Parks, Alan: Week Of Meetings 1995-02 ~ Phil 1-Rejoicing

Platform and when I live here, is that right? Is that good enough, sort of? No. Well, he really pinned me down tonight and and made me confess and made me admit, and after all of this, I was going to stand up and say our reading tonight will be in Colossians one and really put the fear into him, but you see what he did, he just took it right from me. Our reading is in Philippians chapter one tonight, and that's where we'd like to be the next four nights, Lord willing, these four glorious chapters, and as AG has certainly set the beautiful tone with these hymns, the theme overall is that of rejoicing. Back in Baltimore, on one of the news stations that I listen to, um, when I'm in my car, all news kind of radio and talk show type thing, uh, there is a man in the morning from six o'clock until nine o'clock, and he does all of the morning news. His name is Alan Walden. He has a beautiful speaking voice. And, uh, at the top of the hour, I notice he doesn't do it in the half hour, but the top of the hour when the news comes on, he always says, good morning, we have a lot to talk about. And every, every single one, six o'clock, seven o'clock, eight o'clock, and nine o'clock, uh, Alan Walden always says, good morning, we have a lot to talk about. Boy, I feel like him tonight. We have a lot to read and a lot to talk about. Philippians one one. Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi with the overseers and deacons, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine, making requests for you all. See, the Apostle Paul was a southerner too, making requests for y'all. How's that? Uh, thank you. For your fellowship, verse five, in the gospel, from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, in as much as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace. For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ. And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Christ Jesus to the glory and praise of God. But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ. Most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill. The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains, but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice. For I know that this will turn out for my salvation, literally deliverance, through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. According to my earnest expectation and hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh, this will mean fruit for my labor. Yet what I shall choose, I cannot tell. For I am hard pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. And being confident of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy of faith, that your rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again. Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I am come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, and not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God. For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake, having the same conflict which you saw in me and now hear is in me. God will bless this reading of his word. The city of Philippi was a remote, and some might say a bit of a desolate outpost of the Roman Empire. It had formerly been named in a Greek word which meant the little fountains. And then, uh, Philip of Macedon, the father, by the way, of Alexander the Great. Now, if you ever want to know a historically humble family, here is the family. Philip of Macedon takes it over and names it after himself, Philippi. I mean, usually we dedicate something, and we might name it like, uh, the USS Eisenhower was commissioned after President Dwight D. Eisenhower died and the like. Uh, we do it after a person to commemorate a great life. Well, these people were very happy to do it while they were still alive and well. And so he named this city after himself. He called it Philippi. Of course, Alexander the Great, his son, um, in case you're wondering who gave him that nickname, it was none other than he himself. Great humble family. It is seldom mentioned, actually, in Roman history, which is somewhat unusual, except for the fact that it was known as a very important city. In its origination, it had been the center, at least as a Roman province, it had been the center of the worship of the god, small g god, Bacchus, which I think most of you will realize is the god of wine. It was a place that was known for celebrating wine, and of course, in it was excess, and that was literally part of their religion to be daily drunk. And, uh, afterwards it became a part of the, the mystery wor- worshiping, as they called it. Those who were influenced by the Greeks who loved to worship mysteries. Uh, they had gone from regular idolatry to the worship of things that they didn't know and ideas that they only tried to grasp at. Now, if that wasn't a confused city to live in during those days, I wouldn't know what. They come from drunkenness to worshiping mysteries, and finally it became one of the great provincial outposts for the worship of the emperor of Rome. But thank God, through his intervention, this seemingly, uh, discreet city in its own, set in its own area, in its own locality, that was off all beaten paths, that became a very important city, actually, and especially in light of defense. This city became a center for Christianity. During Paul's second missionary journey, he was found in Macedonia, and it was there, uh, with Timothy that he preached the gospel, and others, frankly, too. He preached the gospel, and God came in, and a great work was done, and many souls were saved, and the church in Philippi was established, uh, during the second missionary journey, which, of course, is when he took the gospel to Europe for its very first time. There was no synagogue there, we read, beginning in Acts sixteen one, and so the apostle met