Believers are called to stand fast in the Lord, reflecting the mind of Christ through love and unity. The sermon emphasizes the deep affection Paul had for the Philippian believers, likening his care for them to a father's care for his own children, and urging them to esteem each other highly. This love and unity are presented as essential for the church's steadfastness, mirroring Christ's own condescension and love for His people. The message concludes by encouraging believers to prioritize their relationship with the Lord and with one another, finding their joy and crown in Him and in their fellowship.
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Sethon, I appreciated your description of the restful culinary paradise. It's always good to get together with the saints. It's all a few smiles going around a pot, a cot in a pie room. It's about as good as it gets, it sounds like. And it is good to get together with the saints. We, Sarah and I coming from Colorado, I know many of you all, when you're able to gather together with other believers here in Iowa, from different areas of the state, different areas of the country going through like things. like trials, like joys. It's just a pleasure to be strengthened in the Lord through other believers. And we'd like to just say thank you for allowing us to be here. A couple of weeks ago, my uncle mentioned something that had occurred to him numerous years ago.
He was doing some traveling behind the Iron Curtain. And he said at one point in time, they came from Czechoslovakia into Poland. They gathered together on a Sunday morning with a small group of believers. There was one dear elder there that for some reason was just squirming in a seat when it came time to start the meeting on Sunday morning. He didn't want to be a reverend. He started to get up and then he kind of sat back down. You could tell that something was on his mind and finally he just couldn't help himself. And he gathered himself up, walked over to the gentleman that were with my uncle. And he said, didn't the brethren from Poland send their greeting? Meeting had almost already started, but he was so concerned.
that somehow there was something that was going to come, some encouragement, some greeting from other believers in the Lord from another part of the country that he just couldn't help himself. And he got up and he walked over and he said, Isn't there some greetings from the brethren of Poland? I'd like to send greetings from all the saints in Colorado. It's a wonderful thing to know that there are others that pray for you, that care for you, and that care for the Lord. So it's just a pleasure to be with you all this morning. And again, we'd like to say thank you. See, a lot of bright and shining faces. And there's a nice story that was once told about Charles Spurgeon. He was teaching his class, trying to tell them how to get into the message that you're speaking, what kind of posture you ought to have, what your face ought to look like.
And he was speaking to them about heaven. And he said, when you speak about heaven, you better have a big, broad smile and a face which just glows with the radiance of the glory of the Lord. And then he said, and then when you speak about hell on the contrary, and he thought for a minute. Does anybody know what he said? That your ordinary face will do. That may be true. That may be true. But today we have smiles on our faces. We're looking forward to what the Lord has for us in Scripture. And I'd just like to turn to Second Peter, Chapter One, and read a couple of verses which I believe give us a nice reinforcement regarding the place that Scripture holds in our lives.
Second Peter, Chapter One. We'll begin reading in verse sixteen. So we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the Holy Mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawned and the day star arise in your heart.
There's coming a day when all of these things will come true. But until that day we have a sure word of prophecy that the Lord has given to us. And you can see Peter as one of those special few that were taken a little bit further, that were taken up to the Mount of Transfiguration with the Lord Jesus. and saw with them two other men who had been through deep trials, who had been through the sea. But in their case, of course, you remember that the sea or the river opened up, Elijah and Moses. And there was standing with them another man, God, the Lord Jesus Christ, that the psalmist would say, prophetically, that he would say, All thy ways and thy billows are come over me. He was looking forward to the cross.
But this son was pleasing to the Father. And Peter says that heaven's open, the most excellent glory, and God himself spoke from the excellent glory. And there was no question what he said and what was on his mind. It was his beloved son. And in the Old Testament, we read another time, at least, when the Lord himself stood upon the earth. And Psalm sixty-eight gives us a slight description of that specific circumstance. when God himself had said that heaven came down and the earth itself shook or shuddered under the weight of the holiness of the Almighty God. And God himself spoke to mankind. And he spoke in such a way that up until this day, there is indelibly placed upon the minds of mankind across the world what we might call the Judeo-Christian tradition, the law of God.
There was no question what he said. And Peter comes to us and he takes us back to some of these circumstances, one of which he had been an eyewitness to. And that little word more in verse nineteen I've underlined, I don't understand it. But he says, we have also a more sure word of prophecy where unto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place. This is a very precious book that we hold in our hands. We have to be careful where we place it. How often we open it up, how we respect it. Did you ever have happened to you when you were a young child, you're just walking nonchalantly along after the Lord's Supper, in between meetings you're running a little too fast and you drop your Bible?
