An Excursion Through Philippians — Ian Paisley

I'd like to say what a great pleasure it is for me to be here tonight and minister to you from God's holy and precious word. And it is also good to look back on the past and to know that we have been taught of the Lord and the Lord has led us to this day.

The Need for Revival and the Spirit's Outpouring

But things have changed in the passage of the years and what the church needs, as never before, is a mighty outpouring of the Spirit of God. And without that there can be no blessing and no lasting blessing and without that there can be no true regeneration of sinners and sanctification of the saints.

But God has told us to pray and he has told us to pray that he might revive us again. And God has revivals still in his eternal counsels which will break forth in the glory and we shall see the wonders of God again on this earth.

Darwin hasn't taken over this country and this earth of the Lord. And thank God we have joy in our hearts when we think of what the Lord says in his word. When we think of the promises of God that are yea and amen in the Lord.

So let us encourage ourselves in the Lord and go forward in the name of the Lord. I'm turning your attention tonight to the Philippines and we're reading some verses from the third and fourth chapters of the Philippines.

Paul's Prison Ministry and the Church at Philippi

You know what started in Philippi? There was an earthquake. There was an earthquake among those that hated God's man and hated God's gospel that he preached. And it ended in an imprisonment and it ended in a wonderful service of song where two preachers sang and all the prisoners heard them.

I don't know whether they were in tune or out of tune or had no tune at all. And I have met preachers that are never in tune and they don't have any tune but they have a joy in their heart. You say that's like yourself Mr. Paisley.

That's very true. But let me just say to you tonight that God wants us to remember the past that went into our experience of Christ. Led into our knowledge of the Lord. And of course as we go on in the pilgrim way we get closer to him.

We come to better understanding of his word. We have great themes of rejoicing for the Lord has done great things whereof we are glad. And here is the Apostle Paul. He's in Rome. He's in serious trouble.

There is an axe man's weapon of murder over his neck. He's looking back. He's looking back to the service of song which brought a great earthquake. Which shook the prison and the most filthy and wicked sinner in Philippi got gloriously converted.

And the Philippine church was a great church as far as the Apostle Paul was concerned. He thought back on those days. And now he's saying goodbye to them and he is writing to them this epistle. And if you turn with me to the third chapter.

The Heavenly Citizenship and Coming Savior

He has things to say that are very necessary to be said. The 17th verse of Philippians chapter 3. Brethren be followers together of me. And mark them which walk so as we have us for an example. For many walk of whom I told you often.

And now tell you even weeping. They are the enemies of the cross of Christ. Whose end is destruction. Whose God is their belly. Whose glory is in their shame. Who mind earthly things. For our conversation is in heaven.

From whence also we look for the Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. Jesus is coming again. And right standing out in the apostles mind is this. Our conversation is in heaven. Our life is head with Christ in God eternal in heaven.

Nothing can destroy that. No plan of hell. No working of the devil. No lying from the supreme liar Lucifer the son of the morning. Can in any way destroy that great hope. That is in the hearts of God's people.

Jesus is coming again. Thank God he is coming for me. Thank God my name was written in the book from before the foundation of the world. And in the eternal counsels of the everlasting ages. Before the world was thought on.

God thought upon his people. And he gave them to his son. And his son took an infallible and holy oath. That he would come down incarnate himself with a body. And die on the cross. What to do? To bring them all into the fathers house of love.

And the family of the believers. I remember well the day that I knelt at a farm. In a baptist church that was built as a result of the great 1859 revival. And as a young boy I entered into the kingdom of God.

I have been in many tight places in my day. I have been in prison four times. I have sat in three parliaments. I have sucked with kings and princes. And great people of the world. But I am a servant of Jesus Christ.

My love is of his son. And he is coming again. And he is not going to miss one of his people. They will all be gathered in. And he will bring them all to the glory. And he will say to the father. Here am I and the children that thou has given me.

