Alright brethren, Philippians
chapter 1. I want to read our text again in
verse 21. Paul said, For to me, to live
is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this
is the fruit of my labor. Yet what I shall choose, I will
not. For I'm in a straight betwixt
two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which
is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the
flesh is more needful for you. And having this confidence, I
know I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance
and joy of faith. that your rejoicing may be more
abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again. Now you know Paul is in prison
at Rome when he's writing this letter. And he repeatedly calls
himself the prisoner of Jesus Christ. Yes, men put him in chains,
but he knew it was the Lord Jesus that put him where he was. and
he was the prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ. You find him repeatedly
through this epistle speaking of his joy, of his joy, and he
wanted the Philippian brethren to have joy like he had, and
that joy was in Christ. It was in Christ. The Spirit
of God had assured Paul, given him assurance in his heart, And
therefore Paul is assuring his brethren with the same assurance
that the Spirit of God has assured him with. And this is what Paul's
assurance was, and this is what every true sanctified child of
God, this is the assurance God gives to us. This is the assurance
he puts in the heart of his saints. Being one with Christ. Here it
is, being one with Christ. having been born of His Spirit
and given faith to trust Christ, having Him as our only righteousness,
having Him abiding with us continually according to His promise, nothing
spiritually bad ever happens to the believer. Nothing spiritually
bad will ever happen to the believer. In fact, really nothing physically
bad ever happens to us. We judge it to be bad if it causes
us sorrow or pain, but the good that God brings out of it, like
Paul said, it works for us an eternal weight of glory. It causes
us not to look at the things that are seen, but the things
that are unseen. It makes us to see what Christ
has done for us, who He is for us, what He's doing for us. And
so that far outweighs whatever we might have considered to be
bad. Truly, for God's saints, nothing spiritually bad or physically
bad is ever going to happen to us. Our Lord's keeping us. So whether we live or we die,
it's good for God's people. It will be all good for God's
people. Doesn't mean we won't suffer,
doesn't mean we won't go through much tribulation. I'm not saying
that. But I am saying that Paul knew
if he lived, then by the Spirit of the Lord keeping him, preserving
him, giving him faith, giving him the Word to preach, he would
continue living unto Christ, preaching the Gospel of Christ.
And he knew if he died, he'd be with Christ immediately. So
either way, if he lived or died, it's going to be good. And that's
true for you and me, brethren. That's exactly true for you and
me. Now I want to just look at the things Paul said here and
think about them a little bit. First of all, he said, for to
me to live is Christ. For to me to live is Christ. Now some people in this world,
to them life is having a healthy body. being healthy. They pamper the flesh, they get
a lot of bodily exercise, and they try to stay healthy. You'll
hear men speak how this is going to prolong your life. Well, it's
good to be healthy. It's good to exercise. It's good
to watch, not overeat, be a glutton and what have you. But good health
is just a healthier way that you're going to eventually die.
That's what it is. For others, life is family. Everything revolves around family.
And everything they do in this world, they're doing it for family.
They would be willing, some even go so far as to be willing to
deny the gospel of Christ for family, for a spouse or for children. Now, it's good to love your family.
It's good to provide for your family. But always remember Christ
is preeminent, and He's preeminent in the hearts of His people.
We have to stand with Christ, come what may. For some others,
life, to them, life is gain in this world. Their career is their
life. their house, their land, their
riches, and getting more of it. This is their life. This is what
they think about. This is what they live for. This
is what is on their mind constantly. And really and truly for every
unregenerate sinner, all of that is their life, every bit of that.
Some may be more concerned with getting gain, or some may be
more concerned with family, but all of those things is all that
the natural man is concerned about. That's his life. It's
just what is here and now, what he can see, what the carnal eye
can see, what he can enjoy with the five senses. That's life
to him. But to Paul and to God's saints
that are born of his spirit and given faith, to live is Christ. to live as Christ. It's because,
and the reason that's so now, first of all, is because Christ
is the life of His saints. He is our life. He's our life. He's the reason we have spiritual
life. Christ is that life. I won't
have you turn there, but you remember in John 14, the Lord
said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to
the Father but by me. And the reason Christ is the
way and the reason he's the truth and he's the life is because
he is righteousness. That's how he is the way, the
truth, and the life. He's righteousness, brethren.
