Hello, Brother Terrell and Sister Martha. I heard you were on the phone. I hope you listened in tonight and hope you enjoy this. I don't know whether anybody did last week or not. I thought maybe it went fair, but my wife, she didn't bring me any water. I had to get my own water tonight. So I think she was saying something to me. And then my son Mark, he came in and sat on the back row, so I guess I'm in trouble. And if the Lord doesn't help me, I will be in trouble, and that's always true, because when you attempt to preach the Word of God, you get nowhere unless the Lord shows up. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones made a comment in one of his books that the loneliest place that a preacher can be is when he's in the pulpit and God isn't there. That's a fearful thing. I hope he will show up tonight and bless us. As you know, we're trying to study the book of Philippians, and last week we looked at a little bit of the origin of the church there in Philippi. And, of course, the Bible is not a history book, per se, but it is accurate on history. What it speaks on regarding history is accurate. But when reading a book or you're viewing a documentary, sometimes it's good to know a little of the background. And I was looking at some things regarding more background that'll weave into the message as we start going along and looking at the verses. And I'll try to share a couple more background things that I researched this week that I thought were quite interesting. I hope you find them so as well. But to begin, I want to read the first eight verses of Philippians chapter one. Would you mind standing? Let's give reverence to God's word if you're able to stand. 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 from 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 meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart. In so much as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace. For God is my record, how greatly I long after you in the bowels of Jesus Christ. May we have a word of prayer. Father, we look at your Word and see the awesome sight of the Word of God and how you put it together in such a way that was magnificent and miraculous in itself. Letters written by a man that once was a hater of the Gospel of Christ, a man who was once a person who was hauling Christians off to jail and was willing to see them even die. And yet he turned out to be an apostle that you use in a mighty way. And now he's writing a letter to people that he loves that know Christ as he does. And that letter, praise the Lord, is not just for them of that bygone era, but it's for us today. May you use it to speak to us as we go through this book. May we have the joy in our hearts that you'd have us to have. May we praise you. May we magnify you in all we do tonight. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. First thing I'd like to say is that our God began the work. He's the one that began the work in Philippi. And as you know, over in Acts 16, we looked there last week. I guess it would be a good idea to look again, because it's kind of hard to mention certain little facts going on unless you go back to the chapter. But particularly, I want to look at Acts 16, verses 9 and 10, where God began the work there. You remember I told you they wanted to go to Bithynia, and they wanted to go to Asia, but the Holy Ghost forbid them to do so. Because at that time, God had another plan. He gave them the Macedonian call through the man in the vision, and they wound up going by boat across the Aegean Sea and went into Macedonia. And God gave them fruit for their labor. The first fruit that we saw was there in Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia. I want to read about the vision again. The vision appeared to Paul in the night. There stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us. That's verse 9. Verse 10 says, And after he had seen the vision, we endeavored to go into Macedonia, surely gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. Therefore, elucidating from Troas, we came with a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day to Neapolis, and then this to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony, a Roman colony. And we were in that city abiding certain days. And on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a riverside where prayer was wont to be made. And we sat down and spoke unto the women which resorted thither. And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worship God heard us, whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of by Paul." Now, this brief look here shows us again the sovereign hand of God. They wanted to go to Bithynia. They would have went to Asia, but the Lord said no. The Lord sent them this vision and told them, go to Macedonia. Go to the place across the Aegean Sea. Now, a little of the history of Macedonia is quite interesting. Macedonia was named after Philip of Macedon, which is the father of Alexander the Great. He came and he took that city and that whole territory away from those who had it before and named it after himself. And Alexander, it is said, took out on his world conquest from there in Philippi. and conquered most of the known world. It said that he didn't get to conquer India because that was so far away that when he got to India, his soldiers had been away from home so long they rebelled and would have had a mutiny, so he quit going after that. But he did do this. Alexander managed to conquer most of the known world. And then it is said that Alexander cried because there was no more worlds to conquer. Can you imagine that? Now, God shows us in this that he didn't choose Lydia or the Philippian jailer. We won't read the whole story of him. You remember, in the providence of God, Paul and Silas selected out of the four, and I never could remember all the names last time. I've got to get into that again. But Paul and Silas were two of them that went to jail, leaving Luke and Timothy unmolested as far