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The first in a series of messages on the book of Phillipians.
Well, today, that He has shown such great mercy and great kindness unto us, the Apostle Paul of one place said this concerning what he was doing. Of course, the Apostle Paul was the Apostle Paul. He was specifically chosen to bring about part of the inspired New Testament Scripture, the revelation of Jesus Christ there, but he said this, Unto me, who am less than the least of all the saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.
And I still feel that way. He said in another place, in 1 Corinthians 9, verse 16, the Apostle Paul said, Woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel. He was a man, I believe, who understood what it was to have, and I mean it in the best way possible, the burden of the Word of the Lord.
And if there's one thing, one thing that this world needs today, it is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel of Jesus Christ. Not the Gospel of this church or that church. Not Claude's Gospel. Not any of your Gospel.
Not anybody down the road's Gospel. It needs the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul said concerning the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that it is the power of God unto salvation. Not anything else. Not any other way.
Not any other means. But by and through Jesus Christ can a man be saved. And not only can a man be saved, but a man must be saved according to the Scriptures. Because a man will not see the Kingdom of God except he is born again.
That's Jesus' words. That's what Jesus told Nicodemus. Now, I know this year, and I'll say this, maybe we'll get to an overview of last year next week perhaps, but I plan to give an overview of what we've gone through last year and leading us into this year.
But again, I go back to the Scripture. A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. And so we're beginning to look at the book of Philippians this morning. But again, I don't want to leave anything out.
I want to give exposition, verse by verse, so we don't just jump into one of my favorite parts and leave the other stuff that's so wonderful out. So the Apostle Paul writes to the Philippian church, beginning in verse 1, and this is in his greeting and salutation, says this, Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ.
So Paul and Timothy are writing to the church at Philippi, and he's writing to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi with the bishops and deacons. It's important, again, as we remember and as we understand and as we hear and as you listen to the Word of God, that you know that this is God's Word to God's people.
He was written to God's people, he says, to all saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi with the bishops and deacons. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul begins right here in verse 3 to kind of pour out his heart to the Philippian church.
Many of the other epistles are very doctrinal in their content, doctrinal meaning addressing false teaching that takes place in the church, but this letter to Philippi is really more of the Apostle Paul pouring out his heart unto God in thankfulness and expressing his love to the believers at Philippi.
And this is what he says, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. Every time I think about you, Paul said, I am thankful for you. And then in verse 4, he says, always in every prayer of mine, making requests for you all with joy.
So Paul says, I'm not only thankful when I think about you, but every time I go to pray, I'm making requests for you all. This is the Apostle's love to the church at Philippi. And this is what he says, I not only make requests for you, I'm not only saying a little, we tease a lot of times, April and I do, if she does something that rubs me the wrong way or I do something that rubs her the wrong way, she'll say, I'm going to say a little prayer against you.
He said, I'm not saying a little prayer against you, but I'm praying for you. I've got joy in my heart as I think about you. And you'll understand as we read a little bit further, this joy wasn't just because of the good times that they had together, because folks, to be completely truthfully and honest, it wasn't good times like we have here.
Where you come in and give each other high fives, shake hands, hug necks, probably talk about the day and what you read on Facebook and what the Google machine told you and all this other stuff. They had it hard in these days, but they had joy.
And their joy came from Jesus Christ. And that's what Paul's getting to. So he says, I make requests for you with joy, number one, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. What's the one thing this world needs?
The gospel of Jesus Christ. Are you all with me on this? What's the one thing the world needs? The gospel of Jesus Christ. Let's try it one more time. Everybody say it together if you're here. What's the one thing this world needs?
The gospel of Jesus Christ.
Very good. Very good. So if somebody says, what this world needs is this or that, you know that according to the scripture, the one thing the world needs is the gospel of Jesus Christ. So he said this, I'm thankful for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now.
