Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to the portion we read, the epistle
of Paul the Apostle to the Philippians, chapter 1, and reading from our
text, verse 12. But I would ye should understand,
brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen
out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel. Philippians 1 and verse 12. How vital it is in the Christian
faith and concerning our own pathway that we are brought to
understand what is happening. You know, when our Lord rose
from the dead and he appeared to the disciples in the upper
room, we read that then opened to their understanding that they
might understand the scriptures. And there was a lot of time during
our Lord's ministry and that time of the crucifixion that
they didn't understand. They're very downcast, they're
very despondent, they're very troubled. We trusted the two
on the way to Emmaus said that it should have been he that should
have redeemed Israel. And yet when they understood,
when the Lord was able to show them in all the scriptures that
the Christ of God was a suffering Christ, a saviour, had to suffer,
ought not Christ to have suffered these things, then they could
understand. Then they could, and especially
when it brought to be the time when the Lord was taken up from
them and received up into heaven, that then they returned to Jerusalem
and with great joy and great gladness. Why? Because they had
really understood. The Lord had come. He had accomplished
what he came to do. He had done his Father's will. And though they no longer saw
the Lord here below, yet in understanding they had great joy and great
comfort. Maybe this morning in a path
you're walking or I'm walking that we have things we don't
understand. What I do thou knowest not now,
but thou shalt know hereafter. And in not understanding there
is perplexity and discouragement and trouble. And so the apostle
here, he is writing from Rome, he is in prison, he is locked
up. What good can he do there? How can this be the furtherance
of the gospel of God's kingdom? And he writes to the Philippian
church to assure them that he would have them understand that
these things that happened unto him, that rather than not working
for good, they did work for good, and not only work for good, but
even fallen out to the furtherance of the gospel, it was furthering. the ingathering of souls and
the proclamation of the gospel of the grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ, that many were being turned from nature's darkness
and into God's marvellous light. Many had been converted and were
being converted and he was to encourage them in that, to look
upon it, not in a way that made them despond, but in a way that
made them to be encouraged and helped. And what he sends to
them is to be to us and to the Church of God, to the end of
time, when they also shall see things happen to the Lord's servants
and wonder, how can that work for good? How can that work for
the gospel? or in their own lives? How can
that be in God's purpose and God's plan? How can the Lord
use that? And so it is with that desire
to see providences working for good and especially the furtherance
of the gospel that I bring this word before you this morning. Now of course we would remember
how the church began here at Philippi. We are told the account
of that in Acts chapter 16. No, the apostle had been forbidden
to go into parts of Asia, but then The Lord gave him a vision
in the night. A man of Macedonia prayed him
saying, come over into Macedonia and help us. And he came to Philippi,
which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia. And it was
there that they went to the riverside where prayer was wont to be made,
Lydia was converted. But then as they went to prayer
there is this certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination
and she followed Paul and They were saying, these men are the
servants of the Most High God, which show unto us the way of
salvation. Now, that was true, they did.
But she kept doing that, and for many, many days. And Paul,
being grieved, turned and said to the Spirit, I command thee
in the name of Jesus to come out of her. And he came out the
same hour. A miracle was wrought there.