as jail. But Paul and Silas went there, and God delivered them, miraculously, with an earthquake. And at the same time, God used this jail visit, this time where they suffered, where they were beaten, where they were hated, He used that to call another to Himself by His sovereign grace. And that other one was the Philippian jailer. And he and his whole family were saved by the grace of God, just as Lydia and her family. And like I said last week, probably that young lady, that damsel who had that spirit of divination, she likely was saved too. So he had a pretty good bit of work going on there. But I want you to know something. This work that was going on was not merely the work of men. Do you know one of the problems we have in America in our churches today? So many are doing the work of men. Nothing that men do is going to get the job done. It has to be the work of God. And we that have the opportunity to preach the Word of God have to understand we're not going to be successful in doing anything if we don't yield ourselves totally to God Almighty. He is the one. that calls people to himself. He is the one that puts his finger on one's sin and causes him to repent and believe the gospel. If he doesn't do that, you'll never be saved. Oh, with the God that nobody under the sound of my voice would ever go to hell. We know that as we preach many times, there's probably some that went to hell or will. That's an awesome feeling. But it makes you more concerned all the time. God, let me be a vessel in your hands. God, let me say something that you can use to penetrate the stony heart of one that's rebellious against you. And in America today, we have many stony hearts. Now, Lydia, I'm sure, was not more noble, more pretty, more rich. or anything else that caused God to be attracted to call her to himself. He called her for none other reason than it was his purpose to do so. And the same thing with the Philippian jailer. That man was a man who was working for his government, a man that was terrified that he might get killed for those people if they escaped. He was a fearful man. But God can save a fearful man too. Especially when that fearful man says, sirs, what must I do to be saved? Calls out to God to be saved. And they said, you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And of course he was. And then we see, and I didn't get this far last week, I was looking at this and didn't bring it up. This is the thing I really wanted to touch on. This church, this Philippian church that the apostle is writing his letter to. What kind of church building did they have? You ever wonder about that in the early church? What kind of church building did they have? Well, I just want to tell you, we have a nice building and there's nothing wrong with that. And there are a lot of nice church buildings. Some of them are a little bit too elaborate, by the way. But in the early church, you know where they met? They met in homes. They didn't have church buildings. For the first three centuries of Christianity, they met in homes. Because the Christian religion, as we call it, the true religion of God, actually, it was a hated thing. And the people took great persecution many times. The same thing happened in our Iron Curtain lands of recent days when I worked over there. And the people would suffer for their faith. Well, they met in homes. Do you know, I believe that in 50 A.D., approximately, When Lydia was saved and the Philippian jailer and all those, they met in Holmes. What home did they meet in? Well, it's pretty clear. If you look at what the lady asked of Paul, said, if you counted me as one who's a believer, would you come and stay at my house? Would you abide there? And she constrained him. She pressed upon him to do so. That's in verse 15. And they did that, and it came to pass as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination. She was actually possessed of a spirit that I told you last time called Puthon in Greek, or Python. And that was a spirit that was associated with one of the Greek gods, Apollo. And it was a cult-like thing. So she actually was promoting a false religion is what she was doing. Well, anyway, when Paul cast that demon out of her, He cast the demon out of her, and he went to jail him and Silas. But before all that, it said this, and I call this, just as Tommy pointed out something that was something I overlooked. He said, you notice when they got over to Philippi, he said it repressed him that on the Sabbath day, verse 13, we went out of the city by a riverside where prayer was wont to be made, and we sat down. He said, they've been so busy, so busy traveling, So busy preaching, and here they sat down. That's very interesting. They sat down and spoke unto the women which resorted to it. I think we always think we have to stand up to preach, but preaching is not always exhorting. It's not always standing up and knelling. It's not always taking the Scripture and over it. It's always giving the truth about Jesus Christ. So they sat down and they did that. And she attended them to things spoken of Paul. But notice here in verse 15, I'm sorry, verse 17. She was said, these men are the servants of the Most High God. She did this many days. Think about this. That many days they were there. Many days they were there, staying in the home of Lydia with her family, building up that first church. And I believe, really, that that first church in Philippi, how many they had later, I don't know. But that first one, and the one we're talking about that the official was written to, was evidently meeting in Lydia's home. And the reason I say that rather than the Philippian jailer, if you go down to the last part of Acts chapter 16, and then we'll leave that for now. They were out of prison. The Philippian jailer had been saved. And they entered into the house of Lydia. And when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them and departed. So they went back to Lydia's house again. But see, before that, they had went to