And someone comes up and they mention something to you. Hang on to that book. It's a special book. We have also a more excellent, a more sure word of prophecy. Even in the Lord Himself speaking, well, it is the Lord Himself speaking, but we hold it in our hands. We can read it daily. It's always with us. And I thank the Lord for the scripture that He has given to us. How highly do we hold it today? How often do we spend time in it morning by morning? Some of us, I'm afraid, it's week by week or month by month or conference by conference. But it's a very special word that we hold in our hands. Let's just have a word of prayer before we begin. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we're thankful that at this time we can take a few minutes to bow our heads.
And in so doing, Father, we desire to show to thee some idea of the inward submission that we have unto thyself. Father, we bow our heads in reverence, confessing that thou art the most high God and looking forward to the time that we will spend in the word of God. And our Father, we close our eyes for a few short moments to look away from all the things of this world, to look into thy word. And Father, we long for some good things that will be an encouragement to us. We long for higher thought for the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, it's sometimes true that as we pray, we clasp our hands and we desire, Lord, that they be empty of the things and the busyness of this world and that they be placed at thy feet, open, ready for the service of the Lord, whatever he has for us.
And Father, as we just take a few moments and we quiet our mouths and we hold our posture in a still position, we ask, Lord, that we would again be still and know that thou art God and be ready to rest in thy peace and to enjoy then again the good things from this book which you have so lovingly provided for us. Father, we just do pray now for the freedom of the Spirit in each one of our lives as we learn more wonderful things regarding thy Son and this book, the Word of God. We pray then in Jesus' precious name. Amen. I'd like to turn with you to the book of Philippians. one of those books that we enjoy reading.
And I have to confess to you also that sometimes I get maybe through the end of the third chapter, and that's perhaps where the end of my reading is that morning. The heights that we read about at the beginning of the book of Philippians. And then sometimes we pass on and don't read too much about the practical things that come toward the end of the book. But in Philippians chapter four, we read some very good things regarding the mind of Christ. I'd like to begin reading in chapter four, verse one, and we'll read through verse four. Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.
I beseech you odious and beseech synecdoche that they be of the same mind in the Lord. And I entreat thee also, true yoke fellow, help those women. which labored with me in the Gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellow labors, whose names are in the Book of Life. Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. When the Lord's will, we're going to take a few moments over the next two days to spend some time in these first verses of chapter four of the Book of Philippians. Just some short meditations to encourage our hearts in the goodness of the Lord. to lift our hands up when they're getting a little bit tired. I surely appreciated last night and I'm looking forward to more on the high priestly ministry of the Lord Jesus and the book of Hebrews and I'm sure elsewhere.
We need encouragement in these days and we need strength to lift our heads up out of the foxhole a little bit and be willing to get into the fray. There are in Scripture many times where you will find, maybe we could call them inherent outlines or let's call them native outlines to the Scripture. And I can think of a few that come to mind, one of which actually may have been from the book of Hebrews last night. And I begin to think about that at the beginning of that book. And you remember that we read the first couple of verses. It says, God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets. But hath in these last days spoken unto us by the Son, by the Son.
And then he says that he is heir of all things. That this is the one by whom also he made the worlds. And he says, who being the brightness of his glory. And he expressed image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power. When he had by himself, that was the sixth thing, purged our sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. And you can take those phrases. I guess it's obvious we have right at the beginning. A revelation of the son of the Lord Jesus Christ. And one by one we can go through them and see them lived out or see them spoken about throughout the rest of the book of Hebrews. He is there of all things. And the writer doesn't take very long to say, unto which of the angels did he say at any time thou art my son?
This is the air. This is the son. He is the one that holds the scepter of righteousness in his right hand. And what about the one that made the world? Someday, like a vesture, the same one will fold them up. But you see, with his hand, he placed the heaven. This was the one by whom he made the world. And we see it progressing on through those things. He gives us almost a little outline of what is going to come in the next few chapters of the book of Hebrews. And he starts it right off for us. What about another simple one that might come to mind? I guess this is one that we've probably heard a lot about from the book of Revelation. Well, the Lord tells us in chapter one, that he is going to give us things which were, which are, and which are to come.
And so we use that as an outline for the book. And we say, well, in chapter one, in essence, we have the things which were. And in chapters two and three, as he speaks to the churches, he says, now these are the things which are which are. And in chapter four on through twenty-two, these are the things which are to come. And we go back to the very first of that first section, and we read in verse one that this is the revelation. of Jesus Christ. Fortunately, it's not the revelation of St. John the Divine. He was a divine man. But it's the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. As you know, in verse eight, it says something about the one who is the determiner of all those places in history. And it says that I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending, which is, which was, and which is to come.
