The Christian life is lived by making Christ the central passion and motivation, as exemplified by the Apostle Paul in Philippians. Paul's life demonstrates that Christ should be the driving force in every aspect of daily living, from personal motivation to love for fellow believers and even in suffering. By focusing on Christ, believers can experience a victorious and joyful Christian life, mirroring Paul's own example of making Christ his sole reason for existence. The sermon encourages returning to this foundational love for Christ and allowing His interests to become our own, thereby living out the Christian life authentically.
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Certainly good to be back. It was four years ago that I had the privilege of sharing in this conference, and I've seen some of you saints since then by visiting in your local assemblies, but this is the first time I've been back to the Atlantic Conference, and it's a real treat to be here. Thank you. Yes, I need those very much. Thank you. I'm happy that my wife can be with me this time. She was looking after my mother, my previous visit, and my mother was taken home in eighty-three, and we missed her a great deal.
But I do have the joy of having my wife free now to travel with me. And that's been a great encouragement. Glad for this microphone and public address system, because I don't have a big voice to start with. And recently I've been ill, and it seemed to affect my voice. So I hope you'll bear with me, and I believe the microphone will take care of the voice problem. I'd like for us to look at the book that deals with living the Christian life.
Not so much how to get the Christian life, how to get saved, no, but how to live now that we are saved. It's the book of Philippians, of course. Philippians. I think Philippians has an appeal all of its own. Someone has called the Philippians the diamond among the epistles. Yes, it does have a sparkle all of its own, a beauty that just sets it apart. Strangely enough, though written by the great Apostle Paul, it is not primarily a book of doctrine.
We think of Paul's writings as so heavy. with doctrine but not Philippians Philippians is example Paul is telling us how to live the Christian life and he's doing it by way of example in each of these four chapters he gives us an example in fact the example is himself In each of the chapters except one, and that's chapter two. That's the exception.
He doesn't cite himself as the example in chapter two. And the reason is quite obvious. He's talking about humility. And the moment you talk about your humility, you've lost it. and so the apostle doesn't cite himself as the example but wonder of wonders he cites the champion of humility the Lord Jesus himself but in the other three chapters it's Paul notice that Philippians chapter one Paul is giving the passion of the Christian life that which must be our driving motivation but he gives it by way of example that it was true of himself Philippians one and verse twenty one for to me notice he's not saying now Christian this is how you ought to live no he says to me to
live. He is the living example of what he's encouraging you and me to do. To me, to live is Christ. That was the passion of Paul's life. His whole raison d'etre, his whole reason for existence was Christ. a real living, known Christ. And he is the living example, therefore, of how to live the Christian life.
We mentioned chapter two is humility, and therefore he cites the Lord Jesus as the example. In chapter three, Paul is speaking of the purpose of the Christian in his daily living. And again, it's by way of example. Philippians three and verse ten, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection.
and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. And here he states, forgetting the things that are behind and reaching forth, stretching forth to the things that are before I press toward the mark. Notice it's Paul he's doing this and therefore he is challenging you and me to live the Christian life as he is. I press toward the mark that I may know him and the power of his resurrection.
In the fourth chapter is the power for this life. This victorious, happy, blessed life, the Christian life. in the hearing now. And he again speaks as the example. Verse eleven, I have learned in whatsoever state I am in this to be content. I have learned. Obviously, this doesn't come in a moment. This is an instant success.
He has learned it. And verse thirteen, I, Paul is experiencing this. This is his life. I can, I am empowered, strengthened. I have strength for all things through Christ who empowers me. Oh, it's real. It's personal. Paul is doing it. And therefore, he is fighting himself as your example, as my example, how to live the Christian life.
Fortunately, I was a Baptist preacher in World War II. I say fortunately because they don't draft preachers. And so I missed the draft. But my brother was drafted, and he served under General Patton. You remember his reputation. And they came up to the Rhine River, and the river was swollen. And the generals turned to his officers, and he said, command the men that they cross the river.
And the other officers said, General, that's impossible. The river's swollen. And my brother said, General Patton, dived into the Rhine River, swam across it, turned around, dived back into it, and swam back. And then dripping wet before his officers, he said, now you think you can do it? And they did it. We have one who's run the race and who's running it here in Philippians. And he says, I'm doing it. Don't you think you can do it?
