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All right. Amen. Philippians chapter number four. So we're not doing the book out of order. There's a reason for this. So again, tonight we're going to start a new study and we're going to actually go through the book of Philippians. Now tonight's sermon is going to be an introduction to the Philippians. And I titled the sermon tonight, The Proactive Church. The Proactive Church, because that's what you're going to see the Philippian church and the saints that resided there were. They were definitely proactive. And let me just show you an example of that right off the bat here. So you're in Philippians chapter number four. Look at verse number 15. So Paul says in verse number 15, he says, Now ye Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. Okay. So what Paul is doing here is he's thanking them and he's bringing this up. The fact that they took the initiative to talk about giving and receiving and how that all should work and how that all should take place. So in other words, instead of waiting for something bad to happen, a lack of funds, a lack of resources, they researched or they reached out rather to Paul and talk to them about it so they could get a clear understanding of how that's supposed to be. Look at verse 16. He says, For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity. So what does that say? Well, it says it obviously right off the bat that the Philippians definitely had a heart for the brethren. They had a heart for Paul, what he did. They were thankful for what he did starting the churches there. They did not take it for granted. Now jump down to verse number 18. The Bible says this, but I have all and abound. I am full having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice, acceptable, well pleasing to God. And so there's the third mention just right off the bat of the Philippians sending aid to Paul because Paul writes this letter when he is in bonds, when he is on his way to Rome to be tried and to have all of that sorted out. Remember Paul was accused of all sorts of things when you study the life of Paul and he kept appealing the decision. He kept appealing the charges against him and he kept telling the Roman magistrates that he wanted to go to Caesar because he wanted this matter to be settled once and for all. So in the process of Paul going to Rome to meet with Caesar, he's writing this epistle to the Philippians. Now go to chapter number three, chapter number three. So in other words, Philippians really is a thank you epistle. It's a thankful letter from Paul to them for the acts of kindness that they did. And obviously it's great doctrine for us today because we are called to be a proactive people. We are called to have a heart like they did. And so obviously you can start to see why this has become so important, why God put this in our Bibles. But in this series you're going to see that this is the most personal letter that Paul ever wrote to any of the churches. And there's a good reason for that. They looked out for Paul. They took care of him. They had the mind of Christ. And because of that, you can see the closeness here. Studying this out, it may not jump out at you, but if you've read through the New Testament and especially through the epistles several times, you'll definitely see that this one stands out amongst the other ones. Now they're not without problems. We'll get to those. They definitely have some issues. But for the most part, I would definitely say that this is the most personal epistle that he wrote. And I think there's a lot that we can learn from that because when we take care of one another and we help each other out, it only increases production. It only increases growth in the kingdom of God either way that you slice it. But you're also going to see a lot of doctrine in the book of Philippians. You're going to see the pattern for the Christian life. There's a lot of Ps. First of all, this is the most personal epistle that he wrote. You're going to see that this is a pattern for how to live the Christian life. You're going to see the prize for living the Christian life. And finally, towards the end, you'll see the peace that we get living the Christian life, which is super important too because Paul mentioned several times that he's in bonds and that he's had all of these afflictions on him, but yet he still has this great attitude towards other people, still highly functional. And we need to obviously absorb that, take a look at that and make sure that we apply these things in our own lives. So Philippians chapter 3, look at verse number 1. This is very important for us because, like I said, you're going to learn a lot of doctrine. There's a lot of repeat things that we'll go over in the next few weeks. And sometimes people, when they hear the same things over and over again, they can kind of get bored like, ah man, like why are we talking about this again? But look at what Paul says about that to the Philippians. Philippians chapter 3 in verse number 1, he says, Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord, to write the same things to you to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Now on your own time, look at verse number 2 and you can kind of tell what that sermon is going to be like. Okay. I'm not going to get into it right now. I'm going to force myself to go back here to where we need to be. But what I want you to do right now is to go back to Acts chapter number 15. Keep your place here in Philippians. We're going to start in chapter 1 here in a little while, but we need to get an understanding here, and I think it would be beneficial for us to go and look at how these things started. What led up to and what took place during the church being established in Philippi. Okay, so go to Acts chapter number 15. So while you're turning to Acts chapter number 15, I'll just mention some quick things about the city of Philippi. So Philippi, located in the region of Macedonia back during