For this time, we're glad to have the band to come to the podium and to open to the Word of God. For the band. Thank you, brother. And friend, I speak of my wife and myself. We are delighted to be here with you. I want to thank you for your invitation. You have to come over to this lovely, lovely place and share with you some thoughts from the word of God. Praise the Lord for His glory. You have to minister to the Arab world. We have close to one hundred and sixty million people who live in the Middle East and twenty-one nations. The Lord blessed us with the ministry there. We go to the Arab world by radio four times a day. And we have a tremendous response by mail. And we praise God that we are residing temporarily now in New Jersey. We record all the programs in New Jersey, send them over to Monte Carlo for broadcast. I was asked to give just a short explanation for my name. Some people called me Adeli Phantanus. Others called me Adeli Phant. And I'm one person. Well, the reason is this. In Egypt, where I come from, we are called by my first name and my dad's first name. My first name is Adeli. My dad's first name is Phant. So I'm adding that one over there. I was coming over to the States. I was given forms of bills, last name, middle name, first name. Why did I have your last name? The money had a last name. So I said, my name is Mel. Is Mel your last name? Well, if that was my dad's name. No. Well, he's last name. So I had to choose a and pick up a last name. I picked up the news, which is the first name of my grandfather. But then did I know that I was sitting in the States for a great conclusion. If I might be sent the news here, I might be down over there. But I assure you, I'm the same person. There's no dual personality there. Well, just by a way of introduction, and we are going to study consecutively the assistance of the Philippians. Then he's opening his Bibles to the assistance of the Philippians. That's by way of background to an old war at shoreline. He saw a vision in the night, a man from Macedonia, saying over him to come over to Macedonia and help He did go to make sure it was God's call to go to Macedonia. When he went to Macedonia, he went to Philippi, by the way of the first city in Europe that kept the gospel of Christ. The third city in Europe that kept the gospel of Jesus Christ, our Lord, was Philippi, which is the capital of Macedonia. When he arrived there, there was no man. to give the message. There was media. You know what happened to media? To media and to the people and to Paul and Pilate in Acts chapter sixteen. Well, as we read in Acts sixteen, verse forty, it was not only media, but a number of people also who believed in Christ. And a little chapel, a little church attending, was formed in Philippi. He was very dear to the apostles of hearts. And he was dear to them too. And the epistle to the Corinthians is an epistle of joy and cheer. There are four chapters in the epistle. The third chapter presents to us Christ as our life. Christ our life. The second chapter, Christ our example. Third, yes, the Christ our objects. And the fourth, yes, the Christ our strength and supply. Christ our life, Christ our example, Christ our object, Christ our strength and our supply. Look at the first verse, please. Paul and Timothy, the servant of Jesus Christ. In my Arabic Bible, the word servant is granted born slaves. Paul and Timothy, the born slaves of Jesus Christ. Why? Because they were bought, purchased with a price. And so you and I are bought and purchased with a price. I don't belong to myself. You don't belong to yourself. We belong to him who bought us. and faith that writes for us. And the tragedy of many Christians is that they live not in the light of this meaning and force. They bring their own masses. They have a spirit Christ and their own Savior, but not their own Lord. He is not only my Savior, he is my Lord. Many times I have been really convicted when I read John chapter twelve. Please refer with me to John chapter twelve. I've mentioned this more than once. I should never be tired of it, to throw the attention of the saints to this glorious bird. You know what took place in chapter eleven? Lazarus was dead, John chapter twelve. Lazarus was dead in chapter eleven, and the Lord raised him for the dead. And the people, Martha and Mary, or Mary and Mark, were very, very happy, of course, because their brother was brought back to life. And in recognition of what the Lord has done today and with their brothers, they made him a seed. Then Jesus, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany. And Bethany, by the way, is made up of two words, Baith, which means house. It's in Arabic and the Hebrew word, which means house. Bethany, the house of affliction. Ami is also Arabic and Greek, Ani, or Anah, Baith Al-Anah, the house of affliction. I sympathize with the people who worship at the Bethany Chapel. That immediately is the house of affliction. But we praise God that in the house of affliction we made him as a thief. There is always a thief where Jesus is, where the Lord is, there is a thief, even in the house of affliction. Now we can look at verse two. There in Bethany, in the house of affliction, they made him as such. And Martha served. But Lazarus was one of them that sat at the labor of the devil. See anything strange here? Anything uncommon? A lot. Very, very much. Whose house was it? It was Lazarus' home. In other words, Lazarus was the host. And Jesus was the guest, the devastation. It doesn't say that Jesus was one of them that sat at the table with Lazarus. No. It says quite the opposite. Why the contrary? Lazarus, the host, was one of them that sat at the table with Jesus the gift. As much as to say, Lazarus was a gift in Lazarus' home. And Jesus was the host in Lazarus' home. This is exactly what should be the case in your life and mine. I don't belong to myself. I'm His. My purchase. He paid the price for me. Isn't it the same God expressed in the revelations to each one of you? Behold, I stand at the door of God. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and stop with him. So far he's the gift. Of course, the continuation of the verse. And be with me. and feed with me, he decals. If he is not Lord of all, is not Lord of all at all. Lazarus was a guest in Lazarus' role. So the Apostle says Paul and Timothy, the servant, the bond slave of Jesus Christ. I read a story that I shall never forget. Two people were standing on top of the bridge, across the bar in Switzerland, where? And, or rather one man, I'm sorry, one man was standing there, and he saw two people standing and one of them pointing to a pillar across the river. See the river over there? He said, yes. The pillar is mine, he said. Beautiful. Beautiful brother. He went away and a few minutes later, while the man was still standing there, two men came along. And again, the same thing. One of them quoted the same children. See the bill over there? Yes. Because that bill is mine. Oh, beautiful. Congratulations. Because even later, two people came along. And the first one was still standing there. And one of those two people said to the other, You see the bill over there is what they were here? Yes, I do. This bill is mine. Oh, congratulations. What a beautiful bill. What is the explanation? Whose bill I wanted? The first man was the bricklayer. When he said the bill was his, he built it. The second man held the title deed. He bought it. He owned it. The bill was his. He owned it. The third man lived there. He was tenant. He was living there. It was his bill. He was living there. I am his three times. I'm Christ by creation. He made me. I'm Christ my person. He paid a price for me. I'm Christ because He lives in me. I'm the Holy Spirit. I wish this truth, think, sleep in your heart and my heart. I'm not my own. I belong to Him. It is done, the great transaction is done. I am my Lord and He is mine. So Christ is our life. Because I was dead, Christ died for me, gave me new life, I'm alive and I belong to Him. A few things are very eminent and prominent and conspicuous and outstanding in this chapter, Christ our life. Look for verse four. Always in every prayer of of mine for you all making requests with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. This is one of the most important outstanding Christian words in the Christian literature. Fellowship. Fellowship is the very, one of the most outstanding words in Christian literature. What is fellowship? If you try to define fellowship, The best definition I can find is this, a common joy in a common object shared with one another. Common joy in a common object shared by one another. What is the greatest joy in the world? What my greatest joy? What is the greatest joy of every Christian should be? that the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached. I rejoice before. I rejoice because Christ is preached and your object, and my object is that the gospel of Jesus Christ be preached throughout the world, therefore we have fellowship. That's why it says, for your fellowship in the gospel. Your fellowship in the gospel. Let me tell you, friends, An assembly that does not go into the world to do what it should do, the world will get into the assembly to do what it should not do. Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Ye are the salt of the earth. Where do people put salt? In my pocket? No. Just in any word, I can think of two places. Most common places where salt is cooked, in the pork shaker, or in the soup. To make the soup perishable. That's right. Now let's leave it a bit imaginative now. Supposing two grains of salt in the pork shaker speaks of one to the other. Listen, I want it this way. They're conditioned. I want to stay here. The mistress the other night wanted to dump me into the soup bowl and I dodged the hole. I'm staying here. It's hot in the soup bowl. It's muggy. And I don't like those terrible bongers, you know. They're up against my shoulder. It's difficult over there. I know it is hot and warm. and you don't find the facilities on the mission field. But this is your place. If the Lord called you there, ye are the souls of the earth, your fellowship in the gospel. How could there be fellowship in the gospel? You are an essentially saying, how could you have fellowship in the gospel? I'm going to give you three ways. where you can have fellowship in the gospel. First of all, by prayer. And the Apostle makes three petitions in this chapter that are a modern prayer for you and for me. Look at verse nine, please. And this I pray, what? That your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment. Your love may abound. I know we love