PAUL’S TRIUMPH
1 Cor. 9:27 But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
Paul was called to be an apostle. God used Paul in a way none of us has ever been used. He was used in a way not even the other apostles were used. He had experiences none of the other apostles ever had. On one occasion he was caught up into heaven itself.
2 Cor. 12:2, “I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell, or whether out of the body I cannot tell; God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.
3 “And I knew such a man (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell; God knoweth;)
4 “How he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful to utter.
Paul spoke in what our school teachers called the third person, as if he was talking about somebody else, but most everybody is agreed that the man he knew was himself. Paul had to be constantly on guard against his own pride, and here he talks as if that person was somebody else. He was caught up into the very presence of God himself, but he will not allow himself to glory in it.
There are those who are looking for a day when we will sit on thrones, and reigns as kings. It seems to be their aspiration to rule over other people. But John tells us that God has already made us kings and priests. We already have the authority and the opportunity to reign with him. And how do we reign with him? Paul said, “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection.”
We reign over our own bodies. We fight and war to keep our own inclinations, and our own passions in check. If we reign over these bodies of ours, that is a full time job. We will not have time to rule over anybody else and keep them in line. You and I are engaged in a warfare. Paul was forever talking about our experience as a war.
2 Cor. 10:4, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.”
Eph. 6:11, “Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand in the evil day, and having done all to stand.
14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
That sounds like somebody who is suited up and ready to do battle, and you can be sure that the obedient Christian life is a life of battle. There are forces all around us that would bring us down. This world is not a friend to God and it is not a friend to his people.
James 4:4, “Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is an enemy of God.
There are enemies all around us, and there are battles to fight. But I am not so concerned at the moment with those battles we have to fight with the enemies all around us, as I am with that one great enemy that is within us. The fiercest battle any of us will ever fight is the daily battle with our own carnal nature. For every battle you will ever fight with enemies without, you will have a multitude of battles to fight with the enemy within.
And I will wax so bold as to say that most of us spend far too much time trying to tame somebody else’s carnal nature. We spend too much time trying to straighten somebody else out. Even in our preaching we spend far too much time talking about what is wrong with somebody else’s doctrine, and not nearly enough time making sure we are able to explain our own doctrine in a way that is benefitting and edifying to our congregation.
In our text Paul is talking about the warfare he fought with himself. He says, “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection.” If we spend the time we ought to spend fighting that battle, we will not have a lot of time, helping somebody fight his battle.
There are some lessons you will learn from experience, if you are paying attention.
In the Sermon on the Mount the Lord told us, “Judge not and ye shall not be judged.” There are several lessons you can learn from that text. One is that people are going to judge you, for the most part, the way you judge other people. If you are harsh and judgmental, people will be harsh and judgmental with you. If you are kind and forgiving with other people, there is a good chance they will be kind and forgiving with you.
There is another lesson I have learned about that text, and I have learned it by observation, more than any other way. If you have not noticed it, you might want to take notice. I have noticed that any time somebody is especially judgmental about some weakness in a brother, it seems to happen that, sooner or later, the person who is being so judgmental will begin to develop the same trait he was so quick to condemn in his brother. And it generally comes on him so slowly and so quietly that he does not realize it has happened.
You might want to watch for that, and see if it is not so. I would not bother to make that point, if I did not have what I think is a good reason to make it. And that is this, if you are being harsh with a brother about some shortcoming of his—look out—you just may be in danger of developing that same habit without realizing it is happening.
I have seen that so many times I have almost come to the conclusion that God deals in judgment with those who are so quick to criticize others by giving them over to the same faults.
Am I saying that God is the reason you develop that fault? Not at all. God is the reason you did not develop the fault years ago. There is, in every one of us, the potential for every sin, and if God did not restrain us, we cannot imagine what vile conduct would work itself out in our conduct.
“Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me,” Psa 19:13.
David assumes that the reason he is not guilty of those presumptuous sins is that God keeps him back. It is not necessary for God to incite us to sin. If he refrains from keeping us back, who can tell what we might do. Notice that in the verse before he says, “Who can understand his errors?”
