Fellowship In The Gospel

All right. I invite your attention this evening to the book of Philippians chapter one. You know, the theme of this book of Philippians is to rejoice in the Lord and the believer really does have reason to rejoice in the Lord at all times. even in times of trial and heartache and sorrow, the believer has a genuine reason, not this silly, fake smile rejoicing. I'm talking about a genuine reason in the heart to rejoice in the Lord and who he is and what he's done for his people. And I'd like to us to spend however many Tuesdays it takes us to get through this book, rejoicing in the Lord together.

I titled the message this evening Fellowship in the Gospel. You know, there is a sweetness to the gospel. There's something wrong if the gospel is not sweet to us. We're not to use the gospel to beat people over the head. It's the goodness of God that leadeth thee to repentance. There's a sweetness in the gospel.

It should be sweet to us to hear again and again and again. how Christ has saved me from my sin, that He shed His precious blood to put away my sin, that He suffered everything that I deserve to suffer to put my sin away. Like Mark read, it's gone. By one offering, He has sanctified forever them that are sanctified. Every time I hear that, I never get tired of hearing that. I rejoice, don't you?

And there's such a sweet relationship in the heart with the Savior. To think that the Savior, by His Spirit, dwells in the hearts of His people. Christ in you, the hope of glory. That wherever we're at, we have fellowship with the Savior. Right now, until we can find a house to buy, I'm driving right at an hour to come to get to the service here. I found, especially this evening, I just really didn't mind it. It's time to think about the message. And there's a, there's a fellowship with the, wherever you're at. It's just, what a, what a blessing rejoicing that. And that should cause a sweet relationship with each other.

The apostle Paul had a very special, sweet relationship with the church at Philippi. You remember when he first came to Philippi, the first people he came to preach to was Lydia and that group of women down by the riverside where prayer was want to be made. And Paul preached to them. He preached Christ to them. Lydia was saved, said all of her household, as many other people there that believed were baptized and they were saved.

A few days later, after Paul and Silas had been beaten with many stripes, they're laying in the prison, singing praises to God. They were having fellowship with the Savior, even laying in that prison, having been beaten half to death. And you know the story, how the Philippian jailer was saved. He came into them and said, what must I do to be saved? And Paul said, let me tell you about the Savior to believe.

And that, you can read about all that in Acts chapter 16, that those people formed the nucleus of the church there. And it apparently had prospered and grown. And those people were very, very special to Paul. And while Paul is in prison in Rome, he took time to write this epistle to these people at Philippi that meant so much to him. And we'll see his affection for them in a moment. But you know, this is a two way street.

They felt this affection back to the Apostle Paul. The reason that, one of the reasons Paul's writing is they sent a gift by their pastor Epaphroditus. And they sent this, they took up this gift to send to Paul while he's there in prison, maybe send him some food and some money and some clothing, books, whatever, you know, they sent him. And they took up that gift to send to him, even though they were in a time of trial themselves. I mean, that's how much affection that they felt for the Apostle Paul. And at one time, Paul said, you know, during my missionary travels, you are the only church that communicated with me and sending a gift to help pay for my expenses during this missionary travel. Paul was very special to them.

Now in these opening verses, I hope to look at the first four verses this evening, we see four marks of God's preacher. And I'm kind of following the same road map that I followed Sunday. More importantly, what we'll see here, I hope, is the Savior's love for his people and the relationship that God's people have with our Savior. You know, God's pastors are called under shepherds. And we genuinely love and care for God's church and want to feed them. But under shepherds are cheap imitations of the great shepherd of the sheep. And that's who I want us to see this evening. The number one I see here, God's pastors are servants. Verse one, Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ to all the saints in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons.

Now you notice Paul here doesn't call himself an apostle or the chief apostle or the apostle that's been most used, used of God. Now that would be true, but he just calls himself a servant. And he doesn't elevate himself over Timothy. Timothy is his, I don't know if you want to call him a protege or student or whatever, but he doesn't elevate himself over Timothy.

He said, we're both the servants of God writing this epistle to you. And that word servant there means a bond slave. willing bond slave, giving himself, he's willingly the slave of Jesus Christ to go where he sends him, to preach the message that he gives him to preach, to do whatever it is that God gives him to do, including being in prison. He said, I'm the bond slave of Jesus Christ. And how many times do you read these prison epistles of the Apostle Paul? He never says I'm the prisoner of Rome. Not one time that I can think of. He always says, I'm the prisoner of Jesus Christ. I'm his bond slave here doing what he would have me to do.

