In the text that we will be considering tonight, Paul says this, To discover what those things were that had happened unto him, we turn to Acts chapter 28. And really, the things that he mentions are beginning to be recorded in Acts 21 already. But we will just read the last chapter of the book of Acts and see the culmination of those things. Paul is currently on a ship headed to Rome. And when they were escaped, that is, from the shipwreck, then they knew that the island was called Melita. And the barbarous people showed us no little kindness, for they kindled a fire and received us every one because of the present rain and because of the cold. And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat and fastened on his hand. And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live. And he shook off the beast into the fire. and felt no harm. Albeit, they looked when he should have swollen or fallen down dead suddenly, but after they had looked a great while and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god. In the same quarters were possessions of the chief man of the island, whose name was Publius, who received us and lodged us three days courteously." Notice the us there. Luke is writing this account. This indicates that Luke was with Paul at this time. And it came to pass that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and of a bloody flux, to whom Paul entered in and prayed and laid his hands on him and healed him. So when this was done, others also which had diseases in the island came and were healed, who also honored us with many honors. And when we departed, they laid us with such things as were necessary. And after three months we departed in a ship of Alexandria, which had wintered in the isle, whose sign was Castor and Pollux. And landing at Syracuse, we tarried there three days. And from thence we fetched a compass and came to Regium, and after one day the south wind blew and we came the next day to Puteoli, where we found brethren and were desired to tarry with them seven days. And so we went toward Rome. And from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us as far as Apiphorum and the three taverns, whom, when Paul saw, he thanked God and took courage. And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard, but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him. And it came to pass that after three days Paul called the chief of the Jews together, And when they were come together, he said unto them, Men and brethren, though I have committed nothing against the people or customs of our fathers, yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans, who, when they had examined me, would have let me go, because there was no cause of death in me. But when the Jews spake against it, I was constrained to appeal unto Caesar, not that I had ought to accuse my nation of. For this cause, therefore, have I called for you, to see you and to speak with you, because that for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain.' And they said unto him, We neither received letters out of Judea concerning thee, neither any of the brethren that came showed or spake any harm of thee. But we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest, for as concerning this sect we know that everywhere it is spoken against. There they referred to Christianity. And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging, to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets, from morning till evening. And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not. And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed, After that Paul had spoken one word, well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers, saying, Go unto this people and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive. For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. Be it known therefore unto you that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.' And when he had said these words, the Jews departed, and had great reasoning among themselves. And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him." The text that we consider is in Philippians 1, verses 12-19. But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel, so that my bonds in Christ are 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 also of goodwill. The one preached Christ of contention, 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 therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. We read the Word of God that far tonight. Beloved in our Lord Jesus Christ, a positive attitude and positive speech about the trials that we suffer will be and can be a powerful testimony of the grace of God and a tremendous encouragement to our fellow saints who may worry about us and be concerned. On the flip side, a negative attitude in respect to our afflictions and negative speech, negative venting of self-pity, for example, of anger or frustration with God, perhaps, that not only testifies of spiritual deficiency on our part, but it's also a terrible discouragement to our fellow saints. And it makes their worries and concerns about us even worse. Paul knew that. Paul did not want the Philippian saints to worry about him. He did not want them to be concerned about him being in prison in Rome. And he had been there for quite a while at this point. And so, rather than making their worries and concerns even worse by speaking negative things, by venting anger or frustration, He is positive. The text is a positive attitude and positive speech. He says to the Philippians, I would ye should understand that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel. Paul's purpose in saying the things that he says in this text to the Philippians, his overarching purpose