Book of Philippians - Ch. 1, Vs. 9-30 (08/11/2019)

Well, I'll go ahead and get started, and if anybody comes in we'll let them catch up.

We backtrack enough to let that happen anyhow. While some of you were gone, we finished

Daniel, and we began last week on Philippians, chapter one.

We got about a third of the way through. Hopefully we'll finish the entire chapter today.

The theme of the letter to the Philippians is peace and joy.

Peace and joy in a fallen world. Peace and joy that can only be found in Christ.

We stopped last week after arriving at verse 10. This morning we're going to go back to verse 9, clean up some loose ends, and then proceed to the end of the chapter, verse 30, maybe.

Let's begin by prayer. Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us this place to come together and study and to worship you.

Thank you for giving us your holy written word where we can find the answers to all of our questions if we search it in conjunction with the enlightening of the

Holy Spirit. Thank you for your son that you brought into the world to be our redeemer and to pay for our sins and to make us whole.

We who were cracked, worthless vessels, you made us whole.

Thank you for all of the things that you've given us, protect us, go through the service with us this morning and later on in the second session.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Verse 9, and this

I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment.

I'm going to begin with a question right now. Where do we get this knowledge and judgment?

Are we born with it? Are we intellectually capable of acquiring it?

Where do we get the knowledge and wisdom that we need? In the

Holy Spirit, but will he reveal to us in the present age information by himself, through himself, of himself?

Or does he go somewhere else to have us do a part of it?

We have the written word. We go to the written word and the Holy Spirit will reveal to us what is in the written word if we are filled with him.

If we are reading the word through the eyes and through the light that wrote it, then we can acquire knowledge.

If we're not, we can read all we want, we can study all we want, and it will come out unintelligible.

So we get our knowledge and our judgment from the written word. Verse 10, that you may approve things which are excellent.

How do you know they're excellent? By comparing them to the

Holy Word. That you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ.

Now we spent a good bit of time at the end of last session dealing with the word sincere.

Sincere is Greek. It's a combination of two words, sine and sera.

And we recall that that literally means without wax. Dishonest potters, when they had a vessel of pot that was cracked, would seal the crack with pottery, with pottery.

They would seal their pottery with wax. And that would allow them to paint over the crack, hide it, and sell their wares as perfect.

But when exposed to sunlight, the wax would melt, exposing the crack and rendering the pot or revealing the pot to be worthless as it already was.

I had the word rendering. I want to change that. It doesn't make it worthless.

It was already worthless. It just reveals that it's worthless. The crack was there. The wax was there.

The wax melted. And now we know that the pot is worthless. To be sincere then is to be found perfect, that is to say complete, when exposed to the light of Jesus Christ.

That's what it means for a person to be sincere. For a Christian to be sincere means that he is complete when exposed to the light of Jesus Christ.

Verse 11, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ under the glory and the praise of God.

Dr. MacArthur said that this would have been better translated had it been written, had it been translated this way.

And I'm going to give you his translation. Being filled with the fruit righteousness produces which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and the praise of God.

So the fruit is fruit that righteousness produces. But where does the righteousness come from?

It comes from Jesus Christ. And it's to the glory and praise of God.

This speaks to the salvation transformation that all of us who are saved go through.

Provided by our Lord and His ongoing work of power through His Spirit in us to the ultimate end that God be glorified.

And that's how you can always tell. You can always tell if something is being taught correctly, understood correctly, when you look at to whom does the praise go.

If at the end of the day I speak to you and we sit around and we chat and you praise me and give me comfort for all of the things that I did and say what a wonderful job you did.

And I say well that's just me. That's because I am like a great scholar and I understand the word well.

Well even if I just imply that to you, even if I don't tell you that, I'm trying to receive the glory and the work that I did was not the

Lord's work. Now that doesn't mean that the work that I did can't have effect even if I do it insincerely.

And Paul is going to get to that later on in this letter. But the way you can tell that something is of God is who does it praise.

If it's to the praise and glory of God, then it's legit. If it's to the praise and glory of a man, then it's not.

So if I'm the little guy down in Houston and I am building my crowd, maybe

I am not sincere. I don't know. As we catalog our experience with obedience in this fallen world, we'll find ourselves in the same dilemma that Paul did when he wrote

Romans chapter 7. And I'm going to pick it up in verse 18. Brother David has hit this chapter not very long ago.

So you'll recall it and I will not say too much about it. But here's what Romans Paul says.

For I know that in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.

For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good

I find not. For the good that I would, I do not. But the evil which

I would not, that I do. Now that is a dilemma.

