to preach the truth. We're grateful for you guys and we pray for you and we're hoping to get more opportunities soon to preach. Out rather and to the furtherance of the gospel so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the place and all the other places and many brethren in the Lord waxing confident or becoming confident by my bonds are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed, verse 15, here we begin our main text. 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 therein do I 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. According to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death, for me to live is Christ. The more right you are, and that's the social media way, that was also Hitler's way, that was the Nazi way. And that was what took people with public opinion to become what we knew as the Nazis and this world domination to propagate that whole fascist idea around the world. We see that happening again now through social media. It's the very same thing, mob rules. And it happens in the church. And fearing these attacks, many Christians and many churches avoid sharing the truth. We don't want to offend people. We don't want opposition to it. I've shared this before, and some of you agree when I say it, but when you throw rock in a pack of dogs, the one that barks is the one that gets hit, right? You understand what I'm saying? When you present the truth of the word of God, To a group of people, the one pushing back the hardest is usually the one that's the guiltiest and needs to repent the most. The truth offends people. The truth brings opposition. Jesus himself at first Peter is called a stumbling block and a stone of offense. That's opposition. Many Christians in an effort not to be an offense to anyone. Reject speaking anything to anyone that might offend them. Even truth. That was not the case with the Apostle Paul. That's why he's in prison. He wouldn't relent. He preached the truth. He stood on the truth. He was bold in his truth. And when you read all of his epistles, you find out that he faced a lot of opposition in that. But he never backed down. And he never lost his joy through any of that. Even finding himself now in prison writing these letters. to the churches. And as we look at our text in depth, I want you to notice a couple of things or three things, really not an outline form, but three things I just made note of. And we mentioned in our introduction, Paul was never paralyzed. He was never paralyzed in this. Paul never stopped sharing the truth. We handled that last time he preached to those that would come and hear him. He even preached to the whole Praetorian Guard and they all got saved just about. And you'll notice today also Paul never really takes this personally when he gets attacked, when he meets opposition. So look at verse 15 as we begin to break this scripture down. Verse 15 of Philippians 1, I'll read it to you again. It says, some indeed preach Christ, even of him being strife and some also of goodwill. I don't know how many times I've stood in this pulpit and will stand in this pulpit again to mention two groups of people in the church. There's two groups of people here in the church. Again, here we find ourselves. Two groups of people of the Church of Philippi would apply to us today. Paul says, some indeed, or that words, I think in some of your translation is for sure, some for sure do this. We know that they're doing this, he says. That's what that means. Some are preaching Christ with envy and strife in their hearts, and some are preaching of goodwill. Some are doing it the wrong way, and some are doing it the right way. of preachers here preaching with the wrong attitude and the wrong motives, he says. And another group of preachers were preaching with goodwill, the right attitude and the right motives. Same church. And it seems like no matter where you take history and you slice into it or you jump into it and begin to study the history of the church, you almost always find the same two groups of people all through church history. Groups of people doing it for the right reasons and groups of people preaching for the wrong reasons. Sometimes these days I feel like there's more preaching with the wrong reasons, just a personal commentary there. But there will always be people who do this. And as we look at our text with some depth, what does Paul say about these people? Let's look at the people with the wrong attitude first. The wrong attitude, the wrong motives. What does he say about them? How does he, what words does he use to describe them? If you notice first, the first one is they preach from envy. They preach from envy. Envy comes from a Greek word that means to desire to deprive others from what is rightfully theirs. It means to want what someone else has and want it so bad that you're going to go take it away from them and that you desire to take it away from them. Needless to say, envy is not a good thing. It's not a good characteristic for someone to describe you as someone who presents something out of envy or if you have it inside of you. Just a few places in scripture that we learn of what envy and how treacherous and how evil and how serious it is to consider this desire. It was in Matthew 27 verse 18. It was because of envy that the Jews delivered Jesus to Pilate to be crucified. It says plainly in the King James. It was because of their envy of him. It's a bad thing. In Romans 1, here's what Paul says about envying back here. It's listed with all these multiple sins. Spurgeon called these the most serious of all sins. And envy is right in the middle of all of them. Romans 1 verse 28 says, even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to reprobate mind, to do those things which were not convenient. And then he begins a list here. Listen to this list. Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, sexual sin, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, that's just meanness there, full of envy, murderers, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, and unmerciful, and who knowing the judgment of God, They would, which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure and doing all that stuff. Envy is in there with murderers, God haters, and all that other mess of stuff. And these men were preaching. Romans eight points to a group or Romans 13 points to another group. It says, let us walk honestly. As in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering or wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and take not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. Paul says believers aren't supposed to participate in these things. Or that's what the world does. That's not what believers do. They don't participate. They don't walk in strife and envy. It's sinful. First Corinthians three in his letter to the Corinthians, Paul says you are Yet carnivore, whereas is among you envying and strife and divisions. You're not carnivore. Walk as men. He calls them out. They're guilty of doing these things. Guilty of this envying and to the point of strife and divisions. They're going after the stuff that they decided that they wanted from other people. And then Galatians 5 ends with a whole other list of idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, envying and murders. whole other list again with envy and right in the middle of it. And when you put yourself with envy in your heart and you walk around with it undealt with, you are putting yourself in association with murderers and all these other people who deal with rich witchcraft and all these other sins. Sin is black and dark and envy is a very serious sin. And it should not surprise us that the world itself is full of envy. Daily people stab each other in the back to climb the corporate ladder. I see that happen in the company that I work for. But people criticize and complain about coworkers now and elevate themselves up so that they can get the promotion over their coworker. That's common place in the world. But the church also has its share of people who struggle with envy. And it shows up most of the time is jealousy, which is the same thing as envy. Then when someone looks at their jealous over someone else's success or someone else's achievement and it happens all the time. And that's seems to be what's happening here with these men speaking to Paul. And there's no place for this in the church. No place for any sin in the church and envy is a very serious sin. There's no place for it in the church and those who participate and have it need to repent and deal with it. The envy that Paul speaking of here comes not only from the church, but it comes from the pulpit. It comes from the Those who were supposed to be proclaiming the truth and they were supposed to do it with the right attitude, the right motivation, but they were not. It's very possible these men were jealous because of Paul's success. He started so many churches and they were using the fact that he was now in prison to criticize him, saying he's a jailbird. Look at this jailbird. What's he, what can he do for you? Who knows? We're not sure what they did to attack him or add to try to add to his bonds, but they were attacking him. And Paul says, it's known that some of these preachers were preaching with this attitude of envy. We know that. If you look back at verse 15, he uses another word here. In the King James, it's rivalry. Think of the new American standard called the strife. It's the same word. This comes from a Greek word that means contention and a spirit of rebellion that gives a picture of being attacked. and rounding up others to attack with you. That's that third grade theology I was talking about. Getting other people, like a pack of dogs is what it's used for, described most of the time, is a pack of dogs attacking. One dog leads the way and the rest of them follow, and they all attack. That's the picture it's painting. These men were preaching in the pulpit. They were envying him, and they were attacking him like a pack of wild dogs. They use if you notice several times we've read that envy and strife are stuck together. A lot of scriptures because one almost always leads to the other. If you go through scripture, you find that presented envy eats at the heart in such a way that it almost always ends up with this attack. The greed, the desire, the lust of wanting what someone else has eats people up and so much that they begin to act on it. They may not go take it away from them, but they begin to attack that person and begin to chip away at the foundation of what other people think. They begin to criticize that person behind their back and say things that aren't true about them just to get people to think lowly of them so that they might think highly of the person speaking. They'll say stuff like, did you see what he did? Now, if I was in charge, this is the way I would do it. One commentator shared this, and I liked it, so I wrote it down here. He said, I was told of the deacons and members who met for dinner after worship one Sunday. They were asked the question, what is it that you dined upon this day? The answer came with much surprise, for it was true. The deacons and the members dined upon much juicy gossip and criticism of what the preacher did or did not say. Unfortunately, that does happen. And Paul was being criticized for what he said or what he didn't say or what he had done. In our text, he reveals that these preachers have the wrong the wrong motivation. They have the wrong attitude. And now they're unjustly attacking him. It's one thing for envy and strife to happen in the corporate world. It's still wrong to happen there doesn't make it right because it happens in the world, but it is still wrong. But it should be considered even more wrong when it happens in the church. It's Christ church. Many members, many preachers across the world, not here, and we're blessed with that. But many men, many people treat the church as if they owned it themselves, if it was their own little kingdom. But the church belongs to Christ. The church was given to Jesus by his father, the scripture says. We were given as the church, we were given to the son by the father as a gift. Because of his perfect life, his sacrificial death, his divine resurrection, the church belongs to Jesus Christ. He purchased it. And all who are true Christians are his and are being conformed to his image. And that image does not include envy and strife. Paul understood that. He didn't get caught up in the envy and strife. If you notice back in our text, Paul, in spite of this opposition, didn't lose his joy. In spite of being attacked, he didn't lose his joy. Look at what he does in verse 18. He says, what then, notwithstanding every way, this is the King James Version. I'll read a different version in just a second to help clear it up. 