Whatever else the Apostle Paul might have thought of those Christians who were in the city of Philippi, he did thank God for one chief thing, their fellowship in the gospel. Now, what do they mean by that? Well, fellowship means a joint participation in a common interest and activity. In other words, we're all in it together. walking in step, riding in tandem, something belonging to us all that we all share in. And in this case, you'll find if you look at verse 5 here in Philippians chapter 1 that this fellowship is rooted in the gospel. For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, that is what Paul is as he looks over the church in Philippi and remembers what they had been to him and how they had come around him and helped him and pushed him forward with their own vigor and with their gifts as well in later stages. He said that fellowship that we enjoyed in the gospel was a very precious thing. And when we are united and going forward together and targeting the same aim, God's glory, looking for the gospel to spread out, we're walking where Paul and those in Philippi walked. We're enjoying fellowship in the gospel together. But how and what way should we enjoy this kind of fellowship? Well, I'm going to suggest five things that we have in the Bible readings, and we're not going outside of this particular Scripture and delving into many other places. We'll mention other places, but we'll keep ourselves tied down quite tightly to Philippians 1. Fellowship in the gospel expresses itself, first of all, in thanksgiving, and you'll see that in verse 3. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you." That fellowship, it spread out by a fountain of joy. He was thankful. And notice what he says he's thankful for, upon every remembrance of you. always," verse 4, in every prayer of mine, for you all, making request with joy. So, what he's doing here, he's thanking God for every single one of God's people. Not one is excluded. Nobody is left out. He's not passing over one in favor of another one. There's no favoritism here in Paul's language at all in Philippians 1, verse 3 and verse 4. And that is a real fellowship in the gospel, you know. If we have that thankfulness in our heart for all of God's people. Now, it would have been very easy for Paul to focus in on Lydia, that outstanding convert in Acts chapter 16, who did so much for the cause of God and helped Paul considerably. It would have been also no problem for him to look at the jailer in Philippi, remarkable conversion, that night of the earthquake, how he called upon the Lord and say, well, I'm very thankful for him and for what he did. And actually, he looked after us, brought us into his house. We saw a great work of grace done in his home. Those were joyous hours. So we could be thankful for Lydia, for the jailer, but These characters, Jodeas and Syntyche, that he goes on to write about in Philippians 4, in the verse 2, they were pretty much thorns in his flesh. They were obstacles along the journey. They made life more difficult for him. And yet, when we take his words, he is thanking God for everything. every single one, that fellowship in the gospel that He shared as a common bond with every single one in the church. Now, if we can stand in Paul's shoes here, that will preserve us from the wrong attitude. Too often, We can have irritation coming in. Too often, we can have resentment beginning to develop. Too often, we can go down the line of envy and jealousy, those horrible sins that pull down our spirit, that are terrible barriers to doing the work of God in the way that we should do Him with the attitude and the spirit that we ought to have. We can't thank God enough. for our brethren and sisters in Christ. And I'll tell you this, if we're thanking God for those brethren and those sisters, then we can't, at the same time, be jealous of them. So, we're saying, Lord, help us to hit this note of thanksgiving that the apostle hit here right at the beginning. Philippians 1 and the verse 3, that fellowship in the gospel, it expressed itself. in thankfulness. But then secondly, it expressed itself not only in thankfulness, but in prayer. And there's no surprise there at all to read in verse four, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making request with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. And if you read on in the chapter, you'll find that Paul here had a very extensive prayer list. How often do we pray for fellow believers? Our Lord is our prayer list for those around us who knew Christ. Even if we look around and we know our numbers are depleted tonight, and some people are here and others are somewhere else, we recognize in the half term that's how it was going to be. But at the same time, looking around this small congregation, how many are we praying for personally on a regular basis? Paul is saying, praying for you all. And that's a challenge. Before we came to Christ, didn't make sense to us to pray for our friends, to pray for our associates. How do you go about that? What's all of this talk of prayer that these Christians are engaging in? But then when we come into Christ, we know that we can enjoy and we can express fellowship in the gospel by praying for one another. It is so crucial, and what it does is, among other things, it purifies the atmosphere