Open your Bibles, if you would,
to the book of Philippians. I almost said Acts. That's later
on. The book of Philippians. We'll
continue our study in this wonderful book. And in this book, there's no
censor. It's a book of joy. Paul's in prison. And he wrote,
I read yesterday, he wrote Colossians, Ephesians, and Philippians, and
possibly even Philemon at the same time, in the same imprisonment. And of course, Oedipus was the
one who took the letter to Philemon, but now as a brother, now as
a brother in Christ. This book is just wonderful.
Again, it's a book of joy and peace. And how does that come
to us? Only in and through the Lord
Jesus Christ. There's no other way. No other way to have peace. Men try to make peace in this
world, they end up breaking it, don't they? Because we're a bunch
of sinners. That's why. You know, it used to be here
that promise keepers, remember that group right there who used
to be called promise keepers? Notice they're no longer around?
Yeah. Men can't keep promises. No,
no. And men can't keep peace either.
They try to make peace, they make peace, and then they break
it. Somebody breaks it. And that's just because of sin.
Just because of sin. But, the only way for us to have
peace with God is through the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
true peace. And that's a peace that's foreign
to us. It's not natural for us. We can't manufacture it. We can't
make it. People try to make peace. Oh,
I'm going to be peaceful with everyone. Next thing you know,
somebody cuts you off. Right? Dave, no, you don't usually just
say hi, do you? No. Dave says just say hi. No,
that usually doesn't happen. But it's true. We're, by nature,
we're sinners. By birth, nature, and choice. in peace with God we see in verse
2 comes through the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Philippians chapter
1 verse 2. Grace be unto you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. So this peace spoken
of here, notice it's foreign to us. It comes to us from God
through Christ Jesus our Lord. And again this peace can't be
manufactured. We can't make this peace. It
comes from God. It comes from God. And how do we have peace
with God? Through the blood of Christ.
Right? The only way to have peace with
God is through the blood of Christ. We can't have peace otherwise.
But that blood of Christ, that redeeming precious blood, gives
us peace with God. You know why? Because all our
sins are forgiven. They're all gone. They're all
forgiven. Washed in the blood, yeah. Never to be remembered
by God ever again. And were all our sins future
at Calvary's Cross 2,000 years ago? Well, if He paid for all
our sins then, that means He paid for every one of them, didn't
He? Sins in our past, sins in our present, and sins in our
future. Isn't that amazing? That's truth.
All gone, yeah, all behind His back. He can't see them anymore.
They're gone. They're washed. One commentator said they're
in the ocean of forgetfulness. Never to be remembered again.
Isn't that wonderful? Oh my. Let's read verses 1 to
7 to get our context today. Philippians chapter 1 verses
1 to 7. Paul and Cometheus, the servants of Jesus Christ to all
the saints. Notice that word all. All the
saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi with the bishops
and deacons. Grace be unto you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God
upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine,
for you all, there's the all again, 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 has begun
a good work in you. Look at that. Who began it? Amen. God began it. Amen, sister of
God. Work in you. We'll perform it
until the day of Jesus Christ. That's till the day of his coming.
My oh my. Even as it is meet for me to
think this of you all. Now that's the third time he
said all. He's branching all the saints together. Do you notice
that? There's no hierarchy. And do
you notice at first, this is a wonderful, I was reading a
commentary yesterday, and notice this at first, in verse one he
mentions all the saints before he mentions the bishops and the
deacons. because they're all sinners saved
by grace. The only hierarchy is what man
makes. I'm a servant of the church,
right? We're all servants of Christ. You see? But first and foremost, before
being a servant to the church, I'm a servant to Christ with
you. Why do men get higher up and
feel higher up? You were saying about those six
guys that walk in and decide which one's worthy to do communion.
That's just, that's awful. That wasn't even in my notes,
you just told me about it. But that's awful, isn't it? Sister
Karen was saying about this church where these six leaders come
in and they're all dressed in black robes and they sit at the
front and decide which one is worthy to give communion for
that day. This is the stuff that's going
on in religion, beloved. You know what? You know what?
