Philippians 1:12 18, Living for the Advancement of the Gospel, Ed Davis

Philippians chapter 1, verses 12 to 18, hear the word of the Lord. I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole

Imperial Guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ, and most of the brothers, having become confident in the

Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach

Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.

The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.

What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.

May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his holy word. And now we're blessed to have with us

Mr. Ed Davis. Thank you, my dear brother, Dr. John. Thank you.

Well, if you love the Lord this morning, why don't you say amen? Come on, I'm giving you a privilege to say amen this morning.

So if you love the Lord, say amen again. Amen. It's a privilege to be here this morning with you all, here at Covenant Reformed Baptist Church, and it's a joy to be able to open the word of God.

I bring you greetings from Raleigh, North Carolina. My wife and I are members of the

Imago Dei Church, Elder Ladd, and we are rejoicing with you today in the sovereignty of God, that no matter what the circumstances of life that we are all facing right now, and it's kind of weird,

I've preached in a couple of churches these recent months, and looking out into the congregation and seeing people with masks on is a little different.

But we're so thankful to be with you here today. And I want to go to God in prayer, if you wouldn't mind giving me that privilege before we go to the word of God today.

And I want to talk to you on the subject of living for the advancement of the gospel, living for the advancement of the gospel.

Let's go to God in prayer, shall we? Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our reason for living.

Lord, we thank you that surely in Him we find life, we find our breath, we find our reason why we're here, we find all that is eternal in Christ.

If it wasn't for Christ, we wouldn't be, but thank be unto God for His matchless grace,

His matchless mercy, His forgiveness of sins. Lord, that we know that we are eternally in the bosom of the

Father because of Jesus, and we're thankful for that today. Lord, we're reminded as we even experience many today, a brief earthquake, that we are a fragile people living in a fragile nation, and at any time life can be taken away from us, but one thing that cannot be taken away from us is you.

And we're so grateful today for the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, God, will you speak to your people today?

Will you encourage where encouragement is needed? Will you discourage where discouragement is needed? And above all, may

Jesus Christ be exalted and lifted up. We ask this in Christ's name, amen.

The airline industry referred to David Phillips as the pudding guy.

And that's because, one writer puts it, that he had made the most of an airline promotion that offered frequent flyer miles for purchasing certain brand name products.

He quickly spent $3 ,000 to buy 12 ,150 cups of pudding, and in the process earned 1 .25

million miles, frequent miles, frequent flyer miles to be exact.

And for a time, it seemed as if his whole life revolved around getting frequent flyer miles.

And as people observe our lives, the writer continues, he says, what do they see as being the most important thing in life to us?

Indeed, I want to ask additional question, and it's this that I want you and I to ponder on with the remainder of time we have today in worship.

And it's this question. What or whom are you spending your life for?

Let me say that again, beloved. What or whom are you spending your life for?

You see, many people today are living for the temporal more so than they are the eternal.

For example, many today are spending their lives for careers.

Many spend 50, 60, 70. Indeed, I know people who work in the federal government who work upwards of 80 hours a week.

They live, they breathe for advancement in their careers.

They live and they breathe for advancement in their particular vocations.

They spend their lives for their careers. Many also spend their lives for marriage and family.

That is to say, everything revolves around their marriage.

Everything revolves around their family, their kids, their children. And they have very little time for God, very little time for God's word, very little time for God's church.

In fact, many would even argue that they're doing God's will by spending all their time adorning and strengthening their marriages and their families by spending most of their time doing family life.

They spend their times with marriage and family. And then there are also those who spend their lives for pleasure.

We live in a pleasure -obsessed culture. We live in a pleasure -obsessed society.

In fact, many will spend those hours that I told you about a few seconds ago, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 hours, so that they can live for the weekend.

They live for the party. They live for the sexual relationships. They live for being able to go on vacations and they live for being able to do what they want to do.

With what they claim is theirs to do it with. Now, beloved,

I don't know if you noticed, but in every one of those categories I just shared with you today, there is nothing innately wrong with them except this.

When they become the central focus of our lives, when they become the central reasons by which we live and breathe, sleep and eat and work, then those good gifts that God gives us, like marriage and like families and like finances and careers and even pleasure in its right and proper context, can become idols.

They can become gods, if you would, in our lives. Paul, in our text, showed that our lives should be laser -focused on making much of King Jesus by living for the advancement of the gospel, watch this, regardless of the circumstances.

