Phil. 1:8-9 “Love Abounding in the Body of Christ”

that the way that you have shown yourself to be in your revealed word and also in the express work of Jesus Christ, who is your express image,

Lord, the second person of the body, that Lord, that that we would glorify you, that we would praise you, that we would abound in love over this truth.

And that Lord God, that we would we would sing a mightier song of praise and enjoy each other's fellowship that much more thoroughly today.

Lord God, I would just ask that our minds would be centered upon what you have here today for us in these two verses.

And we just lift these things up in your name, Jesus Christ. Amen. Philippians chapter one, verses eight through nine, if you haven't made your way there,

I would ask that you please do so. Philippians chapter one, verses eight through nine, let's go ahead and read this text and then we'll pray over it again.

Verse eight, it says this, for God is my witness, how

I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.

And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in full knowledge and all discernment.

Let's go ahead and pray over this text specifically, Lord. Lord God, we just come before you and you're thrown a grace,

Lord. God, I would ask you that you would help us as a church, even help myself as we look at this text,

Lord, that we would be faithful to what you have here. That we would understand it, that we would glorify you in it, that we would see it as inspired and beneficial to us.

That it would renew our souls to love you greater today and that, Lord, we would truly love our neighbor as well from it.

Lord, I pray that our love for one another may abound here in this church and this fellowship and in our community and Hagerman and surrounding cities,

Lord. God, again, I pray just for these little ones during this catechism moment,

Lord. I pray that the love that we have in our households might be shown to them and that they might have a full knowledge of you and that you would begin a good work in them and that you would also perfect it,

Lord. But God, we ask these things according to your will, Lord, but in your holy name,

Jesus Christ. Amen. So we'll begin today talking about the context of where we were last week, just in short, just to remind us where we have been and where this is leading us to.

Paul, again, is writing this letter while in Rome during his second imprisonment.

He is in chains, literally in this text, and he is suffering for the sake of the gospel.

He's suffering for the testimony of Jesus Christ that he has. And we see, as we saw last week, some attitudes that Paul possesses that I think each one of us as Christians ought to possess at all points in our life, at all points of our life, especially in the most dirty, worse, sin -ridden, shameful ways.

We ought to express the same attitudes that Paul expresses for us, especially that we saw last week.

We also would see that Paul does not know from a day to a day what his agenda is going to be bringing to him.

He has no assurity of anything. He has no assurity of his life for tomorrow it might be taken. He doesn't have a surety of any sort of meal that's going to be given to him.

He's in prison. He doesn't know what's around the corner for him. The guards might be around whispering in another person's ear,

Hey, are you going to go beat Paul again? Hey, are you going to give him his meal? Are you going to wait another hour?

This is what we would see in a typical day in prison in that day. Paul doesn't know any of this. But we saw last week that Paul is very confident about one reality, and that is his hope in the gospel.

His hope in the gospel. He says there in verse 6, For I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work on us will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

He's assured that the salvation that has been given to him, Paul, back when he was

Saul and he was made to be Paul, that that beginning of that good work that has brought him to these prison bars is going to be perfected in the end.

That the one that begun the good work is going to be the one that finishes it. He has faith in a faithful God. He magnifies,

Paul is continually magnifying the cross amidst his chains.

He's magnifying the persecutions of Christ and in the midst of his own persecutions.

He doesn't say, well, this is a really bad thing. I won't tell them about the gospel. They're undeserving to hear about the salvation that is in Jesus Christ.

Paul doesn't say that about those that are around him. But he sees these as opportunities to express the hope that he has.

We see that throughout this entire letter and we will note these things as we come to them. But it should be noted that in this text, we should see the sincere, explicit love that Paul has for the church of Christ.

Did you guys not just see Zach when he was up here as he was crying and saying, my heart is in Haiti? Paul is doing the same thing in here.

My heart is in Philippi. He's saying, I love this church. I love it.

It's on my mind. I'm praying for you. I have expressed love for you. We saw that here in Zach today.

Isn't that a glorious thing that we have men in our church, men in the local bodies today that have a

Paulinian type of love for their fellow believers and the service in another part of the world.

That's exactly what we are seeing here in this text. But Paul cares for the bride of Christ.

He cares for her. He tends her. And he feeds her through the sending of this letter. He legitimately cares about his fellow undeserving, unmerited, grace -given

Christians. He loves them dearly. He loves them. This week, we're continuing here in verse 8 through 9.

That's the context that we're leaving from last week. We need to be continually reminded of this.

So here in verse 8, it says, For God is my witness, how

I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. For God is my witness.

This is quite an interesting statement that Paul uses elsewhere. In Romans 1, verse 9, he has a very similar saying.

He says, For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of his son, is my witness as to how without ceasing

I make mention of you. So Paul is opening this letter in a way that he normally typically does, but it's in a sincere way.

