Morning. All right. We're going to be in Philippians
chapter one. Philippians chapter 1, we're
going to be looking at verses 12 through 18. Philippians 1,
12 through 18. Now, you'll recall that this
letter was occasioned by the Philippians sending a gift to
Paul when they had heard that he was imprisoned and in Rome,
and so Paul is going to take this opportunity to address the
concerns that they likely had for him. They wanted to know
what was going on, how was he, and how are things going for
him. He wants them to understand He
wants them to understand, don't get upset, don't look at what's
going on, but I want you to understand that what has happened to him
is that it's of the Lord, and the Lord uses all things for
his glory, and it's all working according to his purpose, and
it's to establish and further the kingdom of Christ our Lord
and our Savior. Even the very imprisonment and
the blood of the saints all works to the glory and the furtherance
and the establishment of his kingdom. Now, in this passage,
what I want us to see is that although this seems to be an
account, these verses seem to be an account of what is peculiar
to Paul's situation, the reality is that we, when we look at this,
if we're looking at it rightly, by the Spirit, we gain an understanding. and an understanding to know
that when we are faced with persecution and when we are faced with opposition
because of the truth, because of our stand with Christ, that
we understand, don't be offended, don't be upset. The Lord is able
to use all things to his glory in the furtherance of his kingdom.
So the title is Understanding Not Offended. Understanding not
offended. And that'll be our first point,
is looking at this understanding versus being offended, and then
we'll look at those who preached out of contention, and then those
who preached out of love. So in this letter, Paul's been
declaring the blessed truth of the gospel. We've been looking
at it the last couple weeks, how that Jesus Christ is our
righteousness, and he's making certain that we understand Christ
is our righteousness, and that it's Christ who bears righteous
fruit in the believer. We saw that just as it's Christ
who began this good work in us, so Christ will finish it. He'll complete this good work.
That's in Philippians 1.6, that key verse, he which hath begun
a good work in you. will perform it until the day
of Jesus Christ. And so this good work that Christ
does, it's the seed whereby righteous fruit is brought forth from the
believer. Look at verse 11, being filled
with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto
the glory and praise of God. So that one thing we see right
there, brethren, is this flesh doesn't produce righteousness. Our thoughts, our faith in Christ,
that's not a product of the flesh. That's produced in us, that's
given to us by the Holy Spirit. It's by the Holy Spirit regenerating
us, giving us life in Christ, revealing Christ to us, in us. It's that work that the Lord
does in us. That's that good fruit. That's
His righteousness being born in us. And it's not a product
of this flesh. It's not the things that we know
that brings about our salvation. It's who we know, and we only
know Him in truth, by the revelation of the Spirit of God revealing
these things to us, whereby we know Him. All right, so it's
this divine power of Christ working in the believer that works as
this waterfall of truth where all these things are revealed
to us more and more. And that leads Paul, in his understanding,
he therefore is confident that these brethren are going to understand
and judge rightly the things that are happening to him because
it's Christ working in them. And he that began this work is
going to complete this work. He's going to keep them. And
so it's with that confidence that Paul begins to declare the
details about his imprisonment. Now, what I want us to enter
into here is understand that persecution of brethren, when
we see persecution, when we feel persecution, it is an offense
to the flesh. It is an offense to our flesh.
When you see it, or you experience it personally, or you see it
happening to a brother, it's an offense to the flesh, because
we understand that that's unjust. That's not right, what they're
doing, what they're accusing them of, or what they're doing
to them isn't right. So it is offensive to this flesh,
but that's the flesh. It takes the Spirit of God for
us not to be offended to the point where we are so offended
that we turn away from Christ, and that we deny knowing Him,
and we hide standing with Christ because of the persecution. We
are to understand, not with a fleshly wisdom, because the flesh isn't
going to get it, but we are to understand by the Spirit that
the Lord uses persecution even to the furtherance of his gospel.
So don't be offended by it. We're to trust Christ through
the persecution. Look at verse 10, Philippians
1.10. Paul says to them, that ye may
approve. that you may try and prove things
that are excellent, that ye may be sincere and without offense
till the day of Christ." So he wants them to judge these things
rightly by the Spirit and not according to the flesh and that
initial response that the flesh has against persecution. Because we see it's unjust. We think it shouldn't be happening.
