I Thank My God

Introduction to Paul's Prayer and the Challenge of Exposition

0:04 This sermon was preached on Sunday, November the 9th, 1980, while the Trinity Church was still meeting at the Grover Cleveland Junior High School in Caldwell, New Jersey.

0:17 Now, if you will please turn with me to Paul's letter to the Church of the Philippians,

0:27 Paul's letter to those who had become very precious and dear to him in the bonds of the gospel, and follow as I read the first eleven verses of this epistle, Philippians chapter 1 and verse 1. Paul and Timothy, bond slaves of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus that are in Philippi, with the overseers and deacons, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus. Jesus Christ, I thank my God upon all my remembrance of you, always in every supplication of mine on behalf of you all, making my supplication with joy, for your fellowship in the furtherance of the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it or carry it on to perfection, until the day of Jesus Christ, even as it is right for me to be thus minded on behalf of you,

1:45 because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers with me of grace. For God is my witness, how I long after you all in the tender mercies of Christ Jesus. And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and void of offense until the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are through Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God.

2:37 Many of you will remember the words of our Lord Jesus, recorded in the Sermon on the Mount, who, when speaking on the subject of prayer, said, When ye pray, don't be like the hypocrites, but when you pray, enter into your closet and pray in secret, and the Father who sees in secret shall himself openly reward you. And because any form of ostentation in prayer is clearly forbidden in the word of God, how grateful to God we should be that the Holy Spirit has, as it were, taken us by the hand and led us into the very prayer chamber of the Apostle Paul, hidden us, as it were, behind a curtain, and allowed us to listen to him as he pours out his heart to God, not with the Pharisaic ostentation, condemned by our Lord, but in the humility and earnestness of a true saint who is in the presence of his God. And it is obvious in verses 3 through 11 in Philippians chapter 1, the portion just read in your hearing, that we have, as it were, a transcript of those things which the Apostle pleaded

4:06 when he was alone with God, when the Philippians, were the subject of his prayer. It is equally obvious just in a cursory reading of this paragraph that what we have is his prayers in the form of both praise and of supplication for the Philippians. His praise being bounded by verses 3 and 8 and his petitions by verses 9 through 11. But now as we stand, on the threshold of seeking to examine the words and the thoughts contained in this transcript of the Apostle's praise and petitions on behalf of the Philippian Christians, we have a very real problem. And the problem grows out of the fact that when the Holy Spirit used the various authors of Scripture to become the vehicles of giving to us the very words of God, He did not neutralize or blot out their distinctive personalities.

5:19 And this is what creates our problem. Because the personality of the man who prayed the prayer recorded in verses 3 through 11 was a man in whom there was the fusion and the very heightened activity of two qualities rarely found to such a degree in any one of us. On the one hand, there is the quality of a vast, well-furnished and keen intellectual power. Paul was, in every sense of the word, a brilliant man.

5:59 And even those who utterly reject what he writes as being the word of God are impressed with the genius of this man, Paul. So here is a man who, when he goes, into his closet to pray, does not leave this mind outside the door of that closet, but in the very engagement with God in prayer, this massive, active, well-furnished, expansive mind is not only fully active, but under the impulse of the Spirit's peculiar assistance promised to the praying saints, all of the native parts and powers of that mind are expanded and stretched.

6:49 And on the other hand, this man possessed not only this large, active, well-furnished mind with the ability to think lofty thoughts and to express those thoughts in fifty-cent words when necessary, but this man had a deep and tremendous emotional capacity joined to that mind, that large, active, fertile and well-furnished mind was a large, active, pulsing, beating heart. And when he went into the closet to pray, just as surely as he did not leave that mind behind him, he did not leave that heart behind him. And when he enters his closet to pray, all that grace has done in giving him that large, active, tender, pulsing heart, all that grace has done in giving him that large, active, tender, pulsing heart, all that grace has done in giving him that large, active, tender, pulsing heart, is likewise intensified and brought to an expression that at times almost defies exposition. And you say, Pastor, how does that create a problem? Well, it creates a problem for this very reason, that as the Apostle both writes and even more so when he prays, there are times when that large, well-furnished, active mind is seeking expression,

8:14 in the thoughts that govern him when he prays. And so you find that mind reaching out for words with which to clothe those thoughts. But just when it seems that the mind has found the right words to express the thoughts, there is an outgushing of that large, throbbing heart, and it clamors for words. So when you get that expansive mind, and that large, active, tender, pulsing heart, both clamoring for their own means of expression, and that it's all mingled together in sentences and phrases, there are times when you sit there and scratch your head and say, What in the world is he driving at? Where in the world is he going? To use two different analogies, it's as though the mind at times is soaring upward, upward, upward, like an eagle, right into the very brightness of the sun. And just when you begin to trace, as it were, the track of the eagle mind of Paul as it soars upward, his heart lets loose like a dam that bursts its walls, and out comes this tremendous rush of emotion.

