Now let's turn together to the book of Philippians this evening as we come to it directly for the first time tonight following the several introductory expositions that paved our way for a better understanding of the message of Paul to the Philippians. We're going to read this evening in chapter 1 from verses 1 to 11 only. and I may indeed need to return to this section next Lord's Day evening to complete it. Paul and Timothy servants of Christ Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi together with the overseers who undoubtedly in this case are the elders and deacons grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you since I have you in my heart for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel all of you share in God's grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ. filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. And we'll stop there this evening. May God indeed bless to us the very reading of his own holy and inspired word. Now as we have opened our Bibles for the first time in one of the preaching services in our congregation in the book of Philippians we're beginning in God's providence what I hope will be a series of expositions through this wonderful letter on these coming Sunday evenings following the three preparatory sermons that I preached recently on Sunday mornings in Acts 16, the conversion of Lydia who was a resident in Philippi, the conversion of the demon-possessed girl who had the spirit of divination, the fortune teller, and this morning, latterly, the conversion of the Philippian jailer. Now as I say this series I believe will take up our attention very fully for a considerable number of Sunday evenings together and let me say at the outset it would be a great benefit both to me and I believe to you as well if you would make the subject of this epistle the subject of your own private studies and devotions in these coming weeks and months. Now, on previous occasions, as I reminded you, we have caught a glimpse of how the Philippian church came into being. The first recorded church, indeed, in the whole continent of Europe, as Paul bore the message from Asia Minor across the Adriatic, or the Aegean Sea, I should say, into the very continent of Europe in northern Greece. And we have seen together something of the foundational members of this great church, one of the apostles favorite congregations if we can use that term in the New Testament. One that he referred to in a number of places with great love and respect and devotion. and we have seen as I mentioned the conversion of Lydia and the fortune teller and the jailer all arrested so mightily and so graciously by the spirit of God and brought out of darkness into spiritual light So that little church had its beginnings in very diverse backgrounds as we have seen from our study in Acts chapter 16 and evidently grew numerically and spiritually across the years until Paul now writes to them we believe some 12 years after his first visit to that great city of Philippi, that Roman colony in northern Greece and what must immediately strike us I think as the epistle begins with these opening verses and greetings that we are to look at together this evening is the great thankfulness that the apostle expressed toward God for what he had done among them as you notice in verse 3 I thank God every time I remember you And it was a thankfulness, as we will discover this evening, for their continuing fellowship in the gospel of grace that he was dedicated to preach and proclaim. Their faithfulness in partnership with that gospel across a period of at least 12 years. But above all you will have noticed that his spiritual thankfulness was for their growth in grace there at Philippi as recorded in these verses. Now before we get into the main body of our exposition this evening that should cause us to pause and to apply some of these verses that we have read to ourselves. If we for instance this evening were to ask ourselves that if 12 years have elapsed since we first became Christians and they are now past history in terms of our spiritual experience and if for instance the Apostle were to come to us Today, would he come to us in the same spirit that he came to these Philippian Christians? A spirit of uninhibited thankfulness for their evident growth in grace and spiritual maturity that he saw in them after that period of time. And we need to ask ourselves beloved this evening how God has worked in our own lives and experiences what he has effected within us in such a space of time. Would he indeed come amongst us with that spirit of deep thankfulness for the growth he saw amongst us Corporately, as a congregation. Individually, as Christian men and women. Twelve years. Why some of us in this building have probably not been believers for that length of time. But others have been believers for a great deal longer. And would that spiritual progress be evident in us for which he would be able to say, I thank God every time I remember you. Would there be that grace and righteousness of character and ripeness of Christian belief in us for which the apostle could give such thanks. Now I need to underscore also by way of introduction to these verses that what Paul you notice is giving thanks for and we will see this in a moment is not essentially for the numbers of the Philippian church as no doubt he is heard through Epaphroditus in chapter 2 of their growth and their continued progress in the gospel in the city of Philippi It was not for such things and remarks as this, pews are now full, Epaphroditus might have said, there are so many people there in this church that began with only three. Now of course numbers are