Philippians chapter 1 and the
first seven verses. Paul and Timotheus, the servants
of Jesus Christ, to 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 the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank
my God upon every remembrance of you. Always in every prayer
of mine for you all making requests with joy. For your fellowship
in the gospel from the first day until now. Being confident
of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you
will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Even as it is
made for me to thank this of you all because I have you in
my heart. Inasmuch as both in my bonds
and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers
of my grace. We have looked at how the Apostle
Paul was directed by God the Holy Spirit to go to Philippi. In a vision he saw that man saying,
come over and help us. And so he and Silas went into
Philippi preaching the gospel. And we saw that there was a lady
by the name of Lydia, whose heart the Lord opened, and then her
household, and then the jailer, and his household, and the Apostle
Paul had to leave Philippi. But in the ten years that had
passed since He was there, and the writing of this letter now,
as he was a prisoner in Rome, the Lord had saved others and
raised up a church, what we would call a local church in Philippi. And we looked last time and the
time before at who these people were, that is the saints, what
is meant by this letter being directed to the saints and then
to the bishops and to the deacons. Remember the bishops, that refers
to the office of pastor, elder, bishop. Same office, just three
different words. And then the word deacon, as
a servant. And I try to remind all of us
that we are all deacons in one sense, that we all are to serve
one another in love. And yet because the Apostle Paul
gave qualifications for those to be deacons, we recognize some
are set apart in a local church. in the office of a deacon. Now,
in verse 2 I want you to notice Paul desires for them grace and
peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us
remember that one of God's names is the God of all grace. And this leads me to say this
morning from the Word of God, all grace All unmerited favor,
that's what grace is, isn't it? All unmerited favor, all grace
comes from God the Father. And yet all grace, all of God's
grace is mediated unto men, unto you and I, through His Son, Jesus
Christ. There's one mediator between
God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. And as the apostle John
wrote in John chapter 1, of His fullness, that is, of the fullness
of Christ. He's full of grace and truth. Of His fullness have we all received,
all believers, all of God's children, we have all received and grace
for grace. We receive grace, not because
we deserved it, not because we merit it, We receive grace for
grace. You can never earn God's grace. God's grace is sovereign. God's
grace is free. And God's grace comes to His
elect through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Oh, what a wonderful, wonderful
truth. Of His fullness have we all received
in grace for grace. You will never use up all of
His fullness. Not in this lifetime. Well, just
on the surface, as I looked at these verses again, I believe
this is the fourth message I've brought at this time from these
verses, but as I looked at these verses again this past week,
I think we may say that we are impressed with Paul's love and
thanksgiving for the saints at Philippi. And I wondered, I thought
to myself, and I want you to think in your mind, who is it
today? Who is it today that you can
say, every time I think of that person, I thank God for them? Every time. Every time I think
of that person, I thank God for them. Now I thank God for you,
for each and every one of you that are part of this congregation.
