Philippians 1 — Venus Brooks

Greetings to each of you once again, it's a real joy to be here with you, and I'm sure, I'm sure we're enjoying this season in a mutual kind of a way, a very precious time indeed. Will you come with me tonight to the first chapter of the Epistle to the Philippians?

Philippians chapter one, Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, all the saints in Christ Jesus which are Philippians, were the bishops and deacons. Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always and ever a prayer of mine for your all-making requests with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. Seem confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ, or he will finish it.

Even as it is mean for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace or partakers with me of grace.

For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels, our tender affections of Jesus Christ. And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment of discernment.

That ye may approve, or rather, that ye may try the things that differ with a view to approving things that are excellent. That ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ under the glory and praise of God.

The Gospel Advances Through Paul's Imprisonment

But I wish ye should understand, brethren, that the things which have happened unto me have fallen out, rather, unto the furtherance of the gospel. So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places.

Many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some of these preach Christ even of Indian strife, and some also of goodwill. The one preaches Christ of contention, not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds, but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel.

What then? Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I then do rejoice, gain, and will rejoice. For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

According to my earnest expectation and my hope, there is nothing I shall be ashamed of, 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, for to me is Christ.

This is the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor, yet what I shall choose I want not, I don't know. For I am going to strike the twigs too, having the desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is very far better, lest your abiding in the flesh is more needful for you.

And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith. Nero wasn't calling the changes, Paul was. He couldn't take his head off until God had finished with him.

Paul knew it, he knew he was going to abide. So Nero was not going to take his head off on this occasion. Having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith.

That your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again. Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of Christ.

And in nothing terrified by your adversary, which is to them an evident token of petition, but to you of salvation and that of God. For unto you is given the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.

In the same conflict which he saw in me, and now here to be in me. And God richly blessed his precious words for every one of our hearts. I'm sure that John 3, 16 is quite a favorite verse of every one of us.

Suffering as a Gift in Christ

We who know God in redeeming grace, we love to point to that precious scripture, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

The gift of life eternal, of salvation. But do you realize that suffering is a gift as well? For unto you it is given, in the behalf of Christ, suffering as found in the scriptures. That's not my subject.

And I'm sure that with what our brother has been bringing us, we readily see that it is very, very sound as far as the scripture is concerned. Five years ago in October, I went to the Veterans Hospital in Washington, D .C.

They opened up my left side, went into my heart, the mitral valve had opened up three finger widths. When I left home, I said to the saints, don't pray that I shall recover, but rather pray to God that his wills will be accomplished in my life.

If this is the time for me to go home, I do not desire to stay here one day longer. I may do something in that one day that I would be sorry of. Speaking in the language of the earth, at least I would see the loss throughout eternity.

And so if God desires to take me home in this surgery, I'll be very happy to go home, to meet him face to face. To die is more, praise his name. Aren't you glad you're saved? I'm sure you are. And as the tent is swirled round about your soul, you know that you're secured by him.

Nothing, nothing can possibly touch your life apart from his will as you seek to live here for his glory. When we walk according to our own wills, of course, anything can take place. As we seek to live here for the glory of God, walking consistent with the teachings of the Word of God, we may be sure that heart trouble, cancer, tuberculosis, and endless woe, nothing is going to take you out of this world until you have accomplished the course that God has prescribed for you as a child of God.

May we fear not then, but rather rest in the love of the living God. We have together, rejoicingly, considered that lovely expression of John 4, Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did.

Is not this the Christ? And we have gazed on him as the altogether lovely one. He before us in unparalleled glory and beauty. And surely had every Christian ought to live for him, we would have the same futures marking us, the same excellences, the same virtues that we behold in him.

That when we speak, as we read also from John chapter 7 and verse 46, Never man spake like this man. The weight of the individual life here below, the life of a child of God, certainly only God can evaluate it, and it can only be seen in the light of eternity.

Christ as the Purpose and Pattern of Life

And so how necessary to live a life for the glory of God here below, that it may have weight, may give weight to every expression uttered by the individual child of God. Tonight Christ is everything, then, for us as believers.

Everything for a life in the superlative degree. Colossians chapter 3 and verse 11, Christ is all, and in all, our Christ is everything. And you'll find him everything for your objective consideration and for your subjective response.

How precious indeed to have Christ before the soul. Now certainly, it's going to be as the apostles said, for to me, to live is Christ. Quite some time ago I read an expression that startled me, but now the expression was this.