And then in verse six, he said, being confident of this very thing, and he gets to the heart of the matter, that he which has begun a good work in you will perform it or will finish it until the day of Jesus Christ.
Part of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ to us as the redeemed of God is this, that God is not finished with you yet.
Amen.
I mean, you're breathing. Amen. You're still here. God ain't finished with you yet. That's the beautiful thing. Whom God calls, then he justifies, makes right in his sight, and then he justifies, the Bible says, he sanctifies.
The fact that you're living and you're breathing, and when you get rebuked by the Holy Ghost of God, when you're rebuked by your brothers and sisters for something that's unbiblical in your life, be thankful because that's an evidence of sanctification in your life, that God is not finished with you yet.
Being confident of this very thing, that he which has begun a good work in you, he is Jesus, he which has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Just, verse 7, 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 are partakers with me of grace.
This is beautiful because Paul is not writing this letter, as none of the letters were written from an easy chair. He was writing this letter from a prison somewhere, and most all the letters were written from within the prison.
He either wrote them with his own hand or he gave dictation to whoever was writing the letter down. He wrote these letters from a miserable, awful place, and yet somehow you cannot, in the right mind, anywhere turn particularly to the epistles that the Apostle Paul, Peter, James, Jude, or any of them wrote, or the gospels, and you cannot rightly say that there was something strangely joy with which they wrote.
Their joy was not based upon this world. Their joy was based upon Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God, full of grace and truth. Jesus Christ said it concerning himself. I am, we sung it in that song, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man comes unto the Father but by me. He went on to say in verse 8, For God is my witness. Friends, let me say something to you. You can swear by no greater. One of the gospel writers wrote this, what Jesus said.
You can swear by no greater. You ought not to swear by the heavens because it is God's throne. You ought not to swear by the earth because it is his footstool. And then they say, and they tell us in the scriptures, that God swore by himself because he could not swear by any greater.
The apostle Paul was making a big statement right there. He says, God is my witness. How greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ. And this I pray, verse 9, that your love may abound.
Now, here's a beautiful, beautiful, clear passage of scripture. It would be very easy for us to stop right there where he said, and I want for your love and I pray that your love may abound. It would be easy for us if we stopped there to think, see, God just wants us all to get along and nobody to have differences, nobody to understand anything wrongly or disagree with each other.
But Paul goes on here and he says this, I want your love to abound more and more in what?
In knowledge.
How do you gain knowledge? Number one, you pray. And you ask the Holy Spirit to give you knowledge. And the scripture says, to him who asks, God gives to all men. Speaking to the saved of God, to all men, liberally, amen.
That's what the scripture says. Second, how you get knowledge, you read your Bible. John, what are you supposed to call me out on if you don't hear it regularly?
Did everybody hear that?
That was good.
Don't believe my word. Believe God's word. Listen to what I'm saying. Test it according to the scriptures. And if I'm agreeing with God, then say amen. If I'm not, then go ahead and shake your head no at me.
I'm okay with that. Just rebuke me, correct me. I'll do my best to listen. But he goes on to say, still more and more in knowledge and in all discernment. Discernment means, for an example, discernment means this, making a right choice on which way to go.
Is the preacher saying this? Is God's word saying like what we read or what we'll read at some point else? We won't get to all that today. I can done see it. We're just going to get a little ways into this.
But discernment means to make the difference between, to know the difference between right and wrong. In the world, the world in which we live today, everything's kind of blurry. Everybody says it's all good.
You heard that saying, it's all good in my hood. It ain't all good in your hood. It ain't all good in my hood. There is none good but one and that is God. You want to know what? You say, preacher, I'm saved.
I'm good.
There's a lot of people that say I'm saved and I'm good and they do not have a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. And I say that because their lives do not demonstrate a saving relationship with Jesus Christ because the scriptures teach us and the scriptures tell us, Paul said to the Corinthian church, he said, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.
All things are passed away and behold, all things are become new. That's what the word of God tells us. So you need to understand if you say that you are saved, then you ought to live like or you will live like you're saved.
