Now let's go back to the passage
that Brother Mark just read in Philippians chapter 1. Now the
title of the message is The Positive Power of Jesus Christ. The Positive Power of Jesus Christ. As you know, this passage that
Brother Mark read verse 12, the apostle says, but I would you
should understand, brethren, that the things which happened
unto me. What things is he talking about?
Well, when Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write this
letter to the church at Philippi, he was in prison at Rome. This
is one of those books that is referred to as the prison epistles. And here's the Apostle Paul.
When we look at things from our own point of view, it may seem
like a paradox, just utter confusion that a man like the Apostle Paul,
one who was so blessed of God with spiritual knowledge and
wisdom, one who was used of God in such a powerful way, in the
preaching of the gospel and in both for the salvation of sinners
as an evangelist and as a pastor, you might say, in the edification
of the church, used of God to write probably half or more than
half of the New Testament. A man who had been through so
much in the joy of salvation, the joy of the gospel, but also
a man who had been through so much adversity and persecution
And if we go by the general popular philosophy of the world, we'd
have to say that Paul's doing something wrong here. He's in
prison. What's wrong with this guy? What
have you done wrong? What sin, as one preacher might say, what
sin, Paul, in your life is blocking the channel of blessing here
that you need to remove? But Paul doesn't look at it that
way. He looks at it in a very positive way. He said, I would,
you should understand brethren, that the things which happened
to me, and he's not just talking about prison, he's talking about
everything he's gone through. He was beaten, he was threatened.
Somebody said there were 40 Jews who put a contract out on Paul's
life and they made a vow. I'm sure they didn't keep it,
but they vowed they wouldn't eat or sleep until Paul was dead.
All the persecution, and now his journey to Rome was a rough
journey, and now here he is in prison. The things which happened
to me, now listen to what he says, have fallen out rather
unto the furtherance of the gospel. They promoted the gospel. The positive power of Jesus Christ. Well, let me just give you some
things to think about. The power of positive thinking. You heard that term? You sure
have. Most of you have anyway. It's a term which has become
synonymous with today's self-help cult. Even that which comes under
the name of Christianity operates on the general belief that our
thinking, our thoughts, create our reality. A lot of times they'll
go back to passages of scripture like Proverbs 23 which says there
in verse 7, I believe it is, it says, so as a person thinks,
so is he. That's not teaching the power
of positive thinking and it's not teaching that what you think
creates what you are. What that's saying is that no
matter what you do, and you look at the context of that, it's
talking about giving charity to someone and food and stuff
like that. But when your heart's not in it, you're being hypocritical. And that's what it's talking
about. In other words, on the outside you may be doing things
that look like they're good, but on the inside you're full
of sin. And Christ taught that. He said
it's not what goes in your mouth, it's what comes out of your heart.
And remember the words of Jeremiah the prophet, Jeremiah 17, 9,
the heart is deceitful, desperately wicked, who can know it? That's
what that's teaching. And we know that in order for
us to have a good heart in God's sight now, it's got to be given
us by God, doesn't it? In the new birth, the circumcised
heart, the regenerate heart, the heart purified by faith,
looking to Christ, washed in the blood of Christ. What Ezekiel
prophesied of in the New Covenant, he said, God said, I'll give
them a new heart, a new spirit, life. And I tell you, we've all faced
those difficult times in times past where we've been encouraged
to stay positive, stay positive. Don't lose hope. All things will
get better sooner or later. You've heard the term, this too
will pass. That's not a mantra for the positive thinking movement.
All that simply says is that whatever you're going through,
it's temporary. Whether it's a good time or a bad time, it's
just not going to last, and you know it's true. popular positive
thinking gurus. Norman Vincent Peale, he's the
one who wrote the book on it. He wasn't the one really who
started it. In fact, the fellow who started it, what they call
the positive thinking movement and the new age movement, I won't
say started it, he made this statement. He said, oh, I long
for a religion where we are for everything and against nothing.
Now think about that. First thing popped in my mind
when I read that statement is the Lord said, he that is not
for me is what? Against me. For everything and
against nothing? Is there not anything bad in
this world to stand against? Is that what that new age Christianity
power of positive thinking teaches us? Robert Shuler, you remember
him, the false preacher? Joe Osteen is the guru of it
today. When a reporter asked him why
didn't he ever preach against sin, he made the statement, he
said, why do I want to deal with anything so negative? That's
just negative. You remember the book I'm Okay,
You're Okay? There's a popular book now on
the religious bookshelves written by a woman and the title of it
is God is Not Mad at You. God is not mad at you. Smile, God loves you. My former
pastor said, what if Noah put that bumper sticker on the back
of the ark? God is not mad at you. God loves
everybody. Christ died for everybody. You
make the difference. That's where it all comes from
now. The power of positive thinking. The word of faith movement. You
speak it, it'll come true. If you believe it enough now. You see, this kind of thinking
is opposed to the scripture. And the thing about it is, many
equate positive thinking with faith. Believe enough that it'll
happen, it'll happen. And it's just not true. That's
not biblical faith. That's not the gift of faith.