No one's worthy. Worthy is the Lamb. And the only
reason we're worthy to have communion is because we do it in remembrance
of what He's done for us. Right? Shed His blood to save
our souls. I used to laugh when folks used
to say, well, make sure you go through, or I didn't laugh, but
I actually got terrified when they said, make sure you check
yourself if there's any sin in your life. And I've told you
this many times, I said, I'm never going to be able to have
communion again in my life. Because that's when the Lord was showing
me I was just a dirty, rotten sinner. But praise God, it's
a remembrance of what he's done for us. And none of us is worthy,
but praise God, We have this ordinance to remember what our
king did for us. Washed us in his precious blood. As Dave said, our sins are cast
behind God's back. Where's God's back? Scripture
says the universe can't even contain him. Oh my gosh. Gone. Look at this. always in every prayer of mine,
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 has begun a good work in you will perform
it until the day of Jesus Christ, even as it is meet for me to
think this of you all, because I have you in my heart. They're
very dear. Inasmuch as both in my bonds
and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye are partakers
of my grace. Now take note here, Paul is asserting
his confidence that these believers in Philippi are true believers.
He knows them. He has an intimate relationship
with them. He's the one who started the work there. Lydia's heart
was opened up, remember? That was the start. Then the
Philippian jailer, the Lord saved the Philippian jailer, and there's
the start of the church right there. Isn't that wonderful? And it's just growing. And as
Paul was there preaching the gospel, it grew and grew by the
power of God, right? Not because of Paul, but by the
gospel he's preaching, right? Because faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God, right? And he's preaching Christ.
He said in Corinthians, I'm determined not to preach anything but Christ
and Him crucified. Every gospel preacher, we're determined not
to preach anything but Christ. You heard those preachers down
south, they're determined to preach Christ. Nothing else. Nothing else matters. Nothing
else matters except preaching Christ. And so what Paul says
of these believers is true. You know how we know that? Because
it's inspired by the Holy Spirit. These are Paul's words of affection,
but they're inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. You ever think
of that when we're reading these? These are the words of the authors,
but they're inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. They're his words.
So if the Holy Spirit calls them saints, they're saints, aren't
they? Think of that even with the Corinthians. They were having
so much trouble. People say, I had one fellow one time tell
me, he said, he said, I think they're all lost. I said, no,
they're not. They're not lost. Because they're called saints.
They're called believers. See, we can get ourselves in
a mess of trouble, beloved. But if the Lord's got us, right,
if he saved us, is he gonna let us go? He not, is he? I'll tell you. I think sometimes
folks think, you know, they get in this mentality that, oh, I've
done this, it's so awful. Repent of it and move on. Trust
that Christ has forgiven you for all your sins. If it's true,
if you're truly born again, just move on. Right? But confess it to him, of course.
We're to confess. We're to confess it to him and
he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. Praise his mighty name. My oh my. Notice in verse one
he calls them saints. This is a term that applies to
every believer. It has nothing to do with the
false teaching of the canonization of the Catholic Church. Nothing.
Those folks they call saints are not saints. Oh my. Nope. And these believers, they're
born again blood-washed believers, they're sanctified Therefore,
they're declared to be, they're sanctified in Christ. Therefore,
they're declared by the Holy God, the Father, Son, and the
Holy Spirit. They're declared to be sanctified. They're saints, which means they're
made holy. And that's nothing in us, is
it? But that's in Christ Jesus our Lord, who fulfilled all righteousness
in our room and place. It's wonderful. This message
of God's grace is absolutely wonderful for sinners. I'll tell
you what. And they're made holy, they're sanctified, because the
Lord Jesus Christ has been made to be their holiness. He's our
holiness. We don't have any holiness. We
know that. Outside of Christ, there's no
holiness, is there? But if we're in Christ, we're made holy by
Him. Now, I was trying to wrap my
mind around that, eh? It's true, though. Isn't that
wonderful? No wonder this is called the
epistle of joy. It just makes your heart leap. My goodness. Listen to this. 1 Corinthians
1, 30 and 31. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus. Now he's writing to those Corinthians
that were all messed up. First chapter, he says this.
But of him are ye in Christ Jesus. He didn't say, well, maybe. Remember,
these are Paul's words, but inspired by the Holy Spirit, the true
author. So the Holy Spirit's saying to them, you're in Christ.
Man, that's amazing! And they were messed up just
like we're all messed up. But he says this, but of him
are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom,
he's our wisdom, he's our righteous, and sanctification and redemption.
So it's all in him, that according to his written, he that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. We can only glory in the Lord.
That's the only one. Brother Travis, that's the only
one. We can only glory in Christ, can't we, for what he's done?
