Philippians 2:16-21 "Hold Fast to The Word"

Wonderful. Yeah, seriously, look into that catechism questions and answers. It's a really good way for the kids to learn it and whatnot. So today we're gonna be in Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2 verses 16 through 21 for today.

Philippians chapter 2 verses 16 through 21. Philippians chapter 2 verse 16 through 21. As you're making your way there, I will start off with a word of prayer. So let's pray. Lord, I do thank you God for these little ones.

I thank you for every individual that is here in our church, Lord, in our little local building here in Hagerman, Lord. God, I thank you for those that have been born again that are a part of your church, your body, your bride, Lord.

God, I would ask that you would just help us recognize this truth and this reality, call those that are yours unto you, and help them be born again, Lord. God, help us be good stewards of your word today.

Let us not think or say anything that goes beyond what your text has here for us, Lord. God, we say these things in your holy name, Jesus Christ. Amen. Philippians chapter 2 verse 16 through 21. Let's go ahead and read over these things and we will pray again specifically over this text.

Verse 16. Holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ, I will have reason to boast, because I did not run in vain, nor labor in vain. But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all.

And you also rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me. But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you surely, so that I always may be in good spirits when I learn of your circumstances.

For I have no one else of kindred spirit who genuinely be concerned about your circumstances. For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus. This is our text. For all of us who have it here, let us hear these things.

Let us pray again over this specifically. Lord God, I would ask today, Lord, that you would help us have genuine care for each other, Lord God, that you would help us rejoice even in the midst of our suffering, in the midst of persecution, the midst of drought and hardship, Lord God.

I would ask that you would help fill us with joy in having faith in your Son and what he has done for us on the cross of Calvary. And let us be, let that be our hope in life, and let that be the joy that we take everywhere with us, something that cannot be taken from us, Lord.

God, help us recognize what you have here for us, help us be reformed and refined as a church by reading this text, and Lord, just may you receive the glory from today. And we say this in your name, Jesus Christ.

Amen. So again, we have to start with context every time that we look at any text. As a reminder, Paul again is writing this letter while in prison. It's an important reminder, especially in light of the fact that here in this text, it talks about Paul expressing and having joy.

And so it's kind of peculiar that here Paul has joy while he's in prison. So that's just a very important contextual piece that we have to remember. Paul writing this letter from prison while in Rome, and he's writing this to the Church of Philippi.

And here in verses 16 through 21, just as a reminder what we've gone through already, we went through verses 12 through 15, and I think for us to understand what's going on here in verse 16, we have to back up and read verse 15.

So let's go ahead and read verse 15 here. It says, so that you will be blameless and innocent children of God, without blemish, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in this world.

Shining as Lights in a Crooked and Perverse Generation

Now, if you would just pause with me for a moment, I want to read two verses real fast, two sections of Scripture that talk about how we are to be lights, and this concept of lights here in the Bible.

Turn with me to Matthew chapter 5, verse 14 through 16. And this is just really building up what's going on in here in verses 16 for us, but Matthew chapter 5, verse 14 through 16. Matthew chapter 5, verses 14 through 16.

And just for a little contextual piece for this portion, I just want to read verse 1 to start us off with, just to tell us where Jesus is at when he says this. He says, now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.

This is part of the Sermon on the Mount, that glorious text that we often go through as a church, or as churches in the United States. But here is Jesus sitting on top of this mountain, and he gives them some very, very important lessons that we ought to listen to.

So let us read. So Jesus sitting on this mountain, he says these things here in verses 14 through 16. He says, you are the light of the world. A city set, a city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all those who are in the house.

Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. This concept of what's going on in here, what Jesus is speaking about, is in the day of Jesus and prior to that, there was going to be in the temple, there was a, there were these lights that they would have around the temple, and it would illuminate the whole city.

The way they had the temple built up was quite marvelous, the way that they was the centerpiece of Jerusalem. And when they lit that up in the middle of the night, it would give light everywhere. It would give light everywhere.

