Likeminded

We're going to be in the book of Philippians chapter two, both hours, if you would like to turn their Philippians chapter two. Paul, Paul is expressing his love towards those at Philippi, and he is also expressing, based upon his words, that he truly believes that some of them believe the gospel, that there's true believers there. And he believes that his labor has not been in vain.

He can't go to them. He desires to. He says that. Desire to see you, but I can't. He's in prison. He's on trial for preaching the gospel. He has to stand before Caesar. But he said, I'm going to send Timothy. I'm going to send Timothy to you. And there is no man that is like minded as Timothy. He was sending his very best man. He was sending his son in the gospel. He was sending the one that he trusted the most to ensure that the people would be well taken care of at Philippi in his absence.

So with that being said, let's read this text, Philippians 2 verse 17 through 20. Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all. For the same cause also do you joy and rejoice with me. But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you that I also may be of good comfort when I know your state.

For I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state. I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state. for your state. I've titled this message like minded, like minded. This isn't just having the same favorite food. This isn't having same favorite color or having a lot in common. Being like-minded is far deeper than that. It's spiritually speaking. It's not just physical. Now, did Timothy and Paul have like the same food? Maybe, but it's not relevant.

They had the same hope in the same gospel. Their hope was not in themselves. Their hope was in the God that they preached. And they were like-minded in doing that. When God knits our hearts together, that's what we get, is like-mindedness. And unless God knits our hearts together, there will be no like-mindedness. Interestingly enough, the Lord's people really don't just tolerate one another. We really love each other. Now there may be somebody that gets on your nerves in this church. I don't wanna know about it. I might get on your nerves. And so maybe we tolerate them for that reason, but we still love them. Why?

Because we're like-minded in the sense That God's gospel, that Jesus Christ, that's the only hope I have for salvation. That's the only hope I have. Can't look to myself, and I can't look to you to save me. Jesus Christ is the only way that a person can be saved.

What the Lord does when he knits our hearts together is he calls people to see, love, and believe the same thing. To love and believe God, number one. God. Believe God. And love, the flesh hates God. but to believe and love God. Number two, to believe and love God's gospel. And number three, to believe and love God's people. Here's why.

Colossians 2 says, our hearts are comforted being knit together in love and into all riches of the fullness of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ. God's elect are given the same rest that God rests on, the Sabbath, the Lord Jesus Christ. We're given the same, we're given the same love as Christ. We're given the same Faith, the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, we're given all the same thing. That's what makes the Lord's people like-minded in so much that we love and believe God, God's gospel, and we love each other. Scripture says, you know that you passed from death unto life because you love the brethren.

I can't look at my love for you and hope in my love for you, but I do love you. I do love you and I wish the Lord would increase it, but I could hope in his love. And if I am been given his perfect love, then I hope that, well, I know it will, it will come out.

Some way, shape or form, it will come out one to another. That's just how it is. Not as part or evidence of salvation, but just because We serve one another and Him because we love. And He first loved us, that's the only reason we love. God in His sovereign mercy and grace has made His people love and believe God, God's gospel, and love God's people. So first, if I am like-minded, if we are like-minded, then we are going to love and believe God. Love and believe God.

We no longer see God as dependent upon man. We no longer see God as being able to be manipulated by man. We no longer see God as being weak, or incapable, or unable to do something. We see God as sovereign. We see God as God. This is what the Lord does for his people. He immediately gives two things, and they go hand in hand always. He never gives one without the other. It's repentance and faith. And as soon as we get repentance, We see God seated in high and lifted up like Isaiah did in Isaiah 6. We see him, we see ourself as undone. We see ourselves as Job said, behold, I am vile. We see ourselves as sinners that need a savior.

And we see him as absolutely sovereign, absolutely sovereign. We love that about our Lord, that he is absolutely sovereign. We love and believe on the Lord because of his isness. He is the eternal self existing one. The I am that I am. I love that name. It's so mysterious, isn't it? He's just declaring his isness. He's I am. You can tell, he told Moses said, when I go back to the children of Israel, they're gonna ask me, what's your name? Who sent you? Do you tell them I am that I am has sent me. And you know what is amazing about that? When they heard that, And they heard that, that was good enough. That was good enough.

He is the Alpha and Omega of all things, especially salvation. He is the beginning and the end, the scripture says. He's the first and the last. He's the one as described, which was, which is, and which is to come. He has no beginning of days or end of life. He's eternal, he's everlasting. From everlasting to everlasting thou art God.