when her masters saw that their hope of gains from divination
was taken away, then they brought them to the magistrates, the
rulers, they brought them into prison, and then while in prison
they sung praises unto God and psalms at midnight, and then
there was an earthquake, and the Lord through that means,
he converted the jailer, He converted all the jailers' household. That's
how the Church of God began, with Paul being locked up in
prison, and fetters on, and being beaten. And this is how the church
began, and he would remind them of that, right from the beginning
of their church. I would understand, brethren,
that the things which happen unto me have fallen out rather
unto the furtherance of the gospel. It certainly did in the formation
of that church. Mind us, sometimes we can forget
what the Lord has used in the time past. And it does us good
to think back and to think of those things that have happened
and that have happened right even in the very beginning. of
the way, in the beginning of our experience or our calling,
and we've forgotten them. And then when fresh things happen,
we need to be reminded, look, you remember how the Lord first
began, how he first worked and how you're first brought to faith. Was not that in these troubles
and trials and afflictions and bonds even that we're working
together for good. Now the apostle, we know when
he wrote to the Corinthian church, he gives them a little summary
of those things that he had gone through in the second epistle
to the Corinthians. We read in chapter 11 and from
verse 23 where he says that He describes himself as a minister
of Christ. He says, in labours more abundant,
in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths
oft. And he gives this summary of
the Jews. Five times received I forty stripes,
save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods. What he meant in forty stripes,
save one, They did not want to, because of the law, give more
than 40 stripes. And just in case they counted
wrong, they only gave them 39 stripes each time. That's what
he means by that. Of Jews, five times received
I 40 stripes, I've won. It's 39 stripes. Five times. Thrice was I beaten with rods. Once was I stoned, thrice I suffered
shipwreck, three times. We only read in the scriptures
of one time, but he says three times. A night and a day I have
been in the deep, in journeys often in perils of waters, in
perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils
by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness,
in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness
and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst,
in fastings often, in cold and nakedness, beside those things
that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care
of all the churches. And yet he glories in these things. He says, in Damascus, that they
were trying to take him. And through a window in a basket
was I let down by the wall and escaped his hands of the governor. All of these things, he goes
over his life. Just a summary there to the Corinthian
church. explaining of all these things.
So when Paul is saying to the church at Philippi, I would,
you should understand brethren, the things which happened unto
me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel.
These are some of those things that happened unto him. And he
is saying these things, they worked out for good. It actually
furthered the gospel that I suffered all of these things. You know,
I believe the day's coming that the Church of God in this land
will suffer. In other lands, they are suffering. And we need to be reminded of
this. Sometimes we get settled on our
lease, we get used to our nice, comfortable, and easy lives,
and everything is smooth, and everything is going nicely. Sometimes that can change as
in a moment. And we need to be reminded of
these things that the Apostle was telling the church at Philippi. He is able to testify in this
context here that Even in Caesar's palace, he says in the verse
following our text, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest
in all the palace, Caesar's court, and in all other places, many
of the brethren in the Lord. waxing confident by my bonds,
are much more bold to speak the word without fear." Indeed, obviously
they're looking and they're thinking, well, he's preaching the word,
and the worst that he gets is bonds. So they are then preaching
the word, encouraged by what has happened to him. And he speaks
of those that preach, and some even of contention, but he says,
whatever it is, He said that the gospel is preached and he's
set for the defense of the gospel and these things he sets before
them as to how it works for good. At the end of the chapter as
well, in chapter four, the epistle rather, in chapter four and verse
22, He says, all the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of
Caesar's household. Saints in Caesar's household. The Lord brought there as a captive,
brought there under accusations by the Jews, brought there. He
didn't have to pay for his passage. It was provided for by Rome. And yet the Lord used it in the
conversion of those even in Caesar's household. But I would ye should understand
brethren that the things which happened unto me have fallen
out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel. Well I want to
Just confine our thoughts in three ways this morning, the
Lord's help. Firstly, God using providence
for the good of his people. And then, as it were, put a clearer
point on that as what is in our text here, that God using providence
for the furtherance of the gospel. And then thirdly, scripture examples,
some examples that we may really look upon and see how the Lord
works these things out. But firstly, God using providence
for the good of his people. The word before us this evening,
or this morning, could really be based upon a word that Paul
wrote to the Romans in Romans 8, a well-known verse in verse
28. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. God does have a purpose. God
has a purpose in the lives of his people. He has a purpose
in his church. And we are to not just think,
well, the church of God is a spiritual entity, it is in the world, but
nothing to do with the world, there's no interaction between
the two. We are not to think that at all.
