Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the portion we read, Philippians
chapter 1, and reading from our text, verses 20 and 21, or really
the latter part of 20 and 21. The words at the end of verse
20, 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. The whole verse, verse 20, reads,
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. And the subject this evening
is Christ magnified. Christ magnified. We know that
the meaning of magnification is to make something great, or
to make it clearly seen, larger. If we use a magnifying glass,
if we use binoculars, if we use a telescope, it doesn't change
what we're actually looking at. That thing is just the same. But it changes our perception
of it. We can see it more clearly, It
is greater in our eyesight and it is in this way. We can't add
unto God. We can't add unto Christ. He is great. He is almighty. But the Lord has seen fit to
use sinners, use his people, use those who are the subject
of His saving work to magnify His name on this earth, magnify
it in their lives and in their death, to really show forth the
praises of Him who hath called them out of nature's darkness
and into His marvellous light. The Lord first. makes himself
great in the hearts of his people, shows himself to them, makes
him the altogether lovely and precious, and you which believe
he is precious. And as then they know personally
these things, it cannot but be shown outwardly and the Lord
magnified in them in their lives. Now the Apostle here, in the
context of media context, he is speaking of Christ being preached,
and some not preaching sincerely, but even with the intention of
aggravating the Apostle's bonds as he was in prison in Rome. You know, we think of today,
you may have those that even mock in the name of our Lord.
We have those that preach or meet together as Christians,
and yet what they teach and what they set forth is not the truth
as it is set forth in the Word of God, and maybe even in their
lives as well. And the apostle says here that
notwithstanding every way, whether it is in pretense or in truth,
Christ is preached and he rejoices. He rejoices in this, that those
things will be overruled for good. But he doesn't take it
just for granted that it would be overruled for good, he prays
for it. He says in verse 19, I know that
this shall turn to my salvation or the exalting in the salvation
that he is setting forth in his ministry, but it is through your
prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. And so the Church of God is to
pray that wherever and whenever the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
is set forth, the Holy Spirit of God would so bless that and
work powerfully in the hearts of those who hear his name to
their conversion and their blessing. We have read of instances where
a man jumped up onto a table in a pub and was imitating a
minister to all of his friends and really copying his preaching,
what he'd heard. The friends all laughing at him
and laughing at the mockery, but his own words were used by
God to convict him and for his conversion. Words that were first
uttered just in mockery and without intention, God turned it about. We should never sin that grace
might abound. But we should never then, and
the Apostle says this, he is not ashamed of Christ. He says,
according to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing
I shall be ashamed. that with all boldness as always. It's easy for us, isn't it, if
we have Christianity, have our Lord mocked and ridiculed, to
be ashamed. Peter was ashamed of his Lord
and Master, denied him three times when he was being, Christ
was being arrayed and mocked and ill-treated. falsely accused. And we can be the same, but the
apostle in having this view of what prayer can do and what the
power of God can do, he's not ashamed. We said about magnification,
it doesn't change what is magnified. And so with those that mock And
those that ridicule, it doesn't change our Lord. His greatness
is the same. His salvation is sure. He says
the foundation standeth sure. The kingdom of God standeth sure. Having this seal, the Lord knoweth
them that are His. And the Lord will use many different
ways. And the apostle sees it here.
