Good evening. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 474. 474. Not have I gotten,
but what I'm only a sinner Saved by grace
Only a sinner Saved by grace Only a sinner Saved by grace
This is my story To God be the glory ? Only a sinner saved by
grace ? Once I was foolish and sin ruled my heart ? Causing
my footsteps from God to depart ? Jesus hath found me In our
case, I now am a sinner, saved by grace. Only a sinner, saved
by grace. I'm only a sinner, saved by grace. This is my story, to God be the
glory. I'm only a sinner, saved by grace. no merit that I. Mercy has saved me, or else I
must die. Sin had alarmed me, fearing God's
face, but now I'm a sinner, saved by grace. Only a sinner, saved
by grace Only a sinner, saved by grace This is my story, to
God be the glory I'm only a sinner, saved by grace Except for a sinner
whose heart overflows Loving his Savior to tell what he knows
Wants more to tell it, but I embrace I'm only a sinner saved by grace
Only a sinner saved by grace Only a sinner saved by grace
This is my story to God be the glory Be seated, we'll sing hymn number
258. 258. ? A wonderful Savior is Jesus born ? Savior to me. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock, where rivers of pleasure I He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love. It covers me there with His hand. It covers me there with His hand. The wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Lord. taketh my burden away. He holdeth me up, and I shall
not be moved. He giveth me strength as my He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock, at shadows of dry, thirsty land. He hideth my heart in the desert
of His love, and covers me there with His hand, and covers me
there with His hand. With numberless blessings each
moment He crowns And filled with His fullness divine I sing in
my rapture glory to God for such a redeemer
as mine. He guided my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows He hideth my life in the depths of His
love, and covers me there with His face. ? And covers me there with his
hand ? ? Enclosed in his brightness transported
I rise ? ? To meet him in clouds of the sky ? His perfect salvation, His wonderful
love, I'll shout with the millions on high. He guided my soul in the cleft
of the rock, ? That shadowed such my thirsty flesh ? ? He
hideth my heart in the depths of His love ? ? And covers me
there with His hand ? Good evening. If you would, let's
turn to the book of Psalm and read Psalm 98 together. Psalm 98, O sing unto the Lord
a new song, for he hath done marvelous things. His right hand
and his holy arm hath gotten him the victory. The Lord hath
made known his salvation. His righteousness hath he openly
showed in the sight of the heathen, the Gentiles, that's us. He hath remembered his mercy
and his truth toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the
earth have seen the salvation of our God. Make a joyful noise
unto the Lord all the earth. Make a loud noise and rejoice
and sing praise. Sing unto the Lord with the harp
and with the voice of a psalm. With trumpets and the sound of
a cornet, make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King. Let
the sea roar in the fullness thereof, the world and they that
dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands,
let the hills be joyful together before the Lord. For he cometh
to judge the earth with righteousness, shall he judge the world and
the people with equity. Let's pray. Our great and high and merciful
Heavenly Father, we come before thy throne this evening. Through
our Redeemer, the precious Lord Jesus Christ, we come in his
name. We thank you for the day, Lord,
and for thy precious word. We thank you for the word this
morning. We ask you to bless the congregation with the presence
of the Holy Spirit once again, if it be thy will. We ask thee
to be the comforter and stay of those that are downpressed
and trodden. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen. Page 32 in our course books.
All I need. 32 in the course book. Jesus Christ is made to be all
I need. all I need. He alone is all my
plea. He is all I need. Wisdom, righteousness, and power. Holiness forevermore. My redemption, full and sure. ? He is all I need ? Jesus is
my all in all ? All I need, all I need ? While he keeps I cannot
fall ? He is all I need ? Is for righteousness and power
? ? Holiness forevermore ? ? High redemption full and sure ? ?
He is all I need ? ? He redeemed me when he died ? All I need,
all I need, I with Him was crucified, He is all I need. Wisdom, righteousness, and power,
? Is forever born ? By redemption
full and true ? He is all I need ? Glory, glory to the Lamb ?