with whatever Jews were in that area on the banks of a river. But the God, God came in and blessed the gospel, and a great work was done. The believers in the early church there, we believe, were largely Gentiles, and it was remote enough that the Judaizing teachers, the legalists, hadn't yet made inroads. Nonetheless, Paul still seeks to warn them in this letter, and it's one of the very few warnings in this o- entire letter. It was written from Rome, we believe, during the first imprisonment of the Apostle Paul, and as such would probably put it, uh, somewhere around AD sixty or three. And in this first imprisonment, which at least in part seemed to have been in his own rented house in Rome, he evidently had the ability to have daily or at least frequent concourse with members of Caesar's household staff in the, uh, provincial government there in Rome. Some have called this a hymn of joy, and indeed it is. There are only four chapters in this little letter, but eighteen times in the four chapters we read of joy and rejoicing. The words sin or sins are completely absent from this letter, and so as such, and by the way, uh, for the most part, even the effects of sin in the believer's life completely absent from this letter, and it's unique in all of the canon of scripture because of that. It is probably, may I say, the happiest book to read in all of the word of God. Strange, isn't it, when you think of where it was coming from? A Roman prison, from a man who was suffering in his bondage, uh, for being a, a great, probably the greatest purveyor of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to a needy world. And now he finds himself in prison. It's not his first imprisonment. He actually was in prison three times that we know of. The first in Philippi with Paul and Silas, and that was a rather brief imprisonment. Then his two Roman imprisonments. This then is the first, and in this he writes this letter to the church in Philippi, and it's one of the most encouraging letters in the entire Word of God. The first eleven verses are generally considered an introduction. The first two verses deal with his salutation. We'll get into them in a moment. Verses three through eight deals with his thanksgiving, and some of the most precious verses in the Bible, arguably, are found between verses three and eight. And finally, verses nine through eleven in this first section, uh, the apostle goes into his longing prayer for them. First of all, notice that he calls himself and Timothy servants. This also is rather unique. Most of the places that the apostle gives his, uh, commendation, and of course so does John, he will begin by calling himself an apostle, the sent one or the chosen one. And he doesn't here. He says Paul and Timothy, and it's wonderful how he brings Timothy right into this, even though Timothy, we believe, probably was in Ephesus at the time and not in Rome with the apostle. Timothy might not even have known that this letter was being written, but Timothy had been used by God to help plant the church in Philippi, and a great man of God is not a lone ranger. If others have been used in the work and have come alongside as a partner with them, and just like Timothy did, the apostle wants to bring them right in. And so he includes them in the very first verse, Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ. Interesting, isn't it? Servants to all of the saints. The position is found here, uh, and also the place, those who are in Christ Jesus, verse two— and the place in Philippi. Notice that he also broadens it and adds also the overseers and the deacons. Grace and peace. Many times the apostle would be, uh, and and all of the apostles, Peter was no different than John and Paul, would be very, uh, quick to say grace, mercy, and peace be with you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. But here the apostle, without any shameless appeal to mercy, and you know he had to be thinking of mercy. He was a prisoner of Rome. In one sense, he would love to be shown mercy by the governor of Rome, and of course by the emperor Nero himself. And I think we're all aware that about five years after the writing of this, or thereabouts, the emperor of Rome signed the death decree of Paul the Apostle. But he says, grace to you and peace, not mercy. You remember, perhaps, if you were with us this morning, that we said that grace is that which we don't deserve, but God freely gives. And mercy is God withholding from us that which we do deserve. And so he here commends to them grace and also peace, that inner tranquility, because there is a harmony in life with the Lord of body, soul, and spirit, everything in balance, peace in a world that desperately needs it. Isn't it a grand thing to be able to contemplate peace tonight? Now he begins with his thankfulness. And if you have not gotten one, and let me just see, I think I have one here somewhere nearby. Um, we have our new prayer cards in the back. I noticed some faces tonight that I don't believe are with us this morning, and there it is. I think there's still some on the back table, and um, this is three in a row now. And the fellow that, that prints them, Bob Bennett up in Long Island in the assembly in Freeport, Long Island, I have to give him a call tomorrow. And, uh, Bob said, um, he called me up when I'd sent the picture, and he said, Parks, are you really going to use the same verse again? And I said, yes, sir. He said, you know, that's three prayer cards in a row. And I said, I know, Bob, but guess what? I can't find a better verse. He said, well, there are three verses. And I said, OK, you got me, but I can't find three better verses to put on our prayer card. So here are three prayer cards in a row. If you have all three and you have a, a mighty collection now of paper and pictures watching our family grow, you'll notice that the same verse is