Philippians (Lesson 17)

All right now, thank you so much for that kind word of introduction.

If you don't think your life is flying by, here's proof.

It's time once again for the preaching of the cross radio broadcast.

It seems like the days are just moving by with such lightning speed, it's hard to believe that one day fades into another, one week passes into another, and yet it does.

Time just moves on.

And what we're gonna do for Jesus Christ, we better get it done.

What we're gonna do to reach lost souls, we'd better get it done.

What we're gonna do to strengthen the church and prepare it for tomorrow, we better get it done.

Jesus Christ is coming soon, at least for each and every one of us.

I hope he comes for all his church today.

But the songwriter said it correctly when he wrote, Time is now fleeting, deathbeds are coming, coming for you and for me, and so let's work, let's work.

While it is yet day, let's get the job done while we have opportunity.

We're studying the Bible book of Philippians, and you may find this hard to believe, but we are actually nearing the end of chapter number one.

I didn't say we were going to finish it, I just said we are rapidly nearing the end of chapter number one.

We come on the program today to verse number 27, Philippians 1, verse 27.

Philippians 1:27

And here the Bible says, only let your conversation.

Now that's not that's not what you talk about, though that's included, but the term is much larger.

It takes in your entire manner of life, your entire way of living is taken in in this phrase, only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ.

Looking over at first Peter, uh Peter chapter number one, and verse 15, we have a cross-reference here.

But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy.

Again, in 1 Peter 4 and verse 11, uh the Bible says we ought to speak as the as the oracles of God.

That takes in the speaking idea of it.

But our conversation, our manner of life, should be consistent with our profession of faith in Jesus Christ and our proclaiming of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now you don't need me to spend much time on the program today talking about the great harm that has been done by men and women who speak with their lips on behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ, but then do not live with their life that which is consistent with a profession of faith in Jesus Christ.

When someone on the job or in the neighborhood proclaims that they are a living representative of the Lord Jesus Christ, but then their life is characterized by that which is evidently ungodly or unwholesome.

That certainly harms the testimony of Jesus Christ.

And so the admonition here is to speak the gospel, obviously, but to make certain at the same time that we are living in accord with the gospel that we proclaim.

Then he says that whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit.

Okay, first of all, we need to take in this idea.

A person naturally, and I don't mean naturally in a sinful way in a bad way, it is it is the nature of man to do better under the watchful eye of someone we consider an authority figure or someone we love or someone we respect.

It is understood that the child will most often behave more properly, if that's correct grammar.

It is understood that a child will behave better under the watchful eye of daddy than behind the back of daddy.

It is understood that the citizen will conduct themselves differently in the presence of the police officer than they would in the absence of law enforcement.

We understand that.

It is expected that people would behave more like Christians in the presence of a church fellowship or under the watchful eye of a strong minister.

That's understood.

That's why God told us to live in family units.

That's why God told us to respect the powers that be, and that's why God told us to fellowship on a consistent, regular basis in a church fellowship, because those things contribute to our good conduct.

There's just something about the pressure brought to bear by a righteous influence that helps us toward righteous conduct.

We would all understand that.

However, in this passage of Scripture and in several others, the Lord desires that we reach a higher plane.

The Lord desires that we live just as properly in the absence of a spiritual leader or authority figure as we do in the presence of such persons.

The apostle Paul may be present at Philippi.

He may be absent from Philippi, but he wants to know that the Christians at Philippi are living the same devoted, dedicated Christian life, whether he is absent or whether he is present.

Now, we don't have a lot of a lot of church rules and regulations and requirements.

You need some guidelines in place to prevent chaos and disorder.

We all understand that.

Well then why would you expect them to do so in their personal and internet conversations?

And yet they do.

You wouldn't expect people, well, this this modern day you might, you wouldn't expect people to come to church dressed immodestly, and yet it seems as soon as the church service is over, out goes any understanding of proper conduct with regard to apparel.

You understand what we're saying?

Now the objective and desire of the Holy Spirit is that each and every one of us live in the absence of the minister, in the way that we have lived in the presence of the minister, and that's because ultimately we are never outside the presence of our great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are never out from under the watchful eye of our Heavenly Father.