Indeed, the big idea of our text today or the big idea of our sermon today is this.

Live for the advancement of the gospel, watch this now, regardless of the circumstances of life.

It doesn't matter if we're living in strange times, and we're living in strange times, aren't we? I think it's historic times.

I don't ever recall, and Doc, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think we've ever lived in a time like this in this generation.

We're living in a time where people are even debating whether there is such a thing as a pandemic or not right now.

We're living in a time where you can't go to the grocery store. You can't go to, in fact, some people can't go to work at all because they've told to stay at home.

We're living in a time where it's almost discouraged to be close and to be in fellowship and to be close to one another.

We're living in a time where pandemic is universal, not just national in terms of nation states, but internationally.

Not only are we living in a time or in circumstances or in situations where we're living in a pandemic, but we also are living in a time where historically riots are taking hold of many of our metropolitan cities, not only in America, but even internationally.

On top of all that, on top of the pandemic, on top of the tragedy of the fact that people are dying in North Carolina alone, we've had over 2 ,000 people die this year because of this pandemic.

Excuse me. But on top of all of that, sin still prevails, right?

Sin still is advancing. Sin is growing. And so we have not only protests, but we also have riots.

We have people using the occasion of our times for sinful and corrupt and fallen reasons.

Don't get me wrong. I believe that black lives do matter, but only in the context of the fact that all lives matter.

Amen. Only in the premise that black lives matter because all lives matter, because all lives are created by the creator.

We are all created in the Imago Dei. Amen. We are all created in the image of God, and thereby, because of that, black lives do matter.

But even in regards to all of that, what is the church to be about? What is the

Christian? What is the follow of Christ should be about? Paul would argue that we should live for the advancement of the gospel regardless of the circumstances, regardless of pandemic, regardless of protests, regardless of riots, regardless of sin continuing to advance in our society today, regardless of politicians who want to take advantage to try to go beyond what their powers are given based on Constitution and the amendments, regardless of the fact that these politicians, these citizen states are telling churches that they can't meet while down the street the

ABC store and Walmart are able to be open. Regardless of all that, what should we be about?

What should the people of God be about? We should be about living for the advancement of the gospel regardless of the circumstances.

So the question I want to pose to you is this. How do we make much of King Jesus?

We sung about him today. He is the central focus of our worship.

How should we make much of King Jesus by living for the advancement of the gospel regardless of the circumstances?

I'm glad you asked. Our text gives two ways we can make much of Jesus by living for the advancement of the gospel regardless of the circumstances.

So we see first of all in the text and Philippians chapter one that Dr.

John read and I'll miss a few minutes ago that we should live for the advancement of the gospel by obedience, by obedience.

And verses 12 through 13, the apostle Paul is writing in change.

Now, beloved, a little bit of history is important here. Philippians is one of what are called the prison epistles.

He's not necessarily in a prison as we would think of a prison today, but he is in prison guard.

He is being guarded by the prayer to him. And we're going to talk about that in just a little bit more, just a few minutes here.

But this suffices to say by way of background of history, the apostles writing.

If you were to look at the book of Acts or Luke records the inspired historical account of these last few days of the apostle, you will be right about in Acts chapter 21, verse 17, right on through Acts chapter 28.

The apostle Paul has gone through, we know for sure, three missionary journeys.

Some argue that perhaps even four. But in this case,

Paul is in chains and he's writing to the people of Philippi, Caesarea Philippi.

He has a unique, intimate, loving, endearment type relationship with these people.

We know this because of verses one through 11 in chapter one of Philippians in which

Paul literally pours his heart out in this epistle as to how much he loves them and how much they love him.

And Paul tells us in verses 12 through 13, some very encouraging words that will encourage us to live for the advancement of the gospel.

So let's get into the text itself right now. If I would, I'm going to read verses 12 to 13 again, and then we're going to walk through the text.

I want you to know, brothers, Paul says that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest.

That my imprisonment, watch this now. If you're writing your Bible, underline these words.

That my imprisonment is, here it is, for Christ. For Christ.

And most of the brothers, having become confident in the

Lord, that's another phrase that we're going to comment on in a few minutes, by my imprisonment. Notice the instrument here, by my imprisonment.

They have become confident. They have become emboldened, if you will, to do what

God had already called them to do in the first place by his imprisonment. So here he mentions the fact that he is in prison when he's writing his letter here to the church of Philippi.