Paul's day, which we would say today is just basically Greece. And Philippi was a city that was founded by a guy named Philip of Macedonia. And believe it or not, he was actually the father of Alexander the Great. So that's kind of the significance there with that city. You'll see when we get into the letter that there was a Roman colony there. Actually, you'll see that here in a moment in Acts, that there was a Roman colony in Philippi. And basically what that means is that there was a Roman occupation there, kind of like a Roman military presence based there. And with that, you had law, you had order, and things of that nature. And that is where we are going to see Paul and his crew visit. So this church here, the churches in Philippi, actually get started during Paul's second missionary journey. And you learn about that back here in Acts chapter number 15. Now, the beginning of Acts chapter 15, we went over a few weeks ago, I preached a sermon called Paul versus James. And I talked about how a lot of people try to pit James against Paul, and they try to confuse you on salvation. So that all gets settled in the beginning of this chapter here towards the end. And then in verse 36, where we're going to start reading, this is where you see the second missionary journey. And so we're going to start here, and we're going to kind of follow this journey up until the churches basically take off here in Philippi. So let's take a look at this. Acts 15, look down at verse number 36. So the Bible says, and some days after Paul said unto Barnabas, so this is after the, they meet and they, they, they settle the salvation amongst themselves and, uh, and several other things. It says, and some days after Paul said unto Barnabas, let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord and see how they do. So currently they're in Jerusalem. Okay. And they're about to make a counterclockwise, if you will, journey from Jerusalem. They're going to go up through Syria into Antioch. Then they're going to go over through Galatia, eventually down into Troas, and then over to a city called Neapolis, and then eventually make the way into Philippi. Okay. So right here, they're in Jerusalem and they have this idea to go and check on all of their brethren, all the people that had gotten saved, and see how these churches do. You know, and this is important here because a lot of people today think the only way you can start a church is, okay, you have to send somebody to Bible school and they have to have the certificate here and then they have to, you know, then go and start a church. You know, then they look at the new IFB and they say, well, the way you guys plant churches without a pastor in place is really wrong and it's not ideal and blah, blah, blah. You know what? That's all you see when you read through Acts. They just set up churches and then they went back and confirmed them and then ordained people. So, you know, don't let the naysayers get to you in regards to that. Look at verse 37. And Barnabas determined to take with him or take with them John, whose surname was Mark. Verse 38, but Paul thought not good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia and went not with them to the work. So as they're getting ready to leave and to go start or, I'm sorry, check on their brethren, check on all of these churches, Barnabas is like, hey, well, why don't we take John Mark? Why don't we take him with us? And Paul's like, no, this guy's weak. He quit on me. I don't want anything to do with him right now. Why don't you take him? So you can see there's a little bit of a scuffle here, a little beef, if you will. Verse 39, it says, and the contention was so sharp between them that they departed asunder, one from the other. And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus and Paul chose Silas and departed, being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God. Now, you're also going to see here, if you pay attention as we get into chapter 16, that Luke is also with them. Because remember who wrote the book of Acts? Well, it was Luke. So Luke is present with Paul and Silas at this point here. Look down to verse 41, it says, and he went through Syria and Cilicia confirming the churches. So again, they take off from Jerusalem. They go up to Syria and they're checking on the churches that they have started and making sure that everything is going as they were taught. Verse number one of chapter 16, it says, then came he to Derbe and Lystra and behold, a certain disciple was there named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess and believed, but his father was a Greek. And you're going to see that poor Timotheus here winds up being, I don't want to say forced, but basically being pushed into getting circumcised as an adult. Whereas his counterpart later on in Paul's life, Titus did not have to go that route, but we'll talk about that another day. So look at verse two, it says, which was well reported of, or by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium. And so now we see that Paul, Silas, Luke have Timotheus here, and they are going to go preach the gospel. Let's see here, look down at verse number six, just jumped down to verse number six. So basically they go around, they start confirming the churches, God's blessing them and look at verse number six. It says, now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, after they were come to Mysia, they say to go into let's see, Bithynia, but the spirit suffered them not. So you can see that the Holy Ghost is working through these guys and guiding and directing them on where to go and what they need to do. Okay, so they came up with the idea, the idea was in their heart, it's the right thing, but look, their heart's in the right place and the Holy Ghost is working with them and guiding and directing them on where they should go. Verse eight, and they passing by, Mysia came down to Troas. So Troas is in the Aegean Sea right there. It's literally right across the