Do you love that about God? I love that about him. I believe him. It's amazing how the Lord causes us to believe him over ourself. See, we trust in the flesh by birth from birth. We trust in the flesh. I'm going to take matters into my own hand when the Lord reveals himself.

I'm undone. I am the man of unclean lips. I am the one, I'm the sinner. I'm the chief sinner. Lord, save me. We become, the Lord reveals to us that he is God and we are not. We are not God. He reigns supreme over the inhabitants of heaven and over the inhabitants of earth and in hell below. He reigns, I love the word he says, the Lord, in Psalm, the Lord reigneth. I like that ETH because it's continual. He's never gonna stop. He's never gonna stop raining. There's a lot of comfort we can take from that, especially in the day and age in which we live.

And I'm sure every single generation that's came before ours and every year that's passed, everybody thought, you know, it's getting worse and it's getting worse. And they weren't wrong. Scripture prophesied that. It said evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse in the end time, deceiving and being deceived.

But what comfort we have in knowing that our God is changeless. I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. I can rest right there. I can rest right there because I know I'm changing right now. I'm getting older every second that passes. I'm decaying. So are you. Not him. He's timeless. Time doesn't affect him like it does us.

We are made to love God, not ourself. We are made to trust and believe God, not this flesh. We are rendered powerless before Him because we see Him as having all power. That's what the Lord said, all power is given to me both in heaven and in earth. He has all power, that means I have none. He didn't leave any for me and you, or you and I. He has all power. All things are by God our Lord, they are for him, through him, and to him, the scripture says.

Now there are those who foolishly say phrases like let God have his way, or God wants to do this, God doesn't want for anything and we can't let Him do anything. We can't constrain Him or refrain Him. We can't hinder His purpose. We can't alter anything about God. We can't make Him do something and we can't prevent Him from doing something. I can rest in our God knowing that.

That means no matter what I do, I can't change salvation. No matter what I do, I can't mess it up. Because I know if it was left up to me and put in my hands, I would mess it up. I'd be like Uzzah, I'd put my hand to the ark. Even though we know better. It's just what we do by nature.

No saying let God or God wants to do this or that, if you'll just let him, that's man-made. You won't find that terminology in the entire scripture. You won't find that terminology. What you will find is that God cannot be constrained or restrained. You'll find that none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? He's God. Brethren, if we are like-minded, we've been made to love him as he is, to see him as he is, and we've been made to believe him just as he is.

I understand whenever we haven't come to the knowledge of the truth yet, we have a misconstrued notion of who God is. Nature itself will teach us that there's a God, but it's impossible for man to come to the conclusion of his isness unless he's revealed. God has to reveal himself. So if I'm trying to come up with a God in my mind, not on purpose, that's just what we do by nature, we're idle factories. And so I'm going to make him like unto me. I'm going to make that God think thoughts like I think, because it's not possible. I have to have him subjective to me.

But here's the thing, he's not. He said, my thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways are not your ways. As the heaven is above the earth, so is my thoughts above your thoughts and my ways above your ways. He's other. That's the best definition of holy that I've really found is other. He's just, Not different in a bad way, but different in a glorious way, because if he was anything like, he said, do you think, think as I was like unto you? Do you think I was like unto you? No, he's nothing like us. He's nothing like us. Did you know that he can't be made responsible because of anything a son of Adam does?

Think about that. I can't make him responsible. I can't make him, he's not guilty. I can't make him bow. I can't make him do anything. That's the whole point. Can't make him do anything. We're just creatures of dust, brethren. How silly, in that light of us being creatures of dust, how silly is it that we think dust can dictate, threaten, control, demand anything from the sovereign creator of this universe, the sustainer of life. The one says in John 1, all things were made by him and without him there was not anything made that was made. We can't do anything to him. We can't do anything to him. We can't obligate him. We can't control the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Can't control Him.

And you know what we've learned? If the Lord has revealed His truth to us, we love it that way. We love it that way, we believe it. With every bit of the faith that the Lord's bestowed upon us, we believe it with all, all of it. All of the new heart that He's given us, we believe it. As a matter of fact, His isness is why we hang all of our hope of salvation upon Him. Because if he could change, he'd fall out of love with me quick. He would fall out of love with me quick.

