Well, if Robin and I aren't on
the field, there's no better place to be than right here.
That's our opinion. We're thankful. We're thankful
for the church here. Turn with me to Philippians chapter
one. I hope you weren't expecting
a Christmas message. I completely forgot it was Christmas,
I'll be honest. Philippians chapter one and there
are four verses in this chapter, verses 15 to 18, which are difficult
to understand. There's a statement, a couple
statements that Paul makes there that is hard and I'd like for
us to consider them tonight and see what it is that the Lord
would teach us from these things. And since it's been a while,
let me just review briefly some of the things that we find at
the beginning of this letter that Paul writes to those saints
in Philippi. And if you remember, this was
clearly what we would call a healthy church from what the way Paul
writes and the things he says to them, the things we know about
them. And so it's an encouraging letter
and Paul obviously finds real joy in this church and thinking
about this church. And so there are many things
about this church which apply of course, to every church in
every age. And they applied to us too here
in Houston. And we saw that they were a people
like every other people, alienated from God, without hope, without
God in this world. But God had set his love upon
these people there. And he sent Paul along with those
other men, you remember, to preach the gospel of God's grace to
these people. And he opened their hearts to
hear and to receive that gospel. And he brought them into fellowship
with himself and with his son. And what a wonder and what a
privilege that is. We saw that. And he did this
through the indwelling of his spirit in their hearts, uniting
them to Christ. And that's what we saw as what
saints implies in particular, that we're set apart in Christ
and united to him. And Paul too has great confidence
in the fact that if God has done this good work in them, he's
begun it, then it will certainly be completed, won't it? It'll
be completed in the day of Christ. And this is an assurance of every
believer. Every one of you who is a believer
here tonight has this great assurance that God will complete the work
that he's done in you. Isn't that wonderful? And it's on this basis that Paul
can pray that prayer there in verse nine, this wonderful prayer. that their love would abound
still more and more, that it would be a love compelled and
constrained by knowledge and discernment. Let me just read
that. In this I pray that your love may abound still more and
more in all 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." that we would have the knowledge
to approve the things that are excellent. That's what our desire
is, isn't it? Especially as we hear the word
preached and read the word ourselves and study it and consider it,
that the Lord would give us that knowledge, that wisdom of the
things that matter, the things that are good, the things that
are excellent. And not only that, that they
would not only bear fruit, but be filled, filled with the fruits
of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ to the glory of
God. So what have we seen here? This is a picture of a church,
a church of the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it? A people set apart
by God in Christ, brought by grace into union with him. And
Christ himself gives that beautiful picture of the vine and the branches,
doesn't he? This is what we're seeing here.
He's the vine. He's the root. And these saints
are the branches, as we are. And the life of Christ flows
in them. And if the root is holy, well,
so too are the branches. They live and grow and bear fruit
to the glory of God. And it's clear too, we've seen
that this church had a deep love and concern for Paul. He was
in prison in Rome. And as we know, at this time,
the outcome was uncertain and they'd sent gifts to him and
they'd sent two men to encourage and help Paul in any way that
they could. Two, what do we read there? Look
in verse seven. It's evident that from the time
that they were first saved, that these saints there had a concern
for the work of the gospel. What does Paul tell them? Just
as it is right for me to think this, all of you, 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. And that's a great testimony
for a church, isn't it? From the very beginning of the
gospel, Paul found them to be ones who were concerned with
the defense and the confirmation of the gospel. They were partakers
with him, Paul said. Now, this brings us to this portion
of scripture. As we do that, let me just say
that the defense and confirmation of the gospel is the work of
the church. It's a vital work. It's not a
work for some. It's not a work for a few individuals.
It's not a work for some pastors. It's the work of the church in
this world, the defense and confirmation of the gospel. But let's just
read there. Let's just read there. And we
know how Paul had encouraged them to with the fact that all
the things that had happened to him had turned out for the
furtherance of the gospel. But then in verse 15, we read,
beginning, 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, Paul writes in verse 17
that he's appointed for the defense of the gospel. But look over to verse 27. As
I was saying, this isn't the work of the gospel minister alone.
Look over at verse 27. He says, only, he's writing to
these saints there, only let your conduct be worthy of the
gospel of Christ so that whether I come and see you or am 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.
