Let me speak to this for a few minutes, and it may not necessarily relate directly to the text that we're in, but it's a soapbox that I'd like to stand upon for just a moment, at least one foot. Why is that the case? Because in the economy in which we live, the economy of our culture, not just the financial economy, but it's really what powers and fuels everything. And what helps Christmas be so special is that we make a lot of money as retailers in this world. A lot of businesses move from the red to the black just through Christmas and through Black Friday and through the holiday seasons. So what better way to capitalize on the materialistic ideals of humanity than to, as soon as one thing is over, go ahead and begin to press into the minds and the hearts of people to do something different. Now, I'm not being a Scrooge, and I'm not saying bah humbug. I think there's nothing wrong with gathering together as family, eating a meal, exchanging some gifts, cleaning your home, whatever it might be that you like to do. But my problem comes when we consider it a celebration of Christ. When we look at the history of Christmas, Christmas was never even celebrated in this country until the latter part of the 19th century. In fact, it was prohibited up until that time because it was not something that actually was considered a Christian holiday. It was the history of Christmas, not what I'm here to talk about this morning. But it is something that we have now seen become very pervasive, not just in the culture, but in the church. And I believe that when the Scripture teaches us that we're in the world and not of it, that we need to be very careful to be discerning on the areas of materialism and commerce and things of that nature, to the point that we are careful not to just look like the rest of the world. Now, I'm not going to be preaching a burden on you to not celebrate Christmas. That is your conscience. That is what you do if you so choose to do so. But understand that the celebration of Christmas is not the celebration of the birth of Christ. The celebration of the birth of Christ, if we were to look at it biblically, is something that we are not even to celebrate. It's not even been shown to us as something that is the holiday of Christians. The very nature of the holiday is something that the world has created. And as you'll see, if you look very closely at your own lives and hearts, it is not something that even reflects the nature of Christ at all. So that being said, and the reason I bring that up is because what we see in Philippians, what Paul is calling us to, is to have the mind of Christ. And I will be here to tell you by very explicit direction, not just Christmas, but Easter or Thanksgiving or any other holiday that we celebrate as Americans or as human beings, Christ would rebuke our idolatry of these things. He would rebuke every bit of them. Someone even said to me recently, three days ago, that it is very, very disturbing to them that a pastor of the gospel of Jesus would not honor and praise the day He was born. And I said, well, the very nature of your words, my friend, show that there's a problem with your understanding of what worship is. If I'm going to worship a day, I am not worshiping Christ. So we're not going to celebrate the day. We're not going to celebrate the day of Christ's coming. We're not going to celebrate the day of Christ's death. We're not going to celebrate the day of Christ breaking the bread. We're going to celebrate Christ. And my heart for you this holiday season is that you would use the opportunity when commercialism is just rampant, to when someone wishes you a Merry Christmas, take that opportunity. Now that you mention Him, Let me share with you what Christ is, who Christ is, and what this season could represent, not just now, but every day. Because see, the gospel of Jesus Christ does not create a few zealots. There's not this radical small sect of people amongst the church who all of a sudden have a heart for the gospel. Oh, we all want to be like Him. No, when God saves you through the gospel, you become a zealot. When God saves you through the power of His grace, and He gives you the gift of faith, and you see Christ for what He is, you can't help but breakdance about the greatness of Christ. You can't help but share your faith. You cannot help but go and share the gospel of Jesus. And so, in this day, in this world, when everybody would rather spend time arguing about what Starbucks is doing, rather than what God is at work doing, we have lost our way. We have lost our way. And let me tell you, there are greater things to concern ourselves with as a church. Just as a way of looking at the world and the landscape. Some of you I've spoken with this week, either via text or Facebook or whatever, or phone call, and we've seen had discussions on how bad the world is, how bad things are going. Now we see this tragedy that we have in France. We see all the things that are happening on a global scale in the context of a diving morality, a brokenness in our system of government, an absolute impossible light at the end of any tunnel at all to be able to see any hope for reform or moral standing. And France, a lot of times we find ourselves talking about these things as though there is no hope. Or worse, those that would speak of hope, speak of hope of reforming the morality of the world through some other means than the gospel. I will tell you this, but the Bible says as bad people go from bad to worse, as evil goes from dark to darker, the light of the gospel continues to shine. And friends, what is going to cause persecution in the life of the Christians of this day is when we stand firm, as Paul is talking about this morning, on the righteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ alone, and that our mantra and our banner is absolutely Jesus Christ. Nothing we do, nothing we say, nothing we engage in, all these peripheral things that are absolutely unnecessary in the context of living as a Christian church, these things will become the main thing. These idols will become the thing that we hold up. And when we stop doing that, When we start putting our hope in Christ alone and don't get fired up about the problems of the world, don't get worried and start packing bombs underneath our beds, and we don't start... You know, we're going to be looked at as people who are foolish, and we're going to be looked at as people who have a peace that should not be, and people will see our righteousness, and they will hate us as Cain hated Abel, and then they will persecute us and