As long as Christ is set forth, His name is set forth, His name
is lifted up, the Holy Spirit of God will surely guide and
teach His people, delivering them from error and every wrong
way. I know I mentioned it before,
but I've found an encouragement, a dear brother over in Australia,
never brought up under the sound of the truth, but given An invitation
to go to a church remained in his wallet for two years and
then he went, sat at the back of that church with his motorcycle
leathers on and meant to hear the Word. They gave him a Bible
and he started to read it and then he started to compare what
they were teaching and what they were practicing with the Bible
and he realized it was not the same. that the Lord used the
Word of God for his conversion. He went from that people to where
he could find the Bible preached in truth. He wasn't ashamed. It didn't put him off. It didn't
make him think, well, what a foolish religion this is. They have their
holy book, but they don't abide by it. They preach it, but they
don't preach it in truth. No. You read of the Bereans. Heard Paul preach, they searched
the Scriptures daily whether these things were so, tested
what was preached by the word, and therefore many of them believed. God's word shall not return unto
him void, and the Lord Jesus Christ in every believer shall
be lifted up, shall be great. In his temple we read in the
Psalms, everyone shall speak of his glory. They shall speak
of His greatness, His power. They shall magnify Him, lift
Him up, and praise His name. And so the Apostle had this view
of the circumstances in which his ministry was cast. And it's
good if we have the same view in our day and generation, where
many would preach Christ not in sincerity, with as much error
that abounds. May we still remember this passage
and not be ashamed of our Lord, but may we pray, may we have
an eye to the power of God, the spirit of God, but may we also
have an eye to ourselves. We profess that we are God's
children and we truly know the Lord Jesus Christ. Then the words
of our text, we will take notice of. Because the Apostle says,
so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body as well as by those
that are preaching Christ, those that in answer to prayer God
is calling them and working in their hearts. But it's 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. And so we have two main points. We have firstly how a believer
magnifies Christ. And then we have secondly what
it is for a believer to live and to die. For me to live is
Christ and to die is gain. But how is a believer to magnify
Christ? In our text it says whether it
be by life or by death. But it is in my body. Now the sense is that it is actually
Our bodies, which are a tabernacle, our soul dwells in our bodies,
but our bodies are what men see, how we live in this life. When
our body dies, then we're no longer alive here below. Now the Apostle Paul was preaching
the Word and boldly preaching it so that there was that possibility
that his life would be taken away. And he says in one place,
I count not my life dear unto me. And the realization that
Christ would be magnified in his body, whether that body was
living or dead, made him remember what the Lord said, fear not
them which kill the body, After that there is nothing more they
can do but fear Him who after He has killed hath power to cast
both body and soul into hell. Yea, fear Him. I fear many of
us through fear of ruining our reputation or coming under persecution
or be locked up because we've said the wrong thing, not politically
correct, or suffer some kind of loss, we hold back part of
the truth. We're careful what we say. The
apostle says, I count not my life dear unto me. Whether he
was in Caesar's household and many believers there, or whether
he was preaching before Caesar or Nero or the Jews, he would
hold nothing back but preach Christ faithfully. And it was
in realizing and knowing this, that even if he was killed, Christ
would be glorified even by death. And we think how that was, especially
with the case of Stephen, the first martyr. You read that in
Acts 7, where He was accused of the Jews, he gave his witness,
he charged them with crucifying the Lord Jesus Christ and also
the persecution of the prophets down through the years as well.
And they filled with rage, they cast him out of the city and
stoned him to death. But he looking up, he testified
of seeing the Lord standing at the right hand of God ready to
receive Him. And God was glorified in His
life while He testified, while He spoke and preached the Lord
Jesus Christ, and in His death, because He died with that sure,
certain belief that the death of the body was not the end of
His existence, The Lord Jesus Christ had put away his sin on
Calvary. The Lord there was waiting to
receive him. He had a mansion before him.
He had an eternal life. And the Lord one day would give
him another body, a new body. And so we see in Stephen how
that he truly glorified the Lord in his life and also in his death. We think of it also in a spiritual
way. He says, whether it be by life
or by death, that Christ is magnified in my body. Now we know for all
of God's children, like the Apostle Paul, he said, I was alive without
the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And that law which was ordained
unto life, it was to convince him as a sinner and be a schoolmaster
unto Christ, to teach him his need of the Saviour, need of
Christ's righteousness, not his own, it was unto death. And this is signified in the
ordinance of baptism, buried with him by baptism into death,
that we might be risen again in newness of life. dead to self, dead to our own