All I need, all I need ? By His Spirit still I am ? He is all
I need ? Mr. Righteousness and power ? Holiness
forevermore ? My redemption full and sure He is all I need. Amen. Well, we are so thankful that
the Lord gave us another day. You know, they say this is the
day the Lord hath made and thus began rejoicing it. Well, every
day is His day, and believers know that. Every day is the Lord's
day. But when you talk about, this is the day the Lord hath
made, I think it's the day that He actually sent Christ into
this world, that day. That's the way I really, I mean,
this is the day God made. The day that Christ came into
this world. And a day is as a thousand years,
and a thousand years as a day. God don't consider time, and
I'm sure, thankfully, don't. And we're gonna enter into eternity
one of these days, but it starts right here. It starts right here.
Well, we're, again, thankful to have Lance and Robin with
us. I wish they could stay more. They've always been able to stay
a few days, but they got other fish to fry. They got responsibilities. They got some real responsibilities.
at home with his mother and dad and they got to get back and
take care of that. You know, they attend David Pledger's
church have for quite some time and they couldn't have a better
preacher and a better pastor than David Pledger. What a wonderful
man, God-honoring man. Lance, you come, bring the Lord's
message he's laid on your heart. Good evening. Turn with me to
Philippians, Philippians chapter 1. And it's not that Robin and I want
to hurry away. We would be delighted to spend
some time here with Donnie and Shirley and also By God's grace,
I hope that at some point in time we'll be able to come and
spend some time with you all and get to know you a little
better. We've known you for many, many years at this point in time. I just want to know that we're
so thankful for you. We really are. You've been a
great encouragement to us over the years. I'm thankful to the Lord for
the privilege of preaching the gospel. What I'd like to do this evening
is just really look at a number of things, but what I want to
do is focus on Paul's statement where he says in this first chapter
that my chains are in Christ. And what is he speaking about? And what does he mean? That's
really all we're going to look at tonight. And I trust that
the Lord will show us something. But you know, the apostle begins
this letter to the saints there in Philippi with great spiritual
themes of all that God has done for them. The Lord had done great
things for these people in Macedonia. Hadn't he? You just finished,
your pastor told me. He was preaching through Acts.
And so you should all be very familiar with this. Let me just
remind you. Paul and a company of men had
left Israel and traveled By these, what in those days were just
small ships. And the travel was very dangerous. And it took a long time. But anyway, they traveled up.
And if you remember, they had purposed to go into Asia. And
what happened? The Holy Spirit forbid them to
preach the gospel. Isn't that amazing? And then
they thought, well, we'll go into Bithynia. And the Holy Spirit
didn't permit them. Now, what were they going to
do? Some evil that he hindered them from? They were going to
preach the glorious gospel of our Lord and Savior. And yet
we're told that the Spirit forbid them. And then he didn't permit
them. And why was that? because the Lord's appointed
time for these people in Philippi had come, hadn't it? He had a
people, his sheep, in a time when he was about to call them
out of darkness into his marvelous light had come. And so what happened? Paul, I have no doubt, they were
confused. Wouldn't you have been? Why is
the Lord doing this? And then Paul has that vision
This man of Macedonia, and what does he say? Man of Macedonia,
he says, come over and help us. And what did Paul think? Well,
what help do they need? Are they short of food? Or do
we need to go over there and help them with their housing?
Or any number of things, right? What did he conclude? He concluded
they needed help. What help did they need? They
needed the gospel, didn't they? And so they immediately went
there. And what did they find? Well, they went down to that
river where the women were meeting. You remember that? And who was
there? Lydia. And they spoke the word
to these women who were gathered there. And what happened? The Lord opened the heart of
Lydia. That's the only way any of us
are ever saved, isn't it? That the Lord, he not only opens
the heart, but he sends the gospel. The gospel is never sent forth
indiscriminately. We think it is. We just are obedient
to that command. Go forth into all the world and
preach the gospel. We're just obedient. But God
is ordering everything perfectly, isn't he? To bring the gospel
to his people, his lost sheep, so that they'll hear. And when
they hear, he opens their heart to receive that word. And that's
what he did with the Lydians. And you remember, let me just
quickly remind you, what happens? Lots of trouble, right? This
crowd is stirred up by these evil men and Paul and Silas are taken into
custody. They're beaten with rods. They're
thrown into the deepest prison. And in the middle of the night,
here comes an earthquake. And the prison doors are flung
open. The chains fall off the prisoners. And the warder is
Roman centurion. Remember that? This is what a
warder would have been in a colony of Rome. Not a snowflake, as they say
today. And he was terrified because
he thought his life was over, finished. If his prisoners were
lost, he would have been put to death. And he took his sword,
and he was about to fall on it until Paul called out to him.
