Thank you for joining us today, and I
hope that you will enjoy the rest of
the lecture.
Thank you for
joining us today.
Now, shall we turn to our reading?
Chapter 4, verse 10 of Philippians.
I rejoice greatly in the Lord that at
last you have renewed your concern for me.
Indeed, you have been concerned, but you had
no opportunity to show it.
I am not saying this because I am
in need, for I have learned to be
content, whatever the circumstances.
I know what it is to be in
need, and I know what it is to
have plenty.
I have learned the secret of being content
in any and every situation, whether well-fed
or hungry, whether living in plenty or in
want.
I can do everything through him who gives
me strength.
Yet it was good of you to share
in my troubles.
Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early
days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when
I set out from Macedonia, not one church
shared with me in the matter of giving
and receiving, except you only.
For even when I was in Thessalonica, you
sent me aid again and again when I
was in need.
Not that I am looking for a gift,
but I am looking for what may be
credited to your account.
I have received full payment and even more.
I am amply supplied now that I have
received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent.
They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice
pleasing to God.
And my God will meet all your needs
according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
To our God and Father be glory forever
and ever.
Amen.
Greet all the saints in Christ Jesus.
The brothers who are with me send greetings.
All the saints send you greetings, especially those
who belong to Caesar's household.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be
with your spirit.
Amen.
Thank you.
Keep your Bibles open at that passage, please.
Good to have Dave and Irene and their
lovely family back from Pakistan, from Karachi, safely.
We're not deliberately giving them any public exposure
right now because they need just to rest
and relax, but later on we're looking forward
to having lengthy reports from them as to
the way that God has blessed and used
them of this last period of service for
him within to serve.
And they'll go across to our Maybridge family,
too, and they'll enjoy the fellowship there, having
a look around the new building and meeting
new faces.
Father, we thank you for your word.
We thank you for our friends.
We thank you that the greatest friend is
our beloved Lord Jesus.
But we praise you that from his friendship
has devolved many, many other friendships within the
body of Christ.
We thank you for the faithfulness of our
brothers and sisters in Ethiopia, though we do
not know them in the flesh, we acknowledge
our identity with them in the spirit.
And now as we come to look at
this remarkable letter in its closing verses, help
us to come to grips with what the
Apostle Paul was, with what he taught, and
may the quality of his friendship, a reflection
of yours, be something that beams into our
hearts so that we, too, might discover that
being friendly and knowing friendship is part of
the secret behind being content.
Amen.
Well, do have your Bible open at that
passage which Brian read.
I was reading just a little while ago
before I came into the church this definition
regarding friendship.
It says, a real friend warms you by
his presence, trusts you with his secrets, and
remembers you in his prayers.
He warms you by his presence, he trusts
you with his secrets, and he remembers you
in his prayers.
Now, the title that we have given for
this passage as I try to unpack it
before you this morning is the secret of
contentment, but it could have a writer, it
could have a subtitle.
Paul says, thank you.
You see, the letter that he has written
is just about being completed.
The manuscript will soon be placed into the
luggage of Epaphroditus, one of the leaders, one
of the pastors of the church in Philippi.
And that brave and wonderful man will take
the reverse journey, the return journey from Rome
where Paul is back to the fellowship in
Philippi.
And there they will, doubtlessly with great eagerness,
pour through what Paul has to say to
them.
And in these final verses, actually all that
he needed to do was just dash off
a few lines and say, incidentally, the gift
that you sent me, I'm very grateful, very
kind, very useful, God bless you.
But he doesn't.
He has a wonderful way of taking the
most ordinary thing, the courtesy of an acknowledgement,
and turning it into spiritual significance.
You see, one of the things about friendship,
and maybe one of the manifestations of a
person with a contented heart, is that he,
she, does not take things for granted.
Not once, not twice, not three times, not
four times, five times.
In these verses, the apostle expresses his indebtedness
to the Philippians.
And in putting on this PS of a
thank you, he gives us such princely gems
of scripture as, I have learned the secret
of being content in every situation.
I can do everything through him, through Christ,
who gives me strength.
