Please thank you, Sister, for that reminder. Let's go to Philippians this morning, the book of or the letter of Philippians. We, in Sunday school, were studying the background of what the Lord did when Paul and Silas, Timothy, they We're out to get the gospel out. Jesus said, go and preach the gospel to every creature. Paul got saved when he trusted Christ. By the way, Paul was a religious man, a very, very devout religious Jew. He was a Sadducee. He was, as we'll touch on probably a little bit this morning, he was an Hebrew of the Hebrews. I guess that's his way of saying there was no Jew that was as devout and as serious about being a Jew than I was. But yet, He needed Christ. And we know that it is by grace that we're saved through faith and not of ourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And that's coming from a religious man who got saved. We're not talking about someone who in our modern way of thinking was in deep sin, per se, as we would call it. He was trying to serve God in a way that he thought was right. And he was, as we said this morning, he was sincere, but sincerely wrong. And we can't be sincerely wrong. That's why we need God's word to give us what exactly is salvation. And I thank God that somebody shared with me from the Bible what salvation is. And so we're gonna look into the book of Philippians a little bit. We'll hit some highlights. Let's pray first, Father, again, thank you for your word. Thank you for this church. Thank you for Brother Barbosa as he's away, that you'll give him a time of renewal, rest. Father, that he would come back refreshed, he and his family. Thank you, Father, for what you've already done here. We know that it was you that planted this church, and it is you who wants to empower us as believers in this church to go and preach the gospel, and then you will build your church. So I pray that you'll help this morning in the message that we would once again be reminded, encouraged, challenged, Father, that we would be careful to understand that these last days are days for us to redouble our efforts to do more than we've ever done while there's still time. Thank you, Father. Help me, Father. Cleanse me, Father. Fill me, Holy Spirit of God, and may your word be what works in our hearts this morning. Through that work of grace that we need, in Jesus' name, amen. As we said this morning, Philippians. Philippi was a Roman colony. Basically, what we're saying is that, for the most part, the population was made up of Roman Gentiles. At least we know it was not primarily a Jewish area. Paul had to go to a riverside in order to find any Jews, probably, finding Lydia, a very devout, by the way, again, a very devout Jewish lady. They were following the traditions, the teachings as best as they knew how of the Old Testament by observing the Sabbath day and having that time apart. But again, you can be religious and lost. You can be religious and miss it. And so just as Paul, realized that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no, not one. So Lydia came to understand the same truth. And so we saw that in Sunday school, that she believed. She was attentive to the teachings of Paul, who came to know the Lord. And now he's showing her that being religious is not enough, being a committed Jewish lady is not enough. You need to trust Jesus Christ. And so as we have read in Acts 16, we see that, obviously, she did trust Christ. And then we saw how that there was opposition. The devil will use anything to discourage a church. Imagine a church of one family. Not a big church, OK? Smaller than this one, OK? One family, a Jewish former, at least a converted Jew, we could say, trusting Christ as her Savior, her family trusting Christ as their Savior, and then the enemy sends a demon-possessed woman to distract, to bring attention to a wicked woman that was being used for profit, And Paul had no desire to be associated with that. So he commanded the demon to leave her. And of course, that caused a huge ruckus in the city of Philippi. They were beaten. They were imprisoned by the Roman magistrates. And we know what happened that night. They were singing. They weren't complaining. They weren't griping. They weren't saying, woe is me. They sang praises, and God sent an earthquake. Jail doors open. You'd think that there would be a mass exodus of all the prisoners. And of course, that's what the Roman jailer was thinking. I'm going to kill myself, because as soon as they find out that the prisoners escaped, I'm going to be executed anyway. So he's about to kill himself. And Paul said, don't do it. We're all here, which is like, really? You mean all the prisoners are still here? Wow, that's a miracle, right? But we know God was working there, all right? So he says, what must I do to be saved? And he says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in thine house. Not only you, but your family can be saved if you trust Christ, and they did. Wow, right? So we said this morning there were two families. There was a Jewish family that got saved, and there was a pagan Roman family that got saved. And so we know that Paul could have pressed the Roman magistrates and said, look, you guys are in trouble for jailing a Roman citizen without cause, without a hearing. And they're, of course, saying, oh, yeah, wow, we're in trouble. And Paul didn't press the issue. He left. But that's how this church got started. Imagine that. Imagine this church being started, and your preacher gets put in jail, gets beaten, just to start everything off. I would imagine that for any church planter, that would be cause enough to say, I don't think it's God's will for me to plant a church here. But Paul, seeing that God is in control. And that's the part that, for us, it's like, I can't believe that God's in control. It can't be, right? We're looking at our country, and we're thinking, no, God can't be in control. I mean, it can't be, right? We see what has already happened so far this political year. And it's like, you know, we were afraid of one man becoming president. Now we're afraid that a woman might become president with all of what she believes. And so we're, oh, no, oh, no, oh, no. Well, I can tell you right now that up in heaven, God's not doing this. Right? He's not doing that. He's not sweating it. Okay? God knows what's going to happen. In fact, God is going to set whoever's going to be in that West Wing this coming year, God's going to set that person up. Okay? And I believe