on them. And this is what I quote, Philippians one three through five. I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making requests with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. The thanksgiving of the Apostle Paul. Verse three, he said, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. The personal relationship that he has with the Lord, and also then he transfers this because others have been brought into this, the personal relationship that he has, uh, with the people in Philippi. The fourth verse, he once again, as he does over and over again, he identifies himself unashamedly as a prayer warrior. Ladies and gentlemen, tonight there are a lot of things the church needs, but there are not many things that are more needed in the church today than people, busy people even, people who could easily sit back and say, I just don't have the time, but people who before God make the time to be prayer warriors. Huge need in the church today. We, we are killing ourselves spiritually by failing to lay hold on the fact that if power is missing, it's not God's fault, it's ours. The power's available to us. The same power that was manifested in the raising of the Lord Jesus from the dead can be ours for victory in daily life. How? Through power, in prayer, and it's ours. And oh, so infrequently do we avail ourselves. By the way, I speak first to my own heart. So infrequently do we avail ourselves of this tremendous privilege of prayer. Prayer, the hymn writer said, is the soul's sincere desire, uttered or unexpressed, that motion of a raging fire that burns within the breast. Prayer is the Christian's vital breath. The believer's native air, and I love that line. At least it should be, and all too often it isn't. And here in this prayer warrior, in his own testimony, he says, always in every prayer of mine, making requests for you all with joy. The requests that he's talking about here in the prayers are those of supplication, prayers on behalf of others, intercessory prayer, asking our go-between, our advocate, our mediator to come in between two situations and resolve it to his honor and glory. Intercessory, supplicatory, and entreaty in his prayers. You know, after all, without prayer, very little is done to advance the work of God. Men can do it in their sphere, women can do it in their own strength and in their own power. It's entirely possible to look like you're going through all the motions and everything's fine. If it isn't watered by prayer, and if it isn't covered, literally immersed in prayer, God just can't come in and bless like otherwise he could. And so we're cheating ourselves today. Interesting, isn't it, since I was last with you in June last year, we've had rather a monumental election in this country. And a lot of Christians on November ninth, the day afterwards, were sitting there saying to themselves, well, finally God's back intervening. I think I might know one of the reasons why, if indeed that's the case. Although, really, I think if we're honest tonight, a lot of things are still the same, aren't they? Can't change the heart of God, or can't change the heart of men, and you can't legislate morality, but at least there's less immorality being legislated, it seems today. You'll have a harder time getting through, and we praise God for that, but I'm convinced, brethren and sisters, that for a period of about two years, men and women and even young people all of a sudden started seeing the slippery slope that this country was on, and once again they started doing what we should have done all along. They began to pray, to pray for the powers that be, to pray for our country. Intercessory, earnest prayer. And what do we read? The effectual, fervent prayers of righteous men and women avails what? Much, much. And I think we saw a little snippet of that, as God can work, and as God does work in the elections of November eighth last year. And who knows, maybe for a brief period of time, that judging hand of God will be stayed on this country, as people hopefully have finally stood up and said, enough is enough. We're sick of what's happening and for what's going on, and they're just saying, that's it, it's time to pray. I think God came in, actually. I might be wrong in that, God alone knows, but I have a feeling that it might have been in part because of the effectual prayers of warriors like Paul. Now he talks about fellowship, verse five, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. In the Christian circles today, and maybe most expressly amongst our assemblies, fellowship means that which we give to the Lord's work. The thing that you and I give to preachers, we give them fellowship and alike. Not just preachers, but others, organizations and all in the Lord's work. Well, God's kingdom is advanced through people that he has separated for a work. I think we're all probably in agreement with that, and they definitely do need that kind of fellowship, uh, to be able to meet their own needs and to be able to go out with unencumbered minds, not burdened down by the cares of life, and to go out and serve, uh, with at least one commodity being supplied by God. Well, we, we recognize that, and from my perspective, we thrill to it. We're very thankful for it, but it's so much broader a word than just that, because the word here, used here, fellowship, koinonia, literally means a complete partnership, for your absolute partnership in the gospel from this day until now. Mr. Vine says that it is an absolute cooperation, I'm going to quote this now, in a common interest and activity. I hope you got that. Of course, what he's saying here in context is that it's the fellowship in the gospel. But our fellowship can take many different avenues. Our fellowship, our equal partnership one with another in the advancement of whatever local church we're found in. You absolutely need to