in this whole text is to encourage the Philippian saints, to edify them, to build them up. You know that joy can be contagious, don't you? Someone who is full of joy, someone who rejoices, can pass that joy on to others. on the contrary, one who is always negative and pessimistic can pass that on to others. Joy can be contagious, and Paul knew that too. Paul was rejoicing, and Paul wanted the Philippians to rejoice, and so he tells them in positive language about the positive fruits of the negative things that happened to him. That can be true of us too, beloved. Are we quick to complain when something goes wrong in our life? Are we more prone to dwell upon the negative aspects of life, the afflictions? Are we quick to vent those things? Do we feel the need always to speak to others, to tell others all about our troubles and trials and tribulations? I'm not saying we ought never to do that. But I'm asking, is that something that we always do? without ever positively stating to our brothers and sisters in Christ, you know, the things that happen to me have served a positive purpose and I have seen that in my life too. Paul is a tremendous example to us in the text. Paul's one joy, a joy which was unshakable, a joy which was deep and profound, was in Christ. It was in the preaching of Christ and it was in the advance of the Gospel of Christ. When that was happening, it did not matter what else was happening in his life. He rejoiced. Let's consider together as the third sermon in our series on this beautiful book of Philippians, Paul's joy while in bonds. I debated what to call this sermon. At first, I thought Paul's joy at the furtherance of the gospel. And that would be one way of putting it. That would give content to his joy. That would tell us what his joy was. I chose the theme that I have to indicate that this was a joy he had in the midst of his affliction, in the midst of his bonds. And we will give content to that joy presently. What was that joy? In the first place, it was this, that the gospel is advancing. In the second place, that Christ is being preached. And in the third place, that his troubles were serving his salvation. The apostle writes to the Philippians in verse 12, But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel. What things happened to him? What does he have in mind by these things that happened? We read about that in Acts 28, and he is referring to all of the things that happened to him from the end of his third missionary journey until that present time when he was in Bons, in Rome. After the third missionary journey, he had gone to Jerusalem. Paul had probably great plans of preaching the gospel in other lands, but all of the plans that were forming in his mind were thwarted and cut short in an instant. He was captured in Jerusalem in the temple by angry Jews, by a riot of a great mob of Jews. He was beaten and he was almost killed there in the temple. Rescued he was by the Roman general and brought out of that situation. He was shipped off in the night down to Caesarea, and there he was imprisoned for two whole years, not able to preach the gospel. The Jews came to Caesarea and accused him falsely of stirring up sedition, of being a rabble-rouser. And so Paul ultimately appealed to Rome, to Caesar. He was placed upon a ship. He traveled a long, difficult journey to Rome. And as you know, there was a great storm that came upon the ship as they were between Crete and Italy. That storm was so terrible that they ended up getting shipwrecked off the little island of Melita. Soon Paul was carried off to Rome, as we read, and he was led to the city itself. There he was placed in a hired house by himself. That was a positive. Nevertheless, he was chained up to a soldier And there he sat for two years in bonds. These were the things that happened to him. The Philippians knew about those things. They were aware of his current situation. And to them it was dreadful. The great Apostle Paul, the one converted from being a persecutor to an apostle, the one who spread the gospel throughout all these countries, is now bound up in chains. What a terrible, dreadful thing! They were discouraged by that. They felt Paul should be free. He should be marching through the world, spreading the gospel. But that was not the case. Paul wanted to respond to their concerns. And he would not be negative. He would not speak any self-pity. He would not have a poor-me attitude. But Paul said, These things, brethren, have fallen out to the furtherance of the gospel. These things, all of these terrible things, have ultimately been pressed into the service of a goal. And the original Greek makes that more plain. The apostle says here, these things served a goal, a purpose. A purpose that God himself had in his eternal counsel for me and for my life. And that purpose, right here and right now, in this place, in these circumstances, was this, the furtherance of the gospel. The word furtherance can mean progress or advancement. Paul is saying that me being brought here to Rome and put in chains has caused the gospel to spread in Rome. And that is a marvelous, wonderful thing. and I rejoice." The Apostle goes on to mention two concrete positive results of these things that had happened to him. And those two results are also two of the ways that the Gospel advanced in Rome. In the first place, he says, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places. That's striking. That's marvelous. The palace there in the text refers to, well, the Greek word is praetorium. You've heard that word before. And the word here does not refer so much to a building as it refers to a group, a group of soldiers, the praetorian guard. They were the famous Roman soldiers, the elite soldiers who were