Okay, open your Bibles if you
would to Philippians chapter 1. This was a real blessing putting
this message together. The message is called love abounding. The love that we have for one
another, I've said this many times, and it was really brought
forth in this message, this love is a foreign love to us, right? It's a love that the Holy Spirit
rots in us, too. It's not something that we can
muster up. It's something that's wrought in us. Vicki and I were
listening to Philippians this morning, and then it flipped
over to Colossians, and in both books, it talked about God working
in us. And I was just struck with that
because he works in us to do his will and purpose, right? Conforming us to the image of
Christ. And remember, the fruit of the
Spirit is like a cluster of grapes, right? And one of them is love. Actually, the first one mentioned
is love. Because if we don't have love, Paul says, we're just
like a sound brass cymbal that you make a sound and it just
makes a noise and there's nothing there. But love permeates all
of what we believe, right? Permeates how we treat others
and our love for the brethren, our love for Christ. It all flows
out of that by faith, right? God-given faith. But God the
Holy Spirit has to work this love in us. Let's read verses
3 to 11. Our verse today will be found
in verse 9, but I'd like to read this to see the context of our
text. I thank my God upon every remembrance
of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making requests
with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first
day until now. Being confident of this very
thing, that he which hath begun a good work, now that's to be
born again, we looked at that, that good work is a good work
done by the Holy Spirit of God, to be born again. He who hath
begun a good work in you, notice it's begun by him, and look at
this, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. So that
ties in with that scripture, he's the author and the finisher
of our faith, doesn't it? So clear. Even as it is meet
for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart
as much as both in my bonds, in the defense and confirmation
of the gospel. You are partakers of my grace.
And when we looked at that verse, we saw that when he says my grace,
it's the grace of God. They're all partakers in the
grace of God in Christ. It's wonderful. For God is my record, how greatly
I long after you in the bowels of Jesus Christ. Bowels there
is his heart. And I pray, here's our verse
for today, and I pray that your love may abound yet more and
more in knowledge in all judgment, that she may approve things that
are excellent, that she may be sincere and without offense till
the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness,
which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. Now, as I was putting this verse
together, or this message together, I thought, oh, I'm going to do
verses 9 and 10 together. But the more I studied verse
9, the more I realized I'm just doing verse 9. It's wonderful,
beloved. It's an absolutely wonderful
verse. Let's read it again. In this I pray that your love
may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment. Now the word pray in this verse
is a translation of a word which speaks of prayer directed to
God with a definite aim. Definite aim. So Paul's not just
praying to the ceiling, right? He's praying to a person or to
God who listens. Let us remember that when we
pray. We're praying to the one true living God who listens. He hears our prayers. Sometimes we can fall into a
formalistic praying. But we're praying to someone
who listens, someone who's real. The one true living God. That's
why I say take anything. Nothing's too small to take to
our King. And nothing's too big. He created
the universe, right? Is anything too big for Him?
he watches he watches all things are are by his control including
microscopic things we don't even see is anything too small for
him? nope so you can take little things
to him big things and everything in between so in the Greek this
this is speaks of a prayer directed to God with a definite aim as
Paul prayed he had a definite consciousness of the presence
of God And again, he's not speaking into mere space. He's praying
to one who lives. He's praying to our great God.
He's praying to a person, and that person was listening, right?
The Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, he's the God-man. He's
listening, and he's giving attention to what he's saying. You ever
think of that when you're praying? God's giving attention to what
you're saying, what you're praying. That's pretty amazing, isn't
it? See how good our God is to us?
He doesn't just save us and then leave us alone, wandering. He
watches over us all the time. All the time. Sister Kathy, when
you and Dan were going through all those treatments, He's watching
over you the whole time. You're crying out to Him, He's
listening. Isn't that wonderful? Giving you strength and grace
in time of need. It's absolutely incredible. And then we see the word that,
let's read the verse again. In this I pray that your love
may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all judgment.
The word that could also be translated, one Greek scholar said is, this
is the design and substance of my prayer. So he's gonna bring
forth the substance of his prayer. Now he switched from, if you
noticed, he switched from praising God for the good work that God's
begun in them, and even in verse 8, called upon God as a witness,
and now he's praying. So in those verses he's speaking
to the Philippians, and now he's praying for the Philippians.
So this is love in action, too. This is not just mere words.