We can't glory in ourselves. We've got nothing to glory in. Now, we like to boast, don't
we? Let us boast in Christ, then. Right? Because there ain't nothing
in this old sinner to boast about. And I know there ain't nothing
in the sinners before me to boast about. But let's boast that Christ
has saved us. Let's boast in him. Let's give
him all the glory. Let's give him all the honor.
Let's give him all the praise for the great work he's done.
Oh my. And secondly, Paul and his
brethren have a history. He was used by God to establish
this church, beloved. He did not pull some record of
who walked down an aisle. He didn't do that. He didn't
have to do that. He saw the change in them. He saw the Lord save
them. by the preacher of the word. He didn't say, well, now, close
your eyes and bow your head. Did you ever, when you were in
those kind of churches, did you ever want to look up and just
keep your eyes on? Everybody did that, didn't they? Oh, well,
that fellow's waving. Oh my! But Paul, see Paul, and
I'll tell you what, in the last three or four years since we
had that episode occur, I've seen so much growth in the church,
in you guys. It's been amazing. It's been
amazing. As your pastor, I'm just sitting
back watching what the Lord's doing, and it's absolutely incredible.
And he's knit our hearts together even more, hasn't he? And we're
gonna see, that's the fellowship of the gospel. That's what he
does for us. It's the love of Christ in us,
exactly. That's exactly what it is. That's four and two, yeah. So Paul had spent time with these
folks. See, when a preacher spends time
with a congregation, like, my heart is knit to you guys now. I mean, when all that stuff happened,
Vicki said, are we staying? We're going. I said, we're staying.
I couldn't leave. How can I leave? I love you guys.
Yeah, God sent me here to preach the gospel. I'm gonna stay here
and preach the gospel. And the Lord worked it all out, didn't
he? Yeah, and that's all, I'm just supposed to feed the sheep.
I'm just supposed to preach the gospel, right? And I'll try to
do that to the best of what the Lord gives me, and I'll stumble
and I'll talk funny sometimes, but I'm just gonna preach Christ
to you. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that wonderful? So Paul
had a relationship with the church like we have. It's amazing. Look at verse three. I thank
my God upon every remembrance of you. So they were being brought
up into his mind. Always in every prayer of mine
for you all making requests with joy. So he includes them all
there. He's not just cherry picking people. He includes them all. I love our little prayer list.
We're just praying for folks and putting it out there, and
isn't that wonderful? And if you notice, it just joins
our hearts together even more, beloved. Isn't it wonderful? It's wonderful. Dave, you gotta
get a phone. He says in verse seven that... Oh, I love you, brother. Oh,
man. Now, the third point of how Paul
had confidence that they were truly saved is found in verse
seven and eight. And here, this is what you hit on, Dave, just
earlier. They have a mutual love. And this love is foreign. This
love is not natural for us. This is the love of God in Christ
that's wrought in us by the Holy Spirit of God. And it's amazing. It's amazing. It's true love. Look at this,
verses seven and eight. Even it is neat for me, that's
suitable, to think this of you all, because I have, look it,
he said you all again, because I have you in my heart, and so
much as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation
of the gospel, you are all partakers of my grace. And look at verse
eight. For God is my record, how greatly I long after you
in the bowels of Jesus Christ. The bowels there is the heart.
He longs to be with them. He longs to see them. He longs
to, like how we embrace and, you know, we love each other.
And that's how he, he loved these folks. He personally knows them. You know, he's been in the trenches
with them. He saw the growth in them. My oh my. And he says in verse seven there,
when it says meet, that's suitable to think of them because they
were in his heart. They're in his heart, beloved.
I can't tell you how many of us grace preachers, we always
say when we're away, we're thinking of the folks that comprise up
the church in our area. It's amazing. It's amazing. We're praying for the preacher
that's going to preach to you. We're praying for you all to
receive it. And our hearts, to be honest,
our minds are more here than they are there. It's true though. And every preacher you talk to,
yeah, every preacher you talk to, it's the same. Norm tells
me that all the time. He goes, I love being here, but
I sure love going home too. You miss the sheep. Yeah, you
miss the folks because they're family. And one of the marks
of love is that the loved one is often thought of. You ever
think of that too? We think a lot of those who we
love. So Paul here is saying that he loves them and they're
in his heart which is the seat of affection. And believers joy
in thoughts of one another and thoughts of love and joy for
the brethren. What's a common thread that binds believers together
in love? There it is, it's the Lord Jesus
Christ, yeah. He is the common, he's the common
thing, the one, the common one, not thing, the common one that
binds us. We're in Christ. And his precious blood has redeemed
every one of us who are his people. You see, we have a bond together.
