Philippians chapter 1, the verse that has my attention,
and I have thought about now for two or three weeks, more
along the line of a conviction as much as a sermon. And I titled
it because it's the question that I ask myself. What is it for me to live? What is it for me to live? And
I've been thinking about this for me personally for, like I
said, a few weeks. And actually, this is something
we ought to think about every day. This should be an everyday
thought. What is it for me to live today?
What is it for me to get out of bed this morning and to go
through this day? What is it? What is it really
for me? What really has my attention, my affections? What is it? I know when you get up in the
morning, you say, I have to go to work. Go to work for the glory
of God. It'll change your whole day,
I promise you. If you and I really get up with
the attitude, I'm going to do this today for the glory of God,
it'll change your whole day. It will. Now, when I started looking at
this, I thought about Paul. I thought about Paul and who
he used to be. Saul of Tarsus. What a change
God made in that man. It used to be that life for him
was Paul. It was all about, well, at that
time it was Saul. That's his Hebrew name. It was
all about him. It was all about his works and
all that he could accomplish and all his fame and fortune. It was all
about him. No one hated Jesus Christ and
the followers of Christ more than the Apostle Paul. No one.
No one has ever lived on this earth, I believe, that hated
Jesus Christ more than Paul. Satan more than Paul, but Paul
would be next. That's how much he hated that
man. He despised Jesus Christ to the fact that he tried to
stamp out the church. He tried to wipe out those who
claim to know Him, and those who proclaimed Him. He tried
to wipe them out. Paul is the one, and I went back
in Acts chapter 7, where it's at, and in Acts chapter 8, it
tells that Paul consented unto the death of Stephen. But you know, while Paul's standing
there and he's consenting to his death, do you know he heard
that message? What a message he heard. When
they got so mad, they stoned Stephen. They stoned him to death. Paul stood there and he held
their coach and he consented. He gave his consent to kill this
man. That's how much he hated Jesus Christ. But after the Lord
saved him, He had no reason to live or to exist on this earth
except to live unto Jesus Christ. He says, Christ is my life. Christ
is my drink. Christ is my bread. Jesus Christ
is absolutely everything to me. He's my breath. He's my heartbeat. He's everything to me. I would
to God that you and I could grow to that point. Don't think that
this is just for an apostle. Don't think this is just for
some servant that God is using greatly. This is for every one
of us. Every one of us are to come to
this place. For me to live is Christ. It's in my home, in the community,
in the workplace. For me, it's Christ. It's Christ
and Christ alone. That's what it is for me to live,
and that's what Paul, that's the place he came to. He had
no reason to live except for Jesus Christ. You know, the Scripture
says, to whom much is forgiven, they love much. Has God forgiven
you much? Every person in this room whom
God has saved, You can say, God has forgiven
me much because He has forgiven me all my sins. And they're more than the hairs
on my head. They're more than can be numbered.
But He put them all away. They're gone. They're gone. And
Paul says in verse 21, For me to live is Christ who dies gain.
But he says this in reference to what he said in verse 20.
Listen. according to my earnest expectation and my hope, that
in nothing I shall be ashamed." Paul knew. He's in prison. He's writing this in prison.
Does it sound like somebody writing from prison? Does it sound like
a pity party? Absolutely not. No. He said, I'm not going to be
ashamed, I shall not be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as
always, so now also Christ... Now here it is. Paul says this,
CHRIST SHALL BE MAGNIFIED IN MY BODY, WHETHER IT BE BY LIFE
OR BY DEATH." If I live, I'm going to live to the glory of
Jesus Christ. But if I die, I'm going to die
to the glory of Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter to me. It doesn't
matter. Whichever the Lord's will is,
for me to live or me to die, it's going to be for His glory.
Now that's the place we need to come to. If it's the Lord's
will for me to... because I've worked in some places
that I didn't want to work. One place I worked at, I thought,
why am I here? Well, now that I look back, now
that I look back, I was there for the glory of God. I was,
just to make this long story short, I was working with this
group of men All of them, every night, they would go out and
get drunk. They'd get drunk as a skunk.
They'd come in the next day with hangovers and trying to do machine
work. And they'd ask me to go. And
I said, no, I'm going home. I don't do that. I don't run
like that no more. But I was the only one in there.
Now looking back, I was the only one in there that believed the
gospel. I was the light. that God put in that place. And
here I was, I was just distraught about having to be there. I felt
like I was in Sodom. But God put me there, and He
put me there. He said, You are the light of
the world. You are where you are as a light. God put you there
as a light. You're the light of the world.
