Welcome to another message from the book of Philippians. We were talking last time, and Paul was talking about, he was torn apart between two things. One to stay here, and one to go be with the Lord. And he said, it's more important that I stay here. It's more important for you that I stay here. And I brought in the illustration of my family when we were young, starving Indians in California, working in the fields, and going out into the fields, and my grandmother leading people and singing, when the roll was called up yonder, and throwing loaves, we carried it, and quite a few other things, because they were singing themselves into glory, because it was horrible, living in a, I mean, really, over 120 degree temperature, with no shade except what the cotton, you know, the cotton plants, sometimes you hoped they were five or six foot tall, so you could get down in it, bend over, you're always bending over picking cotton, and you didn't have one piece of cotton left in that field, they'd send you back, wouldn't they, Marilyn? Not one piece of cotton. You better not see any white in that field, or you get to go back. And living in that type of conditions, you look forward to going to glory. Paul the Apostle had faced the lion's mouths. He had faced the wild beasts in the Colosseum, and God shut their mouths, evidently. But he said, I don't know. He said, I am really torn between two straits, to leave and be with the Lord, or to be here for you. Now, by the way, they talk about soul sleeping. You got your seventh-day Adventist, you got your offshoots of them and you have your Well, it used to be Arnold Garner Ted Armstrong and Herbert Armstrong and they had The idea of soul sleepings You sleep when you go to when you die you go to sleep But Paul said when I when you die is to be present with the Lord Period that's it. You don't go to sleep you you when you leave this world. You're present with the Lord You don't have to worry about anything here From then on, I mean, you're going to be with the Lord to take your body and put it in a grave, in a hope chest. Because, you know, one of these days, God is going to raise that body up, whether it's in the resurrection for the just or for the non-believers. Because they will all be believers then, but you will be resurrected and judged and thrown into the lake of fire forever and ever. But one way or the other, you're going to be raised. I had a friend of mine talk about They take bodies and decompose the bodies now and give you a sack of bodies in a sack and you take them and put them around trees or whatever you want to do or bury it and then it brings forth life. It's like fertilizer. And can you imagine? Now, We've got people that their bodies have gone into the ocean. The fish ate them, pooped them out, and they're all over the bottom of the sea. But when the Lord resurrects all things, it doesn't matter where they are, will the sea give up the dead? And can you imagine a tree bark ripping off of that tree and going up into a person from wherever they are all over? But that's what will happen one of these days, the resurrection, the Anastasia. Now let's go into verse number 25, and Paul is still talking about being persuaded that to stay here is very important for them. He said in verse number 24, but to remain in the flesh is more necessary, needful, and essential because of you all. Paul would finally be beheaded. Peter, according to legend, was crucified upside down. Paul was a Roman citizen, so the most humane, painless way of execution was to have your head chopped off. I mean, you died, but it's a bloody, gruesome-looking thing. But that was a lot more quick death than what it was hanging on a cross and dying slowly. 125 now from the Greek. meno, chi, parameno, possine, hymen, estane, hymon, procoptane, procopane, that is, chi, charon, tes, fisios. And this chi conjunction, little word, chi, page 2-8, and this demonstrative pronoun, and this having been thoroughly persuaded, nominative, singular, masculine, second, perfect, participle, active, having been thoroughly persuaded, I know, oida, I know, first, first and singular, second, perfect, indicative, active, I know that or because or that I shall remain, meno, First, first, singular, present, future, indicative, active, I shall remain, and I shall continue. That word para and meno there, I shall remain beside you, is what it literally says. I shall remain beside you. First, first, singular, future, indicative, active. They would remain beside. Para means beside, and meno means or is saying I will remain beside you with all possine, instrumental plural, well all of you all that him in there is a a plural second-person pronoun and then ace here the word ace is an extension or limitation of thought or verbal action that is the grammatical rule for this it's on page 119 in the analytical lexicon and right here it says because of because of because of the you all because of you all for the blazing a trail pro-caffeine that means to chop forward blazing a trail and are also joy of the faith now I want to go back someplace else now if I can find my Greek I know it's got here someplace my Greek Bible maybe I got this one. I want to read you another grammatical rule for ace, which is translated incorrectly in every translation, basically. Nearly every translation, that is. In Acts 2.38. Let's go to Acts, the book of Acts, the second chapter in verse number 38. Here we have this translated correctly, as I did. my worn out Bible here. Let me read this to you again where we are here in 125. And for this, having been thoroughly persuaded, I know that I shall remain, and I shall remain beside you, with you all, eis tein himen pro capen kai kara te spesios. This word aether, it means because of, for the purpose of. Alright? Right here, because of. Because I remain here because of you. I remain here for the purpose of you all. Now let's look at Acts 238. From the Greek, if I can read it here. Small writing. Petros de pros Autos, Metatonosate, Kai, Baptizato, Kostos, Hymen, Epi, Te, Onomate, Esu, Christo. Boy, I've written this up so I can't hardly read the Greek. Eis, Anaphason, Ton, Hematon, I need a double magnifier here. I'm going to show you what I'm reading through. I'll hold this Bible up here. That's the way my Greek Bible is all written up there. You can see it. A little hard to read through. Now let me translate this for you. Now, let's go all the way back up to 36. And I'll read this. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were stabbed down in their hearts. That's what it literally says. And said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Now there are some believers out here and some non-believers. But they're screaming and hollering at him, what shall we do? We're sorry for what we did. And then Peter said unto them, And then Peter answered unto them, saying, in the heart, Peter toward them said, you all repent, you all, that's plural, you all repent, every one of you repent, okay? And be baptized, each one of you, And let each one of you that repent, now that's singular. All people are supposed to repent, but singular, those that have repented, let each one of you baptize upon the name of Jesus Christ because of you have received the forgiveness of sin. You're baptized because you received the forgiveness of sin. It's not to, not to get it, but because of it. Just like it is here in 125. And every one of you that has been baptized, he shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit. Now, you're baptized, and when you're baptized, you become a church member. You go before a church. And if you present yourself before a church, if you present yourself before a Baptist church of really ancient origins, and they carry on the polity like it's supposed to be carried on. It's what we call a congregational rule. You come forward. Sometimes you've been saved beforehand, but then sometimes you can be saved then. You go down and you ask the Lord to save your soul and forgive you of your sins. And then a minister or deacon or somebody will talk to you or another church member, and they'll ask you, do you want to be baptized or whatever? Do you want to join the church? Because if you're going to be baptized, then you're going to join the church. And are you ready to give your life to God and follow the Lord and all his purpose for your life? And if the person says yes, the church votes to have to to receive them for baptism, and after baptism, they'll have full rights and fellowship with the church. Now, baptism doesn't save them. The guy got saved right there, or the guy got saved, or the woman got saved at home, or wherever she was otherwise. And, you know, a lot of people are saved outside of church. They're saved at home. Somebody leads them to the Lord, or whatever, and then they go to church. When you are baptized, you become a membership, then you have the leadership of the Holy Spirit. When you are saved, the Holy Spirit comes into your body and indwells you. But, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the leadership of the Holy Spirit are two different things. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit will lead you to church. It'll lead you to be baptized. And so after you're baptized and you become a church member, you will have the leadership of the Holy Spirit as part of that assembly and part of that God. God's Spirit leads his churches. And God's Spirit then dwells the believers. I hope I made that straight, plain. And I hope you understand what it means here. I will remain here because of you. He wasn't going to remain here to get saved or anything else. He's going to remain here because of you. You're baptized because of remission of sins, not to receive remission of sins. The baptism and the Lord's Supper are not vehicles of grace. I know you haven't been taught this out there, a lot of you, but baptism and the Lord's Supper are not vehicles of grace. Baptism is what you do in obedience to God. You're baptized because of what Jesus did for you. You're baptized because God saved you. You're not baptized to get saved. You're not baptized for the original sin, as they do in many churches. You're baptized for the remission of sins, for the original sin, and then you've got to pray up and keep up going all the rest of the time on your own, after you make that decision. The Lord's Supper is not a vehicle of grace. You don't get anything from the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is not for you. The Lord's Supper is for the Lord. You remember Him. You take the Lord's Supper in remembrance of Him. You don't take the Lord's Supper to get something. You take the Lord's Supper because you already got something. You don't take the Lord's Supper to get something. You take the Lord's Supper to remember our Lord because you already got forgiveness of sins. and so you're honoring him in the Lord's Supper. Verse number 126 now, Hena, To, Cox, Kema, Hemon, Peri, Si, Ue, En, Christo, Isu, En, Emoi, Dea, Tes, Emes, Parousias, Pauline, Tros, Emos, Sorry, I'm losing my voice today a little bit. Hina, a little conjunction. In order to that, the boasting or bragging of you all, genitive, plural, second person, pronoun, it may be about, it may be, may be about, in Christ. Your boasting should be in Christ. We brag on Jesus because Jesus does it all. We are not saved by our works. We're not kept saved by our works. Listen to that, you somewhat hyper-Calvinist. You're not kept saved by your works. Let's put it this way now, so I make that point. So many times the Armenians say, if you don't remain in Christ, if you don't do the good works, you're not going to be with the Lord. And then come around and you've got your hyper-Calvinists that say, you don't know whether you've ever been saved until you remain faithful until the end. What's the difference in that? You both don't have security. Neither one. Salvation is by grace. You do work. Because you've been saved you take the Lord's Supper because he saved you and you remember it you're baptized because He saved you not to get saved There's nothing