And the servants of Jesus Christ have one job to do, one job. Our job is to not to make society better, because that's not going to happen. Our job is to preach Christ Jesus to sinners, to preach Christ and Him crucified, That's our job. We're to preach the message that our master has given us to preach. It's the message of Christ. It's the only message that'll save a lost sinner. And it's the only message that will feed and comfort and instruct the hearts of God's people. Now, pastor is a servant, but if you look at Hebrews chapter 13, God's pastor is to rule the church. He says here, Hebrews 13 verse seven, remember them. He's speaking here pastors and elders who have the rule over you, who spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow. Considering the end, the goal of their conversation, why should you follow them? Why should you listen? Why should you remember them to have the rule over you?

Because here's the goal of their preaching, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever. The pastor's job in leading the church is to point men and women to Christ. In verse 17, Paul says, or the writer of the Hebrew says, obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that's unprofitable for you. Obey them, obey their message and submit yourself to the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ and believe them and do it because it's profitable for you. It's profitable for you.

Now God's pastors are to rule the church as a servant. Remember what the Apostle Peter told us, not as lords over God's heritage, we're servants. Pastors are servants who feed the sheep, who guide and watch over the flock. A pastor, and this is the best illustration that I can think of, is a servant who prepares the message of Christ so that God's sheep can feed on it. A servant, who'd come and serve the food. You ladies, Sunday, fed us a feast. I mean a feast. You prepared the food, you laid it all out, you served it as servants in that way, and everybody got a blessing. If you're like me, you gorged yourself and full the rest of the day, you know.

That's the job of God's preachers. to preach Christ so simply and clearly and unvarnished, so you just gorge yourself on him, so you're full of Christ. When we hear Christ preach, we feed on his righteousness, his perfect righteousness that by God's grace is made ours. You think that you have been made the righteousness of God in Christ. Now think on that and feed on that, rejoice in that. Feed on the blood of Christ that paid the entire sin debt of all of God's people, paid your sin debt. His blood paid your sin debt and washed you white as snow.

Now think on that, feed on that, just rejoice in that. Feed on the love of God, the love of God for his people, the mercy and grace of God for his people. Think on these things and feed on them. Feed your soul on them. Feed your soul on them so that you don't find yourself depending on yourself, but depending on Christ. Feed on the Savior's keeping power, His power. He's going to keep His people. It's not dependent on me.

I don't know if I've used this example before. I get to use many examples all over again, y'all haven't heard them all. Some years ago, when our youngest daughter Savannah was three, three years old, there was a big snow in Ashland. And so it had some ice with it at first and snow on top of it, you know. But by Saturday, you know, they had cleaned, you know, one lane of road and they had cleaned the parking lot at the church building. And we went to service, and we got out, but there's just ice just all over that parking lot, you know? And I got Savannah out of her car seat and was holding her hand, and we're walking in the building over that ice. And she looked up at me, and she said, don't worry, Daddy. I won't let go. And I said, that's good, honey. I won't let go either.

Now, what was the biggest reason that little one didn't slip and fall on the ice? It's daddy strength, wasn't it? It's daddy strength. What is the reason that the believer knows I'll be kept to the end? It's the strength of our Savior. It's his keeping power. But Billy, I ain't letting go. I know it doesn't depend on my hold on it, but I'm not letting go either. Rejoice in that. Feed on that. But here's the real blessing. Savior, the Prince of Glory. He's so glorious. We read in the book of Revelation, heaven doesn't have need of the sun, for the Lamb is the sun thereof. The Prince of Glory.

He came to this earth as a servant. As a servant to His Father. To do everything that the Father gave Him to do in the redemption of His people. To accomplish all of the purpose, all of the covenant of God's grace in He came as a servant to fulfill that covenant and ratify it with his precious blood. But do you know, he also came as a servant to his people. You remember in John 14, the disciples are all sitting around the table and Lord wrapped a towel around him. And he did the lowest job, the lowest servant's job, and he washed his disciples' feet.

And when he got done, he sat back down in his place, and he said, now you call me Lord and Master, and you say, well, for so I am. I am your Lord. I am your Master. But you see what I just did? As your servant, I washed your feet. Now you do the same for each other.

And the picture there is how our Savior came as a servant to his people to do everything it took to give us a righteous, to give us his righteousness, to wash us and cleanse us in his blood. He's our Lord and our master. But as a servant, he accomplished the salvation of his people.

And you don't want to know what the sweetness of that is. I know he did that for a number no man can number, but he did it for me. He did it for you who believe. Now think on that, rejoice in that, the sweetness of that. That's reason to rejoice. Then here's the second thing I see God's pastors, the thing they seek is the spiritual welfare of their brethren. Paul says in verse three, grace be unto you and peace from God, our father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the job of God's pastors is to seek the spiritual welfare of God's people. And here's how we do that, by only preaching Christ.