You're the salt of the earth. You're the only reason this earth
is preserved right now, is God has a people. You're the salt
of the earth. One of the reasons I think that
so many businesses stay in business, it's not because they're so brilliant,
it's because God has a people and they need to make a living.
And He sprinkles them all over the place. And they're the salt of the earth
and the light of the world. So anyway, this is why Paul writes
this. He said, whether I live or die,
it doesn't matter as long as Christ is magnified in my body.
Now Paul, we need to understand this. Paul writes to this church
at Philippi to encourage them to go on in the faith. to go on and grow in grace and
in knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because this, for me
to live is Christ that dies again, is learned. Remember in this
same epistle, Paul says, I have learned in whatsoever state I
am therewith to be content. That is a learned behavior. And
this matter of for me to live as Christ and to die as gain,
it grows as we grow in grace and in knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The more we grow in Him, the
more we grow in His grace, the more we grow in knowledge of
Him, the more we grow in this attitude, for me to live as Christ
and to die as gain. And so Paul writes to encourage
them to go on in the faith and to grow in the Lord Jesus Christ,
and not to be discouraged because of his imprisonment. Paul is in prison. Now how do
you think the Philippians are handling this? He's a prisoner
in Rome. You know, I have just a little
inkling of this. Henry used to say so many times,
one of these days I'm not gonna be here. One of these days I'm
gonna die. One of these days y'all gonna
bury me. And I used to think, when I was a young
man, when I was young, I used to think, I can't imagine, I
can't imagine being without him as a pastor. I just couldn't
imagine it. Well, it happened. The Lord has
taken him home. And life goes on, the gospel
goes on, preaching goes on. And Paul, and that's what Paul's
doing here. Paul, he's in prison, and he's
encouraging them to continue in the faith, and that the Word
of God, he says this over in 2 Timothy, the Word of God's
not bound, because I'm bound, the Word of God's not bound,
the gospel's not bound, because I am. Look in verse 12. But I
would you should understand, brethren, that the things which
happen to me have fallen out rather to the furtherance of
the gospel." Now tonight when you go home, read Acts 16. This is where Paul goes to Philippi
and this is where he preaches and this church is established.
Remember Lydia. Paul goes to that... Let me back
up a minute. Paul wanted to go to Asia, and
the Lord forbade him. He forbade him to go to Asia.
He was wanting to go there, but the Lord said no. Paul has a
dream, and there's a man from Macedonia in the dream who says,
come over here and help us. And so Paul goes to that area,
and then he ends up in Philippi, and he goes down by a river,
he says, where prayer was wont to be made, and the women gathered
here. And they gathered there to have
prayer. And Paul went there, and he just
walked in among those ladies, and he preached the gospel to
them. And it says, God opened Lydia's heart. He opened her
heart. She's the first convert that
I know of in that church. That's the first church in Europe
with Philippi. And Lydia was the first convert.
And the next convert that I know of is that Philippian jailer.
It's interesting how God deals with His children, isn't it?
One, He opens her heart. It sounds so gentle, doesn't
it? The other one, how did God save him? There was an earthquake.
Here's a very a very tough, tough soldier. I'm sure he's seen a lot of killing.
And God sent an earthquake, and God sent, He opened Lydia's heart.
And I was thinking today as I was reading, I know I'm getting a
little off subject here, but I was thinking today as I was reading, who would
have ever thought that Lydia and this old crusty jailer would
come together and worship the Lord Jesus Christ? Isn't that
the work of grace? Who would have ever thought Mary
Magdalene, and Mary the mother of our Lord, as she's called
in the Scriptures, who would have ever put those two together?
I'll tell you who put them together. God. The grace of God. Only the grace of God can make
a harlot, a demon-possessed woman, and what we would call a godly
woman, walk together. in love, in communion, all because
of one person, Jesus Christ. So anyway, Paul encourages them
here to continue on and don't be discouraged because of my
bonds, because God has used my bonds for the furtherance of
the gospel. If you go back over and read
in Acts chapter I believe it's chapter eight, Golden Acts chapter
eight. And Saul was consenting unto
his death and to the death of Stephen. And at that time there
was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem.