And he's saying, I appeal to God who sees all things and knows all things that this is true, that I really am praying for you, church.

This isn't like a claim like where a Boy Scout would say on Scout's Honor, right?

I'm an Eagle Scout, so look how I just lifted up my arm out of habit right there as I said that. Scout's Honor, right? That's supposed to mean something for the

Boy Scout, right? Or maybe you were on the playground and you would hear something along the lines of cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye or something like that when you swore something to somebody.

Or you might go about giving a pinky promise to somebody. This is far better of an authoritative mention from Paul saying, what

I am saying is truthful. He's swearing upon God's witness that this is a true thing that he's saying in here.

And why is that even more important? Because anybody in this world can go about and say, God is my witness,

God is my witness. Anybody can say this. Does that mean that what they're saying is truthful? No, it doesn't.

It doesn't. But the fact that an apostle of God is the part that's important for Paul to be saying this, this therefore classifies this as an inspired text.

In 2 Timothy 3, verses 10 through 17, it says, but you follow my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love.

That's going to be a common theme that we see here in Philippians. Love, perseverance, persecutions.

So Paul now brings up persecutions and sufferings, such as happened to me in Antioch at Iconium and Lystra.

When what persecutions I endured and out of them all, the Lord rescued me.

He's saying that these examples has been only a testimony to who God is. Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

Let me read that again because we're reading about the persecution of Paul. And this is very important for us.

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

This is a promise from God. This is a promise through the apostle Paul, who is writing this on authoritative way, a particular indwelling of the

Holy Spirit to write this inspired word here, saying that you will be persecuted.

But evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you continue in the things you learn and became convinced, knowing from whom you learn them.

And that from childhood, you have known the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

All scripture, this is the verse that we are coming to, all scripture is God breathed and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.

So that the man of God may be equipped, having been thoroughly equipped for every good work.

What would be a piece of advice that we could give to Zach, who has his heart in Haiti today? What's something that you could tell him to go do?

Read the scriptures because they will prepare you for every work that has been prepared in the Lord Jesus Christ.

If this is a missionary endeavor for God's glory and for the benefit of other believers and advancing the kingdom of God, where should be the first place that we go to to get the battle boots to put the vestiture on to carry your sword or your weapon into war in this way for the battlefield of this world, the gospel and the kingdom advancing, where does the person run to?

Where we're at right now in scripture, the word of God, training in righteousness so that all man of God may be equipped, having been thoroughly equipped for every good work.

So what we're reading here in the book of Philippians is scripture because the apostle who is indwelt by the

Holy Spirit to claim such a title, he has said that this is witnessed by God as truth.

How I long for you all with the affection in Christ Jesus. That's the next saying it says in here.

For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.

This is being anchored in saying that the love that I have in you is the same type of love that has been exampled and given to us in the work of Jesus Christ.

That my affection towards you is a godly affection. It's an affection that is only wrought by being in Jesus Christ.

I couldn't have a love for you if I wasn't in Jesus. This love I have for you is really coming about through a regenerate church.

Change of heart, it's in Christ Jesus. It's not like Paul is sitting there in prison. If he wasn't a believer and he was in prison, have you ever seen a prisoner that isn't in Jesus Christ have love for somebody across the world?

No, this is quite a spectacular thing here. That Paul loves another individual while he's in the worst of situations.

And this is founded in the fact that he's in Christ Jesus. So what is godly love? Well, we would know in according to 1

Corinthians 13, verses 4 through 7, love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, does not brag, it is not puffed up.

It does not act unbecomingly, does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered.

It does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

That's a verse that I would assume many of us have memorized in our growing in a

Christian faith, right? This is where we go to define definition of what love is.

But what is the mark of love that is seen in the Christian's life? Where does it stem from and how is it shown?

These are all questions that revolve around the definition and the quality of what love is.

John chapter 13, to emphasize what love is even more, in John chapter 13, in verses 34 through 35, it says, a new commandment, this is

Jesus speaking, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I.

So again, what has Paul said? The love that is wrought in Christ Jesus, right?

What does Jesus command us? To love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another, by this all.

So when we talk about the mark, how do we tell someone who's a Christian? What is their identifying marks?

It's by the love that they show one another. That's the way that we should be able to firstly see the fruit of being a planted in the vine, being grafted in the vine,

Jesus Christ. By this, all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

So again, how does one give godly love? I think that was answered for us last week.

He who began a good work in you will be the one to perfect it. That it's God that has caused this change inside of me.

And because now I have had this change, I'm made a disciple in Jesus Christ through having faith in him, being planted in the vine.

And that by having this faith in him, now I can't not love someone else. I can't,

I can't refuse this. It's just, it's a wellspring that is ignited inside of me, something that wasn't from myself, but it is now going about.