Paul's not just merely commending giving God all the glory, and
he is giving God all the glory for the good work that's begun
in him, but now he's actually praying for these people whom
he loves. It's wonderful. And see the word love in our
text? It's spoken of here. This is the love of God that's
shed abroad in our hearts, beloved. This is not a love that's natural
to us. This is the love of God that's
shed abroad in our hearts. Turn if you would to Romans chapter
five. I'm gonna read this verse again
in Philippians. So this love comes from a regenerated
heart, one who's born again by the Holy Spirit of God. And why are we regenerated? Well,
because we're blood washed. Christ redeemed us at Calvary's
cross. And so God sends the spirit of
his son into our hearts whereby we cry, I have a father. But
look at this in Romans chapter 5. Look at verse 5. And hope, who's our hope in?
Someone tell me who our hope is in. Amen, it's in Christ,
right? And hope make it not a shame,
because the love of God, look at this, is shed abroad in our
hearts. By what? By who? By the Holy Ghost. It's
not something we can muster up. This love, this love, which is
the fruit of the spirit, is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost, which is given unto us. It's God working in us. His will
and purpose. Isn't that wonderful? I'll tell
you, it's wonderful. And see the words there, shed
abroad? In the Greek, it's a perfect tense. It means to pour out. To pour out. God's love has been
poured out into our hearts. Isn't that wonderful? I'll tell
you. And one commentator said, this
great fellow, Weiss, who I read, he said, it floods our hearts. You ever see like a river being,
being, breaking down through a dam and off it goes? That's
what this love is like. It just flows. It just flows
like a, like a, like a river being over, overflowing its banks
and overflowing, breaking through a dam. Oh, and the giving of it here
does not refer to the giving of the Spirit at Pentecost. No,
it, it, it speaks of that love being shed abroad in our hearts
at regeneration. for every believer. Isn't that
wonderful? It's just amazing. And it's all the work of God.
It's all the work of God. Now let's go back to Philippians
1-9 with that in our minds now, that this love is shed abroad
in our hearts. It's the love of God and it's
shed abroad in our hearts by God the Holy Spirit. Let's read
it again. In this I pray that your love
may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment.
See the word abound there? In the Greek word it means to
exceed a fixed number or measure, to exist in surplus. It actually speaks of being super
abounding. Super abounding. Paul is praying
to God that this love that shed abroad in their hearts might
be super abounding, might be in surplus. Isn't that wonderful? I'll tell you. Oh my. And for the believer in Christ
Jesus our Lord, he is the center and the source of our life, isn't
he? Both physically and spiritually. Right? Isn't that amazing that
God takes rebels, who thought it was all about us, and teaches
us after he regenerates us, teaches us that Christ is everything
to us, both physically and spiritually. And only he can make, only the
Holy Spirit can make this love abound, can't he? Because it's
a fruit of the Spirit, isn't it? It's not the fruit of our
doing. So many people in religion, they
think they can increase their joy or increase their love. That's increased in us by the
Holy Spirit of God. And I'll tell you one thing,
the more we hear the gospel, the more we hear about Christ,
the more that'll increase. And you won't do nothing. It'll
just increase. You'll be rejoicing over the
Savior. It's wonderful. I'll tell you
why. My oh my. One commentator said this divine
love is an exotic flower from heaven planted in the foreign
soil of the believer's heart. And it's like it's existing in
superabundance, this love of God in the hearts of these Greeks who'd been saved
out of gross paganism. Gross paganism. It was now overflowing
in the hearts of all believers. I was saved out of gross paganism,
were you? I was such a sinner to the core.
I still am a sinner, but I'm saved by grace now. See, we're the only folks now,
grace folks, people who've truly been saved say, I was the worst
of the worst, and it's in me still. Right? I love what, I think it was Todd
Neibert that said, the only difference between me and the worst criminal
in jail is the grace of God. It's true. Let's just be honest
with each other. If we were there when they crucified
Christ, we would have yelled, crucify him, crucify him, wrong
with him. We'd have stoned Stephen in our
natural state if we'd been there. But praise God, he had mercy
on us. Just like we're going to see an axe when we hit chapter
9, Paul is a chosen vessel. Did you know we were chosen in
Christ before the foundation of the world and didn't even
know it? Isn't that amazing? Oh my. So Paul here is praying
that this love might increase, that it might exist in surplus,
that it might be superabounding. And you ever think of this? For
the believer in Christ, Again, Christ Jesus is the center and
source of our life, both physical and spiritual. Also, for believers
to have mutual fellowship and for Christ to be in the midst
of us, we must be born again. We must have this love shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit of God. How can two walk together
except they be agreed, right? My, oh, my. They were of one
accord. Just like we're of one accord
here. Isn't that wonderful? We just want to hear Christ.