They were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea
and Samaria except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen
to his burial and made great lamentation over him. As for
Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house and
hailing men and women, committed them to prison. Therefore they
that were scattered abroad went everywhere Preaching the Word. Sometimes the Lord has to break
up our little comfort zone. But everywhere they went, God
sent this persecution over the Gospel. It scattered them. They
scattered out all over the place. But as they went, they preached
the Gospel. The Gospel was spread. God knows
how to spread the Gospel. He knows how. And Paul also let them know,
back there in chapter 1, he let them know this, that he which
hath begun a good work in you, in verse 6, would perform that
work until the day of Jesus Christ. They had nothing to worry about
as far as the work that had begun in them failing, because Paul's
in prison. He's about to be martyred. It's
not too much longer from this time that Paul is martyred. But
he lets them know this. The whole Trinity is involved
in your salvation. And God is not going to let this
work that He has begun in you fail. He will perform it until
the day of Jesus Christ, until you and I stand in His presence. If God has begun a good work
in you, He will finish it. Isn't that good news? Because through all of our stumblings
and all our failings, we have this promise. He will finish
the work that He's begun. I didn't begin it. He did, and
He'll finish it. God finishes everything that
He does. The work of salvation is the whole work of God, and
none of it rests on me in any way, shape, or form. Salvation
doesn't depend on any man, but that man, Jesus Christ. My salvation is totally dependent
on Him, and not me. Now, here's the message. And I want us to take a look
at this, and I want us to take a serious look at it, because
I want this. I want this. I want to grow in
grace and in knowledge of Christ. I want you to grow in grace and
in knowledge of Christ to the point where for us to live is
Christ. You cut into my mind and you
see Christ. You cut into my heart and you
see Christ. You cut into my conscience and you see Christ. That's how
much I want to be obsessed and absorbed by Jesus Christ. Now, what does it mean for me
to live? I'll get to live in Christ in
a minute, We've been given life. I know that. We have a life to
live on this earth. We have an existence. That means
we have a Creator. That means we have a responsibility
to that Creator. But we have a life to live on
this earth. And it starts out as a human
life, void of spiritual life. Void of the divine life of God.
It's just life. It's human life. It's above the
life of an animal. It's above the life of a dog
or a fish. It's above that life. But it's
not what it was in the garden. It's depraved. It's self-centered. It's self-motivated. That's my
life without Christ. That's what my life is without
Christ. My life without Christ centers
around me. It centers around what I can
get, what I can achieve. Someone asked me once before,
what kind of legacy do you want to leave? I want to leave the
gospel. I want to leave here someday
when the Lord takes me away, removes me, whatever. I want
to leave the gospel. That's the legacy. The gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not that I own this or did
that. No. No. But I do know this. Before God saved me, my life
was nothing but self-centered. That's all it was. That's all
it was. That's all it could ever be.
It's self-centered. Life without Jesus Christ is
not worth living. Life without Jesus Christ, it's
not worth having an existence without Him. Because without
Him, I'm going to have an existence of torment. But it's also an
existence of hatred of God. That's all it is. Until God saves us, we have a
life and it's a life without hope. It's a life without spiritual
life. And the end of it is death. Death. Our Lord said this in
Matthew 5, Is not life more than this? Is not life more than meat? Is
it not more than raiment? How many times do we say this?
What am I going to wear? What am I going to put on? We're
getting ready to go somewhere, getting ready to come here. What
am I going to put on? What am I going to wear? Is not
life more than that? I know we have to dress, and
I know we want to look presentable, Life is more than, he says here,
it's more than meat. It's more than the appetite.
It's more than feeding the appetite of this old man. It's more than
feeding the appetite of this body. Life is more than that. What is my life? What is your
life? What's it built around? There's something or someone
that just absolutely moves us or motivates us or has our hearts. Something does. Something does. For the believer, it's Christ. It's Christ. There was a time that I wanted
to make money. There was a time that I wanted
to achieve some things, but I honestly can say I have no interest in
those things now. I was telling my brother, I was
talking to my brother, you all know James. He was talking about
something about his house, saying something about it. I said, you
know, I mean, it's been a long, I owned a house for a long time.
I said, right now I own a car. I said, that's what I own. And
I said, it is so liberating not to own anything. I said, there's
really a liberation to this, to not owning anything. When
you own it, you say you own it. Let's flip it. It owns you. You
pay taxes on it. You've got to do the upkeep.
You've got to do everything. It is so good. to not own anything because you
can't be owned by it. And that doesn't mean go out
here and sell your house and stuff like that. I'm not saying go
out and sell your stuff. I'm just saying put it in its
right place. Put it in its proper perspective
because sooner or later God's going to burn it down. If it
stands long enough, He'll burn it down. If He doesn't burn it
down, somebody else will own it. My grandfather, they lived
in that house for over 60 years. He built the house. They're both
gone. I don't know who lives there
now. There was a place at one time where all the family gathered.
