My Brethren, Beloved and Longed For

Introduction and Context of Philippians 4:1

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, January 3rd, 1982, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now will you turn with me, please, to Paul's letter to the Philippians, the book of Philippians. Follow as I read in your hearing, chapter 3, beginning with verse 17, and conclude the reading with chapter 4 and verse 1. Philippians 3 and verse 17.

0:31 Philippians 3 and verse 17. For our citizenship is in heaven. Whence also we wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

1:12 who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory, according to the working whereby He is able even to subject all things unto Himself. Wherefore, my brethren, beloved and longed for, my joy, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my beloved. Let us again seek the face of God, asking God by the Spirit to open His word to our hearts.

1:51 Our Father, we thank You for the clear and refreshing reminder in the previous hour that Your word is a self-attesting revelation of Your mind and of Your will. And yet, we acknowledge that though there is no problem in the authority and clarity of Your word, there is a darkness over our minds by nature. And we pray with the psalmist, Open Thou our eyes, that we may behold wondrous things out of Your law. Overcome our native ignorance, prejudice, rebellion, indifference,

2:34 and all of those other carnal attitudes, which we would naturally bring to Your word. And give us hearts that respond in faith and love to all that You have said. Hear us, we plead, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

2:59 Now, I regard it as a very kind providence, that on this, the first Lord's Day of 1982, that our regular course of expositions in, the book of Philippians should find us at chapter 4 and verse 1. Now, in reality, Philippians 4.1 should have been Philippians 3.22.

3:24 Now, I'm not being irreverent in making that assertion. As most of you are well aware, the chapter and verse divisions are not a part of the inspired word of God. When Paul wrote this letter, he did not write it with chapter and verses. He didn't even write it with punctuation as we now understand it.

3:45 But the chapter and verse divisions are a very helpful and convenient way of locating the various statements that God has made. And by and large, we are grateful for them because of their practical function. However, occasionally, the divisions as they stand in our Bibles, particularly in our English translations, can be unnoticed. A hindrance to a proper understanding of the word of God with respect to the connections between the thoughts that God has given us in the words of Holy Scripture.

4:24 And one such instance is Philippians 4.1, which should have been verse 22 of chapter 3. Now, why do I say that? Well, you will notice if you look at the text that it begins with the word translated, wherefore or therefore.

4:43 And that word is a connective, immediately giving us a signal that what Paul is about to say in verse 1 is either the conclusion of what has preceded, an inference or an application of what has gone before. Furthermore, you will notice that just prior to the exhortation, stand fast in the Lord, is the little word translated, so, which could be rendered in like manner or thus, indicating that the exhortation to stand fast in the Lord is an exhortation to stand fast in the Lord in a certain manner,

5:27 the very manner which Paul has demonstrated in chapter 3 by his own testimony and by his exhortations. So, with the introductory word, wherefore, and the little particle, so, it is very clear that chapter 4 and verse 1 is really the conclusion of the thought that has been unfolding in chapter 3. And as such, I say it is a most fitting word of instruction and exhortation as we stand on the threshold of this new year. Now, what is Paul concluding in this particular verse?

Review of Philippians Chapter 3

6:09 May I? I remind you very briefly of the essential contents of chapter 3. He began with what was to be his least semi-final exhortation, furthermore, or finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. It is his concern that the Philippians have all of their joy derived from the realities of their union with Jesus Christ and to know the joy that comes, when they live in the light of the implications of their union with Jesus Christ.

6:47 And because there were forces afloat that would erode their ability to rejoice in the Lord, he then warns them. And then there follows that very forceful warning with respect to the Judaizers, those who would make the Philippians rejoice in glory, not in Christ, but in their own personal attainment, in morality or religious privilege and activity. And then he goes on to warn those who would seek to cause them to rejoice in the Lord in such a way as to give the impression that one may be in Christ while not having it evident that Christ is in him. And so he has warned them against the sensualists

7:31 who have an external attachment to the gospel, but who deny the power of the gospel in the ethical pattern, and who deny the power of the gospel in the ethical pattern. And now as a grand conclusion to all that he has said in chapter 3, he comes with this word, Wherefore, my brethren, beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my beloved. Now in opening up the text, I shall direct your attention to two basic units of thought. First of all, we have the noteworthy manner in which Paul addresses the Philippians.