We are never, never in a place where the person to whom we are the most accountable is not aware of what we're doing.

And so this is his desire that we live every single moment of our lives with the understanding that we are indeed being observed, and that provides for us strong motivation to continually be living in in this proper gospel conversation.

Then the verse goes on to say that I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel.

Let's break this all important phrase down.

First of all, it it should be, it should be that good news is reported.

It is a blessing to the heart of other Christians to hear that their brothers and sisters in Christ are living a Christian life and are going on in the faith and going on for the Lord Jesus Christ.

That is a help and a blessing to everyone that loves the gospel work.

And so word was carried by those who had been at Philippi to the apostle Paul, and the news reached him things are going splendidly in the church at Philippi.

We should carry those kind of reports one for another.

When the missionary writes home and talks about souls being saved, believers being baptized, the church being strengthened and edified, this is in no way, shape, or form boasting or ego promotion.

No way, no way.

This is an encouraging word sent from one member of the body to another, and those are good things, those are good reports.

And we ought to we ought to tell more of them.

Then he says, I mean, here of your affairs, that ye stand fast.

Now God, God has made us to stand.

He has taken us out of the miry clay and set our feet upon the solid rock.

God has given us something to stand for.

God has given us ground upon which, victorious, high ground upon which to stand.

And as we have studied many other times and many other places in the Bible, there are always those that would move us from that place where God has placed us to stand.

And so the word reached Paul that these people were standing.

They were standing fast.

They had not moved, they had not wavered, they had not failed, they had not backed down, and that that brought joy to his heart.

And then they stood fast in one spirit.

Now look, notice, notice, that is the lower case on that word spirit.

This is not a statement that they all have the same Holy Spirit of God, though they do.

Everyone who is saved has God, the Holy Spirit, dwelling within them, but that's not the statement.

The statement is that every one of them is unified in their goal, their desire, their objective, their purpose of furthering the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now I don't know about you, that's the kind of church fellowship I want to be in.

I do not want to be in a church fellowship where there are factions, where there are divisions, where there is striving, competition, envy, jealousy, backbiting.

Oh no, oh no.

I want to be in a fellowship where there is a harmonious, unified desire to walk together, live together, serve together, labor together to further the cause of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That's where I want to be.

That's how I want to enjoy my days in the fellowship with God honoring people who love one another, and we'll get more details on that when we get to chapter number two.

Okay.

Next we read with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel.

Now hear me carefully.

All of us do not think alike.

All of us are not the same emotionally, all of us are not the same intellectually, all of us do not have the same training, the same background, we do not all bring the same way of looking at life to our Christian walk.

So he's not saying I want all of you to think in the same way.

What he's saying is, I want all of you to have your minds governed, controlled, and directed by the truth of God's word, by the truths of the gospel.

That's what he wants.

We have different ways of looking at leisure time.

We have different ways of looking at politics, we have different ways of looking at the world round about us.

Our orientations and backgrounds dictate that.

However, we should all come to this agreement.

What the Bible says is right, and I am going to allow what the Bible says to be my final authority in the decisions that I make.

What the Bible says is true, and I'm going to allow the truth of the Bible to govern my actions.

The Bible, the Bible is correct, and I am going to allow it to correct me.

That's the approach.

Now, if every one of us, if every one of us had this mindset, that is, we want the faith of the gospel furthered in our community and around the world.

That would override any differences that we brought with us to our Christian life.

What we do is we lay down our prior experience and way of looking at things and subject that to the Word of God.

And when we all do that, when we all do that, we are said to all have the same mind.

What a fellowship that would be.

And then they're striving together.

They're not striving against one another.

They are striving together with and for one another.

That's the objective.

That's the desire.

It is it is to bring honor and glory to the Lord Jesus Christ if we all have that as our objective.

Oh what a place, what a place to gather, what a place to assemble, what a place to fellowship.

Verse twenty eight says, and in nothing terrified by your adversaries.

There are people who are enemies of the Christian life.

There are people who are enemies of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And they have and they will continue to try and terrify saved people so that they do not live for Jesus Christ.

Now you know that, you understand that.

You've read enough about the persecuted church, you've read enough about the martyrdom of the saints, or I trust you have, I hope and pray you have, to know and understand that it is the purpose of the devil to get God's people to stop living for Jesus Christ.

