We'll begin reading in actually
the last part of verse 18. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice,
for I know that through your prayers and the help given by
the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn
out for my deliverance. I eagerly expect and hope that
I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage
so that now as always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether
by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ
and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the
body, This will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall
I choose? I do not know. I am torn between
the two. I desire to depart and be with
Christ, which is better by far, but it is more necessary for
you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that
I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress
and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you again,
your joy in Christ will overflow on account of me. Now, Paul has
already stated the primary and overriding concern that should
guide all of our thoughts about preachers, troubles within the
church, differences in ministries, and that is when he says, the
important thing, this is verse 18, the important thing is that
in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. So if Christ is being preached,
then we are to be content with that. That does not mean that
we would not address whatever concerns, whatever legitimate
concerns we might have with regard to a person's methods in ministry,
and especially if the message begins to wander. But nonetheless,
if Christ is being preached, if the truth is being told, then
we are not only content, we rejoice that it's being done. God, in
his sovereign power, is able to override the selfish ambitions
of men. He is able to take those who
do not have a character suitable for preaching and nonetheless
use them for his glory. When I say they don't have a
character suitable for preaching, I know that none of us are good
enough. All of us have some kind of flaws,
but some people, it seems as though the fleshly weaknesses
that they have run so contrary to the preaching of the gospel,
we wonder how any good could come from it. Nonetheless, that
is God's ability, and therefore He puts men like that in the
ministry to accomplish His purpose. Far from that making Paul sad,
remember he said of these people, these false ministers who do
so from false, preach from false motives, he said they do it to
add to my bonds. But he says, but I rejoice and
I will continue to rejoice. In other words, they're not going
to be able to bring him down. They're not going to be able
to discourage him. I will continue to rejoice. For
I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit
of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance."
Now, at this point, I do not believe that Paul is addressing
the question of whether or not he'll ever get out of jail. He
later addresses what he believes will happen. But here he's saying
that through their prayers for him, and by the help given to him
by the Spirit of Christ, what has happened will turn out for
my deliverance. Now how will that be? Well, one
way it could turn out for his deliverance is for him to be
released from prison, return to the church in Philippi, and
once again have the opportunity to minister to them in the gospel
and give them information that will help them in years to come. That would be one way. It would
also be a way open to him to address some of the problems
more pointedly, maybe even deal with the some of the preachers
that are needlessly causing contention within the church. That's one
way. Here's another way. That this
particular prison experience of his will end in his being
executed for the cause of Christ and he will be delivered from
all trouble. So here's what we know as believers. One way or another, we will be
delivered from trouble. As I have spoken over the last
few years, as we have seen several of our members depart this life
to be with Christ, as I've spoken to them, I've said we pray, and
we pray for your good, And of course, you know, we're always
praying that God would heal them. Nonetheless, no matter how God
answers that prayer, it will be a deliverance. It will be
a temporary deliverance from the illness and restoring them
to what passes for health in this life. or it will be a deliverance
from this life and all the ills that go with it and to be made
perfect like the Lord Jesus Christ. As Brother Charlie Payne said,
when he was going into the surgery from which he would never recover,
he had some real heart problems, but Brother Mahan went to visit
him just before the surgery and Charlie told him, he said, Brother
Mahan, he said, God's going to make me better or all the way
well. One or the other always happens.