not inconsequential, but it's not the thing you see that constitutes true church growth. nor is Paul excited about in these verses their changes in their structure as they have grown from a handful of believers into a thriving congregation he is not saying to them it is wonderful to hear of the new ideas there in the church in Philippi or of the scintillating changes that you've been able to bring about in your fellowship or what wonderful and different structures you are following in these days you see such growth is not the apostles primary concern at all nothing to do with methodology and methods and so forth but what he is excited about in these opening verses is what is happening you see in the people of God themselves and this is what he gives thanks about primarily as he hears what God has been doing amongst them. And of course this will come out as we study in verses 9 through 11 probably on another occasion. The great substance of the Apostles prayer as you look at those verses. Their growth in love and in knowledge and discernment and wisdom and holiness and righteousness of life. These are the keys that unlock the great river of thankfulness in the Apostles mind. and incidentally too and by way of introduction if you have ever thought that the word joy is a key word in Philippians and indeed in a sense it is his joy in their spiritual growth and progress I need to remind you that in a sense his joy is incidental to the great theme of the letter that is the theme of the richness of Christ and in a sense his joy is incidental to that great theme as he explores Christ exalted in glory and the richness of his grace toward his people and his all-sufficiency and Christ as the key to their joy and their hope and their steadfastness and their growth. He takes the name of Christ more often upon his lips in this epistle than any other single word or theme. It is, as one commentator has said, his grand obsession, occurring seventeen times alone in the first chapter by itself. Now with these words of introduction Paul seeing their spiritual progress launches into this great introductory passage to the letter to the Philippians. And I want you to notice therefore that in verses 1 through 11 there are really basically two great themes. First a glimpse into the spiritual life of the Philippians in verses 1 through 6 and secondly, a wonderful glimpse into the spiritual life of the Apostle himself in verses 7 through 11 Now that division is not accidental because I think you would realize that the first part reflects upon the nature of true Christian experience, a glimpse into the life of the Philippians. What is the nature of true Christian experience as the Apostle sees it in verses 1 through 6? and then secondly there is a glimpse into the true nature of Christian service as we see the spiritual life of Paul himself laid out in verses 7 through 11 let's take them in order this evening first of all there is a glimpse into the spiritual life of the Philippians in verses 1 through 6 and it gives us as I say an insight into the true nature of Christian experience as he focuses his words and thoughts upon his beloved friends in Philippi and says in essence three things you will notice about them that they are saints in Christ Jesus that they are secure in Christ Jesus and that they are servants and partners in the gospel of the Lord Jesus. Now I want you to look at these three great themes under this general heading of a glimpse into the spiritual life of the Philippians, the first six verses. First of all, they are saints in Christ Jesus. Verse 1. Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, together with the overseers, the elders evidently, and the deacons. Now this, I suggest to you, is very significant. He addresses his beloved friends as all the saints in Christ Jesus. Now when we use the word saint, we normally, I'm afraid, misuse it because we employ it as a description of a moral quality. We say of someone, for instance, in the fellowship, why he is a real saint because of some loving and sacrificial action that he's undertaken on the behalf of others or even of ourselves. Or we say of another believer whom we greatly admire for his maturity in Christ, what a saintly person that one is. Or maybe we say, rather self-deprecatingly of ourselves, well as you know, I am no saint. And we've invested the term merely with a moral quality. We imagine a saint is one with some kind of moral excellence, who has reached a certain standard of holiness that sets him apart from others in the fellowship. and you will realize that that kind of thinking has gone to its extreme in the Roman Catholic Church where there is the process of canonization and the Roman Catholic Church in great error has elevated certain of its followers from various ages to that high level of being a saint who is officially canonized by the church as such and recognized for his or in some cases for her superior spiritual qualities. Now I need to remind you that in the New Testament the universal description of all Christians is that they are saints in Christ Jesus. and the meaning quite simply of that great word hagios or hagioi in the plural is someone who has been set apart for God and so we might paraphrase the greeting of Paul there in verse 1 by saying my letter is addressed to all in Philippi who are set apart for God And that, says the apostle, is the primary thing that has happened to you there in Philippi. Why, he says, the saints in Philippi are those who have felt the hand of God upon their lives, who have been drawn by the grace of God to the Lord Jesus Christ, who have been set apart for Him. just as you and I in a sense today may go into