Paul, when he went into the cities that he went into, believed that God was in control. It would have been easy for him to say, well, church got started, but here we are in jail. We're beaten without cause. We're suffering without cause. And Paul could have pressed it. I was mentioning it earlier when we were talking about it. Paul could have pressed the issue. and got caught up into the politics of his being mistreated and jailed for no reason. But I think Paul had his focus in the right place. That is, I could spend my time fighting for my rights as a Roman citizen, or I could keep my eyes on reaching people for Christ. And I think Paul had the right perspective. I believe that Paul had the right priorities. And brothers and sisters, sometimes we have to kind of weigh the right priorities in our life and say, okay, what does God want me to do more than anything? And I believe that that probably was behind Paul's decision to leave, leave the magistrates hoping that he would, because they're going to get in trouble. But see, for Paul, it was like, let's move on. There's more people that need to hear about Christ. So they moved on. I know, as far as we can tell, that this was the planting of the church in one of the most probably difficult situations that turned up because, as we said this morning, anytime we try to do for Christ what God calls us to do, there's going to be opposition, okay? There's going to be trouble. Now, it's probably not going to be like we saw here in the city of Philippi. But you see, the devil has a lot of things that he could use in his arsenal to discourage. And here's one of them, discouragement. The devil knows how to discourage. He pretty much knows our temperaments, I believe. He's not all-knowing like God, but he watches, or at least his army does. I don't believe the devil's spending a lot of time with any one of us individually, but he's got an army. And I think he has his demons on their particular assignments. And they watch us, and they follow us, and they know what encourages us and what discourages us. And so what better way to discourage God's people than to send personal problems into their lives personally, or maybe corporately as a church? Anything that the enemy can use to stop the church, why? Because God told us to go and do what? Preach the gospel, right? The devil does not want to see anybody saved. The devil doesn't want to see anybody reached. And so anything that he can do to discourage God's people from doing it is what he really wants to do ultimately. So he knows he's got to get to the army, so to speak, the church. And so anything that the devil has used, as we see here in the book of Acts, we see that God ultimately has the victory. But there are certain things that we can learn from that. That's why I like, I'm glad that God put the history here of this church in particular, Because when he writes the letter to Philippi, the church of Philippi, he's writing this letter under house arrest. He's under house arrest when he writes this letter. Why is he under house arrest? Because when Paul goes back to Jerusalem, He goes knowing that probably he's going to meet severe opposition. In fact, he was warned not to go back by certain believers on his way. This was later on in his ministry. But he wants to go back, again, because, as I said, I think I shared with a few of you that Paul, he was a converted Jew, but he never lost his desire to reach his people. And that's a good thing. He wants to go back to Jerusalem, and he does so. When he goes there, again, I'm giving you kind of the reader's digest of this thing. So you need to read towards the end there, Book of Acts. You'll know the details that I can't go over all right now. But basically, he is accused of bringing a Gentile into the court where only Jews were allowed to go. And of course, the Jewish leadership says he's violating The law, so there was a big ruckus in the court. The court is a huge area there in Jerusalem. So there was kind of a, I could probably say riot, but it was a disturbance big enough so that the Roman guards that were overseeing the area came down with their guards to squelch this disturbance. That was one of the big things that the Romans had to do in that part of the world, because Jews were always trouble, according to their way of thinking. And of course, they were on the very, very perimeter of the Roman Empire. So for the Roman Empire, you have to maintain control. You can't have any insurrections. You can't have any of that stuff going on. And they were always suspicious that the Jews were always looking for that Messiah who was going to come and rescue them. Of course, Messiah means an insurrectionist is going to rise up and push the Romans out of there. And of course, that's the last thing that Caesar wanted to hear. So Pilate, of course, we know what Pilate tried to, well, the trouble around Jesus and so forth. So we know that there was a lot of political pressure on the Roman government, the Roman magistrates in that part of the world. So they send the guards in. They send the Roman guards in, soldiers in. They take Paul over to the seacoast, Caesarea. And of course, he was falsely accused. He didn't bring a Gentile into the place where Jews only belong. but they were determined, the Jewish leadership were determined to have him stoned. How do we know that? Because while Paul was being held in Caesarea, a city along the coast, the nephew gets a word back to him that they're going to kill you, Paul. If you go back there, of course, Paul was determined, I'm going to go back and I'm going to set things straight and I'm going to give my, you know, give my testimony and I'm going to, I'm going to let them know that it's false accusations. So of course he was, he was determined to do that, but The nephew says, don't go back, Paul. They've already plotted to have you killed. So he says, OK. All right, that's it. I appeal unto Caesar because he was a Roman citizen. Now this time, he's going to use it. He's going to use it. And of course, that sets in motion some things. Well, in order to appeal unto Caesar, what do you got to do? You gotta be there, okay? It's not like you're gonna send a text message. You're not gonna call, you're not gonna send an email. You gotta be there in person, and you gotta present your case. And of course, because he was a Roman citizen, Caesar had to listen to his case. So in order to be there, he's gotta go there. So how many know about the