I thank the Lord for those that God has added over the years,
those he's saved and made a part of this church family. I really
do. I thank God for you. But I don't know that I can say
that every time, every time when I think of you, I first of all
immediately thank God for you. But Paul did. When he thought
about these believers, these saints in the church at Philippi,
every time he thought of them, thank God. Thank God for those
believers there in Philippi. Thank God Almighty. And this
makes us realize that it is God who makes us to differ. We should
always be reminded of that truth. It is God that maketh a person
to differ. I can't speak for you, but I
can certainly speak for myself. There was a time in my life when
there was nothing about me to give thanks unto God for. I mean,
the only thing you could say about me was, he's a lost sinner. And God, in His great mercy and
love, came to me. And He lifted me up out of that
horrible pit of sin. He opened my eyes that I might
see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And that light
that He's given me, it shines more and more unto that perfect
day. And as time has gone by, I can
say this also. In myself, I see more need of
Christ and His grace today than I ever have. That's my experience. The more, the longer I live,
the more I see in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. The Apostle Paul
tells us that we are not capable in ourselves even to think one
good thought. Our sufficiency to think one
good thought is given unto us from God. Well, Paul, I think
you, as you read these verses, it's easy to recognize just on
the surface the love and thanksgiving that Paul had for these believers
at Philippi. And these two things, love and
thanksgiving, should mark every child of God. Remember our Lord
told his disciples, by this shall all men know that you are my
disciples, that you have love one for the other. This is a
mark of all of God's children. And out of love, which is the
fruit of the Spirit, The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. That fruit that the Spirit of
God produces in us of love and love for Christ, love for God,
love for each other. Out of that Spirit of love naturally
comes thanksgiving. These two things should mark
every child of God. It should mark my life, it should
mark your life today if you are one of His children. and the
thanksgiving in your heart. But in verse 5, Paul mentions
one of the things about these at Philippi, which caused him
to thank God. You notice in verse 5, he said,
for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. What do we know? What do we know
from the Bible, from the Word of God about Christian fellowship? Paul said, I thank God for your
fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. Well,
I'm afraid that for too many of us, the idea of fellowship
just concerns maybe a lunch after a service or something like that. But what does the Bible, what
does the scripture teach us and tell us about Christian fellowship? Paul said, I thank God for your
fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. Well, I have three points I want
to make about Christian fellowship. First, Christian fellowship was
an integral part of the life of the early church. Let me say
that again. Christian fellowship was an integral
part of the life of the early church. I want you to turn back
with me to Acts chapter 2. In Acts chapter 2, I'm going
to read verses 41 and 42, and then we'll look at what the text
tells us here. Acts chapter 2, verse 41 and
42. And this took place on the day
of Pentecost. Then they that gladly received
his word were baptized, And the same day there were added about
3,000 souls. And they continued steadfastly
in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of
bread and in prayers. You see why I said that Christian
fellowship was an integral part of the life of the early church.
In this case that we've just read about, we know that the
Apostle Peter, along with the other disciples, stood up and
proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And we are told that
those who gladly received the Word, isn't that what the Scripture
said? Then they that gladly received
His Word were baptized. Now this has always been God's
order. Think about it. This has always
been God's order. First, receive the gospel. Receive Christ as your Lord and
Savior, and then be baptized. Men have reversed that order,
I realize, over the years. And they sprinkle a baby when
he comes into this world and believe that somehow that water
has some efficacy in it. Listen, all the water in the
world, however many billions of gallons of water in the world
could not wash away one sin. I would hate to think today that
I was trusting in some water, dirty water, clean water, whatever
kind of water to wash away my sins. I'm trusting in Jesus Christ
and His blood, as the Scripture says, who loved us and washed
us from our sins in His own blood. Oh, the fear, the fear that should
strike into the hearts of men and women to go out into eternity
to face God Almighty, trusting in water, water. I'm trusting in the blood and
righteousness of Jesus Christ, what about you? And this has
always been God's order, first to hear the word of God, hear
the gospel. Not to be baptized first and
then hear the gospel, no. To hear the gospel, faith cometh
by hearing and hearing by the word of God, to gladly receive
the word. They were not coerced. They were
not somehow tricked by the organ playing softly and the choir
singing and, you know, all of the emotions that men are able
to use to move people. No, these people, they heard
the preaching of the gospel. They were pricked. They were
cut in their heart. And they cried out, what must
we do? They that gladly received the
word were baptized. About 3,000 on this one day. And they were added to the apostles
and the scripture here says that they continued. Notice, they
continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine. What's that?
That's the apostles teaching, the word of God. What would you
think of a man Now listen, what would you think of a man or woman
who professed to be a believer who just throws the Word of God
away? Doesn't care to hear the Word
of God, to study the Word of God, to read the Word of God.
Would you have any confidence that those people know the Lord? Of course not. That's one of
the marks of the new birth, having a love for the Word of God, the
milk of the Word. What about the breaking of bread?
