It's how you think that brings spiritual stability. And primarily, it is not how you think about you. It is not how you think about your problem. It is how you think about God that controls your spiritual stability. Even seasoned flyers can feel more than a bit uneasy when the plane is vibrating or drops suddenly in turbulent air. Well, it's one thing, you know, to feel a bit shaky for the length of an airline flight... But what if there's a day-after-day instability that underlies what you think about, what you say, what you do... Instability that leaves you wondering how can you possibly handle another disappointment, another trial... Whatever turbulence comes your way. Well, today on Grace to You, John MacArthur is showing you biblical keys to standing firm in any circumstance to genuine spiritual stability. The study today is a part of the series, Seven Steps to Spiritual Stability. Turn in your copy of the Bible to Philippians or follow along on your study Bible app. And now, here's John MacArthur. Would you open your Bible now to Philippians chapter 4, this lovely letter from the Apostle Paul to the Christians in the city of Philippi? We're looking at chapter 4, verses 1 through 9, and entitling that particular unit of Scripture, spiritual stability. Spiritual stability. Taking that little phrase in verse 1, stand firm in the Lord, as the theme of this wonderful passage. Now generally, I would say that we in our society admire someone who stands firm or stands true or stands up for what he or she believes. We admire resolute kind of people. people who are very stable against pressure, who are unwavering, who are uncompromising, who are courageous and bold. We admire people who can't be bought, can't be bribed, can't be intimidated, can't be softened up, can't be defeated. Just in general, I think we hold out admiration for that kind of person. Maybe in especially poetic terms. Rudyard Kipling summed it up as well as anyone when he wrote these familiar words. If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you but make allowance for their doubting too, If you can wait and not be tired by waiting or being lied about, don't deal in lies, or being hated, don't give way to hating, and yet don't look too good nor talk too wise. If you can dream and not make dreams your master, if you can think and not make thoughts your aim, if you can meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same, If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, or watch the things you gave your life to broken and stoop and build them up with worn-out tools. If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue or walk with kings, not lose the common touch. If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, if all men count with you but none too much. If you can fill the unforgiving minute with 60 seconds worth of distance run, yours is the earth and everything that's in it, and which is more, you'll be a man, my son." We honor somebody who is uncompromising, resolute, firm, strong, bold, courageous. We call that integrity. And there's something very admirable about that kind of human character, that sort of heroic stability. We applaud it. We look for those kinds of people to be our models and our examples and our leaders. And if in fact, courage of conviction, integrity, credibility, a non-compromising, resolute, truth-bearing, strong, firm stance is admirable among those in our society, how much more essential is it to those who are Christians? After all, the very term Christian identifies us with Christ, and Christ was the most uncompromising, courageous, firm-standing person who ever lived. He would not compromise. He would not deviate from the truth. He could not be bought. He would not sell out. He is the model of courageous integrity. And those of us who name the name of Christ should know something of that kind of stability, that kind of firmness, consistency, that kind of steadfastness. And that is precisely what the New Testament affirms. Because repeatedly, throughout the New Testament, Christians are called to stand firm. over and over and over again in a number of different ways using a number of different terms. We are called not to be tossed around. We are called not to doubt or be unstable or be like the waves of the sea tossed to and fro. We are called to be firm, to stand strong. A number of times it says to be of good courage, to be fixed like men. to not be unstable. We are told to be bold, to be uncompromising in living for Jesus Christ. I suppose we could turn to a number of passages to see this, but let me just draw your attention to one, just a page or so beyond our text. Colossians is the next epistle. Chapter 2 verse 5 sums it up well. Paul writing to the saints in Colossae in verse 5 says, even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit. What he means is I think about you all the time. You're always on my heart. You're always on my mind. And what is my desire? Rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ. My real desire for you is that I might know the joy of seeing the good discipline that leads to a stable faith, an unwavering faith, a strong faith. I suppose that any of us who knows Christ personally would admit to the fact that we wish our faith were stronger than it is. None of us is particularly enamored with the prospect of stumbling and bumbling and teetering and tottering around in our spiritual experience, and yet that is in fact the experience of many of us. We would all desire to be firm. We would all desire to be strong. I don't think we want to be victimized by difficulty. I don't think we want to be knocked over by troubles and trials and problems in life. I don't think we want to be defeated by temptation, the onslaught of the world, the flesh, and the devil to trip us up and cause us to fall into sin. I think we would be like the apostle Paul who saw the sin in his life but hated it and said, when I do it, I don't want to do it. I think we would all like to stand firm and be strong. We also must recognize that it won't be easy because we are in a warfare. We were saved to conflict. We are