It's tis the season. Everybody
coughing and sneezing and all. Dry throats. Open your Bibles
to Philippians chapter 1. Now this morning I'm going to
speak to you on the subject of preaching and preachers. My text is found in the first
chapter of Philippians. beginning at verse 15. Now, the Apostle Paul had been
speaking here of the fact that his troubles and his trials as
he went out to preach the gospel, minister the gospel, that the
fact that he was persecuted, the fact that now he was in prison
in Rome, that instead of hindering or stopping the progress and
the advancement of the gospel of Christ and the salvation of
God's people, It advanced it. It had worked out to the furtherance
of the gospel. What a marvelous, marvelous thought. What a great, powerful God we
serve. That nothing men can do to us
and nothing we can do to ourselves can stop the progress of the
gospel. The Lord said, All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. Now, I certainly don't want to
be an instrument of hindrance to the gospel. And when we talk
about preaching and preachers, I'll tell you what, there's not
a whole lot of good said about preachers today. They don't have
much of a reputation in a lot of people's eyes, generally speaking. Most of that is deserved, because
most don't preach the truth. That's the first thing. We want
to talk about that. But I'll tell you, there's probably
more jokes running around about preachers than any other class
of people that you'll find, especially about their sermons. I read one
the other day that said that they classified a guy as a longhorn
preacher. And the guy said, well, what
does that mean? He says, well, he has a point at the beginning
and a point at the end and a lot of bull in between. And I, I
hope and pray. I said, Lord, don't let me be
a longhorn preacher. I don't want to do that. And
then I heard one about the wayward preacher. He reads a, he reads
one verse of scripture. And then if he, in a 45 minute
message, if he ever meets that scripture again, it's a miracle.
And I don't want to do that. I want to preach the word of
God. And then the reputation of preachers, many men with egos. We all have egos. But look here
what Paul writes here now. Now there's some joy here and
then there's some sadness here. But he's speaking of preaching
Christ, he said in verse 14, he says, many of the brethren
in the Lord waxing confident, growing confident. by my bonds,
that is, by the fact that Paul was persecuted and imprisoned
over the gospel, they are much more bold to speak the word without
fear. That's without fear of men. But
look at verse 15. He says, Some indeed preach Christ
even of envy and strife, and some also of good will. That
is, the ones who preach Christ of envy and strife, he says,
the one preached Christ of contention, not sincerely supposing to add
affliction to my bonds. Now, what he's simply saying
there is that they're preaching the truth, but their motive is
evil. They want to hurt Paul. And then
verse 17, he says, but the other, that is the other, those who
preach of goodwill out of love. That's the right motive to preach.
Too many preachers get into the ministry or put themselves in
the ministry, but not because they love people, but because
they love preaching. But I want to show you something
about what the Bible says about preaching and preachers. He says,
the other of love, knowing that I am set, I am appointed. That's what that means. Paul
said, I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. To preach
it, to proclaim it, to defend it, and we do defend it when
we preach it. Well, what does the Bible say
about preaching? Well, look back at that psalm that I read at
the beginning, Psalm 40. This is what we call a messianic
psalm. It's a psalm of the Messiah, and it speaks of his mission
and his message. Who would he be and what would
he say to the people when he came to this world? And he says
there in verse 9, now here's preaching. He says, I have preached
righteousness in the great congregation. Now what is it to preach righteousness?
What's to preach? The gospel of Christ is to preach
Christ. He is our righteousness. He says,
I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. The Lord
Jesus Christ was a preacher. And I say that's a noble profession.
It's not even a profession, it's a calling, isn't it? And he says,
I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart. In other words,
what God taught me, I'm not going to keep it to myself. I'm going
to preach it out. He says, I have declared thy faithfulness and
thy salvation. He preaches God's faithfulness
and God's salvation of the Lord. I have not concealed thy loving
kindness and thy truth from the great congregation. He preached
God's love and mercy and grace, as well as God's truth and justice
and holiness. And he says in verse 11, withhold
not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord. Let thy lovingkindness
and thy truth continually preserve me. That's what the preacher
needs. The lovingkindness, the tender
mercies, that's what you need. Isn't that right? That's what
I need. Look over at Isaiah 61 that Brother Don read. This is
a prophecy of Christ because here These words that are recorded
by the Lord in Isaiah 61, our Lord went back to his hometown
and preached the gospel and he started here at this scripture.