And so when we pray, we know that the good of God's people
will always come to pass. For one way or another, they
will be delivered. But there's also this. He says
in verse 20, I eager and I eagerly expect and hope that I will in
no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now,
as always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or
death." So you see, he's addressing both life and death. His deliverance
isn't a choice between the others, one or the other. Either one,
he would count to be deliverance, but here we see the thing from
which he truly desires to be delivered, and that is cowardice. That's what concerns him. And
you say, well, this is the Apostle Paul. Yes, this is the Apostle
Paul, a man, a human being like you and me. And he is in a Roman
prison, which wasn't like American prisons of our day. They were
more like dungeons. He's cut off almost entirely
from friends, from brothers and sisters in Christ. He often goes
hungry, because as I understand it, they didn't feel any obligation
to feed you. It was up to your friends to
bring you food. Or they give you some kind of slop that you
wouldn't have ever eaten willingly. If it got cold and you didn't
have sufficient clothing, that was just tough. That was what
it was like in a Roman prison. And that has to be terribly discouraging. God had told him that I'm going
to send you to the Gentiles. You'll be a light unto the Gentiles
and so forth. But that hardly looks like what's
going on, does it? It would be very discouraging.
He says, but I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way
be ashamed." That is, in no way be put to shame. Now, what would
cause him to be put to shame? Well, one thing that would cause
him to be put to shame is if the things that he preached proved
not to be true. Remember in Romans he said, whosoever
trusts in him will not be put to shame. Why? Because their
trust, their confidence, their hope is a valid one. So he's saying I'm confident
and I eagerly expect and hope I'll not be put to shame. Even
though there are those out there who want to put me to shame,
who speak negatively of me, act as though I'm a nothing, nonetheless,
whatever happens, I'm confident of this, in the presence of God,
I will not be put to shame. Where it really matters, I won't
be put to shame. Also this, when he says I'll
not be put to shame, he contrasts it with, but will have sufficient
Courage. Courage. Now, in as much as he
desires courage, what does that say? His present circumstances
cause him concern and fear. You see, courage is not necessary
where there is no fear. Bravery, as they say, is not
the absence of fear. Bravery or courage is the realization
that there is something more important than the fear. Courage
is overcoming fear. Courage is doing what needs to
be done even though we are afraid to do it. And so that, Paul says,
I want to be delivered from that. In that time when push comes
to shove, so to speak, I want to be given sufficient courage
by the Holy Spirit that I will not shame myself by cowardice."
Now, if the Apostle Paul, who had already faced much more severe
persecution than any of us have faced, if he saw the need for
the grace of God and the presence of the Spirit and the prayers
of God's in order to sustain him in times of trouble, how
much more us? How much more us should we realize
that we depend on the Spirit of God like that? And how much
more ought we be moved to pray for our brothers everywhere that
preach the gospel and face the difficulties that come with gospel
preaching? He says, in my body, is strictly
speaking in the Greek it says in my flesh but since so often
when people read the word flesh in the Bible they think of some
evil nature rather than simply the bodily aspect of our existence
our translators probably did us a favor by translating it
body because that's what he's talking about in my flesh in
my natural existence I want to exalt Christ, whether I exalt
Him by life, in the way I live, in the, particularly as a minister,
in the conduct of His ministry. When we see how contemporary
Christianity in America is going, and really I imagine it goes,
it's the same nearly everywhere because man is the same everywhere. But generally speaking, ministers
work to exalt themselves. They are ever striving for a
more prominent, more dominant, more famous ministry. But Paul says, my desire is that
whether by life or death, Christ is exalted by me in my natural
life. So then he goes on and he says
something that's, well, it's typical of Paul's writing. He
goes, for to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Now, Sob, including John Calvin,
says the meaning of this is for to me, whether living or dying,
Christ is gain. Now, that statement is true for
the believer. Christ is gain, no matter what
your present circumstances are, whether you are living, whether
things are going well, whether you're in good health, whether
you are able to roam freely, Christ is gain. Or if you're
in prison, or if you're about to be executed, if you die, Christ
is still gain, right? But I've looked at this, I've
looked at it in various translations, I've looked at it as it appears
in the Greek language, and I just can't make that out of it. He
says here, for to me, to live, and that's in the, what they
call the infinitive, and it's in the present tense. So for
to me, to keep living, is Christ. Now Paul often, will use a noun
like that in a way that seems not to make
sense. For example, in the book of Galatians,
he says, Christ is made a curse. He doesn't say Christ is made
a cursed thing. He said Christ is made a curse.