9:29 And just when you begin to follow the flight of the eagle, you see this torrent of emotion flowing out of the heart, and you lose track of this, and you look at that, and just when you think you're beginning to trace something of the path of that torrent of emotion, lo and behold, you're up there with the eagle again. And you say, Well, do I follow the eagle, or do I follow the rush of the waters that come down from that great and large heart? Well, under the aid of the Holy Spirit, we need to pray and trust that God will help us to track both the flight of the eagle and the path of the water of the burst dam of this man's great heart. So if you find some problems, join the rest of us who experience the same problem. But it's one of the great problems that grace creates, and in that sense, it's a delightful problem. But I think it should be evident to us that there is a basic division in the passage, and that it does not defy analysis. In fact, in a very real sense, this passage should be understood as an example of the very thing which Paul enjoins upon the believer, and that is to say, that the very thing which Paul enjoins upon the believer, and that is to say, that the very thing which Paul enjoins upon the believer, the quarta parable, I found particularly presented in John 11, chapter 4, in verse 6.

The Framework of True Prayer: Thanksgiving and Petition

10:48 He says in that great text, well known to many of us, in nothing be anxious, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. Now what does it mean to be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, to let our requests be made known unto God? Well, verses 3 through 11 of that very framework of true prayer. Verses 3 to 8 gives us Paul's thanksgiving and its causes.

11:24 Verses 9 through 11, his petition and its concerns. This morning, God willing, we'll take up that first division. And as we seek to open up verses 3 through 8, I suggest that first of all we have in verses 3 and 4 the general affirmation of Paul's thanksgiving. Verses 3 and 4 constitute the general affirmation of Paul's thanksgiving.

General Affirmation of Paul's Thanksgiving: Object, Occasion, Context

11:56 I thank my God upon all my remembrance of you, always in every supplication of mine on behalf of you all, making my supplication with joy. And some would say also with southern phrase, because he says you all, but notice he doesn't put Y apostrophe A-L-L. So he uses southern terminology with a Yankee accent. He gives thanks for you all.

12:29 Now as we consider this general affirmation of Paul's thanksgiving, it is evident that that affirmation comes in three strands. First of all, the object of his thanksgiving, to thank my God. Then the occasion of his thanksgiving, upon all my remembrance of you. And then the context or the expression of his thanksgiving in every supplication with joy.

12:58 Now let's just enlarge those lines of thought briefly together. First of all, in the affirmation of his thanksgiving, he is careful to underscore the exclusive object of his thanksgiving. He opens by saying, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. It was the living God himself and the living God alone who was the object of all of the apostles' praise with respect to the Philippians.

13:36 As the apostle bent his knees to pray, and as we from behind, and our drapery in his prayer closet listened, it becomes very evident to us that whatever good is present in the church at Philippi, whatever graces are manifested in the lives of the people at Philippi, whatever practical expressions of righteousness are present at Philippi, the apostle traces them all back to their ultimate source in the heart, and in the mighty, gracious hand of the living God. He knew that every good and every perfect gift came down from above, and if every gift came down from above, then it was to this God above and to him alone that praise should be rendered. You'll remember as we opened up the first two verses that he conceives of that church, the very fruit of his labors as a church, incredible, a church with overseers and deacons who are doing their work in the ordering of the life of the church. But when it comes to the object of thanksgiving for what has happened at Philippi, there is no praise for himself, there is no praise for the elders and for the deacons,

15:02 there is praise only for the living and the true God. And you will notice that Paul is careful to say, Lord, I thank God, but I thank my God. The object of his thanksgiving was not God in some distant deistic concept, but God in all the intimacy of covenantal love and fellowship. For the great promise of the covenant of God is this, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