He says in verse 1 of Isaiah 61, and it's recorded in Luke
chapter 4 where he did this, he says, the spirit of the Lord
God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good
tidings unto the meek. Now, the good tidings is the
good news of salvation by God's grace in Christ, and the ones
to whom it's going to be good news are the meek. What is it
to be meek? It's to be humble. That's what Ezekiel spoke of,
that fleshy heart. Meek is one who is willing to
submit to God's will and God's way, his way of salvation in
Christ. It's not good news to the self-righteous. It's not good tidings to them.
That's why the Pharisees hated our Lord. He preached to them
the way of salvation, the one way of salvation by God's grace,
and they didn't like it. They wanted their way. They wanted
to work their way into God's favor. But this is good tidings
to the meek. Look at verse 1. He hath sent
me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives
and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Are you
brokenhearted over sin? Well, how's that broken heart
going to be bound up? Only by the gospel of grace in
Christ. That's the only way. Salvation.
Oh, forgiveness of sins through the blood of the crucified one.
Righteousness from Him. He says in verse 2, to proclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord. That is the appointed time that
the Lord would send the Messiah into the world. The day of vengeance
of our God to comfort all that mourn, who mourn over their sins.
To appoint them that mourn in Zion, that's the church, to give
unto them beauty for ashes, the ashes of sin and this world and
all of its problems, the Lord gives us beauty, His beauty,
the beauty of holiness in Christ, the beauty of righteousness in
Christ, the beauty of grace and mercy. The oil of joy for mourning,
that's the work of the Spirit within us to cause us to look
to Christ and rejoice in Him. Paul says that in Philippians
over and over again, rejoice again. Always rejoice the garment
of praise for the spirit of heaviness. In other words, instead of going
around all downcast all the time, praise God. Thank God it's all
in His hands. It's all for His glory and our
good. That they may be called trees of righteousness. That's
our standing before God. It says the planting of the Lord.
He planted us that He might be glorified. And then look over
at verse 10 of that same chapter. I will greatly rejoice in the
Lord." This is the preacher's motive. He said, My soul shall
be joyful in my God, for he hath clothed me with the garments
of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride
adorneth herself with her jewels. Isn't that beautiful? Well, when
the Lord read from that passage in his hometown of Nazareth,
he looked up at the crowd and he said, That passage of scripture
is fulfilled before your very eyes. And do you know what he
meant by that? He meant I'm the one whom Isaiah
was speaking of there. I'm the Messiah. And instead
of bowing down at his feet and begging for mercy, you know what
they did? Do you remember what they did? They got up, grabbed
him, took him outside, and they were going to throw him over
a cliff. The preacher, they want to throw him over a cliff. The
Messiah. The Bible says he just walked
through. They didn't have power to touch him. Who do we think
we are? He just walked through. It wasn't
his time yet, and that wasn't the way of his death. But what
you see from the passage of Scripture here, what you see from the Bible
is that preaching is a noble calling for those who preach
the truth. There are many, many false prophets. There are many
false preachers. They're various degrees, they're
all kinds. Some look good outwardly, some don't. Some are just out
and out crooks, some hide it pretty well, some are sincere,
honestly thinking that they're preaching the truth. Some, all
are deceived, false preachers. Some are wolves in sheep's clothing,
they come pretty close. Christ said in the last days
there'd be many who would come that would come so close that
if it were possible they could deceive the very elect. And that's
why it's impendent upon us to study the Word, to be workmen
that needeth not to be ashamed, to be able to discern what's
right and what's wrong according to God's Word. Don't be deceived. Paul told the Corinthian church,
he said, don't be amazed that false preachers can and do preach
the truth at times. He said, for Satan himself is
disguised as a minister of light. So it's no big thing if his ministers