Aegean Sea from Neapolis, which is next to Philippi. Verse nine, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night. There stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him saying, come over into Macedonia and help us. And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. So if you look at the way that's written there, look at the verse 10 and after he had seen the vision immediately, we, okay, so this is Luke talking here, obviously under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, writing these things, preserving these things down for us. So they understand that the vision means that they need to head in that direction. They need to cross the Aegean Sea to go preach the gospel in Macedonia. I'll go verse 11. This begins the work at Philippi here in verse 11. It says, therefore, so for that reason, loosing from Troas, we came with a straight course to Samothasia. I butcher these names. I'm sorry, I just cannot do it. Some people are gifted that. I'm not. I'm not Alexander Skorbi. And the next day to Neapolis. Okay, remember, Neapolis is right next to Philippi. Verse 12, and from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia and a colony. And we were in that city abiding certain days. So again, what the Romans would do is they would go and they would conquer these different places. Now remember the the Grecian Empire at one time had control of this area. Romans came through, they conquered, and what the Romans would do is they would do like the Americans do, and they would set up a base. Okay, we call them military bases or military posts. The Romans would establish colonies, and they would move families over there, and they would live in these colonies as if they were in Italy. And they would establish Roman law, have military presence there, and obviously a lot of incoming people, people coming and going, in other words. So you had a lot of people from all over the world. You got these Romans coming in, obviously you have the existing Greeks, and then you have people from the other coastal cities. So a great place to start a church, a great place to begin a work of God, all based on a vision that Paul received because he had it in his heart to go and check on these churches. Okay, look at verse number 13. It says, and on the Sabbath day, we went out of the city by a riverside where prayer was wont to be made. And we sat down and spake unto the women, which resorted thither. Now what I find interesting here in this verse is that typically, you know, as you're reading through the book of Acts and you see the disciples going to a new place, especially Paul, the first stop was always the synagogue on the Sabbath, right? It was always the synagogue. But here we see them go down by a riverside. Not told why, perhaps there was no synagogue or perhaps the Jews had already been commanded to leave by this time here. It's not clear, but nonetheless, their first goal, their first mission is to go out and to connect with people. Look at verse 14. And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worshiped God, heard us, whose heart, now look at this here, whose heart the Lord opened that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. This is why it is so important that we don't get hyper focused on soul winning numbers because at the end of the day, it is God that opens up people's hearts. Again, there are people in this world today, and unfortunately this number is increasing. In these people, their heart is closed because they have decided to reject God. And we talked about this this morning. We just talk about this all the time. Okay. But here, I mean, this is in here for a reason. God opened this woman's heart. She heard the word of the Lord that Paul had spoke, and she winds up getting saved. Okay. Sometimes you're going to be out at a door. You're going to be giving someone the gospel and that devil is just plucking them seeds, plucking them seeds. Okay. And you know what, maybe it's because they've been, I don't know, they've had a history of rejecting the Bible, whatever it is, God hasn't opened it. It's not the right time. You know, only God knows those things. But the point is our job is to go out. Our job is to preach and God takes care of the rest. That's why Paul said, Hey, you know, Apollos watered, I planted and God gave the increase. Look at verse 15. It says, and when she was baptized and her household, she besought us saying, if you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and abide there. And she constrained us. Okay. Super zealous here. She's excited. She's gotten saved. And she wants to help these people out. She's not like, okay, great. Now I don't know. Just depart from me so I can go back to live my life. No, she's excited. She wants to learn more. She wants to be a blessing to Paul and those that are with him. Look at verse 16. It says, and it came to pass as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by sooth saying. So again, keep in mind where they're at. They're in Philippi, the chief city of Macedonia. There is a colony there, and there are people near there that are making profit off this woman who's demon possessed. Okay. And I think this is interesting here because what's going to happen next is a lot of people in Philippi are going to get saved and they're going to start churches and they're going to have bishops and they're going to have deacons and they're going to have a great heart for God. I'm bringing this up because this is what you see knocking doors all the time. You will knock on a door and it'll be like somebody is wasting your time. They're like, yeah, I'm interested. Okay. And you start giving them the gospel and all of a sudden they kind of give you a red flag. Like they don't quite believe that. Or maybe they want to sidetrack you and start talking about aliens and start talking about all these other things. Right. And, or maybe they want to start a fight with you. So just start an argument with you. And the next thing you