Not just that you ought to because you ought to is understood, it's implied, but you will and not only that you will live differently, but that you can live differently because Jesus Christ is performing his sanctifying work of salvation in you on a daily basis.
That's what the scriptures teach us. I am thankful for that. So he said, all knowledge and discernment, verse 10, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ.
Verse 11, being filled with the fruits of righteousness. Now listen, which are by who? By Jesus Christ.
For what purpose?
Now here's the thing, folks. Here's the thing. What makes the gospel of Jesus Christ different than any and all other self-help methodologies that this world and many churches have employed, to be quite honest with you, is that this self-help methodologies do nothing to save your soul.
Self-help methodologies do nothing but reform you morally and a man can reform morally and still not be saved. There are a lot of people who do a lot of good things who are as lost as a ball in high weeds, as the old saying goes.
Morality does not save a man. You must be born again.
Hallelujah!
George Whitefield, the great evangelist, I think he was in the 1600s or 1700s, he preached, you must be born again, constantly, consistently and regularly. Matter of fact, it got to the point where one woman is noted historically as asking him, Mr. Whitefield, why do you always preach the same message, you must be born again?
He said, my dear lady, because you must be born again. It's not anything that any preacher rightly can explain, truthfully, to be honest with you. No matter how wise, no matter how intelligent, no matter how long they've been preaching, some things you cannot explain and you cannot explain what the work of the Spirit does in the heart of a man when He regenerates him and He saves him.
It can't be explained. But I can tell you this, though it cannot be explained, it's the real thing. I'm a testimony. If you say, preacher, I don't believe you just because you say it, don't believe me just because I'm saying it, I'm telling you I'm saying it because I know it.
I'm living it. He goes on to say this, being filled with the fruits of righteousness. What is that righteousness? Where does that righteousness come from? It does not come from turning over a new leaf.
It does not come from setting a New Year's resolution.
Everybody knows how New Year's resolutions go, right?
They're good for a month. The Babylon Bee put an article, it's a satirical Christian website, but they put out an article about an interview with a Bible, how it was excited because its reader said that it was going to read all the way through it this year.
But he knew he wouldn't get past January and it wouldn't even get read much in January. Righteousness. Biblical righteousness does not come from morality. It comes only from Jesus Christ. The Scriptures teach us that Jesus Christ is the righteous one.
There is none other. He is our righteousness. As a matter of fact, the Apostle Paul said in another place in Corinthians that Jesus Christ is become unto us justification, sanctification, wisdom, and righteousness.
He is those things. So this righteousness that Paul is saying I desire you to be filled with is not a self-righteousness. It's not a personally appointed righteousness by anybody. It's not something that I can impart unto you.
It's something that only the work of God can accomplish in a man. And when I say a man, I'm meaning men and women. But Paul said this. But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happen to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of what?
The gospel. I'm in jail right now, but that's okay, he said, because it's turning out for the furtherance of the gospel. The gospel is being pressed forward because of what is taking place. Keeping in mind the sovereignty of God and the providence of God working hand in hand together.
Verse 13. So that it has become evident to the whole palace guard and all the rest that my chains are in Christ. Hell, I like it that in another place he said the word of God is not bound. You can put chains on the man, but you cannot bind the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Hallelujah for that. He said this. He said, so it has become evident to the whole palace guard, my chains are in Christ. Again, the focus is on Christ. And most of the brethren in the Lord have become confident by my chains and are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
Here is why reading your Bible is important. You say, well, the world has just got me down. I'm just utterly defeated with all that goes on. If you'll read what God has given us, his inspired word, you'll see that you are not alone, that God has brought people through even worse than what we're in right now.
And he has brought them ultimately unto himself through it all. That's why it's important to read your Bible. Here's something, don't leave me on this. This is why it's important for you to read church history from the Bible forward.
