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Alright everybody, good evening and welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. We're going to start with our first song this evening, in your white handouts, Psalm 139. Psalm 139. Either in your white handouts or in your King James Bible. Psalm 139. Surely now we'll slay the wicked. Surely now we'll slay the wicked, O God. Depart from me, therefore ye bloody men. Depart from me, therefore ye bloody men. Do not, I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee. Do not, I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee. In my grief, with those that rise up against me. Do not, I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee. For they speak against thee wickedly. And thy enemies take thy name in vain. Do not, I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee. Do not, I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee. In my grief, with those that rise up against thee. Do not, I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee. I hate them with perfect hatred. I hate them with perfect hatred. I doubt them, my enemies. I doubt them, my enemies. Do not, I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee. Do not, I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee. In my grief, with those that rise up against me. Do not, I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee. Amen. All right, let's open the Word of Prayer. Lord, Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day and thank you for us all gathered together in your name. We pray that you please bless the preaching of your word and bless all the songs and praises to your name. We pray that you please fill Pastor Shelley with your Holy Spirit and be with us all this evening. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right, the next song we're going to sing is Verily, Verily, song number 263. Song number 263, Verily, Verily. I had to pull this one out for our anniversary because everybody should know this one by now. All right, Verily, Verily, song number 263. Oh, what a Savior that He died for me! From condemnation He hath made me free! He hath believed that from the Son save me, hath everlasting life. Verily, Verily, I say unto you, Verily, Verily, message ever new, He hath believed that from the Son's is true, hath everlasting life. All my iniquities on Him were laid, All my indebtedness by Him was paid, All who believe on Him the Lord hath said, Hath everlasting life. Verily, Verily, I say unto you, Verily, Verily, message ever new, He hath believed that from the Son's is true, hath everlasting life. Oh, Lordy, I can trust my Lord. Though He is sinful, I believe His Word. Oh, glad message every child of God, hath everlasting life. Verily, Verily, I say unto you, Verily, Verily, message ever new, He that believeth on the Son's is true, hath everlasting life. Oh, all unworthy, yet I will not doubt, for He that cometh, He will not cast doubt. He that believeth on the good news shall, hath everlasting life. Verily, Verily, I say unto you, Verily, Verily, message ever new, He that believeth on the Son's is true, hath everlasting life. On the inside, we have our third year anniversary announcement there. So, man, this church has been going steadfast for the last three years. It's great. And yesterday, we had our Sowing Marathon. We had 52 slow winters and 41 salvation. So, praise the Lord on that. We have a cow from this afternoon. We need to get a cow. Okay. What do we have for this afternoon? Anything to report? Four. Okay. What about one over here? And we have to say, I think that's eight. Eight for the day. Praise the Lord on that. Amen. Yeah. And then also down below, we have our upcoming preaching schedule. So, we have Brother Dylan, he's with us today, and he's preaching tonight. He's preaching Thursday, December 2nd. And then also Sunday, December 5th. And then we're going to have our Christmas caroling in between. So, that's going to be December 3rd. We'll meet here at 5.30 p.m. And we'll go out for about an hour. And then we'll come back and have pizza fellowship. And so, we'll be singing Oh Come All Ye Faithful and Joy to the World, some to the classic caroling hymns. And, you know, honestly, it's one of the coolest ministries that we've ever done as a church. I really enjoy it. A lot of people actually get really emotional when you go out and do caroling. You know, people aren't necessarily always that appreciative of soul winning. For some reason, they love caroling. You know, you go and you knock on their door and you start singing. You got all the kids out there. Most people are really excited about it. They really appreciate it. And we tend to go to the nicer neighborhood for caroling, okay? So, they usually really like it. People that have, like, decoration and everything like that. We don't look for the Scrooges out there, okay? We look at the lights and, you know, they're ready for some Christmas caroling. And so, I really encourage you to participate and join in on that. It's a lot of fun. Also, we have on the right our Bible memory passage, Romans chapter number 8. We're working on a verse number 9. Really good passage. In fact, it's funny because Pure Word is doing the same chapter. And it's a really long chapter, but it's a good one. It's a lot of verses in there that you kind of already familiar with. And so, I'd encourage you to work on that one. We have a couple ladies that are expecting. Continue to be in prayer for them. We also have a baby shower for the Gillums on November 21st. And I don't know what to get them because, you know, they won't tell us what's in there. They won't tell anyone. And then, also, Thanksgiving service. Instead of having our Thursday service, it'll be Tuesday, the 23rd. We also are going to have a candlelight service for Christmas, December 23rd. And then, Mrs. Breanne is also going to do pictures for us. And so, there is a sign-up sheet. Over here it has time slots where you can sign up. But, November 20th is going to be a Saturday. And they're asking all the people that live here to try and sign up for the Saturday time. And then, the following the 21st, people that are from out of town or aren't able to make it on Saturday, they can try to be here for the Sunday. And so, there's a sign-up sheet back there. We'll probably, we may even have to do a make-up day if we do, just for someone. At some point, we can do that and figure out something. But, it's going to be, the background is also here too. I think we can post a picture of it if you want to like figure out colors and matching. I don't care. But, maybe some of you do. But, that's pretty much all I had for announcements. We're going to wait probably until the end of December to order the yearbooks. So, you should expect them as a late January. Okay, it'll be kind of like a tax return present or something. So, you'll have to wait patiently for it. But, we want everybody to participate. So, please definitely sign up. You want to get your picture and make a record that you were here. So, don't you care. That's pretty much all I had for announcements. We'll go ahead and go to our third song, 169. In our hymnal, song 169, Come Thou Fount. Alright, hymn number 169, Come Thou Fount. Come thou fount of every blessing, To my heart to sing thy grace. Strings of mercy never ceasing, Called for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some rebellious summit, Sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mountain I'm fixed upon it, Pound of thy redeeming love. Here I raise mine Ebenezer, Mither by thy help I come. And I know by thy good pleasure, Safely I'll arrive at home. Jesus sought me in a stranger, Wandering from the fold of God. He to rescue me from danger, Interposed his precious love. O to grace how great a debtor, Daily I'm constrained to be. Let thy goodness thy God better, Mind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, Prone to lead the God I love. Here's my heart, O Lord, take and seal it, Seal it for thy courts above. Amen, good singing. As the offering plates are being passed around, please turn in your Bibles to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2, the Bible reads, If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, If any comfort of love, If any fellowship of the Spirit, If any vows and mercies fulfil ye my joy, That ye be like-minded, having the same love, Being of one accord, of one mind, Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, But in the lowliness of mind, Let each esteem another better than themselves, Look not every man on his own things, But every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, Who being in the form of God, Thought it not robbery to be equal with God, But made himself of no reputation, And took upon him the form of a servant, And was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, Even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, And given him a name which is above every name, That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, Of things in heaven, and things in earth, And things under the earth, And that every tongue should confess, That Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, Not in as my presence only, But now much more in my absence, Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure, To all things without murmuring and disputings, That ye may be blameless and harmless, The sons of God, without review, In the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, Among whom ye shine as lights in the world, Holding forth the word of life, That I may rejoice in the day of Christ, That I have not run in vain, Neither labored in vain. Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all. For the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me, But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send to Mothia shortly unto you, That I also may be of good comfort when I know your state, For I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state, For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ, But ye know the proof of him, That as a vain son with the Father, He hath served with me in the gospel. Him therefore I hope to send presently, So soon as I shall see how it will go with me, But I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly, Yet I suppose it necessary to send to you Ephrodias, my brother and companion, and labor and fellow soldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants, for he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had been sick. For indeed he was sick, nighing to death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow on sorrow. I sent him therefore more carefully, that when we see him again, he may rejoice, that I may be the less sorrowful, receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness, and hold such a reputation, because for the work of Christ, he was nigh to death, not regarding his life, to supply your life and service toward man. Heavenly Father, Lord, we just thank you so much that we could be here this evening, Lord, we just pray at this time that you'd be with a pastor, fill in with your spirit, Lord, and I just pray you'd open this congregation's hearts and ears to your word, in Jesus' precious name, Amen. Amen. Philippians chapter number two is a really famous portion of scripture, and it has a lot of great verses in here, talks about a lot of different subjects, but I wanted to kind of focus in and hone in on a particular verse here, and kind of do a little bit of a Bible study on this chapter, but in verse number 12, the Bible reads again, Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Now, this phrase, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, a lot of people kind of get confused on what that means. What does it mean to work out your own salvation? And a lot of people will mistakenly take the word salvation in their Bible to only mean one thing, okay? Essentially, most people, when they hear the word salvation, they think about going to heaven. That's basically what they mean by that. And of course, the Bible uses the word salvation to describe someone going to heaven or being saved, but not every time is the word saved, saved, salvation used to describe a spiritual salvation of going to heaven. Sometimes it's physical. You know, when the Apostle Peter walked out on the water, and he's walking towards Jesus Christ, and he begins to doubt, and he starts to sink and to drown in the water, he says, Lord, save me. Now, when he said that, he wasn't saying, can I go to heaven? He wanted to not die in the water, okay? So, he was asking to be saved from physical death in the water. And a lot of times in your Bible, the word saved, salvation, is not a spiritual salvation, it's a physical salvation. And I'll submit to you, I'll already give you the answer this evening, but the salvation that's being mentioned here in verse 12, I do not believe is a spiritual salvation at all. It's actually a physical salvation that's being described. And when you pay attention to the context of Philippians, it'll help us better understand what this verse is actually saying. So, some people try to explain away what this verse is actually meaning, because they think it's talking about going to heaven. And we all know that salvation is not of our works. You know, it's not based on how we live our life, it's not something you have to work on. You get saved by just simply trusting in Christ. As soon as you trust in Christ, you're spiritually saved forever, you're on your way to heaven. So, when it's talking about working out your own salvation, it's not talking about going to heaven. It's talking about something different, a physical type of salvation. And I want to back up to chapter 1, and I want to kind of build up to the context of verse 12 so we can better understand this. But anytime you're trying to figure out what anything means in the Bible, you have to go ahead and pay attention to the context. And context just means with text. Meaning, what's the surrounding content, what's the other verses saying, what's the chapter saying, what's the letter saying? You know, these are letters that the Apostle Paul wrote. And when Paul wrote these letters, I don't know if you realize this, but he didn't like in the middle of his sentence say, oh, chapter 2. You know, like this is just like one letter that the Apostle Paul is writing to the Philippians that then we later added verse and chapters and these type of things. And look, I'm not trying to take away from the chapter and verse into nations, but you have to realize that these are not meant to be taken in isolation. They're meant to be taken as a whole. We have to kind of understand the context to really wrap our minds around what's being stated. Now, Philippians chapter 1 opens with a lot of greetings and those type of things. But look at verse 12, and let's kind of jump in here. It says, verse 12, but I would, you should understand, brethren, that the things which happen unto me have fallen out rather under the furtherance of the gospel, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and all other places. And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife, and some also of good will. One preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds, but the other of love, knowing that I'm set forth for the defense of the gospel. So, and he says in verse 18, what then? Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I in there do rejoice. Yea, and will rejoice. So the Apostle Paul, we can learn from this passage a few things. Number one, he's in jail. Okay, and you know, some people would act like, just because you go to jail, you're the worst person ever. But guess what? Jesus went to jail. You know, he was at least in captivity, in a sense. He was taken hold of a prisoner. He was, you know, held with the chief priest and then held with Pilate. We have Paul going to jail. We have Peter and John going to jail in the Bible. I mean, pretty much all the people we really like in the Bible went to jail. Joseph went to jail, okay. Now, a lot of these people were falsely accused, okay. And the Apostle Paul is going to jail for preaching the gospel or, you know, serving the Lord. And he says that something's happening, though, because of a result of him going to jail. It's causing other people to become bold to preach the gospel. Other people are saying, you know what, if Paul is willing to go to jail for the gospel, then maybe I should, you know, get a little bit more courage to go out and start preaching and talking about the Christ and, you know, spreading the gospel. And so, he's saying what's happened, even though I went to jail, it's had a net positive effect on Christianity. More people are bold to preach the Word of God and more people are taking Christianity seriously. And more people are now saying, we need to go out and preach Christ, okay. And so, basically, he's trying to encourage them by saying, even though it's negative for him, obviously, nobody wants to be in prison. Nobody wants to be in jail. Nobody wants to be locked up or in bonds. But even though that's happened, it's actually caused the gospel to have a big effect and to go out to more people and more people are preaching and more people are bold. And so, he's actually glad that it's caused a lot of people to be confident and bold and preaching and going through these struggles. Look at verse 19 now. For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. So, he just got done explaining how all these people are waxing bold and preaching the gospel and the gospel is being spread. And then he explains in verse number 19, for I know that this, what is the this that he's describing here? He's describing them preaching the gospel and people waxing bold and more people hearing about Christ. Shall turn to my salvation through your prayer. Now, he says my salvation. Is Paul saying he's going to go to heaven because of this? Is he explaining works-based salvation all of a sudden? No. What is he wanting to be saved from? Prison. He's wanting to get out of prison. He wants to get out of jail. And so, he's saying my salvation. Now, it says here that something's going to turn. This shall turn. What does that mean? Turning is like changing, right? Something's going to be different. It's going to be reversed in a sense, right? So, if you're in jail and it's overturned, you know, there's a ruling against you, it's over, basically saying it's not going to happen anymore. So, something's going to cause him being in prison to change, to turn, to not happen anymore. What is that? Them preaching the gospel. Now, this just makes sense because when it comes to public opinion, when it comes to just the society that you're living in, when you have more people preaching the gospel and the gospel is going forth and is becoming more popular, more people are involved in it, it's going to be a lot more difficult to want to imprison people for preaching the gospel. So, it's basically going to turn to the part where it's going to let him go free because there's too much public pressure. There's too many Christians. There's too many people involved in this. And if you're going to punish people for preaching the gospel, you can't just throw Paul in prison. You have to throw all of them in prison. And they're not going to be able to do that. They're not going to want to do that. So, it's going to end up causing it to where Paul's actually going to be able to get out. Because it's easy to shut one person down. It's harder when it's 10, 20, hundreds. And so, that's why it's important to stand with men of God to actually have the courage and the boldness to make a stand with other people so as to thwart these type of punishments, these type of limiting factors where they would put someone in prison and do this type of thing unto them. So, again, is this salvation here spiritual salvation? No, we're talking about a physical salvation from prison that's going to happen. And