#005 Prosperity Philippians 1: We've got Airmail from God, with today's reading from the letter to the Philippians. Here's your host, Ted Gray.

Transcription

1 #005 Prosperity Philippians 1:12-14 We've got Airmail from God, with today's reading from the letter to the Philippians. Here's your host, Ted Gray. Well, thank you. I don't deserve any special attention, but God's Word deserves special attention. And there's one more truth we need to read out of Philippians 1: 11, as we continue the reading, and discovery of Principles from our mail. Philippians 1:11, Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. They are, it says, since Jesus Christ is producing these fruits, our good works, they are to the glory of God. Someone says, Yeah, but our righteousness are like filthy rags aren't they? No, don't let anyone defraud you of your prize. That's taking Scripture out of context again. That's not talking about our practical righteousness, or our good works, but it's talking about the Jewish nation's religious Will-worship while they were in apostasy. Our obedience is not legalism, or striving in the flesh, but it is always acceptable to God. I hope somebody is encouraged to get involved in fruit-bearing today, because there's lots of fruit needed for the glory of God and for the benefits of churches, hospitals, rest-homes, jails, lighthouse missions, streets, homeless shelters, or Aids shelters. One thing more sure than death and taxes is that we will appear before the judgment seat of Christ, and our fruit of righteousness will be praised and rewarded by Jesus Christ. I'm banking on it. Of course, it needs to be the fruit of the Spirit. There are some deeds that look very righteous, but they could just as easily be the fruit of the flesh, or pride, or self-righteousness. It has to be, The life which I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God. Then we return to verse 12 and 13, But I want you to know brethren, that all things which happened to me, have actually turned out for the furtherance of the Gospel. 13 So that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ. It shows how God can work. What looks like a disaster to us, God can turn it into an advantage. The great Apostle is in prison, but guess who's getting saved? Some of Caesar's bodyguards. The praetorian guard was 10,000 to 16,000 soldiers I read. The Gospel was spreading at the palace, and other places, because Paul was there as a captive, but his mouth was not captive. This brings up the subject of spreading the Gospel. 1

2 How do we like to spread the Gospel? Well, we like to hand him a tract, or talk to the sinner once, and have him eat it up as if he was just waiting for someone to tell him that he needs to change his way of life. One man handed another man a tract on the street and the man said, What is that you're giving me? The other man said, It's a Bible tract. But the man on the street said, I don't know how to read but that's okay, I'll watch your tract. I'll be reading your walk. Ah, ha... But how does God like to spread the Gospel? Well By preaching to unbelievers. How can they hear, unless someone preach? So handing him a tract is a form of preaching. But then By Christians loving each other. As He said, By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another. 3. By Bible teaching, and if unbelievers are listening in, it says, But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever, or an uninformed person come in, he is convinced by all, he is convicted by all, and thus the secrets of his heart are revealed, and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and will report that God is truly among you. I hope someone is getting saved by hearing this today. 4. God likes to spread the Gospel through persecution of Christians. As it says, But if ye suffer for righteousness sake, happy are you, and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled, but sanctified the Lord God in your heart, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. 5. Women winning their husbands without a word. 1 Peter 3:1-6. So persecution and dispersion spread the Gospel faster than anything. God is into confounding the wise. Paul is in prison because he turned good. Jesus said, They hated me, they will hate you too. Persecution is a New Testament blessing. Philippians 1:29. And that is what the power of the Holy Ghost is for, That ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me. Ye shall be martyrs unto me. But here comes the prosperity Gospel. Somehow it just doesn't square up with the New Testament, but God also gives all good things to enjoy in the New Testament. No doubt about that. In our theology, we really have to allow for the possibility of peace and prosperity in any land, and for the possibility of persecution, and poverty for Christians. The so-called prosperity doctrine- is it really infallibly true that good Christians should have no lack of anything? That God's kids should have the best, 2

3 and have no junk? But persecution is a New Testament blessing, which is exactly the opposite of Old Testament blessings. We need to read Deuteronomy 28. The whole chapter. There we can see that poverty and adversity was a curse for disobedience on the Jews. That's because the Old Testament is totally into prosperity for obedience. But Paul is a prisoner for being good. Eleven out of twelve disciples were martyred for being good. Thousands of Christians were killed and tortured for being good during the first centuries, and many thousands of Christians were killed during the Spanish Inquisition for being good. Where is God's promise that I often hear quoted? I have been young, and now I'm old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. (Out of Psalm 37.) Just begging bread and being forsaken would be easy compared to what Christians had to, and are today, suffering for being good in many places. Paul said, I learned the secret of going hungry, and suffering need. Either God has let a lot of people down, or He never promised an infallible prosperity to Christians. We have to separate Old-Covenant doctrine from New-Covenant doctrine. In the Old-Covenant, God drew a line in the sand in front of the Jewish peoples' bodies, saying, I will win your wars, I will bless your kneading bowl, your kids, your cattle, your grass, your crop, and everything, if you obey me. But for the New-Covenant, God drew a line in the sand behind our bodies, saying, Don't be afraid of those who can kill this body, and then can do no more. The idea is, don't be afraid those who can only kill this body. That's all they can do. And we're not suppose to love this life anyway. Jesus said to the multitude, If anyone comes to me, and does not hate his father, and mother, wife and children, brothers, and sisters, yes, even his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. That's why we call this New Testament our mail, which is written to us, while the Old Testament is written for our instructions. There's a huge difference. For sure, God's promise to us is that All things work together for good. It's because we are making it to heaven. That's when all the facts will be in. Why did some Christians have it so hard? Another promise is that, If you suffer for righteousness, happy you are, blessed and well off are you. We have to get away from this concept that suffering poor Christians are somehow not Spiritual like we are, we who have money in the bank. It may in fact be the other way around. Namely, that those Christians who are undergoing a lot of hardship in this life may be the Spiritual giants whom the Lord is preparing for great roles in 3

