Well, now this is the last meeting that we are here this time, and uh, we want to thank you all for fellowship we've enjoyed, and the meals and the em- the hospitality, and we've appreciated it all, and we want to thank you for that. Interesting going around and discovering that though we've been coming out to something like thirty two years, we still find that there are relationships which we didn't know, you know, somebody related to someone else and so on. In fact, we found so many relationships of people to one another in this particular visit, I've almost begun to believe that I must be related to someone here as well. Um, however, that may be, um, I- I- this visit has also been coupled with sadness, particularly last week, and we will still be remembering those who miss loved ones in our prayers. I want to read with you tonight from the Epistle to the Philippians and the second chapter. The Epistle to the Philippians and the second chapter. Well, we'll start rather in chapter one first of all, and we'll take the connection up. Chapter one of Philippians and verse twenty seven: Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs. That you stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. Chapter two. if there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the spirit, if any bowels and mercies, 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. Verse twelve: Wherefore, my beloved, as he have always obeyed, not our as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good. Do all things without murmurings and disputings, that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. Now, over these weeks, we've been looking at certain truths. During the Easter break, of course, we were looking at to that the resurrection, uh, passages and the those particular ones because it was Easter. But on the Sunday morning, we've been looking at certain truths relative to a local church. And in fact, on the Tuesday evenings, I've also been looking at some of these. We were looking at the first mention of the local church as found in the Gospel of Matthew a few weeks ago, and seeing what the Lord said about that. And we looked last time, which is two weeks ago, at the church at Antioch and saw that, uh, example of a New Testament church and what was involved in it. And of course, when you read about these New Testament churches and new i- in your Bible, what you do discover about them is that there was no perfect church. There was something wrong with them all. And that gives me encouragement because sometimes one almost gets the impression when you hear people preach that in the New Testament days, the church was, churches were perfect. They weren't. They were composed of people who had their failings, just as I have failings, and the fact is that I'm very glad that that is so because when the apostles wrote their letters to churches, particularly the Apostle Paul in this case, they wrote correcting those things which are wrong. And in fact, the wrong things which were seen in the churches in those early days have been reproduced every century since in local churches. How would we know how to deal with them unless they had already occurred, and the Spirit of God had already given instruction in his word of how to deal with them? Now, we've read tonight from the Epistle of the Philippians, and I suppose that this particular church was one which the apostle loved most of all, if one could put it that way. It was the first church which was founded on the continent of Europe. He left Asia Minor, and he went first of all, landed in Philippi, and he preached the gospel there, and there was a church formed. And it was a, a church composed very correctly, because when you look at the opening verse of the Epistle to the Philippians, you will notice that the church consisted, he says, of the saints in Christ Jesus. Well, they are the most important, of course, which are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons. So it was a church which was properly constituted. Now, one of the interesting things about the church at Philippi is that we do know some of the names and occupations of the people who were in this particular church. Uh, that's because the background to this, this particular church is given in, in, in the sixteenth chapter of the book of the Acts. And so we can say that when you look across the centuries, that we've come to know some of the people in this church. For instance, there was a lady called Lydia, who, when the apostle came down and preached at Philippi, he went to a place where prayer was want to be made, and he discovered there was a group of ladies, one of whom was Lydia, a seller of purple. That meant, of course, that she was a merchant prince. She was no poor lady. She was considerably wealthy because purple was something which is extremely expensive. And, uh, he led her to Christ and her house. And then there was a slave girl who followed them, uh, and said, these be the servants of the Most High God, and they show unto us the way of salvation. And he cast a demon over that girl, and doubtless she would have been in that church. There was a jailer who was led to Christ and his family. And so these are members of this particular church, but then when you start reading the book itself, you discover that there are others in chapter two, and we didn't read down further. There was a man called Epaphroditus, and he was a very choice character. And he was sent by this church to Paul at Rome, and he carried, uh, material assistance and help to the Apostle Paul. And he was dearly loved by the church at Philippi, and they heard he was sick, and they sorrowed, uh, greatly. And when he heard that they sorrowed, he sorrowed because they sorrowed. Uh, and uh, and and he, uh, was restored to