If you will turn in your copy of God's Word to Philippians chapter one, or if you will turn to page nine in your bulletin, you will see there Philippians chapter one, verses three through 11. That is our primary text for today. And as you turn there, I want to remind you that when we talk about this church in Philippi, these are real people. and they are in a real place and these are real historical events and these people are in real situations just like you are a real person and a real place and you're involved in real historical events and real situations. And so when we read this text, think about the flesh and the blood of these people. Think about the spirit of these people. Think about the lives of these people and how they're in that context that we told you about last week of being idolaters. Before they were saved being given to Roman gods and Greek gods before they were saved They were lost in this and this church in Philippi is the first church in Europe the very first church in Europe so give attention to the reading of God's Word as we start in Philippians chapter 1 verse 3 and Conclude in verse 11 for today I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always offering in every prayer of mine, making requests for you all with joy. For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Just as it is right for me to thank this of you all because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace. For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ. In this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and the praise of God. May God add his blessing to the reading and the hearing of his perfect word. Now, if you had a heart for God and a passion for the future of people to become Christians and to become worshipers of the true and the living God, and you wanted to efficiently gather a group of people to establish a new congregation, and you expect it to be successful, what kind of situation would you look for? Would you want to start in a big population center? Would you require a meeting place that had its own shingle out front that had your name, the name of your church on it? Would you wait until there was plenty of funding in the bank? Or would you hold off until the community had called for you and they were a welcoming community and they said you would fit right in here, you had those kind of confirmations? Or would you wait until you have a strong and committed core group? Well, if you were a betting man or if you were a businessman, you would never try to gather a congregation and start a local church in Philippi, in this place called Philippi, because it was dire. It was probably one of the worst places in the world that you could send a group of people to plant a church. But there were people whom God had predestined to be saved, and therefore God also predestined and arranged the means through mere men for the people in Philippi to hear the gospel. And through the enlivening work of God the Holy Spirit, they responded in faith to the gospel of Jesus Christ. God sent Paul and Silas and Timothy on this dire, and as we read this book and we read in Acts 16 and 17 and other places about what went on here, it was a very painful mission and it was a really tough place because there was not much in Philippi to work with. The people were non-Christians and they were filled with false ideas about God, very much like our world today. People, you ask them about God. In fact, I was with a group of pastors one time and the guy that was giving the talk, he asked the question, what is God? And you had a one-word answer here and a one-word answer there and another one-word answer there and another one-word answer, because people are, they don't have any kind of, any close to even a comprehensive understanding of what God has said about himself in the scriptures. But if I ask you what is God, You would know that God is the Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, and His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. You could have said that, right? You could have said that, you could have said that, you could have said that. So there was not, these people were filled with weird ideas about who God is. And there were no known Christians in the city and no Jews had organized the synagogue. So when Paul usually went to a city, he would go to the synagogue to meet people because that was the target rich environment. But where do you go in Philippi? And Philippi was a city that was committed to the practice of idolatry. And we read in Acts 16 about there was a weekly prayer meeting in Philippi by a river about a half mile outside the city. And in this place, a small group of women attended those meetings. And there was something about these women that tells us something that's pretty big. These women prayed. Now, before you get excited and say, well, that's good. No, it wasn't good. These people, they didn't pray to the Father through the Son and the power of the Holy Spirit. These women, they were very devout, and they were filled with desires to pray. But to whom were they praying, and to whom were they devoted? It says here they were devout women. They were devoted women. They were religious women, but they were non-Christian women. So, we know right off the bat two things. They were praying to false deities and that God wasn't listening to them. Isaiah 59-2, God does not hear the prayers of non-Christians. You see, these people were heaping sin upon sin by their praying. They were praying to Jupiter. the king of the gods, they were praying to Juno, they were praying to Neptune or Poseidon, they were praying to Mars, they were praying to Apollo. They were praying to these false deities, these false entities, these idols of their heart, these idols of their imagination. And that's the world that Paul went into. So if you were asked to go to a place like Philippi and you were Go to be a missionary there, proclaim the gospel, and build a church, which is what missionaries do. The definition of a missionary, by the way, is a church planter, nothing else. How do you start? Well, you go to them as Paul went to them. and you witness to them telling them the true gospel. And just ignore these covenant sounds around us, I'll just preach louder. And one of those attending this prayer meeting out by the river, a half mile outside of Philippi, was a businesswoman named Lydia. And