And I want the betterment of my fellow man. So how are we made disciples of Jesus?

Well, again, we talked about that last week, that we were dead in our sins, but God made us alive together with him.

That we were made children of God, not because of the will of the flesh, but because the will of God and so on.

So now in John, we see that the mark or the branding of the Christian, the identifier of who they are to be.

They are to be recognizers of followers of Jesus Christ, the way through the love that they show one another.

Oftentimes many people live, many people's lives, when they study and gain more theology, right?

When we gain more knowledge about who God is, it often seems to carry the danger of what we could see of somebody thinking that themselves are more superior than another, that they think that they're more holy.

And this is pride. This is pride to think that I am above another person. I'm above the other fellow

Christian that has fallen. I'm above the world that's around me.

That's a pretty typical result that often stems from gaining more knowledge, we elevate ourselves.

This is sewn into our very nature at the very fall of Adam. I'm gonna cover myself. Look at what I can do.

I can hide from God, right? This is sin. This is something that we have to mortify and seek to kill in each one of our lives is the pride of thinking that we're better than another one.

This is false theology. That's not a true theology. A theology that actually believes in what's before us is actually one that elevates those around us.

J .I. Packer, a strong and influential theologian, warned the Christian by noting this.

If our theology does not quicken the conscience and soften the heart, it actually hardens both.

If it does not encourage the commitment of faith, it reinforces the detachment of unbelief.

If it fails to promote humility, it inevitably feeds pride.

I would also add in my own words, if theology is not marked with love that reflects the love that Jesus expressed towards us when we were dead in our sins, our theology is just as dead as we are currently in our sins.

A theology that drives one to hate his neighbor is a most deplorable act as they become murderers by heart with professing lips that spout off the dung that dwells within them.

We have to love one another as Christians. We're told that in Christ's own words, that we are to love

God and love our neighbor. We must love our neighbors as Christians that have been renewed in the love that is in Christ Jesus.

Let me give you an analogy. I'm going to paint for you a picture. This is by no means a literal account.

We can talk about that after church, but let me paint for you a picture that I hope reigns true for us.

Imagine for a moment that you are a medically trained personnel. You're a paramedic or whatever example you want to think.

You're medically trained and you've been called to a person's house that is unresponsive.

You show up on scene where you are met by other professing medically trained people that have shown up on this scene as well with you.

And you walk into the house where none are with the individual providing care. They're not with him.

You ask why? You think why? Well, you are met immediately with a smell that is beyond description.

You walk to where the smell is being generated and find the unconscious person naked covered in fecal matter in a bathroom covered like themselves.

Now makes sense why the other medically trained personnel wouldn't want to subject themselves to this scene and abstain from rushing in.

However, you love this person too much and you know that they will surely die if there's nothing that is done.

You go to lift this unconscious person by yourself and find that the weight is too much to do by yourself.

What are you to do as a medically trained personnel? You beckon to the others in the other room to come in and to come assist you.

And you've motivated their inward conviction that they are medically trained personnel that is to be displayed on their outward profession.

They come to their senses of not providing this care and they immediately rush in behind you to help this individual, this person that is unable to help themselves.

You all with the help of the other lift this poor person out of the dung covered room into one that is more suitable to aid them.

You immediately provide life -saving measures where the unconscious person wakes up and responds, why am

I covered in poop? And you respond, let's get you clean. Now, the analogies should be very obvious at first when we think about this story of what's going on here even in this text for us.

If this analogy is not clear enough for you, let me explain. If you're a professing Christian that has a searing, a branding mark of theology upon your heart, you have been sent as an ambassador into the kingdom of the world, this dung covered place that we're in right now that's dwelt with sin.

It's not pretty, it's not good. It's against God in this way. You've been sent as an ambassador unto it.

Just because you are a part of the kingdom of God that is not of this world, as he says in John chapter 19, does not mean that you are not taken out of this world.

But instead, it means that you serve it in love and even in deep mourning through prayer.

You are to love them. You are to love this world. In this analogy, you see the other profess the same truth that you do, but are sometimes unwilling to go into the room due to its wretchedness.

They're unwilling to engage the world. It's unwillingness to open your mouth to the cashier.

It's unwillingness to go and knock on your neighbor's door. It's unwillingness to show a love to the world.

It's unwillingness because you know it's wretched. How do we encourage one another to do that?

You beckon as a Christian to those that profess to be a Christian. By saying something such as this, follow the cross, bear it.

Do not think of yourselves above what our Lord himself received.

The true professing Christians will follow you. This is a genuine purpose of being in church as Hebrews chapter 10, 19 through 25 teaches us that we are not to forsake the assembling together.

We are not. And actually one of the purposes for it is so that we can learn to know how to stimulate another one into good deeds.