Paul knows what he wants to do. He tries to do it. He attempts to do it.

And he winds up doing something else. Dave Senior and I had a little discussion after Sunday school last week about this very thought.

And the question that we discussed is, how much evil can you do?

Well, you might say, well we can do lots of evil. But I'm here to tell you that you can do no more evil than the

Lord will allow you to do. And in my notes I put a quotation mark around allow to placate

Brother Otis who was looking at this this morning. He would say, the Lord doesn't allow anything.

I know Otis. He commands it. But it's just an easy word for me to say.

He will allow it. But take that as a quotation mark allow. He commands. In fact, in 1

Corinthians 10, 13, we can go to that verse quickly.

And say this. There hath, this is, I don't know whether I told you the verse. 1

Corinthians 10, verse 13. There hath no temptation taken you.

But such as is common to man. So nothing that happens to you is unique to you.

It happens to everybody. There hath no temptation taken you.

Brother John, did you get in here all by yourself? No, Kenner helped me. Oh, okay.

I saw you rolling across and I said, okay. He was supposed to give me a call and let me come and help him.

No, it was Kenner helping. That's great. It was good to have you here. We haven't done anything new.

We're just backtracking over what we did last week. I don't think this was in last week.

I am in 1 Corinthians 10, 13. And the question is, this came up with Dave Senior and myself after church last week.

After Sunday school last week. How much evil can you do? And what he and I discussed and we finally came to the conclusion is.

You can do no more evil than the Lord will allow you to do. And quotation marks around in the lab because we know that he commands.

He doesn't allow. That's where we are. 1 Corinthians 10, 13.

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted.

Above that you are able. But with the temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it.

What that says is God will not suffer or allow you to be tempted above that which you are able.

He'll test you. But he will not test you more than you can pass the test if you belong to him.

He will not test you more than you are able to deal with.

And he will give you a way out. He will give you the solution to your problems.

Now we're going to go back to Paul's dilemma. Romans 7, 19.

Here's the dilemma. For the good that I would, I do not. But the evil which

I would not, that I do. So the resolution to the dilemma is

Christ. And it's not Christ the dishonest potter. It's not

Christ the one who puts wax in the crack and paints it over and passes it off as being good.

We talked a little, Brother Dave and I did, about at least it was epoxy.

It wasn't wax. But it's not even epoxy. It's better than that.

He makes it as if you had never sinned. He makes you complete.

He bears all of the responsibility for all of the things that you have done wrong in the past and will do in the future.

And that is a great blessing. Because I know at least myself, before I get home this afternoon,

I will have stepped across the line a couple of times. I'm going to try not to.

And when I do, I'm going to regret that I've added more to the price that the

Lord had to pay for me. And I'm just adding more and more and more to the things that He had to bear on the cross.

But fortunately for me, He has already done that. So it's not

Christ the dishonest potter that makes me look whole. But it's rather Christ the

Redeemer. The one who paid for all of our misdoings.

And did it over 2 ,000 years ago. It's Christ the Deliverer. Look on down a little bit later in chapter 7 of Romans, verse 24.

And He asked a question and we know the answer. I'm going to let Paul ask the question and I'm going to let you give the answer.

O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Whoops. I guess I've got to stop there. Because he's going to answer it in the next verse.

So who's going to deliver us? God through Jesus Christ our

Lord. That's who will deliver us. That's who delivered Paul. That's who will deliver us. Okay.

Now we're going to go back to Philippians and we're now at verse 12. But you should understand, brethren, that the things which happened to me have fallen out rather into the furtherance of the gospel.

Now, furtherance is kind of a weird word for us. That means for the progress of the gospel.

What he's saying is, in spite of the obstacles, the dangers, and the distractions, particularly

Paul's imprisonment, all of that proved to be no hindrance to the spreading of the message of salvation.

Paul's prison, being confined to prison, did not hinder the spread of the gospel one iota.

Actually, it created new opportunities. In fact, as we shall soon see, what seemed to be the obstacles to the spread of the gospel actually allowed it to reach even into Caesar's own household, the

Praetorian Guard. So that my bonds in Christ are manifest to all in the palace and in other places.

Okay, that's the answer. My bonds are manifest, open, apparent. To what?

To the palace. Not to the palace, the building, which it could mean. The word palace is the word

Praetorian. It's the transliteration of the word

Praetorian. It can denote a building. It can be a building where this is taking place.

Or it can be a special group of men, such as in the Imperial Guard. Because Paul was in a private house in Rome, the palace guard probably refers to members of the

Imperial Guard. I shouldn't have said palace guard. Palace probably refers to members of the

Imperial Guard who guarded Paul day and night. They were chained to him. He was in a private house, and he will wind up staying there either two or three years.