Paul's Noteworthy Address: Relationship to the Philippians

8:13 The noteworthy manner in which Paul addresses the Philippians, and then secondly, the important exhortation which he gives to the Philippians. Now when I use the word noteworthy, I am using it purposely. For in no other place in all of his letters, whether addressed to individuals, as we have in the case of Timothy and Titus and Philemon, or addressed to the churches, does Paul bring together such a density of descriptive words with respect to those whom he is addressing,

8:57 as he does in this passage. Nowhere in all of the epistles do you find in so short a compass such a dense and diverse combination of terms with reference to those whom the apostle is addressing. And so I have called this the noteworthy manner in which Paul addresses the Philippians. And as he addresses them with these terms, brethren, beloved, long for, joy, crown, and then repeats the term beloved, what he is doing is setting forth basically three categories of thought

9:41 in writing in this way. First of all, he is demonstrating his own relationship to the Philippians. Paul's relationship to the Philippians is bound up in the use of this term, my brethren. He calls them his fellow family members.

10:05 Now these Philippians were Paul's spiritual, spiritual children, many of them. You'll remember in Acts chapter 16, we have the record of the founding of the church at Philippi. And it's clear that the apostle was the spiritual father of many who constituted that church. And as he does in such places as 1 Corinthians 4.14

10:29 and Galatians 4.19, he could have said, wherefore my children. And it would have been proper for him to address the Philippians. The Philippians as his spiritual children.

10:42 But he chooses rather this term, which is his choice and most used term to describe his relationship to his fellow believers. He addresses them as his brethren. Now he does this repeatedly in this letter. You'll remember chapter 3 began with the use of that term.

11:04 Finally, my brethren. And then again in verse 13 of chapter 3, Brethren, I do not count myself to have laid hold. Verse 17, Brethren, the imitators together of me. And then again, verse 8 of chapter 4, Finally, brethren.

11:23 And then again in verse 18 of the last chapter. I'm sorry, verse 21, The brethren that are with me salute you. Now, why does the apostle in addressing the Philippians at this point, in the letter, take up this term brethren and use it again? Is it just some kind of a verbal filler like we use the word ah while we're waiting for the next thought to come?

11:50 And there's very few things more tedious than someone who uses an ah for a filler until thoughts can be fleshed out in words. Well, there are times when we read our Bibles as though repeated words are some kind of verbal filler. While the mind is waiting for rich thought, it simply picks up a familiar word and puts it down. Not true at all.

12:21 Not true at all. The apostle was using this term purposely. And whenever we find it, even with great repetition, it is not a matter of thoughtless or careless usage of the word. The apostle delighted to use this word because, every time he used it, it reminded him and should remind those who are addressed as brethren of the glorious truth that by the grace of God, sinners from every diverse kind of background have been constituted the one family of the living God.

13:03 They are indwelt by the life of God. They are adopted into the family, the family of God. For when Paul used the term, my brethren, he is not thinking of the Philippians as his brothers in the sense of being fellow human beings and members of the human family. But the key to what he has in mind is given to us by comparing chapter 1 and verse 1 with chapter 1 and verse 14.

13:35 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the people, the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi. He's addressing himself to those who are set apart unto God in union with Christ Jesus. They are the saints in Christ Jesus. Now then, in chapter 1 and verse 14, he says, and most of the brethren in the Lord.

14:07 So that when men and women are brought into vital union with Jesus, Jesus Christ, from the divine standpoint, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, from the human standpoint, by the response of faith, they are united to Christ, indwelt by the very life of God, and adopted into the family of God, and are constituted brethren in Christ. And for this great apostle, who once had a heart, full of national prejudice, had a heart full of hatred to Gentile dogs, or even looked down disdainfully

14:51 upon fellow Jews who were not part of that strict sect of the Pharisees. It was his great delight to magnify the grace of God when writing to a congregation made up of raw pagans. Remember that demon-possessed girl? She was one of the charter members in the church at Philippi.

