Philippians chapter one. Lord, bless our gathering this morning. Bless your words to our hearts. May it be a living word within us. May it elevate us from worldly thinking to spiritual thinking. In the name of Christ, we pray it. Amen. Now, verse 9 says, and this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight. Now, we're in Philippians 1. I think I said open to the book of Philippians, but I didn't mention it's chapter 1. Chapter 1, verse 9, now verse 10, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. Now this shows us the kind of things that we should be praying for that should be most on our hearts. This prayer of Paul concerning the church in Philippi is a prayer concerning spiritual things. So often our prayers are filled with requests that pertain to this life. Now, there's nothing wrong with praying about matters that pertain to this life. In fact, we pray about all kinds of things, but we must never forget that the most important things are the spiritual things. But before we look at this prayer, let's take a moment to see why it is that Paul prayed the prayer he did. He prayed it because there was a particular problem that arose within the church of Philippi. And it's a problem that actually all churches experience to one degree or another. And his prayer was designed specifically to address that problem. And the problem was simply this, that there was in the church conflict and division. Now, you would think that that wouldn't be a problem among the people of God. After all, we are at peace and in complete unity regarding the most important thing of all. Yet we're still flesh, and we have differences within our flesh, different attitudes, different perspectives, different experiences, all of which inform the way we think We don't all think alike. And we are prone to exaggerate those differences or think that those differences somehow indicate that this side's doing things right, this side's doing things wrong, so this side shouldn't have anything to do with that side and that sort of thing. But Paul's answer to this And I'm paraphrasing all the things that he says in the following verses. Paul's answer to this is simply that all of God's people are saved by the grace of God, and God's grace is such that he uses even these, I don't know if unfortunate is the right word, but undesirable aspects of our experience in this life, even as believers, all of them are being used by God to bring about the salvation of His elect for the glory of His name. In other words, he's going to point out that even though these divisions shouldn't happen, even though we should be somewhat ashamed that they do happen, none of them is going to overthrow the purpose of God. And in fact, they are part and parcel of the purpose of God, part and parcel of the method by which he will gather his sheep, purify his church, and preserve it until the day of Christ. Remember he says over here in verse six, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ. Well, that gives us some hope when we see troubles arise that these troubles are not going to overthrow the purpose of God, but it's even more than this. These troubles, as difficult as they can be, are part and parcel of the purpose of God. And even though we regret to see them happen, on the other hand, we rejoice that our God's power and purpose are such that these things not only do not bring about evil or ill to the people of God, they actually produce good for them. Verse 12, he says, now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in change for Christ. Now Paul begins by using his own experience as an example of how things that appear to be detrimental to the accomplishment of God's gracious purpose are actually turned to the fulfillment of his purpose. He says, I want you to know, brothers, what has happened to me. Now what had happened to Paul? He was in prison. Now, we know that he was in prison in Rome on a couple of occasions. We don't know which one this was from. That is, we don't know it for certain. But we know that as he wrote this, he was in chains. Now, with the apostle in chains, that would seem like, oh, what's going to happen now? How's the gospel going to get out? How's it going to be that God's sheep are reached when the most prominent spokesman among the Gentiles is now locked away in a Roman prison? Now, that's a perfectly natural way to think. After all, if the messenger is chained up, how can the message get out? But notice this. He says, what has happened to me really served to advance the gospel. Well, how's that, Paul? As a result, it's become clear throughout the whole palace guard and everyone else that I'm in chains for Christ. The chains did not limit Paul's ministry as ordained by God. It merely changed his audience. It's not like Paul sat silently. It's not as though He didn't speak to the guards and tell them the gospel. Moreover, there was much scandal upon the church in that day. You know the devil, as Peter said, goes out as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And we learned, you know, a few months ago in a message that word normally translated devil means slanderer. And so the devil's work early on in the church, and it continues to this day, but he slanders the people of God, and he causes slanders to arise in the world concerning them. For example, the early Christians, it was spread abroad that they were cannibals. After all, the Lord had said, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part in me. And when they would participate in the Lord's table, and not many outside the church had seen what actually went on, Christians would describe that to one another as eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the world didn't understand they only meant that symbolically, and it was easy to spread that slander around. Therefore, many, when they would see someone like Paul in prison, say, well, that Christian's getting what he deserves. Paul says, the very fact that I am in prison now has proven to those within the palace guard, in fact, all through the court of the emperor, I'm not here because I'm a murderer or a cannibal or a rabble rouser. I'm in chains for nothing more or less than Christ. And so what you and I never would have purposed if we had been setting up the agenda of Paul's ministry, we would never say, okay, during this year, year and a half, let's put him in prison. We'd have never said that. But God's wiser than we are. And he put Paul there to be a testimony of the truth of Christ in that awful place. He says, now that he goes on in verse 14, he says, because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly. He said, now it may look to you as though my imprisonment is going to somehow or another restrict or diminish the spread of the gospel?" He said, no, it's actually done the opposite. Because I'm in prison, there are others who have become more bold. They have become more plain and spoken out more