We're going to be in the book of Philippians in the first chapter for this hour. In this book of Philippians, Paul is praying for the church that he loves dearly. He's communicating to them the issues that they're facing, but also the solution to those issues. Although the issue is very clear in this epistle, we know because it's written by inspiration of the Holy Spirit that this is also written to every church, every church, not just Philippians, as is all of scripture, as is all of the word of God.

Now I want us to notice as we read our text some of the off-putting words that Paul uses to describe these pastors. And something I may have said, I don't think I said it entirely, but my initial study led me to think that he was actually saying that these men were not preaching the truth. And that's not the case. The Lord's showed me the truth of the matter is they are preaching the truth, but they're preaching it in a way differently. Each individual is preaching it in a different way. And I'll, I'll explain all that, but let's read this right here.

Philippians 1, 12 through 18. But I would, you should understand, brethren, that the things which happen unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel so that my bonds in Christ may be manifest in all the palace and in all other places. And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife and some of goodwill. The one preached Christ of contention, but not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds, but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. What then, notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therefore do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. Paul does not state that these preachers are not preaching Christ. As a matter of fact, he is very clear in verse 18, and he says, whether it be preached in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, therefore I rejoice.

So even though these men were preaching envious of Paul's authority, envious of Paul's position and power, Uh, and that's what, that's what that Indian was all about. They were preaching Christ, but they were envious of Paul. Why we want to be an apostle, or we want to have the success that Paul has had. We want to be able to be, uh, have the same power that Paul has. They were envious of Paul. And then you had others which were debating. That's what strife means. They're debating not over the gospel.

It appears that they were, uh, it appears that they were. debating over whether or not Paul was going to be successful in prison. As he continued to send out letters, or he was going to be, was he going to be successful in standing before Caesar? And some said, well, he's not going to be successful. Others says, well, yeah, he is going to be successful.

Some said, well, maybe, maybe he has committed a crime other than just preaching the gospel. And he's there for that reason. So you had some confusion that were going on there, but yet Christ was still being preached through all of this. Christ was still being preached. The language here indicates that they were debating whether Paul would be successful. And some were asking, why am I not in prison if I'm preaching the same thing Paul is? Why am I not in prison? Do I have the same gift as Paul? And so they were envious and they were strife and contention. And that's not the message this morning, but that's what he's saying. The message is this, all this we see that Paul is rejoicing. Why is Paul rejoicing? Because Christ is preached. I've titled this message, Why Preach Christ Alone? Why Preach Christ Alone?

These men had contentions, they had strives, they had confusion. But Christ was still yet being preached. And we see there is divisions that's taken place throughout scripture. We know that Barnabas and Paul had a falling out. We know other men had falling outs and the Lord reconciled according to his will and purpose. So, but yet the gospel was still preached, wasn't it? So why preach Christ? Well, there is three, there's five reasons that the Lord has given me this morning. There's plenty of reasons, but there's five reasons that the Lord has given me this morning to preach Christ. Before I say that, though, I want to say this. He's not speaking to them. You won't find in Philippians where he's speaking to this church as he did to the Galatians.

We went through Galatians. And do you remember in the book of Galatians where Paul says, there's false teachers among you? There's false teachers among you. He called them out point blank for what they were. He didn't say they were preaching the gospel. He said, you're false teachers. And then he also, what else does he call them? Troublemakers. He said, they're troublemakers. No, he's not saying that.

What he's saying is, is that some have become distracted by things that don't matter like the gospel matters. They become distracted. And may the Lord, that's my hope this morning, is may the Lord focus us back on him and that we would never become distracted from something that would take us away from the simplicity that is in Christ. Why preach Christ alone? Five reasons. The first one is, Well, let me say this first. I keep getting ahead of myself. He gives us the solution to the confusion. Gives us the solution to the confusion. In 1 Timothy chapter 2, or 2 Timothy chapter 4, 2 Timothy chapter 4 in verse 2, he told Timothy, preach the word.

Be instant in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come that men will not hear sound doctrine, but they will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. He said, they'll be turned away from the truth and shall be turned to fables.

What's the solution to not allow confusion to come into the church? Preach the word, preach Christ alone. So why preach Christ alone? The first reason is salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. It's not of man. It's not of the will of man. It's not of the will of us in any way or our choice, but salvation is of the Lord. I don't mean that the Lord merely owns salvation.

I mean that it is of him and by him wrought on the cross of Calvary because he is the author and finisher of faith. He is the Alpha and Omega of salvation. He's the beginning and the end of salvation. He's the first and the last of all things. Without Him, there is no salvation.