My God will meet all your needs, according
to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
So as we look at Paul's PS, this
rather lengthy postscript that he puts at the
end of this glorious letter, we break it
open, conveniently to help ourselves, though in no
ways are the compartments mutually exclusive, into considering,
first of all, Paul, or the writer, and
his circumstance, and then, finally, his readers and
their benevolence.
Paul, the writer, and his circumstance.
He's a chained man.
Did you see the funeral to which I
made reference last Sunday week, when I had
the privilege of speaking here?
The funeral of one of the Cray brothers,
how the surviving brother was allowed out of
jail, and by the grave you saw him
handcuffed to the water.
Now, in circumstances very different in terms of
the reason for the lack of liberty, you
find that the apostle Paul was chained.
Don't rush through that and take it of
being of little consequence, an incidental comment.
He tells us in the 17th verse of
the opening chapter that I am in chains,
and in a plaintive comment when he writes
to Timothy, and he makes reference to a
friend of his, Onesiphorus, he singles Onesiphorus out
because, well, he wasn't afraid, he wasn't ashamed
of my chains.
This letter and this postscript that you're reading
with me this morning, it's dashed off from
the free hand of a man whose other
hand and legs are in chains.
That's his circumstance, chained, but not disconsolate.
I have learned to be content, whatever the
circumstances, chained but not discontent.
A loss of physical liberty, but free spiritually
as a bird.
He'll tell you something.
You see, we moderns are often deprived of
being able to say we are in a
spirit of contentment.
And sometimes, as Brian intimated in his brief
synopsis from Ethiopia, we come to the conclusion
that our contentment depends upon our circumstances.
What we have are possessions, or what we
don't have are dispossessions.
That is what has been taken from us.
But listen to this pastor.
I know, whatever the circumstances, I know what
it is to be in need and I
know what it is to have plenty.
I have learned the secret of being content
in every and any situation.
When a period of affluence comes, when materialism
baptizes me, it does not rob me of
my inner peace.
When the materialism I enjoyed is no longer
there, that inner peace still remains because the
contentment of which I speak has nothing to
do with circumstances or happenings.
It's not what I possess.
It is what possesses me.
And he says it's a secret.
My American friends will enjoy this.
We really do love you and glad that
you come to us and acknowledge what you're
doing with AWM and others of you who
come from other, who work with other missions
from the States.
Here's a sign on the desk in the
Pentagon.
The Pentagon, let me remind you, Brits is
the place where the power is.
Some think it's the White House, actually it's
the Pentagon in the US.
Sign on the desk.
The secrecy of my job does not permit
me to know what I am doing.
I have a feeling that President Clinton sent
that to the British cabinet and they made
it the motto text for this year.
I have learned the secret.
Interesting word.
But it's the only occasion when you get
this in the New Testament.
The use of this word, it's daring.
He plugs it straight from the mystery religions.
You see, in Greece they reckon some of
the spiritual elite that they had discovered the
secrets of life and the depository of truth
which was theirs, they sort of locked it
up amongst a society and the entry into
that society was as difficult to crack as
getting into the Freemasons.
And Paul says, but I've learned the secret.
The secret of inner contentment.
And the thing about this secret is it's
an open secret.
If you're not in on it, it's because
you don't want to be.
That wonderful man, Billy Graham, how much we
should thank God for him.
His best-selling book is still Peace with
God.
And there he unpacks the secret.
How are you content, Paul, in whatever circumstance?
Well, I'm into the mystery.
The mystery of the kingdom.
The mystery of a man being reconciled to
God, a man who is a murderer.
A man who, when he looks at his
image in the mirror, would at the human
level recoil.
But I have found that the Christ of
God has cleansed me from my sins and
returned to me my self-respect.
And the most important thing in my life
is not my possessions or going through a
period of being dispossessed.
The most important thing is the cultivation that
I have of friendship with Him.
And they can put chains around both my
hands and both my feet.
But they cannot dispossess me of my knowledge
of the mystery and the benefits that accrue
to those who are initiated.
For that, brothers and sisters, is what we
are.
We, the redeemed, are a society of those
who have been granted an understanding of the
mystery of being God's children.
And it's that that grants the contentment.
Someone has in a jaundiced fashion said of
the modern age, the amazing thing about a
man being arrested for disturbing the peace is
that he found any peace to be disturbed.
The apostle Paul has found peace.