And so what's going on in this text is Jesus is sitting on this mountain, is he's giving us a picture of what the church is to be doing. It's to give light unto this whole area, unto the whole world. And that's what Jesus is getting at in this text.

And even more important than that, this concept of light connected to that of the temple is even seen here in John chapter 1. I'd like to invite you now just to turn with me to the second text I would like to read to us before we get it back into Philippians.

Turn with me to John chapter 1. John chapter 1. As we know everything, as especially Jonathan and everybody in Bible study, we've been going through in the book of Hebrews, right? What in the temple pointed to Jesus?

All of it? 80 60 What pointed to Jesus in the temple? All of it, right? Every single thing pointed to Jesus Christ and what he was going to be doing 2 ,000 years ago for us, but for them many, many years prior to 2 ,000 years ago, what it was pointing towards was the Messiah over and over and over again.

We know that the nation Israel was called the light. They were to be a light unto the nations. And here we have a proclamation of who Jesus is for us. John chapter 1 verses 1 through 13, and it's important that we read all this text.

We're not going to be dissecting and looking and expositionally going through each one of these verses today. But John 1, 1 through 13, it says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overtake it.

There was a man having been sent from God, whose name was John. This is John the Baptist. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light.

There was the true light. Who is this true light? It's the word that we have prior to this. This is Jesus, as we would read through this text, that the word becomes flesh and dwells amongst us. He is this light.

He is the true light, which coming into the world enlightens everyone. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and those who were his own did not receive him.

But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

The important thing I want you to take notice of here in John chapter 1, and the reason that we read these things together is that just as Philippians chapter 2 verse 10 says that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, and how we looked at that text, and how we saw that that does not mean everyone in the world will have salvation, but either you bend the knee in submission to him as your king, or you bend your knee by having it broken in submission to him conquering you as the king.

That both bend the knee, but either one is in salvation, or one is in judgment. Look at this text here in John 1. He is the light that enlightens all men. And then it gives us a description of two types of people, those that love the darkness rather than the light, or those that are born of the Father, who are drawn by him.

Again, when you come and consider Jesus, when Jesus is exposing you in your sin, there's two things that can take place for us as believers, and we recognize this in the text. There's two things that can either take place.

The light exposes you, and you're born again, and you see the light, and you have recognition of who he is, and what he has done for you, and being exposed, you're born again, and you become this new covenant member as we've been going through in this Bible study.

You're born again, you have a relationship with Jesus, or the second type of person would be you're exposed to this light, and what do you do? You scurry off into the dark places to try to hide from the light because it has exposed you, and you didn't like being exposed for who you really are.

You try to hide from it. You love the darkness rather than the light. It exposes all people, but only those that are born again, only those that are drawn by the Father, and are born not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God, recognize this light as this saving thing.

It gives light unto all, but only those that come to it have salvation. Now turn back with me to Philippians chapter 2. There's a reason that I wanted to read this for us today. As Christians, if you profess to be born again, you're also professing that you've been exposed by this light, and that by being exposed, that you are professing and confessing that Jesus Christ has paid for your sins, that you love this light far more than this darkness, and when you look here in Philippians chapter 2 verse 15, and it says, among whom you shine as lights in this world, in this midst of this perverse and crooked generation, verse 16 tells us how we are to shine as lights.

What are the means of us doing this? It says, holding fast the word of life. I would like you to think back in your own life here in verse 16. What was the verse, what moment in your life did you experience this being born again, when that light bulb went off, and you knew that Jesus paid for your sins, however you experienced that, whatever that looked like in your life.

Was it a Bible verse that was being read to you? Was it the street preacher telling you the gospel? Was it a near and dear friend coming to you and telling you the importance of Jesus Christ? Whatever that looked like, I hope that that meant something in your life.

I hope that you hold that near and dear, right? That light, that exposing light that you had, is the light that now you carry unto others. Would it be a fair thing to say that instead of holding fast that word that was first told to you, that truth of who Jesus is, that he's the way, the truth, and the life, would it be a good thing to not hold fast to that, to forget that and forsake it, or to have a loose grip over that incident, that reality, that being born again.

