Paul and Timothy's greeting to the saints at Philippi, including bishops and deacons, establishes the letter's focus on Christian experience rather than doctrine. Paul emphasizes that believers are called saints through faith in Christ, meaning they are set apart for God, and this status is immediate, not posthumous. The sermon highlights Paul's thanksgiving for the Philippians' fellowship in the Gospel, their support of his ministry, and his assurance that Christ will complete the good work He began in them, underscoring that salvation is Christ's work from beginning to end. It concludes by urging listeners to embrace Christ as their living Savior, emphasizing that true Christianity is a personal relationship with Him, and to receive Him now to avoid future judgment.
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Beloved radio, friends, we greet you in the Savior's name, and we welcome you to our Bible study in the epistle of Paul written to the Philippians. We would today read verses one and two in chapter one, where Paul's salutation and Christian greetings are given to his beloved saints at Philippi. Paul writing and saying Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons. Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Will you please know this in this introduction? Paul does not mention his apostleship, as he may do and does in other epistles, Here he is not unfolding doctrine in this letter, but he is writing about his Christian experience as a fellow believer. Then how blessed and precious to notice, he calls all the believers to whom he is writing at Philippi, saints. He calls every one of them a saint, meaning that through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is what the word means, Forget that it means having a halo around your head, but it means to be separated for God.
My beloved friends, are you a saint? Please, may I say, Paul was writing to living people. He was not writing to someone that had been dead three hundred and more years ago and had been made a saint by some ecclesiastical authority. Oh, no. He was writing the living people at Philippi, believers in the Lord Jesus. I ask again, are you a saint? You can make sure of that if you belong to Christ. For I assure you that God's word does not teach the possibility of becoming a saint after you have been dead for many years.
You either are a saint now in life, or you never will be. And so to the saints, together with the bishops or their overseers and deacons. Paul directs this letter, for all of them to profit, with his loving salutation, that the God and the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ above would bestow divine grace and peace upon them. Then follows in verses three, going down through verse eight. Paul's thanksgiving to God for them and their fellowship with him in the Gospel.
How wonderful are the words of thanksgiving in verse three. Paul writes, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Blessed memories flooded his heart as he thought of the past fellowship and it provoked him always in all prayer that he made. that he remembered them all, making his request for them with joy. And thanksgiving and prayer, for your fellowship, he writes, in the Gospel, from the first day until now. What a commendation. From the very commencement of the testimony of the church in Philippi.
And may I remind you, you can read about it in Acts chapter sixteen. But from the very first day of that testimony, recorded in chapter sixteen of the Acts, all these beloved saints who had been one to Christ, prayerfully as well as practically, had supported Paul in the Gospel and its proclamation. This promoted his confidence and his assurance, as he goes on to say, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform or finish it, will complete it, until the day of Jesus Christ. My fellow believer, how blessed are these words of assurance that Paul writes, both to you and to me also.
For you and I, my fellow Christian, we are assured that the salvation we now have received will be eternally fruitful. For it is not myself, tis not in me that I possess the power to bring myself to glory, for it is implied by the words that glory will be in the day of Jesus Christ, the day of his return when he comes for his blessed blood-bought church. But it is my Savior who keeps me saved right to the end. Listen to the words again. He which begins the good work, the one whom you and I receive as Savior.
Paul says he'll finish what he began. Praise God. Well, listen to Jude the apostles say, Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory in the epistle of Jude in verse twenty-four. God forbid that I should ever think that I can keep myself saved by my efforts. It is my Savior who keeps me. The Spirit of God declares that it is Christ who keeps the believer from falling. My Christian friend, if you think you can keep yourself, you don't have a very strong support to lean upon.
Again, may we be reminded of the key verse of chapter four. I can do all things, then note the two words that follow. Through Christ, who strengthens me. Please lean, as we sometimes often sing, leaning on the everlasting arms. For the arm of flesh, even your own, as well as others, will fail you. And as the hymn writer says, ye dare not trust your own. Now note in verse seven of our Philippian chapter. Paul says, it is me, it is proper for me to think this of you all. And the next words in the translation should be, not because I have you in my heart.
Unfortunately, it's not a proper translation, but the truth of what Paul wrote is this, because you have me in your hearts, inasmuch as both in my bonds, mine affliction, and in the defense and the confirmation of the gospel, You're all partakers of my grace. Beloved, may I point out the blessed commendation of these Christians in Philippi? They not only cherished Paul in their hearts as a fellow saint and a servant of God, but they had loving, deep sympathy for him in his sufferings as one who was suffering for the defense as well as the confirmation of the gospel.
And he knew their love, so that Paul could say and did right, God is my record how greatly I long after you all in the bowels or the compassions of Jesus Christ. My fellow Christian, let's take these words from the wonderful example of Christian love that existed between Paul and his fellow believers at Philippi. It is a blessed illustration of that command of the Lord when he said to his disciples, A new commandment I give unto you. That she loved one another as I have loved you. That she also loved one another. John chapter thirteen in verse thirty-four. Oh, we comment sadly of the fact.
Little is this real affection among the children of God. There is so much fault-finding, sectarian exclusion from fellowship, and little real manifestation of actual genuine love toward all saints. Tis one of the leading characteristics of the end of the church age, a Laodicean condition described by the Lord Jesus in Revelation three, fourteen through twenty-one. They now note the special prayer that Paul has for his beloved Philippians, which follows verses nine through eleven. Three things he prays particularly for them. First, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and judgment or intelligence.
Now they have love, but Paul prays that he will even abound more and more, both intelligently and proving and knowing good and evil. For may I remind you, true love will not tolerate evil, but he prays that their love may even abound even in a greater way. Second, that she may approve things that are excellent. When Christ is before the heart of a believer, this will be done. For later on in chapter three and verse eight, Paul said himself, Yea, doubtless I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. I want to know him better.
And he praised this for the Philippian believers. May God by his Holy Spirit enable you, my fellow believer, and me to do this. For it will prove the third thing. that she may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ. And the judgment seat of Christ, this will be proved whether true or not, to be sincere until he comes without giving offense. But in the meantime, these three things for which Paul prays will enable you and me, my fellow believer, to be filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ.
Under the praise of God, such a walk will produce this fruit when Christ is kept before the heart of a believer. But, my beloved friend, who may be listening in unsaved, may I press upon your conscience and to your heart the great need as well as the blessed opportunity of having Christ. Christianity is not a religion. It is far more and far better. It is a living, glorious person. The person of Christ. One who is very God as well as very man.
He became man to be your Savior and mine by dying and paying the penalty for your sins and mine upon the cross. Today, my beloved friend unsaved, He presents by His Spirit through the Word, He presents Himself to your heart, that you may receive Him as your Savior and Lord. But when He comes the second time to the earth, my friend, He's not coming to be a Savior but to be a judge. Oh, do not procrastinate if you are doing that. Do not reject Him now. Receive Him as a Savior.
Be delivered now from the fear of judgment. For there is now no judgment to them which are in Christ Jesus. We read in Romans chapter eight in verse one, all the joy of knowing what it means to have Christ. May I repeat with emphasis, may the Holy Spirit riveted home. Christianity is a living, loving person. Christ. And I do not ask what you belong to, nor would I even ask what you believe, though that's important I know in this place. But I would ask the question, can you say, I have Christ?
He is mine, and I am his. Beloved and blessed Father, sanctified by thy Spirit's power, convicting grace, And encouragement, the truth that we've presented to every heart, are both believer and sinner in Jesus' name for his glory. Amen.