May I invite you to take your Bibles please and turn with me this morning to the New Testament book of Philippians, the book of Philippians in the chapter number one. The book of Philippians, the chapter number one. I want us to read from verse number 12 to the end of the verse number 18. And so Philippians chapter one, And let's begin as we read here at verse number 12, and let us hear the word of the Lord. 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. Amen. Let's seek the Lord together in prayer, and we'll ask him even for his help as we come again to study his word together today. Gracious and eternal God, as we come into thy presence this morning, O Lord, we ask that you would prepare our hearts for the receiving of thy word. Lord, give me help as I would preach thy word. Lord, give help to those who would hear the word. We ask from the oldest to the youngest, Lord, that there might be a word in season for all who would listen. We ask, O Lord, that we might rightly divide the word of truth We realize, O Lord, how important it is to have that right interpretation of God's word. And we pray, O Lord, now for the Holy Spirit to come and speak through his word and manifest, O Lord, to the congregation that this is the word of the living God. For we ask these things in thy precious name. Amen. Amen. The Bible reminds us in the book of Romans, the chapter eight and the verse number 28, that all things work together for good to them that love God. We know this, we accept this as truth, but we do not always live out the reality of it. When dark or difficult times come upon a church or a ministry or a minister, we tend to only see the dark cloud and not the silver lining. This may have been the attitude among the Philippians, or it was a concern of Paul that they would adopt this attitude as they looked at all the difficulties and trials that had come upon him and upon his ministry. But it appears here that Paul wants to alleviate their concerns. He wants them to see the silver lining that is in the dark cloud. He writes there in verse number 12, I want you to understand this. I want you to grasp this, brethren, that the things which happened onto me, and we'll come to understand what those things were, have happened onto me, have fallen out rather onto the furtherance of the gospel. The furtherance of the gospel. Now, this should not be a surprise to us. Because we believe, Romans chapter 8 and verse 28, that God is able to take the things that the world would look at and see as negatives, and God is able to use them ultimately for good. But it isn't always what we expect, even though it is what we believe. But the scripture reminds us of this time and time again, how God, through the dark times and difficult times, brings out the good. We read about the life of Joseph. And you know, if you remember, even boys and girls, the life of Joseph and how he was taken by his brothers, he was thrown into a pit, he was sold as a slave into Egypt, he was falsely accused when he worked for Potiphar, and then he was thrown into prison. And it seemed to be that Joseph's life was just a life of ups and downs, but the downs kept getting worse and worse and worse. And yet notice what Joseph could say once he was delivered. He says to his brethren, the ones who had perpetrated all of this evil against him, but as for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good. You intended this for evil, but God took even your intentions, used your intentions, and God brought forth good. We think about the life of Job. We think about that man that was living righteously, and yet the hand of God's dark providence came upon him, and he was attacked and assaulted by Satan on every side and even by his friends. And yet what did Job learn to say in the midst of all of that darkness? He says, but he that is God knoweth the way that I take. When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. He saw the silver lining in the midst of the dark cloud, in the midst of all of the discouragement, in the midst of all the chastisement, in the midst of all the assault of Satan and of hell, he saw that God was using this to purify his character and his conscience, that he would come forth as gold. But then we even think more of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we see in the Lord Jesus Christ a life of continual suffering, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we see him reaching the culmination of his sufferings as he would go to the cross through the garden and die for our sins there. And he would be forsaken of his father. He would be made the offering for our sin once and for all. And yet, what does it say concerning our Savior? For it became him, Hebrews 2 verse 10, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons onto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. How is it that the Lord Jesus Christ brought his children up into glory? How is it that he has saved us from our sin through suffering? And again, what men intended for evil, God worked for good. And in many ways, this is what we are noticing and seeing in the passage of Scripture that we have read today. That the various things that had afflicted the life of the Apostle Paul, that men were doing for evil and