And he's found peace in the most difficult
circumstances.
I remember in earlier years when I used
to read the Christian Herald, I still see
it from time to time, but we used
to have it regularly when I was a
boy.
And it's updated.
It's much more modern.
It did seem to be a little bit
of an overspill from the Victorian era 20
years or so ago.
And there was always an advert.
There were several adverts that reminded me of
Queen Victoria.
But there was one particular one.
And it heralded, and that's a good verb
to use for that paper, it proclaimed the
benefits of a charity called the Charity for
the Assistance of Ladies in Reduced Circumstances.
I don't know if it was a slimming
club in disguise.
But the apostle Paul is here saying that
these circumstances are so reduced, they're so narrow.
All the things that you and I reckon
are necessary to contentment, he doesn't have and
yet he's got that.
He's got the contentment that you and I
so desperately need.
And how does it come?
Well, verse 13 will tell you.
It comes through abiding in Christ.
What does it mean to abide in Christ?
I'm grateful to F.B. Meyer for this
illustration.
Do you remember when the Israelites were in
Egypt and they were going to be released?
The angel of death passes over the Egyptian
homes and the firstborn of each Egyptian family
is going to die.
Why did the Israelites not suffer the same
fate within their family circles?
Well, I'll tell you.
They killed the lamb.
And they took the blood of the lamb,
you recall, and they daubed the blood on
the lintels of the doorposts.
And when the angel of death passed over,
they were not affected by God's judgment.
Meyer says, they were in the cover of
the lamb.
Paul will tell you time and time again,
he's in Christ, in Christo, in Christ, in
Christ.
I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me.
Well, if that's Paul and his circumstances, let's
look in the latter part of the verses
from the 14th about the readers and their
benevolence.
The writer and his circumstance, the reader and
their benevolence.
What they did.
Well, they seized an opportunity, didn't they?
It was good of you to share in
my troubles.
One of the ways in which contentment is
expressed is the fashion in which you enter
into the difficulties of other people.
You see, though the apostle Paul is a
very spiritual man, he's also a very human
man.
And what buttressed, what nourished the contentment, the
inner contentment that he had, was the feeling
that, well, in Philippi, there were a group
of men and women who were in solidarity,
who were in identity with him.
And these people were the source of Paul's
physical relief.
What's more, in the early days, they had
engaged in helping him time after time.
Verse 15, The early days of your acquaintance
with the gospel, when I set out from
Macedonia, not one church shared with me.
Let me tell you a story, and I
apologize if it seems to be self-serving,
but most of you know me well enough
to appreciate that that's not the objective.
Besides the commendable projects that we engage in
here at the TAB in terms of mission
support, I've got my own little schemes with
which I run and have down the years.
A man who I met in India some
while ago sent me a letter which arrived
last week, and he tells me about the
pioneer work in which he's involved.
And he said, When I think of you,
tears come to my eyes, because when I
was in need, I use my language, at
the cutting edge of pioneer work, you were
the only one who ever sent me any
money.
Here is the Apostle Paul, and he's reflecting
upon the fellowship he has with these Philippians,
and he's saying, the contentment that I have,
I remember that part of that contentment is
derived from the fellowship of you good folk.
Ten years have elapsed, and there wasn't opportunity
for you to minister to me, but I
remember the source of support I had in
Macedonia, and the sequence of that support, not
once, twice, but many, many times.
And the Apostle warms the hearts of his
readers as he goes down memory lane, what
they did, how he saw it.
Forgive me, but sometimes I get very offended
by some methods used by some individuals for
obtaining money for support of ministries in these
days.
There's a way in which you can make
your needs known, and there is an attitude
that must be yours in governing your desire
to raise finances.
Now the Apostle Paul is not a man
who you can throw a few dollars, a
few pounds at as a sap to him.
Not that I was looking for a gift,
he says in verse 17, but what I'm
looking at or what I'm looking for is
that credited to your account in heaven may
be the responsible fashion in which you applied
your finances.
You see, what Paul wants is judgment day
praise for his people.
Isn't that wonderful?
I mean, when you think in terms of
judgment day, you probably conceive of the wrath
of God and so on and so forth,
and in one sense you're right, but we
who are Christians, we've passed from condemnation.
