and talking about verse 18, where
it says, what then? Notwithstanding every way, whether
in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached and I therein do
rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. What difference does anything
else make? Christ is preached there. Christ is preached there. And
Paul said, in that, I rejoice. I greatly rejoice. Verse 19,
he said, for I know that this shall turn to my salvation through
your prayer and the supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ. Through
the supply of the spirit of Christ and through the prayer of his
people, Paul said, he is either going to deliver me temporarily
or eternally, but he's going to deliver me. Paul said, I suffer
through these things and have these trials and but he's gonna
deliver me. Either way, it's gonna turn to
my salvation. Oh, verse 21, Paul said, for
to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this
is the fruit of my labor. Yet what I shall choose, I want
not. I know not. For I'm in a strait
betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ,
which is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the
flesh is more needful for you. We need each other. This is the truth. If we are
going to abide in the flesh, we need each other. We desperately
need each other. We need to be here for each other.
So our brother told me, he said, I read that and I thought, that's
how I feel about my brethren there in that congregation. And when I got off the phone
with him, I thought, me too, me too. I had just had such an
encouraging conversation with him about you. And I turned over
to Philippians and I just started reading. And just the first few
verses, I believe it hit me like it hit him. And I thought, how
blessed we are to have brethren in Christ. How blessed we are. It's something we take for granted.
I tell you, last year, we realized that we took worship for granted.
We did, didn't we? We just assumed we'll get up
on Sunday morning and go to service and show up on Sunday night,
Wednesday night, and there are places in the world where God's
people have not been able to meet, and we had a little taste
of that. And there are brethren in the
world who do not get to show up and have the comfort and fellowship
of brethren like we do. And, and we take it for granted.
We are so blessed to have brethren in Christ, how sweet it is to
have the fellowship of light, precious faith. That, that You
know, somebody will say something, you know how it is when you run
into people in religion and they, they want to say something to
you and you just can't say amen to it. You know, they mean well
and, but how sweet it is to have brethren
of light, precious faith who will say something in regard
to our Lord and savior. And you can, from your heart,
say amen, brother. That's right. Behold how good
and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It's like the precious oil of
joy that flows from God to his people. The love, the grace,
the bond of peace that we have in Christ. So with all that being
said, I don't believe that the two of us are the only two people
who feel that way. He said that he felt that way,
and now I'm saying I feel that way, and I don't believe we're
alone. I believe these words speak on behalf of all of us
to each other. I believe these are all of our
words to each other. Because of Christ, because of
Christ, for Christ's sake, because of Him, unto Him, in Him, This
is our confession of love for him and for each other. All right,
let's read a few verses here. We're not gonna look at the whole
chapter, but just a few verses in the beginning. Verse one,
it says, Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ,
to all the saints in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi, with the
bishops and deacons, grace be unto you, and peace from God
our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. To all the saints
which are in Christ Jesus, he said, it doesn't matter where
in the world, where they are, it does not matter. This love
is not limited to this congregation. It started because of love for
this congregation, but it's not limited to love within this congregation. All the saints, Tell me if you
don't find this to be so. Tell me if you don't find this
to be so. The moment that you find out another human being
truly loves Christ, you meet somebody, and you find out that
they truly, truly love Christ for the God that He is, and they
honor Him. And they don't blaspheme Him,
they respect Him, and they bow to Him, and they acknowledge
Him for who He is, the God who left the throne and came down
to this sinful world to save His people, and He did it. The moment you find out that
another human being has received true faith in Christ and true
faith on Christ, faith that believes that he finished the work of
redemption. You hear somebody talk and they're
resting in the finished work of Christ accomplishment. totally looking to Him, totally
looking to His Word, totally looking to His blood. The moment
you find another human being that ascribes all the glory to
Christ and bows the knee to Christ and
worships Christ, not man, but Christ, not man's works, but
Christ, not unto us, only unto Him. Once you find that in another
person, you love that person. Once you realize that a person's
heart has truly been knit to Christ, your heart is truly knit
to that person. It is, it just is. Because of
our union with Christ, we have a true union with each other. We have a true union. And verse
one says, Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ,
and that's what we all are, We're willing servants. We are willing
bond slaves of our master, the Lord Jesus Christ. We're that
way because we've been made to be that way. We were lovingly
made willing in the day of his power. And it says, Paul and
Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in
Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons,
grace be unto you. That's what we want for each
other. I want God's grace to be on you. I want God's grace to be on you. And the reason is because I love
you. I sincerely do. This is me speaking from my heart. I
want God's grace to be on each one of you. God shed his grace
on thee. his kindness, his favor, and
it's because I love you. The Lord has put a love in me
for you. I would like to really confess that to you. I believe
you know it, but I also believe it's good to say it. What if a husband and wife never
said it? It's good to say it. I love you. I And I could just kind of go
on and on for a while, but I won't. I'll stay on track, but I love
you. And I thank the Lord for you.