Man, I'll sing in tune that day. There will be no trouble at all. And I'll play an instrument. Though I couldn't play even a mouth organ today. But I'll sing in that great land. Aren't you glad you're going to heaven?

God's wise child of God. Aren't you glad you're on the right path? That's taking you higher every day. Closer to God every day. Nearer to the glory land. It's a wonderful thing to live on this earth and fight the battles.

But how glorious it will be when God calls us to his heavenly mansions. I was at a house one night. And the man at the house said, Well, the Lord sent an angel and took our loved one home. I said, Who told you that nonsense?

He said, That's what I believe. Well, I said, That's very strange. The Lord comes for his own people. It's not an angel he sends to the deathbed of the saints. He comes himself. It's not angelic arms that's put out around the redeemed soul of a believer.

It's the arms of Jesus. I don't sing, See if in the arms of a coming angel. I sing, See if in the arms of Jesus. See if on his gentle breath. There let my soul relax. All is well. It's an evil day. But the devil hasn't won.

God the Lord will win the battle. And we're not going home to heaven victims of the devil. We're going home victors in the fight for the faith. Once for all delivered to the saints. Well, that's not the reading.

So I better come back to my reading. And we come here. And he says, Brethren, be followers together of me and mark them which walk. So as ye have us for an ensemble, for many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.

Listen. The words that I am reading to you come stained in the tears of the great apostle. He wrote these words in tears because he saw what the battle was about. He saw the power of the enemy. And he said, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.

And then he says, for our conversation is in heaven. From whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord, Jesus Christ, who shall change my vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.

We used to sing in Sunday school, I would be like Jesus. One day we'll be like the Lord. You'll be really good looking, you women folk. You'll not need a mirror or some paint to make you better looking.

You're going to be like Jesus. And we hard men, we're all going to look good when we see the Lord. We're going to be like him. We're going to bear the family like him. Oh, that will be glory for me. And by his grace, I shall look at his face.

That will be glory, be glory for me. Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is evil, even to subdue all things unto himself.

Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved, and long for my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. If you go down these verses, you'll see the wonderful repetition, the expression that he uses twice, even in one of the texts.

The Book of Life and Everlasting Salvation

Why is that? Because he's overflowing with the blessing that's in his heart. I beseech you, O Titus, and I beseech since the day that they be of the same mind in the Lord. And I entreat thee also, true yoke fellow, help those women which labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other of my fellow laborers whose names are in the book of life.

This book of life is very important. Book it all. And if your name's written there, you can praise God from the depths of your heart, for no man can wipe it out. It's there forever. It's written in the indelible ink of an omnipotent God, and it's written for all eternity.

There's an old hymn that says, My name from the palms of his hands eternity will not erase. Impressed on his heart it remains and marks of indelible grace. Yes, I to the end shall endure, as sure as the earnest is given, not heavy and not more secure, and glorified with him in heaven.

Talk about everlasting salvation. It's written all over this book. God's an everlasting God. He sent an everlasting Christ who shed everlasting blood, which cleansed away and an everlasting pardon all my sins and gave me a new nature in Christ and set me on the road to heaven.

And I have forsaken him and failed him, but he never forsook me or he never failed me. And I know that will be to the end. Oh, how wonderful when we enter the glory land. Do you ever think of it? The Lord will be at the gate for you.

He will have come for you. He will have brought you and he'll be at the gate for you. And up that street we will walk, that golden street of heaven, and we'll be amazed at the river of life and the trees of life.

But we'll be amazed. As John Newton used to say, I have three great surprises before me in heaven. He said, I'll be surprised that some people I thought would be in heaven and never arrived. I'll be surprised at that.

I'll be surprised that people I never thought would be in heaven are there. But the greatest of all surprises will be that John Newton, a scum and reprobate, is in heaven because of the blood of the Lamb.