15:42 And if you and I listened carefully from behind our drapery in Paul's prayer closet, we would know that here was not a man addressing a God who was a distant, far-off object to be feared and dreaded and even to be praised to some degree. But we would sense something of that deep filial intimacy that existed between Paul and his God. For you remember, he had addressed him or referred to him in verse 2 as God our Father. So when he says, I thank my God, it was the thanksgiving that pours out from the heart of one who knows himself to be a son in the presence of his Holy Father. And let me say just briefly by way of application, it is only when we can call, call God our God and do it on the basis that Paul did. He recognized God as his Father because of the work of Jesus Christ his Lord. It is only then that our prayers, whether they be praises or petitions, are truly acceptable in God's sight.

17:05 Well then, in this affirmation of his thanksgiving, we proceed from Paul's reference to the object, to this thanksgiving. I thank my God to the occasion of his thanksgiving. Look at the language of the text. I thank my God upon all my remembrance of you.

17:25 And the translation of the 1901 version is better than the old authorized, which I believe says upon every remembrance. It's as though he gathers up every occasion of remembering them and puts it in a pile and says over the whole thing, upon all my remembrance of you, there has been nothing but occasion to bless and praise God. What an amazing statement from a man who was a realist. A man who did not stop his ears when he heard negative reports concerning churches which he himself had founded under the blessing and direction of the Spirit of God.

18:08 And yet he can say that the occasion of his thanksgiving with respect to the Philippians is all his remembrance of them. Whether he's walking from one city to another or whether as now he is imprisoned at Rome and as his mind would just run perhaps at random from one thing to another, whenever he had occasion to think of the Philippians, whether in that informal way or whether formally when he entered his closet to pray and concentrated his mind upon the condition, the condition of that church in order to order his prayers aright, he says, upon every remembrance, upon all my remembrance of you, I give thanks to my God. Oh, how blessed is the servant of Christ who has such a people who are the fruit of his labors to say that every time I think of you, I break out in praise. Now that wasn't true of all the churches. Some of the churches made him burst into tears.

19:14 Some of the churches caused him heaviness of heart in sleepless nights. And there were even some to whom he refers later on in this epistle that when he thought of them, he says, I tell you now, even weeping, they are enemies of the cross of Christ. But not these Philippians. In his general affirmation of thanksgiving, he can say, the occasion of that thanksgiving, the occasion of that thanksgiving, the occasion of that thanksgiving, the occasion of that thanksgiving, the occasion of that thanksgiving, was all his thought concerning them.

19:46 And then notice, thirdly, the context or the expression of this thanksgiving. Verse 4, In every supplication of mine on behalf of you all, making my supplication with joy. When he has occasion to think of these Philippians, and the thanksgiving wells up in his heart, that thanksgiving, and the thanksgiving expresses itself in the context of joyful petitions. And the word he uses here for prayer is the one that means coming to God with specific needs.

20:28 So again, we're behind the curtain in his place of prayer. And as the apostle prepares his mind to bring specific needs to God on behalf of the church of the Philippians, he cannot, he cannot, he cannot begin to petition God. But what first of all, he brings a sacrifice of praise. And we sense that when he does it, he's not simply doing something out of duty.

20:55 We sense that he's on his knees, that he almost dances on his knees with joy. In every supplication of mine, he says, making my request with joy. So you see, there was no phoniness about this. He's in the presence of God.

21:13 There is no dishonesty. There is no desire to pull the wool, as it were, over his own eyes with respect to the defects and the needs and the shortcomings of this church. The context or the expression of his thanksgiving is that of joyful petitions in the presence of God his Father. Well, in a very real sense, there should be, or we would think there would be, a direct line between verse 4 and verse 9.

21:46 Notice how natural it would read. I thank my God upon all my remembrance of you, always in every supplication of mine on behalf of you all, making my supplication with joy. Verse 9. And this I pray.

22:02 You see how natural that would be? He's saying upon every remembrance of you, I give thanks, I do so in the context of joyful supplications, and you want to know what I supplicate for? What I pray for? This I pray.

The Specific Basis for Paul's Thanksgiving: Heart and Mind Intertwined

22:17 Well, why then do we have all of the material from verses 5 through 8 before we get to the substance of his supplication? Well, again, it's this problem, you see, of this active mind and this warm, beating heart. And in these verses, we have the effusions of that beating heart. Notice the heart language.