shipwreck? Okay, that was on his way to Rome, okay? So it wasn't an easy trip. When he gets there finally, as best as we can tell, Paul had to wait for two more years. Does this sound like a government thing, right? If you want stuff done right away, hurry up and wait, right? That's the way it was 2,000 years ago, all right? So he had to wait another two years. So he was under house arrest Okay, so it meant that he had the praetorium guard, in other words, our version of the Secret Service, I think you've been hearing about that a lot lately, right? These guards were directly responsible and answerable to Caesar, and they had to make sure that Paul was under guard, all right? So again, not knowing all the specifics, but probably he was, chained to the guards, and the guards did their rounds to keep him. And so while this is happening, he's in a house. He has a certain amount of ability to get around. For the most part, he took advantage of this to write these letters. We call them the prison epistles. Philippi or the book of Philippians was one of those letters. So basically what happened was the church, this has been a couple years later, the church at Philippi had grown. And they were very much concerned about Paul. And so they're wondering, what happened to him? Is he alive? They're catching maybe some rumors, maybe some things that they're hearing about Paul. They're not sure what his status was. So they send Epaphroditus. Epaphroditus was probably the pastor of the church at the time. Epaphroditus takes this long trip from Philippi to Rome. to bring a gift, now it probably was a financial gift, to encourage the Apostle Paul. Now it was, I'm sure, a big encouragement for Paul to find out, number one, the church is thinking about him and praying for him. Number two, that they cared enough to send their pastor, their preacher, to go and bring this gift. So he's blessed by it. And so when he receives this gift, he writes this letter. And that's what we call the Book of Philippians. This is kind of like a thank you letter that he's writing. But he's not just thanking them. He is telling them a few things, right? Chapter 1. He says, and I'm just hitting the highlights here because, again, this is a, you know, we could probably be in this study for several weeks, but I'm giving you, again, probably some highlights here and no more, but a couple of takeaways maybe for us today. Chapter 1, verse number 12, he says, but I would, that ye should remember, you understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel, verse number 13, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places. Okay, now where would that be? Where would this palace be? It would probably be, again, in Caesar's court, where he was under house arrest, not too far from where Caesar was, but he's saying, look, I want you to understand. You're probably thinking that some bad things have happened to me and that this imprisonment or this house arrest is a bad thing. Now, I don't know about you, but if I know brother Pinto, the tendency for me is to say, you know, I'm, I was serving the Lord and I got arrested. I was serving the Lord and I was falsely accused. And now I can't do my ministry because I'm so busy, caught up in trying to defend myself, and I'm under house arrest, and I don't know when I'm gonna be able to be before Caesar, plead my case, and hopefully be released so I can go back to my ministry. It would not be encouraging. It would be very discouraging. But again, see, I hope that you'll catch this, brothers and sisters, this morning, that whenever we decide in our minds, we sung that song, I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back. Well, guess who's gonna do everything they can to make sure you turn back? Yeah. It's like declaring war against the enemy. And like I said this morning, Jesus said from the very beginning, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail. So he's already implying, Jesus is already implying that there's going to be opposition. The enemy is going to keep those doors closed and he's not going to let us go in. the world that he's in control of to reach people for Christ. That's his goal. That's his goal for this church. He does not want this church to go forward. He does not want this church to reach out to people like Richard. He doesn't want people He doesn't want anybody in this church to plant the seed of the gospel to see people coming to know the truth. So you've got to attack it from the inside. You understand what I'm saying, brothers and sisters? And so from the inside, this is it, right? Paul is having opposition. He's falsely accused. It won't be the first time. We already saw what happened when he tried to plant the church at Philippi. And so there's that constant, you know, stuff happening, negative things. But look at chapter number one again and look at what Paul says. We just read it, but I want you to be looking at it again. Look at it, it says in verse 12, but I would that ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me, look at that phrase, happened unto me. This, you know, stuff happens, does it not? Things happen to us, and sometimes we just kind of leave it there. You know, this happened in my life. This bad thing happened in my life. I don't understand why the Lord allowed this into my life. And that's the first thing I would be saying, okay? Maybe the rest of you won't, maybe you're not as, maybe you're more spiritual than I am. But it's easy for us to just kind of leave it there and say, oh, this is happening to me. And I just can't get over it. But that's not where Paul stops. Notice what it says. It says, it happened unto me, have fallen out rather unto the what, church? The furtherance of the what? Of the gospel. So he's saying, okay, I'm under house arrest, but that didn't keep me from being a witness. You know, I've been falsely accused, but that did not keep me from being a witness for Christ. So, brothers and sisters, whatever is happening in your life and my life, let us not let it be a hindrance to keep us from getting the gospel to other people. Let's press on And even if maybe you're going through some things in your life that no one knows about that's discouraging, you're dealing with your personal, we would say hindrances, but you're going through some things. And I'm not belittling it. I'm just saying that probably all of us could probably give testimony that we're facing some things in our life that we would not have chosen if it was up