Okay, the name of the message
today is Christ Manifested. Christ Manifested. Turn, if you
would, to Philippians chapter 1. We'll continue our study through
this wonderful book that we've been going through. Paul's writing
this epistle to the church at Philippi. He's under house arrest
in Rome. I found out this week he's been
going to be there for two years, two years, and he sends this
letter back to the Philippian church, who were very, very dear
to him. He sends this letter back with Epaphroditus, who was
a fellow minister and was sick unto death. And the Lord spared
him, had mercy upon him, and had mercy upon Paul, and he became
a great help to Paul. And last week we saw that Paul
brought forth in verse 12 there, Philippians chapter one, he says,
but I should that you understand, brethren, that the things which
happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance
of the gospel. So Paul had a broad scope of the sovereignty of God.
He had a proper understanding of the sovereignty of God. Our
great God is in full control. There is nothing that happens
outside his will and decree. He's in total control of everything. There's not a maverick molecule
in the universe. There's not a molecule that's
not going according to his will, nothing. The very dust we see
in the sunshine, that's all ordered by the Lord. Scripture tells
us not even a sparrow falls to the ground without our great
king. I was thinking as I was walking
up this week and I heard the cardinal singing and the sparrow
singing, and I thought, you know, each one of them is singing a
song to our king. Spurgeon used to say that, the
birds sing songs to the Lord, but it's all according to his
will and decree. And we get to hear this wonderful choir, don't
we? You ever get up at five in the
morning Walk outside at five in the morning, just take a listen.
Oh, it's absolutely incredible. So Paul says here, my bonds,
my being in prison, my being in Rome as a prisoner is all
according to the furtherance of the gospel. Remember, we looked
in the Greek last week, and the word furtherance there means
advancement in the Greek. So it's for the advancement of
the gospel. This is why Paul's in Bonn, and
we're going to see something really neat today. Now there's
a group of Roman soldiers who were were the only ones who could
guard the emperors. They were actually the only soldiers
who could be active in Rome. They were called the Praetorian
Guard. They were the elite of the elite. They'd be like Navy
SEALs or the SAS in Britain. They were the elite of the elite.
They had a shorter term in the legions than the regular legionnaire. And the reason the legions couldn't
come en masse into Rome, because it would look like it was a civil
war by the general, because The legions were very, very loyal
to the generals. Extremely loyal to the generals.
And so they couldn't just bring their legions into the city.
It would be looking like they were going to take over. So the
Praetorian Guard were the ones that were within the city of
Rome. And they not only guarded Caesar,
but they guarded other prisoners too. Well, Paul is chained to
one of these fellas. He'd have to be chained to these
guards under house arrest, but get this, they work in four-hour
shifts. Every four hours, which would
be six soldiers a day, they would be with Paul. And what did they hear, beloved?
They heard Paul talking to others about the glorious gospel of
salvation in Christ alone, and remember, the common language
was Greek. It was spoken when the Romans
conquered Greece, they kept the language. It was universal. So
as the Roman army spread across, even though they spoke Latin,
the Roman army spread across, Greek went all through the empire.
So that was the common language spoken. So these soldiers would
be able to speak it as well as speak Latin as well. And they
would hear Paul preach to any visitors he had within this house,
Christ. We know, Paul only preached Christ,
and he didn't mess around with anything else. No, nothing, he
just focused and centered on Christ, and Christ, look what
it says in verse 13. So that my bonds in Christ are
manifest in all the palace, and in other places, in all other
places. And many of the brethren in the
Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to
speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ even
of envy and strife, and some also of goodwill. The one preached
Christ of contention, not sincerely supposing to add afflictions
to my bonds. So they were looking to add even
more suffering to Paul. but the other of love, knowing
that I am set for the defense of the gospel. Again, Paul is
in Rome, he's under house arrest. Do you know why he's under house
arrest? Amen. Preaching Christ, brother.
