Turn with me if you would back
to Philippians 2. Philippians 2. The Apostle Paul preached God's
truth. The Apostle Paul was a true preacher. He was a preacher of God's truth. Everywhere he went, he told men
and women about the truth of God's dealings with sinners. Everywhere he went. Isn't that
right? Everywhere he went, he told men
and women the truth about God's dealings with sinners. Jesus
Christ The one who is equal with God the Father and God the Spirit. God is a Trinity. God the Father,
God the Son, God the Spirit. Jesus Christ humbled himself,
didn't he? He took upon him the sin of his
people. God chose a people. Christ, who is God Almighty,
left heaven, left his throne, came down to this earth, laid
hold of the sin that was on his people, and laid it on himself. He took it literally off of them. They committed it. They were
the sinners. And he took it off of them. and he laid it on himself, and
then he became obedient unto death, the death of the cross. He finished a work for his people
that they could not finish for themselves. I can die, but that's
it, I've died. He accomplished death for me. He did something for me that
I could not do for myself. And because Christ came down
here and accomplished that, God the Father has now highly exalted
him and given him a name that's above every name. Every knee
must bow. They speak of our Lord so flippantly,
don't they? Poor Jesus, poor this, poor that,
he's trying, he's working, buddy, he's a hard worker now. Every
knee must bow. Every tongue must confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord. That's the message that Paul
preached in this chapter. I just quoted a few verses before
in this chapter. And then Paul left it right there.
He didn't add anything to it. He didn't say, now Jesus Christ
died on the cross and now it's up to you to accept it now. It's
up to you to receive this and make it effectual if you don't
decide to let him into your heart. He did not add that to it. And he did not take anything
from it. He said Christ came. He set out
to accomplish a work. He came and he accomplished the
work. And then he ascended back to
glory and sat down on his throne. And that's where he left it.
That's where he left the message. Now did you know that not every
preacher preaches that message? Did you know that? Not every
preacher preaches that message. Did you know that it is rare
to find a man who will stand up and preach that message? And
I am not bragging on myself and I'm not bragging on any other
man. It takes God Almighty making
a man. Preach that message. God has
to make a man. Preach that message. This message
that does not give any of the credit to us. Somehow everybody
wants some of the credit in salvation. At least I believe. You can't
take that away from me. Oh, but I can. We believe through
the faith of Jesus Christ. It starts with him, it's given
by him, it's performed by him. The flesh that we walk around
in, this flesh, naturally does not like the true message of
the scripture. It does not want to hear the
true message of the scripture. All right now, Paul was a true
preacher. And do you know that everywhere
he went, he was beaten for preaching this message. He would stand
up and do what I'm doing right now, and then everyone would
hate him and drag him out and beat him for it. He was currently
in prison. They threw him in prison for
preaching that message. Can you imagine? But this is
what he said in verse 17. Yea, and if I be offered upon
the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice
with you all. He said, if my life is taken
from me for preaching this gospel. If I'm offered upon the sacrifice
for preaching this message, he said, I still joy and rejoice
because God through this message miraculously. It's an amazing
grace. God through this message gives
sinners eternal life. He really does. The truth comes in this ear. The truth travels down to this
heart. In a sinner, for the first time,
here's the truth. And all of a sudden, faith is
given to believe it. Life is given to see it, to see
who God actually is for the first time. I've heard about this man,
Jesus. Everybody talks about He's not
God. I believe I've actually seen
God. So he said, I still, if I'm offered
on the sacrifice for this, I still joy and rejoice because God has
allowed me to preach this message, which actually brings eternal
life. to sinners, eternal life to us.
Verse 17, yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service
of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all for the same calls
also do you joy and rejoice with me. We know that persecutions
will come because of the truth. We know that. We know that sufferings
will come. Turn with me over to Matthew
chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5, look with
me at verse 11. Our Lord said, blessed are ye
when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all
manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding
glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For so persecuted
they the prophets which were before you." Don't you love that?