each other in the Lord, but that you love one another even as I have loved you. Christ loved the church. That was the thing. He gave himself for the church. There is one verse that I think it would take all eternity, and we will not reach the bottom of the meaning of it. The verse in his eyes, right after, fifty-three ten. It pleased the Lord to brood his. It pleased the Father to brood the Son. What love! What love! Remember the Garden of Gethsemane? The Lord Jesus was there before he went to the cross. He prayed, Father, it is be by will that this cross will pass from me. Never let not my way but thine be done. What was the cup? What was the cup which he prayed to do? I'm sure it was not the sword that pierced his holy brow. That was agony indeed, but it was not the cup. It was not the nail of the cross. That was agony indeed, but not the cup he prayed for. It was not the spear which pierced his holy side. That was agony also. not the cup for which he prayed. Not the reignings and the mocking to the people. What was the cup? It was separation from the cross. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well placed, but on the cross of Calvary he was your representative of mine. He bore my sins in his own body on the tree. I was there in him. He was in my place. Him who knew no sin would make sin for me. So I might be my become the righteousness of God in him. And as my sin bearer, he shall decry it in agony. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And I believe at this very moment your salvation and mine was made perfect and complete. It was a complete salvation. That's why he immediately cried, it is finished. It is finished. The work of redemption is finished. It's done. done, it's finished. What love? God tells you because a father was restored immediately after he finished the work. And that's why he cried, my father came to my hand. I restore my, I commit, I commend my soul, my soul. In my hands I commend my spirit. Yes? Where might the apostle cry in wonder and amazement? Behold what men of God the father had bestowed upon me. but we should be called the children of God. Friends, that you love one another, even as I have loved you than the Lord Jesus. It's one thing I would like to point out. There is a difficulty in a number of places. I've come to know the Lord Jesus of my Savior in nineteen thirty. That's forty-eight years ago. Not one thing, oh, that was for opportunity. Right, but forty-eight years ago, and I have seen many, many cases of friendship threat, of assembly's ruin. Why? Because of lack of not being conscious. If I wish to give a definition to gossip, I will say lack of love. Friends, next time you are tempted to think something about your brother or your sister, ask yourself three questions before you step away. Is it correct? If it's not correct, you're not a hundred percent sure if it's not correct, keep your mouth shut. Secondly, is it necessary? Not everything that is correct is necessary. Thirdly, is it kind? It is kind. The prayer that the Apostle was praying for the Philippians at their mouth was increasing, right around. Second prayer, the second phase of the prayer. Third, ten, that he may approve things that are excellent. May I prove or experience things that are excellent, of good report. Don't be despised, don't be content with second great things. Yes, He is worthy of the best. He is worthy of your life. You are dead and your life is hidden Christ. To me to live is Christ, my prime object in life. all that I live for is Christ, that He may approve things of our actions. Thirdly, that He may be sincere and without offense in the day of Christ. I read a book or a book of Harry Einstein and he has a beautiful explanation of the word sincere. Sincere actually It's made up of, it's an angular vector word made up of two Latin words. Stainer is by a name, Sarah, P-E-R-A, without West. You might say, what on earth is the relationship between without West and honest and sincere? Well, at that time, the merchants used to sell porcelain of very fine kind. Sin and kind could see... to the sun and see how beautiful it was. First, sometimes it was crept, and they put a covering of crept along the scene, the crept, so it was not to be seen. They were deceived, cheating the company. The only way to be fulfilled was to put it against the sun to see the scene of the wet on the crept. To be sincere without a crept. senest fear without wax, yet without offending to anybody. See that you offend not your brothers. Woe unto him to whom cometh of death. Fellowship in the gospel in prayer. Secondly, fellowship in the gospel can be by public testimony. Yes. Go to the mission team. Which is wrong? Public testimony. Please turn with me to Second Peter, Chapter One. Second Peter, Chapter One. I want to denote this two words, very important words here. Verse two, grace and faith be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Multiply. And the word be multiplied, the original word, means actually a progression in mathematics. There are two kinds of progression. the geometric progression and the arithmetic progression. The arithmetic progression is two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve, fourteen, sixteen, oh one might hardly in the hour. The geometric progression is different. It doubles the steps each