And why is that? Verse 28, and not in any way
terrified by your adversaries. Now, there's always adversaries
to the church. There's always adversaries to
the gospel. The church exists in a hostile
world, which is in opposition to everything about the church,
everything of Christ. The early church, as we read
in the Word, you can't miss it. It was under continuous attack. This is the primary reason for
many of the epistles that the apostles wrote to these churches. They faced continual attack not
only from the false religions that were everywhere,
but they faced attack from political sources as well. There were false
religions and philosophies everywhere. And there was this constant opposition
to the gospel, constant opposition to those who believed the gospel,
The church was attacked with false views and false teaching
and Paul himself warns the saints at Ephesus that this will come
from within and from without. So from the beginning, from the
beginning of the church, the church had to fight for her faith,
fight for the gospel, fight for the glory of God. It's no different
today. It's no different today. The
opposition, in some ways, has taken more insidious forms. There's always spiritual warfare. I don't know if most Christians
think about it in these terms, but we need to because we're
called like these saints to the defense and confirmation of the
gospel. We're called to stand fast in
one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the
gospel, continually defending and confirming the gospel. This
is a great work. And then this brings us to the
point of the message tonight. The preaching, like I said, there's
some hard things in this passage which I don't understand. We'll
just try and learn some things that I think the Lord is teaching
us. But the preaching, I think something
we can learn from this is that the preaching of the gospel is
of such great importance that Paul makes an extreme statement. He says, only that in every way,
whether in pretense, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ
is preached. And in this I rejoice and will
rejoice. Isn't that amazing? Now some
of you, may have noticed when I preached the last message that
I skipped over this entirely. Didn't mention it at all. And
why was that? It wasn't because I intended
on preaching this. Because it bothers me, I'll be
honest. Some of the things that are said
here bother me. They're unsettling and they're uncomfortable. There's things that are hard
to reconcile with other scriptures. But I'll just be honest, my conscience
got to me because I began to think that this is the word of
God. There's a purpose that this is
here. There's a purpose that Paul wrote
about it. And if, you know, Like I said, if it
was me writing this letter to the Church of Philippi, I never
would have mentioned this. And if it was me and there were
men who were preaching the gospel out of selfish ambition and speaking
against me, I never would have said I rejoiced in that. If it
was me. And I would think, well, why
does the Church of Philippi need to know these things anyway? But thank God it's not up to
me. Who knows better, me or the Holy
Spirit? You know, these are words written
by Paul, but we know these are inspired words. These are the
inspired words of God, and the Holy Spirit knows that those
saints of Philippi need to know these things, these circumstances
that are happening there in the church at Rome. He knows, we could say, that
this is helpful, helpful spiritually for the church. It's helpful
for their progress and joy of faith. And so if it's helpful
for the church at Philippi, well, I thought, well, it must be helpful
for us too. Isn't that right? So let's just
consider some of these things. So the first point, as we begin
to try and understand this, is a point I don't have to spend
really much time at all on, because we all know this. We all believe
it. I have absolute assurance of
this. Preaching the gospel is preaching
Christ. Isn't that true? And how much
is found in that? But like I said, this is our
most important distinction as a church. We preach Christ. It says it on the board outside. And I'm thankful that the Lord
led led me to put this as the heading of the first prayer letter
newsletter we ever wrote and it's still there today. We preach
Christ. That's a great banner. That's something to stand for.
That matters. It's the most important point
to defend and it's the most important point to proclaim because everything
rises and falls on that. Do we preach Christ? Now, here's
a simple test to know whether a church is preaching the gospel. In the message preached, is Christ
essential? Is Christ the center? Is Christ
the all in all in terms of righteousness, sanctification, and redemption?