you can do to secure your salvation only submit and follow That's it 126 in order that the bragging or boasting of you it may about it may be about in Christ Jesus that little preposition in Christ always soon that little preposition there, page 139, in Christ Jesus, locative, singular, masculine, locative, singular, masculine, both of those, esu, Christu, or Christo, esu. In, preposition again, page 137, in me, through, preposition again, through, genitive, singular, through, of me, the My presence is what it says. Presence, it means beside being again to you all. Now let's go back and read these two verses in the Amplified Bible quickly. Since I am convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy and faith." Now, the word progress, Pro Cofto, that means for your trailblazing. You have trails to blaze. Each and every one of us have a trail to blaze. We have a path to blaze in our lives. Maybe you've never been there before, so you'll blaze new trails. So that your rejoicing for me may overflow in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again, through my presence again. That your rejoicing for me may overflow in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again. Now let's go back here again now and read number 26. Monon oxios Tu yongliu, tu kresu, pali tu eiste, hina eite, elthon kai edon himas eite, apon akuo ta peri. See if it goes on from there. Himon hote stekete, This light there is working my eyes over. That's why I can hardly read sometimes. that I have to have it on or you can't see me. Simple as that. Mono, that's a little adverb there, mono means only. Only worthily, another adverb there, oxios, only worthily, in this word here, oxios means a manner of becoming to weigh down the scales. Worthily, a manner of becoming to weigh down the scales. In history, and even in modern times, of course, my modern times are a lot different to your modern times, because I go back almost 80 years, they used to be, they were rulers in the world, and to show those rulers how much they appreciated them, they put them on a scale every year, and they weighed that much gold to them. that they would weigh down the scale. That's this term right here. That's the term, oxios. Only that you weigh down the scale, that you're worthy of the gospel, of the genitive singular definite article and the gospel genitive singular, of Christ, the gospel belonging to Christ. Now what is the gospel? What is it? The gospel belonging to Christ. The gospel is 1 Corinthians 15 chapter verses number 1 on down, forward, And if you look it up in encyclopedia in F, that means following. Personal one, following. I've come unto you and I bring the gospel. Not a new gospel, but a gospel. The gospel that I brought to you first, that Jesus Christ came into this world according to the scriptures. That he was born of the right family, that he was born in the right place, that he was raised in the right place, that he went out on his ministry, that he was a Hamashiah, of God, and that He died for our sins, He was crucified, like the Bible says according to the Scriptures, that He was raised according to the Scriptures, and that it was verified that He rose from the dead, Anastasia, the resurrection from the dead, the dead ones. That's the Gospel. Only worthily of the gospel of Christ Jesus Conduct yourselves police yourselves. That's what it literally says police to a state Conduct yourselves as a good citizen police yourselves The state of law-abiding citizen In order that whether will correlative here now whether having come to Look at this word Elthon there, having come, that's nominative, singular, masculine, second heirs, participle, active voice. Having come and having seen, Adon, nominative, singular, masculine, second heirs, participle, active, having seen, you all, or every individual, whether, and this word here is being absent, this word upon there, It comes from Apo and Aimee. Apo and Aimee. Apo means from. Aimee means to be. Whether being absent. I'm not there. I'm not to be here. It means from being. And that's nominee, singular, masculine, present, participle, active. Being absent. I hear. First person singular, present, indicative, middle. That I hear concerning you the things concerning you is what it says there, literally. you all, because, a little casual particle here, page 294, because, ye stand firmly, stēkēte, that second person plural, present, indicative, active, stēkē, stēkō, you stand firmly in one spirit, in hīna, is one, a little numeral there, in one numate, one spirit, In churches, sometimes there are more than one spirit. Now, in a church, the Spirit of God leads that church, but sometimes the spirit of error gets in that church. And if you look here in church history, you'll see how that happens all through church history. The spirit of error gets there, but as Paul said, I want one spirit leading you. One spirit leading you. One spirit. with one soul. One soul. One life. The word Psyche there, Psyche in Hebrew is Nefesh. One spirit. Numate in Greek. Ruah in Hebrew. In one spirit. With one or in one soul. Standing together. Striving together. Sina athleo. Sina athleo. Present participle, active, nominative, plural, masculine. From Sina and athleo. To stand together, to wish together. That word comes from together mind, together wish. When a church is in harmony, the church wishes together. The church wishes together. What the church wishes is what Jesus wishes. When the church is in total harmony, they will wish for the same things. And they wish for the same thing Christ wants for them. Striving together, wishing together in the faith. In the faith of the gospel. In the pastis, locative singular faith there. Genitive singular of the gospel. And what is the gospel again? The good news, the message. that Jesus Christ came into the world and He died for us. And then here the last verse in this message, now, Kai mei turo menoi in meidenei hepo ton ante kei menon haetus esten altois endexus apo leos himon dei Soterios kai toto aputhiou. And now being terrified. And