Because the Lord Jesus Christ says he's being revealed. He's being revealed as the one who is the source of all things, who is in control of all things. And so he gives us a little outline of a book in one small verse. Now think of other places where it's like that in Scripture. Another one comes to mind maybe in Psalm twenty three where we have the whole of the life of David in microcosm. Verse by verse. He starts there in his young days in the fields, by the water. And he goes right on through to the latter days of David. How about in the book of Acts? We were just doing some studies. We have studies on Saturday night. And we did an introduction last Saturday night on the book of Acts.
And we read those familiar verses in chapter two, verses forty one and forty two, where it speaks of those things that they were steadfastly faithful in. And it speaks about the apostles' doctrine and the fellowship and the breaking of bread and the prayer. And we can look back in those four things and get an idea of what is in the Gospels. Our brother was talking about what's in the fourth Gospel last night. The Apostles' Doctrine. If you've ever spent some time studying the commissions of the Lord Jesus Christ to his own at the end of the Gospels, there are certain things which come to the forefront. One of them in the Gospel of Matthew is this phrase, I believe, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever.
have commanded you. And in that first gospel, we have a picture of the king teaching those that are his own things that are necessary for their life. And from hillside down to seaside, chapters five, six, and seven, we know them pretty well. The Lord is teaching them good doctrine. In the gospel of Mark, things are very different. And there's one little word that stands out over and over. Almost every single chapter starts this way. It's a three-letter word. You probably know what it is. It's and. The Lord did this, and he did this, and he did this. And we get to the end, and he says, and this was the Lord working with them, fellowshiping with his own dear, beloved people.
And the Lord Jesus humbled himself, and he worked alongside them the fellowship that we have with the Lord. What a tremendous thing it is. Primarily, it's with the Lord. First John chapter one, and with his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we rejoice in that, John. What comes next? the breaking of bread. The Gospel of Luke is very different in many ways than some of the other Gospels, but it begins with a priest that is dumb and he is silent. It doesn't end that way. It ends with the Lord Jesus Christ in priestly posture, raising his hands to heaven and blessing his people.
And the Lord Jesus Christ can be seen in certain ways in his priestly ministry even at that time. And He raised His hands to heaven, and He blessed them. And we have not ceased to live under that blessing, even up until this day. It is in chapter twenty-four of the Gospel of Luke, where we read that their eyes were opened unto them in the breaking of the bread. Now it wasn't the breaking of the bread, perhaps, as we know it, on Sunday morning that the Lord has encouraged us in. But they saw His hands, and they understood suddenly He revealed Himself to them. in that which is priestly work. You know that the breaking of the bread is priestly work, and it still is today.
And we have a little glimpse back at that third gospel. And then we finally come to the prayers, and I think his mind may have been. My mind goes there when you think about someone who can pray. There's no one like the Lord Jesus. Paul, his prayers are tremendous. But what about the Lord Jesus Christ? He says, I pray for my own. I pray not for the world. I pray for those, as was mentioned last night, that will be leaves. And he says, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. For thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. And we think of the Lord Jesus Christ as our example in prayer. There are a lot of little things like that in Scripture, which for our simple mind can give us an idea of what is going on in a book or in a section of Scripture.
Another one comes to mind. It came to mind. There it is. John chapter twenty-one. And in John chapter twenty-one, we have, these are the things that I have to think about as I try and get a grasp on the Word of God. We have in John chapter twenty-one, at the very end of the Gospels, at the beginning of the Acts, the historical books of the New Testament, we have what could be called an epilogue to the book of John and a prologue to the book of Acts. You can think of some of the things that are spoken about in this specific chapter. The Lord Jesus says he's going to meet his own. He would like them to meet him there.
And they all come together around the seaside. And the Lord Jesus is going to teach them a few things. And the first thing that he speaks of is fishing. Fishing for the souls of mankind. Now begin to think about the book of Acts. What is one of the first things that is spoken about in the book of the Acts? And he tells them that they are to go out and to fish. You're going to change it now. You're not going to be fishing for these little slimy things down in the water, but you're going to be fishing for the souls of mankind. But certain things can be learned, you know, from the examples that I lead, from the lakes, from the rivers, from the water, from the fish here on the earth, about searching, about fishing for the souls of men. And then he goes on to talk to them about feasting.