That's the Lord's table, isn't it? We come together, and we
observe this ordinance of eating bread, which represents His flesh
that was broken for us, and drinking wine, which represents His blood,
which was shed for the remission of our sins. They continue steadfastly
in the Apostles' doctrine, the breaking of bread, and in prayer. Would you consider anyone to
be a child of God who doesn't pray? Of course not. But notice in this list, these
four things, also fellowship. Fellowship. Look at it again. Then they that gladly received
his word were baptized, and the same day were added unto them
about three thousand souls, and they continued steadfastly in
the apostles' teaching or doctrine, and fellowship, and in breaking
of bread, and in prayers. Now this leads me to say that
in the Scriptures we learn that fellowship is first vertical
and then horizontal. First vertical and then horizontal. What do I mean? These 3,000 souls
were first brought into fellowship with God, vertical fellowship
with God. Now they were not brought into
fellowship with God through baptism. They were brought into fellowship
with God through faith in Jesus Christ. He's the only mediator
between God and men. The Apostle John begins his first
letter. Let me read these words to us. You're familiar with them. But
1 John chapter 1, he said this, That which we have seen, we apostles,
have seen and heard, declare we unto you, now listen, that
you might have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship
is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. These 3,000 that are mentioned
here in this text, they've received the gospel, they've received
Christ and through Him, and only through Him and in Him are they
now in fellowship with the Father, with God. And no one is a Christian
who is not in fellowship vertically, first of all, with God through
Jesus Christ our Lord. But then see, there is this vertical
fellowship. We are in fellowship with God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. There is this horizontal fellowship. We are also in fellowship with
everyone else who is in fellowship with God. And notice this text
here in Acts says, "...they steadfastly..." They didn't just start off and
then fall away. That's what Paul said to the
church, to the believers in Philippi. I thank God for your fellowship
in the gospel from the first day till now. When you run in a race, starting is very important, isn't
it? Sometimes a man will fire the pistol and there'll be a
false start. One person, false start. They
start the race over again, don't they? They'll only allow a racer
to do that, what, two times? And if he has more than two false
starts, he's out of the race. What I'm saying is this, that
the Christian, our experience is many times in the word referred
to as a race. And it's important how we start.
It is important that we start founded upon Jesus Christ and
Him alone. But then in the race, there are
lanes. God's marked out the way in which
we are to run. We're not to be looking over
here and looking over here at these other lanes. No, we're
to run in the lane that God's marked out for us. But what I'm
saying is this, starting the race, important. Continuing in
the race, important. Finishing the race, important. These people continued steadfastly
in the apostles doctrine, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers. Paul told the church at Philippi
from the first day till now, our fellowship in the gospel. So that's the first thing I wanted
to say. We see that fellowship, it's
not something that's not integral, something
that's a very important part of our life as believers and
the life of our church. Fellowship is very, very important. We know prayer is important.
Well, Luke, in writing that verse there, he listed fellowship right
along with prayer, didn't he? The Lord's Supper, that's important.
The Word of God, the Apostles' Doctrine, that's important. So
is fellowship. So is fellowship. Here's the
second thing that I'd like to say about Christian fellowship.
First of all, Christian fellowship may be understood in two ways. First, it may be understood as
between those who have something in common. Fellowship may be
understood as those who have something in common. The 3,000
who received Christ on that day. They had now something in common
with one another and with the apostles. Now they had something
in common with each other before, before they received the word
gladly. I believe they were all Jews
or Jewish proselytes. My friends, now they have something
in common which is much greater and much more real than that
national fellowship which they had. What did they have now in common?
I said that fellowship may be understood as between those who
have something in common. What did these believers, these
3,000, now have in common with the apostles? Well, let me mention
just a few things. First of all, they had the same
Father, God. They had the same Father, and
they had the same Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, they had this in common now.