Preaching Christ. That's the only reason why he's
under house arrest. He's preaching Christ. And we
know that's all he, he said, I'll preach Christ and him crucified.
That was his main goal. And what did he preach? Well,
he preached salvation in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's it. He preached salvation based upon
the complete, finished, sin atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
See, if you or I are to be saved, it has to be through Christ.
Everything we do is tainted with sin, right? But Christ is the sinless one,
sent by God. And so this is who Paul's preaching. Oh, and he preached redemption
through the blood of Christ. Brother Jim, there's only redemption
through Christ and him alone, isn't there? There's no other
way to be saved. Without the shed and the blood,
there's no remission for sins. And Christ shed his blood to
redeem his people from their sins. He also preached that all
men are guilty before God. I was watching this fellow I
watch, an apologetics fellow, and he had a quote by the Pope,
and the Pope said, right there on camera, all men are fundamentally
good. There's just a few rebels and
sinners out there. Well, I'm one of the rebels and
sinners, are you? But we're saved by grace, aren't we? We who are
the people of God. But listen to that. All men are
fundamentally good. You know what he's doing there?
He's calling God a liar. Because the scripture says there's
none good, doesn't it? All right, sister? There's none that seeketh
after God. There's none good. No, not one. None at all. So he's calling God a liar. Well,
that tells us a lot, doesn't it? Oh, my. So Paul preached that all men
are guilty before God. And all our righteousness, all
our works, trying to gain merit and salvation with God, is like
filthy rags. And that's minstrel rags in the
Hebrew. I remember my dad was a mechanic. And his rags, they'd get so greasy
and dirty. And they were awful. But I'd
go around there picking them all up. And then afterwards,
he'd get that soap out. We'd soap them up. Oh my, our works are like filthy
rags in the eyes of the Lord. What a picture. God detests them. Oh my. He also preached that
we must be saved from our sins by only one, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only savior of sinners.
There's no one else. That's why Paul said to that
Philippian jailer, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou
shalt be saved. Remember we saw the eunuch last
week in our study? He says, well here's water. What doth hinder me to be baptized?
This is a good portion to take people who think they sprinkle
babies or think that there's baptismal regeneration like the
Church of Christ, which it's not. And he said, what does hinder
me to be baptized? And what did Philip say? Do you
believe? Do you believe on Christ? And
he says, I do. He says, let's go into the water
then. That's why we call it believer's
baptism, right? Oh my. So he preached that there's
only salvation from our sins by the Lord Jesus Christ and
him alone. He's the one mediator between God and man. The one
mediator between God and man. No other mediator. In salvation,
is a work of God. You know that? It's a work of
God, and God alone. You and I cannot work our way
to heaven. And see, when the Lord saves
a man or a woman, we lay down our arms before God and say,
we cannot save ourselves. We're sinners in thought, word,
and deed, and by nature, by birth, And the only way we can be saved
is through the precious, precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh my. And then, something that's not
spoken of very much anymore. Paul preached the righteousness
of God. Do you know the righteousness of God is revealed through the
gospel? Paul wrote in Romans chapter 1. Who's our righteousness,
brother? Amen. So, In the preaching of
the gospel, Christ is revealed. Christ is brought up. Whose righteousness
are we clothed in? Christ's righteousness. Who clothed
us in it? The Father. And the only way
we can stand in the presence of God is to be clothed in that
righteousness. Because our righteousness, our
works, is like filthy rags. His works are perfect, isn't
it? He's the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. Sister, God saved us. God saved
us. The man Christ Jesus, God in
the flesh. See, God can't die, can he? So
he becomes a man so he can die. And he's fully God and yet fully
man. And he bleeds and dies for the sins of his people. They're
imputed to him. And he bears them all. And he
cries from the cross, it is finished. This is who Paul preached. And
he ends up in jail because of that. We see in verses 12 and
13, look at this again. But I would, you should understand,
brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen
out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel. In the Greek,