can be transformed for a time. They can preach the truth for
a time, but they can't stay with it because their heart's not
there. Well, look back here in Philippians
1. Paul's talking about preachers and preaching. And the furtherance
of the gospel, listen to me now, the furtherance of the gospel
is not dependent upon the preacher, no matter who he is. Now, God
uses men to preach the gospel. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians
1 that it pleased the Lord by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. Romans 10, verse 13 says, For
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved,
but how shall they call upon him whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear whom they have not believed? And how
shall they hear without a preacher? Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. But the power of the gospel,
the power of God unto salvation and the success of it and the
spread of it is not dependent on the man who preaches. It's
not the power of the man. The church that man builds will
fall. Did you hear that? Any church
that a man builds will fall. The only one that will not fall,
and some of them may last a good long time, some of them may may
be filled up to the brim, busting out at the wall, but the only
one that will not fall is the church that Christ builds. Upon
this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it." Now Paul is speaking here in a way of
putting things in perspective. Now you can, you know a lot of
times you can get bogged down in details and you can get really,
really technical and really sad and really down. But Paul is
putting it all in perspective. And here's what he says, now
look here at verse 15 again, he says, some preach Christ even
out of envy and strife, some of goodwill. The one preached
Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to
my bonds, but the other of love, knowing that I'm set for the
defense of the gospel. Now look at verse 18, but what
then? Now what am I going to conclude
here? What am I going to do? Am I going to go out there and
just try to just get to those guys who are trying to get to
me and beat up on them or discredit them or answer them? You know,
I've learned a hard lesson in my life, and I think I'll probably
have to learn this one again. Do you know the best way to answer
your critics? Is don't answer. That's the best
way to answer your critics. If they don't have the guts to
stand before you, to your face, and deal with it as men and as
women, believing, just don't answer. So that's what Paul's
saying. What then? What am I going to
conclude about this? Well, he says, notwithstanding,
every way, it doesn't matter what their motive is now, this
is what he's saying, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ
is preached. Christ is preached. Now, I therein
do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. Christ is preached. So the issue
is what? That Christ is preached. Isn't
that right? You say, well, I don't like the
way he dresses. That doesn't matter. I don't like the way
he combs his hair. I don't like the way he does
things. He didn't do them like the old guy did. That doesn't
matter. Christ is preached. Now, that's
it. And Paul said, now, I'm going
to rejoice. What about you? I'm going to rejoice. That's
the issue. Well, now, the first thing to
be settled here to understand this is this. Number one, what
is it to preach Christ? What is it to preach Christ and
magnify him? Now, we know that if Christ were
not preached, Paul would not be rejoicing. Because in other
places, For example, in Galatians chapter 1, there were false preachers
who come in who wanted to do Paul harm, and they were perverting
the gospel. And he didn't say, now I rejoice
over them. He said, let them be anathema.
Let them be accursed. He told the Corinthians in 2
Corinthians chapter 11, if they come preaching another Jesus
by another spirit, another gospel, if they're not preaching the
gospel of the doctrines of grace, of Christ and him crucified,
then we don't rejoice. Stay away from them. If they're
perverting the gospel, confusing the people of God, don't listen
to them, dividing the people of God. Don't listen to them.
But he says, if Christ is preached, then I'm going to rejoice. That's
an amazing thing. That has to be God's grace because
that's not in us by nature, because our nature is to get revenge. Well, what is it to preach Christ
and magnify Him? Let me give you these things.
