Turn back with me, if you would,
to Philippians 1. Philippians 1. The Apostle Paul
says something in this text that I pray that God would make me
say. I pray God would cause me to say this and I pray he'd give
me a heart to mean it. In verse 21, Philippians 1 verse
21, he said, to me, to live is Christ. To me, to live is Christ. You know, the businessman says,
to me, to live is money. Right? And the educated man the scientist,
the researcher. He says, to me, to live is knowledge. You think about Albert Einstein.
To live to that man was knowledge, right? To the soldier, the true soldier,
The patriot, the man who has given himself to fight for and
protect his country. That man says, to me, to live
is honor. That's what he lives for. The religionist says, to me,
to live is my own self-righteousness. But Paul said, to me, to live
is Christ. And he said that right after
he said the word for. That's how verse 21 begins for
the word means because. Because to me to live is Christ
now let's see why he said for. Verse 12 he said but I would
you should understand brethren. that the things which happened
unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel,
so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and
in all other places." Last week we looked at the things that
happened to Paul. All of those horrible, what we
consider to be horrible things that happened to Paul. He said,
I was beaten, I was stoned, but he said it's all okay. Every
bit of that is okay, and the reason is because, to me, to
live is Christ. No matter what happens, God is
the doer of it. And it's all for good, and it's
all for the furtherance of the gospel. And it's all for the
glory of God. And he said, what more could
I ask for in this life? What more could I want out of
this life? Verse 14, he said, in many of
the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds are much
more bold to speak the word without fear. He said, they are starting
to see that if God has given me this grace, and this strength
to endure this, then they can endure it too. If God gave it
to Paul, they realize he can give it to us if he wants to.
Now he says in verse 15, some indeed preach Christ even of
envy. We just read this and we read
all of these different ways that these men are preaching. For each of them, Paul says at
the end of verse 18, the very end of verse 18, he said, I therein
do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. Paul would have never rejoiced
if these men, if their message and their ministry was not the
free grace of God. He would have never rejoiced.
We saw that in his letter to the Galatians. Look with me back
in Galatians chapter 1. Galatians 1 verse 6, he said,
I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called
you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is
not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert
the gospel of Christ. But though we or an angel from
heaven preach any other gospel unto you, then that which we
have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before,
so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto
you, then that you have received, let him be cursed. So the men that Paul was talking
about in the text, they were preaching the truth. They were
preaching the truth about man's absolute sin and God's absolute
sovereignty. They preached the truth about
God's right to choose whoever He wants to choose and His right
to pass by whoever He wants to pass by. They preached the truth
about the saving power of the blood of Christ and the keeping
power of the blood of Christ. They preached the truth about
who He did this for, who He came for. He did this for sinners,
didn't He? And Paul said, because of that
I rejoice. I do rejoice, even though some
of them preach it with envy. Go with me back to Philippians
1 verse 15. Some indeed preach
Christ even of envy." They envied the gifts and the success that
God gave to Paul. And I see how the flesh does
that. I completely see how the flesh
does that. They were jealous. Paul, here he is in jail, and
he's out of the way in their minds, and now they're going
to step into his shoes. They're going to go out and preach Christ
and take over. Next man is coming in. Verse 15, he said, Some preach
it of strife. All they want to do is argue. They don't argue over substitution.
They don't argue over Christ taking the place of a sinner.
They don't argue over the blood of Christ. They just argue over
other things. I don't like the way he handles
this. I don't like his demeanor. I
don't like his delivery. If he doesn't do things like
I do things, he's not a good preacher and he's not a good
pastor. Well, does he preach the gospel? Oh, yeah. I just
don't like him. Verse 15, he said, but some preach
it of goodwill. Some preach it of goodwill saying,
let's forget all this mess. Let's stay on Christ. Verse 16,
the one preached Christ of contention, not sincerely supposing to add
affliction to my bonds, but the other of love, knowing that I'm
set for the defense of the gospel. Verse 18, he said, what then?