We are to remember that God created this world for His honour and
for His glory, and that everything that He does is for the good
of His church, His people, His chosen people. This world only
exists because of them. When the last one is called by
grace and brought to a saving knowledge of himself, then the
Lord can return. And it won't be then a time of
being born again or converted. It will be then a time that all
who are born again and converted, all of the Lord's people that
are alive, shall be caught up with the Lord in the air. He
shall come with all his saints that have died, and the dead
in Christ shall rise first, and there shall be that general resurrection. In this chapter, there is twice
a reminding of the day of Jesus Christ. Paul says in verse 6,
being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun
a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Well, that day will be when the
Lord Jesus comes the second time. and raises his people that have
died in Christ, gathers his elect, that great victory at the end
of 1 Corinthians chapter 15, when there is that general resurrection. Many of us would think, well,
the day is when the Lord comes in death, when we are brought
to stand before the Lord, but the scriptures look right past
and they look to the resurrection of the dead, when what the Lord
has purchased, the souls and bodies of his people, that both
are delivered from the corruption of sin and death, that there
shall be life of the soul in the new birth, life of the body,
a new life in the resurrection, and that day is the day of Jesus
Christ, and the Lord will do that for all where he has begun
a work of grace in. But we would then view that all
that happens in this world is working together for the good
of his people. You might think, well, the Old
Testament speaks about the children of Israel, and it does. It traces
the history of the world through the nation of Israel. But it
doesn't just leave out the other nations. The prophets spoke of
other nations. The prophets showed very clearly
the Lord was in control over them. They couldn't just come
to Israel and take Israel away as Assyria did, or like Babylon
did. No, God says, you are my servant,
Nebuchadnezzar. You will take my people away
for 70 years, and then they'll be released. They'll go back.
You're being used to chasten them and correct them. You might
think you're in control, you're doing what you want, but you
are just my servant. And the Lord uses the nations
of the world. He still does. We might think
and listen to the news, and we think of the great nations of
America and Russia and China, and we wonder what the world
is coming to and what is happening, but that God is in control. Providence,
the ordering of the nations and the ordering of what happens
in the world. Who is he that saith, and it
cometh to pass when the Lord commandeth it not? We see our
own leaders and we would pray for them and wisdom and help
for them, but we see them without God, not asking for counsel and
wisdom from his hand, not acknowledging his hand and his goodness. being left to just corruption
and going hither and thither every way. If our hopes were
placed on man, how discouraged we would be, how disheartened
we would be, how we could so easily get so churned up about
all the mistakes and all of the way that man is going. But when
we see God is in control, and even over a fallen man, a man
that just drifts and goes his own way, The Lord is overruling
it for good. And we are to remember this, that
this is set forth in the word of God. God uses all things,
all nations, all men for the good of his people. Those providences,
are ordered for their good. And we know these things. They work together for good.
We've got to be very careful how we measure that goodness. If we're saying, well, the only
way it will work for good for me, if it leaves me with good
health and with a nice home and all the pleasures and goodness
in this life loved ones and friends and we measure God's goodness
by our standards in that way, then we are never going to see
that this is true, that it works for good. Many times we will
see that, we will see things of which the Lord works things
and gives us of this world's goods and comforts, and we would
bless Him for it and thank Him for it. But when it comes that
those things are taken away, like it did with Job, then we
have to look higher than that, and we can see that the worth
of the soul is so much better. The Lord says, that we are not
to have that anxious thought of what shall we eat, what shall
we put on, and that we are to seek first the kingdom of heaven,
the kingdom of God and His righteousness. All these other things shall
be added unto you, having food and raiment, let us therewith
be content. And the standard that the Lord
puts is It is not a wealth ministry. It's not a ministry that says,
follow the Lord and you'll have all riches and wealth. And if
you haven't got riches and wealth, it's an evidence that you haven't
got faith. And you're not really trusting
in the Lord. There's some terrible, blasphemous
ministries in this world that go along that line. That is not
the line of the scriptures at all. God's dear children are
