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As the Father hath loved me.
So have I loved you.
Continue ye in my love.
Shall we thank Him our Jesus to tell?
My love.
Or how it thrills our hearts.
To hear it from thine own lips.
As the Father hath loved me.
Why I loved you.
The one that was the Good Shepherd that laid down his life.
For his sheep.
Lord, we thank you that thou has given us this food.
From thyself these days.
That food that doesn't perish.
That's food that we feed on Christ in glory.
So we thank you, Lord, for these precious things that we've been hearing.
And we pray that thy spirit were to have that liberty to lead us on.
These things that we would rejoice about in praise and Thanksgiving to Thee, so when asked thy blessing and our on the word this afternoon, and look to the right direction and gardens.
That is made be made real and simple to our hearts. We pray and give thee thanks and praise and thy worthy name, Lord Jesus. Amen. Amen.
Well, I would have, I would. You should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places. And many of the brethren and the Lord, waxing confident by my bond, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed, preach Christ even of envy and strife, and some also of goodwill.
The one preached Christ of contention, not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds, but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. What then outwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I there and do rejoice, Yeah, 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.
00:05:06
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 to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor. Yet what I shall choose I want not, for I am in a straight betwixt, 2 having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better.
Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.
And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all. We are further.
And joy of faith that your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me.
By my coming to you again, only let your conversation be, as it becometh the gospel of Christ, That whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs. That you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, and in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation and that of God.
For unto you it is given on the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him.
But also to suffer for his sake, having the same conflict which he saw in me.
And now here to be in me.
The Apostle Paul could say, be followers.
Of me as I also am a Christ, This verse, brethren brings to mind.
An incident that happened to one of our brethren many years ago.
Fell out just like it says in this verse. The things that have happened unto me have fallen out rather onto the furtherance of the gospel, and I think it might be appropriate if I just mentioned the incident. It was with our brother Eric Smith when he came from New Zealand to South America to preach the gospel in that land, and as he got on the train to go up high into the mountains of Bolivia, he was.
The interest of one of the passengers sitting near him.
Asked him, where are you going when you get up there? He said, well, I'm going to tell those people of the wonderful love of God. And so the man said that, that's interesting. Will you tell me about it? And so Brother Smith talked to this man and explained to him something of the gospel, of the grace of God. And this man seemed to show rather strong interest. He said, you know, I would like to talk to you again when you get settled in wherever you're going to stay. Well, the brother get up there. And he settled in this room.
And he told this man somehow.
I don't know whether the man that was there at the beginning, but he let him know where he was sitting at this rooming house.
And so a few days later the brother went down to the town square and started preaching the gospel. And the right away came the warning from some of those people that are anti gospel in that land. They have it all sewed up so to speak against the gospel. And they told him you're not allowed to preach the gospel in this city, he said.
Well, we have freedom of speech in this country, don't we? According to the Constitution, they said, well, you just don't preach the gospel. That was more or less the picture. And so he went out again and preached the gospel. And that night four men came to the apartment where he was staying, to the room where he stayed and took him and put him in the dungeon.
And what happened? A day or two later, this man that came, that he met on the train came to the house and he said, where's Smith? And the woman? With trembling voice said he's in the dungeon. They took him away.
So this man went down to the dungeon and he said to the gatekeeper, You have a man in here, but the name of Smith? Yes, Your Excellency, I want him out immediately.
And so Brother Smith had been in the jail 3-3 days preaching the gospel to the prisoners.
This man happened to be one of the generals in the Army with all kinds of authority, and he told the jailer, he said that if they ever put him in here again, he said, let me know, he said, And I'll take care of everyone who's putting him in something along that center. So three or four days later, the brother Smith was back preaching the gospel on the street unhindered this time. And then he went to the house and there at the house and knocked him in the door where he was staying.
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And there was a jailer from the prison, he said. Please, Sir, would you come back down to the prison?
And tell those men in the prison what you told them when you were in there. I never had it so good. They were all very quiet and obedient. I haven't had a bit of trouble. And I asked them how come things were so good. Oh, that man had that wonderful message about Jesus. And this verse reminds me of the story. I just say that, brother, never be ashamed to stand for Christ, no matter where you ask, Where you ask. There are some brethren among us today here that have been imprisoned for the gospel.
I should say the word arrested, but the Lord always made it fall out, I believe, for what the furtherance of the gospel. I just mentioned that to your encouragement, because these are days when we have the approach to tell it out, and we have the Lord to help us.
Some years ago, a young man was crossing the border between Argentina and Bolivia, or the other way around, Bolivia to Argentina.
And someone offered him $9000. I believe it was if he would carry a package across.
And of course, you know what that was.
And he knew what it was, but he did it anyway.
And he was arrested in the process of crossing the border.
He was put in the.
Prison in Salta, Argentina.
That's not surprising.
But what happened afterwards was.
A dear brother.
And the.
That's known to us down there. In fact, he's in Fellowship himself and now.