Oh, what a day that's going to be for the saints of God. Get it into your mind and your heart that the goal of salvation is to bring many souls into glory. And he'll bring them. He'll bring them. Praise his holy name.

Rejoicing, Prayer, and the Peace of God

Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say rejoice. You're in a bad way, Paul. Old Nero's after your blood. And he takes the pen and he scratches the parchment and he reads after he has written Rejoice in the Lord always.

And again I say rejoice. Talk about Christian victory. There's the greatest Christian victory you could ever see. Wonderful thing that a man with no hope in life, humanly speaking, could say start rejoicing.

Rejoice. And when you're out of breath, start it up again. Again, I say rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer, supplication, with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things.

These things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in thee do. And the God of peace shall be with you. May the God of peace be with us this night as we turn to his word. Let's stand for prayer.

Prayer for the Presence of God and the Cross

Father, through thy Son, our Savior, and aided by thy Spirit, we come to thee. We don't want just a meeting. We want a meeting with thee. Father, show us thy face. Show us the face that looked down the road and smiled with joy as we the prodigal came home, came back to the Father's house.

Show us thy face, dear Father, the fatherly face of the everlasting Father. And, O Lord Jesus, show us thy hands and thy feet and thy side and the head that was crowned with thorns and the back that was given to the smiter.

Show us, our God, the wounds that thou did endure for us and the body that sweat great drops of blood in Gethsemane. And take us up the hill called Calvary. Let us hear thy voice from the cross calling for divine forgiveness.

Let us hear thy voice from the cross calling a word of assurance to a poor, old sinner who said, Lord, remember me. O God, give us a sight, O Savior of the cross tonight. And may this be a crossroads meeting for us all.

We live in an evil day. The devil's power is demonstrated and evil forces are loose in this land and this old world of ours trembles under the weight of the sin of men who walk the paths of the earth.

O God, come and lift us away from it all to see Beulah Land, to see the garden of God, to the day when there will be a return to a sinless paradise when we all get to heaven for a day of rejoicing that will be.

Be with us now as we expound these words and I take the promised Holy Ghost, the blessed power of Pentecost to fill me to the uttermost. I take. Thank God he undertakes for me. And the people of God said amen.

That's a poor amen. The people of God said amen. God bless you. Sit down on the seat now. By thinking of this service tonight, my mind was brought by the leading of the Divine Spirit to these words that I have read to you.

Paul's Conversion and Apostolic Mission

And here we have a wonderful man who had served his Lord faithfully from the day that he met him on the Damascus Road who could describe this man, Saul of Tarsus, a murderer of God's people, a persecutor of the church, hounding the people to the gallows and to the stake and to the axe man's murder weapon.

And then suddenly, and gloriously, and wonderfully, and praise God eternally, he was changed. And the man who was bloodthirsty became a meek child of God, ready to suffer shame for the Master's sake, ready to go anywhere to serve the risen Lord, ready to do anything that he was ordered to do.

And for the rest of his life on earth, he was a great evangelist, an evangelist with a heart that embraced not a village or a city or a town or a country but the whole of the continent in which he lived and the whole of the adjacent continent of Europe.

What a man, the Apostle Paul, son of God. He's coming to the end of the battle. He's coming to the end of his life on earth. He's coming to the day of his departure. And as he comes, he looks out over the world in which he worked and over the continents in which he preached so powerfully and so miraculously the Gospel.

The Two Churches and Their Contrasting Destinies

And as he looks, he sees two thrones at war. He sees the throne of the devil and he sees the throne of the holy God of Israel. He sees two churches, the church of the living God whose names are written in heaven.

But he sees the false church of Satan, the church of God brought sinners to heaven. The church of Satan damned sinners in hell. And as he looked out, he said, I must issue a warning. And as he is there in that place of hardship, what does he say?

He says, I'm going to tell you something through my tears. I'm going to talk to you about something that I need to weep over. The punctuation of my sentences must be not with commas or full stops or question marks.

