Philippians 1, Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ
Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, the
overseers and deacons, grace to you and peace from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrance
of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making my
prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from
the first day until now. And I'm sure of this, that He
who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at
the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this
way about you all because I hold you in my heart, for you are
all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in
the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my
witness, how I yearn for you with all the affection of Christ
Jesus." This is where we are in this text. And we've come
to a place where we're going to pick up the pace a little
bit in the next few weeks, but I don't want you to show me your
hands, but I ask the question how many of you Internally, would
you say, I have been reading Philippians. I've been reading it. I've been
looking at it. I've been letting the Lord minister
to my heart throughout these weeks with this Word. If there's something that you
cannot do in the context of your Christian faith, there's one
thing you cannot do, and that is forsake the Word of God. There
are many things that you should not do, but there are some things
that you cannot do, and one of them is forsaking the Word of
God. Specifically, as you are growing as a people, as a body,
as a church, you must be in the Word of God. Without God's Word,
there is no grace in your life. Without God's Word, there is
no encouragement for your soul. Without God's Word, there is
no protection over temptation and the sin and the enemy. Without
God's Word, there is no wisdom. Without God's Word, there is
no worship. Without God's Word, we wither
and waste away. And let me tell you how long
it takes. One day. One day without God's Word will
put us into a famished place. Just like one day without eating
makes us unable to move, feeling sick, feeling tired, feeling
grumpy. What is the consequence of malnourishment
in the Word of God? Friends, it is not my job to
feed you, but rather your job to eat as you are fed the Word
of God. Because it's not something that
I nor any other brother or sister among us can make you do. But
the Holy Spirit of God empowers you to devour and to hunger His
Word. And so if you find yourself here
today and you say, I have not had time to be in the Word or
be in prayer, you should take time off from your job to pray
and be in the Word or you will fail miserably in this life. Here, Paul is still introducing
the concept of unity, of the Christian gospel of Christ and
the Christian community of Christ, the church. We saw just five
weeks ago as Brother Jesse brought the word out of Acts when he
talked about the birth of the church of Philippi. and what
it cost Paul to suffer greatly for the sake of gospel expansion,
that it wasn't a church planting effort where people got together,
raised some money, bought a building, did some cool stuff, called it
worship, and everything's hunky-dory and in the past, and look at
there, they're on their fifth campus. Friends, I'll suggest
to you, it's not always this way, but most churches who continue
to grow at such a rate that they don't even know each other, at
such a rate that they're known in the community for everything
but the truth of the Gospel. I would suggest that those churches
were not planted by God. Now that's a hard dogmatic statement. I didn't say all, I said many.
How do we know? We discern and we divide all
that we hear, all that we see, all that we know about ourselves
and others who claim to be in Christ by the Word of God. If what I say to you today cannot
be proven contextually in the letter, if you tore out Philippians,
I can preach to you the book of Philippians without any reference
to any other place in Scripture, because that's how they got it.
And the arguments that are made in this letter, along with other
letters, even though there may be reference or allusion to even
the Old Testament, is not necessary to understand the simplicity
and the argument of the teaching of the apostles. You could tear
out the book of Philippians and you could understand it clearly.
If what I preach to you is not clearly proven through the text
of Philippians, it is false teaching. It is a lie and it is not of
God. And that should be the case for
every sermon you hear, beloved. For every thought that comes
into your mind as we study the Bible in our own time and we
go, oh, I think that's what that means. If it's not there, it
doesn't mean that. We do not infer based on cool
ideas. God does not need me to be creative
nor eloquent. God does not need you to rush
into some type of Methodical idealism that you've got to get
into a supernatural state to really see the point of the text.
The text is pointed enough and it's simply understood. Why would
you say all these things? Because friends, just this morning
I have been inundated with individuals who I have eavesdropped over
their conversation as I was in town earlier about the condition
and the demise of the church of Jesus Christ. From denominationalism
to the Word of God to what one man called these rock concerts
calling it worship. And I remember being on the other
side of that table and years ago I would have stood up and
gone over to them and would have said something similar to this.
You don't understand that what we're doing is reaching a generation
that you can't reach. And I would have been wrong.
What we were doing is reaching a people with everything but
the gospel and wondering why they put their tails in the wind
when it went away. Bait and switch doesn't work
for folks because only when God brings them to life through the
hearing of His Word do they become part of the church. And friends, we will all stand
accountable before God with our mouth silenced when we stand
before Him in glory. And as the beloved of God, we
will hear these words, my good and faithful servant, opposed
to the words that Jesus will say to all else, depart from
me. And they will say, but we knew
you. And he will say, I never knew you. Paul is excited, thankful, joyful,
full, satisfied, and complete with his remembrance of the church
in Philippi. He remembered what it cost him
to see the gospel planted there. He remembered how he was beaten
and chained. He remembered as he and Silas
praised God in the chains of the dungeons, how the chains
fell off and the doors opened, and then by God's grace, they
stayed. He remembered that the miracle
was not the chains falling off, or the doors opening, or the
people staying, but the miracle was God's sovereignty over the
salvation of the jailer and his family. And who knows? I bet Epaphroditus, the one who
was sent, some of the gift that was sent to Paul through a papyrus,
I bet he was brothers and friends with this jailer and his family.