And he says, and are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

Stop right there. So first of all, I want to comment on the idea of obedience.

Some years ago, a theologian wrote that obedience is essentially willful surrender.

Willful surrender. Paul was a man who was sold out for Christ. In fact,

Paul was so sold out for Christ that all he wanted to do with his life, and he records this in Philippians 1 .21.

In fact, some of you might have that as your life verse. How many of y 'all have that as your life verse? Philippians 1 .21.

You remember what it says? For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Paul says, all that I do, all that I live for is Christ. Everything that I do is

Christ. And to die, he says, is but gain. Either way,

I win because I'm in Christ. It doesn't matter what the circumstances are today.

If you're in Christ, you win. Amen? So Paul says, for to me to live is

Christ, and to die is gain. Willful surrender. Paul was a man who was sold out to Jesus Christ.

In fact, I want to show you this in our text, and only in the first chapter. But we can literally walk through each one of the chapters in Philippians, and I'll show you this exactly.

And that is, not only was Paul committed to Christ in terms of obedience to his kingship, to obedience to his lordship in his life.

But specifically, Paul was obsessed and committed to the gospel, to the advancement of the gospel.

Look at verse 5 in the first chapter real quick, if you will. In verse 5 of chapter 1.

Notice what Paul says here. He's talking to the church of Philippi. He says, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

Notice verse 7 of first chapter of Philippians.

Paul said, it is right for me to feel this way about you all. Because, watch this now,

I hold you in my heart dear. For you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense.

Apologia is the word. In the defense and the confirmation of the gospel.

Look at verse 16, which is a part of our text today. But I'm just showing you a clear progression in the mind of Paul in his commitment to the gospel.

Notice he says here, that latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the apologia of the gospel.

The defense of the gospel. One more, look at verse 27, if you would.

Only let your manner of life be worthy of, what beloved? The gospel of Christ.

In fact, if you've taken notes, first Corinthians chapter 9 and verse 16, Paul says,

Woe unto me if I do not preach the gospel. Paul was a man who was obsessed about the advancement of the gospel of our

Lord Jesus Christ. And indeed, beloved, I want to say just a little something here about you and I this morning.

If God is going to use us to advance the gospel, regardless of the circumstances of life or the situations of life.

We must surrender our wheels, our desires, our passions. Yea, even our plans for his will, his desires, his passion, his plans.

Amen. And indeed, we could say before the Lord this morning as we walk in the spirit, living in the spirit, as Paul talks about in Galatians chapter 5.

We can say with great confidence that to live is

Christ, but to die is gain. So Paul was a man sold out to Christ, indeed sold out to the advancement of the gospel.

And in verses 12 through 13, I want to call your attention to what I'm calling the surprise or the sovereign surprise, the sovereign surprise.

In verse 12, beginning in the very first part, we have what's called a meta comment. And don't get big on don't worry about that big word.

It's a literary device that was used on a regular time in Greco Roman days to basically say, listen to this.

I want you to hear. I want you to really get this that I'm about to tell you. And Paul says,

I want you to know, brothers. Another one that he uses often in his epistles is

I would have you not be ignorant. That's more of the negative way of the same thing.

He's about to set you up with what he's about to tell you that what I'm about to share with you is critically important.

Paul says, I want you to know, brothers. Notice the word brothers here.

It's a term of endearment. Ladies, don't take don't take offense to that. It can also be used as a term of familial endearment.

That is it. I think it is faithful to the text to say that Paul is writing to the brothers and sisters in Christ.

And Paul says, I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.

In other words, here's the sovereign surprise. And that is that God in his providence uses

Paul's imprisonment. Watch this now. Are you listening? Amen. All right.

Uses Paul's imprisonment as a primary means to spread the gospel in Rome.

Now, listen to me for just a moment, because Paul's great desire was to go to Rome.

In fact, he had asked the church several times in his epistles. Pray for me that God would give me prosperous journey to Rome.

He wanted to go to Rome, that great bastion of paganism. And he wanted to go there to proclaim

Christ. He wanted to go there to share the gospel in Rome. He wanted to make a difference in that great metropolitan, which at that time ruled the civilized world.

And it's interesting how God does this. God gives him a progress, but he does it by means of imprisonment.

He does it by means of putting Paul in chains and God takes him into Rome.