It must be my tears. Do you see him choking on his own tears? And what does he say? He says, I want you to look at Satan's church and Satan's kingdom and note its destiny. And what is its destiny? And you will read there in that portion of scripture, he says, whose end is destruction.

What a terrible destruction the devil brings to the Christless soul. A destruction so bad that God must order that destroyed soul into the great prison, house of the damned and the lake of fire for all eternity.

You can measure the darkness of sin by the length of God's great eternity and the judgment of souls. Always remember that whose end is destruction. Its destiny is destruction. And let man stick to the devil's church and the devil's creed and the devil's theology and it will take them to hell and to destruction.

That's why Christ said, when you go preaching, cry, flee from the wrath to come. Who can measure or imagine the wrath? Go to Calvary and see the agony of the God-man on the cross. Why had he that agony?

Because he bore our sins up in his own body to the tree. I learned more about the terrors of hell at Calvary than anywhere else. I learned more about the pressures of a lost soul when I go to Gethsemane where he sweat great drops of blood.

Why? Because he had taken my place and he was dying for me. The wrath of God that was our Jew upon the Lamb was laid, who by the shedding of his blood for us the debt has paid, whose end is destruction.

Yes, brethren, the destiny of hell's religion is destruction. The end is destruction. And then we had the deity of this church of the devil and those that take membership therein, the deity, listen to this, whose God is their belly.

That's the deity that's worshipped in the church of the devil. Awful words that they are carried away with the terrors of a terrible state of sin that the only God they know is the God of their bellies, the God of their fleshly lusts that war against the soul, the God of the power that destroys mankind and makes him a devil doomed for the great eternity of the lost.

Awful thought. We see here the destruction, the destiny of the false church. We see here its deity, whose God is their belly. We see here their delight, whose glory is in their shame. What an expression.

That the only delight the soul knows, what is it? It is shame, piled upon shame, piled upon shame, and that's the glory, that is the delight that the devil's church produces in a man's ruined soul, in a woman's ruined heart, in a child's whole being.

And then let's look at something more. Who mind earthly things? There is a domination of this church. It's an earthly church. It's bound to the things of earth. It's bound to the ways of the world. It's bound to the things that are the fruit of the tree of rebellion.

That is the false church. That is the production of hell. That is the organ that Satan uses to blind and muddle the minds of lost souls, who mind earthly things. They haven't any idea of spiritual things, of heavenly things, no.

All they know is earthly things. But then the apostle turns the page over and he says, I want you to look at Christ's church. I want you to look at the church that he loved and gave himself for. The false church minds earthly things.

But this church, our conversation, is in heaven. That's the difference. The altitude of Christianity is the heaven. And all that is in heaven, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, supreme, the triune God, the maker of all things, the preserver of all things, the keeper of all things.

That's the church's message, our conversation, our citizenship is in heaven. We're not looking for a visa to heaven. We have a guaranteed passport to heaven. That's where our citizenship is. We're not of this world.

This world is not for us. The only thing I'm doing in the world is to get sinners out of the world and get them into Christ and see them born again of the Spirit of God and washed in the blood of the Lamb.

That's why the Lord, Child of God, lets you live to be a living witness. If you witness to anybody today, leave your hand upon them and say to them, Oh, dear, precious soul, I'm thinking about you. I'm praying for you.

You say you don't expect us to do that. I do. I mix with people because of my political position, prime ministers, kings, and queens, and people in high places of affairs, but I don't leave them without knowing.

They often say to me, Ian, you wear a badge. I said, I do. I remember the first time I went into the White House to meet the former president, your former president, and he said to me, he said, I like that badge.

I said, yes, it's a good badge. I said, it just says, Jesus is Lord. That's my message for all men and women. Jesus is Lord. And he looked at me and he said, I believe Jesus is Lord. He says, I never leave my bed, room in the morning, but I bow down and commit my day to God.