You remember that. And here's Lydia and her whole household
saved. That's Lydia, the first member
of the Church of Philippi, and her whole household. And here's
the warder, the next one, and his whole household. And this
is the beginning of this church at Philippi. As I said, the Lord
had done great things for these people, hadn't he? And here is
Paul, he's in prison now in Rome, and he's writing to these saints
there. And I have to move along. I know that. But I'd like to
go into all these wonderful things. But he speaks about them in these
first few verses. And so before we get to the verses
I want to look at, let's just read those first 11 verses, and
then we'll continue on in verse 12. But he begins, Paul and Timothy,
bondservants of Jesus Christ. To all the saints in Christ Jesus
who are in Philippi with the bishops and deacons, grace to
you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I
thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer
of mine making requests for you all with joy for your fellowship
in the gospel from the first day until now. Being confident
of this very thing that he who has begun a good work in you
will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Just as it is
right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in
my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense
and confirmation of the gospel, you are all partakers with me
of grace. For God is my witness, how greatly
I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ. Now let me just
stop there for a minute. You can't help but miss the love
and the care that the Apostle Paul has for these saints there
in Philippi. Many of these people are people
he knows, that the Lord has graciously saved through his ministry. And
you can see, know the love and the affection that he has. He
worries about them, doesn't he? He's concerned for their spiritual
well-being. And this church, too, was a church
that we know. has been a tremendous encouragement
and blessing to the Apostle Paul, hasn't it? And he speaks about
that later. But right at the very beginning,
you see that there's this affection, and there's this love, and there's
this concern. And that's the case of every
true gospel minister, isn't it? That they have concern for the
Lord's people and for his work. And as he's writing to these,
you can't help but miss it. And then he prays this glorious
prayer in verse nine, and this I pray, that your love may abound
still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you
may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere
and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with
the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, to
the glory and praise of God. Now, as you read these things,
you can't help but be encouraged, can you? You can't help but be
full of joy at all the glorious things that God has done for
this people who were in darkness without God and without Christ
in this world, and yet here he is now writing to the saints,
those set apart in Christ, in Philippi. And the same is true
of you here, isn't it? It is. You know, I'm as guilty
as anyone. We just don't rejoice in all
the glorious things that God has done for us. We need to be
reminded of them. And Paul's reminding them, the
saints of those things, isn't he? And as he does, our hearts
too are lifted up in joy. And so the next words of the
Apostle Paul then in verse 12 should tell us something of the
importance of these words that Paul is now gonna deal with.
And the reason I say that is because it's like he brings them
down to the hard realities of the circumstances of life. What
does he say? But I want you to know. He said
all of this. He's made this glorious prayer.
He says, but I want you to know, brethren, the things which happen
to me. And we'll consider that. The things which happen to me
have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel. Well, what does he want them
to know? He wants them to know about these
things that have happened to him. He wants them to know about
his suffering. That's what he's referring to.