soldiers, we've been called into battle. That's why this term in verse 1, stand firm in the Lord, is a military term because we are on spiritual military duty in conflict with the enemy. So we might all say, well, yeah, I appreciate the exhortation to stand firm, be strong, be bold, be courageous, be stable, but how do I do that? How can I reach that kind of stability? In fact, if you look at Christians around you, you might assume that some are more stable than others, and that's a correct assumption. Some appear very stable, some appear very unstable, and then all in between, there are all kinds of different degrees of stability. There may be sort of the rising feeling in your heart that maybe you're just sort of genetically unstable. Well, I want to indicate to you that genetics have nothing to do with spiritual resources. It's not something you inherited, your basic instability. It's a spiritual issue. And there's no real mystery in understanding why some people are unstable in spiritual things and some people are very stable, why some people are immature, some people are very mature, why some people collapse under trials, collapse under temptation, other people endure trials, endure temptation with victory, why some people are seemingly always defeated and others are always triumphing in Christ. There's no real mystery to that, it's just a problem that can be solved by the development of spiritual stability that comes through certain principles. That should be very encouraging to you. You may be weak in the faith, you may be unstable, you may be a new Christian and there's a certain amount of instability in just that because you haven't had an opportunity to grow strong, but the process is clearly outlined in the Word of God. As I just read you in Colossians 2.5, it is associated with good discipline. The disciplined life becomes the stable life. And so you have to understand that in order to be spiritually stable and not knocked over by all the things that come your way, whether it's the persecution of hostile people, or whether it's the temptation of Satan in the flesh, or whether it's the trials and troubles that just make up life in this fallen world, there are principles that will enable you to become strong. Now, would you notice back in verse 1 where Paul introduced the basic principle of standing firm, he used the little word, so. That means thus, or in this way, stand firm in the Lord, and then he outlines how to do it. He's saying to the Philippians, if you're gonna be firm in the Lord, strong, resolute, stable Christians, here is how you must do it. And then starting in verse two, he gives them a series of principles. These are the things that produce spiritual stability. Let's look at the first principle. We have already considered verse 1, so we'll move from there. Let's consider the first principle. Here is how you are to be spiritually stable. Principle number one, by maintaining or cultivating harmony or peace in the fellowship of love. By cultivating harmony or peace in the fellowship of love. Now, I need to explain that a little bit. Let me do that. I am convinced that this pursuit of spiritual stability, and I know Paul was convinced of it as well, is somewhat dependent on associations that we have. I can tell you in my own life that it is obvious to me that I become more unstable in isolation from other believers. That the fellowship of believers, the close, intimate, loving harmony of the body of Christ is a tremendous factor in my own stability. And I believe that you experience that too as a Christian. That's what the church is all about. It's all about people holding up other people. It's all about accountability. It's all about caring. It's about mutual love and harmony and peace. It's about having our lives so intertwined that we can support one another and sustain one another, lean on one another, hold one another up, restore one another when one has fallen, as Paul says in Galatians, and after you've restored them, build them up. We're all about that kind of involvement. And that is precisely what is on the mind of the Apostle Paul in verses 2 and 3 as he moves into his subject in some detail. He writes, Indeed, syzygous, that's the Greek word there, Translated, true comrade in the New American. Indeed, Syzygus, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel together with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life. Now, what Paul does here is very, very fascinating to me. He identifies a problem of conflict in the Philippian church in no uncertain terms. He's not at all vague. He names the two women who are the problem. And then he names a person to help the problem out. Very specific. What he is after here is unity in the church. Harmony in the church. You see, there are potential discords at many levels of church life that threaten stability. Let me give you a very simple insight. When a church is generally unstable, When there is a conflict in a church at a high level, it will generate instability throughout the whole church. The people will fall victim to that instability. On the other hand, where there is unity and oneness and peace and harmony as a whole, the people enjoy the stability that that provides for all of them. Paul knows that. And he knows that two women having a major conflict in a church can threaten the spiritual stability of believers throughout that congregation because they will fall to all kinds of sins. Party spirit, criticism, negative attitudes, bitterness, revenge, hostility, unforgiveness, pride. Paul knows it. He also knows that when people make peace and make harmony and love one another and cultivate the relationship of the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace, as Paul calls it, that when that goes on, there is stability throughout the whole church. It's as if the general strength becomes the individual strength. When you know you're loved, when you know that people really love you, And when you have made loving commitments to others in the body of Christ, and when you know that the loving people of the church care about you and are praying for you, and you're