Jesus Christ is salvation. Do you remember In the book, I believe it's in the book of Luke where he says, Simeon saw the Lord and said, behold mine eyes, let thy servant depart in peace, he said, for behold mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Jesus Christ is salvation. That's why we preach Christ alone. There's nothing else that's going to save man but the Lord Jesus Christ himself, his truth.

Salvation exists for his people because it was wrought on the cross of Calvary all by himself. Salvation is God's choice to elect a people, to redeem those people, to regenerate those people and to keep those people. Salvation is of the Lord. And it's all by grace, isn't it?

Brethren, preaching anything other than Christ alone isn't just foolishness and it isn't just ignorance, it's damning to the soul. That's how serious it is. This is why we preach Christ alone. So why do we preach Christ alone? Well, secondly, because his is the only name with the power to save to the uttermost. The book of Acts, it says, Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved.

There never has been, nor will there ever be, a name whereby the Lord will look upon and pardon you and I because of the person bearing that name. And his name is the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord is pleased to look upon his son and pardon his people because of the finished work of the cross. The Lord is pleased with the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, that's why his name is what it is. Call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sin. That's why he has the title, Jesus Christ.

The name Jesus Christ indicates the ultimate authority, that he is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. It indicates, it signifies his divine nature as the God-man. It's a testimony to you and I that he is everything we are not, that he is 100% God, 100% man, that he is holy, perfect, undefiled, separate from sinners.

You or I are exactly the opposite. He's supreme in power over all creation. You're in Philippians 1, turn over to Philippians 2, one page. Look at verse 9. What does that mean to you and I? A name which is above every name. You can't get any higher than that, can you?

It's the name above every name. of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. His name is above all. Not exalted just, not exalted by man's, not exalted by our choice. No, mankind didn't take a vote and his name became the most exalted one. That was God that highly exalted him and given him a name above every name. This was God's choice, not mine and yours.

His work alone. Turn with me to Ephesians chapter one. Right before Philippians. Look at verse 15. Wherefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom, revelation, and the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of your calling, and what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward, who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his right hand in heavenly places.

And here it is, where he set him far above all principality, all power and might and dominion in every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in the world to come and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church. which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. He is above all. Why preach anything else? Maybe I should title the message that. Why do we preach Christ alone? He is above all.

None can stay his hand and say unto him, what doest thou? There's no other name given among men whereby we must be saved. What does that mean? That means, that name given means God's people must be saved, must because of his name, because of his name. He has all power. This is why we preach Christ alone. This is why we preach Christ alone. Thirdly, why do we preach Christ alone?

Well, he is the sum and substance of the gospel. He's the sum and substance of the good news of God. Now to some men, the gospel, some men, our gospel's not good news to them, and their gospel's not good news to us, but the gospel, Christ Jesus is the sum and substance of it.

He told the Pharisees this, search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, but they are they which speak of me. And do you remember when he first stood up in the book of Luke, I can't remember the location they were at, but he says, in beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all scriptures, the things concerning himself. He went back to Moses and the prophets and all the scriptures. And he says, this is me. This is me. This is me. Where he says, I am to Moses. He says, I am, that's me. Don't you love that?

Why, why preach Christ alone? He's the sum and substance of all of scripture. He's the sum and substance. of the gospel. The gospel is simple. It's how God saved his people from their sin, how the Lord Jesus Christ, the sacrifice of himself on the cross of Calvary, how he pleased the Lord's demands, how he honored the father's, uh, he honored the law perfectly fulfilled the law perfectly kept it perfectly.

You and I couldn't do that. The reason the gospel's such good news is because when the Lord makes you to be a sinner, we see that we can't keep anything that God requires. So when you hear that Jesus Christ kept everything on your behalf, if you are in him, that gives me hope. That's good news to me. Without that, I would have no hope. The gospel's how God saved his people from their sin.

The father before time ever began chose in election and his sovereign right, his sovereign choice to redeem a people, sinners that needed a savior. He chose to elect and he didn't do it based upon us, not the color of our skin, not the color of our hair, not our language, not our height, not our weight, not our strength, not our weakness, not our intelligence. He chose to save his people from their sins because of one word, grace. Grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time ever began. That's what scripture says. He chose to elect by grace. The Lord Jesus Christ paid the penalty, do those elect on the cross of Calvary all by himself, the sacrifice of himself. He chose to redeem those people. He chose to take our sin into himself, not just the sin that we do, but the sin that we are. All the thoughts that we have that creep in. You know why you think the thoughts you think because of what you are? That's why I think the thoughts that I think, because of what I am.