15:11 Brought out of raw paganism and made up of proselytes and made up of Romans such as that jailer. How he delighted to write to them and say, Wherefore, my brethren, and so remind himself and them of his essential relationship to them which he desired to be regarded not primarily as spiritual father, not primarily as, not primarily as authoritative apostle, but a brother beloved, one who was a sinner saved by grace, who, though he had some things that none of them had in the way of office,

15:55 knowledge, authority, experience, the things which he had in common with them far outweighed the things in which he was different from them. He was a sinner by nature, under wrath and condemnation, he was a sinner upon whom God had set his sovereign free love, a sinner for whom Christ died, a sinner into whose heart God had come by the Spirit, a sinner who had been adopted into the family of God so that he can write as he does to the Galatians, as many of us as have put on Christ have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ,

16:37 there can be neither Jew nor Greek, bondman, nor free, male nor female, for ye are all one new man in Christ Jesus. And so when he addresses them in this noteworthy address, he first of all underscores his relationship to them. He is a brother beloved. But then in the second place, this noteworthy manner of address not only gives us Paul's relationship to the Philippians, but it demonstrates, Paul's affection for the Philippians.

Paul's Noteworthy Address: Affection for the Philippians

17:15 Look at the language. Wherefore, my brethren, that's his relationship, and now his affection, beloved and longed for. You will note that he uses a couplet of terms, and then at the end of the exhortation he picks up one of those terms, the term beloved, and adds it as a counterpoint, and adds it as a counterpoint, a capstone to the exhortation itself. Now what do these two words mean?

17:49 Most of us, when we hear the word beloved or beloved, we think we're listening to a preacher reading probably from the liturgy that eventually traces its way back to the Anglican prayer book. And when someone says dearly beloved, we say, oh boy, here we go, ministerial starch by the ton. And the term has lost something of its biblical impact upon us. And I hope we can recover some of that this morning.

18:16 When Paul addressed the Philippians as his beloved ones, he was using that very word which first comes to us in the New Testament, not from earth, but from heaven. For we read in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 3 and verse 17, that when the Father speaks out of heaven upon the occasion of the baptism, of the Lord Jesus, His own eternal Son, now incarnate, now come to full maturity as to His man, as to His state as a man, that God Himself speaks and says,

19:01 Matthew 3, 17, lo, a voice out of the heavens saying, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well, in whom I am well pleased. Now try to think for a moment, though it's difficult for us to think in terms of the relationship of the persons of the Godhead. But what must the measure of the love be? What must the quality of that love be with which the Father delights in His Son?

19:35 This is my Son, my beloved One, in whom I am well pleased. All that I have seen Him be, all that He is, all that He has become, all that He's committing Himself to in this formal setting apart to the functions, the messianic functions at His baptism. This is my beloved Son. This is my beloved One in whom my soul takes pleasure.

20:07 That's the word that is used here. It's spoken again from heaven. On the occasion of the transfiguration in Matthew chapter 17. And so that word has unusual significance because its meaning in a sense is fixed by that tremendous statement of the Father Himself with respect to His Son.

20:31 This is the love of delight and of complacency. Not the love of principle. That kind of love that we must show even to our enemies. Though we may in terms of the psychology of our whole inner disposition be repulsed by what they are and what they do, we must nonetheless choose to love them.

20:53 Will their good at any cost to ourselves. We must will them no evil. We are to love our enemies. But this is not love in that dimension.

21:04 This is the love of complacency. The love of delight. The love that looks upon the object and sees in it everything that is lovely and lovable and takes pleasure in its object. And so when Paul addresses the Philippians in this way, he is as it were opening his own heart and letting them know something of the depth of his affection for them when he addresses them as his beloved ones.

21:33 The ones in whom he takes great pleasure. The ones as he contemplates and gives him something that finds an analogy in what God the Father feels and knows when he looks upon God the Son in the perfection of his being and of his obedience. Now that's affection. Affection that is deep.

22:00 Affection that was realized in the Apostle's heart towards the Philippians. And then he uses the term my long for one. And this is the only place in the New Testament where this particular word occurs. Now the verbal form of this word Paul has already used twice in Philippians and that will give us a clue of its meaning.