I said, that's wonderful. Glad to hear it. Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Lord. I was at a political meeting when the head of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Ireland was present, and he said to me, he said, Mr. Paisley, I have something I want to ask you.

Every time I see you in television and I see you in the news press, he says, you have this little badge in your breast. I want to go around and look into your lapel and read it. I said, you're very welcome.

Almost struck dead when he read what was on my little badge. Jesus is Lord. He had nothing to say. For Jesus is Lord. And he will reign until all enemies kiss his feet. And I tell you, I will shout the loudest in heaven when I see them kiss the feet of my blessed Lord.

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus Christ. Jesus is Lord. I've sat in the prison cell, the prison cell in which I was in myself for some and many days, and I talked to poor prisoners jammed in the devil's vice and held by the devil's power.

And they've said, Mr. Paisley, what's the badge? I said, Jesus is Lord. And I have seen many of those men, the toughest, hardest terrorists, changed by the power of God. I led two men to the Lord. One was a Protestant.

One was a Roman Catholic. One was in one side of the terrorist screen and the other on the other side. I led both of them to Christ. And in the prison service I started when I was a prisoner, and it still went on as long as the prison walls were there, and it was opened.

And those two men came to Christ and were gloriously converted to the Lord. And I saw them sit together at the little communion service we had for God's saints in that prison. And I saw the tears of two murderers.

Now, these were real murderers. They didn't kill once. They didn't kill twice. They didn't kill three times. They didn't kill four times. They didn't kill five times. They didn't kill six times. They didn't kill seven times.

They killed eight times. Think of it. And the one of the other man, he wasn't sure of the many people he killed, and he wouldn't mention it because the police would eventually catch up with him as an evil man.

And I saw the tears of those two murderers now redeemed, running into the communion cup. And I said to myself, I'm glad I have a gospel that can change men like that and give them a change. They both did their times and got out the terrorists on one side and one of them got out the man that had killed eight times.

They shot him dead, but he went home to heaven. The other man was changed and got a new identification and he's still living and he's still serving the Lord Jesus. They're going to meet in the glory land and I will shout when they cast their crowns at Jesus' feet.

For only God can do these things. This gospel that we have, brethren and sisters, is a miracle gospel. It is a gospel that has before it the might of God. God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

It's all in the gospel. That's why the gospel can't be defeated. And here we read in this portion of Scripture after Paul talks about their shame and their sin and their deity being their own bellies and the destruction they're headed for, he says, What a difference.

The Resurrection Hope and the New Birth

What a contrast. Did you look for the Savior today? Did you? I had a very godly grandmother, a good woman. She was a Scotch lady. And she was a great lover of the Savior. And she used to, during the day, she would go away into her room and she would shut the door.

And we always wondered what she did in the room. And one day she was asked the question, What do you do in the room every day? After dinner, you go into the room. She says, I go and I look up into the sky and I say, Lord, are you coming today?

Is this going to be the day of your coming? I'm waiting here. You know, that woman's life was heaven on earth. Her testimony was a testimony of a sweet woman changed by the power of the gospel. Our conversation is in heaven from whence we look for the Savior.

It doesn't say we look for Jesus Christ. First, it says we look for the Savior. Why? Because we're sinners. And we have to meet him as the Savior first. And then he's the Lord. And he's Jesus. And he's Christ.

Who shall change our vile bodies? We know our bodies is vile. We know our body is stained with the fall of Eden and the birthright of Adam. We know that Christ's body was glorious, a glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

But he's going to fashion our body like unto his glorious body. What a prize. Talk about the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Who could measure this wonderful gift of God? Therefore, my brethren, beloved and longed for, my joy and crowned soul, stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.

Here in this verse, he uses the title dearly beloved twice in the little verse. For these verses are crammed full of the love of God, so great and wondrous. My brethren, that brings in the family truth.