It's going to come, but he said rejoice in it. Turn over with
me to Acts chapter 5. Acts chapter 5. Verse 40 says, and to him they
agreed. And when they had called the
apostles and beaten them, they beat him for preaching God's
truth. They commanded that they should
not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. And they departed
from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted
worthy to suffer shame for his name. And daily in the temple
and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus
Christ." They were beaten for declaring God's truth and they
went out of there rejoicing. Rejoicing that they were counted
worthy. Sufferings and persecutions will come. But there is a joy
that God's people have in holding the truth, in believing the truth,
in telling other people the truth. And back in our text, back in
Philippians 2, Paul is writing here to the Philippians. He's
telling them of two men that he believes have been called
by God and given this message of truth. Philippians 2 verse
19 says, but I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly
unto you that I also may be of good comfort when I know your
state. For I have no man like-minded
who will naturally care for your state." Do you know why we preach
the gospel to men and women? Why are we here? Why are we here? What are we doing here? Well,
this is a good club to be a part of. You know why we preach the gospel
to men and women? I'm not just talking about preachers,
I'm talking about any child of God. Do you know why we tell
our loved ones the truth of God's word? Our children. You know
why we sit our children down? Our families, our friends. The
reason is because we care about them. That's the reason we care
about them. We care about what happens to
them. We tell sinners the truth. I'm a sinner, just like the Apostle
Paul. The Apostle Paul said, no man
is a greater sinner than I am. You go around and most people
will tell you what kind of sinner they were. I used to be and then
I got saved and I'm not a sinner anymore. That's not so. All said,
Christ Jesus, this is a faithful saying. It's worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into this world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. I'm a sinner and we're
all sinners. We can't help it. It's what we
are. And we tell sinners the truth because somebody by the
grace of God was sent to tell this sinner the truth. Somebody,
God sent somebody and told me the truth. I finally heard the
truth. And we tell sinners the truth
whether they naturally want to hear it or not. If God opens
that door, we tell them and the reason is because we care about
the eternal state of their soul. A man who will stand up and lie
to a congregation because he believes that's what the congregation
wants to hear, does not care about him. He doesn't care about
him. You'll hear many times, I've
now heard it many times, I'm shocked the first time I heard
it, I'm still shocked. A man will say, yes, I see that
this is what God's word says, but I could never tell my people
that. They wouldn't care for that.
A man who will not stand up and tell sinners the truth does not
care about them. God said, I'm going to send you
pastors after my own heart. Pastors who in love will tell
you the truth. That's all I want. Just tell
me the truth. Whatever it is, just tell me
the truth. And Paul said, Timothy is one of them. But you know the proof of him
that as a son with the father, Paul said, he's like a son to
me. You know the proof of him that as a son with the father,
he hath served with me in the gospel. Him, therefore, I hope
to send presently, so soon as I shall see how it will go with
me, because there Paul's writing from prison. He said in verse
24, but I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly. He said, if the Lord is willing,
he'll remove me from this prison and he'll bring me there to be
with you. Verse 25, yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus
my brother and companion in labor and fellow soldier, but your
messenger and he that ministered to my want." said that this man Epaphroditus,
your servant, he said, this one that you've sent to minister
to me, he's another true servant. He's another true called preacher
of God. God has given him a burden for
you. God has given him a love for
you. Verse 26 says, for he longed
after you all and was full of heaviness. because that you had