We just want to praise our King and Savior. And to exhort one another, to
comfort one another, and to love one another are almost solemn
duties of the believer, right? But there will be no profit in
those. And I don't mean duties for salvation. I have to clear
that up because someone might take that. I just mean it's part
of just being a believer is loving one another and comforting one
another, right? It's just part of who we are. But it won't profit anyone unless
Christ is the center of that comfort, of that love for one
another. He has to be the center. If he's
not the center, then as Paul says, it's just like ringing
a chime but it being a gong. Right? Nothing there. My oh my. His grace and his glory
must be the central objects of our admiration and praise. Why do we give God all the glory? Because he's done it all. He
saved us. He saved us, didn't he, Brother
Brian? He died on the cross for us.
He shed his blood for us. He did it all. And ye are what? Complete in him. That's wonderful. We're complete in Christ. What's
that mean? That means it's not of our doing. You know, Joe, Went home to be
with the Lord, Joe Terrell. And he said something to me years
ago, and you've heard it many times, and I'm going to repeat
it again. I'll repeat it on Wednesday, I'm going to repeat it again.
The hardest thing for the believer to do is just to rest in Christ. And we're all nodding our heads,
right? It's true though, isn't it? Come unto me, all you that
labor and are heavy laden. And I will give you rest. That's what our Master said.
Oh my. So in order for us to have fellowship,
sweet fellowship, love of Christ, love, this love is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit of God. And again, it's that
regeneration, isn't it? It's not natural. And think of
this too, the cherubims on the Ark of the Covenant, They stood
with their faces toward one another, but the mercy seat was between
them, and their faces were bending in an eager gaze upon the top
of the mercy seat, where the blood was going to be shed. Oh, my. Oh, these things the
angels desire to look into. Oh, isn't it wonderful? And the
glory of God is reflected. My, see the law and the testament
were put in that. Right? This is wonderful. And
what was on top covering that law? The lid, right? And what was sprinkled on that
lid? The blood. The blood. See, the law has no
more claim. It's covered. Covered by the
blood of Christ. Isn't that beautiful? My! So Christ is the same. Those
two cherubims are looking down on there and at the blood. Oh my! And if we get joy and edification
from seeing one another and communion with each other, in the services
of God's house, it will be because Christ is in the midst of us. He's the object of all our meditations,
he's the objects of our thoughts and praise, and he's the fountain
of our joy, isn't he? He's the fountain of our joy.
Listen to this, this is life eternal that they might know
thee. the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
And then Paul wrote this, I count all things but lost for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. We see that Paul desires that
the Philippian churches love. And scripture says that he desires
that their love may abound, may overflow. More and more. And as we grow in grace, beloved,
and as the Holy Spirit works this in us, we do love the brethren
more. We do love Christ more. We do
love the gospel more. We do love the Father more. We
do love the Holy Spirit more. And God works that in us. See,
because when we're listening to a gospel message, who's it
centering us upon? Christ. Away from the cares of
this world. Away from the troubles of this
world. Because everything, and I'm going to say it again, everything
we see is temporary. Everything. Everything in this
world is just temporary. My oh my. And growth in grace includes
growth in the grace of love for Christ and love for his people,
love for the gospel. And we see here, he says, that
your love may increase in knowledge and judgment. Our love for Christ
is not a blind, ignorant love, is it? No. Not at all. We're not infatuated
with Christ Because we don't know him, now we know him. Now
we love him. We didn't know him before, did
we? And were we infatuated with Christ before? Not at all. My oh my. Paul wrote he was addicted
to the gospel. I understand what he means. Addicted
to the gospel. My oh my. And we now know more about him
now than we've ever known before, don't we? And this knowledge
doesn't puff us up. It actually brings us even lower
as we learn about who God is, who Christ is. It humbles us,
doesn't it? Folks say, oh, you folks think
you're better than everybody else. No, we don't. No, we don't
at all. I am what I am by the grace of
God. If God had left me where I was,
I'd be a cursing machine, and I'd hate God. Right? And I'd be out doing as
much sin as I could possibly do. Now I still sin to my shame,
but praise God, now the one who cursed God is now praising God.
I didn't do that. He made it that way. Is it so
for you? Isn't it wonderful? Isn't it
glorious? I'll tell you one. And we know more of him. We know
more now of his perfection. See, we know that we're imperfect,
and we know now of his perfection. That the one who saved us from
our sins is the perfect one, the sinless one, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And who did he come to save?