as God the Holy Spirit worked through the words of the gospel, she heard and she believed and she was saved. And then she and her entire household, meaning her children too, were baptized. And that began, she was the first person that we know of in the church at Philippi. And then as Paul is going down the street, he runs into a demon-possessed girl. And as he runs into the, he didn't run into her like that, he just came across her, and preached the gospel to her. And the girl is testifying that she's different than Paul, that Paul, loves and knows the true and living God. And she's demon-possessed. And God saw fit to take her out of service to Satan through the power of the gospel. Well, the town didn't like that, so they arrested Paul. The people who owned the slave girl, the demon-possessed slave girl, they put Paul in jail with his pals. And, of course, you know that the God caused the doors to open and the walls to shake and Paul could have walked out and the Philippian jailer there was about to kill himself, commit suicide because it was better to die by your own hand with just a sword in the gut than it would be for the Roman soldiers to take you and to execute you for not fulfilling your duty. So Paul said, don't kill yourself. And he said, what must I do to be saved? And Paul told him the gospel and he and his household were baptized. So through the gospel message, rightly preached in opposition to the Roman and the Greek gods, Jesus was replacing all of these idols of the heart in these people's lives and in their affections. He was giving them new life and he was giving them new thinking. And these people had lots of baggage to jettison. And these people had lots of changes that needed to take place. And this was probably a very uncomfortable situation for a while. This is probably a church that's, you know, who's got it right? We have to immediately go to the one who has the word of God, Paul, of course, because they really couldn't give advice to one another because they were so confused in their ungodliness. But in God's providence, this group of people started to increase in number, increase in numbers of Christians. And a people newly introduced to the gospel of Jesus Christ, in their youthfulness, they usually have zeal, but they have no depth of knowledge. And these people didn't have any depth of knowledge, not even of the Old Testament, because there were very few Jews there. But as God gave increase in numbers, there were people saved. Now, I want you to notice this, and I want you to think about our church. There were not, in this situation, thousands a day saved, as in other places. We think about those situations where God adds to the church 3,000 or God adds to the church 5,000. Well, in this situation, it was God's will to add a few dozen people Not in a day, but over the next 10 years. The best calculation that we have about the church in Philippi is that in 10 years, about 50 people, which is what we had last week. For you visitors, we had about that many last week. Not quite, but almost. They had about 50 people in the church in Philippi. And something wonderful was taking place in the lives of these people in Philippi. There was a whole lot of love going on as these people were caused to be born again, as God was working in their lives and in the lives of their pastor of this small church. So if you've got your text open, look at verses three, four, and five. And as you look at that passage, I want you to see there that every time and in everything Paul remembers these people with thankfulness and joy to God. Now, why did he remember them with joy and thankfulness? Well, the answer in verse five particularly, they fellowshiped or they participated with him in hearing. The Greek word there is koinonia. They were intimate with one another. They were close to one another. And they were close to one another because they ate together like we're gonna do at Providence today. They lived in proximity to one another. They cared about one another. In hearing the gospel and proclaiming the gospel and in living the gospel. They had a Consistency that did not that did not fail them and knitted their hearts together verse 5 your fellowship in the gospel From the first day until now you see this wasn't just a once in a while thing This was a this was an event that became their lives. They wanted to have fellowship in the gospel very often from the first day until then. Probably not every day because nobody can do that. But that's the life we should have here at Reformation Bible Church. We should have hearts that want to be with one another and fellowship with one another around the gospel. At this time of year, we can fellowship around football or we can fellowship around politics. Those are the two biggies right now, right? but we should be fellowshipping around the gospel. But Paul's confidence, I want you to notice, was not in the people whom he loved and had koinonia with almost every day or regularly. Verse six tells us that his confidence was from first to last, not in them, but in God's work in them. And there's a difference. Friends will fail you, foes assail you. You've ever heard that? God will not fail you. God will not assail you if you're His. He may spank you if you're His child in need of spanking, but He's gonna do it for your good, not for your harm. And verse six says, being confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you, so it's, Him, God, who is beginning a good work in you, will do what? Will complete it, will finish it, will bring it to fruition, will telios it, will cause it to have its purpose until the day of Christ Jesus. And that's what I expect here among us at Reformation Bible Church, that God is gonna work in us and grow us up and make us more and more mature in our fellowship and in our care for one another. And then in verse seven, we read that this love that they have for one another is an objective as well as a personal love. Notice that this is going on while Paul's in prison. And while Paul was defending the gospel and while Paul was confirming the gospel, these people were actively partaking of grace with him. They participated in the work of I want you to notice two words here. The word Paul was defending, or Paul was doing the work of apologetics, apologia. He was defending the faith. He was tearing down the barriers that were between these