Sometimes, I hear somebody make the expression, “If I know my own heart . . . .” Let me tell you, you don’t. That was David’s expression. “Who can understand his errors.” We would do well to keep that in mind when we begin to get so judgmental with others.
Paul was blessed in ways few people have ever been, but he was still a man, still a sinner saved by grace, and he had the same conflicts with the flesh we all have.
He still had to war against his old carnal nature—his old carnal pride. But at this moment I want to look at one instance of his triumph in that battle.
Sylvester Hassell wrote a church history which has been a standard with our people for over a hundred years. In most instances Hassell is one of the soundest of all writers, but, sometimes, even Hassell got it wrong.
Hassell wrote that, “The church of the first century is the pattern for the church in every day and age. To the extent any church is like the church of the first century that church is in the right, and to the extent any church is different from the church of the first century, that church is in the wrong.” That sounded so good I quoted it any number of times. I thought I had it right.
But then I realized there were a lot of things in the church of the first century that we do not need in our churches today.
Paul was the most prolific of all the apostles, and most of what he wrote was for the purpose of correcting things he found wrong in those first century churches.
He wrote the book of Galatians to correct false doctrines that had made their way into those churches. He corrected several things that were wrong in the church at Corinth. John found things wrong in all but one of the seven churches of Asia. We are to follow those churches in the things they got right, but we are to avoid those things they got wrong.
Well, how are we to know the difference? We are to avoid those things about which Paul and the other apostles corrected them. If Paul said they ought not to do something, we ought not to do it. Paul gives us the proper rule.
1 Cor. 11:1, “Be ye followers of me, even as I am of Christ.”
Those early Christians made mistakes, but when Paul wrote the things he wrote under the inspiration of God’s Spirit, he did not make any mistakes—God would not allow him to make a mistake.
2 Tim. 3:16, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
The scriptures are God-breathed, God-inspired. They tell us everything we need to know and to do religiously. We are only to follow those early Christians when they did what they are commanded to do.
Paul instructs us to follow him—that is, to follow his instructions, but notice that he does not stop there.
He says, “Be ye followers of me, even as I am of Christ.”
The instructions God gives us by Paul are perfect—but Paul was not perfect. He made mistakes in his own life. He made a mistake when he became so upset with Barnabas when he wanted to take John Mark with them on their next trip.
Mark had, “Turned back from them at Pamphylia, and did not go with them to the work.” Later we read that Paul wanted nothing to do with him.
Acts 15:36, “And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do.
37 And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark.
38 But Paul not good to take him with them, who departed from them in Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work.
39, “And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed one from the other; and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus;
40 And Paul took Silas, and departed, being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God.”
That has always struck me as one of the saddest scenes in the Bible. Barnabas was the best friend Paul ever had. He stood up for Paul when nobody would. After Paul’s experience on Damascus Road, he returned to Jerusalem and,
“He assayed to join himself to the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple,” Acts 9:20.
And why should they not be afraid of him; the last they heard of him he was arresting Christians and having them put in prison, and beaten, and sometimes put to death. Why should they not think this was just a ploy to search out Christians and do them harm?
Acts 9:27, But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken boldly at Damascus in the name of the Lord Jesus.
28 And he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem.
That took some nerve on the part of Barnabas. What if it turned out that Paul really was an imposter; Barnabas was putting everything on the line for Paul.
When the disciples learned that the Jews were planning to kill Paul, they sent him forth to Tarsus (vs. 30). They sent him to Tarsus for his own safety, but they are bound to have had their own welfare in mind as well. As long as Paul was in Jerusalem, they were also in danger.
Then in chapter eleven the disciples at Jerusalem heard about believers at Antioch, and they sent Barnabas to check it out.
But notice how it reads,
“And they sent forth Barnabas that he should go as far as Antioch” vs.22.
They did not say that he should go to Antioch; they said he should go as far as Antioch. That expression as far as seems to be more than a suggestion that he not go any farther. They knew that the last they heard of Paul he was on his way to Tarsus—that was farther than Antioch. Barnabas did all he was appointed to do—then he did more.
