Alright, let's take our Bibles
and turn to the book of Philippians. Philippians chapter 1. I want to cover the last 8 verses
of this chapter, beginning with verse 22. Philippians chapter 1, verse
22. But if I live in the flesh, this
is the fruit of my labor. Yet what I shall choose, I want
not. For I am in a strait betwixt
two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which
is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the
flesh is more needful for you. Now Paul's not talking here,
he's not using that word flesh here talking about the old man. Sometimes in Scripture you read
that word flesh and it's in reference to this old man, to the carnal
man. But in this particular place
he's just talking about living in this flesh, living in this
body and in this world. So what's this fruit that Paul's
talking about here? He said, if I live in the flesh,
this is the fruit of my labor. These things that he's been talking
about which led up to this verse. These are the fruits of his labor. And I believe he's talking about
a ministerial fruit here. He's not talking about the fruit
of the Holy Spirit, but he's talking about a ministerial fruit. His labor was not in vain. That's
what he's telling us. His life, though accompanied
by suffering and hardship, it bore rich fruit in the kingdom
of God. The things that he did produced
fruit. Churches were established across
the known world. Paul penned nearly half the New
Testament. His ministry bore the fruit of
God, and men and women affectionately received the gospel that he preached. And we're talking about heathen
men, men who worshiped gods of who knows what, statues and all
sorts of things. And Paul went in and preached
to those people something totally foreign, something that they
just had heard rumors about. And he preached to them, and
God effectually used that preaching to quicken them and to bring
those men and women to life. Caused them to turn from their
idolatry to the true and living God. God made them teachable. Only God can make a man teachable. You can't teach a natural man
anything. He'll shake his head. He'll look
out the window. He'll look at the ceiling. He'll
look at the floor. He'll go on and on and on. You
can't teach him anything because he thinks he already knows something.
It takes the Lord. It takes the work of the Holy
Spirit just to make us teachable, just to make us to take a look
at the Word of God, to give us an earnest desire to believe
the Word of God and to rest our souls on the testimony of this
book. God made them teachable and He
used Paul to teach them. God made them obedient and used
Paul to bring order into the churches. And he didn't feel
like a man who had wasted his life in vain. His life as a minister
of God bore fruit. It bore fruit. His converts loved
God and they loved one another over and over. He commended them
for that. He commended them for their care. for the other churches
and their care for the widows and their care for him and these
other preachers. His converts loved God and they
loved one another. His converts loved him and they
ministered to his needs. And he said, if I continue to
live in this body, I have fruit. I have fruit. It's not a wasted
time. I have fruit. Yet he says, I'm
not sure If I had a choice, what to choose? What to choose? His hope was that when he died,
he would go to be with Christ. And he said, when I think about
that, I'd rather go and be with him. That's far better. What does this world have to
offer that can top that? To sit in the presence of the
King, to sit in the presence of our Savior, to stand justified
before our Savior and Heaven itself, what can compare to that? And I'll tell you right now,
if in your heart you have things here that can compare to that,
you need to get shed of them. Paul said, this is far better.
There's not any comparison here. This is far better. But he said,
it's needful for you that I stay here in this flesh. And that's
why he tolerated this suffering. That's why he tolerated all of
these things, all these persecutions. That's why he tolerated all of
these things. Because he knew that it was needful
for him to preach to those people. He said, I have a desire to depart
and be with Christ, to be with Him where He is, to be seated
with Him in glory and identified with Him in glory, to know Him
as He is. This is far better. Better than
what? Better than knowing Him in part. We know in part. We just understand
in part here. We just have a little portion
here. It's good what we have. It's
good what we have. And what we have will be perfected
there. You're not going to lose what
you have, but it will be perfected there. I know who Christ is. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed. We know Him. But boy, we'll know
Him face to face then. We'll know as we are known. Know Him as He is. This is far
better. to see Him in the glory and majesty
of His Godhead and deity, and see Him upon His throne as the
King of kings and Lord of lords, and see Him without the scales
of unbelief and doubt, to see Him without any hindrance, to
see Him without any obstruction, without controversy or without
question. And he said, this is far better.