strangers and pilgrims here. This is not their rest. It is
polluted, their home is in heaven, their refuge there. Their souls
to them are much more worth than their bodies, counting not their
lives dear unto them. They seek that heavenly country. The Lord says, fear not them
which can kill the body, and after that there is nothing more
they can do. But fear him who hath power,
that after he hath killed, cast both body and soul into hell. the worth of a soul. One day
every one of us must die. The soul must be separated from
the body, must return to God who gave it. And every day we
read of those who have been the millionaires in this world, have
had everything that heart could wish. And some of them, they
take their own lives because they're so empty, so unfulfilled. They have nothing to live for,
though they have everything of this world's goods. But what
a treasure the Lord's dear people have, and they see everything
taken down of earth, and yet they have in heaven a far more
enduring and eternal weight of glory. And what a blessed truth
to realize then, that those things that happen in this life, as
we sung in our middle hymn, chance and fortune we defy, the chief
of Satan's lies, my life's My neuter circumstance is subject
to his eye. The Lord is the orderer and governor
for his people. He is the one that maps out our
lives. We are to walk by prayer, we
walk trusting, looking to him, using the word as our lamp. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,
a light unto my path. But it is walking in a way that
knows that God is in control, not man, not chance, not some
other power, that there's not two forces in this world. Yes,
Satan is very, very active, but the Lord is over him. It's very
clearly seen in the book of Job. God giving him permission to
do much to Job, but God was in control, not Satan. And the latter
end of Job was better than his beginning. And so may we be strengthened
in this truth that those things that happen in this world, that
they are under God's control. Kings, governors, magistrates,
All those that God has appointed, everything that affects our lives,
is under the Lord's governance. He is not the author of evil,
but he is the restrainer of evil. The wrath of man shall praise
thee, the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain. Well, I want to go in a second
point even further than that. Further than knowing that God
uses providences for the good of his people. To say that God
uses these things that happen in this world and in the lives
of his people, even to the furtherance of the gospel. if we know the
worth of our own souls, if we are in a position of teaching
others or preaching, as I do this morning, or if we are just
one of the Lord's people who God has put in this world as
salt and light. He says, this people have I formed
for myself, they shall show forth my praise. Now it is God that
decrees in what circumstances and in what ways they shall show
forth the Lord's praise. Some may do it and have done
in the past, the great preachers in the past who have preached
to thousands and have been greatly used in the revivals in this
country and in others. God has used them in that way
to the furtherance of the Gospel. In the early Church, in the first
300 years, the ten tremendous persecutions of that Church,
God used the furtherance of the Gospel, the persecutions to scatter
the people of God through the nations, He used the death of
some of his people when others saw how stoically they died,
how much their faith meant to them, then they also believed,
they also suffered. But the furtherance of the Gospel
came through sufferings and even unto death. Then we think of
the persecutions in this land that brought the pilgrim fathers
to go over to America and the furtherance of the gospel in
that way. We think of those times that
the Lord has worked things that we may have thought, how can
that ever work for good? And yet the Lord has turned it
about and actually used it to saving sinners, to proclaiming
the word of God. Sometimes it is in our workplace. Peter says, be ready to give
a reason of the hope that is in you to everyone that asketh
you with meekness and with fear. And it is in that way it furthers
the gospel. We are told how we are to live.
as servants, as children, as those that are part of society. And in those troubles, those
trials, the Lord uses them to the furtherance of the Gospel.
I know if we have the reality of the work of God in us, that
will be the desire of our souls. And this obviously was with the
Philippians. It's not just The Apostle Paul
is not just ministers that say that the burden on them is the
spread of the Gospel and the spread of the Word and the ingathering
of his people. It is his people that desire
that as well. It's a poor Christian that would
say, well, so thankful I'm called by grace. I'm one of the Lord's
people. Doesn't matter about my siblings. Doesn't matter about
those in my town or those that are still walking in darkness.
I'm all right. Is that the spirit of the gospel?
Is that the desire of the furtherance of the gospel? Paul is writing
in a way of comfort to this church. And it's very obvious this church
wanted the gospel to be furthered. They wanted it to be blessed.