So we're given spiritual discernment rather than relying on the flesh's
discernment and how the flesh sees the things so that we're
able to try and prove what the Lord is doing even in persecution. So Paul wants them to prove out
or to carry through and to see the excellent work that the Lord
is doing even in his imprisonment and his chains because the Lord
is furthering his kingdom, he's reaching His sheep that are lost
and bound in darkness and bound in prison. So those who have
the Spirit of Christ, they're going to be able to behold the
work that the Lord is doing. They're not going to be offended
by His ways like many are offended when they are shamed or made
to feel shame for their hope in Christ. They get offended
and they go away. They depart from the Lord. They
depart from the truth. But Paul is saying, I'm confident.
that Christ who has begun this work in you, he's going to complete
it. You're not going to be offended. You're not going to walk away
and be turned away by this. You're not going to commit that
great sin of offense. As John writes of so much, what
John is speaking of about the sin that people were committing
was they were departing from the Lord. That was the sin that
brethren can't commit. We will not depart from the Lord. We won't depart from our brethren.
will stay in the truth, in Christ, because it's his spirit that's
put us there, and it's his spirit indwelling us. So even in the
face of persecution and opposition, we can't depart from Christ. We have his spirit in us, so
we can't sin. We can't sin that sin of apostasy,
of departing from Christ. And that's what John was writing
up there in 1 John. Alright, turn to Matthew 11.
Matthew 11. and go to verse three. This we're
gonna see is John the Baptist. He knows that his time is coming
to an end. He realizes that he's going to
die soon, and the Lord left him with some men to serve him, to
take care of him, and to minister to his needs. But he knows that
when I go, these men have to follow Christ. Because without
Christ, there is no salvation. And so they come to Christ in
Matthew 11, verse 3, and said unto him, Art thou he that should
come, or do we look for another? If they don't see Christ is Christ,
they're going to fall away. Because Christ alone is salvation. And think about it. John is a
very austere man. He wears leather and the equivalent
of probably burlap or something. Very uncomfortable. He doesn't
eat nice food. He doesn't drink any alcohol. And he's out in the wilderness.
He's not in nice places. And here's Christ who comes eating
and drinking and he goes to the homes when he's invited, even
among sinners and publicans. And so, Jesus answered them in
verse 4, He said, Go and show John again those things which
ye do hear and see. Because these men, in maybe a
year or so, they're going to see this one who we call Christ,
this Jesus of Nazareth, hanging on a tree, beaten and bloody,
despised by the religious establishment, mocked and ridiculed by all the
Jews, ridiculed by the Gentiles. All these people forsook him,
and they've got to know this is the Christ. Don't be offended
by what you're seeing of this one who looks like he's in shame
and that he's despised and afflicted of God. Don't be fooled by that. And so Christ says, the blind
receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed,
and the deaf hear. The dead are raised up, and the
poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he whosoever
shall not be offended in me. not offended when I speak the
truth, not offended when you see me there crucified, and not
offended when persecution arises against us. Because all men despise
the truth. They despise Christ. By our very
nature, we despise God, we despise the truth, that it's by His righteousness
and not our own. and that no, this world isn't
going to like you, this world is not going to embrace you,
but rather as they understand that you stand with Christ. They're
going to find reason to push you away and to persecute you
and hate you. Christ says, don't be offended.
Blessed is he, happy is he who is not offended in being shunned
by this world. So, persecution is a difficult
thing to see. Man, put yourself there. And
if you see one of your brethren being beat down because they
profess Christ, that's a hard thing to see. And Paul wants
these brethren, don't be offended. I want you to understand that
this is all according to the purposes of God for the furtherance
of the kingdom. It takes that divine power working
in us that enables us to withstand offenses and persecution and
the shame that comes with just professing Christ, being willing
to profess Him. And we know what it is. I certainly
know what it is. I know when there's been times
when I've kept my mouth shut because I just didn't want to
feel the burning, the that little despising, that little suspicion
of grouping me in with those who love Christ. And I know that
I did that and I saw it in my own life. So I know that's how
the flesh works. It protects itself. It wants
to preserve its standing in the eyes of others so that we don't
take that shame unnecessarily or unjustly. We don't want to
feel it. So Paul has this concern, and
none of us can say, that won't be me, I'll stand, I'll stand
there and take that shame and that ridicule, but think of Peter. Peter's the one who said, though
all forsake you, I won't forsake you, I'm ready to die with you,
Lord, and yet who do we know most about, most intimately of
his forsaking of Christ but that very one, Peter, the one most
bold, the one who said, I won't forsake you. So none of us can
say, I'm not gonna turn from the Lord. I won't be shaken in
that day because we'll see what the flesh does. The flesh is
weak and it's impotent and doesn't want to withstand that kind of
shame. So Paul's concern for the church
is that they'd be given understanding from the Lord. Look at 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. So we see the Lord uses persecution. Turn over to Acts 8. We see how
the Lord uses persecution to spread the gospel. Acts 8, verse
1. This is right after the stoning
of Stephen. This is right after Stephen,
for preaching the truth, for preaching Christ, he was stoned.