be an equal partner. Every silent partner, every partner that's not pulling his, his or her own weight is a drag on the local fellowship, and we need to have the spirit of cooperation with a common striving for one purpose and for one goal. Certainly here it's the gospel. It also could be in worship. It could be in counseling the lost. It could be also in discipling those who are new in Christ, or maybe even younger people and bringing them along. It is a partnership effort, isn't it? And we have enough silent partners in the business world today. We don't need one more of them in the church. And the apostle from his prison, he looks back and he talks about this church, and he rejoices in that commonality, that partnership in the gospel from the first day right until now. Being confident, interesting choice of words. This word here, in the Greek tense that it's written in, literally means this. He said, being firmly persuaded in the past and no less convinced of it now. Firmly convinced, he said, of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the J- day of Jesus Christ. Verse seven, if I can paraphrase his words, this is what he's saying. It's right for me to feel this way towards you because my heart beats with yours. Oh, what a word picture he paints. Here he is in Rome. Here they are all the way in Europe, in Philippi. A distance of about eight hundred miles, roughly, se- separates them. And he said, I- I'm not going out on a limb. I pray for you night and day, and uh, and I- I rejoice in the fellowship that you and I have had, and this great partnership of working together, striving for a common purpose. And he said, and I don't think that it's in any way, shape, or form, uh, something that's impetuous for me to say that I'm utterly convinced, I have been in the past, I am now, that he who has begun this good work in you will complete it right to the day of his appearing. So I don't think that's going out on a limb in any way, shape, or form, and the reason why is that my heart beats with yours. And we think of that little organ inside, ba-bum, ba-bum, and there it goes beating. And it's almost as if he can hear it in his chest, knowing that the heartbeats of these saints so many miles away are going right in tune with his. Of course, we're using more of a physical analogy, and he was using a spiritual one. But what a wonderful thing for a person now imprisoned to be able to go back and to look at a church that he has heard about and that he has followed and he's prayed for. Reports have come back to him, and of course, in chapter four, he finally gets onto, uh, the main reason for the writing of the letter. They've sent him a gift in his imprisonment. But even now, he sits back and he said, we're totally in tune. We are not just striving for a common purpose, but our hearts beat together. To me, it's one of the most graphic and glorious word pictures of all of the ones that the apostle has painted with his. God is my witness, verse eight, How greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ. God is my witness. In the very core of my tenderest affections, I long for each one of you. This I pray. Notice verse nine. Notice the second phrase. That your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment. What does he just credited them for? The fact that they were absolute partners of his, and that they had been overtaken with love for the Lord, overtaken with a joy in the gospel, overtaken in a spirit of cooperation and fellowship one with another, and it seems from our reckoning that they're at the very top spiritually, but what does he say? I think it's still better that you go in for it and abound more and more. And in the way this is written in this, in the sentence structure in the original language, it is an, it is a very imperative phrase. You're not there yet. As far along as you are in Philippi, you're not there yet. More and more. And I think we might take this admonition tonight into our every heart, that we may abound, literally spring forth more and more in two things, knowledge first, knowledge first, and in all discernment second. That your love exceeds fixed boundaries in knowledge, that's the wholeness of the body of teaching, and also with all perception. Now he says that you may approve. Anybody reading from a King James tonight? Uh, what does that say? What is the word there for approve? Verse ten, that you may... It is approve? Okay, I'm sorry, I thought it had been changed in the New King James. The word literally means to test, to scrutinize, and to prove as genuine. And I think it's very interesting for us to note this, because if we scrutinize something, you know when you're signing a contract and there's a lot of money at stake, do you just sign it without reading the fine print? Kind of foolish to do that, isn't it? You scrutinize it. You read it with understanding, and you read with a very expressed purpose in view. Are they trying to pull one over on me? What happens if I fail in my part? What happens if this product or this service fails to live up to what I think it will do? So you scrutinize something, you put it to the test, and that's exactly what he's saying here, that you may put to the test the things that are excellent. Interesting choice of words. What he's talking about here are things that differ, and that's really the word, not excellent. We think of excellent, and we think of an A on a report card or something, or we think of, well, whatever, you know what the word means as well as I do. We think of things that are excellent, they couldn't be improved upon. It's very different from the word here, and I'm not quite convinced or sure of why the people who have made newer translations didn't pick up on it. The word literally means to differ, that you may test or prove, scrutinize the things that differ, that you may be sincere or pure and without