22:41 I have you in my heart. Verse 7. Verse 8. God is witness how I long after you all, literally in the viscera, in the very inward being of Jesus Christ.

22:58 You see, that's the gush of the heart. But there's not only the gush of the heart, there is the vital and present activity of the mind, being confident of this very thing. Now he's talking like a lawyer, whose case is sure and certain. And so, there is this mingling of the strands of the active head and the pulsing, beating heart.

23:22 And what do we have in verses 5 through 8? We have what I am calling the specific basis for his thanksgiving. You see, in verses 3 and 4, he gives a general affirmation of his thanksgiving. With respect to object, I thank my God.

23:40 With respect, not only to the object, the one, on whom he thanks, but the occasion, upon every remembrance of you, and then the context, in every supplication, with joy. Then it's as though you peeked out from behind the curtain and said, Paul, I don't mean to be irreverent, but I've been listening to you pray. And I notice that you've been pouring out a torrent of thanksgiving to God as your God and Father. And it's evident that your mind's been thinking about the Philippians, and this has precipitated that joy.

24:13 And now, your thanksgiving and supplications become the occasion of it. But Paul, I'm sorry to be irreverent, and I don't want to interrupt your devotions, but would you tell me, please, what's the basis for that joy? And he says, well, I don't mind being interrupted in my prayers, I'll tell you. And verses 5 through 8 are the specific basis for his thankfulness on behalf of the Philippians.

24:42 And as we try to analyze the content, I believe it is accurate to say we can reduce the basis of his thanksgiving to two heads. Number one, their proven fellowship with him in the gospel. And number two, Paul's well-grounded confidence with respect to their spiritual state. So it is their proven fellowship in the gospel that is the ground of his joy, and Paul's well-grounded confidence with respect to his spiritual state.

25:14 With regard to their spiritual state which pumps this joy into his heart and out in his praise. All right, let's look at the text. Verse 5.

Basis 1: Their Proven Fellowship in the Furtherance of the Gospel

25:27 He says he makes supplication with joy for your fellowship in the furtherance of the gospel from the first day until now. Now the language in the original points to this joy and thanksgiving as being based upon their fellowship in the gospel. Now this is a rich phrase and it and parallel phrases occur many, many times in Philippians. And I would be tempted to pause and expand that phrase but I'll not do so.

26:04 I'll let you feel the cumulative weight of the expositions as we move through the book of Philippians. But suffice it to say that the word fellowship should immediately bring to mind such words as association, commonness, close relationship, leading to participation and sharing. That's the root of the idea of fellowship. And notice, he says it was a fellowship not in, in the bare sense of in, but fellowship with regard to.

26:40 And this is why some put into the preposition the force of a verb. For your fellowship in the furtherance of the gospel. It was fellowship in regard to the gospel. Now that's the second key word.

26:56 To Paul, what does that mean? Well, it means the message of God's saving mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ and all that that message contains, both of objective truth about God, about sin, about Christ, His person and work, the demands, the repentance and faith and all of the subjective fruits that flow out of the gospel. Joy and peace and all of the demands that grow out of the gospel. So Paul then says the basis for my thankfulness to God is the proven fellowship of the Philippians in the gospel.

27:39 Now think for a moment. What was it that brought Paul and these people into a relationship? Well, it was the gospel. You remember when we dealt with the origin of the church?

27:56 Paul is in Troas. A vision appears to him in the night. A man of Macedonia says repeatedly, Come over and help us. Come over and help us.

28:07 And Luke says, We concluded that God had called us to go and preach the gospel to them. So he comes to the city, tarries certain days, and no doubt is viewing over the situation, finding there is no synagogue there, no base of evangelism. He becomes aware by one means or another that there is a group of women who meet by a riverside on the Sabbath day to pray. And here he comes with his companions and begins to speak the word of God.

28:40 And God is pleased to open the heart of Lydia. And subsequently the demon-possessed girl who was not a woman, who was not a woman, who was nothing but a slave, has her shackles of bondage broken. And then that amazing incident of the conversion of the Philippian jailer and his household. How did all of this come to pass?