working together with them, and they're working together with you, and you know that love is at work, and you're held accountable, but you're also helped and encouraged and nurtured, that provides stability. There are a lot of people in churches, you know, that don't have that. And they flounder, and they drift, and they flop, and they fall, because the environment they're in is not supportive, it's not sustaining. We are to support the weak. We are to lift up the fallen, to restore the broken, those overtaken in sin. We are to demonstrate love at work, which stabilizes the church. And that's what he's calling for here. Now let me say this to you right here as a footnote, and I'll repeat this as we go through. Spiritual stability is related to the attitudes that you have. Okay? It's not related to your circumstances. It's related to how you think. It's directly related to how you think. How you react to what's going on in your environment. And if you learn to react properly, you will have spiritual stability. And if you don't, you will not. It's how you think that is the issue. And so Paul is going to teach us here how to think. In fact, when he comes down finally to verse 8, he says, let your mind dwell on these things. It's how you think that brings spiritual stability. And primarily, it is not how you think about you It is not how you think about your problem. It is how you think about God that controls your spiritual stability. Everything resolves itself in your theology. And how you think about God will control your spiritual life in every dimension. And we're going to see that unfold. But let's start with this matter of pursuing or cultivating harmony or peace in the fellowship of love. Verse 2. He uses the word urge here. We'll get the word paraclete from it, which the Holy Spirit is called in John's Gospel. One who comes alongside to plead or beg or encourage or help. So Paul is in a pleading, begging, encouraging mode. And he says, I want to plead with these two women, Euodia and Syntyche. to please live in harmony in the Lord. This is most fascinating, most fascinating. Paul is this great theologian with this immense theological mind and this tremendous logical capability. And he is delving into the depths of great divine truth. And even in the book of Philippians, which we tend to think, for the most part, it's a little bit lighter weight than some of the other epistles like Galatians and Romans and Corinthians, but in fact is very, very deep. We wonder how he could sort of, after digging deeply into great truth, pop up to the surface and say, hey, will you tell those two women to get their act together? It seems a bit on the trite side. I mean, there's so many grandiose things he's been dealing with. In chapter 3, he was deeply concerned about the fact that the Philippians were under the attack of false teachers advocating false gospels, false doctrines. And you say, with all of those deadly threats to the purposes of God that were skewing and perverting the doctrines of salvation, why would he all of a sudden pop up to the surface after depths like that and say, get those two women together? I'll tell you why. Because he understood how discord is equally a deadly threat to the life of the church. It will rob a church of its power, and it will destroy its testimony. There's a sense in which he is reminding us of the stakes in this particular game that we're involved in. The violently hostile intent of the enemies of Christ leads them to be willing to find any advantage by which they can discredit the church. And the church's discord and infighting is one that they use frequently. This could be devastating to the testimony of the Philippians. They were under glass. Everyone was watching in this pagan culture. Discord, disunity, conflict at the level of the church could have devastated the integrity of their testimony. And apparently, they were really seriously on the edge of that. Go back to chapter 1 verse 27, do you remember it? He says, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. In other words, live consistent with your message. So that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear that you are standing firm, here it is, in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. He's crying for unity there. He recognizes that they've got opponents in verse 28. He recognizes that. But he says, you've got to stand firm. You've got to be true to what you believe. You've got to live worthy lives. In chapter 2, verse 2, he says, if you want to make my joy complete, the assumption here is it isn't complete, then be of the same mind, love everybody the same, be united in spirit and intent on one purpose, stop doing things from selfishness and empty conceit, be humble, regard others as more important than yourself, don't look on your own things but on the interests of others, be like Christ. there was obviously some discord. Chapter 2, verse 14 indicates that they were grumbling and disputing about things. That had to stop. Now, maybe he focuses a little more directly on the problem. Here are two women who apparently are leading two factions of discord in the church. And he says, I want to urge these two women to live in harmony in the Lord. Now, obviously, we don't know much about these women. But let me tell you what we can surmise from this one verse and the background. Number one, theirs was not a doctrinal issue. It was not a debate over doctrine or he would have resolved it by taking one side or the other, right? If one was teaching truth and one was teaching error, he would have sided with one or the other. It had nothing to do with reality in terms of truth. And that is usually the case in church conflict. It has to do with opinion rather than doctrine. The second thing we know about it is these two ladies were church members. So you had two church members, obviously prominent. They simply are known by name here. Prominent church members who are having some kind of personal conflict that's not related to doctrine. Now, if it had been related to doctrine, there's a place for conflict. A heretic has to be admonished and then put