Okay. Open your Bibles, if you
would, to Philippians chapter 1. The name of the message is
remembrance. Now, every time we do the Lord's
Supper, we're in remembrance of what Christ has done for us.
But in this case here, Paul is remembering the saints at Philippi
in prayer. That's the focus today, is that
he's remembering those who are born again, blood-washed saints,
redeemed, born again by the same Holy Spirit as we are, purchased
by the precious blood of Christ, saved, trusting in Christ alone,
going through trials of this world. And Paul's remembering
them. He's now, remember, he's in prison.
He's either in prison in Rome or he's in house arrest. People are fighting still about
that. All I know is he's in chains. He's not allowed to leave wherever
he is. This is the state of Paul. He's
writing this letter to the Philippians. Now remember again, this church
was established by Paul and Timothy and they were preaching the gospel
in Thessalonica. and they fled Thessalonica and
they went to Philippi and then they had to flee Philippi and
then they went to Berea and so he's in Rome right now writing
this letter to the Philippians and he's writing to saints who
are suffering for their faith they're being persecuted outside
the church, and there's even disputes going on within the
church too. And on top of that, they have
the Judaizers, the same fellows we found out and dealt with in
Galatians, who are saying you must be circumcised to be saved.
That had infected multiple churches, beloved. Now this is the first
European city Paul's gone to. It's a Greek city. was established
by the Greeks, and it was a Greek city, and then Rome took over,
and it's sometimes called the Second Rome. A little brief history
here. There's a road which passed by
Philippi called the Via Ignita, and it was a road used by Paul,
the apostle, on his second missionary journey. He traveled from Philippi
to Thessalonica, and back and forth on that road. And that
road led from one point in the Roman Empire all the way to the
Aegean Sea. I read that it went all the way
down to where Armenia is today, too, and all that. Way down. It was a huge road. First built,
I think, I read, by a Macedonian ruler, and then improved by the
Romans when they came in. And also, at Philippi, there
was a huge battle. In 42 BC, Philippi was the site
of a decisive Roman battle in which Mark Anthony and Octavius,
who later on is the Emperor Augustus, they defeated Brutus and Cassius,
who were the leading assassins of Julius Caesar. All that happened
in that area. Their armies were wiped out and
Brutus and Cassius died in the Battle of Philippi. Again, Mark
Anthony, who we know later on went on to, he was involved with
Cleopatra. Octavian as well became Augustus,
one of the one of the emperors of Rome. Now let's read the first
eleven verses of this chapter. Paul and Timotheus,
the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus. Now this is a letter written
to the whole church at Philippi. All the saints, the called out
ones, the holy ones, made holy in Christ. Look at that. in Christ
Jesus. So important. Which are at Philippi. So there's their location. This
is where they've been born again by the Holy Spirit of God. God
ordained in eternity past that a church would be established
in Philippi because some of his sheep were there. Isn't that
wonderful? With the bishops and deacons,
that's just the pastors and the elders. And then take note of
the word servants. In the Greek, It's doulos, which
means bond slave. Now think of this. I mentioned
this on Wednesday. I'm going to mention it again.
We can be servants of many. We can serve in the church. We
can serve in the church, and we can serve many people, right?
We can serve in other vocations outside the church too, serving
people, helping people. But this word means a slave. The slave only has one master,
doesn't he? We can serve many, but we only have one master.
And that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're willing bond slaves,
like we looked at in Exodus last week, where we've had our ears
bore. Right? Isn't it wonderful? It's absolutely wonderful. And
our master is the Lord Jesus Christ. And again, we're willing
bond slaves for him. I willingly serve Christ. Do
you? Amen. We love it. There you go. By his grace and by his mercy
and according to his will and purpose. But we willingly serve
him. We love to serve him. We love
our king. My oh my. The reason being is, like Dave
said, God's grace. And then we're born again by
the Holy Spirit of God. God sends the Spirit into those
whom Christ redeemed. Whereby now we cry what? Abba
Father. Oh, He's our Father. My, oh,
my. And he's nowhere like our earthly
fathers. He's so different. He's so different
than anyone else. And his love, you know, our mom's
love is a great love. Mom's love, I'll tell you what,
we can get in all kinds of trouble, and our moms will always love
us. Yep. And I always think we're a good
boy too. My mom thought I was a good boy until she found out
some stuff about me. But then even after that she
still thought I was a good boy. I was still her favorite. A badge that I wore with honor.