I think it's three, but I've lost my date for certain. I think he stayed either two or three years in that house in Rome with maybe a quick trip to Philippi.

Some people say he may have gone back to Philippi. I'm not sure about that. But he was there chained to a guard.

Day and night, a member of a special force, the

Praetorian Guard, was chained to him. And whatever Paul told anybody, that person had to hear.

And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

So the other brethren, the other Christians, look around, see Paul in chains, chained to the guard, under arrest, not being hindered in his proclaiming the gospel.

So they were more bold to proclaim the words themselves. His example of a powerful witness to the gospel as a prisoner demonstrated

God's faithfulness to his persecuted children. And that his imprisonment would not halt or slow down the progress of the gospel.

This encouraged others to be bold and not to fear imprisonment, understanding that their imprisonment, like Paul's, would not hinder the spread of the gospel.

In fact, it might even help advance it. That's what Paul did. Verse 15.

This is a hard verse for me, and you'll see why in just a minute.

I'm going to read it first, and I'm going to kind of stress the word some. And some means not all.

Some indeed preach Christ, even of envy and strife.

And some also of goodwill. The one preach

Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds, but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel.

That's not really the verse that created the greatest stress for me. It'll be the next one. Like the dishonest potters, those preaching

Christ, as he described them, even of envy, smeared their cracked pots with wax to make them look sellable.

Now, even this work, even the work that they did, even the preaching that they did, might have some good effects on some people if the

Lord so chose to have his word exposed to them that way. That's why we can look out at the

Mormon church and say, there are some people that attend Mormon churches regularly that are going to go to hell.

And there's going to be some that attend Mormon churches regularly that are going to go to hell. Because God can work even in the presence of false teachers.

We can say that for everything. We can say that for the Southern Baptists. We can say that for the Catholics. Some will be moved by the

Holy Spirit. The Lord will see who is who. He will determine who is saved and by what methods.

So even their work can be used if God so chose. Now, we have another group there, another some,

Paul's supporters. They were sincere. They were without wax.

The question is, were they perfect? Well, the answer is yes and no.

No, they're not. And we know that every day from our own experiences. We know that we're not perfect.

We're not complete. We're not who we ought to be. We make mistakes. But we're seen as perfect. Why are we seen as perfect?

We're seen as Christ. And Christ was seen as us on the cross.

That's why he said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Because he, at that point, was bearing our sins.

They were motivated by a genuine affection for Paul. And confidence in his virtue.

And when you say set, a better word would be appointed. Paul was in prison. Why? Why was

Paul in prison? Well, we could say he's preaching the word of God.

We could say a lot of things that he was doing. But the real final answer is what? Because God put him there.

That's what I was trying to get at. Because he was appointed to that place. He was in prison because he was destined by God to be there.

He was put there by God's will. Why? Why? To be in a strategic position to proclaim the gospel in a way that it would spread way beyond what it would have been had he been wandering free around Asia Minor.

Verse 18. What then? Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth,

Christ is preached. And therein do I rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.

That was the thing that gave me some issue. What's Paul saying? It doesn't matter to me that God's word is being preached.

I don't care the motives of the preacher. If God's word is being preached, I don't care the motive of the preacher.

I'm going to rejoice anyhow. Whether it's sincere, whether it's not sincere, if anybody comes to Christ by hearing the message, even by a false teacher, that's a good thing.

Paul rejoices in the preaching of the gospel regardless of the motive of the preachers, even the insincere ones.

For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the

Holy Spirit. Your prayers and an ample supply of the

Spirit of Jesus Christ will make all of the preaching return the ends that Christ desires.

So, false teachers? Yes. It's more of they might not have the right motives for doing it, but they're still actually preaching the true

Christ rather than maybe somebody who is not teaching the real

Christ. This is not someone who is preaching Buddhism.

This is not someone that is preaching worshipping a tree. This is someone that is preaching

Christ, and he's doing it for insincere motives. But Paul says, I don't care if his motives are insincere.

All I care about is those that hear him hear the message of Christ, then that's a good thing.

In fact, they asked Jesus, one of his disciples said, these are not following you.

Should we destroy them? And he said, no, let them be. So he says,

I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the

Spirit of Jesus Christ. That is, your prayers and an ample supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ will make all the preaching of Christ, even the insincere preaching, return the ends that Christ desires.

What these false teachers were doing, they were trying to latch on to Paul's reputation and gather some of Paul's glory for themselves so that they would be honored.

He says, that's not good, but God can use even that.

According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also

Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death.