You cannot live the Christian life, the Christian life, live the Christian life any more than I can live your life, can live his own life. Beloved ones, that's the Christian life. Giving expression to his own personality of your life through his vessel, said, for to me, to live is Christ.

He is the one, John Baptist is the one who said, he must increase, I must decrease. And it is said of John that in words, he decreased. When they came to inquire as to who he was, he says, I am not the Christ.

Again he says, I am not. And finally he said, no, he increased in his words. And even as to his stature, or rather he decreased as to his words, excuse me. He likewise decreased as to his stature, for he lost his head.

The Apostle Paul, with three expressions, likewise expresses the fact that there was a decrease in his own life so that Christ might be evident to all. For he said in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 9, I am the least of the apostles.

Again, in Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 8, he says, unto me, who am less than the least of all the saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.

I am the least, I am less than the least. And finally he says in 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 15, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all expectation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am increased.

I must decrease. This same truth is again seen in the Song of Solomon in three verses. In chapter 2 and verse 16, my beloved is mine and I am his. He feedeth among the lilies, all of me and none of Christ.

In chapter 6 and verse 3, and my beloved is mine, he feedeth among the lilies, all of Christ and a little bit of me. In chapter 7 and verse 10, I am my beloved and his desire is toward all of Christ, none of me.

That it may be so more and more for every one of us, beginning with a sincere longing that there may be expressions in the life of Christ, that others may be drawn to him. Someone has said that the devil at the Garden of Eden, he had before him this particular thought.

It's only the suggestion of another. I think it is worthy of consideration. He wanted or he desired that Adam and Eve should never know God as anything except a God of judgment. To know him as a judge.

And that was the purpose in the fall. But we praise God and in the heart of God are redemption. Together tonight for the gift of the sum of his love, the Lord Jesus Christ. Consider him that I may know him.

Christ is everything for life in the superlative degree. First of all, have you to consider with me the person of Christ as a power of life. We find essentially in him was life, and the life was life in Christ essentially.

The Person of Christ as the Power of Life

That life is communicated to the individual believer. I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never communicate it. That life is sustained. It comes from on high. It is sustained from on high. The fountain ever reaches upward from which it came originally.

And so the life that I possess as an individual believer comes from God originally, and is sustained from the same person. Chapter 6, verse 7. He that eateth of me shall live by me. Thus the person of Christ as a power, my friend, in the meeting this afternoon, isn't my trying, but it is trusting.

God has said it isn't a changed life, but an exchanged life. The life of which we are sustained. Now, the higher life are sometimes termed the second blessing, perhaps, or something to that effect. It's oftentimes spoken of in mysterious language.

But, my friend, it is Christ living his own life through the believer by the power of the Spirit of God. The life is in trust. As the vine cell flows through the vine, the leaves and the fruit are produced in the branch.

The branch is in the vine. The vine is in the branch. I am in trust, and Christ is in me. Oh, let him live his own life. Patience in your life. You have a terrible temper. It bursts out with the least provocation.

Then allow the fruit of the Spirit. Self-control. Let it be seen. The fruit of the Spirit. You notice? It's not fruits. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness.

The fruit of the Spirit. This is Christ's life flowing through the believer by the power of the Spirit of God. The person of Christ, then, has the power of life. Life essentially in him. That life communicated to the believer.

That life sustained likewise from the source of life. God is coming a day when it will be perfected. And they shall see his face and his name shall be in their foreheads. Revelation chapter 22. That life is perfected.

It's going to be just like this. His name in their foreheads. A perfect expression of himself. Seen eternally. Sometimes people quote Romans chapter 8 and verse 28. They read it as that. I like to read the three verses together.

May I do so at this particular moment? 8, 28, 29, and 30. I think they're triplets. Enjoy them. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God. To them who are called according to his purpose.

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many. For whom he did predestinate, then he also called. And whom he called, then he also justified.

And whom he justified, then he also glorified. Oh, my beloved child of God, good night. The purpose of God in relation to redemption is to have a race of men on the earth of the same moral and spiritual stature as his Son.

Is this high thinking? Is it beyond us? No, my friend, it is not. It's the purpose of God in relation to every believer. And this is right in the superlative degree. It's the best life. It's the only real life.

Too many of us know too much about existence and our very existence at best. But a life filled with joy, exuberance of spirit. For once in a while you can say, hallelujah, praise the Lord. And you don't have to come from the South, you know.

And if they people from the South may be a little emotional. Are we going to become like this age that we live in? An age of iceboxes and deep freezers and so on? Let's get our religion out of the deep freezers and warm it up a little.