They knew each other intimately. There was a joy that happened
there. And Paul is remembering these things as he's in chains
once again in Rome. Having already defended the Gospel,
as we'll see, Paul has reason for pity, but he is full of joy,
and that joy is lacking in nothing. There's a deep-felt affection
by God's work in the heart of Paul. If I were to summarize
what we'll do today, I'd do it this way. And though this affection
is God's work, it's in and through the Philippian church, and it
is evident that the work is successful because the gospel is being proclaimed. What do I mean by that? As you'll
see, God's work is certain in the life of these people because
their ministry to Paul continued the gospel expansion. Because
the gospel went out, therefore God was with them. Let's put
that to the test before we get started today. Is God with you? Does the gospel go out in your
life? is your biggest pulse when you wake up in the morning? Lord, your will be done in the
expansion of your church. Or have we come to the place
of American Christianity church where everything we do, even
in our prayer life, revolves around us? Even our earnest desire
to see others prosper in the Word, is it so selfish because
it gives us joy to see their joy? We should see it. This is just a test, it's not
pointed. Do we see our lives making much,
raising the banner of the fame of God through the gospel of
Jesus Christ? If God be with us, we will grow
in the expansion of the gospel as well as growing deep in the
roots of the gospel as a people. Because the effects of growing
in the Word of God is not in an intellectual journey, but
a zeal and a heart that cannot be stopped by any oppression,
persecution, or even the face of death. Bring the sword in the name of
Jesus. That is the cry of many of the
martyrs through the years. Even some who recanted as the
fire caught their beards aflame. Later to just go and say, I was
in the flesh and feared for my life, but no more. I stand on
the gospel of Jesus. And they burn them again. This
time their body would be consumed. Paul is joyful. He says that
the work of God, including the affection He has for these people,
is being proclaimed because He has defended the gospel as He
is in chains. He says there in verse 6-8, And
I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will
bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. As a way
of reminder, that is not an individualistic verse. This letter was not written
to Bob in Philippi. This letter was written to all
the saints, the elders and the deacons in Philippi. All the
saints. So you in this is a plural pronoun. Not an individual personal pronoun.
The pronoun you in Paul's writing in the Philippian letter is not
personal. It is plural. So the context
of everything that Paul is teaching here is about the body of Christ
and the church of Jesus Christ doing that which the church does
in plurality, but unity. In diversity, but focus. What do you mean? We all may
have roles and responsibilities, but those roles and responsibilities
are for the expansion of the gospel of Jesus as it's a ministry
to the church through whom alone the gospel comes. You realize
that? I had a conversation with a brother
just a few weeks ago about my statement that God's grace is
only given through the church. Because it sounded a little Romanistic. And he just wanted me to clarify.
And in rebuttal, as a possible what if, he said, well, what
about the Bible that's in the hotel room? Can God not save
through that? Absolutely. But who put it there?
A mystical fairy? The Bible fairy? No, the church
put it there. Someone who's the body of Christ
put it there. And only the devil doesn't share
the Word of God. The enemies of the cross don't
expand the gospel. The enemies of the cross put
the Book of Mormon in the hotel room, of which I have a very
large collection of. Very large collection. Especially
when we go to conferences. Can I have yours? Well, that's
cruel. I also take entire displays out
of restaurants if they're not gospel focused. In the bay, all
the cults put up all their stuff. How many of these you think they'd
let me have? Well, they want them all gone. Throw them right in
the garbage. Would you let your children eat
out of the rat poison box? You shouldn't allow false teaching
to purvey the community in which you live. They're free. I didn't steal
it. Paul is saying to the church,
God began a good work in you and He will bring it to completion. What does that mean? Remember
last week, just a way of reminder to get in the right mindset.
It's not about your sanctification. It's not what he's talking about
here. It could be inclusive of it, the sanctification of the
church, but the fullness is the good work of God in partnering
in the ministry. partnering in prayer, partnering
in faith, partnering in unity. This is what he's talking about.
And it's not that it's getting better and finally, ta-da, we've
succeeded. No. We keep doing the work of
God until we leave this earth. Until Christ comes back, the
church is in perpetuity. We believe in the perpetuity
of the church. In other words, it's perpetually existent. Forever,
eternally, but on this earth it will always exist. It will
always be the body of Christ. Always. As long as there is a
human being living and breathing on this side of heaven, there
will be the church of Jesus Christ in some respects in this world. And when Christ comes back, our
work is done. and it will be complete. That's the point of
that text. How many times have we internalized that and made
it mine? Well, I just got a bad attitude,
but God's not through with me yet. Well, that's true, but this
verse doesn't apply to that. How do you know? Because Paul
explains it. He's talking about their partnership in the Gospel,
the grace of God that's given to them. His joy is complete,
so He's confident in this. And so Paul has certainty. He
has a confidence there in verse 6 that God has produced the Word,
first of regeneration, in the body of Philippi because, how
is he certain of that? Because they are able and eager
to do the work of the ministry, the work of the expansion of
the gospel. They're eager for that. It's not a personal faith
for individuals, but a faith that yields always to the community
of the body of Christ. Let me say that in a different
way. The work of regeneration by God that Paul is so confident
has happened in Philippi is not for the sake of individuals in
Philippi, but for the body of Christ in Philippi, for the whole.