And then it will be far better Because to see Him there would
be better because this flesh shall no longer be a burden to
us. We're in this flesh now. But there we'd be spirit, we'd
be with Him. I saw a house one time down in
Florida and this house was all glass. Even the garage door was
solid glass. You could see through every part
of this house. It was all glass, except for,
I think, the bedrooms. And they had huge patio doors
in them with drapes. But it was glass. All the way
around this thing was glass. And just a few walls. You could stand inside that house
and you could just turn and see out, and it's situated out on
an island down in Florida, and you could look out and you could
see the gulf and you could see the bay and you could see all
of these things out there. Just gorgeous view all the way
around this house. In this house here, I can see
very little. I can see very little. There,
there, I'd be able to see. I don't care what direction I
turn, I can see. I can see there'd be no hindrance.
This flesh, this body, this sinful self would no longer be a hindrance
to us. And so it's far better. And it'll
be better because this evil world won't be here to ruin the view.
They won't be here to ruin the view. I went into Magnolia, Kathy and
I, before we bought our house. And I don't remember what that
road is, but it goes out past Walmart, goes out in the country
there, and turns off of the bypass. And we went out there, and when
you're going out there, there's some mansions right there on
the left. I don't know, I guess that's
oil money or something. But anyway, there's some huge
mansions right through there, just gorgeous. There's like five
or six of them in a row, just huge. You can tell whoever lives
there is very prosperous. And as soon as you get past that,
there's an old shack that looks like it's going to fall down.
It ruins the view. This world ruins the view. You
can't, this world constantly with their aggravations and their
ifs and ands and all that can't be and all this kind of stuff,
it ruins the view. But this world won't enter in
there. You'll be able to see clearly. It'll be far better.
Far better. He said to depart is far better. Far better than suffering and
persecution and trouble. Nevertheless, verse 24, to abide
in the flesh is more needful for you. Brethren, I don't in any way
compare myself to the Apostle Paul except as my calling as
a preacher. That's the only thing he and
I have in common. Paul was an apostle. He was a great man.
He was the greatest missionary probably of all time. And I wouldn't
compare myself with him at all. But here he tells us that it
was needful for them that as a preacher and apostle of Christ
that he should remain in this world. Now, preachers are not
necessary and needful. He wouldn't have said that, would
he? No. Far better to depart. If he's
not going to be of any use here, he was down in prison. If he's
not going to be of any use here, it would be better for him just
to go on. He wouldn't have said that. But
he said, it's more needful for you for me to remain. This is the ordained means of
God and Christ's gift to His church, His ascension gift to
the church that certain men called of God to the ministry would
be used for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the
ministry, and for the edifying of the body of Christ. Verse 25, And having this confidence,
I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your
furtherance and joy of faith. It is my desire and hope that
in ministering to you the gospel, that I might see your spiritual
growth. That's needful for me. To see
you no longer tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine and
to see you grounded and settled in the truth and be not moved
away from the truth of the Gospel. I desire to see a unity of the
Spirit and a bond of peace and to see your mutual love and concern
for one another. Brethren, watch what you say
when you're talking to one another. What's what you say? Guard your
words carefully. This flesh, I'm telling you,
this flesh, it'll leak out on you, won't it? It'll leak out
on you. It'll come out before you know
it, and then you see it hurtful things, and we need to think
about what we're saying. And when you do, say it on purpose,
and say it as an encouragement, and try to encourage folks. Say things to encourage, not
to offend. And say things to compliment,
rather than to judge. And say kind things, and gracious
things, and merciful things. And I know the Gospel is offensive,
but I don't need to be. Let the Gospel be the offense.
Let that be the offense. Don't let me. And I know the
natural man hates God, but I don't need to add to it. Paul desired
to be used to further them in the grace and knowledge of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what he said was needful
for him. And he said, I've got this confidence
because this is needful, because this is necessary, that God's
going to deliver me from this prison and allow me to return
to you because In His purpose, He called you and established
you by Me. And now I'm down here. And while
I'm down here, the Gospel is going even into the palace. While
I'm down here in this prison, I'm down here on purpose. And
He said, I've still got this confidence because God's purpose
was in you. He's going to bring me back to
you again. He's going to bring me back to you again. There's a joy. He said, in joy
of faith. There's a joy in believing. In believing. There's a joy in
Christ. There's a joy in the assembling
of ourselves together. It's good news to my soul. Good
news to my soul to hear how Christ loved the chief of sinners who
gave Himself for His enemies. Gave Himself for those who were
yet enemies in their wicked minds. that He came into this world
to save sinners and died for the ungodly. That's good news. It is to me. It's a joyful thought
that I should be presented spotless in the presence of His glory.