Our sins have been forgiven, and there is
the possibility of judgment day praise.
How might it come?
By the fidelity with which you should support
for the ministry in practical ways.
And the man who has a generous heart
and the church who is regular in exercising
its generosity is an individual, is a church
that will know something of the contentment to
which the apostle refers so frequently.
What was this gifting?
It wasn't just money.
No, no, no, no.
When we come together, when so many of
you dear friends invest your time, and on
occasions I'm amazed at the way that some
people in this tabernacle will give time to
the cause of God.
It humbles me.
But God doesn't see it in terms of
just the time or the finance or even
the volume of intercessory prayer.
When Paul sort of transmutes this into the
way that God recognizes these things, then he
has to use this sort of language, a
fragrant offering.
Here is Noah.
He's released from being in the ark with
his family and the animals for 40 days.
There's a sacrifice that is offered to the
Lord, and it comes before the Lord as
a sweet-smelling savor.
And that's how Paul looked upon the faithfulness
of the Philippians towards him.
It wasn't the basis of Paul's contentment, but
it was supportive as he realizes that these
Christians in Philippi are reflecting his attitude, for
that marks his lifestyle.
He's a man who does not hold on
tenaciously to things, realizing that peace is not
what you possess, but what, as I said,
possesses you.
What they did, how he saw it, God's
reaction.
Look at verse 19 and how intimately the
apostle incorporates this into his thank-you note.
My God.
Have you noticed how the apostle used that
expression at the beginning of the letter?
My God.
You see, there is a sense in which
this is the God and Father of us
all, but there is also a sense in
which he's my God.
It's my gospel.
He's my Savior.
My God.
What will he do?
Well, he's used you to be a fragrant
offering in what you've directed to me, but,
you know, this God, his repost to, his
reaction to your kindliness is that he will
meet all your needs in proportion to his
glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
The apostle says, verse 14, just backtracking, it
was good of you.
Did you ever say that?
It's kind of you.
How kind?
I mean, these are colloquial expressions, and they're
very nice if they're sincerely meant.
Well, the apostle Paul meant this, didn't he?
It was good of you.
Here's the Lord Jesus, and there's an old,
maybe bent little woman in the temple, and
she goes near the offering, and she takes
boxes, and she takes out her farthings and
puts them in, and Jesus registers.
And then later the scene changes, but it's
the same principle.
It's another lady, younger in years.
She brings her perfume, the most expensive stuff
she could get at the body shop, and
she's kept it for years.
She breaks it open.
She anoints the feet, and indeed, if you
read the synoptics, with all the information about
this action, she anoints the head of our
Lord Jesus, and what's he say?
She's done a good thing.
It's good of you.
Hey, Paul, it's good of you to write
to us.
Paul, it's good of you to say thank
you.
Paul, it's good of you to say thank
you in the way that you do say
thank you, because it shows that that inner
contentment that you have got causes you to
have more concern for us and our well
-being than that wretched chain which imprisons you.
And you're a man, Paul, who likes the
fresh air.
You've been on camel after camel.
You've gone mile after mile.
You know the open spaces.
You're a man who was in Arabia for
three years.
You, Paul, incarcerated in a Roman jail with
a chain on you.
And yet, you think of us.
Good of you, Paul.
No, he would say, not good of me,
good of the Lord.
Good of the Lord to give me a
possession of which I can never be dispossessed.
Good of the Lord.
Good of the Lord to the extent that
the only thing I can say is to
our God and Father be glory forever and
ever.
Myers says a Christian is a man who's
always breathing out doxologies.
He's always praising the Lord.
A wonderful man in Los Angeles, the church
by the open door, who wrote the doxology
we sometimes sing in praise of our Lord
Jesus' majesty, glorious majesty.
Unto Jesus be glory, honor, and power.
I was listening to him the other day,
and he says that the Christian's life should
be one of constant worship, constant bringing praise
to the Lord.
Do you know why we sing some of
these songs?
Not because they're emotionally moving.
They are, and there's nothing wrong in that.
We sing them because one has to.
There is a sense in which, when you
think of the goodness of Jesus and all
that he's done for me, my soul cries
out, hallelujah, praise God for saving me.
Doxologies are natural to Christians.