in the church. It's not possible to be a critic. It's not possible to be a hinderer in the work of God if we are fully engaged in the way that we should be in this ministry of prayer. That will break through all those regular barriers. And I said his list was extensive. If you look at verse 9 through to 11, and he prays for more than this in the chapter, but just getting a flavor of what he prayed, Verse 9, in this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment, that ye may approve things that are excellent, that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. And I'm saying this, if I pray that prayer, all those clauses for myself. that would be very beneficial. And if I prayed as he did for others, that would be exceedingly beneficial. So this is expressed, this fellowship in the gospel, in thanksgiving, also expressed in prayer, and you'll find thirdly it's expressed in faith. We have it in verse 6, Philippians 1 and 6. Being confident of this very thing. What an expression of faith that is. Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it or will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Paul had faith, confidence about these Christians in Philippi, and it wasn't The kind of faith that said, well, I know your caliber, and I realize that no matter what comes against you, you're going to fight your way through it, and you'll pray your way through it, and you will be great because you're such tremendous people in and of yourselves. That's not what he's saying. He is confident, what in? In God's purpose for these Christians. Confident in what God was doing in them. Confident in what God was going to keep doing in them, and wouldn't ever stop doing. until he got them through to glory. Notice carefully what ground this confidence is based on. Being confident, verse 6 again, of this very thing, that he, he that hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. It's very easy to lose faith in human nature. Very easy to lose faith in other Christians. Very easy to lose faith in yourself. And maybe you've come up against a particularly foreboding obstacle. And you've stumbled over it, like maybe you did in school when you were trying to do the hurdle race, and you got maybe over two or three, and then four or five and six went down, and maybe all the others went down, and you're in a heap in the middle of the track there. And maybe that's how it is in the Christian life, and you hit the hurdle, and down you go, and you get up, and you can't really dust yourself down and go on, because you've lost confidence in yourself. I can't do this. Moses felt he couldn't do what God was calling him to do. Jeremiah felt he couldn't do what God was calling him to do. Many of God's saints have felt, in fact, all of them, if they have known anything about themselves, they instantly realize, I cannot do this. Paul himself. You're to take the light of the gospel to the Gentiles, and he cries, who is sufficient? for these things. I cannot do this." And then we find him say, but my sufficiency is of God. And that again is where this faith in God comes in. You remember how God called Peter, was sending him, changed his name from a little pebble to a significant stone, that he was going to do something for God, and Peter no doubt felt, I cannot do it. But we come back to Philippians 1 and 6. And we see where the confidence really rests, 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. He knows all about our nature. He knows everything about our temperament. He knows all of our weaknesses, but he also knows the good work that he has planned for us, that he's going to do through us, and he's going to keep on at it until he completes it. Whatever he begins, he completes. This fellowship in the gospel expressed itself in thanksgiving. It also found a channel in prayer. It was outworked again in faith. This fellowship in the gospel expressed itself in love as well. And that brings us to verse 7 and verse 8 of Philippians chapter 1. Even as it is meet for you, Paul says, to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my bones 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 all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. Notice here, the believers in Philippi were not simply on Paul's mind, on his lips, in that he talked about them all as Canon Guy King, an evangelical Anglican, used to say, on his nerves. They weren't that. They were in his heart. Paul longed for those brothers and sisters in Philippi, including the ones we mentioned, Iudaeus and Syntyche, and sometimes we fall down right here. Maybe too often we're hard, don't exercise the judgment of charity, maybe even cruel in things we think and things we say. What we need to do is keep in mind the words in John 13, and if you'll turn these two verses up with me, please, John 13 and the verse 34 and the verse 35. A new commandment, our Lord says, I give on to you, that ye love one another. It doesn't stop there. that ye love one another as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." And the Lord is raising the bar and keeping on raising it until it's almost out of sight. We are to love our brethren as he has loved us. That's the challenge. Do we express our fellowship in the gospel by our love? Not only for those we find it easy to love, but those who are more