The name of the message is glory
and praise to God. So we'll continue our study today
in the book of Philippians chapter one. Turn there if you would.
It's been such a joy to go through this book. And last week we looked
at Philippians chapter one verse 10. And we have seen so far in
this book, and I've noticed too in the study of the book of Acts,
where Philip sent to Samaria, and there's a bunch of folks
there, which we're going to look at the end of that today in our
main service. And then Philip is sent then
to the Ethiopian eunuch. But let us always remember that
as we read these scriptures, that all these things are happening
according to God's divine plan. according to God's divine plan,
according to his will and purpose. And a church was set up at Philippi all according to God's will and
purpose. All according to God's will and
purpose. There was a church established at Philippi. So let's read verses
8 to 17 to see the context of our verse
today which will be verse 11. Starting in verse 8 of Philippians
chapter 1. For God is my record how greatly
I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. In this I pray
that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and
in all judgment. Now last week we looked at that
word judgment again there and we found out that in the Greek
it means discernment. That you may approve all things
that are excellent. And we looked at that being the
things of Christ and the things of God. That you may be sincere. In the Greek, that's genuine.
So we're to be genuine. That's what I love. That's something
I love about grace believers is we're genuine. What you see
is what you get, right? You may be sincere and without
offense till the day of Christ. The only way we're without offense
before God is in Christ. Now, here comes our verse for
today. Being filled with the fruits
of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ. That's the key
right there, that whole verse. That's the key. And that's also
the key of the scriptures, isn't it? And that's the key of this
book, by Jesus Christ. He is the key to all the scriptures,
both Old Testament and New. Look at this, being filled with
the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the
glory and praise of God. What's the chief end of man?
The old confessions say, what's the chief end of man? To glorify
God and to enjoy him forever, right? Oh my. But I would, You
should understand, brethren, that the things which happened
unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel,
so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and
in all other places. And many of the brethren of the
Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to
speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ even
of envy and strive, and some also of goodwill. The one preached
Christ of contention, not sincerely supposing to add affliction to
my bonds, but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the
defense of the gospel. So today's verse is verse 11,
being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by
Jesus Christ unto the praise and glory of God. Charlie and I were talking this
morning. And he said the church he used to go to, what did they
say, God wants you to do something? So they find something for them
to do. When Charlie and Denise came to the church for the first
time, you guys asked me, what can we do? And I said, sit and
listen. A year later, you came back again
and said, what can we do? I said, sit and listen. And then
I remember the second or third year, you guys come and say,
now we know why you told us to sit and listen. Oh my, it was
wonderful. It was wonderful. Like you said,
Charlie, this one, we don't, if people want to volunteer,
that's wonderful. They can, you know, but we don't say, well,
we got something for you to do. No, if God lays something on
your heart to do here, then yeah, that's wonderful. And don't forget,
that's either supporting the work, right? It
all comes in various forms. Volunteering to do something
at the church. We are a body of believers brought
together for the furtherance of the gospel. And we're going to see here that
these fruits of righteousness, now religious folks will take
that and say, well, see, there's something you've got to do. That's
not what that's talking about. This is talking about good works
that God has ordained that we should do. And you know what?