And the only thing that constrains the believer is the love of Christ, that's it. And you know how the Lord constrains his people? When are we reminded mostly of the love of Christ? When the gospel's being preached. That's when the Lord constrains us. He causes us to see Christ alone again. He causes us to rest in his finished work, not look to ourself. That's why we must preach Christ only.

We could preach many different things. We could preach about how to have a happy marriage or how to have a wealthy, a wealthy life, how to live a long life, how to do this and how all is vanity and vexation of spirit. If Christ is not being preached.

Paul said, and I'm getting ahead of myself again, but he said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It's the power of God into salvation to everyone that believeth. It's you first and also to the Greek. That's the only remedy God has for sin is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Preaching anything else is vanity. It's useless. Must preach Christ alone. We must.

Christ paid the penalty for the sin of those people that God elected on the cross. He endured the wrath of God. He satisfied the justice. He satisfied justice demand. Because you and I can't. You and I can't. I love what Romans Hebrews chapter one verse three says. when He had by Himself purged our sin He sat down. He sat down. He's seated as our successful Redeemer.

And the good news is in the fullness of time He sends His Spirit and power and regenerates those people. Why preach Christ alone? Because He's everything in the Gospel. He's the sum and substance of the Gospel. The Gospel being preached, do you know why it's so offensive to men and women? Do you know why the Gospel is so offensive to men and women? Because it strips them of any power and any glory pertaining to salvation, it renders them completely hopeless in and of themselves. It shows them that they are nothing but sinners without the ability to fix it, without the ability to do anything to please God. And that makes the flesh mad, just makes it mad. That's why Christ must be preached only.

He's the solution. He's the remedy. Christ being the sum and substance of the gospel is the declaration that Jesus Christ is the very core of the gospel. We are declaring the gospel is not just rules and guidelines or an offer to men, but it's a finished, accomplished, successful, redemptive work. that the Lord did all by himself.

That's what the gospel declares. If you hear someone, they say they preach the gospel, and you hear the slightest bit of here's what you need to do, they're not preaching the gospel. Matter of fact, if somebody says you need to believe, well that's true, you have to believe. But the scripture's clear on that. Romans chapter 10, or Romans chapter 8, he says, no it's Romans chapter 10, I was right.

Uh, how shall they believe on whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear unless there'd be a preacher and how shall you preach except you'd be sent. So salvations of the Lord goes back to the first reason why we're preaching Christ alone. God's got to give the ability to believe. Believing is not a choice. Believing is passive with faith bestowed freely by his grace. Preaching the gospel means that you're preaching a truth centered around the life, the perfect life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and what it accomplished in the salvation of his elected people. That's why we preach Christ alone. Now, fourthly, and I'm going a lot faster than I thought I would be going, but I guess that's okay. We preach Christ alone because he's the solution to every problem. He's the solution to every problem.

Now think about that real deep. Because when I first wrote that down, I thought, is that really true? And then I guess, that's really true. Somebody asked me recently, what activities do you have for kids at your church? And I said, well, We have a Bible study hour, first hour, and the kids get a lesson from scripture. And the gospel is explained to them.

I don't want to say watered down, that's not true. Bite size, maybe, would that be a better way to put it? But every time Bobby comes to me, we have a conversation. The idea is that, well, where's Christ in this? And we find him, and that's the explanation that she gives them. Well, this is what this means, and this is what this means. And it's just a little taste of what we're getting out here. So whenever they come out here and they hear the same story, and even last week I was speaking in the book of Samuel, and one of the kids said, hey, I know that story you just told us. And I'm like, that's why they're doing that. You know, that's perfect.

But I said, other than that, we have the gospel, that's it. And they said, well, what do you have for young married couples? I said, well, we have the gospel. And she said, well, do you have any classes on, and I've never got this one before, any classes on financial responsibility? And I said, no, we have the gospel.

We have the gospel. That's not my job to tell people how to use their money. That's between them and God. I don't, I don't, I don't even understand why that would be a thing at a church. But anyways, the point I'm making is, is that we have the gospel. That's all we have. He's the solution to every problem.

And the examples I can give you, what if I'm having marriage problems? what am I having marriage problems? Come sit and hear the Gospel. If you are two believers that is going to solve your problems. You are going to be able to work out all your problems sitting underneath the Gospel.

Because whenever we sit and we see the sacrifice of Christ what better motivation for us to sacrifice? When we see the love of Christ what better motivation than for us to love? When we see the selflessness of Christ, because all marriage problems come down to pride, to self, doesn't it?

