This morning, I invite you to turn once again to Philippians chapter 4. Philippians chapter 4. Last week, we began to consider the section verses 1 through 9. 1 through 9. And really only considered verses 2 and 3. This morning, we consider verses 4 and 5. Really the second point of the sermon that we began to consider last week. Philippians 4. And along with that, if you would turn to Psalm 40. Psalm 40, as we read this psalm of David, along with the text for this morning. Psalm 40, as we hear now the Word of God. I waited patiently for the Lord. He turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire. He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods. Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders You have done. The things You planned for us, no one can recount to You. Were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare. Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but My ears You have pierced. Burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not require. Then I said, Here I am, I have come. It is written about Me in the scroll. I desire to do Your will, O My God. Your law is within My heart. I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly. I do not seal my lips as You know, O Lord. I do not hide Your righteousness in my heart. I speak of Your faithfulness and salvation. I do not conceal Your love and Your truth from the great assembly. Do not withhold Your mercy from me, O Lord. May Your love and Your truth always protect me. For troubles without numbers surround me. My sins have overtaken me and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head and my heart fails within me. Be pleased, O Lord, to save me. O Lord, come quickly to help me. May all who seek to take my life be put to shame and confusion. May all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace. May those who say to me, Aha! Aha! be appalled at their own shame. But may all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You. May those who love Your salvation always say, the Lord be exalted. Yet I am poor and needy. May the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer. O my God, do not delay. In Philippians chapter 4, we'll read again verses 1-9. Paul says, Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, That is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends. I plead with you, Odea, and I plead with Syndicate to agree with each other in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you, loyal yoke fellow, help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the Gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again. Rejoice. Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request to God, and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. Draw your attention again to verses 4 and 5. Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice. Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, how do others see you? What is the impression that others have of you. When others think of you, do they say, well, there is one who has a positive outlook, one who is cheerful, one who is patient, one who is even-tempered, or do they describe you more as one who is sort of a downer, one who is negative, hot-headed, maybe one who likes to get even? You see, beloved, the impression that you and I give as saints in the Lord Jesus Christ, as Paul calls believers in verse 1 of chapter 1. He calls us saints in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the impression that you and I give as those who confess to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, the character that we demonstrate in our daily lives, it matters. Now, boys and girls and young people, I'm not talking about an outward impression in the sense of always being concerned about what are others thinking of me. Of trying to impress others by dressing a certain way or by fitting in with the crowd or doing things that you think will make you popular or giving in to peer pressure. That's not what we're talking about here this morning. In that sense, your parents are absolutely correct when they say to you, don't worry about what others think of you. Don't worry about it. But in another sense, as those who confess to enjoy that new life in Jesus Christ our Lord, we must be concerned about the impression that we give to this world. And therefore, when others observe you, do they see a heavenly citizen? A heavenly citizen standing firm in the Lord as Paul commands of us. Standing firm in the Lord alongside fellow believers as we considered last week. Standing firm with a transformed attitude. standing firm in confident trust and standing firm demonstrating a godly witness. And this morning, considering in particular standing firm in the Lord with a transformed attitude, or maybe we should say a transformed character, and that includes, beloved, an attitude of rejoicing, which reflects our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And it also includes an attitude of gentleness, which reflects our relationship with others. First, standing firm in the Lord with a transformed attitude of rejoicing. Paul says, rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice. Of course, we know that rejoicing is one of the