again, that's the advancement of the gospel. so that my bonds
in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places. Now again, Paul's looking at
the big picture, right? He's seeing the sovereignty of
God in all things, in all things. And he proclaims to the Philippian
church that all these things have happened unto him and unto
them and unto us, right? Think of that. It's bringing
home a sister. All the things that happened
to us are for the furtherance of the gospel. Good and bad. Paul's in prison, under house arrest, but he's
chained to a Roman soldier. Not looking good, is it? Paul doesn't Paul's not worried,
Paul's not distressed. He sees how God's working all
things out according to his will and purpose. Like I say, we need
to be aware of what's going on, right? But don't let the things
in the world distract us. Don't get consumed by the things
of the world. Look to Christ, be consumed with
Christ. And as Joe said, the hardest
thing for us to do is just rest in Christ, right? May God give
us grace to do that. Oh my. We looked at last week again
in our study, we looked at verse 12, now we're looking at verse
13 and we see the word bonds there. This refers again to Paul
being a prisoner of the Roman Empire. Paul was a prisoner in
chains. Though he had the liberty of
dwelling alone in his own hired house, and he had the liberty
of friends coming to visit him and see him, yet he was bound
with a chain. And at the other end of that
chain was a Praetorian guard, a soldier who would continually
be there in his presence. And these bonds were not for
debt, no. They weren't for capital punishment. They weren't for murder. They
weren't for theft. These bonds were simply because
he was preaching the gospel. In the use of his sufferings,
is more generally signified in Philippians 1, 2, the overview
of it. He says these things are all
happening for the furtherance of the gospel. And see the word manifest there
in our text? It says, so that my bonds in
Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places.
The word manifest there is a translation of a Greek word meaning to make
known what has been unknown. Did we know Christ before he
revealed himself to us? He manifested himself to us,
didn't he? There's some Praetorian guard
who the gospel's being manifested to. Oh my, these are the elite of
the elite, hardened soldiers. Can God break down a hardened
heart? and give us a new heart? He can, can't he sister? Oh my,
he can. To make known what is being unknown,
to become known, to be plainly recognized, thoroughly understood
is the further Greek meaning. Manifested. We didn't know Christ
before we were saved, before we were born again. What comes
first, faith or regeneration? Regeneration. You must be born
again. See, faith is a result, is a
result of regeneration. I was talking to someone this
week, and we were talking about how, it was Brother Zane, but
how the Old Testament saints were born again just like we
are. People say, well, what are you talking about? How did they
have faith? It says Abraham believed God. How did Abraham believe
God? He was born again, beloved. Same gospel, same spirit. All those Old Testament saints
are part of the elect, aren't they? When God chose the people,
they were all part of the elect. They were chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world. That's Old Testament saints and
New Testament saints, beloved. They make up, we make up the
body of Christ, the bride of Christ. My oh my. So we see here that the gospel, Christ is now
made manifest in the palace. Our is from the word meaning
to become. The phrase in Christ is to be
continued with, or to be constructed with manifest, not with bonds.
So look at that with manifest. So that my bonds in Christ are
manifest in the palace. It's connected to the fact that
Christ is being manifested in the palace. The question of the
reason for Paul's imprisonment was raised. The Philippians said,
why is he in prison? And even among the Petolian guards,
we see there was questions about why is this man in prison? Why
is he chained up? The word started passing around
the Petolian guards. Because like I said, there were
six soldiers a day, right? Six different soldiers a day
that were chained to Paul. Four hour shifts. So the next question by the guards
would be, who's Christ? Well, he's in bonds for preaching
Christ. Who's Christ? Which would what? Open the door for the gospel
to be proclaimed. And it was effectual. It was
effectual, beloved. And the gospel story would then
be told. It would become known and understood
by the power of God, the Holy Spirit, that Paul was in prison
because he preached the gospel. Do you see the big picture? Paul
was in Israel preaching the gospel. They were going to kill him.
They didn't know he was a Roman citizen, remember? We're going
to see that in our study in Acts. And then he proclaims, I want
to go see Caesar. I'm a Roman citizen. Well, they were terrified.
Because you don't mess with Roman citizens. And so here Paul is
now. He hasn't done anything wrong
except preach the gospel. And that's not wrong, is it?
And he's in bonds. And he says, so that my bonds
in Christ are manifest in all the palace and all other places.
Or my bonds are manifested in Christ. In Christ, that's the
key. His bonds are manifested by the
means of Christ. God in his will and purpose,
right? Planned and purposed that Paul
would be in Rome. Because you know what? There's
some lost sheep among those Praetorian guards, isn't there? How are
they going to hear the gospel? Well, God sends a preacher, doesn't
he? Isn't God amazing? Why are you sitting here? Why
have you heard the gospel preached and proclaimed and believed it?
Because you were sons. God sent the spirit of his son
into your hearts, whereby you now cry, Abba, Father, born again
by the Holy Spirit of God, planned and purposed by God, chosen in
Christ before the foundation of the world. You know, we're going to look
at Paul being the chosen vessel today. Do you know that's the
same Greek word that is used in Thessalonians when Paul's
writing the young church, because people say, oh, you shouldn't
preach election to young converts, because it's just strong meat.
It's the gospel. It's part of the gospel. It's
part of the truth of who Christ is. And it's wonderful. And it doesn't
make us haughty. It lowers us down into the dust,
doesn't it? Because we say, God chose me.
I never would have chosen him. But the same Greek word for chosen
vessel It's the same word that Paul uses over in the Greek,
over in 1st Thessalonians when he says, No one, brethren, beloved,
your election of God. You know what it means in the
Greek? To select. Chosen. Isn't it wonderful? Oh my, it's
amazing, I'll tell you why. So his bonds are a manifestation,
are the means that Christ is using to have the gospel go in
amongst the Praetorian guard. And there's other believers there.
There's a church that's been established in Rome. But there's some Praetorian guards
that are the lost sheep of Christ, and they have to hear the gospel. You see how sovereign our God
is? I'll preach God is in absolute control. And that's wonderful,
isn't it? Now we're fully responsible for
our sins, aren't we? If we die in our sins, we perish.
But praise God, there's some. There's some. There's a remnant
according to the election of grace. We don't know who they are, so
we preach the gospel to everyone, right? There's a remnant according
to the action of grace that Christ redeemed at Calvary's Cross 2,000
years ago. You know, I preach a finished
work. I preach something that's already
done. It's already accomplished. And I say, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And I know God's going
to give the sheep. Isn't it amazing? Oh, it's wonderful, I'll tell
you one. So the reason for Paul's bonds
became known to the Praetorian, it also became known to some
people who it might not have ever become known to, but God
and his providence. Think of this, think of Felix
and Festus and King Agrippa, and others in Caesar's court
as well. And the reason for Paul's bonds,
again, having been made manifest, the reason why he's there for
preaching Christ and Christ alone is because there's some lost
sheep amongst those guards. And they just didn't believe,
they didn't just believe, like, you know, with their head. They
were born again. They were born again. Savingly. And experimentally. They trusted
Christ. So marvel again at the sovereignty
of God. God sends a preacher to Rome.
Let's read again verses 12 to 14. God sends a preacher to Rome
because there's some lost sheep among those Praetorian guards.