It says in Saul, unconverted Saul, was consenting unto Stephen's
death, and at that time there was a great persecution against
the church which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered abroad
throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. Look at verse 4. Therefore they
that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.
Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached
Christ unto them. And the people with one accord
gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing
the miracles which he did. But the gospel didn't just stop
there. Turn over to Acts 11. Acts 11 verse 19. Now they which were scattered
abroad, upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, travelled
as far as Phoenicia, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word
to none but unto the Jews only. And some of them were men of
Cyprus, and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch, spake
unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand
of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed, and
turned unto the Lord. You know, someone once said that
the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. And I would
say, well, Christ is the seed of the church, but he uses the
blood of the martyrs to water that seed and to encourage his
brethren, those that are made alive and made bold to stand
with Christ in that day, to stand with Christ and preach him. So
Paul understands the power of Christ to direct his gospel into
the hearts of his sheep, even though the circumstances can
be very contrary to that. And so Paul wants these Philippians
to be able to approve or to try things that are excellent. See
what the Lord is doing is what he's saying. and don't be offended
by my imprisonment in Rome." Just see how the Lord is using
this. You know, the Lord says, He says
that we walk, that though we walk in the flesh, we do not
war after the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not
carnal but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds,
they cast down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth
itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ." And, you know, carnal
wisdom says, if I imprison these that speak the gospel, if I come
against them with a hard stand, then it'll stop that gospel.
But we see how the Lord is able to overcome all things, and we
aren't to be discouraged because to the flesh it looks like it's
going nowhere and it's not being successful, but the Lord is able
to use all things to his glory and his power to further the
gospel, and even reaching the lost sheep. So Paul, seeing that
Christ has enabled him, Seeing things as Christ has enabled
him to see them, he understands that his imprisonment, rather
than stopping the spread of the gospel, is actually reaching
those that would never have even heard the gospel. They wouldn't
have had the opportunity to hear this truth, the glory of what
Christ has accomplished and done for his sheep. So he says in
verse 13, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the
palace and in all other places. So Paul's being there in chains
for preaching the Lord Jesus Christ had to be considered and
looked at by the magistrates that were there that would hear
his case and hear what he was doing. These people would see
this man's here because he preaches Jesus Christ. and he could have
just paid a fine back in Jerusalem and gone free, but he chose rather
to come in chains and declare, because of his faith and confidence
in the Lord Jesus Christ. They'd have to contemplate that,
and even the emperor of Rome, which as I understand it was
Nero at that time, and Nero was a wicked, wicked emperor. He
burned Rome and blamed it on the Christians just so that he
could persecute them. and do what he wanted to do,
but he was a wicked man, but he heard and understood. There's
a man here who preaches the Lord Jesus Christ and is in chains
because of it. And that just shows us how much
how that the reality of the Lord Jesus Christ that Paul would
lay down his life because there is no other salvation given among
men under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved
it's only through the Lord Jesus Christ because All other religions
teach that there's some good works that you can do. There's
certain things that you can do. Even in most of what's called
Christendom, they teach you to read your Bible. They teach you
to go to services regularly. They teach you to pray. And that
in these things, in doing good and making good choices and not
doing bad things, they teach that's your salvation. But that's
not salvation. It's not in what we do. Christ
Jesus is our Savior. It's by Christ. He is perfect. We ourselves are sinners, bound
in darkness, bound in sin, and the Lord God sent his own Son
to this world, taking upon him flesh, that he would be the very
righteousness of his people, that he would fulfill all scriptures,
that he would take upon him everything in the covenant of grace to fulfill
for us, so that he went for us bearing the shame and the horror
of our sin in His body, to put that away before holy God, that
He would bear that shame as God looked upon Him, holy God looked
upon Him and poured out His wrath, that was our just due. We should
have had that wrath poured out on us, but Christ bore it for
each and every one of His people. to put it away forever so that
we are now redeemed, purchased by the very blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's through His death that we
are reconciled to God. If He didn't die, if He didn't
go to the cross, we would not be reconciled. We wouldn't even
know God or know how to worship God. And then, not only that,
but it pleases God to give us life, to make us to know these
things. And He gives us life by the indwelling
of the Holy Spirit that makes known to us what God has done
for us in His Son, how that He accomplished our salvation. So all these things are made
