For the Sake of the Gospel

The book of Philippians chapter number 1 verse number 12 through 14.

I will be reading out of the English Standard Version. Hear with me the words of a true and living God. I want you to know brothers that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial garden and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.

And most of the brothers having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Let's pray. Father we thank you that you have sovereignly chosen the means of prayer to open up the windows of your blessing and act in this world. And at this time I ask that Lord you would bless us.

You would bless my tongue and my mind as I handle the inerrant infallible scriptures. Lord I cannot with all of my pleading and tears cause one sinner to come to Christ but you can. Lord I ask that through the preaching of the word tonight that you would bring your elect to yourself and that you would be glorified Lord. For those who are broken hearted, for those that are discouraged, for those that feel as though the gospels own progress in this world today may be ceased let us be encouraged. Lord we serve a God whose message is an indomitable message. We preach the unstoppable gospel of Jesus Christ and we pray that through that message tonight you might be glorified. It is in Christ's name we do pray.

Amen and amen. It is the early third century. A man by the name of Arius is walking around town asking young women with their children, was that child here before you? Or did you give birth to that child? Did that child have a beginning to which the women would say of course? And he would say well certainly if that child had a beginning so did the one who was born in Bethlehem. So surely Christ must have had a beginning.

And so there were jingles that would be sung throughout town. There was a time when Christ was not. And so that began to be quite a bit of an issue and so Constantine called for a council, a general council. As it began to ordain this council of Nicaea, this Nicene council, there stood a small young dark man whose nickname was the black dwarf.

He was quiet. He didn't say much but his name was Athanasius. Now this great council of Nicaea causes me a little bit of humor.

This is the one where we hear the story about Saint Nicholas or Santa Claus so politely greeting his fist to the face of Arius. But it is at this council that we began to read upon our forefathers damning Arianism as a heresy. But that is not the end of this great heresy. It makes its way back and the once quiet Athanasius, the understudy, has now found himself leading the charge against this heresy.

It is said that they woke up and as those of the world woke up overnight as Arians. Athanasius went on to be the bishop of Alexandria but this was not after three to four banishments throughout his life. And I can understand that throughout the mind and life of Athanasius he must have thought indeed this is a central message. This is a prime doctrine for us as believers. And I could understand that as the bishops of that world began to follow the Arianism, Athanasius' mind without a doubt must have wondered, will the gospel progress through this? In Romans chapter 1 verse 10 the apostle Paul writes to the church of Rome and he says, Making request, if by any means now at length that I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.

But that's not the way that it worked. He didn't come in a prosperous way at least by the world's standards. He came as a prisoner. And the journey that we see scoping from Acts 21 to Acts 28 was not without its tremendous difficulties. He was imprisoned in Jerusalem really as a way to save his life.

The Jews really raised a great bit of turmoil concerning his message in Acts 21 and 22 and wanted to kill him. Here comes Rome arresting him really to save his life and they sent him to Caesarea for two years before they decided to send him on to Rome. The ship that he was on to Rome wrecks. He has to swim to save his life.

We understand the rest of this study is a great one to read. And now we fast forward to Acts 28 where we find him in Rome where he spends the next two years awaiting Nero's evaluation of the gospel and his decision about it. Paul did not have a prosperous journey from our point of view.

He might have wished or anticipated prosperity as we may very well wish to anticipate prosperity in our own lives. But rather God chose that he would arrive as a prisoner. But his imprisonment was different in Acts 28 16.

The text says, And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard, but Paul will suffer to dwell by himself with the soldier that kept him. Paul wasn't kept in a common prison with the rest of the prisoners because genuinely Christianity was considered a subsect of Judaism. So he wasn't doing anything wrong. He had committed a crime so they did not imprison him with other criminals.

No real legal issue was facing him. It may very well be that this is the case and reason that Epaphroditus brings money to Paul to try and pay for this seemingly rental quarters that he has had, which certainly would have allowed for visitors. But nonetheless, not wanting to throw him in with the criminal since there was no real criminal charge and at the same time understanding that they better make a decision about this gospel before he released this guy back into public. They let him be kept as a private prisoner with a soldier by himself. But Paul was not only a prisoner in a private situation with the guard. No, that guard was chained to Paul with a chain that could have been about 18 inches long.

Today that would not fit our CDC guidelines. He was chained to a guard 24 hours a day, seven days a week for two years. According to the Roman custom, the guards would change shift every six hours. So Paul would have had four different men chained to him through the duration of a day at all times so he could not escape. He didn't sleep alone. He didn't eat alone. He didn't pray alone. He didn't bathe alone. He didn't write alone. He was always chained to a soldier.

And all my introverts in here are cowering thinking of that possibility. So by this time, it's been about four years since the Philippians have heard from Paul or seen Paul, but somehow they knew he was in Rome. This message has bursted at the seams and just spread abroad. They knew he was in Rome. So they sent Epaphroditus to ask him two things, we assume. First, Paul, how are you doing?

And second, how is the gospel? And so they sent him Epaphroditus to provide Paul with some money and some friendship. They also wanted to hear from Paul because they are surely grieving over his condition and grieving over the fact that it seems that the estate of the gospel is hindered. This is the great apostle to the Gentiles. Does it not seem that the gospel might be stopped seeing that Paul, this great church planter to the Gentiles, is now in prison? And now seeing all that we've seen so far, Paul writes this little book called Philippians.

It's an enjoyable book to read, very powerful, one of my favorite in the whole scriptures in response to these questions. He is in jail again, yet he writes the most joyful book in the entire canon that we possess. But why would Paul have any joy?

Why? If his joy was related to the circumstances of his life, he certainly wouldn't be joyful. If his joy was related to entertainment, he wouldn't be joyful. If his joy was connected to his popularity, he was not very popular. So he shouldn't have been joyful. If it was related to the things of this world, he shouldn't have been joyful. He has no privacy, no freedom, people are out to kill him, and he has this lingering understanding that at any time Nero can just end him. Does this seem like a man that at the forefront of his vocabulary is a three-letter word called joy?

No. Yet it is. As Paul is in this horribly uncomfortable situation, he is focused on the, not focused on his ailments, his mistreatments or the inconveniences of this life. But notice with me this evening in verse number 12, he says this, The things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel. Paul is saying, I want you to know that everything that has happened to me and everything that is happening to me has really been an avenue for the spreading of this gospel. Paul is it complaining, moaning or groaning, and surely he has all reason to do so in our own 21st century minds, doesn't he? This is a man whose heart passion, whose life mission, whose true desire is found in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Whose true desire is in the gospel alone. This message is his bread and butter. It's what gets him going in the morning. It's what gives him purpose.

It's what makes him tick, if you will. And so we must ask our own selves this morning or this evening, what drives me? What gives me purpose? What is my passion that I live for?

What dominates my time and my thinking? Is it the gospel? It was for Paul. Why is he so encouraged as he's facing these problems? And what is my perspective in the midst of the trying circumstances of my life? Verses 12 through 13 will be where we'll begin here. I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.

So it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. Most of you have heard of a man by the name of John Bunyan. He's the author of the Pilgrim's Progress. John Bunyan was known as a great orator. He's a great preacher. His preaching was so powerful that many came to hear him and he was an unordained man. And the law at the time was that an unordained man cannot preach to a congregation greater than about four or five people.

A lot more wanted to come hear him than that. And so we find that old John Bunyan gets arrested in the Bedford jail for not obeying the governmental restrictions on the church at the time. But even when they put him in jail, it is said that Bunyan preached so loud that the Christians figured out we can hear him. And so they would gather out outside of the walls.

And so they began to say, OK, OK, we've got to figure something out. So they took him down into the deepest dungeon that they had in the jail and they put him in there. And it is said that for quite some time he begins to preach as loud as he can, but he finally figured out they probably can't hear me. And with all the time that brother Bunyan has down there, he pulls out a pen and he writes the Pilgrim's Progress. And while the jailers may have thought, surely we have shut this man up, he cannot preach the gospel. He writes a book that preaches to millions and millions for generation upon generation upon generation.

And that's how it is. You can't bottle up the gospel. The servant may be bound. 2 Timothy 2, 9 tells us, but the word of God is never bound.

Never bound. This problem that comes in Paul's life provides a pathway. In this passage, Paul is doing a play on words. The word furtherance or advancing comes from the word prokopoeia, the word for progress. Now it sounds very close to the word prokopoeia.

Prokopoeia, prokopoeia. They sound very close, which means hindrance. One of them, prokopoeia, means progress. The other one, prokopoeia, means hindrance.

A little bit not close to one another. And so what Paul is saying is he says, guys, what everyone is figuring out is that what seemingly is hindering me has been used for the advancement of the gospel. What looks like a constraint upon the gospel and a constraint upon my ministry is a catalyst for the furtherance of this gospel.

The word prokopoeia would be used to describe someone coming through to blaze a trail for an army to march down. Paul is saying that these events that God has sovereignly placed in front of me are to blaze new territory for this gospel. They've put Paul in a new place with a new people to give him a new opportunity to evangelize. While others may have seen this as an end to Paul's ministry, certainly Paul probably thought that he would be standing in the marketplaces and speaking just like he did in the Areopagus in Acts 28. Certainly this is probably what he thought of as a profitable ministry.

Imprisonment probably wasn't in mind. But while others saw this as an end to Paul's ministry, Paul saw it as an opening for new ways to minister. So the message went forth. And like Joseph who said, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Paul can look at his captors and say, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for the furtherance of his gospel. Jesus Christ was killed as a common criminal because they wanted to shut him up for the very death.

He died, destroyed death, sin, hell and the grave and became the means of salvation for his elect. The early church was persecuted in the eighth chapter of Acts. There was Saul breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the church. And the threat of death scattered the church, but it also scattered the gospel.

And wherever they were placed, so too was their gospel. So it is in the case of Paul. Every means to stop the gospel of Christ is only a catalyst that will further it.

And this is Paul's joy. If there comes a day where they declare it in our nation or in the world, a mandatory demand that we must cease to preach our gospel, we can celebrate. Because every means that we have ever found through history, Tertullian said, the blood of the church is the seed of the gospel. Wherever you cut one of us down, another one of us pops back up. And so whatever hindrance that we have placed upon the church, we rejoice knowing that the Lord will bring up more.

As a matter of fact, you find that when China brought forth their communist regime, the Christian church went from about 3 million to about 81 million. You cannot stop the gospel. And if there comes a time where you find yourself in a dark place and in a trying time, I want to encourage you to ask yourself, how am I going to give God glory through this?

And so with that in mind, I want us to capture this main thought moving forward, which is this. Because there is no stopping the gospel, God can use the trials of this life for his eternal glory. Here are two ways that God used the imprisonment of Paul first, to encounter sinners. The word palace in verse 13, some of your translations may read, the ESV reads imperial guard, but some of them may read palace. It doesn't actually refer to a palace since Luke tells us that Paul is in a house in the book of Acts, rather this is referring to the Praetorian guard that Paul was chained to. Now, let's understand a little bit about the Praetorian guard.

So you understand why this is so exciting. This is like the Green Berets, the Navy Seals and the Marines all gathered together and then some. These are some men. The Praetorian guard were a special hand-picked group of about 9,000 of Rome's most elite soldiers. This group of soldiers ended up gaining so much power that they became kingmakers. They fought over Caesar. In fact, they killed and promoted Caesar as they assassinated Caligula. They put Claudius on the throne and later they were the ones who directed Nero as he began to reign. This group was a fierce group, but they couldn't intimidate Paul because Paul understood that he served a god far stronger than Caesar or his guards.

Guards would normally see chains on a prisoner as a sign of Caesar's power as they demonstrated throughout the world that Caesar is Lord. They bound people up by his will. But we know that Paul says his bonds are in Christ. Paul wasn't there because he was a criminal. He was there because of his message. He was a man that was on the mission that was guided by God. And as the guard would rotate every several hours, it would give Paul a new man to evangelize. And with Paul's understanding of the sovereignty of God, it wasn't Caesar's power that was keeping Paul bound to a guard. It was God's power that was binding a guard to Paul every six hours.

F.B. Meyer writes, at times the hired room would be enthroned with people to whom the apostle spoke the words of life. And after they withdrew, the century would sit beside them filled with many questionings as to the meaning of the words which this strange prisoner spoke. At other times when all had gone, especially at night when the moonlight shone at the distant slopes of Sirocte, the soldier and apostle would be left to talk, and in those dark, lonely hours, the apostle would tell the soldier after soldier the story of his own proud career in his early life, of his opposition to Christ, and his ultimate conversion. And would make it clear that he was there as a prisoner, not for any crime, not because he had raised rebellion over and revolted, but because he believed that he, whom the Roman soldiers had crucified under Pilate, was the son of God and the savior of man. And these tidings spread, and the soldiers talked them over with one another, and the whole guard would become influenced in sympathy with meek and gentle apostle, who always showed himself so kindly to the men as they shared, however involuntarily his imprisonment.

And then F.B. writes, how absolutely consistent the apostle must have been. If there had been the least divergence day or night from the high standard which he upheld, his soldier companions would have called at it and passed it on to the others. The fact that so many became earnest Christians, and that the word of Jesus was known far and wide throughout the Praetorian Guard, indicates how absolutely consistent the apostle's life and message was. I can imagine that the church in Rome had prayed, oh Lord, please let us reach the leaders of Rome. Please give us a chance to get the gospel to the throne.

Let the gospel reach Caesar's household. This is a time where they're beginning to notice that Nero is beginning to lose his mind. Nero is, Nero is a horrible man. Nero takes his sister-in-law or his step-sister, he marries her and she is pregnant.

She enrages him one day and he kicks her so hard that it kills both her and the child. Nero is a man that would enslave or take those who were enslaved and he would take male servants and would mutilate them and make them his personal slaves. Nero was a man who would take Christians and would bound them in tar and would use them to light his gardens at night as Roman candles. Nero was a man who would take Christians and sew them up in hides of animals and throw them to the wild dogs in the arena. Nero was a man who lights all of Rome on fire because he had a new vision for what Rome would be and he knew that someone's got to be the blame for this and so he blames it upon the Christians. This hadn't arise yet, but the Christians had began to notice that the politics were turning towards them.

And so it would be no great stretch of the imagination to say that they are praying that the gospel reaches Nero and quickly. And in God's divine plan, he placed Paul in a cell bound to a new soldier after new soldier every six hours as an opportunity to get the gospel to the leadership of Rome. And so you may wake up every day feeling like you can't do anything for God because you aren't a Bible teacher or a pastor or a leader. You feel like you can't do anything because you're chained to a desk making calls or having meetings or you're chained to a truck driving day after day to new place after new place or you're chained to your chalkboard in a classroom day after day. But have you ever thought that God may have placed you there for the purpose of living and preaching the gospel to those who are around you?

You may be telling yourself my workplace is a difficult place. Okay, that means that the light of gospel should pierce their hearts and pierce the darkness there even that much more unmistakably. The first reason that God placed Paul there that we see is to reach sinners. At the end of the book of Philippians, my heart always gets blessed as I read there. Paul writes in Philippians 4 21, greet every saint in Christ Jesus.

The brothers who are with me greet you. And all the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household. Our gospel will not be stopped. It is there to evangelize the sinners. But this trial of Paul's life is also used to the encouragement of the saints. I have found that humans are creatures that follow examples. When they see the flock beginning to go one way, they typically began to walk in lockstep with them.

I'll give you a practical example. When I lived in Hillsboro, we didn't have much in Hillsboro. If you ever come out to Cedar Grove, there's not much there. And so for fun, Reagan and I would drive to go to Cookout. Cookout has the best milkshakes that have ever been graced upon this great land.

And the Cookout has a great blueprint. They have two lines there. And one day we go there and there is no one in line two.

And I'm assuming it has to be broken because there are at least 30 cars in the line. And so I sit there patiently waiting for that next line, thinking that surely there must be something. After a while, I finally get tired of waiting. And I just drive up there and my wife, being my great guardian, says, You probably shouldn't do that.

It looks rude. So I backed up. And I kindly waited until another man came and pulled up there and I saw that he was ordering.

So I flew up behind him as quickly as possible because there must be no delay in a cookie dough milkshake. People are creatures of habit and they begin to follow what they see. And what we find and imagine about Rome is that at this time, the church was growing consistently more timid. Seeing the political upheaval at the time, there was no doubt in my mind that they were probably getting a little bit discouraged. But I want you to notice how Paul in verse 14, look there with me, speaks of their courage growing. He says, And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. So in the midst of these discouraged church in Rome, here comes Paul, the great apostle in chains. That probably didn't encourage them. I could imagine when they said, Paul's coming. Great joy flooded their hearts. Oh, but he's in chains.

Oh, no. They would have been fairly shy in their ministry and rightfully so as persecution was rapidly growing. But it was relatively non violent at the time.

We noticed they were generally timid, but they grow in their confidence. The word many there here comes from a word which means the majority. So not just a few Christians get excited about this news that God in his sovereignty is opening up the eyes of dead men and calling them to the newness of life. God is sovereignly saving the most vicious savages in the entire world. By Paul, a man who in their own lives have seen go from he himself being a persecutor to being saved. And I love in Galatians, Paul says, And they glorified God in me. And so they're seeing as God is sovereignly saving these savages after these savages. And I'm sure they got excited to hear this news. And a majority of the church was emboldened.

Why? Well, Paul uses the phrase in the Lord. They're most of the brothers haven't become confident in the Lord. Now, in the Lord is used to modify attitudes or actions. Paul does it specifically in Paulinian speech. He uses it to modify actions or attitudes that he wants people to emulate. But in this instance, this phrase is used to point to the Lord as the one who is the motivator and in power of the believers in Rome.

How? Because they saw how God used Paul even when he was in jail. Walter Hanson writes, The chained motivated the freed. The chains that bound Paul liberated others to speak in boldness.

And here they were encouraged that if God can use Paul while he has been in jail for years, that I wonder what he could do with the rest of the church that is free. And this is where we begin to see that they grew in boldness to speak the word of the Lord without fear. Brother or sister in Christ, this could even be you now.

You might be bound up in a certain circumstance in your life and there might be a fellow brother or sister that may be watching you. Now, sure, we have not reached a time where we are in prison for the preaching of the gospel. However, to apply it and contextualize it to our own life, you may be bound up in a circumstance of great fear. The very core of your Christendom may be shot with the sickness of your child or with the loss of your job or with the stripping of all of your friends away.

And there are others who are watching you. And as God, by his grace, is strengthening you to preach the gospel without fear and with great boldness, so too will he use that to the encouragement of your brethren. In my experience, particularly in my past pastorate, I have witnessed God stoking a wonderful love for his glory within the hearts of mourning widows and hurt friends. And witnessing such a work within their hearts proved to be one of the greatest encouragements to me. Our Lord's gospel is not one that is hindered by the circumstances of this life, but it is one that goes forth to the evangelization of sinners and to the encouragement of saints. I say this in closing. There were two friends who were walking together, one older and wise and the other younger and passing through a severe testing time in his life.

The older friend with loving wisdom and patience says this, no moment will ever again be like this. Let there be something for Jesus in it. It is not something for Jesus if we dwell on our miseries, nor if we let it pass without a word about our Lord, nor if we think that any hand other than his brought us to that place. It is something for Jesus if we think and speak about him and his glory.

It is something for him if we acknowledge and trust his all sovereign will wherever he has placed us. I spoke to the teens this morning and they were more attentive than 95 percent of the congregations I've preached to. I really enjoyed speaking with them this morning. And I began to tell them about my own life, how I had everything planned out, a 10 year plan.

None of that actually came to pass. But I began to tell them that in our lives it is a wise and good thing. Even Solomon says, consider the ants in their preparation. He calls us to be one who submits all of our planning to the Lord. It is a good thing to have plans in this life. Perhaps you may go forth to be a great engineer for the glory of the Lord or a teacher or a stay at home mother. By the way, my wife left me at home with the baby a few days ago.

That was a traumatizing experience. But he may put you wherever you may be and he may be using you for his glory. And if in the passage of your life, the chores that you are making, God places in a detour.

If you are like me, I get very disgruntled when detours come and derail the plans that I have made. But the Lord has placed the detours of this life there as another means to submit ourself to his sovereign will and to praise his glory and grace. Beloved, you may go tomorrow and you may have the greatest Monday that a Monday can allow you to have. Or you may go tomorrow and you may have a horrid day, not as you planned. But that day has been placed before you to the glory and praise of the grace of your sovereign Lord.

And so as we look at this text, I want to give you three applications or implications first. First, I believe that this gives us comfort in our daily circumstances. This gives us comfort in our daily circumstances that the God of all glory could take an imprisoned man like Paul and use it for the praise of his glory and grace. What will he do with you?

The circumstances of this life probably won't be as bad as being chained to a guard where we're not able to bathe alone for two years. And we can be comforted that in the circumstances of our daily life, there is comfort that our Lord can be praised through this. Second, there is confidence in evangelism. We have confidence in evangelism. Somebody asked me, do the doctrines that you hold strip all of your confidence in preaching and evangelism?

No, it gives me confidence that there will be success. The gospel that we believe is successful is a gospel that is maneuvered and utilized by a sovereign God who will save whom he wills. We have a 100 percent success rate when we preach the gospel. We have confidence in evangelism. And thirdly, we have a commitment to prayer. We have a commitment to prayer.

Second Thessalonians 3, 1 says, in addition, brother Bartman used it this morning, so it should be fresh on our minds. In addition, brothers, pray for us that the word of the Lord may spread rapidly and that it may be honored just as it was with you. I was speaking with brother Bartman earlier today as I was reading through some of the Reformers that referred to prayer as being God's sovereign means to open the windows of his blessings and actions in this world. So why do we, knowing that God is ultimately sovereign, pray? Because the sovereign God has illustrated and demonstrated that that is the means by which he works in this world. So do we pray for our pastors as they go out into the public? Do we pray for those who go to the abortion mills or do we go to pray for those who are going to the hospitals, the minister to the brokenhearted? Do we pray that God in his mercy and grace would bring his elect unto himself that he might be glorified and that the gospel may be seen as effective as it truly is?

These are the three applications and implications that I have found in this text. So brother or sister in Christ, perhaps this evening you were here hurting and you're wondering if there could be any good in your pain and I'm pleased to tell you that there certainly is. The atheist does not have that confidence, but we do. Romans 8, 28 gives the beloved of God such assurance as Paul writes, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and who are called according to his purpose. And so as you make your way to receive dialysis tomorrow or to take that radiation that you are scheduled to come and take, or just to go to work, which you begrudgingly do day after day, five days a week for 20 years, 30 years, 40 years. Whatever you have before you understand that perhaps as you are taking dialysis, God has put you there for the encouragement of saints and for the evangelizing of sinners. God has put you in every place that you were in in your life for a purpose.

Let us not forget that. Or perhaps this evening you have found yourself bound by different chains. Perhaps the Spirit has illuminated you that you were bound by the chains of death and your sin and rebellion against God.

Perhaps you're here this evening sitting as a skeptic wondering if what we're going on about so passionately is even true or not. I am pleased to know that it did not surprise the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth that you showed up at all. He is the one that ordained that you should be here to hear the preaching of the word. And so today perhaps he has revealed to you that you have sinned against the holy God. But I am pleased to tell you that this gospel, this indomitable gospel, is what Christ said.

It is as leaven which will go through the world, as a mustard seed which shall expand. This gospel that Christ has come bearing the covenant of the law. He has come bearing the totality of the law and has held it sinlessly living a life that we could not live. Dying the death that we should have died for our rebellion against the sovereign Lord who is pure and holy in all of his means. Understanding that we too should be crushed beneath his wrath. That Christ has taken that for us. And just as Christ was crushed beneath the wrath of the Father on the cross, he too gave up the ghost and has victoriously been resurrected from the dead, declaring power over death, hell, and the grave.

He is seated at the right hand of the Father upon high and is making all of his enemies underneath his footstool. The gospel that I preach today is the gospel that sinners may be reunited or united with the God against whom they have sinned and made an enemy. And so I plead with you as the Spirit has done his work in your heart. Come to Christ. Repent of your sins and acknowledge the Lord of glory. The gospel will not be stopped and we shall be held accountable for the word that we have heard this evening. So believer, be comforted in this indomitable message. And sinner, come to Christ, our only hope in life and in death. Amen.

Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have blessed us this evening with the word of life. You have granted me the privilege of speaking to your church.

I don't deserve it. And I hope that I did this passage justice and that you would be glorified. Lord, for that brokenhearted brother or sister who is looking at the pain that is set before them and saying, Lord, I don't understand.

What do you want from this? How could you be glorified? Give them peace. I beseech you, Lord, that all of this is a line for your glory. And, Lord, that we can rest knowing that from eternity past you have put your love upon us and even into eternity future we have been placed within your hands in time and you are going to use all of our lives for the glory and praise of your name. Give us comfort of that this evening and give us boldness as we handle your gospel. Perhaps there is one who is not saved here today. Lord, but you have chosen them for life. Would you please do your work of regeneration and calling them to faith in our beloved Lord. May you receive glory in your church. It is in Christ's name I pray. Amen.