22:25 In chapter 1 in verse 8 he could write for God is my witness how I long I yearn after you all in the tender mercies of Christ Jesus. You remember when we had occasion to expound that verse he said that his viscera from the depths of his inner being he yearned after them with a yearning that either was produced by Christ or was akin to the yearning with which Christ yearns for his people. And then in chapter 2 in verse 26 we have another verbal use of it speaking of Epaphroditus Epaphroditus.

23:09 Since he longed he yearned after you all something of that ache of homesickness that Epaphroditus had for his dear Philippian congregation. Now Paul takes that verb and changes it into a form that now describes the Philippians as his longed for. And one other use of the verb that may help us get a feel for what it means it's the verb used in the familiar text in 1 Peter 2 as newborn babes crave, yearn long after the sincere milk of the word. That kind of longing that a baby instinctively has

23:53 for its mother's breast or for the bottle when it's hungry. He says you Philippians are not only my beloved ones but you are my longed for ones. It's something of that feeling that the child feels the first time he goes away to camp and gets a good case of homesickness. And I know what that's like.

24:17 I've confessed it before. Age 12 first time I was away and after the second night cried myself to sleep every night. You talk about longing. Oh if I could just have seen the face of my father my mother a brother a sister anything that would have given me a living contact with that family from which I had been so radically cut off.

24:39 Now I got over it quite quickly at age 14 I went away for a whole summer to work at a camp and at age 15 and I made out alright but I'll never forget that first dose of real homesickness. That longing that yearning for my relatives. It's what a wife feels when a husband who is the proper head and governor of his home and the tender cherisher of her being is away on a lengthy business trip and nothing just seems to be quite right and everywhere she turns she's reminded of him and of his absence and there grows within her breast a longing for him and his return. It's what a soldier on the battlefield feels with shells bursting all around him

25:23 and in his foxhole he takes out his wallet and there he sees the picture of his wife and his three little ones and his heart yearns for them. That's the sense of this word. And here the apostle is unashamedly acknowledging to the Philippians something of the depth and the breadth of his own affection for them in Christ when he calls them not only his beloved ones but his longed for ones and he does so in a couplet because those two things are always found joined to one another. That which we truly love we long for.

26:04 A heart full of affection for the Philippians will inevitably bring in its train and affinity for the Philippians. A heart suffused with delight in them must of necessity be a heart suffused with desire for them. The man who writes passionate love letters to a woman that he doesn't care to see or be with is kidding himself or trying to kid her or doing a job on himself and her.

Paul's Noteworthy Address: Estimation of the Philippians

26:36 Where there is genuine love there is longing to be with her. To be with the object of that love. And so when the apostle addresses the Philippians my brethren he's underscoring his essential relationship to them beloved and longed for his affection for them. But now this next couplet of words my joy and my crown are an indication of Paul's estimation of the Philippians.

27:04 You see the progression? Paul's relationship to them Paul's affection for them but now in these words Paul's estimation of them.

27:18 He describes them as his joy and his crown. Now the word joy is the standard word in the New Testament used for joy. In trying to describe what joy is perhaps we could call it inward delight pleasure gladness it's perhaps better described by its opposite it's the opposite of grief and of pain. Remember what the writer to Hebrews said in Hebrews 12 no chastening for the present seemeth joyous but grievous.

27:51 The opposite of joy is grief. The opposite of gladness is sadness of delight is pain. Now the apostle says of them that they are his joy. Now what did he mean by that?

28:07 Well he meant simply this. He was giving them an estimation of what they are. What they were in their spiritual stature and experience and what they were was such as to cause him joy. In other words they were the occasion of bringing joy.

28:26 Whenever he thought of the Philippians his heart danced within him. Whenever he contemplated what they were by the grace of God what they were in their relationship to him and to the gospel his heart would leap for joy within him. They were his joy. But then he says they were his crown.