I mean, it waters it down. Think about it. It's all about pride. It's all about self. So sitting under the gospel, it erases pride. That's why we preach Christ alone is because it gets rid of all the pride that we are, abases us to nothing. And when you see yourself as nothing, it's not too hard to treat your spouse better. You lower your expectations if you're a nobody, if you're nothing. You say, well, You made me a sandwich, thank you. I didn't expect that, zero expectations. Same thing, go both ways. You change the tires out on the truck, I don't know, men and women, but you understand what I'm saying.

We lower our expectations when we see Christ as all because we see ourself as the chief sinner. That's why we preach Christ alone. Well, what about something that we all can relate on and this, that have children? What if we have unbelieving children? How is me preaching Christ alone going to fix that?

Because when you hear the gospel being preached, it reminds us that it is finished and Christ will not lose one sheep. He will not lose one sheep. All that the Father gives me shall come to me, and then that come to me I'll in no wise cast out. Is that an excuse not to pray? No, we pray, we're granted to pray.

Lord, save my children, save my children. But hearing the gospel gives us the only rest that we'll have because if our mind just goes down rabbit trails trying to figure out what can I do, what can I do, what can I do, we'll make it worse. And if, well, everybody knows that's the truth, isn't it? Well, let's make it worse. So Christ causes us to see, Lord, you're on the throne. I'm not. Lord, save them. I can't say I can't help them. Everything I do makes it worse. Lord, save my children. Save me.

Why preach the finished work of Christ alone? He is the solution for every problem. He's the only hiding place that we have in this life. He's the only hiding place that we have in this life. He is the rock on which we stand, because all other ground is sinking sand. Thought about singing that song this morning before, but I didn't. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.

How does the gospel fix our problems? Truly, by shutting up the flesh. Plain and simple. Shutting us up to Christ. And when he does that, that's the best place we can be. If we are put in the position to be able to do exactly what the scripture says, be still and know that I am God. If you are able to be still, that is a fan, that's the best place you can be because you're looking at Christ alone. That's the only way that you can stand still. This is why we preach Christ alone. Lastly, while we preach Christ alone, nothing else gives God all the glory. Nothing else.

Men decide that they desire glory. They desire praise. They desire recognition. That's predominant in any job that you go to. It's predominant in any sport that you watch. It's predominant in any place that you go. Men desire recognition. Nobody has a pure motive to do anything. It's just how it is. Somebody says, well, I just did that. They just did that out of the goodness of their heart. Yeah, and to be recognized. That's just the facts of it. That's how we are by nature. And you all have to agree with me that I know our heart. It's deceitful. It's deceitful.

So why preach Christ alone? Well, because nothing else gives glory to God alone. What do I mean by that? Well, because preaching Christ alone is the declaration that we're saved by grace alone. period. If we're saved by grace alone mean you have nothing to do with it. Meaning we can't touch it. We can't mess it up and we can't take it. It's not something that we can obtain by what we do and it's not something that we can prevent having by what we do.

It's God's salvation. He gets all the glory for that. Now if we flip that and say it's something that I can take according to my will, or it's something I can reject according to my will, then I am in charge of my own salvation and I get the glory whenever I accept or I get the, or reject, it's up to me. But the scripture's clear. The Lord did all the choosing. The Lord did all the choosing.

We're declaring, when we declare Christ alone, for by grace are you saved through faith, in that not of yourself. It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. I quote that verse a lot because that verse needs to be quoted a lot. That's just simple. For by grace are you saved through faith. Not your faith, the faith of Christ. Not my faith, but the faith of Christ. It's not of ourself. That's why we preach Christ alone. It glorifies God. It glorifies the Lord. If a church does not preach Christ alone, they're not a church, brethren. They're not a church. This is why we preach Christ alone.

May the Lord always calls us. to hear Christ alone. May the Lord always cause us to come and hear Christ alone. May the Lord cause me to always preach Christ alone and to give you the desire to always just want to hear Christ alone. If a man ever stands before you or you hear a message and you hear something, Christ plus something, it sounds like nails on a chalkboard. May the Lord cause us to have an understanding and a discernment to never listen to a preacher that doesn't preach Christ alone, because he alone is all in salvation.

He alone is all our righteousness, wisdom, sanctification, and redemption. He alone satisfied God's demands. He alone redeemed his people. He alone has the name above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess. He's the solution to every problem. And he gives, preaching Christ gives all the glory to God.

May we never, ever be allowed to forsake the simplicity that is found in Christ alone. Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would take these words and you would bless them to our understanding for your glory, cause us to need Christ alone. In your sweet name we pray, amen. Let's take a break.