But you know what though? All God's people, God loves us
the same. Isn't that wonderful? He loves
us despite our sinfulness. He's loved us from eternity.
It's amazing. It's amazing. Look at this. Grace
be unto you. Now notice what grace precedes. Peace. So there's no peace with
God except God shows us grace in Christ Jesus our Lord. That's
why grace, every time you see Paul write, grace always precedes
peace. You have no peace without the
grace of God. We can't make peace with God
on our own, can we? But we have peace with God, the
scripture says, through the Lord Jesus Christ. And because of
his blood, right? Because of his precious blood
shed for us. My, and then raised for our justification. It's wonderful, absolutely wonderful. So grace be unto you. God is
currently showing us grace. He's always showed us grace,
hasn't he? Oh my, and peace from God. Look at that, where's it
come from? It comes from God. Do we look
for it? Do we seek it? No, it comes. He loves us. He shows us grace
and mercy. Remember what we saw in Colossians
chapter one on Wednesday night? We were enemies in our minds
by wicked works. And yet it says here, grace beyond
you and peace from God the Father. What motivated God to send Christ
into this world? His love, his eternal love for
his people, his grace showing towards his people. That's the
greatest manifestation of love and grace at Calvary's Cross.
And then he's so satisfied with the death of Christ that he raises
him from the grave three days later to show us that we're justified. And I'll never stop hitting that.
He was raised for our justification. He's sinless, he's spotless.
He's perfect, raised for our justification, that we might
stand in the presence of God clothed in his perfect righteousness.
That's wonderful. according to the will and purpose
of God the Father and the Holy Spirit too. Grace be unto you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Take note, three
times in two verses he's brought up Christ. Three times in two
verses. He's brought out Christ. Look
at this. Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ,
to all the saints in Christ Jesus, that's two, which are at Philippi,
with the bishops and deacons, grace beyond you and peace from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. There's three times he's
brought. So what he's doing, what's he doing, beloved? He's
setting forth Christ before them, isn't he? And in this book, we're
gonna see no rebuke towards the Philippian church. We're gonna
see encouragements and exhortations but no rebuke towards them. This
is a book of joy, beloved. Oh my, it's wonderful. And note again, he's got them
totally focused, focused on the Lord Jesus Christ, not focused
on the false teachers, not focused on the trials and the sufferings. Right? Not focused on the divisions
in the church, focused on Christ. If we get our minds set on Christ,
everything else will fix itself. That's right, eh? Oh my. Again, nowhere in this book is
Paul critical of the church at Philippi. It's a book of joy
and encouragement to the saints. was written for our learning,
too. Remember that, too. Here we are now. All the Bible's
written for our learning. Isn't that amazing? We're reading
about real people, real events that occurred already in the
past. For our learning. So how do we
deal with false teachers? Focus on Christ. How do we deal
with divisions within the church? Let's get together and focus
on Christ. We focus on Him, right? How do we deal with trials in
our lives to come? Whether they be health trials
or whether they be trials just in the world, we focus on Christ. We have to keep our eyes on him. That's why Paul said, notice
this, he's not coming to the Philippians and saying, well,
you know, through your trials, try to fix this and try to fix
that. He's setting their mind in the first two verses, mentioning
Christ three times, setting their minds right on Christ. He's the
great physician, right? He's bone of our bone and flesh
of our flesh, right? He was tempted like we are, yet
without sin, right? That's why we go to him. He's
our mediator. He's the only mediator. And oh,
his love for us, beloved, he'll never turn one of us away. He'll
never say, that's too small, Charlie. He says, come unto me,
all you that are labor and are heavy laden. I'll give you rest.
Isn't that wonderful, brother? Oh my, it's wonderful. This thrills
my soul. And I can get myself in a mess.
I'll tell you what. Can you get yourself in a mess?
I can get myself in a mess so fast. I don't even have to get
off my chair. You can get full of anxiety.