for harm and for hurt, that God was going to bring goodness from it, and God was going to advance his gospel throughout. I want to speak to you this morning upon the subject of the unexpected advance of the gospel. The unexpected advance of the gospel. Now this is entitled the unexpected advance, not because the gospel advancing here was by some mere chance or by some mere fluke. But in man's mind, the circumstances here were not congruent with advancing. In other words, whenever man, and perhaps even the Philippians, looked at all the difficulties that Paul was facing, they thought to themselves, how could the gospel ever advance in such a circumstance? And yet the gospel did advance. Yet the gospel did go forward. The gospel advanced and the gospel kept going. And at Swift is where we've already looked, the life of Joseph. How could good ever be brought out of Joseph's circumstance? And yet it was. How could good ever be brought from Job's circumstance? And yet it was. How could good ever come from that gruesome death upon the cross? And yet it did. And in every occasion, the sovereignty of God overrules and undertakes on behalf of Christ's kingdom. And so although this is the unexpected advance of the gospel, yet what we see here is God's sovereignty overruling in the affairs and intentions of man. There's three things that I want you to notice with me this morning as we come to this passage of scripture. We're gonna consider it not necessarily verse by verse as it is laid out, but we're gonna gather these verses together and consider them under the following three points. The first one, is the attacks expected to hinder the gospel. The attacks that were expected to hinder the gospel. Then secondly, the advance of the gospel itself. And then thirdly, the attitude in response to the attacks. So the attacks, the advance, and the attitude. But notice with me here the attacks. that were expected to hinder the gospel. As he says in verse number 12, Now, what were the things that happened to the apostle Paul that could have been seen as things that were going to hinder the gospel? Well, the first one is his imprisonment. His imprisonment. He writes there in verse number 13, so that my bonds or my imprisonment in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places. Now we've already went through the three imprisonments that the Apostle Paul had to endure. His first imprisonment was in Acts chapter 16 there in Philippi with this church. His second imprisonment began in Jerusalem and ultimately led him to where he is now in the city of Rome. And his third imprisonment is not recorded in scripture, but he was imprisoned a third time and then most likely executed at the end of that imprisonment. But here is Paul. He's in Rome under house arrest around AD 60. He's in his second imprisonment at that time. And he's saying here, I'm in bonds for Christ. And that's an interesting phrase. He said, I am in prison for the sake of Christ. For we'll come to see in a moment, there were perhaps those that were going about saying that Paul was not imprisoned for the sake of the gospel, that Paul was not imprisoned for Christ's sake, but rather he was in prison for his own fault. He was in prison being judged of God and so on. But here he's in prison for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the question could rightly We thought, well, how could the gospel ever advance in the midst of such a situation? And yet the gospel did advance. Yet the gospel did go forward. Prison has always been the second home of God's people. Joseph went to prison. Jeremiah went to prison. John the Baptist went to prison. Paul, Silas, Barnabas went to prison. The early church Christians, they went to prison. The pre-reformers, Jan Hus and John Wycliffe, they went to prison. The reformers, the Puritans, the Covenanters, and even those within our own nation in recent years have all experienced what it is to go to prison for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so to be bound up, to be imprisoned for the sake of Christ is not something new or adverse to Christian experience, but rather what we see is that when God begins to move and God begins to work. The devil will, by any means necessary, try to hinder the work of God, even by imprisonment. But notice what Paul was able to say. In 2 Timothy 2, verse 9, he's writing again from Rome during his second imprisonment, and he says, wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer. Some people thought he was there not for the sake of Christ, but for evil. even onto bonds, but the word of God is not bound. And we'll come to see this in our second point. Even though Paul was imprisoned, even though it seemed to be that the main leader of the church at that time had been bound up and he was taken off the work in many regards, yet the work of God still advanced, the word of God could not be bound, and God's kingdom even went forward. But also as well, a second attack came upon Paul. And that was infighting within the church, infighting in the church. Notice he says there, 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. Now if Paul had not written this, we would never believe that this could have taken place. In the early church, here we have an