the bodyguards of Caesar himself. These same Roman soldiers were evidently placed in charge of Paul as well. These were the soldiers likely who took turns chaining themselves up to Paul. On the first watch, the second watch, the third watch, they took turns being chained to Paul. Paul says to the Philippians, the whole Praetorian guard has come to know that my bonds are in Christ. These soldiers, they sat there chained up next to Paul. And they had conversation with Paul. They got to know Paul. And they got to know why Paul was there, chained up in that place. It became evident to all of them over the course of time that he was not there for any crime. He was not there as all the other prisoners were, because he was a rebel or a revolutionary, a murderer or a robber. But he was there for the cause of this Christ, this Messiah. That's why He is here. That's the original Greek as well. It's clearer. Paul is saying, more literally, so that my bonds have become manifest to be in Christ. This has become known. This has become clear. This has become evident that my chains are in Christ. My chains are not due to a crime, but they are due to the fact that I am the apostle of Christ, a warrior in the cause of Christ." And so, the gospel advanced. Oh, surely some of those Roman soldiers laughed at Paul. Surely some of them responded that way to the gospel. You are here? You are imprisoned because of religion? Because of your convictions about some Christ? That's nonsense. But others evidently believed. Others were moved and they were converted through Paul's witness to Christ. The whole Praetorian Guard came to know that his bonds were in Christ. And we also read that in all other places, too, this became manifest, or probably a better translation, in all the rest of the people, in all the other people. You see, these guards, when they were not chained up to Paul, could go out throughout the palace. And we are told later in the epistle to the Philippians, chapter 4, verse 22, that they of Caesar's household salute you. The gospel was spread into the very household of Caesar himself, and it became known why Paul was there. It's a marvelous thing. Paul was there after all those afflictions and troubles, but he did not view it negatively. He viewed it as an opportunity to witness to Christ. Sometimes we find ourselves in various afflictions, some minor, some very, very troublous and difficult. Sometimes we are in the hospital. Sometimes we are on the deathbed. Those can be viewed by us negatively. We can become down. We can become upset, even depressed. But we ought to view those situations as Paul viewed them, an opportunity. Here are nurses and doctors all around me, and I can witness to my Savior. I've seen that in saints time and time again, in the hospital, It becomes manifest to all of those around. This is a believer in Jesus Christ. In the second place, Paul writes, And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. That too is striking. The brethren in the Lord here refer to the members of the Church of Christ at Rome. More specifically, to the pastors in the Church at Rome. Think of Grand Rapids, the greater Grand Rapids area. Only in our Protestant Reformed churches we have many pastors in this area. While Rome was an even larger city, there was more than one pastor, more than one preacher of Christ in that city. There were many. And Paul refers to those preachers as the brethren in the Lord. He says that many of them waxed confident, but the original is the greater part of them, or the majority of them, or most of them. There were a few who did not wax confident through Paul's bonds, but the majority of them grew in their confidence. Now that is striking. They became more confident when they saw Paul's bonds? We would expect just the opposite. We would expect that they would become more afraid when they saw Paul's bonds. Imagine a scenario today. Imagine that one of our pastors in our denomination was preaching against the sin of homosexuality and called it a sin. And it was discovered by the government. He was arrested for a hate crime and he was thrown into prison. How would the rest of us pastors react to that? How would we feel about that? One would expect that we would grow less confident to preach the truth. One would expect that we would want to hide and not be caught preaching the full counsel of God. That was not the case. And I'm sure that would not be the case if it happened today either. But these brethren waxed confident by Paul's bonds. When they saw Paul's bonds, when they saw and heard about the fact that he was there, chained up the great apostle, their confidence grew. If they were cowardly before, that cowardice decreased. Their fears decreased and their boldness increased. Their courage grew greater and greater as they observed Paul in his bonds. Paul was an inspiration to them, if I can use that word. Paul was moving to them in his witness. They were moved. They were impressed by how the grace of God worked in him, that willingness to suffer for Christ's sake. It made them want to follow in his footsteps. It made them bold and courageous, wanting to preach Christ in all of his fullness, not caring if they were thrown into prison right next to Paul. And so, the Gospel advanced. Because the brethren were going out into the synagogues of the Jews in Rome and preaching Christ. They were going into the streets and perhaps into the forum in public places and preaching Christ. Preaching Him boldly and courageously. The Gospel was advancing. And all of this was the fruit of Paul's bonds. Paul saw that and was positive And he stated that to the Philippians. So you can see how a positive attitude and a positive speech can give joy to our fellow saints. It can be a