lock us away. And I'll tell you something, church, there is no escaping such reality. There's no escaping it. When we stand for righteousness, when we press into the reality of the gospel, when we live for Christ in everything, which includes having this mind of Christ and living in contrast to the world as we saw last week, we will be hated. And especially when people hate us and then we love them in turn, they will hate us even more. That is the oddest thing that I've ever tried to understand from a psychological point of view. And then philosophically, I try to divide it up and say, well, maybe this and maybe this. And I have many hypotheses as to why that happens, but God's Word clearly settles a lot of hours of frustrating thinking when it says that the heart of man is intrinsically wicked. And that the mind is set on earthly things and is hostile toward God. And that Jesus himself said, the world hates you because it hates me. If you hate me, you're not going to want to shake my hand. You're not going to want to wash my feet. Because you'll hate my body too, not just my head. Friends, when people hate the head of our body, Jesus Christ, they will hate every fiber of our existence. And it is not going to change. What will change is that through this type of suffering in our world, God will bring great revival. And I'm saying revival as in not what we think revival is. Great birth. Great rebirth. Great life in the midst of death. And we see what's happening on the national scale. We see people who are being shot and killed and the stuff that's happening in Paris. And friends, it is reason. It is occasion for fear. It is occasion for doubt. It is occasion for wonder and thinking, oh, woe is we. Woe are we. But friends, it is mostly an occasion for worship. It is mostly an occasion for worship that when people die and calamity comes, we understand just how fragile a system of life we live in. And we know that there is no hope except that God in His sovereignty stays evil. and keeps it. The reason we're sitting here today and not being destroyed as we learn the Bible, as we worship God through song and through prayer, is because God's sovereign hand of protection is upon us this very moment. But when it does not come, His sovereign hand of providence is still here. And there is no calamity come to man that does not come by the authorship of our sovereign God, even through the hands of wickedness. The Bible says in the Old Testament that He even says to Israel, His chosen people, that through your enemies I shall bring them like a rod of correction. He tells Israel that through the Babylonians, their wicked hatefulness toward Israel will be His rod of correction. What is correction? It's giving us the fullness of joy that we so long desire, that nothing in this world and no device of our humanity can bring, only Christ can bring. And so as we think of that this morning, as we think of these things, just sort of little temporary side view pragmatic applied theology, think about how we live our lives. Friends, I'm going to be honest with you. I really believe that every aspect of our lives, everything we do is a response to or a product of our true look at Christ. When we're able to engage in sin, it is because of our true look of Christ. what we see Him as, how we see Him. And sometimes that's a bad view. Sometimes we look at the world or something or a lust or a temptation and we just totally throw Christ away and we run after it head first. But by His grace, He brings us back to repentance and brings us back and holds us into perseverance. But that is something that should be abnormal in our lives. Not normal. And one of the things that I see in the lives of the church throughout the years and even my own life as the church, we are part of the church, is that when I find myself in these slumps, I hate to even say that, it's such a stupid, when I find myself in wicked thinking, it is because I am failing to trust in Christ, evidenced by a failure to invest in His Word, to invest in His people, and to fellowship in prayer and worship. and life together, around the Word, around the Gospel. And it is not something that we need to take for granted because it will become more and more difficult as time goes on for the church to fellowship together. Even so much as many of you, as we've been praying for a group of individuals over in Statesboro, things are really, really, really hard for them. Ten, fifteen year friendships are broken. 20 year relationships are severed because of doctrine. And it's very fitting because this is where Paul goes right here in Philippians chapter 4. He starts to give some practical application of some problems in the church of Philippi and he gives pinpoint precision, laser surgical precision on how we're to handle it and what we're supposed to do. Friends, I believe this will apply to our lives like no other message we've heard in a while. So let's pray that God would show us exactly what we need to see. Let's go to the Lord. Father, I just thank you for your absolute sovereign, amazing, eternal, powerful, ineffable mercy. Because Lord, if you would not come into our hearts and opened our eyes to see the woe and the dreariness and the death of our sin, Lord, we would be like the rest of humanity, sons of disobedience, living in our own moral standard, by our own righteousness, by our own religion, by our own faith, by our own way, in our own communities, in our own focus, for our own purpose, and we would be eternally damned. But Lord, You are to be praised forevermore because You have saved us in spite of us. You have saved us when we could not even look Your way with favor. You looked our way with favor and You saved us in great wisdom. Oh Father, bring us to the joy of such salvation that this stinky little world that we live in would be seen just as that. A small roadblock, a small stop, a small wait in a vast eternity. And that we are citizens of heaven, not of this world. We were born into this world, but we were ripped out of it by the grace of Your love. And I pray this morning that You would do what I cannot do through the text here. And that You would help us all see the glory of Christ Jesus. In His name we pray. Amen. Let's look at this text for a moment. I want you to look at chapter 3, verse 17, and I'm going to read down to verse 3 of chapter 4. Follow with me. Philippians 3, verse 17. Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many of whom I often told you, and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ, Their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and they glory in their shame with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself. Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. I entreat you, Odoia, Or are you Odiah, an intrigued Syntica, to agree in the Lord? Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life." Now, I'm just going to stop there. And what I need to do before I get into chapter 4, verse 2, is I need to show you how that relates to what we just read. Paul has given, in some sense, let's do a quick review of the last few months. Paul has given the power, the cause, the ability, the focus, the product, the fruit, all of that of Jesus Christ. He's shown that the people of God are indeed a product of God's work. And that there is an absolute evidence of God's work in the lives of the church as we live together, As we laugh together, as we fight together, as we grow together, as we repent and forgive and worship, all of these things, as we suffer together, there is God at work. Christ is at work. The power of Christ has begun to work and it will be completed. So as it's being completed, it's not just this begin, fruit, fruit, fruit, fanfare, nothing, nothing, nothing, boom, the end of time. There's always something. Did you get that little example? I saw this big extravagant picture of my mind when I was doing that, and there was nothing to show you. So anyway, what I'm saying is that though there may be little burnout spots, there may be little black dots of where we fizzle out, or where we have moments, or days, or months, or sometimes even years, Lord forbid, that we would be in this spiritual slump. For the most part, we see this dynamic, supernatural fruitfulness in Christ that is paramount in our lives, that is on the forefront of our lives. that we're able to fight against our own flesh, our own minds, our own hope, our own idolatry, and that we're able to show that Christ is at work in us, not because we're determined to show it, though there is a determination that we need to have, there is a zeal that we need to have. We recognize that it's Christ's. And so that we find ourselves in the place where that's not there, we ought to do what Paul has taught us to do, which is what? Trust in the sufficiency and the power of Christ. And when we're unable to do that, what do we do in our labor? We pray for one another that we would have all discernment and wisdom, that our joy would be complete, and we labor for each other, not just in prayer, but in action. We go after each other, we work together, we labor together, we talk about it, we preach the gospel to ourselves and to each other so that Christ could continue the work in us because it is only through the Word of God and continually working in us this Word that God works in us righteousness. And though we may live a righteous life by the world's standards, even in the power of Christ, it's nothing compared to the righteousness of Christ. So that in the day of Christ, then He will set us right before Him exactly as He is in holiness. So that when we say, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, we in the day of Christ will look just like that. Come on. See that. And so that is our prize, that is our purpose, that is our hope, that is the reason we were saved, that God would set us righteously before Him to be perfect, blameless, without spot or blemish. And He did it on the back and the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, so that it is an extremely costly thing. And now we look into our own lives and we recognize that we're not going to ever obtain that in our own way, but that Christ is doing it. And as Christ does it, we strive for that. And as we fail and pick up the pieces, we work together, we grow together, we rejoice in these things. There's so much that Paul has dealt with. I don't have three or four hours to just do it off the top of my head here. But there are some things now that need to be fresh in your mind as we move to this text. And what these things are is that we are to be looking after, in one mind, full of the Spirit, unity in Spirit, unity in theology, unity in mission, unity in purpose, looking after other people's interests, not our own. Are they coming back to you now? The teaching of this text? I met with someone who visited a couple of weeks ago, and they were like, how do I really apply what I heard? I said, well, you've got 30 sermons ahead of that. So sometimes there might be a puzzle piece a little bit missing when we're not here a lot. But God is still faithful. You can still apply it. You just may not know the whole story. But as we get to this place, friends, many of you know the whole story. You know the reality of what Paul is saying. And if you look there, he says, we are to hold true to what we have attained. And what we have attained is not perfection, but righteousness through Jesus Christ. And every step we make, every stride we make, every gain we make in Christ, we hold to it. And we also do that by holding to Christ. We look to the future. We press on to the prize of righteousness. I want you to hear this, church. by looking and forgetting, not looking back, but forgetting what lies behind. We press on. And I remember making this comment when I preached that, is that we're not looking at our righteousness yesterday, we're looking at our righteousness today and tomorrow. We're looking at how we're living our lives for the sake and the glory of Christ today, and as we press into the next moment. Right now. It reminds me of the reality that we see in the Old Testament where it's written, today is the day of salvation. And I often thought about that, and when I was about 16, it sort of hit me. I said, you know, today is the day of salvation. Yesterday wasn't my salvation, and I can't wait for tomorrow. Now, I'm saved today in Christ, or I'm not saved at all. My hope is not in what I did yesterday, or in the righteousness that I had yesterday, or in the goodness that I had yesterday, or in the faith that I had yesterday, and I'm not going to sit around and wait. Well, tomorrow I'll get right with the Lord, because tomorrow may never come. Today, this very moment is salvation. It's the only opportunity you have for salvation. So if you find yourself today in this place, hearing this voice, hearing the Word of God as you're about to do, and you are not secure in Christ, you need to be secure in Christ by faith alone. Christ alone secures your eternity. But you alone will condemn it through unbelief. Your faith is not in what you've done and what you have been. And your faith is not in the hope of what you will become