Vs. 25 Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus to seek Saul;
26 And when he found him, he brought him unto Antioch.
We are told that Paul assayed to join himself to the disciples at Jerusalem. We are not told whether he was allowed to join the church at Jerusalem or not. We are only told that he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem. But whether he was ever actually a member of the church at Jerusalem or not, he did succeed in placing his membership in the church at Antioch.
We read in the thirteenth chapter that he and Barnabas were in the church at Antioch (ch. 13:1). They were not just at the church; they were in the church— their membership was there. Whether Paul was ever a member of the Jerusalem church or not, they did not ordain him. They were both ordained at Antioch (vss. 2,3).
I have said all of that to point out that Barnabas really the best friend Paul ever had, but Paul allowed this dispute over John Mark to spoil that friendship. We never read of Paul and Barnabas working together or traveling together again after that day. That is a sad thought to me.
Again, Paul instructed us to follow him but only so far as he followed the Lord (1 Cor. 11:1).
Perhaps he was following the Lord when he fell out with Barnabas over John Mark, but I do not think so. One more thought on that line. Either John Mark changed his way, or else he was a much better man than Paul thought he was. When Paul came to die, John Mark was one of the very few who stayed with him to the very end.
2 Tim. 4:11, Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee; for he is profitable to me for the ministry.
That is just four verses after Paul said, “For I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand,” 2 Tim. 4:6. Paul was convinced he was at the end of his way, and he wanted Mark to come to him. He was sure he was profitable. That is not the way he talked in the passage we just read.
Mark did come to him. Twice Paul lists him as one of those who were with him till the very last (Phil. 1:24; Col. 4:10).
That is a beautiful sight to me—to see this younger preacher staying with the old preacher who had, at one point, so totally rejected him that he wanted nothing to do with him.
We are instructed to follow Paul; but we are not to follow any man unless he is following the Lord. Paul did have a battle to fight with his own carnal pride, but in spite of his sometimes failures, he triumphed in that battle as few people ever did.
I want to turn to his letter to the Philippians for an example of Paul’s amazing triumph in keeping his pride in check.
Phil. 1:12 But I would have you to understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel.
Far from grieving about the way he had been treated, Paul was sure that his experiences had actually helped to further the gospel. If his patience in suffering would encourage the brethren, he was glad to suffer. How often have we discovered that the adversary’s attacks only gave us more courage, and more resolve for the next challenge.
Resistance can be a benefit. Athletes pay big money for exercise machines. Those machines provide the resistance necessary for the athlete to build up his strength. And the more he uses the machine, the more he increases the resistance.
Sometimes those who resist you the most are doing the same thing the exercise machine does. The are providing the resistance than increases your strength for the next battle. In that sense, sometimes your worst enemy does for you what your friends would never consider doing. If you can look at your adversity in that way, you can realize that the greatest obstacle can be a benefit.
Vs. 13 So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places.
Even Paul’s captors were impressed with his patience in suffering, and his faithfulness to the very calling that landed him in prison. Not even his bonds could keep him from preaching. Wherever he was, and whatever his circumstances might be, Paul would preach to somebody.
If he could not preach to anybody else, he would preach to the men who guarded him. He had a captive audience. The guards could not leave. Whether he wanted to hear it or not, Paul would talk about those things that were dear to his heart.
And you can be sure those guards talked about Paul. Some talked, because they enjoyed listening to him, and some talked about how he would not shut up. But, one way or the other, they talked about him, so that “his bonds in Christ were manifest in all the palace, and in all other places.” Allow me to quote the entire passage, and then we will come back and look at Paul’s assessment of his situation. What he says may surprise you.
Phil. 1:12 But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel;
13 So that my bonds are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places.
14 And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
15 Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will;
16 The one preach of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds;
17 But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel.
18 What then? Notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ if preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.