So it yields. Our individual faith yields for
the sake of our brothers and sisters in Christ. It yields
for the sake of the lost out there who need to hear the gospel.
Our comfort yields. It stops. It goes another way.
It sets on the side. It goes into the pit stop. Our
belief systems, our personal interests, they yield. They fall
away. They go off. And they stand on
the sidelines as we as the church. always represent each other,
always represent our head, and we're always doing the work which
God has called us to do. If we're not, you ask the question. I
had a good meeting yesterday with some clergy around here.
It was about eight of us in a room for about three hours, and it
was a very blessed time. It was a very encouraging time.
And no, none of them are part of what you would call the mainstream
church in this city. They're all part of obscure congregations
that some I've never even heard of, didn't even know they existed. But as we're talking and as we're
looking, we begin to realize that there's
a strange need among the church to have a unified purpose. And somebody asked the question,
several questions asked, one of which was very profound, but
this is not it. Somebody asked the question, what can we do
together Keep this in mind. What can we do together that
we can partner in ministry? Somebody says, well, what about
we have a worship time on a Sunday night or a Wednesday night and
invite all the churches and we come and sing praises to God.
Is that a good thing? Yeah, it would be a good thing.
It would be a good thing. I mean, it wouldn't be bad to
sing praises to God together. But I wrote out, and then another
person had a suggestion, why don't we do this together? Why
don't we try this together? And at the outside margin of
my notes, I wrote why. For what purpose? You see where
I'm going? If we are together on mission,
as the Philippian church was with Paul, then everything we
do we need to ask, is this part of the mission of Christ or is
it not? If it's not, it's okay. It can
be part of the mission of Christ in our time together, but it's
got to be purposeful. But are we doing this and will
this accomplish that which we have been called to accomplish?
I think if we filter everything through that test as a people,
We'll find we're not as busy with ministry as we should be
or as we could have been. And we'll find that most of the
things we thought were ministry weren't ministry at all. God gets the credit for the glory.
God gets the credit and the glory because God has given them the
grace to be His children. God has given them the grace
to become His followers. God has given them the grace
to bestow their gifts to Paul for the sake of the gospel, for
the sake of the gospel in Rome, which we know took off like fire. Because they had mutual ministry. And the overwhelming joy in Paul's
heart and review is toward God, not them. I thank my God in all
my remembrance of You. Always. This is evidenced by
thanksgiving over the reality of God's working in the Philippians.
And over the reality of the fact that they are the ones who are
doing the work. And over the reality of the fact
that Paul is in a place of suffering. Paul is joyful. Paul is thankful. Paul is looking at God's face,
not their face. I made this statement just a
few weeks ago. that when one part of the body
reaches out to your life, reaches into your life, touches your
life, then the body has ministered to you. Sort of think about it for a
minute. If I need to go somewhere, do my arms not go with me? If someone were to confront me
at a gas pump and say, you know what, you're stupid. And I got
angry and my right hand slapped their face. Who's in trouble? My hand. They're going to put a handcuff
around this finger and cuff it to that one. They're going to
take the hand and put it in jail. And I have to visit my hand on
the weekends. No, I'm going to jail for slapping somebody. Am
I not? It's no different with the body
of Christ. If the hand reaches into your life, the feet have
come also. And most importantly, the head
has come. When we don't like that, it's
because we're selfish. Can I say it? How do you know
that? Because I am selfish. When I'm
hurting, when I'm in need, I've got a specific way in which I
think I should be ministered to. Don't you? This is the way
I want it. I need some things and this is
what I need. You know what that does? That doesn't do anything
for us. But all of a sudden, out of the
blue, there comes some part of the left toe, the left foot,
maybe a pinky toe. You know, I don't need a pinky
toe right now. And come to find out that's what you needed. Because
as the pinky toe arrived, Jesus the head was there. And the whole
body was there. And Paul was thankful to God
for the provision of his body through Jesus Christ. This joy
is examined by the aspect that Paul begins to talk about himself
and Timothy as a slave to the church. as a slave to Jesus Christ. And then this theme will carry
through. It's important. I know you've said this three
weeks in a row, but it's important that you keep this in mind because
it is the glue that holds the rest of this letter together.
There are not individual doctrines. There's one whole pure doctrine
of the letter to the Philippians, and it is about being a slave
to Jesus Christ and the consequences thereof. And so, When Christ returns,
our work will be complete. But until then, we give our gifts
for the maturing of the body of Christ, for the expansion
of the growth of the gospel. But now, this partnership that
Paul discusses, that he references, this partnership, all things
in common, the idea of koinonia that I mentioned last week, that
we are learning that it's not about hanging out together, it's
about every aspect of our lives. Fellowship means that we are
concerned with a deep obligatory concern for each other. We're
concerned and therefore we put our gifts and our time into that
concern. We do that which is required
of us because we have all things in common. If I'm hurting, you're
hurting. If I'm rejoicing, you're rejoicing.