and please God through, because you won't please Him anyway. No matter how good you are, no matter how holy you might try to be, no matter how religious your life might turn out, but your life is set in who you are right now in Christ Jesus. Are you in Christ today? We hold fast to that. In verse 17 of chapter 3 it says, imitate me. And we looked at that. We're not going to re-preach all this today. Imitate me. Imitate others. Imitate us. Imitate others who imitate us. Talking about the apostles. Talking about maybe even these two women in Clement. And whoever his true companion is. We've got Timothy and Epaphroditus also mentioned in this text. We've got a whole little crew here on Paul's mission team. Planning the church there in Ephesus. Planning the church there in Philippi. Playing the church all over Asia Minor and Palestine. He says, join us, we're looking. You know what? We talked about this a little last week. We are to look at each other as each other look to Christ and we look. You want to know how to deal with suffering, you look at the Word of God, you see how Paul dealt with it, but then sometimes there's something missing. Paul himself in Colossians says this, he says, I'm suffering, and I'm going to paraphrase this and then give you the exact quote, I'm suffering so that I may fill up what is lacking in the suffering of Christ. I want you to hear that and I want you to understand how it relates to this. What Paul is saying to the church of Colossae is this. Christ is not here. He is gone. His suffering is not now. It was back then. He no longer suffers. He's been raised to life and He ascended to the Father. He sent Holy Spirit, God, to dwell with us, to be the comforter, to be the power. And so now God is with us. Jesus Christ is coming back. But right now, the suffering that you see is not Christ's suffering, but me suffering as Christ suffered, so that as you see my suffering, you see Christ's suffering. And if we suffer like Christ suffered, with the same mind, and the same attitude, and the same heart, and the same eyes, then you will see the suffering of Christ. That's what Paul is arguing to the Colossian church. And I hate to hear people say, well, I don't need a friend in Christ. I don't need a brother and a sister. That's a lie. That is a lie from the Garden of Eden. That is a lie from eternity past when Satan said, I'm going to be like God. I want to stand next to you. I want to be beheld as a reflection of the glory that you have because it's mine now. It's a lie. We are to look into the church and we are to see each other. And in seeing each other as we live for Christ, we are to worship Christ because we see Christ's work. We don't look past each other to Christ except when you or I move out of the way and Christ is in front of us. You see how that works? So there is a great command in every New Testament epistle. Every New Testament epistle gives us absolute commands to follow the behaviors of those who follow Christ. To look at the suffering of those who suffer in Christ as we look at Christ and as we look at those who walk in Christ. And it's not just that way, but friend, here's the real kicker. Because there are men and women and boys and girls in the fellowship of this congregation who look at you. And there are people in this community who know you are a Christian. And they know you attend what they would call, attend a church. They know you are part of a spiritual family. And they are watching you. And they are watching me. And they will say that Christ is like we are. People are watching. And we are watching each other. When you see how we suffer, if I am suffering the way you are suffering, And you don't know how to hold on. And I'm looking at Christ. I'm looking at the Word of God. And then I'm seeing someone else suffer the same way. And they're rejoicing in the same way. And they're holding fast in the same way. And they're standing firm in the same way. Wow, this isn't just this hypothetical supernatural superhero. Paul, this is my brother. He's suffering like Paul, so I can do this. I can walk this way. Would you walk with me? Would you pray with me? Would you hold my hand during this valley? Well, let's look to Christ. You see how we're supposed to make disciples of each other? We're supposed to point each other to Christ and walk together in these things. We're not lone rangers. I would be so dogmatic to say it is a sin to be a lone ranger in your suffering. And it's amazing how sometimes people can suffer in the midst of even a home full of people and feel so alone. when we ought to be always mindful of how the gospel is going to empower us to empower other people to suffer, to rejoice, to walk in righteousness, to press into Christ. This is just recap. This isn't new. It's just recap. He says there are people who look like Christ is at work. And those are the ones who you are to follow. Don't look at these people who are enemies of the cross. Who have idolatry as their God. Who have their flesh as their God. Do you see that? Their God is their belly. That means what they desire in their own mind and heart. This is what I love. This is what I think. This is what I want. This is what I know. Friends, Christ is our wisdom. Or the devil is our father. Those are the words of Jesus to the Jews, to the spiritual leaders of the Jews like Nicodemus and the Pharisees and others. We are to not look at the enemies of the cross because their end is destruction. Because their glory and their shame and their minds are set on earthly things. We are citizens of heaven. Now imagine this. Imagine what this looks like. Can you see the picture of the church? Can you see the picture of this in your own heart and mind? Can you see the reality in your own relationships? Maybe not now, but in the past. And if you haven't experienced it yet, you will. There's a group of people gathering together on a common basis and a common time, on a regular basis, not common, with so much things in common in the context of spirituality and Christ. And they say, oh, we're the church, we're the church, and we're meeting together, and we're living together, and we're helping each other grow, and we're teaching each other, and we see the Word of God, and we're praying, and God's answering prayers. And this entire spiritual community of the church in this era, you see it. Can you picture it? And it's extremely opposed to everything that was. It's opposed to Judaism, because Judaism rejected Jesus as God. Rejected Jesus as Christ, Emmanuel, the Holy, Anointed One of God, God with us. They rejected Him. And then they were