It's for the purpose of, hey, Christian, let me encourage you. Come into this room with me. We have an unconscious dead person, come.

Part of us coming together as a church is to know how we can pray with one another. We can stimulate each other. If Brayden is failing to do something, this is an opportunity for you to say,

Brayden, there's a neighbor over here. We need to go and help them. You're the medically trained personnel that has seen the need and you know that you can help.

And you're going to rip that person out and give them the means to have be cleansed, which is Jesus Christ covering us in his righteousness as the kids made mention of earlier today.

Again, what has Paul done in here? What has Paul written for us in here? For it is my witness how

I long for you with all affection of Christ Jesus. What Paul is starting to do here is he's starting now to reach out to his fellow professing

Christians, the ones that he does not want to forsake the assembling together, but due to his change, he's not able to, but he still seeks to stimulate them in love.

And he says this in verse nine for them. And this I pray. Where is Paul at again?

He's in prison. He has chains that are bounding him to the wall or the floor, however his prison was set up.

But he's bound and he says, I am praying for you that your love, church, that your love,

Philippi, this church of Philippi, your love may abound still more and more in full knowledge and all discernment.

He's beckoning to his Christian saying that your love, Christian, your love, let it abound.

The love that is the same love that I have in Christ Jesus, let it abound. It needs to grow.

And how does this grow? That's the thing that comes to the question in here. How does this grace, this love that we have in Christ, this mark, how does it abound in the

Christian's life, in the church of Philippi's life, in our life? Well, I think it's interesting in here that it's tied directly with knowledge, full knowledge in all discernment.

The love that the Christian has will become more and more through the practice of their theology.

It is encouraging of the other Christians to live faithful lives to the word of God that will result in the care for the unconverted.

It will result in the care for the fatherless, the widows, the homeless, or the drug addict, the people in Haiti.

That's what practicing theology will give you is a heart that cares for those that are downtrodden.

Theology or the coming to full knowledge is not practice that is void of action, but it is the practice because it involves action.

We as theologians, every one of us in this room are theologians whether you know it or not. Each one of us are.

In every rite are on a pilgrimage with one another. There will always be low valleys.

There will always be high mountains. There will be storms and sunblazing days that will burn your skin. But through it all, we walk with the

Lord who has made us together, alive with him.

It is a life full of experience that is to be anchored upon the word of God that trains us, teaches us, it equips us to go onto this world that is so fallen.

Would you go to a heart surgeon? I was hoping Ron would be here today. He called me and said that he couldn't come because of the roads.

But imagine if Ron had been here today, has many open heart surgeries done on his heart.

Would he go to a doctor that had no schooling and had never touched a scalpel? Would you trust a police officer who has never shot a gun before?

No, you know automatically that intimately inside of you that you would say no.

Likewise, the Christian that does not live out their inward belief is one that cannot be trusted.

A faithful theology is a theology that is living. It is one that seeks full knowledge of God.

It's one that does refine himself to what God's word has for us. But it's also one that has discernment about our action, how we engage this sin wretched covered house that is full of unconscious people, full of dead in their sins people.

It teaches us how to engage them and seeks us to tell them about how we, this sin covered wretched people, were once like them, were like them once because we've been washed, we've been sanctified, we've been justified in the name of our

God, Jesus Christ. And so it is my hope that as Zach is going to this mission field in Haiti and has been convicted to go there to serve

God in this way, that I hope that the people that he's around that are often seen as less than ourselves,

I urge you not to think like this in your prayers. I would ask that you would be convicted of Philippians chapter two in this very book that we are, that we are to regard them as greater than ourselves.

We're to be praying for Zach and Zach is to be praying for us and we are to serve the

Lord God in this capacity and may the love of Zach towards these people abound in full knowledge and discernment as he goes about.

Let's go ahead and read again verse nine and we'll go ahead and pray. And this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in full knowledge and all discernment.

Let's pray. Lord God, I do thank you again for who you are Lord. I pray that the love that we have been given in you

Lord is not a superficial love. So Lord, I pray that we would not reflect a superficial love for our fellow man,

Lord. God, you died upon a tree for us. You humbled yourself.

So Lord, I would ask today that we, when we think about love towards our neighbors, we not think of it as just merely a saying hi and good morning and goodbye, but that it would be a love that seeks the betterment of them,

God, because we have been made the better through your suffering. Lord, I would ask that our love in you, the affection that is in Christ Jesus, Lord, that it may abound more and more,

Lord. That we would not forget that the very work that you have begun in us will also be perfected in you as well,

Lord. God, it is upon these words, this message today that each one of us will say that to you be the glory alone,

Lord. It's not deserving to us. We are undeserving completely of this, Lord. And God, I would just pray that today we would continue to bless you in thought and action and word and deed.