And the gospel is advanced, but it's advanced because of his suffering.

We see that in church history, do we not? Everywhere in church history, no matter where you look at.

You see that where the gospel is advanced, ultimately people are suffering.

The people of God are suffering or have suffering or have literally given their lives. And God uses that.

The seed of the gospel is drenched in the blood of the saints.

So this is the same here in this text. Paul's life has been radically changed.

God places him under imprisonment. In fact, we have recorded history of what happened here.

Beginning in Acts chapter 29, verse 17, Paul is preaching the word of God and there is a mob that is incited.

And they are wanting to do nothing else but to kill Paul. And so Rome sends their guards, their praetorian guards, because one of their primary jobs for Caesar was to keep down any kind of insurrection.

They didn't want any kind of insurrection to happen. So what they do, they take Paul and they imprison him.

Watch this now. Not so much because Paul did anything wrong, anything illegal, but because they did not want

Paul to be radically killed by this mob. So Paul ends up serving for two years in the prison of Caesarea.

Then he is released and acts. Luke records that there was a group of men who had made a pact, if you will, to kill

Paul, to to end his life. Rome gets word of this. And so they take him away.

And when they take him away, he's in front of Felix. He's in front of Festus. And eventually he makes known that he is a

Roman citizen and that he wants to appeal to Caesar. And that's when he begins his voyage to Rome.

The voyage is interrupted. They're shipwrecked. They end up on a foreign land and Paul ends up literally in a

Roman imprisonment in which Acts tells us Rome had rented out a home and they placed him in that home.

And in that home, he had freedom for people to come in and to come out.

He was in chains for 24 hours a day, six hour intervals, according to Roman custom of a

Roman citizen. And it was there that Paul was able to begin to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So when he says, I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me, basically what he's talking about, because of all of these things, all of these sufferings that I've been through,

God has used him. Notice what he says in the text. He says here, God has used him or served to advance the gospel.

These sufferings, these changed, all of the things that I went through, the persecutions, the attacks, the mobs, all of these things have served by God's providential hand to advance the gospel.

In fact, the word advance is an interesting word, procope, it carries the idea of furtherance.

It carries the idea of progressing by means or in spite of opposition.

Literally, the word means to cut before. In fact, in extra biblical literature, this word was used to represent those who would go before armies to cut away the brush and the under bearings so that when the armies came after the work of those who cut up all of the land and the trees or whatever, so that the armies could come through, they could come through in a smooth and orderly fashion.

And Paul says the work of the gospel has gone forward, has advanced, has progressed by his imprisonment.

The sovereign surprised that God would use his sufferings as a means by which the gospel can be advanced.

Now, we're living in a day that I felt it almost important to just talk for a few minutes about what is the gospel?

Indeed, beloved, you could probably do a whole series on that subject already. In fact, Dr. John might have already done that.

So this is just review for those of you who might have heard it from him. But I want to talk about three things real quick.

I will not linger long here, but I think it's important that we declare as a Christian church once again, what is the gospel?

So if you would hold your place here and go to first Corinthians 15, would you? First Corinthians 15 verses one through four.

Paul, this is the classic text of Paul, as he wrote to the church at Corinth, in which he defines without question, what is the gospel?

And he defines it in two ways. First of all, the essence of the gospel and the extent of the gospel.

The essence of the gospel is brought out in verses three through four. So if you would read that with me silently as I read out loud, it says, for I delivered to you as a first importance.

Notice what he says here. First importance. What I also receive that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the

Scriptures, that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the

Scriptures. Here, Paul sets out without question the substitutionary vicarious atonement of Jesus Christ.

The fact that he died, but that he did not die because he was a sinner. He died because he was a sin sacrifice.

He did not die because he did something wrong. He died because we did something wrong, because we were sinners dead in our trespasses and sin.

And we desperately need a savior. And there was only one person who could be a savior. Right. And it was the man,

Christ Jesus, who was the mediator of both God and man. First Timothy two, five.

Jesus died for us. The essence of the gospel is a bloody truth that Jesus Christ being 100 %

God, 100 % man died for sinners who deserve nothing but hell.

But because he died, the gospel is the gospel. Beloved, the word gospel literally means you on Galileo.

It really means good news. What is the good news? Beloved, the good news is that God came down and he died for sinners like you and me.