Number one, to preach Christ is to preach His glorious person,
who He is. Well, who is He? Well, He's God
in man. He's the Messiah. He's the Redeemer. He's the one and only appointed
substitute of sinners. He was made of the flesh, made
of the seed of David according to the flesh, but declared to
be the Son of God with power. He asked a group of people that
were questioning him, trying to trap him. He said, what think
ye of Christ in Matthew chapter 22? Whose son is he? And they
say, well, he's David's son. And he said, well, how can he
be both David's offspring and David's God? Because David called
him Lord. They didn't know. They didn't
know. But you know, you know the answer
to that? He's both. He's David's offspring according
to the flesh without sin, and he's David's God. You think about
it. Isn't that amazing? He's the
one who created David and put him on this earth. He's the one
who created the earth. He's God, and yet he's man in
one person. That's a marvelous, unexplainable
truth, but it's so. And in that capacity as God-man,
he glorified the Father in heaven. There were a group of people
that John, the apostle, had to deal with in the churches to
whom he was writing. And in 1 John, one of these groups
was denying the humanity of Christ. And the reason they denied his
humanity is they could not understand how humanity could be without
sin. Anything material was sin to them. And John told them,
he said, those who deny that Christ has come in the flesh,
they don't have God. They're not true preachers of
the gospel. They're not preaching Christ.
Anyone who denies his deity or anyone who denies his humanity
is not preaching Christ. Paul wouldn't rejoice in that.
John wouldn't rejoice in it. He's God-man. This is the kind
of person, this is the type of person that it took to save sinners
from their sin. He had to be both God and man.
If he were not God, he could not bring forth an everlasting
righteousness of infinite value to be imputed to his people to
give them a right standing before God. Man cannot do that. If he
were not God, he could not give and sustain life. You cannot
give and sustain life. You can't do that. I can't do
that. God can. God is life. And then if he were
not man without sin, he could not substitute himself in the
place of his people and suffer and bleed and die on the cross
as payment for those sins. God cannot die. But this person
who is God did die, and that's to be attributed to his humanity.
Without the shedding of blood, without death, there's no remission. There's no forgiveness. So he
had to be. So first, it's to preach his
person. Secondly, it's to preach his finished work of redemption,
to redeem and justify his people. How many times do we read there
in Psalm 40 and in Isaiah 61, I'm preaching righteousness.
Now what does it mean when it says I'm preaching righteousness?
What does that mean? Paul wrote in Romans chapter
1 and verse 16 and 17, he said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ for it's the power of God and the salvation to the
Jew first and the Greek also, for there to all who believe
it. For therein, verse 17, is the righteousness of God revealed.
If you want to see the best definition of that term, righteousness of
God, look at Romans 3, verses 21 to the end of the chapter.
And what is it? It's the work of Christ in His
obedience to the law, His perfect, sinless obedience to the law,
and His work on the cross to die for His people, as the sinless
substitute whose people's sins were laid upon him to satisfy
law and justice. It's the finished work of Christ.
He finished the work and by that one offering for sin he hath
forever perfected, the scripture says, those whom God set apart. His finished work is the only
ground and cause of our salvation. His finished work, His blood,
and His righteousness is that which alone entitles us to eternal
glory. That's so. His finished work
was not an attempt to save anybody. His finished work was the salvation
of everybody whom He intended to save. That's what the Scripture
teaches. He said, All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh me I will no
wise cast out. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. And he said, my sheep, hear my voice. They shall be. His name shall be called Jesus,
for he what shall save his people from their sin. Now, is he able
to do so? Well, his name shall be called
Emmanuel, which being interpreted as God with us. The finished
work of Christ, my friend, that's all we have, and that's all the
Holy Spirit leads us to. as our right standing before
God. Thirdly is to preach his resurrection
from the dead. We don't serve a dead martyr,
we serve a risen Savior, the Lord of glory. And his resurrection
did not finish our justification. His resurrection was because
of our justification, the scripture teaches. That's why before he
gave up the ghost, he said, it's finished. He went into the grave
and was there for three days and he came out of that grave
because righteousness had been established, sin had been put
away. He arose. Fourthly, it's to preach his
power in the new birth by the Holy Spirit. That which Christ
accomplished must have its fruit and effect in life given. You
must be born again. That's part of preaching Christ.