I can get full of all these different things. Can you? Oh, man, just
like that, right? Things that aren't even happening,
but in our mind, they appear real. But they're not real. And remember this too, they're
but a mohel in the eyes of the Lord. Something that appears
like a mountain to us is a mohel. So Paul's focusing him on the
one thing of most importance, the one needful thing for sinners
and for saints, Christ Jesus our Lord. Now let's read verses
3 to 11 and take note again, Paul four more times in these
nine verses sets forth the name of Christ. So seven times in
11 verses, he sets forth Christ. My oh my, and we're gonna see
that all through this book. He's just gonna keep setting
Christ before them. Look what he says in Philippians chapter
one, verse three. I thank my God upon every remembrance
of you. What Paul means here, It's in
the Greek, it's upon the basis of. It does not mean that Paul
here thinks, thanks God at every remembrance, every single time
he prays. What it means is he's, every
time God brings to remembrance the Philippians, he's full of
joy. He's giving thanksgiving to our
great God. The word evi in the Greek text
has the idea of a whole. So Paul thanks God because of
his whole remembrance of the Philippians, remembering all
that occurred with them. And remember that he had to be
lowered down at night just to escape. He remembered all that,
and he's saying, thank you, Lord, for those Philippian believers.
Thank you for my brothers and sisters in Christ. There's no regrets in all of
Paul's relationships with the miserable. There's no regrets in the relationships
we have with God's people, is there? Whether they be good or
bad. My, oh my. Here's a translation
by a Greek scholar, Weiss. He says, on verses three and
four, he says, I'm thanking my God constantly for my whole remembrance
of you. So remember the whole remembrance,
remembering what occurred with them. Always in every prayer
of mine, making supplication for you with all joy. Isn't that
wonderful? So when God brings a remembrance
to the Philippians, he remembers the whole thing. He remembers
everything that happened with them. And he thanks God for them.
He thanks God. Don't we thank God for one another?
It's very similar like that. Thank God for this church, don't
we? And being the people. Thank God for a building too
to meet in. Thank God for a country that we can meet in freedom.
My, thank God for the gospel. Thank God for sending Christ.
Thank God for revealing the gospel to us. Thank God for it all. Hey. Yeah. That little baby you held in
your hands last Sunday. Thank the Lord. It's a miracle. It's a gift. Gift from God. Now unless Paul was saved, which
he was, he would not have found any cause to rejoice in the church. Did we rejoice in the church
before the Lord saved us? We wanted nothing to do with
it, did we? You ever think of that? Did we rejoice in church
being God's people? Did we rejoice in God's people
before the Lord saved us? We didn't want to be around them,
did we, Charlie? Oh man, stay away from me. now. The only people we want to be
with now. We get joy when we hear Christ preached and Him
crucified in the risen King. We get joy knowing that Christ
died for my sins. And so the cause for which Paul
found in his heart to pray to God for the church at Philippi
was the fact that they were established by grace in grace. in Christ Jesus our Lord. They
were established by grace. Do you know we're established
by grace, by God's grace in Christ? We could never save ourselves,
could we? No. And we're established together
here for the furtherance of the gospel. They were established
together for the furtherance of the gospel, all by God's will
and decree. Just give them all the glory,
beloved. Rejoice that he's brought us together. We have brothers
and sisters. You guys are my family. I've
told you that. And I mean that. My family in Canada, the only
one who still talks to me is my daughter, thankfully. But
the other ones just think, well, he's gone off as a rocker. He's
a preacher now. I don't want nothing to do with
him. That's exactly what it is. It's
not me, it's Christ. It's Christ in me, the hope of
glory. Same as it was with you guys. And always remember, that's
a good thing to remember, Brother Dave. Even with the Philippians,
it's not them, well, they've converted, they're born again,
but it's Christ in them that is making people hate them. That's
why the Lord said, don't marvel if they persecute you or they
hate you. They hated me first. Yeah, and they're gonna hate
us for his name's sake. My, it's, it's, it's. So only,
think of this too, only one who has been saved by the grace of
God knows the blessedness of the fellowship of God's people
in the gospel. Only one who's born again. I
didn't know that. Did you know that, Brother Dave,