What difference does it make? Notwithstanding every way, whether
in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, And I therein do
rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. And the reason is because, to
me, to live is Christ. That's the reason. Verse 19,
For I know that this shall turn to my salvation. Here he is in
prison and he said, I know this will turn to my salvation. Through
your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according
to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall
be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also
Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life
or by death, because to me, to live is Christ and to die is
gain. Now I want to take just a minute
and look at what it means to say to live is Christ. And then
I want to look at what it means to say to die is gain. What does it mean to say to live
is Christ? The first thing it means is he
is the source of my life. He is where my life started. Life began when Christ came to
me. Look with me at John chapter
3. John chapter 3 verse 1 says, There was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus
by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher
come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest
except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto
him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him,
How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which
is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee,
ye must be born again. Now do we believe that? Do we
believe that? Do we believe that if a person
is going to live eternally, he must be born of God? Do we believe that in the same
way we had nothing to do with our physical birth? We had nothing
to do with our spiritual birth. Nothing at all. Paul said, to
me, to live is Christ. To live, for a man to live, it's
Christ. It all starts with him. The next
thing it means to say to live is Christ is this. He is my sustenance. He is what feeds me. He is what
sustains me. How am I going to keep going?
How am I going to keep going? In John 6, go over just a couple
of pages to John 6, verse 51. Our Lord said, I am the living
bread which came down from heaven If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The
Jews, therefore, strove among themselves, saying, How can this
man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of
Man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoso eateth
my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life. And I will
raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed,
and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father
hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me,
even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came
down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna and are
dead. He that eateth of this bread shall live forever." Do
we believe that? Do we believe that? The Lord told Peter, he asked
him this question, he said, do you love me? Peter said, Lord, you know all
things. You know that I love you. He
said, then feed my sheep. With what? Paul said, to me, to live is
Christ. If I'm gonna keep going. If my
life is going to continue, it's only going to be by Christ. For
me to live is Christ. Feed me Christ. Is there anything
else you want? Anything else? Is there anything
else that sustains you? Is it not the older we get, is
it not becoming more and more proven to us that this is not
it? We can check that off the list.
This is not it. Christ is all. Christ is all. Feed me Christ. My life came
from Him. My life is sustained by Him. I'm going to give you one more.
To live as Christ means He's my end goal. He is my end goal. He is my heart's desire. He's
what I want. He's all I want. I love this
verse of scripture in Psalm 17. Look with me over it. Psalm 17.
Psalm 17 verse 15 says, As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake
with thy likeness. That's all I want. That's when
I'll be satisfied. When I awake with thy likeness. That is life to me. I want to
be just like Jesus Christ. I want to be just like Jesus
Christ. For me to live is Christ. It's Christ. Now go with me back
to our text. Verse 21, Paul said, For to me
to live is Christ. And then he said, To die is gain. Now why would he say that? Why would he say that? Death is loss. It's loss. We can all clearly
see that. Anybody can see that. Death is
loss. In death, a man loses his life. Isn't that right? He loses his
breath. You see a man take his last breath,
no more breathing, the breath that God gave. His eye loses its sight. His ear loses its hearing. His foot loses its movement. His heart loses its emotion completely. A man who dies loses his wife. A mother who dies loses her children. My mother said goodbye to four
children before the Lord took her. I remember her laying in
the hospital bed with her eyes closed. Couldn't, just couldn't
open her eyes telling us it's going to be okay. It's going
to be fine. She kept saying, I love you. I love you all. She
kept saying it over and over again. I love you. Everything that we see in death
is loss. But do you know what, and don't
turn to this, do you know what 2nd Corinthians 4.18 says? It says, Believers look not at
the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen
are temporal, they're temporary. But the things which are not
seen are eternal. Paul says right here, if a believer
can say, to me to live is Christ. If a believer can say that, if
a believer's life is hidden in Christ. If a believer is covered
in the blood of the Lamb, then he says for that believer to
die is gain. Now, I'm going to take the rest
of this message My guess is seven minutes. And I am going to quote to you
what Charles Spurgeon said about this. It's too good to not repeat
it. It's just too good. And I'm going
to throw in a little bit myself too. But you need to hear what
Charles Spurgeon had to say about this. It's glorious. It's absolutely
glorious. He said, in everything, that
a believer loses on this earth, he gains far more in eternity. He said he lost his friends,
did he? His family? His brethren? He said as soon as he dies, he
gains infinitely more than he lost, and that's the truth. That's the truth. He gains connected relationships. We have
a connected relationship. We love each other, don't we?