seen though by all the culture and the non-Jewish people as the spiritual elite. Well, if they reject Him, what are we to do? We're already on their bad side. They already won't walk down the same side of the street as us. They already call us dogs and we take it. What are we supposed to do now? Believe this Jesus? And they did. Why? They could not not believe. They were shown the beauty of the glory of God face to face in Jesus Christ. They peered into the face of Jesus from Nazareth and they saw the face of God. And there was nothing they could do but fall on their face and see. Because they were shown. If you're able to see the glory of God in the face of Christ, you have believed. And you will believe. And you will forever believe. You will hold fast to Him. He will be the focus of your absolute soul. And this is the thing that was happening there, is that there were some, what people would call ungodly, unclean people coming to faith in Jesus Christ, of which the Philippians were. And now all of a sudden, here they are, standing against many people. Not just the Jews, but the Romans. They hated the Christians. Then we saw in Philippi much of the Roman guard. had come to faith in Jesus Christ because of the imprisonment of Paul, the Roman guard, these people were actually the ones who put and took out Caesars. They were the hand that rocked the cradle, if you will. They made it happen. And now they were following Christ. They were following this new, they called the way in that day. Christianity was called the way in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd century. Well, 1st, 2nd century. And they were following this way, they were following these fools like Paul, and Silas, and Timothy, and Paphroditus, and Apollos, and Barnabas, and John. They were following these men who had given everything up, and they looked like total idiots. And they were suffering, and they're getting out of prison, and their backs are bleeding open, and you can see their ribs through their skin, and they're going out there and saying, now you're going to get that again if you preach. And they're preaching in the courtyards of the prison, and they're crazy. People say they're nuts. And we're going to align with them, and now a lot of people are saying, wow, that's pretty popular. We used to be nothing, but now, get this, now we can be something if we follow this way. Now, keep this in mind. This is sort of where I think it came here. We can follow the way, and we'll become something. We won't just be the dog. We'll never be a Jew. We can become part of the way. It's pretty prestigious to be part of the church. It's pretty prestigious, even though it's going to cost us something. We'll stand just close enough to be liked. And when the heat gets too hot, we'll sort of back up. We don't know you. And that's what was happening. And there were some factions taking place. Paul says these people who were among the church, who were not living as Christ had saved them to live, were enemies of the cross. Because that means that they were saying that the power of the cross was theirs, but there was no evidence of it. 1 John says the same thing. If you say you have fellowship with us while you walk in darkness, you lie. And the love of God is not in you. The truth of God is not in you. You don't practice the truth. All these phrases that John would say. Paul would say there are people who are enemies of the cross. God is their belly. They're sensual. They feel good. This is the way they feel. This is what they want. They like this. I want things my way. This is what I think we ought to be doing. Well, the Bible is very clear on what we should be doing. And when we deter from that, we become sensual. We walk away. When we move to a cultural faith, Which is where I started, which is why I talked about this little soapbox thing I got on this morning. When we walk to a cultural drum, we're following our flesh. Let's just be careful not to call it Christ following. I mean, there's one thing to say, I just like doing this. It's got nothing to do with Jesus. Call it what it is. To thinking about how this even looks, we start saying, wow, this is a pretty troubling time. The true Christians never got a break. Because now people started, even in their own circles, imagine that, started falling away. Paul is saying, don't follow them. They are enemies of the cross. Their end is destruction. God is their belly. What are we going to do with that kind of stuff? Paul says, don't worry about it. Don't spend your time worrying about how to deal with all this. A dear woman told me years ago, right before I even got married, that the squeaky wheel gets the oil. You know what that means? You can have a thousand wheels running just fine, and one goes wee-wee-wee, you're always oiling it. The same thing is true amongst the church, and amongst the culture, and amongst the community, amongst the teachers. We have a tendency to want to go oil every wrong doing. We want to go oil every false doctrine. You know what? 50,000 to 1 false doctrine will outnumber truth. What does that mean? You do a search for Christian, and if there are 60 million hits, 59 million of them are bad. What is your cause? I say that it's a cause of insanity. It's what I like to say, a fool's errand. We're not going to fix it. So what does Paul say? But we're not those people. We don't have our minds set on earthly things. And friends, I'm going to tell you, sometimes when we put our focus and our emphasis on all this wrong stuff, we actually put our focus on earthly things. Who cares what the color of a cup is? When did a snowflake become a crown of righteousness? When did Jesus become a Republican? When did a flag become more important than fellowship in Christ? We're citizens of heaven. And we're not there yet, but we're heading there. We're not right all the way yet, but we're heading there. And Christ is going to come back and He's going to take all the trimmings, all the fixings of our lives, He's going to set them perfect once, forever. We're done. No more will we be in this stuff. We're going to glory in Christ, not the world. We're going to glory in Christ, not our righteousness, not our self-righteousness. We're not going to glory in shameful things. We're going to keep our eyes on the prize, who is Jesus Christ. And we're going to walk together, continually pressing each other, encouraging each other. You see, that's our job. Why does the church even gather? to the praise of His glorious grace. What does the glorious grace of God do? It helps us strive for righteousness together. Worship