before you were saved? That the wonderful closeness we have in
Christ? Didn't even have a clue, did
we? Yeah, we were just dead. We were graveyard dead. My oh
my. But when we're born again, saved
by the Holy Spirit of God, born again and given faith to believe,
now we realize this is so precious. Do you know we can go anywhere
in the U.S. where there's a grace church or someone's preaching
the gospel and we can have sweet fellowship? Isn't that wonderful? We can go and we can sit and
if a man's standing up there, he's preaching the grace of God
in Christ, and the salvation's only in Him, we can rejoice,
can't we? We can rejoice. My oh my, I'll
tell you what. I'll tell you what. So Paul's
showing his love for them here. And he's thanking God for the
fellowship that he has with them in the gospel. We're gonna look
at that verse next week. The fellowship that he has with
them. And again, it's in Christ. Remember, he put that right off
the very bat. Paul and Timotheus, the servants
of Jesus Christ, who are all the saints, in Christ Jesus. That's the key right there. Are
you in Christ or are you outside of Christ? The only hope for
a sinner is to be in Christ. That's the only hope. Outside
of Christ, the wrath of God falls upon us. People laugh about that. It's going to happen. But aren't
you thankful, as a born-again, blood-washed believer, that the
wrath of God fell upon Christ rather than us? My, and that was all according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father? Isn't that amazing? And we say, me? Standing on the rock is right,
brother, that cannot be moved. The sure foundation. The scripture
says a nail in a sure place. In construction they sometimes
put a nail that they can hang things on. That's called a nail
in a sure place. That's what that is. And it won't
move too. When they're done they usually
beat that nail back into the wood because they ain't getting
it out. Oh my. My oh my, I've seen that before
on a construction site. I was just beaten right into
that beam, man. My oh my. So Paul's showing his
love for the Philippians here by writing this letter to them,
right? Responding to them, encouraging them, and then he's also manifesting
his love for them by commending them. and exhorting them for
their faithfulness in Christ Jesus our Lord. And we know the
only reason we're faithful is because God's working in us,
right? I was talking to someone this
week, and they started talking about rewards. Rewards, you're
gonna get rewards, and it's gonna happen at the judgment seat of
Christ. And I said, well, I'm never gonna be judged again.
And he said, well, you don't believe that? I said, no, I didn't
say I didn't believe it. I just said I won't be judged. And he
said, well, you don't want to receive rewards? I said, Christ
is my reward. What's better than Christ? I
said, I don't need anything if I have Christ. He's my reward.
He's my exceeding reward. And I said, I can give you a
chapter and verse that says that in Genesis. And I said, how do
you supposedly get these rewards? He says, by being obedient. I said, you know what I said?
I said, the scripture calls us unprofitable servants. Right? Yeah, no, no, amen, brother,
yeah, yeah. And he ended up getting a little
mad at me. And I just kept, he kept asking me, well, don't you
want these crowns? I said, Christ is the one I want.
I don't want no, if I got Christ, I got everything. My, and I hold true to that scripture
that says, there is therefore now no condemnation, in the Greek,
no judgment for those in Christ Jesus. And he says, well, you're
not gonna be judged for your sins, you're gonna be judged
for your works. I said, well, all my works are like filthy rags
in the eyes of the Lord. The only one who God will honor
works is the works of Christ. the perfect, sinless work of
the Lord Jesus Christ. God himself, he said, this is
my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. He didn't say, these
men on the hill, Peter, James, and John. No, he said, this is
my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. And beloved, I've said
this before, I'm gonna say it again. If we're in Christ, then
God's well pleased with us. Cease from your labors and look
to Christ, the only hope for sinners. The only way we can
have merit with God is in Christ Jesus our Lord and by his perfect
sin-atoning work. My oh my, and we're saved by
the blood of Christ, aren't we? And the only reason Christ is
our reward is because God made it so. Oh my. So he's commending them
for their faithfulness of just standing and looking to Christ.
And that's what we're to do, right? It's not about our labor. It's not about our works. We
look to Christ. And basically, something that
I was talking to Jake about, young Jake, we were talking about
that very situation. He said, there it is again, brother.