We have the same Father, God the Father. We have the same
Savior, redeemed by His blood, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we
have the same Spirit, born again by the same Spirit, the Holy
Spirit of God. And that's why we say, salvations
of the Lord. That's why. There's no other
way. No other way. And also, you know what else
is a common thread amongst believers? The grace of God. We've all been
shown grace, haven't we? We've all been saved by grace,
and that grace is the grace of God. That's also another common
thread that binds us together. My, the grace of God puts us
all in the same boat, doesn't it? Sinners saved by grace. We
sail in the ship called Sinners Saved by Grace, don't we? And
we're heading home, aren't we? Not of ourselves. And the only
way we're in that boat, heading home to glory, is because God
put us in there. And we're fellows in the ship,
aren't we? That's what Bruce Crabtree told me one time. He
said, fellowship, fellows in the ship. We're just on our way
to glory, beloved. Oh my, it's wonderful. I'll tell
you why. We've all been saved by the same
sovereign grace, haven't we? All of us. And we, as the redeemed of the
Lord, we have constant reason now for Thanksgiving, don't we? There's no reason why we shouldn't
be thankful. You don't have to make God's
people thankful. You don't have to guilt God's people to be thankful.
Now, we'll get down just like everybody else, but boy, we can
get up quick again when we think about how good God is to us,
can't we? And how thankful we are for his salvation and his
precious blood. How thankful we are for the deliverance
from all our sins and eventually the deliverance from this body
of death. As we go home to glory to be with the Lord. My oh my. See we have a hope beloved. What
a hope we have. Oh my. Now let's read verse 5
here. Oh my. And think of this, we
as the redeemed of the Lord of constant reason for Thanksgiving,
we thank God for his temporal mercies, we thank God for his
spiritual mercies, and we also thank God, again, for the deliverance
from this body of death, but above all, we thank God for Christ,
his unspeakable gift. Right? More than anything, we
thank God for Christ. Now let's read verse five. Look
at this, this is a wonderful verse. This will be our verse
for today. Oh my, we see Paul is thankful and he rejoices in
the fact, now why is he rejoicing? Their fellowship together in
the gospel. He's thankful to our great God
for their salvation. Isn't that wonderful? Are you thankful for your brothers
and sisters' salvation? We are, our own two and of brothers
and sisters. And when we hear the Lord saving
someone, or bringing someone over to hear the gospel preached
from somewhere where they don't hear, we rejoice. It's wonderful. Praise God. I'll tell you what,
saints are scattered all through this world, beloved. They're
scattered all over the place. My oh my, look at this. For your
fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. So we
see also, until now, that speaks of their perseverance. But who's keeping them? It's
the Lord keeping them, isn't it? Lord's keeping them. Yeah. But he also thanks God
for their first day, for when the Lord saved them, when they
were born again by the Holy Spirit of God through the preaching
of the word. And there was a fellowship of faith and love with Paul and
the saints here in Philippi to serve the king with a view for
the furtherance of the gospel. And that's why we're here too,
isn't it? We're here for the furtherance of the gospel. And
we all serve the king. And our desire is that the gospel
would go out, which it is, and be used by God to edify his people
and to draw in his lost sheep. And we don't have to know about
what's happening with that, do we? We just rejoice as it goes
out. My, it's wonderful. So their
bond was in the fellowship of the gospel. Their bond was in
Christ. He is the gospel, isn't he? Is
the gospel good news without Christ? No, there's no good news
without Christ. The gospel's good news because
Christ saved his people from all their sins and redeemed us
by his precious blood and paid for all our sins so much so that
God don't remember him anymore. That's wonderful, Brother Jim,
isn't it? That's just wonderful. I'll tell you why. No wonder. Could you imagine? They'd be
so joyful reading this letter. And we're only in verse five.
What joy it would bring them. So the bond of fellowship is
union with Christ. Union with Christ. The attraction
was irresistible. When the Lord's drawn us to Christ,
the attraction is irresistible. It's like a magnet drawn us.