righteousness, dead to the law, but alive unto Christ, identifying
with Christ's death. And I, if I be lifted up above
the earth, will draw all men unto me, said our Lord. The apostle says that he is crucified
with Christ. That is, the world and crucified
unto the world. The world does not want God's
people. God's people do not want the
world. And our Lord was crucified, one
of the thieves. He said, save thyself and us. Come down from the cross. Live
for this world. But the other thief was looking
beyond this world and through death. He says, Lord, remember
me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And the Lord said, verily,
verily, I say unto thee, this day shalt thou be with me in
paradise. And that is where the dying thief
glorified Christ in death, in his dying. He died in hope. He died resting on the word of
the Lord and in that belief that he'd be with the Lord. And his
testimony upon the cross is read by us and read in the churches
to this day and to the end of the world. And so in that sense,
the Lord is magnified. But it is in the spiritual teaching
of the Holy Spirit upon a soul that makes one to be dead unto
their own works or hope in saving themselves and alive to the hope
in Christ. And in that sense, God's people,
it is in their death, spiritual death, and resurrection, the
life that they have in Christ. But the apostle Mosley is speaking
here of how we live. When he wrote to the Romans,
He said to them in Romans 6 about how we were to use our members. And of course he identifies with
Christ in being dead and risen again as well. If we be dead
with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ, being raised
from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over
him. And he says, likewise reckon
ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. And he's speaking there in a
more spiritual way, but he applies it in the literal way in how
we live in our bodies. And he says in Romans 6 verse
12, Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that you
should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither yield ye your members
as instruments of righteousness." That's our hands and our feet,
our members of our body. Don't yield them as instruments
of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God
as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as
instruments of righteousness unto God. And so he's speaking
of how we actually are using our bodies, what we are doing
with them. Of course, the apostle Paul is
using his body to persecute the people of God, hailing men and
women to prison and to causing them to blaspheme. But when he
was converted, then he was ministering to the brethren and preaching
the word and using his body to the glory of God. And so we have
with the word of our text that there should be that using of
our bodies and to magnify Christ. Men very often will not hear
what we have to say, but they'll see how we actually live. With the Apostle, of course,
he was a preacher and he was a teacher. They could see the
difference in his preaching and in his service to the Lord. Not
all the Lord's people are preachers. but we are called to serve the
Lord in different ways. And the world will notice, and
the church will notice, where our trust is, where our reliance
is. Instead of trusting to ourselves,
instead of trusting to man, we trust in the Lord. Where our
hope is, where our hopes are placed, That will also be evidence. It'll be evident in suffering. We sung, whether it be in sufferings
or afflictions or trials or whatever, it be that in those things we
are to magnify the Lord, not fighting against Him. We think
of with Job when Satan was permitted to deal with him as he did the
Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of
the Lord. Oh, shall we receive good at
the hand of the Lord and shall we not receive evil? We read
in all this, did Job not sin with his lips? And in his body
he was glorifying, he was magnifying the Lord. The Apostle Paul speaks
of his labours. He says, I laboured more abundantly
than them all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with
me. He magnifies Christ in the grace
that was given him. The thorn in the flesh, the Lord
had said, My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made
perfect in weakness. And so all those things that
were dragged down many, discouraged them, disheartened them, and
made them murmur and pray to complain. With him it was the
other way round. I will therefore glorify in my
infirmities. When I am weak, then am I strong. And he is magnifying that grace,
the help that the Lord had given him in those trials in his life. It is then, in a very visual
way, our bodies being a tabernacle, our souls within us, it will
affect how we live and how we walk. I believe that is what
Ruth saw in Naomi. It is what, of course, God commended
Abraham, and Abraham was justified, he didn't just sit at home, and
the Lord say to him, offer up thy son Isaac. And Abraham says,
I believe that thou art able, even if he is slain and offered
up, to raise him up again, because the promises of Christ are all
in him. But Abraham, he picked up his
body. He used his legs to walk. He
used his arms to get the wood and the fire. And they went,
and they went to Mount Moriah. And he used his members to make
that offering and sacrifice, but the angel stopped him and
then showed him the ram in the thicket. Was not Abraham justified
by works, says James. The Apostle Paul, as well when
he offered up Isaac upon the altar and by works he proved
that his faith was real and he magnified the Lord and James