They just want to put themselves in the, anything that they do to gain
rewards or to gain salvation. Man has to do something. Grace
is the only place where we say, there's nothing for you to do. And he said something too. Think
about this. People are waiting for handouts,
right? Free money. Always want free money, right?
People want, give me money, it's free. Remember COVID? We were
all waiting for our checks, weren't we? We didn't sign them and throw
them away. We signed them and put them in
the bank, right? But here's salvation. It's totally free. And Jake says,
men don't want it. Something far greater than money.
Yeah. Of all our sins, brother. pardon
of all our sins. And man says, I'll not have this
man rule over me. And you know what? We would have
done the same thing. And we did the same thing before we were
saved. And the grace of God came and intervened in our life, didn't
it? And now we say, thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for the saints. Thank
you for the gospel. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for dying
for my sins. Thank you, Father, for sending
them. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for regenerating me. Give me
faith to believe. My. Isn't that wonderful? What a difference. It's all Him. He gets all the glory, doesn't
He? So only one who's been saved
by the grace of God can rejoice in the people of God and rejoice
in the gospel. And He presents evidence of His
love for them as he prays for them. He immediately breaks forth
into thanksgiving. Notice this, a practice which
we've seen in his other epistles. He's always thankful. Thankful
for if he has nothing, thankful for if he's abounding, thankful
and just being content where he's at. And again, take note of that
which he's thankful for, the fact of the fellowship of the
Philippians, the fact that they're born again, the fact of the fellowship
in the gospel, which is what? The source of God's grace, right? My, the gospel's good news because
God saves sinners, because God himself redeemed us. My, oh my. Take note of verses two to five
here. This is a prayer of thanksgiving and petition by Paul for the
Philippians. Look at this. Look at verse two first. Paul
prays for grace and peace. Grace be unto you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. And then in verse
three, Paul thanks God for every thought and memory of the Philippian
believers. Look what he says. I thank my
God upon every remembrance of you. Then in verse 4, Paul's
memory of them and prayers for them bring him great joy. Look
at this. Always in every prayer of mine
for you all making requests with joy. Then in verse 5, verse 5
he thanks God for the fellowship in the gospel from the first
day until now. So until the writing of this
epistle and even further on, Paul to the end of his life probably
thanked God for their salvation. Look, for your fellowship in
the gospel from the first day until now. Now let's read the
rest of those verses too. Go to verse 6 to 11. Being confident
of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you,
will what? Will perform it. It doesn't say
we have to perform it, does it? No, it's done. He'll perform
it. He shall do it. Amen, brother.
He shall do it. That's one of my favorite verses
in the scripture. He which hath 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 because I have you in my heart and as
much as both in my bonds and in my defense see so he's in
he's in bonds and confirmation of the gospel you are all partakers
of my grace for God is my record how greatly I long after you
all in the bowels of Jesus Christ and that that just means in his
heart the bowels of his heart his affections And this, I pray,
that your love may abound yet more and more in the knowledge
and in all judgment, which is discernment, 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. Isn't that wonderful? That's
wonderful, isn't it? Woo, my, what joy. What joy! And He's going to work on you. He's going to finish it. Because
He's the author and what? Amen, brother Dave. He's the
author and the finisher. Isn't that wonderful? And it's
not dependent upon us. He's conforming us to the image
of the Son. It's wonderful! Now God's people
aren't static. We're serving Christ, aren't
we? We serve Christ in this church. We serve Christ when we're out
in the world. We serve Christ even when we're among our family
members. We're his slaves. We're his bond servants. He's
our master. No matter where we are, whether
we're awake or sleeping, he's our master, beloved. And he's
a good master. He's such a good master, he gave
his life for us. My, oh my. My, oh my. And think of this. Let us not
only thank God for one another, but let us pray for his grace
and peace to be with all believers. Paul was praying. He's a praying
preacher, we see here. We've seen it in his other epistles.