themes that Paul introduced to us already earlier in this letter. Paul himself rejoices, you recall, because of the Philippian believers' participation with him in the Gospel. Because of their love for the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of their testimony of faith that they too were saved by the grace of God in Jesus Christ. And he also rejoiced, you remember, because even though some were preaching Christ out of envy, some were preaching Christ from false motives, yet he rejoiced because Christ was being preached. And Paul himself, we know, is an example of rejoicing. He was not one who simply commanded the congregation to do one thing that he himself was not willing to do. We, along with the Philippian believers, we remember the Philippian prison. They remembered it, no doubt. That prison which Paul had the fortune or misfortune of visiting when he first came. In Acts chapter 16, you recall that with Silas, Paul and Silas cast the evil spirit out of the slave girl. And when her owners realized that their source of income was gone, they were angry and they drugged Paul and Silas before the magistrate. And the magistrate treated them terribly, cruelly. They stripped them. They were beaten. They were severely flogged. They were put in the inner cell for the worst of the worst. Their feet were put in stocks. All for rescuing a slave girl. They were terribly uncomfortable no doubt, to say the least. And they were no doubt suffering extreme pain from the abuse that they had received. And at midnight, what were they found doing? Were they crying? No. Were they mourning? Were they complaining? Oh, I hurt. Oh, poor, poor me. No. They were found praying and singing hymns to God. They were rejoicing in the Lord. And now you see, as Paul writes this very letter, Remember, he is in prison again. He's not relaxing in a vacation home on some tropical island with every conceivable comfort of life at his disposal. He's in prison. And he doesn't know whether he's going to live or die. And he does not say to them, hang in there. Hang in there like I'm trying to do. You can do it. Just a little bit longer. No. That's not what Paul says. He says, rejoice. Rejoice. Be of good cheer. Because Paul knew that the only ground of rejoicing was in the Lord. The ground of our rejoicing as believers, beloved, is not the circumstances of life. There are so many who make joy and rejoicing simply some sort of spontaneous emotion or feeling like they do with love. Love is just a feeling, they say, and it depends on our circumstances. It depends on the situations around us. And therefore, with joy and rejoicing too, it depends on those things, if they are good or not. And therefore, if things are going my way, if things make me happy, then I'll rejoice. Then I've got a reason to rejoice. But if not, I don't have a reason. Then I'm not going to rejoice. I won't. But Paul teaches us in essence here that joy and rejoicing is more than a feeling. He commands it twice. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I will say rejoice. Do it, he says. No matter what. No matter how you feel. Because Paul knew that rejoicing is an attitude of the heart and the will and it's tied to that ultimate ground in the Lord. That's the only place it can be tied, beloved. Our rejoicing, our true rejoicing is founded on a relationship with Jesus Christ because of His redeeming work. Jesus Christ alone is our every reason of rejoicing. Our redemption in Him. Because He has fulfilled all righteousness for us and freely given it to us as our very own. What a reason to rejoice. He has fully paid for all of our sins and He has removed from us forever God's righteous anger and we are forgiven completely as far as the east is from the west. So far have our sins been removed. What a reason to rejoice. And He has given to us new life. New life by the power of the Holy Spirit as He talks about it in Ephesians again. The Holy Spirit has begun that good work, He says, and He will be faithful to complete it. We are citizens of heaven Our names are recorded in that book of life, never to be scratched out, never to be erased. And that new life that He has given to us in Christ Jesus includes faith and trust and obedience in Him, and it includes a change, a change within us, a new attitude, a new outlook, new desires, new motives. You see, our Lord Jesus Christ has removed every reason for doubt and despair. It's gone. Every reason for that. And He has given to us the confident assurance that all things work together for our good. Not one little tiny thing works for our bad. It all works for our good. And therefore, Paul can look you and me in the eye as those who confess to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and he can say that if you are not filled with joy and gladness, then you do not understand the depths of death and hell from which you have been freed. And you have not surveyed the heights of glory to which you have been raised in Christ Jesus. And therefore, our prayer is to be that the Holy Spirit would make that clear to us more and more. Every day. You see, Paul knew that the rejoicing Christian is able to say with David in Psalm 