Now here's what we know. Paul knows that his future is not in his own hands, but is in the hands of God.

Therefore, he eagerly looks forward without regard to whether he lives or dies.

But if it were in his hands to decide, what would he choose? Would he choose to live or would he choose to die?

He answers that in a way in the next verse. For to me, to live is

Christ and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor.

Yet what I choose I, that word what, means no. What I choose

I know not. Paul does not know what is the better choice for him, to live and serve

Christ or to die and to be with him. It's a tough choice for Paul and it should be a tough choice for us.

But he did know that the only reason for him to remain in this world was to bring souls to Christ and to build up believers to do the same.

Verse 4. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.

Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. And I highlighted that last phrase.

To abide in the flesh is more needful for you.

It's really not Paul's decision. In one sense, it will be the emperor's decision as to whether he lives or dies.

But ultimately, it will be God's will. Paul actually has no decision to make.

He can simply serve Christ until that time which the Lord chooses to bring him home.

And that's also our lot as well. That's what we can do. We can serve the

Christ, we can serve the Lord, in the task for which he has appointed us, until such a time as he chooses to either bring us home or change our task.

He can do either. And he eventually will bring us home.

It's not a matter of whether he brings us home. It's only a matter of when.

Verse 25. And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you for all of your furtherance and joy of faith.

Paul's confidence is that their need would determine that he stay on the earth a little bit longer.

That he's not going to die next week. Now he didn't have that as a vision.

That was not what he had it was as a confidence that their need would outweigh his desire.

Verse 26. That your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again.

The point is, as Paul lived on faithfully, their joy and confidence would overflow.

Because Christ working in him, not because of anything he did by himself because of his own ability.

Verse 27. Only let your conversation be as becometh the gospel of Christ.

Believers are to have integrity. To live consistent with what they believe, teach, and preach.

Now that's a problem for us. It's very easy to say what we ought to do and as Paul decided and told us, it's a lot harder to do it.

Whether I come and see you or else be absent, that I may hear of your affairs that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.

Stand fast in one spirit with one mind. This introduces a new theme to this letter.

That's one of unity. And it will continue through this chapter and into chapter 2.

Striving together literally means to struggle along with someone else. Paul changes his metaphor from that of a soldier standing at a post, standing fast, to one of a team struggling for victory against a common foe.

Verse 28. And in nothing terrified by your adversary, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation and that of God.

When believers willingly suffer without being terrified, it is a sign that God's enemies will be destroyed and eternally lost, but believers will be saved.

And now for the verse that's been haunting me for a while.

For unto you it is given on the behalf of Christ, not only to believe upon Him. I wish you to stop there.

But that's because I'm a man and don't know any better. But also to suffer for His sake.

Now you need to think of this. Even a believer's suffering is a gift of grace, which brings power and eternal reward.

It may not seem at the time of the suffering that this is a gift of grace. Remember what grace is?

Unmerited favor. Suffering is an unmerited favor.

It's a good thing. Sometimes it is. David knew that.

Paul knew that. Peter knew that. Every Christian knows that.

You know, there's an old song, I never promised you a rose garden. We weren't promised a rose garden.

And if we were promised a rose garden, we would not be promised a rose garden without any thorns. Even the suffering, even the thorns, are a gift of unmerited favor.

Paul says it this way in 2 Corinthians 12, 9. He has just prayed three times that the thorn in his flesh might be removed.

And finally the Lord says this. And he said to me, this is the

Lord talking to Paul, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

If I could do all things myself, it would not be so evident that I needed Christ. So the

Lord is going to give me times to let me know myself, in myself and people around me to know that anything that I am, anything that I can become depends upon the power of Christ, not on the power of me to figure it out.

And this is Paul now. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Therefore I, this is still Paul, take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distress, for Christ's sake.

For when I am weak, then I am strong. So how are you shown to be strong when

Christ is in you? And then Peter knew that too. Peter in 1

Peter 5, 9 says, By God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you, to him be the glory and dominion forever and ever.

Amen. I'm going to read that again. This is Peter talking. But the

God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, will make you perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you, to God be the glory and the dominion forever and ever.

Amen. And now we go to the final verse in Philippians chapter 1.

I'm sorry? 1 Peter 5, verse 10.

Okay, now. Having the same conflict which ye saw in me and now hear to be in me, the same kind of suffering that Paul had experienced, that they saw him experience.

They saw it cataloged in Acts 16, 22.

I'm going to read that. This refers to what the Philippians witnessed when

Paul and Silas were imprisoned at Philippi. And when we get through with this passage, we'll be through for the day and we'll be actually a little bit early.