great encouragement. When we focus on our trials in a negative way and we complain and we murmur, that really doesn't help ourselves and it doesn't help anyone else either. But to be positive, as Paul was, even in the deepest and hardest trials, can be a great encouragement. Let me tell you a brief story. About three years ago or so, there were three young adults traveling back from a wedding back to Loveland, Colorado, and they got in a car accident. Two of them were husband and wife. for less than a year, and the young lady was carrying the child of her husband. That young man was killed. The other two young women were severely injured. Neither of them was conscious for a while. When the young woman came back to consciousness, whose husband had died, she wanted to know, where is he? How is he? And they had to break to her the difficult news that he had died. These people were close to us. We knew them fairly well. So we followed that story through the care pages on the Internet. And something that she said struck me to my core, moved me to tears. She wasn't able to speak yet. But they gave her a little tablet, a little marker board, and she wrote on that marker board and said, I don't remember her exact words, but something along these lines that her husband, she was confident, her husband was with the Lord. That's striking. Can you imagine such a terrible, awful affliction? You've been married for less than a year. Your husband is killed. You're burying his child. But she didn't respond in a negative way, not with despair. Even in that circumstance, she was confident. He's with the Lord and I'm at peace. Do you know what kind of a testimony that is in a hospital, on the Internet, on care pages? That is a powerful, powerful testimony. Not of her strength, of course not, but of the grace of God working in her heart in that affliction. That gives glory to God. And it's an encouragement to fellow saints. What an encouragement. All too. by his positive attitude was a great encouragement to the saints at Philippi. But there's more. He continues in the text to explain that his joy was also this, that Christ is being preached. And I know that sounds like repetition, but it's not. He says in verse 15, Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife, and some also of goodwill. Verse 18, What then? Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. That makes this text one of the most striking and unique texts in all of Scripture. This is one of those texts that when I first discovered it, I could not believe it was there. And before I had ever read it, I would not have believed it was there unless I had read it with my own eyes. What does he say? Some preach Christ of envious and strife, but I rejoice. Whether in pretense or in truth, I rejoice. Christ is preached. That's the important thing. Remember that the apostle is speaking here of the pastors in Rome. They were all brethren in the Lord. He is not speaking by these men who preached Christ of envy and strife of heathen people. He is not speaking of the Jews who did not believe in Jesus as the Christ. He is not even speaking about false teachers like the Judaizers. Some people think that he must be speaking here of the Judaizers. Not so. He is not speaking of the Judaizers because Paul would not rejoice at the preaching of the Judaizers. Turn to Galatians 1. In the beginning of that chapter, in verses 6-9, the apostle speaking to the Galatians says, I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. And then he says this, But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." Paul would not have rejoiced if he had known that the Judaizers were preaching their false gospel in Rome. Paul would have condemned it. He would have said, let that be accursed. But he doesn't condemn the preaching of these men. He rejoices in it. These men who preached Christ of envy and strife, he rejoices in their preaching. They were brothers in the Lord. They were brothers in Christ. And that's what makes it all the more striking. What an additional affliction for the apostle. These were, to put it in our own terms today, ministers who are all in the same denomination. Or perhaps these were ministers who are all belonging to true churches of Christ. These were ministers in true churches, perhaps even in the same denomination. That's how we ought to view it. But among these brothers in the Lord who are all preaching Christ, there were two groups. Let me emphasize that they were all preaching Christ. All of these men were. When they stood in the synagogue, or in the street, or in the forum, or in the houses of the saints, they all preached the same content, the same gospel, the same message. They were all preaching that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah. They were all preaching that He is the only way of salvation. They all were teaching and preaching that the idols of Rome and Greece were no gods, and that there is only salvation in Christ. They were all preaching the pure gospel of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. They were all preaching that. These were not Judaizers. They were all saying that a man is justified not by the works of the law, but by faith in Christ alone. And yet there were these two groups. The first group, and I begin with the positive, the first group preached Christ of goodwill. Verse 15. That is, they were motivated by good intentions. They had good purposes and good goals. They were genuine and sincere in their preaching. The word in the original means good pleasure, but it can mean good intent or kindly motivated. We read further about these men in this group, verse 17, that they preached Christ out of love. They were motivated by love, love for God, love for Christ, and