health, and and Paul sent him back to them. But you will read also in chapter four that there are others. For instance, if you read in chapter four and verse two, you notice he speaks of a lady called Euodias and another one called Syntyche, who apparently didn't get on too well together. And he speaks to them. Next verse in chapter, verse three in chapter four, he speaks of a man called Clement, who was in that particular church. So we have quite a group of people who we know of who were in the church at, at Philippi. Now, the... one of the problems which you can have when you come to this particular letter is that poor Euodius and Syntyche get a bad press, and very often the blame of all the, of everything which happens in Philippi is laid at the door of these two sisters. Uh, of course, one of the things which happens when you come to read the New Testament is that when the apostle exhorts and advises, he does so because there are things which need to be exhorted about and which he needs to give advice about. And so when you read in the first, in in this in this epistle of the necessity of being of one accord, of one mind, and that's something which is emphasized again and again in this epistle. It is because there was a need for that. In other words, underlying it is this fact that the church at Philippi was not of one mind, was not of one accord. That's why he is telling them to be that. And so it wasn't just simply that there were two people who disagreed, there were other people who disagreed. And yet it was a church which he loved deeply. Now, what you do when you come to a church which is like that, and this is one of the things which the New Testament helps us considerably with. When we come to a local church and we find there are certain problems in it, the New Testament will give us some guidance of how to handle the problem. It does so, of course, in this particular epistle. Now, the apostle, first of all, tackles the, uh, the, the, the problem in this way. The first thing he does, and we're going to look at chapter two in, in a moment and see how he tackles it in more detail, but the first thing he does, and he does it in every epistle where there is a problem. The first thing he does is he presents Christ. That's the first thing. You remember that back in the Old Testament, there was the story of, of Elisha, and uh, they, this guy went out and he picked the gourds which were poisonous, and he put them in the stew that they, that they were making, the broth they were making. And uh, they said, when they tasted it, that there was death in the pot. And what uh, he did was, he took a measure of meal, same sort of measure as the priest took when he offered the meal offering upon the altar in the Old Testament, and he put it into the stew, and it became fine, good, wholesome. Uh, and you know, the fact is that where there's death in the pot, where there's problems in a local church, the first thing to do is to bring Christ into the situation. That's the first thing, and that's the first step which he makes. Now, please, very quickly, work with me through this book and notice what he says in each chapter. So we're going to read, first of all, in chapter one and verse twenty one. Chapter one and verse twenty one. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. For to me to live is Christ. You know, to me is put first by way of emphasis. That's what the apostle is seeking to do. Now, for others, it might be something else. For the politician, it might be that for him to live is power. For the worldling, it may be that for him to live is pleasure. For the materialist, for him to live, it may be possessions. For some, it might be prestige, and for others, it might be popularity. But, says Paul, for me, for me to live is Christ. You see, he was so full of Christ, so preoccupied with him and for him, that Christ sums up his life. If Christ was taken out of Paul's life, there would be nothing else left for him in life. Christ was nothing less than life for Paul. For me to live is Christ. Christ was the sum of life. You know, it's a very challenging statement, isn't it? You can look at it in the reverse way. If Christ was taken, if everything else was taken out of our lives, our possessions, the things we enjoy, et cetera, et cetera, if everything was taken out of our lives and we had only Christ left, would we be satisfied with him? That's the way to look at it, perhaps. Would we really be satisfied just simply to have him and nothing else? Well, the apostle says, for me to live is Christ, that's it. That's my life. That's the sum of my life. Now, in chapter two, he looks at Christ, the standard of our conduct, and we're going to come back to that very briefly at the end. Uh, and you'll notice what he says in chapter two in the, uh, verse, um, five is, let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus. And then he gives the standard of the conduct, uh, which he is seeking to bring to their attention. But then in chapter three, you notice Christ is again the subject. Notice in verse ten, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering, be made conformable to his death. Notice that in all these things, Christ is central, his sufferings, his death, that I may know him. And here it's Christ, the supreme object of the heart, which he's speaking of. You know, we have a wonderful savior. The older I get, the more I wonder at how privileged I am to have ever come to know him. I tell you what, there is in Christ enough and more the heart and mind to fill. And the apostle is saying that, that I may know him. You know, when you think of the Lord Jesus, uh, just think of his love. And the apostle writes the cur- to the, to the Ephesians, that you might know the love of Christ. And then he adds this, which passes