They came back in, and they had quite a few fish, actually. But when they got there, they come to find out that, The Lord had one already. He didn't really need theirs, per se. And the Lord not only had some fish, but he had them all prepared and ready for them, ready to give them to them for their sustenance and for their enjoyment. And when it comes to the work of the gospel, fishing for the lost souls of men, there are times when there are revival and repentance and others when there is silence. And we come to learn very soon that unless we are feeding on the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and faithfully doing His work and enjoying Him that sometimes we'll go hungry because it doesn't seem like there's a lot produced with our work.
It's the Lord working with them. And we find out that all of our feasting, all of our sustenance in life, no matter what we're called to do and no matter what we see as regards revival or nothing at all, we still are satisfied ultimately by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Then he goes on to say something about all of his people. He calls them sheep. I have to tell you that sheep look very nice on Christmas cards and postcards, but they're an awful smelly lot when you get right down to it. And I'm sure as you're an overseer, you find that out. I guess if we look at ourselves in the mirror, we find that out. That's the way that we are. And the Lord is going to tell Peter that there's one thing that's necessary, that it's at the source of all of the service for the saints, and that's love.
And if you love me, Then you can feed my sheep. And then finally he gets to the end of that chapter and he says something about following him. And Peter's walking along and he says, but Lord, what about this man back here? And the Lord Jesus almost says, mind your own business. What is that to thee? Follow thou me. Because there is in the service of the Lord a personal fidelity to the Lord. And as we come into the book of Acts, we see all of these things brought out. It's a beautiful little introduction. It looks back on the Gospel of John, and all of these things are spoken of throughout the Gospel of John. You can just take the feasting.
How many times did the Lord provide wonderful things for His people, practically and spiritually? And as we go on through the book of Acts, you find these same four things born out over and over, the beginnings of the church, three thousand saved. Five thousand. More were added daily, and pretty soon they need to be cared for. And these shepherds needed to know that they had to love these people because they loved the Lord primarily and personally. And then personal fidelity. Each one of these people individually, going out with the gospel, they were responsible for the Lord, not to others, responsible to the Lord and the leading of the Spirit. And so we have these things all throughout Scripture.
We could probably talk about some others. But here in the beginning of Philippians, in the beginning of chapter four, rather, Philippians chapter four, I'd like to just take that as a little backdrop and say at least for myself, this has been a help to notice what is in chapter one and chapter two and chapter three, in this little resume, this echo of things that have gone before. Let's read these verses again. Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown. So stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. If you'd like to find out how much Paul loved these dear saints, you go back to chapter one.
And let's just do that for a minute and read a couple of verses. We'll read verse seven. He says, even it is meat for me to think this of you all because I have you in my heart. And as much as both in my bonds and in the defense of the gospel, in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace. And he says, For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. He says then in verse twenty seven, only let your conversation be as it becomes the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.
And in this little resume again in chapter four and verse one, he reinforces these things, his love that he has for these saints, and his desire that through it all they stand fast in the good things of the Lord. Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved, and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. Paul may not have been married, but he sure knew how to write love letters. And this was a good one right here. My beloved, longed for, my joy, my crown. When was the last time you've longed to be with the saints? Not just, well, it's conference time, and it's the eighty-fifth year.
When I think of eighty-five years, I think of faithfulness. That was the first thing that came to mind. Eighty-five years. That's tremendous. Not just coming because it's the eighty-fifth year and it's conference time. But because somewhere in the deepest part of your being, you long for those saints. You care for them. You love them. And you long to be with them. They are your joy, not other things. They are your crown, the victor's crown. Not other things. And this is what Paul says, my brethren dearly beloved and long for, my joy and crown. So stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. Let's read on in verse two.
It says, I beseech you odious and beseech synecdoche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord. We're going to notice just three simple points here with three phrases that are alike and three chapters that come before. And you see, again, that's what can give to me in my own little head an idea of what is before. And he says to them that you be of the same mind in the Lord. And it's in chapter two that we read about what that mind is. It's not any old ordinary mind, thank the Lord. It's the mind of Christ. Let's read in chapter two, verse two. He says, fulfill ye my joy that ye be like-minded.
Having the same love being of one accord, of one mind, let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. And following is one of our most beloved passages of Scripture, when we see the condensation or the condescension of the Lord Jesus and his love for us. and the mind of Christ. And Paul is standing back and again giving an echo or a resume, and there are now two saints that do not have the mind of Christ. And he says, it is my longing that ye be of the same mind in the Lord.