28:58 It was the gospel that paved his way not only into the precincts of Philippi, but into the very hearts of those who constituted the beginnings of the church at Philippi. And following that initial entrance in which from the very beginning that church seemed to manifest in Lydia's response and in the jailer's response. This concern to be identified with the apostle and his gospel endeavors. Lydia says, if you judge me faithful to the Lord, come and abide with me.

29:33 And the text said they abode there. The chapter ends with Paul and his companions using Lydia's house as the basis of their church fellowship and teaching. And in between we have the record of the jailer washing his hands. Washing the wounds of the apostle and his companions, Silas.

29:50 Showing them great hospitality and love and attachment. And from that very point onward that was the spirit of this church. Look at chapter 4 and verse 15. And ye yourselves know, ye Philippians, that in the beginning of the gospel when I departed from Macedonia no church had fellowship with me.

30:14 The same word is used. No church had sharing with me. And in this context it was monetary support. No church had fellowship with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you only.

30:28 And so not only was there the open heart and then the open home of Lydia, the open heart and open home of the jailer, but then when Paul went on to other places he said no other church showed its commitment in true gospel fellowship as you did. And then he says right to the present hour they had just sent Epaphroditus with a gift. So notice the language. He could say this fellowship in the gospel was from the very first day until now.

31:02 When all the newness had worn away, when all the initial enthusiasm and excitement had died down, there was no waning in their commitment to fellowship in the gospel. From the first day until now. That's why he praises God because he knows that only God can create such levels of commitment to fellowship in the gospel. Whatever could have been created by his physical presence and by initial enthusiasm would have long since died away.

31:42 But it's fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now.

31:52 And again I'm tempted to digress, but suffice it to say that here in the use of this phrase is a wonderful corrective for many of the foolish notions in our day as to what constitutes fellowship.

32:07 What is fellowship?

32:10 Fellowship is sharing in the realities of the gospel in terms of our understanding, in terms of our faith, in terms of our obedience, in terms of our interest. Fellowship is not a group of people sitting around picking over each other's hearts. Fellowship is not a group of professing Christians sitting around having some kind of group therapy upon each other. Fellowship is found when hearts that were once turned inward upon themselves are turned outward in joyous abandonment to Jesus Christ and then become inflamed and inflamed with a holy passion that the world will know of Christ. And they're prepared to spend and be spent with all others who share that vision. This was fellowship in the gospel. And for this Paul gives thanks.

Basis 2: Paul's Well-Grounded Confidence in Their Spiritual State

33:10 So while you're still out from behind the closet and Paul says, I've interrupted my prayers, you want to know the basis of my thanks, here it is. The Philippians, the Philippians have a proven commitment to the, the fellowship of the gospel. But further than that, Paul says, there's a second reason for my thanksgiving. It is the well-grounded confidence I have with respect to their spiritual condition.

33:37 Verse 6 and following. Look at the language.

33:41 While I give thanks for their fellowship in the furtherance of the gospel, I have a confidence. Verse 6. Being confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ, even as it is right for me to be thus minded on behalf of you all, because I have you in my heart in as much as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye are all partakers with me of grace. This is Paul's well-grounded confidence with respect to their spiritual state.

34:22 Notice the essence of that confidence is this. He is convinced that God has begun a good work in them and that whatever God begins, God will complete. That's it in a nutshell. Being confident of this very thing that he who has begun a good work in you.

34:40 Paul says, I give thanks to God when I pray because I know someone else was working when I came to Philippi. If only I had been at work. If only I had been preaching. If only I had been persuading.

34:57 There would be nothing for which to give God thanks. But while I preached and while I persuaded, God was doing a good work in you. The Lord opened the heart of Lydia. And the Lord who shook the prison was the Lord who shook the confidence of that Philippian jailer.

35:18 And it was the Lord who had begun the good work. And because the apostle has a well-grounded confidence, with respect to the beginnings of grace, he knows that God always finishes in grace what he has begun in grace. And so he says, here's the second reason for my thanksgiving. It is not only the manifestation of their fellowship in the gospel, but that to which it leads, this well-grounded confidence with respect to their spiritual state and the essence, of that confidence is that God has begun a good work.

36:01 God will carry it on. And so Paul says, in essence, it's not wasted breath to pray for the ongoing of the work of God in those Philippians. When I come to petition God for them, I can do it with joyful confidence. Why?