It's our only message. Every single time, it's our only message. I had a man ask me one time, he's in religion, and he said, you preach Christ every time? I said, every time. Because there's nothing else. There's nothing else. He's the only help for our souls. That's why we only preach Christ. And we talk about help, Christ being our helper, the help of our souls. I'm not saying Christ comes and picks up the slack and does what we can't do. I mean, our helper has done all of salvation. He's done it all so that it's all fully and completely accomplished. And you rest in him, you believe him, you trust him. Now rejoice in that, rejoice in that.

And care for the souls of these people that Paul loved He prayed that God's grace would be to them, that God would just shower his grace upon them. Now, grace is God giving us what we do not deserve. Can you think of any blessing God's ever given you that you deserve? Not one. He gave us the righteousness of his son. It had to be by grace. He forgave all of our sin that is directly against him. And he forgave it. The only explanation is grace. He gave spiritual life to the dead. The riches of God's grace. His electing, saving, calling, persevering, glorifying grace of God. Now think on that. Feed on that. That's sweet. Rejoice in the grace of God. And then Paul prays for them, peace. Peace with God. Now I'll tell you how amazing that is.

You understand how amazing it is if you understand this, you and I declared war on God in Adam. We declared war on God and we tried our best to carry that war out from the time that we were born and God gave us peace. He's the offended party and he made peace for us. by the blood of the cross of his darling son.

Mm-mm-mm. The blood that he shed in agony. And there's peace with God. And he gives his people peace in heart. While I'm a sinner, and all I ever do is sin, my sin bothers me. It just bothers me so much. But I have peace because my sin's forgiven in the blood of Christ. I've been made righteous in Christ, so the Father accepts me. I've been justified. This book tells me I've been justified in the blood of Christ. Justified means I have no sin. Then there's no reason for God to be angry with me. I have peace. Peace, that's sweet. I mean, that's good doctrine. But that's sweet, that's sweet. And that peace will cause us to have peace with each other. It's a sweet relationship to have peace with each other.

I noted Sunday that Rex in his prayer prayed the same thing publicly that I've been praying privately for some time, that the Lord will knit our hearts together. that you all have accepted me and Janet into this congregation, and our hearts will be knit together in love, that we'll be knit together in worshiping our God and preaching this gospel to our generation. But I tell you what's far more important, that our hearts be knit together with Christ. And I tell you how that's gonna happen, by somebody daring to preach Christ to us. And all this, Paul says, comes to us from God our Father and from, through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace, mercy, and peace comes to us through the Lord Jesus Christ because of everything that he accomplished as the servant of his Father. He gives us grace greater than all of our sin. He gives us the depths of his mercy. Oh, the riches of the mercy of God. He gives us peace that passes all understanding.

That peace is hard to explain. As a matter of fact, it's impossible to explain to an unbeliever, isn't it? Impossible. I was listening to an old message of Brother Henry's this week, and I just appreciated so much the way he said it. He's talking about these spiritual truths, these things that we love, that we hang our souls on, and he said, I know you don't understand it. I didn't either. I didn't either at one time. But God can give you an understanding of it. If you trust Christ, if you know Him, you have peace that passes all understanding. Rejoice in that. Rejoice. And then here's the third thing.

God's pastor spent a great deal of time in this praying. for the people that hear us preach. Paul says in verse three, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you, for you all, making request with joy. I tell you why I spend time every day praying for you, praying for me, praying for you, because I can preach to you. in what understanding that the Lord has given me, and I can tell you the truth of salvation in Christ Jesus. As much as God gives me an understanding of it and the ability to say it out loud, I can preach Christ to you, but only God can make you hear. Only God can give you a heart that will believe it and make that message a blessing to you.

So we pray, we pray. And when we really pray, now I'm not talking about just going through the motions and you know when you're really praying. Do you know that honors our God? It honors because it honors him because when we are really praying, the first thing we're admitting is I'm helpless.

I'm helpless. And the Lord's the only one who can help. Now that puts me and God in our proper positions, me being helpless at His feet and Him on the throne, able to do all things according to His own will and purpose. That's worshiping God. We pray because only God can do anything for us. Only God can do anything for us.

When someone is is heartbroken. They've lost a loved one. We can sit with them. The ladies bring food to them. Janet says, well, at least somebody's grieving. They don't have to be hungry. We can hold their hand. We can cry with them. Someone's in the hospital. We go visit them and pray with them.

But only God can do anything for us. Only God can give you grace in the heart. Grace to believe Him. Grace to forgive your sins. Only He can give it because it's His to give. Only God can give us peace in the heart. So we pray. And when God does, when He blesses His gospel and His word to our hearts, when He does give us peace, when He reaches the heart, oh, don't we give thanks?