Was he was in his house and the police came to the door, knocked at the door.
Told him that he.
Had to come with them. Never explained why this took him and put him in the same prison with this young man.
Well, he tried to find out why he was there.
I think he was with a group of brethren not gathered with us, called them up.
They said, well we have a work for the Lord, but we don't have a prison ministry, so.
We're not going to come and see you.
Then he called the Baptist minister and the Baptist minister said if I go there, my ministry will be ruined.
But, he said, why don't you try Chavez, Avelino, Chavez.
And some of you may have known Abelino Chavez. He's with the Lord now.
Serve the Lord in Bolivia good many years in Argentina.
Ralph Chavez was afraid. He had never gone into a prison before, but he felt the Lord was calling him and he went in and.
Meanwhile, this young man had come to know the Lord, the one who had smuggled drugs.
And Avelina was able to give him further knowledge of the scriptures.
Dear brother Jose Alarcon, who was the man arrested without explanation, kept saying why am I here? Why am I here? Monday came around and they released him also without explanation and he said Davolino, I don't know if I ought to go home without getting an explanation. Avelino pointed to the other man and he says that's your reason, that's the reason. Can't you accept that?
Well, that brother.
Now a much older brother.
Now is a active evangelist in the Assembly in San Miguel de Tucuman in Argentina.
A very earnest evangelist Brother America, and I've often thought of that. Dear brother Alarcon, wondering why he was taken into.
Into prison. But the reason was this other young man.
Now it turned out that he did get an explanation. A lot of people wondered, well, why? Why was he in there?
He had been accused and denounced for having stolen a tractor.
And so he was put in.
His boss had accused him of stealing a tractor. After the whole thing got sorted out and the excitement, the story came out that he had gone to his boss's house to demand his pay. His boss had not paid him for quite some time.
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The boss refused. He picked up a toy tractor off the coffee table and put it under his arm. He says when I get my check, you'll get your tractor.
And I don't think that was right. Now I'm not defending that. But when the police found out that it was a toy tractor, of course they let him go right away.
The Lord allowed that to happen for the furtherance of the gospel. I suppose we could go on all afternoon talking about things like that. But that story has always encouraged me because I've only know himself told me the story, and he pointed it out at America a couple of times. He said that is the reason why.
Brother Jose Alarcon had to go to the prison unjustly.
The first story illustrated verse 12. The second verse 13. It was for Christ that he was sent there not as a manufacturer, but for Christ.
Most of you know the story about my son-in-law, our son-in-law, and his Gilbert and his ordeal recently. And I do know that these verses from 12 to 20 were tremendous encouragement to him when he was sitting there wondering why.
All this happened after he was trying to walk with the Lord and and.
Wondering, why did the Lord allow this? But then he realized that there was an opening. There were many people he could reach that I couldn't. People who wouldn't come to our meetings in the jail, that he could one by one speak to them. And so he took encouragement from that.
The Lord was with them, weren't wasn't he? I was thinking of reverse over in in Genesis chapter 39 concerning Joseph. Very interesting.
Verse one and Joseph was brought down to Egypt and.
Modifier and an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard of Egypt, an Egyptian, brought him of the hands of the Ishmaelites, which had brought him down thither. And the Lord was with Joseph. I like that expression. The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man. He was in the House of his master, the Egyptian, and his master saw that the Lord was with him.
Interesting, isn't it? To see that the.
Results of what God puts in others are able to see this, and I think of it in connection with our chapter here.
It says so that my bonds in Christ.
Are manifest in all a palace, as they were with Joseph too.
And in all other places.
You know in connection with Joseph.
He never was cleared of that charge against him when he was put into prison.
And.
It may be that there may be cases like that where you have to bear something unjustly, but still the Lord will manifest all this thing in that coming day, and will have His approval or not in the matter.
So we have similar instances in the scripture that.
We won't see really what.
The purpose was I was thinking of Uriah, the Hittite.
And nab off with his vineyard.
So that the secret things belong to the Lord our God.
But the things that are revealed belong unto us and to our children. We can enjoy those things and leave the secret things with the Lord.
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I think the 14th verse is so significant because it says that many of the brethren and the Lord waxing confident by my bonds.
Are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
And so how wonderful it is that we hear of a case may be far away, even in our time in present years. And what does it make? Does it make us afraid or does it embolden us? And I think faith always likes to have that confidence from the word of God. That would encourage me to be bold. You think of all those, like you say, of those that were bold for the Lord. And what happened to them? Well, they suffered and so forth. But the Lord was exalted in it. And that's what our motive should be, that God the Lord be exalted in these things.
Not ourselves. We just are tools that the Lord can use. And sometimes I might have a tool that's not so sharp, you know, and I have to get out my grinder and my own and my sharpening stone and sharpen the tool if I use it. And I think this is something like getting sharpened, you know, we all need to get sharpened up about the gospel. And we have some of that in our reading today about about the gospel in the in the this first chapter here.