Just those few simple things. I don't need to go on. Just those
few simple things. Is that true? Is that true? You know, you do know, there's
so much that passes for Christianity today where none of these things
are true. You could take Christ out of
these churches, those churches, and everything would go on as
normal. Wouldn't even be noticed. But in this church, I'm thankful
to the Lord. Among those of us who believe,
Christ is essential, isn't he? Take him out and everything falls
apart. And it should, it should. The message of the gospel is
preaching Christ. And Paul mentions that three
times in these four verses. He says, some indeed preach Christ,
even from envy and strife. Verse 16, the former, preach
Christ. And then down in verse 18, he
says, what then only in every way, whether in pretense or in
truth, Christ is preached. You see, in Paul's mind, the
gospel is preaching Christ and we should never be embarrassed
by that. We should absolutely stand upon that truth. We find this everywhere in the
word of God, don't we? Think of the day of Pentecost
when Paul preached that great message where he drew upon these
Old Testament scriptures and he expounded the truths. But
who was he preaching about? He was preaching of Christ from
the very beginning to the very end of that message on that day
when 3,000 souls were saved. He preached Christ. And of course,
I always think of Philip, you know, going to that man, that
Ethiopian on the way home in that desert place. And he was
reading in Isaiah 53 and he opened the scriptures. It says after
Philip spoke with him, he opened the scriptures and it says, beginning
at this scripture, he preached Jesus. Isn't that true? And we find this, it's not just
in these places, but we find it everywhere in the word of
God. This is the message that we have, isn't it? Preaching
the gospel is preaching Christ. Well, before we continue, I think
it's important to try and understand anyway what Paul means when he
says, some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife. Isn't that a shocking statement
after all that I just said? They preach Christ, but they
preach Christ from envy and strife. Now, I think David mentioned
it this morning. God can do anything according
to his providential will. He can make a false prophet bless
Israel. like he did with Balaam. Of course
he can. But there's nothing in Paul's
words to indicate that these men were false prophets, or even
that they were wolves that had come in to devour the church. He doesn't hesitate to say those
things in many, many other places. And it's important to note that
he says these men were preaching Christ. Paul would have no cause for
rejoicing if this weren't so. He would say, like he did to
those churches at Galatia, if anyone preaches any other gospel
to you than what you have received, let him be cursed. He would say
that. He wouldn't rejoice in it. Here, let me just give you a
partial quote from John Gill. He's very long-winded on this.
He says, these men were brethren, were members of the church and
whom the apostle owned as brethren in the ministry, neither of which
could have been admitted had they been unbelievers in Jesus
being the Messiah. Nor would the apostle have rejoiced
in their ministry, and besides, they preached the same Christ
as other gospel ministers, only on different principles and with
different views. They preached the pure gospel
of Christ. They did not preach themselves
or any doctrines of their own, but Christ, nor the doctrines
of other men. Nor did they read lectures or
mere morality as the Gentiles did, Nor were they legalists
as the Jews. They did not insist on the doctrine
of works or preach up justification and salvation by the works of
the law, a doctrine the apostle always militated against. Nor
would he ever express any pleasure and satisfaction in it. Nor did
they preach a mixed gospel, partly of grace and partly of works.
They were not such as joined Moses and Christ, the law and
the gospel, works and grace together in men's salvation. Nor did they
corrupt and adulterate the word of God or blend it with their
own or other men's inventions, but they preached Christ clearly
and fully. He was the sum and substance
of their ministry." And he goes on. It couldn't be more clear
what his thoughts are with regard to these things, and I think
this is true. Otherwise, Paul would never say
they preach Christ and that he rejoices in it. Now, equally
true is that these men preach Christ from selfish ambition.
Not only that, they saw it in their selfish ambition to add
affliction to Paul and his imprisonment. Well, what can we learn from
this? Well, I think it has something to say to all gospel ministers. If Paul is willing to rejoice
that Christ is preached, even in these circumstances, then
by what measure Can I justify not rejoicing in the preaching
of a faithful gospel preacher even if he's offended me? Or he's offended some other brother
who's a friend of mine. How could I not rejoice, completely
set that aside, and rejoice in the fact that this is a minister
of the gospel? Continue to support his ministry. Have fellowship with him. Because what does this do? It
ends up doing what these men, if you don't do this, it ends
up doing exactly what these men were seeking to do. They were
seeking to cause division. They were seeking to separate
people from the apostle Paul, weren't they? Well, what else can we learn? As I just said, it taught me
that even if there's another gospel preacher who may be speaking
against me as these men were against Paul, undermining me,
if he preaches the gospel, if he preaches Christ, what should
I do? Just let it go. Just let it go. Why? Am I more
important than the preaching of Christ, the preaching of the
gospel. Just let it go. That's what Paul did. Amazing in these circumstances,
amazing especially given who these men were. Paul just let
it go. He rejoiced in the fact that
Christ was preached. The work of the gospel is just
too important to divide over heady issues. That's something
we can learn from this. And the situation too there in
the church at Rome, I think, tells us something which is of
great significance and serious importance to the church. It
tells us that a man may profess faith in Christ, preach Christ
in all his fullness, but this in itself does not mean that
this man has been appointed by God to the ministry of shepherding
the church of God. I think it goes without saying
that these men, yes, Paul rejoices in the fact that they preach
Christ, but these aren't men who would be appointed to shepherd
the sheep of the Lord. And that's a sobering thing,
isn't it? I think most would tend to think, well, he preaches
Christ. Well, that's all we need to worry
about. Well, were these men false professors? I think most commentators believe
this was the case, but there isn't anything implied in Paul's
words that they were. Perhaps Paul himself couldn't
say. But it is true, and it's a sad thing, that as Paul is
speaking here, envy and selfish ambition can be a curse for some
in the ministry. And this manifests itself in
the behavior of men like this. Clearly, these men, as Paul says,
they were envious, envious of him, and they sought to draw
people away from him. And how could they have done
this? And in what way would they do this? Notice Paul doesn't
say who they are. That's not the point of writing
to the church at Philippi about these things. And he doesn't
go into details. They preach Christ, but at the
same time, they're seeking to undermine the Apostle Paul. Now,
how are ways that they could possibly have been doing that?