If I'm in need of prayer, then you pray. If you're in need of
prayer, then I pray. We pray. We don't hear someone
in need of prayer and go, well, I don't really need anything.
I'm not going to be praying until I need something. Then I'll just sort
of add them into it. We don't do that. We also don't do that as
a lack of concern in our own lives for each other, for the
lost. We've come a long way in our
world. from zeal and passion. And I
don't know what's happened in the last 200 years, but Christianity
has become a joke. And I know why. Because we do
the stuff that we call ministry, we teach the truth that we call
Scripture, and there's none in either. Paul says this, I know that God
began the work and He will complete it in you. He will carry it until
the end. It is His work. He has done it.
He will carry it until the end. And because of this, because
of my certainty, I am right, verse 7, I am right to feel this
way about you. What way? God has completed this
work in you. I'm right to love you with a
great affection. I'm right to have joy when I
think of you. I'm right to praise God on my
face in my prison because of you. I'm right to do that. I'm
right to feel this way. It is right for me to have these
feelings about you. And don't think that when He
says, feel this way, it's about His emotions. It includes it. But we know that he's not about
his emotions because he talks about what he knows about who
God is and about what God has done, certainly with evidence. That's why he feels the way he
does. It would have been easy for Paul
to go, if y'all love me so much, come get me out of prison. If
y'all love me so much, bribe somebody, get me out of here.
He didn't say that. He says, I'm in chains for you. I'm thankful for God's provision
in your ministry to me. And if you don't know the end
of the book, I hate to give it away, He turns it down. He turns down their gifts. This
time. It's right for me to feel this
way about you. This attitude is not about Paul's emotional
feelings, as I said, but it's better understood as a righteous,
moral, and honorable, praiseworthy obligation. I feel this way about
you because this attitude that I have toward you is the same
attitude that Christ had toward me. Doesn't he say that in a
minute? Have this mind among you, which
is yours in Christ Jesus, that though being equal with God,
he did not take equality with God, something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing, a slave, obedient, even unto death on
a cross. Does he not say that? And in the same way, he's saying
that I, Paul and Timothy, my brother, we are slaves as Christ
is a slave to you for the sake of your salvation. I also am
a slave for you as I suffer in chains. for the sake of Your
salvation that is being proven by the grace of God, evidenced
by Your concern for me. So I know God began a good work
in you. He will not fail you. He will
not let you down. He will keep you in the faith.
He will preserve you until the end for all of eternity as we
stand together to the praise of His glorious grace. I am right
to feel this way about you, beloved." This is what Paul is saying.
Paul is not... confused about his feelings.
Paul knows that God put in their hearts a joy and a zeal for prayer
and supplication and ministry to Paul. And in turn, his heart
reciprocates with the exact same supernatural spontaneous love. You say, well, I feel this way
about you. And look at that word, because. There's some differences in some
translations here, but in the context of the whole argument,
the grammar here in the Greek, it gives you what I'm laying
out for you is really the way it should be understood. Because. There should be no but there.
Because. Or no and. It's not a continuation. It's a causation. It is right
for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in
my heart. And the next word should say
for. Not and. For. For you are all partakers with
me of grace. So I feel this way about you
because I hold you in my heart because you are partakers with
me of grace. You see now what's happening?
Paul wasn't this honorable guy who just decided to be a loving
dude and really learn how to praise God in the hard times,
learn how to praise God with hard time people. Paul was a
guy who had been transformed by the power of God's grace through
the gospel of Jesus Christ and there was no other outcome in
his heart but absolute zeal and love. That's why when Jesus is
confronted by the Pharisees, and I think it's the Pharisees,
the Sadducees, some of those people, and they try to trick
Him, and they say, what is the greatest of all the commandments?
And what does He say? We know this. He says, the greatest
of all the law, all 614 of them, is to love the Lord your God
with all your heart and mind and strength. And some variants
say soul. But and also the second of equal
standing. Wait a minute. He said the greatest.
That is the greatest. But if the greatest applies in
your life, this also shall be true unto the same extent. That's
what Jesus is saying. That you will love your neighbor
as you love yourself. So we cannot worship God. James
would say, how do praises and curses come out of the same mouth?
He's not talking about profanity when we stomp our toe. And then
praising Jesus when it heals. I mean, that might be inclusive
of it, but more or less, how do we say we love the Lord our
God and we hate our neighbor because their flowers fall into
our yard? This is the text, by the way,
which says do all things without grumbling and complaining. That's
going to be a good day. I'm working up to it. I might
have to skip it and come back until I'm ready, but you know. I hold you in my heart. What
does that mean? One of the brothers in town gives
me a lot of gift cards, not a gift card, but cards. At the end of
every season, he calls and says, this company is throwing away
all these cards. I've got like four boxes of Hallmark cards.