Now I want you to know, brethren, that the things concerning me
really have turned out to the advancement of the gospel. This
is in the Greek literal Bible. Okay, follow along in the King
James, but I'm gonna read you verses 12 to 14 in the Greek
literal Bible. Listen to this. Now I want you
to know, brothers, that the things concerning me have turned out
to the advancement of the gospel. So as for my chains in Christ
to have become clearly known in all the palace guard and to
all the rest. So in the Greek it actually speaks
about the imperial guard, which are the Praetorians. And most of the brothers trusting
in the Lord by my chains to dare more abundantly to speak fearlessly
the word. Now let's look at the King James
again in Philippians 1.13, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest
in all the palace and in all the places. My oh my. See the word palace there? This
refers again to the Greek Patorian guard, or in the Greek to the
Patorian guard, the Roman guards, composed of soldiers of the imperial
regiments. They were the elite of the elite,
as I said earlier. And their barracks were in Rome.
And Paul had been living in his own rented quarters, several
commentators said, probably near the barracks themselves, and
guarded by soldiers 24 hours a day. 24 hours a day. Again, the day was split into
the six four-hour shifts. So every four hours, Paul's got
a new audience. And you know Paul spoke to them
about the gospel. And they'd be chained to him,
and Paul would have people come in, and he'd be talking to those
visitors about Christ. Now Epaphroditus was sick, remember?
He fell seriously ill. And he was visiting Paul all
the time when he could. And I'll tell you, they weren't
talking about 50 ways how to be a victorious Christian. By
what you do, they were talking about Christ and Him crucified.
They were praying for the saints. They were exalting Christ. And Paul lived for two years
with a Roman soldier chained to his wrist. Again, different
soldiers would take their turns guarding Paul, and they would
hear his conversations, they would see his visitors, and those
conversations would be full of the gospel. Full of the gospel. full of the only savior of sinners,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Then they'd hear the apostle
pray, because they'd be with him all the time, right? I imagine he prayed for the soldiers,
too, that were right there with him. He'd get to know them by
name. And they would listen as he dictated
the epistles, too. There was guards chained to him
while he was dictating Philippians, Colossians, Ephesians. And they'd hear it all. Oh my. It's amazing. Here's Weiss' translation of
this verse. so that it has become plainly
recognized that my bonds are because of Christ throughout
the whole Praetorian Guard and to all the rest." So they knew
why he was there. And again, some would probably
inquire, who's Christ? And others would go, well Paul's
been talking about this Christ. He rose from the grave. And it's said that none of us
are good. We're all a bunch of sinners.
I don't believe that one would say, call me a sinner. And others would say, yeah, I'm
totally. Oh my. Just remember where the
Lord found us. I was in a pit I couldn't get
myself out of, but help came from above. I was swimming and I was actually
drowning. I wasn't swimming. I was drowning
in the sea of sinfulness. Were you? Lord saved us, didn't he? He reached down. We were under
water, beloved. Help come from above. Salvations
of the Lord, isn't it? Not by anything man can do. No. So the gospel went through the
barracks of the Roman soldiers, a place where it would not have
gone if Paul hadn't been sent there by God. You see God's sovereign hand
at work, right? Marvel at his providence, marvel
at how Paul's bonds were for the advancement of the gospel. Now, these Praetorian guards,
again, were the elite of the Roman armies. They were guards
of the emperor himself and for the prisoners in Rome.
And we see the gospel flooding through their ranks. That's amazing,
isn't it? That's amazing. Let's read verse 14 again. And
many of the brethren of the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds,
are much more bold to speak the word without fear. So now we
see, in addition to the gospel going through the Praetorian
guards, Paul speaks of the increase of
preaching in the city of Rome itself. Now the preaching had
gone silent in Rome because the emperor were killing Christians. But now all of a sudden, there's
a resurgence. There's a resurgence. God the
Holy Spirit is stirring his people. Let's read that verse again.
And many of the brethren of the Lord wax incompetent, but my
bonds are much more bold to speak the word without fear. See the
word many, it's literally the most in the Greek. Most of the Christian brethren
we're preaching now The implication is that very few held back. Very
few held back. And this just isn't preachers. No, this is the brethren. And persecutions in Rome, again,
had been silenced by gospel preaching, had been silenced, and now they
were speaking without fear. They saw Paul in defense of the
gospel, and they were emboldened by God the Holy Spirit to preach
the gospel. See the words waxing confident?