And the multitude rose up together against them. And the magistrate ran off their clothes.

Now, the them that's talking about is Paul and Silas. The magistrates ripped off their clothes and commanded to beat them.

So they were beaten. And it wasn't an easy thing to be beaten by the Romans. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely.

You don't want to be a jailer when you are commanded to keep

Paul and Silas in jail. Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison.

Not one on the outside. Now, inside, way at the heart of the prison. And made their feet fast in the stalks.

So there they are in the inner room of the prison. Feet chained to the wall.

Paul and Silas have just been beaten. So what do they do?

They pray and sing praises to God. And at midnight,

Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God. And the prisoners heard them.

And suddenly there was a great earthquake. So that the foundation of the prisons were shaken.

And immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's bands were loosed.

Okay. The chains on Paul and Silas' feet were removed.

The doors were opened. Not only their door, but all the doors of all the prisoners. Every door in every building was opened.

And the chains fell off their feet. So everyone is free to go. Now you understand.

When they put you as a jailer in charge of a person, if the person escaped, you paid his price.

The whole prison is loose. The keeper of the prison, awaking from his sleep and seeing the prison doors open, drew out his sword.

What do you think he drew it out for? He drew it out to kill himself.

Because he knew the magistrates were not going to be happy when they came to get him.

And he'd have to pay the debts for every one of these prisoners. And would have killed himself.

Supposing that the prisoners had fled. It would be a reasonable thing. You would look up and the doors were all open and the chains were, stocks were laying on the ground.

You would say, they're all gone. But Paul cried out in a loud voice saying,

Do thyself no harm, for we are all here. Every last one of them were there.

They and all the prisoners, every one of them was still there. Then he called for a light and sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas.

And brought them out. And said to them, Sirs, what must

I do to be saved? And they said,

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in thy house. Now a couple of things there.

First, it didn't say just believe. It said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It didn't say believe on Mohammed.

It didn't say believe on a tree. It didn't say believe on anything. It said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. This is an exclusive salvation.

It's not a salvation for somebody that does good. If anybody could do good. It's a salvation for those who actually do believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ. And thou shalt be saved in thy house. Now this is not a community salvation.

It's not enough for me to be saved for all of you to be saved. We don't get saved in a group.

So when he says, Thou shalt be saved in thy house. What is he saying? Is the fact that you believed going to make you and your whole household saved?

Well, we're going to see in a second. It's going to be not only that he believed. But all of them believed.

And why did all of them believe? Because the Lord had ordained them to believe. They believed because they were selected to believe.

Paul was in that prison for the sole purpose. Well, I'm not going to say that.

For one purpose is so that they could hear the message. So they could believe. Because we can't believe what we don't hear.

So he was there to tell them. And they spake unto him the word of the

Lord and to all that were in his house. So who did they speak to? Him and all that were in his house.

And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. That's the guard, the jailer, washing the stripes of Paul and Silas.

And he was baptized. And he and all his, straightway. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them.

And rejoiced, believing in God with all of his house. Now you see that last phrase?

He believed in God and all of his house did too. That's why they were all saved. And when it was day, the magistrates sent the sergeants saying, let the men go.

They beat them. They put them in jail. As far as the magistrates are concerned, they're still chained in the jail.

And they sent the sergeants to say, now let them go. And the keeper of the prison told this saying to Paul.

The magistrates have sent to let you go. Now therefore depart and go in peace. But Paul said unto them,

I think this is so funny. They have beaten us openly, uncondemned. Oh, and by the way, we're

Romans. You don't beat a Roman. Being Romans.

And they have cast us into prison. And now they thrust us out privately? Nay, verily, let them come themselves and fetch us out.

Tell the magistrates to come down here and get us and take us out. They put us in, they can take us out.

And the sergeants told these words unto the magistrates. They said, they're not coming.

They say you come and get them. And the magistrates feared when they heard that they were

Romans. It's not good to be a Roman. And they came and begged them, besought them, and brought them out.

And desired them to depart out of the city. And they went out of the prison and entered into the house of Lydia.

And when they had seen the brethren, they comforted them and departed. So they didn't leave the city.

But they left the city on their own terms. Not on that of the magistrates.

The Philippians had seen this. They understood.

And they understood the consequences. Let us pray.

Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us this time and this place to study your holy word.

Thank you even for giving us the hardships that you give us. Even though it's hard for us to understand and recognize our suffering as being an unmerited gift of favor.

But it is. It allows us to show how strong you are.

By showing how we can perform even in our weakened condition.

Especially in our weakened condition. For when we are weak, then we show you to be strong.