That is the essence of the gospel. John Piper talked about that, too. I saw that on your website.

A quote from him. But what about the extent of the gospel? You see, many people believe that the gospel is no more than just the door into Christianity.

But the gospel is so much more. Look at verses one and two of first Corinthians 15. Paul says,

Now I want to remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, past tense, in which you stand, present tense, and by which you are being saved.

Here he gives a picture, if you're taking notes, of three very important theological

Christological terms. Let me give it to you. Justification. The gospel is the means into justification.

Being made right before a holy God, a God who demands perfect righteousness and perfect justice.

And that's the only way you and I, who are sinners, who could never be perfect in ourselves, we become perfect.

We become righteous in Christ. In Christ. How do we do this?

By faith, by grace, by Christ.

And then he says, notice what he says, though. But then he says, you not only received it, but you which you stand.

And this carries the idea of sanctification. If you're taking notes, sanctification.

The process of work that God is doing in our lives to shape and to mold and to conform us into the very image of the

Son of God. Indeed. And he says, and notice how he ends this text.

I love this. He says, by which if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.

And here Paul is pointing out the perseverance of the saints. That is, if you are truly born again, if you truly saved, if you're truly a

Christian, you will persevere. You will move on.

You will continue to love Jesus Christ despite the circumstances of life.

This is the gospel that Paul seek to advance. Indeed, I say to you, beloved, this is the gospel that we must advance.

So Paul says, he says his imprisonment served as an advancement to the gospel.

But now notice verse 13. So that this is a result clause, beloved, so that it has become known throughout the whole.

And the ESV, which I'm reading from, it says the whole Imperial Guard. If you're reading from the authorized version, it says the whole palace.

It's the word praetoria. And it was used in various ways in the New Testament times. It was used at certain times to represent the place of royalty, of a very powerful, rich person.

And then it came to be known as the tent or the locale of Caesar Augustus or the emperor of Rome.

And then later on, it came to be known specifically for a certain group of people.

When Caesar Augustus came to power, he set up what he called the

Praetorian Guard. They were a specific elite army.

These were handpicked by Caesar himself. The number originally were about nine to 10 ,000 men.

They were specially trained. Their main task was to be the supreme guard of Caesar, the emperor of Rome.

They were dispersed throughout Rome. And their job, as I said before, was to make sure that Caesar was protected.

They would keep insurrections down. They were the elite marine, if you will.

They were the Navy SEALs, if you will, of Rome. These men were specifically, specially trained by God.

And notice how God does this here. It is the Praetorian Guard, most of the New Testament commentators

I've read, and I agree with this, believe that the reference here is to the guard, the imperial guard, these men.

That they were literally chained to Paul. Now notice the way I said that. They were chained to Paul.

Some would say, well, Paul was chained to them. Well, get this now. Can you imagine being chained to Paul for 24 hours?

Can you imagine what the conversation would be? Paul preached the gospel.

Paul taught the gospel. Paul taught the whole counsel of God. He exalted. It was a Christ -centered, gospel -driven message.

And Paul would share. In fact, in Roman custom, there would be a guard that would be chained to him for every six hours.

They would be in shifts. So for 24 hours, there would be six men who were bound to the apostle

Paul. And Paul was preaching the gospel to them. He was sharing the gospel to them. F .B.

Meyer, in his commentary, and I was going to share a quote from him, but I'll just go ahead and just give you a summary of what he was talking about. He's basically saying that because of the situation that God set him up with, people came from in and out from Rome, both free and slaves.

Roman guards, even after they got off of their particular shift, would stay and ask questions of Paul.

F .B. Meyer said that there's evidence of Roman. These Roman guards would get one to Christ and their families would come to Christ.

And the gospel was advancing to Rome while Paul was in chains.

And that's why he says it here. He says, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial God and to all the rest.

What is all the rest? All the rest in Rome. They were hearing the gospel through Paul's witness and sharing of the gospel, the evangelistic efforts that Paul was doing, even while he was in chains.

Paul was sharing the gospel, the sovereign surprise. God used this man. God knew that this man was not ashamed of the gospel.

God knew that this man would share the gospel in hard places. He would share the gospel. He would risk relationships to tell people about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

John MacArthur tells the story about John Bunyan. How many of you have ever heard about John Bunyan?

He says, and I quote, prior to the writing of Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan was known as a great preacher.