28:48 Now in the New Testament there are two basic words used for crown. One is the word from which we get our English word diadem and that's a word for word or letter for letter transliteration from the Greek word diadema. Now that's the word used for the royal crown. When you see a picture of a king and he has his royal crown on that's what you would use to describe the diadema the royal crown.

29:14 But here the word used is the word from which we get our girl's name Stephanie or our English word Stephen. And it means a wreath a laurel either to celebrate victory in an athletic contest or a wreath that might be worn on a very festive occasion. Now that's the word Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 9.25 when he speaks of people who strive in the athletic contest to obtain a corruptible crown.

29:47 It's that kind of crown. It's the wreath the laurel of victory. Paul uses a verbal form of that in 2 Timothy 2.5 a man does not get crowned he doesn't get Stephenized he doesn't get the laurel of victory in the games unless he keeps the rules.

30:06 Now in what sense could Paul describe the Philippians as his festive festive or crown of victory? Well if you'll go back to chapter 2 you'll have the clue to the answer in this very passage.

30:23 He has expressed his delight in the knowledge that the Philippians have always manifested a pattern of obedience in the past verse 12 so then my beloved even as you have always obeyed now he exhorts them to continued obedience to the end that they might be a clear testimony of the grace of God verse 15 that you may be blameless and harmless children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you are seen as lights in the world holding forth the word of life now here's the key that I may have whereof to glory in the day

31:08 of Christ that I did not run in vain neither neither labor in vain he says if you Philippians continue in the path of obedience so that Christ is formed in you to the extent that you shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation when the Lord Jesus comes I will not be found as one who ran in vain that is who ran and was not crowned I will not be found as one who has nothing to show but sore muscles and sweat for all my endeavors oh if you Philippians continue to be monuments of the power of the gospel in practical holiness

31:52 in the last day I'll wear the victor's crown as a minister who was used to realize the great end of the ministry which is what to see Christ formed in men and women boys and girls so that they shine as lights in the midst of darkness who are blameless and without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation the parallel passage to this is 1 Thessalonians 2 verses 19 and 20 you have that same couplet of terms for what thanksgiving I'm sorry 1 Thessalonians 2 and verse 19 for what is our hope

32:37 or joy or crown of glory are not even you before our Lord Jesus it is coming for you are our glory and our joy what is our hope or joy or crown of glory are not you before the Lord at his coming and so you see that couplet again of joy and of crown and as John Stone in his very perceptive comments on this verse is underscored and I'll not take time to quote him because time is swiftly passing from us this morning he drew the beautiful picture of the Roman

33:21 Emperor who had his diadem but it was a fading diadem and amidst all of the splendor of Rome in the power and authority of the throne was nonetheless an empty man and there in one of his stated places of incarceration was an old man a worn out man who bore in his very body the marks of the bruises and the lashes and the whippings he received for the testimony of Christ and he has a chain about his hand and everywhere he goes he's in the company of a soldier and yet this man writes a letter saying I am a man who has on his brow the laurel of victory

34:06 I'm a crowned man you see in the Philippians passage he says that the Philippians were to him right now his joy and crown so it has two dimensions they were his joy and crown now if someone were to come to him and say Paul how do you know at the end of a life here you are not down in Florida retired with a nice pension to live out the last few years with some degree of ease here you are at the end of the road and you've got nothing to show for but a chain around your wrist he says man look again don't you see the crown on my brow they look closer and say I see a few scars where it looks like you took some lumps he says I'm crowned why he says you go to Philippi

34:51 and you'll see the answer there's a group of people out of every ethnic and religious and cultural background bound together in common bonds of life and faith in Jesus Christ standing against the tremendous pressure of Roman paganism in thought in lifestyle in attitude and disposition there's no explanation for them but that the gospel I preach came with power and they are a people who are the monument of my true success as a minister they are my crown and what they are now they shall be in the day when the Lord Jesus comes again you see what he's saying

Exhortation to Leaders: Regulate Perspectives and Express Affection

35:36 he's letting the Philippians know his estimation of that he says you are my joy you are my crown now we have before we pass on to touch briefly upon Paul's exhortation I want to bring a word of exhortation based upon this noteworthy manner in which Paul addresses the Philippians first of all it contains some vital words to those of us who lead and instruct others in spiritual things it says to us first of all we ought to let our perspectives and attitudes be regulated by the things we have in common as members of the family of God some people feel that as elders pastors preachers