40, He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire. He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. And because of all that, then Paul can say that the extent of the believer's rejoicing very simply is always. and that answers the question when am I to rejoice always how long am I to rejoice always and that's not just some vague possibility beloved but it is possible because the ground of our rejoicing the Lord Jesus Christ he is changeless and the reason of our rejoicing his redemptive work and the effect of that work for you and me will never change it's not like a term life insurance policy that once the term is up, the life insurance is no longer good. It's expired. Don't plan to cash in on it. The redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ and its effect will never change. It remains in effect for you and me forever. It can never be canceled out. It will never be taken away. You see, the circumstances of this life that you and I face will change. They do change. Sometimes, many times in a day. The circumstance of life that we face, beloved, may call from us a variety of emotions and feelings, as we all know. It may call from us grief and tears and sorrow, as well as happiness and excitement, but because of the truth and the faithfulness and the certainty of Jesus Christ and His work. God's people are able to live with joy in the midst of our circumstances. Above our circumstances. and that means that we can rejoice in the Lord laying in a hospital bed dressed in a full body cast with our jaw wired shut just as much as we can rejoice when sitting on a mountaintop gazing at the splendor and the beauty of God's creation that means that we can rejoice we have every reason and we can rejoice in the Lord just as much in times of want as in times of plenty in times of sickness as in times of health in times of tribulation as in times of peace. And that also means that our rejoicing, beloved, is not tied to a certain style of rejoicing as some would have us to believe. Some say that you cannot truly be rejoicing in the Lord unless you are singing loudly, unless you are swinging wildly, unless you are clapping uncontrollably. Because how can anybody know if you're really rejoicing unless you show it in that outward way? That's not true. but because of the powerful work of the Holy Spirit beloved you and I can rejoice in the Lord through solemn silence through reverent meditation with tears of gratitude and quietness of prayer all in our daily life and as well we can rejoice in the Lord as we come together in worship as we hear Him speak to us in His call to worship calling us He calls us, come my child. And in His greeting, I am your God. You are my people. And as He speaks to us through His law and the assurance of pardon and in His word and word preached through His benediction. And we are able to rejoice in the Lord in our worship as we respond to Him speaking to us through our singing and our prayers and our confession of sin and even laying our offerings in the plate. That too, beloved. is to be a time of rejoicing in the Lord, not a thoughtless dropping that money in there. It's a time of worship. Rejoicing in the Lord. In all of these things, we can rejoice in the Lord as we consider His majesty and His mercy towards us. Our Lord Jesus Christ has given us every reason to rejoice at all times and in all situations because He has promised that nothing will be able to separate us from His love. And the effect of rejoicing, the effect of that joy that the Holy Spirit fills our hearts with then is a transformed life. Again, as Paul makes clear in Ephesians chapter 4 and 5, is he one who conscientiously obeys this command by the grace of God because he understands what he has in Christ Jesus cannot be a gossip or a bearer of false witness or cannot be one who is spiritually proud or filled with arrogance and conceit. He cannot be one who is stingy and prayerless or a chronic complainer or always bitter. And I mean this in the sense that John in his first epistle talks about for those of you who have the light, you cannot sin. And he's talking about sinning perpetually, living a life of sin. It doesn't mean that we never do struggle with these things. We do. we still struggle with these things. But as we do, we rejoice in the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit for Jesus' sake as He's busy cleansing us from the pollution of sin. And as we do and might struggle with these things, beloved, we too are to know the cure, to remember the cure, to look to Christ Jesus, to rejoice in Him and what we have in Him. And it's all gain, you see. Rejoice in the assurance of His promise that He will continue to lift us out of the slimy pit. He will continue to lift us out of the mud and mire and forever set us on the firm place of His love whereon we might rest forever. You see, believers who practice rejoicing in the Lord will by the grace of God, they will more and more discover healing in heartache. And they will more and more discover rest in exhausting tension. They will discover love in loneliness. They will discover more and more the presence of God in control of excruciating circumstances. One who rejoices into the Lord is also one then who points powerfully to the Lord Jesus Christ and His Gospel of salvation. Sometimes without even realizing it. You see, others do see that joy in the lives of God's people. They see that we are different as they see how we handle circumstances of life. They see a hope that is without compare in this life. And then two, we are to be ready as Peter says. Always be prepared to give a reason for the hope that is in you to anyone who asks. Beloved, stand firm in the Lord with a transformed attitude of rejoicing which reflects the believer's relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ and also then results in a transformed attitude or character of gentleness. It flows naturally, automatically from rejoicing in the Lord. An attitude of gentleness towards others. Paul says, let your gentleness be evident to all the Lord is near. He's not talking simply about the gentleness with which we might hold a newborn baby. Maybe a little bit of that idea is there. But there is a particular occasion for gentleness here. you see paul is dealing with with how believers respond in the face of troubling and difficult situations responding either to those situations or to those involved opposite of us in those situations notice how believers respond he's not talking here about our participation and maybe being the cause of troubling situations. The Scriptures deal with that elsewhere. But Paul is talking there about how you and I respond. How we respond when they come upon us. And those difficult situations could very simply be difficulties of life that cause a certain kind of stress or anxiety or pain or turmoil. Or it could be difficulties with people. Disagreements. He might have had Euodia and Syntyche in mind here. They were not able to agree. And he calls them to agree in the Lord. And then he calls them as well as us to rejoice in the Lord. And as we rejoice in the Lord, one of the ways we rejoice in Him is to let your gentleness be evident. Euodia and Syntyche, let your gentleness, how you respond to each other, be evident in the Lord. But also difficulties with people might be because of hatred or criticism, whether justified or not, or because of name-calling boys and girls, or because of gossip, Or there are simply many other things that strain our relationships with each other even as believers. We all know that. And this is joy robbing. You see? Nothing robs of joy more than troubling situations or troubles in relationships with others. And Paul is calling us to self-examination. How do you relate to others? How do you respond to others? We often want to make it, well, we want to be concerned with how they react to us or respond to us. But Paul says, no. You and I are responsible for our own actions. How do you respond? And sometimes it's easier to think on and rejoice in the Lord whom we cannot see with the physical eye than it is to demonstrate gentleness in the midst of life and situations. and people whom we can see with our physical eye. Paul calls for gentleness. And the character of that gentleness is that it means something like forbearance. Putting up with, in a sense. It includes charity, patience, toleration. But now it does not mean being some sort of a wimp, or a doormat, or caving into everything, or simply putting up with whatever others want to dish out against you. But Paul is talking here about a certain spirit or attitude or character that is demonstrated in the midst of certain things and situations and people that we deal with that are troubling. And in practice, negatively speaking, it is the opposite of demonstrating a spirit of contention. It is the opposite, boys and girls, of returning evil for evil which seems to come so naturally for us. It is not, this gentleness is not being easily offended. It is not retaliating and getting back at. It is not reacting violently or flying off the handle. It is not, as it were, taking the law into our own hands as some people have done on a large scale. Blowing up abortion clinics or putting to death doctors who perform abortions. We often do that in a small scale too in our private lives. We want to take the law into our own hands in some ways. It is not reacting sinfully. But instead, beloved, this gentleness that Paul is calling for is holding your tongue and temper. It is acting with patience and restraint. It is thinking before you speak and act so when you do, you do it in love. It is building others up and not tearing them down. It is to be honoring and glorifying to God. It is having the mind of Christ, who is then our perfect example of gentleness. He is our perfect example of gentleness. Beloved, when Paul gives us a command to rejoice, We are being commanded to look at our Lord. And when He gives us the command for gentleness, we are being commanded to be like our Lord. Even as He faced various trials and sufferings in this life, Peter says in 1 Peter 2, that He left an example for us to follow. He committed no sin and no deceit was found in His mouth. When they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate. When He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly. And if anyone had a just cause to retaliate, it was our Lord Jesus Christ. But He was gentle for you, for me, that He might do for us what we needed to have