We don't even know when we do them. How do we know that? Well, remember the group that
was standing in front of the Lord said, when did we do these things,
Lord? He said, well, when you do it under one of mine. Oh my. So the words being filled,
let's read verse 11 again. Being filled with the fruits
of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ and to the glory
and praise of God. So the words there, being filled
with the fruits of righteousness, that's the key right there. The
words which we're gonna focus on first, because these are most
important, are the words which are by Jesus Christ. The only way we're filled with
fruits of righteousness is by being in Christ. There's no other
way. And just as Brother Brian's sister
Linda said, when she came in, she saw how full those maple
trees were. In two weeks, when you left,
they were just branches. And now they're full. Well, that
all comes from the vine, doesn't it? All that nourishment comes
up. And the only reason those things have leaves, those branches
have leaves, is because all the source, all the nourishment comes
up from the vine. Who's the vine? Who are we? Branches, amen, brother. There
you go. Yeah, he's the tree. And the branches are just extensions
of the tree. And scripture says we'd be grafted
in, beloved. Isn't that amazing? We're going
to look at that wonderful portion in John 15. I'm not going to
bring it up yet. But I'll just give a little bit. Without me,
you can do nothing. We can't. That's what this is
bringing forth when it says, which are by Jesus Christ. We can't have fruits of righteousness
except through Christ. And notice it's which are by
Jesus Christ. It's Christ working in us. Isn't
that amazing? Oh my. And these fruits, this
is something to do, one of the commentators said this, these
fruits are produced by the incorruptible seed of grace in the heart. We
can't produce them. We can't produce them. Implanted, they're in regeneration,
which is being born again. And because they are owing, as
the fruits of the earth are, to a divine bounty. God's gonna
bring forth a divine bounty. And I'm not talking money. No,
we're not talking about that. He's going to make us fruitful,
isn't he? Because why? Because all the nourishment comes
up from the vine. Christ is a vine, and we're the
branches. My, it's wonderful, isn't it? People always wonder, how can
I be more fruitful? How can I do more? How can I
do more? Just sit and listen, right? It's wonderful, isn't
it, brother? It's wonderful. It's not about
what we do, it's about what Christ has done. We come here together, we get
together, the Lord gives me a message from the scripture, but these
messages will always be about what Christ has done, not about
what we have to do. Now in it there'd be practical
things, like we're going to see today that God works in us to
do these things. We don't even know when we do
them. But we know God's ordained us
under good works. Now those good works don't save us. And we're going to cross-reference
over to James. We're going to find out that faith without works
is dead. That's still talking about this,
these fruits of righteousness. And we saw in our texts by Jesus
Christ. So there will be evidence that
a person's been saved, right? By works that God's ordained. See, it all goes back to him.
That God's ordained that we would walk in them. It's amazing. And he gives us
the strength. And again, we don't even know
when we do these things. My oh my. And these fruits of
righteousness are like the rising and bright shining of the sun
of righteousness. Who's that? The Lord Jesus Christ.
They bring glory and honor and praise to him. And the gale of
the blessed Holy Spirit of God, right, blows. And God's lost sheep are born
again. Oh my. And it's all bought forth
by God's almighty power. Nothing we can do. Nothing. Why would we think,
why would we think we could produce works on our own, right? Because religion says, like we
talked about Charlie, you gave me so much material you didn't
even know it. But religion says, well God's got something for
you to do. You know what they do sometimes?
They pigeonhole you in somewhere where you shouldn't be. Vicki and I had that happen to
us in a fundamental Baptist church we were going to. You need to
be in charge of the bus ministry. I'm like, what's the bus ministry?
I don't know what the, well, it wasn't where I was supposed
to be. But we did it, and then we finally went to the preacher
and said, you know what, we don't think we should be in this. And
he talked us right back into it again. And then finally we
said, this is not where we're supposed
to be. But see, they pigeonhole you. They're filling holes. My, oh my. And it's not that we felt that
we were too good for that. No, not at all. We loved working
with the children. It was incredible. But it wasn't,
we knew it wasn't where we were supposed to be. But then again,
too, you know, I was the biggest Pharisee of all back then. Oh my. God has mercy on us, doesn't
he? All His mercy on us. And these fruits of righteousness
are delightful, well-pleasing to Christ, and acceptable to
God through Christ. The only reason we're accepted
is through Christ, right? Nowhere else. Nowhere else. And
they're also a blessing to those around us. And we don't even
know that. Oh my. So wonder, beloved God, at the
imputed righteousness of Christ. The righteousness of Christ imputed
to his people without works, sister. Without works. We have the righteousness
of Christ imputed to us without works. Isn't that wonderful? He done
it all. He's done it all. Oh my, turn
if you would to Ephesians chapter two. Ephesians chapter two. Now, nothing can more strongly influence
or engage men to the performance of good works than a view of
free justification. The fact that we're free in Christ,
the fact that he's pardoned all our sins, will cause us to want
to serve him. We desire to serve him. In the
local church, we desire to serve him, don't we? In our everyday
walk, we desire to serve him. The scripture says to glorify
God in all things that we do. May God give us the strength
to do that. And James brings forth that there
can be no justification by works. You cannot be saved by works.