to us. But, you know, Paul, when he's writing this letter, would have preferred not to be sitting there under house arrest for two years before he was able to get to see Caesar. He would have rather have been out there planting churches, strengthening the churches that he established by the grace of God. He would rather have been in ministry than have this hindrance. But, you know what he's doing? He's taking advantage of the opportunity where he's at to get the Gospel out. Brothers and sisters, he's taking advantage of where he's at, regardless of the circumstances, to get the gospel out. Wow. OK. That's saying to Brother Pinto is there is no excuse for Brother Pinto not getting the gospel out, regardless of what's happening in my life, regardless of the circumstances in my life. I cannot let those things hinder me from doing the one thing that God wants me to do, and that is get the gospel out. All right? I don't know where you're at personally with this. I appreciate that pastor has it on his schedule for the church, as a church, to go out and get the gospel out. Brothers and sisters, do it. Now is the time. We're caught up in, okay, well, I'm not sure what's gonna happen in November. I'm not sure either, other than I know that November 6th, after the election, God is still gonna be on the throne. Okay? November 7th, God is still gonna be on the throne. Okay? Again, God's not doing this. In fact, He knows who's going to be president because He's going to put him or her there. Alright? Now, I know that's hard to swallow for us. I know what you, I kind of think I know what you want, and you probably can guess what I want, but you know what? It doesn't matter. God is still on the throne. What He's wanting now, He's not worried about the White House. He's not worried about what's going to happen on the White House. He's looking at the church house and he's going to see and he's wondering how many of us brothers and sisters in Christ are going to get serious about this. Because he's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. That's the reason why he's holding off. That's the only reason why Jesus hasn't come back yet. That's it. There's nothing else. There's no prophecy that needs to be fulfilled. I know there's some, some old Jerusalem and all that. Yeah, Jerusalem is the focal point. Israel is the focal point of history, no doubt. But there is nothing that's keeping Jesus from coming back that has to happen. What he's waiting for is he's waiting for brother Pinto to get the gospel out. Because there's thousands of people, millions of people that have not even had a chance to hear the gospel one time. and he wants to give him that opportunity. You see, what Paul did when he was under house arrest is he's sitting there with a Roman pagan individual who doesn't know anything about the Bible because he's not a Jew. He doesn't have the Old Testament. He doesn't even know that it exists. And, as a matter of fact, he's kind of thinking that the Jews are a bunch of, you know, cotton-picking, crazy religious fanatics. But you know what he's going to do? He is going to witness to them. He's going to witness to them. He's not going to sit there and say, oh, I can't witness to anybody because I'm under house arrest. I can't go out and pound churches because I'm under house arrest. Oh, I can't wait to get out of here. Why is it taking so long for Caesar to see me? I know I'm innocent. Oh, I've got to wait. No, that's not what you read in this letter. He said, the circumstances that have occurred in my life, I'm paraphrasing, have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel. How do we know that? Okay? Go back to Philippians. Are you with me this morning? I know it's a little warm. Stay with me. I got my coat on still. All right? So hang in there. Okay? Verse 12 says, again, the things which happen unto me have fallen out rather unto the furthest of the gospel, so that my bonds, I'm under house arrest, basically, is what he's saying here, in Christ are manifest in all where? In all where? Where is he at? What does the Bible say? Are you with me? Verse number 13, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the where? the palace, all right? That's where, again, Caesar's court is and in all other places. And many of the brethren in the Lord waxing confident or becoming confident in my bonds are much more bold to speak the word without fear. So, he's saying, I am under house arrest, but I'm getting the gospel out right here where I'm at. So, brothers and sisters, are we getting it? Where are you now? Where do you work? Where do you live? Who are the people in your sphere of influence that you see either daily or semi-daily or maybe weekly? You've got a sphere of people around you that pastor will never meet and never see because he's not where you are. Okay? So the question is, what are you doing in your sphere to get the gospel out to those people, your neighbors, your coworkers, those people that you meet when you go to the gas station? You know, you've got, everybody here has got a routine. Everybody goes to certain places pretty much regularly, right? Or semi-regularly, whether it's work or whatever, your routine, right? And you go by people every day that don't know Jesus. How many go by people that don't know Jesus? Okay, all of us do, okay? So, just like Paul did not limit himself and say, well, I'm under house arrest, so who can I witness to? the Roman guard, because they have to change shifts. So you know what that means? That means you got first shift soldier sitting there, captive audience. Yeah. Chained. All right? He has no choice but to listen. So what does Paul do? He takes advantage of where he was. There's somebody I can witness to. So he witnesses to him. Imagine, second shift, here comes the next guard. Guess what? This guard is clueless about Jesus. He doesn't know anything about God at all. So guess what Paul does? Hey, I bet you know why I'm here. I don't care to know why you're here. I have to be here to guard you." Well, let me tell you what happened to me. And he probably gives a testimony, and he tells them about Jesus. Now the Bible, he doesn't say that they got saved, but the implication is that the gospel went out. And there's probably, maybe, a good chance that even Caesar got to hear the gospel because of these guards. And eventually, he had to stand before Caesar. We don't have any record of that, but he said in all the palace, in other words, the word got out. Oh, you