After church, if any of you want to dig through them, I'll pull
them out here and you all can dig through them. You can take them. And
I read through a few of them this morning. I was looking at
them as I was moving them out of the chairs. And I'm looking at them, I'm
going, this is so silly sounding. I mean, it took 20 years for
that poet to come up with that awesome gift. You are special. Is that true? Is that really, is that what
Paul is saying here? You're special, I hold you in
my heart. That sounds like a Valentine card, doesn't it? No, it's not
what he's saying at all. This isn't some superficial stab
at a card. This means that Paul, in the
core of his being, has them at the top of his mind. In so much that his affection
for them affects everything he does in his life. What's that
look like? It's like when Robin and I were separated. We weren't married
yet. We had distance between us. She was in matter. 23 good
miles. And I was in Claxton. We had
60 minutes for lunch. And I'd drive over there, pick
her up, go through the drive-through, take her back, let her eat her
food at work, and I'd eat it on the way back. Waste of gas, waste
of time, waste of money. And one of those times I had
a wreck. Going back for ranch dressing. But our affection for each other
demanded stupid, out of the way, silly, laying down our lives for what
was comfortable. And that was just lunch. Paul holds them in his heart.
It means that there is a security there for Paul's affection for
them. It can't wane. It can't falter.
It's there. It's there. There's nothing that's
going to stop it. He holds them in his heart. It's secure. They and the affection he has
for them is secure. It's a solid presence. It's a
supernatural kinship that's evident, not just between Paul and the
Philippians, but Paul and the Ephesians, and Paul and the Corinthians. And between us. And between us and Christ. They had an obligation that caused
great concern for each other, great agony when there was grief,
great joy when there was praise, especially in the sense of meeting
each other's needs for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Paul was not looking for his success, but he was certain of
the success of God's gospel in their lives. And in saying this, Paul reveals,
I hold you in my heart." He is saying, I am telling you, this
is Christ's power. Because what was Paul's heart
toward these people before he went to Damascus? He wanted them
to die. See how much more powerful that
is when you keep in mind who's writing? This is a man that years
before was so zealous for the extinguishing of the Christian
faith that had he come to Philippi and found Christians, he would
have had them arrested, had their property seized and given to
the authorities, and their children sold into slavery. And then the
Romans would have fed them to animals for fun and sold tickets. And Paul was fine with it. Well,
his name was Saul then. And now He goes from this to,
I hold you in my heart with all the affection of Jesus Christ.
I yearn for you. This is the power of Christ to
unify His people even when prison separates them. even when calamity
separates, even when aggravation separates, even when harsh words
or misunderstood conversations or tacky cards separate them. Paul said to the Corinthians
in 2 Corinthians 7, he refers in chapter 6 to the fact that
he had such love and zeal for them that he had them in their
hearts. And in chapter 7, He said, because
you are in our hearts, we would die for you. And we will live
for you. So as we live, we live for you,
and if we die for you, we die for you, but we'll die with you. Understand, this is so much more
than language to sound good. There's no flattery in the Word
of God. Paul is joyful that this work
has been accomplished by God. This heart, this power of Christ
puts this affection in the heart of Paul. And the same power of
Christ puts this affection in the heart of us. For each other,
for the saints. For those, as we learned in Jude,
who doubt that we are to be patient. Teaching them patiently. Showing
them their error. Patiently. The Gospel creates a unity around
the Gospel. The Gospel creates a unity around
the body of Christ, inclusive of all the saints in the city
of Philippi, and all the saints in the city of Claxton, and all
the saints in the state of Georgia, and beyond. Paul, in some sense,
is showing that his suffering is for their sake. that if nothing
else, at this moment in this time, as Paul is bound by chains,
he is ministering on their behalf in prayer. And that that prayer
will be effectual in growing them and maturing them to continue
to do that which God had prepared in their hearts for them to do
before the world began, so that they might walk as a witness
to the glory of the gospel. So Paul, And the power of Christ
is suffering for the saints. He says, and I hold you in my
heart. I feel this way, it's right for
me to feel this way about you because I hold you in my heart,
because you are all partakers, or for you are all partakers
with me of grace. And in the very next phrase,
partakers with me of grace, get what he's saying,
you are partakers of grace, I'm partaking of grace, and you are
partaking of grace with me, both in my imprisonment. So Paul's
saying, you are partaker of grace with me in my imprisonment, So
God's grace is part of my imprisonment and God's grace is in you in
my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. Are you seeing this? This flies
against the face, against the wind of everything we're taught
in society. of what most people are taught
even in this world in churches at this very same time on this
eastern seaboard. Some people are looking for God
to do something for them tomorrow. To give them a hope tomorrow.
To give them a way out of the suffering. Something that God's
going to do. Paul is saying God has already
done it. Paul is saying that God has already
done that. He's done the good work. He's
going to hold it and complete it. He's going to secure it.
You're securing me. I'm securing you. We're securing
Christ. We are not going to fail in the work that God has called
us to, even if we die. He talks about that here in this
letter. It would be far better for me that I go and be with
Christ, but for your sake I stay. For to live is Christ, but to
die is far better, says the Greek. But for your sake I'll stay,
and that is good for you. I know I will stay. I know it
is not time for me. But what do we see him writing
Timothy from prison, sick with Luke, tending to his illness?