But here's the good news of the gospel, is that this covenant, it's not like the covenant where you and your spouse took your vows, and it was really contingent upon keeping those vows. I'll do this if you'll do that. When one breaks the vows to some degree, you see a lot of divorces going on, don't we? and therefore the covenant's broken. But this is a covenant with God and himself.

It's not contingent upon me. It's not based upon my actions. It's not based upon my will. It's not based upon my strength. It's not based upon me at all. It's based upon God saying, I will and you shall. I'm gonna save you by my power. I'm going to keep you by my power and you're going to be saved and you're going to be kept. That's who God is. That's who God, I can rest. I can rest with our Lord for that. God's elect are made to love and believe God over self. We see that we are utterly sinful and he's entirely holy. We are made to really love God.

You know, A lot of people don't understand that it's impossible for the flesh to love God. It's impossible for the flesh to love God. The flesh is enmity. The flesh is hostile against God. He's going to have to give me a new heart. One that's not made of stone anymore, but one that seeks righteousness, Christ's righteousness. One that seeks after Him. One that looks to Christ alone in all things. One that believes God over self. And in believing God, what we're doing is we're taking sides with Him. It's almost as if we're pointing to ourself and saying, guilty, I choose you. It's not as if, that's really what we do, isn't it?

The only way I'm going to be justified is if you justify me, Lord. The only way I'm going to be righteous, if you make me righteous. And you know what the Lord said, I will be thou made clean. He never turned away a mercy beggar, not one time, not one time. We are made to believe and love God. This is all by his doing and all by his grace. He has made us like minded if we love and believe God. Secondly, we are like minded if God has made us love and believe his gospel.

The flesh hates the gospel. Did you know that? The reason the flesh hates the gospel is because the gospel renders man powerless. The gospel reveals that we're nothing but dead dog sinners. The gospel reveals that he is high and lifted up, that he is other, as I mentioned before, than we are, that he is the eternal I am, and we're the frail creatures of dust.

I don't know who first said this, but I've heard it many times through different preachers. You can't preach God high enough and man low enough. That's true. That's abundantly true. We've been made to believe his gospel as our hope. If you ask somebody, What is the gospel? You ever done that before? Ask somebody, what's the gospel? You know, some people can't answer you. And the ones that do usually say that it's the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. That's not true. That's not the gospel. It's how Christ died according to the scriptures. It's how Christ was buried according to the Scriptures. It's how He was resurrected. It's what His death accomplished that's left out from all the other Gospels.

He didn't accomplish anything according to them unless you do something to make the work effectual. But that's not true because He's God and He can't fail. He offered Himself to the Father once. One time. And what does the Scriptures say? When He had by Himself purged our sin He sat down. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3.

He didn't fail. He didn't fail. He saved his people from their sin. That was his purpose. That's why he was born. That's why he condescended. He's the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The truth is why, the gospel is why he lived a perfect life, to please the Father in every way that you and I couldn't. Why did he have to die? Because no amount of doing can fix our sin problem. It's called iniquity and God hates the workers of iniquity. I can't do anything to get better. The only thing I can do is add to the mountain of sin that I've already got on my record.

It's what he accomplished. You know what that means? It means it starts with God and it ends with God. It starts with God before time ever began. Choosing a people, electing a people into salvation. And if we have been made like-minded, we know that if God doesn't do the electing, saving, keeping, and calling, none will be saved. None will be saved. He chose to save. He didn't choose to save everyone, but a particular people. He chose to elect, to redeem, and to regenerate his chosen people. God chose to elect a people by grace alone.

And people talk about grace like they, there's a lot of, and I'm not picking on anybody, but there's a lot of grace reform churches I've heard of. Grace doesn't need to be reformed, it just needs to be declared. It doesn't need to be changed or fixed or, I mean, it's, grace has not changed. God's grace is... still the same because he's still the same. He's still the same.

We are elected according to grace. We are redeemed according to grace. His people are regenerated according to his grace and by his power and grace we are kept. We are kept. God's people are like minded in that we have been made to believe and love that salvation is of the Lord. Christ is all in salvation. and salvation is all of grace.

2 Timothy 1.9, you know I quote this one often, it's on our bulletin. I love this verse. I like all the verses, I'm not picking, but I love this verse.

