Philippians chapter 2. Of all the churches that Paul
ministered to, the church at Philippi had the least amount
of problems of any of them. And the reason is, is they experienced
Christ the light, His power coming to them, through the apostle
Paul holding forth the Word of Life to them, through Paul preaching
Christ to them. And they experienced that it's
God working in them that made them willing to do His good pleasure,
to believe on Christ. They experienced that through
the preaching of the Word. And so they were of one mind,
they were striving together for the faith of the gospel. Paul
said, as you've always obeyed. They had always done this. There
were two ladies that were not of the same mind. But other than
that, this church was of one mind, striving together for the
faith of the gospel. They were holding forth the word
of life, preaching Christ. Preaching Christ. That's why
they didn't have many problems in their congregation. God solves
our problems in our heart through the preaching of the gospel.
He disciplines us through the preaching of the gospel, rebukes
us, corrects us, edifies, grows, whatever we need, comforts, consoles,
he does it through the preaching of the word. That's why they
didn't have the problems the other churches did. And so Paul
here reminds them, we're picking up here in verse 13, Philippians
2, it's God which worketh in you both to will and to do of
His good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings
and disputings, that you may be blameless and harmless. the
sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse
nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding
forth the word of life, that I may rejoice in the day of Christ,
that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. Yea,
and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your
faith, I joy and rejoice with you all. For the same cause also
do you joy and rejoice with me." Now Christ Jesus is the light
in each of his saints throughout this world, and he is the light
of his church collectively, where He's united us and gathered us,
made us of one mind to hold forth the Word of Life. Christ is the
light. We're holding forth Christ the light. He said in John 8,
12, I'm the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. There's no,
there's no question mark on that. It's certain. That's what Christ
promised. We were total darkness just like
every sinner in this world. We were the crooked and perverse
nation Paul speaks about. You know, you would think he
would say, among whom you shine in the midst of a whole bunch
of crooked and perverse nations. He just said, no, there's just
one crooked and perverse nation. It's everybody outside of Christ
and that's where we were. That's where we were. But God
predestinated us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself. And so He sent forth a man preaching
the Gospel, holding forth the Word of Life, and Christ shined
the light into our hearts, and He became our wisdom. The light
literally came on. Christ shined the light in our
heart. God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness
has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. And Christ is
the light. He is wisdom to us. He is the
light by which we know His person and believe His person. By Christ
the light, we know He is God in human flesh. By Christ the
light, by Him being our wisdom, we know He is the brightness
of God's glory. That's how He's the light. He's
the brightness of God's glory. He's the express image of His
person. We know this by Christ the light. The only way, that's the only
way we have discernment is Christ the light. Somebody held forth
the word of life to us. And Christ is the life and the
life is the light of men. Spiritual discernment. Christ
is the light by which we have discernment and believe that
he accomplished the redemption of his people. By His light we
know Christ came, we look to the cross and we see that for
God's elect Christ was made a curse for us and thereby He redeemed
us from the curse and condemnation of the law. We know that by Christ
the light shining in our heart. We know by Christ the light that
and we believe He's our righteousness and He's our holiness. We know
He is our perfect righteousness and He's the one who's justified
us. And we know that Christ is the
perfection of holiness in whom we're perfect at God's right
hand. And He's the holiness in our
heart that called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. We
know this by Christ's light. And so by Christ's light dwelling
in His church, and in each of us in particular, personally,
but He unites us as one city, as one candlestick, and He is
our light. And so this is what Christ said.
Look at Matthew 5, look at verse 14. Matthew 5, verse 14. You know a city, a church is called a city, and
a church is called a candlestick. And Paul is addressing the Philippians
as one church, as one unified body in Christ of whom Christ
is the light, whose mission it is to hold forth Christ the light,
the word of life. Now here's what Christ said about
you in particular, And us as His church, He said, you are
the light of the world. Matthew 5.14, you are the light
of the world. John the Baptist said, he said,
I'm not that light. Now we're not that light. Christ
is the light. He's the son of righteousness
and we're like the moon. We don't have light in ourselves,
we get our light from Christ. We reflect the light of Christ. We're always seen by this world. We're always seen by the world. He said, verse 14, a city that
is set on a hill cannot be hid. You've been at night driving
down a highway, and especially like if you're in the mountains
or something like that, and there's a city up there, up ahead, and
you can see the whole sky lit up because of that city. A city
set on a hill cannot be hidden. And that's on purpose, brethren.