The gift of faith looks to Christ. Saving faith looks to Christ.
You have ideas like this. All disease has its origin in
the mind. I heard a preacher say that one
time. And right thinking has a healing
effect. Now listen to me. Now we all
know this. First of all, I thought about this. None of us ought
to enjoy being what we call negative people. In fact, we don't even
like to be around negative people, do we? I know people who are
just generally they're downers. I used to know a woman, if you
said, how you doing today? You'd find out how she's doing
today. And you might as well just sit down and wait her out.
Every problem, every ache, every pain. Nobody likes to hear that.
We don't like to be around negative people. We like to be around
positive people, uplifting people, encouraging people. The scripture
says, speak an encouraging word. Be an encouragement. Be an edifier. Build up. Don't tear down. We
like that. And that's good. But that's not
what it's at the basis of this modern day, new age, I'm okay,
you're okay, power of positive thinking movement. It's all based
on a lie. You see, disease doesn't have
its origin in the mind. Disease has its origin in sin. S-I-N. And positive thinking will not
wash you clean from all your sins. It takes the blood of Jesus
Christ to do that. He's the only one who can cleanse
us from our sins. The Bible has a lot to say about
how we should think, our thought life, faith, and staying positive.
Look over at Philippians chapter 4. Look at this, verse 8. We'll look at verse 7 of Philippians
chapter 4. It says, "...the peace of God
which passeth all understanding." That's peace in the heart, in
the mind, the affections, the will. It says, "...shall keep
your hearts and minds," and here's your key now, "...through Jesus
Christ." Not through positive thinking, but through Jesus Christ.
And he says in verse eight, finally, brethren, whatsoever things are
true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever
things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things
are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be
any praise, think on these things. Incidentally, the word think
there is translated impute and in count. in a lot of other passages. But think on these things. Make
an accounting of these things. In other words, it's not based
on feeling. It's not based on a pipe dream. It's not just based
on thinking positively. It's taking an account of things
as they are revealed in the Word of God. That's what he's saying. I know how I feel today. May
be good, may be bad, but what does the Word of God say? Now
that's how I'm to think. You understand that? I may get
a message from the doctor tomorrow that's just devastating to me.
That happens, doesn't it? We've known people. Some of us
may have gone through things like that. But how am I to take
an account of that? How am I to think? The Word of
God. That's the key. That's the key. And people today, in this word
of faith, positive thinking, they think, well, man's greatest
need is to realize his potential and become a better person. But
that's not man's greatest need. Look at man's greatest need.
Look at Philippians chapter 3. Paul speaks of man's greatest
need. We know what it is, salvation
from sin. That's what man's greatest need
is. But look what Paul writes here
in verse 7 of Philippians 3, he says, But what things were
gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ. Before Paul,
Saul of Tarsus let's say, was struck down on the Damascus Road
and given a revelation, a powerful, invincible revelation by Christ
of his sinfulness, his depravity, and the glory of Christ in saving
him from his sins. He was doing his best to reach
his potential and be a better person in his false religion,
his legalism, his moralism, trying to establish a righteousness
of his own. Then he comes to this conclusion. What things
were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ, verse eight.
Yea, doubtless I count, remember this is the accounting, this
is the thinking, I count all things but lost for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I suffered
the loss of all things and do count them but done that I may
win Christ, gain Christ, found in him. There's man's greatest
need, to be found in Christ. not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." That's man's
greatest need, to realize his sin, his depravity, his inability,
his helplessness. to find out how to have a right
relationship with God through Jesus Christ and escape the wrath
of God and the curse of sin to be clothed with the righteous
merits of Jesus Christ and have spiritual life from Him. That's
man's greatest need. Inherent in this modern positive
thinking movement is self-esteem that develops from and turns
into self-righteousness. Now let me just give you something
here to think about. We who have raised children and
we have grandchildren, we want to instill upon them a sense
of self-esteem and self-worth. We don't want them to have low
self-esteem. I don't want my grandchildren
to think lowly of themselves in those areas. We want them
to work, study, to their full potential, the intellect and
the brain that God gave them. We want them to try to be better
people. But you have to keep that in
the context. That's life here on earth as
compared to men and women. That's not a right relationship
with God. When it comes to a right relationship
with God, we have absolutely no worth and nothing to offer
God. You say, well, that's just too
negative. Not enough. It's not negative enough. You say, well, how in the world
could I even begin to think positively? I'll tell you exactly how. Look
to Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of your faith. I have
absolutely no righteousness to recommend myself unto God in
and of myself. I could reach my full potential.