Nobody gathers there now. Can we not learn a lesson from
these things? It's just so brief. Time is so brief. Let's spend
our time trying to know Christ. But now for the believer, The
believer, the answer is, for me to live is Christ. It is Christ. Don't we sing the song, Christ
liveth in me? Christ liveth in me. And we live
in Christ, don't we? We live in Jesus Christ. Now,
when Paul says this, listen, Paul is saying this with strong
conviction. This is not a feeling. This is
just not a feel-good day. Paul is just not having a feel-good
day. This is an absolute strong conviction. Paul is going to
die. He says over in 2 Timothy, My
time of departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I'm
ready to go. I'm ready to go. There's a crown
of righteousness waiting for me." He looked beyond this world
and he could see by the eyes of faith. He could see his Lord. He could see that there's a better
time coming, better day coming, better world coming. And Paul
has strong convictions of this. And I'm telling you this, for
me to live is Christ. It'll have to be strong convictions
to overcome everything else that we live with in His flesh. For
me to live is Christ. It's a strong conviction that
Paul had here. But what does this suppose? Well,
this supposes, first of all, faith. Genuine faith. It's not a statement. He's just
not making a statement with no foundation. He knows by the Word
of God and by the witness of God's Spirit, His Spirit witnessed
with our spirit that we are the sons of God. By faith, he believes with all
his heart that Jesus Christ is his life. He is my life. And then it supposes union. Remember
our Lord said, I'm the vine, you're the branches? If this
is so with me, if Christ is my life, it's because I am joined
to Him. There is a real, as the old timers
would say it, a real living union with Jesus Christ. I draw my
strength from Him. I draw my breath from Him. I
draw everything from Him. He's the source of my life. He's
the comfort of my life. He's the glory of my life. He's
the reason for my life. There is no other reason to live
except Jesus Christ. There's not. And then it supposes
love. Love and devotion. Nothing is
going to be your life that you don't love. Whatever it is you really, really
love, that's what you're devoted to. That's why Christ said, you
can't love brother, father, sister, brother more than Me. More than
Me. And He said, you're not worthy
of Me if you do. It supposes for me to live, it's faith in
Christ, it's union to Christ, it's love to Christ, and it's
obedience to Christ. Speak, Lord, Thy servant heareth. These things are learned because
when I was a young man, even after the Lord had saved me,
I still had still things I wanted to do. I mean, but now it's, would you have me to move south?
I'll move south. You have me move North Carolina,
I'll move North Carolina. Whatever your will is. It doesn't
matter what, What my will is, hopefully, is His will, is according
to His will. He brings me around to that. For me to live is Christ, it's
faith, it's union, it's love, it's obedience. How could you
say that Christ is your life if you're not obedient to Him? He says, you call me Lord, Lord,
and you do not what I say. And then, it supposes the loss
of my life. It supposes the loss of my life.
Loss of personal ambition. You know what the ambition of
a believer is? To know Christ and be found in
Him. Not having my own righteousness. Not having mine, but His. That
is the number one ambition of a believer. is to be found in
Him, as Paul writes there in Philippians 3. To be found in
Him. To know Him. Paul knew Christ. He went to the third heaven.
He was taught the gospel by Christ. And yet Paul has this burning
desire to know Him even more. And I do believe this. The closer
one draws up to Christ, the greater the desire to know Him. You're
more intrigued with Him. You're more impressed with Him.
You're more obsessed with Him. The closer you draw up to Him,
the greater the desire to know Him becomes. And then it supposes this, is
to be conformed to His image, to be made like Him in spirit,
in heart, He was meek and lowly. Lord, make me that way. He loved
his neighbor as himself. Lord, make me that way. There's
an old song that was sung years ago. I heard it at 13th Street.
Lord, I want to be like Jesus in my heart. I want to be like
Jesus in my heart. That's what it is to want to
be like Him, to want to know Him, to be conformed to Him. It's for me to fade out of the picture.
John said, He must increase, I must decrease. It's to want
Him to be known so much, that I fade away. I fade away. That's when you
become one with Him. When you lose your identity.
We got problems with losing our identity. But when a believer grows in
grace and knowledge of Christ, you want to lose your identity.
I want to be known as a Christ follower, a Christian. I know that word is abused now
throughout this country, but because they abuse it, I'm not
going to throw it away. I'm not going to do that. I want
to be a Christian in the Bible sense of the word, a Christ follower.
You know, in Acts, they were called people of the way. That's
what they were called, people of the way. And then to say that Christ is
my life is to strive to advance His kingdom. Thy kingdom come. Paul said he suffered all things
for the elect's sake. that the kingdom of God would
go out, you know, the gospel go out and the kingdom of God
expand. The greatest thing that could happen to this country
and throughout this world is for the gospel to go throughout
this country and be preached in the power of God. And sinners
brought to faith in Christ. That's when you see a real change.