And he wants them to consider this. Consider that what is suffering
for a believer? And he wants them to know, too,
that the suffering of the believer is the only suffering that matters
in this world. Do you realize that? You know, there's great suffering
everywhere. You don't have to look far. And you see a child
in a country starving, malnourished, and it's pathetic. And it breaks
your heart, doesn't it? It breaks your heart. There's
suffering everywhere. This is the consequence of sin. But the only suffering that matters
is suffering for Christ and suffering in Christ. And he's preparing
them for the statement found further down as he goes, look
down in chapter 29. We read there, for to you, verse
29 of the first chapter, for to you, it has been granted on
behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer
for his sake. Now, to you, it has been granted
to believe in Christ. What a glorious privilege, what
a great gift. To you, it has been granted to
be justified by his blood. To you, it has been granted to
be born again of the spirit. These are all gifts of God, granted
to us. To you, it has been granted to
be given life in Christ. To you it has been granted to
repent. To you it has been granted to
have an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled which fadeth not
away, reserved in heaven for you. These are just some of the glorious
privileges and precious blessings granted to us. And here's one
more, to you it has been granted to suffer for his sake. Do you
see that? That's a privilege, that's an
honor, it's a gift of God. Now I know you're no different
than me and we find that difficult, we find that hard, don't we?
But it's true, but it's true, to you on behalf of Christ, It
has been granted to suffer for his sake. And, you know, a belief
in this truth, a knowledge in this truth will change the way
you and I look at suffering. It really will. Not only that,
when we find ourselves in the place of suffering, we'll begin
to understand that our goal, our purpose in these circumstances
is to glorify Christ. and to honor him. Paul knows
that. So let's just read these next
few verses in verse 12. 12 to 18, that's all we'll read.
But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happen
to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel,
so that it has become evident to the whole palace garden, to
all the rest, that my chains are in Christ. And most of the
brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains,
are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed
preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from
goodwill. The former preach Christ from
selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to
my chains, but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed
for the defense of the gospel. What then? Only that in every
way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached. And in this I rejoice, yes, and
will rejoice. Now, let's just consider then
some of the things that Paul brings out here in these verses.
He says, I want you to know, brethren, about the things which
have happened to me. Well, what were they? What were
these things that he's referring to? Not good things, not good
things have happened to him. And again, it's great, you've
just heard of all of these things. Let me just remind you what had
happened. Paul had been attacked by a mob in Jerusalem, stirred
up by these Jews from Asia who had recognized him, and they
claimed that he, I don't wanna get sidetracked, but this tells
you a lot about the gospel message, doesn't it? They claimed that
he preached against the law, against the people, against the
temple, and he defiled the temple by bringing in Gentiles. They
dragged him out of the temple and were about to kill him, you
remember, and he was saved only by the commander of the Roman
garrison. And he received news of this
tumult that was going on, and we actually read there that he
gathered soldiers, centurions, and they ran They ran. This was quite an event. They
ran to where that was occurring and took Paul, got him into the
garrison, and he was kept bound in that garrison by the commander
while he worked out what was going on, this Roman commander.
And this became untenable, you remember, when he saw that the
rage of the Jews was Unbelievable. And he heard of a plot, 40 men
who'd sworn on their life to kill Paul when the commander
brought him before the council. And this tells you the seriousness
of it. If you remember, he sent Paul with 200 soldiers, 70 horsemen,
and 200 spearmen to Caesarea, to Felix, the governor. And he examined Paul. found no
fault in him, innocence. Did he release him? No, no, he
kept him in prison for two years. And he was succeeded by Festus,
who, wanting to please the Jews, was planning on sending him back
to Jerusalem. What, for what? A certain death.
And at this point, Paul, he's a Roman citizen, He appeals then
to Caesar, and then in the journey to Rome, right? These are the things that Paul's
talking about, the things that have happened to him. So they're
on this journey to Rome, and the ship is caught in a terrible
storm. I mean, that is an understatement. It's remarkable how much time
is devoted in Acts to this whole account that you would have just
heard about. And they're in danger of perishing
for weeks during this time until, this is what the word says, until
all hope that they would be saved was finally given up. And then
in the end, they were shipwrecked on Malta. Not a life was lost
according to God's preservation of them as he had spoken to Paul,
revealed through Paul. And well, here, Here's Paul then,
he's been falsely accused by his own brethren, his own people
to the Roman rulers and he's imprisoned, he's unjustly held
for all of this time and he couldn't secure a hearing, he's insulted,
he's threatened, his life is continually at risk. The level
of malice was just epic as they would say today. towards Paul
and all of these self-serving men and corrupt government officials. And Paul eventually enters Rome,
not as a free man preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, but as
a prisoner in the company of other criminals bound by a chain. And this whole ordeal dragged
on for years. And often that is one of the
biggest trials in itself. And as he's awaiting the judgment
of Caesar, the ungodly ruler of an earthly empire. So here
he is, still imprisoned, yes, in his own house by God's goodness,
but still in prison, still chained, still unheard, still in dark
circumstances, still with a dark and uncertain future. And this
is what he says, the things, now listen, what did he say?