That would not be a good thing. It tells us in this text to hold it fast, to hold quick to that, to remember it, to hold on to it. What I think is important for us when we read that John 1 and that Matthew 5 text in this way, I was reading a commentary on this text and you know, it said something and I saw something this week that made me even think further in this analogy a little bit, but we did a campfire as a family this week and what does this fire, this light, what does it do for us when we gather around a campfire?

It gives us heat, it gives us light in the midst of darkness. Now consider this, would it be wise on a cold night when it's dark out and you need to see around this campfire, would it be a wise thing to cover this fire up, to put a barrier around it?

No, you would immediately experience the coldness of the dark, you'd immediately experience the blindness that the dark has in it. It would be unwise to want to try to cover up this fire. What this is telling us to do is if we were this campfire, this means of holding this fire, if that was us, the Word, holding fast to the Word is how we expose this light to others.

If we don't hold fast to this light, it would be like covering up the campfire. It'd be like not feeling its warmth, not experiencing its light. We are to hold fast to the Word of life. Look here in verse 16, holding fast the Word of life.

Brothers and sisters, I am often asked and even persuaded at times by even people outside of our local body to change our church function to be an attraction for the world. To put things in our building such as you look at some of the mainstream things that happen in the United States today in the church and they would persuade you that you should have smoke machines, that you should have nice music, that you should have activities, that you should really push these things that guess what, they aren't.

They're not the light. They're not Jesus. They're not the gospel. Now think about this for a moment for us. If you think about that moment when you knew the truth, when you were exposed to that light and you couldn't run to the darkness any longer, that you were exposed and came to it, whatever that looked like, I read John 1 today also for a double purpose.

That was the text that opened my eyes. I could no longer deny Jesus as Lord and God. That the Word was God and the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us and we beheld His glory. That text is what opened my eyes.

Would it be right to say, well, that was the means God has spoken and opened my eyes, changed my heart. How foolish would it be for me to say that means that God attracted myself in. I think I can copy it and duplicate it by adding a smoke machine in the church.

People make church into being a stage, into being an act, trying to get to sell tickets to fill seats. And the reality of this is, is that the way that the church is refined and reformed is the same way that it has always been.

And that's by being possessors of this light. It's by holding fast to the Word and continually preaching that message. You might say, well, Bray and I come here every single Sunday and all I hear about is the gospel.

Good. The day you don't hear it, you leave. Why would Paul say something like this? Hold fast the Word of life. I want to remind us what the end of this text says, verse 21. We'll talk about it again here in a moment.

For they all seek their own interests, but not those of Christ Jesus. What Paul has done here is he's given us what a faithful servant ought to be doing. And that's holding fast to the Word of life. And then he has mirrored that by showing what an unfaithful servant of Jesus would be doing.

Ones that seek after their own interests. Look, any time that we talk about church function, we have to realize and remember that it has to be done by holding fast to the Word of life. Hold fast to this church.

Do not let anyone persuade you out of it. The only means that you draw someone to a true church, a true relationship, a true fellowship is by preaching the gospel. It's got no other way. No other way.

It doesn't matter if we threw a new paint on the outside of the church. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if we added lines to the parking lot. It doesn't matter. The only way you get someone to be planted in a church is by having them be planted upon the rock Jesus Christ.

And that it comes about by you holding fast to the Word. Do not trade that in for any other means. Hold fast to the Word of life. Why? Why does Paul tell this church, this church that he's writing this letter to 2 ,000 years ago, why does he say this?

Why does he say, you shine as lights by holding fast to the Word of life? Why? Why does he say this? So that in the day of Christ, I will have reason to boast because I did not run in vain nor labor in vain.

This is really peculiar because this is continually thinking that same theme of Philippians chapter 2 with the topic of humility. Paul saying his running has not been in vain is the producing of the advancing of the gospel.