done. The writer of Proverbs also speaks to this gentleness when he says in chapter 15, verse 1, a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. How we know that so well, don't we? In chapter 16, verse 7, the writer says, when a man's ways are pleasing to the Lord, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him. You see, beloved, this gentleness is a part of what redemptive living looks like in the lives of heavenly citizens, those who have been transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit because of Christ's saving work. those striving out of love for the Lord to imitate their Savior, who is also then their motivation for gentleness. You see, our motivation for gentleness is not to be self-fulfilling, self-seeking. Our motivation for gentleness is not that we try to make others look bad and ourselves look good or to try to earn brownie points with God, but our motivation can only be because as Paul says, the Lord is near. The Lord is near. And we can understand that in two possible ways. We don't know for sure which way Paul was talking about it, but two possible ways. He is near by His return. Ever since the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are in the last days. And when Jesus Christ returns again on the clouds of glory, that is the next great event to complete God's work of salvation. And it's clear from Paul's writings elsewhere that he thought that it was possible that Christ might return in His day. Maybe not, but it was possible. And we don't know when Jesus Christ is coming again. He's going to come as a thief in the night when we don't know it, but it could be today. It could be tomorrow. The Lord is near. But the Lord is also near in another way. By His Holy Spirit. David says in Psalm 145, verse 18, the Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth. And Paul says in Acts 17, for in Him we live and move and have our being. We live in the very presence of God. The Lord is near us all the time, beloved. We live in His presence. And that knowledge, that assurance, that comfort is to be on our minds and in our hearts as we live from day to day. But either way, whichever way Paul meant it, maybe both, we are to view this life in reference to our Lord Jesus Christ. And when we do, then believers more and more become indifferent to this world and its ways. Less and less do we look around and wonder, I wonder what they think of me. I wonder what the world's impression is of me. But instead, by the grace of God as Christians, we have an entirely new view of life. And by the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit, We see things in the light of the Lord and the salvation that He has brought by His birth and life and death and resurrection and ascension. We see things in the light of the fact that He will return to conquer all of His enemies and bring a new order of things. Jesus Christ will return as judge of me too. The Bible says that we will give an account of every idle thought, every idle word, every idle deed. Though our comfort is that we are forever safe because He has paid for my sin. But when we understand, beloved, that Jesus Christ is coming again as a judge, then we will feel sorry for those who wrong us and not desire to get even with them, but pray for them that they too might be ready for that day and to forgive them even as God in Christ forgave us. The Lord Jesus Christ not only has given us the greatest reason to rejoice, but He is Himself worthy of our rejoicing always. We have deserved His judgment. But He has treated us with eternal gentleness and charity, not giving to us that which we deserve, but giving to us the blessed benefits that He has earned for us through His death and resurrection. And therefore, beloved, may we as heavenly citizens by His grace stand firm in the Lord with a transformed character, rejoicing only in Him, even as we seek to represent Him and His gentleness to others. And beloved, may our Lord Jesus Christ be reflected in our lives as others see the Holy Spirit alive and well in His people. Amen. Let's pray. Lord God, our Heavenly Father, we pray that You would indeed work in our hearts and lives in a powerful way that we would be a rejoicing people. Those who recognize beyond the shadow of a doubt our Lord Jesus Christ and His precious work. Those who recognize our salvation only in Him and the greatest reason to rejoice that we are no longer lost forever, but we have been found eternally for His sake. And Father, with joy in our hearts, may we demonstrate that joy in a variety of ways throughout this life, even in our gentleness towards one another. May our love for You be demonstrated toward each other throughout our daily lives. that together we might desire to be used by You to build up the body of Christ to prepare for that great day when He comes again for His bride. And again, O Lord, daily we pray, make us ready for that day. Help us to understand, Lord, that we live in Your presence every day. And may that too be a joy to us as we strive to do that which is pleasing in Your sight as a way to say thank You. Thank You, blessed Savior. for Your great work done for us. Father, hear our prayer for Jesus Christ. In His name alone we pray. Amen.