We hug each other. We think about each other. We
pray for each other. I mean, we are brothers and sisters,
aren't we? In glory, the man who dies gains
loving, binding relationships, connected, understanding, same-page, heart-to-heart relationships. And without taking our eyes off
of Christ, without diminishing our love for Christ at all, because
of Christ. This is all because of what He
did. This is because He purposed for
it to be that way. All because of Christ. Here's
the reality of eternity. As soon as a man leaves this
world, he gains friends, he gains family, he gains loved ones that
cannot be numbered. Abraham, Moses, David, Paul become
that man's dear, binding, close relationships, friends in Christ,
with Christ. Worshipping Christ, all because
of Christ, giving glory to Christ, thanks be to Christ. Spurgeon
said that man lost many believing loved ones in his life on earth. And we have, hadn't we? We lost
one last week. But he said as soon as he dies,
he gains them all back. He sees every one of them again. When the Lord brought Lazarus
back from the dead after four days, he was gone for four days. His eye didn't see, his ear didn't
hear, his heart didn't beat, his feet didn't walk, he was
dead. And when the Lord brought him back, Mary and Martha were
the same people to Lazarus And Lazarus was the same person to
them. They picked up right where they
left off. Have you ever had a really close friend that lives far away
from you and you get to talk to them about once every six
months? As soon as you get on the phone, you pick right up
where you left off. Hadn't seen each other in I don't
know how long. That's what it is for a believer
in eternity. They know even as they were known. Exactly as they were known. They all know who they were.
They all know why they're there. They all together cry unto Him
that loved us. And washed us, not just sinners,
us. from our sins in His own blood. They know who they were. They
know what they were and they know why they're there. When
the Lord came back from the grave, He said, Handle Me, it is I Myself. It's I Myself. And Spurgeon said,
Every believing relationship that was lost on this earth is
going to be waiting for us when we get there. Every single one. Every believing relationship.
He said, there the mother meets her unborn infant. That mother
knows. He said, there the father meets
his children. He said, there the venerable
patriarch, the grandfather, greets his family to the third and fourth
generation. Oh, I'm so glad God saved you. He said, their brother clasps
brother to his arms. The two of you guys are brothers.
Can you imagine embracing in heaven? Can you imagine that? Can you imagine what that's going
to be like? You're going to be you and he's
going to be him. And you're going to know who
you were. And you're going to know what you were. And you're
going to know why you're there. And the two of you are going
to embrace, saying, if God hadn't given me
so much faith, I wouldn't believe it. We made it. He kept us. Christ kept us. Down here, we keep saying, He'll
keep us. I promise He'll keep us. Up there, we're going to
be saying, He kept us. He kept us. His blood actually atoned. He actually did prepare a place
for both of us. We hear the truth that we're
going to love everybody the same in glory. All love is the same
in glory. That tears us all to pieces.
That brings us so much disappointment. We hate hearing that. Crushes
us. The reason is because you don't
love everybody like you love him. You just don't. He's your brother. Your older
brother. You look up to him. You respect
him. You love him. And it's sad to
think that that love may downgrade to the common love you have for
everybody else. But that's not how it's going
to be. The love that you have for everybody else is going to
upgrade to the love that you have for Him. And the love that
you have for Him and for everybody else is going to upgrade to the
love that Christ has for us. Brethren, to die is gain. I mean it's gain. Spurgeon said,
Their brother clasped brother to his arms, and husband meets
with wife. No more to be married or given
in marriage, but to live together like the angels of God. He said
some of us have more friends in heaven than we have in earth. He said we have more dear relationships
in glory than we have here. He said the company of poor imperfect
saints on earth is good. This is good. The company of poor, imperfect
saints on earth is good, but how much better the society of
the redeemed? He said, we leave a few, a little
band below, and say to them, fear not, little flock, and then
we ascend and meet the armies of the living God, the host of
His redeemed. He said, to die is gain. He said, a man loses his wealth,
does he? Naked came I into this world,
naked I'm going to return. I'm not bringing a bit of it
with me. Man loses his wealth, does he? He lost all of his estate,
all of his substance. Were his fingers bright with
pearls? He said, wait till he sees the
pearly gates of heaven. And I'd like to add to that,
wait until he sees the pearl of great price. Don't turn, but Revelation 21,
21 says there are 12 gates. And each gate is made out of
one pearl. And know in our God they're not
small. Spurgeon said, had he gold in
his storehouse? Mark ye the streets of heaven.
Just take a look at the streets. They're all paved with gold.
He said, might I die this hour? I think I would say something
like this. Farewell, Sabbaths. I'm going
to the eternal Sabbath of the redeemed. Farewell, minister. I don't need you anymore. I've
told you before about that time I looked at Brother Cody Groover's
Spanish Bible. I wanted to see if I could recognize
some of it, so I went to Psalm 23. I knew what that said. Verse
1 said, Jehovah es mi pastor. The Lord is my pastor. Spurgeon
said, farewell, minister. Thank you. I don't need you anymore. The Lord is my pastor. Listen to this, listen to this,
think about this. He said, farewell ye prayers
of God's people. We just, the men just met in
here and a man read scripture and he prayed on our behalf.
Just a second ago, I prayed right here on all our behalf. We gather
together and we listen to each other, pray to God, don't we?
We pray to God and we make supplications to God on behalf of each other.
He said, Farewell, ye prayers of God's people. My spirit shall
hear forever the intercession of my Lord. Wait till you start
listening to God pray. He said, Here we see through
a glass darkly, but there face to face. There what I hath not
seen nor ear heard shall be fully manifest to us. He said, brethren,
to die is gain. Why weep we the saints to heaven? Why need we lament? They are
not dead. They are gone before. Stop, he said, stop that mourning. Refrain thy tears and clap your
hands. Don't you love that song? It
says, oh, clap your hands. You know, we don't do that here
because we don't want to make a show, but it won't be a show
in glory. We're going to clap our hands. God said, clap your
hands. He said, what? Weep for the heads
that are crowned with the glory of heaven. Weep for the eyes
that see the Redeemer. Weep for the hearts that are
washed from sin and are throbbing with eternal bliss. Weep for
men that are in the Savior's bosom. He said, no, weep for
yourselves. That you are still here. Weep
that the mandate has not come, which bids you to die. Weep that
you must tarry, but weep not for them. Don't weep for poverty
that has been clothed in riches. Don't weep for sickness that
has inherited eternal health. Don't weep for sinful mortality
that has become immaculate. He said, weep not, but rejoice. For to me, to live is Christ,
and to die is gain. It is all gain. Every bit of
it, it's all gain. That's glorious, isn't it? All right, let's stand together. Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you
for the promise that you just gave us. Thank you for the comfort
of your word. Thank you for touching our hearts,
Lord. Thank you for reminding us that
we belong to you. Lord, we pray that you will take
your word and keep it with us. Don't let it leave us so quickly. And Lord, would you increase
our faith? We stand in so much need. Lord, would you increase
our faith and would you cause us to truly look to you. Lord,
we thank you for this time together. Thank you for every time that
you safely bring us here. We pray, Lord, that you'll watch
over each one of us, be with our dear brother Andy as he travels,
be with him as he preaches, be with brother Bob this week. Lord,
help these men and bless your word to the hearts of your people.
We ask these things for Christ's sake. Amen. You're dismissed.