You think about that now. Christ is the way because He
is the righteousness of God. He's the righteousness God provided
for God's chosen people, and He's the only righteousness God
will receive us in. So He's the only way you can
come to the Father is in Christ Jesus the righteous. It's because
He's righteous, He's the righteousness of His people, therefore He's
the way to God for His people, the only way. And He's the truth
because He's righteousness. The Lord Jesus came here to fulfill
the law for His people because we broke the law. And He came
to fulfill it, to be the truth, to be the righteousness. He's
the truth of the Word because He's the righteousness this Word
reveals. He's the truth of the law because
He's the righteousness the law bears witness to. And He came
to go to the cross to bear the sin of His people so that He
would make righteousness and mercy meet. Truth and mercy would
meet. So that God would be just to
be merciful to us because He didn't do it in a way that violated
His law. He didn't, He wouldn't show us
mercy in a way that took away from His holy justice. So Christ
is, He's the way because He's the righteousness God provided.
He's the truth because He is the righteousness in which his
people are made righteous. David knew way back there. We underestimate God's saints.
They were taught of the Spirit of God and they might not have
seen as clearly as we see in hindsight, but they saw, they
saw, they knew Christ was their righteousness. And David knew
that the way his life would be prolonged, and he's not talking
about just in this world, he's talking about eternally, was
that Christ would come and he would prepare all things for
him by making mercy and truth to meet in harmony. Listen to
this now from Psalm 61.6. This is what David prayed. In
Psalm 61.6 he said, Thou wilt prolong the king's life and his
years as many generations. He shall abide before God forever. He's not talking about just prolonged
life in this world. He's talking about being with
God, before God, and accepted of God forever. And here's how
he said the Lord would do this. Oh, prepare mercy and truth which
may preserve the King. And that's what Christ came to
do, to prepare mercy and truth, make it just Make the mercy of
God toward His people to be done in truth, in righteousness. And
on the cross in Christ, mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness
and peace have kissed each other. So when Christ says, I'm the
truth, He's declaring, I'm the righteousness. Truth and righteousness. Righteousness and truth, it's
the same thing. Christ is the truth. And God's
saints walk in the truth when we walk by faith in Christ the
truth. Trusting Christ alone is our
righteousness. Brother Adam just read that passage
from 1 John where he said, He that walks in the light does
truth. And if you walk in darkness, you do not the truth. Christ
in John 3 declared plainly what it is to do the truth. He said,
He comes to the light, He comes to Christ, that His works may
be manifest, that they're all worked in the Lord. That the
Lord worked His works for Him. And the Lord made Him righteous.
So you want to walk in the truth, walk by faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ, trusting He's your only righteousness. And then Christ
is the life. And that's what Paul, to me,
to live is Christ. Reason is because Christ is the
life. And again, it's because Christ
is the righteousness. I've said this so many times,
sin is death. Righteousness is life. Those
things are equal. Go with me to Romans 8. I'm going
to show you this in one verse. Romans 8. Romans 8. Paul declares both
right here. Romans 8 and verse 10. He said, If Christ be in you,
the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because
of righteousness. You see that? The body's dead
because of sin. By one man, sin entered and what? Death by sin. So when God sees
you as sin, you're dead. You're dead. You're dead before
the law of God, guilty, and you're dead spiritually. But when Christ
is your righteousness and Christ has entered in, you have life
because of His righteousness. You with me? You get that Adam? You have life because before
God you have no sin and you're perfectly righteous by Christ.
So that's what Paul was saying over in Galatians 2.20 when he
said, I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. He's my life in me. And the life
which I now live in the flesh, I live it by the faithfulness
of Jesus Christ. He's guiding me and correcting
me and teaching me and moving me and turning me and causing
me to walk this way and not that way. And He's working His good
will in me. Christ, the life I'm living,
I live by the faith of Christ, by His faithfulness working in
me. who loved me and gave himself for me." So Christ is the giver
of life. He's the life himself. He's the
giver of life. He's the sustainer of life. Christ
is the hope of life. And I'm not talking about life
in this world, though He is the giver of life in this world.