Here is Paul, and he's in jail, and
yet he's praising the Lord.
Here is Paul.
He could have gone inwardly, looking at himself,
always bemoaning his Lord.
Lord, it's not fair.
It's not this.
It's not the other.
But not Paul, because he has distinguished between
what is precious and what is spurious and
passing.
The preciousness is that he is in Jesus,
and he loves the Lord Jesus, and therefore
everything else is in place.
When my eyes were fixed on Jesus, I
lost sight of all beside.
Whatever you do, my brother and sister, don't
allow your eyes to be taken off him.
Whatever relationship goes sour, don't let this one
ever be robbed of your time, robbed of
your concern to tend it and nourish it.
So the apostle Paul, whose ministry has impacted
the saints of Caesar's household, can you believe
it?
Maybe slaves of Caesar, they've come to him,
they've seen a difference, and as a result,
they've been converted too.
They've entered into this spirit of contentment.
Hey, Paul, when you write to the Philippians,
I've got a mate called Jim.
Will you send him my greetings?
Greet all the saints in Jesus Christ, the
brothers who are with me, send greetings.
All the saints send you greetings, especially those
who belong to Caesar's household.
Oh, incidentally, fellas, the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
You can't keep him down, can you?
He's even got the amens.
I didn't quite get what Brian Chilvers said
about John Macquarie, but I think that the
apostle Paul would have agreed with whatever Brian
was saying.
Amen, amen, hallelujah, hallelujah.
Thank God for what he has done for
me.
He has given me a spirit of contentment.
I'm anchored in his son.
Let's stand.
Let's pause a moment in his presence.
We're going to sing a song, a love
song to the Lord, which talks about the
beauty of our Lord Jesus Christ, how we
love him, how we long just to be
in his company and to feel his presence.
Just a moment for you to make your
personal response to what I've tried to share.
Oh, Lord, you're beautiful.
Your face is all I seek.
For when your eyes are on this child,
your grace abounds to me.
I want to take your word and shine
it all around, but first help me just
to live it, Lord, and when I'm doing
well, help me to never seek a crown,
for my reward is giving glory to you.
513.
If those girls who helped me later earlier
in the service could just sing by the
mic, it will give a little bit of
body to our singing.
513 Missions Praise.
Sing this because you mean it, not just
because I've asked you to sing it.
Oh, Lord, you're beautiful.
Your face is all I seek.
For when your eyes are on this child,
your grace abounds to me.
Oh, Lord,
you're beautiful.
Your face
is all I seek.
For when your eyes are on this
child, your grace abounds to me.
Oh, Lord, you're beautiful.
Your face is all I seek.
Oh, Lord, you're beautiful.
Your face is all I seek.
For when your eyes
are on this child, That verse again, but
unaccompanied.
His face on you.
Can you take that in?
That he loves you, gave himself for you.
My God, my Lord, my Savior, the secret
of contentment is being anchored in him.
Oh, Lord, you're beautiful.
Your face is all I seek.
For when your eyes are on this child,
your grace abounds to me.
Verse two.
Oh, Lord, these eyes are mine, and
once my heart is empty, replace
the lamp of my heart's love and let
it holy be.
Now we pray and come in with majesty,
worship his majesty.
Father, we ask for each one of us
that to the degree we have lost the
secret of contentment, that you will return us
to our first mooring.
So often we've been tempted into thinking that
things, and even personal relationships, are the basis
of peace.
And we know in our heart of hearts
that peace comes through our walk with you,
a walk that no one else can take,
that no one else can nourish for us.
Help us, Lord, to do business with you,
to realize that Christianity is an I-You
relationship.
And as that old, esteemed apostle spoke out
his thank-you letter in written form and
disclosed again the mystery, help us to enter
into it afresh, embrace you more, and be
able to go out of this place rejoicing,
because the foundation has been secured afresh in
our lives.
And we, too, will bring honor and praise
to our Lord Jesus.
We honor your majesty.
We worship and adore you.
Kingdom of glory be Firstborn is born He's
at the ready Soul and soul Filled up
on high In the name of Jesus And
he'll find How glory, glory For Jesus to
be And he'll sing For Jesus to
die In the holy city I
sing to you my everything Knowing you have