not being terrified. Kai, conjunction, not, particle of negation, page 268. And then we have the word nominally, plural, masculine, present, participle, passive. And not being terrified as a scared horse. A scared horse. That's what it is, the scared horse. Don't act like a scared horse. Now, I'm going to tell you something about horses and mules and donkeys. The word donkey in Hebrew means to walk carefully. Walk carefully. Don't go any place where it's going to hurt you. Now, a mule is a cross between a horse and a donkey. And a mule is a lot smarter than a horse and a lot more careful than a horse because he came from a donkey, which means to walk carefully. Now, a horse is more brave because he's somewhat stupid, but he gets scared at times. Now, Marilyn, we have mustangs in our yard a lot, don't we? We have them go out here, you can see droppings all over where mustangs have been in the yard. They are scared because they have to survive. They are not a predator, but they are an object of a predator. They're a victim. And so if they stay alive, they have to be very careful, don't they, all the time? And it says, but not being terrified as a scared horse in nothing by the agency of, in nothing, that end preposition, page 130, and then moreover not one thing, that's may, day, knee, that comes from may, not, day, wicked verse in conjunction, and then a numeral one. Not being scared by one thing, by the ones being up against you. Hippo. By the agency of the ones, and that genitive, genitive plural there, tone, genitive plural masculine article, very funny article that is, and it has a practical substance that the ones lining up against you. That word is genitive plural masculine, present, participle, middle voice. The ones lining up for themselves against you, opposing lines. Like in a line of battle. It grows a picture here now, is you've got a line of soldiers. And here you have a soldier, and over there you have a soldier. All these soldiers here, they have an opposing one that they want to kill. They want to kill this guy over here. This guy wants to kill that guy, and that guy wants to kill this guy. And that's what it is. It's the battle lines. That is battle line there. That was Antique Hay Manon. It's lined up against each other like a battle line, which is them. We got a word, index of this word right here. Index, index finger. You point with your index finger. pointed out, verified. This is a little Pauline word. By the way, Paul invented this word. We got a word index from it, and it means pointed out for destruction, death. Apoleos. That's like a gladiator, a signal to a gladiator. This is the word apoleos. We are in a Colosseum, in the great Colosseum in Rome, and we have all the people in the stands, and we have gladiators out there. And one gladiator has the other gladiator down on the ground, and he has a knife at his throat. And they either do that, kill him, or that, save him. Don't kill him. If he fought really good and they don't want to see him die right then, they'll say no. Otherwise, they'll say kill him. That's a sign of death right here, the destruction. The point to death, apoleos, the death of you, but, weak adversive conjunctive, but salvation, and this is from God. Salvation, soterios, that's genitive singular, salvation and, or also, or even, this is from God, that little conjunction, or particle of affirmation, This is from God, Apo. From Thieu. Now let's read this in the Amplified Bible one more time. Number, if I can find it here. And in no way be alarmed or intimidated. Remember, not like a scared horse. And anything by your opponents for such constancy and fearlessness on your part. It is a clear and sign and a proof and seal for them of their impending destruction. But in the clear sign for you of deliverance and salvation, and that salvation is from God. That salvation is from God. Now, as in the gladiator in the Coliseum, you're down on your back, the guy's got your knife at your throat, and the mercy is in the people in the Coliseum, and they say like this, he's safe, he's safe. It's not like this, death. No matter what the world throws at you out there, no matter what the world throws at you, God has got an answer for it. Paul is going to die. He's half starved to death. He doesn't have enough clothes to keep him warm. He doesn't have enough food. You know, when you were in a prison, you would freeze to death or die of starvation if some of your friends didn't bring you something there because they weren't going to feed you. You just had to be taken care of by your friends. And Paul says, my friends have supplied my needs beyond what I need. Paul has been cold. He has been cold. He's been hungry. He's been beaten. He's been turned at loose in the Coliseum with wild beasts after him, going to eat him, and then God stopped their mouths. And you can say like Romans 8 and 29, I am persuaded that nothing in heaven or earth or created thing or things yet to come or any being or supernatural being is able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We are saved when we are saved in Him. And we ought to be thankful for that every day. We ought to be thankful for the salvation that God gives to us. We do not deserve it. We do not keep it. He keeps it. He keeps us. He keeps you. He keeps me. He leads us to himself, and he keeps us to himself. Our Father, we thank you for this message. Father, please use it for your honor and glory. And from where it goes out in the world, please touch lives with it to salvation and to service. Please, I pray for all of my students all over the world, and I know they're all over in Australia and Wales and Philippines and India, Africa, everywhere, France, Germany, India. I pray for these students out there, wherever they live and all across from one end of the United States to the other, I pray for them. Touch their lives and heal them from this world And Father, thank you for the salvation you give to us each and every day. Help us to appreciate you more. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.