The Foundation of Paul's Confidence: Grace at Work

36:17 Because it is evident that God has begun His work and will complete it. And what was the foundation of that confidence? Look at verse 7. Even as it is right for me to be thus minded, this confidence does not grow out of a naive optimism.

36:37 Remember, he'd been at Philippi. He saw the paganism. He saw the demon possession. He saw the irreligious nature of that Roman colony.

36:48 They didn't even have a synagogue.

36:52 He knew the power of pagan thought upon men's minds and lives. Well, in what did this great confidence lie? Well, it obviously lay in what he describes in verse 7. It is right for me to think this on behalf of you.

37:13 It is right for me to be thus minded, to have this tremendous confidence concerning the completion of the work of grace in you, because I have you in my heart in as much as both in my heart My bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye are all partakers with me of grace. Let me give a paraphrase that I believe captures what he is saying. It would be less than right for me to think anything else, because the remembrance of you is in my heart. A remembrance of how all of you have shown me your aid and your love, whether with respect to my peculiar trials of imprisonment, both in my bonds, you remember the language, or in actively defending and promoting the gospel, defense and confirmation of the gospel. All these things indeed are a singular token that all of you are partakers with me. Of the grace of God.

38:26 In other words, the foundation of that confidence was the thing that Paul had discerned in the Philippians of the mighty grace of God at work in areas where only grace can work. He doesn't say being confident of this very thing, he who has begun a good work will perfect it. It's right for me to think this because I can remember when you made your decision.

38:52 No, no. You see that confidence. Confidence that God had begun a good work and would carry it on was not founded upon somebody making a decision. Nor was it founded upon temporary but past evidences of enthusiasm.

39:07 He doesn't say it's right for me to think of this because I can remember back when I was first among you how enthusiastic you were for the gospel. No, no. He says after time has passed and you've been put to the test, and I'm many hundreds of miles away, and I'm a prisoner. You're in bonds.

39:26 You didn't forget me. You didn't turn your back upon the cause to which I was committed. In my bonds, you had joint fellowship with me. That's the word he uses.

39:39 You had this joint fellowship with me in my bonds. Your heart still reached out to me across the miles after I was gone and wasn't out of sight, out of mind. And furthermore, he said, enough time. Enough time has come that you have manifested the determination to proclaim and to defend the gospel even in the face of suffering.

40:02 As he tells them in verses 29 and 30 of chapter 1, it has been given on the behalf of Christ not only to believe but to suffer for his sake, having the same conflict which he saw in me. You see, Paul's foundation of confidence that God had begun the good work was the selflessness of their love. In my bonds, he says, you've not forgotten me. And that remembrance is treasured up in my heart.

40:31 So when I take my heart into the closet to pray, how can I do anything other than give thanks to God for you, confident that he's begun a good work in you and he's going to complete it because natural love would have died out a long time ago. And furthermore, natural attachment to the gospel would have ended a long time ago. You've had to mix. Some blood, sweat, and tears with your profession.

41:02 And rather than abandon Christ and his cause and his gospel, you're more attached to them than ever. That's the foundation, he says, of my confidence. That's the basis upon which I give thanks with joy that there is not only the remembrance of fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, but there is this well...

God as Witness to Paul's Intense Love and Longing

41:29 grounded confidence with respect to their spiritual state. And then in verse 8, he calls upon God to confirm the validity of all that he has said. It's as though we said, now, Paul, before I let you go back to prayer, and I'll sneak behind the curtain again if you don't mind and listen to your petitions, tell me, have you not been a little excessive? Haven't you allowed the sluice gates of your heart to pour out a little more, a little more water of affectionate language than is justified by the facts?

42:05 Paul says, no. Though my heart beats with holy love, and though the language is dictated by love, there is no excessiveness in my language. Look at verse 8. God is my witness.

42:21 I call the living God before whom all things are naked and open to be witness to the fact that I've not strayed, wretched the case for the sake of rhetoric. I've not been carried away in the heat of emotion. God is my witness. And then he uses a word, it's interesting, secular Greek has a word for longing, but there's a compound word that intensifies the longing, and the Bible only uses the compound word.

42:50 Don't let anyone say that Christianity neuters the emotions.

42:55 God is witness, not how I simply long, but I greatly yearn. I long after you all. He said, anything you've heard me pray, he said, God knows that what's in my heart is greater than anything you've heard in my words. I long after you all.

43:14 And then, then, he uses language that astounds us. Look at the text. Our ASV translates it, in the tender mercies of Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus. A literal translation would be, I long after you all in the viscera, of Christ Jesus.

43:34 And using the thought patterns and the imagery of that day, when people wanted to speak of the deepest feelings, they'd say, I feel that with all my viscera, with all my inners. And he says, I long after you all with the inners, not of the shriveled, narrow-hearted Saul of Tarsus, but in the very longings of Christ Jesus. Think of it. He says, I long, it is my emotions, my yearning, my love, but it didn't grow on the native soil of my heart.

44:12 It comes out of my union with Christ so that in a real sense, it is the very longing and the very love of Christ Jesus.

Application to Unconverted Hearts and Minds

44:22 Oh, my dear people, when I read a passage like this, I say, do I know what love is? Do I know what prayer is? And when I see some of you looking around while I'm preaching, I tell you, that pains me, in my bowels. I say, how can you name the name of Christ and find yourself restless in the face of a passage like this?

44:43 And while I've preached this morning, I've seen some of you looking around as though you could care less what that fool is talking about up in the pulpit. My friend, you're not hurting me personally. I'm not here on an ego trip. But if you name the name of Christ, can't you help but want to know what it is that makes the servants of God, glad when they pray?

45:08 It makes a church commendable before God. Well, here the apostle tells us, the basis of his great joy was this well-grounded confidence about their spiritual state. Well, as we come around full circle and try to conclude the sermon, do you see why I introduced it by talking about the eagle-like mind and the gushing heart? It's all here in this passage.

45:36 And I want to say a word of application to you who are not Christians. Do you see what a pitiable thing an unconverted man is? Look at the unconverted man's heart. And what is his heart taken up with?

45:51 It's taken up with the things of this life. Material possessions, temporal, sensual pleasures. It may be taken up even with lofty, noble things, music and art and culture and the betterment of man. But my friend, listen, your heart was made to hold bigger and larger and more noble things than those which are slated for judgment.

46:20 That heart was made to hold communion with God, to be able to expand with the heart of the apostle and say, I give thanks to my God. And until your heart is expanded and throbbed with the wondrousness and the glory of being a child of the living God. My friend, your heart is a shriveled and pitiable organ.

46:51 And what about your mind? Well, it never rises above how to meet the bills, how to get past this obstacle financially or socially. Who mind earthly things, Paul says later on in this very epistle. My friend, does your mind know anything of this holy soaring with lofty thoughts of God and of his ways, of his son, of his gospel?

47:20 Can you imagine the tragedy you would feel if you were ushered into a beautiful home and there in a parlor fitted out with furniture that cost into the thousands of dollars. You saw nothing but stinking garbage poured all over that furniture and piled up in the center of the floor. My friend, that's the human, the human heart and the human mind until Christ has come and cleansed it in his own precious blood and indwells them by his spirit. When we enter Paul's closet of prayer and sneak behind the curtain and listen, we are seeing the human mind, the human spirit in terms of what it ought to be.

48:07 And if you are one who cannot enter in with any sense of simplicity, empathetic identity, my poor unconverted friend, you are in a pitiable state. And there's only one way to come out of that state, precisely in the same way Paul and the Philippians did. Take seriously the gospel, God's message about himself and about sin and about his son in the way of forgiveness and acceptance.

Application to Believers: Cultivating Gospel-Centered Fellowship

48:39 But I also want to bring a word of application to you who are the people of God. And it's been difficult to resist the temptation to give the application all the way along. But oh, listen, listen, listen. What is it that causes gladness in the heart of God?

48:58 And to the extent that any leaders who lead you reflect God's heart, what causes them gladness? When they can say, I thank my God upon all my remembrance of you in every way. I thank my supplication of mine on behalf of you all, making supplication with joy for your fellowship in the gospel.

49:28 It's when there is that largeness of heart with gospel concerns, love and interest in the truth of the gospel, when a pastor looks out upon people who are never weary of having the gospel expounded in all of its glory, beauty, and in all of its ramifications. If you want to break the heart of a pastor, do as some of you have done this morning. Sit there and look around, obviously disinterested. Oh, you're just talking about the gospel.

50:00 Oh, I know that stuff. My friend, if that's your attitude, you've long since left fellowship in the gospel.