And his prayer is that none of them would be terrified by their adversaries, which is to them, to the adversaries, an evident token of perd.

That is, when Christians suffer, the enemies of Christianity take that to mean they weren't right.

But, but to you of salvation and that of God.

So the heathen think that when a Christian suffers, it's because he's cursed and headed for perition.

But the believer knows that he's suffering because he is allied with Jesus Christ, whom the world hated and crucified.

And if if our Lord and Master suffered, then why wouldn't we?

You know, ridicule makes most Christians lose courage and believe that God has forsaken them.

Paul says, Go on, ignore the suffering.

That's what he did.

Accept suffering as a sign of God's blessing.

That's what Luke 622 says.

Hebrews twelve says it is an evidence that you are saved when you suffer for doing right.

Examples.

David's trouble was proof to his adversary that he was damned, according to 2 Samuel chapter 16, verse 8.

2 Samuel 16:8

But rather he was God's chosen king.

Job's troubles led his wife to believe that he was under the curse of God.

She was wrong.

God blessed Job's latter end.

The blind man's troubles led the disciples to think his parents had something to do with perition, according to John chapter 9, but rather it was just a prelude to a great miracle.

John 9 · chapter mention

While Christ suffered under his adversaries in Psalm 22, it was a token to them that he was cursed of God and bound for hell, a man who should be stoned.

But rather we know he was the Lord of glory.

For unto you, verse 29, it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake, having the same conflict which ye saw in me.

And now here to be in me.

Okay, I want you to think about what the Bible said here.

There is no way to avoid suffering in this life.

If one chooses to be a Christian and live for Jesus, that will not enable them to avoid suffering, rather, it will bring a whole new kind of suffering, the persecution that comes from a wicked world that wants you to abandon your Christian living and conform yourself once again to the ways of this world.

The Bible says when this happens, consider that it is a gift from God that since you must suffer in this life regardless of how you live and why you live, count it a great blessing to be able to suffer for the honor and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that instead of suffering for nothing, you are now suffering for something, something beneficial, and that instead of your suffering being just another bad day, your suffering may now result in someone coming to Jesus and gaining eternal life.

And so consider this according to Philippians 1 twenty nine.

You are now suffering not because of your sin or someone else's sin or just the sin that's in the world, but you are now suffering for Jesus' sake.

That is, there is a beneficial result and outcome from your suffering, so that now as a Christian, even the bad things, the unpleasant things, the terrifying things that happen in our lives have a positive, beneficial blessing in our lives and in the life of others.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, that's an incredible thought.

None of us wants to suffer, and yet we all will suffer.

None of us wants to experience bad times, and yet all of us are going to have bad times.

But for the saved, born-again believer who suffers for doing right, who suffers because of his or her relationship to Jesus Christ, we can know that even this suffering will benefit the cause of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The proof Paul went to Philippi.

Paul preached the gospel.

Paul was beaten and thrown in jail.

There he sang praises at midnight, the Philippian jailer and all his house were saved.

That's something very good.

That's the furtherance of the gospel resulting from adversaries trying to terrify a Christian into abandoning his profession of Christian faith.

So what God wants you to do, my friend, is live right, preach right, do right, teach right, and when you suffer because of it, stand fast, keep going, don't back down, don't change course.

Just let the Lord Jesus Christ receive honor and glory in your life, and the result will be souls will be saved, Christians will be strengthened, and Jesus Christ will be glorified.

That makes even our bad times turn into good times on down the road.

Praise be to God.

Well, how about that?

We have finished Philippians chapter number one.

Some were beginning to wonder if we'd ever get to the end of this chapter.

We're not through with our study.

We've got three more chapters to go.

And we want you, we want you to stay with us and continue to benefit from these lessons.

The entire series of Philippians, when completed, will be available to you on, well, let me see.

We have materials on cassette.

This study will not be on cassette.

This study will be on disk only.

We're moving into the future.

But we have thousands of hours of teaching materials available to you.

They're all listed on our website at JamesNokx.com, and we encourage you to head that way whenever you have the opportunity.

Jamesnox.com.

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Until then, I'm Brother James.

May the Lord richly bless you.

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