They say man uses about 10% of his brain power and the scientists
are trying to work out how he can use the rest of the 90%.
I shudder to think if 10% has done what this world's come to
now, what will another 90% do? A right relationship with God
is not attained or maintained by my reaching my full potential. It's attained and maintained
by God bringing me to see my sin and depravity and looking
to, resting in, leaning upon, pleading the blood and righteousness
of Jesus Christ. That's the difference. There's nothing wrong with self-esteem
and pride as to our relationship with ourselves and others. But
when it comes to man's relationship with God, we're nothing. Christ
is everything. That's right. We're nothing.
Less than nothing. Paul said, I count it all but
done that I may win Christ. That doesn't sound like self-esteem
in that area, does it? You see, this modern day false
positive religion stuff, here's what it does. Listen, it replaces
truth and doctrine with human psychology and philosophy. There's
no doctrine of sin. Man's not a sinner, he's a victim.
Everybody's a victim today. There's very little preaching
of the Bible in or out of context. Sometimes you'll hear them quote
a verse, but it's nothing more than a launch pad for their human
psychology. It denies the need for a strong
stand in the truth. Look at what Paul said here in
Philippians chapter 1. When he's talking about defending
the truth. Look at verse 17 of Philippians
1. He says, but the other of love knowing that I am set for
the defense of the gospel. His whole ministry was to preach
the gospel and to defend it. I heard preachers say, well,
the gospel doesn't need defending. Well, Paul said, I'm set for
the defense of it. I'm set like a flint. This positive thinking movement,
it discourages righteous judgment of ourselves and our others.
You can't say anybody's wrong. Just like that fellow said, I
long for a religion where we're for everything and against nothing.
That's an impossibility. It replaces power in preaching
from the truth of the gospel to the methods and manner of
the preacher. It replaces truth and power that
is measured by success, not in what the Bible calls success,
but in what men measure as success, the health and wealth gospel.
It encourages you to focus upon self and develop your potential
rather than to look into Jesus Christ and following Him and
resting in Him for all righteousness. And it focuses upon man's inherent
goodness and will, which he doesn't have according to the scripture,
rather than the need to be born again by the Holy Spirit. You say, well, all that seems
so negative. Well, look back at Philippians 1. Let me just
go over this briefly. And I want to show you the positive
power of Jesus Christ and how it works in the life of a believer.
And here's the first thing. Look at verse 12. Now here's
Paul. Now remember now, he's in prison. He's in jail. And I know, you
know, people describe it as if it was something that was, you
know, not so bad. He was in it, he called it his
own hired house in one place. Apparently, he had a house that
he was confined to somewhere close to Caesar's court in Rome,
and he couldn't leave, he couldn't come and go, but he had guards
there, and people could come and go unto him. People could
visit Paul, and he could preach the gospel. So here's what he
says, look at it. Here's the power, the positive
power of Jesus Christ. He says, but I would, I want,
I desire you should understand. This is what I want you to, he's
talking to the church of Philippi, the believers of Philippi, they
know Paul's in Rome, and I wanna tell you something that's a discouraging
thing. You know, it's like, if you all, today, if you all heard,
if you read my, read in the paper that I was put in jail, not for
doing something wrong, but for preaching the gospel, it would
be a discouragement to you, wouldn't it? I don't know, some of you
may applaud. No, it would be a discouragement. If I heard of any of you, a believer,
a brother, a sister in Christ, and Paul said, here's the way
I want you to understand this thing. Here's the way I want
you to think, brethren. that the things which have happened
unto me, my prison, my persecution, have fallen out rather unto the
furtherance of the gospel." So here's what I'm saying. The positive
power of Jesus Christ is founded in the truth of the gospel and
in the success of the gospel. The gospel message, the good
news of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. If it furthers the
preaching of Christ and the salvation of sinners, the revelation of
how God can be just and justify the ungodly, the revelation of
God's grace, preaching, the person and work of Christ, that's a
positive thing, isn't it? However it comes out to me. You
say, well, it's difficult to look at it that way. Well, nobody
said it was going to be easy. And the reason it's so difficult
is we're so selfish. We're still so worldly oriented
in certain areas. We just think with the why me
syndrome, well if I'm preaching the gospel then I ought to have
everything easy. But that's not the way it is.