a store and may not have enough money to buy an object that is there for sale but we greatly desire and we say to the storekeeper will you set that aside for me and reserve it for me and I'll come back and claim it and pay for it in full later put that aside for me we say because I'm going to purchase it and I want it set apart and my name as it were is already upon it and you see that's precisely the thought here first of all in the description of true Christian experience I have been set apart for Christ And God has established a destiny for me that is altogether glorious. A destiny of holiness. Because that's really the basic meaning of the word Haggios, being set apart, being regarded by God as a holy one, put apart for his service. So you see what I'm saying to you this evening is that the word therefore does not refer so much to human achievement nor even to present condition but to God's destiny for you and for me. He has singled you out, separated you, set you apart in the world for himself. No, the application of this I think should be obvious that if we are saints it does not mean that we are perfect in any full sense but that in our lives there is that evidence of dedication and being set apart for the service of Christ. You know the world is in itself set apart for self or for the things of this world but the unique mark on the Christian is that he can say with the Apostle Paul for me to live is Christ because he has made me his and put his seal and his name upon me And the question dear friend this evening is the name of Christ emblazoned as it were on and over your life so that you are living not for the things of this world and self-seeking that you are beginning to realize that as a saint you are separated to him and you are set apart in Christ Jesus for his service so then the first great mark is that they are saints in Christ Jesus Now the second great mark you notice of genuine Christian experience is that they are secure in God's faithfulness. Look at verse 6. I am sure that he who has begun a good work in you will carry it on to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Now this is one of the New Testament's great statements you know on Christian assurance. They were not only in other words a people on whom God had set his seal and purpose as we have seen. But here is the further statement that he will not give up with his people till he has fulfilled everything in them that he purposes in his heart to do with them and through them. right on until the very day of the return of Jesus Christ. Now I suggest to you that in all of the statements of the New Testament there is scarcely another that is stronger or richer in the doctrine of Christian assurance. Saints in Christ Jesus and secure through God's own faithfulness. and you see the apostle goes on to tell these Philippian Christians and to tell us that all the people of God have two things to rest upon regarding God's faithfulness the first is this that the initiative in all true Christian experience lies with God do you notice that? I am sure that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ. The initiative of all true Christian experience lies with God and not with ourselves. Have we not already seen that in the groundwork that was laid in Acts chapter 16 for this great little congregation of Philippi as the Lord came through his servants to that distant European city and there down by the riverside it was he who opened the heart of Lydia to attend to the things that were spoken by the apostle. Now of course it was she who believed and committed her life there on the banks of the river Gangites to the Lord. But you see that was not the ground of her salvation. It was what God had begun already to do in her and to bring it to completion through the preaching of the Apostle Paul. and the initiative of all true Christian salvation lies with the Lord and not with us. Quoting the words of one of the great commentaries on this epistle by Alex Motier, the commentary called The Richness of Christ, he says this, Salvation would be a miserably unsure thing had it no other foundation than that I chose Christ. For the human will, he says, blows hot and cold. It is firm and then unstable by fits and starts. It can offer no security of tenure. But the will of God is the ground of our salvation. And you see that's what the apostle is speaking about here. And that's what you know in your experience. Did you begin with stirrings of soul? When you began to walk the Christian way it was God who began to awaken within you the need for eternal things as we saw this morning. To press into the kingdom of Christ amidst great difficulties it may be and to seek salvation through the Lord Jesus. God beginning a new work in you. Now the second ground that he gives them, you notice, of their security in God's faithfulness is not merely that he began and initiated that great work but that he has undertaken to complete it even to the coming of Jesus Christ himself what he began, he will finish. Beloved, the testimony of all scripture is that he never leaves his work half finished. I've been reading recently the biography of one of the great composers of music and he was one who wrote an unfinished symphony. Now you see, God never is in that position with his people. He perseveres with every work he begins. He never leaves it unfinished. And that is the key, by the way, to why so many of his children walk through difficulties of times and discipline and darkness and painfulness and suffering. One of you in your prayers this evening referred to the giants in the pilgrim path and all the obstacles and difficulty that meet us in the way. But you see the