the Philippian jailer's house, but they didn't stay there very long. They didn't stay long enough to start a church there. So I believe the first church wound up in Lydia's home. And then 12 years later, in prison in Rome, Paul is writing. And he's writing in prison and sending a man named Epaphroditus, a hard name to say, Epaphroditus. He was sending him this letter back to Philippi. Now, Epaphroditus was likely a member of the Philippian church because he took provision and money to Paul there and his need there in Rome. Paul talks about that later in the epistle. But Epaphroditus got sick and almost died. But then the Lord had mercy on him and allowed him to go and bring this letter which we now have before us. He came back there bringing this epistle that Paul had written in the Roman prison. Now, did Paul begin this work? Let's remember the heading I used here. God began the work. God began the Word, not Luke, not Paul, not Timothy, not Silas, remember all the names at that time. God is the one that started this church. God is the one that started the Word. And unless a church has been started by God, it's not going to be much of a church. I pray to God that more churches will be started by God. But remember this, the word church, the Greek word ekklesia, It's not talking about the sheetrock, the brick and all that. This is a building. This is a place where we meet. And it's, of course, a sacred place to us because God shows up here quite often. And we love this. But it is not the church as such, though we all call it that. I admit, I do. But we're the church. It's us that are the called out ones. We're the church. If they take away our building, they can't take away God. He lives in our hearts. If they put us in prison, they can't take away God. He lives in our hearts. And even if they kill us, they can't do anything. We need not be afraid today to stand up for Christ, because they can't take Him away from us. And He doesn't want to leave us. That's the main thrust of this message tonight, is that God is going to take care of us. The first point, God began the work. The second point, God is keeping the work. Let me turn back over to Philippians, if I can find it in my Bible here. I didn't mark my place. In Philippians chapter 1, verse 6, we read it a while ago, being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. Paul was confident that God was going to bring this work to fruition. You know why? Because he says, God started it and God's going to finish it. They had a thing out a few years ago I thought was a little funny, but yet it had a lot of truth in it for kind of a parody of a Negro spiritual, you might say. They had a thing called, Your arms are too short to box with God. Remember that? Well, that's true. People think they can fight with the Almighty, but you can't do it. And here in this place that had never seen... Remember, see, we're so used to seeing churches on every corner. We live in Georgia where this is the Bible Belt. They may not believe anything inside. We don't know. But there are churches on about every corner around our state here, thousands of them all over. We're used to seeing New Testament churches on what's supposed to be. But they had never seen Anything like this. They had never seen anybody preaching about this Christ who rose from the dead. They had never seen it before. And here it was. It was taking root. God was doing something. And Paul said this about it. Being confident of this very thing. Now watch this. He which hath begun a good work in you. Notice that? It's a good work. We can't do a good work. The Bible says that There is none righteous, no, not one. The Bible said all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We can't do a good work. We can't because we're not good. By nature, we're evil. By nature, we're totally depraved. And that means we're bad. All of us by nature are that way. You might think, well, none of my children are bad. Watch it. If they're not saved, they don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, then in the eyes of God they're bad. They might seem good to you and me, and I know people that seem pretty good to me, but if they don't know Jesus Christ, they're bad. But here it says God's done this good work, being confident of this one thing. He's going to bring this work to fruition. He's going to work on it. It's going to be done. It's necessary for God to give life. Ephesians 2 says, You have He quickened. You have He made alive. Who were dead, it trespasses in sin. Brother Barnard used to be asked, and I know you love Brother Barnard. I love to listen to his stuff and read some of his books that have been written about some of his sermons. And he often said, how dead is man? He's plumb dead, he said. Well, he is. A man without God is dead. And a man that's dead can't do anything. God has to bring him to life. And at 1614, well, we saw how that was done. That was the opening of the heart of Lydia. But in Acts chapter 16, 30, we saw how he worked in other ways to save the Philippian jailer as well. Now, if God had not opened both their hearts and all their family's hearts, it doesn't tell us directly that their hearts were open, but they had to be if they turned to Christ. Had none of them, none of them, none of them, none of them would have been saved if God hadn't opened their hearts. And you know, none of them could have come forward and said, I just want to be saved, too. People come forward, often with chewing gums, say, I just want to come make a decision. That's not what happens. God has to reveal Himself to you. You remember what happened here about three or four Sundays ago when I wasn't able to be here, I was sick, but I heard how three people got saved. Now, that's a miraculous thing. In our day, that is a miraculous thing indeed. Very few are really getting touched by the hand of God. I trust that these were, I hope so. Because I tell you, my friends, real converts are getting scarce as hen's teeth. You know what we can do about