Well, let me just give an example of the types of things that could
be happening. They could say, well, look, did
you see that epistle that Paul wrote to the church here in Rome?
You know, it's a lot of doctrine, and it's a lot of theology. You know, it's stuff hard to
be understood. You know, is that really preaching
Christ? You know, and there's this innuendo. You know, things
like that. Well, anything like that, you
should flee from. Pastors should flee from. The
Lord's people should flee from. If a man is preaching Christ,
Even if there's things that are not the best, just leave it alone.
Just leave it alone. I think that's something that
we can learn from here. That's what Paul did. In an extreme
case, this is what Paul did. Well, so how much more should
it be when it's not a case like this and we have faithful men
preaching the gospel? It's hard to understand, but
look there again in verse 18. He's not only willing to let
it go, he rejoices in the fact that Christ is preached. 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. He says it twice. You see why I was, I didn't want
to preach on this passage. It just seems hard, it's hard
for me to understand, that's all I can say. But what we can
say, now listen carefully, Paul is not approving of these preachers. He's not condoning or overlooking
their behavior in any way. Paul is not rejoicing in these
preachers and their behavior. Paul rejoices that Christ is
preached. He rejoices in the message. He
rejoices in the preaching of Christ. That's what he's rejoicing
in. Now, let me just say one last
thing with respect to this. It's important to note, I think,
that this doesn't mean we're to overlook preaching, which
undermines the gospel. I think that's self-evident,
isn't it? We're not to ignore preaching which is distorting
the truth of the gospel. Certainly not. If there is any
element in the preaching of a preacher which undermines the gospel,
we don't rejoice in this. Not at all. What do we do? We
defend the gospel as ministers of the gospel. If there's something
that a preacher is preaching which is undermining the gospel,
we stand, we defend the gospel, even if this error is being preached
by a fellow preacher, even by a friend, and how hard we find
it is to do that. Well, then finally, I think we can say again that
preaching Christ is the most important work of the church. If Paul rejoices and will rejoice
when Christ is preached, even when it's preached from men like
this, men with evil motives, Well, how much more can we rejoice? We think of all the gospel preachers
that the Lord has given us such a great privilege of being brought
into fellowship with. And what should be our response
when we see these things and hear these things? Rejoice. Rejoice. These are faithful gospel
men. We might not agree on everything. But are they faithful preachers? Well, that's a cause for rejoicing,
great rejoicing. Gospel preachers are a sign of
God's great blessing, aren't they? Well, joy and gladness are dominant
and recurring themes in this epistle. And let's just look
at some of those. Let's just look at some of those
in verse three. Look there in chapter
one. Let's just go through all the
times Paul writes to these saints there in Philippi of joy and
rejoicing and gladness. Look there. He says there in
verse three of chapter one, I thank my God upon every remembrance
of you, always in every prayer of mine, making requests for
you all with joy. And then over in verse 25 and
26, we find that again, he says, and being confident of this,
I know that I shall remain and continue with you all for your
progress and joy of faith, that you're rejoicing for me, may
be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again. He's
again and again speaking to these Saints there have all of these
wonderful causes for rejoicing. Look down in chapter two in verse
one. He says, therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ,
if any comfort of love, if any fellowship in the spirit, if
any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded,
having the same love, being of one accord and one mind. Down
further, verse 15 of the same chapter, chapter two, verse 15,
he says, that you may become, verse 14, do all things without
complaining and disputing that you may become blameless and
harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked
and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the
world. Holding fast the word of life
so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not
run in vain or labored in vain. And he goes on, we don't need
to look at them all. There's 10 different places where
Paul speaks about joy and gladness and rejoicing right through to
the end of this epistle. And it's a theme, it's a constant
theme throughout his epistle. And it's clear that he wants