out. Somebody who's teaching error has got to be exposed and eliminated. Anybody preaching a false gospel is cursed in Galatians 1. We're not talking about doctrinal error here. We're talking about two women who couldn't get along with each other, had picked sides, caused a conflict, and lined up people on both sides against each other. They were prominent women, and they were obviously beloved women who were having an impact. Now, just who were they? Well, we don't know, but we can surmise this. Paul says in verse 3 that they were formerly working with him in the struggle of the gospel. It may well be that they were among those women who were by the river in Philippi when Paul arrived there the first time and started the church. You remember when he came to Philippi, there was no synagogue there? The reason that he would always go to the synagogue and preach first to the Jews, win them to Christ, then get those converted Jews on his side and go evangelize the Gentiles? in the city. But when he came to this city of Philippi, there was no synagogue. The reason was it took 11 men to constitute enough to have a synagogue. There weren't 11 Jewish men there who lived in that city, so there was no synagogue. So some faithful Jewish women met together to worship Jehovah God by the river. They didn't have an official synagogue. So Paul went in, and that's where the church really began, with that ministry of evangelism to those women. It's very possible that among those women were these two, Euodia and Synecdoche. We don't know. We do know that they were creating havoc in the church. Such havoc that the church was not striving together in one mind for the faith of the gospel. Such havoc that they were not maintaining a mutual love for one another and needed to be reminded of the fact they were proud rather than humble and they were self-serving rather than other-serving as he did in chapter 2. And here he identifies their leaders. And he is deeply concerned about this. So he simply says to them, let them live in harmony. Let them live in harmony. Recognizing that the only issue was an issue of a lack of harmony, a lack of love, which is always the presence of pride and the absence of humility. They were demanding their own way rather than being concerned about the other. That's John MacArthur continuing his current study on Grace to You, titled, Seven Steps to Spiritual Stability. Along with teaching each day on radio, John serves as president of the Masters University and Seminary. John, you know the conflict between you, Odia, and Syntyche may have been unfamiliar to a lot of our listeners today, but I doubt folks will forget it. A lot of precious truth there, and of course, there's a whole lot more. that's memorable and practical throughout the book of Philippians, only four chapters, but it is a spiritual treasure chest. You know, Philippians is one of those books that is, it's just a source of love and joy. It does have some strong confrontive truths in it, including the confrontation of Euodia and Syntyche, but it's just so full of things that relate to our joy, and it puts the premium on love. Learning the book of Philippians, even memorizing the book of Philippians, and certainly understanding the message of the book of Philippians, is a treasure. It's a gift. Every believer ought to, in some way, to some degree, master the contents of Philippians. It produces love and joy. And that leads me to say this. Look, here's a great way to do that. I have written the New Testament commentary series. That's 34 volumes, covers every book in the New Testament. I would suggest that a great place to start would be with the commentary on Philippians. It goes through Philippians, word by word, verse by verse. explaining the meaning of everything in that incredible revelation from God through the Apostle Paul. It talks about joy, it talks about love, it talks about unity, sanctification, contentment, the distinguishing qualities of a true believer, and spiritual stability, which is the focus of our current study. This commentary would be great for a Sunday school teacher, a pastor, and many, many use them across this country, even around the world, because it's been translated in other languages. But if you're just a serious Bible student, a Christian who wants to know the truth, you need to read commentaries that explain the meaning of Scripture. A great place to start again would be Philippians. You might want to order the whole series of commentaries, 34 volumes. If not, why don't you just start with Philippians and you can order them right now from Grace To You. The commentaries will enrich your understanding of the Bible. It's like having a Bible teacher there to answer your questions as you study God's Word. Order the MacArthur New Testament Commentary, the whole series, or the volume on Philippians, as you contact us today. Call the toll-free number 1-800-55-GRACE, or visit gty.org. The individual commentaries are $19, and shipping is included free. You can also enjoy a steep discount by ordering the entire set, including an index allowing you to quickly search all 33 volumes. Again, it's the MacArthur New Testament Commentary Series. Call to order yours at 855-GRACE, or shop online at gty.org. And when you're online at gty.org, remember you'll find numerous ways to take in John MacArthur's verse-by-verse teaching. You can listen to radio broadcasts you may have missed. You can watch Grace To You television. And you can search John's entire sermon archive by date, or book of the Bible, or by topic. That's more than 3,000 sermons in all, free to download in the MP3 or transcript format. And if you're not sure what you need to listen to first, a great option is Grace Stream. It's a continuous broadcast of John MacArthur's teaching through the New Testament. That web address again, gty.org. And now for John MacArthur, I'm Carl Miller, thanking you for tuning in today and inviting you to be here tomorrow as John will look at the role that harmony and joy play in your spiritual stability. Join us for that half hour of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace To You.