And that's why I believe Paul does not cite himself as the apostle in this book. His other epistles... He speaks of himself very soon. He speaks with the authority of the apostle. But you notice here he simply begins, Paul and Timothy, the servants of Jesus Christ. There's no mention of his apostleship. Why not? Because in living the Christian life, There is no apostle.
There is no chief. Everything that Paul had with which to live the Christian life, you and I have, Christian, everything. And we can live the same glorious, victorious Christian life that the apostle lived. because we have the same equipment, the same provisions. It was strange to me to read this first verse of thinking of this epistle as having to do more with the individual Christian rather than church order or church government.
to read this first verse that's so full of church order he says Paul and Timothy the servants of Jesus Christ to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons or with the overseers and deacons there you have a church set before you in its complete order the saints the bishops the overseers the elders and the deacons why would he begin with this introduction like this to a letter that's so personal and is not really teaching church truth as such I believe the answer is that the if we are going to truly live the Christian life we must find our niche in a local fellowship of Christians according to his word and there is where
we are going to work out our own salvation primarily as we'll see in chapter two later primarily in relation to our fellow believers. For that is what the apostle has in mind when he says, Work out your own salvation. And so this, I believe, is why he mentions this lovely picture here of a local assembly of God's people and their order according to the word. Well, let's look at these chapters as we have time during these sessions, looking at how to live the Christian life.
And look at chapter one in this period. Chapter one. And we noticed in verse twenty one, Paul gives the secret of the Christian life of living it now that we are saved by showing that Christ must be our very passion he must be the center and the circumference and all in between of our daily lives he must be everything to you and me for us to truly live the Christian life.
You know, it's wonderful to see how the Holy Spirit leads without our help. I have noticed that our brother Dan Linstead last night started this conference with bringing us to self-examination all so needful and all so profitable and now brother Dan Glock has brought us to it again and this is my thought here in this book of Philippians when I was a little boy I used to shoot marbles and quite often we fellas would get in the midst of a game and it was getting pretty, the competition pretty hot, you know, and suddenly we would forget whose turn it was to shoot.
And you know that could be grounds for Armageddon. And we found out there was only one way to solve it. And that was to go back to tall. Now that's not a southern pronunciation of T-A-R. Now there's a word in the dictionary called T-A-W. And to us, T-A-W, was the starting line. If we couldn't settle the problem out there, then we went back to the starting line and just started over again. That was Tau. And dear saints, I believe that the Scriptures, Old Testament and New, us seeking to bring God's people back to Tau, to bring us back to our first love, to do those first works.
And I believe if this conference accomplishes that, it will be well worth the time. Thank you, brethren. I'll say amen when you get your award for this cup of cold water. We need to go back to talk. Just take the time to come in His presence and bow at His feet and say, Lord, if I don't love you like I once did, let it be now let me love you with all my heart be my life indeed let nothing come between myself and thyself it's so simple to deal with a Lord like ours one who said forgive not only seven times in a day, but seventy times seven in
a day. That's our Lord. And He so full of compassion, never turned the deaf ear to one who confesses failure and comes to him with it. In fact, the best way to deal with sin and failure in our lives is not to go off and punish ourselves about it. But do as the priest did. When a priest sins, it says, if one that's the anointed priest sins, let him bring to the Lord a sacrifice. Notice he dealt with his sin before God.
He came directly to the Lord with his sin in confession of it. And that's the way to deal with it. Not punish ourselves. Not say I've got to sit back and go through some agony for this. No. Deal with it at his feet. Go back to talk. All saints of God. That we might be able to say again. As one day we could say. To me to live. To me to exist. Is Christ. That's it. That's my life. If we can say that, then there are certain things that are going to happen in our lives.
They happen to this man who said that, who said to me to live, is Christ. Let's notice the first one. It's in verse eight. For God is my witness, how greatly I long after you all, in the bowels of Jesus Christ, or as my version reads here, the tender mercies of Jesus Christ. The word there is flung now, which means the intestines, not a very nice word to us, but it came from the sense that the Hebrews used it to express the tender feelings and the Greeks used it to express the source of the passions and that's why Paul used it here.
It's some translated hearts, tender mercies. Notice this is how Paul loved all the saints God is my witness how greatly I long after you all in the tender mercies of Jesus Christ. And notice his love for the saints. It was not Paul's love. It was not that he was a lovable sort of person. In fact, I sort of think of Paul as a rather cold man naturally, calculating, logical, and not one with a very fervent emotional nature.