know, you've wasted maybe an hour or two hours, you know, or God forbid even longer, which unfortunately I have seen in my life very recently. I'm not going to get into that. However, the point is you need to be aware of these things because what typically winds up happening when you're in this situation is a few doors later, someone gets saved. Okay. So we need to be aware of this and we need to understand when people are trying to waste their time or people are mocking like this. And we've had situations like this where people like want to follow us and they're like, Hey, yeah, I agree with what these guys are saying. And they'll be just, just like this, you know, and it's like, man, you know, you're, you're distracting here, you know, but just keep in mind when weird things happen to you like that, when you're trying to do something great for God, it's because there's something on the other side of that, that the devils can see, and they don't want you to partake in. They don't want you to have that. Okay. So obviously they're in Philippi, they're, they're trying to get this thing going. And what do they run into? A certain woman possessed with a spirit of divination, verse 16. And look at verse 17, the same followed Paul and us and cried saying, these men are the servants of the most high God, which show unto us the way of salvation. Now, isn't that interesting here that this woman's possessed by a spirit of divination, an evil spirit, a demon, and it's speaking truth. This is what they're doing. They're showing people the way of salvation, but she's doing it in a way that is a nuisance. Okay. Verse 18. And this did she many days. Now in this situation, you're obviously different than a little bit different than what we run into. Paul put up with this many days and it may have taken a while for them to really discern when the right timing was to cut this off. But verse 18, it says, and this did she many days, but Paul being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. Now pay attention to this next sentence here. And he came out the same hour and he, that male, that he, that spirit came out of her. Okay. So again, the Bible is making a distinction here and letting us know that it wasn't just her of her own volition of her own will, but it was this demon. It was this spirit that was causing her to do that. And of course the people surrounding her were profiting off of this. Okay. They were making money and getting resources that way. Look at verse 19. And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers. Now, why did they take them there? Remember that colony that is mentioned here that Luke told us about. Okay. There's authority there. There are rulers there. And they're thinking, okay, we're going to be able to try and convict these guys because they just robbed us. They just cost us a fortune. Verse 20, it says and brought them to the magistrate saying these men being Jews do exceedingly trouble our city. Now this unfortunately, well, fortunately for them, it's actually going to come back to bite them here at the end of the chapter here. They don't do their due diligence to check who Paul really is. Remember Paul has different cards. He used to be a Pharisee. He's a Hebrew of the Hebrews, you know, but he's also a Roman citizen. They don't check on any of that. Look at verse 21. It says and teach customs which are not lawful for us to receive neither to observe being Romans. Now think about the time that they're wasting here from Paul and Silas and Luke. They're taking time away from them that they could be out continuously preaching the word and getting these churches started. Okay, and this is what I'm talking about. This happens from time to time out soul winning. Verse 23, it says this. Oh, I'm sorry, verse 22. And the multitude rose up together against them and the magistrates rent off their clothes and commanded to beat them. And when they laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison charging the jailer to keep them safely. So these magistrates you're going to learn in a little bit are Romans and this jailer is a Philippian. He's a resident of Philippi. Verse 24 says who having received such a charge thrust them into the inner prison and made their feet fast in the stocks all because they cast a demon out of somebody. I mean just again talk about people who hate the truth, who love the wages of unrighteousness. That is what's going on here. Verse 25, and at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God and the prisoners heard them. This is very, very key here in understanding this passage in Acts chapter 16. So Paul and Silas, though they're locked up, though they just got beaten, you know, they got whipped, they got these stripes on the back there, they're obviously hurting, you know, they're going through some difficult stuff. What do they do? They maintain their joy. They're still happy. They don't get offended. They're not like well this ain't working out. This ain't what I signed up for. No, they're like hey let's praise God in this. We're still here and so they're giving thanks to God. They're praying to God and they're probably praying for people that they've gotten saved and things of that nature here. It has to be that way because of what is about to happen. Look at verse 26, and suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's bands were loosed. So all these people that are locked up, it's midnight, there's an earthquake, all of a sudden all these people realize jailbreak, you know, we're free, okay, but there's a miracle that happens here. Verse 27, in the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, now obviously he shouldn't have been napping, right, awaking out of his sleep and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out a sword and would have killed himself supposing that the prisoners had been fled. So he was going to take his own life because he realized that, you know, I just woke up, the prison doors are open, everybody probably just bolted