know what this guy, you know what this guy said? He said that there's a Jewish Messiah named Jesus who died on the cross and rose from the dead. Can you believe that? And he said that it's through this Messiah that you can be saved. Can you believe that? And I can imagine that the word got out around those guards. And so that's what Paul's saying. He said, this worked out for me to be a witness where I'm at. And then he says, my bonds encouraged, or my imprisonment encouraged those that were free to be bold in their witness. Now, let's be honest, okay? It's just us here, right? How many of us struggle with witnessing because we get a little timid about it? Okay? We're timid, all right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay? Me. That's me, right? When we or when they saw that Paul was had the courage, the boldness of Christ. That's a grace, by the way. When they saw, look, if he's willing to witness to Roman guards, then what excuse do I have? I should be witness to my neighbor. I should be a witness to those people that I work with. I should be a witness. He said, I basically encourage other believers to do what I'm doing. Notice he hasn't talked about anything about this is happening to me and I wish it wasn't. No complaints here, right? So brothers and sisters, this is a challenge to me and to all of us. And that is, let's get the gospel out. Where we are, to the people that are in our circle of influence, let's do it. That's why we're here. That's why Jesus hasn't come back yet. That's why, you know, look, if it wasn't for that, if it wasn't for the fact that Jesus wanted us, the Lord wants us to get the gospel out, you know where we'd be right now, where we would be right now? Where would we be? We'd be in heaven. The moment we trusted Christ, we'd go, we'd be there, right? But we would not have trusted Christ if it wasn't for somebody coming around and giving us the gospel. So now what the Lord wants us to do is to do the same, get the gospel out. So let me encourage you. This is not the whole message but let me encourage you. You've got a couple days where the church as a body goes out to get the gospel out and all you're doing is hanging invitations. That's a good start. Okay? We've got to do it. We've got to get the gospel out. Because He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. Okay? But they're not going to come to repentance if they don't even know what the message is. That's why he said to us as believers, go and preach the gospel. That's what Paul is doing here. He's saying basically this, nothing's going to hinder me from getting the gospel out. No matter where I am, no matter what my circumstances are, I'm going to get the gospel out. Let me encourage you to do the same. You've got several empty chairs here. Every empty chair should be saying to the church as a whole, There's somebody that needs to hear. There's somebody that needs to hear. There's somebody that needs to hear. And remember what we said this morning, right? If we are sensitive to the Holy Spirit of God, and we go and we make the attempt to plant the seed, what is God doing? He's preparing that person. That doesn't mean that everybody you're going to witness to is going to get saved, but it does mean this. If we continue to pray to get the seed out and we are sensitive to the Holy Spirit, sooner or later somebody's going to get saved because we are planting the seed. I want to go believing that just as God prepared Lydia. Remember Lydia? We said, what did God do for Lydia before even Paul went there? What did he do? Does anybody remember? Yeah, He prepared her, right, to receive. We need to be going, believing that when we give out that gospel tract, when we talk to somebody, we need to believe that God's preparing that heart. And say, Lord, help me. to be bold, and I say bold in the sense of courage, to do what you want me to do, believing that while I'm speaking on the outside, you're speaking on the inside. Because that's the only way that person's gonna get a say, right? So, that's what Paul's always doing, constantly. Constantly, alright? So, that's one big takeaway here, I think, from the first part of this letter. But let me go back, let me go, because of lack of time, let me just go to chapter three. We'll hit one more truth here. Chapter three, Paul talks about his personal testimony. I need to say this. Paul is saying in chapter three there, Or yeah, chapter three, he says, basically, he starts out saying, beware of the dogs. Everybody see that? OK. How many have pet dogs? Anybody have a pet dog? OK. You have one? Six. OK. An assist. And you need that dog. I mean, that dog is key for you, right? Are you afraid of that dog? That dog's probably like part of the family, like a son to you, right? He's assisting you. Anybody ever have a pet dog? Okay. Now, when you've had your pets, you treat them like part of the family, right? When you see, beware of dogs, it's like, beware of my little Fifi? No, right? Right? You hug it. perfume it, dress it, probably stayed on, you know, was on the couch with you, in some cases in bed with you, right? It's part of the family, right? Paul's saying this to the believers at this church because dogs back in those days were like rats. They weren't pets like we think of them as pets today, all right? Now, Dogs were like cats around garbage heaps, rats around garbage heaps, garbage dumps, all right? Anybody have a pet rat or ever had a pet rat? Okay, you're the exception out of the rule, all right? The point being is that when you see rats around a garbage dump, what's your reaction? Okay, you want to steer clear, right? When I was in New York City, the times that I've been there, I'd go down to the subway system, and of course, I guess this is a guy thing, okay? But I'm waiting for the subway to get there, I'm waiting for the train to get here, and I look over, I look at the tracks to see if there are some rats crawling around, you know, I'm looking to see one, you know? Whoa, there's one, right? You know, they're big, right? Paul's saying, look, watch out for people. And this is again, because of lack of time, but he says, watch out for those who would say being saved, trusting in Jesus alone is not enough. You need to do works. And he's saying watch out for those Jews that are saying you have to become a Jew also if you really want to be saved. Okay, so he talks about watch out for the circumcision or the concision in verse number one there, right? So that's