knowledge. Called upon to know the unknowable. See, the fact is, however much I paddle in the ocean rims of his love, there is still out there vast depths in that ocean which I can still enjoy and taste. Or, if you look at it another way, in the fullness of his being, says the Lord Jesus, he is known only by the Father. There's so much in him because all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in him, that is only God who could fully understand him and appreciate him. And so before us, we have a pursuit which will take not just the life, our lifetime, but will take us into eternal ages. You know, however much we know him now, there'll be so much more to know when we see him and when we are with him. It's not know about him, incidentally. I mean, you could know about him. Uh, you can know about him by studying the word of God, and that's one way to, to come to know him as well, or you could read books about him, and you can come to know about him, and that, in a sense, is just simply head knowledge. But it's not that. What he says is that I may know him. It is a personal knowledge of Christ. We came to know him once when we trusted him as Savior. That was very initial. Uh, this is life eternal, that I may know thee as the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. And that was an initial thing. But from then on, there is a deepening knowledge of him. There is a pursuit which will never end to know him. I want to tell you that in seeking to know him, there will never be any disappointment from him. He's not a disappointment. And then lastly, you will notice in chapter four that the apostle says that Christ again is- is uppermost, and you no- notice here in chapter four and in verse thirteen, four four thirteen. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. And here he's talking about Christ, the source of strength. Now, we need to be careful when you interpret scripture, that you always interpret in the context, because sometimes scripture can be taken out of its context and can be used to, to, to, to try to, uh, prove all sorts of things. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Well, now, supposing you went out tomorrow morning and you tried to walk on the sea, would you do it? But it says all things. If you went up to the statue, to Lib statue, uh, to the, uh, the largest building in New York and you jumped out of the window and flapped your arms, would you fly? Christ let you fly? Of course not. You are an actual fact in these cases, breaking his, his natural laws. So what does he mean? Well, go back to the previous verse. You've always got to interpret the context, and he says, verse twelve: I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. And what he is saying is, look, when I am abased and people put me down, I could stand that because Christ strengthens me. When I abound, and there's always a possibility of my, uh, leaning more upon my abundance of things, then Christ saves me from that too. Uh, I know how to be full and to be hungry when I'm starving. I, Christ supports me in that too. When I suffer need, I know that I can come to him, and he is my support, my strength. And what he is saying to us is simply this, that in all the circumstances of life in which we find ourselves, Christ is a source of strength to meet all those needs and all those circumstances. And so the strength which Christ imparted to him enabled him to meet the circumstances which he details in verse twelve. Now, very quickly, let me go back to the passage. Now, I want to point out a verse here to you which I- I find many commentators get puzzled about, and it's the verse, uh, in- in, uh, um, in chapter two, and I- I'm looking now at verse twelve. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not in my presence only, but now much more my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. And then, of course, commentators look at that and they scratch their heads a bit, and they come up with all sorts of suggestions. Work out your own salvation in fear and trembling. But I thought that God worked my salvation for me. I thought that my salvation was provided for me when the Savior died. I didn't think I had to work to do that. So what does it mean to work out my salvation with fear and trembling? Or work out your salvation, he says, with fear and trembling. And why does he talk about his absence? What's that got to do with it? And why does he talk about God's presence in the next verse? Now the fact is, you see, that when you read some writers about this, they come with suggestions which I don't really understand. One of those suggestions in one particular book is that you work out what God has worked in. Now, I must confess that I don't quite know what that means. I don't know if you could help me on that. But you see, the answer really is this, that in the New Testament, salvation sometimes takes on a meaning which is different to the meaning we usually apply to it. That is to say that when we talk about salvation, we normally think of salvation as being saved from our sins, and that is the general way in which salvation is talked about in the New Testament. But there are occasions when salvation is talked about in another way, and there are occasions when salvation is talked about in a very limited way, and in particular applying to circumstances and to life. Now turn back to chapter one for a moment, follow with me. Chapter one and verse nineteen: For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. According to my earnest expectation, and so on, he, and he goes on to talk about, uh, something, uh, about the possibility of his being released. Now, let's just think of that for a moment. Wasn't he saved already? Of course he was. Uh, do their prayers make him more saved? No. Well, what