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 small turn to my salvation through your power and, or shall turn, I'm sorry, to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ. Here's the way that reads a little bit in a little bit plainer English with a little bit of my commentary and amplified Bible added to it here. This is what then doesn't matter so long as in every way, after all these attacks, these people are doing this to him, he says, what then does it matter so long as in every way, whether in pretense where they do it with the wrong attitude or honestly, they spread the truth of Christ and it's being preached. And in that I rejoice and I will rejoice for I know with confidence that this will turn out for my deliverance and spiritual well-being through your prayers and the superabundant supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ, which upholds me. Paul says, It says at least they're preaching Jesus. They're doing all these other things, but they're doing it with the wrong attitude, with the wrong motives, but at least they're preaching Jesus. And we have to note here, and I want to make a note, kind of a side note, that he's not condoning us to endorse everyone who preaches, even false teachers. That's not what this is talking about. He is saying, these men have the wrong attitude. He's calling them out for it. He's saying, they got the wrong attitude. They're doing this out of envy and strife. They're very wrong. They're sinful in doing this, but at least they got the gospel right. At least they're still preaching Christ and Him crucified. That I can rejoice in. He's thinking, I don't have to deal with that. God will deal with them one day for what they're doing with the wrong attitudes. They'll have to deal with God, but at least they're preaching the gospel. And he's not endorsing everyone who stands in the pulpit who we would call false teachers and saying we need to accept that, or as people would say, this whole thing about touch not God's anointed, taking scripture out of context, that's not what that scripture means. What Paul is revealing here, he's revealing a further description of these people. These who are opposing him, these who are standing in opposition to him and attacking him, they preach with envy, they preach with rivalry or strife, but now they're preaching Christ, they're preaching the right gospel. They were just doing it with the wrong attitude, wrong motivation. And Paul's saying the ministry is not about me, so if they attack me, God will deal with them on that. At least he's been with bad attitudes or wrong motives. At least they're preaching the gospel. That causes us to ask the question and think, well, can someone preach the right message with the wrong attitude? The answer is yes, they can. Paul just said, yes, he showed it to us. There was an evangelist In the 1700s, I got introduced to this, I think, I don't remember who it was who introduced me to this sermon. But it was an evangelist and a revivalist in the Great Awakening in the 1700s. His name was Gilbert Tennant. Gilbert Tennant, T-E-N-N-A-N-T is the way you spell his last name. He preached a sermon that rocked the church world. It caused fights, but it caused revival to break out. And the title of his message gives you an idea of what he preached about is the danger of the unconverted ministry. What had happened at that time was what we see happening today was that the pulpits were full of unsaved men preaching. They might have been preaching the right stuff and some of what they said might have been okay, but they were still unconverted and it showed up. And that's kind of what Paul's alluding to. We're saying they were with the wrong motives, the wrong attitudes. But at least they've not compromised preaching Christ. The next question is, do we accept all preachers when they preach? Not everyone, that whole touch not anointed. First off, that someone used that scripture on me not too long ago when I was talking about someone that was preaching wrong. A touch not God's anointed. Well, first off, not everybody stands in the pulpits anointed by God. And second of all, that scripture doesn't mean that, as I said before, it doesn't have that context of touching a false teacher. We have a biblical warning and a so-called calling out of preachers who were wrong. Paul often spoke harshly previously against those who were not biblically correctly preaching with the right attitudes and right motives. He called them out as false teachers because they didn't have the gospel right. In Romans 16, he says, I beseech you, brethren, writing to the Roman church, Mark them which cause division and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them. For they are such that do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ. Obviously they weren't preaching Jesus, but they serve their own bellies and by good works and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. Paul says mark them, avoid them, keep an eye on them. Don't let them affect you. Don't let them drag away the people that are the new Christians in your group. The people that don't know much scriptural and drag them off into the weeds with them. It's a problem Paul was addressing that day is a problem that is overwhelming in its proportions today. To know God and to know the word of God, he's calling them out to do that. You need to know the word of God so that you're not drug away in the weeds. If you're not certain about a preacher or sermon or message that you've heard, we're to be like the Bereans who search the scriptures