36:20 deacons fathers or mothers when they lead they must have as the dominant perspective the things wherein they differ from those that they are leading the things wherein they have authority and legitimate rights to assert and to lead and to govern but you see the apostle didn't do that fully conscious that he wrote to them not as an ordinary believer giving them a little advice he wrote as an apostle with full apostolic authority he knew that and they knew it but you see he delighted in writing to think more of the areas in which he was one with them not those in which he was different from them

37:05 ah but someone ejects won't that erode authority just the opposite is true it will endear the authority to the hearts of those whom you lead to you and therefore enhance your authority over them Jesus said I am among you as he that what servant he that would be greatest among you let him become what servant of all and isn't that true in your own experience those whose God-given leadership you are most likely to follow are those who make it evident

37:48 that they rejoice with you in the things which you have in common and so Paul addresses them saying finally not children not disciples but brethren but then it also says a word to those of us in any place of leadership and it is this we must let our affection and our appreciation be known to those whom we lead in spiritual matters when the Bible says let us not love in word only but love in word but let us not love in word only it doesn't have a full stop there a period it says let us not love in word only but also in deed and in truth but some read it as though it said let us not love in word full stop period

38:33 no when it is an honest expression of your heart when those whom you lead have by their actions proven themselves worthy of such expressions as beloved and long-term for how are they going to know they are loved and long for unless you tell them you see words deeds are not always self-interpreting deeds need to be explained by words some women very dutifully without much delight in their husbands serve them lovely meals day in day out

39:17 week in week out month in month out some husbands carefully and faithfully provide for their wives very much dutifully week in week out month in month out year in year out but what happens in counseling one sits down with a wife who says oh that my husband would only tell me that he loves me and when you bring the husband in and say you know your wife is frustrated you don't verbalize your love he says well don't I prove my love I've been a good provider I've been faithful yes that's true and she's not demeaning that she's thankful for all the deeds but there's a need which overflows only words can meet and she wants to hear the words dear I love you

40:02 and when I'm out slugging away in the business world and trying to make a go of it and make the ends meet I want you to know the thing that keeps me going is my love for you isn't that right ladies it's not enough that your husband gives sacramental deeds don't you long for appropriate words or don't you make it different to you ladies hmm amens from the ladies you men the same is true perhaps and it's usually the fault more of the men than the women but I've seen the reverse and I've had to deal with it in counseling situations where a husband he longs to know that the motive

40:45 behind fixing those meals is that you love him and so the apostle had proven indeed his love for the Philippians that church came to birth in the midst of his own blood he was beaten in that Roman prison and when he came out that night you remember the Roman jailer had been converted the first act of mercy he did as a Christian was to wash the wounds of Paul and Silas and in a sense Paul could say well the Philippians know I love them I carry scars that are living monuments of my love and they saw the scars but when he writes them he's not content with the memory of those deeds he says finally my brethren beloved

41:29 my longed poor brethren he tells them that he loves them and then he tells them how much he esteems them he says you're my joy and my crown now again someone objects why if leaders in churches and in homes are that profuse in the expression of their affection and the esteem of those that they're leading won't that make people careless that's not the way of grace my friends few things will stir the heart of a true Christian to greater faithfulness than to know that he's loved when he sees so much unlovely in himself and to know that he brings joy to another when for the life of him he can't figure out how he could you go back to last Wednesday night

42:13 when so many mentioned how grateful they were for the ministry of the other members of the body of Christ to them what did that do to you if you happen to be one who's helped someone a little bit in the past year did that make you say oh boy I'm really getting praised up and down oh no , what did it do it humbled you, didn't it and it made you say oh God if the little bit I've done ministered to a fellow believer oh God help me to do more it stirred you up to more didn't it and when I heard different ones say how thankful they were for the ministry of the word week in, week out month in, month out the solid exposition of the scripture

42:57 do you think that sent me home proud as a peacock it sent me home humbled and it sent me home home with renewed yearnings and longings that have been poured out at the throne of grace oh God whatever else I do or become help me to be faithful in the preaching of the word of God as long as I have breath see the expressions of your love and appreciation humble and encourage and the apostle Paul knew that so we need to learn from that but not only do we who are leaders need to learn something from this noteworthy address to the Philippians but there are some words of exhortation to the people of God who are led

Exhortation to the Led: Be a Joy and Crown to Leaders

43:42 and to families who are being led by godly fathers and mothers and my word of exhortation to you is this seek to be the kind of people whom the true servants of God cannot help but love and long for seek to be the kind of people whom the true servants of God cannot help but long for and reward and love with that peculiar love of delight Paul never wrote to the Corinthians and said my beloved and my longed for now he did call them his beloved children and there's a little bit of irony in that he said my beloved children I love you because in grace I'm treating you like little babies who probably don't know better

44:27 but he never called them his longed for it would have been dishonest to say he longed for that bunch that bunch that broke his heart that bunch that broke his heart that bunch that broke his heart that bunch that broke his heart that bunch that caused him tears and grief and pain but the Philippians he said my beloved and my longed for he said I know if I come to Philippi I'm not going to find people at one another's throats and I'm not going to find a bunch of people that are questioning my apostleship and I have to prove that I'm he said no there are people who manifest that spirit of obedience to the word you have always obeyed he said go on doing it he can say in chapter 4

45:11 of all the churches you alone had fellowship with me in the proclamation of the gospel from the first oh what an incentive it should be to you as a congregation to be the kind of congregation that makes it easy for your leaders to love you and to long for you and I can say without hesitation or exaggeration that that is true as I stood here Wednesday night those who were here will remember I said above all else as I thank God for you I thank God for your obedience to the word of God now I know that obedience is not perfect I've counseled with too many of you to know that and I've had to live with me so I know that that's not true

45:55 but the pattern of your walk before God in this fellowship has been obedience to the word of God and my exhortation is continue to be that kind of people for whom it will be easy to say of whom it will be easy to say my beloved and my longed for and then the second word of exhortation is seek to be the kind of people who will be a joy and a crown of victory to your overseers seek to be a people who will be a crown of victory to your overseers be a joy to them now and as they anticipate the final day and the writer to Hebrews

46:38 picked up that very theme when he said obey them that have the rule over you and submit to them for they give for they watch for your souls as they that shall give an account that they may do it with joy and not with grief what is it that we as your overseers labor to see above all else we labor to see Christ formed in you to see you as a people individually and in our corporate life as a congregation shining as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation not wondering how close you can come to the world's standards and patterns and the world's perspectives and still be a respectable Christian but seeing you forgetting

47:23 the things that are behind and pressing after the things that are before seeking to be as much like Christ as the grace of God can make you at any given point in your experience you will then be the joy and the crown of your overseers what a wonderful thing it must have been that day when this letter first came how humbling it must have been when one of the elders or leaders stood and read that epistle and they understood when Paul said my brethren my dearly loved and longed for my joy and my crown there were no doubt many in that assembly who said well how can we be Paul's crown

48:07 we're just a bunch of poor pagans transformed by the grace of God Paul has so much more knowledge experience of Christ and his grace than we have and yet he's written it my joy and my crown and oh that you may be such a people who will be a joy and a crown to those who seek to lead you but then very quickly and I'll not spend a long time on it because our time is almost gone the importance and exhortation he then gives to the Philippians you see having prepared the way into their affections once more by the very manner in which he addresses them then he gives them

The Important Exhortation: Stand Fast in the Lord

48:50 this very important exhortation the basic duty stand fast the sphere of its realization in the Lord the manner or the pattern of its fulfillment in this manner that's the essence of the exhortation the basic duty stand fast the whole idea is that of remaining firm and upright same word used in Galatians 5 stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free but notice he says stand fast not in your own strength not in external religious tradition divorced from Christ stand fast in the Lord that is