Policy ain't going to change anybody, period. It's not going
to change human nature. And then this thing of, for me
to live as Christ, it supposes fellowship. I have to ask myself this, and
I ask myself this more often than not. Do I really have fellowship
with the Lord? Because with me, I'm going to
the study every day, and sometimes, I get a habit of coming over
and reading and studying and preparing a message, and I had
to stop, and I thought, wait a minute. You've got to have
fellowship with Christ if you're going to bring the message properly.
There's got to be fellowship. Because fellowship, it has to
do with a real relationship going on. It's fellows in the same
ship, as Scott Richardson said. It supposes fellowship with the
Lord Jesus Christ. And then this, for me to live as Christ, it is to have a life that is
content. Am I content? Are you really
content with your lot in life, where the Lord has put you? Are
you content? If you're not, and I wrote just
a short article about it, if I'm not content with what the
Lord has given me and where He's put me, it's a direct reflection
that I'm not content with Christ. My contentment with Him. I have
all things in Him. All things are yours in Christ.
And that makes me content. All things are of God. That makes
me content. In Christ you are complete. That
makes me content. Whether I live in a shack or
in a palace, what does it matter? What does it matter? If the Lord gives it to me, what
does it matter? Now, the answer to what is my
life is Christ my life will determine my answer to the second part,
to die is gain. How I view Christ and my relationship
to Christ right now determines my view of death, of dying. It has everything to do with
it. It has everything to do with my relationship with Christ,
has everything to do with my attitude toward dying. Now death,
as viewed without Christ, I was talking about first, life without
Christ. Death, it is the greatest terror
anyone could ever experience or ever will experience. There is no way to describe the
terror that happens at death to an unbeliever. We know this,
we know this, we know that we have life and we know we have
to die. And life without Christ is indescribable
terror. I picked this up the day off
the internet. to show you how many deaths there are, which
is 100%. But it says here, according to
the world mortality in 2017 report published by the United Nations,
the number of deaths in 2015 was 56.5 million. This means that an average of
155,224 human deaths occurred each day. This also translates
to nearly 6,500 deaths per hour, 107 deaths per minute, and 2
deaths per second. What do you think it's saying?
It's saying what Hebrews 9, 27 says, I think it's 27. It is
appointed unto men once to die, and to die without Christ. is
absolute terror. I can't explain it. In Job 18.14,
death is spoken of, listen, death is spoken of as the king of terror. That's how it's spoken, as the
king of terror. Nothing as terrifying as going
out of this world to the unknown It is loss, it is total loss
of all things. It's a loss of all you knew,
all the friends you knew, all the education you had, the wealth
you had, everything. Death without Christ is a hundred
percent loss. Loss. to die for the believer is gain. And that word is a business word.
It means profit. It's profitable. It's profitable. And how is that?
The believer gains access to the very presence of God. The Lord said to that thief,
Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. Today. Now, whatever the Lord calls
paradise, that is true paradise. You know, it's not a beach someplace.
That is paradise. It is absolute perfection. Paul is not in prison anymore. He's not in prison anymore. He's
with the Lord. He's with the Lord. It's profitable in the sense
that we get to lay down this old body of sin and decay and
get a new one, a powerful new body. It's gain in the sense
that we have eternal life and that death can touch us no more. What are we all waiting on? Seriously. What is it we all
know we have to do? Henry said one time, he said,
you don't have to live, but you do have to die. You don't have
to live. You can die right now. It's over
with. But you've got to die. You have
to die. And then after that, the Scripture
says judgment. Death is gone. The terror of death is gone. The sting of death, gone. And then it's profitable. and
that it is gain and that we lose all the effects of sin. What would it be like to never
be tempted again? To never be tempted. To have
full control of your mind and not have thoughts pass through
your mind just like bees buzzing around your head. Oh, to lose the effects of sin
and to gain eternal life. And then it's to have perfect
knowledge. Paul said, we know in part and
we preach in part. We see it through a glass darkly.
But when that day comes, when that day comes, we have perfect
knowledge, we have perfect knowledge, we have perfect joy, we have
perfect rest, So many times that's stolen from us in this life.
One day we have joy, the next day we have sorrow. One day we
have rest, the next day we're unrest. But then we have perfect
joy, perfect rest, and we have the fulfillment of all that we
have hoped for. All that we've hoped for is fulfilled. Oh, I would to God that you and
I would come to this place that we could grow in such grace and
knowledge of Christ that for us to live day by day
is Christ and to die would be a birthday. It would really be
a birthday and not a death day. To go to be with the Lord.