heard that he had been sick. He found out that you heard he
had been sick and it tore him all to pieces. The church at
Philippi was a very poor church, and they couldn't afford to travel
to Paul, but they found out he was in prison. They wanted him
to know they were praying for him and that they loved him,
and they wanted to send things to him. So they sent their pastor,
their messenger, Epaphroditus. He went on their behalf. On his journey, he became extremely
sick. Verse 27 says, for indeed he
was sick, nigh unto death, but God had mercy on him. and not on him only, but on me
also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow." Paul said not only
did God have mercy on him and heal him, and I'm going to tell
you this, any healing that we have is the mercy of God. It's
not the wisdom of science. I thank God for doctors. I thank
God for brains. I thank God for hospitals. And
I thank God for medicine. But I thank God for God. I thank
God for Christ. And anything good that comes
to us is the mercy and the sovereign grace of our Lord. He is the
great physician. He's the Great Physician. Our
lives are in His hands. Our days are in His hands. Our breath is in His hands. Every single one of us. The only
thing that will cause us to have one more beat of the heart or
breath in the lungs is God Almighty saying, it's okay. Beat one more
time. Breathe one more time. were in his hands. Our lives
are in his hands. And Paul said, not only did God
have mercy on him, he healed him, but God had mercy on me
because I don't think I could have stood it. If you in love
sent your pastor to me and he, he died ministering to me, I
could, I would have had sorrow upon sorrow for you. And God
had mercy on me. Verse 28, I sent him therefore
the more carefully. I'm sending him back to you with
this letter I'm writing. The more carefully that when
you see him again, you may rejoice and that I may be the less sorrowful. Receive him therefore in the
Lord with all gladness, and hold such in reputation, because for
the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not regarding his
life, to supply your lack of service toward me." To supply
the fact that you were unable to come to me yourself. Now,
I on purpose skipped one verse of scripture and all that. There's
one verse that I didn't read to you. And the reason is because
I want to emphasize it. This verse is the heart of our
message tonight. Paul said, I recommend these
two men to you. And I just want to say that here
we are once again, we all come to this place. Whatever happens to us, whatever
happens to me, whatever happens to you, whatever God does with
us, if he moves you or whatever the case may be, you make sure
that you don't just attend church somewhere. Get under a man that
God has called to declare his word. How do I know if I'm listening
to God's man? He will declare whatever God
has written in his word. He'll do it with love, he'll
do it with sincerity, but he'll do it. He'll do it. And Paul is telling them that
there are two men he recommends to them. He said, I'm sending
two men. I want Timothy, if the Lord is willing, I'm going to
send Timothy to you and Epaphroditus is coming back to you. I recommend
these two men because they will tell you the truth. They're not
hirelings. Religion is big business. You
can make a lot of money in religion. You can make a lot of money doing
a lot of things. You can make a ton of money in religion if
you're charismatic. You can pull the wool over people's
eyes. I love the, there was a little boy one Sunday morning, and this
really happened, he told his mother in the service that when
he grew up he wanted to be a preacher. And she said, why? They had just
passed the plates. He said, because he gets all
that money down there. Two big old plates full of money
down there. That's almost the truth. And men are hirelings and they'll
say whatever they need to say to keep getting your money. You
just keep sending the money. We'll keep going through the
motions. And Paul said these two men are going
to tell you the truth, even if they're beaten and thrown into
prison for it. They're going to tell you the
truth. And God has proven them and he's made it clear that he's
given them a heart that cares about your soul. He said, be
careful who you listen to. Verse 21 says, for all seek their
own. He's talking about preachers.