offense until the day of Christ. Test the things that differ. What could that possibly mean? Well, to get to the real truth, you know, sometimes you might have to wade through several different opinions, but there's only one opinion that counts, and there's one only one course of action that you and I can take that will ever stand the test of time, and it's that which can be supported by this book that's in front of us tonight. And so what does God say? What does the Bible say? In balance, looking at it in context, not dragging something out here, something out there, something from here to try to prove a point, and some people do that. There are those, and they do what we call subjective analysis. They take it to prove a point, and at times they can take and twist things out of context. And there are others, and this is what Paul's appealing to, who are objective in their research. Look at what the scripture says, and then say, thus saith the Lord. We need to scrutinize it and put it to the test and prove it to be filled, verse eleven, with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and to the praise of God. Being filled. And again, this is another unique word. To be filled here is the present result of a previous action. I want us to just get that. I'm going to say it again. To be filled here means to be filled with present results of a previous action. What could that be? Well, it's the fruit of righteousness. Who does that come by? Christ. And it comes through the fact that we have been sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise. I believe that these fruits of righteousness differ from the fruit of the Spirit that he begins to discuss in another section, to a slight degree. And yet these same fruits of righteousness are the fruit of the Spirit, plus many other things. These here are the outlying and the outliving, at least, of a life and a conduct that has been utterly transformed through faith in Christ. That is the fruit of right living, righteousness, because it only comes through the Lord Jesus Christ, empowered by the Spirit. It's all to the glory and to the praise of God. Now, verses twelve through twenty six deal with the rejoicing in Christian. I find this amazingly humbling tonight. Uh, the fellas who were at the prayer meeting know I had a great nap this afternoon. I think the Lord knows I needed it. Uh, I didn't really even intend to, to uh, lie down, but I did on the couch over there, and boy, I was in Never Never Land for about an hour and forty minutes, and I got up, and then I started studying just until prayer meeting time, and this one thought just haunted me. Here he is in the middle of a prison. We couldn't rejoice. He's just following along, is- I shouldn't say that, maybe you could. I'd have a hard time. But he's just following along that which he did in Philippi. Paul and Silas, you remember that, in prison in Philippi. And it's midnight. Their feet are fast in the stocks. You know what that means? They were literally stretched, and I'm sure their hamstrings were screaming in agony. Their legs stretched out unnaturally straight before them and restrained. Chances are their hands were bound, maybe even their hands in stocks, and it's almost like they were in a position to do exercise, like some people do, touching their toes while their, their legs are pressed firmly into the, into the ground. You can't do that forever. But here's an aged man, and he probably was about sixty years of age when he was in Philippi in the prison, and sixty then is a lot older than sixty now. And sixty on that body and all that he had been through was probably a lot more than many sixty-year-olds in our assembly tonight have any i- idea of knowing what he was like. And there he was, and it's midnight, can't sleep, completely miserable, a prisoner wondering what the morning will bring, and what are they doing? They're found singing praises at midnight, and it's no different here. In this amazing section between verses twelve and twenty six. and we're going to go through it fairly quickly because most of these points are touched on later on in the book. Here he rejoices in his Christian ministry. The first part of this, verses twelve through twenty deal with the proclamation of the gospel. Paul wants the Philippians to know verse twelve, that his bonds have given him a wider witness. First thing he rejoices in, his imprisonment has given him a broader witness. Man, I read that this afternoon, and I said, Lord, how can somebody be so close to you? How could somebody in that situation find it a thing to rejoice in, that his being imprisoned has enabled him to carry the gospel right to the palace guard and many others. And he doesn't complain, he simply rejoices in it. I found that amazing. The barracks even of the prov- provincial government of Rome, according to verse thirteen. and look what verse fourteen says. Most of the brethren in the Lord, having confidence by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. His courage in adversity empowered and encouraged other brethren to take the gospel and to preach it with great boldness. Isn't that amazing? Uh, interesting how God works in this. Now, verse fifteen a- onward deals in this next section, from verses fifteen through eighteen to uh, to be a really difficult section, arguably the most difficult section of chapter one. He's talking here in verse fifteen, he introduces the subject of some who have the right message but the wrong motive. And I think that probably can be, uh, easily understood by most of the adults here tonight. A simple turning on of the TV, and we don't want to judge motives, but we're also expected to be fruit inspectors. And so I think when you inspect what we see before us, not thank God with all of them, but with some of them on TV, and we see what these people preach, and we see what it buys them. We