The new birth is not the ground of our salvation. It's the fruit
of our salvation that Christ accomplished. He said it. He
said, when a corn of wheat, when a seed goes into the ground and
dies and it brings forth life. Well, he went to the grave. He
died. He went to the grave and brought forth life. And he sends
his spirit into the world to bring his people under the preaching
of the gospel to give them life. It's also to preach his word
to enlighten and teach us and disciple us. He said to his disciples
in John chapter 8, verse 31, he said, if you continue in my
word, you shall be my disciples indeed. Now we know we continue
by God's preserving grace. It's not on our own power. It's
also to preach his continual intercession. Where is he now? He's seated at the right hand
of the Father, making intercession for us. We have an advocate.
We're sinners. Sinners saved by grace, but still
sinners. And that's why we need a continual
advocate. He's seated there. He's not daily
doing different things. He's seated there. And the very
fact that he is there is a commendation. It is an expression. It is a
manifestation of the value and the power of what he accomplished
on the cross. to forgive us of all our sins,
past, present, future. And then it's to preach His second
coming. He's coming again. We are people
who live in expectation. One of two things is going to
happen. We're either going to die and go to be with the Lord,
or we're going to be here when He comes again. And we'll be
changed, which is the equivalent of death. That's going to happen. He's
coming again to gather his people unto himself, and we'll be glorified
together with him. We'll be perfect in ourselves.
What we are right now in Christ, we'll realize by experiencing
ourselves in that day. This old corruptible body will
put on incorruption, a new body. Somebody asked me one time, what's
that new body like? Are you listening? You know how
I do these things. What's that new body going to
be like? I don't know. But it's going to be new. It's
going to be sinless. There's not going to be any tears,
not going to be any sorrow. I can't explain it to you, but
I know it's so. It's going to be like unto His
glorious body. What was His like? I don't know. The Bible just
doesn't give us those details. But I know this will be like
Him. John said, It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but
we know we'll see Him as He is, and we'll be like Him. Paul said
in Philippians chapter 3, I've not already arrived in this area.
He said, I'm not already attained, but I press forward toward the
mark of the high calling of Christ. Now, that's the preaching of
Christ. It's the preaching of the ruined by the fall. That's
part of the preaching of Christ. We talk about being ruined by
the fall. Well, that's talking about the sinfulness of man.
We cannot save ourselves. We're ruined in Adam. And even
our best efforts to save ourselves are filthy rags. That's why we
need grace. That's why we need Christ. That's
why we need a Savior. Redeemed by the blood. When Christ
died, He bought us lock, stock, and barrel. He justified us by
His blood and righteousness. He will have His people. And
regenerated by the Spirit. That's the sovereign work of
the Spirit. To bring us to Christ. To bring us to Him in faith and
repentance. who abides within us all of our
days here on this earth to keep us looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Now, that's a glorious message,
isn't it? That's a great message. That's good news to the meek.
But what about the preacher? Well, go back to Philippians
1. Now, first of all, when you consider
those who preach Christ now. Now, understand, that's what
he's talking about. Those who preach Christ, not those who
preach a false message. Here's one thing you've got to
understand right off. Even the best, even the most
reliable, even the most sincere and dedicated of men are at best
weak earthen vessels. Now that's right. And they're
easy targets. That's one thing about being
up here. You're an easy target. And if you want to put me or
any other preacher under a microscope, have at it. And you'll find the
flaws. I've already found them. You
might find some I don't know about, but they're there. Paul
said, who is sufficient for these things? No man is. This is a
message of life and death now. What I'm preaching to you is
life and death. Tonight I'm going to talk about
Christ coming back to judge the world. That's serious business. I mean, he's coming back to judge
this world. That's a time of joy for his people, but it's
a time of terror for those who are not in him. Who's sufficient
for that? Not this man, not any man. God
is our sufficiency, Paul said. And we have this glorious gospel
in clay pots, earthen vessels, and clay pots are breakable.