These soldiers who were appointed to guard Paul were not rank and file soldiers, not all the time anyway. Sometimes it was centurions who guarded him. A centurion generally had a hundred soldiers over him. They were powerful and influential people, and sometimes they developed a fondness for Paul. On one occasion we read;
Acts 27: And the soldiers counsel was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out, and escape.
28 But the centurion—willing to save Paul—kept them from their purpose.
These were influential men, and when they went away and talked favorably about him and the things he talked about, you can be sure there were those who listened.
We have no way of knowing how long the shifts were that the guards works. But Paul was constantly under guard, and no longer than their shift was over than other guards came on duty. No doubt, many of them wanted him to shut up—others were glad to hear what he had to say.
You cannot gather that many people together without finding a few truly heaven-born souls among them. And with the passion Paul had for the gospel, you can be sure that—from time to time—their souls were stirred. Their shifts would end; they would go their way, and like the two on Emmaus Road, they would say, “Did not our heart burn within us . . . .”
You cannot bind the Spirit, and you cannot bind the gospel. And you cannot shut up the preacher when God stirs his soul to preach. This was not the first time Paul preached in prison. There was a time when he was shut up in the prison in Philippi. They had put him in the innermost prison and made his feet fast in the stocks. If ever man was able to bind the preacher, and quench the Spirit, it was then. But,
“At midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God; and the prisoners heard them,” Acts 16:25.
At midnight, it is bound to have been dark in the innermost prison. But Paul and Silas sang and prayed anyway—and the prisoners heard them. Their audience was invisible to them, but not to God and not to his Spirit. Before the night was over, they had baptized an entire household.
Their backs are bound to have been sore from the beating they had just received—but what a meeting that must have been.
At the time of our text, Paul was under arrest in Rome, but the Romans constantly sent him new guard to watch him; they were forever sending him a new audience. It was a small audience; perhaps it was sometimes an audience of one, but it was an audience.
I want to shift gears, and this is the point I have been leading up to. We are told that the brethren in the Lord waxed confident by Paul’s bonds, and that made them “more bold to speak the word without fear.”
Vs. 14 And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
No doubt, some of the brethren were encouraged by Paul’s courageous example. They received strength from his strength. But others waxed confident from his imprisonment for another reason.
15 Some indeed preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds.
Those are serious comments to make about “brethren in the Lord.” He says some of them were contentious; they were striving, and envious; and he goes on to say they were not sincere. That is, they did not really believe everything they said.
We should not get the idea they were insincere in the things they said about the Lord—not at all. They were sincere enough in what they said about the Lord.
But they were not always sincere in the things they said about Paul. Paul had some very dedicated enemies—both in the church and outside. There were brethren in the church who had no use for Paul. Some of them remembered the way he persecuted the church, and they would not let it go. Some of them doubted he was really a believer, and they were not going to be persuaded.
And why should he not have enemies in the church? Those people were as human as any of us. Think of the way Paul had persecuted the church, the way he had some of them arrested, and beaten, and sometimes, when they were on trial for their lives, he gave his testimony against them.
Acts 22:4 And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women.
Acts 26:9 I verily thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
10 Which thing I also did in Jerusalem; and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them.
Put yourself in the place of those Jerusalem Christians. Suppose somebody in your family had been arrested and dragged off to prison for preaching the gospel. Suppose when he finally got out he showed you his back all crisscrossed with long scars from his beatings. Suppose he told you how Paul had given the testimony that had him arrested and beaten.
Suppose a dear friend of yours had been put to death, based on Paul’s testimony. Do you think Paul could have ever gained your confidence?
I like to think I am compassionate and forgiving. I would want to think I would have been as forgiving of Paul as Barnabas was. But I am not sure that would have been the case. I am not sure I would have ever had any use for Paul. I am not sure I would have ever trusted him.
The disciples at Jerusalem “were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple,” (Acts 9:26) For all I know, I might have been one of them.
These were brethren in the Lord he was talking about, when he said they were contentious, and striving, and insincere. They brethren in the Lord were jealous if Paul, and they were glad for him to be in prison. So long as he was in prison, he would not bother them. It was in that way they waxed confident by his bonds. He was in prison, and they thought that is where he needed to be.
