Well we'll continue our study
in the book of Philippians. So turn if you would to Philippians
chapter 1. We'll continue our study in this
wonderful book we've been going through. Again, I thought I was
going to do 28 to 30, but we're going to do 27, the remainder
of 27 that we didn't look at last week, and verse 28. And
then we'll just read a little bit about 29, but next week I
think we'll do 28, 29, and 30 all over again, so. Let's read
this book. It's written to the saints at
Philippi, the Roman citizens. It's the Macedonian city, and
it's considered to be the second Rome. The emperors have vaulted
it up, and it's considered to be a small version of Rome. So
these ones that he's writing to are Roman citizens, and as
we saw in verse 27 with the word conversation in the Greek, that's
citizenship. And he was bringing forth that
our citizenship last week is in heaven. It's not here on this
earth. We're just passing through. We're
just passing through. So let's read verses 27 to 30.
It says, Only let your conversation be as it become the gospel of
Christ, that whether I come and see you or else be absent, I
may hear of your affairs that you stand fast in one spirit,
with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel.
and in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them
an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation and that
of God. For unto you 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 on me, and now here to be in me. Remember Paul's writing
from Rome? He's under house arrest. He's
chained to a Roman Praetorian guard. There's different shifts. There's four-hour shifts they
chain. So there's six different guards
every day that he has an opportunity to talk to about the gospel.
And we saw earlier in our studies that the gospel had spread through
the Praetorian guards. It's wonderful. Absolutely marvelous. So God has providentially brought
him to Rome. Now the gospel's spreading through
the Praetorian Guard, the gospel's again spreading through Rome
as well. And he's writing to the saints at Philippi who are
very concerned about him being imprisoned. And he's saying,
these things have fallen out for the furtherance of the gospel.
No matter what happens in our churches, it's for the furtherance
of the gospel. Right? Let's always remember
that, that God is at work in the midst of us. In Nodom verse
27, the Philippians are encouraged by Paul to stand fast in the
gospel of Christ. And stand fast just means to
stand, not move forward. We only move forward when the
general moves forward, right? We only move forward when the
captain of our salvation moves forward. But we're called to
stand fast here, we see. Stand fast in the gospel of Christ. Let's read that verse again.
Only let your conversation, in the Greek that's citizenship,
be as it become the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and
see you or else be absent, I hear of your affairs that you stand
fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the
faith of the gospel. Now remember when, through our
study of the book of Acts, we've seen a constant thread that they
were of one accord. They were of one accord. There's
only one faith. There's only one Lord, right?
Just one. And stand fast in the gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace. And stand fast here in the Greek
has the idea of firmness or uprightness. Not to be swayed, but to be firm
in what we believe. To stand firm in uprightness
in the gospel of Christ. My oh my, may God give us the
grace to do so. It also means to stand firm and
hold one's ground. Hold one's ground. That's what
we do. We hold our ground, don't we? We preach the gospel, out
it goes, and we hold our ground. We stand fast in the gospel of
Christ. The implication is clear that
when one holds ground, They do it so in this text, and we're
going to see in verse 28, they're doing so, they're standing fast
in the presence of the enemies of God, in the enemies of the
gospel. And that's what we're to do. God will give us the words
to speak. He'll give us fortitude if we
need it. Trust me, He does that. He does that. He takes care of
us. Remember who our Savior is. Remember
who our Redeemer is. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
God. He's God incarnated in the flesh,
and right now He's in glory, isn't He? Ruling and reigning.
That's our protector. That's our shield. He's our King. He's our King, beloved. So notice,
too, that they stand fast in one spirit. Right? They're born again by the Holy
Spirit of God, and they're to stand fast in one spirit. And
members, let us never forget that the members of the church,
no matter where we are in the country or in the world, we're
one in Christ, aren't we? He's the head, we're the body.