You know Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes, you know how
he refers to himself, how he labeled himself? He didn't say
Solomon the king, Solomon the wise man. He said Solomon the
preacher. You ever read Solomon's biography
in the scriptures? Most people wouldn't sit under
Solomon's preaching if they judged him as a man. Think about David. He was a preacher. Think about
Moses. He was a preacher. You see, this
is the issue of grace. I mean, now listen, we say grace. I'm not talking about dinner
before we eat. I'm saying we say the word grace. We claim
we believe grace. Grace is not just something we
say and look at and admire. Grace is a principle in our lives. It's a way of life. Do we believe
it? Now, I've often said it. I made
this statement a couple of nights over at the meeting at Hayes
Branch. I said, you know, somebody says,
well, if God uses him or if God saves him, he's going to do it
in spite of himself. That's the way God does us all. If He saves
you, He's going to save you in spite of yourself. If He saves
me, the same way. If He uses us. He doesn't pick
out perfect men and say, now that one's qualified, put him
behind the pulpit or put him in the pew doing it. That's not
the way God does things. You see, His ways and His thoughts
are higher than our ways and thoughts. He will astound us
by whom He will use. Somebody said, well, that preacher
didn't come into town on the back of a turnip truck. Well,
God just may use that fellow that come into town on the back
of a turnip truck. He has before. You see, the thing
about this is when we talk about qualifications and things that
we expect, you know, what do we expect out of this one or
that one? And our expectation, I'm talking about me too now,
my expectations of you are much higher than they are of me. That's
human nature. When we talk about that, and
you think about, you know, who are you going to listen to? Listen
to me. God uses clay pots. And he'll take the one that you
wouldn't think that anybody would listen to. To think that certain
men are qualified because of who they are or how they dress
or where they've been to school. You know what that is? That's
pharisaical thinking. I'll tell you how I know that.
Who was it that the Lord used to turn this world upside down?
Was it the Pharisees? The Sadducees? It was a bunch
of fishermen. Unschooled fishermen. That's
right. Who were they? They were nobodies
from nowhere who had no credentials. And God used them. And here the
man whom God used to write Philippians was a God-hater. A persecutor
of the Church. Now, you think about that. And
I'm not saying this to make excuses for me or any other preacher.
I'm just telling you the truth. The preacher is a sinner saved
by the grace of God in Christ. Now, Paul divides them here into
two categories. Those who preach out of envy
and strife and contention, not sincerely, for the reason to
hurt him. That's sad. And then the next
category, those who preach out of goodwill and love. That they
all preach Christ, he said. What about this one who preaches
out of strife and envy and contention? Well, they preach Christ, but
their motives, their attitudes and their methods expose them.
You see, sometimes when a man preaches Christ, it may not speak
well for him, even though it's the message of grace. They were
much more bold to speak the word because of Paul's imprisonment.
You know what it means there? It means they took advantage
of his problems, his troubles. It's almost like they were rejoicing
in Paul's trouble, and they took advantage of it, and they did
preach Christ. Paul's detractors, they were men who sought to belittle
him, devalue him, tear him down, his reputation, and his ministry.
Envy and strife, you know what that means? It means jealousy
and contention. That means division. Someone
said in the original it would be like this, they have a party
spirit by selfish ambition. It's like those in 1 Corinthians.
They would say, I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Cephas.
Well, I'm not of anybody. We just follow Christ. Paul said
over in Philippians chapter 2, he says in verse 3, let nothing
be done through strife or vain glory. That is self-promoting.
But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than
themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every
man also on the things of others. Why? Because that's the mind
of Christ. Let this mind be in you. What do we do when divisions
arise? What are we to do? We're to follow
Christ, not men. We're to follow His Word, not
man's. I'll tell you what, there's only
one thing worth dividing over, the gospel. That's it. That's the only thing that's
worth dividing over. Nothing else is worth dividing over.