I have finished the race. I have run the race. I have finished
it. I have obtained the prize. I have done this that God has
called me to do. And I am being poured out like
a drink offering. I'm cold. Bring my coat. These are personal letters. Bring
my coat, Timothy. And bring John Mark, the guy
that I didn't want to go with me, and so me and Barnabas split
ways and he went with Barnabas. I didn't want John Mark coming.
I need John Mark now. These are Paul's last days. And bring with you, bring with
you John Mark. He's vital to the ministry that
we still have to do. He's in prison on his deathbed.
And he's saying, we still got ministry to do. John Mark's imperative
for that ministry. Bring him here. You come here.
Bring my jacket. I'm cold. And bring the papers
that we began to write. And bring the empty paper. We've
got to write some more. In God's grace, Paul was a partaker
in all of those things. Paul was able to proclaim and
perceive such an affection for these people because of God's
grace in him. both in my imprisonment and in the defense of the confirmation
of the gospel. For God is my witness." He didn't say, as. He said, is. How I yearn for
you with all the affection of Christ. Paul has a deep affection
for these Christians because of their bond in Christ. But
also that God's grace, the effectual agent in every bit of this, is
a means to hold this high affection together. Paul's chains are forever
on his mind. He talks about them. My chains,
my chains, my chains. Though bonded, bound. So he hadn't
forgot about his chains. Some people would like to say,
well, he wasn't really chained up. I'd suggest his hands were
chained where he couldn't write. So what did he do? Preach to
the guards and convert them and then they'd write for him. That's
how that worked in some situations. Who knows? Maybe it was a little
bit more like being in house arrest, or like we would think,
and maybe he had the freedom. We don't know. We just know there
are some of Paul's writings that were done by scribes and some
by his own hand. And who those people are, are
not significant. Because God wrote it either way. And Paul knows that his chains
in all reality are the grace of God. These chains are God's
favor to me. This imprisonment is God's merciful
gift. So when you think of grace the
way it is actually defined, isn't that a little strange? God's
gift to me is this prison sentence. God's gift to me is this beating.
God's gift to me is this stoning. God's gift to me is this death
when my head rolls. God's favor toward me. God's blessing me is my imprisonment. And you, Philippians, have joined
with me and my imprisonment is a gift to you. It's all by God's
grace. And though Paul's hands are chained,
his heart is not chained. His worship is not chained. His
word is not chained. And the gospel is not bound. If nothing else, on the receiving
end, God's grace in the imprisonment of Paul, just for Paul, was to
spur the heart of the Philippians to come to his aid that he would
not take to remind him of the power of
the gospel no matter the circumstances. Paul, you're in prison now just
like you were in Philippi. Don't forget what happened there. Uh-oh, who's knocking at the
door? But the very ones whom you suffered for there. Don't forget, I got this. What did Jesus say to Paul? My
grace is sufficient for you. In response to what? Paul asked
Him for healing. God said, no, I will not heal
you. My grace in your suffering is
enough. My gift of your suffering is
enough. The cancer you have, You're welcome. The death of your spouse? I'll
receive the praise. Your child just died in a car
wreck? You're welcome. And that's not sarcasm. It's a gift of God. How? Why do we exist on this
earth anyway? to the praise of His glorious
grace in order to show the principalities and the powers and the rulers
of this present darkness that Jesus Christ is a victor, not
a victim. No weapon fashioned against us
shall stand. No foundation of the gospel of
Jesus Christ shall ever fall. We will not fail. We will not
die. Though we die, what does Paul
say to the Corinthians, yet we live. You're going to kill me? And you think that scares me? I have a feeling that if I were
at Mary and Martha and Lazarus' house in Bethany, after this
dead man who was stinking was eating with me, and somebody
came and said, hey Jesus, they're going to kill you and Lazarus.
Lazarus probably laughed his head off and wet the floor. Maybe
that's why Mary had to get out the oil. It smelled like urine
when he wet himself. That's a joke. I would have laughed
and laughed and laughed. And I'm saying that in all sincerity.
Why do we not rejoice in the face of death? Especially for the sake of the
gospel. What do we do in turn? We whine about everything. My
tire's flat. My knee hurts. And it does right
now. That's why I said it. I was on them too much yesterday
under a lawnmower. That brother over there with
his plumbing legs going on. My allergies are a mess. My bank
account's low. It's too cold. It's too hot.
Pollen's too great. Air condition doesn't work. Heater
doesn't work like it's supposed to. These clothes don't fit. These clothes are too big. Do
all things without grumbling and complaining. It's a preview. Oh, I'm in prison. I can't do
my ministry. God won't give me a full-time
position in a church. Oh, we can't get another building
to fit people in. As a wise man once said, cry
me a river. when God has given it all to
us as a gift, so that we might praise Him through it. How? Friends, if I had the list to
show you how to praise God in every circumstance, it would
be worthless anyway. You know how you do it? You cry,
you weep, you mourn, you scream, you kick the floor in anguish. As if none of it is ever happening. As if it doesn't really matter
because it doesn't. Because God's grace is enough. The body suffers together and
the ministry of the Philippians to Paul was a great encouragement
to his heart. God, if nothing else, let's just
say it was just a singular aspect. We know it wasn't because we
see God put Paul in prison for the expansion of the gospel.