He's saying I want you church to be holders of this light, to be holders of the Word of truth. So that the gospel continues to go forward. So that in the day of Christ, I would see that what I have been doing, what I have been suffering was not in vain.

That Christ is having a mightier song sung to him. That Christ is being recognized amongst the people here 2 ,000 years ago for Paul. That is what Paul is seeking after. Notice Paul does not say in here, I want you to hold fast to the Word of life so that I can be released from prison.

No, he doesn't do that. Verse 17, let's look at this. But even, think about this being said from prison and the humility that comes here from Paul. But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith.

I rejoice and share my joy with you all. Paul sees what he's going through. In the sovereign plan of God, in this providential plan of God. Paul now has a place of it in this humble servant that is suffering here in prison.

And he sees that what he is going through is being poured out upon the service of their faith. It's a strengthening of the church's faith. Now, what's peculiar about this is the zeal of the servant Paul who serves Jesus Christ while he's suffering.

Is meant to be a strengthening for the church of Philippi here in this text. Brothers and sisters, don't you get strengthened from this as well? To see that Paul suffered and while suffering he was rejoicing for being in Christ.

That should only encourage and strengthen you today as well. In the midst of your suffering, in the midst of your hardship, you can remember and think how did Paul behave? Was he wanting to magnify himself in it or was he wanting to magnify Christ through it?

Even if I'm being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith. I rejoice and share my joy with you all. Something that we've talked about here previously. And I believe it comes from John MacArthur and I think Shauna was the one that pointed this out to me.

The reason that Paul had joy in the midst of prison is because his joy wasn't found in the circumstances that he was in. His joy was something that he took everywhere with him. And that joy was knowing Jesus Christ and knowing Jesus Christ is something that no one can ever take away from you.

Think about it. Somebody hurts you, does that take away your faith in Jesus? No. Does somebody punching you take away your faith in Jesus? No. Does somebody chaining you to a wall take your faith away from Jesus?

Does a tyrannical government take away your faith in Jesus? No. It's something that no one can take from you. Does killing you take away your faith in Jesus Christ? Oh no. As the song we just sung, death is going to be our victory.

What does this look like for us today? Many of us in the United States, we can get this thinking of lazy Christianity, right? Because none of this ever really hits home for us, right? None of us are going to prison day in and day not out for having faith in Jesus, right?

Did you know just a few years ago we can see how this played out for even us today? There was a pastor up in Canada, and without getting into all the minutia that was to be considered in the time of COVID, we saw how many churches forsook the assembling together and closed their doors.

And not only this, but in Canada there was a huge push to have churches shut their doors no matter what. That the government overstepped their realm of authority and said, Church, you have to shut your door now.

You have to close the doors and lock them. You can't go in and enter them and worship God any longer is what they told them. And it took one pastor in Canada, Pastor Coates of Grace Life Church of Edmonton.

He stood up and opened the doors. He stood up and continued worshiping God. He continued to praise and preach the word of life. What was he doing? He was being a light amongst the darkness. What was he doing?

He was holding fast to the word of truth. He was not forsaking it. He was more worried about being held responsible from God as a pastor and servant of his than he was a citizen of Canada. And what happened to him?

They came and arrested him. And he sat in prison because of him worshiping God and being obedient to Jesus Christ as a servant of his. What happened to Canada because of that? Churches opened their doors.

Churches in the United States opened their doors. What Paul is doing in here is he's showing how being strong in the faith actually encourages the fellow Christian to act as Christians ought to act. Like I said without getting into the minutia of all the debates and thoughts that went along with COVID.

The point of it is that God has given us command to assemble together and to worship him. And as servants of him we ought not to disobey him. Be the light amongst the world, amongst a crooked and perverse generation.

And how do we do this? Holding fast the word of life. Look here in verse 17 again. But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all.

And you also rejoice in a different way. In a similar way. Rejoice in the same way. And share your joy with me. Brothers and sisters, the reality of this is that we don't think that we could ever be persecuted.