John said if they come to you and they're not preaching Christ,
get away from them. And what do we do when one of
God's preachers is accused? Well, we don't know each other's
hearts and motives except as the Word of God leads us. Christ
dealt with that. Look over at 1 Timothy chapter
5 with me. Do you know what? When somebody
is accused, like Paul was accused, or I'm accused, or you're accused, Now, listen to me. Somebody said,
well, you don't have the right motive. Well, you can't see my
heart, and I can't see yours. All we can go by is what the
Word of God reveals, and it may not reveal to you that. Somebody
says, well, you know, I don't like his motive. Well, look here. In 1 Timothy chapter 5, look
at verse 19. Now, Paul was an elder in the
faith. Every preacher of the gospel should be an elder in
the faith. If he's not an elder, he shouldn't be there. And he
says, against an elder, receive not an accusation, but before
or under two or three witnesses. Now, listen to me. Now, that
doesn't mean that when you want to accuse somebody, take two
people with you to do it too. That means when you accuse somebody,
make sure that you've got two or three witnesses who know the
facts and who can back it up too. And it says, verse 20, them
that sin, if it's proven, rebuke before all, bring it before the
church that others also may fear. And that's when these accusations
are thrown around. Somebody says, well, I heard
a rumor and I'll listen to a rumor. You know what a rumor is? It's
satanic. That's what a rumor is. It's
a story started and told by Satan. So why don't you just say it
that way? Well, I heard something Satan said and I decided to listen
to it. And that's it. That's all it is. unfounded accusation. Now these men, go back to Philippians
1, this is what was happening here. Some indeed, verse 15,
preach Christ of envy and strife, and it says in verse 16, they
preach Christ of contention, not sincerely. Their aim was
to add affliction to my bonds, to discredit Paul, to deny him,
to put him down, you see, and destroy his reputation and his
ministry. And I'll tell you something,
those who avoid or ignore the word of God in these areas are
not to be listened to or followed. But now let's end on a positive
note. Now look here, he says some indeed preach Christ of
goodwill. He said they preach Christ of
love, knowing that I'm appointed for the defense of the gospel.
What he means by this is there are some who are so emboldened
by my imprisonment to preach the gospel boldly, to proclaim
Christ in this lost world in a united front with Paul proclaiming
the grace of God in Christ." They said, I stand with Paul
even though he's in prison. If that means I go to prison,
then so be it. I stand with Paul because he's
a minister of the Lord and we're both in the Lord. It's a united
front. That goodwill there, he says,
some preach Christ of goodwill. You know what that goodwill literally
means? It means contentment. They're content. Bible speaks
of godliness with contentment is a great game. In other words,
whatever way God wants it, that's all right with me. Wherever God
puts me, wherever God wants me, that's all right with me. I'm
content with that. I'm with Paul. We're preaching
the gospel. We follow the same Christ. This love here denotes
love for Christ, love for his church, love for his ministers,
and compassion for the lost. What are we here for? We're not
here to form some exclusive club of family and friends, and you
have to meet our criteria before you can break into that circle.
That's not what we're here for. Some old preacher said one time,
said, God called us to be fishers of men, not keepers of the aquarium. Now, we do preach to the edification
of brethren, and we want us to grow inwardly as believers. But for what purpose? To get
the gospel out to the lost as a shining light in a dark world,
as examples of God's grace and love and unity and peace, not
as fighting and fussing and divisions, trying to hurt this preacher
or that preacher. That's what Paul's talking about here. We're
set for the defense of the gospel. And what he's saying here is
this, I am more concerned for God's glory and the good of others
than I am with my own desires and my own selfish ambition.
As I said before, a lot of preaching is motivated by love for preaching,
not love for Christ and love for His people. Look back at
John 1. Let me close with this. I've thought about this. You
know, when I, back in 1980, I guess, or something
like that, joined the preacher school here, And somebody asked
me one time if I had ever thought about starting a preacher school
or something like that. And I certainly wouldn't rule
anything like that out if there were young men who felt led to
be teachers and preachers. But I'm not going to right now. But, you know, it could come
up in the future. I mean, you know, when God You
know, finishes with one man, he's going to bring another man
in. You know, when Moses, when he's finished with Moses, he
brought Joshua in. When he's finished with Elijah, he brought
Elisha in. It's not one man ministry. Don't get me wrong. I mean, we've
got preachers all over the world, even though few and far between
preaching the gospel. But you know what? If I had a
preacher school, I would take them first to the school of John
the Baptist. I think that's the best way to
learn. what it is to be a preacher. And I want you to look at this.