It's like the most powerful magnet in the world drawn us. Isn't
it? And all you gotta do is move
that magnet, and those pieces, they're just... That's how we
are drawn to Christ, beloved. Do you ever think of that? Irresistible
grace. Amen, sister. Those little pieces
of... You ever do that when you were
a kid? Put down like... I used to get my dad's nails, eh? You
got these little nails. He'd wonder, there are nails
everywhere. But I'd get these little nails, and I'd get... He had
some good magnets. You get those magnets, and you
move them a little closer, and nothing happens, you move them
a little closer, and those magnets, or those nails start to go like
this, right? You move in closer, whoo, before you even know it. That's what Christ does to us.
He's drawn us, draw bones, drawn us. He's like a magnet, love
it. And I'll tell you what, once
the force of that magnet starts to move, nothing, those things
are gonna come flying, aren't they? Isn't it wonderful? See, that's a good way for us
to think of how the Lord draws us. Because people say, well,
but in the Greek, it means he's dragging us. He fetches us. But that's a good way for us
to picture it, isn't it? Those little pieces of metal
can't resist that power of that magnet, can it? See, God is sovereign,
beloved. He's absolutely sovereign. Aren't
you thankful he drew you to him? Oh, my. And those little things,
sometimes you see them, they're holding back. And then once that
force comes powerfully, whoosh, everything, all those pieces
of metal, right to that magnet. Try it. It's fun to watch. It's incredible. But now we can
look at it with how God draws us to Christ. Magnet of divine love, beloved.
directed at all our faculties, all our possessions, all our
desires, so that we want to serve Christ in all those things by
our faculties, by our mind, by what we have, and by our desires.
Now we want to serve Christ. Isn't that amazing? Because we're
attached to that magnet now, aren't we? We're attached to
Christ. We're his body. We're his body,
beloved. Oh my. Paul did not live for himself,
neither did the Philippians. And they had this wonderful fellowship
together, which was, they were born again by the Holy Spirit
of God, and they were in Christ. They've all been redeemed by
the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. By his doing, which
he fulfilled all righteousness in our place, and by his perfect
life, and then by his dying, when his blood was shed to redeem
our eternal souls. to pay the price for chosen sinners. He's the only substitute for
sinners, isn't he? That God will accept. So the
result of this mighty work in the Philippians, being born again,
was this brotherly union. This brotherly union. My oh my. You know, as the rivers flow
to find one common rest in the sea, so the believers' hearts
melted and ran into one fellowship. One fellowship. All their hearts
melted together into one fellowship, and that was with Christ. That
was looking to Christ. Where do we find our rest? Only
in Christ. Amen, sister. Only in Christ.
There's no rest anywhere else, is there? No rest anywhere else. My, and in Christ we find protection
from the chill of this world, from the storms of this life,
and from the trials of this life. And they were going through persecution,
so their refuge, their rest was Christ amidst all the persecution
they were going through. In Christ their weak strength
was, or their weak faith was strengthened. Do we find that?
Yeah, we do, don't we? When I'm weak, he's strong. My
oh my. The timid heart became emboldened.
Unity begat strength, all coming from the Lord Jesus Christ. All
coming from Him. And note the words here in verse
5, for your fellowship in the gospel. Fellowship in the gospel,
as I mentioned earlier, is a fellowship in Christ. This fellowship is
not natural to us. It's not natural to us. It must
be worked in us. When we're born again now, we
have fellowship with God through Christ. We have fellowship with
the saints through Christ. Isn't that wonderful? Oh my. But you know what? We're gonna
see even before we were born again, we were in Christ. Isn't that amazing? Always his
sheep, like we looked at on Wednesday night, 100% sheep. God's sheep
can never be goats, and goats can never be sheep. We don't
know who they are, though. We have no idea. We'll find all
that out on the other side, won't we? Yep. Oh, my. And think of this. This fellowship
is not natural to us. It's not merely a fellowship
of friendship, although we're all friends. But it's deeper
than that. It's deeper than that. And it's not merited by us. And it's not man-made. This fellowship is not man-made.
This fellowship comes to us through the love of God spread abroad
in our hearts. Oh my. This fellowship of the
gospel is a fellowship of grace and it's sovereignly affected
by Jesus Christ our Lord and it's a gift of God the Holy Spirit.