says, be ye doers of the word and not hearers only. Faith without works is dead and
the works are done by our bodies. They are done as we walk and
act and see. You know the Barnabas, he went
to Antioch because they'd heard that there were those that believed
there. He saw the grace of God and was glad. He no doubt saw
those turning from idols to the true and living God. He saw their
lives changed. He saw a difference. May we always remember that we
are redeemed, both body and soul. We are one person. You might
say, well, doesn't the body end up lying in the grave? Isn't
it corrupt? Doesn't it return to corruption? It does. But Paul says in his
epistle to the Corinthians that this mortal must put on immortality,
in this corruption, in corruption. And the creature itself is redeemed. The resurrection, the belief
in the resurrection, and shall be arising again from the dead. As we have borne the image of
the earthly, so we shall bear the image of the heavenly. And Job, he says, even though
after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall
I see God. And it wasn't just going to be
someone else, it was for himself. And so the apostle joins These
two things together, magnified in my body, whether it be by
life or by death. In our lives, while the Lord
sees fit, we should be in the body. The apostle says while
we are in the body, we are absent from the Lord. Absent from the
body, present with the Lord. And while we are here below,
then we are to magnify the Lord in our bodies, living in the
tabernacle God has given us here below. But then he says, magnified
in my body, whether it be by life or by death. And you know this is a good word
when We may think, well, surely, as we pray that the Lord would
heal us and strengthen us and help us, lest we think that the
only way that Christ is to be magnified is to be keeping us
from death, extending our life, lengthening our days, The apostle
says, no, that is not the only way that I am to be glorified. It is also in death. And it's a good thing to remember
that. Because in death, the people
of God have a victory in Christ. A victory over the worlds. over the flesh, over the devil. They've come to the end of their
course and enter into glory. The Lord himself has prayed in
two distinct ways in one prayer. In John 17, we have one part
of the prayer is that the Lord would keep his
people. Father, I will. Not that they
should be taken out of the world, but that they should be kept
from the evil. That's one part of the prayer.
The other part of the prayer is, Father, I will, that they
whom thou hast given me be with me where I am. that they may
behold my glory. There is a time that we are kept
from the evil and remain in the body, and no sickness, as we
sung, nothing can hurt, nothing can touch a child of God, or
in Hymn 64, not a single shaft can hurt till the God of love
sees fit. But there shall come a time when
even Elisha, who worked many miracles and was a means of healing
many. Yet even he fell sick of the
sickness, for off he died. And no amount of prayer or the
power of God would prevent him from also going the way of all
the earth. And the Apostle Paul was to come
to a time that the executioner would do his job and sever his
head from his body, he was to be martyred, he was to be offered. But here he views both sides. Whether it be in life or whether
it be in death, that Christ will be magnified in his body. Takes faith in a way to see it,
you think of John Baptist. Death coming so quick, beheaded
at the request of a wicked woman, and his life taken away so subtly
in the prison. But that was the way God had
chosen, appointed for him. We think of the martyrs, some
of them able to sing a victory and testify of the grace and
help of God in the flames. But when we see that the Lord
is in control, His people are in His hand, in His Father's
hand, then when death comes, is not Christ magnified then,
who has obtained the victory over death, and especially where
His dear people have that hope beyond the grave, when they are
brought to a desired haven, when they can truly see and look upon
death as that portal whereby they enter into those prepared
mansions by the Lord. And so the Apostle says, Christ
shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death,
Maybe that be with us a desire, a prayer, a resolution that that
be so. That we do not offend, but we
rather, in the things that we do, that we show to others what
they would not otherwise see of Christ. We don't add to Him,
but we magnify Him. We glorify him, we justify his
actions, his words, his ways, his dealings with us. We're not
ashamed of the gospel, the apostle says in another place, because
it is the power of God unto salvation. And that salvation is to save
from death. It'd be a sad thing. And the
apostle says in Corinthians, if in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we've all been most miserable. But in our text
he says in this life, not only in this life, we have hope in
Christ. That hope is seen in our bodies
in death as well as life. A hope beyond the grave. Well
that then, is our first point, how a believer magnifies Christ. It is in their bodies, in this
lifetime, in their lives and also in their deaths as well. Then the Apostle, in our second
point, says what it is for a believer to live and to die is almost
an enlargement or an explanation of the first. For to me to live
is Christ and to die is gain. He says in another place, When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him. When He speaks to those at Mars
Hill, He says, For in Him we live and move and have our being. And our Lord, He gives a vivid
illustration of Himself as the Vine. I am the vine, ye are the