Look at John 1, verse 19. This is the preaching school
of John the Baptist. He says, and this is the record of John.
When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask
him, who are you? Who are you? Are you somebody? And he confessed and denied not,
but confessed. Now the first thing John said
when they said, who are you? He started out with who he wasn't.
That's a good way to start. Because you know, the first thing
we usually say is, well, I'll tell you what I've done. Tell
you where I've been. Tell you what I've accomplished.
Who are you? Well, you need to know who I'm
not. And here's the first thing. I'm not your Savior. I'm not
your Lord. John said, I'm not the Christ.
If you're thinking that, get that out of your head. I'm not
him. I'm not him. Well, they ask him, what then
are you, Elias? That's Elijah. They thought Elijah
was going to come back bodily, based on a prophecy of Malachi,
but he wasn't. John the Baptist was in the spirit
of Elijah. And he says, I'm not. No, I'm not Elijah. Are you that
prophet? That's the prophecy of Moses
in Deuteronomy 18, the Messiah. John said, he answered, no. He
didn't argue, he just said, no, no, no. Then said they unto him,
well, who are you? That we may give an answer to
them that sin us. What sayest thou of thyself?
Now, you can imagine what the average preacher today would
say if he got a hold of a question like that. Well, he didn't even
say, I'm John the Baptist. Remember that name. He didn't
say that, did he? He said in verse 23, look, he
said, I'm the voice. I'm just the voice of one crying
in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the
Lord. You know what John's saying? He said, I want your identification
of me to be with Christ. And that's it. Not with any other,
not Elijah. Not anybody else. I want you
to identify me by the one I preach, the one I exalt, Christ. I'm not the Savior. Make straight
the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said." And they, look
at verse 24, "...they which were sent were of the Pharisees. And
they asked him and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then,
if thou be not the Christ, nor Elijah, neither that prophet?
And John answered them, saying..." He didn't say, well, my baptism
is as good as anybody's. No, he said, I baptize with water.
"...but there standeth one among you whom you know not, he it
is who is coming after who's coming after me is preferred
before me." John wants his identification as a preacher to be identified
with the power of Christ, who Christ is and his power. I'm
just baptizing you with water, but the one who baptizes with
power who's preferred before me, and he said, now let me tell
you how I stand in light of him in relation to him. Look at verse
27, whose shoe latchet I'm not worthy to unloose. That's a credential, isn't it? John the Baptist, Dr. John the
Baptist, Ph.D. No, I'm not even worthy to untie
his shoes. And then verse 29, it says, The
next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and he said, Behold
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Behold
the Lamb. That's the preacher's identification
right there. Behold the Lamb. Who is that
guy? I don't remember his name, but
he preaches Christ. He said, This is the one of whom
I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me,
for he was before me. He has the preeminence. He's
God. And I knew him not. I'm a sinner saved by grace.
But that he should be manifest to Israel, therefore I am come
baptizing with water. John said, Behold, the Lamb of
God. Look down at verse 37. And the two disciples heard him
speak and they followed Jesus. That's the way the preacher ought
to be identified. When he speaks, you follow Christ, not him. Later on, John made this statement
over, I believe, in chapter 3 when some of his disciples got to
arguing over John and his followers and Christ and his followers.
And you know what he told his followers? He didn't say, well,
come on, fellas, we'll just go over here and make a church under
the tree. You know what he told them? He said, you guys don't
understand my ministry. Here it is in a nutshell. He
must increase. I must decrease. He's got to
be glorified and honored and worshiped and served and followed.
And I got to get out of the way. I got to get out of the way.
Sometimes the life of salvation is the life of a believer is
characterized as a race. And it's a race of grace which
we run looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
And I sort of liken the preacher like the guy who has the starting
pistol. He just shoots the gun off and there you go. You don't
see him again. You don't look back and say,
what happened to that guy with the starting pistol? You run to the finish
line, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
All right.