difficult. to embrace in love. But I don't need to labor this point, do I? Because it's not that long since we were in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, and we moved all the way through that chapter, the classic chapter, where love is expressed by believers in their lives. And let's impact fellow Christians, as Paul did here. by a genuine and a deep love. Verse 8 again, I long, greatly long after you all. In the Bibles are affections of Jesus Christ. And verse 7, I have you in my heart. And we may not be going up to fellow believers and saying, well, you're in my heart. We could land ourselves in deep water and many misunderstandings if sometimes we said that. But to shake hands with fellow Christians and know it, know it that we have each other in our hearts, that's critical. Fellowship in the gospel. It expresses itself in thanksgiving, also in prayer, expresses itself in faith and in love, and the final thing, expresses itself in ministry, in ministry. And in verse 12, you see the ministry that Paul and the Philippians as well, supporting him, were called to. But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out, brethren, unto the furtherance of the gospel. That's why we're doing what we're doing. That's why we love as we do. We pray as we do. That's why we minister one to another in the way that we do, because we are looking for the gospel to go forward. We need to see it further forward than it's been before. We need to see it gathering steam. generating real traction, taking ground. It hasn't done in the past. That's our ministry, the furtherance of the gospel, and to get the gospel going forward, we need fellowship, one with the other, in this gospel. How do we further the gospel? We do it in two ways, principally by our life. When we live the Christian life consistently, Many people will pray, and I've heard it recently in prayer, that we are the Bible the world is reading. They're not reading the Holy Scriptures, God's Word, but they are looking at us, and they're watching very intently how we react, what we do. Look at what Paul says in verse 12, here again in verse 20, but look at 12, "'For I would that ye should understand, brethren, "'that the things which happened unto me "'have fallen, I'd rather, "'unto the furtherance of the gospel.'" Verse 20, "'According to my earnest expectation "'and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, "'but that with all boldness, as always, "'soon I also, Christ shall be magnified in my body, "'whether it be by life.'" or by death. He wanted to live in a way that would be profitable to the propagation of the Word of God. Not only that, it's furthered by our life, it's furthered by our lip, what we say, the testimony of Christians And notice the word speak and preach, because they keep coming up here in verse 14 and 15 and 16, again in verse 18. Look at 14, and many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Verse 15, some indeed preach Christ. Then 16, the one preach Christ. Verse 18, what then? Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice by our life, allied to our lip. What we are, what we say, the gospel is furthered. This fellowship in the gospel is vital. But how is it possible to do all these five things that the fellowship in the gospel revolves around? How can we do these things, accomplish what Paul is talking about here, share and show the fellowship of the gospel? How will we ever do that? Well, the answer stares us in the face. in verse 19, Philippians 1 and 19, for I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. If I am going to do what I ought to do, And in my fellowship in the gospel, I show that in thanksgiving. I express it in prayer. I do it in faith and confidence in God. I do it through love as well. I do it in service or in ministry. I will only ever do anyone and all together these things by the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. And that's why we need to pray as a church. Let Thy blessed Spirit fall upon us again. Fill us with that Spirit of Pentecost that ignited and enabled the early church in all that it did as they pressed forward and almost seemed to be going through every obstacle at breakneck speed and accomplishing so much. It was only when God's Holy Spirit fell upon them. That's what we need in this church. And notice the two things that are tied together at the end of verse 19, through your prayer and the supply. of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Let's read the verse a little differently to what Paul has written it as. He's talking about his progress in the gospel. We're not changing anything here, but read verse 19, "'For I know that this shall turn.'" So things in his life and his ministry and service turn to my salvation. But as far as our country is concerned, and our position as a church within the country, and the whole evangelical reformed church, not merely our denomination, those that are standing for truth and standing for righteousness, how will it turn again? This country, in its dreadful condition, for I know that this shall turn through your prayer. and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. We'll only turn the corner by supplication and by the Spirit. And as we pray, may we have the kind of heart-forward prayer that the Apostle Paul expresses here.