Lord puts us through those things. because he knows that he will continue the work that he has begun and overcome every obstacle and difficulty in our way and persist to the very end and persevere with us until we stand without any blemish or any wrinkle or spot finally complete and perfect as his church in glory till the day that Jesus Christ comes as the apostle when we of course will be like Him. Now that is the Christian's assurance and security and hope that we are saints in Christ Jesus and we are secure in God's faithfulness. But the third thing about genuine Christian experience, you notice, is that we are to become partners in the gospel. Not only set apart for the service of God and secure through his great faithfulness, but we become servants in the work of the gospel itself. Verse 5. I am thankful, he says, for your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. Now many of you will realize that the word partnership is elsewhere rendered in the New Testament and more commonly rendered by the word fellowship, the word in Greek koinonia, what people share in common. I'm reminded even as I mention this Greek word of an instance of a pastor in my own country who related on one occasion having preached in a distant church he was invited to a fellowship meal such as we had following our worship service this morning and it was a rich time of sharing together and at one point he reminded me rather humorously he put out his hand to take the sandwich off the plate and found that he put his hand on top of another hand that was already there And he said that was fellowship indeed. Now you see what Paul is saying here is something very precious and very rich for us this evening. That what bound the hearts of God's people together was not merely that they were saints in Christ Jesus and secure in their salvation to the very end. but they were in koinonia, in fellowship, in their commitment to the gospel of the grace of God. I thank my God, he says, for your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And if you look in verse 7 at the very end, he continues that theme, you are all partakers of me, with me of grace. In other words, they had heard and embraced the free offer of mercy in Jesus Christ and had become partners in this glorious commitment to the gospel of God's truth. Now what are we to say of this? It is a unique bond, beloved. The grace of God in all its freeness, offered to needy men in Jesus Christ as we have seen, gloriously sufficient for the needs of all God's people, however long they may live, however far they may travel, in whatever circumstances of life they may find themselves in, that gospel has become the foundation of all their living. Now you notice that in verse 7, he says that they had not only embraced it and evidently were proclaiming it, but they were also defending it. that you are set with me, he says, for the defense and the confirmation of the gospel. They were concerned that it be kept pure and unsullied. And the very Greek words there in verse 7 in the middle, the defense, the apologia, connecting immediately with our thought of apologetics. that great ministry in the Christian church that is set not to apologize for the gospel but to defend it. Apologetics means how we defend the truth of God against every adversary and against every false deception and the confirmation of it, the babiosis They are set for the work of confirming and establishing and maintaining the truth of the gospel in every area of their life and worship and ministry. Now beloved, that kind of fellowship is exceedingly precious and it is one to which we are to be committed if we would have the true marks of Christian experience amongst us. set apart by God in holiness, secured by God for all eternity, serving him and his people in the truth of the gospel. Now I cannot emphasize this third thing enough in these days in which we live, that our fellowship in this congregation depends on the unanimity with which we hold to the truth and that's a very unpopular matter in these days in which we live we often think or men often think that fellowship exists in the way that we worship merely or in the identical interests that we have in the kingdom of heaven but ultimately it must be a unanimity in the things that we believe and are committed to at the very heart of our very existence as Christians. And I have to say to you this evening that the great scandal in Christendom, the so-called dividedness of Christians, is not that we worship in different ways, or even that we have different forms of church government, important as the matter of church government is. but the great scandal is that we no longer adhere to the truth of the gospel as it has been delivered by the apostles and prophets and men and women around us say of the church how confusing we hear one thing in one place and another thing in another place what are we to end up believing? and the answer the apostle gives is that what we are to end up believing is the truth that has been once for all delivered to the saints. The mark of the church and of Christian experience is that it stands in the service of the defense and the confirmation of the glorious gospel of God's grace. They are saints, they are secure, they are servants, the marks of true Christian experience. Now more briefly, as we conclude this evening, there is a glimpse into the spiritual life of Paul himself. And it shows us, as I mentioned to you in my introduction, the nature of Christian service. By revealing, in other words, something of himself to us, we see the two features of the nature of Christian service. The first is that of a submitted servant and the second is that of