branches. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself, neither can ye except ye abide in me. And the Lord speaks of the necessity
of being found in him and receiving from him the spiritual life,
the life of God in the soul. I give unto them eternal life,
they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out
of mine hands. Yet that is a life that's not
just given and then there's no link between the Lord and that
person. No, it is a life with a direct
supply from the Lord. And if it is severed but a moment,
you think with a branch, you can't just cut a branch off the
vine and say we'd like to bring that inside and every now and
again we'll just hold it against the stump and get a bit of resin,
a bit of sap coming up through into the branch. It's got to
abide there all the time to receive that sap. Can't be just a little
bit here and a little bit there. And the Lord is insistent upon
that. The union with Him and the receiving
from Christ, grace and help and strength. Except ye eat the flesh
and drink the blood of the Son of God, ye have no life in you. And so the apostle says for me
to live is Christ. I don't want to give too mean
an illustration but there is many, many a young man and I
think I could include myself in days of unregeneracy when
for me to live was a car or a hobby or music or something like that
and that which I thought about day and sometimes in the night
was how I was going to do this on the car or do that. And our
life is something else than Christ. Some parents, their life is bound
up in their children. Or it'll be someone's life is
their job and they just live for that. But the apostle says,
for me to live is Christ. All that he does, all that he
walks, he walks as before the Lord. It is vital that the people
of God receive that life daily. The children of Israel had the
manna from heaven right through their wilderness journey. That
was given miraculously. They drank of that spiritual
rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. We're not
surprised, are we, with naturally thinking, well, we need daily
bread, daily food. Give us this day our daily bread. If we don't eat, then we don't
live naturally. And so it will be spiritually.
We need the life, we need the food. To charge to Peter, By
our risen Lord on the edge of the lake, feed my sheep, feed
my lambs. Communicate life, that's why
we gather together, gather in the week and gather round the
word and read it in our homes and privately and have a family
altar. Because the word of God, man
shall not live by bread only. but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God. And it is as the Lord preached
to those two on the way to Emmaus in all the scriptures, the things
concerning himself. If we read of all of the tabernacle,
all of the sacrifices, the offerings in the Old Testament, and we
don't see Christ through them, it's of no profit to us whatsoever. But when we see Christ, as no
doubt the two on the way to Emmaus did, then there is the blessing,
the same as the eunuch in the prophecy of Isaiah. For to me,
to live is Christ. That designates the life of a
believer, the life of the people of God. They're not living for
the church, or a fellowship, or for a name, or for busyness
in religious things. But their life is Christ. Their
fellowship is with Him. He is their bridegroom. He is
their savior, their redeemer. He is their hope of heaven. He
is their guide. He is the way. Our Lord testifies
in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man
cometh unto the Father but by me. The apostle says in Hebrews
12, we're to run the race set before us, looking unto Jesus. Not just some of the time, but
have our eyes on Jesus fixed. And so he says, for to me, to
live is Christ and to die is gain. He has a very, very clear
view of what is before him at death, absent from the body,
present with the Lord. And he knows of those that inheritance
which is incorruptible, undefiled, reserved in heaven for you. He knows that in heaven there
shall be no more death, no more sin, no more Satan, no more worlds. There is a victory. He speaks
of that in 1 Corinthians 15. And he speaks of that in Romans
8. I thank God. Who shall deliver
me from this body of death? I thank God. Through Jesus Christ,
my Lord, thanks be unto God that giveth us a victory through our
Lord Jesus Christ. And that victory is to be brought
where Christ is in heaven, to be with Christ, which is far
better, a hope beyond the grave. It is gain. Many think, and our
Lord reproved those who thought riches were gain, and earthly
attainments were gain. But what gain are those things
that are all lost at death? How often we read of those, even
rich men, rich women, who've taken their own lives, and their
riches couldn't go with them, and their riches didn't satisfy
them or comfort them in life or in death. But with the people
of God, Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought
nothing into this world, and it is certain we shall bring
nothing out. But the treasure that we have
is in Christ, and that treasure is above. So may we indeed magnify
Christ. May we magnify Him in our bodies,
in our lives. It be not just word, but it actually
is seen and shown in how we live, what we do, what we say, who
we company with, our presence in the house of God, our love
to the people of God. We know that we have passed from
death unto life. in that we love the brethren.
So may the Lord grant us that we, with the Apostle, might have
Christ magnified in our body, whether it be by life or by death. And may we be able to say as
well, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Amen.