what he's talking about. Watch out for these Jews that are going around saying you trusted Jesus as your Savior, but you're a Gentile. you need to be a Jew too, in order to really be saved, okay? That's what was happening. So Paul had to just remind the church, hey, it's not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. So he said, watch out. In other words, steer clear of those that would teach that. Okay? I trust that you are here this morning understanding that salvation is not being a member of this church. Salvation is not becoming a Baptist. Salvation is not you being here every Sunday without fail. It's not giving to the church. It's not trying to follow the footsteps of Jesus. Not any of that. It's realizing like Paul did, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. He writes that under inspiration in the book of Romans. So he's just kind of reviewing now. He's pressing the recipe slip on. He said, watch out. Watch out for those who would add works to salvation. Okay. You're not saved because you got baptized, by the way. You're not saved because you joined the church. You're not saved because you turned over a new leaf because there is no new leaf to turn over. Okay. When we came to Christ, we were like the dead leaf crumbling and falling off. Okay, we needed Jesus 100%. So Paul is kind of hitting that. So in chapter 3, he hits that a little bit, then he talks about his personal testimony. Okay, we talked about that a little bit this morning in Sunday school, but let me read through this quickly. Uh, stay with me, fasten your seatbelts. We're going to go through this quickly, but you can go over this this afternoon if you want. Here is his testimony. He says in verse number five, circumcise the eighth day of the stock of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin and Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching the law of Pharisee. This is the way I was before, before I met Jesus. That's what he's saying here. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness, which is in the law, blameless. He's thinking I'm okay. I'm all set. How many of you have heard that? You try to witness somebody and they say, I'm all set. OK? Yeah. Basically, hey, I'm doing the best I can. You need to talk to somebody else, because I'm not that bad. I'm not a drunk. I'm not a druggie. I'm not immoral. I work. I provide for my family. I attend church. I do all these good things. So no, I don't need that. Well, that's the way Paul was. OK? But then in verse 7 he says, "...but what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ." In other words, the things that I thought were a plus for God, no. Why? Because he says, and again we don't have time to go there, but there is a scripture verse in the Old Testament that says, "...all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in God's sight." How many of you heard that? So Paul realized that. So he's saying, I had all these lists of good works, and I hope that you're not depending on that this morning. But he said, I was a good Jew. I was a teacher of the Bible. Pharisee. A Pharisee was one that taught the Old Testament. You know, he probably stood up in the synagogue and taught every Sabbath day to the Jewish people. All right? But that wasn't going to save him. He said, I count those things but lost. So when he's on his way to Damascus, he's ready to, again, in his mind, I'm serving Jehovah God. I'm going to have these false believers. I'm going to have them arrested, brought back to Jerusalem for trial. They're going to be stoned for blasphemy. I'm doing good work. But then he met Jesus. When he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, he realized, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There's none that doeth good, no not one. For the wages of sin is death. But the gift, the gift, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. I'm trying to earn something that was bought already. How many of you ever had to give money to the person who gave you a Christmas gift? Yeah, right? No, right? That would be insulting, right? You go out and you buy a gift, and you're giving it to the person you love and care for, and they turn around and say, well, thank you. How much did you spend for it? You go. I'm not telling you. You don't need to know. I don't want you to know. You bought it. You paid the price. And God's saying to the world, I bought the price for salvation. I bought it through the price of the blood of my son. You can't add to that. Being a good person is not going to do it. Going to church is not going to cut it. And if you say, well, If I were to say to somebody that gave me a Christmas gift, say, well, yeah, you spent $50 for that, but I'm going to give you $100. Right? God's not expecting anything other than for us to receive the gift. But see, Paul was trying to buy it. And then he realized you can't buy it. 100% Jesus. And that's why he says, I count all these things but dung, okay? I'm going through this quickly, stay with me. I hate to go through this rushing, but I'm just giving you enough here so that you'll get maybe a little bit of a taste to go back and read, okay? He says, yea, doubtless in verse eight, I count all things but loss, all these good works but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ. He says, all those good works, that's nothing, that's trash. That word dung is a strong word, means it's no good, I gotta throw it away. and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. When you and I receive Jesus Christ as our Savior, all we have to give him is our sin. And what does he give us in return? The righteousness of Christ. Wow. That's what salvation is. Jesus took our place on the cross when he died. He took my sin, he took your sin, and he suffered our punishment that we deserve, not him. And in place of that, when we trust him 100%, he gives us his righteousness. And the only reason why we're able to stand before God in heaven as believers is because he doesn't see Raul Pinto. He sees Jesus Christ. He sees the righteousness of His Son. That's what makes it possible. And that's what Paul is saying here. But then he goes on to say this. This is where he was at. He says, that I may know Him Verse number 10, "...and the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformable to His death." So he realizes that, now that I know, now that I know Christ is my Savior, I want to really get to know Him well, because I want to be like Him. I want