to encourage these saints. and brings all these things in
before them, which are cause for joy and for gladness and
for rejoicing. Now, if we looked at them all,
we would see that in every one of these instances where Paul
speaks about joy and gladness, they're in reference to good
things and righteous things and holy things. but the proclamation of Christ
in the gospel is of such surpassing excellence, it is so good, so
righteous, so holy, so glorious, so powerful, that even when it's
preached by a polluted vessel with sinful motives, Paul says this too is a cause
for rejoicing. Let me give you an illustration
of what I think Paul is teaching us here. If you have a magnificent
diamond, a diamond of great worth and beauty, and it's set into
a ring, and the ring is on this twisted and deformed hand of
a person with severe arthritis, does that detract at all from
the beauty and the worth of that magnificent diamond? No, it doesn't,
does it? Well, this is what Paul is saying
with respect to the gospel. The gospel in and of itself is
just so wonderful, so magnificent of such great worth that in its
purity there's nothing that detracts from it. Or we could say a woman, take
a woman of exceptional beauty, If she's dressed in rags, she's
still a beautiful woman, isn't she? Well, I think this is what
Paul is saying. The gospel, the preaching Christ
is just so wonderful and so glorious. Nothing, nothing can detract
from the glory of the gospel. And I thought, you know, as I
prepared this, couldn't this be said of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Look over there in chapter two, verse six. where we read these
familiar verses. Chapter two, verse six, who being
in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,
but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant
and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance
as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point
of death, even the death of the cross. Now did any of that diminish
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ? Here he is, the Lord of glory,
the Holy One of God. He makes himself of no reputation. He's born into this world in
the likeness of you and me. Think of that. Born in the dirt. and the filth
of a stable. That's what it was. Remember
this Christmas season, as you see all these wonderful nativity
scenes, and they're so nice and so cute. That wasn't the scene
at all. In the filth and the dirt of
a stable that housed animals. And he grew up in a world fallen
in sin. Everything marred and disfigured
by the blackness and the ugliness of sin. And we know that word
revealed so clearly that all the principalities and the powers
and the rulers of the darkness of this age relentlessly assaulted
Christ. All of the world raged against
him. He was hated without a cause. His whole life lived in a world
polluted and full of wickedness, where every intent and the thoughts
of the heart of man were only evil continually. But what do we find of his life,
of the life which he lived? Well, we know. The disciples tell us that glory
radiated from his being. Every thought of his heart was
only righteous continually. Every desire and affection were
holy and good. Every movement of his will was
full of grace and full of truth, full of kindness, full of goodness,
full of mercy, full of love. We're told that grace flowed
from his lips. Every word he spoke, every action
he made was pure and right and true. What did they say? No man spoke like this man. They marveled at him and said,
he has done all things well. And he did. Here he is, the one
pearl of great price in the vileness of the sinful pollution of humanity. Is his glory diminished in any
way? Not at all. Not at all. In him dwell all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And then there was that dark
and dreadful day of the cross. The beating and the blood, the
shame and the suffering, the reviling and the rejection, the
spitting and the mocking, The exhaustion when he collapsed
under the weight of the cross. A body pierced, a body torn,
and then finally the horror and the agony of the ultimate forsakenness. In all of this, in all of this,
was his glory diminished in any way? No, we know all the glory of
God met together on this day in the person of his beloved
son. The glory of his mercy, the glory of his love, the glory
of his sacrifice, the glory of his atonement for sins, the glory
of forgiveness of sins, the glory of his redemption, the glory
too of his wisdom in working out a so great a salvation. The glory of his power, the glory
of his justice, the glory of his truth, and above
all, the glory of his grace. No, no, I don't think any, he
was diminished by this in any way, do you? Here's the point, really, here's
the point of all this. Preach Christ and rejoice that
Christ is preached. Amen.