Now you can see this, this is nothing new. What happened here
to Paul. You can go all the way back to
the book of Genesis and see a story of a man named Joseph. And what
happened to Joseph? Through the evil concoctions
of men, even his physical brothers, who wanted to kill him. But you
remember his brother Reuben stepped in and said, let's not kill him,
let's sell him. They sold him down into Egypt. And Joseph,
as far as a human being is concerned, was a moral person, a sincere
person, trying to do everything right, and still he ended up
not only in bondage in Egypt, but in jail. And went through all of that,
finally was brought out of jail and made second in command to
Pharaoh. And you remember what he told
his brothers later on when they came into Egypt to get food and
they had to go to Joseph and they didn't recognize him? Finally
he revealed himself to them. And you remember what he said?
He said, God meant it for good. You meant it for evil now. He
told them, you meant it for evil. You're responsible. You're accountable.
Secret things belong to God. Revealed things belong to God.
You meant it for evil. But God meant it for good. Now
that's not the power of positive thinking. That's not the word
of faith movement. That's not I'm okay, you're okay. That's the positive power of
Jesus Christ. God meant it for good to redeem
much people alive. He's going to keep his people
alive. That's how it's all fallen out. And we could go through
the scriptures and give examples of that. We could certainly go
to the book of Job, couldn't we? How God allowed Satan to
take everything away from Job except his life. They took away
his family, took away his belongings, all that he owned, and took away
his health. The three things we probably
cherish most in this world, Job had them taken away from him.
You can imagine, how would you feel if your family was just
gone? Your children? And your wife
turned to you and said, why don't you just curse God and die? Boy,
what an encouragement. And then all of a sudden you
lost your home, your house, your land, you lost every bit of it.
And then you lost your health. Now Job was not a perfect man
in himself throughout all that. He started out, he said, the
Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
I'm not going to curse God. But then he began to justify
himself. He began to try to bargain with
God. But he learned a great lesson.
We could go through the scriptures on that. But Paul says, worked out to the furtherance
of the gospel. Christ Jesus is preached. And then look at verse
13. He says, so that my bonds in Christ or for Christ, either
way, are manifest in all the palace, that's Caesar's palace,
that's Caesar's court, and in all other places. The positive
power of Jesus Christ is motivated by the glory of God in Christ.
Here's what Paul's saying here. He said, I'm here for preaching
the gospel and they know it. Christ must increase, I must
decrease. This is manifest even the guard
in Caesar's palace recognized that Paul wasn't there for being
a thief or a murderer and he was there because of what he
believed. He was there because of what he was preaching. He
was preaching a message that men and women by nature hate.
Look over at John chapter 3. In John chapter 3, verse 19,
this is why Paul was in prison. It says John 3 and verse 19.
It says, this is the condemnation, that light has come into the
world. Paul was preaching Christ. Paul was preaching the light.
Paul was preaching grace, salvation by grace. That's what this light
is. This light is Christ. And men
love darkness rather than the light. What is that darkness? It's the darkness of deception.
It's the darkness of ignorance. It's the darkness of false religion
that inspires sinners to try to work their way into God's
favor by establishing their own righteousness before God. And
it says because their deeds were evil. Paul preached. Think about
his message in Philippians 3 when he talks about his past religious
efforts. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews, circumcised
the eighth day, of the tribe of Benjamin, one who tried his
best to keep the law, and outwardly he was blameless. Everything
that the self-righteous religionist of Paul's day, and today basically,
thinks recommends them unto God. that contributes in some way
to their salvation at some stage, to some degree, in some way.
And we stand up before them and we say, absolutely not. Salvation is not by the righteousness
of men. It's by the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ freely imputed, received by faith. It's
not our merits. It's not what we do or don't
do. It's Jesus Christ and Him crucified and risen again. And
every effort that a sinner makes to work his way into God's favor,
look what it says, their deeds are evil. They're evil. Why? Because they deny the glory
of God. Salvation by works does not glorify
God, it glorifies man. Why is it evil? Because it exalts
man to a place he does not have as a sinner. It's pride. It's
self-righteousness and pride. God hates it. Why is it evil? Because it denies the person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ and the righteousness that He
established. And so what did Paul say? He
said, I count it all but done that I may win Christ. Wait a
minute. You're telling me, Paul, that everything that I've tried
to accomplish in my life in religion and morality and sincerity is
nothing but dumb? Is that what you're saying? And
Paul says, yes, that I may win Christ. That's what men by nature
hate. That's why Paul was in jail.