49:33 stand fast in your union with Christ the reality of your life that union the implications of that union the demands of that union don't be budged from the present conscious constant realization that you are in Christ stand fast in the Lord and he says do it in this manner and the this manner refers back to the entire third chapter thus stand fast in the Lord in what way Paul in the way that I've outlined for you when anything would move you aside from trusting in Christ alone for righteousness even as I count all things but loss that I might gain Christ

50:17 and be found in him thus in this manner in this way you too stand fast in the Lord long after the reading of this epistle has been a matter of history in your congregation if anyone comes and tells you you need Christ plus something else someone else oh my dear Philippians stand stand fast in the Lord as your only righteousness and when standing fast in him you are tempted to say well if I have a perfect righteousness in Christ I can coast stand fast in him as I've told you I do not count myself to have laid hold this one thing I do forgetting the things that are behind I press toward the mark

51:00 of the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus union with Christ means that I stand fast in a perfect righteousness but I don't stand still I press on to lay hold of everything for which Christ has laid hold of me oh Philippians stand fast in the Lord in this manner and furthermore to stand fast in the Lord means that you stand fast in the practical ethical implications of union with Christ you have a citizenship in the heavens where Christ is seek the things that are above yearn and long for the Lord long for the day when you'll be totally conformed to his likeness don't be like those who say they're in Christ

51:45 and yet manifest that their affections and appetites and ambitions are devilish and sensual no no stand fast in the Lord dear child of God that means as we face the coming year that you and I should avoid with all our powers any doctrine any doctrine any doctrine any doctrine any doctrine any doctrine any doctrine any doctrine any doctrine any doctrine any doctrine any doctrine any doctrine any person any possession or activity which lessens our practical dependence upon Christ weakens our desire to be like Christ slackens us in our pursuit of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ anything that darkens

52:30 our hope of ultimate total conformity to Christ what better word as we stand on the threshold of the new year than this word stand fast in the Lord He is our righteousness He is our strength He is our gold He is the one to whom God in His gracious purposes is conforming us now and will do so ultimately and perfectly at the return of the Lord Jesus Christ whatever temptations may come to us whatever trials may beset us whatever trials whatever disappointments may crash in upon us whatever heresies

Concluding Application: Stand Fast and Embrace Christ

53:14 may seek to plague us if there is one word that is the distillation of all our biblical duty here it is stand fast in the Lord there is no need that we will face in the coming year but what Christ is adequate for that need sounds trite doesn't it sounds like a cliche but it's true and so much more my beloved brethren stand fast in the Lord that's the exhortation perhaps some of you are full of all kinds of questions perhaps full of all kinds of apprehensions as you face the coming year

53:57 may I urge you to remember you can only live one day at a time as God gives it and the grace that God has stored up in His Son is adequate for that day may we be a people who in the light of Paul's own spiritual biography has given to us in chapter 3 learn more what it is by the grace of God to stand fast in the Lord now you see that assumes that you're already in Him and if you're not in Christ then you cannot obey that exhortation you can't stand fast in the Lord if you're not in Him and if you're not in Him you're not part of the family you're not part of the family you're not part of the family of God

54:41 you're not one of the brethren when you say that puts me in a terribly unenviable position that's right that's what your position is but we were once there and God in grace brought the gospel to us and when by that same grace we saw ourselves in need and saw Christ as the answer to that need and embraced Him we too were brought into that vital union with Him that door of mercy in the Lord Jesus stands for us and it's open to you may God grant that you'll not enter a new year out of Christ and therefore in a state of condemnation under the wrath of God to face life alone

55:25 what a tragic thing just to face life alone not to speak of death and judgment and eternity my friend don't be proud of the fact that you've withstood the overtures of grace for another year hang your head in shame and cry to God that the threshold of the new year would be the threshold of life indeed for you as you repent and believe the gospel let us pray our Father we are so thankful that you've given to us your holy word we praise you for this verse that we've looked at

56:10 this morning we thank you for moving your servant Paul to write as he did to that church that was so dear to his heart we pray that that word written hundreds of years ago which is your living word may come home with power to each of our hearts and that we may profit from our meditation upon it this morning hear our prayer and help us as we seek further to sanctify this day to your praise and to our profit we ask through our Lord Jesus Christ Amen