And I wish God's grace on you. The grace of his love. I pray
God loves you. The grace of his favor, the grace
of his kindness. Grace be unto you, verse two
says, and peace. I want God's peace to be on you. You know what? You all come to
me every now and then, and naturally so, and you'll be troubled about
certain things, and we'll say together, well, let's pray about
it. We'll be praying about it. And when God brings peace to
you on it, I am so thankful. The peace of God's forgiveness,
the peace of God's blood, the peace of God's sacrifice, the
peace of His intercession, peace in every way, shape and form. I pray God's peace be on you. Verse two says, grace be unto
you and peace from God our Father. And from the Lord Jesus Christ,
verse three says, I thank my God upon every remembrance of
you. The word remembrance means mention. He said, I thank God. Every time
I hear your name mentioned, I would start mentioning names right
now, but it would only embarrass everybody. So I'm not going to
do it. But I have a long list of names that I can think of
that when somebody mentions their name, it makes me very happy. It makes me very thankful. Men and women, both, who I've
just been so blessed to know. Men and women who have been examples
in the gospel, just, Lifelong examples in the gospel, men and
women who've given their life and given everything that they
have for the ministry of the gospel and for the cause of Christ.
Is that to their glory? No, it's to his, but he made
them to be so. I can think of men who I have been
so blessed to have heard them preach the gospel. and you can
too, and we could start calling out names right now. Thank God
I was able to hear that man preach the gospel to me. Does this love for each other,
does that detract anything from our love for Christ? This love
that we're bringing up that we have for each other, does that
detract anything from our love for Christ? No, it does not. This love for each other is because
of our love for Christ. This love for each other evidences
and magnifies our love for Christ. I'll tell you this, I've mentioned
this to you before, but for a long time, I used to feel so guilty
for looking forward to seeing my brethren in glory. And the
reason is because I thought, well, that's stealing something
from my Lord. All attention must be on him. And the Lord brought so much
comfort to me from the scripture where the Lord said, uh, that
man said, Lord, what's the greatest commandment? And he said, well,
I'll give you to love the Lord, your God, with all your heart,
soul, and might, and love your brethren, love your neighbor. And in glory as He is, so are
we. We are all one with Him. It's
not only a great privilege, but it's a commandment that we love
each other. And our love evidences and magnifies
the love we have from Him and in Him and to Him. The Lord said, by this shall
all men know that you are my disciples. It's this beautiful
love that I'm gonna put in you for each other. As I have loved
you, you are going to love each other. You're going to. Verse
three, he said, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,
always in every prayer of mine for you all, making request with
joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until
now. That right there is the tie that
binds our hearts in Christ-like love. That is the tie that binds. It's our fellowship in the gospel. It's our fellowship in the good
news of Christ. Fellowship has been described
as fellows in the same ship. And that's what it is. That's
honestly what it is. It is a unity of spirit. It's a bond of oneness in Christ
and in the gospel of Christ. It's all of us being closed up
together in him. Look with me, if you would, at
first Corinthians chapter 12. First Corinthians 12, verse 12, it says, for as the body is one
and hath many members, meaning I'm one person, you're one person,
but I have fingers and toes and As the body is one and hath many
members, and all the members of that one body, being many,
are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all
baptized into one body." That means immersed into one body. That means God's Holy Spirit
has laid hold of us and put us in the body of Christ. We're
in Him. By one spirit, are we all baptized
into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we
be bond or free and have been all made to drink into one spirit. Oneness. We've been brought into
made to be one. One, oneness with each other,
one with Christ, one with the Spirit of Christ. Look with me
at Galatians chapter 3. Galatians 3 verse 26, it says, For ye are all the children of
God by faith in Christ Jesus." Meaning, if you want to know,
have I been brought into this body and counted among the body
of Christ? Here's how you'll know. God's
Spirit will give you faith in Christ Jesus. He will cause you
to look to Him alone. He'll shut everything else out. and it will be Christ alone for
all your hope. Verse 26, for you are all the
children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as
have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is
neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither bond nor free.