out, okay, and I'm going to get in trouble. I'm going to lose my life in shame so I'll just take it myself now, but the miracle is that everyone stayed put. So look at verse 28, but Paul cried with a loud voice saying, do thyself no harm for we are all here. Now look at verse 29, then he called for a light and sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas, and I want you to think about this next question here, and brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? Now the question that I have and that I like to put out there when I'm talking about this chapter with people is why did the Philippian jailer ask that question? Well, you go back up to verse 25, the context I believe is very clear. They were singing praises to God, they were praying for people, and in the midst of that, salvation was coming up over and over again, and this guy is hearing these things, and he realizes his lost condition, and so he asks, okay, I hear you praying for these people that are saved, you know, I hear you speaking and singing praises and talking about God, I hear the word of God, and he says, what do I have to do to be saved? So he goes away from worrying about taking his own life and his own physical life to worrying about his spiritual life, and so that's why he breaks in and asks this question, verse 31, and they said, okay, let me just bring this up too, okay, what must I do to be saved? Do you know what that means? That means that this Philippian jailer here is saying, Paul, tell me everything I need to do to not go to hell. If the list is three million things, I want all three million. If it's two things, I want all two. I want everything. It's important that you understand that. Look at verse 31. And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house. That's it. That's the answer. It wasn't you need to believe and turn from sins and do this and do that and do all these other things that people keep telling us that we have to do. It was one thing. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Look what happens next. So he gives them the answer and then he thoroughly explains it. Verse 32, and they spake unto him the word of the Lord and to all that were in his house. Very important. Now we don't get the whole dialogue here, but we get the synopsis. We get the idea here. He has the question. Paul gives him a quick answer and then pulls out the word of God and clearly communicates what he must do to be saved, which was believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Preaches to the house. These guys all get saved. There's your first group of people here that are saved in Philippi. Verse 33 says this, and he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes and was baptized, he and all his straight way. Verse 34, and when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house. So having a late night here meal, a night meal, if you will. Verse 35, and when it was day, the magistrates sent the sergeants saying, let those men go. So now you can kind of get that picture of the colony there. Now you have these sergeants, you have these military folks and the magistrates and like, okay, now you can let these people go. Verse 36, and the keeper of the prison told this saying to Paul, the magistrates have sent to let you go, now therefore depart and go in peace. So the jailer is like, hey, this is great news. You don't have to stay here anymore. You can go. But Paul has some beef here. Paul's not going to let this go. Okay. So Paul switches from preaching the gospel to wanting to get a little bit of justice. Look at verse 37. But Paul said unto them, they have beaten us openly, uncondemned being Romans and have cast us into prison. And now do they thrust us out privily? Nay, verily, but let them come themselves and fetch us out. And the sergeants told these words to the magistrates and they feared when they heard they were Romans. Okay. And so we're going to go back here to Philippians. I'm sorry, no, we're going to go over to chapter number, where are we at here? We're already in chapter 16. Yeah. Go, go to Philippians chapter number one. So basically here, Paul wants to get some, some justice here and rightfully so, you know, he was beaten, uh, uncondemned as a Roman. These people that arrested him, they did it wrongfully. And Paul wants some justice. And again, this ain't the only time you see this in the Bible. Okay. You see John the Baptist lost his life for preaching against Herod. So in other words, there's nothing wrong with us having a good balance. We preach the word of God, we preach the Bible, but we also call out the wickedness in our world on a regular basis. There's nothing in the world wrong with doing that. There's nothing in the world wrong with us putting up a bit of a scuffle and a little bit of resistance. Now I shouldn't say scuffle, but a little bit of resistance when these people try to kick us out of apartment complex. Okay. You know, this hasn't happened in quite a while, but I very rarely will just leave when called out. I will try to put up some sort of a fight, some sort of a resistance and actually make them call the police. Okay. I, you know, some people don't like that and that's fine. Okay. I won't, I won't make fun of you. I won't, you know, bring it up. It's fine. You know, if you're out soul winning and that type of thing is not who you are, just leave. It's okay. Me, I ain't going anywhere. So if you're going with me and they try to kick us out, there's going to be some words exchange and I'm going to actually make them call the police because guess what? We are not soliciting. We are visiting and there's no law against visiting. We have that right in this country. And I believe that we need to stand up for that in the times that we live in. Because if we don't, who will? You know, you think the JDubs are going to do it. You know what's sad is that they're the reason why we even have that law in the first place. And I'm not endorsing them. I'm just saying it should be