The things, these are the things that have happened to him. The
things which have happened to me have actually turned out for
the furtherance of the gospel. If I would just learn that, learn
that, that God's in control of all of these things. There isn't any need for Paul
to even make reference to the parallels. Wasn't he in chains imprisoned
in Philippi? And this is how the Philippian
warder was saved and his whole household? There's a whole group
of people in the church that were saved because of his imprisonment
and God's purpose. And so here he is, then as it
is now, his chains are in Christ. And the gospel isn't hindered
in any way. You know the only one that can
hinder the gospel? The only one that can stop the
gospel from going anywhere is God himself. That's true. We just saw that, didn't we?
There's no one else and nothing else that can hinder the gospel.
In fact, all these evil circumstances have served, Paul says, for the
advancement of the gospel. Why? Because the work is God's
work. Didn't he remind the Philippians
of that? He who has begun a good work in you will complete it
until the day of Christ. It's all God's work. Everything
we've talked about, the inception of this church, everything else,
all that has happened to Paul, it's God's work. It's God's work. And he's ordering all things
to bring back about exactly what he wants. And it's exactly true
today. And we rejoice in that. Now Paul
says, the things which happen to me. But he isn't calling attention
to his suffering. Note that. I gave you all the
details in that brief overview, didn't I? Does Paul mention any
of those things? No, no. Paul makes no mention
of any of this. He just makes the statement,
the things that have happened to me. Paul does something which
we naturally find very hard to do. He doesn't think of himself. He thinks of Christ, doesn't
he? Paul calls their attention to his chains, not to cause them
to focus upon him and his suffering, but to cause them to consider
the effect that his chains have had on the work of the gospel. As always, in all things, His
focus is on Christ. His chains are in Christ. His
concern is that Christ is preached. His interest is the furtherance
of the gospel. You see this everywhere in the
life of Paul, don't you? When we suffer, I know you're
not any different than me. When we suffer, our tendency
is to think of ourselves, to focus on ourselves, to feel sorry
for ourselves, to do our best to have everyone else feel sorry
for us, and to focus their attention upon us. And two, in suffering,
our goal in suffering is to avoid it at all costs. Now that's a
natural thing, but there's something greater than that that we should
focus on. You see, Our natural response
isn't what Paul is talking about when he speaks about suffering
for the sake of Christ. To suffer for his sake is to
take the frowning providences of God in our lives and in those
circumstances direct our attention to Christ and direct the attention
of others to Christ to seek his honor. and to desire the furtherance
of the gospel through our suffering, even if it's just in a small
way. This is suffering for his sake.
And all believers have been granted this privilege. And it's a privilege. It is.
It truly is. In his own suffering, Paul thought
not of himself, but of Christ. That's the first thing. Then
the second is that Paul, in his suffering, didn't speak of himself,
but he spoke of Christ. Paul, he says his chains are
in Christ. Now Paul uses chains clearly
as a metaphor for suffering. Doesn't he? My chains are in
Christ. He could have said my suffering is in Christ. And we
tend to think in terms of suffering for Christ and that's true, that's
true. There is the suffering for Christ
but Paul doesn't say that, he doesn't say my chains are for
Christ, he says my chains are in Christ. He says it has become
evident to the whole praetorium, the whole palace guard of Caesar
and to all the rest that his chains are in Christ. Now how could they know that? Because Paul told them. Because
Paul told them. He preached to them. Through
his words and through the life that he lived, they knew that
his chains were in Christ. Whether in freedom or in chains,
the cause of Paul was Christ. Further on, he says, look in
verse 21, this well-known verse. He says, for to me, to live is
Christ. for to me to live is Christ. And to suffer in Christ is to
suffer with our soul governed and conformed by this wonderful
truth that Paul says, for to me to live is Christ. That's what Paul is doing in
his chains. Paul determined not to know anything,
we could say, among the palace guard except Christ and him crucified. You know, it's so hard for us
to focus on the good things when we're suffering. Isn't that true? Things come in, circumstances,
sometimes very hard, very difficult. And it's hard. It's so hard for us to focus
on those excellent things. But Paul, he's determined. determined not
to know anything except Christ and him crucified. It doesn't
matter what his circumstances are. This is his calling. He's in the service of Christ.