Before, these people, many of these 3,000, remember here in
Jerusalem, just a few days before, they had been crying out to crucify
Christ. But now, having received the
Gospel, receiving Christ, they have something in common with
the apostles. They have the same Lord, the
Lord Jesus Christ. There's one Lord. One faith and
one baptism. They had this in common now. They had this in common. They
had the same hope of eternal life. They knew, as all men know,
one day we're going to leave this world. But they had this
hope of eternal life, now in common with the apostles, to
leave this world, to depart and be with Christ, which is far
better. And not only did they have the
hope of eternal life, but they also had the same desire to see
others saved. The same desire. I don't know
what it is, but it's just part of being saved. When God saves
you, you want to see other people saved. You want to see other
people come to know Christ. He's such a wonderful Savior.
He's had mercy upon me. You desire that for everyone
to come to know Christ. I was speaking with a man several
months ago and he told me, I just don't understand why my family
is so concerned about me. I'm not concerned about myself.
I said, that's not a good sign, my friend, that you're not concerned
about yourself. A dead person's never concerned
about himself. Yes, your family's concerned
about you because God's had mercy upon them because they know Christ
and they know what's waiting you. They know what's going to happen
when you breathe your last breath in this world. And let me say
this, not only did they have those things in common that I've
just mentioned, but yes, they had these things in common, the
same doubts. You ever have doubts? I do. You ever have fears? I do. They had the same doubts and
the same fears in common. As face answereth to face in
water, as the proverb says. There's no difference, my friend,
in any of us. Some have great faith, some have
little faith, that's true. But all of God's children at
different times have doubts and fears. They had something in
common now. They had fellowship. So that's
the first way. You know, I read this past week
of a man who was, he received two hands transplanted. And I read that and I thought,
that's a good illustration of what I'm talking about, fellowship. They transplanted two hands to
this man. And so now his hand and his body
had something in common, didn't they? They had fellowship. The
same heart that was pumping blood through the rest of his body
was now pumping blood through his hand. The same nerve center
that sent nerves to the rest of his body was now sending signals
to his hand. There was fellowship. They had
something in common. And the Christian fellowship,
we have something in common. And that's the reason sometimes,
and I've had this happen to me, I'm sure you've had it happen
to you, you can be way off somewhere, maybe on vacation or on a trip
and meet somebody, never seen them before, never probably will
see them again until you reach heaven. And yet there's a bond. You start talking, there's a
bond, there's a fellowship. Why? Because of this commonality
between you and this other believer. Number two, fellowship may be
understood this way. It may be understood as between
those who mutually share. Those who mutually share. This
especially makes Christian fellowship necessary and important, because
this is one of the ways that God has ordained that you and
I be strengthened and be encouraged in the Lord. In the fellowship
by sharing, we are both to give and we are to receive. Now, we
want to receive from others what the Lord has done for them. How
He's blessed them in a special way. Maybe how He's revealed
something special to them out of the Word of God. Maybe how
He's used them in some special way. We want to receive that.
And as we receive that, that blesses us. That encourages us. And we also want to give. It's
sharing. It's both ways. Receiving, yes,
but giving. We want to give unto others things
in which the Lord has especially blessed us. Maybe God's answered
a prayer, something you've been praying about, and God answered
that prayer, and you share that with someone else, or they've
had a prayer answered, they share that with you, and it's such
a blessing, isn't it? Maybe someone comes in, like
happened to me a few weeks ago, and told, an experience that
they had had about an opportunity to witness and how the Lord blessed
that. Such a blessing, such an encouragement. You know that proverb in Proverbs
27 says, as iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance
of his friend. You know, when you want to sharpen
your blade, you use that file made out of iron as the blade's
made out of iron. Well, as that takes place, so
one man sharpens another man. This is what I would consider
this fellowship that I'm talking about. Sharing between those
who mutually share one with the other. Now, Christian fellowship
is an expression both of love and of humility. It springs from
a desire to be a blessing, to be a help to someone else, but
also recognizing my weakness. Yes, yes, yes! I want to be a
blessing to someone else, to others. But at the same time,
I recognize I need them to be a blessing to me. Christians, believers are sheep,
and as we need a shepherd, we also need one another. One writer said, it has a double
motive. Christian fellowship, it has
a double motive. The wish to help and to be helped. To edify and to be edified. Now let me say a practical word
to us here about vertical fellowship. That is our fellowship with God
under the thought of sharing. Our fellowship with God under
this thought of sharing, of giving and receiving. Daily, daily we
receive from God. Daily. We receive the forgiveness
of our sins. I know our Lord taught us to
pray, forgive us this day our debts as we forgive those who
are indebted to us. We receive daily cleansing. We
receive reassurances from His promises daily as we read the
Word of God. And He speaks to us. We receive
from Him continually every day. But every day we give to Him
as well. We take our burdens, sometimes
we're so weighted down and, you know, we're barely able to see
above the carpet, you know, with the burdens and we just take
them and by the grace of God, we unstrap them and we lay them
over upon Him. And He said to do that, He said,
casting all your care upon Him. For He careth for you. You see
what I'm saying? There's daily, there's us receiving
from Him, yes, but us giving to Him. And we also give our
praise and our thanksgiving unto Him daily. So what I'm calling
Christian fellowship, when we think about this vertically,
really it's just living the Christian life. The Christian life of daily
repentance and faith. Now, I have one other point.