Our Lord purposed in giving his saints light and uniting us together
with one head, Christ Jesus, one light, Christ the light,
to hold forth this gospel. He's done it on purpose. so that
we will be used to bear witness of Christ to this dark, crooked,
perverse nation in which we dwell, in which we live. Christ said,
verse 15, He says here, this was on purpose. He said, neither
do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick,
and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Now you
notice there, he said a city and he said a candlestick. That's
the church. That's us united together. We're a city on a hill and we're
the candlestick. He said in Revelation, he walks
amidst the seven candlesticks, the seven churches, holds the
pastors in his hands, held the stars in his hand. And He's working
in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. And when
the Word of life goes forth, He's blessing that Word to do
His will and His good pleasure. Paul's writing these things to
the Philippians as the church of our Lord Jesus Christ. As
members in particular, you're lights, plural. But together,
you're a city set on a hill. You're the candlestick. You're
the light. You're the light, and we have
one mission. It's to preach Christ. It's to
hold forth the word of life. That's the mission. That's what
we're sent here to do. So Christ says here in verse
16, Matthew 5, 16, Let your light so shine before men that they
may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Now, be sure to hear what I'm about to say. There is a difference,
a vast difference between doing good works to be seen of men and in the way that Christ makes
His church let your light so shine before men that they may
see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Those are two different things. to let your light so shine before
men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father
which is in heaven. That's what Christ works. But
to do good works to be seen of men, that's what ungodly free
will works religion does. That's man-made religion. Christ
said of the Pharisees in Matthew 23.5, He said, all their works
they do for to be seen of men. He said, when they give, when
they do alms, He said, they do that to be seen of men. He said,
when they fast, He said, they make sad their countenance to
make sure men know it, they do that to be seen of men. He said
they make long prayers in the assembly, then they go out in
public and then pray in public, and they do it to be seen of
men. And they did it so that, they did all of these things
so that men would be attracted to them by this religious show,
and so that men would join with them in their religious organization. And when men do that, they would
glorify the Pharisee. They would glorify those men.
Brethren, religious organizations today do the same thing. They do all the same things.
They market prayers. They have all these different
prayer services. They have all kind of humanitarian
efforts where they're giving. They market that. They talk about their fasting
and how they abstain from this and that and the other. They
do these things and market it to the public just like a business
markets their goods and their services. To try to get people
to join in their religious organization because of those good works that
men see. And men, if you listen to men
and you listen to men in religion talk, They glory in their church. They glory in what all their
church has to offer and all the things they do for people and
how fun it is just to be in this religious club. Christ is not
preached. The motive Christ puts in the
hearts of his people and the motive he puts in our hearts
as one unified body is to preach Christ, to hold forth the Word
of Life, so that God our Father is glorified in His Son by those
Christ calls to faith in Christ. We want to hold forth the Gospel
of Christ, the Word of Life, so that when God calls His lost
sheep, They glorify God for your professed subjection to the Gospel. They see your good works that
Christ worked in you, and they glorify your Father in the person
of Christ Jesus. I've heard so many brethren who
were called out of religion through the preaching of the Word, and
I've heard this from many, many brethren who God has called to
believe the gospel in truth. And this is what they say. I've
heard them say that the church, the brethren there, all the brethren
together, when they came in for the first time, they didn't do
anything to draw attention to themselves. that it wasn't showing
them all the different programs they had and all the different
things they had for the different ages in their family and the
different circumstances of their life and all that. They didn't
do anything to draw attention to themselves, didn't put on
a religious show, wasn't trying to act a special way, they just
preached Christ to them. They preached Christ, they held
forth the word of life. And they confessed. I've heard
them say this. I heard Brother Mark Henson say
that Don Fortner was the first preacher he had ever heard say
from the pulpit. He heard Don say that Don said,
I'm a sinner. He said, that's the first time
I've ever heard a preacher say that. And this is what I hear brethren
say. When I came in to hear the gospel,
the brethren didn't act like they were holier than I was.
They didn't act like that they were something different than
they are. They said they were sinners saved by the grace of
God. And I hear them say, and the
good works they did, that God worked in them, was They didn't
draw attention to themselves. They didn't make themselves the
focus. They turned our focus to Christ
and had us look to Christ through the preaching of the Word. That's
when a sinner's really been made subject to God. That's when, you know, Peter
said, then those that are called to faith, they will glorify God
for your professed subjection unto the Gospel. And that's true
subjection is when you don't want the focus to be you, or
your religious organization, or your denomination, or anyone
in particular. You want Christ to get all the
glory. And that's only worked by the
Lord, by God giving you a heart, one mind, in one same love to
do everything in lowliness of mind, esteeming those that come
in better than yourself. These are sinners, depraved,
who need to hear the word of life preached to them. They don't
need a religious charade. They're going to hell. They need
to hear the gospel. And God gives you a heart to
preach the gospel. And when God saves those brethren,
they glorify God for making you do that, for making you hold
forth the Word of Life rather than trying to force them and
dispute with them and force a confession of faith out of them. You know,
you didn't do that. You just preached Christ. and
trusted Him. So the Spirit of God used Paul
to remind us of this good news. It's God which works in you both
the will and the do of His good pleasure. Our risen Redeemer
is in each of His saints, He's in the midst of His church, He's
working in each of you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.
And we saw this Sunday in Matthew 18, Christ told us what that
will is. He said, it's not the will of
your father that one of these little ones should perish. talking
about His people, His elect. And Christ is working in you
that He's already called and He's not going to let you perish,
and He's working in you to hold forth the Word of Life, us together,
because His lost sheep that don't know Him yet, He's not going
to let one of them perish. And so, here's what Paul commands
us to do. I've got three things to show
you here, very briefly. First of all, Having this blessed
assurance that it's God our Savior working in the hearts of His
people to will and do of His good pleasure, we have no reason
to murmur or dispute with any sinner. Certainly not with one
another, but not with any man that comes to hear this gospel
or that you bear witness to in your day to day. No reason to
murmur or dispute. No reason. Remember Christ said
to those that came, that multitude that came following Him, because
He fed them with the fish and the loaves. And He said, except
you eat My flesh and drink My blood, you have no life in you.
And they began to chatter. And what He said to them, murmur
not amongst yourselves. Murmur not. No man can come to
Me except My Father which is in heaven. Draw him. Murmur not. Dispute not. Now, we do all things
without murmuring and disputing. We each know by our sovereign
Savior working in us and calling us to faith, we know He really
does work in His people both to will and to do of His good
pleasure. You know that by experience. And since He's called you, He's
granted you faith and repentance so many times since He called
you. that you know He continues to
work in you to will and do of His good pleasure. He affectionately
called us and He called us personally by somebody simply holding forth
the Word of Life to us. It says in John 1.12, as many
as received Him, men like to boast, well, I received Jesus. They think that means they accepted
Him. When you receive him, it means
he was given to you so that you were made willing. and you trusted
him. And he said, and as many as received
him, to them gave he power or privilege to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born,
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but of God. And you having experienced that
power of God calling you personally, you know that God really works
his will and good pleasure in his people. You know that. We
know it. So you know that about your brethren.
You don't have to murmur and dispute with your brethren. You
know God works in His people. And when brethren, when you're
bearing witness to someone or someone comes in here to hear
the gospel, we don't have to start disputing doctrine with
men. Don't ever argue doctrine with
anybody. Don't do that. That's dishonoring
to God. We declare the Gospel. And that's
it. And Paul, when he preached the
Gospel, if somebody rejected the Gospel, he told the Gentiles,
you deem yourself unworthy of eternal life. He said of the
Jews, you deem yourself unworthy of eternal life, I'll go preach
to the Gentiles. But don't dispute and murmur. And we don't want to dispute
and murmur for this reason. Verse 15, he said, that you may
be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, Philippians 2.15,
that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without
rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom
you shine as lights in the world. Now the only way we're going
to be blameless and harmless in the sight of God is in Christ. By what He's done for us and
what He's worked in us, we're going to meet God robed in Christ's
righteousness, made holy by Christ's holiness, so that He will present
us to God without fault, without spot, without blame, unreprovable
in His sight. But our motive and our harsh
desire is to be blameless and harmless sons of God without
rebuke in the midst of this crooked and perverse nation right now,
in the eyes of men among whom you shine as lights in the world.
Now brethren, be sure to get this and stay with me on this
point right here because this is very important. Unregenerate
sinners, especially religious unregenerate sinners, they will
accuse you. They will accuse us as a church.
You might as well go on and mark that down. That's going to happen. They did it to Christ and He
was without sin. In fact, that's why they did
it to Christ. That's why they did it to Christ.
Brother Don used to say, don't think unregenerate sinners will
see Christ in you. They didn't see Christ in Christ.
And they're not going to see Christ in you. But the reason
they hated Christ is because He is the Light, He is the Righteousness,
He is the Holiness. And so Christ's presence by His
gospelly priest and by the works He worked, He exposed all their
very best religious deeds. He exposed it as not being the
Righteousness they claimed it to be and not being the Holiness
they boasted of having. It exposed them. Christ did. Their evil sins were their own
self-righteous deeds whereby they thought they were indebting
God to them. Their evil sins were their own
so-called holy works they were doing whereby they thought they
made God well-pleased. And when Christ came and He did
the works that no other man did, and He preached this gospel declaring
He is the way, the truth, and the life, they didn't have a
cloak anymore. They didn't have a disguise anymore.
It pricked them in their conscience and they hated Christ for it.
And so they looked for something to condemn Him with to justify
not hearing His gospel and not believing on Him. Look over at
John 15 and look at verse 22. John 15 22 now you want to be
harmless you wanna You don't want to do anything to load their
gun for them, but you might as well go on and mark it down that
For this very same reason they are going to accuse you but look
at here why they accused Christ John 15 22 he said if I had not
come and and spoken to them, they're going to accuse you because
of the gospel, you priest. If I had not come and spoken
unto them, they had not had sin, but now they have no cloak, no
disguise for their sin. He that hateth me, hateth my
father also. Next, if I had not done among
them the works which no other man did, they had not had sin. You see, his gospel and his works,
both of those showed and exposed all their self-righteous works
to be evil sin. That's all it was. And he said,
but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.
But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that's
written in their law, they hated me without a cause. Now look
at John 3 and look at verse 19. John 3, 19. Remember here, Christ is speaking
to a self-made religious Jew who was a Pharisee, who thought
he was righteous and thought he was holy by his obedience
to the law. He wasn't some reckless rebel
sinner. He was a man who by all appearance
of men appeared to be a righteous and a holy man. And listen to
what Christ declares. Our text is saying He's the Light.
We're holding forth the Word of Life. Look, this is the condemnation. Light is coming to the world.
Christ the Light. And men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. Same evil that He
said to the Pharisees. Their religious deeds were evil. They didn't measure up to the
righteousness of God. They come short of the glory
of God. And a man trying to come to God by his own works, that's
evil sin. Christ is saying, that's the
condemnation. Look, for everyone that doeth
evil, trying to make himself righteous and holy, hateth the
light, he hates Christ. Neither comes to the light, lest
his very best religious deeds should be reproved, lest they
be, just like the Pharisee, Christ said, you don't have a cloak
anymore. You don't have a cloak anymore. You see there, he wasn't
saying, Everyone that doeth evil hates
the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should
be reproved." Christ said the carnal mind is enmity against
God. It's not subject to the law of
God, can't obey the law of God, but won't obey Christ either.
But what did He say in Romans 8? But they mind the things of
the flesh. Just like the Pharisees. touch
not, taste not, handle not, all of those things, and calling
it righteousness, calling it holiness. And Christ said, and
they won't come to Christ so like, because all that's going
to be exposed as sin. And he says, but he that doeth
truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest,
that they are wrought in God. Christ, by shining the light
in your heart, worked His will in good pleasure. He made you
come to Christ the light, confessing that every religious deed you'd
ever done was sin, confessing that everything you'd ever done
to try to make yourself accepted of God was sin, that all you
are is sin, and that all your works were worked by God your
Savior, Christ Jesus the Lord. That's what it is to do the truth,
to come to the light. The Pharisees hated Christ, who
is the only righteousness God will receive, and so they tried
every means to discredit Christ, so they could justify themselves
for not hearing and believing the gospel. That's what they
were doing the whole time, was trying to get something on Him,
something where else they could condemn Him, so they could justify
themselves before men. Everything they did was to be
seen of men. They were trying to justify themselves
before men for why they would not believe His gospel and why
they would not repent from their vain religious works and trust
Christ alone. That's why they were trying to
discredit Him. And brethren, depraved sinners have not changed. They have not changed. They do
the same in our day. But we don't want to murmur and
we don't want to dispute with them and we certainly don't want
to dispute and murmur with each other because we don't want to
give men a reason to accuse us and to not hear the gospel. We
want men and women to come hear the gospel of Christ. That's
our goal. We want their focus on Christ
and not on us. So knowing Christ is working
in His people sovereignly to will and to do of His good pleasure,
making them willing to come to Him and believe on Him, and His
good pleasure of turning to us when we need correcting, and
keeping us following Him, and keeping us walking after Him.