it also says that it's coming through their prayer. So, what are they praying? They're probably praying for him to get out, obviously. They're probably praying for the gospel to go forward. And because of their prayer for his salvation, it's going to give him the opportunity to get out of jail. Not only are they doing this in the context of him getting out of prison, though, it's also that he's going to stay bold. And notice what it says in verse number 19. And the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. What do you mean by supply? Well, here's the thing. When you get saved, the Holy Spirit is sealed inside of you. You're sealed with the Holy Spirit. You have him. But the Bible also describes the concept of being filled with the Spirit. So, whatever our capacity to be filled with the Holy Spirit, it's going to ebb and flow based on our daily decisions. You decide to read your Bible in the morning. That's going to fill you with the Spirit more than if you didn't read your Bible. You sing the Psalms, the hymns, you sing spiritual songs. That's going to help fill you with that Spirit. And it's going to increase your supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Also, just being around other brethren. You know, going to church, having fellowship with other Christians, going soloing, doing these activities. It's going to increase the supply of your spiritual tank, whatever that capacity is. And when you find out that a bunch of Christians are preaching the gospel because of you and a bunch of Christians are praying for you, he's saying, that's going to increase my being filled with the Spirit. It's going to increase my supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. What does he say in the next verse? According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. So he's saying, I want to have this increased supply of the Spirit. For what purpose? So that he stays bold. So no matter what they're going to do to him, no matter how much they threaten him, no matter what evil is presented before him, he's going to stay strong in the gospel. He's not going to become a compromiser. He's not going to back down. He's not going to be ashamed of the cause of Christ. He's not going to be ashamed of Christ in any way. He's not going to be ashamed of anything in the Bible. He's going to stand firm and he's going to stand bold. And what's giving him some of that boldness is people praying for him. You know, let's be real. It's hard to stand and face against foes by yourself. It's a lot easier when you have other people encouraging you, supporting you, they're on your side, they say they're praying for you. And the Apostle Paul's no different in the sense that he wants people to encourage him. You know, we think of the Apostle Paul as being this spiritual giant. You have to realize the Apostle Paul wanted people to pray for him. The Apostle Paul wanted people to encourage him. The Apostle Paul needed people to come alongside him and assist him and do things for him to encourage him. Let me show you some examples of this. Keep your finger here and just look. Well, you don't even have to probably turn the page. Ephesians 6, we're just probably right there. Look at verse 10. So this is the previous book, Ephesians chapter 6, look at verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. So the Apostle Paul realizes that we derive strength, we derive courage, we derive boldness from God, from his power, not our own. You know, we're not, as Christians, we're not strong and mighty and bold by ourselves. We have to be emboldened by the Spirit of God. And that Spirit of God comes through, you know, the Word of God, through reading the Bible, hearing the Bible being preached, through songs, singing, these types of spiritual activities help give us that spirit, give us that power, give us that might, give us that boldness. And in chapter 6, he's going to describe the armor of God. But if you kind of pay attention to the end part, look what he says in verse 18. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching there into with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. And for me, that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador and bonds that there and I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. Now, you have to understand something about Paul. A lot of his letters are written when he's in prison. I guess when he is in prison, he has lots of time to just write. You know, he's like, what else am I going to do? He's writing a lot of these epistles. But he's saying, hey, guys, I want you to do something for me. Pray for me and pray for me that I'll open my mouth boldly and I will make known the mystery of the gospel and I won't be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that I'll stand strong. Because, you know, when someone's threatening to kill you, someone's threatening to imprison you, I mean, the apostle Paul would go from town to town to town every time he's faced with the opposition of being killed, with being beaten, with being thrown in prison, with all manner of evil happening to him for preaching the gospel. That is going to cause any normal person to second guess their message, the second guess telling people about Jesus Christ, the second guess them from opening their mouth boldly as they ought to speak. So the apostle Paul is saying, please pray for me that I would do this, that I won't back down. OK, so look at chapter number one of Philippians again and look at verse number 20. And notice what he said, that with all boldness, as also as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be my life or death. Now, this is what the apostle Paul's perspective is, is he saying, you know, whether I die or I live, as long as I'm bold and confident in the Lord, God's going to be magnified. So he's saying, whether I die a martyr or whether I live as being rescued by God's providence or his deliverance, either way, God's going to get the glory for that. And he just wants to give God the ultimate glory of his life. You know, he doesn't want God to basically have any shame because of him. You know, we are unwilling to confess Christ or when we don't take a bold stand or we compromise, we back down. It actually brings shame to the cause of Christ. Or perhaps we get we were very sinful or we make mistakes that can cause the heathen to blaspheme the name of the Lord. You know, what gives God the glory is when you stand strong on the Lord Jesus Christ, you take a bold stand, whether it's through death or through life. He says and explains this verse one for me to live is Christ and it dies game. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor. Yet what I shall choose, I won't not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. The Apostle Paul says, you know, honestly, if I got to pick right now, like die and go to heaven or stay here, I'd probably pick dying and going to heaven because it's far better. He's just saying, like, heaven's way better than this earth. You know, we there's no pain, there's no sorrow. You know, all those sleepless nights you can rest in heaven. You know, you get to have joy and peace and you're with the Lord and they just it's technically it's just it's infinitely superior. But he says, I kind of not decide I can't decide which one I would actually pick, though, because staying here is more beneficial for you guys. You know, the fact that I can still be alongside teaching you, training you, encouraging you, having fellowship with you. It actually seems more needful that I actually live rather than die because you guys need some serious leadership here and he provides that. And so in his opinion, he's thinking, you know, it's probably more needful that I stay here for you guys. Look at verse 25. And having this confidence, what's the confidence? The confidence that it's better for the cause of Christ that he lives right now than he dies. That's what he's saying. I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith. The rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again. So he says. If I could pick or choose, I don't know, I'd rather go to heaven because it's way better, but it's probably better for you guys. And since it's better for you guys, I'm actually confident that the Lord's going to actually deliver me. Now, what's the deliverance again? What's the salvation? It's not going to heaven. It's being rescued out of prison and then returning back to the Philippians and communicating with the Philippians in person. And the joy, the abundant joy that they'll have, that he was rescued out of prison and that he's returned back to them. And they can fellowship and they can talk about all the joy that they have. And that's basically, you know, the context that we're kind of building on. What is the salvation from imprisonment, right? Being delivered out of this prison. And then he kind of continues to encourage them in the latter parts of this chapter. But I want to, before I continue, go to a couple other places. Keep your finger here and go to Second Timothy for a second. Just flip to the right in your Bible. Go to Second Timothy. You got first, second Thessalonians, first, second Timothy. And look at chapter number four, Second Timothy, chapter number four. And look at verse number 16. The Apostle Paul had an extreme confidence that the Lord would deliver him from all kinds of evil, all kinds of physical destruction. And he makes some really strong statements in Second Timothy, chapter four. Look what he says in verse 16. At my first answer, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me. I pray God that it may not be laid to their charges. At one point in Paul's ministry, every single person he knew deserted him. That's not an easy thing to go through. Can you imagine? I mean, just in the middle of my sermon, just everybody just stands up and walks out. Or you're going out soul winning and you got all these people going and they're just like, bye. You know, the cops show up