Paul brings that forth. James brings that forth. You
can't be saved by works. Now people have misinterpreted
what James says when he said faith without works is dead.
He's just bringing forth that these are evidences that we've
been born again. Fruits of righteousness. Which come through who? Christ. Isn't that wonderful? It's wonderful. So, since these are the fruits
and effects of being justified, they're not the cause of us being
justified. You see, they're just fruits
of being justified. Fruits of evidence of salvation. Brother Henry used to say, again, they're just evidence
that we've been born again. And these fruits of righteousness,
they spring forth because of the imputed righteousness and
the holiness implanted in the soul of the believer. We have
an imputed righteousness. Righteousness is imputed to us.
And we're also holy in Christ. Isn't that amazing? He's our
wisdom, right? Our righteousness. Sanctification,
which means holy. Holiness. And redemption. He's everything. He's our wisdom.
And the new man which is created under good works, in righteousness, right? They're
created under good works in righteousness, which is in Christ. Right? And true holiness is only found
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at this. Ephesians chapter
2, verses 5 to 10. Even when we were dead in sins. Now,
dead there means graveyard dead. It means a corpse. I ran into
a fellow who said, it doesn't mean that. That's what it means. Whether you believe it or not,
it means a corpse. A corpse can't do anything, right? It's dead. See, that's why we can't save
ourselves. We didn't have anything to do with our first birth. Why
do we think we have something to do with our second birth?
We don't. Look at us. Even when you were
dead in sins, that's us, hath quickened us. That means we're
born again, right there. That quickening, being born again,
by the power of God, the Holy Spirit. Not by praying a prayer,
not by walking around, not by doing something, but by the power
of God, the Holy Spirit. I'll tell you. Quicken us together
with who? Christ, amen. With Christ, that's
the key. Remember our verse? We can only
do it with, Christ is the one who works in us. By grace you
are saved. Look at this verse, and hath
raised us up together and made us to sit together in heavenly
places in Christ. Where the body is, or where the
head is, the body will soon follow, right? that in the ages to come,
look at this, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace
and his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. For by grace he
is saved through faith, and not of yourselves. It is a gift of
God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Now here, verse
10. Look at this. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. Oh my, look at that. God has
before, when? In eternity, ordained that we
should walk in that. Think of this too. None but a
good tree can bring forth good fruit, right? That's scriptural,
right? A bad tree can't bring forth
good fruit. You have a tree that has a rod in it, and a tree that
doesn't have a rod in it. The tree that doesn't have the
rod in it will bring forth good fruit. And the tree that has a rod in
it, it'll bring forth fruit, but it'll be rotten fruit. My oh my. We had a willow tree
out here. It fell about four or five years
ago. When it fell, Neil's like, look at that, it rotted from
the inside. And it just went down. Because
it was all rotten from the inside. My, so a bad tree can't bring
forth good fruit. My oh my. So the branches must
be attached to a living vine, right? That apple tree that's
down in the back, got to chop up, it's still attached to the
ground. There's still leaves on some of the branches. But
the whole root system's exposed. And it's down. But there's some branches that
are still receiving nourishment. from that trunk. The other branches
are dead. The tree beside it is lively. Oh my. Turn if you would to John
chapter 15. We must be attached to the living
vine in order to produce these fruits of righteousness. There's no other way. We cannot produce these fruits
of righteousness on our own. We can't. We can't. People in
religion are trying to do that stuff. I saw a yoke for the first
time today. I saw a yoke from probably the
early turn of the century of like 1900s. I saw a yoke, not
today, but this week. I'd never seen one before. This
thing I was out with my buddy Jim and he said, oh look, look
at these yokes. This thing was made of solid wood. And it had
this great big long, this long one. And I said, well where's
that sitting? He goes, it sits on their shoulders. And then
there's this, there was this wood thing that came around,
it goes around their neck and they stick their head in it.
And then this burden sits on their shoulders. And then they
pull, right? And I said to Jim, I said, I'm
trying to lift that up. I couldn't even hardly lift the
one corner. And I said, man, what a burden.