He's a praying preacher. And this should be true of all
of us, right? You know, Spurgeon said, prayer is like breathing
for the believer. We can't live without breathing,
can we? Now, I don't want you to get beating yourself up, saying,
I don't pray enough. Just talk to the Lord whenever
you want. I'd walk across the road thanking
the Lord. Walk up the sidewalk, thank God
for the birds singing. And thank God for your brothers
and sisters in Christ, the fellowship, the wonderful fellowship you
have with them in the gospel. I'll tell you what, the world
doesn't even know what that's like, because we all are proof
of that. We didn't know what it was like. Now we do. We got a taste of it, haven't
we? A little foretaste of heaven, eh? Oh my, it's wonderful. So we can't live without breathing
and a believer cannot live without praying. And we pray wherever
we want, whenever we want. Whether it be in our minds, I
do a lot of praying in my mind. Without even speaking words.
And also sometimes I'll be on my own walking somewhere and
I'll just talk to the Lord. Pray for you guys. Coming across praying
for the saints today. And I know you pray for me. And
I covet that. Oh my, I covet that. Look at
verse 4. Always and every prayer of mine
for you all making requests with joy. Well Paul, Paul prayed for
the Philippians. They're very dear to him. Very
dear to him. And he said before that the remembrance
of them was an occasion of joy. Think of that too. I thank God for you all. It's wonderful. I pray for you
too. And I know you pray for me. It's wonderful. We thank God
for one another. It's incredible. And that's what
Paul's telling them. He says, I love you. I'm praying
for you. I think about you. You ever feel
that little tinge of joy when someone, maybe you're down and
someone says, I've been thinking a lot about you and praying for
you. Just how uplifting that can be. And they don't even know
you're going through something. But God knows. Yeah. He knows. He knows. Note also his petitions before
God. He offers his petition before
God, the very one who saved us. The only one who's worthy of
our praise, right? The one who we direct our prayers
to, the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father. And praise the
Holy Spirit for what he's done for you, too. Praise the Father,
Son, and Spirit. They're wonderful. and joy. He has joy over them. He's rejoiced in their beginnings
when the Lord first saved them, and he's rejoicing in their current
state right now, when he's writing this letter. He has great joy
for them, knowing their love for the gospel, knowing their
love for the Savior, the Master. Look at verse five. For your
fellowship in the gospel. That's the good news. And who's
the good news speak of? Christ Jesus. In his wonderful
sacrifice for sin. The sinless one dying for sinners. Shedding his blood, giving his
life. The lamb of God. God's Passover
lamb. God's Passover Lamb. So they're
filled with joy because God's redeemed them. In and through
Christ Jesus our Lord. So let we who are the redeemed
rejoice in the blessings received from God and let us praise Him
with great joy for His pardoning blood. His blood's washed away
all our sin. That's amazing. That's absolutely
amazing. And Christ has obtained eternal
salvation, and he's given it to his people. I mean he gives
it to his people we have it We have eternal salvation right
now beloved Even though we're still on this earth. We're secure
as the saints in heaven. Do you know that you ever think
of that? Yeah secure as the saints in
heaven And how secure are they? Well, no one's going to pluck
them out of the Father's hand. What about God's sheep on earth?
No one's going to pluck them out of the Father's hands. It's
wonderful. Oh, beloved. So we remember,
as Paul remembers, our brethren before the throne of grace. And
think of this. Just like us, these brethren
stood in daily need. We stand in daily need, don't
we? We might not tell everyone about it, but God knows, and
he takes care of us. My, oh my. But we all stand in
daily need of assistance and direction of the Holy Spirit
of God. So let's pray that for one another. And as soon as Paul
was converted, he started praying. He started praying, and he continued
to do so. And he directs us to be like
him that way. Just be in remembrance of your
brethren, making requests with joy for what God's done for them
and continues to do within them, right? And within us. Oh, my. So we see that requests
are to be made knowing unto God with thanksgiving. When we make
a request of God, let us return thanks to him. Thanksgiving is a branch of prayer
too, as well, right? To be thankful. To give Him glory
and praise and honor for what He's done for us. And even if
you don't receive that which you prayed for, you still give
Him thanks. We do, don't we? Because He alone
is God. He alone is holy. And He alone
is worthy of all our praise. And I'll tell you what. we have
a lot to be thankful about. If you don't think so, just think
about your redemption. Just think about the fact that
God came to this world to save us from our sins. My oh my. Brother Steve, could you close
us in prayer, brother?