That Paul wasn't only just a blessing to them, the Philippian church,
but a blessing to others as well. And when they saw his labors
curtailed, they saw them stopped, they saw him in prison, then
it grieved them. that he was no longer preaching,
he was no longer being a means of conversion. But Paul says,
no, while I am yet alive, God has a purpose and God is doing
it and using it to the furtherance of the gospel. May we have the
same spirit and same desire that we be not just cumbrers of the
earth and of those who are just happy to see things working together
for the good of the people of God and for us in our lives,
but not see the gospel furthered. The Lord added unto the church,
we read in the early church, daily such as should be saved. The commission is to go into
all the world and to preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptised
shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned. And that
should be the real desire for the furtherance of the gospel. May we have the spirit that the
Philippine church obviously had and what Paul really felt would
be a comfort to them. That he doesn't just say to them
that the things that happened unto me have fallen out For my
good, no, yes they did, but this he has in aim, he is concerned
for the furtherance of the gospel and he can say that it worked
for good in that way. And what a mercy if we could
say the same and to actually see the Lord working for good
in sinners' hearts and lives and for His people. I know many
of the Lord's dear people, servants, it is through their afflictions
or their loved ones or things that they go in their lives,
the trial that they have, that shapes their ministry and what
they preach and what they do. And I think some of the hearers
don't realize that some of the Lord's servants in the great
afflictions that they go through, their hearers are the beneficiaries
of it, that those things actually are used to furtherance the gospel
because they're then able to minister to the Lord's tried
and afflicted and tempted people to come where they are. We want to look then in the third
place to those scripture examples that show forth this truth. But I would, ye should understand,
brethren, that the things which happen unto me have fallen out
rather unto the furtherance of the gospel. Now we may mention
before of the two that went to Emmaus in their opening remarks
and how the Lord opened the understanding of the disciples in the upper
room. And the crucifixion itself, it
stands as such a beacon of help to the people of God. or really
even our Lord's coming into the world, I've often marveled at
how the God of heaven and earth used a decree for taxing to make
sure that Joseph and Mary brought or came to their hometown in
Bethlehem where our Lord was to be born to fulfil the Scriptures. And if they'd have said, well,
we don't worry about taxing or this. If you look at it as a
census that is being taken, just a worldly rule, a worldly governance,
we're going to stay where we are. Then the Scriptures would
not have been fulfilled. It was by them following their
government at that time's directions in what would happen. And then
we see, of course, when our Lord was crucified, Peter was able
to summarize it in that sermon in Acts 2, at Pentecost, and
saying that him that was delivered By the full knowledge and determinate
counsel of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands crucified
and slain. And he brings together God's
full knowledge, his purpose, and doesn't leave out that they
were guilty of his death. They crucified the Lord of life
and glory and they were pricked in their hearts, they fell under
that. But there's a beautiful bringing together, and right
through the account, our Lord so often saying that the Scriptures
might be fulfilled, when they came to take him in the garden,
when they had the swords, put up the sword within his sheath. Shall he not do his father's
will? How then shall the Scriptures
be fulfilled? were to call upon 12 legion of
angels, he had the power to do it. But how then should the scriptures
be fulfilled? If he was able to get out of
that situation, if he was able to be delivered from it. You
know, Satan used Peter one time when our Lord was telling of
his coming sufferings, he said, be that not unto thee. And the
Lord rebuked him and said, get thee behind me, Satan. Our saviour
is not the things that be of men, but the things that be of
God. Satan would cause us to escape
the cross, to spare ourselves, to not walk in the way the Lord
would have us to go. We're not to go seeking out trouble
and seeking deliberately to put ourselves in the way of persecution. But when that comes to us and
when trials come to us, then we are to embrace them as the
Lord's will and as the Lord's way. And the whole sacrifice
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, it was carried out in
these circumstances where there's these false witnesses, we have
Pilate who's washing his hands of the whole matter, pronouncing
him innocent but then having him whipped and crucified. The Lord in the midst of obeying
multitude, away with him, away with him, crucify him. And yet
what was brought there was a bringing to pass of the seed of the woman
that should bruise the serpent's head, and Anna at his birth spake
of him to all them that look for redemption in Jerusalem.