daily to see if what they heard was true. It seems today that everyone wants to believe everyone and everything that they hear without a desire to check the scripture. And as the church and as true believers, we need to be sure what we're listening to and what we're reading and what we're holding to is biblical doctrine. Many would have sat under this preaching and thought his preaching was right. At least he preaches Christ. They would have taken into account the envy and the strife that they were stirring up and the divisions that would come out of that, which are addressed later. The only way we can make sure that someone's preaching right and teaching right is to know the word of God for ourselves, to study the word of God for ourselves daily. And most importantly, we need to submit ourselves to the Word of God. If the Word of God says it, then that's what's true, not what somebody says, not what we've been taught for years. That's why if you're having problems with that, if you struggle with a message of someone's preach, whether it's here or on TV or somewhere else, I can tell you right now, if you heard it on TV, it's probably wrong. There's not a preacher hardly that comes on TV that you can put any trust into these days. They don't carry any water anymore. They're all off the rails, it seems. But the way to make sure, if you question it, is to ask somebody. That's why you have the local church. You've got a group of believers that you're going to ask. You've got a group of pastors that you can come to to talk to. It's the church. And before you need to pour yourself into someone else's ministry or even begin a Bible study, we're so quick to grab the latest Bible study off the Lifeway shelf. And most of the stuff that Lifeway produces is not stuff that you should even read, let alone study. But before we touch another preacher or another writing, we need to make sure they're historically sound. We need to make sure they preach the gospel with the right motives and the right attitudes. And then continue to search, not just give up and say, oh, that's okay. We'll just blindly follow them. Search what they say in scriptures. You have to do that. I have had people tell me in recent days and recent months and come up to me and say, we're doing a Bible study from so-and-so. And I've cringed. I'm not saying anything about it, but I've cringed about who it is because I know who that person is and what they stand for. We need to be careful. The devil don't come with a red pitchfork in it or with a red suit and a pitchfork in his hand, and he doesn't say, I'm devil and I'm going to get you. He comes as a wolf dressed in sheep clothing. He looks a lot like us and just a little bit of falsehood will drag you off the course a million miles, and there are men standing in pulpits doing that with the wrong motives and wrong attitudes. But Paul never lost his joy. He found a reason. Some people can find a reason to be upset over everything. You give them a pot of gold, they find a way to complain about it. Paul, you give him the opposite, an empty pot, and he'll find a way to rejoice over it. And that's what he says here. These men are preaching, they're attacking me, they're trying to cause me more harm while I'm in jail. I can't do anything to defend myself. All I can do is say, they're not preaching right. They're preaching from strife. They're preaching from envying. You need to know that. At least they're preaching Christ so we can rejoice about that. But they need to get their hearts right. He's calling them out to repent. They need to get right. They need to get over this strife. They need to get over this envying. Today we focus more on the negative. We want to attack and there's not that find something good to talk about there. So this means we're preaching error. And Paul would have not have rejoiced if they weren't preaching there. If they were preaching there, he would not have rejoiced over it. In Ephesians 5, 11, which is a scripture that we all should know when it comes to this, and people will say, well, I can listen to it. And I had that challenge before. Someone was talking about one of those guys on TV. Well, I can listen to it. I can just listen to the good stuff that he says. And I shook my head. And I remind people, here's what Ephesians 5 says about it. Ephesians 5, 11 says, Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. And then he goes on to say, rather expose them for what they are so that other people won't be dragged into it. So what we see here is joy in the face of opposition. That's a hard one for me. And that may be a hard one for you because the tendency for a lot of us, myself included in what I struggle with, is when someone opposes me is to get louder rather than to be graceful. And Paul gives us a great example of saying, God'll deal with them. At least these guys were preaching Christ. Most of the people that I've had to oppose or that I've dealt with were often their doctrines were so wonky that it wasn't, there wasn't that part to join, but I at least enjoy that they're still alive, that they can come to salvation. And there's something to have joy in there. So next week, Sunday, hopefully you'll be back in your place here. We'll continue our studies here, but next week we'll move on to Paul's suffering a little bit more. We'll finish up probably Philippians chapter one next Wednesday night, and then move on into the unity portion of chapter two. So looking forward to those studies. Let's commit ourselves to prayer. Father God, we thank you. We're grateful for your word, grateful for our evening of Bible study. Pray that you would guide us and direct us this week, that we would walk in your word, that we would be conscious of having joy and being a light through that joy to the dark and dying world, and that even facing opposition, Lord, we can have joy, that we should rise above our circumstances to have this joy of knowing that you are in control, that you bring things into our life, that you allow things, And Lord, that You direct our thoughts and our path. Lord, we just pray that You would do that, that we might glorify You more.