Let's just say the only reason God put Paul in prison was for
Paul to celebrate the work of God in Philippi. I remember you always in all
my prayers at all times with thanksgiving and joy. Wow, I may be sitting in a cell
right now, but God sure did do a work in Philippi. You know
what? God never changes. He'll do the same work here.
And it doesn't include me getting out of prison. Because I don't
have to be free for God to be free. And he said, well, where do you
get all that? Because he says it, both in my imprisonment and in
the defense and confirmation of the gospel, both. You are
partakers of grace with me in my imprisonment." The suffering of Paul was shared
by the Philippians. Well, they weren't. They weren't
in prison. Some of them were. Philippi is
a Roman province. Just as in Rome people were being
put in prison, you think when Saul became Paul that the persecution
stopped? No, it got worse. Because their
grand inquisitor, per se, now was gone. It got worse. The Philippians
knew what suffering was. Many of them stayed in prison
when Paul escaped and came out of Philippi. Many of them lost
their lives for the sake of the gospel. And now they hear that
their spiritual father What I mean by that, the one who brought
the gospel to them, the one that they would say was their shepherd,
was imprisoned once again. And not just any prison, in Caesar's
prison. They suffered because of that. They were stirred because of
that. We don't want Paul to suffer. We're in anguish over that. Let's do what we can. Let's send
him money. Let's send him stuff. Let's support him again. Let's
do whatever it takes to give Paul some peace in the midst
of his suffering. That's the work of God. They
shared in the suffering of Paul's imprisonment that way and in
reality. We've got some of our own people
over here incarcerated because of their love for Jesus Christ.
Let us also remember Paul. Paul says that God's grace was
the cause of his suffering. God's grace in the suffering. of the Philippians under Roman
persecution was sufficient for Paul, was sufficient for the
church at Philippi. Paul sees God's grace as the
cure for his pity, for his suffering, for his anguish, but it doesn't
remove the suffering. It gives him joy and thanksgiving
in the midst of it. Paul sees God's grace in the
love that the Philippian church has for him. Paul sees God's
grace as they partnered with him and their feeling for him
and their concern for him. You'll see these words come up
a lot in the future. And Paul sees God's grace, most
importantly, as the faithfulness of God in all these circumstances. Especially and specifically the
good work that He began in them. The good work that He had purposed
in them. And the good work of faith in
them. so that the good work of God
would continue more and more and more as it reached more and
more and more to the praise and thanksgiving of His grace. As we think about the latter
argument of this, it should bring us back to our original understanding
of Paul's intent for this letter. Paul's intent for this letter
is to show the Philippians that they are the product of God's
grace as slaves to Him, as He is slave to them. And that they
all share in the unity of suffering and rejoicing by the power of
God's grace. And that this is not strange
for the church, but it's the exact same thing that happened
to the Christ. So that they are in good company,
they are in good power, and they are in the sufficient faithfulness
of God. God is faithful. God is faithful
in these circumstances. God is faithful in your suffering. God is faithful in your pain.
God is faithful in all things, at all times, in all ways. As Paul tells the Corinthians,
2 Corinthians chapter 9, and God is able to make all grace
abound to you so that having all sufficiency in all things
at all times, you may abound in every good work. God is faithful. And not just
in these circumstances, not just in these ministry opportunities,
but God is most certainly faithful in saving you from His wrath
because of your sin. God is faithful to secure eternal
life. For God loved the world in this
way, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever Whoever so
believes in Him will not perish, but will have eternal life. God so loved the world that He
gave. Jesus secures eternal life for
you on the cross. God is faithful to give life
that's not just eternal, but that overflows. As the Samaritan
woman from Sychar talks to Jesus in John 4, and you know all these
are going to be from John anyway. Jesus says to her, If you knew
who it was who asked you for a drink, you would ask Him for
a drink and He would give you living water that would well
up to eternal life. There is something to be said
about the substance of eternal life. It's not just what we look
forward to, it's what we possess today. We have eternal life in Christ. It is so that we know that we
are secure in God's faithfulness and the outcome of that life,
what Jesus was saying in John 4, is that it overflows, always
abundantly boiling up and overflowing. We never lose. We don't even
have to be optimistic and say, oh, it's half full. It's overflowing. God is faithful to affix His
sheep to Jesus Christ for eternity. I want you to hear this. We as
Baptists call that preservation or security of salvation. How
are you secure in the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Because God
is faithful to hold His children. Jesus says in John what? 6. that they will never be lost
because no one can snatch them out of His hand. In John 10,
it teaches us that God is faithful to what? To bring His sheep to
the Son. How? Romans 10. We must go out
to the world to the lost. We have a tendency to go, oh,
they're just lost. You know why they're lost? Because we're saying
they're lost and not going out and preaching the gospel. We can't have a heart like that.
We can't say, oh, we believe in a sovereign God. He'll save
whatever, whoever, whenever, however. We'll sit on our butts.
No. I don't care how much you understand
the sovereignty of God. That's got no part of it. God
will save if you preach the gospel. He's not going to save through
a bird, a cat, goat, or a billboard. You must share the gospel to
the ears of the lost and only when they hear it will the Holy
Spirit of God give them ears to hear it. The sheep, my sheep, Jesus says
what? Know my voice. They hear my voice. They follow my voice. God is faithful to never lose
any who come to Christ. God is faithful to work for good
eternally, all things and all purposes and all circumstances.
Romans 8, 28-30. That golden chain of salvation.
Not only is it just God is able, God causes. It doesn't say He's
able. It says God causes. He's the
causation of the good and all the bad. All things to work together for
good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
For those whom He has called, He is justified. Those whom He
has justified, He is what? Sanctified. Those whom He has
sanctified, He has what? Glorified. And if you see that
in your Bible, it should have ED on the end of all of those.
Are we glorified yet? No. That's how certain Paul is
of the work of God. It's done. We're just waiting
on it. God is faithful. God is faithful
to seal us in His love, Romans 8, 38 through 39. For I am persuaded,
or I am convinced, that what? Neither height, nor depth, nor
width, nor any other dimension, nor the principalities of darkness,
nor powers, nor this present age or the age to come, nor the
corner down the street, nor 2015, nor 2035, nor anything else in
all of creation shall be able to separate us from the love
of God which is in Christ Jesus. Nothing, not even you, can separate
yourself from the love of God. You hear that? We don't believe that you can
reject the gospel once you've received the gospel. Because
if you can reject, you've never received. God is faithful. Paul even says to Timothy, If
we reject Him, He'll reject us. If we deny Him, He'll deny us.
If we are faithless, what does He say? He remains faithful,
for He cannot deny Himself. Finally, God is faithful to eternally
secure His people, the church, the body of Jesus Christ, as
slaves to one another and slaves to Jesus Christ for the sake
of the growth of the gospel. in so much that the result of
this is this. Look at verse 8. For God is my
witness. Paul is saying God testifies
on this behalf, on this fact. God is my witness. Now Paul didn't speak out of
turn. And so if Paul says that, Paul
is claiming that God in His absolute holiness and sovereignty with
all authority is saying, yes, Paul has this kind of love for
you. God is witness of how I yearn
for you. What does that mean? What does
that mean to yearn? It's what causes you to punch
out and drive the matter and drive back so you can see somebody
for four minutes. It's what causes you when you're
worn out and dreary, but your children run in and say, Daddy,
not to burst into flames, but, wow, this child loves me. We have that kind of yearning
sometimes. for inanimate objects. I wonder how often we have that
kind of yearning for each other. When you yearn for the body of
Christ, you're with them. You're with them. And Paul says he yearns with
all the affection of Jesus. What did Jesus do in His yearning
for the lost? He stepped out of heaven. He
was born from the womb of Mary that He created. He lived on
this earth as a man. subject to the temptation of
humanity, amongst a people who could not even see who He was,
who did not behold His glory, who did not worship His excellency,
who did not receive His mercy, but rejected every aspect of
everything that He was from the beginning of time. And he passively and obediently
became a slave unto death on a cross because he yearned to
save all the sheep of God. Sheep, we have a yearning Savior
who has satisfied God's wrath and who now yearns to culminate
all the work that he has accomplished in his time. Are you in Christ? Paul says that the love he has
is the love that Christ has. Paul says that Christ's love
gave up His rights to die for the object of His love, and this
is the type of love that Paul has for his church. We also should have this type
of love for each other. Let's pray. Father, we are glad It's such a watered-down word.
Every word that we use in our language, God, You know, You
know all the things we do. But when I say glad, I feel so
silly. Because I think of trash bags
and Ziploc bags. Mediocre happiness, but it really
is a word that connotes joy. happiness and fulfillment. Let
us be glad. Let us rejoice. Let us enter
Your courts with praise, as the psalmist would say. And we are
this way, no matter what the world has thrown at us, because
You, O God, suffered Your Son for the sake of us. And so Father, that Your will
be done. We pray that all that is supposed to have settled in
our hearts would plant there and would produce
that which You've purposed for it to produce. Namely, affection
for You and affection for each other, evidenced by our ministry
for the sake of the Gospel. Help us not to forget, Lord,
that the gospel is not the beginning, but it is all the way through
and the end, and always will forevermore be. That we are still
ministers of the gospel, especially to each other. And that we are ministers of
the gospel, certainly to the lost. For which, Lord, I pray you'd
give us a heart. as we grow deep, deep and deeper, that we would
grow to have an affection that is sacrificing. And we thank you for the salvation
that you bring through Jesus Christ. And as you have stirred
our hearts, those who are in Christ, stir us to action. Let those who sit convicted today
stir them to faith. In Jesus' name, Amen.