Open your Bibles with me, please, to the book of Philippians and chapter four. Just taking in the three opportunities I have to preach here last week, this week and next week, I just take a few looks at one of my favorite books in the Bible, the book of Philippians, the thank you letter from Paul written from prison. to the church at Philippi, a church that had cared for him and helped him and ministered to him. In many ways, it's a call to joy. But in the middle of this call to joy, in the midst of this letter of thanks and encouragement, he brings instruction, which we ought not to be surprised at. And we particularly have in our text this evening Paul dealing directly with a problem in the church. And so listen as I read from God's word, Philippians chapter 4. And I'll read the first four verses. Our focus will be verses one through three. Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. I entreat Iodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I also ask you, 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. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say, rejoice. And having heard from God and his word, please join me in your hearts as we pray. Our Father in heaven, may we rejoice in you even as we do your will. May we recognize your presence with us. And because we stand with you and you stand with us, may we hear and obey your word. Open our hearts to see you and your glory and your instruction and your help. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Imagine with me, if you will, a normal, busy day. Maybe a full day of meetings at work or classes at school, whatever your normal day looks like. And then imagine you get a phone call. A regular doctor visit for your wife showed a critical health matter, and the doctor arranged for you and her to meet with a specialist in one hour. You drop everything. You tell your boss, your coworkers, I have to leave. I'll be back when I can. It's urgent that you be with your wife to meet this specialist and to discern what the problem is. Do you realize it's that urgent, even more urgent, that you agree in the Lord? Sometimes I, and perhaps sometimes you, are content to let disagreement fester, hoping that the one with whom you disagree will eventually come around to see things your way. The call from God, with an urgency, the word in treat that we read is I urge, It expresses a need to pay attention to this and give heed to it. You and I are urged to agree in the Lord. And let me just say before I go into the details of the text that I didn't write this with any of you in mind. I know many of you, but I don't know of your particular circumstances. I didn't come here thinking I'm gonna fix in this sermon The First Reformed Presbyterian Church of Beaver Falls. I don't know of any disagreements among you. It wouldn't shock me to hear that there are some, because we can sometimes be disagreeable people. And whether you're in disagreement currently, or you know others who are and you want to help them in the Lord, or for when you are in disagreement, give heed to not my words, but to God's words. Nancy and I, Lord willing, will be married 38 years on Christmas Eve. And we've disagreed once or twice in our married life, once or twice an hour sometimes. And so disagreement is something that we know. But you and I are urged, along with Yodia and Syntyche, to agree in the Lord. These two women, named in the inscripturated Word of God and a letter that would be read to the church at Philippi named and identified as those who were not agreeing in the Lord. We don't know much about these two women. Syntyche means lucky. I doubt if she felt very lucky. when her name was read from the scripture to the congregation. And what we know is that these two were of different minds. They were not agreeing in the Lord. And we might think, well, it's not really that big a deal to be of different minds, is it? I mean, maybe you've used the expression, maybe you've heard the expression, if two people think exactly alike, then one of them is not needed. And yet, let's not be quick to disagree. Let's not even be quick to agree to disagree. Let's not be content that we will one day in heaven agree with each other perfectly. Let's make unity in the Lord a high priority. I wonder what things First RP Church is focusing on. If you were to write down on a piece of paper five or 10 things that you think the church is about, How do you feel about those things? How united are you as a congregation about those five or 10 important things of life and ministry? I think we can't skip the reality that these two women are called out publicly in what, in our circles, would be a sermon. And it would be a little bit like me saying, I urge Ruth and I urge Heidi to agree in the Lord. And you'd all be a little bit shocked if I read their names out with that sort of instruction. I can't imagine calling someone out in a sermon like that. I don't think this is a normative text for us. It's an informative text. I think as preachers, we often positively call out people by name, so and so. Is putting this application of the Word of God into practice with the Lord's help? Or sometimes in the context of sin and repentance and restoration, someone is named publicly. But I doubt it very often happens. I could be wrong. I'm not here week after week. But I doubt very often it happens that some of you are identified from the pulpit as being in a situation that you ought not to be in. Now I can see a father who's preaching, sometimes calling his children to attention. Bob McFarlane used to speak of his father saying in a sermon, Robert, you go on home. But I think for the most part, we preachers would be reluctant to call someone out in a sermon publicly. But we must note that God did this. This is not just Paul. Paul doesn't have a vendetta for these two women. Paul's not out to get them. God, in his inspired word, his breathed out word, breathed out through the pen of the Apostle Paul, called out these two women. And so I would suggest that that at least instructs us that we ought to live as if the pastor might call us out for our wrongdoing, for our sin. Better than that, live as if God might expose your sin publicly. Sometimes that is the greatest grace toward a sinner, is to call out our sin publicly. And even, let me encourage you, ask God to expose your sin. When you come to the Lord's Day morning and evening here, and you prepare for the word preached, What is your attitude toward that word that's going to be preached? You know there are times when you say amen to what the preacher's preaching and there are times when you say ouch. Those times that he goes from preaching to meddling. But