it? Nothing. Nothing in ourselves. We can beseech God. We can pray, O God, send your mighty touch. We can pray, O God, open the hearts of the people. That's what we should be doing. We can pray, we can fast, we can do all those things. But if the mighty hand of God doesn't touch a sinner, they're not going to be saved. Because like Ralph said, they're plumb dead. And I tell you, through history, there have been many who have suffered for the faith. There have been many who have been killed for the faith. You know the story of Polycarp, I'm sure. You know, Polycarp was burned to state. was one who served the Lord, and they asked him to deny Him, and he said, I think he said 83 years, I believe is how old he was, he says, I've served Him 83 years and He's never done harm to me. Why should I turn away from Him now? And he was burned at the stake. Then there was John Hus. And I've been in the place, right at the place where he was burned in Prague, Czechoslovakia. And I thought about that as I stood there. This man, I think it was 1300 and something, was burned at the stake. Why? Because he refused to recant his confession of Jesus Christ as Savior. Hugh Latimer was another one that was burned at the stake. William Tyndale. Oh, this blessed man. You know, the roots of our King James Bible were given to us by William Tyndale. It is said that 90% of what he wrote is in our King James Bible today. I believe that because I found one Not one of the originals, it'd be real hard to read, but there's a scholar in Canada, supposed to be a very reputable man. He took those old words and brought them all over to readable English. And as I read that, I am absolutely astounded how line for line, not in every case, there's a few places where it's a variable, but not like these modern versions, but it reads like our King James. We have a foundation. of the true Word of God given to us. And you know, I was going to say more about the historical background of Philippi and all that, but I don't think I need to do that. I think I need to focus on this one thing that we're looking at right here. And that is that God is going to bring to pass what He has started. Now, let me put it this way. It's a matter of exposition, preaching. You and I start something a lot of times, and I have many times. My wife knows me. She knows me better than anybody probably in the world. We've been together almost 48 years. And you know what? She's seen me start things and just give it up and quit. She's seen me plan to do something really good, give it up. But our God, when He starts something, He finishes it. God started this Philippian church. And God brought it to fruition. And God not only used that church, but He used other churches in the same area. It's kind of like our brother said last Sunday, go to the next town. That's what Paul did when he left there. He went to a town not too far away. Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth. Europe was becoming permeated with the gospel of Christ. The remarkable thing, and we see it a remarkable day because we don't see it happen like this. There were churches springing up. These churches were thriving. These churches were growing. But there was persecution all the way, and yet they kept growing. But our Lord says, He's going to bring this to pass. When He starts, He finishes. Now, Paul told them as an encouragement, Here's a man in jail. Here's a man that later was going back to that same Roman jail and actually lived in a hired house the last part of his life. but under guard and he wound up dying in Rome. But he was a man who said, rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say rejoice. He was a man that wanted to live his life for Christ. And as he said here in chapter 1, he said, to me, To live is Christ. To die is gain. And he told them, God is going to perform what He started. In other words, the word means fulfill, further, or complete. God is going to complete what He started. And He's done that. America, many years later, wound up being a land where the gospel was carried to all the world. England at one time was a land where the gospel was being carried to so many places. They had the great preachers there like Spurgeon and different ones of that caliber. And yet it's fell now to a lot of ruin. There are still good preachers there, of course, but it's not happening like it was. But God is bringing His work to fruition. We are not going to give up on the work of God because our Savior, Jesus Christ, still lives. We're going to go on with Him. And if he helps us by his grace, we'll serve him to our dying breath. Now, he says he's going to bring it to pass. He's going to perform it. He's going to do what he's supposed to do until the day of Jesus Christ. What did he mean by that? Well, he said to the day of Jesus Christ, I take that to mean the day of his second coming, that day we're looking for. He said he's going to perform this until that day. Now, this joyous man, Paul, writing from prison, cared about these people. And they cared about him, too. You can tell that. As we go along in the messages, you'll see more about how much they cared for him. And you'll see that the Lord is going to do His work in us. If He saved you, don't despair. No matter what problem comes on your life, don't despair. Because you know what? He that hath begun a good work in you will perform it till the day of Jesus Christ. How do I know that? It tells us in Hebrews chapter 13, verse 5. He said, and I'll just take part of the verse. He said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Praise God. Well, in the original, it has it even more emphatic. I don't even know the Greek enough to tell you, but I know this. He says He's not going to leave you. He's not going to let up. He's not going to slacken up. And He's going to take care of you all the way. Now, let me caution you. That's not a license to sin. If He saves you, don't think, well, I'm eternal secure, so I can do what I want to do. Not unless you like chastisement