apostle who's been arrested in Jerusalem for preaching the gospel, brought to Rome, having preached the gospel fervently before Felix and Agrippa, having boldly proclaimed God's word, and yet even those within the church, the people of God, were turning against him. There were preachers, true men, saved, truly converted, not false teachers, but those who actually and truly preached Christ were using their preaching and the opportunity for preaching to actually preach against Paul in his imprisonment. Notice what Paul would say there concerning these men in verse number 15. He says, Now, Helps Word Studies would say that this word is defined as the miserable trait of being glad when someone experiences misfortune. or pain, and also it means a jealous envy that negatively energizes someone with an embittered mind. So here we have these preachers, they're going about the city of Rome, they know Paul is imprisoned, and there is envy riding up in their heart. They're glad, they're happy that he has experienced this imprisonment and this misfortune, and they have that embittered mind. Now how could that be? How could that take place? Well, perhaps they were envious of Paul's success. Perhaps they viewed Paul as an outsider through his conversion or through his office as an apostle. one born out of due time, and they were envious of the success that the Apostle Paul had. Perhaps whenever the Apostle Paul went into prison, many of their congregation began to talk about Paul, think about Paul, consider Paul, pray about Paul, and perhaps some of these ministers were forgotten and they got jealous within their own heart. Perhaps it was just the rivalries that there was within the early church brewing up. We read in 1 Corinthians 1, as Paul writes to that church there, he writes concerning the divisions that there were in the church. It says there in 1 Corinthians 1, and the verse number And so the early Christians were basically following after different men. And they were saying, well, I was You know, baptized by so-and-so, I'm following after him. And they were segregating themselves, dividing themselves up, and following after the respected preachers. And perhaps these men were, you know, being followed by a group of people, and those people began to turn and follow Paul when Paul became imprisoned there in Rome. And this envy crept into their heart. A preacher's not beyond that. Having envy against other ministers that might be seeing more success or more sympathy in the ministry, a minister is not beyond having envy grow up in his heart. But then notice they preached Christ not just in envy, but in strife. The idea behind that strife was that they were causing a heated contention. They were causing men to quarrel. And so as they went out to preach and they were preaching the doctrine of Christ, they were inserting into that doctrine negative things about Paul and actually causing divisions and problems within the church because they were trying to separate the people from their support of Paul. Then Paul goes on to say in verse number 16, that the one, that's those group, they are preaching Christ of contention. And the idea behind that is actually of electioneering. So you know what electioneering is? Prior to an election, people go out, candidates go out, and they're trying to garner support. They're trying to gather up votes. And so what these men were doing was through their preaching, they were trying to garner the people's favor over and above Paul. They looked at Paul as a competitor. They looked at Paul as somebody who was challenging them rather than a colleague in the ministry. But then they go even further. In verse number 16, It says, not sincerely, so they're not doing this with a true and a pure motive, but they are trying to add affliction to my bonds. In other words, they are preaching against Paul in order to heap more judgment upon Paul. There's various ways that they could have done that. As we've already talked about, perhaps they were electioneering, trying to gather support from Christians to take those Christians away from Paul and supporting him. Perhaps they were going out and preaching to stir up more controversy within the city of Rome so that Caesar at that time would say, well, I must make an example out of Paul and punish him more severely. But whatever method they were using, their intention was the same. They wanted to heap more affliction upon Paul as he was in prison. Now again, if this was not written, it would be hard to believe that there would be people who would turn against Paul, a faithful minister of the gospel, and yet they did. And they would not just turn against him, but they would turn against him with a great veminency of heart. These were his brethren. These were his colleagues. And yet these were men out of envy, strife, and malicious motive were seeking to destroy a man whilst he was imprisoned. Does that not exhort us as a congregation to pray for our ministers? To pray not just for our minister's preaching and his public ministry, but to pray for our minister's hearts? that our ministers would not get filled with envy, with strife, that we would not come and preach against those seeking to add affliction to them. Yes, we will call out false