love for Paul himself. He tells the Philippians that these men recognized that he was set for the defense of the gospel, verse 17. The preachers in this group recognized that Paul had been appointed by God as an apostle. He had been given a very important place in the church, that it was his duty to defend the gospel, to speak out against the lies and the heresies that were spreading. They recognized that. But they were not jealous. They did not hold it against Paul. They loved Paul. They admired Paul. They respected Paul as a great example to them to follow. But there were others. That other group, who were also preaching Christ, preached Christ of envy and strife. They preached Christ of contention, not sincerely. supposing to add affliction to my bonds. One wonders how Paul knew the motives of those men. After all, it would certainly be wrong of me to judge the motives of one of my fellow pastors and to say, well, that man, he preaches Christ out of pride. That would be wrong for me to say, would it not? Or, that man over there, he preaches Christ out of envy. That would be wrong for me to say that, because I don't know the motive. The motive is in the heart. How did Paul know the motive? How could he speak so confidently of that motive? It's either possible that somehow it became known to him by their actions and words, or simply this, by divine revelation. Paul is writing here, after all, into the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit inspired these words so we can know that Paul is not being judgmental. Paul is not judging something that he knows nothing about. He is not trying to pry into the hearts of these men, but he knew with certainty the motives of these men. Their motives were envy and strife. Envy is such a terrible and bitter sin. They envied Paul. Paul was the most successful of all of the apostles in the early church. Paul had established churches throughout Asia Minor, in Cyprus and Crete and Greece, Macedonia. Enduring churches with elders and deacons and pastors. Paul had trained other pastors. Paul had written epistles to the churches and those epistles were eagerly read and eagerly copied and enthusiastically spread throughout the empire. Paul was successful. But they did not appreciate his success. Paul was not successful himself. The Lord was successful through Paul, but they viewed it as Paul's success and they wanted it for themselves. They were bitterly envious of Paul. And out of that root, that motive of envy, they preached the truth all right, but they preached it out of envy. In the second place, he says, out of strife or because of strife. They were contentious. They were preaching out of a motive of contention, their motive, their desire in the preaching of Christ. was to contend and to strive against the Apostle Paul. He says also that they preached, in verse 16, of contention. And that word means more literally partisanship, party spirit, rivalry, unhealthy and ungodly competition. They were competing with Paul. This was an us versus him mentality. This was, we are going to do better than him and we are going to outdo him. Partisanship. Rivalry. He adds this, they were supposing to add affliction to my bonds. That's awful. Their desire was to make Paul's life more miserable. Now, there is some mystery here. We don't know exactly how they thought that by preaching Christ they would make Paul's life more miserable. We don't know the exact details. Paul is deliberately general, deliberately even perhaps obscure. He doesn't fill in all the details for the Philippians and maybe we can learn something from that too. He doesn't give the names of these brothers. He only mentions that it was clear they were hoping to add affliction to his bonds. Perhaps they thought that by preaching Christ boldly in the synagogues and in Rome, in the churches to the people, that they would become more popular and they would diminish the influence of the apostle so that his affliction would be worsened in that respect. Or perhaps they thought that by preaching Christ boldly, they would stir up the indignation of the Roman government. As the gospel spread, they would make the Roman government filled with anger at these Christians who are becoming meddlesome and who are getting in the way, so that in that way, by preaching Christ, they would turn the Roman government against Paul and would make his affliction worse. But we don't really know. We don't know. Somehow, Paul tells us that was their goal by preaching the truth, by preaching the true gospel of Christ to make Paul's life more miserable. That's awful. But what was Paul's response and what was his attitude toward this? That's the striking thing in this text. What then? notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached. And I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice." That's amazing. It's not amazing that the apostle rejoiced at the preaching of those who loved him. We always rejoice when our comrades who love us are preaching with us. the same truth. But what is striking and astounding is that he also rejoiced in the fact that these miserable brethren, who were filled with envy and strife and contention toward him, were preaching Christ. You see, Paul was not so concerned with his personal reputation, his personal honor, his personal glory, his personal condition. If he had to suffer, that was alright with him. As long as Christ is preached, That's striking. As long as Christ is preached, I rejoice. I'm happy. I'm filled with joy. I hold no grudge against those brethren. I rejoice that Christ is preached. That attitude must be ours as well. We can learn lessons from this text, worthy lessons. There are times, of course, when we prefer one minister to another. Maybe there is