Why are we brethren? Because we have all had the same birth into the same family, the second birth. Jesus said to Nicodemus, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He cannot see it.

But when you're born from above, you can see the kingdom of God. That's the first thing God does when he saves us. He opens our eyes and we see the kingdom of God. What a kingdom of the redeemed of the Lord.

And then he goes on and he says, brethren, dearly beloved, you're in the family. I long after you. You're my joy and crowned, for I appointed you to Christ. Stand fast in the Lord. That's what the Christian church needs to do today, is stand fast.

Don't get excited. Don't worry as if the cause is lost, as if God Almighty is dead, as if the Holy Spirit is no more, as if the blood of Christ has lost its power. The gospel is the same as it was in the day of Pentecost.

Christ conceived to the very uttermost all that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth. Christ is alive. He's a living Savior. You can go to as many of the places where they say Christ is buried.

He's not buried at all. No one could bury the risen Savior. Hallelujah. Christ arose. He arose. He's a living. And he arose and took his place in heaven. Forty days after, he sent down the blessed Holy Spirit of God, and Pentecost became a reality.

Three thousand souls were saved, and he has been saving souls ever since. And if you're saved, you should in your heart say, Hallelujah, I'm part of the harvest that Jesus died to gather into the Father's house, the harvest that Jesus Christ brought to his Father.

Unity Among Believers and Faithful Co-Laborers

But he goes on to say, even though they're Christian, they have differences. And there were two people here, and they weren't of the same mind. And there's a lot of God's people are not of the same mind as others of God's people.

But he says, I beseech you, be of the same mind. There's far too many things you agree on to fall out over a few things that you don't agree on. The child of God is indwelt by the same Spirit. There's a union between all the children of the Lord.

I entreat thee, true yoke fellows, help those women which labored with me in the gospel. Those women that were true yoke fellows, there's some people in some churches wouldn't let the woman do anything.

Well, they don't know what they're losing because a woman can get her word in when a man would feel completely. Women are best at their best with the children. And what would we do if all our Sunday schools had no woman teachers in them?

Many a child would never have the opportunity of hearing the gospel explained. It was my dear mother that led me to Christ. And I thank God for the true yoke women who labor with God's man in the gospel.

Fellow laborers. But their names are in the book of life. They're written there. Is my name written there in that page, bright and fair? Tell me, Jesus, my Savior. Is my name written there? And then he says this.

Rejoicing in Trials and the Discipline of Thought

Rejoice in the Lord always. Keep rejoicing. The night may be very dark. Keep rejoicing. The day may be very stormy. Keep rejoicing. The opposition may be very stiff. Keep rejoicing. The darkness of a world that's rocking to and fro in the financial crisis that has hit this old godless sphere in which we live.

Keep rejoicing. The kingdom and the gold is God's and the cattle on a thousand hills. God doesn't need to print paper money. God gives his money real good gold, real good silver, and real good copper.

What a difference between God's affairs and the evil affairs of man. Let your moderation be known unto all men. Why, the Lord is at hand. There's one thing. We're nearer to the second coming of the Lord than ever we've been before.

Oh, the crowning day is coming. It's coming by and by, and we're nearing that day. I don't know. I often wonder where I'll be when the Lord comes if I'm still living. He might come and I could be sitting in the House of Commons and Paisley will disappear.

They'll say, where did he go to? And there'll be old reprobates who'll say, we're glad he got rid of that fella. We're glad he's gone. And I'll be gone forever, passing beyond the stars, passing to see my Lord.

And on the way up, I'll be changed and made like unto him. And my body will be fashioned like unto his body. Wonderful day. Are you ready for that day? Would you be a left behinder of that day? For two shall be in the bed.

The one shall be taken on the other left. Two shall be working at the mill. The one shall be taken on the other left. Two shall be in the field. The one shall be taken on the other left. Be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh.

And then he says, rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. Be careful for nothing. Get on your knees in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.