And I entreat thee also true yoke fellow, help those women which labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also and with other my fellow labors, whose names are in the book of life. Verse four, rejoice. in the Lord all way. And again, I say rejoice. In the beginning of chapter three, he starts to tell us about wonderful things that we can rejoice in. The apprehension of the Lord Jesus Christ, chapter three in verse ten. His prayer of yearning that he might know the Lord. The things that we can rejoice in regarding the citizenship that we have not on earth, thank the Lord, but in heaven. And he says, finally, my brethren, Rejoice.
And so he gives us another little echo in verse four of that chapter three. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. It's a wonderful summary then that the Lord gives us of this book. And I thank the Lord for little things like this. That we can come memorize perhaps. I've attempted to just begin to memorize these four verses. Because once you get them memorized as we were encouraged last night, You will have a very small idea, but an idea of the basis upon which Paul says all of these things and an idea of what is in this book, the book of Philippians, rejoicing in the Lord through them all. There was one thing that I just wanted to notice as we go back to look at verse one of chapter four, and that is the possessive that he uses.
You'll find them all throughout Scripture, different possessions, different things that we possess, different things that the Lord possesses. And Paul says, therefore, my brethren. Who can think of some other good Scriptures where there are some profound and tremendous possessives in Scripture? One that came to my mind is in the Gospel of John chapter twenty, where the Lord Jesus says, I will ascend to my Father. He says to Mary, go and tell my brethren that I am going to ascend unto, and he differentiates it a little bit.
He says unto my Father and your Father and unto my God and unto your God. You probably notice that as you read through some of the statements of the Lord Jesus, how there is a special relationship between the Son and the Father. that we really don't enter into and never will. It's a very special relationship in the Godhead. And you will notice him even differentiating it throughout the Gospels. He says, yes, he is your father. He is my father. In fact, in Hebrews chapter two, we are all of one father, but certainly in different ways in some respects. You might remember that the Lord Jesus, after his disciples, beseeching him to teach them to pray.
He says, and he reinforces it at least twice over, he says, now you pray, when you pray, you pray in this way, our Father, which art in heaven. Now, he could include himself in that, but there's still something special there, where there is a differentiation between the Fatherhood of God to the Lord Jesus Christ, and in some sense, to each one of us. We thank the Lord for the Father, but the Father in heaven is his Father in a very special way. He is our Father. in a very special way we like possessives like that my God your God to know that we have a father in heaven that is ours and I thank the Lord for him Paul says here my brethren when you get into your father's car and you're a younger person and it's muddy outside you really don't care a whole lot about how much mud you get on the carpet because it's your dad's car after all and on Saturday he'll take care of it but when you turn sixteen or seventeen You tell your own father and mother to take the shoes off before you get in your car because it's your car.
There's something special about it. Your father has a modified choke and he goes out pheasant hunting and he allows you finally to use it and you get to use it and that's a special thing. You go out and you crack away and you use up a lot of shells and that thing gets a little bit dirty and you go home and he asks you to clean it up and you do. You clean it up. But later on, you have one of your own and there's just that one extra swipe. on the blueing that you're very careful with because it's yours it's yours there was something that I had to learn when I was younger and I'm afraid it took a lot of years with my parents I have quite a few sisters and you know how it is when you go to school you want to be sort of cool you want to not necessarily be associated with all of these younger people that really don't know what's going on and you get out of the car and ours was kind of like a circus car we all tumble out and as soon as you can you sort of separate yourself a little bit from all these younger people, the younger generation, and I was in fifth or sixth grade at that time.
And you just, you know, you don't really want to associate yourselves with them. For some reason you go through that phase. And my parents had to remind me that this is your family. And what other people think about them, they are going to think about you. And what you say about them, if you're going around saying, I don't really want to spend much time with them, And did you see what my little sister just did? Isn't that funny? Ha, ha, ha, those kinds of things. When you're young, you're like that. What you say about them is what other people is going to think not so much about them, but you too. Because you're all in one group. They're your sisters. These are your brethren.
And Paul says, therefore, my brethren, something that you possess, something that is yours. We need to seem them very highly better than ourselves, says Paul. Says the Lord. They are ours. And we give them that one special swipe to make sure that they look clean in front of the others. At Potluck on Sunday afternoons, it's many times the case. We have a lot of young people. But there's that big piece of chocolate down the size of some little boy's face. And he comes from kind of a dirty family, after all. Anyway, it seems like I'm not going to touch that thing. Go to your mother. But if it's your own, what do you do? Well, you pull that hanky out and you take care of it just like that. Because it's your own son.