So we're to stand fast in one spirit. One spirit. fused and blended together in
Christ, because he's the head and we're the body. And may God give us the grace
to be governed by the Holy Spirit of God. We're not the people
we were, are we? We're new creatures in Christ
now. We don't desire the things that we once did, but we still
battle this flesh, don't we? We're still but sinners saved
by the grace of God. Oh, may the Holy Spirit give
us grace in time of need, because this unity of the Spirit, it
only comes from Him. We've seen that happen in the
body here, haven't we? In the last three years, it's
been incredible. We've seen Him working. The unity
that we have is absolutely incredible, but it's all Him. It's all Him. You gotta give Him all the glory
and honor and praise. And we, again, we've seen it,
in the book of Acts in the New Testament church, that unity,
and we know that was also in the Old Testament church, right?
Because they're one, aren't they? The elect are one, aren't they?
Whether they be Old Testament saints or New Testament saints.
They're one. Abraham had the same faith we
have. Abraham's born again by the same spirit we have. Right? Oh my. My, oh my. So this unity of the spirit,
when present among the members of a local church, Again, it
produces love for the gospel, it produces love for Christ,
it produces love for one another, but it only comes through the
Holy Spirit of God, and this unity is centered around Christ. Always. Always centered around
the Lord Jesus Christ. See the word mind in our text
there? where it says, only let your
conversation be as it become of the gospel of Christ, that
whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of
your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one
mind, striving together. Well, that's the translation
in the Greek is the word soul. That you be knit together in
love. How are we knit together in love, brother? Only in Christ,
amen. No other way, is there? No other
way, but Christ in him alone. My oh my. And the soul there is the sphere
of the emotions and the reason and the will. See, people think
they have free will, but our will is bound to our nature.
So if you have a dead nature, our will's bound to that nature.
If we're born again and have a new nature, now our will's
bound to a new nature, isn't it, sister? And it's wonderful,
isn't it? It's wonderful, my oh my. Absolutely wonderful. And see
the word striving in our text there? It's the translation of
a Greek word used of an athletic contest, where we get our word
athletes from, or athletic from. Paul's exhorting the members
of the Philippian church, you know what he's exhorting them
to? To work together as a group of athletes. Not that this has anything to
do with our salvation. It doesn't. Our salvation is
in Christ alone. Nowhere else we're saved, are
we sister? Just in Christ and him alone. Nowhere else. Nowhere
else. So this use of this word would
not be lost on the Greeks in Philippi who were saved. They
know exactly what Paul was talking about. And the Romans as well.
They would know exactly what he's talking about. Now, for
us, we look at striving, we think individual. No, he's talking
about the whole group. The group together. Striving
forward. Striving even just standing where
you are. Oh my. Now, what is this striving for?
The furtherance of the gospel. That's all it's for. The furtherance
of the gospel. Paul mentioned that earlier in
the letter. He said, all these things have fallen out unto me,
being in prison, being taken to Rome for the furtherance of
the gospel. That's amazing, isn't it, Brother
Johnnie? Absolutely incredible. And we can see that in our lives.
Why are we here? Why are we gathered together
in Elmont? For the furtherance of the gospel. My. It's incredible, absolutely incredible. And how do we strive for the
furtherance of the gospel? Only through Christ, and only
by his power. What did our master tell us in
John 15, 5? He said, without me, amen sister,
you can do nothing. Nothing. We can't even strive
without him. Isn't it wonderful? But yet we
do, don't we? For the furtherance of the gospel.