4 heaven. And those of us who have it easy all of our lives, we may in fact be Spiritual babies who would collapse if our faith got tested. There was this lion tamer in the circus. He made those lions jump through fiery hoops and walk around, sit on stools, and he was bossing them around with his whip. But some of those lions up front were growling at him and striking his whip with their paws. Someone later asked him, Those lions up front that growled at you, they are really dangerous aren't they? And he said, No, it's just the other way around. Those lions who sit in the back and do almost nothing, they are dangerous. I can't do much with them yet, that's why they are in the back. But these up front that growl and strike at me, they're just harmless cats. Our perception of things can be backward. God chose the poor to be rich in faith and those of us who have it easy, maybe just babies. Or worse, whom He loves, He chastises. And He says, Those whom He does not chastise, they are illegitimate sons, imposters in the church. There is one thing I can't wait to see in heaven and that is, what did God prepare my mother for? I can't think of another person who was denied so much, and had to suffer so much while she was living such a holy, obedient life. It looks like God is working against Himself when He lets His people suffer, but God says He's doing it for us. All things do work together for good to them who love God. But that's only for the redeemed. We shouldn't be looking for silver lining in every cloud for this life because there isn't one. The reason why all things work together for good is because we are the called according to His purpose. It's because we are making it to heaven. That's where it will pay off. That's where the benefits will be. Then Paul continues to write, 14 And most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the Word without fear. What is there to be afraid of? Why does he say they speak it without fear now? Well, there's the fear of men, or the fear of human beings, and then there's demonic opposition to the speaking of God's truth or the Gospel. The spirit of fear is mentioned. If we have any doubt, we can try this right after this broadcast. We can pick out the first person we run into, and ask him or her, Do you believe that Jesus is God, who came in a human body? And before we get to it, we will experience demonic opposition, and propaganda like this, Well, you can't do that, that's to direct, it's not polite, it may embarrass them or you. But the solution to the fear is boldness. Paul asked for prayers so that he would be more bold. You can pray for me, I need more boldness. Bold is to be courageous and to dare. Courage 4

5 means facing danger or pain for myself. Boldness has to do with what we say, and how we live. In times of persecution, what we say directly effects what will happen to us. Speaking of real bold living, what happens when a 19 year old boy leaves home and heads into the jungles to evangelize a murderous tribe of South American Indians? Well, in this book called Bruchko by Bruce Olson, he will tell us how for him it meant captured, disease, terror, loneliness, and torture. But what he discovered by trial and error has revolutionized the world of missions. And this is called Bruchko from Charisma house, by Bruce Olson. But the world has their own way of speaking and living boldly: They curse, and blaspheme the God of heaven. They use foul language defiling themselves. They are recklessly sinning with wine, women, song and drugs. They are living on the fast track as they call it. They get to the end of their lives faster. They have no fear of God. For some of them, there is only the exciting and the boring. Some even do flat-lining, which is to stop their heart with drugs, and then be brought back from apparent death just to see what's on the other side. Just to see what's beyond this life. Now that's bold living in the wrong way. But back to the right kind of boldness. We should speak and live boldly for God. What we boldly say should be good, true, and necessary. Actually we should not say anything that is not good, true, or necessary, because We will have to give an account for every useless word, (Matthew 12:36). But when we say what is good, true, and necessary at the risk of personal loss and injury, that is boldnessnot to be confused with recklessness, rudeness, callousness, arrogance, or pride. Relating the Gospel to unbelievers requires boldness because their valued opinion of us goes right through the floor, except for those guys in the next few verses. They had bad motives and in that case, demonic opposition turns into demonic temptation. Just as cursing in Jesus name, is easy. I hope someone comes alive today by calling on the name of the Lord, and that will be the boldest thing you ever done. I remember my day, but right here our fourteen minutes are up, this is message #005. Grace and peace to every soul, and remember our fruits of righteousness is as this song goes, Glory to His Name. 5

6 Amen. 6