You wouldn't want anybody else to see that big piece of chocolate going down the side of this little two-year-old's face. It's your son. You take care of them. You cleanse them. And Paul says, therefore, my brethren, these are your saints. These are your fellow believers who all have one Father in heaven. They're yours. You need to esteem them highly. Take care of them. Long for them. Love them. Paul says, please don't forget that. Now, the Apostle Paul had a very special feeling for these people. We know that. He says back in chapter one, and I'd like to read a couple of verses further, Paul in likeness to his Savior says in verse twenty, he says, according to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, But that with all boldness is always, so now also, Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death.
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor, yet what I shall choose, I know not. For I am in a strait betwixt too, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better, nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. The Apostle Paul had an incredible love for these people. And he says, do you know that I am willing to forego life if that's necessary for you because of my love for you? And he says something else that may be even more incredible if we really understood the beauties of the presence of God and the glories of heaven.
He says, for these people, because of my love for them, I will be willing to forego heaven for them at this time. if that's what the Lord wants. No matter what it is, whether it's giving my life, whether it's putting heaven off till a later date, whatever it is, I am willing to go forth and to live and to love these people. Whether I live, whether I die, I long to be fruitful to them. But the Apostle Paul, when we go back at the beginning, at least the history that we read about him, the beginning of his salvation. We find him appearing fairly early on in the book of Acts.
And he is at the place of a martyrdom, in a sense. He's at the place where Stephen was killed. We read of some very amazing things there, actually, I think, and I'm sure they must have had a tremendous impression upon this man, Paul. Back in Acts chapter seven, We read that Stephen says, Lord, lay not this to their charge. And that Stephen, as he went into the glories of heaven, there was the Lord Jesus Christ not sitting now, but standing to receive a faithful saint. Now, Paul wouldn't have seen those things, but he would have seen Stephen giving his life for those that Stephen loved, that Stephen cared for ultimately for the one that he loved in heaven.
He would stand for him in spite of what it took. The Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew chapter twenty three, and I believe it's verse thirty five. And he's speaking to the Jews and he says, you will be responsible for the blood of Eve, from the blood of Abel to the blood of righteous Zechariah, the son of Barakias, whom he slew between the temple and the altar. And he sweeps across the Old Testament and those that gave their life for the Lord. And he starts with Abel and he sweeps to the very end, probably giving us the very last martyr in the Old Testament. It comes from Second Chronicles chapter twenty-four, the Zechariah. And he was the son of Jehoiah to the priest. Joash being the king.
He'd started out well, but he wasn't doing very well at the end. He was bringing idolatry to the Lord's people. And this man stands up, and he speaks against what is going on. And Joash says, stone him. And as he's going away to his death, He says, judge justly, judge righteous judgment. These things will be recompensed unto you for what you have done. And you know what happened? Just that. A band of Syrians came along and it wasn't all that large and destroyed Judah. And very soon Joash lost his life in his own bed. And the Lord judged him. He said, the Lord judge you.
There's an amazing difference when we come to the very first martyr in the New Testament. He could have said, the Lord judge you for what you're doing. It's unrighteous. What you're doing to me, Stephen could have said. But instead, because of the influence of the Lord Jesus Christ on his life, he almost takes one of those statements, those fatherly statements that the Lord Jesus Christ makes, the first and the last. The Lord Jesus says, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And this man, Stephen, he says, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. Talk about the influence of someone on a person's life upon the course of history.
And we go from that last martyr to the first martyr. And here's the old apostle Paul, soon to be anyway. His name was Saul at that time, but not very apostle-like, that's for sure. But he is standing there, viewing all of these things as they go on. And don't you just wonder... what it must have done in this man's life. And the Apostle Paul says here in this chapter, he says, Dear Philippians, no matter what it takes, I am willing to give my life for you. I'm willing to forego heaven. If I have to put that great and glorious thing off for a little while longer to serve you here on this old earth, you know something I'm willing to do that. Because you are my brethren, and I long for you, and I love you.
and you are my joy and you are my crown the Lord Jesus has shown that to me because I've seen his love that he has for these sheep smelly though they might be and I want to have a like love for the Lord's people and so he begins here by being very practical this Apostle Paul and he says again therefore my brethren dearly beloved and long for my joy and crown stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. Well, Lord willing, we'll talk a little bit more about standing fast and having the same mind of the Lord as we continue some this afternoon. We're going to look forward to some more wonderful things regarding the high priestly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ.