Now may we read together from Paul's letter
to the Philippians, and the first chapter, and
we will commence reading at verse twelve.
Philippians one, twelve.
After some thought and prayer I have decided
not to give a series on fellowship as
I had previously thought, but on some of
the main themes of the present epistles, which
I trust you will not only find interesting,
but very helpful.
May the Lord bless our study together.
And tonight I will just give an introduction,
a general introduction to the idea.
Now Philippians chapter one, and verse twelve.
But 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 in the Lord,
waxing confident by my bonds, are much more
bold to speak the word without fear.
Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and
strife, some also of goodwill.
The one preached Christ of contention, not sincerely
supposing to add affliction to my bonds.
The other of love, knowing that I am
set for the defence of the gospel.
What then?
Notwithstanding in 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 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 to me to live is Christ, and
to die is gain.
May the Lord bless to us the reading
from his precious word.
I have to adjust my spectacle so that
I can see you all.
And as you know, I like to look
at you, every one of you, and see
how you're getting on during the course of
the message, see whether it's registering in your
mind, and whether I am getting the intellectual
response.
It means to say you mustn't go to
sleep, amongst other things.
You know, some preachers look at the ceiling,
I haven't got into that habit yet.
Others look through the window while they're preaching.
One brother was preaching away, looking at the
ceiling all the time, and after about thirty
-five minutes, when he looked down, everybody had
gone, except the man on the platform with
him.
So he turned to him and said, where's
everybody gone?
He said, they've all gone.
He said, why haven't you gone?
He said, I'm the next preacher.
So I'm going to keep my eye on
you tonight.
You've been doing very well with the beautiful
American food today, they tell me, and so
have I.
So we'll try to encourage one another to
keep alert, and receive all that the Lord
has for us through this introductory message this
evening.
Now these letters, the prison epistles as they
are called, four in number, have come down
to us, been preserved for us by God,
and they are here in the Scriptures of
Truth, and they're given to us as the
Word of God.
And we shall mention a little bit more
about that idea as we go along, I
expect.
The Apostle Paul wrote these letters while he
was in prison in Rome.
And it was a very good thing, for
more reasons than one, that the Apostle Paul
went to prison in Rome.
Now whenever you are in the will of
God, there's always a lot of blessing as
a result of it.
And he went to prison in Rome in
the will of God.
There was a lot of blessing through it.
Now even if you have to suffer if
you're in the will of God, it will
be all right in the end.
For God's will is perfect, and God's will
always ends well.
There was a certain man in the south
of England, only a very few years ago,
who was a racehorse owner and a director
in a brewery firm, and some other firms
as well.
He had some very good stables near his
home.
And one day he was taking a walk
in a country lane, just a mile or
two from his home.
And he was not a religious man, and
never went to church or had never been
to Sunday school.
But as he was walking along he suddenly
heard very plainly this, He that doeth the
will of God abideth forever.
He looked around, couldn't see anybody, went on
walking, thought he was dreaming.
Then again after another hundred or two yards
he heard it very plainly, He that doeth
the will of God abideth forever.
He looked around, still no one around.
So he thought, now this is strange, I'm
not a religious man.
And the text was so clear in his
ear, and in his heart too, he returned
home immediately.
It took him quite a while to find
the Bible, and it took him a long
time to find that text, but he found
it.
In John's epistle, He that doeth the will
of God abideth forever.
But not only did he find the text,
he found the Christ.
And in finding the Lord Jesus Christ as
his own personal saviour, he found himself in
the centre of the will of God.
For the Lord Jesus said, I am the
way, no man cometh unto the Father but
by me.
So he sold his horses, and he gave
up his share in the brewery farm, and
he led his wife to Christ, a society
woman, and they bought a caravan as we
call them, a trailer, hitched on the back
of his car, and they went around the
south of England preaching in the villages and
giving their testimony of faith in Christ.
And how glad they were to be now
in the will of God, in Christ, trusting
him and seeking to serve him.
Tremendous blessing is in the will of God,
even although it may mean prison in Rome,
or wherever you wish to think of.
As a matter of fact, Madame Guyon was
in prison in France for Christ's sake, for
her testimony as a Christian.
And she was rejoicing, not in the dirty
dungeon where she was, but in the will
of God in which she was resting amidst
her trial.
And she put it this way, within this
place of certain good, love evermore expands her
wings, and nestling neath thy perfect choice abides
content with what it brings.
No silken couch or softest bed could ever
give me such sweet rest.
Thy wonderful grand will, my God, with triumph
now I make it mine, and faith shall
cry a joyous yes to every dear command
of thine.
And God's commands are not greedless, his will
is not hard, that means.
I know some preachers will say that to
be a Christian is the most difficult thing
on earth, it has many great trials and
tribulations and worries and testings, the hardest life
of all.
And yet the Lord Jesus said exactly the
opposite.
And I believe what the Lord Jesus says,
and not what some of our preachers say.
The Lord Jesus said my oath is easy,
my burden is light, and you shall find
rest for your souls.
Easy, light, rest.
Three wonderful words from the heart of the
Saviour to your heart and mine.
Not that we shall escape testing as we
trust Christ and do his will, but even
in the testing, while the storm is on,
we shall rest in him, our never failing
pilot, and find that his strength is made
perfect in our weakness, and his presence real
in the time of testing.
Now the Lord made his plan very clear
and plain for the children of Israel in
chapter 3 of Exodus.
He says my will for you is that
you should go into the wilderness three days
journey and there worship the Lord your God.
And in chapter 15 of Exodus they are
there in God's will.
In the line of Israel, exactly where he
said they should come to, they were in
the wilderness of Sheol three days journey.
And they found, what would you think they
would find in the will of God?
Every blessing.
And it says, and they found no water
to drink.
And they cried to Moses, and Moses cried
to the Lord.
And they were there in the line of
God's will and immediately there was a testing
time for them.
And they came unto Marah, and the waters
at Marah were bitter and they couldn't drink
of the waters of Marah.
For Marah means bitterness.
You see God knew what he was doing,
leading them in his will like this, to
this place.
They had forty long years before them.
They didn't know, he knew.
Forty years before them in the wilderness with
no one to provide victuals for the way
for them save the Lord God himself.
So right at the beginning of the journey
he brought them to the place where there
was nothing so that they might prove his
power to provide and learn more of their
Almighty God.
Similarly the Lord Jesus said to his disciples,
once I want you to go across the
sea to Bethsaida in Galilee.
This is in Mark chapter six.
He says, my will for you is Bethsaida
in Galilee.
And they launched forth and they were bending
to the oars and they tried to do
his will.
And as a matter of fact they got
into a storm and he knew there was
going to be a storm.
He was the omniscient son of God.
He knew everything and he sent them into
the storm.
He does that, you know, in his perfect
will sometimes.
Why?
He condemns us to save us.
He defeats us to deliver us.
He binds us to set us free.
His ways are above our ways.
His thoughts above our thoughts.
He does his ways for us the divine
way.
So he sent them into the sea, into
the storm so that they might learn they
needed him in every circumstance and vicissitude of
their earthly life.
Now I hope that we shall come to
the definite conclusion tonight that to do the
will of God is best for us.
To be in the centre of the will
of God is the proper thing for us.
We were made to glorify him, to walk
in the line of his perfect will.
And as I said this morning, if I
can repeat myself, the blessings of God run
deep in the channel of his will.
Because you see the children of Israel, they
not only came to Mara where the waters
were bitter, but the next stage brought them
into blessedness.
They came to Elim, 12 wells of water,
70 palm trees.
They encamped by the waters, beneath the shade
of the trees, perfect shade, perfect rest, perfect
supply, perfect satisfaction.
Why was everything perfect?
Because they were in the perfect will of
God.
It doesn't mean to say if you are
determined to do his will exclusively that you
will escape testing.
But it does mean that in the testing
he will be real to you and make
himself known to you as the Lord Jesus
did to the disciples on the sea during
the storm.
And he will see you through to your
desired haven and bless you abundantly.
For that is the place of the blessing.
And the Apostle Paul found himself in prison
in Rome and for him it was God's
place.
It was the place of blessing.
As a matter of fact, God told him
to go there and he said, Amen Lord,
yes, right, I will, by your grace, with
your help I'll do what you say, I'll
go to Rome.
And so you can expect, if he's in
Rome, even in prison, in the will of
God, you could expect some blessing.
We just want, by way of introduction, speak
of some of these blessings this evening.
Thy wonderful grand will, my God, said Madame
Guillaume, and we say, sweet will of God,
be thou my portion, self-lost in thee,
my heart shall rejoice, if in the valley
or on the mountain, sweet will of God,
my choice.
And God said to Paul, my will for
you is Rome.
Next.
Now the circumstances in which God said that
were very interesting.
This was one of Paul's visions in the
night when the Lord revealed himself and his
comfort and his will to his servant at
a time he needed it.
And you know, this was the rule of
Paul's life.
I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.
The first vision that Paul had was on
the way to Damascus as Saul of Tarsus,
the arrogant, unregenerate, idealist Saul of Tarsus, when
the Lord Jesus met him, the risen Christ
met him.
And this was the beginning of all the
blessing, in and through his life, he had
a personal experience of the risen Christ.
Now every life of blessing will start just
here.
I want to appeal to you tonight to
make quite sure that you've met the risen
Christ.
It's not enough to give a mental ascent
to the teachings of Jesus.
You must meet the risen Christ.
It's not enough to try to follow the
example of the Lord Jesus.
You must have a personal experience of acquaintance
with the living, the risen Christ, who died
for you to take away your sins, who
died for you on the cross of Calvary.
You must get to know Him, whom to
know is life eternal.
For the moment you come face to face
with Christ, the risen Christ who died for
you, own Him as your Lord and your
own personal Saviour, then the Holy Spirit will
do a wonderful thing in your life.
He will make you anew.
If any man is in Christ, he's a
new creation.
Old things have passed away, and behold, all
things are become new.
And Saul of Tarsus said, who is it,
Lord?
He said, I am Jesus.
The words came so sweetly amidst the light,
the dazzling light from the glory of heaven.
I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.
It is hard for thee to kick against
the Lord.
Who is it, Lord?
I am Jesus.
Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
He owned Jesus as Lord, and immediately he
submitted to his will.
He said, henceforth, Lord, it is your will
for my life entirely.
And God took him at his word and
said, well, now you go into the city
and it's going to be told you what
you must do.
And always from thereafter, so I understand, Paul
was able to say, I was not disobedient
to the heavenly vision.
I know our dear departed brother, Dr. de
Haan, makes quite a lot about the mistake
the Apostle Paul made in going to Jerusalem,
and I know it's a very debatable point,
and I don't think we will debate it
tonight.
Perhaps we can occupy our time in a
better way.
But it's very interesting, and it has some
very, very good arguments.
But even if the Apostle Paul did make
a mistake in going to Jerusalem, when so
many tried to stop him from going there,
when he was in Jerusalem, he was determined
that no mistake would be made in his
life from then onwards if he did make
a mistake before, which is doubtful, because he
was determined, whatever the cost, to go to
Rome and do the will of God and
preach the word in Rome.
And so, on this particular occasion, he was
a prisoner in Jerusalem, and he'd had a
very bad time.
This was the second day of his imprisonment,
and he was making his defence before the
people.
And, as by a stroke of genius, I
suppose, or whatever it was, I don't know
what he would call it, he spoke publicly
about the resurrection of the dead.
Now, this split his audience in two, because
the Sadducees didn't believe in the resurrection, and
the Pharisees did, and they were against one
another, but together they were against Paul.
And they almost split him in two.
They almost lynched him.
Some pulled one way, and some pulled the
other.
And it was a mercy that the soldiers
came out of the castle, and they pulled
him into the castle, and just rescued him
in time, and saved his life.
And after a dreadful experience like that, well,
you would expect the servant of the Lord,
who was testifying to the Lord and his
word and truth, to get some comfort from
the Lord.
And he did that night.
The Lord appeared unto him and said, Fear
not, Paul.
And that was enough for his comfort.
But he went on to give him some
counsel, and he said, Fear not, Paul.
As thou hast testified for me here in
Jerusalem, so thou must testify in Rome.
Now, you may think there was no point
in God giving him counsel and guidance, telling
him what to do, because he was a
prisoner now, and had to go where others
took him, or sent him, and do what
others told him to do.
But no, God in his wisdom gave him
counsel and said, Rome next, Paul.
And here he was in Jerusalem, quite a
long way away.
So Paul made a mental note of it.
And before very long, do you know what
he did?
He had the audacity, if that's the right
word, I'm quite sure it isn't, to ask
his captors, his judges, for a free ticket
to Rome.
Do you want a ticket to Rome, please?
Did you ever read that in the scriptures?
It's there as plain as a pie star.
I know you've never read it, because it's
not in that terminology.
But he says, Will you please give me
a free ticket to Rome?
Because God told me to go to Rome
next.
This is how he put it.
He was speaking before his judges, and giving
his testimony, and so on.
And then towards the end, he said, Now
I appeal unto Caesar.
And Caesar was in Rome.
And they said, To Caesar thou shalt go.
Now this was the only way in the
wide, wide world, open to him, to get
to Rome, to appeal to Caesar.
And they two put their heads together and
said, Isn't this man Paul a fool?
If he hadn't wanted to appeal to Caesar,
we should have given him his liberty.
But he didn't want liberty.
God said to Rome, so he said, Rome,
please, give me a ticket to Rome, please.
And they, after a little while, put him
on a ship to go to Rome.
He was determined to do the will of
God.
As thou hast testified in Jerusalem, so thou
must also testify in Rome.
So after a little while at Caesarea, in
a prison there, he got in a boat,
he got on a boat, or in a
boat, or on a boat, probably in a
boat, and he went across the sea.
And while he was going across the sea
toward Rome, lo and behold, that terrific storm,
I think it's the same one as we
had yesterday here, came, or it was a
bit worse.
That was called Euroclidon.
And it was a terrible storm.
And you know, eventually, after several days, they
all gave up hope of being saved.
It says, All hope that we should be
saved was then taken away.
Everybody expected the boat to go down.
And when they got to that point, Paul
started thinking.
Now, he said, Didn't God tell me to
testify in Rome next?
Yes.
And didn't I ask for a ticket to
Rome?
Yes.
And I'm in his will on the way
to Rome?
Must be.
And yet everybody tells me the boat is
going down.
Now, I don't know what's wrong, but there's
something wrong somewhere.
So, he said, I'll go and have a
quiet time about it, like you do when
you're puzzled about things.
When you wonder that you're in the will
of God or not.
He went down below and had a quiet
time.
I expect he was already chained down below
anyway.
But he had a time with the Lord.
Marvellous, you can have a time with the
Lord even if you're chained, or let loose,
or wherever you are, on the sea, or
the land, in the storm, or down by
the side of the lake.
You can always have a time with the
Lord.
And the Lord appeared to him.
And the Lord said to him again, Fear
not, Paul.
You'll get to Rome, all right.
The boat is going down, but you won't
go down, neither will anybody else on board.
But the boat will be lost.
So, he got upstairs, he came up to
see the man.
He said, Sirs, be of good cheer.
Be of good cheer.
And they all knew the boat was going
down.
They would pick up the anchor or something
and throw it at him.
Be of good cheer.
He said, Be of good cheer, for I
believe, God, that it shall be as it
was told me, as it was told me
in Jerusalem.
It shall be.
I shall get to Rome.
God told me to go to Rome.
It shall be as it was told me.
Wherefore, sirs, get something to eat, take a
meal and enjoy yourselves.
And so it was, the boat went down.
But some of the men on board, some
on broken pieces of the ship and some
swimming, they all got to Malta safely and
none were lost according to the word of
the Lord.
And according to the will of the Lord,
Paul, before long, got to Italy and went
towards Rome, escorted as a prisoner in the
will of God.
The brethren at Rome heard that he was
coming and so they sent out a double
deputation to meet the famous apostle to the
Gentiles, the once arrogant Saul of Tarsus.
The older brethren couldn't walk very far, you
know, the type like me.
And they met him at the Appii Forum.
But the younger brethren who could walk further,
they met him at the three taverns.
I don't think they went inside, they just
waited there for him to come.
And this double deputation of brethren from Rome
brought him into the city with rejoicing.
Now he had his own hired room.
I think the word there is room rather
than house.
I mean to say it suggested he had
a room.
He wouldn't have a house of his own
as a prisoner.
And he had his own hired room and
he was able to see his Christian friends
and the brethren from Rome from time to
time.
And it was from this prison in Rome
that the apostle Paul rejoiced in the fact
that he knew he was in the will
of God.
We were reading this tonight.
Brethren, I want you to understand that the
things that have happened unto me, this imprisonment
in Rome, have turned out rather unto the
furtherance of the gospel.
There's always a lot of blessing if we
are found in the will of the Lord.
Now for one thing the apostle Paul proved
God's faithfulness himself in a new way while
he was in prison in Rome.
You see it was all right for him
going around with Aristarchus and others, with the
gospel team, preaching the word from city to
city, getting converts, receiving their hospitality, and receiving
expenses from time to time, other times working
hard himself to provide for the needs of
needed brethren that he was working with.
And very often of course he ministered to
them in spiritual things, they ministered to him
in temporal, not carnal please, but in temporal
things.
And that was all right.
I suppose it's fairly easy in some of
our countries today to do that sort of
thing still and live by faith and serve
the Lord.
But when the war comes and all your
meetings finish, then you can prove the Lord
in a new way.
And when you get locked up in prison
like Paul was, then you can prove the
Lord in a new way.
And these experiences are essential for God's servants.
But you see while he was there in
prison, the Christians at Philippi, who had been
very, very faithful in having fellowship with him
in a practical way through the years, ever
since he'd led them to Christ, when he
first went to Philippi and answered to the
Macedonian call, by the way that was another
vision of his, and he was able to
say again then when he got to that
city in Lydia's home, O Lord by thy
grace I was not disobedient to the heavenly
vision.
These Christians at Philippi now heard that he
was in prison in Rome, and they took
up a special love offering, as you call
it in America, for the beloved brother in
Rome, and sent it to him by the
hand of a noble young fellow called Epaphroditus.
Now we'll talk more about this later on
in the week, if ever we get that
far, I'm sure we shall if we struggle
on, how Epaphroditus came with this gift, and
we'll talk about this more when we are
talking about the letter to the Philippian Christians
when he thanks them for this love gift,
this love offering.
So the Apostle Paul was thanking the Lord
for that blessing, I'm sure, that he proved
that God was faithful.
You read more about that in the fourth
chapter of the letter to the Philippians.
I can do all things, he says, through
Christ that strengthens me.
I am master of every situation through Christ
who makes me strong, is one translation.
And he said, I know how to abound,
and I know how to suffer need.
I am master of every situation.
One situation was abounding, and he knew how
to control that situation by the grace of
Christ.
And another situation was to be in need,
and to be literally in need, and he
knew how to cope with that situation too.
One of my graduates, would you believe it,
in one of the counties in England, which
is called the Evangelist graveyard, a few years
ago I met him starving to death.
He was serving the Lord, having meetings, if
you please, in the assembly, preaching around the
whole county, and for 300 meetings he'd taken
in the first 18 months, no one in
any of those meetings ministered to him with
regard to giving and receiving.
He never had a penny towards his petrol,
or gas as you'd call it, and nothing
for his expenses.
300 times he'd preached the word in that
county in England, in 18 months, and never
had a penny.
And he'd had nothing to eat for 10
days, and he was living in one of
these trailers in the very grounds of one
of our gospel halls.
So you can have an experience like that,
even in these days in which we live.
And the Apostle says, I know all about
those experiences, I am master of every situation,
I know what to do when I'm in
need, I cast myself upon God and rest
in his faithfulness.
And I know what to do when I
am abounding, and the Lord has sent me
more than I need, or I'm able to
work at my tent, and I go and
sell the stuff in the marketplace, I not
only teach the gospel while I'm there, but
I go back to the assembly and give
the money to some needy saints.
And that's what he did in some of
the cities as well.
Well, we're not talking about Philippians 4 now,
I'm going on ahead, aren't I?
We've got to talk about that when we
get to this particular epistle, and take a
panoramic view of that.
But Paul, in the will of God, in
prison, in Rome, proved God's faithfulness in a
new way.
Also, he found that a door was open
for him to preach the gospel as he
wanted it to be opened, but in a
different way from his personal request.
You see, when he was writing to the
Colossians earlier on, 12 months before, in chapter
4, he was suggesting that they prayed for
him, that he might get his release from
prison, so that he could preach the gospel
as he wanted to preach it.
He asked them that a door may be
opened for him to preach.
He meant the prison door, I'm quite sure.
But, you know, 12 months later, writing to
the Philippians, he says, God has opened the
door for me to preach the gospel without
the prison door opening.
God's answered my prayer in a way I
hadn't thought of at the time when I
was writing to the Colossian Christians.
He says, here in Caesar's court, in the
palace, there are his courtiers, his guards, are
hearing the word and getting converted.
And he sends greetings to the Christians to
whom he is writing, from these new converts
who are soldiers, or guards, or courtiers, or
even slaves.
Onesimus was one of them.
We'll be talking about him on one of
these occasions when we talk about his letter
to Philemon.
And so, a door was opened for him
to preach the gospel without the prison door
opening.
And so, the soldier to whom he was
chained, and the people who came in, and
the slaves who worked nearby, all heard the
preaching of the gospel and the exaltation of
Christ from his lips as he was there
in prison in his own hired room.
You know, Paul had a great passion to
evangelize.
He was a tremendous teacher, but never lost
the burden and desire to win men and
women for Christ.
You very often find young evangelists develop into
teachers and then lose the evangelistic zeal, which
I think is a great pity indeed.
Right at the very end, when Paul knew
that before long he was going to lose
his life, he wrote to Timothy and he
says, Timothy, whatever you do, you might be
an elder in the church, but do the
work of an evangelist.
Well, he enjoyed, thirdly, he enjoyed the fellowship
of saints and proved its value in difficult
circumstances.
That must have been a tremendous blessing to
him and a boost to his joy.
In the twenty-third verse of Philemon, we
find that Epaphras is called his fellow prisoner.
Now, Epaphras came a long way to be
with the apostle Paul and he stayed with
him of his own volition in that hired
room for a while, sharing imprisonment with the
apostle Paul.
And others, I believe, like Aristarchus, did the
same.
Now, Aristarchus is called Paul's companion in travel.
You read of him in Colossians 4 in
that respect.
He used to have a very pleasant job
carrying Paul's case or bag, weekend bag or
whatever you call it in this country, I
don't know, from place to place and having
fellowship with a great and wonderful beloved brother,
Apostle Paul.
Oh, that was a marvellous experience.
He was rejoicing with those that were rejoicing,
but now Paul was locked up in prison.
Aristarchus was there with him, fulfilling the word
of Christ and the law of Christ, bear
ye one another's burdens and so fulfil the
law of Christ.
So, he was a very balanced brother, I'm
sure, was Aristarchus.
And how the apostle Paul enjoyed his fellowship
and how he enjoyed the fellowship of Luke
who was with him at one time and
apparently stayed longer than others because writing in
2 Timothy he said, only Luke is with
me.
This was in all probability in Paul's second
imprisonment.
So, the beloved doctor was with him.
Kitchicus was there, of course he was the
amanuensis.
At Paul's dictation these prison letters were taken
down by Kitchicus.
But he was not only the shorthand typist,
I was going to say, but he was
the postman, as we say, the mailman.
I always have to think what the term
is in American language.
He was the mailman and he took the
letter that he had already taken down for
Paulino, took it along to the Christians at
Colossae and travelled there with Onesimus who also
had a letter for somebody in Colossae.
Now, another point was this, another blessing of
his imprisonment was this.
There were some bashful brethren who now began
a belated ministry now that Paul was locked
up in prison.
You see, some of the brethren having themselves
gifts from God to exercise in the local
assembly or in gospel ministry in one way
or another were not exercising or developing the
gifts that God had given to them.
You know, these gifts of Christ, we call
them the gifts of the Spirit, but they
are really gifts of Christ.
He ascended on high and he gave gifts
unto men, but they are wrought by the
Spirit, that's why they call them gifts of
the Spirit.
They are very, very important things and some
of us get old before we understand the
fact that we've been given a ministry, a
gift by God to exercise for his glory
in and from the local assembly.
Now, these bashful brethren were now beginning a
belated ministry and exercising their gifts because the
Apostle Paul was locked up in prison.
Think of that.
They wouldn't do a thing before, but now
they were getting a move on.
God has to do that sometimes, you know,
to get some brethren or sisters moving in
his holy service.
He has to take somebody away to another
district, to another state, or to prison, or
to heaven before some brethren will get moving
at all.
I think that's rather a pity because it
means to say if that is the case,
we have failed to understand that God would
have us find out what gift he has
given to us in Christ and how we
should develop that gift now and take the
liberty the Holy Spirit affords us in the
assembly to exercise our gift and to glorify
his name.
Of course, to do this we shall need
to fence off certain hours each day for
the study of God's word that we might
see the flock of God.
Over which, in some cases, the Holy Ghost
has made us oversee us.
But the thing that we are trying to
get at this evening, I know we've been
a long time getting there, but I trust
the route hasn't been too painful but a
little bit interesting to you, is this.
The fifth blessing through Paul's imprisonment in the
will of God in Rome was that while
he was there he wrote some letters.
At least four, probably five or six letters.
And four of them have come down to
us, have been preserved and here they are
in the Holy Scriptures.
He wrote them quite evidently under the inspiration
of the Spirit of God.
Just as the wind gets into the sails
of a little ship and carries it across
the lake, so the Holy Spirit got into
the Apostle Paul and controlled him as he
wrote.
And here we find the dual authorship of
Scripture plainly marked.
In his writings you see the personality of
the Apostle but you see the power of
God.
In his writings you see his own burden.
Brethren, my prayer to God for Israel is
that they might be saved.
I wish myself accursed for their faith and
so on.
And the Apostle Paul's burdens and heart desires
and passions and prayers are all there and
yet we call it the Word of God.
Indeed the Apostle Paul wrote these letters but
he wrote them under the inspiration and power
of the Holy Spirit of God, the Holy
Spirit controlling him.
Now this of course is what the fullness
of the Holy Spirit is.
Not me having more of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is a person you can't
divide him up and have a bit and
then a lot more and then a lot
more still and then overflow with an abundance
of him.
He is a person you cannot divide him
up like that but he can have more
of you.
Every believer possesses the Holy Spirit.
If any man has not the Spirit of
Christ he is none of his.
And when he possesses you completely, when every
avenue of the soul is controlled by the
one who is already in the life, then
that is the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
And the Apostle Paul was undoubtedly filled with
the Holy Ghost.
All the way through the Acts of the
Apostles.
You can make the study yourself.
You will find that when they were filled
with the Holy Ghost they were filled with
the other blessing they needed at the time.
The Holy Ghost is the Holy Spirit of
Jesus.
He is the Spirit of the Father and
the Son.
And when they were filled with him, look
it up yourself, they were filled with the
other blessing they needed at the time.
They were threatening, they were being threatened.
They said, Lord grant with all boldness thy
servants might speak thy word.
They were filled with the Holy Ghost and
with boldness.
And that man Stephen, he was filled with
the Holy Ghost and dying grace.
And earlier on there were others who were
filled with the Holy Ghost and with power.
Filled with the Holy Ghost and authority.
And they were persecuted and they were filled
with the Holy Ghost and joy.
Whatever blessing you need in any circumstance or
vicissitude of life, if you are filled with
the Holy Spirit of the Father and the
Son, you have got the blessing that you
need.