known to us by Christ. And so that's why it's important
that we preach the truth and that we stand with Christ and
we don't back down and say to people what they want to hear,
that it's their good works or just accepting Jesus as their
Lord and Savior to save them. Because no, it isn't what we
do. We're saved by Christ and what He has done. And He reveals
that in the heart of the sinner to make them know that He is
salvation. And that hunger and that thirst
begins when the Lord puts it there. And He begins that so
that we need to have Him and we must know Him. Now, Some preach
out of contention. Paul describes that there's two
types of preachers that were rising up as a result of him
being taken off the scene, if you will, and going to prison. He starts in verse 14, Philippians
1.14. He says, Some of these men may have been
coming from the church, and they're filling the vacuum that's now
left by Paul. They're saying, wow, I can enter
into this man's labors, and I can have a nice following for myself.
I don't have to labor hard or struggle. He did all the work.
I'm going to come in now, and I'm going to take over, and I'm
going to preach. And I've heard there's been men
that have tried to do that. in places, even in North Carolina,
there was almost that little slip in there where they went
off to a different gospel. But they didn't. I mean, they
didn't. The men didn't. It didn't even come that close. But there's always a willingness
where people will take advantage of it when a leader, someone
like Paul, is removed from from being the pastor there in that
place, but they may have been coming from the church, and others
may have just been coming from the Jews, who were wanting to
heap and add more and more trials upon Paul, and make him look
worse. Look first, we'll look at those first. Some indeed preach,
verse 15, Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife,
and then some also of good will. Now let's look at those of envy
and strife. Verse 16. The one preached Christ of contention,
not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds. Everyone agreed, everyone, I
read all the commentators, they agreed that these men, they were
preaching the truth, they were speaking truth, they were declaring
Christ in truth, what Paul was saying. But they weren't true
brethren, whoever they were, whether they were coming from
the church, or they were coming from the Jews, they weren't there,
they were false brethren. You know, so many say that they're
just stepping in where Paul left, but it is possible that these
men are Judaizers or of the concision, and they're charging Paul with
corruption. And they hated what Paul said,
and they thought what Paul said was so wicked that all they had
to do was just declare exactly what he said, and they thought
everyone would line up with them. in condemning Paul, because they
thought it was just foolishness what he said. So they didn't
have to change what Paul was saying, because they thought
that it was horrible in and of itself. But in doing that, they
were preaching the Lord Jesus Christ. And so you think about
how many times there have been occasions, some of you here maybe
even heard this, but you're standing somewhere and you're listening
to people talking and they're condemning the truth. They're
just telling you exactly what they say over in a certain place
and someone comes along and says, what do they teach? And where
are they? Where are they located? Because
they want to go and hear now what they're saying, because
the Lord has already begun a work in them to know that what they're
hearing is not clear, and they're still confused, and they're hearing
something that they've never heard before, even spoken in in a contentious way, but now
they know the truth of it. So Paul was still rejoicing that
the truth was being declared, that people were hearing the
truth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they would have heard it
because when Paul went to a place to preach, He said, like to the
Corinthians, I determined not to know anything among you save
Jesus Christ and him crucified. So when he was preaching everywhere,
in all the cities and all the synagogues, he went preaching
the truth. He went preaching Christ clearly,
plainly, and boldly so that they would hear and know exactly what
he said concerning Christ. So he preached grace, so it doesn't
surprise me that Paul rejoiced, because they had to be preaching
the truth if Paul was rejoicing that Christ was being preached,
even out of contention. So they had to be saying things
that were true. Now let's look at that the true
brethren, and when Paul describes them positively. In Philippians
1.14 we'll start there again. And many of the brethren in the
Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to
speak the word without fear. Verse 15 at the end. Some also
preach Christ of goodwill. Verse 17. But the other preaches
Christ of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the
gospel. So these were those who were
preaching out of love to Christ, preaching and declaring that
His blood washes us from all sins, that He has made His people
righteous to stand before holy God. There's nothing more that
we need to do. Christ has sanctified us and
made us righteous to stand before God. They preached out of love
to Christ. These preached out of love to
Christ's gospel. declaring that God isn't looking
to you, sinner, anymore. He's not looking to you to work
righteousness for yourself before he'll receive you. He's looking
to his Son, Jesus Christ, who has accomplished salvation for
his people. These preach out of love to Christ's
church because they're rejoicing in the fellowship that they have
with these few brethren. who don't stand with the world
but stand with the Lord Jesus Christ. And we know them because
they too have no confidence in the flesh. We know what we are.