Christian fellowship has its obstacles. Christian fellowship
has its obstacles. It has many, but I'm going to
name two. Number one, pride. Pride. Pride or self-sufficiency is
a killer to Christian fellowship. The idea that I don't need you
that I don't need anyone else, that I'm capable on my own, I
don't need anyone. Pride, self-sufficiency, that's
a killer to Christian fellowship. We all need each other. The old
Puritans, they used to have one person they would look upon as
their bosom friend. A person to whom they could share
anything and everything with. Now some of us, we have that
with our spouses. And that's such a blessing. Not
everybody has that. But what a blessing it is if
we recognize we need others. We really do. We need each other. Let me show you that in Hebrews
chapter 10. If you will, Hebrews chapter
10. Verse 24, the apostle said, Let us consider
one another to provoke unto love and good works. Let's consider
one another unto love and to good works. And the first thing
he mentions is not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together
as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so
much the more as you see the day approaching. Pride will kill
Christian fellowship. We need to provoke one another
unto love and to good works. And number two, bitterness. Bitterness. That's another killer
to Christian fellowship. If you turn over to Hebrews 12,
verse 15, we're told the root of bitterness. I've got the wrong verse marked
down. Lest the root of bitterness spring
up, the scripture says. Trouble you. Lest the root of
bitterness springing up trouble you. Bitterness. And listen,
you can find it later. I'm sorry, I didn't have it marked
down right. Now when I get home, I'm going to get another sermon.
I already know that. It's coming.
But listen. My experience is jealousy. Jealousy
most often is what causes that root of bitterness to spring
up. We shouldn't be jealous of each
other. Oh, we should rejoice when God blesses another believer,
another child of God. He gives them greater gifts and
uses them more than us. We should rejoice that God is
honored, that Christ is honored. But sometimes we can get jealous,
even of other believers. And that's a killer to Christian
fellowship, it really is. Now turn back and I'll close.
Turn back to Philippians. Philippians 1. I thank God upon every remembrance
of you, and then verse 5, for your fellowship in the gospel
from the first day until now. Paul and the Philippian believers
had fellowship in the gospel. They had the gospel in common. They both believed it, they both
loved it, and they both had a desire for the gospel to be spread and
others saved. They were not all called to preach
and do missionary work like the Apostle Paul was. But they could
pray for him and they could support him as he went into the regions
beyond. They had a fellowship. They had
this in common. Fellowship in the gospel. And
I thank the Lord. That's what I believe the Lord
has given us here. Fellowship in the gospel. And
I encourage all of us to fellowship with other believers. Sometimes when God's children
have friends that are, and we all have friends that are not
believers, not saved, but if you make those your closest friends,
many times you're asking for trouble. Your closest friends
should be your brother, your sister in Christ, that you might
fellowship one with the other. Well, let's close by singing
hymn number 477.