Because God did not quit his work of sanctification in his people with the Bible. He continues it. And he is going to continue his work of sanctification until the day he comes and calls us out of this world like we sung about.
By the way, that was a good segment today.
That was good singing and good playing all the way around. I'm thankful for that. I think folks are getting the hang of the hymnal. I'm going to try to move just a little further and then we'll quit for the day.
But it's so important that we don't leave this exposition of these verses out because they provide so much information and so much detail. And so Paul said, most of the brethren have become confident by my chains and are much more bold to speak the word without fear because people were literally being killed.
People were literally being martyred for the name of Jesus Christ. People were literally, as Paul and Timothy and the apostles, were being thrown and thrust into the prison cell for simply preaching the message of Jesus Christ.
That there is no other way of salvation. That self-reformation won't get you there. But the reformation of the heart that only God can do through the work of regeneration is what will make a man right in the sight of God.
That's part of what the issue of the whole Reformation period was about in case you don't know by now. I know this last year we've spoken quite a bit about that. But you would do good to read about that because the Catholic Church disputes the fact even to this day that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
But they will tell you, and even within their doctrinal statement, they will stand and they will say and they will defy the fact that you can do all these, but if you just follow the church's writings, if you'll just perform this act, if you'll just perform that act, that you'll be right in the sight of God.
And the whole point of the Reformation was that justification, a man is justified in the sight of God by nothing else but by faith of Jesus Christ. Nothing else will save a man. So he said they're confident.
Some indeed, verse 15, I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll read down through 18. Verse 15, some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife and some also from goodwill. So he said there are folks who are preaching Jesus Christ just to try to make a mockery of the gospel.
At this time, we're trying to make a mockery of the apostles and that has continued throughout history. Another one of them, I think it was Whitefield again, as a matter of fact, he was a cross-eyed man.
And they called him Dr. Squintums. In his picture, in even the old paintings of him, he's got one eye that just wanders. And they made fun of him. They called him Dr. Squintums. There were groups that met to regularly and to publicly try to disgrace George Whitefield for preaching the gospel.
His sermons were published. So this group, they were called the Hellfire Club. They would get together and they would gather in a group. It was a club and they would many times have the paper that these sermons were written in.
And there would be men who would stand up, like the preachers in their day who did, who didn't have platforms. They would use what they could, maybe a bar stool or whatever. He'd stand up on that stool and he would read Whitefield's sermon in the midst of everything, mocking Whitefield's characteristics, mocking Whitefield's preaching style.
And it is historically recorded that at one point, at one time, at a meeting of the Hellfire Club, when one of those men got up and began to read that sermon of Whitefield and mockingly preach that sermon of Whitefield, that he himself got saved from preaching the gospel that he was mocking.
That's the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Men may mock the gospel. Men may make fun of the gospel. People may say that the message of the gospel is antiquated.
And that the message of the gospel is outdated.
Friends, the last I checked, God will never be antiquated. God will never be outdated, nor shall His message ever be so.
Well, glory.
Okay.
The former preached Christ, verse 16, from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains. He said, some people are actually preaching for money and for glory and they think by doing that, that they're going to bring reproach to my name.
But they didn't understand that Paul's worth was not found in what he did or who he was, but it was found in the person of Jesus Christ. And when you find your place there, nobody will ever be able to take that away from you.
The former preached Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains, but the latter out of love, he said, there are still some that preach out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel.
This is why you need to read your Bible. This is why you need to study church history. This is why you need to know sound doctrine, because friends, this world assaults the gospel of Jesus Christ on every hand.
And the church of Jesus Christ are the people that are supposed to be able to refute that kind of talk. Do not shy away from sound doctrine. Do not be intimidated off of that. Hopefully, after this last year, you ain't.
And I know some of you, praise God, well, Kenny ain't here, but he'll testify to the fact. Friends, if you sit under or you listen, you turn on preaching. We all got preachers we like to listen to. Turn on a preacher that you like to listen to.