And sent out to us by the Father. Whereby now we cry Abba Father,
don't we? It's wonderful, I'll tell you
what. And think of this, apart from our Lord Jesus Christ and
the Holy Spirit, this fellowship is entirely impossible. You ever think of that? Apart,
apart from a work of God, apart from a work of God, this
fellowship is impossible. And marvel at this, this true
fellowship between Christ and his people even precedes time. You ever thought of that? Time is something God made. This fellowship between Christ
and his people precedes time. Chosen in him before the foundation
of the world. Before there was even time. You
ever think of that? I read that yesterday and I went, Oh my. Just another layer of
wonderment, isn't it? Of what Christ has done. Now
we read that, chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
world, that's before time ever was. We can't, we can't, see, we can't
fathom that because we are beings stuck in time until God takes
us out of time. You know that our saints that
went home to glory, they're no longer constrained by time. No, they're in eternity. Oh, it's wonderful. I'll tell
you what, it's wonderful. In time, Jesus Christ, as it
were the magnet, for he draws us to himself, he draws those
given to him by the Father. How does he draw us? How does
he draw us? And what he draws us by irresistible
grace through the word and the spirit. Faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the word of God. And who's the one who makes it
effectual? Someone tell me. Who's the one
who makes it effectual? Christ, amen. But he sends the
comforter, doesn't he? Oh, it's wonderful. It just gets
better and better and better. The more we learn about Christ,
the more we learn about this wonder of salvation, it just
gets better and better and better. And the Holy Spirit applies to
those Christ draws. Think of this. The Holy Spirit
applies to those who Christ draws the merits of his death. We have had applied to us the
merits of Christ's death. Someone says, well, you're supposed
to love the Lord thy God with all your heart, mind, and soul.
Well, I can't do that, but Christ did it for me. There you go, Dave. Completed
in him. Isn't that wonderful? Everything God demands for the
salvation of our soul, Christ did it for us. No wonder he cried,
it's finished. No wonder he cried that. There's
nothing to be added. It's done. We just rejoice over this, don't
we? This wondrous truth. It's true. And we can rest in
this. Oh, it's wonderful. I'll tell
you what. I've been loving these Sunday school lessons because
they're just, these letters have been amazing that we've been
going through. Just amazing. So Jesus Christ, by the means
of his crucifixion, his resurrection, his ascension, and his coronation,
attracts to himself, draws to himself by abiding faith in himself
that he gives to us, to all the elect of all the ages. He just
draws them. Isn't that wonderful? And gives us faith to flee to
him. My oh my. It's, I'll tell you
what. In the person of Jesus Christ,
he's the surety of every born-again, blood-washed saint of God. In
Christ, we were trialed, we've been tried, we've been condemned,
and we've been crucified. That's why God doesn't remember
our sins anymore. They're all bought and paid for.
So that condemnation will never fall upon us. Remember knowing
that ark? Not a drop of rain hit him, did
it? Or his family. That pitch pictured the blood
of Christ on that ark. Sealed inside there, the atonement,
amen. Yeah, when I see the blood, I'll
pass over you. You're covered, brother. My. And we were raised with Him,
too. Do you know that? He was raised for our justification.
And you know, Scripture says right now we're seated with Him
in heavenly places? Right now. To get their mind
around that. See, in God's, it's all done.
He knows the end from the beginning, doesn't He? He knows everything. Aren't you glad He's our Savior?
Aren't you thankful He saved your soul? I'll tell you what. raised with him in heavenly places.
So the believer's sanctification, the believer's justification,
the believer's redemption, and the only mediator we have with
God is Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have, he is our wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. That's what he
is for us. And so what can we conclude from
this? It's all of grace. Salvation's all of grace. I'll
tell you what, I'm gonna keep piping to that as the Lord gives
me breath. And we're never gonna tire of
hearing it, are we? Salvation's all of grace, all by the grace
of God through Christ. And this fellowship is a fellowship
of faith, too. We have the same faith. You know
we have the same faith Abraham had? You know we have the same
faith David had? You know we have the same faith
Moses had? Ain't that wonderful? And for all of us, all those
fellows I mentioned, and for all of us, it's given to us by
the grace and mercy of God. And this faith embraces Christ.
They look to Messiah, we look to Christ, who is the Messiah.
It's wonderful. It's also a fellowship of prayer
and thanksgiving, which we've seen in the verses preceding
this verse. And this fellowship in the gospel is also a fellowship
of believers in love. I want to close with this, in
love for our great Redeemer. Love for our great Redeemer,
love for the gospel of Christ, love for the Father, love for
the Holy Spirit, and love for the saints. And that's all wrought
in us by our great God. What do we say? Praise his mighty
name. That's all we can say. Brother Travis, can you close
us in prayer?