together. Together! He says, who am I to love? Verse 1 of chapter 4. Here we are. Let's get started. And for my brothers whom I love and I long for, my joy and my crown stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved." And I preached that last week, but I want to get it going to where we are. Of course, Paul's not talking ever. He's never made a discussion. None of the apostles in the New Testament, there's never a sentence written to the audience of unbelievers in this. Okay? Did you hear that? No unbeliever has ever been written a stitch of scripture. It's never been done and never will be done. There's not the book for the lost, the book for the evil, the book, the letter to the wicked. It's nowhere to the saints, to the beloved, to the brothers, to the sisters, to the church. Church, the called out ones. That's what that means, y'all. The called out ones. to my siblings in Christ Jesus, to the fruits of God, these people, brothers, Because we are not citizens of this world. Because we have a Savior, Jesus Christ. Because we have been saved by grace. Because we have the mind of Christ. Because we're concerned with each other's well-being and our spiritual journeys. Because we pray in the power of the gospel. Because God our Father has set us apart for Jesus. Because we're suffering as Christ has suffered. Because we are empowered with all grace and all glory and all power forever. Because, because, because, therefore, my brethren, My brothers whom I love." These are people that Paul loves, and he's about to talk to some individually here, which is rather odd, but he's going to do it. My brothers whom I love. He says, I love you. He's already said that. I love you with a love. I pray that you have a... I love you with a love that is in Christ. What does he say in verse 8 of chapter 1? For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. My brothers whom I love and whom I long for. He's already said it. He's just reminding his readers, listen, you've been given a tall order. These commands are very high. And some of you are feeling very unworthy and unable. I want you to know that I love you. And it is out of this love, and the purpose of my love pushes me and compels me to show you these things. I love you, and the greatest love that I can show you is to share with you the power of the Gospel, that Christ has given you a mind and a heart and a focus and a purpose and a plan, and even in the midst of suffering and imprisonment, you are gloriously free. gloriously joyful, gloriously wise. So hold fast and stand firm in these things. You can never, you can never... I wonder what it would be like to preach an entire letter in one standing. It would be a long day. Just where the Lord would just open it and just go. It would be a long day. It would be a good day. That's the tag team. He says, I long for you. You are my joy. and my crown. I see you are the first fruits of the Holy Spirit. You are the fruits of God, whom we preached, lest we labored in vain. Remember that? Hold fast. I see you. You are a picture of Christ's work, and I live to make Christ honored in my life, in my body, whether I live or die. And you are a picture of that. You are my joy because Christ is my joy. And Christ's work, when I see it, is my joy. So you are my joy. And I love you because Christ loved you. And He gave Himself for you. You are my crown. Stand firm in the Lord, my beloved. He tells them He loves them twice. Now look in verse 2. There's some really interesting practical application here that relates to all of that. Many people take their faith to be this personal, private, internal, me, myself, and Jesus thing. And let me tell you that that is born of a heart of flesh. Yes, me, myself, and Jesus is real. Jesus is your Savior if you are in Christ. Jesus is your Lord if He is indeed your Savior. Jesus is your King. But there is no King that rules a man. There is a King that rules a kingdom. And if you are part of a kingdom, friends, it is not America where our personal liberties begin and end at the personal liberties of others. Our liberties are to be washed away and thrown down for the sake of the joy of the next. Christ and his church are a community of faith. And what's happening in Philippi, we don't know all the details. But we can infer some very clear things based on some absolute evidence in the syntax of this writing. Look what happens. I entreat, you odia, and I entreat, I implore. He uses the word in front of both of their names. Syntica, if you ever wanted to know how to say that. You odia and syntica. to agree in the Lord. Have this mind among you, be unified, be of one mind, be of one spirit, be focused. Paul's like, there's some people among you who are very important, notice, very important to me, and I need them to agree in the Lord. We don't know what the conflict was. But Euodia and Sintica, women in the church of Philippi had some problems with each other. They had become divided. In this day and age, it would have been a church split. And in Paul's mind, he's thinking, there's a split about to take place and I'm going to have to come down there, but I'm locked up. And I love these people, and I love these women, and I love Clement, and I love others, and I'm not wanting their joy to be shipwrecked, because their faith is shipwrecked, because their selfishness gets in the way of unity. So He commands them. He commands both Euodia and Seneca to agree in the Lord. He said, whatever your differences, you better dump them quick. But what if they were doctrinal? You better dump them quick and get about reconciliation. You better get through it. These are sisters, they're not false teachers. And they may have been warring over something, I doubt it. I bet it was more personal in nature. It might have even been a little bit of pride, but Paul, because of how he treated it, said they're both in pride. Maybe they were getting a little too haughty because they were on Paul's missions team. Well, you get that. He says it right there. Yes. And he's speaking to someone clearly, whoever was the actual recipient of this letter to begin with that was supposed to read it to. We don't know who that is. And it's funny how many arguments have been made that it was Timothy. But he's going to send Timothy to them. Why would he write to Timothy? Maybe it was Epaphroditus, but no, Epaphroditus belonged there. He wasn't there already. He was sending Epaphroditus back so that they could rejoice, see, because they were worried about him. And him not responding to them gave them more burden. He says, I'm going to send him