teachers, definitely, but we will have a sort of discernment and a carefulness against those who are our brethren. Give an example of this. I have no problem using very strong words and very strong language in rebuking false teachers and those who are denying the essential doctrines of the Lord Jesus Christ. But there are still brethren, ministers of the gospel, who I may not agree with entirely, and there's a lot of things I may not like with them, but I have to accept that they are my brethren. I have to accept that they're brethren in Christ and they, although I think they're misguided in certain areas and the way they come across is not that great, they are still seeking to promote Christ. And so the way that I would speak about them is using completely different language, completely different words than what I would against a false teacher. There can still be caution given, but we must be careful about how we speak about fellow believers. We must be careful about the language we use against those who are of the faith. But here is Paul, and they're seeking to add affliction to him. Church politics were at play. And this was seeking to, in many ways, discourage Paul in his ministry. And as we'll come to this in our final point, but we'll say it just a little bit now, this is the type of thing that would split a church. This is the type of thing that would cause these men to go out and start their own ministry, or Paul to start his own ministry. This is the type of thing where today people would start a blog and begin blogging against one another online or create YouTube videos and so on, rebuttal against so-and-so, my rebuttal against his rebuttal against me, and back and forth and back and forth. And yet what we notice here is that Paul handles this with maturity. And that's the word I want you to remember as how Paul dealt with this. The internal fightings in the church, he handled it with maturity. And so how could anybody expect the gospel to advance? Paul's in prison, the main leader of the church at that time, the force for good in going to the Gentiles and having a witness to the Jews. And not just is he in prison, but there's fighting amongst the brethren. There's those who are turning against him, seeking to add affliction to him. How could the gospel advance? And yet the gospel did. The gospel advanced, and that's what I want you to see with me. Secondly, the advance of the gospel. In verse number 13 and 14, Paul describes here how that that gospel did advance. He says there, 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 of God in fear. So in spite of all the things against the church and against the gospel, the word of God continues. It continues and it advances first of all in the spreading of the message, the spreading of the message. Notice it says there, so that my imprisonment in Christ or my imprisonment for the gospel's sake or for Christ's sake is manifest in all the palace. Now that's an interesting word, palace. The Greek word there is actually praetorium. You may have heard that word being used before in relation to the Empire of Rome, where they had the Praetorium Guard. And if I could compare them to something today, they would, I don't actually know what Canada's special forces are called, but they're like the SAS, if I can use that in British terms, the elite forces. They're like the Navy SEALs. of that time. And so these are the elite soldiers, but they were also the personal bodyguards of the emperor at that time. And so whenever the word praetorium is being used here, it's being used, yes, of the quarters where the soldiers would reside, but those quarters were very close akin to Caesar's palace. And so that's why the word palace is being used here. But the message of the gospel The message that Paul is being imprisoned, not for any moral crime, not for any civil crime, but the message that he's imprisoned for Christ is actually spreading right through the ranks of the soldiers, the elite soldiers at that time. Now, how could that take place? Well, When Paul was imprisoned, he was under house arrest. He was allowed to hire out or rent out his own house and live there, and that essentially was his prison. He couldn't come or go. And for 24 hours a day, Paul was chained to a Roman soldier with a chain that's not very long at all, maybe 18 inches or something like that there. And so you think of it, here is a man beside the apostle Paul, Essentially, probably rotating shifts and so on, but for hours at a time, every single day. And there were soldier after soldier coming, being chained to Paul, and sitting with Paul. As Paul wrote this letter, as Paul was writing Ephesians, as Paul was writing 1st and 2nd Timothy, and all of these wonderful epistles, and as he's praying and seeking God, here are these soldiers watching Paul do all of this. And that's how the gospel was taken into the palace guard. That's how the gospel began to spread among the Praetorian soldiers. It was the witness of the life of the Apostle Paul. And is there not a challenge in that for you and for me today? Those who are closest to us Are we living such a life? Is there such a Christian influence flowing from us that they actually see that we're different, that we're actually challenging people