Well, how do you make a person a curse? And he says, we are made the
righteousness of God in him." It says, Christ is made unto
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. And these things
seem to be, grammatically speaking, impossible. To live as Christ doesn't make
any sense. But if you understand Paul's
manner of speaking, what he is saying there, for to me, so that
is meaning in my estimation of things, to live is more opportunity
to make known the glory of my Lord Jesus Christ. For to me,
to live means I keep on preaching Christ, I keep on revealing Christ,
I keep ministering Christ. And he said, but if I die, and
that's in the Aorist tense because dying is not something you, it
is a process, it just happens. And the Aorist tense, the most
important part of it, aspect of that Greek tense is it's just
a single event, it happens, it's done, it's over. To die, Now
this we can understand, that's gain. That's gain. Gain for him anyway. He understands that his departure
will in some way be a loss to those who benefit from his ministry. But he says a little farther
down, the last part of verse 22, yet
what shall I choose? I do not know, I am torn between
the two. Now, he says, what shall I choose? But he says that rhetorically. Why? Because we don't get to
choose. We don't choose whether we live
or die. I know that we do Generally speaking, we do those things
that tend towards the preservation of life. But particularly when
you are in Paul's position, you realize that whether or not you
get out of prison, whether or not you live to continue your
life for some time further, or whether soon you shall die, that's
not in your hands anymore. And so he's saying, as he said,
I want to have sufficient courage that Christ will always be exalted
in my body. For as far as I'm concerned,
to live, that's to go on exalting Christ in my body through preaching
and ministering and so forth. And to die, why that would be
gain for me, because I would be free of all these troubles,
I would be free of the care of the churches, which it was a
care he was glad to bear, and yet, I'm sure, when he had finished
his course, he was glad no longer to carry the burden of the care
of the churches. So to me, and you know, this
was Paul's testimony, but it wasn't a boast. He wasn't trying
to say, I'm better than others. All believers have this attitude. Now, as we've often pointed out,
believers are like two people in one, and they have competing
desires. But in the heart of a believer,
this is true. To them, to live is Christ. Their life is about Christ. Their life came from Christ.
It's sustained by Christ. It's lived looking to Christ. It's carried on by hoping in
Him, trusting in Him, speaking up for Him, worshiping. To live
is Christ. And to die is gain. Now, I suppose to the world they
would think that we're suicidal. We're not. You know, suicide
is a death wish. For the believer to depart and
be with Christ is a life wish. But we also recognize it's not
in our authority to decide when that happens. We don't have the right to end our lives. I'm not saying
no believers have ever done that. I'm just saying God did not give
us the authority to end our lives any more than he gave us the
authority to end someone else's lives. Birth, life, death, these
are matters of God and God alone. So, When we say to die is gain or
that we prefer, as Paul says, I desire to depart and be with
Christ, he would never have killed himself to bring that to pass. Now, verse 22, if I am to go
on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Most modern translators handle
it that way. But I've read commentaries, and
again, I looked at it as the Greek states it. And actually,
it's more like, if I am to go on living, the fruit will be
labor for me. The fruit will be labor for me. Now, Paul was ready to do whatever
labor God sent him to do. He was anxious, ready, eager
to preach the gospel wherever and whenever God enabled him
to do so. So the fruit of his life would
be labor. Yet what shall I choose? I do
not know. Here he expresses that even within
a believer's spiritual mind, he comes up with, he can see
conflicting desires. Now we know we're always going
to be in conflict with fleshly desires, but there are also competing
spiritual desires. What shall I choose? I do not
know. I do not know. I am torn between
the two. I'm torn between departing to
be with Christ. And he confesses from a very
selfish viewpoint, considering only Paul himself, he said, if
I didn't have to consider anybody but me, that's what I would choose,
to depart and be with Christ. He said, in Philippians later
on, he'll say, I press on that I may lay hold of that for which
Christ has laid hold on me. That characterized his life from
the moment Christ laid hold on him. He says, I've been stretching
for that. And so he said, that's my desire.