does he mean then when he says, this will turn to my salvation through your prayers? Well, they were praying for him. What were they praying? They were praying that he would be released from prison. That's what they were praying. They were praying that he'd be saved from being executed. That's what they were praying. And so he is talking about salvation here in that very limited sense. Now let's turn over to the epistle to Timothy again and just pick out another one. Timothy chapter two, first epistle of Timothy chapter two. I want you to look at the last verses of this particular, uh, chapter. Verse fifteen. notwithstanding, she, that is the woman, shall be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety. So, it says she shall be saved in childbearing. Now, you know, I was in Romania two years ago, and I was ministering to a, a group of evangelists, and they actually believed that the woman was saved through childbearing, and the more children she bore, the more saved she was, and their children about their families of fourteen kids. Now, that might seem very strange, but why is it then that women are saved through childbearing, but men aren't? Because they don't bear children. So it can't be that, can it? Can't be that. Besides which, you are not saved through childbearing. You are saved through faith in Christ. So what is it then? Well, just turn over to another chapter, shall we, and just see if we can get a bit of help on this. And let's go down now to verse fourteen of chapter five. I will therefore that the younger m- women marry, bear children, guide the house, give no occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully, for some are already turned aside after Satan. Now there were some young widows who, it tells us in verse thirteen, were going from house to house, house, uh, gossiping and tattling and so on, busybodies speaking about things they ought not to speak about. And so he said, now look, the answer to this is that these young widows should marry again, and they should bear children. And if they don't, a dead possibility with some of these is that, well, something's happened to some, he said, they've been turned away to Satan. And what he is talking of when he talks about childbearing is that the very act of bringing up children would save these people from being turning to Satan, they'd be saved from that. It's that very limited sense in which it is being used. What about Philippians then? Well, I said that when you go through this particular epistle, what you find is this, that this epistle is full of one-mindedness, being of one mind, of one accord, like-minded, et cetera and et cetera, having the same love, uh, esteeming another better than oneself, and so on. That's the sort of thing which this chapter is full of. And it was because here was an assembly which was divided. There were divisions in it. There were not of one mind. And consequently, when he says this, he, when he says to them in verse twelve, uh, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, what he is saying is, you are divided, and the divisions amongst you, but you can put it right. You can work out that salvation. You can work out the problems. You can save yourselves from division with fear and trembling. You can do that. Now, I'm not going to be there to help you. I won't be there, he says, but God will be there, and he will help you to do it. So he's talking a very local thing and of the particular situation which they find themselves with their own problems, and he's going to tell them how they do it. Now, let me be very, very brief because I'm going to get, I have to get through this in a couple of minutes. How are they to do that? Well, let's go back to verse twenty seven, shall we? Let your conversation, chapter one, become the gospel of Christ. And as he says, you need to behave worthily of the gospel of Christ. Notice again, stand fast in one spirit. Notice again, strive together with one mind for the faith of the gospel. Chapter two, verse two, be like-minded, having the same love, of one accord, of one mind, esteem each other better than oneself. And then, of course, down to verse four: look not every man in his own things. That is to say, uh, what he is saying here is, don't regard fixedly your own things so that you exclude and forget the needs of others, become self-seeking, self-absorbed, and you forget that others have needs, and you forget to meet them. Look at verse three. Look at that's very positive so far, but look at verse three. He says in verse three, let nothing be done through strife. Now the word strife means intrigue or faction. It means the exaltation of party, uh, or vainglory. And vainglory means self-conceit. And this is not the exaltation of party, it's the exaltation of self. And then he says, don't look on one's own things. Verse fourteen: do all things without murmurings and disputings. Now, what are murmurings? Murmurings are our inward attitudes towards others. You know, the grudging attitudes sometimes we have towards others. What are disputings? Disputings are about the duties of others and one's own rights. And somebody has said that if we could get murmurings out of the individual, we would get disputings out of the church. It's worth thinking about. But why should we bother about this? Well, let's just look very quickly at verse one of chapter two. If there be any consolation in Christ, any comfort, any solace, any entreaty. What he is saying simply is this: we're in Christ. That's true, isn't it? Every believer's in Christ. And he's saying, you know, it's a paradox, it's a contradiction to say that you walk in unity with Christ, but you're in disunity with one another. That doesn't work out. And then he says, secondly, the comfort of love. One of the