I may be wrong, but that's my feeling. But Paul had a profound love for God's people. And he expresses it there, how greatly I long after you all in the tender mercies of Jesus Christ. To this man who could say to me to live as Christ, he loved the saints with the love that Christ had for them. Look at First Thessalonians, too, to see the description of his tender love for the saints.
First Thessalonians chapter two and verse seven. But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherishes her children. You might read this verse as I did for a long time, thinking this is speaking of a hired nurse looking after someone's children. But that's not what it's saying. It's a nursing mother cherishes fondles like the hen covers her chicks with her wings, is the verb used there, to warm, to cuddle.
As a nursing mother fondles her own born ones, as it reads, these are her own children. If I were an artist and I wanted to paint the picture that I would consider the expression of tender love, I would paint a nursing mother with her bathe at her breath. And Paul says, That's how I was. In your midst. He loved the saints. Like a nursing mother.
Loves her own born ones. But then he goes a little below there. And he speaks in verse eleven. As you know how we exhorted. I'm still in first Thessalonians two. Verse eleven. As you know how. We exhorted and encouraged and charged every one of you as a father does. And again, he uses the word techno, born ones. As a father does, his own born ones. He loved the saints as a nursing mother. Fondly loved her own born ones.
And he loved the saints. As a loving Father loved his own born ones and encouraged them, comforted them and warned them. And dear saints, this is the pattern for your life and mine. We can't choose out certain Christians and run with that group among the saints. not if to me to live is Christ. No, his love for his people will be radiated in your life and mine if he is the center of our life.
And we'll love the saints with his love. How greatly, Paul says in Philippians one eight, I long after you all notice all not special saints that were going on well and that were thoughtful of paul and that understood him better know all the saints in the tender mercies of jesus christ all to love one another with his love and that's what we'll do if we can say truly to me to live is Christ.
Another of these traits that are apparent in the life of the Apostle that will be true of you and me if we have our life Christ-centered as it should be. And that is in verses twelve to eighteen of chapter one. Why would you should understand, brethren, that the things which happen unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel? What things? Well, he suffered terribly, scourged, cast into prison.
And the prison wasn't a pooled cell where he was brought his meals on time each day. And he was offered the possibility of practicing a trade if he wanted to learn one. No, nothing like that. It was the dank, dark, dismal dungeon of Rome. All the horror of those prisons with their vermin and filth. What an unhappy lot. was the Apostles. And if that had been my lot, you would have found me writing letters to all the assemblies saying, O brethren, pray for me.
I'm in this terrible place. You can't imagine how awful it is, but not the Apostle. He says, these things that have happened to me have turned out to the furtherance of the Gospel. so that he says my bonds have been manifest as not being i understand him to be saying this not because of a crime i've committed but because i preach christ and so he says some have been encouraged therefore a preach and some of them are giving me a hard time doing so not having a sincere motive others are preaching sincerely But he says, it doesn't matter to me which way to preach it.
As long as Christ is preached, I rejoice that Christ is preached, and I will rejoice. What a man. Because to him to live was Christ, then the chief interest of his life was the interest of Christ. I love to do certain things, but among them it's not fishing back home. I like to fish in the Bahamas, but not here at home.
My wife dearly loves fishing. She'll go out and fish all day and that cork doesn't bob one time. And she calls that fun, but that's not fun for me. On a Saturday afternoon, quite often, you would find us out in a little boat back home, and I'll be paddling away, and my wife says, that looks like a good spot over there. And so we paddle over there, and she baits her hook and drops it over, and I get out a book and read. But you see, somebody I love is interested in fishing.
so i go fishing for about four years of our lives we sat on friday nights in the bitter cold on a hard bench with no back to it watching a high school football game the reason we had two sons that were involved and so we were involved after those two boys graduated from high school we never went back to another high school football game you see somebody we loved was interested and so that was our interest and always our Lord Jesus has an interest something going on in this world today if there's something that he's seeking to undertake if he has a work in this world today if to me to live is Christ then surely His interest are priority on my list.
His interest are my interest. These are only two of the seven things that we have in chapter one that characterize the person who can say, really, for me to live is Christ. Let's go back to call this weekend, even today.