Look at what he says in verse 17, knowing that I am appointed
for the defense of the gospel. Well, if he's been appointed
by God for the defense of the gospel, then that's exactly what
he'll do. He'll serve Christ. Paul doesn't
sit there bemoaning his situation thinking, well, why did God allow
this to happen? You know, I can't tell you how
many times that thought has crossed my mind in my life. Why has God
allowed, no, Paul doesn't think this way. Or thinking that the
Lord has set him aside in the work of the gospel. Here he has
been called into the ministry, the apostle to the Gentiles,
and he's languished in prison for years. And he doesn't think,
well, I'm unable to have a ministry, or that the devil has hindered
the purpose of God. No, what does Paul do? Well,
he soldiers on. He soldiers on, doesn't he? And
he says there in verse 20, look there. But with all boldness,
as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body,
whether by life or by death." You know, in the epistle to the
Colossians, Paul prays another wonderful prayer for those saints
in Colossae. And in that, he prays that you
may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him. being fruitful
in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God." Pleasing
Christ. That's what he means when he
says, for me to live is Christ. That's what he means, fully pleasing
Christ. Well, here he gives another definition
of what it means for to me to live is Christ. Now also Christ
will be magnified in my body. Now, now, see, hear what he's
saying? Now also. Not at some point in
time, not in certain circumstances, not sometimes, now. As always,
now. Whether it's in times of great
abundance, or times of great want, Times of exceeding joy
or times of crippling sorrow, whether in life or in death. Brethren, let this be true of
you and me. Now, as always, let Christ be
magnified in my body. In times of trial and suffering,
we've been granted a marvelous privilege, we have. that Christ
would be magnified in our body. This is what Paul wants the Philippians
to know. Look at me. Consider me. Consider
the things that have happened to me and think of this. Think of these great truths.
Then lastly, let's consider the fruit of Paul's chains. What effect did the sufferings
of Paul have in these circumstances? Well, we just heard he magnified
Christ in his body. He says, the things that have
happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance
of the gospel. Now, all these things that had happened
to Paul were against Paul in the previous years, all the hindrances,
All the enemies, all these dark threads woven into the fabric
of Paul's life, the hatred of his own people, the lies and
the deceit, the lack of justice, the emotional and the psychological
and physical suffering over a long period of time, the imprisonment,
the continual prospect of death, the seeming triumph of evil,
You know, just one of these things would have laid us low. And yet
Paul, these things have happened to Paul. And what does he say? No, no,
these things have actually turned out for the furtherance of the
gospel. So that it has become evident
to the whole palace guard and to all the rest that my chains
are in Christ. Think of that. If the church
in Jerusalem or any of the other infant churches had been told
years previously that the gospel would be preached and have its
course among the Praetorian Guard for the ruler of the Roman Empire,
they never would have believed it. Never would have believed
it. The Praetorian Guard was a hand-picked
division of imperial troops. And obviously, as part of their
duty, they were set to guard prisoners who'd appealed to Caesar.
And it seems during this period, there would have been a great
many of these men who were guarding Paul and rotating in their duty. And in so doing, what happened? They were brought into a place
of hearing the gospel. hearing the gospel from the lips
of the apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. Can you
imagine Paul speaking to these men? And not only that, they're
guarding them, and here comes Timothy to visit Paul. And they're
overhearing all of these things that Paul is saying to these
other fellow laborers in the gospel, Timothy and Epaphroditus
and the others that we read who visited him during this time.