Verse 20, he says in John 3, for everyone that doeth evil
hateth the light, neither cometh the light, lest his deeds should
be discovered, reproved, uncovered, exposed. Go back to Philippians
1. This is what Paul's saying. My
bonds in Christ, verse 13, are manifest in this palace and in
other places. Look at verse 14. He says, and
many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing or growing confident by
my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
The positive power of Jesus Christ is measured by encouragement
to the brethren and growth in evangelism. Paul says that the
Lord has worked all this out to encourage others to preach
the gospel even further, even more widespread than it is. It's
been an encouragement to them, to many of them. But look at
verse 15 through 18. Now here's something, this passage,
it's a little perplexing because it seems That this couldn't happen,
but it does. And look at it, verse 15, he
says, some indeed, he said here, in verse 14, that many of the
brethren in the Lord, growing confident by my bonds, in other
words, knowing that Paul's in prison, are much more bold to
speak the word without fear, without fear of men. All right,
look at verse 15. Some indeed preach Christ even
of envy and strife. What's envy? That's like jealousy.
What strife? Well, it's seeking to cause division. And it seems that who he's describing
here is men who preach the truth. Now he says, some indeed preach
Christ. They're not preaching a false
gospel here. They're preaching Christ, he said. If they didn't
preach Christ, Paul would have said they didn't preach Christ.
It's what he said in Galatians. Remember, they preach another
gospel. Let him be accursed. It's what he said in 1 Corinthians
11 or 2 Corinthians 11. They preach another Jesus by
another spirit, another gospel. But here he says they preach
Christ. But their motive, their purpose is not the glory of God. It's envy and strife. They're
jealous of Paul. And they want to draw people
away from Paul after themselves. Now what does that say about
them? Holy, sure, but it's hard for me to believe that this is
a person who truly is a saved person. We can debate that, argue,
he didn't give us all that information, but look on, he says, some also
of good will. Good will is the glory of God.
This is for the glory of God. Verse 16, the one preached Christ
of contention, not sincerely. Now that, that, not sincerely. That's tough, isn't it? Supposing
to add affliction to my bonds, thinking that it's going to hurt
Paul. To put him down. Verse 17, but the other of love,
knowing that I'm set for the defense of the gospel. Others
preach Christ in line with Paul, in fellowship with Paul. Verse
18, what then? Now here's the conclusion he
says. Now this is all he tells us. And this is by inspiration
of the Spirit, he says, notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense,
that's another thing, that means hypocrisy, or in truth, Christ is preached. And I therein do rejoice, yea,
and will rejoice. Now what it seems to me is going
on here is you have men who are not true, true children of God,
but who can at times preach Christ. And then you have those who are
the faithful of God, who preach Christ, preach the gospel, preach
the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel. And what Paul
was saying here, this is my conclusion of the whole thing, I'm just
rejoicing that Christ is preached. That's the positive power of
Jesus Christ. Whatever it says about the person
who's up there preaching, I'm just glad Christ is preached.
Whether they do it enviously, Trying to create strife or in
pretense. If they preach Christ, I'm going
to rejoice that Christ is preached. Because Christ is our salvation.
Not preaching a false gospel. No true child of God rejoices
when a false gospel is preached. But when Christ is preached,
we rejoice. No matter what it says about
the person preaching it. And then lastly, look at verse
19. He says, For I know that this shall turn to my salvation."
In other words, salvation is... This doesn't mean I've lost salvation.
This doesn't mean my salvation is hindered. It'll turn to my
salvation through your prayer. That's the means God uses to
bless His people and supply the Spirit of Jesus Christ. It's
all through the power of the Spirit according to my earnest
expectation. My sure hope, He says. My hope.
that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as
always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether
it be by life or by death." Paul's saying here that the positive
power of Jesus Christ encourages us, not by some pipe dream, positive
thinking, False philosophy, but it encourages us by hope of salvation
by the power and grace of God in Jesus Christ. Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? Men may charge us. They
may put us in jail, but who shall lay anything to the charge of
God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who can condemn us? Paul was
a martyr. Eventually he became a martyr.
His head was cut off in Rome. But who can condemn us? It's
Christ that died, yea rather He's risen again, seated at the
right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession for
us. I guess the bottom line to all
this is this, the power, the positive power of Jesus Christ,
here's the difference between what this world calls the power
of positive thinking. The positive power of Jesus Christ,
it's not about self. It's not about me and you, it's
about Him. It's setting our thoughts upon Him, looking to Him as the
author and finisher of our faith. Because He's our everything.
We're nothing. He's all. He's everything. And that's what
He's talking about. It's not about our own self-worth in the
things of this world. It's about worthy as the lamb
that was slain.