He's talking about, he's saying, listen to Timothy, listen to
Epaphroditus. He said, for all seek their own. If God does not lay hold of a
man, starting with me, if God does not lay hold of this man
right here and make him God's servant, then that man will not
naturally care for you. He'll care for himself. He will
not seek your good, he'll seek his own. He'll seek his own good. Verse 21 says, for all seek their
own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's. If a man cares about the souls
that he preaches to, he will stand up and he'll tell those
souls about the things which are Jesus Christ's. That's what
he'll do. The things which belong to Jesus
Christ, he'll point them out specifically. He'll point out
these different things and then he'll declare in love and in
boldness to everybody, these are the things that belong to
Jesus Christ. Man naturally thinks they belong
to him. Man thinks everything belongs
to him. Everything is owed to him. But
these things don't belong to man. They don't. The truth is,
and the gospel is, these things belong to Jesus Christ. They're
his. They're in his hands. They belong
to him. So I went looking and I found
seven things. And I'm going to be quick about
it. I'm going to be very quick about it. But I found seven things
which belong to Jesus Christ. Seven things that are His. And in saying that, we all know
everything is His. Every single thing is His. It
all belongs to Him. But specifically tonight, I want
to show us seven of the things which are Jesus Christ's. Go
with me if you would over to Deuteronomy 32. Deuteronomy 32, our God said in verse 35, Deuteronomy
32 verse 35, to me belongeth vengeance and
recompense. Their foot shall slide in due
time for the day of their calamity is at hand. and the things that
shall come upon them make haste." They're coming quickly. Our Lord
said, vengeance belongs to me. Vengeance belongs to Jesus Christ. He said, vengeance is mine, I
will repay. Vengeance for what? Our sin against God, that's what
it is, our sin against God. Our Lord said, the wages of sin
is death. And he said, I'm going to give
to sinners what is owed to them, their wages. If a man cares at
all about the sinners that he's preaching to, he'll stand up
and tell them, vengeance belongs to Jesus Christ. Vengeance belongs
to Jesus Christ. We all need to be warned vengeance
is his. Now if a man truly loves the
people he's preaching to he will not close the book and walk out
the door. He will not stop right there. Look with me at Psalm 3. Psalm chapter 3 verse 8 says, Salvation belongeth
unto the Lord. Thank God. This is the truth. Vengeance belongs to the Lord.
But this is the truth. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Thy blessing is upon thy people. Salvation is of the Lord. It's
His. It's His to give it to whoever
He wants to give it to. You know where the good news
is in that? He can give it to me if He wants to. He can give
it to me. It's by His choosing. It's by
His calling. It's in His hand. Here's the
truth about salvation. People want to know the truth
about salvation. Here it is. Salvation belongs
to Jesus Christ. Vengeance belongs to Him, but
thank God, salvation belongs to Him. It's His to give to whoever
He wants to give it to. Look with me at Psalm 62. Psalm 62 verse 11 says, God hath
spoken once, twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto
God. There is no power in our word. We can say what we want to, it
doesn't mean anything. There is no power in our will. Man decides that he wants to
be saved. I'm going to will myself. That's it. I'm making my decision
right now. I've had all I can stand. I want to be saved. A
man who is drowning in the ocean, no ship in sight, cannot just
decide, I want a ship to come pick me up. I've decided that
I want a life preserver. It does not, there is no power
in our word. There's no power in our will.
There's no power in our works. All power belongs to Jesus Christ. It's his, it's all his. Do you know what he has chosen
to be the means of his power and salvation? He told the Apostle Paul to write
it down in Romans 1 16. It says, I am not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation. This gospel right here. belongs to Jesus Christ. The good news in the gospel,
the word gospel means by definition good news. All of the good news
in the gospel belongs to Jesus Christ. If there's any good news,
it's in him. It's in him. It all belongs to
Jesus Christ. This gospel is in his hands.
He crosses the path of a sinner. at His will. All the power belongs
to Jesus Christ. Now look right here in Psalm
62 at verse 12. Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth
mercy. If a man cares for the souls
he's preaching to, he'll stand up and tell them that mercy belongs
to Jesus Christ. Mercy belongs to Jesus Christ.
Vengeance is coming. Vengeance is coming. Every sinner
is going to get what he deserves. But if God gives a sinner a heart
to cry, Lord, please don't give me what I deserve. I mean, can't we all admit we know
what we deserve? This suit is not hiding anything. Please don't give me what I deserve. I need mercy. That's what the
definition of mercy is. Not getting what you deserve. If a man cares at all about the
souls he's preaching to, what he will tell them is, you need
mercy. Oh, but what we need is happiness
and we need all of our churches to unite. What you need is mercy. What I need is mercy. Every soul
here needs mercy before God. And every ounce of it belongs
to Jesus Christ. Every ounce of it. He's the one
who holds mercy. Here's the thing. He says he
delights to show it. Run to him. I mean run to him,
run crying, I need mercy. Here you go. All you want, all
you need, run to him. How do you run to Jesus Christ?