I wonder is your attitude is my attitude? I want God to speak to me through the sermon. Except when he does. And then I think the preacher's targeting me in an unfair way. I had a man in one of the congregations that I pastored who said both of those in a week's time. And at first I was scratching my head. He said, on the Lord's Day, I feel like you were targeting me in that sermon. And I didn't have him in mind at all. And then on Thursday night men's Bible study, he said, I like to just go to the preaching expecting that God's going to deal with me. And my first thought was, well, which is it? Which do you want? Do you want the preacher to target you? Do you want that or not? Yes or no? Just let me know. The more I thought about it, the more I understood it. We do want it, except when we get it. It can be hard for God to rebuke us through the preached word. But are we ready to receive it? Pray that you would be, that you would receive it as if your pastor called you out by name. You don't have to wonder, does he have me in mind? What you ought to wonder is, does God have me in mind? Does God expect that I would listen to this and that there would be a change in the way that I live my life before him by his grace? And when you hear the word preach, don't just think, well, man. So-and-so needs to hear this. I hope they're listening. Maybe tap them on the shoulder. Now, maybe a parent to a child, you can do that. Beodia and Syntyche needed to hear this. And you and I needed to hear it. Not just these two women, but you all are urged to agree in the Lord. If this is serious enough business for God to call these two women out publicly in his inspired word, And you and I must understand that if you are in disagreement with a brother, a sister in the Lord in his church today, or if you come to be in disagreement with a brother or sister in the Lord, then the Lord is calling you out or he's preparing you by his word preached that this is serious business, that you and I must do all that we can do to be in agreement. And why is that? Why does it matter so much? Well, we're going to sing at the conclusion from Psalm 133. And we talk about this precious oil, this delightfully scented oil that was poured out on Aaron and it was poured out on his head and ran down his beard and his robes. There was a beautiful fragrance. Well, there is a fragrance of disagreement and it's not beautiful. Disagreement has a bad smell. And if you are disagreeing with others in the Lord, others with whom you are in the Lord, but you're disagreeing, then you have a bad smell. This disagreement has a bad smell that obscures the fact that we have a great high priest. The bad smell of this disagreement hinders our coming together in worship. The bad smell of disagreement hinders our witness to be lights in this dark world. Disagreement stinks to you, to the one with whom you're disagreeing, to the church, but most importantly to the Lord. Nancy and I came home once from a visit to our grandchildren and we walked into the kitchen And we were greeted with the aroma of stinking rotting potatoes. There's not much that stinks worse than rotting potatoes except Christians who aren't agreeing in the Lord. These rotting potatoes in our pantry in the kitchen were oozing. And it wasn't fragrant anointing oil. They were oozing their stinky slime. And I just reacted and called it potato blood. And Nancy reacted and called it potato poo. Because that's what it smelled like. And I can assure you We did not leave these stinking, rotting, oozing potatoes in our kitchen any longer than it took me to clean them out and get them out and get rid of them. Is that the attitude that we have toward disagreement in Christ's church? Let's get this stinking disagreement out of here. And again, we don't know the details. We don't know what it was that these women were disagreeing about, but we know that it was a spiritual matter. What things do you disagree with each other? And spiritual disagreements are not limited to spiritual sounding matters, to questions of doctrine or theology. But they can be things as seemingly mundane as what color will we paint the walls in the sanctuary or in the nursery? How are we going to educate our children in the last couple of years? Will we wear masks in church or not? I don't know the experience of your church. I'll just say we were a covenant fellowship in Pittsburgh and we were very thankful that God gave us a spirit of agreement. People had different opinions on whether you should wear masks, how long you should wear them, still do, but we didn't have the battles that sadly many of the churches of Christ had. At least one of our family members was in a church that had serious battles over whether or not to wear masks in church. Matters of disagreement among church members need to be gotten rid of, we just need to have a serious urgency to take care of these things. And sometimes what that means is that we put the effort in to bring about agreement. You're familiar with Matthew 5 and Matthew 18 talks about what to do when two brothers or brothers and sisters don't agree in the Lord. If you're coming to worship and you remember that someone has something against you, in other words, you've done something wrong and someone is offended by that, leave your gift and go. If you've done something wrong to someone, go. And then you get to Matthew 18. If someone's done something wrong, if they've sinned against you, what do you do? Go. Go if you're the one that's sinning, go if they're the one that's sinning. And we were called to labor at doing what we can do as much as is possible, as much as depends on you be at peace with all men. And even if you can say, well, I've done everything I can possibly do. Jesus said, even then we're only unprofitable servants. So don't pat yourself on the back. Just keep working at that. It's easy for me. Those couple of times that Nancy and I have disagreed in our almost 38 years of marriage, I've been pretty sure at the outset of the disagreement that she needed to come to see it my way. And probably more often than not, at the resolution of the disagreement, I came to see it her way. Or sometimes we both changed and came to see it God's way in a way that was different from what either one of us were thinking. But we can be that way. I want them to change. We wouldn't be in disagreement if they would change their mind, if they would listen to me, if they'd be reasonable. How much am I willing to change? How much am I willing to give? How reasonable am I? And you and I probably aren't the best judge of our own reasonableness. So ask somebody else. Maybe not the person you're disagreeing with, but maybe if you're