We desire the gospel to go out all over the world. My oh my. In this section here, Because we know that Paul's writing
to them and they know that this striving has nothing to do with
their salvation because they're bought with a price, right? They're
bought with the precious blood of Christ. They know that. But
this is the first little signal to us that there may be some
divisions within the body. That there may be some divisions
within the body, within the church there. And maybe he heard it
from Epaphroditus. Maybe he told him. He was the
pastor there. Maybe he told them. Told Paul. Yeah, there's some
things going on. Oh my. See the words, the faith
there? That's a technical term, of course,
in the Greek referring to Christianity. This speaks of the faith of the
born-again blood-washed saint, right? Which is nothing we muster
up, it's a gift given to us. Marvel at that. God himself has
given us the gift of faith. Of course, first you must be
born again, right? People who say, well, you have
faith, then you're born again, they're putting the cart before
the horse, aren't they? You have to be born again. We will not
believe unless we're born again. And then God, it's a gift, it's
given to us. So marvel, if you have faith
today, marvel that God himself has given you that gift. And
that faith has what? One object, doesn't it? Christ,
amen, sister. It doesn't look nowhere else
except for Christ, in Christ alone. It does not look anywhere. See, we used to look to ourselves,
didn't we? Before the Lord saved us. Now
we look to the One, the only Savior of sinners, and that's
what we preach to others. Flee to Christ. There is no other
hope for sinners but Christ and Him alone. And this is coming
from a bunch of sinners saved by grace. Right? That's all we are. And again,
the ground at the foot of the cross is level, right? There's
no preacher mound, is there? You guys have heard me say many
times, we're level. We're on level ground. The only
difference between us is the Lord called me to preach. That's
it. We're all saved sinners. That's it. And let us not graduate
from that situation. Let us not graduate from that
position, knowing that it's only the mercy and grace of God whereby
we're saved. Whereby we're saved. And this
is what, don't forget this too. We're redeemed, brother, by the
perfect finished work of Christ. He perfectly redeemed us with
the shedding of his own blood. Do we have anything to do with
that? Oh, what mercy God shows his people. What love he has
for his people. My, oh, my. So that faith they're
spoken of has one object, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now let's read verse 28. And let us bring them back to
our minds what we have learned in our past study, that the Philippian
church was facing opposition from within. Remember, the Judaizers
had crept in there too, just like the Galatian churches. They
crept in, these false teachers saying, you must do this and
have faith in Christ to be saved. And Paul said, no, no, it's faith
in Christ and him alone, period. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness, isn't he, for us? We say hallelujah. That's
wonderful. That's the best news I've ever
heard. Christ saved me from my sins, right? And he paid for our souls with
his blood, and now we're clothed in his perfect righteousness.
My! And then one day, when we breathe
our last breath and step through that door called death, would
be in the presence of the Lord. All from mercy and grace, from
beginning to end, all planned and purposed in eternity. What
a Savior. What a Redeemer is Jesus Christ
our Lord. My, oh my. So they're facing
opposition from within the Judaizers. And then, remember, they're citizens
of Rome. Now, Romans looked at the Emperor
as God. So now they're saying, no, there's
only one true God. They are being persecuted by
their own countrymen now. Look what this verse says. This
verse is wonderful. Through all the ages, I love
how the scripture, somebody told me one time, marvel at how the
scripture is written for any time, centuries, right? Any civilization, Right? It crosses cultural lines, it
crosses time, and it's written to God's people no matter where
we are. That's amazing. That's absolutely... So this
word, someone says, well, you read an old book. No, this book
is just as relevant today as it was when it was written. This is our final authority,
isn't it? My, oh my. I've told you guys before, I
was talking to my son one time and he got a little upset with
me, but I said, I don't care what the world says. What does
this say? What does this? Now, there was
a time when I cared what the world said. This, if it says
in here that it's wrong, like abortion, That's what we were
talking about, him and I. He said, well, no, it's not.
I said, the Bible says it's wrong. It's murder. That's what it is. Oh, my. This book is as relevant
today as it is for years and years and years ago. My, oh,
my. And it'll be relevant as long
as the God's saints are upon this earth. But when that last
sheep is saved, right, it's all over, isn't it? It's all over. I'll tell you why. Oh my. Even
so, come quickly, Lord. Look at this in verse 28. And
look at this. And that of God. Notice that. I love that last
little phrase. And that of God. It's God. It's
God who saved us, isn't it? It's God who keeps us. Turn, if you would, to Luke,
chapter 6. Luke, chapter 6. I'll read this verse, I'll read,
well, you turn in there, I'm going to read verse 28 in the
Greek literal Bible. It says this, "...and not being
frightened in anything." Not being frightened in anything.
Don't be afraid. That's what it says. Well, Unfortunately,
we have the flesh, don't we? And we battle with it all the
time. But let us continue. When we do come into a time when
we're afraid or frightened, let us keep looking to Christ. Let
us just keep our eyes. Lord, you're sovereign. You're
in absolute control. No matter what happens in this
world, you are in full control. Full control. It says, and not
being frightened in anything by those opposing you, which
is a demonstration of destruction to them, but of salvation to
you in this from God. That's the Greek literal Bible.
Oh my goodness. Remember what Jonah said? Jonah
2.9, salvation's of the Lord. Right there again. Brother Greg,
our salvation's of the Lord. No one else. It's wonderful. He saved our souls. My oh my. Look at this in Luke chapter
6. Our Lord, the master here, he's talking to the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's talking to his disciples. And look what he says in verses
22 and 23. Now they come back and they're
like, oh man, the devils are subject to us and everything.
Look at this. I love this. This verse 23 is just a mountaintop.
Look at this. Blessed are you when men shall
hate you and when they shall separate you from their company.
That happens to all believers, isn't it? All believers. And shall reproach you and cast
out your name as evil for the son of man's sake. Rejoice in
that day and leap for joy. For behold, this is, that's,
put your attention on this. Your reward is great in heaven. For in like manner did their
fathers unto the prophets. My oh my. Let's go back to verse
28 there. See that verse terrified there?
It's used, the Greek word is used of the terror of a startled
horse. You ever see a horse get startled?
I've never seen it in person, I've seen it in movies. And the
horse will get startled, take right off, right? Gone. That's
what this terrified is. Don't be terrified like a startled
horse and take off. Stand fast. Stand fast. Remember, we've got to connect
it to the verse above. Stand fast. In one spirit, in unity,
stand fast. Stand fast. We have the king
of kings with us. And he's promised, I'll never
leave you nor forsake you. Right? So when our enemies are reproaching
us and coming at us, our king's right there with us. Oh my. How often have we been startled
by something which has occurred in our lives, or about what someone
said about our faith, or what someone said about our King,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us repose. Repose is an old
English word. You guys are reposing right now
in the seats. You're sitting and you're trusting
that where you're sitting is going to hold you up. Let us
just repose in Christ. Let us just- He's- He's watching over us. He loves
us. He's going to care for us. We've seen evidence of that even
before we saved, haven't we, brother? Times we might have-
maybe should have died. We'd never heard the gospel.
But He preserved us. And He can preserve us till the
day that He's appointed for us to breathe our last breath. And
there's nothing in this world that's going to stop us from
dying. My oh my. And then we'll be home with the
Lord. Then to die is gain. Right? But while we're here on
this earth, to live is Christ. To live is Christ. So let us
rest and repose in the Lord Jesus Christ, and may God give us the
grace to do that. He has to continuously give us
grace and strength. He has to. We're, I know, I'm
prone to wander like that hymn writer. When I read that, oh
my, yeah, that's us, isn't it? That's me. Prone to wander. Lord,
I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.
Left to ourselves. We'd all just be gone in battle. Gone Jesses, right? And I found
out what that means. What that means is when you and
a buddy are going to have a little raw with three or four other
guys, and the guy says, I'll stand with you, I'll stand with
you. And then all of a sudden, the three guys show up and he's
like, I'm out of here. And you're left by yourself. That's a gone
Jesse. That's what he calls him. Oh
my. But wouldn't we be like that
if it wasn't for the grace of God? In the face of opposition,
in the face of persecution, right? We would be just like that. My
oh my. Again, listen to this verse in
the Greek literal Bible. And not being frightened in anything
by those opposing you, which is the demonstration of destruction
to them, but of salvation to you, and this from God. Oh my. See the word adversaries in verse
28? In the Greek, this word is translated, it gives us a picture
of these enemies of the gospel, namely those, what it comes to
mean is those who are entrenched in opposition against the gospel
and against you. They're entrenched in that. Have
you ever met folks like that? I've met folks like that and
found out they passed away, still entrenched against the gospel. It's so sad. My, oh, my. What does God have to do for
a man to go to hell? Leave him alone. Amen, brother.
What does God have to do for a man to be saved or a woman?
Everything. My, oh, my. Oh, my. What a Savior. What amazing grace,
the fact that he had mercy upon we who are sinners. And let us remember, too, that,
again, the Philippians were pagans before the Lord saved them. They
were bound down to statues and idols. If they were Romans, they'd
be bound down to the Roman gods, which there was many. If they
were Greeks, they'd be bound down to the Greek gods, right? So they were pagans before the
Lord saved them. They were Romans and Greeks in
Philippi. And they were also emperor worshipers
before that. Turn, if you would, the first
Thessalonians. Do you know the Thessalonians were the same?