in their sin, that we're actually calling people to the Lord Jesus Christ, even through just how we live in our daily lives? The message was being spread, even though Paul was in prison, the word of God could not be bound. But then there was also the salvation of souls. We take that from Philippians chapter four and the verse number 22. It says there, and all the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of Caesar's household. And so we have there, he's talking all the saints generally, but there's also then the saints that are in Caesar's household. And I believe that's just like a little victory cap for Apostle Paul. that there's people being converted even within Caesar's household. What an encouragement that would be to the scenes. It would be an encouragement to us if we heard about people getting converted in our houses of parliament or people closely associated with our MPs getting converted, because we think, well, that's tremendous. There's a great witness and example that is being shed there to those people. And here we see Paul and he's saying, those in Caesar's household are being converted. They're being born again. and they are saluting you as well. And so, we believe that the guards were not just hearing the gospel, but that the guards were being converted. And the servants in the sleeves within Caesar's household were hearing it as well and also being converted. But then thirdly, there was also the strengthening of the saints. In verse number 14, and many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word of God without fear. There was something infectious about the courage of Paul. And there's something infectious about courage just generally. If you look at it in times of war, people are celebrated for their courage. Why? Because through their courage, other people were encouraged to fight with a greater sense of victory and a greater sense of vigor and valor and so on. And as Paul went into prison, it had the effect upon the people of God that they were spurred on by his example. They were saying, well, look at Paul. If Paul can suffer for the sake of the gospel, why can we not suffer for the sake of the gospel? They were spurred on not just by Paul's example, but they were spurred on by the grace of God. Look at how God is using Paul. Look at how God has sustained Paul. Look at how God is helping Paul. And they were spurred on knowing that if we end up in the same place, will experience the same sustaining grace. But notice what he says there. Many of the brethren in the Lord, not all, many. There were still those who were holding on. There were still those who were not encouraged by Paul and what he was doing. There were still those who were preaching against him. Instead of being encouraged, to support Paul and to labor for the gospel's sake, they were being encouraged to go against Paul for their own sake and not all. And this reminds us again of the complexities of church and the complexities of the people of God. You will not get everyone at every time to support everything. There will always be those who hold out or those who have issues or those who maybe want to look at it in different ways that they don't have to support it. And they missed out here on being strengthened. They missed out on being built up in the faith and being encouraged. And this is why in many ways we ought to be students of history. You as a Christian ought to be a student of history. You ought to be constantly studying the word of God, or studying the history of the Christian church, and being encouraged by the stand of those who stood against the onslaught of the enemies of Christ. Well, I pray that we would not miss out on being encouraged, and that we would be a people, as I believe we are, who are able to discern the times in which God is seeking to encourage us through people going to prison. But lastly, and briefly, I want you to see with me the attitude in response to the attacks. And in many ways, this could be very easily glossed over, but this is very profound. How Paul responds to the attacks of those who are against him. He says in verse number 18, what then, notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretense or in truth. Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice. Yea, and will rejoice. Paul is saying, listen, it does not matter whether out of envy and spite, pretense, that Christ is being preached, or that there are those who are preaching Christ in love and in truth, because there were those that were preaching Christ out of goodwill. He says, I'm going to rejoice that Christ is preached. He says, so even those men that are standing up on the street corners or in the churches, and they're preaching the doctrine of Christ, they're preaching the truths of the gospel, and then they're inserting into that a certain application where you shouldn't support Paul. Paul is bad. You should not follow Paul. Paul's in prison because he done evil. Paul is in prison because God turned against him. Paul is saying, listen, I don't really care about that, because they're still preaching Christ. And Christ's name and his doctrine is still going forward. This, I believe, demonstrates to us the spiritual maturity that Paul had. He wasn't dismissive, all