almost are re- are reminded of Numbers chapters twenty two, three, and four, and of the sin of Balaam, whose great sin, wasn't it, was to try to make money from the work of God. And of course, that was a person who wasn't even a believer. So now he talks about some who have the right message, but the wrong. They're jealous of Paul, and they are trying to undermine his influence. Ha, they say, finally we got him where we want him. He's in prison, can't do a thing. Little did they know that being in prison didn't change the preaching of the message. He just found a different audience, and, uh, you might say it was almost a captive audience. Now you say, well, he's the captive. Yeah, but they work for, for, for Caesar and for the provincial governor, and they had to be there, and so as long as they had to be there, boom, he's going to preach to them, and he did. And one of the wonderful things that we read in another one of his prison ministries, his prison letters, is he said, chiefly they who are of Caesar's household, when he said, all the saints salute you. See, the gospel wasn't fettered, it wasn't bound, it went forth in power. Souls were saved even in prison. Thank God for the fact that the gospel can never be chained. And so he said, there are some, and they are undermining my influence, verse fifteen, Some preach even from, what does he say, envy and strife, and of course, some also from goodwill. The former preach Christ from selfish ambition without sincerity, supposing to add affliction to my chains. Selfish ambition, rivalry, knowing that the news of this would distress Paul, and he couldn't do one thing about it, excuse me, other than pray, and you know that he would. But he says in verse seventeen, the latter preaches out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. How would you handle that tonight? There are two types of preachers, aren't there, that are mentioned here, and I think probably it's safe to say that there are two categories of preachers of the gospel today. Certainly one of them we believe, we're very convinced, is the greater group, uh, in number, and that's the people that preach Christ sincerely. Then there are others, and I hope they're a smaller group. I'm convinced they must be, and these are people who are the second type of preacher here. In some of their preaching, contention rules, but thank God for the other group where love reigns in their preaching. Uh, they differ in their hearts. They differ in their spirit, the motive behind it all. Uh, they differ in their sources of strength. The people who preach Christ in contention, they may be eloquent orators. Listen, we live near Washington, I think you know that, and um, I'm gone too much anymore for this to happen, but it used to be, when I was in business, that we had a lot of people who came to visit, and usually about eight times a year we would have to take people into Washington, and I, I got to know by, by heart the numbers of, um, the congressional offices. And so we would call up to the senators or congressmen of, uh, our visitors' home states, and we would order the tickets to be able to go in and sit in the family galleries and watch the people of Congress. And mind you, some of these people are awesome orators. I don't know whether it's just natural talent or whether some of them have taken elocution classes or whatever, but boy, these people can capture an audience. And it's, it's an amazing thing to sit there with people that are on the floor of the House or Senate. If you've done it, you probably know just what I mean. And you may differ with everything they're saying. You may differ with everything about them politically and maybe even spiritually or morally. I'm thinking right now of Ted Kennedy. Anytime I've ever sat and watched him speak, I think to myself, but that guy is awesome. He is an orator. Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine, now retired. I think he's a college professor or something now. Senator Muskie was the best orator I've ever seen in person. That man was enthralling when he stood up. He would quit that little, that big. They have a big microphone there. They're not very high tech, it seems. They don't have one of those little things that you like to put on your tie. They have this big thing they hang around their neck, and he would strut and he would walk, and his words and the elocution that he gave them in was absolutely enrapturing. And I sat there one day, and I watched him tear a colleague apart on something that they differed on, someone from the other party. And he just flayed this man in ribbons, and I thought, boy, thank God I'm not the recipient of a guy talking like that publicly. And he just took this man apart Five minutes after he was done. He and the senator that he took apart were in the back of the auditorium while someone else was talking, and they were laughing their heads off at some joke together. I said, what a game, what a big game. But boy, I'll tell you, he had the talent. May I say this not in the spiritual sense, he had the gift of eloquent speech. That man was something, and there are plenty more like him there. But in these two types of preachers, there are some, and their strength comes from natural ability, and there are others, and their strength comes from the Lord. What did the apostle say? He said, I didn't come to you in excellency of speech. He was a little man of stature. I don't say this in any way, shape, or form to be irreverent tonight. He might have been, if we'd have seen him, just like a little old Jew, a little old Jewish man. Not very nice looking. He himself said that he had a grating voice. He may be just a normal looking little old man. Boy, but he came with power in his heart, and it was a power from God himself, and I can't stand that clock. Don't anybody turn around or look at your watch, okay? I'll hasten