Thessalonica was a Greek city, a Greek port. And think of this. Some of our
brothers and sisters might have been devote idol worshipers.
We don't know. They might have been involved.
Some of them might have been crafters of idols. We don't know. But I'll tell you what, when
the Lord saves them, they can no longer make those idols. And
back then, they had guilds. So if they said, I'm not making
them idols anymore, they'd get kicked out of the guild. They'd
lose their ability to make money. But they stood firm, didn't they?
Oh my. Look at this in Philippians.
This to me, oh, I just love this, because this is... I was a Roman Catholic,
right? You all know that. And Roman Catholics worship Mary,
pretty much. Pretty much. Idols everywhere. I remember
growing up, there's idols in the house, there's crosses, there's
statues of Mary. And Jesus is just this little
wee fellow. Right? Look at this. And think
of this with the Romans and with the Greeks as we read this. 1
Thessalonians chapter 1 verses 4 to 10. This is wonderful. So Thessalonica was a city full
of idol worship. It was a Greek city. It was a
port full of idol worship. Just full. And now the Thessalonians
who are believers now, they're facing opposition too from their
countrymen. They're saying, what are you
doing? You're abandoning these gods of your father? Look at
this, this is marvelous. Knowing, brethren and beloved,
your election of God. Now the word election there,
you can't not get away from it. Even though people try, it means
to choose. Your election of God. We've been
chosen by, and look who it is, of God. There's no getting away
from it. But people say, I don't believe
that. You know why? Because they don't believe what the Bible
says. That's what it is. And we didn't at one time, did
we? But by the grace of God, now we believe every word in
the scriptures. Look at this. For our gospel
came, not unto you in word only, but also in power. Look at this,
the power of the Holy Spirit of God. And in the Holy Ghost,
and in much assurance, as ye know what manner of men we were
among you for your sake. And ye became followers of us. We weren't followers of Christ
before, were we? Neither were they. They became
followers of the one, followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. How? By the power of the Holy Spirit
we saw in the verse before. Look at this, having received
the word in much affliction. Oh, they're going through trials
now. But look at this, with joy of the Holy Ghost. So that you
were examples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. They,
look at this, from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not
only in Macedonia and Archaea, but also in every place your
faith to God's word is spread abroad, that we need not to speak
anything. They had went forth and just
talking about Christ so much that Paul's going through these
cities and going, man, these people already heard. You already
heard! Isn't this wonderful? But look
at this, look at this. Oh, this is, this is, I love
this next verse. For they themselves show of us
what manner of entering in we have unto you, how you turn to
God from idols. They turn from all those family
idols that they worshiped all their life. They turn from all
those idols, Greek and Romans, gods. They turn from them all,
look at this, to serve the living and true God. We serve the living
and true God, beloved. That's who we serve. My, and
to wait. Now this, I love this, because
we just wait, don't we? We don't have to get worried
about the time when Christ is coming. We know he's coming.
Look at this. And to wait for his son from
heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered
us from the wrath to come. Look at that. We have been delivered,
beloved, by the blood of Christ from the wrath to come. You know
why? Because all the wrath due you and I fell upon Christ. What a high price our salvation
cost. the shed blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Suffering is our substitute in
our room and place as the wrath of God is poured out upon him. My. And the sinless one is dying
for us. Dying for us right there on Calvary's
cross and by his precious blood he's redeemed us from all our
sins. And now He took upon him our
sin. It's imputed to him. And what
happens? His righteousness is imputed
to us. I call that the great exchange.
It's wonderful, isn't it, sister? We're clothed in the perfect
spotless righteousness of Christ. And though we know our own sin,
even now as sinners saved by grace, God says, I'll remember
your sin no more. My, isn't that wonderful? That's the good news of the gospel.
Christ saves sinners. Of whom I'm chief, like Paul
said. Do we all feel like we're a bunch of chiefs and sinners?