I'm talking about eternal life. Christ is eternal life. He's
the giver of eternal life. He's the sustainer of eternal
life. And He's our hope of eternal life. So He's the way, the truth,
and the life, and no man comes to the Father but by Him, because
in every one of those three things, He's our righteousness, brethren.
He's our righteousness. But now in the context, when
Paul said, for me to live is Christ, he means Christ and His
glory, and His gospel, and the calling out of His people. That
was the sum and substance of Paul's life. He was living to
preach Christ. He was living to see Christ glorified.
He was living to see the Spirit of God call out his people through
the gospel. He was living to see those saints
already called be grown in the grace and knowledge of Christ.
His life was summed up in that he lived to Christ and for Christ,
to promote his gospel and his glory. He said there in verse
22, he said, but if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit
of my labor. He's saying to continue preaching
Christ. At the end of verse 25, he says,
for your furtherance and joy of faith. That's what he was
living for. He said that your rejoicing may
be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again. Now, not all God's saints are
preachers. But all God's saints live to
Christ and for Christ. God's saints seek the things
that be of Christ. That's what we're doing. We're
seeking the things that be of Christ. His preachers seek the things
that be of Christ. This was Paul's heartbreak. We
saw last time he talked about those that preached the gospel
out of contention, trying to add to his bondage and his affliction. And this was his heartbreak.
He said over there, look at Philippians 2. He was talking about Timothy
being of like mind with him, and he would send Timothy to
them because he was faithful. And this is what he said in verse
21. He said, For all seek their own, not the things which are
Jesus Christ. They seek their own glory. They
seek their own will. They seek their own word. They
seek their own way. And they are not seeking the
things that are of Christ. But Paul said to the Corinthians,
he said this, he said, I'm not seeking mine own profit. He said,
but the profit of many that they may be saved. That was Paul's
heart. We live to promote Christ's glory,
not our own. We're living to promote His glory,
not our own. We live to bear witness of Christ
to others. Try to go through your day, and
at some point in your day, Look for an opportunity to bear witness
of Christ to somebody or invite them to come hear the gospel
preach. We live to send forth the gospel of Christ. Not everybody
in God's house is a preacher, but we're all together contributing
to send the gospel forth. We live to seek Christ's lost
sheep. We're on the trail of Christ's
lost sheep. We don't know where they are.
We don't know who they are. The Lord does, and the Lord will
draw his people under the gospel, or he'll bring the gospel to
them and draw them to where his people are, and he'll cause them
to hear the gospel. That's what we're living for
right now. and we're living to see Him grow
those that He's already called. That's why we gather to hear
the Gospel. We want to hear more about Christ and grow in knowledge
of Him, be grown in the grace of our Lord Jesus by what He's
supplying to us through the preaching of the Word. Our life is Christ. We have to work jobs, we have
to live, so we're going to have to provide our necessities and
all of that. But God's people are learning
as we go through this world. We start out in life and we're
just like everybody else in the world. We think to be successful
in life you need to get everything you can get, a high-paying job
so you can have a big house and a nice car and lots of money
in the bank and all of that. Well, that's nice if you have
that. But if we read this Word and
we understand this Word, the Lord said that's the surest way
to choke out the Gospel. He warns against that more than
anything in this world. The very thing that we grow up
seeking and being taught to seek is the thing in this Word that
God says will choke the Word and make you unprofitable. And
he said, Paul said in 1 Corinthians, if you look around in the churches,
there's not many mighty and there's not many noble. The Lord provides
a few that He's blessed to have riches, but He also blessed them
with hearts to not live for those riches, but to use them for the
furtherance of the gospel. And so, what He teaches us to
do is to live under Christ in everything. Why do you work?
Why do you work? What's the first thought that
comes to your mind? For God's people, the first thought that
comes to our mind should be, for Christ, to promote the gospel,
to send forth the gospel. If it's so I can have a big house
and the nicest clothes and whatever, that's living for self. Living
for Christ is I want to work so I can send the gospel forth. I want to do what I do in this
world so I can send the gospel forth. whether it's me talking
to, I want to work the best I can work at my job so that hopefully
the guy next to me will say, why do you work so hard? That
boss we got, he's mean as a snake. Why do you work so hard for him?