Christ is everything. He is all and in all. Christ is everything for life in the superlative degree. Do you have this? If you have Christ, you have this life. In Him is life. And I'm in Him. Praise His name.

I have to try. I need to trust. Take Him at His word. And rest there. Let go. The more that the word of Christ abides in me, the more it is going to be in evidence. For His word is instant. Secondly, I would like for you to consider the presence of Christ as the path of life.

The Presence of Christ as the Path of Life

Are you lonely along my highway? Or are you joyful? Can you stand to be alone for ten minutes without having to turn on the television or go to some amusement park? I'm not being critical. Please forgive me if I say harsh things.

But oh, as the people of God, to sit in His presence, to look upon His face, to muse of Himself, the exceeding greatness of Himself, this should be the most joyous occupation of any believer in time. Occupied with Thee, Lord Jesus, am thus the presence of Christ for the path of life.

Thou wilt show me the path of life. In Thy presence is fullness of joy. At Thy right hand are pleasures forever beyond us. Is it just a dream? A pipe dream? Is your life a defeated life? If it is, it's because you are trying to live the Christian life.

Take God at His word. Rest in them. Let Christ magnify Himself in your body. I'm sure when our brother is finished with his theme, with his side of this glorious theme, you're going to see that the furnace of affliction only takes away the dross that mars the gold.

It is only a cleanser to take away the tarnish that accumulates in time. He weaves His design. We're looking at the underside, and He's looking at the upper side. We see a massive tangled thread, and we wonder at it all.

And the beautiful design is on the other side. And when we get the glory, too much in life is one of the reasons why at conference time I don't like to say too much because my head is not great as yet.

Years should always speak. There is no substitute for experience, and I'm not apologizing. Not for the will of God, but for the man that is before you, yes. A lack of experience as far as life is concerned, and it's so easy to speak like a fool.

I've been at the bedside of people in all sorts of conditions as far as life is concerned. I had a colored woman who called me late at night, laying in the cancer institute. A breast had been removed.

Her left arm was bigger than half of my body. A woman had just laid my hand on her arm. She had that confidence in me. I don't know what that's like. Many other things in life, I don't know what it's like.

I've never gone through it. I have my wife. I have my children. My father and my mother are living. The will of God remains true and eternal, overcoming for the delight of your fellow man. For fellowship, for companionship, for stewardship, and stewardship is not only of money.

Get that out of your mind. If God gets hold of your heart, your pocketbook will follow. There's no doubt about that. Lydia's heart was open. Her hand was open because her home was open. There'll be no difficulty with the purse.

Stewardship has to do not only with your time, but with your time and with your leadership. And I'm sure as far as leadership amidst the people of God is concerned, when there is the experience in the individual life of the presence of Christ, someone has best to practice it, to practice the presence of God continuously.

Holiness, Stewardship, and the Weight of Christian Influence

Nothing will overcome it. Where God is, sin is not. Where sin is, God is not. The holy life is the happy life, and there was none happier than the Son of God on the earth because there was none holier than God's face and form.

The preeminence of Christ, of purpose, from Chinese were marching around a fellow who, Chinaman, who was a communist. They had captured him. They were proving in the fact that they had captured him, and they were going to put him to death, burn him at the stake.

They marched around him rejoicing, and so on. He stopped them. He said, I am dying for a cause. What are you living for? There's similar language. We are dying for a cause. What are we living for? A pleasure.

I say these things kindly, but with a sincere desire that might provoke us to thinking of life. Every life is either a blessing or a blot for it can't be a blanket before some soul. That soul is molding either a blessing or a blot because it can't be a blanket.

Christ as the Prize and Purpose of Life

Sit with me, my folks. The place of Christ as a prize. The apostle Paul speaks of three men, I believe, in the epistles of the Corinthians. He speaks of the natural man, the carnal man, and the spiritual man.

For the natural man, the message is Christ died. For the carnal man, the message is Christ crucified. For the spiritual man, it is Christ's occupation, glory of God. There will be assimilation, glory within.

Transformation, glory without. Christ is everything. The person of Christ, the power of life. The presence of Christ, the path of life. The preeminence of Christ, the purpose of life. The perfection of Christ, the pattern of life.

The place of Christ, the prize of life. Occupation has said that you become what you're occupied with, and I believe. In Leviticus chapter 11, God prescribes Israel's diet of seed. And in it, I gather this for myself.

What you feed upon, that is what you become. We feast our eyes upon Christ in glory. By the Lord the Spirit, we are transformed into his image from glory to glory.