50:12 Fellowship in the gospel means what it meant for the Philippians. Not sitting around in little group dynamic sessions, picking on the gospel, but in their poverty saying, what can we do to get a collection for the apostle and send it to him at Rome? What can we do to stand behind him? What can we do to further the cause of the gospel?

50:41 As we anticipate entering that new building in Montville, may God have mercy upon us if we look upon it as a retirement home or a vacation village. No, let's look upon it as a military barracks and as an armory and as a delivery room. And as a classroom, every imagery that will cause us to think in terms furthering the gospel. So when we get together, instead of finding our lips engaged in sinful criticism of one another and of our leaders and of everything in general, we'll be able to say, oh, my brother, my sister, won't you pray with me?

51:20 I had this wonderful contact for the gospel this week. And that brother says, oh, brother, sister, pray with me. I had this opportunity for the gospel this week. And instead of your lips becoming the vehicle of sin, you plead with God to make the gospel effective.

51:40 And you seek by every legitimate means to get people out under the formal preaching of the gospel.

51:49 Fellowship in the gospel. That's what true fellowship is. According to the great apostle, and as we shall see in the unfolding of this epistle, it is, it is that thing which perhaps more than any other endeared this church to the apostle's heart. Because how did he look upon himself?

52:09 He tells us in Romans 1. He said, I am debtor to the Jew, to the Greek, to the wise, to the unwise, the cultured, the uncultured, as much as in me is, I'm ready to preach. I'm ready to preach the gospel. This is the man who said in Acts 20, I don't even count my life worth sparing.

52:36 I count not my life as of any account as dear to myself that I may finish my course with joy to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

52:53 Oh, when God gets a body of people committed to that vision. My friends, we don't exist just to politely do a night. To salve our consciences for the cause of the gospel. To spare our own hide.

53:09 No, no. We should plead with God that this spirit of the apostle will become ours. And then every person who has any discernment will know and give thanks to God that he has indeed begun a good work in us and will carry it on and perfect it until and at the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, we've listened to Paul as he's praised.

Concluding Challenge and Prayer for Gospel Commitment

53:41 We have seen the affirmation of his thanksgiving as to its object, it is God, the occasion, his remembrance, the context, joyful supplication. We've seen the basis of his thanksgiving. It is, first of all, their proven fellowship in the gospel. And secondly, their well-grounded evidence that they with him were partakers of the grace of God.

54:12 Can anyone give thanks to you on that basis? Not to you, but for you? I thank God that I can say with honesty, I think I know something by experience of how to pray a prayer like this. But I say with sadness,

54:32 I can't say as Paul did, for you all.

54:42 And I'm speaking honestly. I believe there are some of you that would be very, very happy if we turned more inwardly upon ourselves. If we majored more upon little group of fellowships in which we could pick over each other's hearts. If we majored more upon other dimensions of religious life.

55:10 May God use his word, to be a corrective and bring us to the place where as never before we will be a fellowship committed to the progress of the gospel at any cost in our generation. Let us pray.

55:41 Our Father, we delight to address you as our God. We thank you that this was no special privilege of the apostle because he was an apostle. But because in grace you had become his father and we partakers of that same grace can call you our father. And we ask for those who sit here this morning in that pitiable state of minds that never rise above earth, of hearts that never stretch beyond things.

56:18 Oh God, give them such a sight of their own pitiable state that they may be able to see you. Let us pray. That they will flee to your beloved son and lay hold of the grace that is offered to sinners in him. And we pray for us as a church that you will make us the kind of a church that precipitates this kind of thanksgiving.

56:45 Oh Lord, only your grace can make us such. Left to ourselves, we are self-centered. We want the whole world to dance and jig as it were, around every little twitch and every little itch that we may have emotionally or psychologically. Left to ourselves, we would bring the whole church into our room to be as it were our private counselor and confidant and suckerer of our every need.

57:15 Lord, bring us above that baby and infantile stage. Make us men and women standing strong in the truth and committed to the truth. And we pray for you and we pray for you and we pray for you and we pray for you and we pray for you and we pray for you and we pray for you committed with every fiber of our being for the defense and the proclamation of the gospel in our own day. Holy Father, hear our cry this morning and seal your word to our hearts, to our prophet and to your praise through Jesus Christ our Lord.

57:47 Amen.