Right there. I need mercy. I mean sincerely,
I need mercy. Turn with me to Daniel chapter
9. Daniel chapter 9. It's after Ezekiel. Daniel 9 verse
7 says, Oh Lord, righteousness belongeth
unto thee. Notice that verse 8 says, Oh
Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face. That's about all that
belongs to us is just confusion of face. But righteousness belongs
to you. Righteousness belongs to you.
If a man cares about the souls he's preaching to, this is what
he'll say to them. If you want to be good enough,
to stand in the presence of God. When the time comes for you to
go stand in the presence of God, if you want to be good enough, run to Jesus Christ. Run to Jesus Christ. All righteousness,
what it takes to be worthy and acceptable to stand in the presence
of God and not be cast out, not be eternally damned. It takes
righteousness, perfect righteousness. We need to run to Jesus Christ.
He is all righteousness. Every ounce of it belongs to
Him. It all belongs to Him. You will
not find it in the law. You will not find it in the world,
you sure will not find it in yourself. Let me look inside
here and see if I'm worthy to stand in the presence of God
almighty, the holy God. Just look down, you'll see, no.
Run to Jesus Christ, run to Jesus Christ. Every drop of righteousness
belongs to him. Every drop of good standing in
God's eyes belongs to him. If a sinner is going to receive
righteousness, Christ has to trade places with him. That's
what he has to do. That's how we started this message
with what Paul preached. Christ is going to have to take
that sinner's sin and give that sinner his righteousness. Trade
places with him. All righteousness belongs to
him. Now go with me to Matthew 6. Matthew 6 verse 13 says, And
lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For
thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. All glory belongs to Jesus
Christ. every bit of it when it comes
to the salvation of his kingdom all the glory for all the work
both right now and forever belongs to Jesus Christ all the glory
that is his that is his a man who cares about the souls that
he's preaching to will tell the souls that All the glory belongs
to him. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us. Unto thy name give glory. You chose us. You separated us. You cleansed us. You redeemed
us. All the glory goes to you. Every
bit of it. And this last one, number seven.
This one is extremely important to me. I believe this will be
important to every one of us. Go to Mark chapter 9. Mark chapter 9, verse 41 says, For whosoever shall give you
a cup of water to drink in my name. Because you belong to Christ. Verily I say unto you, he shall
not lose his reward. I'm so thankful for that glass
of water. I didn't get this. Somebody brought
that to me. I am so thankful for that. Let
me tell you the part of this verse right now that is so important
to me though. It says, you belong to Christ. Vengeance belongs to him. Salvation
belongs to him. All of the power of his gospel
belongs to him. Mercy belongs to him. Righteousness
belongs to Him. Glory belongs to Him. And this
is the thing that I love the most. If God has given me a heart
to believe and bow to His Word. If God has given me a heart that
says, yes, salvation is in your hands. All righteousness is not
here, not unto us. Mercy is yours to give to whomever
you will. If God has given me a heart to
see his word, hear his word, believe his word, and bow to
his word, then his word says, I belong to him. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Thou shalt be saved. We are not our own. He said you
belong to him. There is no place I'd rather
be. There's no place I'd rather be.
We are not our own. We are bought with a price. I
don't want to be my own. I want to be in the safety of
his hands. We are bought with a price. That's
the truth. We're not our own. We are bought with a price. That's
what a man will preach to the souls that he cares about. That's
what he'll preach. He'll preach the things which
are Jesus Christ. And every soul that hears it
will say, thank God. Amen. I agree. Every bit of it
belongs to him. All right, let's stand together.