back. I don't need him. They sent Epaphroditus to tend to Paul, and he got sick and nearly died. And Paul had to tend to him. And then he was going to send him back. so that they could rejoice in the power of God to heal him. So Epaphroditus' presence back in Philippi would be a blessing to the church. He didn't need the blessing of Epaphroditus. So I don't think it's him. So who is it? Well, maybe it's Silas. Maybe Silas stayed there in Philippi. We don't know. So you know what we do? We don't say. What does it matter? What matters is this, that Paul is saying now personally to someone who he calls a true companion. Now higher critics would say, oh, that's just the phrase for the whole church of Philippi. So thousands of people are supposed to embark on these two women? That's a mob. That's like Frankenstein stuff. No, I believe Paul had one person in mind here, and he said to them, he entreated them, the women. He said, Euodia and Syntica, I want you to agree in the Lord. You must agree in the Lord. Yes. Now I ask you, my true companion, help these women. And so that when there's conflict in the church, the Bible commands that those people are to work it out between them. They are to reconcile. Because there's nothing more blasphemous in the body of Christ than two people who profess to be in Christ that can't fellowship together. Here's the deal, if you can't worship with me, you're not my sibling. If you can't pray with me, you don't belong to my Christ. And I don't belong to yours. That doesn't mean that you might not want to ascend under my teaching because I might be ignorant. I'm talking about interpersonal relationships. Something is wrong when the gospel of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit cannot enable us to reconcile our differences. And this is not a suggestion. This is a command of Paul. He says, you fix it now. It has to be fixed. And he's getting someone else involved. Isn't that something? What do we do in our culture? Mind your own business. This is my business. This is my body. You're trying to pull my fingers off. Get off my fingers. Can you imagine these two fingers trying to pull each other off the hand? That's how silly it is when the church disagrees. But yet, He didn't say not have a disagreement, but when you have a disagreement, come to an agreement. Let it go. And I'll be honest with you, Church, very few times, unless it is just absolute heretical stuff, is there a disagreement amongst the Church of Jesus Christ that just can't be forgotten and forgiven? Somebody said something to you that you took the wrong way? Well, you sinfully took it the wrong way. And they sinfully had no wisdom in their tongue. So you both repent and love each other and die so that you can live together. That's what Paul says the marriage is like. The husband is the head of the wife. He can't lord over her. He's supposed to die like Christ. The Lord died. What? I thought it came with a pop whip. Too bad. Sorry guys, no pop whip. Feather duster maybe. Hit her in the face. Don't even do that. Don't even put your finger in her face. We don't have that kind of authority. It's a role, not an authority. We don't have that kind of authority in the church. We can't go snatch people up by the church and hold them by the collar and say, straighten your behind out. Now I've had some mentors in my life who have done that. And that's okay. Big strong men with long beards. You know, okay, you got it. You got it. You're done. But it wasn't their authority that straightened me out. It was the power of Christ. Work this stuff out. That really should be all they had, but they worked and they didn't do it. They weren't reconciling. So he says, I need you, my true companion, to help these women. And he defines them, not just by name, but their actions, their priorities, and their purpose. These women who have labored side by side with me in the gospel. Do you see that? These women were on the missions team with Paul. They weren't just people who were sitting there just in Philippi who came to faith. Somehow they had some vital role with Paul's ministry. We don't know what it was. Why? Because it's not important. Oh, that's our director of evangelism. That's our senior pastor. The Dr. Reverend Wright. Who cares? You're a sheep, I'm a sheep, we're all a sheep. Let's go to heaven together. We're nothings who bring to nothing the things that are, so that Christ is glorified. And we're the body of Christ, so that makes us something. Something more glorious than this world can comprehend. We are beautifully empowered to forgive each other and to bring unity of mind when the world says, how did you do it? How did you do it? These women who have labored side by side together with me in the gospel together with me and Clement and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life. So he mentions Clement. This man, we don't know who he is. We just know that they knew who he was. These women were known in the church of Philippi. They were known to start having quabbles. And so now what we can assume is taking place is that here are these two people, probably left there to do some ministry work in Philippi as ministers, as deaconesses, as whatever the role that they were given, either way, people knew them and loved them and saw them with Clement and Paul working together side by side in the ministry as the church was planted, then all of a sudden these women are at odds. Senior pastors, student pastors, associate pastors, and they start having odds. You know what that looks like? And these are people in the church, fellowship of the saints. People who have no title or authority or role in the sense of office, have no office in the church. These are citizens of heaven working together. And the church saw them, and now they see them in a different light. And Paul is saying, we don't live like that. You put it to bed. And whoever the true commandment is, you help them. And not only all of you who work together with me, all of you whose names are in the book of life, you all are in the Lamb's book of life. That ought to tell us something, church. When we have these factions, we have this division, we have these feelings that get hurt, we get all frustrated. We need to remember who's listed with us in Christ's book. And of course, that's an imagery of eternal life. I mean, God's not going to come out there, tippins, tippins, mmm. Well, it looks like you've been blotted out. That's a whole other class. But your name's in Christ. If you're in Christ, you're in Christ. He is the Lamb of God. He has eternal life in His hands. And