not in a disagreement with your spouse, ask them, here's the situation. Am I being unreasonable? How can I labor at coming to agreement? How much are you willing to give? To come to agreement, to pursue agreement in the Lord, requires holding the Lord in our highest regard and holding each other as more important than ourselves. God says it's urgent that you come to agree together in the Lord. You're urged to agree in the Lord, but you might need help to agree in the Lord. And that's what we see in verse three. Paul calls this one, the ESV calls him a true companion. Some of your Bibles may call him loyal yoke fellow. And some English translations just transliterate the word that he's given there as syzygous and some think that was his name. Syzygous means true companion. Syzygous means loyal yoke fellow. The picture is someone who comes up to two others and helps them agree in a yoke like oxen who are pulling a plow. Some have suggested if this was his name, then his name reflected his character. Because Paul calls him to come alongside these women and help them agree in the Lord. And sometimes you and I need help. Sometimes we may make hard and good effort and still need help to agree in the Lord. The picture that as you read this in verse three, I think very much I see the picture of a father who's calling a couple of his kids that have been fighting. Come here Joe, come here Sally, what's the problem? I don't think any of you are named Joe and Sally, if you are I'm not talking about you. What's the problem? Why are you fighting? What's going on? And his father cares. He's not particularly coming to them in rebuke, though that may need to come. But he's trying to help them agree in the Lord. And Paul here asks his true companion, help these two, these two women, help them agree in the Lord. If you're in disagreement and you're struggling to come to agreement, be willing to ask for help. Ask one of your elders or your pastors or other mature godly men and women in the church. Can you help us? Can you come alongside us and help us get through this disagreement? Because we know it's important, but we're not making good progress. And sometimes you and I need help to agree in the Lord. Your urge to agree, you may need help to agree, and you can agree because you're in the Lord. You can agree in the Lord because you are in the Lord. In fact, you must agree in the Lord because you are in the Lord. You are in Christ together. We're saying in Psalm 122, let us worship the Lord. I was glad when they said, let us go to the house of the Lord. You are in the Lord. And because of that, you can agree. You are in the one who, as we look back to chapter two, emptied himself. You are in the one who some 2000 years ago gave up his right to be in heaven with his father, the eternal son of God. and became fully human, was born in this world fully man and yet fully God. He emptied himself, left his place in heaven, broke into human history, took our flesh, lived on this earth like we do, yet was without sin in every way. You are in the one who became obedient unto death, so that in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, you can be obedient in life. You are in the one who knew no sin, but became sin for you so that you might be in him, the righteousness of God. You are in the one whom God highly exalted and gave the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee would bow. And every tongue would confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Lord means master. Jesus is your Lord, you are in him. You are in the one who wrote Udiah's name and Syntyche's name, not merely in the inscripturated word of God, but in the Lamb's book of life. And not only did he write Udiah's name and Syntyche's name, but you are in the one who wrote Syzygus' name and Clement's name and Paul's name and the rest of Paul's companions' names in the book of life and your name and the name of the one with whom you're disagreeing. If you are in the Lord, if you're a Christian, then you are in the Lord so you can agree in the Lord. And if you're not in the Lord, if you're not a Christian, if you have never come to the point of repenting of your sin, of believing the gospel that Christ lived a perfect life as the complete God-man, he died for sinners, He was raised to show that death could not hold him. He ascended to the very right hand of God. If you have never repented and put your trust in him, then your possible disagreement with someone else in this church is the least of your concerns. Because all those whose names are not written in the book of life, when your life ends, will be cast into the outer darkness. will be cast into a place of eternal torment, will be cast into the place that we call hell. And so if you're not in the Lord, repent and believe the gospel. But if you're in the Lord, agree in the Lord. You can and you must. But how are you doing? Again, I don't know of any disagreements among you. They may be there, but I don't know of them. If they are there, if they're there in your life, you know of them. How are you doing? Are there brothers and sisters in the church in this church? Because that's the first priority for the believer with whom you're not agreeing. And if so, are you content to leave that disagreement there? Or have you caught the urgency? Are you ready to come to agreement in the Lord? Are you willing to start today? Do you need someone, a loyal yoke fellow, a true companion, a syzygous to come alongside you and help? Again, if you do ask for help. I know that there are people in this church who are mature in the Lord, not perfect, but mature in the Lord and will help you if you want to agree in the Lord. But not only ask one another for help, ask the Lord to help you agree in the Lord. Please pray with me that God would make it so among you. Our Father in heaven. If we've done all we can do, we're only unprofitable servants and yet we are servants of the Most High God. These, your people, are in the Lord. And so if there is now or if there will be this week or in the weeks to come disagreement, remind them that they are in the Lord and because they're in the Lord, they can agree in the Lord. If there are disagreements or as and when disagreements may come, Help them strive with an urgency to agree in the Lord. To get rid of that bad smell and have instead the sweet aroma of the gospel that's flavoring their life and the one with whom they formerly disagreed. Lord, would you cause this congregation to continue its mission of being a light to a dark world? And might some of that mission be enhanced? as they, by the Lord's help, agree in the Lord. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.