What a thought! What a thought! It causes me
to rejoice to hear that Christ bore my sins in His own body
on the tree. Boy, if He didn't, I'd still
bear them. I still bear. That He was appointed for me,
and I was chosen in Him, and that He lived and died for me,
and lives even now for me, and reigns in heaven for me. There is joy in the hearts of
all those who hear and believe in Christ. And then look here
at verse 26. That your rejoicing may be more
abundant in Jesus Christ for me, by my coming to you again."
Nothing warms the heart of a preacher than those he ministers to, to
rejoice in what he preaches. Nothing warms his heart more
than that. That's his goal. That's his goal,
to bring this message. And then with eyes of faith,
behold those who hear. And those who hear rejoice. They
rejoice. in the gospel of God's sovereign
grace. Verse 27. Only let your conversation be
as it becometh the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and
see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you
stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for
the faith of the gospel. Here Paul tells us to let our
conduct and daily walk Be as becometh the Gospel. In other
words, let it adorn the Gospel. Let your works adorn the Gospel. Somebody I heard years ago compared
believers' daily walk to clothing and makeup and jewelry worn by
the Bride of Christ. You put things on. Now, if I
profess to be one of the members of the Bride of Christ, But I
dress and look like a harlot. And I'm talking about our walk
now, not our clothing. If I dress like that, then I
bring shame upon my husband, don't I? You see what he's saying
here? He said, let your walk, let your
daily conduct be that which is becoming. It's becoming of this
grace that's been bestowed upon you, becoming of this great and
glorious gospel of Christ. Let your affairs, let your decisions,
let your business decisions, let all that you do, you're an
employer or an employee, let those things be as becometh this. If I profess to be the bride
of Christ, but dress and look like a harlot, it's not going
to be becoming to my husband. And even so, when we profess
to believe the gospel and live like the rest of the world, it's
not becoming of the gospel we preach. Be honest in your dealings. Be keepers at home. Pay your
bills. Rule your homes for the glory
of God. And serve your employers as you
serve the Lord. Strive together for the faith
of the gospel. Come together and strive together
as one unit. Why? Because there's only one
faith. There's just one faith. And this
faith is justified of God, are you listening, by works. The
whole book of James is about that. God justifies His work
of faith in men by works. By works. There's only one faith. And that faith is justified of
God. James said, The man says, I believe. He said,
is that it? Is that everything? No. No. That ain't everything. That ain't
everything. Because this gift of faith produces
works. And if it don't, it's not justified
of God. Does it produce perfect works?
No. No, it don't. Christ is the only
perfect work. And that's my righteousness.
And I'm not talking about a work here that wins God's approval. I'm talking about a work that
God does in us to justify that gift of faith that he gave us,
that life that he gave us. And we're to strive together
for this, not only for the basis of the faith, the grace of God,
and the sacrifice of Christ and the righteousness of Christ.
But we're also to strive together for that faith which produces
the works that are becoming of the gospel that we preach. And
you'll find in Paul's epistles, whichever one you read, you pick
it. You pick it. I don't care if it's Colossians,
Ephesians, Philippians. You go anywhere you want to.
He spends that first chapter and sometimes that second chapter
laying down the foundation of this gospel, and then the whole
rest of that epistle has to do with your works, your godliness, that which becomes
this gospel that he laid down. And James said, faith without
works is dead. Isn't that what he said? Dead. True faith is tried in the fire,
and only true faith will pass through it. So strive together
for this faith, and encourage one another, and support one
another, and strive to hear. Faith cometh by hearing. Strive
to hear, because this is the faith of the Gospel. And have
one mind, the mind of Christ. He is the way. He is the truth. He is the life. and do it in
one Spirit. The Spirit of God is our Teacher.
And He alone enables blind sinners to see and ignorant rebels to
be taught. We strive together in one Spirit,
in one mind. And now watch this, verse 28.
And in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them
an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation and that
of God." Now, terrified is not a word we use much in religion
anymore. I grew up in religion. I never
heard the word mentioned. Terrified. You know what it is
to be terrified? Well, that's like somebody outside,
a gang of men outside at two in the morning with guns and
knives trying to break into your house and you're inside and you're
terrified. That's what that word means.
Terrified. Just frozen with fear. He said,
don't be terrified. Don't be terrified. We live in
a so-called civilized society where all their disputes are
settled in a courtroom, not in the back alley. It's against
the law for men to take the law into their own hands. But this
is not so in a lot of places. It's just so here. I was down in Mexico with Walter
Gruber years ago, and I said, man, those people, they had those
religious things where they're moving these statues from village
to Pueblo to Pueblo or whatever, and they're out here marching.