if you are a fellow co-worker, if you are a fellow saint, if you are a fellow Christian, your name is there with mine. And how is it that we, the body, can war against itself? You know what that's called when the body destroys itself? It's called cancer. That's not normal. It's abnormal. Fix it. Because if you don't fix it, you are always looked at, I believe Paul is thinking, it's going to split you all up. You're my joy and my crown. You're my beloved in Christ Jesus. You can't be divided. Like divorced children. That doesn't work in the church. This kind of stuff. How many people have ever preached this text? I should look for sermons on Philippians 4 too. Usually it's just a segue into rejoicing the Lord always. Yeah, we can preach two or three weeks on that. But that rejoicing the Lord always is in the context of getting together as one mind with thanksgiving. Not division. You know what I honestly think? That's not what I want to say. You know what? Honestly, the Scripture teaches that when we're rejoicing, we're not complaining. Do all things without grumbling and complaining. And friends, we can put our mouth and face in check. We can do this while we have a complaining heart. And not every time we're doing this are we having a complaining heart. Most of the time people know when we're complaining because we're talking about it. If we recorded ourselves all day long, how many complaints would be on the books? Well, friends, those complaints are on the books, whether you say them or not. They're on the book of your heart. They're on the book of your conscience. They're on the book of the eyes of God. Quorum Deo. We live in the face of God. He sees all. He sees the hidden things. And yet He loves us. And in His love and mercy, He gave Christ to set us free from those very complainful thoughts. That very discord spirit that just wells up in our mind. When I say spirit, I mean attitude, not supernatural. A very frustrated attitude that wells up in our hearts. And He convicts us of that and brings us under conviction and then we repent and we are free. Do all things You owe Dion and Seneca to agree in the Lord. Do all things, you two women who labored with me in the gospel, to be of one mind. And you, my faithful companion, help them in this. Hold them accountable to this. Bring them back to the joy of Christ. That they would forget their differences because they are watching you. And they are imitating you. You see back in verse 17 of chapter 3. They see what you're doing and they will do likewise. And you will be responsible for leading them down a false hope. I want you to think about that for a minute. And over the next few minutes, I want you to think about how we live. How we live outside these walls. How we live outside our fellowship around churchy stuff. And we often feel weak and unable to really put a finger on why our spiritual lives... Friends, most of the time our spiritual lives are damaged because of our sin. Sin and doing things that we know does not please God. And we war with them. They're not accidental. We're not accidentally going home to engage in sin, going out to engage in sin. There is some, but we usually don't even notice them. We notice what we know we do. Friends, the hope is not in us getting that out of our lives either. Some brothers on Facebook, it's a bad place to be sometimes, One brother made a comment about another brother who had a national platform, and it was very rude. And then what happens when somebody that we love is attacked by somebody we don't know? We're in their corner. Don't you talk about my mama, you know? Don't you talk about my friend? We don't know the other guy either. So this brother just rebuked this man and what's amazing is all this junk that started to happen, this guy just deleted the whole post and put a post and said, I sinned against God and against this brother. He is a fellow heir with Christ with me and I need you all to forgive me for my sin. You know what the conversation is about now with almost a thousand comments? The grace of God. Wow, I've never seen this on Facebook before, one person said. You people are real Christians, one guy said. And that's on a social media site. How much more powerful would it be if it happened right here? How much more powerful would it be? And you know what I think it needs to do for a lot of us? I think it needs to start with ourselves and recognizing that we are our own worst enemy, and that if we hold ourselves hostage to unforgiveness, we are saying that Christ is not sufficient to forgive us. And I only say that because it just came to mind, and I want you to know, friends, you cannot stand guilty before the Lord if you are His. So don't hold yourself in guilt. Be free today. Because it's always the caution after we hear a sermon to go home and find that brick wall and beat our head upon it for days. When what we need to do is to jump ourselves up out of our seat, click our heels together, fall on our face and worship Christ for His glorious grace that that sin that we have lived in is paid forevermore. and we are no longer slaves to it, and we can get help walking in that temptation, and we can be about the Father's business from now until forever. I want you to be that free, church. Because let me tell you what guilt will do. Guilt will ruin you. And Christ has set us free. Live in that freedom. by faith that Christ has satisfied the judgment against you. Believe in Christ because the gospel is, as I said this past week, an explicit, focused truth about what God has done to save you through Jesus Christ, His Son. It is not some ambiguous, mystical nuance. It's a focused reality. And you either believe that God has saved you through Christ, or there's no hope for you. Christ. And you don't put your faith even in your own faith. You put your faith in the faithfulness of Christ. Make it real. Let's pray. Lord, You are sovereign. And so though I cannot really, as much as my heart wants to just be able to reach into every soul, turn on the switch, you have to do it. So pray, I pray, Father, that you would do that today. That your gospel would be effectual. That your spirit would bring to life dead people as we sit here. And Lord, that your grace would suffice. To bring us to a place where we who are in Christ would rejoice, we would forgive, we would be at one with each other, we would work and labor together, even when there is division, we would do it by putting it away. We would live and work toward reconciling. So that your power would be evident in our lives. And we pray these things in the name of Christ. Amen.