openly concerning the gospel. You see, it's very easy for us, is it not, to see those who have been called to preach And we think, okay, they're doing their job, and so we don't have to do anything. Well, then, if God sort of silences those people, we suddenly realize, well, who else is going to if I don't? And so we, people are kind of stirred up to go ahead and themselves spread the gospel when they see the major spokesman of that day silenced. And so he says, because of my chains, what looks to the natural flesh to be a restriction on the gospel has instead been used by God to make others preach with more boldness, a boldness they would never have had if I hadn't been put in chains. Now, verse 15, and here's where he gets to the division part of it. It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so in love, knowing that I'm put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. Here, Paul speaks of two kinds of preachers. Now, we don't know exactly how the church was set up in the first century. You know, I remember when I was in Bible school, we had to go through a class on Baptist history, and part of it was of course a defense of what they call a congregational form of church government which is pretty much been characteristic of Baptists. But every denomination has its own idea of how a church is to be set up. The so-called authority structure and all of that. The interesting thing is is the scriptures do not really give us any definitive description. And over the years that I've been looking at the scriptures, and always kind of having that in the back of my mind, it seems to me the rule by which a church is to be organized is simply this, whatever's needed. We don't have to bow to a, you know, some people say, oh, no, there's only one pastor in each congregation. No, no, there's a multiplicity of pastors. They'll say, well, you got a pastor and then elders that work under him. And some churches say, yes, but then there's bishops who rule over the pastors. None of that is taught in scriptures explicitly. Remember, he says here in chapter, or in verse one of chapter one, He says, to all the saints in Christ Jesus of Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons. Now, the word translated overseers traditionally translated bishops. But Peter, I believe it was in Peter, at one point, he tells the pastors, or the elders, excuse me, the elders, to pastor the church over whom the Lord has given them the oversight. And so all three of these words that you find used to describe the leaders, the spiritual leaders of congregations, is found in that one verse. And he's talking to the same people in describing them. They are pastors, they are elders, they are overseers. So the scriptures do not have this hierarchy. And they certainly do not have any kind of hierarchy that sets the so-called common member as somehow below others and really only to be a spectator as to what's going on. But it would seem, he talks about all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi. Probably by Philippi, he means Philippi and the surrounding regions, because not everybody would be living right in the city. And it's possible that he was saying that there were multiple assemblies that sort of made up this single church at Philippi. In other words, these household groups. Now, in our day, we can travel fairly far in just a little bit. And so a single assembly might go, you know, 50 miles out. Well, people couldn't go 50 miles in a day back then to go to church. In fact, it had been difficult probably to go any more than five miles, because they had to walk, and then they had to walk back. And so likely, maybe even within the very city of Philippi itself, there were little places here and there that met. And in each of these little places would be someone who did the preaching, who did the teaching. It could also be that there were congregations large enough or assemblies large enough that there was more than one person who had the gifts of preaching and teaching. But whether it be that each of these little groups had a single pastor, elder, bishop, or that there were multiple ones, here's the thing that came up. Preachers are like everybody else. They have their own way of looking at things, they have their own personalities, they have their own life experiences, they have their own perspective on things, and they have their own ideas about how things ought to be done. And when a congregation becomes accustomed to the way their pastor does something, the way he preaches, the way he oversees the congregation, and then they come in contact with another congregation or assembly, and they do things differently over there. And their preacher has a different way of laying out the truth, not a different truth, just his personality shows up differently, his way of approaching truth, the way he outlines it or whatever is different, and maybe the way they do things at that church. One's formal, the other's less formal. And they look and they say, oh, that's not right. Well, no, that's not true. Not true. You see, none of those differences have any significance at all. It doesn't matter whether a man is an analytical type of thinker, an abstract type of thinker that describes things in what we might call theological terms, or if the man is one of these more, I call it gut-level type of preachers. You know, they just open a Bible, tell you what's in it, and move on. I grew up in a church where the pastor, every time he preached, they were going through a book in the Bible. He never preached topically. It was always just verse by verse, going through scriptures. And there are those who always preach in a topical manner. I do some of both. One is not superior to the other, so long as the truth is being told. But here's the thing, there's also such differences in legitimate preachers that their motives may differ. In verse 15 it says, it's true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. Now what's Paul saying? Is he making a distinction between true preachers and false preachers? No. Because both of these categories of people are preaching the truth. The thing is, as I said, preachers are just people. And their motivations are not always good. There are some who preach Christ, and notice I said preach Christ. He didn't say preach a false Christ or invent a false God. They're preaching Christ. And yet, at least part of their motivation is envy and rivalry. Now, I try to avoid those motivations, but I also know that they are within me. And if I do not strive to keep them down, they would take over. Envy. Envy and jealousy are not the same thing. Jealousy is to cautiously guard what is already yours. Envy is to desire what someone else has. And there are otherwise faithful men who are nonetheless motivated by envy and what energizes them in much of their labors in preaching the gospel is they're trying to have the biggest church, get the biggest name. You