Why are you so good to him? He's mean as a snake. You can
say, I'm not working under him. but unto my Lord." And it just
opened up the door for you to show how that when Christ walked
this earth, He said, I must be about my Father's business. He
didn't tarry. He didn't dilly-dally around.
He was, from the moment He hit the ground, He was doing the
Father's business. And He gave you the opportunity
to preach the gospel to somebody. And here's our constraint over
in 2 Corinthians. Let's go there, 2 Corinthians
5. Verse 14. I was going to speak more on
this passage right here tonight, but I think I'm going to wait
and do so in the next passage we come to in Philippians, because
there's something I want to show you. But let me just give you
here, here's our constraint right here. Verse 14, for the love
of Christ constraineth us. He's talking about His love for
us. Yes, we do love Him, but we're talking about He first
loved us, and everything He's done for us is what is the constraint
of our heart. Because we thus judge. This is
righteous judgment. This is the spiritual discernment
He's given us, that if one died for all, then we're all dead. Those for whom Christ died, first
of all, we were all dead in sin. But when Christ went to the cross
and bore the sin of all God's elect, before the holy bar of
God's judgment, all His people died in Christ. Our old man of
sin, the nature is still with us and we still sin, but before
God, before the law, That old man is dead already. He's been
crucified. Justice has been poured out on
him. Now listen. And that he died for all that
they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto
him which died for them and rose again. That's what Paul's saying
in our text. For me to live is Christ. It's
Christ. So brethren, whatsoever you do,
this is what Paul said, whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to
the Lord and not to men. Live to Christ. He took the law
out of the way so you can live to Christ now. Live to God. So whatever you do, do it heartily
with all your heart, not to men, to Christ, to the Lord. That's
what, to Paul, to live was to preach Christ. Now, secondly,
he says, "...and to die is gain." To most, death's a fearful thing. It's a fearful thing. To any
that don't have Christ as their only righteousness, it should
be a fearful thing. And there are many in this world
that try to imagine death is the end. That when they die physically,
that's it, there's nothing else. But there is something else,
there's the judgment. And if you meet God without Christ,
there's something in scripture called the second death. That's
when the Lord will cast out all who try to come to Him by their
own works and by their own righteousness, by their own holiness. He'll
cast them out and they will suffer great loss for eternity. But
for those who believe Christ by the grace of God, for you
that He's called and made you to have no other wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption but Christ. So those of you who
He's made Christ to be your all, death is gain for you. It's gain
for you. Paul called it here a departure. You see that? He called it a
departure. He didn't call it death, he called it a departure. For the believer, for God's saints,
physical death is a departure from this world into God's presence
to be with Christ forever. It's just a departure. Just like
if you left this country and went across the sea to another
country, you just departed to another country. That's what
death is for the believer. It's a departure into God's presence. For the believer, death means
being with Christ. Notice here, Paul didn't say,
I have a desire to depart and to be in heaven. He didn't say,
I have a desire to depart and have a mansion in the sky. He
said, I have a desire to depart and be with Christ. Christ is
the believer's heaven. Christ is our heaven. To be with
Christ is far better. To be with Christ is far better.
For God's saints, physical death is to be immediately with Christ.
The moment your spirit leaves this body, you'll be with Christ
immediately. There's no such thing as purgatory. There's no
such thing as soul sleep. To be absent from the body is
to be present with the Lord. And get this now, that new spirit
that He put in you is fit right now to go into God's presence.