Now. And it fell. It fell out to the furtherance of the gospel. Well, may these things be real to us, brother. And I don't think you'll ever find the man that was in trouble for the gospel that wouldn't turn right around and go back, maybe, and even do it again.
A couple of weeks ago.
Brother Bill Prost and I were on a trip to the one of the far points of our visiting in Romania.
And I asked Brother Bill who we were going to visit, he says. Well, there's a Brother Moldavano that I want you to meet.
He was six years in prison during the Ceausescu regime.
For disturbing social order.
I said what did he do? He said he preached the gospel.
So we opened the door to his house, his wife opened the door and we went in.
And the dear brother, who's 75, was seated.
At a desk, Little desk, a board on his lap with his Bible open and studying the word.
And.
Bill told me that he had written 3000 hymns during that time of imprisonment.
So I asked the brother if he'd sing a hymn or two for us.
And he said I'd like to. His name is Maldiviano.
He said I'd like to sing one that I wrote under very unusual circumstances.
Said I was.
In prison with Richard Verne.
Same cell and the guard came in to humiliate us.
He told us to get under the bed and sleep under the bed during the night. He said if he saw us in the bed, he'd really make us sorry.
He said. I got under the bed and I asked the Lord to give me a saw.
While I was there.
The Lord gave him a song.
The song was wonderful, wonderful as our God.
I just. I've asked Bill to photocopy me a copy of the song. I want to learn it. It's beautiful, wonderful, wonderful is our God.
Now that's interesting because is that a circumstance with which you would normally think wonderful is our God? Here he is lying on the cold floor of the prison, and the next morning when the guard let him come out, he says, Now what do you have to say? He said. I'd like to sing you what the Lord gave me last night.
And he sang that song. Wonderful. Wonderful is our God.
I can't read Not only brought tears to my eyes, but it it gave me a wonderful understanding of how God can give courage to a man in the worst of circumstances and indeed give songs in the night.
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We have scriptural examples of that too. Don't we have the apostles that were threatened and not to preach in the name of the Lord. And and they were beaten and they left the prison. They let him go, They rejoiced. They were counted worthy to suffer for his sake. I've often thought about that rejoice, that they were counted worthy to suffer. Rejoice.
We met a woman in the prison in Bermuda and.
We weren't sure if she really was the Lords until she started to talk to another prisoner to answer a question and she said, I can't remember her exact words, something like this, but it's good for me that I'm in here in the prison because I got saved here.
In other words, she felt it was better to be in prison on your way to heaven than out on the street and on your way to hell. She didn't say it that way, but that's what it amounted to.
A young woman 10 years in prison.
I think we see the heart of the apostle here too, do we? Not in some of these verses that we're just looking at and he says.
Verse 14 And many of the brethren in the Lord waxing confident in my bonds, are much more bold to speak the Word without fear. Those in Christ spoke the Word without fear. They they realized that the apostle was in prison because of the testimony of the Lord. But there were others.
Who spoke inadvertently in another, different direction. So he says here some indeed preach Christ.
Of envy and strife.
And some also of goodwill. So we see there was always that difference there. There were those that sought to put down the apostles ministry.
But they preached. And Paul, how lovely to think, he says.
Support. But verse 17 But the other of love. Knowing that I am set in the defense of the gospel, what then? I think of this verse notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or whether in truth Christ is preached.
And I there endure Joyce day and will rejoice. We can rejoice when we hear around us some who preach Christ as a dear brother among us. Years ago we did a lot of visiting and he said it's nice for us to go and visit people when we think they have an interest and some that belong to the Lord. And he said, let's remember this. We know that they're not all going to be gathered to the Lord's name, but let's give them something that they haven't got.
And I thought that was a very good thought. You know, we'd go and visit these people and bring Christ before them. So the dear apostle seems to bring that thought out here, doesn't he? That whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached. He rejoiced in that. And can we not rejoice when we hear wherever we are, we hear the name of the Lord Jesus taken in an honorable way, isn't it? Rejoice your heart to hear that it does mine.
There has been so much that man has brought in in connection with the gospel.
That is certainly not according to the pattern of the bird that it may cause some, especially of our younger ones. I know it was a good help to me to get this light for my own soul.
And there is real blessing.
In these methods and other activities connected with the gospel, that is not according to the scripture, but yet the message goes out.
Well, here is the thought God is sovereign, and he blesses His word.
The program.
The various techniques and so forth used.
God isn't blessing that He's blessing His word. He can bring blessing in the midst of those circumstances. Even though man has added that with so dishonours the name, the very name they're proclaiming that God is faithful. He blesses His word and sold her blasphemy. My heart is in communion with His heart. I'm rejoicing when sold her blessed because God is a source of all blessings.
As far as a servant is concerned, it's a question of reward, isn't it? A man is not crowned except he strive lawfully. So we have to be careful not to try to use some means that would be contrary to scripture just because somebody else used it and found a lot of blessing.