And our Lord says, come unto me all you that are laden or
heavy laden. That's what he's talking about. He says, my yoke
is easy and my burden is light. And I thought, Those animals
with that thing on, that's a burden below. And they're called beasts
of burden, right? See, we were burdened with religion,
or we were just burdened with self, weren't we? We were burdened
with our sin, and just plow in the fields of sin, weren't we?
And the Lord says, come unto me. All ye that labor and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And he has, hasn't
he? We're not yoked with the burden
of sin anymore. We're still sinners, but we're
not burdened with the penalty of sin. No. Oh, one day, too, though. One
day. There'd be no burden of sin anymore
when we go to glory. There'd be no burden. Oh my. Look at this in John chapter
15. This is beautiful. Start in verse 1. I am the true
vine. So that means there's no other
vine. And my father is the husband.
He's the gardener. Every branch in me that beareth
not fruit, he taketh away. And every branch that beareth
fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now
this isn't saying that some were saved and then they're lost.
That's not saying that. You notice too, though, the branches
that stay are purged. That's by the trials and things
we go through in life. God's refining us. Did I ever
tell the story about the goldsmith? I'm going to repeat it. In the
1800s, a fellow walks into a goldsmith place. And he doesn't know anything
about refining. He doesn't know anything about
gold. And here's this goldsmith. He's got a big old thing of gold. And he's refining it under fire.
Refiner's fire, right? And he's refining this. And the
fellow goes over to him. And he looks at it. And it just
looks like. And he goes, when can you tell that it's finished? He said, when I see my reflection. Beloved, we're being conformed
to the image of the sun while we're on this earth. Isn't that
wonderful? God is refining us. So when he's,
this purging is not, and remember, this is all done in love. When
I was in religion, I thought God was angry, oh, God's angry
with me. I messed up, he's so angry with me. No, he's not angry
with me. His anger is being appeased in Christ. He may discipline
me, but it's not like my earthly father disciplined me. It's with
love. Isn't that amazing? It's with
eternal love. Oh my, look at this. That it
may bring forth more fruit. Every branch in me, oh, okay,
no. Now ye are clean through the word. which I have spoken
unto you. Beloved, we are washed in the
precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, aren't we? Oh my. And we keep coming to this word,
don't we? This word of God, this Bible. And it gives us joy. It blesses our souls. Look at
this, abide in me and I in you. The branch cannot bear fruit
of itself. A lot of people in the religious
world are trying to bear fruit of themselves. I know. I was
there. I was there. I can testify to the truth of
that. But look, I read these scriptures
and didn't even read them. Do you understand? I had no understanding
of them. is the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself except you abide in the vine, in Christ. No more can ye except ye abide
in me. Look at this, I am the vine,
ye are the branches. So Christ is a vine, we who are
born again are the branches, right? He that abideth in me, and I
in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. How? By the vine. Look at our text again, but keep
your finger there. Being filled with fruits of righteousness
which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.
He says, I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abides
with me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. They
will bring forth fruit, right? For without me, you can do, what's it say? Nothing. Amen. Nothing there
means nothing. Doesn't mean something. Doesn't
mean a few things. It means Nothing. Now, that's humbling, isn't it?
See, that's humbling. That takes the pride of man right
out. That takes any works of man right out. And the nothing there is nothing.
We can't do anything without God giving the strength to do
it. Now, we realize that the older we get as believers, we
realize that more and more, don't we? The closer we get to glory,
right? Because don't forget, every day
that passes, we're a day closer to glory. Isn't that wonderful
to think? That's wonderful. And the longer that we walk through
this world, and Christ guides us and directs us and keeps us,
because without him we can do nothing, the more this truth becomes even
more real to us. I can't preach without Christ. I wouldn't even be here unless
Christ put me here. Neither would you. Isn't that amazing? But
the Lord brought us together here, Dane, that we'd be here
together. Here, Dane, I have a bunch more
moms, bunch more dads, bunch more brothers. Got an old brother sitting over
here. My, oh, my. Never had a sister. I got lots of sisters now. Isn't
that amazing? I'll tell you, it is absolutely
incredible. But look at this, without me.