right? He didn't just say, well, I don't care. No, he handled the problems within the church with spiritual maturity. Now, maturity and spiritual maturity is important. Just because somebody physically matures does not mean that they will spiritually mature. There are people at 60, 70, 80 years of age and troubles come within a church just like the troubles that Paul was facing, politics and everything else. And they cannot react in a mature way and they throw in the towel and they leave and they go somewhere else. And the great problem with that is they never mature. They never spiritually mature. They never get to a point in their Christian experience where they're able to evaluate things for what they are. They're able to say, listen, I know these people are against me, let them do what they want, they're still preaching Christ, I can rejoice in that, and let's just get on, God will vindicate me. That's the response of a mature believer. And I want to ask you today, when struggle or difficulty or strife comes to you, within the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, how do you respond? Do you respond in a mature attitude, being able to think through the problems? Is this really something that I need to raise? Is this something I really need to bring up? Is this something I need to make an issue of? Okay, it's not. Let's just leave it. Let's forget about it. If it is, well, how can I handle this in a mature way? not wanting to cause ripples or more problem or heat coals onto the fire. How can I understand that Christian in a mature way? It's a sign of spiritual immaturity when Christians are surprised at the behavior of other Christians. We are saved, we are being sanctified, but we will never be perfect. And oftentimes, even the Lord's people, those who are truly going on with the Lord, can have great falls in their own character and in their own demeanor. And it's the immature Christian, those who are spiritually immature, that do not react in the appropriate manner. Well, something's went wrong in that church. Well, that can't be the way the church is. I'm gonna leave and go somewhere else. And do you know what happens? They go to another church, and several years down the line, something happens in that church, and they say the same thing. This was a true church. That could never happen. And they get up and they leave, and they never mature. They never mature. Now, I'm not saying that there is never a reason to leave a church, but I am saying this, that the vast amount of reasons whereby people do leave churches are not sufficient reasons to leave that church in the first place. People leave today for the pettiest, trivial reasons that there are, and it shows a lack of spiritual maturity. And ultimately, it hurts them because they never learn to mature. Oh, I pray that in times of difficulty and trouble and in strife, that you would remember the Christian maturity that you are to exemplify, that Paul exemplified here, where he was able to see, listen, they're still preaching Christ, and if they're against me, so what? They're still preaching Christ. God will vindicate me in the end, and I'm going to rejoice that Christ is preached. Oh, I pray that we would have such maturity. pray that we would have such spiritual maturity to be able to handle these situations. Paul could have exploded the church at Rome. He could have. Paul could have easily started up, I don't know, I was gonna say Paulisians, but there was a group called the Paulisians later on in church history, but he could have started up the denomination of Paul. And some of these other men could have started up their own denomination and split and so on. He didn't do that. He handled it with maturity. I believe as well he handled it with time because ultimately Paul was vindicated. You don't know who the rest of those men are. You don't know who those other preachers ministering are, but we all know of Paul. God vindicated him in the long run. And so I pray that you would be wise toward that. that your attitude when struggles or difficulties, when they do come, and you ought not to be surprised when they come, even within this congregation, in personal relationships with you have, issues with leadership and so on, they will come. They happen in every single church. They have happened all throughout the New Testament. I pray that you would handle it with the spiritual maturity that Paul had. You would discern what is important and you would discern how to deal with it. and the Lord would give us help. And here we have a church that continues to go forward. A church that even though all of these things were against the gospel, yet there was the unexpected advance of the gospel. Unexpected in our regard. For how could we, just looking at these things, ever expect the gospel to go forward, and yet in everything we see the sovereignty of God working all things together for our good and his glory. I pray whenever you would see the church in difficult times, that you would not be discouraged, you would not be downcast, but that you would look up, and you would pray, and you would learn to lean and to trust upon God, the one who will work all things together for good. May the Lord bless His word to our hearts this morning.