And you know, unless the Lord returns within our lifetime,
The only way we're ever going to lay hold of all for which
Christ laid hold of us is if we depart this life. In this
world, we have an inheritance, a treasure stored in heaven for
us, and it's ours, but we don't have access to it, do we? He
said, so we desire that. We'd like this business of our
salvation to be completed. But then verse 24, but it is
more necessary for you that I remain in the body. It will be preferable
to me to leave, to lay aside the labors, to lay aside the
persecutions, the troubles, the sorrows, and be with Christ. But he said,
it's better for you if I stay. Now again, he's not building
himself up. You know, humility is not saying
that you're a nothing and a nobody. I realize if we think of ourselves
apart from God's purpose and all that, yeah, we're nothings
and nobodies. But, you know, a lot of people, and they'll
put on this false humility, and generally this is an expression
of false humility. Oh, I'm just utterly useless.
I'm no good to anybody. If God enables you to do something,
it is not pride to say that he's enabled you to do it. Paul says,
if I remain, it will be to your benefit. I'm pastor here in this congregation.
If I were to say without context, I'm unable to do you any good,
that would just be false, false humility. It would be to to fail
to recognize the gift of God given to me that enables me to
operate as a pastor of a congregation. If I did not believe that it
was good for this church that I am here to minister, I would
quit doing it. But that doesn't mean I'm proud
about that fact either. I'm not saying that pride is
not part of me, but just that fact acknowledging that fact
is not a prideful statement on my part because whatever I am
able to do I am able to do it only by the grace of God. So
I can't take credit for it. Paul said by the grace of God
I am what I am and by that he meant despite all the weaknesses
that people point out in me and even though they're trying to
decide or excuse me trying to to deny that I am a legitimate
apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, the fact is by God's grace that's
what I am. That's his meaning, by the grace
of God I am what I am. And so we don't ever have to
go around with false humility pretending like God has not enabled
us to do things. I remember a preacher getting
up at a conference and I don't have the right to judge people's
hearts, but I've seen this kind of stuff and I don't know. It
just seems to me to be put on quite often. This fellow, he
stood up there. He said, I'm not supposed to
be here. And what went right through my
mind, well, take a seat. I'm supposed to be there, meaning
I've been gifted to preach the gospel. If you haven't, sit down.
If you're really not supposed to be there, leave. Now, I know what it is to get
in the pulpit and feel like you don't belong there. I know what
it is to get in the pulpit and be more aware of the weaknesses
of your natural self and less aware of the power of the Spirit
of God working in me to do something for the benefit of the people
of God but we don't live by sight we don't live by what we can
detect we live by faith and if God has sent us to preach then
by faith the pulpit is where we belong without regard to anything
else. Is it convinced of this? Convinced
that it would be better for you if I remain? I I know that I
will remain and I will continue with all of you for your progress
and joy in the faith. So that through my being with
you again, your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account
of me. Paul, who was at this time actually
younger than I am now, even though he called himself Paul the Aged,
he lived to be about 65 and I'm already 66. through his diligent study of
the scriptures, even before he was a believer, and then the
grace that God gave him afterward to understand what those scriptures
really meant, and all the experience of 30 or more years of doing
everything within his power to make the gospel known anywhere
and at any time, God opened a door. Through all of that, he learned
some important things, some great wisdom for us who believe. And
part of it is this, be content. with where you are. To live, that's Christ. And that's
got to be a good thing. To die is gain. That's even better. But whether God has ordained
that we shall live for many years to come or that our death is
imminent, either way, Christ is exalted in our life lived
in trusting Him, in pursuing Him, and that God will do what
is wise and good for His people at all times. Okay, you are dismissed
to the regular service.