a whole lot. And let me tell you this, if you're really saved, you're not going to be thinking that way. If God's put His Spirit in you, you're not going to be thinking about going back on Him. You may fall. You may fail for a while. But God's going to let you know He's still there. And He's going to take care of you. And He says, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. He also said in John 10, remember the Lord Jesus said, He said, My sheep hear My voice, and they know Me. And I know them. And they follow Me. And he says, nobody's going to be able to pluck them out of my hand. Nobody. And then he goes on to say in John 17, he says, Lord, Father, I've kept them that you've given me. I've kept them. I didn't lose any of them except the son of perdition. And he was the one ordained to be taken away. The Lord knows how to take care of his people. And Paul said he's going to perform his will and perform his work until the day of Jesus Christ. God doesn't quit. Let me tell you something. Lydia, she was saved, I wrote this, if the figures are right, in A.D. 50, 980 years ago. It's been a long time. Yet, the Lord went right on. And in 1960, I'm sorry, 1960 years ago, Am I looking at this here? Right. Anyway, Luther, when he nailed the Ninety-Nine Theses to the wall, I see what I did here. Christ's burial resurrection, that was 1980 years ago. Lydia was 1960 years. And then Luther, when he nailed the Ninety-Nine Theses to the wall and began the Protestant Reformation, that's 492 years from 1517 when that happened. And then Tenthel wrote that New Testament 475 years ago. The King James was written in 1611, now 399 years as we get into 2010. Do you know one more year in 2011? The King James Version will be 400 years old. How God has used this book in the English language. How He's spoken through it. And I believe He's going to continue to do it as long as this world stands. And you see the pilgrims, they landed 389 years ago. The USA began, I shudder to think how much longer it may go, but it began 233 years ago when the Declaration of Independence, 1776. All these are landmarks to us, landmarks of time. But you know what? All those things didn't take a split second in God's time. Because God doesn't operate by time. God is eternal. All these things happen in time for us. And we have so little time, it seems, that we're going to live on this earth. But God, who created this world, is going to keep on going with what He's doing until the day of Christ. How long will God hold on to His people until the day of Christ? He said the gates of hell would not prevail against His church. That doesn't mean a building may not be torn down. It don't mean they might not have to move a church from one area to another, but His called out ones, His Ecclesia, is going to keep on going until the end. I'm so encouraged when I find out that in China, where they can't pick up our messages that we do on Sermon Audio, they can't get them anymore, but there's, as I said, 60 to 80 million Christians there, is what the reports were getting. So, God is still working. In the country where they hated God, it still do. Now, let me make one more point. I don't want to be too long tonight. What do you think was the most important thing to the Apostle Paul? The same thing that was important to him had become all important to the believers at Philippi, too. What do you think it was? Well, I'll give you this hint, and I told you last week a little of it. He mentions Jesus Christ in this text down to verse 6 four times, right at the early part. And he mentions him again and again and again throughout the book of Philippians because Paul is a Christ preacher. He's one that declares the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ. So the most important thing in Paul's life, he didn't care about nothing else. He didn't care about money. He didn't care about fame. He cared about Christ. What do we care about? We should care about him more than anything. As my life goes on, If God lets me live a little longer, I hope I just get more like Christ. I hope I get more interested in serving Him. I hope that my life is dedicated to Him above all. We want to be like that, don't we? We must be like that if we're going to be Christians. The world, now listen, they're smarter than we think they are sometimes. I think they're pretty stupid sometimes when I see news reports like I saw today. I told Sandra, I said, I don't see how These newscasters can put up with this. Somebody got killed. Somebody got robbed. Somebody got raped. Somebody had other problems. There's all stuff going on like that every day in Atlanta, Georgia and other cities and all around, in the country too now. And listen, that would disturb me a lot, but I know God's in control. And I know God is going to do what's right. And He's going to perform His will. He's the most important thing in Paul's life. And he must be the most important thing in our life. We must trust him. We must walk with him. And if we don't, as I said, this world is not quite as stupid as we think they are. If you say you're a Christian and you go out and you hobnob with the devil, tell dirty jokes, look at dirty pictures, hang around with the wrong people, Do things you know you shouldn't do and you think, they're not going to know this. Better watch out. You're going to bring a reflection on your church. You're going to bring a reflection on your God. You're going to bring a reflection on yourself. And these people, they know. They look at you and they say, if that's a Christian, I don't want to be one. I've heard people say that before. Listen, don't let that be said of you. Serve Christ even if they call you a fool. I'd rather be a fool for Christ's sake. than a fool for this world. Be a fool for Christ's sake. The Lord is going to perform His will. Now next time, hopefully, if God lets us come back next week, we're going to look at verse 7 about these people being in Paul's heart and them being in his heart. May God bless you tonight.