to be like Him. The resurrection talks about, if any man be in Christ, He is a what? He's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. So when we come to Jesus Christ as Savior, the old man dies. And we are a new person. That's what baptism pictures. It pictures death to our old self. And now we walk in newness of life. We're like him. He does that work of grace in our life. And he changes us. And the reason why you're here, I hope, and trust, the reason why I'm here this morning, It's because Jesus came into my life when I asked him to save me as a 12-year-old boy. I said, Jesus, I trust you as my savior. I want you to come into my life. I want you to save me. I trust that you asked that prayer, that you asked Jesus to come into your heart and your life, that you're trusting in him. And when that happens, wow, he changes what you like. He changes so many aspects of us, and He continues to change us, all right? So the only reason why Brother Pinto's standing here preaching with a suit, a jacket, on a warm, humid Sunday morning is because Jesus saved me as a 12-year-old, and He did this, not me. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. That's salvation. It's not me. It's Jesus in me. I hope that's why you're here. It's not you. It's Jesus in you. And that's why we're here. I trust that's why you're here. All right. Even when the preacher is not here, you're here. That's good. Because it's not about the preacher, it's not about Brother Pinto, it's about Jesus, Christ in you and the hope of glory. But you know what? As Paul is writing this letter under house arrest, he was 30 years in ministry, 30 years in ministry. And he could have just said, hey, I served the Lord for 30 years, I'm good. I'm ready to go home, right? But what does he say? He says, and we're going to wrap it up here, verse number 12, not as though I had already attained. That is, he's basically saying, I want to be like Jesus. I want to get to know him. As I get to know him, I'm going to be more like him. not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect or complete or finished, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which I am also apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, for getting those things which are behind and pressing forth to those things which are before, I, what's the next word? I press toward the mark for the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Alright? So, what is Paul saying? He's saying, I keep pressing to be everything Jesus wants me to be. By His grace, I'm not going to stop. I'm not going to quit. I'm going to press toward the mark. Now, he's saying this after being 30 years. in ministry he could have put it in neutral spiritually he could have just said hey i did what i i did everything i i felt the lord wanted me to do i'm under house arrest right now and i'm doing this for the cause of christ let somebody else do it and there have been so many around him that quit but he says keeps pressing brothers and sisters let me encourage you i i i gave i gave you a lot to process But try to catch this. Paul just kept going. He had a lot of opposition. He had a lot of trouble. We know about the trouble in Philippi, right? He's riding to the same church that started off rough, okay? Started off rough. Now he's under house arrest. So I'm thinking, The church must be thinking, well, man, Paul's under house arrest. It seems like one bad thing after another. Everything seems to be going good. And now, what? Paul's under arrest? We went through all this riot in the city. Now, can you imagine after that riot? Remember that riot we talked about in Sunday school? Now, picture this. Hello. I'm Brother Pinto. I'm from the First Baptist Church of Philippi. What church? The First Baptist Church of Philippi. Oh, you mean that, where that riot was a few weeks ago? Yeah, that church. Right? You can only imagine the reputation, but they kept going, didn't they? You see, brothers and sisters, we have every reason, just from what we saw this morning, to keep going, to keep pressing. preacher keeps pressing and the Church of Philippi kept pressing too it's not going to be easy and there'll be some bumps in the road there'll be some opposition from the enemy let's be ready for that let's expect that but let's say Let's stay in our ranks, so to speak. Let's keep going forward for Jesus. Let's keep pressing toward the mark. Keep going, brothers and sisters. Keep pressing, brothers and sisters. Yes, there'll be some that will press for a little while and they'll leave, but don't you leave. Some of you know that I'm a Civil War reenactor. How many of you know that? Okay, now you know, okay? This is not the official cap, can't be, but Yesterday I was in Maine, and we did a little drilling, and we did a little skirmishing. And of course, our captain says, all right, so when we get first call, first call means we get our gear on, and we line up in ranks, two ranks, and we're side by side. If you know anything about Civil War, we fought side by side in the ranks. I know you think that's silly, but that's a topic for another day, all right? But guess what? I need to have this guy on either side of me. Because we fire together, we march together, we drill together. All that because we're preparing for what? What are we preparing for when we drill? We're preparing for war. Do we prepare for war thinking that the enemy is not going to be also doing the same thing? The enemy's preparing for war, just like we're preparing for war. And when we start marching out, when the captain says, forward, march, and we're marching with our muskets, and we're facing the enemy, do you think the enemy's going to go, oh, oh, oh, they're coming, and they're going to run? No, they're not going to run. We were hoping they will, but they won't. They're going to march towards us. Why? Because we're on the offensive. All I'm saying, brothers and sisters, look, Satan and his army, they're not gonna just stand by and let this church reach the city of East Providence. They're on assignment. They're looking to try and discourage every one of you. Don't let it happen. Stay in line. You see, if this guy or this guy gets shot, gets picked off, you know what we're supposed to do? We got to fill in. We got to fill in. What happens is, this guy gets shot, immediately I'm supposed to move over and take that spot. And that guy moves over, and that guy. Why? Because we have to march in formation. We can't have any gaps. Brothers