a minister that we don't like very much because of his personality, because of the emphasis that he gives, because of what he does do or what he doesn't do. And we think he should do, but doesn't do. And sometimes there can be a sort of a party spirit, even in our own denomination. That can happen and that does happen at times. And sometimes there can be this feeling of envy, strife, of contention. That ought not to be. But we ought to follow the example of Paul. Is Christ preached? That's the important thing. Whatever these personal squabbles might be, whatever this bickering, whatever this envy, whatever someone feels toward me, I'm not concerned about that. Is the person preaching Christ? Is that minister preaching Christ? Is he preaching the truth? Then I rejoice. That's a worthy lesson. That's part of seeking the unity of the church as well. That's what Paul did. One more thing in the text. I was going to say some other things, but we should move along. The apostle says also this, that his joy was that Troubles serve his salvation. His troubles. That's verse 19. I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. This refers to all of his troubles. It refers to the envy and the strife and the contention of those brethren who were making his afflictions worse. This, that they were preaching Christ. This will turn to my salvation." By salvation there, he does not mean escape and rescue from that prison, although that probably did happen. But he means salvation. He means his own personal salvation from sin and death unto life eternal. This, too, he said, will turn to my salvation. This is the same apostle who wrote to these saints in Rome, in Romans 8, verse 28, in an earlier epistle, all things work together for good to those who love God, who are the called according to His purpose. The same apostle who wrote to the Corinthians, our light affliction is but for a moment and works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. The same apostle. He wasn't just a preacher who applied those things to everyone else. Preachers sometimes can do that, you know. Stand in the pulpit and apply it to the congregation and comfort the congregation. But then when the preacher himself is in affliction, then he despairs. Well, Paul was not that kind of a preacher. When he found himself in affliction, he applied that same truth to himself. All of these things, my shipwreck, my imprisonment, these brothers who are against me for I don't know why. It's all for my good. The Lord will turn it to my salvation. The Lord is working through all of this. The Lord is shaping and molding me. He's molding my character. He's working patience in me. He's working meekness and humility. He's working in me in such a way that I learn, don't respond in kind. Don't return evil for evil. Do your duty. Preach Christ. Don't worry about the others. The Lord is working all of that in me, and He's shaping me for my place in heaven. So I rejoice. I rejoice. Through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit, Paul did not view this in some fatalistic or deterministic sense that this would somehow automatically turn to his salvation. No, he recognized God works through means. And God will work through means of your prayers for me and through the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. the Philippians would pray for Paul. I'm sure of it. And it was through their prayers that Paul received more grace, more of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, more strength to bear up under his trials. May we, beloved, pray for brothers or sisters in Christ whom we know are being envied, opposed, contradicted, criticized overly, pushed into a corner, belittled, minimized, and treated evilly. May we pray for them that the Spirit of Jesus Christ will be supplied to them in measure that they need. May we, beloved, when people act that way toward us, respond as the Apostle responded, now returning evil for evil, for recognizing and seeing the good The Lord is working, turning it to my salvation somehow. It's working patience, meekness and humility in me. And may we, beloved, take the positive attitude of the apostle. And may we take this attitude that no matter what happens to me personally in my life, if the gospel is advancing, if Christ is being preached, I, too, rejoice." And notice what the Apostle adds, and will rejoice. He didn't want them to think that he just rejoiced in this moment, that he was taking a bear it and grin kind of an attitude. Oh, no. I will rejoice, too. Make no mistake. I am resolved to rejoice. Rejoicing is a choice. Happiness is not just a feeling. It's a choice. It's a choice to see all the things in my life, by God's grace, working together for my good. I will rejoice. May that be our resolve as well, as we recognize that Christ is being preached. And you know what that means, don't you? That means the kingdom is coming. That means the church is being gathered. And that means that Christ is coming soon. That means that the day of His final appearance, the day when all things will be made new, when all sins will be put aside, that is coming. Christ is being preached. In that I rejoice and will rejoice. Amen. Father in Heaven, may that be true. We pray that Christ might continue to be preached to the ends of the earth even in this late hour of history. We pray that as saints of thee, our God, we might have the mind of Christ, as Paul had it. That we might esteem others better than ourselves. That we might not be filled with desires of revenge. That we might be meek and humble. That we might see the positive, the good, that thou art working in our lives. Grant that to each of us in our own circumstances of life. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.