Knowing He's able to do that. You haven't experienced that
yourself. And knowing He does it through the preaching of this
Gospel, the Word of Life. You don't have to murmur and
dispute. You know that. What do we know? Just hold forth
the word of life. Just declare the truth of Christ.
Christ will work in His people. And as far as our works go, don't
do anything to give them reason to accuse you. You're going to,
but don't make it a legitimate reason. Secondly, here's what
Paul says do. Verse 16, hold forth the word
of life. Hold forth the word of life. Simply tell your friends what
Christ did for you. You know, some people don't feel
comfortable speaking, they don't know how to declare the gospel
or what have you. Just tell them what Christ did
for you. That's what, remember that brother, when the Lord had
cast the devils out of him, he wanted to go with Christ and
Christ said, you know, you go home and you tell your friends
what great things the Lord has done for thee and how He's had
compassion on you. How would you do that to somebody?
If you're at work and you're talking to somebody, You could
say, you know, I know the Lord chose me before the foundation
of the world. And you know how I know He did
this? Because if He hadn't chosen me, there is no way I would have
believed on Him. There's no way I would have chosen
Him. I had no heart for Him. I didn't have a desire for Him.
I didn't want to hear His gospel. I didn't want to go to church.
I didn't want to do any of those things. If He hadn't chosen me,
I would have never believed on Him. That's telling them what
Christ did for you. Holding forth the Word of Life.
You can hold forth the Word of Life by telling your friends,
He sent the Spirit and regenerated me. I had no interest. I didn't understand anything
in the Word of God. But then one day, the Word started
making sense to me, and I could see what the book was saying.
And for the first time in my life, I agreed with God that
I'm the guilty sinner, and Christ is the Savior. He did that in
me. I didn't do that. It wasn't my
will that did that. It was the Lord that did that.
He gave me a new will. He gave me faith. He granted
me repentance. You can tell them what Christ
did for you. Or if you're not able to put it into words, just
say, come hear the gospel. Come with me. Come hear the gospel
with me. Philip ran to Nathanael and he
said, we know where Christ is. And when Nathanael questioned,
Philip just said, come see, just come see. That woman at the well
left her water pot, she ran to the men of the city and she said,
come see a man that told me everything I ever did. Is not this the Christ?
And they went with her. Just invite them to come with
you. But each of us united here together, who've been given one
mind for Christ and one heart to strive together for the faith
of the gospel, who know by experience, by Christ working in us, that
He's able to work in His people sovereignly. We know we don't
have to murmur, we don't have to dispute. And every time that
this gospel goes forth from this bullpit, we're holding forth
the Word of Life together. That's what we're doing. Christ
is the Word, Christ is the Life, and He gives eternal life. He
is that eternal life. He prayed to the Father and He
said, As thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He
should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given Him,
and this is life eternal. This is life eternal, right here. That they may know Thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. That's the
Word of Life. Christ already redeemed those
the Father gave to Him. He said, Father, I finished the
work you gave me to do. Right now what He's doing is
He's gathered you and me together, given us this one man through
this gospel, convincing us He's the light, convincing us He's
the sovereign Savior of His people, so that we hold forth the Word
of Life and He's calling out His lost sheep. He told through
Paul, he told us, after that in the wisdom of God, the world
by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that belief by holding forth the word
of life. We don't need to murmur with
men. We don't need to dispute with men. We can't force anybody
to believe the gospel. That's disputing with them, arguing
doctrine back and forth. That is just pride trying to
out-argue the other person. I've never accomplished one thing
by that. I've never ever seen anybody
brought to faith by that. And then another thing that's
murmuring is when men don't believe, then we start murmuring over,
I don't know why they can't see this. Christ said, don't murmur,
no man can come except my father Troy. It's God that works in you to
will and to do of his good pleasure. He said, he that believes on
the Son of God has to witness in himself. That's how you believe.