time. Two, four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-four, one twenty-eight, two hundred, twenty-four, twenty-eight, two hundred, That is, he gave us a privilege, multiplied geometrically. You need grace upon grace upon grace, because we are still abounded. Grace did much more abound in Jesus Christ. You are saved by grace through faith. And that not of yourself is the gift of God, not of words with any man without. You need the grace of God. But look at verse five. And besides this, giving all diligence, add, there is the other thing about progression. Add to your faith virtue. That's what you need and I, what I need. Virtue again is an old Anglo-Catholic word. Who am I to speak about? Anglo-Catholic word. But it simply means courage. Virtue means courage. Add to your faith courage. And who, like Peter, could speak about courage? He lacked it. We need courage to witness for Jesus Christ, to our friends, to our neighbors, to the people with whom we live, with whom we work, add to save courage. Very especially these days. Yes, you can have fellowship in the gospel through public testimony. And incidentally, I forgot to tell you how important prayer is for the mission, for the Lord's Word, for the new conference. Elijah prayed. And when the Holy Spirit wrote the whole biography of Elijah, he used the only two words. Elijah was a man subject to life, passion that you and I are. And he preached? No. He claimed the great victory of Mount Carmel. No, he prayed. He prayed. You see, all right, what is about to be like today? Elijah was a man who knew the mind of God and he prayed and changed the course of nature and sent a whole nation speaking up to God. Where is the Lord Elijah today? I would say, where are the unites of God today? Where are the unites of God today? I tell you, when you have the secret of preparing prayer, When you know how to pray, Samuel knew how to pray, what did he say? Speak, Lord, for thy servant here. Most cases we say, hear, Lord, for thy servant, speak. That'll be wrong. Speak, Lord, for thy servant here. As you come into fellowship with the Lord day by day and enter into a closet and pray in secret, pray to your Father, and hear him speak to you and you speak to him. You know the mind of God and you can do all the things. I think I told some of you some time ago, you were taught in a personal experience. One time when we were coming from Sardar, we arrived at Kyrgyz airport after a flight of sixteen hours almost from Lebanon. We were tired. We arrived at about nine o'clock at night. We had so many suitcases. My sister always waited for us. My wife drove with my sister in her car. And my son and I took a taxi with the suitcases. We arrived at home at about ten o'clock in New York. We were tired of the The man took the taxi cab driver to his car. You step in for the rain, and I will tell you two things. He is. And we apparently slept. Great time was. All morning I asked to call a friend of mine. I looked for my briefcase, where my notebook was on the telephone number. I couldn't find it. He looked at every little control. The truth of the briefcase was not to be found at all. And the bitter fact dawned upon me, the briefcase which contained all our passwords, our notes, our citizenship papers, our checkbooks, everything that would make life possible was not there. I said, impossible. I cannot lose my briefcase. I cannot lose my briefcase. Lord, Lord, my wife said, let's pray. My sister, my wife, my son and I, many times to pray. Please don't misunderstand me. Many times I pray that nothing happened the way I want it to happen. But this time, to the glory of God, I say it. As I was praying, I saw the taxicab number in front of my eyes. And I shouted in my prayer, I said, Hallelujah, I know that the taxicab number. And when I said that, my son said, Yes, yes, I read that number yesterday. I took the elevator from the fourteen stories down to the street and I took the first text I found. He took the first text and I told him my story to make a long story short. In less than two minutes he had his name instead of a number and his address. And again to make a long story short, I recover my real estate. Does God answer prayer? Amen. He does. He does. Where is the Elijah, the God of Elijah today? Where are the Elijah today? I'm not saying that I'm a righteous. But the law of the abode is alive today. And he will answer this day. Yes? Fellowship is greater. Fellowship in public testimony. Fellowship in surging the need to enable the laborer to go forth to the field. Yes? This is actually a privilege that you and I are called to share in. You know what the Bible says? These terms will be the second Corinthians chapter eight. Let us see what the Bible calls this kind of character. The second Corinthians chapter eight. The first verse reads like this, second Corinthians eight. Moreover, brethren, we do need to wish of the grace of God be sold on the churches of Macedonia, how that in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their very relatives. I can't understand it. Now let's read it again, please. The abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. They call it drink. It was a grace bestowed upon them to share in the expenses of the preaching of the gospel. And please note how many times this grace is referred to in that very same chapter. Look at verse six. Inasmuch that we desire Titus as he had begun, so he would also finish in you the same Great. Look at verse seven. Therefore as we abound in everything in faith and utterance and knowledge and all vision and in your love to us we see that we abound in this grace also. Look at verse nine again. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. As though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, that he, through his poverty, might be rich. And so on as you read on. You read of this, grace bestowed upon the church that they would share in the independent of the preaching of the God. Why? Why? Why should this be called great? You know, it is in the nature of God to give, the nature of man to receive. When you give, you share in the nature of God. It's the grace. It's the grace of God. So this is fellowship in the gospel. Fellowship in the gospel, in three ways I do this, in prayer, in public testimony, and also in the giving to the greater gospel of Jesus Christ. Look at verse twelve. See, my time is running. Verse twelve. But I know that we should understand, brethren, the things which happened unto me, and fallen out of Raba unto the firmness of the gospel, so that my Lord and Christ are manifesting all the Sabbath and all other things. And he goes on to say how this was a great joy to him. Fellowship in the gospel, because we belong to him, because he is our life, brings joy. You rejoice, as you see the work of the Lord goes on. You rejoice in all your experiences. As you live the life of Christ on earth, you are filled with joy. Joy in all circumstances, joy in all difficulties, joy in all troubles. Remember the sword of the flesh? I'm not a mind reader, but I can say this with the authority of God's Word. There is not one single person here tonight who does not have some kind of a difficulty of some description of another, right? What is your attitude? Let me point out the soul of the flesh that Paul has. He prayed three times for that soul in the flesh. I mean, it was. It didn't. Instead, the voice came in, my grace is possession for this. For my strength is made perfect in weakness. What did he say? Therefore I glory in infirmity. Can you glory in the infirmity you have? Can you glory in the difficulty you have? Can you say thank you Lord for the sickness you gave me? Thank you Lord for the difficulty I'm experiencing? Are you weary and hesitating? Comfort with the rule of care? Precious Savior is still our refuge. Take it to the Lord in prayer and be filled with joy. I don't have much time to elaborate on this point. But in Psalm eighty-four, we have a beautiful experience. It says, Blessed are some class of people who are passing through the very old Vedas. This is an Arabic word, because you haven't spoken the Arabic language is. We call it the Arabic language language. So exactly it's kind. See, passing through the valley of Baker, B-A-T-N, they make it into a will of joy. I am translating it from the other. Baker means tears. Oh, crying, booker, crying, tears. You pass through the valley of tears, it becomes a will of joy. Why? Because Jesus is in it. The gospel is in it. The Lord's work is in it. Christ is my life. and my likeness, to me to live this life. I rejoice. Even in prison at Philippi, the apostles could sing, praise unto God. There is difference between praise and thanksgiving. It's my gift. You praise God for what He is. It's mercy, it's truth, it's redemption. You thank Him for what He does. You pray Him and you thank Him day by day in all circumstances like this. And we go on in our service, our disciples. We see how fresh is our life and how He is our temple in the Spirit of the Father. Let us pray. Most of all our Heavenly Father, we thank You for the great fact Christ died to us. So it's against us. We pray deeply that we are not alone in this world. But we have by presence, though I'm with you all, you should come to the end of the world. Father, we thank you, day by day, for the sin we live and move and have our deeds. So be as far as without being given him into them. Dying to me is also what he finds when he does not get her back at glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ our Lord. Hence, for day by day, it is a life that will bring honour and glory to my name. He asks it in the name of the face of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. turn in our books, save to four hundred and eleven. Before we stand and sing this song, let me mention one or two things about service to follow. We'll not have any time to leave the provision as we said. And as we have this song, we'll go right into the Lord's Supper, and we'll use these hymnals for the songs that we'll be singing together. Our brother was giving us what he considered to be the best definition of fellowship, a common joy and a common object shared with one another. As we partake of these emblems, the bread and the fruit of the vine, which represent the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and now we are separated, signifying death, his death, in partaking of these emblems, we are expressing the fact that we are in fellowship with God. We are in communion with God. And so partaking of these emblems is for only those who are indeed in fellowship in communion with the living God. If you have never received the Lord Jesus Christ,