things which was so convincing in the early church was the love which Christians had for each other. And the heathens said, when they took them to their death, behold how these Christians love one another. And then he talks about the communion of the spirit. It's the spirit which has made us, brought us together in one. It's the Spirit who sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts, and we're to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. And Paul is saying, well, the Spirit has created a fellowship, and we're to maintain that fellowship. Then notice he says, any bowels and mercies, and that's compassion towards the saints. The Lord Jesus had compassion. We sometimes hear in our prayers that there are people whose hearts are hurting. You know, that happens right throughout the world. In every Christian church, you'll find that there are people whose hearts are hurting, and that's why in the New Testament you have such an emphasis upon compassion. Compassion towards the saints. Says he writes, says it, says the apostle when he writes to the Colossians, put on as elect of God, holy and beloved, compassion. Very first thing he says, the basis of it, compassion towards others. Now, let me just very quickly finish off because I need to, to do this quickly. Notice what he says now. The purpose of all that is this. He says that you might be blameless. That is to say that no one can justifiably point a finger at us, irreproachable, living a life which no one could justly accuse. That's what he's talking about. Somebody might accuse us sometimes unjustly, but he's talking about a just accusation, that we might be blameless. And then he says that we might be harmless. Now, harmless means there's no ulterior motive in our lives, no mixture, no desires which, uh, contradict what we should do as Christians. And then he says after that, without rebuke, unblameable. And, you know, the word without rebuke actually is translated elsewhere as without blemish. It's what the Lord Jesus was called. He was a lamb without blemish. And it's what the Christian should be in the sight of God. That's what we should be, he says. And that is because, well, if we are that, then our testimony is going to be effective. Holding forth the word of life, verse sixteen, that I might rejoice in the day of Christ, shining as lights in the world. Lights, holding forth the word of life. You remember what Gideon did? Smashed the earthenware vessels, and the light shone out. Yeah? There's still a need to smash, to break the earthenware vessels so the light might shine out. And then they blew the trumpet, and there's a need to herald forth the gospel of Christ. Now, he says to these people at Philippi, you know, here you are, you're divided, got divisions among you, there's poor you to Orias and Syntyche, and there are others as well. Well, now look, I'm not going to be there to help you do this. And you notice he says that in the verse. Not as in my presence only, but much more my absence. He's in Rome in prison, so he can't help him. But then he goes on to say, but you know, though I'm not there, God is with you. Verse thirteen, for it is God which worketh in you to will, that's to create the desire, and to do, that's to create the will of his good pleasure. Now, what's the secret of this thing? Where do we start? Supposing there are divisions in this meeting, this assembly. I don't know. I'm a visitor. I do know this. Sadly, the assembly I was in divided. There were divisions. And the problem is that you can take notice of ministry or you need not. And in that particular case, it didn't. And the divide, and the divisions were final. Where do you start here? Where we start? Well, what the apostle does is this. He says, well, you know, I'm not with you to help you. God is there to help you, but you need, you need some, you need an example. You need someone to look at. You need someone who you can look at and say, yeah, well, that's what I should be. That's what's God's ideal. And I didn't read the passage, but look at verse five. Here's the answer. It's Christ, the standard of conduct. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon himself the form of a servant, and was made in likeness of man. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And, says the apostle, that's what you need to be. You need to let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus. Let's pray. Father, we come to thee this evening, and we thank thee for the provision for our needs as local churches, as individuals, which is found in your word. And even though these things might not have happened to us, we thank thee that thy word prepares us for the eventuality or the possibility of these things happening. And we know that in the day in which we live, Satan is so active that we cannot proudly say that these things will never happen. And so we thank thee that we are given advice, and we are given help, and we are given guidance in thy word as to the course of action which we shall undertake. But in any case, Lord, here in this word of thine, there is placed before us the most wonderful example on which to pattern our lives, that of thy beloved Son, and to let this mind be in us, which is also in Christ Jesus. Now, Lord, just part us of thy blessing, we pray. We do pray for those who mourn. Comfort their hearts. You are the God of all comfort. And tonight, Lord, a- a- as in another part of the world, separated by great distance from us, there will be people who are mourning and people who are injured. We pray that thou wilt defeat the efforts of wicked men, and we pray for those who've lost loved ones, that you will comfort them too. Pass on thy blessing, bless your testimony here, grant it increase and encouragement. We ask in our Savior's name. Amen.