and sisters, let there be no gaps here. You say, well, brother so-and-so, sister so-and-so's, no. Look, if this person on my right is gone, then I'm filling in. This person on my left is gone. I'm filling in. Because I want to stay on the firing line. How many of you heard that song, Keep on the Firing Line? It's an old gospel song. Keep on the firing line. By the grace of God, as our dear sister sang. It's only by the grace of God. Paul would say the same thing. Let's just determine by God's grace that we're going to stay in our place. Come faithfully. Don't miss Sunday school. Don't miss church. Don't miss evening service tonight. Our dear brother's going to be teaching, preaching. Be here. Be here Wednesday night. The best thing you can do for your preacher is to be in your firing line. The best thing I can do for my captain is to be here. So when my name is called, I say, 12, First Sergeant. That's my number. So when he goes down the roster, all the men are here. All the rifles are here. OK. First Sergeant says, all present, sir. We're ready. Let's just stay on line for Jesus. Wherever you are, be a witness. Let's determine. There are a lot of gospel tracts, and I took some. I took some. Why? Because I want to be getting the gospel out. Let's determine to get the gospel out this summer. Why? Because He is not willing that any should perish but that what? all should come to repentance. So, He's looking for us to get the gospel out. Alright? Thanks for hanging in. I know it's warm. I know it's warm. Okay? But I hope that you're gonna get, come away from this thinking, what can I do this week? What could I do this afternoon? Who can I reach like Paul did? Paul was, Paul just looked over and said, hey, I could talk to that guard. Who can you reach? This week, let's stand with our heads bowed, eyes closed. Father, thank you again for your word. Thank you for your people. Father, we have so much to meditate on here from your word, and I'm challenged, and I realize that I need to keep pressing. I need to keep pressing in my spiritual walk. To be like you, Lord Jesus, means there's so much that's not like you, that by your grace I want to be you working in me, to change me to be like you, and that's a lot. Father, help us to realize that, yes, these are the last days, but we need to be busy about doing what you've already told us we need to do. Father, help us now, please, I pray. With heads bowed, eyes closed, How many would say this morning, Brother Pinto, if I were to die today, I know for sure that I would go to heaven. I'm not trusting in my church membership. I'm not trying to do the best I can. I know I can't save myself. I trusted Jesus. And that's why I know I'm going to heaven. Would you be willing to raise your hand right now as testimony? I trusted Jesus as my savior. I trusted Jesus. Thank you. You may lower your hands. No one looking around, please. How many believers would say this morning, Brother Pinto, the Lord has spoken to me as we looked into his word this morning, and he's spoken to me. Perhaps maybe to reach my neighbor, maybe a loved one, maybe somebody at work. I know of somebody that I could reach for Christ, and I need to be like Paul, taking advantage of the opportunity. And the Lord's spoken to me about that, or maybe something else. And you would say, Brother Pinto, would you pray for me? The Lord's spoken to me. Would you raise your hand and I'll pray for you? The Lord's spoken to me. There are areas in my life I know I need to keep pressing. I know it. You may lower your hands. Father, I pray that you'll help us. There have been several hands that have been raised of believers. You've spoken in their hearts. I pray that you'll help them now to take that step of obedience. I pray with heads bowed. The altar is open. Let me encourage you to come. If the Lord has spoken to you, believer, would you be willing to come say, Lord, help me with and fill in the blank? The altar is open. Why don't you come and say, Lord, and then fill in the blanks. The altar is open, and it's not a show. No one's looking. It's just for you to come and say, Lord, and pray about what the Lord has spoken to you about. Would you be willing to step out and be sensitive to the Spirit of God right now? Right now. Several of you have raised your hand, and I've prayed for you. Now, why don't you come and say, Lord, help me, and you can fill in the blanks between you and the Lord. Anyone? somebody you can witness to. Perhaps you would say, Brother Pinto, there is somebody I could witness to this week, a neighbor, a co-worker. Is there anybody like that? Would you be willing to raise your hand? I know of somebody I can witness to this week. I know there's somebody I can witness to this week. I can give him a track. All right, let me encourage you to come and pray for that individual right now. I'm not trying to pull you down. I'm just down here. I'm just saying, let's put feet to what we believe here. If we know that there's somebody that needs to hear the gospel, why don't you come and pray for them? The altar is open. Come and pray for your neighbor. Come and pray for your loved one, perhaps. Anyone like that? Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for these, your people. Thank you for your working in our hearts this morning for their faithfulness. Father, I pray to help us now. Help me now. Help us not just to be hearers of the word, but doers. Help us to plant the seed. Help us to keep pressing. Help us to be faithful. Here, help us, Father, to be that shining light in a dark world that we live in. For those hands that were raised, you know what you've spoken to them about, and I pray that you'll continue to work and help them in those areas that you know they need to press on. I pray in Jesus name. Amen. God bless you and thank you. Let me encourage you. I do have a magazine here. It's not something I put out. Brother Chapman is the director of Save New England. And I did not speak about that this morning. That's not why I came. But I do have magazines free. We put these out every quarter throughout the year. We do have a a website if you want to actually subscribe and get the magazine but basically the magazine is telling you what the Lord is doing in New England and If you'll pray for us and there's some helpful articles there as well So I have them up here up front. So you're more than welcome to take a copy. God bless you I do have prayer cards too. If you want one you can see me about that