Were there ministers in that day who could think that way? Of course there were. We should never get the idea those preachers were porcelain saints. They were sinners just like the rest of us. And they could be just as petty, just as contentious, just as mean-spirited, as any of us in our day.
It was in that way they were insincere. They had no use for Paul, and they did not intend to be fair with him.
And it is right here that we discover Paul’s triumph. Earlier, we find Paul being judgmental, and short-tempered himself. He had no patience with John Mark. But here he manifests all the patience you could expect from any man.
Paul was as human, and as frail, as any of us, and, of course, he would have liked for everybody to have appreciated him, and to have spoken well of him. But he had learned that was never going to be. That was not the important thing. The important thing was that Christ was preached.
Vs. 18 What then, notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.”
If some of his brethren were never going to speak well of him, Paul had learned to live with that—but the important thing was that they spoke well of Christ. Christ was preached— and for that Paul rejoiced and thanked God.
We should every one of realize that we are never going to be everybody’s favorite. Sometimes there will be those who do not appreciate us, because they recognize some fault in us that others do not see. The fact others do not see that fault does not mean the fault is not real; others have just not picked up on our faults the way others have.
If you do not think you have faults that would disqualify you in the minds of some good an honest people, you are just not being honest with yourself. We all have serious flaws.
Sometimes there will be those who do not approve of you because others have stirred them up against you. On one occasion we read that the Jews had stirred up the chief men of the city and devout and honorable women against Paul. These people were devout and honorable, but they opposed Paul.
The fact somebody will not treat you fairly does not mean they are consciously trying to be unfair, they may think they see a fault that is not there—and again, they may see a fault you do not realize you have. David taught us to pray to understand our own secret sins—sins of our own that not even we understand. Sometimes our friends understand us better than we think they do—perhaps better than we do. Sometimes our friends can be more objective about us than we can be about ourselves.
How very much we could learn about ourselves, if we could get inside the minds of our friends and listen to them when they think about us. We would likely be surprised what we learn about ourselves.
Psa. 19:12 Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret sins.
David is praying for the ability to understand himself. There is none of us who really understands himself.
Jer. 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it.
Our heart can hide our motives even from us. Our heart can convince us that we have the purest motives, when they are not at all honorable. Ask yourself; what opinion would your friends have of you—if they knew about you everything you know. I remember, when I was a small boy, I heard a preacher say, “My life is an open book; I would be glad for my life to be portrays like a movie on this wall.”
I was about eleven years old at the time, and I remember thinking, “Aw come on now, preacher, I have not been around near as long as you have, and I would not want everything I have ever done spread out for everybody to see.”
I want to say that again. When you are all put out, because not everybody is giving you the credit you would like to have think about it; what kind of credit would they give, if they knew as much about you as you know?
Let me end where I started. Paul had always had a problem with pride, but he had finally reached that point where he could tolerate the opposition of those who were contentious, and striving and insincere in their opposition to him—if only they were honest and sincere in preaching Christ. The gospel of the Lord Jesus meant more than life to Paul. He was willing to suffer all things so long as our Lord was magnified.
Once Paul’s friends begged Paul not to go to Jerusalem. He had been warned by the prophet Agabus of the great danger that awaited him at Jerusalem, but it did not matter.
Acts 21:10 And as we tarried them many days, there came from Judea a certain prophet names Agabus
11 And when he was come unto us, he took Paul’s girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.
12 And when we heard these things, both we, and they of that place, besought him not to go up to Jerusalem.
13 Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weap and to break mine heart? For I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem, for the name of the Lord Jesus.
To Paul the gospel was all that mattered. He was willing to suffer everything else—even death—so long as Christ was preached.
Let others in the church cast out his name as evil, if they think they must—but let them preach Christ, and Paul can rejoice. Paul had finally—for the moment anyway—triumphed over that carnal pride that had tormented him all his life.
The battle is never over, not so long as we are in this flesh—but for the moment he was winning the battle. If there was hope for a sinner like Paul, perhaps there is hope for a sinner like me.
THE END