They come from a word which means to persuade in the Greek. To
persuade. These Christians had been persuaded
by the brave and fearless example of Paul in prison, He had come
to a state of settled confidence in the Lord. Are we confident that God will
take care of us? Now sometimes we get worked up,
don't we? We look at circumstances and
we think, oh my, oh my. That's our flesh, right? But the Lord has promised to
take care of us, hasn't he? David said, the Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want. And that's not health, wealth,
prosperity stuff where those guys say whatever you ask for,
they're just a bunch of charlatans and false preachers. That's all
those fellows are. I watched something by another
guy, same guy that I was telling you about, the apologetics guy.
He said, well, I got a video now of this guy, this word of
faith preacher. He said, 2024 is going to be
a great year for me. Right? God's told me that. Like he's got a hotline. Remember
the bat phone? Yeah, he's got a hotline. No, we don't have
a hotline. We come to the throne of grace,
don't we? This guy said, God told me great things are going
to happen with me in this 2024. The next day he went home and
dropped dead. God is not mocked. God is no one to trifle with. His wrath against sin is so great
that His only begotten Son had to die in our room and place
and shed His precious blood to redeem us. And the wrath of God
shall not fall upon God's people because it fell upon Christ.
We shall not be judged ever. I tell my buddies that who think
about all the reward stuff and all that. They say, oh, you're
going to be judged for your works. I'm not going to be judged at
all. There is therefore now no condemnation
for those in Christ Jesus, right? In the Greek. In the Greek, there
is therefore now no judgment, because our judgment fell upon
Christ. And we say, hallelujah. That's amazing. That's incredible. And then see the words, in the
Lord, they're to be brought in with waxing confident, not brethren. So we wax confident in the Lord,
not in ourselves, not in our brethren. We wax confident in
the Lord. See, the fortitude that God had
given Paul, and they knew it came from God, was encouraging
these brethren to wax confident to preach Christ, and it's only
in Christ. And the word speak denotes the
fact, not the substance of speaking. They had broken their silence,
beloved. They'd broken their silence. Here's a translation by Wiest.
In the great majority of brethren, having come to a state of settled
confidence in the Lord by reason of the fact that they had been
persuaded by my bonds, are more abundantly bold, fearlessly breaking
their silence and speaking the word. My, they're preaching Christ. And see in verse 14 that Paul's
sufferings not only resulted then in the conversion of many
outside the church within the Praetorian guard and within the
palace, But the saints in the church
were being encouraged as well. So now we see the big picture,
don't we? God's sovereign plan and purpose. And it's all Him. It's all according to His will.
All according to His purpose. These brethren were challenged
and encouraged by Paul's patience and faithfulness under suffering,
his defense of the gospel. Oh, my. And here in verse 14 is another
instance of the usefulness of the Apostle's sufferings. So
when we go through things, it's useful, not just for us, but
for others too. Look what we saw Dan and Kathy
go through, and look what the grace of God, He upheld you,
and Dan, and carried you through. Look at Sister Bar, right? The
Lord, all through everything you've suffered, the Lord's taken
care of you. And Sister Carolyn, I know you testify in the same
thing. God is sovereign. He takes care of us. He watches
over us. My, oh my. And note also he calls
them brethren in the Lord. Ah, this is to distinguish them
from the Jews who were at Rome, who were his brethren according
to the flesh, and to express their spiritual character in
relation to the church at Philippi. And also he called them brethren.
It's scriptural for us to call each other brothers and sisters.
There's nothing wrong with that. I had someone tell me one time,
you should call each other brother and sister. Wow, they're my brothers.
You guys are my family in Christ. You're my brothers and sisters
in Christ. It's wonderful, isn't it? We just found out we have
some more brothers from Canada. Pretty wonderful, isn't it?