the other way around. It should be because we, God's children stood up, you know, and said, no, we're not leaving. Okay. We have the right to be here despite what you say. So hopefully that there kind of gives you some insight on how the church and everything started. The church is rather started in Philippi was during Paul's second missionary journey. And you can see how the resistance from the devil was already in place right when they go there. Okay. They're preaching the gospel and the devil's like, oh, I'll send this person to kind of distract and cause a little bit of a scene. And of course that there leads us to even more insight on how the devil works. It doesn't always just send a Satanist like these guys out here every other week. Sometimes it's somebody who seems like they're on your side, but they're just a nuisance. They're just toxic. They're just annoying. And sometimes that's how he does it. That's how it works. The goal is to waste your time because your time was given to you by God and the devil knows that, and that is what he is after. So with that picture in mind, in the process of time, Paul eventually getting support after this from the Philippians has it in his mind to write this epistle to them. And this is where we're going to start here. Let's take a look here at verse number one, Philippians chapter number one. So obviously a great deal of time later, Paul writes this and says this in verse number one, Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ to all the saints in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons. Now think about where we just started, Acts 15, Acts 16. Okay. You start off with a Philippian jailer about to take his own life. He gets saved, his family gets saved. And then it's only up from there. I mean, they obviously took that serious. They obviously grew in knowledge and in doctrine. And here we are reading this and you can already see Paul's heart when he starts this letter off. So let's talk about this verse here. Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ. Again, another thing for us to remember that we are servants of Jesus Christ. Very important. We don't want everyone to lose sight of that, that we are the servants. He is God. He gets all the glory. We are here to help. We are here to serve. He says to all the saints in Christ Jesus. Now keep your place here, but go back two books. So go back past Ephesians, go to Galatians real quick. Go to Galatians chapter number three. Galatians chapter number three. And I want to focus on that word just real quickly. He says to the saints in Christ Jesus. Now what does that mean? Saints in Christ Jesus. Well, let's look at Galatians here. Look at verse 23. Galatians three verse 23. It says, but before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith, which should afterwards be revealed. Okay, now what does that mean? Well, it means before faith came, before you were saved, before you were born again, you were outside of Christianity. You were outside of the faith. In other words, you were not in Christ. Look at verse 24. Wherefore the law was our school master to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith, not by our works, but by faith. Verse 25. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a school master. So in other words, when a person is not in Christ, they are in the world under the law. We've talked about that in the past. Verse 26. Now look at this. For ye, now who is that ye there? Well, ye meaning everyone in faith in Christ. He says for ye are all the children of God. Now how are they the children of God? By faith in Christ Jesus. Now what this does here is this stomps out the world's ideology and especially the Mormons, they're real big on this, in saying we are all God's children because we're all made in the image of God. Therefore, we're all God's children. That is lies. That is false doctrine. Verse 26 is very clear. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. He doesn't say you are all the children of God, end of story, period. No, by faith in Christ Jesus. So if a person does not have faith in Christ Jesus, they are not God's child. Verse 27. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, and in that context there, that word baptized, he's talking about being placed into Christ or being born again. He says for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Then he goes on to say that there's neither Jew nor Gentile, male nor female in Christ. We are all one. So just wanted to bring that up, go back to Philippians chapter number one and move on here. So Paul says in verse one, Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ. And look at to who the letter is. To all the saints in Jesus Christ. In Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi. Now that doesn't mean in dispensational theory that this is only to the Philippians. That's who the letter was directed towards, but this is for every saint. This is for all of us. So to all the saints in Christ Jesus, so to the saved. The reason why I highlight this so often is because these epistles are for Christian conduct. Primarily. That doesn't mean you can't go here to use a verse to preach the gospel, but primarily this epistle is for Christian conduct. So he says in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi, now look at this, with the bishops and deacons. What a marvelous thing. What a glorious thing. They went from the days where it was just the Philippian jailer and his family to now having plural bishops, plural deacons. So you can see that there was a necessity for multiple positions of leadership. And obviously if you have bishops and deacons, you have many churches, I would assume. Look at verse two. He says, grace be unto you. Who is that you there? Everyone in the world? No, to those who are in Christ Jesus. Grace be unto you and peace from God our father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in your own time, and maybe in the future we'll do this, if you do a study on that word there, grace and peace, you're going to always find in the New Testament, you're always going to find that word grace precedes peace. Why is that? Because without God involved, you can never have true peace. He is the only one that can provide true peace, which is how Paul could even write these things with a cheery, just a blessed attitude after all that he's gone through, all the beatings, all the backstabbings, all the arrests, all of that stuff. It's because of true grace, which comes from God and provides peace. Look at verse three. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. So of course, you know, if you've ever gotten somebody saved, you know, and you ever see them later on, you're always kind of like wondering, like, how are you doing? Like, what's going on? There's, you know, John said himself, the apostle John said himself, that there's no greater joy than to see his children are abounding in truth. And that's essentially what Paul's thankful for. You know, he's heard of their thriving, heard of everything that they're going through. And so he's constantly thinking about them. Again, as opposed to thinking about himself, right, he's thinking about other people, about them. Verse four, always in every prayer of mine for you, all making requests with joy. So obviously the Philippians were always on his mind. He was always praying for them, praying for their growth. And this is great. Look at verse five. He says, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. So what else is he thankful for here? He's thankful for their fellowship in the gospel, right? And you'll experience that. You know, you could go to some of these other churches out there, old IFB, and it seems like the fellowship just isn't there. Okay. And it's because we have different views on doctrine, but primarily what it is, is there's not the same drive. There's not that same zeal for souls. That's really what it boils down to. Seeing people say, okay, but when you get around other people that have that zeal, there's a great fellowship that takes place there and it sticks with you. So Paul says here in verse five, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. He says, verse six, being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. So he has high hopes for these people here, high hopes for this church here and for believers who obviously have this goal of fellowshipping over the gospel, the good news. Verse seven says, even as it is meet for me to think this 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 all are partakers of my grace. And so again, Paul brings up the fact that we need to defend the gospel. And that also contributes to fellowship. When you run into other people that want to defend the gospel, doesn't it make you happy? Doesn't it bring you some joy? It's like, yes, this is what I'm talking about. Let's stand up and fight the opposition. Let's fight these people. Not saying physically. I'm just saying like spiritually. It's important. It's another component that adds to the fellowship. It's great to be around people that want to stand up and defend truth. And Paul's highlight, that's how the Philippians were. They got off to a right start and they continued that way, obviously for who knows, for many years. Verse eight says, for God is my record. How greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. Now, remember when I started this off, I said the book of Philippians, the epistle to the Philippians is a result of the fellowship and of the hospitality that they had given Paul. And so Paul here, you can just see how personal this is, how much he cares. And it's not to say that he didn't care for the Galatians or the Corinthians or the Ephesians or any of the other people. Obviously he did, but there was something special about the Philippians. And I'm telling you is because of their proactivity. It's because they grab hold of the word of God and they kept it and they pushed forward. And Paul greatly was appreciative of that. Verse nine, he says, and this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more. And this gets a lot of people mad in knowledge and in judgment. Okay. So interesting here, Paul says that he's praying for them, that their knowledge would increase. Okay. That their judgment would increase as well. Okay. What happens when both of those increase? Look at the beginning of the verse there. And this I pray that your love may abound. Right. Isn't everybody talking about love? Oh, love, you know, be kind. Love is love. You know, you're a hate preacher and shield of faith is a hate church. You don't have no love. Right. And then out of the other side of their mouths, what are they saying? They're saying bad things about judgment and you know, we don't need to judge people, blah, blah, blah. You can't have real love if you don't have that godly knowledge and judgment. Right. I mean, think about that. That's what he's saying. Paul knows if you're going to keep going the way that you're going, I want to see you increase in knowledge and in judgment. This was a big thing that he pushed to the Corinthians when he told them the spiritual judges all things. We need people with discernment. The reason we have so many problems today in Christian churches is because of a lack of both of these knowledge and judgment. And really when you get these and you increase these unto yourself from the word of God, you're going to really love the things that God loves. And you're going to hate the things that God hates. That is going to be the direct result of that. Verse 10. He says, this is also why I want you to have these things. That, verse 10, ye may approve things that are excellent, that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ. And then he says in verse 11, being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. Now keep your place there real quick. Just go back one book, Ephesians chapter number five. And so I mentioned earlier in the sermon that, uh, you know, Paul