Well, scripture said he come to save the ungodly. That's me. Is it you? How am I? And the scripture says
we were enemies in our minds by wicked works. That's me. That was me before the Lord saved
me. Was it you? But praise God. Now we praise
him. Now that's a miracle of grace,
isn't it? See, this book, this Philippians book is a book of
encouragement. It's a book of encouragement. There's no censor
in this book at all. It's a book of encouragement.
And these Philippians, they're going through it. They're being
persecuted for their faith. They've turned from idols to
serve the living and true God just like the Thessalonians. And Paul here, he's petitioning
for the Philippians to our great God on their account. And he
just praised the work of God, the work of grace that was begun
in them. And now he prays that the love of God that's shed abroad
in their hearts might be increased. Might be increased. And again,
let us always remember that wherever the work of the Spirit is, there's
love. If you see a Christian and there's a professing Christian
and there's not love there, there's probably not a work done there.
It's a contradiction. I met some folks that you get
down to it, they're mean as rattlesnakes. And they profess to be believers
and you, well, doesn't seem to go together,
does it? My oh my. But so where the work of the
Spirit is, there's love. And where there's not this love
of God shed abroad in our hearts, then there's no work done. It's
just as plain as that. Now that's for us to examine
ourselves, right? We don't start examining other
folks. I mentioned people who can be mean as rattlesnakes.
Well, they're in the Lord's hands. That's not me. I can be mean
as a rattlesnake sometimes. Can you? Even as a believer. Right? Oh, man. To sit in my
easy chair, I can get myself all worked up in my easy chair.
I don't even have to leave my chair. Man, oh, man. Oh, my. So if this love is the
fruit of the spirit, if it's wanting, then one's profession
is probably a sham. But this grace was in these Philippians. They had love to God, they had
love for Christ, they had love for one another, they had love
to all the saints, they had love to the preachers of the gospel,
and they particularly had love for the Apostle Paul. And this love of God in them
was not an exercise, which is meant, sorry, this love of God was in
exercise. They showed their love. Their
love was put into actions by the things that they did. Now
that didn't gain them any merit and favor with God. It's just
a result of this love. Look what you guys do for Jill.
That's just the result of the love of God. You want to serve
Christ in that way. And it's wonderful. No one asked
you to, you just want to do it. And it's wonderful. And same
with serving in the church. Anyway, supporting the work.
Why do we support the work? Because we love God. Right? It's wonderful. Why do you come
here and hear the gospel? Because you love Christ. Who's
shed that love in you? The Holy Spirit of God. It's
wonderful. He begun a good work in you,
and he's going to finish it, beloved. What a hope we have
that way, don't we? It ain't dependent upon us. It's
wonderful. Oh my. So they've been born again
by the Holy Spirit of God. They've been given faith to trust
Christ Jesus as their Savior. And this love was in them. And
they put actions to their words. And this love of God abounded.
It flowed. It overflowed. It rose up out
of a new heart, just as a fountain. You ever see a fountain and water
comes racing out of that fountain? If you're there when they first
turn it on, In the morning, if it's one of those ones they shut
off, and they turn that thing on, that water just comes exploding
out of there, right? That's what the love of God does
for a believer. It's abounding. And I'll tell you what, the source
is God, so it's ever flowing. Isn't that amazing? If the source
was us, we'd be in a pretty sore position, wouldn't we? That's
why I felt sorry for religious people that are always trying
to muster this stuff up. Must get tiring. It was tiring. I was there, and I think some
of you were, too. It's tiring. It's labor. It's labor. Oh my. Let's read our verse 9 again.
And this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more
in knowledge and in all judgment. Note that the apostle did not
pray that they might just abound, but that it might continue to
abound. And that there might be no stop to its flow and exercise. That it may be multiplied and
abound. You know this love that's worked
in us by the Holy Spirit of God, you know you can't find the depths
of it? You can't plumb the depths? You can't find the width of it? It's like an endless sea of love. Isn't that wonderful? It's like
God's grace. You can't use it up. It's in
Christ, who's God. My oh my. Isn't that wonderful?
It'll never end. God won't say one day, well I'm
tired of you, Wayne. He don't do that. Put your name in there. God won't
say, I'm tired of you. Nope. He says, I've loved you
with an everlasting love. And that's never going to change.
That's never going to end. No matter what you do or who
you are, you are mine. Isn't that wonderful? Oh my. There's no danger of excess.