His preaching was so powerful that they put him in the Bedford jail to silence him. But he preached sermons at the top of his voice, which wafted over the walls.

And people would gather outside the jail, jail walls to hear him preach, though they couldn't see him.

They finally silenced him, put him down inside the jail, and they got him down there where nobody could hear him preach.

And that gave him the freedom to write Pilgrim's Progress. And so they thought they could silence the preacher,

John Bunyan. But instead, John MacArthur concludes, he says, but instead they gave him opportunity to write that which has preached to millions upon millions of people, end quote.

You see, beloved, I believe without question. And that is this, that living obediently to Jesus results in a gospel centered lifestyle that advances the gospel regardless of life circumstances.

In fact, let me encourage you today before we go to our last point this morning. And that is this. You can be used by God to advance the gospel by rejecting a self -centered lifestyle and embracing a gospel centered lifestyle.

Let me give you just three practical points on how you can go about doing that from the text.

First of all, getting informed. Let God feed you his word.

Psalm 119, 105 says this, your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path.

2 Timothy 2, 15, and I'm going to quote this in old English. I memorized it in old

English, so forgive me. Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

You see, beloved, there's no way that we can advance the gospel if we don't know it.

Amen. Secondly, let God equip you to contend for the faith, to contend for the faith.

In Jude 3, don't ask me which chapter, because if you do, we'll have to talk afterwards.

But in Jude 3, there's only one chapter, by the way, beloved. I don't know if you knew that or not. In Jude 3,

Jude talks about his desire to share about their common salvation.

But God, the Holy Spirit, instead, so moved his heart to talk about something else that was much needed during his time.

And that is to contend for the faith. So let

God equip you to contend for the faith. The word contend is the word epongolia, and it carries the idea of giving a sound biblical reason for why you believe.

A sound biblical reason for why you believe. And second, let

God use your change. And I use that in a figurative or metaphorical idea.

Many of us here today are not in prison. Many of us today are not chained to a

Roman guard. That's the fact. But you may be in a circumstance, you may be in a situation that God has placed you in.

Whether it's your job, you could be chained in a cubicle, you know, if it was a regular time.

But I know we live in COVID -19 now, so a lot of people aren't in their cubicles. You may be in an office, you may be in a warehouse or perhaps you're in home working from home, your family or community.

Whatever your circumstance is, God has sovereignly, providentially placed you there to advance his gospel.

And third, be humble and courageous in the face of persecution.

So what do you mean, preacher? What are you talking about? If you live a gospel centered life, listen to me, beloved.

If you live a gospel centered life, I promise you, you're going to suffer.

You're going to lose relationships. Family members are not going to want to be around you. Family members are going to talk about you like dirt.

You may lose a job. You may lose a promotion. You may even lose if you're single and you're trying to find that spouse.

And when that spouse sees how committed you are, that you want to live a gospel centered lifestyle, you may lose that spouse because they aren't committed to follow

Christ in that way. You see, Paul knew that if that those who will, you remember

Second Timothy 312, those who will desire to live godly, he says it's a fact you will suffer persecution.

Indeed, I'm sure many of you here are aware. Of church history and not just history, even today in China, right?

Many God fearing committed Christians are paying the ultimate price because of their faith in Jesus Christ.

Indeed, if you live a gospel centered life, even here in Yanceville, right?

Am I right? Or Providence? You're going to suffer persecution.

And I want to encourage you to be humble and courageous in the face of God. So live for the advancement of the gospel, regardless of the circumstances, by obedience.

And finally, live for the advancement of the gospel, regardless of the circumstances, by example.

Quickly, verses 14 to 17, I want to show you 14 through 18. Here, Paul is going to talk about two groups.

One of the tractors and the supporters. In fact, my pastor or Pastor Tony back home when he was preaching to Philippians, he calls these two group the envious evangelists and the emboldened evangelists or those who supported

Paul's work. In verse 14, he has a statement that God uses

Paul's example of God centered living to encourage the people of God to live for the advancement of the gospel.

Look at verse 14. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the

Lord, watch this now, by my imprisonment. So the people of God, in particular, these young men, preachers of the gospel, began to hear about what

God was doing through Paul's imprisonment. They began to get emboldened.

They began to get courageous to do the same thing, that is to serve the

Lord, to preach the word by his because of his imprisonment. And he says, then they are much more bold.

Literally, the word bold is the word Tomon, which means daring, courageous to speak the word.