said, Hey, it's not grievous for me to keep writing the same things over and over again. Okay. Obviously Paul had had other communications with the Philippians that aren't scripture. Um, I know a lot of people think that he only wrote these books and never wrote anything else in his life, but you know, he obviously had other, uh, communications with them and with the other churches. And one of the things that is brought up to all the churches constantly is this concept that knowledge judgment need to be increased so that we can approve things so that when new ideas come in and different situations pop up, we can say yes, that is of God or no, that is not. Ephesians five. Uh, let's see here. Look down at verse number, uh, let's start at verse number eight. So this is Paul talking to the Ephesians. He says, verse eight, for you were sometimes darkness, but now are you light in the Lord? Walk as children of light. So again, we are supposed to walk as children of light. How do we do that? Well, the word of God is light. That is how we walk. That is how we live our lives. That is what we use to shine on anything that is in our path to see whether it's good or bad. That's how we approve things. Verse nine, for the fruit of the spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Verse 10, proving what is acceptable on to the Lord. Okay. Again, this is safe for us to hear constantly. This is what we are supposed to do. We take the light and we shine it on things. That is a judgment. That is what we are called to do. But of course in today's day and age, you have so-called Christian. Oh, it is judgmental. I can't believe you would say that. I'll never forget it. One day I got this phone call from this lady. She's like, I got your, and she left me a voice message. And she's like almost in tears. She's just like, I just got your card, your invite. And I don't really want to talk to you about it. There's something really terrible, really bad about it. I'm like, dang, did we get a misprint? I'm like thinking, man, maybe Vistaprint put some wrong gospel. I don't know. So I call her up and she basically proceeds to tell me that we just need to get a black card with a red border that says, God is love. I'm like, that's what you're crying about? That's what you're shedding tears about? Because all the stuff about King James and family integrated, so divisive and so mean, I just can't believe it. I'm like, click. Nope, not even having this conversation. What about all this? I mean, this is where it's at. Taking the word of God and shining it on things so that we can approve what is excellent. So if we're called to approve of what is excellent, guess what? That means there are tons of things in the world that are not excellent, that are not good. And that's exactly what he says next. Look at verse 11. So after he tells them to prove what is acceptable unto the Lord, verse 11, and have no what? Fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. That is what we are called to do. But how many churches this month are flying a rainbow pride flag out in front? Tons of them. It increases every single year. What about these passages here? Oh, that's right. They don't have them. They don't respect them. They don't like the word of God. They don't love the word of God. They don't have knowledge and they certainly do not have judgment. So we're almost done for the evening. Go back to Philippians here, chapter one, and we'll get finished. The good thing about these short epistles, we can kind of take our time and just kind of really try to get a good extraction here of truth. Look at this here. One more time in verse 10, he says that you may approve things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Jesus Christ. And that, I mean, that, that's honorable there, right? I mean, being sincere, you know, it's hard to find people today that are sincere, that care and then actually love God. And you know, when you found that person, when they're willing to actually take the light of the word of God and shine it on something and actually test, is this from God? Is this good? Okay. But the person to the contrary, the person that says, well, I think there's, you know, value on both sides. And, you know, I think that everything is okay. And God's just accepting it all and we shouldn't fight. Okay. That person is not approved unto God. That person is actually a danger to the Christian mission. Okay. That person would come into a church like this and actually wind up corrupting it. Paul knows that. So verse 11, being filled with the fruits, plural there, the fruits of righteousness. We already gave you three of them. Epaphroditus coming back to Paul while he's in bonds with gifts, the monetary aid that they sent Paul, all of those things, Paul, and you'll see as we get through this book, all of those things actually are eternal. Those are, those are, those are righteous acts. Those are righteous fruits that will never be able to be taken away from the Philippians. Those are things that transcend physical reality and go into eternity. Let's look at verse number 12 real quick here. It says, but I would, you should understand brethren that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel. And so we're going to stop right there for tonight and we'll pick it up next week. But I wanted to leave it there because I mean, look at his attitude here. He's not offended. He's like, this is great here. I'm in bonds. Yeah. I'm in a bit of trouble right now. I've been beaten. I've had all these horrible things happen to me, but it all worked out for the furtherance of the gospel. So amen and praise God. That is what he's saying there. And that's the attitude he's trying to convey to them and to us. So we're going to stop there. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for this church and for everything that you consistently do for us. We just pray, Lord, you bless the soul winning this week. Bring us back again safely on Wednesday in Jesus' name. I pray. Amen.