Because it is all in him.
That is why the Holy Spirit has been
given to you.
To control you and bring to you the
blessing you need at the time.
Now you need a blessing tonight.
I don't know what it is, but maybe
you don't know what it is.
But God knows what you need.
Maybe you need salvation.
Well then if you receive Christ as your
Saviour, his Spirit will indwell your heart.
You will be saved by sovereign grace.
How about that?
Maybe you need victory.
Well, the Holy Spirit will make the victory
of Christ of two thousand years ago real
in your present experience when he is in
control of the life.
And so we could go on.
But I must not give you a sermon
on that tonight.
But the Apostle Paul was undoubtedly filled with
the Holy Spirit, controlled by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit has sought to preserve his
letters for us so that we can have
them today.
And so that this week we can look
at them and study them together.
We're not going to study them particularly microscopically,
although some little bits we might.
But we're going to study them telescopically.
And both ideas are needed in our studies
of the Scriptures.
And we're going to have a general panoramic
view of the main truths, the main themes
of the prison letters.
So that we might grow thereby.
So that the Lord Jesus shall become more
precious to us.
And that we might understand more of his
will.
Well, you see, when he wrote to the
Ephesian Christians, and this probably was a circular
letter, not only to them.
The subject was Christ and the Church.
And the Church's union with Christ.
And when he wrote to the Philippians, which
was a love letter and an acknowledgement for
the gift I was speaking about.
The subject is Christ and the Christian himself.
And when he wrote to the Colossian Christians,
where there was a problem arising in the
Church.
His subject was Christ and his fullness or
his preeminent.
And when he wrote to that individual Philemon,
the nobleman of Colossae.
The subject was Christ and his grace.
You know, Epaphras came about 950 miles by
road and on foot to Paul in prison
at Rome.
To tell him about the problem arising in
the Church, the assembly at Colossae.
And Paul was very burdened and prayed for
him straight away.
Although he'd never been to that city and
only knew one or two of them there.
He wrote to them very soon.
And then, of course, Epaphroditus came about 600
miles by foot.
He was taken ill on the way.
No wonder, if I had to walk 600
miles, I'd be ill longer before halfway.
Halfway along he was taken very ill and
he pulled himself together, struggled to the end.
And handed over the gift to the Apostle
Paul in prison at Rome.
And then, of course, he had to go
all the way back again.
But he stayed in Rome for a little
while to recover.
And then, of course, Sonesimus was going about
950 miles from Rome.
This slave now converted with a letter for
his old boss.
Because Paul wanted Philemon to receive this man
back again.
Not as a slave now, but as a
brother beloved.
We're going to talk about all these most
interesting things together during the week.
And may the Holy Spirit lead us and
control us and fill us as we speak
and as we listen about His wonderful Word.
And as Paul was inspired by the Holy
Spirit, may we be inspired by God's Holy
Spirit as well.
So that when you write a letter, you
being under His control, say something which will
be a blessing to people as they read
it.
And when you telephone, that you telephone under
the inspiration and control of God's Holy Spirit.
So there's blessing on the other side.
So that when you pray, your prayers are
prevailing, being inspired and enabled by the Holy
Spirit of God.
And even if you have to go to
prison, well, may the Lord bless you there
and make it to be a blessing as
He did the Apostle Paul.
You know, it's a great blessing to us
that Paul went to prison in the will
of God in Rome.
And I think at the end of the
week, you'll say amen to that as well.
Oh Lord, we praise Thee tonight for Thy
wonderful Word, Thy living Word, Thy life-giving
Word, Thy life-sustaining Word.
Make the book live to us, show us
ourselves within Thy Word, show us ourselves and
show us our Saviour and make the book
live to us.
And we pray that every one of us
may be quite sure tonight that the Lord
Jesus is our Saviour by repenting of our
sins and receiving and trusting Him as our
very own.
And may every one of us by the
enabling of the Spirit go forth to do
the will of Christ in our lives so
that they might be blessing in and from
our lives to the glory of our Redeemer.
So may the grace of Christ, the all
-sufficient grace of Christ be with us all.