It says, God hath saved us and called us. So what came first, the saving or the calling? God saved us and called us, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, given to us in Christ before time ever began. Isn't that glorious? That's the beginning of God's gospel. That's the sum and substance of God's gospel right there. We are like-minded in that we love and believe that everything God required, everything God required, he provided in the salvation wrought by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Everything he required. He's not looking to you and he's not looking to me for anything, for anything. He's not looking to your obedience. He's not looking for your faithfulness. He's not looking for your service, your efforts. He's not looking to you for anything. Everything he required, he had to provide and he did in the Lord Jesus Christ. Why did he have to provide it? He only accepts what he provides. He only accepts what he provides. If I provide it, he won't accept it. He only accepts what he provides.

He saved his people by offering himself to God, the Lord Jesus Christ did, not to man, but to God one time. By his blood, his sacrifice, his suffering, accomplish salvation has been. He accomplished salvation by his sacrifice, by his blood, by his finished work alone. We have been made like-minded because God has made us believe and love God and believe and love his gospel.

And lastly, We have been made like-minded in that we love the brethren. I wrote this down twice. I didn't even know it, but we don't just tolerate each other. I already said that, I know, but I wrote it down again. I guess it's important for me to say it. We love each other, we do. Our hearts are nicked together unto each other, but unto Christ first and foremost.

We never look to our love, though. Can't look at my faithfulness. Oh, I wish I was more faithful. I can't look at my love. My love's so cold and indifferent. It changes. You might do something to me and it offends me and I might not talk to you for a while. It's just the flesh. But the heart will still be knit together if we're in Christ. Can't change that. Can't change that.

And the Lord will cause us, I pray by his grace, to make amends. unto him. You know who is the one that forgives the most? The one that sees that they've been the most forgiven. If I see the mountain of sin that God has forgiven me for, I shouldn't have a hard time forgiving my brother or sister, should I? We're like-minded in that. It's for Christ's sake, God hath forgiven me. And I pray for Christ's sake, Lord, give me the ability to forgive if I'm offended, or you to forgive if you get offended.

That's the hope. That's the hope. That's being like-minded. God has bestowed. a hope, a blessed hope unto his people. Our hope's not in this world. Our hope's not in the things of this world. Our hope is in Jesus Christ alone. Our hope is in God. Our hope is in God's gospel. Our hope is in him alone. He's given us faith. He's given us repentance.

So we desire to serve him and serve each other, but not as any part of our salvation because we love each other and we love him. The only way that we can fulfill that, and that's what he's talking about here at the beginning, how that if there be any consolation of Christ, if there be any of this or any of that, he's saying if it be there, here's gonna be the result of it. The only way that that can come to pass is if we're looking to Christ alone. The moment we start looking to ourself, looking to our love, looking to our service, we've taken our eyes off of Christ.

I don't need to examine myself to determine, oh no, I don't know if I'm, I better do this, I better do that. No, no, this isn't. Our Lord says, come unto me. Don't labor, come unto me. And in coming unto Christ, you will find yourself loving the brethren. It's just that simple. It's not complicated.

He gets all the glory for it, because he's the doer of it. We've been made partakers of his grace. partakers of the divine inheritance found in Christ. His people have been made to see that we are unworthy, and therefore, brethren, truly, we prefer one another over self. We prefer one another, because we love one another that much. It's just true.

Lord, have mercy upon my sister. Have mercy upon my brother. How many of you, I gotta be careful how I say this, but how many of you pray for yourself the most? Now maybe you do, and if you do so be it. My prayer for myself is Lord keep me. Lord keep me, Lord help me, Lord save me. But my prayer is for the Lord's people. My prayer is for my brethren. The struggles and trials that they go through, there's a burden that comes upon you that you, I've got to, Lord help them, please. I'm not pointing at me, I'm just simply saying that the Lord gives you a heart to be like-minded, You love each other and you'll pray for each other.

David said it best. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than to dwell in the tents of the wicked. Can you say that? Oh, we're like-minded then. I would rather be, I would rather be a servant of Christ than to be the king of the wicked. I'd rather be a doormat. Um, in his courts than to have everything in this world.

That's the heart he gives us, isn't it? Just give me Christ. I've gotta have him. Because if I don't have him, I don't have anything. And I certainly don't have salvation. Christ is salvation. Lord, give me Christ lest I die. If you love and believe God as he is, God's gospel, and you love God's people, we are like-minded as we're Paul and Timothy. And God is the doer of it. And God gets all the glory for it. And God's elect love it that way. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we ask that you would take this and you would bless it to our understanding all for your glory in Christ's name. Amen. Let's take a break.

Likeminded

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