people, these pagan people, and destroying the false ideas that would keep them from the gospel. He was answering real questions with real answers. He was able to destroy the strongholds of Satan. He was able to destroy the idols fit for destruction. Because Paul had learned, he had studied. And as a member of this congregation, you have lots of opportunities to learn and to study, especially about apologetics. We want you to know how to go to your Christmas table with all your family and have Uncle Joe who just hates God and has he's a an evolutionist and a and a liberal and woke and de I infected and You won't be able to say Uncle Joe I've got answers for all those questions that you have Real answers that have substance, that can stand the test of time, that no one can refute. No one can refute. So, I want you to be able to defend the truth of God against Uncle Joe. And then, he talks about this word confirming. By your lives, I want you to Show that the power of God is real in you. Remember that it's the power of God that's real in you. It is not you in your own works pulling yourself up by your bootstraps it's the power of God in you that transforms you that sanctifies you that that makes you the person that God wants you to be and So these people are actively partaking in the grace With Paul even while Paul is in Rome and there in Philippi they're partaking of the same grace because they're reading the same Bible, or they're hearing the same words from the pastors. They didn't have a whole Bible yet, but they had portions of it, and they were receiving the same information. And then we go to verse 8, where it talks about their hearts knit together. Now, this is a real burden to me because I want us to love each other in such a way that we're unbreakable. And I want, now, I'm idealistic, so I want you girls to come together on Tuesday night to the Women in the Scriptures study so that you can learn the same things at the same time and help one another, and as iron sharpens iron, so one woman sharpens another, so that our church will be knit together with the unbreakable Word of the Scriptures. That's how we should be living, doing these things together. And if we can't come every time, do the best we can. And the same thing with our men. On Thursday night, our Iron Men group, we need to be coming together and meeting together so that we can think together, so that we can think God's thoughts after Him as, As a group of men who can can improve one another and sanctity and help be used by God to sanctify one another So our hearts knit together through being shoulder-to-shoulder in in these studies in these works and and and then that prepares us to go out into the world to even a place like Philippi and to do the work externally, do the work outside of the church. For God is my witness, verse 8, how greatly I long for you with all the affection of Jesus Christ. We want to be together so we can grow together, so we can go together. And then This love and this relationship, according to this passage, has only just begun. It is going to grow and grow and it's going to get fuller and fuller, so says the text, but why? It's gonna grow because they're growing together in their knowledge. And this word knowledge here is not just the typical Greek word for know or knowledge. This is a word that means knowledge above knowledge or knowledge from above. And we're not trying to become Gnostics here and have special knowledge. What we're trying to do here is have the scriptures in our hands so we have God's knowledge, which is pretty special in my mind. It's pretty special, but it's not that esoteric, man-made, who knows where it comes from, but this knowledge, knowledge from above. from the Bible read, from the Bible understood, from the Bible applied, from the Bible lived, all by the power of God, the blessed Holy Spirit. And they are growing together in also, this text says, in discernment. What is discernment? It's this ability to distinguish truth from error, right from wrong, good from evil. A lot of people, In some of my classes, I've had men and women, boys and girls, I'll call them, I'll be talking to them and they'll say, oh, I'm a Christian and I'm really committed to the Lord, and maybe if you have a Bible study, I'll bring the boyfriend that I'm living with over to the Bible study. Do they not read the Bible? You know, we're all guilty of many things. But some of these basic baseline life occurrences, they don't even know. They're in their ignorance. They don't know right from wrong or good from evil. Now, did this growth just happen in this congregation in Philippi? No. Does it just happen here at Reformation Bible Church? No. This growth has to be worked at. You know, God saves you without your help, but he sanctifies you with your cooperation. He saves you, and if He saves you, He causes you to want to grow, to want to know Him better than you do now, to want to serve Him. And not because you do those things in order to become more saved or saved in the first place, but because you are saved, you want to do those, you want to live that kind of life that shows that you're different from the world and that you love God. So these things don't just happen. It takes work. It takes cooperation. And he says here that your love may abound, which means to grow over and above what is normal. You know, I talk about blood being thicker than water, but the Spirit is thicker than blood. There's no doubt that there are people in the world that the only thing we have in common, and I don't mean that lightly, but the thing that we have in common is that we're believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, that we're gonna live together in heaven forever and ever, and we can serve him here now according to the scriptures. And that causes me to be closer to them than even some of my own family, even some of my own blood family. That's the way it works, over and above what is normal. Still more and more, increased constantly, is what that means, in knowledge. And the New American Standard, I memorized the book of Philippians in the New American Standard, so preaching from the New King James, which I love, sometimes it's, but the word there, the word for knowledge there, epigonoska, is, they translate it, real knowledge, are, perfect knowledge, pure knowledge. Verse 10, that you may approve, properly test and apply