a praying pastor. Look at these things as we finish this evening. Paul is a submitted servant. Verse 1, as he addresses himself to the Philippians. Paul, he says, and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ. And you will be aware, I'm sure, that the word servant in the New Testament is the great word doulos, literally meaning a slave. And that is how Paul saw himself. The only true basis indeed for Christian service begins in the ownership of another. Now that is what Paul is saying, I have passed from the ownership of one who was once the master of my life, Satan from miserable slavery to him into freedom of service under Jesus Christ my new master and that service is absolute Now that's the point that I want to drive home and the only point under this section this evening is the service that we have to the Lord Jesus absolute. You see in the ancient world of Paul's time The picture of a self-willed or disobedient slave was a contradiction in terms. By rights a slave had no property, no rights of his own, his master's will and his master's bidding were the only thing that mattered in that man or woman's life. and here is the picture of the apostle who has bowed his pride and resigned all his natural gifts and abilities and rights to his new master the Lord Jesus he is the master Paul is the slave and there can be no fruitful Christian service apart from that I have only one desire he is saying to be totally at the disposal of my master the submitted servant and secondly you have in verses 7 through 11 the praying pastor look at them just briefly as we close it is right for me to feel this about you all because I hold you in my heart For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And then that affection flows out into that earnest supplication and prayer on the part of the apostle for those whom he loved and longed for, that their love might abound in discernment and knowledge and so on. Now what I want to emphasize as we close is the depth of apostolic pastoral care that is the characteristic of all true Christian service. As you read those verses 7 through 11 you can see that these Philippians are not outsiders to the Apostle but Paul has them as it were within his very heart as God has the names indeed of his people engraved upon his own holy heart. The apostle yearns over them with great desire with the apostolic concern of a true pastor. Now I need to remind you this evening that pastors, whether they are elders, ruling or teaching, are not professionals about the business of the church. But they are pastors of God's people, or should be, who carry the people of God in their very hearts, so that the outflowing of their desires is in the natural current of prayer on behalf of God's people. and this you know is why the church of Philippi grew as it did why the fruits of righteousness appeared and flourished and abounded and why the glory of the Lord Jesus was seen in that little fellowship in Philippi because Paul had his people in his heart and he yearned over them with constant and deep desires he prayed them on and on and on with our longing for their maturity in the Lord Jesus. Now as I finish Do we ourselves long for a ministry like that? It is the secret of growth amongst us. You see it's not only the duty of the elders and pastors to pray in this way, there is a sense in which we are all pastors for one another. And we all need to pray, as I trust we will see next Sunday evening, that the love of one another will abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment. How much we need that in these days of such deceptive things about us, that you may approve what is excellent, says the Apostle, and be pure and blameless in the day of Jesus Christ filled with the fruits of righteousness. Is this how we're really related to each other in the fellowship here? And as I finish I'm reminded of an incident involving that great preacher Eric Alexander again from my own country the city of Glasgow who was present at a great Christian conference I think in Northern Ireland at which John Stott was one of the leading preachers and the two ministers were together in the car on the road and suddenly two Africans who were attending the conference appeared in front of them and John Stott who was driving the car apparently stopped and immediately went out and greeted them by name and asked after their wives and their three children by name and getting back into the car he confessed to his brother minister I haven't seen them for two years since I last visited Nigeria and Eric Alexander turned to his brother and said how on earth did you remember the names of their wives and even their children and the circumstances of these men and John Stark said quite simply well how could I forget when I pray for them every day So in conclusion, God has begun a good work and Paul is praying that that good work will go on to its completion in glory and that this church will be delivered out of every form of stagnation and inability and be taken on and on and on. into the richness of the glorious things that Christ has for it. Of servants and of saints may these themes indeed grip our hearts and make us more than ever a congregation that prays one another on and on and on again into the deep things of God. Let's pray. Our Father, we're very thankful this evening for these opening greetings of Paul to the Philippians, of servants and of saints, laying out the true nature of Christian experience and the true nature of submissive service. And may these marks, O Lord, be writ large in our own lives, the more so as we study together the great teaching of the Apostle to this early yet growing church for Jesus' sake.