Now, there's some things that are expressed here. Here are
some things that are expressed in verse 5. Christ himself is the vine. He
is the fountain, the spring, the source of all life. And we are the branches. We have
no life, no power, not even an existence apart from him. Without him, we have and can
do absolutely nothing. That's what's being brought forth
here. Number two, believers are truly one with Christ. This is
being brought forth in this verse, too. And that close union with
Christ is expressed here for when one looks at a vineyard,
I went by a vineyard the other day. Went by a vineyard. When we look at a vineyard, we
don't go, oh, look at the, oh, look, that tree has 1,500 branches
and that tree. No, we look and say, look at
that wonderful tree. I went by a vineyard, I think it was an
apple orchard, just yesterday. We were driving and I was looking
out the window and here's this whole field of apple trees. I
didn't say look at those branches. No, no I said, oh look at those
wonderful trees. Look like a bunch of apple trees.
Right? You don't look at the individual
branches. My oh my, look at the tree. So, that's our union. We are united with Christ. He's the tree. We're just the
branches. We're just the branches. And truly, they are one as the
head and the body. See, just as that tree is one
with the branches, our body is one with our head. Christ is
the head. We're the body. And then the
third point brought out in verse five is these branches abide,
which abide in Christ will surely bring forth the fruit of a spirit. God, the Holy Spirit, is the
one who rots. Remember the fruit of the spirit
that we looked at in Galatians? It's his work. He rots that in
us. He gives us more love, more joy,
more peace, right? It's his presence, it's his power,
and the Holy Spirit begets peace, righteousness, and love. Let's
go back to our verse again, in verse 11. Philippians chapter
one, verse 11. Being filled, Paul's praying
that they would be filled with the fruits of righteousness,
which are by Jesus Christ unto the praise, or unto the glory
and praise of God. So marvel at these wonderful
things which we've looked at, which are produced in us by God
the Holy Spirit. And because we're in Christ,
think of this too, because we're in Christ, all these things happen
according to the will and purpose of God. It's not our doing. And they bring forth praise for
God. from our lips, from the lips
of others who are believers, from our hearts. Now we desire
to glorify him. There was a time when we didn't
desire to glorify him. There was a time when we didn't
want to even be around believers. Hey, Brother Charlie. But now
we seek to glorify our king. Don't we sister? We seek to glorify
him. We seek to praise him. Isn't
that amazing, sister? It's just amazing. It's God's
work in us. It's marvelous. And these fruits of righteousness
done by believers, they're not done to obtain eternal life.
We already have eternal life in Christ. There's simply evidence
that God's done a work in us. And we saw in Ephesians that
God's ordained those works, didn't he? And then, as I mentioned
in that passage, I believe it's in Matthew, when did we do these
things, Lord? Oh, when you did it unto one
of mine. Oh, my. And remember this, too. All of
this is entirely owing to the free grace of God in Christ. All that we have, the fact that
we're saved, Brother Brian, the fact that we're believers, the
fact that we're born again, is all owing, all owing to the free
grace of God in Christ. You can't find any other source.
It all goes back to him. And again, these fruits of righteousness
are not done to gain the applause of men, no. I don't stand up
and preach to gain the applause of men, I stand up to preach
for my king, about my king. He saved me. Vicki and I were
talking about how we often don't understand our children sometimes,
but we just look and they're our children. But they have no
desire for the kingdom of God, and here we desire to serve the
king. Now we're praying that Lord will have a desire and save
their souls, but if he doesn't, our king is still king. Right? He's the Lord. He's God. And
praise God, He saved my soul. My oh my. But they're not done
to gain the applause of man, but to glorify God. We do what
we do for God to glorify God. And we do it not because someone
tells us, hey brother Charlie, that there's something we have
to do. We do it because we want to. Right? Like the audio and the
video. You know, you ladies who do all
the video and Luke does the audio. You do it for the glory of God.
You don't do it for the applause of man, yeah. Ram, oh my. And even in our givings, we give
to glorify God, don't we? We give for the furtherance of
the gospel. Not to gain the applause of man. And we do all things in the name
and grace and strength of Christ with a view to honor God. May
God give us the grace and strength to do that, right? May God give
us the grace and strength in our lives to glorify God in all
things. To praise him, to honor him,
to thank him for his mercy and his grace towards us. It's absolutely
incredible. Absolutely incredible. Brother
Brian, can you close us in prayer?