Because today we've gotten used to our nice cushy position of being a Christian here in the United States. The reality of it is though, if next week was to bring hardship and turmoil, hold fast to the word of truth.

Hold fast to the word of life. Be that light. Do not cover that campfire. Let it breathe. Let it be exposed. Stoke that fire. Stoke that light. Hold fast to the word. Verse 18 again. And you also rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me.

The suffering that Paul was going through in that day, he wants the church of that day to have joy in his circumstances as well. To have joy that the providential hand of God is working. And that more and more people are knowing Christ through the zeal of this servant, Paul.

And here in verse 19, notice this in verse 19. This is something that really pulled at my heart strings this week while studying this. Verse 19. But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be in good spirits when I learn of your circumstances.

Paul, writing this letter, he's going to have this letter sent, right? And in this letter, what he's doing is he's saying, I'm also going to send Timothy one day to you. So that then he can see if you have listened to this apostolic-inspired word and report back to me if you are actually obeying this.

Who is this Timothy that he's talking about in this text? This is a young pastor, a man that grew up in the faith, a friend of Paul, a saint that had true affection for the early church. Paul is sending him to this church 2 ,000 years ago, this church of Philippi here in this book.

And he hopes that by having this letter penned to them, with, again, that apostolic authority, that it will be heeded. That those people that read this for the first time, could you imagine gathering together as a local body of this church and opening this letter from Paul for the very first time and reading what it had contained in that?

Can you imagine that experience of what that was like? And you're seeing in this text, I'm to treat others better than myself, I'm to have the attitude of Christ Jesus that he possessed himself, that I'm to be humble, and that I'm to be united together as a church.

And not only that, but Timothy, he's going to be coming to us in a month to make sure we're actually listening to what he's told us to do. You can almost imagine immediately the people of the church being somewhat concerned with maybe how they've been behaving.

They'd be concerned with how Timothy would recognize them. Now, think about this for a moment today. Again, we're not going outside. I want to use this as the means of understanding what this church went through in that day.

But could you imagine today, if Paul wrote us a letter, and many ask, what would a letter to the United States church look like from Paul today? And I've heard that you should just read the book of Corinthians, the first and second letter of Corinthians, and that would be what the letter to the United States church would look like for us.

A lot of things about sexual immorality in there and whatnot. But if Paul wrote this letter to us, Valley Baptist, today, and we read in there and we see that we're to be these lights, that we're to have humility, that we're reading these things and we're being convicted by them, and then we read in there, Timothy is going to be coming to us in a month.

Timothy is going to come and report to Paul the honest review that he has about the church of Valley Baptist in Hagerman, Idaho. Do you think we would want to hold fast to the word of truth when he came?

That we would be seen as obedient to what this apostle of the faith has told us to do? I hope that you would, but you might scoff at this idea. You might say, well, Pastor, Paul is dead. Timothy is dead.

He's not coming to us next month. And this is true. They are not coming to us next month. However, it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of a living God. That church 2 ,000 years ago should not have been concerned about Timothy coming to report to Paul.

They should be concerned, just as we should be concerned, are we being obedient to God? Because if Jesus comes back next month, or if he tarries for another hundred years or a thousand years, we ought to be behaving as the church today ought to be behaving from a month from now that ought to be behaving from a hundred years from now.

The church must do what? Hold fast to the word of life. How does a church have a revival? How does a church have numbers? How does a church have spiritual growth? How does a church have baptisms? How do little ones come to have faith in Jesus Christ?

How is it done? Holding fast to the word of life. Preaching and teaching and thinking with the authority of scripture because there's authority therein. This letter today that was written 2 ,000 years ago, church, are you obeying it?

It's a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of a living God. You ought to live not like if Timothy was coming next month. You have no fear of no man. You have fear of Jesus coming again and judging you.

This is not me teaching legalism or a work salvation. I'm saying that if you've been born again and you've been exposed by the light and Jesus paid for your sins, you ought to behave as such. Verse 20, for I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned about your circumstances.