There is neither male nor female for you are all one in Christ
Jesus. Oneness in Christ Jesus. That is, that's the joy of God's
people. That's the joy. That's the beauty.
Look with me at Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians 4 verse 1 says, I therefore the prisoner of the
Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith
you are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering,
forbearing one another in love. And let me read that again, okay?
I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you
walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called. How is that? How do we walk worthy of the
vocation that we've been called into? Verse two, with all lowliness. You know, the apostle Paul said,
esteem each other better than yourself. With all lowliness
and meekness, with long suffering, patience, patience, patience. Oh, how Christ has been patient
with us. He's so patient with us. Lord,
give us patience for each other. He said at the end of verse two,
forbearing one another in love. Verse three says, endeavoring
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. That means
at all costs, whatever it takes, endeavor to keep the unity of
the Spirit in the bond of peace. Verse four says, there is one
body and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of
your calling, there is one Lord, There's one faith, there's one
baptism, there's one God and Father of all who is above all
and through all and in you all. Christ in us is the hope of glory. And Christ in us is the bond
of our unity. He's our fellowship. And we thank
God for that. We truly thank God for that,
and I pray that He'll bring us to this calling that we've been
called to, this calling of lowliness and meekness and patience and
striving for unity and keeping everything on Him, all eyes on
Him. Go with me back to Philippians
1. Verse three, he said, I thank
my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer
of mine for you all making request with joy for your fellowship
in the gospel from the first day until now. Fellowship in
the gospel. What is the gospel? What is the
gospel? It's this right here, 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. That is the good news. He started
the work and he will finish the work. He finished the work. of redemption on the cross of
Calvary. He finished the work of redemption. He redeemed his people. He made
the payment for his people. He secured his people and he
will finish the work of gathering his people. He is bringing them
generation by generation and he is calling them. He secured
them. But He is in the process of currently
calling His people and gathering His people. And that work that
He started, He will finish. He will bring all of His redeemed
people to Himself. It's His work alone, and all
glory and praise goes to Him for it. So verse three, I thank
my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer
of mine for you all, making request with joy, for your fellowship
in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident
of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you
will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ, even as it is
meet." And that means right. It's good. Even as it is me for
me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart
in as much as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation
of the gospel, you all are partakers. And if your Bible has a center
margin, you'll see those last three words translate with me
of grace. You all are partakers with me
of grace. That's our ministry right here.