Watch this without fear, without fear, without fear.

Why do you say without fear? Because Nero was in reigning at this time. Nero was the one who was in power at this time.

And Nero had got to the point where he began to set up a particular law that basically says you had to proclaim that Caesar was

Lord. And the church had to make a decision. The people of God who follow

Christ had to make a decision. They had to make a decision. What is Jesus Lord? Is Jesus curious or is

Caesar curious? They had to make a decision. And indeed, beloved,

I would argue that we have to do the same even today. We may not have Caesar in the president administration, but we still have to make commitment in our hearts and our lives and the way we live, the way we do family, the way we do work.

That Jesus is Lord. Amen. Indeed, we do.

So here we have two groups of people. And just to move in the text real quick, these are brothers.

Notice he calls them brothers. And most of the brothers look at verse 15. Some indeed preach

Christ from envy. The word envy means literally jealousy.

And then he says, and others preach Christ from rivalry. This is the word that literally means that they're preaching so that they can divide the people of God.

They hated Paul. Paul is not clear as to why they hated him. It just says that they hated him.

They follow impure motives. But these are Christians. He doesn't say these are the

Judaizers. He would have called them the Judaizers. He talks about the Judaizers in chapter three, and he calls them dogs.

He doesn't call them brothers. But here in the text, these are Christians. Let me just say in passing, some of the hardest, painful persecution and suffering to take is when it's from your own family.

It's from the same people who claim to follow Christ and are indeed Christians.

Paul says these are the ones who are are preaching Christ. They're preaching Christ out of rivalry, preaching

Christ out of jealousy. And then notice also down in verse 17, he goes on and he says in verse 17, he says they preach, they proclaim

Christ out of, he used the word rivalry here in the ESV. But this word literally means selfish ambition, selfish, self -centered pursuits.

They're preaching Christ in order to promote themselves. They want to lift themselves up.

He says he says not sincerely. Otherwise, they don't have pure motives, but they're thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.

Otherwise, they're doing all of this so that they can hurt him. And he's in prison. Now, I don't know about you, beloved, but if I was

Paul, I'm just being honest this morning. Can I be honest? We are in church. If I was

Paul, I don't know if I would be saying what he's about to say now. In verse 18,

I would probably be a little ticked off. I don't know about you, Dr. John, but I know I would be probably a little ticked off if you know

I'm preaching the gospel. I'm preaching the word of God. I'm walking the saints verse by verse to the scriptures, calling them to submission to the

Lordship of Christ, calling to save to come and follow Christ. And I'm doing that.

And you got a bunch of brothers down the street shooting me down, tearing me down, trying to make me look like the devil incarnate.

That will be kind of hard to take. But then there's another group.

Notice beginning at verse 15, Paul says, I'm calling them simply the supporters. The latter part of verse 15,

Paul says, but then there are those who preach indeed Christ from goodwill.

He says that there are those who understand me. Those who are are connected to my heart.

They realize that what I'm doing is not for selfish ambitions, not because of jealousy.

It's not because of rivalry. I do this. Notice what they say in verse 16.

The latter do it out of love. They love Paul. It's the word of God. They have a deep and abiding love for their brother.

And they support him, even though he's working in a hard, hard ministry. Knowing, Paul says, that I am put here.

The word put literally means I have been set aside. I've been ordained. God has called me to do this.

For the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not certainly, but thinking to inflict themselves.

But he says, what then? Here's the conclusion of the matter. Look at verse 18. What then?

Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed.

What a man of God. He could have complained. He could have whined.

He could have called these brothers out. He could have used their names. And they would have been inspired for all eternity in the book.

But he didn't do that. He said, it doesn't matter what people do to me. And that's hard.

He said, it doesn't matter how people try to tear my reputation up. It doesn't matter if people talk about me.

It doesn't matter if I'm living alone. I'm lonely because people don't want to be friends to me because he talks too much about Jesus.

It doesn't matter. Paul says, what matters is that Jesus Christ is proclaimed.

What matters is that people are making much of Jesus. Now, beloved, don't get him wrong.

He's not. He's not glossing over sin. He's not glossing over the fact that their motives are impure.

He knows God is going to deal with them. Right. Amen. He says, for me, though, my ministry, it doesn't matter as long as the gospel is being advanced.

He says that I will rejoice. I'm going to rejoice in that.