Absolutely. Do you sin more than you want
to? Absolutely. Praise God, one day we'll sin
no more. That'll be a glorious day, won't it? Sister Denise,
she's not sinning anymore, Brother Charlie. Oh my, it's wonderful. Oh my. So all through the persecution
that the Philippians went through, they're clinging to Christ. They're
clinging to Christ, just like we do. Just like we do. They look to our great Redeemer.
He's the only hope of every true, born-again, blood-washed saint,
right? Christ is the only hope of anyone who's born again and
washed in the blood. We have no other hope but Christ.
You take Christ away, I have no hope. But oh, what a hope
we have. What a hope we have in Christ.
Oh my. See the words evident token in
that text there in verse 28? In our translation of the, it's
a Greek law term denoting proof obtained by an appeal to facts. There's proof in our sinnership
that we're guilty. So someone says, well, I'm not
a sinner. Yes, you are, you're born a sinner.
And that fact is proof of our sinnership. But praise God, Christ
paid the price for us. The wrath to us fell upon him. My, oh my. And therefore, the
fact of the failure of the saints at Philippi to not be terrified
by their adversaries, was very clear evidence of the evident
perdition of those who are opposing them. My oh my. And it's evident, it's evident
evidence of their utter destruction. My oh my. But then we see at the end of
that verse, but to you of salvation and that of God, we see the utter
evidence of the salvation of God's people by God himself. That's wonderful. This salvation
that we have is not dependent upon us. And we don't go crazy
and go out the door and live a riotous life, do we? But we
can't mess our salvation up. Isn't that amazing? My oh my,
we're free, beloved. Listen to Weiss' translation
of this verse. He has a rather long translation
of it, but this one verse, verse 28, he says, and not being a
frightened in even one thing, in even one thing, by those who
are entrenched in their opposition against you. They're entrenched,
beloved, in their opposition against us. Which failure on
your part to be frightened, so the fact that we're not afraid
of them, is an indication of such a nature as to present clear
evidence to them, it presents evidence to them of their utter
destruction. My oh my. I've never thought
that when I'm standing for the Lord. Have you? And standing
firm in what we believe by the grace of God and to the person
talking to us, it's evidence to them of their utter destruction. My oh my. We just want to tell
them about what Christ has done for us, don't we? And if all
sinners who come to Christ, you come just as you are. Empty handed. Someone once said, the reason
people don't like what you preach is because we don't bring anything
to the table. That's true. We have our sin,
but we don't bring any merit, nothing, do we? It's all God. If he saves us, it's all the
grace of God in Christ. And we praise his name for that.
So we who are the born-again, blood-washed saints of God, let
us always remember that no matter what we go through, The Lord
Jesus Christ will never leave us nor forsake us. He's ever
with us. He'll never leave us. And ponder. Ponder. Let us ponder God when we're
struggling. Let us ponder about who He is
when we're struggling, when we're going through things. Let us
ponder who He is. He's on the throne. And whatever
we're going through is for our good, even though we don't see
it, and for His glory. Right? When we're in the midst
of it, we don't see it that way, do we? May God give us the grace
to do that. Oh, my. Because one day, again,
the very God who saves us, keeps us, he's going to take us home.
He's going to take us home. Look at verse 29 now. For unto
you is given on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but
also to suffer for his sake. The apostle John penned these
words In 1 John 3, verse 13, he says, marvel not, my brethren,
if the world hates you. Don't be surprised. Don't be
surprised if the world hates you. My, oh my. And then our master, the King
of kings and the Lord of lords, said this, if the world hates
you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. Right? Just comes with the territory,
doesn't it? my own we're not the same people
we are we're born again and let us not overlook the precious
truth contained in these verses is when when we suffer for christ's
sake we quickly learn what's what's something we learn quickly
when we suffer for christ's sake we can't do nothing without him we learn that quick don't we
we flee to him don't we we flee to christ in the times of suffering
always cause we who are the redeemed of the lord to look to him to
look to him, to look away from our sufferings. And remember,
any fortitude or grace we receive during those times, it all comes
from the Lord. So we just glorify him. We say,
praise you, Lord. It's all from you. It's all from
you. Brother Charlie, can you close?