You know, we have a ministry here and that's our ministry. It is
the defense and confirmation of the gospel. that we're all
partakers of together. Our collective desire is that
nothing will creep in and distract us from the simplicity that is
in Christ. And I'll, you know, if we wanted
to have a statement of faith or who knows what, if you want
to have a, what's our deal here in this congregation? Here it
is. Our desire is that nothing will creep in and distract us
from the simplicity that is in Christ. We want to keep our eyes
on Christ. And we do that with the Word,
with the Word of God, the Word that guards the message of grace,
the Word that confirms the message of grace. It's not by works of
righteousness, which we've done, Christ alone, grace alone, faith
alone, the Word of God alone, the glory of God alone. We're
all partakers of this grace together. And verse 8 says, For God is
my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of
Jesus Christ. And bowels means heart. He said,
God is my record. God knows. How greatly I long
after you all. How greatly I want you all to
be in the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, David is a man
after my own heart. He's in my heart. And Paul said,
God is my record. How greatly I long after you
all to be in the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in verse nine, he said this,
I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge
and in all judgment, your love. He said, I pray that your love,
your love for God. And I pray this, I cannot. I can't do anything spiritually
for myself. God has to do something for me.
I'm at his mercy. If he's gonna save me, I'm at
his mercy. If he's gonna keep me, I'm at
his mercy. If he's gonna do anything with me, I'm at his mercy. If
he's gonna grow me, I'm at his mercy. And so are you. And so
I pray and I sincerely pray that God will grow and increase your
love for God And I pray that God will grow and increase your
heart for him and your heart for his worship and your heart
for his people. I pray that God will bring us
back. I pray God will keep bringing
us back because if the Lord doesn't bring us back, we're not coming. I pray God will keep us. This
is life. We're headed towards eternal
life. Nothing else is more important. Lord, keep us, channel us, filter
us. Why, Gabe? So people could, you
can have a packed crowd to preach to? No, because I have you in
my heart. And my great desire is that you'd
be in the heart of Christ. Lord, keep us, grow this love
for Christ, his word, his gospel, his people, his worship. grow
us. Verse nine, this I pray that
your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in
all judgment that you may approve, prove things that are excellent,
that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ. He said, I pray that you might
grow in knowledge and in maturity and in sincerity. And don't we want to grow in
those things? Don't we want to grow in those things? I'm telling
you, I want to grow in knowledge. I've been called to a position
where I need to grow in knowledge. I desperately need to grow in
the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I want
to grow in maturity. Don't we want to not be as little
children, you know, here and there? And I want to grow as
a mature follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. But I tell you
this, I want to grow in sincerity. I want to grow in sincerity. I want to worship Him sincerely. As we sing these songs, some
of them are not that great, I'll be honest with you. Every song
we sing almost has a line that I want to X, but if I start doing
that, we'll stay confused, we won't know what to sing, we just
get through it, we know that's not exactly right, and we move
on. That's just a man who wrote that song. But the words that
are good, I want to enter into what I'm singing. I want to sing
unto the Lord in sincerity. And I want to read in sincerity
and not just get through the sentence and make sure I said
that fella's name right. I want to enter into what I'm
reading. And even if it's not that good, I want to pray with
sincerity. knowing that the Spirit of God
is making intercession for me with groanings that cannot be
uttered. I want to preach in sincerity. I want to worship in sincerity. I want to worship God in sincerity. I want to love Him in sincerity. And I want to love you in sincerity. And not just say it, I want to
do it. I pray that we all might, verse
11, this is our last verse. I pray that we all might be filled
with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto
the glory and praise of God. If we are going to be anything,
we're only gonna be it by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise
of our God. And that's the heart of our fellowship.
That's the heart of our unity and the heart of our love. Every
child of God will say amen to that. Every child of God. It's all by Jesus Christ. to the glory and praise of God. Anything that happens along these
lines, it's all unto Him. So if your heart has been caused
to say that, this is all by Jesus Christ, to the praise and glory
of God, if your heart has been caused to say that, then I sincerely
would like for you to know that I love you. I do and I thank
the Lord for you. Thank the Lord for being able
to worship with you and fellowship with you. And I just I just thank
God for you and I pray for you. Paul said, Brethren, pray for
us. Pray for me as as we continue here. Pray for me in this calling.
Pray for me as I study. Pray for me and I pray for you. And I pray the Lord will be with
us. And I love you, and I believe you love me. All right. Brother
Dwight, you come and lead us in our closing hymn.