What a wonderful example. Amen. What a wonderful example for our lives.

The story is told of one writer.

I'll just read one writer writes when our daughter, Julie, was a high school senior. She had the opportunity to job shadow for two weeks.

She went on the job to find out firsthand and about two professions that had captured her interest.

For the first week, she sat in on the classes of a math teacher at another school.

And for the second week, she shadowed a college basketball coach. To try to get a feel of what she wants to spend her career, her life doing.

The writer continues by saying this, we are all participants in a process that might be called life shadowing.

If we are parents, our children shadow us all the time. That's a scary thought, isn't it?

He goes on and he says, at work, we have fellow employees who notice our reactions and actions to all kinds of situations in our community.

Our neighbors, observers and see how Christians live. Even when we don't realize it, they're watching.

Beloved, there's no question about it. If somebody is watching you, whether it's your children, whether it's your neighbors, whether it's your coworkers, their eyes are on you.

The question is, what are they seeing? What are they seeing when they look at your life?

Your actions are blazing a trail that others will follow for good or for ill.

In fact, let me just encourage you right now as we brought this to a conclusion. You can live in such a way that will encourage other

Christians to live for the advancement of the gospel, regardless of the circumstances.

In fact, I want to share five points that aren't original with me, but from Pastor Tony at Imago that I think are very helpful for us as we draw this to a close today.

Number one, beware of jealousy and envy in ministry.

I believe that God calls every Christian to ministry. It may not be a vocational ministry, but God has called you to serve him for ministry.

Indeed, the elders, the pastors, the teachers, the evangelists of the church are given to you to equip you for ministry.

So beware in your ministry, whatever it may be, whatever gifts and abilities God has given you, beware that you don't let jealousy seep in or envy in your ministry.

Number two, beware of promoting yourself in ministry. In the times we live, it is so hard to not do that.

When you are applying for a church or a resume or whatever, you know, it's tough because if you don't make yourself look like you're worth looking at, people ain't going to call you anymore.

Excuse my English. It's very tough, but beware of promoting yourself in ministry.

Number three, don't be surprised if others envy you or jealous of you, whether it's at your job or in your school or in your community.

Encourage them that when they see your life and they see the good that's coming out of your life, let them know that it's good only because of Jesus Christ in you.

Amen. And it's not you. And number four, pray like mad for God to give you the grace to minister out of love for God and love for others.

Whatever you do, whether it's preaching, whether it's ministry of music, whether it's serving the people as deacons, whether it's serving in a

Sunday school, whether you're doing the helps, whatever God is using your hands, your mind, your feet, your body for, let it be done first and foremost for the love of God and for the love of people.

Amen. And then finally, rejoice greatly when

Christ is proclaimed. When Jesus Christ's name is exalted on the earth, men and women, boys and girls are one to him and are brought to him and are saved eternally because of him.

J .D. Greer, in his book, Gospel, Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary, said these words about the gospel.

He says, always begin again with the gospel, abide in it, swim in it, make your home in it.

Indeed, see more and more of your life through it. Be absolutely convinced that every moment of every day of the goodness of God in your life.

That's the only way you'll ever really grow. The gospel has done its work in us when we crave

God more than we crave everything else in life, more than money, more than romance, more than family, more than health, more than fame.

And when seeing his kingdom advance in the lives of others, give us more joy than anything we could own.

The gospel does its work in us when Christ is exalted is more important than ourselves being exalted.

So, beloved, live for the advancement of the gospel by obedience and by example. Indeed, I leave you with this.

Make much of King Jesus by living for the advancement of the gospel and watch God use you for his glory and his good.

Amen. Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank you for your word today.

We thank you for the privilege to preach and teach your word. We thank you that you are also willing to use us to share that life changing word that can literally change people from the inside out.

You said we are not to be shamed of the gospel for it is the power of God, the dunamis, that one thing that can truly transform a life from death to life.

Lord, would you use every single person here who claims who names the name of Christ to advance the gospel in this part of your world and beyond?

Would you do a work in our hearts that we would live a gospel centered life and and say no to a self -centered life so that Jesus Christ could be proclaimed?

So that many will make much of Jesus. Lord, if there's anyone here today, perhaps who are who don't know you in a part of their sins, and I pray that by your spirit, you would draw them to yourself.

bless your church. Even in these times, we ask in Christ's name. Amen.