and you're just like, bye. You know, and they just run away. I mean, especially a foreign missions trip. Can you imagine being on a foreign missionary? You're out somewhere and you got this team of 10 people and they just all left. And it's just you. And we're not talking about just like randos. We're talking about serious, dedicated Christians that you know personally. These are your friends. These are your closest friends. They just deserted you. And the Apostle Paul's attitude, he's not like bitter. He just says, hey, Lord, please be merciful to these people. Now, you know what that tells me that what they did was really wicked. Because why is he praying that God would be merciful to these people? Because you know what? It's wicked to abandon your buddy and Christ. Just forsake somebody in Christ and just not stand with the man of God. You know, some people think that it's like cool to just forsake the man of God. But Paul's like, please don't hurt these people for doing this. Verse number 17. Notwithstanding, though, not everybody deserted him because notice someone stayed with him. The Lord stood with me and strengthened me that by me the preaching might be fully known and that all the Gentiles might hear and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. So the Apostle Paul said, you know what? Even if every person forsakes you, God will never forsake you. The Lord will never leave thee nor forsake thee. He's always beside you. And that's what gave him the strength. That's what gave him the encouragement to continue. Plus the confidence of the fact that he's like, hey, the Lord's going to deliver me from every evil work. The mouth of the lion. Now is this spiritual salvation? No, again, it's a physical salvation that he's alluding to, that he's giving reference to. It probably was not a literal lion. It's probably a metaphor. But again, it was a metaphor for other physical evil and physical harm and physical danger. We have people, though, that were literally delivered out of the mouth of the lion. How about Daniel? Daniel did not stop making supplication to the Lord and praying to the Lord, despite the king's commandment, was literally thrown in the lion's den, and the angel of God closed the mouth of the lions and caused him to have zero hurt. No problem. And he was physically delivered. That was a physical salvation. And you know, in the Old Testament, we have constant example of physical salvation after physical salvation. And they're to illustrate the spiritual truth of salvation by faith. But beyond the Old Testament, we still have New Testament examples of Christians being physically saved from destruction, physically saved from enemies, physically saved from all manner of evil. And it gives God all kinds of glory when his people are willing to face physical obstacles, physical torment, physical pain, physical shame, whatever it is, for the cause of Christ. And having the confidence to say, you know what, I believe the Lord's going to deliver me out of this evil physically. Not just hell, not just a spiritual damnation, but even a physical condemnation that you could experience. Go back, if you would, and let's read a few more verses here. He's very confident that he's going to abide. Look at verse 27. Only let your conversation be as it become at the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you may stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, and in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is of them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation and that of God. For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake, having the same conflict which he saw in me, and now here to be in me. Now, let's unpack this a little bit, okay. Verse 30, he says something really interesting. He says, having the same conflict which he saw in me. What does that mean? He's saying that you guys have the same conflict that you see I'm having. So they must have some kind of an issue. They must have some kind of a tribulation or some kind of evil that they're having to deal with, and he's writing unto them about their need to be confident, about their need to have both. It's about their need to take a stand, and he's wanting them to have the same mind and the same spirit and to keep striving together for the faith of the gospel. And in verse 28, notice, and in nothing terrified by your adversaries. So, what's the context here? The context is evil people are coming, and they're trying to scare you, trying to intimidate you. They're trying to put fear into you for wanting to serve God, saying, if you keep serving God, we're going to throw you in prison. If you keep preaching that, we're going to take away your house, or we're going to come and arrest you, or we may take you out of the city and stone you, or whatever it is. They're trying to physically intimidate them and threaten them and try to get them to stop preaching the gospel. And what is Paul saying? Hey, don't be terrified by your adversaries. Don't let them scare you into stop preaching the gospel. Don't let them scare you into stop serving God. Don't let whatever physical enemies or physical warnings of evil that could come upon you, don't let that stop you. And when you're not terrified, whenever they say, oh, you know, you keep doing that, we're going to come arrest you, and you just say, do it. Come get me. You know, whatever, hey, I'm not going to back down. Hey, I'm not going to stop preaching the gospel. Whenever you show that you're not terrified of them, what is that? It's an evident token of perdition to them. But of us, it's of salvation and that of God. Meaning, when you have this ultimate feeling of confidence, when you're just trusting the Lord, you say, you know what? Whatever happens is going to happen, but I believe the Lord's going to deliver me out of this situation. I believe no matter what evil I'm looking at right now, God is going to perform a miracle, and I'm going to be rescued and delivered out of this. It just terrifies them. They're just like, what in the world? And it's a token of the fact that they're going to be destroyed, and we're going to be rescued. Now, you could allude to salvation and the spiritual sins of this, but it's also physical. Keep your finger and go to Daniel chapter 3. Let me show you an example of this, Daniel chapter number 3. What would be an example of someone facing impending doom, yet having total confidence that the Lord's going to deliver them? Daniel chapter number 3. Now, in Daniel chapter number 3, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are Daniel's buddies, and they were taken out to a plane, and they're supposed to worship a false god. King Nebuchadnezzar sets up a false image, and they play all this music, and they want them to bow down and worship it. And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are not going to bow down. They don't bow down, and they get ratted out by everybody. They're like, these guys aren't bowing down. These guys aren't worshiping. So then they have to be brought before Nebuchadnezzar, and Nebuchadnezzar's like, maybe you guys didn't hear. I'm going to give you one more chance, all right? When you hear the music, bow down and worship this false god. And when they are explained this, this is their answer. Look at verse 16. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. Now the word careful there means that they weren't timid, they weren't shy, they weren't bashful. They didn't take their time. They didn't wait and calculate it. They just immediately responded. They just said, we're going to throw you in this fiery furnace. If you don't bow down, if you don't worship, do you understand? And they're like, yeah, we totally understand. Not going to do it. We're not afraid. We're not careful. We're not like, you know, marking our words to make sure we're using the exact right words or using tricky language or something like that. They're just like, not going to do it. God's going to deliver us out of your hand. Isn't that some confidence? You're just saying like, hey, I don't care what you say. I'm not going to just worship a false god. I'm not going to bow down to the devil. Now, this is where the humanity seeps in. They had like their fill to the spirit and then the humanity seeps in just a little bit. And there's like, but if not, he's going to deliver us. But I also want to throw a caveat out there. Just the hypothetical. We're already going to be delivered for sure. But even if not, be it known to the O king that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image with thou set up. So he said, look, God's going to deliver us. But even if he wasn't going to, I'm still never going to worship your false god. Just throw us in. Just put us in there already. And then what happens? They throw them in. And all the guys that threw them in, they died in the fire, which was an evident token of their perdition and of what salvation of them, because Jesus shows up in the midst of them and rescues them out of the fiery furnace. They don't even smell like smoke. And man, when you go to the bar, you smell like the bar. These guys are in the, I mean, when you grill burgers, you smell like burgers. OK, I know it smells good, right? You know, you go to the nice restaurant, you can smell the nice restaurant. They walked out of the burning, fiery furnace. Couldn't even smell it. Not even a singe on them. No hurt whatsoever. Was that a spiritual salvation? No, it was a physical salvation. And that same physical salvation is the same confidence that Paul has in 2 Timothy 4. It's the same confidence he has in Philippians 1. And it's the same confidence he wants the Philippians to have in their conflict. Hey, having the same conflict, you know, you've got some kind of issue going on. You've got some kind of evil that you're looking at. He wants them to say, you know what? I believe the Lord's going to deliver me. The Lord is going to preserve me. OK, go back to chapter number two now. Philippians chapter two. Let's dig into chapter number two. Now that we've got a lot of context, we've got a lot of the scriptures that we've been thinking about and it's making sense to us. Now, chapter two has a, it's kind of then bringing up some more thoughts. OK, so it's still on the same context, but it's bringing up some more thoughts. And he's wanting them to have a positive attitude. OK, chapter two starts out in verse one. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, any if any comfort above, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels of mercy, fulfill you my joy that you be like minded, having the same love being of one accord and of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. So he brings up this concept of any consolation. So just meaning like, you know, when you're facing this kind of an evil or something, you're facing this kind of a tribulation. It'd be nice to have some consolation, you know, some kind of comfort. And it comes through Christ. And if you understand why did Christ, how did Christ endure the cross, despising the shame? Because he was the hope that was set before him. OK, and what was that hope? Christians being saved, he was thinking of others. Christ was able to endure the cross because he's thinking of us. He's thinking of rescuing us and his love for us. That's helping him endure this type of person. So he's saying if there's any consolation, if there's any comfort, if there's, you know, think about other people. You know, that's the whole point of taking a bold stand for Christ. That's the whole reason of doing it. You know, why is Paul making such big waves and willing to continue to go through all this evil? It was so that the Gentiles could hear so they could be saved for the elect's sake, is what he explained. OK, and really our motivation and everything we do should be for other people, not for vain glory. It's not to be like, did you see me walk out of that fiery furnace? Did you see what I did? Do you see how the Lord rescued me? It shouldn't be for vain glory. It shouldn't be to say like, look at the cool stuff I did and look at all the battles I won. It should be because you want other people to hear about Christ and get saved. That would be the reason. That would be the motivation is thinking about other people. OK. And he says in verse number four, look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus. So he wants the same mind that was in Jesus Christ to be in us. What was in Jesus Christ's mind? He says in verse five, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man. He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. So what's in Christ's mind? Obey unto death for what? For us. Thinking of others, humbling himself, making himself of no reputation. Christ didn't die on the cross to for a reputation. He did it for us. He made himself of no reputation. He took himself upon himself the form of a servant. You know, he lowered himself. He humbled himself and became low for us. That's the mind that he had. And he's going to endure the cross for us, specifically the death of the cross. Verse nine, wherefore God also has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that of the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things on the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So we have to understand this from verse four to verse eleven is one thought. What is that thought? You know, letting Christ's mind be in you. You know, having the same mind of Christ. And what was that mind? Being obedient unto death for other people. Looking upon other people's things. Having other people's things in mind. Right? And ultimately we realize that when you humble yourself, God will lift you up in due time. So, you know, if you really want to be elevated by God, it comes by humbling yourself and serving other people quietly and allowing God to eventually lift you up. Lifting yourself up will only cause shame and reproach and God will have to humble you and knock you back down. That's why the way up is down and the way down is up. Everything has that reverse cause-reaction relationship. Right? The devil tries to go up and God knocks him down. Jesus goes down and God brings him up, doesn't he? And so we have to realize that if we want that same kind of exaltation or that same kind of glory or due for our works, which would never equal to Christ, but I'm just saying if we want to be rewarded for our works, we have to humble ourselves and think about other people and that should be our motivation at all times no matter what we face. But if we're facing evil, we need to be willing to do it for others. We're willing to go to that. So then he says in verse 12, now we finally got to our verse, Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Okay, so what is this verse talking about? Well, number one, he brings up the obey. Isn't that what Christ did? He was obedient unto death. Right? So we should be willing to be obedient unto death, even if that never happens. And he's saying, you know what? I really want you to do something. I want you to continue to obey Christ, even if I'm not able to observe it. You know, you should do right when no one's looking. You want to know what integrity is? Doing right when no one's looking. It's not doing right when everyone's looking. It's doing right when no one's looking, when you feel like no one's paying attention, when you feel like you're not going to get caught. The problem with that theory is you'll always, someone's always watching. It's called God. Okay, he always knows what we're doing. But at the end of the day, if they're not obeying, what if they're not obeying? What if they're not following God's commandments? What if they're not taking a bold stand? What if they're not striving for the gospel? What would be the fear there? The fear would be, why would God rescue you when you're not being obedient? You need to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, meaning that if you are facing great evil, if you're facing great danger and temptation, you need to be afraid that God would not rescue you when you choose not to obey. Do you think Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego would have been delivered if they went ahead and just bowed down? God might have just struck them dead. God might have found out a new reason to throw them in. Or God, they might have bowed down and then Abednego's like, you know what, on second thought, since you disobeyed the first time, I'm just going to throw you in the fire anyways. You know what actually caused them to have their deliverance was the fact that they never backed down. They always stood strong on the Lord and they worked out their own salvation with the fear and trembling of the Lord, not of man. The fear of man just brings the snare. That's what the Bible says. And so we don't want to ever back down away from the word of God. We don't want to compromise on our stand. We want to work out our own salvation. We want to look at our life and say, you know what, I'm going to face a lot of evil in this life. I'm going to face a lot of tribulation and temptation and trials and struggles. And if I want to be saved, you know, I want to be the possible. I want to get into my life. And in 2 Timothy 4, which is the end of his ministry, he can say successfully, I've finished my course. And he can say every single evil I ever faced in my entire life, God rescued me out of it. Rather than being a Urijah who forsook the Lord, ran away to Egypt, and they come and drag him out and killed him. He doesn't have the same testimony. And you know what he didn't do? He didn't work out his own salvation with fear and trembling. You know what he did? He feared and trembled the children of Israel. He feared and trembled at wicked kings rather than fearing and trembling at God's feet. And you know what? We're supposed to only fear the Lord. And when you do that, he's going to deliver you. Look at what it says in verse 13. For it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do as good pleasure, to all things without murmurings and disputings, that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. I want you guys to be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke. You know what? You have a lot of rebuke when you disobey, when you're disobedient, when you walk away. And at the end of the day, the apostle Paul says, you know what would be a really big shame? Would be if you all just quit and all the effort and labor that I invested in you guys in Philippi just came to naught. He's like, I don't want to basically just at some point look and say, well, that was a complete waste. Why did I ever plant a church in Philippi? Why did I have to waste time with these Philippians? They're just a bunch of backslidden, weak, compromising Christians that don't care about Christ. And you know what? I warned them. I said, work out your own salvation with fear and truth. But they didn't listen, and they all just got wiped out and destroyed, and God just basically ruined their lives, and now it just feels like it's in vain. I mean, does it feel like it would be very beneficial if you're like, hey, I want to tell you about some of my disciples in the Bible. Lot. That one worked out really good, right? I mean, you'd be like, Lot, that was kind of a bad job there, buddy. Wouldn't you think, like, all the effort and energy you put in a lot was pretty much for nothing, pretty much wasted? I mean, you want to be like, my disciples are like, Elijah, you know, Elisha, and like, you want the people that you invested in, that you got saved, that you spent time with. I mean, what if the 12 disciples all turned out to be Judas? Wouldn't it feel like it was kind of in vain? It was like, what was the point of Jesus going around them? You want them to turn into Peter. You want them to turn into John. I mean, you want something really cool to turn out from, all that work, effort, and energy. You don't want to just come to naught. And the Apostle Paul