And they come out of nowhere. I mean, they just come out of
nowhere out in those jungles and stuff. And there'd be a whole
group of them. And I said, you know, I'm being careful. I wasn't
comfortable driving out there. But I said, I'm being careful.
But what happens if you should accidentally hit one of these
people or something? He said, don't stop. Don't stop. Go back to Mérida. And when you
get to Mérida, then we'll tell them what happened. You stop
out in that village, you'll never leave that village. There's places that take the
law into their own hands in a lot of these foreign countries and
things. And this is what Paul was talking
about to these heathens that he's writing to. He said, don't
be terrified by your enemies. Don't be terrified by them. And there's other ways. There's
ways in which men and women can ostracize believers. Spread ugly
rumors. Ugly rumors. Oh, that place over
there is a cult. It is? Yeah, don't go over there. Don't go over there. They take what you preach and
they set it in a bad light. And they used bad interpretations. My neighbor came over and he
said, so y'all just believe God's going to save so many no matter
what? I said, no, I don't even know anybody who believes that.
Never even heard anybody. I never read of anybody who believes
that. Oh. Well, he said, what do you believe?
So I told him. They become suspect by society
through these rumors. And in some cases, run out of
town by verbal abuse to both them and their children. I remember years ago down in
Louisiana, some of the guys went out on the job where I worked
and told them they needed to fire me. He said, why? And he started telling them about
the problems in the church that was going on, all these disagreements
and disputes. And he said, have you looked
around? He said, half our men are ex-cons. He said, I hire men because they
pour concrete. I hire men because they run machinery. But this guy was out there, he
wanted to destroy me, my family, my kids. It was amazing the length
that natural men will go to. And they ostracize you in society. Now he said, don't be terrified
by this. Don't be terrified. Don't be terrified by your adversaries,
men of reputation. There's men out there especially
gifted and cunning and masters at this kind of evil, just masters
at it. But don't be terrified by them.
There's men out there who are violent persecutors who exercise
no restraint whatsoever, zealous religionists like Saul of Tarsus.
He didn't exercise any restraint. He went and got those men, took
them over and had them put to death. Held Stephen's coat while
they stoned him. Don't be terrified by these men
because these kinds of actions are to them who practice these
things an evident token of their perdition. perverts and homosexuals manifest
a lifestyle which suggests that God has turned them over to a
reprobate mind. You can read Romans chapter 1.
Even so, these violent persecutors of the church and those who preach
the gospel, those who, they're violent persecutors. This is
to them an evident token of their perdition. But to you, of salvation,
This is evidence toward you that God saved your soul when these
men go to this length to persecute. Persecution from the ungodly
over issues of the gospel is an evident token of salvation.
Our Lord said, if they hated me, they'll hate you. They'll
hate you. Verse 29, for unto you it is
given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him, but
also to suffer for His sake. The persecution of the ungodly
is purposed of God and used of God upon the people of God for
their good and His glory. It is a form of trial sometimes
used to prove faith. Do you remember old Job? He is a perfect example of it.
He not only took everything away from him, Satan took it away
from him, then he took away his children, and then he sent his
friends, those that he called friends, and they went down there
and just hammered on him, and hammered on him, and hammered
on him. It's a form of trial to prove
faith. It's a form of trial to burn
away the dross and expose the true goal of faith. And it's
to be considered a high privilege to suffer in the behalf of Christ. Not just to suffer. Now listen
to me. We bring on a lot of things that
we suffer for and we bring them on. We bring them on. And I tell you, if He allows
you to suffer enough, you'll learn not to do that again. You
won't do it again because you suffered. But he also uses it to purify faith and to prove
faith. Verse 30, having the same conflict
which you saw in me and now hear in me, in other words, as I am
suffering for the kingdom of God and for Christ my beloved
Savior, even so count your own suffering to be of the same nature. Paul's down here. This is the
subject of the hour. He's writing to them from the
prison. And men, evil men, are persecuting
him and trying to get a foothold and trying to take over things
that he labored hard in the ministry to have. And Paul's writing to
them. And he said, you see how I'm
suffering down here? You see why I'm suffering down
here? And these sufferings that you're going through, it's the
same thing. It's the same thing. We all suffer these things to
one degree or another, some more than others, but we all suffer
these things. May the Lord give us some understanding
of these verses.