You won't read of one thing in scripture that has to be done
to your new man that He's put in you, the new spirit He's put
in you. Nothing has to be done to it for you to go to be with
Christ immediately. Because Christ is the holiness
and righteousness of the new man. And you go be with Him immediately. To be with Christ. those that
are made righteous in Christ to die as gain because it is
to be with Christ. That's why it's gain. And that's
far better. We'll put off this natural body
of sin and death. Why does your body hurt? When you're younger you get up
in the morning and hit the ground running. As you get older you
get up and it's not a matter if your body's going to hurt,
it's just a matter of where it's going to hurt. And why is that? Because it's dying. It's dust,
and it's going back to the dust. It's dying. But when you die,
you get to put it off, all its weakness and all its pain. You'll
be given a perfect body, perfect, immortal, full of strength, ever
young. We're going to put off this sin
nature. Everything that causes this problem in this world is
due to our sin nature. Everything that makes you desire
anything contrary to the Word of God, contrary to Christ, is
because there is a sin nature in you. That's what does it.
In our flesh, that is that sinful part of us, there's nothing good.
Nothing. But we'll put that off. We'll
put it off with all its sin, with all its shame. And then
this new holy man that he's given, this new spirit he's put in you
will be given a new perfect body and you'll be perfect in body,
soul, and spirit. Right now we see through a glass
darkly. Brethren, I'm telling you, you
know this is so. We ought not argue doctrine with
men because everything you know and everything I know and everything
we know collectively compared to what there is to know, we
could all put it in a thimble. We'd see through a glass darkly.
We know very little. Paul compared it to childish
things. He said when I was a child, I thought as a child, I speak
as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things."
What's he talking about? He's talking about when I depart
from this life with all the blessings as great as they are, faith and
hope. He said, but when I go be with
Christ, I'm going to be grown then. Right now, this is like
a childish... We just see through glass darkly,
but then you're going to know Christ like He knows you. know
everything that was ever just a mystery to you, you'll
know it all. And you'll see it's all glorifying
Christ, everything. We won't have any more trials,
we won't have any more trouble, we won't have any more sorrows,
and there'll be no more death. There's one thing that you'll
never find in heaven that you will always find in this earth.
In heaven there are no cemeteries. There are no cemeteries. There
is no need. There is no death because there
is no sin. All have been made righteous
by Christ alone. And He gets the glory. And then we'll have unbroken
fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Perfect fellowship, perfect
worship with Christ. and perfect communion and fellowship
with our brethren around the feet of Christ in glory. That's
why he said to depart his great gang. None of us liveth to himself.
Paul said either way. He said I'm Christ and I'll worship
and serve him either way. He said, for me to live is Christ
and to die is gain. This is what he said in Romans
14, 7. None of us lives to himself and no man dies to himself. Whether
we live, we live unto the Lord. Whether we die, we die unto the
Lord. We live therefore or die, whether we live or die, we are
the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived
that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living. So either
way. And so Paul said, I'm not going
to make the choice. He said, I'm leaving it with
God. It's up to God's will whether He'll have me here longer or
whether He'll take me there. He said, I'm in a strait between
the two. I know it's far better to be with Christ, but I see
the need of my brethren, and I'm in a strait between the two.
He's like a wife and a mother whose husband's on the other
side of the ocean, but her children are out here with her. And she
just has the heart to go be with her husband, but she knows her
children need her and she's torn between going and being with
her husband and being here with the children that need her. And
that's where Paul was. He wanted to go be with Christ,
but his spiritual children, the Philippians and all the other
brethren needed him. And so he said, the choice is
not mine to make. Choice is not mine to make. But he had confidence
that because those brethren needed him, that the Lord would use
him a little longer and wouldn't permit Caesar to kill him just
yet. And he'd live a little longer
and he'd come minister to them. And he did. He came and saw them
again at Philippi and ministered to them. So brethren, pray for
God to give us the heart to live to Him while we're in this earth,
while we're in this body, while we live here. and pray for God
to give us a grace to bow to his will, that if it's his good
pleasure for us to live here, then let it be for me to live
as Christ. But if it's God's will that we
depart, then we have this confidence knowing it's far better. And
let us trust whatever is God's will, that's what'll be for the
best. And let us ask for grace to submit
to his will. And if we're left here for a
while longer, ask God to make you useful. Ask God to make you
used in His kingdom and look for ways to be used to further
His gospel. That's what living the Christ
is all about. It's bearing witness of Christ, preaching Him. I pray
He blessed that, Brother Greg.