If your sins and mine are put away, they are put away there
at Calvary by our Lord. If ever there is an illustration
that providence, the things happening and men seeming to be in control,
was to the furtherance of the gospel, it is there at Calvary
at the crucifixion. Maybe I'll think of that And
in many things that are a difficulty in the Church of God or hard
to be reconciled, many things, if we go back in our thoughts,
our minds, to Calvary, to our Lord Jesus Christ, His one sacrifice
to put away sin, His rising again for our justification, His perfect
righteous life imputed to us, it is those things that put us
again on an even keel. It shows us the purposes of God
and that working together for good. Another example then going
back to the Old Testament is Joseph. We know Joseph was sent
before to preserve life in the time of the great seven-year
famine. In Genesis you can read of that. and yet in what ways it was brought
about. God gave him intimation in dreams,
but then it was totally taken out of his hands by providence. Sometimes in our lives, we pray
to be directed, and we have got to make a decision, do we go
to this place or that? Do we do this or that? With dear
Joseph, his life was taken over by Providence, by what was happening
under God's hand, by wicked men, other men. He obeyed his father,
went to his brethren. His brethren took him, stripped
him of his raiment, threw him into a pit, soaked the raiment
in blood, made his father believe that he'd been killed by an evil
beast. He was taken then into Egypt. He was sold. as a servant to
Potiphar and a servant of the guard, and then falsely accused
by his wife and cast into the prison where the king's prisoners
were bound, interprets the dreams of the butler and the baker of
Pharaoh. They come to pass. The baker
is slain. The butler is restored to his
office. But he forgets Joseph's plea
that he remember him when he's restored. He doesn't say anything
until a couple of years later. And Pharaoh has a dream. No one
can interpret it. The butler remembers his faults.
And he speaks of Joseph to Pharaoh. And Joseph is suddenly taken
out of prison. He interprets the dreams. He's
then next unto Pharaoh. He organizes the in gathering
of grain in the seven years of plenty, and then in the distribution
of it in the seven years of famine, and during that time his brethren
come. His father's heard there was
corn in Egypt, he sends his brothers, he deals with his brothers, they
don't know him, he knows them, he brings them to acknowledge
their sin, to confess it, to know what they'd done, And then
at last he makes himself known to his brethren and he brings
them to the best part of Egypt. They come into Egypt as God had
said to Abraham, thy seed shall be in a strange land. And it
was there that he built up a great nation, 70 people. came into
Egypt and 215 years later, they came out a great multitude and
a great nation and spoiled the Egyptians in doing so. But in
all that happened to Joseph, it worked for good, for the furtherance
of the Church of God. It was the forming of Israel
there. And when they came out, even
their bondage and all that happened to them in Egypt, it worked for
good. And so we see we have these accounts
looking back, must have been very dark, very hard for Joseph
and for those walking through it, but it worked together then
for good. We then have another case in
the Old Testament with Naomi. Her husband, they went from Bethlehem
down into Moab because there was a famine in Bethlehem. And they went down with their
two sons. And their two sons married Moabitish
women. But then when they were there,
he died and his two sons died. And his wife, Naomi, was left
a widow with two daughter-in-laws that were also widows. And Ruth
and Orpah. Ruth claimed to her mother, Orpah. She stayed with her people and
her gods. But Ruth went with Naomi back
to the land of Israel, to Bethlehem. And there she was joined to Boaz
in marriage. You can read the whole account
there in the book of Ruth. And of course Ruth is in the
line to Christ. It was through that way they
didn't just work together for good, for Ruth, but for the whole
church and for the line to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we see
great bereavements and sorrows working for good in that way.
And we could go over many accounts. We think of in the first book
of Samuel, in chapter one, you read of Hannah who couldn't have
children and her trials. and how that worked for good
in the bringing forth of Samuel. We can read in the book of Esther,
a book that doesn't mention God, but has his works overall all
the time, and the people of the Jews preserved from the wicked
designs of Haman. And we could go on in many accounts
through the scriptures, where we see not only working for good
but working for good for the church and for the people of
God and bringing about God's purposes in the exalting of his
dear son and of his work in this world. The people of God are
formed for himself and those things that they go through are
for God's honour and God's glory and Paul is able to testify this
but I would have you should understand, brethren. And I do hope and pray
that maybe those that have been struggling with things, couldn't
understand, maybe through the word this morning, had a little
light upon their path, upon the Lord's way, and to be able to
have a little understanding to shine in your hearts that the
things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the
furtherance of the gospel, not just fallen out by chance, but
fallen out in the beautiful design and ordering of God, in God's
purposes to his honour and glory. May the Lord bless this word. Amen.