is saying, look, guys, you need to be blameless and harmless and without rebuke, because you're a shining light. When you're a servant of God and you're doing that which is right, you're just this beam of light in this dark world. And look, the world is so dark. The whole world lies in darkness, is what the Bible says. And there's few lights out today. We don't want to hide our own light. And we don't want God to look at us and be, we're so dirty that you can't even see any light emanating from it, that he's just like, what's the point in even maintaining this? What's the point of even keeping this around? You know, let's just trash it and get a new one. We want to be a bright and shining light that's confident in the Lord, that's lifting up our light and putting it on a candlestick, we're not hiding it under a bushel, so that we're working out our own salvation and fear and trembling when we are faced with these conflicts, faced with these evils. Go to Hebrews chapter 10 for a moment. Go to Hebrews chapter number 10. And I just personally believe if you're going to try and interpret verse 12 in Philippians as spiritual salvation, you're going to have to do mental gymnastics to try and explain how that verse doesn't teach work salvation. Because it's not talking about going to heaven. It's talking to heaven. So then when it's clearly talking about doing work, you know, that's when people are just like freaking out, like, how do you explain this or whatever? And it's just like, here, it's real easy. That salvation is physical, not spiritual. And then we get to this great deep understanding of what this passage is actually trying to explain to us, that we want a physical salvation too, not just a spiritual salvation. You know, I want to make it to the end of my life. Whatever that is, whatever that looks like, I don't want to end, you know, my life early or die early or die young. I want to see my grandchildren. I want to see my great grandchildren if I can. You know, I want to see the fruition of the works that we've done and our churches and all. I want to see your kids getting married. You know, I want to see your grandchildren. I want to see all the fruits of the work of the Lord going forward. I don't want to just be this compromiser that goes and hides in a hole and God just has to kill me or something. God has to just let me succumb to the will of my enemies because I wasn't going to take a bold stand for him. Hebrews chapter 10, look at verse 24. And let us consider one another to provoke and to love in the good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. For if we sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice or sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. This is a real clear passage and it's a pretty common passage, a popular passage, but we need to take it seriously. You know, what it says in verse 24, we're considering other people when we tell them the importance of going to church. It's like, man, you know, I want you to go to church. I want to see at church. Why? Because we realize there's a danger when you're not. And, you know, the Bible says that it's a fearful thing. I mean, there's a fearful looking for when you're just not serving God. You know, every corner you turn when you're not right with God should be a scary turn. I mean, you'd be over looking at your shoulder. And look, there's so much evil out there today. I don't want God to not be on my team. You know, I don't want God to not be protecting me in this world today. I mean, there's too much evil. There's too much bad. There's too much danger and all kinds of evil that could happen to you. I mean, you want to be right with God. You don't want God to be having to deal with you with this fiery indignation, which is going to destroy you. And really, in verse 26, notice this is for if we sin willfully. So it's going to be a harsher punishment to those that know to do right and still don't do it. And I'll tell you what, this church is a group of people that know a lot of things in the Bible. Obviously, none of us know everything. None of us are perfect. We're still growing and learning. But you know what is a scary thing when you know a lot and you're not doing it. And, you know, some people, they like, man, I know, I know everything in the Bible. Well, you better be doing everything in the Bible then. If you think you know a lot of Bible, that should be a scary thing because too much is given of him shall much be required is what the Bible says. So I certainly wouldn't want to know all these. I got that chapter memorized. Well, you better do it because it's real fearful when you're willfully sinning, when you know you should be in church, when you know you should be serving God, when you know you should go soul winning, when you know you should be reading your Bible and you just say no. Or you just let apathy and a backslidden nature and everything else just drag you out. You know, you should be afraid that God's going to deal with you. You should be afraid that God's going to chastise you. And you know what? You need to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. I can get up here and preach as loud as I can possibly preach. And guess what? You still get to decide everything you're going to do. As much as I would love to save people from physical harm, you know what? I can only do so much. You can only do so much for other people. What you need to do is you have to realize you have to work out your own. Everyone's responsible for themselves. And it's not just when your parents are watching kids. It's not just when you live with mom and dad, kids. God's always watching. God's always paying attention. And you have to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. You should be afraid to break God's commandments. You should be afraid of what God will do to you when you know to do right and you don't do it. Go ahead to 1 Peter chapter number 4. Actually, keep your finger here. I want to look at one more section and we're going to move to 1 Peter 4. Look at verse 28. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall ye be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace. For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall in the hands of the living God. Look, he's not talking about unsaved people here. The passage couldn't be clearer. He's talking about you and he's talking about me. He's talking about his people and he says it should be a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. That's why we want to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. We should tremble at the Lord. We should be afraid. You know, when Dad comes home and you've done wrong, typically the kids will tremble. I mean, they're afraid. You know, they're not running up to Dad and then be like, Dad's home! They're like, Dad's home! They're running and they're hiding and they're like getting the cookies crumbs off of their face or whatever. Why? They're fearful and trembling. Because Dad's home. And you've got to realize God is a better Dad than I or your Dad will ever be. He's a loving Father. He'll chasten and discourage every son whom he receiveth. And you know, it's a fearful thing. We've got to work out our own salvation. And you know what? When Dad comes home, your brother's not getting you out of punishment. Your sister isn't getting you out of punishment. You have to answer for yourself. Dad's going to deal with you one-on-one. And you know what? Dad's going to deal with us one-on-one. It's not how brother so-and-so at church is doing. Hey, church is going great! Everybody's doing great! What about you? Well, I obey when everybody's watching. You know, I come to church when Pastor Shelley comes into town. But what about when he's not in town? You know, I mean, and look, I'm not trying to put shade on people. I'm just trying to warn you of what the Bible says. We all got our own issues. We all got to work on our own lives. We all got our own thing. But we should be afraid to be disappointment to God. Go to 1 Peter, chapter number 4. Turn to the right. 1 Peter's right there, just past James. And look at verse 14. 1 Peter, chapter 4, and look at verse number 14. If you are approached for the name of Christ, happy are ye. For the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. On their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or as a thief or as an evildoer or as a busybody in other men's matters. Yet if any man suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on his behalf. For the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God. And if it first begin at us, what shall be the end of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithful creator. Now you know some verses in the Bible are really encouraging. I mean man, John 3.16. Talk about one of the greatest verses in the Bible. Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee. Romans chapter number 8. Nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. You know some verses in the Bible terrify me. You want to know a verse that terrifies me in the Bible? Verse 18, and if the righteous scarcely be saved. Think about what that just said. He said look, not very many righteous people are saved. Now again, what's our word saved mean here? Is it talking about going to heaven? No, every righteous person is going to heaven because we have Jesus Christ's righteousness. What is he saying? He's saying very few saved people are saved from physical destruction. Very few. That's what scarce means. It's saying it's not a lot. Why? Why is that the case? Because very few people are willing to take a bold stand like the apostle Paul. Very few people are willing to take the stand that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Very few people are willing to be in the hall of faith that we see in our Bible in Hebrews chapter number 11. Very few are willing to take this kind of stand. But I want to be saved. Not just from going to hell. I want to be saved from physical destruction. Do you know what I have to do? I have to be bold as a lion. I have to be faithful with the Lord. And I have to trust that no matter what happens to me, he's going to take care of it. And not to compromise, not to back down, not to get weak. Because there's going to be some kind of destruction, punishment, and evil that's going to happen to me. When I decide, yeah, I'll just follow the commandments of the Bible I like. The ones that are convenient. The ones that are easy. The ones that sound really pleasant. No, what we should do is we should say, you know what, I want to follow all of them. I want to take a bold stand on the word of God. And I want to trust that no matter what happens, no matter what evil I'm facing, the Lord can deliver me from that kind of evil. Go if you would to Proverbs chapter number 10 for a moment. I want to just look at a few verses rapid fire in Proverbs and then I'm going to make one last verse here that I want to kind of look at. There's so many applications we could make to this sermon. Because it's infinite. You know, it's an infinite possibility. I really want you to understand this concept and then you can make your own applications. But, you know, I think a church plant is a pretty clear application of this. Because if we think about Philippians, Paul's not there. He's literally writing from afar. To a church that he established, to a church that he planted. And he said this, it's more needful that I buy the flesh for you. So he's saying like it's better if I can be there and show up and help you guys and whatever. And I think that's going to happen. But he's saying, look, you guys did great every time I showed up. But here's the question. How are you doing when you're not, when he's not looking? And he says they were doing good. But are they going to continue doing that? Are they going to continue being faithful and continue serving the Lord? Even when he's not there? Even when he's long gone? Even, you know, no matter what happens to him, would they still serve God? Do they have their own walk with God or not? And you know what? That would be a question for this church. Is this just something on the wall? Or is this something that this church is? Is this a steadfast? Are you going to be steadfast in your Christian faith? You know, no matter what church you're going to, it doesn't matter the name. Be steadfast is just a commandment. It's not even a suggestion. It's not a good idea. It's a commandment. Be steadfast. Unmovable. You know, always abounding in the work of the Lord. You know, we're supposed to just continually strive for the gospel. We're supposed to constantly work out our own salvation with fear and trembling and realize that the Lord, you know, wants us to be faithful unto death. Proverbs chapter 10, look at verse 2. Treasures of wickedness profit nothing. But righteousness deliver us from death. Now the word deliverance or deliver is synonymous in your Bible with salvation and to be saved. So when we're talking about being delivered, he's saying, you know, what's going to actually deliver you from death? Being righteous. What's righteous? Doing right. It sounds like another word. Obey. Isn't that what we heard in Philippians chapter number two, verse 12, where it's obeyed in my presence? So when you're doing right, when you're righteous, that's going to deliver you from what? Death. But, hey, having lots of money that came from wicked places, that's not going to profit you at all. Look at chapter 11 and verse number 4. Rich is profit not in the day of wrath. The righteousness delivereth from death. Look at verse 6. The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them, but transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness. Look at verse 8. Look at verse 8. The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead. That sounds like Daniel being in the lion's den, gets delivered, and then all those false accusers, they or those enemies, they were brought into the lion's den and they were destroyed with that same type of destruction. Look at verse 9. And hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbor, but through knowledge shall the just be delivered. You know, you get knowledge reading the Bible, studying the word of God, going to church, memorizing scripture. Look at verse 21. Chapter 11 is just hitting this out of the park. Look at verse 21. Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished, but the seed of the righteous shall be delivered. Notice there's a connection with being right and getting delivered. Obeying the Lord and being delivered. Having the knowledge of the Lord and being delivered. You know, that makes me think of, oh yeah, working out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Obeying so that you get this type of salvation. Okay. Go if you would to Psalms 27. Go to Psalms 27. I want to look at a couple of Psalms here real quick. Psalms, and look at verse, or chapter 27, and let's look at verse number 1. Psalms 27, look at verse number 1. The Bible reads, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though in host should a camp against me, my heart shall not fear. The war should rise against me. In this will I be confident. One thing have I desired of the Lord. That will I seek after. That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. To behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. For in the time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of his tabernacle, shall he hide me. He shall set me up upon a rock. He shall set me up upon a rock. And now shall my head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me. Therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy. I will sing, yea I will sing praises unto the Lord. You know what I like about this passage? This guy is saying, you know what? I am going to be delivered. I'm confident in the Lord. I want to be delivered. And this is the reason why I want to be delivered. So I can go to church. All the days of my life. He doesn't say like, I just want to go to church some. He's like, I want to go to church all the days of my life. Notice what he had said, verse 4. That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. To behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. He's like, I just want to be in church. And that's why he's so confident that the Lord is going to constantly deliver him. Now how about the guy that says, I have no reason to miss church and that I just miss church. Why would God deliver you to go to church when you're not even going when you can? It's like, oh, I really want to go to church. What's stopping you? You? It's like, but look at this guy. He's like, no matter what happens to me, I'm going to be delivered. And look, the apostle Paul, when he is in prison, what is his confidence to come back? So that he'll see them in church and they'll have abundant joy that they were there in church. We have in Hebrews chapter number 10, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves of the manner some is, but so much more. You know, I can't impress this upon you more, but the Bible makes an emphasis on church attendance in the end times. And you know, people get, they're like, oh, you just want us to come to church? And it's like, yeah. I mean, what part of the Bible do you want me to drop open and explain? You know, it's like, isn't it just like, it's like, hey, go to church, go to church, go to church. I want to work out my own salvation with fear and trembling. And you know what? The safest place to be is in the house of God. Just like in any context, if you said, man, I'm in danger, where do you want to be? Don't you want to be at home, locked up in home? Isn't that the safest place that you usually feel at home? You know, that's that's like your safe space. That's your safe haven or whatever. And really for a Christian, our safe space should be the house of God. We want to be with the Lord. We want to dwell with him. We want to hide in his pavilion. You know, his tabernacle. We want him to bless us. Now, let's keep reading this passage. Go down to verse 12. Deliver me not over under the will of mine enemies, for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen mine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. There is going to be a point in time when enemies will come against you. And this is a good prayer. I really like this prayer. Deliver me not under the will of mine enemies. Deliver me not over under the will. He's like, you know, they're saying a lot of horrible stuff they're going to do to me. Please don't let that happen. Please don't let them get to do what they want to do to me. And you know what? I don't want that. There's a lot of enemies that would love every Christian church to be destroyed. They would love you to be destroyed. They want all kinds of evil to happen. And it's like we need to pray that God would not allow that to happen to us. With fear and trembling. We ought to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. And he says, you know what? I would have fainted from all of the threats. He's basically saying like the threats were so surmounting. Just so many enemies and so many threats and so much evil. He's like, I would have just given up by now. Like, I would have totally just quit. But he said, unless I believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the Lord. But you know what? He kept seeing him be rescued from enemy after enemy after enemy. And it just gave him more confidence and more courage. And he gives us this admonition, wait on the Lord. This is a hard verse. Because there's some enemies in my life that I've been praying that the Lord would deal with. And it's like, why is it taking this long? You know, you're just like, or you have some evil that's been falling. You have some problem and you're just like, Lord, deliver me. And it's just like, man, this has been going on for a long time. Why won't this person die? You know, you're just like, what's going on? Lord, please deliver us