We give thanks and we rejoice in that. You rejoiced a great deal Sunday night, didn't you? There at Kingsport, you rejoiced. God gave faith, gave faith to his little granddaughter. Hard to get any better than that. We rejoice. But I tell you, here's the blessing, something that you can feed on and rejoice in. Christ, our Savior, prays for his people.

And his prayer is always effectual. There are many things that I have prayed for my loved ones and different folks that the Lord was not pleased to give them. He did it in His wisdom, I know. But when our Savior prays for His people, His prayer is always effectual.

Look at the book of James, chapter 5, and I'll show you why. James, chapter 5. In verse 16, it says, confess your faults one to another. Now that doesn't mean we're all going to get up here and start enumerating all of our sins. That's a bad idea. And that's not what this means.

And pray for one another that you may be healed. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. I know who that righteous man is. It's our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ, our advocate. And if he's making intercession for you, your soul's gonna be healed. It'll be healed. If Christ is making intercession for anyone, their sin's forgiven. Because you know why? He's pleading his precious, sin-atoning blood. If Christ is praying for you, you cannot perish. You must have eternal life. Now, there's a sweetness to that. When we think about that, we ought to be rejoicing about that, that Christ our Savior right at this very moment is making intercession for us. And here's the fourth thing.

Our fellowship with each other is always centered around the gospel of Christ. Back in our text, Philippians 1 verse 5, Paul says in verse 4, in every prayer of mine for you all, making requests with joy, and one of the things he's thanking God for is your fellowship in the gospel. from the first day until now. Now we have fellowship with each other. The old, old definition of fellowship that I've always heard is fellows in the same ship. And you and me, we're in the same ship.

We got the same sin. Believers have all been saved by the same grace. We've been covered in the same mercy, washed in the same blood. We all worship and look to and cling to the same savior. We're kept by the same savior, by the power of his grace. We're also in the same ship in this sense.

We all need and love the same gospel, the same savior, but true fellowship. is always in the Lord Jesus Christ. That word fellowship means joined together. We have fellowship because we're all part of the same body, the body of Christ. Look at 1 John 1. 1 John 1, verse 7.

But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin. This genuine fellowship comes from being washed in the same blood of Christ by looking to him together.

If you and I are both looking to Christ together, we're not gonna have any problems. Because we're not looking at problems. As long as we are looking to Christ, we'll have fellowship one with another. Because we're depending on him. We're looking to him. We're worshiping him together. And that fellowship amongst believers on earth.

Now that's precious. It's important. Guard it carefully. Once you go back out there, that's a hostile place. Not here, not amongst each other. It's hard enough out there. Let's not make it hard on each other here. This is a place we help one another, pray for one another, worship God together. And it's precious. I would never want to give any indication that fellowship amongst each other is not very, very important. But I tell you the most amazing gift, I think, that we could be given here on earth. is to have fellowship while we're in these bodies, right? To have fellowship with Christ himself. Because remember this word fellowship, it means joined together and it means joint participation.

Believers are participants in everything that the Lord Jesus Christ did as a man on earth. When he obeyed the law, so did his people. when he suffered and died to put away the sin of his people, to satisfy the law's last demand, there must be death for sin. When he died, his people are a joint participant in that. If you died in Christ, the law says you're dead and it's not looking for you anymore. Look at Philippians chapter three. This is, this is exactly what the apostle Paul means here. Philippians chapter three and verse 10.

Paul said, this is my heart's desire that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Now, Paul's not saying there that I want to suffer on the cross like Christ did, that I want to be beaten and scourged and nailed to the cross. And that's not the fellowship of sufferings he's talking about. He's talking about this fellowship. I want to be a joint participant in that.

So that when Christ died, I was in him. I died in him. I died, the law's not looking for me anymore. And when Christ was raised, I was raised to newness of life in him. A joint participant in Christ, in everything that he accomplished. That's our redemption, being in Christ. And this fellowship, this fellowship, being a joint participant, so that now I know him.

If Christ died for you, sooner or later, he's going to let you in on it. He's going to do it through the preaching of the gospel, through the preaching of Christ. He's going to let you in on it, and you're going to believe him. You're going to know him. I know him. I know him.

And that lets me, when I'm all alone in the dark at night, have fellowship with my Savior, have fellowship with Him while I'm on the bed, while I'm driving down the road, you know, in the worship service, wherever we are, to have fellowship with Christ our Savior.

Now, that's sweet. Now, again, I say, that's good doctrine, but it's sweet, and when we hear it, Oh, I pray God give us a heart to rejoice in it, to rejoice in who our Savior is and what he's accomplished for us. All right. I hope that'll be a blessing to you. Let's bow together and pray.

Fellowship In The Gospel

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Fellowship In The Gospel

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