the standard, say the metals, approve the things that are excellent. And excellent, the things that are superior, the things that are of greater value, the things that are different than the world's ideas, the things that are worth continuing into eternity, in fact, is what this is talking about. that you may be well-viewed, that's the word sincere, and not resisting or failing in morality, that's what it means without offense, till the day of Christ, which is the judgment day. So what is the main purpose in all this loving and all this growing and all this defending of the faith and this witnessing and this following the gospel? Well, verse 11 tells us that it's that we might be filled with the fruit of righteousness which are in Christ Jesus. Now, if you're looking at the New King James, it says fruits there. I looked it up, that's not the way it should have been translated. It should be singular. Fruit is, even in Philippians 1.11, is not plural, it's singular. The fruit of righteousness which are in Jesus Christ. Which reminds me of Galatians 5.22 and 23. But the fruit, singular, One peace that has all of these components. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. And this fruit is visible if it is in your life. You can't be filled with the fruit of the Spirit without people seeing the fruit of the Spirit in your life. And this fruit is invisible or not visible if it's not in your life. If it's not there, people will also see that. People can see what we are eventually. We may be able to trick people for a while, but pretty soon, it won't be long, until we will be exposed. So Paul is speaking here to people who are saved by grace. And if they are sanctified by grace, they will be engaged in being, I might have said that wrong. If they are saved by grace, they're going to be engaged in being sanctified by grace and cooperating with that grace. Because salvation is always accompanied by objective evidence. Look back at verse six. He says there, being confident of this very thing that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ. The good work which God begins in the believer grows to maturity. because God is doing it. It unfailingly, progressively grows toward maturity. And in this life, you're going to be more and more and more mature as the days go on if you are a true Christian. Now in this life, you're not going to become perfect. But the Scripture teaches that the souls of believers at their death are made perfect in holiness and immediately pass into glory, and their bodies being still united to Christ, rest in their graves until the resurrection. And Romans 8, 29 talks about the good work which God begins, works its way out in believers to maturity. Verse 28 and 29, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose, for whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. Now that ought to scare us and excite us all at once. Can you imagine? Carl Kenoki being like Jesus or Kirk Chastain being like Jesus. But that's God's plan for all of us who are truly his people. He is moving us and he wants us to be available to him in every way so that we're going to be molded and melted and made more and more and more like the Lord Jesus. And I'm going to give you a little Little story here, but You're like a piece of metal piece of gold and you've got dross So what does God do with this piece of dross that you are? Well, He heats up the furnace, and He gets it really, really, really hot, and He sticks you in, and He leaves you there a little while, and then He pulls you out, scrapes the dross off, and He looks and He says, hmm, does He reflect my image yet? How pure and perfect is that reflection as he is to glorify me, reflect me in his life? Oh, there's still a spot there and a spot there and a spot there. Back into the furnace. Over and over and over. Because God is interested in your holiness and you glorifying Him much more than He is your happiness or your comfort. Much more than your happiness or your comfort. The sweetness of God results in us being disciplined as a good father disciplines his child, or as a good assayer would assay metal and make sure that it's pure. for His glory and for our good. So salvation is always accompanied by evidence. Jonathan Edwards makes the point that true religion, in a great part, consists of holy affections. What's the first great commandment? You all know it. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. What is the evidence that Christ gave against the church in Revelation 2? He says, I have this against you that you have left your first love. John 14, 15 says, if you love me, keep my commandments. John 14, 21 says, he who has my commandments and keeps them, he's the one who loves me. You see, He wants you to love Him, but you can't love Him until you know Him. You can't love Him until you know Him. And that's why He says in the great high priestly prayer in John 17, that this is eternal life. that they know you and the one whom you have sent. Knowing God as the true and living God according to the gospel, and knowing the Son, the true and living Son according to the gospel, by the power of God the Holy Spirit, is evidence of our lives belonging to him. And if you're a believer, you're going to be hungry to know Christ. And it's going to take a priority in your life. If you're a believer, you're going to be hungry to know the Father. And it's going to take a priority in your life. And if you're a believer, you're going to be hungry to know Holy Spirit, God the Holy Spirit. And that's going to take a priority in your life, which means that if it's a priority, There are gonna be things that you can't do because you are doing this. You're gonna have to plan your time and plan your energy and plan your sleep and plan your environment, the whole thing, so that you can live your life getting to know God better and better and better. And our conclusion of this passage is in 11b, is why did God say all of this if you look at the very, very last portion of our text for today? Being filled with the fruit of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. And what is the main thing? The main thing is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. We have a situation in this church where we can do those things. We ought to be doing those things, but we can do them better. So brothers and sisters, let's do them better. Amen? Amen.