say, believers will do that? Believers will do anything. And we might say, well that's awful, they shouldn't do that. You're right, that's awful, they shouldn't do that. Doesn't mean they don't do it. They become envious if they see someone has more Following? You know, we're on Sermon Audio, and you get a report each month. How many people, you know, went to your page or listened to one of the messages or downloaded it and all that. And I'll admit, I always look. And I try real hard not to compare it to the numbers of our other brethren. But I know the desire is there. I wish instead of seeing numbers like 35 I'd seen 350 people listen to me preach. It's there. And it shows up in greater measure and it says now others do this out of goodwill. Now they're preaching the same thing but their motivations are more obviously from their desire to do good for others. Now These two groups, the Envy group and the Goodwill group, both of them are part of that group which has become more bold, more courageous, more fearless in preaching the gospel. And Paul does not say we've just got to cut off one and embrace only the other. He says, the latter do so in love, knowing that I'm put here for the defense of the gospel. He says, they have become emboldened to preach the gospel because they love me, and seeing that now I have been, as to my person, restricted as to where I can go, they have taken up some of the labors that I might otherwise have done. They love me and they want me to be assured that the ministry is going on faithfully. Out of love for Christ, they have said, okay, one voice has been silenced, or at least limited in his outreach, and so I will increase my voice. He says, verse 17, the former preached Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. We would hesitate to give that description to any gospel preacher, wouldn't we? And that's exactly what Paul does. I don't know, if it were not for Brother Tim James, I don't know that I would have looked at this scripture this way. When I decided that we would go through the book of Philippians, I called Larry Brown. You don't know who he is, but he's the one who always works to get these books published and stuff. And I said, look, I'm going to be going through Philippians. If you want to send me Tim's notes on Philippians that need edited for publication, send them to me. I'll edit them as I'm going through. pointed these things out and I got to look and I said, you know, Tim's right. Paul's not, he's not dividing between true and false preachers. They are all telling the truth. Some obviously motivated more by love, others motivated more obviously by selfish ambition. And they're taking this opportunity to say, hey, The big guy's in jail. Maybe I can make a name for myself now that he's out of the way. And the thing is, I've seen this happen. And it's always an unfortunate thing, but it happens because we're human. As soon as the obvious leader is taken out of the way, either by, like with Paul, put in prison, or by death or whatever, as soon as that leader, God providentially moves out of the way, others start to rise up because they want that spot. Now, that's shameful, that's sinful, and yet God uses it to spread the gospel. Now, The selfish ambition, the envy and rivalry that motivate these men make up the wood, hay, and stubble that Paul speaks of in one of the Corinthian letters, which shall be burned up upon judgment. And, you know, all of us got some of it. And it's rightfully burned up. And thank God that he burns it up, because who wants that to be around forever? Everything that pertains to the fleshly motivations and fleshly energies that men exert in an attempt to promote their ministries and stuff like this, oh, that's just going to be burned up. But here's what's going to be left. the gold, silver, and precious jewels that God created and gathered, even as these men, by their selfish ambition, went out and preached the gospel. And it says, of these men, it says, Much of what they accomplished through their selfish ambition shall be burned up as so much worthless flesh, yet they themselves shall be saved. And in all reality, all of us got some of the wood, hay, and stubble, and all of us got some of the gold, silver, and precious jewels. All that's going to be left is that which God did by His grace through them in spite of what they were naturally. You see, Not only is our salvation by grace, but so is the ministry of every man by grace, which means nothing that he does under his own energy ever amounts to anything. It will not last, but everything that was done by the grace and power of God will last forever. And we may look at these men and we see the differences in their flesh and we may rightly judge someone and say, well, he's motivated more by envy than love. But brethren, is he preaching Christ? Don't put him down. Don't discount him. Don't say, I'm not going to listen to him. Verse 18, but what does it matter? Can you imagine Paul saying that? He's the one chained up, and he knows that there have been some made bold to preach the gospel more fearlessly, and that some are doing it out of love to him and out of love to Christ, and there's some out there doing it because they're hoping to take his position as leader among churches. He said, what does it matter? What does it matter? All that we would learn that what happens to us doesn't matter. that we would learn that people's attitudes about us doesn't matter. He said the important thing is that in every way, this is verse 18, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this, I will rejoice. As I studied for this, I thought, boy, I don't know just how long it'll be. But, you know, I do notice the passing of the years. The time will come when I'm not the pastor here. Gonna be another man standing up here. And he's gonna do things differently. I certainly hope he does. But then he'll bring his own problems with him. I've got mine, he'll have his. I've got my gifts, he'll have his. is going to be a different kind of person, carrying on a different kind of ministry, but it will be Christ. By grace, it will be a ministry of Christ. And it will fall to some within this congregation to simply bear with a different set of problems that they've not become accustomed to. and to learn to listen to someone preach in a different way, but recognize it as from the Lord, because in the end, it's the same message. You know, I've never had to do that. I went right from listening to Brother Mahan preach to doing my own preaching, and I've been listening to me ever since. Oh, it would be difficult. And I've seen, you know, that is one of the most, for lack of a better word, most dangerous times for a church when there is a change in the primary leadership. But Paul says, is Christ preach? Then it doesn't matter. Now we're going to have to quit there. So we'll look at his actual prayer in verses nine through 11 next week. You are dismissed.