Now the Apostle Paul knew how our love can grow cold, because
we can, our love can grow cold, and how we believers can sink
into spiritual afflictions through our sin, and through the cares
of this world, and through the temptations of Satan. So he adds
that we might abound yet more and more, look at this latter
part of the verse, in knowledge and in all judgment. Paul prays
to our great God that the Philippian believers' love would abound
and that their love would abound so that their knowledge might
be increased. And again, who's our teacher?
God, the Holy Spirit, right? He's our teacher. Paul desires
that their judgment in spiritual things be better established.
Now they're being besought by Judaizers, false teachers, they're
being persecuted for their faith, and he desires that they might
grow in the knowledge and grace of Christ. And all flowing from this love
of God, you see? And who's the only one who can
teach us, Brother Charlie? The Holy Spirit, right? He's
the only one to teach us and have us grow. And the more we learn about Christ,
the more we love him. The more we learn about the Father,
the more we love him. The more we learn about the spirits
regenerating power, the more we praise him and love him. And then the more that we learn
of the good work that God's begun in one another as believers,
the more we love the brethren. And despite my faults, because we
all have faults, right? You love me still in Christ. Isn't that wonderful? And it's
reciprocated. That's the love of God in Christ.
And then by knowledge in our text, it's meant by the knowledge
that that which God God is in Christ, the knowledge of our
Savior, our wonderful, merciful Savior. We learn more about our
God who's gracious and merciful, and as we learn more about our
covenant God and Father, we learn more about the Redeemer. We learn
more about the Lord Jesus Christ. We learn also more as we grow
in grace, we learn more about the regenerating power of God
the Holy Spirit, how we were dead and he made us alive in
Christ. spiritually dead, and now we're
alive, that we've been translated from the kingdom of darkness
to the kingdom of his dear son by God's almighty power. So we grow in love for the Father,
Son, and the Holy Spirit of God. And as we're taught more about
the Son of God, God incarnated in the flesh, the Lord Jesus
Christ, as we were taught that he's the Son of God, that he's
the Messiah, the Savior of all the elect of God. How can anything
happen but our love grow? See, the more we hear the gospel,
the more our love grows for the Savior. And we might not even
be conscious of it. The more we desire to hear about
Christ. And remember that this love is
part of the cluster of the fruit of the Spirit. It's God working
in us. It's God increasing this love,
and it's wonderful. And we see here that Paul desires
the saints at Philippi that they would not only increase in knowledge,
but also in judgment. By judgment in the Greek here,
or sense in the Greek text, it means this, spiritual apprehension,
judgment in perception of things. So like a discernment of spiritual
things. Like you know when a man's preaching
the gospel or not. That's God giving you discernment.
Right? And being a Berean. Not just
taking what I say, but studying and looking at it yourself too.
Right? Studying the Word of God. Knowing.
Well, you can hear a guy preach and he's not giving Christ any
glories. All he's doing is talking about himself. And what you have
to do, you quickly say, That man's not preaching Christ. Who
gives you that discernment? God does. That's you increasing
in judgment. My, oh, my. Think of this. The Syriacic version
renders it all spiritual understanding. I'm going to close with this.
Think of the experience of the grace of God, particularly faith. in us, which is expressed by
all the senses spiritually. Think of this. All the senses
spiritually. I was blown away when I found
this. By seeing with spiritual eyes, we see the Son in glory.
We see the Son in glory. We see His fullness, His suitableness
for being our Savior. Right? The excellency of him
and the unseen glories of another world. By hearing, spiritually,
the joyful sound, the voice of Christ in the preaching of the
gospel. So there's two senses there,
right? To understand and to distinguish the voice of the shepherd from
the voice of a wolf. Oh my. By smelling. Spiritually smelling. This is
all scriptural. A sweet smell in the person,
blood and righteousness and sacrifice of Christ. Sweet smelling saver. He's a sweet smelling saver to
faith and to God. The work of God for
us is a sweet smelling saver. The work of the Holy Spirit for
us is a sweet-smelling savor. By tasting, spiritually, we taste
that the Lord is good, Scripture says. Isn't that wonderful? And by feeling, laying a hold
on Christ, spiritually, laying a hold on Him, trusting our eternal
souls to Him, embracing Him, The Word of Life. Now, a believer
having these spiritual senses exercised is capable of discerning
between good and evil. We couldn't before we were saved,
could we? That's the work of God. To God
be the glory, and honor, and praise. And when is the end of this petition?
We'll look at verse 10. That ye may approve things that
are excellent, so they have this knowledge and this judgment,
so that we may approve things that are excellent, that ye may
be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ. It's wonderful, isn't it? It's wonderful, I'll tell you.
Brother Steve, can you close us in prayer, brother?