And so we're thankful for the Lord Jesus Christ who has obtained
eternal redemption for us once and for all by the shedding of
his own precious blood. And he's made us accepted in
the Beloved with Him. These preach out of love for
the souls of others, because they know that there are still
so many out there who are fearful of dying, who look at their works
and know that they come up short that they never do that which
is good enough. They can never satisfy God to
the point, and they're afraid. They're afraid to die because
they're still confused. They don't know the truth concerning
Christ. They haven't heard Christ preach
that He is salvation. He's the one who makes us righteous. He's the one who gives us faith.
He's the one who fixes our hope in Him, and they've never heard
that. And so they want this truth to get out, to reach those lost
sheep that are still bound in prison, bound in darkness, and
they want to see them delivered from their chains. Even if they
have to go into chains like Paul, to reach those few people so
that they could be delivered from their chains of nature's
darkness and blindness. These preach out of love for
the Apostle Paul to show that this man ain't alone. He's no
troublemaker. We believe like him. We believe
that the Lord Jesus Christ is the way of salvation, that there
is no other way of salvation. We stand with him, knowing that
Paul, he's set for the defense of the gospel. Whether he has
to confirm the truth of what's being said or has to say, wait
a minute now, that's not what the truth is. The truth is this.
So he's set for the confirmation and the defense. of the gospel. So Paul's imprisonment for the
truth inspired true brethren not to fear, but to faith, to
have confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ. And they that have a
spiritual understanding, they try and they can prove the situation.
They can look at it and say, I see what the Lord's doing here.
I see what he's doing here, and it's a good thing. It's okay,
we don't have to fear or be afraid when opposition arises, because
the Lord uses it. Philippians 1.18, What then,
notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ
is preached, and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. So when we face opposition against
the Gospel and for standing with Christ, don't be offended. If you come into that, even in
a social situation, if you come into that, don't be afraid to
stand with Christ and to take that shame, if that's what comes
upon you. Because you don't know. You may be reaching some lost
soul who is in darkness and may see your confidence and want
to talk to you later and know what you know and want to know
the Savior that you know and are so bold and confident to
stand with Him. Not that we are shoving anything
down people's throats. If they don't want to hear it,
don't speak to them. But don't be afraid to be identified
with Christ and for people to know. That's what the Lord had
to save me from, is that willingness to stand with him and to bear
the shame and the reproach. Believe it or not, there was
many who then talked to me when I did speak more clearly about
what I believed and the hope that I had. There were some that
were willing to speak to me and that's all I cared about. The
rest, if they didn't care for me, the Lord enables me. I like when people like me. I'm
that type of person. I get it. I get why some people
don't want that kind of shame and embarrassment. Trust the
Lord and look at it through His eyes with that understanding
from the Spirit to stand with Him. So I pray the Lord will
bless that to our hearts and help us. Let's pray. Our gracious
Lord, we thank You, Father, for Your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord,
let us know Him. Make us to know Him and to have
our hearts set upon Him, rejoicing in Him. And to have that love
for the brethren, seeing that There's so few that have no competence
in the flesh, but really are looking to the Lord Jesus Christ.
May he be precious to us in that fellowship that we have with
one another, that it would be precious to us as well. Give
us your spirit and that wisdom and understanding from above,
that we may know and try a thing and see the excellence of our
God in him. We pray this in Jesus' name,
our Lord and Savior. Amen. All right.