through it real quickly. Now he said, listen, he said, I don't care how the Lord is preached, whether in pretense or in truth. The simple fact is the proclamation of the gospel is going forth. What a way to handle it. It's God's word. Far bigger than you and I at our best or our worst. And he said it will never return empty. And so he said, I rejoice in it, even in pretense or in truth, if Christ is preached, in this I rejoice, yes, and I will rejoice. Verses twenty one through six, we don't have to spend that much time on, simply put, it's the overall theme of this letter, but I think we need to talk about verse number twenty one. It's the critical key verse of this entire little letter. For me, to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Living in vital union with and vital devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. What does he mean here when he is saying to die is gain or to die is better? Is he saying that he would rather die than live? Some people have preached that, you know. It's not the article of death itself that he's talking about, it's the life hereafter, isn't it? So this life is great. What I have been able to do with the help of the Lord is wonderful, but being with him is better. And that's what he's saying here. And so he, he talks about the dilemma that's his. He said, if I live on in the flesh, this will mean more fruit. Here's the d- the dilemma. Natural life will mean more souls saved, but eternal life means more joy. You can see that he's hemmed in here on both sides. There's a strong pull. He talks about it in verse twenty three, a strong pull from either side, and both sides have that to commend themselves. I'm hard pressed between the two, having a desire to be with Christ, to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Verse twenty four, now the other side, nevertheless, to remain alive is more necessary for you. I know what's best for you. In verse twenty five, he said, given my past experience, I think he had a slight notion that he be spared this time. I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and for your joy of faith, that your rejoicing for me may be more abundant. The Philippians would exalt in him if he was able to see them again. In the final section, verses twenty seven through the end of the chapter, he talks once again about rejoicing in Christian living. Verse twenty seven begins with a very emphatic only. In other words, he's saying, whatever happens to you, make this your chief aim, only. Let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ. Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy as a citizen of heaven and its glorious gospel. Boy, we need to take that tonight too. And he said, that I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit and with one mind. It's the exact same idea as the fellowship, verse five, the partnership, unity, all one. Not bickering, not seeking your own place, but be absolutely as equal partners one with another in, uh, spirit and mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, and don't in any way, shape, or form be alarmed by your adversaries. You know why? Because if they see that you become crippled with fear, that will be to them as a sign of perdition, says the Bible. It will be to them as a sign that what you're saying is just something that you really don't mean. Scary, isn't it, to think of this? We who at times can be so frightened to witness for our faith in Christ or of our faith in Christ. He said, don't be alarmed. Don't be taken up with fear. When I was at Park of the Palms the week before last, we did First and Second Timothy, all ten chapters in the ten meetings, Monday through Friday, Sunday through Friday, Monday's off there. And, uh, and I was a- again struck by what Paul said to Timothy. He said, God has not given us a spirit of fear or of bondage, but of strength and of power and of a strong mind. And so we need to take that tonight. Don't be alarmed by your adversaries. But he said, it's to you a sign or a proof of salvation, and that from God. For to you, notice this wor- wor- this verse, it has been granted on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him. Isn't it interesting? To you who struggle and may suffer, it is graciously granted, not just that you have belief in Christ, but it is also graciously granted to you the honor of suffering for him. Goes against our way of thinking, doesn't it? My friends, don't forget that for over one thousand nine hundred years, people have been anxiously expecting, day by day, moment by moment, the appearing of the Lord Jesus in the air, to take us in the church to be with himself. There have been saints in the dark ages who said, this is it. Tomorrow, maybe, maybe tonight he's coming. All of the signs are right before us. There were those in nineteen forty eight, and they said, well, this is it. Israel's now a nation. They're a sovereign state. May of nineteen forty eight, And they said, that's it. Any day now, any moment, the Lord Jesus is going to be coming back. Down through the centuries, Christians have looked just like we are tonight, with no less belief than we have tonight. And guess what? He may not yet be ready to come. And until he does, we may have to suffer, and we may have the same conflict, as he says in the last verse of this chapter, which you have seen in me and you have heard in me. But when it comes, stand fast and rejoice. And again I say, rejoice. And so may we. Father, we are thankful tonight for this wonderful hymn, this hymn of rejoicing, that we look forward with great eager anticipation to discuss and to read one amongst another. We ask our Father that it might be used in this week that just may lie ahead in accordance with thy will, to bind up the broken hearted, to take those whose song has sort of died off, that it might be rekindled and that they might just as