And friend, when you're in the Word of God, you can tell if what they're saying is foolishness, fluff, or something worth tuning into and listening to. And you'll know it pretty quick. Because guess what?
If they don't start with Jesus Christ, if a preacher, let me say this, let me just put myself on the block here. If I, John, here's something else for you to remember. I know I'm putting everything on you.
But you look pretty smart. You play dumb, but I believe you're probably pretty smart. If when myself or sir gets up here, and if we're going to call ourselves preachers of the gospel, then guess what?
We're going to start with the text of Scripture. We're going to stay in a text of Scripture. And we are going to finish in a text of Scripture. That's how you can tell somebody is a false teacher if they start with a bunch of fluff.
Well, preacher, we can't always just start with Jesus.
Well, why not?
He's the author and the finisher of our faith.
Why not?
We can't stay with Jesus.
We can't finish with Jesus.
If you have not started with Jesus, friend, by grace, through faith, in Jesus Christ, alone for your salvation, then you are not saved. And you need to be born again. Do you want to read a commentary on that?
Read the book of Galatians. That's exactly what Paul spoke to the Galatian believers about, the church there. He said, many of you are saying that you've started in the Spirit, that you've started in grace, but you keep going back to the law.
Friends, you've got to start with Christ and end with Christ. Paul said, I'm 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, he said, I do or I will rejoice. Let people mock. Hallelujah, anyhow. Let them mock, because friends, the gospel can save a man under a mock message of the gospel, just the same as he can preach one under a sincerely preached message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Because he ain't limited like a man is. He'll turn you on your head or on your ear, as the old saying goes. I guess it's probably the right way to say it. He will do just that. So what is the gospel of Jesus Christ?
Simply this. And we're going to close. The gospel of Jesus Christ, according to the Scriptures, Paul wrote to the Corinthian church in chapter 15, if you're taking notes. Chapter 15, verses 1 through 4, and I'll read that to you in closing.
And as you would, stand with us this morning as you turn there. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 1. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 1, as we stand. The Scriptures say this, Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, and which you stand, by which also you are saved.
You're not going to be saved outside the gospel of Jesus Christ. You might sit under the gospel of Jesus Christ week in and week out, and hear the message repeated over and over and over again, until the Holy Spirit of God does His regenerating work in you, you will not be saved.
But when He does, you can marker down, you're saved, according to the Word of God. And the gospel, he said, is this, Do you hold fast to the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain? For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received, and here's the gospel, that Christ died for our sins.
The Apostle Paul was not speaking in some uninformed, vague way, as though somebody might get what he's saying, even though he didn't get it, because he knew who he was. He said in one place, I'm the chief of sinners.
But this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am chief. The gospel is that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures.
That's the gospel. Kenan got me on this earlier, so I'm just going to say it straight. I'm not challenging you to believe the gospel. I'm telling you what the Bible says. You need to repent and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And guess what? You don't have to come up front to evidence that. You can come up front and say you got saved, and you go out the door headed for the same hell that you came in the door headed toward.
But friends, when God regenerates a man, you will be changed. And when you are changed, you'll know that you're saved. Repent and believe the gospel today. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for this privilege, and this liberty, and this freedom that you have given us today to stand and to proclaim the good news of the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
To begin, as we look at Philippians, dear God, and it's our prayer that you take what has been preached and expounded upon today, and just multiply it in the hearts and the minds of your people, dear God.
Burn it in our hearts. Burn it into our minds, dear God. Cause us to think about it. Cause us to dwell on it. Cause us to consider just how great that you are. And dear God, our prayer is this, that you show your great mercy and your great kindness to those who are here, who are listening, God, that do not know you in the free pardon of sin, dear God, that you would regenerate their hearts.
That you would give them a birth from above, dear God. That you would make them new creatures in Jesus Christ today. For today is the day of salvation. For it's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen and amen. So thankful again to be here this morning.
Thankful for.