He that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believes
not the record God gave of his Son. It's only by the witness,
it's only by Christ working in you, and this is a record. God's
given to us eternal life, and this life's in His Son. He that
hath the Son hath life, he that hath not the Son hath not life.
So lastly, and I think this right here is so important, I'm going
to be very brief, Doing all this without murmuring,
without disputing, holding forth the Word of Life, being of one
mind, to not draw attention to ourselves, to simply set forth
Christ, shine as lights in His world. Paul said there in verse
16, he said, I want to see you do this that I may rejoice in
the day of Christ that I have not run in vain, neither labored
in vain. Paul's labor was preaching. That
was his labor. Holding forth the Word of Life.
And we know from the Word of God that God said, My Word shall
not return unto me void. He said, The Word that goes forth
out of my mouth shall not return unto me void. It shall accomplish
the thing whereinto I sent it. So Paul, it wasn't like he was
saying, I preached and preached, but the Word was void. No, the Word is never going to
be void. It's going to accomplish God's purpose. But Paul knew
that, but his one desire was in the day of Christ, he wanted
to be able to rejoice that those he ministered to, the word was
actually made effectual in them and they believed the gospel.
That was his desire. He called them my crown and my
rejoicing in the day of Christ. I never knew, until God made
me a pastor, I never knew how the things that I did affected
my pastor. I know it now. I know it now. It's just like your own children.
You love the people the Lord's given you to minister to, and
you want to know the Lord's Word is effectual in their heart.
That's you rejoicing. That's you rejoicing. And when
you see them believe the Gospel, and you see them trusting one
another to Christ, and you see them holding forth the Word of
Life to each other, and you see them doing it to other needy
sinners, and you see them not murmuring and disputing with
each other, that gives you some rejoicing in your heart that
your labor hasn't been in vain. God's blessed it. And brethren,
believe. And that's such a blessing. And
I want you to see this now. This is how important preaching
the gospel is. This is how important holding
forth the Word of Life is. That's how we're going to shine
as lights in this world. You're going to shine two ways,
by this gospel, holding forth this Word of Life, and by your
works. And by your works, I mean not
doing anything to draw attention to yourself, either positive
or negative. You want all the focus to be
on Christ. And here's how important this Word of the Gospel is, preaching
the Gospel is. Paul says here in verse 17, Yes,
and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your
faith, I joy and rejoice with you all, and for the same cause
also do you joy and rejoice with me. You know what he's saying?
He's saying, if I'm martyred for preaching the Gospel for
you, to serve you for your faith, for the Lord to bless you and
increase you in faith. If I'm killed for that, he said,
I joy and I rejoice with you all. And he said, and this gospel
means so much to you that for the same reason you joy and rejoice
with me. If I was slain for preaching
this gospel, you would rejoice rather than be sorrowful because
I did it preaching the gospel. Do you believe the gospel is
that important? If I heard that you were trying to minister to
somebody and preach the gospel to somebody and somebody pulled
out a gun and shot you because you were trying to preach the
gospel to them, I would be sorrowful that you're gone, but I would
be so happy and so full of joy that that's how you were martyred,
because you were preaching the gospel to somebody. And that's
what Paul is saying. That tells you right here that
the important word in this text is holding forth the word of
life. That's what he's talking about.
If I'm slain for holding forth the word of life, I rejoice with
you, and for the same cause you rejoice with me. You see that,
brethren? Hold forth. Here's the application. Do all things without murmuring
and disputing. Hold forth the word of life.
and trust Christ to work His will and good pleasure in those
that hear it. That's what Paul's telling us.
That's how you're going to shine in this world. Nobody else in
religion, in any kind of religion, shines like that. That's the
work of God that makes you shine, giving all the glory to Him.
And those He calls, they'll give all the glory for Him for making
you do that. That's unlike anybody else in
this world. That's true sanctification, to set forth Christ, trust Him,
And don't murmur, dispute, just preach Christ. Hold forth the
word of life. I pray God will bless that. All
right, Brother Greg.