from this person, you know? But notice what it says. Wait on the Lord. Sometimes you have to wait. You know, you're going to be in a difficult spot. You're going to go through struggles. And notice this, be of good courage. And he has to strengthen thine heart. And he's like, but wait, wait. I say on the Lord. So he's saying, hey, just keep waiting. But remember who you're waiting for. Don't go ahead and take it in your own hands. Don't try to rescue yourself. Don't come up with your own way to solve your problems. No, just wait on God to take care of it. Just stay faithful with the Lord. You know, the apostle Paul didn't say, I've been thrown in prison illegally. You know, I'm preaching the gospel. That's not a legitimate charge. But you know what he didn't do? He didn't sneak out. He didn't hatch a plan to like basically try to get out of there. And in fact, in Acts chapter number 16, the jail doors are flung wide open. And he just walks out scot-free, gets a guy saved, gets him baptized, goes to his house. And then you know what he does? He goes back to prison on purpose. And he's saying, hey, why don't they bring us out? Being Romans and uncondemned. Who is he waiting on to rescue him? The Lord. You know, and we're going to go through evil. We're going to go through difficulty. And sometimes we just have to let the Lord preserve us. Go to Psalms 58, last place I'll have you look this evening. And you know, when it comes to the end times, I think another application of this would be the rapture, right? Kind of have to wait. You're kind of waiting for the rapture to be delivered. But you know what? There's going to be people that were going to be literally delivered. You know, I think it's going to be delivered. This is my personal opinion. Those that are of good courage. Those that are bold. Those that are taking a stand for Christ. Not the weak, not the cowardly. The ones that are shining bright light. That are confident in the Lord. They're doing his work. They're doing his work. Those are going to be the ones that he delivers. The ones that are the righteous. The ones that are obeying. You know, some people are, this is what would be terrifying, right? Isn't the end times a little bit scary? Let's just admit it, right? I mean, you've got world war. You've got the antichrist. You got him saying, you know, if you don't take a mark in your right hand, your forehead, you can't buy or sell. If you stand for Christ, you could be beheaded. I mean, this is a lot of things to be fearful of, right? This is a lot of shame. And you say, I want to be rescued out of that. I don't want to go through that evil. I don't want to have to die. Well, your out is being raptured. And if you want to be raptured, if you want your own salvation, you're supposed to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. You're supposed to obey. And you're supposed to have confidence in the Lord. Those are the ones that actually do get rescued. You say, I don't want to die of famine. Okay, well, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Well, I don't want to be pierced or I don't want this evil. You know, I don't want to be beheaded. I want to make it to the rapture. Some people might want to be beheaded. I don't know. Some people may want to make it to the end. Want to make it to the end? Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. But I'll tell you this, there's going to be a lot of other battles that we have in our life that are way before that, that we have to just have trust in the Lord. And we're going to see great deliverances. And this is what we're going to say. Look what it says in Psalms 58. Look at verse 10. The righteous shall rejoice when he seeeth the vengeance. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked, so that a man shall say, verily there is a reward for the righteous. Verily he is a God that judges in the earth. This is what I love about this phrase at the end. There's a God that judges in the earth. Now, we know that God's ruling in heaven. We know that eventually we're all going to heaven and all the wicked will go to hell and everything like that. But God is not content and just being a judge of the afterlife. God is a judge in this life. God judges in this earth is what he's saying. And you know what? When those that are confident in the Lord and they have their enemies knocking on their door and trying to get them, eventually God will deliver them and their enemies will be ashamed and will say like, wow, God doesn't just judge in heaven. God doesn't just judge at the great right throwing judgment. He judges now. He judges in this life. Did you see what happened to that person? I mean, they lost their teeth and their toe and their wife and everything. You know, I mean, there's just, you know, there's a total judgment, you know, against us and their mind and their job and their friends and everything. You know, I mean, it's just, you're going to be like, wow, look what happened to this person. You don't want to mess with the Lord. The Lord loves judgment is what the Bible says. And it's a fearful thing to fall in the hands of the living God. I preach this to warn you because I feel like the Sunday night crowd. I mean, you guys are probably the cream of the creme of the creme, the top of the crop. You know what? We want to stay that way. And we need to realize that our own salvation is on the line every single day, every single moment. And we should be working that out with fear and trembling and being afraid that God will judge us when we do compromise, when we do sin willfully, when we're not doing that, which is right. You know, one last thought I had as an application is, you know, I, I, this is something I always worry about a little bit, and I think it's a healthy fear. It's not my fear of the world's my fear of God, but it's like not raising your children, right? Not raising your children to serve the Lord. And you know, I see, because I just, I've seen so many people in my life, close family members where I'm just looking at the fruit of their parenting and I'm thinking like, wow, I don't want that for my kids. And I don't want that to happen in my children. And you know what? It's really important that you work out your own children's salvation with fear and trembling too. From the world, from the evils, from things like bastard children, STDs, death, fornication, wickedness, adultery, alcohol, drugs, all kinds of evil that you see and you're just thinking like, wow. And you know what? Train up a child in the ways you go and when he's old, he will not depart from it. You know, sometimes you got to realize dragging yourself to church isn't even just about you. Isn't the whole point thinking about other people? What's going to be the impact on my family and on my children when I'm not putting them in a good church and teaching them the Bible and training them how to serve the Lord and doing that which is right? You know, it's going to have an impact and you know what? God is a judge in the earth. We see the fruit of the people that are not raised to serve God, it's jungle out there. We see what happens to the children and you know what? That should terrify us that when we're not willing to invest in our children, when we're not willing to raise them spiritually, when we're not doing good unto them, that they may succumb to a lot of evil in their life. I want my children to be rescued from the evils of this world, to be delivered from the destruction, delivered from all the things that I can protect them from. And obviously we can only really control ourselves a hundred percent, but especially young children and even young adults, they're going to be heavily influenced by their parents and by the decisions that they make. You have the single greatest impact on your child's life as a parent. And a lot of times that's going to depend on their physical deliverance. It's not only going to do it, you know, while they're under your custody, but the way you raise them is going to influence, you know, the decisions that they make in the future. And look, you know, if you have a wayward child, that's, you know, you can't really necessarily fix that now, but the best that you can, you need to invest in your children and love on your children and do right, not just for your own sake, your children's sake. Esteeming other better than yourself, closing prayer. Thank you Heavenly Father so much for this great admonition and Philippians. I pray that we would take our lives seriously. They would realize the importance of serving you, that while you are love, you also love judgment and also you're a loving and caring father. And when we're disobedient, we should realize there will be a punishment and that's for our benefit. It's for our blessing. It's, it's to get us on the right path. And I pray that when we read this passage, that we would be admonished and encouraged to serve the Lord with fear and trembling so that we can have joy when you bring the deliverance, when you rescue us from the evils and the dangers of this life. And that when we see our children walking in truth, that we have no greater joy because we see the fruit of serving the Lord and doing that which is right in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, the last song we're going to sing is song number 315, Take My Life and Let It Be. Song number 315, the hymnals, a very fitting song to follow up that sermon. Pay attention to the words, there's a great hymn. All right, song 315. And let them move, at the impulse of thy love, at the impulse of thy love. Take my feet and let them sweep, swift and beautiful for thee. Take my voice and let me sing, always only for my keep, always only for my keep. Take my silver and my gold, not of mine would I withhold. Take my moments and my days, let them flow in ceaseless praise, let them flow in ceaseless praise. Take my will and make it thine, it shall be no longer mine. Take my heart, it is thine own, it shall be thy royal throne, it shall be thy royal throne.