And think of the rich blessing it
would have been to hear those conversations. And the Lord used
it. The gospel is having free course among this praetorian
guard. And he says, and to all the rest. This witness and testimony
was not confined to the guards, but he says, to all the rest.
And he doesn't say who all the rest are, but It's implied that
the gospel was having free course in Rome as well. Now, look ahead
for a moment to chapter four, the end of this epistle. Chapter
four. And what is it? Verse 22. At the very end of this epistle,
we read something that's amazing. He says, all the saints greet,
you see he's writing from Rome to these saints in Philippi.
And he says, all the saints greet you, but especially those who
are of Caesar's household. Isn't that incredible? This was a seat of power of the
Roman Empire. Caesar's household. And those
in Caesar's household would have been very important people, let's
put it that way. And what about these people in
Philippi? Nothing. You know, they're just
people in a poor colony of Rome. But here, we know the Gospel
of God's grace is the only thing that truly erases all those barriers
of man, all the cultural and ethnic and background and class. It doesn't matter what, it just
erases it. Here are these saints in Caesar's household and they
greet the brethren in Philippi. That just blesses me, that just
blesses me so much. Emperor Nero has gone down in
history as one of the most evil tyrants that ever lived. His
persecution especially of the Christian church, earned him
the title Antichrist in the early church. I'm sure you know that. And what do we find in this household? In his household, saints in Christ
Jesus. Well, what else? Look back to
chapter one and verse 14. Most of the brethren in the Lord
Having become confident in my chains, I'm much more bold to
speak the word without fear. Once again, the Lord has brought
about the exact opposite of what we would expect. The great apostle
to the Gentiles had been imprisoned. His life is at risk, his future
uncertain. He's unable to go forth to the
ends of the earth preaching the gospel as an ambassador of Christ. And what would we expect? Well,
what initially happened in Israel, we would expect them to be in
fear, hiding, discouraged, disheartened. But no. What does Paul say? Having
become much more confident, they are much more bold to speak the
word without fear. Their own well-being, their preservation,
Remember now, this is a period of time where Christians were
persecuted terribly. And here they are. Their thoughts
are no longer focused upon themselves, but upon Christ. And they're
much more bold to speak the gospel. Notice how Paul puts it, having
become confident in my chains." It's a life of Paul, lived in
his chains, which has so inspired them to become confident in the
Lord, to have great boldness in preaching the gospel without
fear. These are some of the fruits
of Paul's chains. In other words, Christ is has
been magnified and is being magnified through the life that Paul lives
in these dark circumstances. Well, what is Paul's conclusion
about all of this? Look there, what does he say
in verse 18? What then? What then, he asks? What is his whole view, not only
in terms of suffering, but in any and every circumstance of
life? What then? Well, here's his answer, and
it's a good one. Only that in every way Christ
is preached. The Lord Jesus Christ is always
the central and controlling factor in the life of this man. Only
that Christ is preached. That's a great desire, isn't
it? That's a great desire. May it be more and more our desire,
now and always. And what does Paul say? He says
there, in this I rejoice. Yes, and will rejoice. And we
can be certain of that too. Amen. You called yourself a prisoner
of Jesus Christ, didn't you? He said, I may be bound, but
God's Word's not bound. And that's the truth. That's
the truth. Thank you, Lance. I appreciate you very much. Our Father, in the blessed, blessed
name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for allowing
us to meet here today. Thank you for my dear brother
and his wife. We pray that your blessings will be upon them.
Give them traveling mercies. Meet the needs of their home,
meet the needs of their heart. And Lord, also of everyone in
this congregation tonight, see them safely home. Give them a
good night's rest. Let us rise tomorrow, still looking
to, still believing, still trusting our Lord Jesus Christ. with those
mercies that are new every morning. We bless you and praise you in
Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face and the things of earth will
grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. Good night, God bless you, and
I'll see you next Sunday. No Wednesday night service. I
want to have Wednesday night for the next two Wednesdays,
because Thanksgiving this week, and our meeting will be a week
on Friday next week. So there ain't no sense in me
wearing you out. You're going to hear Friday night, Saturday
night, and you're going to hear some real preaching. Lord bless you.