Now, what is Paul speaking about in this text? He's talking about Timothy in the prior verse. I think this verse is actually very, very remarkable and actually even as I call to myself as a pastor, Paul as an apostle of Christ sees a genuine care for the sheep of God given through the means of this lowly young pastor, Timothy.

Ephesians 4 11 -13 says this, and he gave, listen to that text again. Ephesians 4 11 -13, and he gave. This is God who gives, and God gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors, and some as teachers.

And for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ, until we attain all the unity of the faith and the full knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

When we look at the makeup of the church, pastors, elders, and deacons, these things are a gift from God to the church. And it's for her, the bride of Christ, to be strengthened. So they, she as the bride, would know more about her future husband.

Think about this, so Paul is sending not just anybody, he's sending this lowly, loving pastor to this church to go in and see how they're doing. He's sending Timothy to them. Think about back in the day for when Jesus, the tradition of marriage in that day.

Again, this bridegroom would go to the bride and would ask for the hand in marriage, and do this ceremony and asking and such in this traditional way. And immediately from then, what was tradition after that, is the bridegroom, the future husband, would go away and start building the house on the father's property.

He'd go away, and guess what? He would not see the bride until when? Until the wedding day. What God has done is essentially like if in that day, could you imagine if the bridegroom with so much excitement and zeal for having this future wife of his to be married to him, to come live in the house of the father.

He then sends his messenger, his best friends, or whoever it is, he sends these individuals, and he says, go and tell her that we are almost done. And this messenger goes and knocks on this bride's door and says, you should see the molding that he's put up in this house.

You should see the entryway. He has been attentive to every detail for this house for you. You can see the love that he has there for you there in this house. He knocks on this door to tell this bride that, do you not think that the bride would be in amazement for what she's waiting for, for the day when the bridegroom comes and brings her to this house?

Do you not think that she would just be listening and gleaning off of what this messenger has to tell her about this future house? Or do you think she would scoff at it? Shut the door in his face and say, I don't care.

What God has set up for the church is for pastors like Timothy to be going to the bridegroom, or to the bride, excuse me, going to the bride and telling her about what the bridegroom is building, telling her about the salvation that's in Jesus Christ, telling her, hold fast to the word of life.

Now think about the weight and the concern that those messengers ought to have about telling them every detail of this house. Do you think it would be a good messenger if this bridegroom sent a messenger that went to this person to tell them about this future house, and he left out every detail?

He said that it's being done lazily, or it's being done not that well, or it's being done in a picture that's opposite of what's actually being done. How do you think the bridegroom would feel hearing about a misrepresentation of what he's building?

He'd be pretty mad, pretty upset with the unrighteous steward of that word. Paul in this text, for I have no one else of a kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned about your circumstances. For they all seek after, so he's now talking about these other pastors in this day, for they all seek after their own interests and not those of Christ Jesus.

When we read this in light of what chapter 1 has already taught us, that some preach Christ out of vain glory, out of these reasons that are not according to the gospel, we see now what that looks like, why Paul is saying, I'm not going to send any other pastor to you, church, but I'm going to send the one that actually is doing the work of a pastor.

I'm going to send Timothy to you. I'm going to send Timothy to you, and I hope in doing so that he's going to recognize the very things that I've been writing in this book to you, this letter to you, church, that you've actually been listening to them, that you've been refined by them, that you have humility, that you have unity in the faith together, that you have a fellowship that is so true that he can see it, that you are holding fast to the word of truth, and that you are being lightened to the world.

He's saying, I want Timothy to come and recognize that you have been obedient to these commands. Paul had men in his day that failed at this. There are men today that fail at this. Church, I would tell you today the exact same thing that Paul has said here, that you are to be lights unto a world that is perverse and crooked, and the only way that you do this, the only way that we are the church, the only way that we ought to behave is by holding fast the word of life.

In so doing this, you will be obedient to what Paul told this church 2 ,000 years ago, and not only this, but that the work of Paul, the apostle, that his work of preaching this and teaching this and writing these letters was not done in vain.