Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Philippians chapter one. Philippians chapter one. Now,
I was pondering this today, that for an unsaved man, when an unsaved
man dies, it's a loss. But for the believer in Christ,
when we die, it's gain for us. That's what the scripture's gonna
tell us, say, that we're gonna focus on tonight. I was also
thinking, if there was no Christ, death would be a loss for us
too. If Christ hadn't come down here and redeemed us, if he hadn't
come down and saved our eternal souls by the shedding of his
precious blood, then death would be a loss because we all died
in Adam. But praise be to God, Our risen
Savior completed the perfect work of salvation in our room
and place and saved our eternal souls. So that now death for
the believer is gain. Gain. My oh my. Now this verse will be very familiar
to we who are born again blood washed children of God. It's
a wonderful verse. in the book of Philippians. Now
this book is called a prison epistle because Paul's in shackles. And what's he in prison for?
He's in prison for preaching the gospel. Could you imagine
that? Here these Roman soldiers are guarding him and they say,
well what's this fellow Paul in here for? Oh, didn't you hear? No, no. Oh, he's in here for
preaching the gospel. What? He didn't kill anyone? No, he's just in here for preaching
the gospel. And I was listening to what he
was saying. He was talking about this Christ
fella. Oh my. And scripture says there's
some in Caesar's household who believed. A lot of people think
some of them guards The Lord gave him hearing ears and seeing
eyes to look to Christ. It's wonderful. And Paul, he's
in prison for, again, just preaching the gospel, preaching Christ.
And he's been preaching about the complete, perfect, sin-atoning
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, that it has nothing to do with
our works, and that goes against the grain of man. That goes against the Jews who
had all these laws that you had to follow. And that also goes
against the Gentile gods who were always having to be appeased. Always having to be appeased.
I was listening to a sermon today about Jonah. Do you know that
there was a meeting of the gods on that boat? That boat that
Jonah was on, and only one showed up. The true and living God. Because they were all praying
to their gods, it says. But only one showed up. Isn't
that amazing? The one true God, brother. He
showed up. He showed up. My, oh my. Oh,
isn't that amazing? So our great God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, came down from heaven and became a man and died a perfect
sin-atoning death in our room and place. He's the Lamb of God
and his blood is shed and he finished the work that the Father
sent him to do, which is to save his people from their sins. And
here Paul's writing to these Philippians. They were Gentiles. And he's writing to them. He's
in prison. They're very concerned about
him being in prison. They're very concerned. Look
what he says here in Philippians chapter 1 starting in verse 12.
He says, but I would you should understand brethren that the
thing which happened to me have fallen out into the furtherance
of the gospel. So he says I'm in prison here. I'm in prison,
but it's fallen out for the furtherance of the gospel. See, whatever
happens in the life of a church, good and bad, it falls out for
the furtherance of the gospel. Isn't that amazing? Oh my, and
we don't understand it. So Paul's saying, the Philippian
saints are saying, Paul, you're in jail. Well, think of this,
he's in fetters, right? But is the gospel in fetters?
Oh no, the gospel can't be chained, can it, Brother Dave? No, it's
free. It's free. It's still going out
there, even though Paul's in chains. It's still going forth. So no matter what happens to
a gospel preacher or to a saint of God, the gospel's still going
free, isn't it? Oh my. He says, look, he says,
so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and
in all other places in the palace, amongst the guards. The gospel, and look what it
says, is manifest. Who does God manifest the gospel
to? His sheep. Oh, isn't that amazing? Look
at this. And many of the brethren of the
Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to
speak the word without fear. See how the gospel is going further
now? Because some, who may have been
a little timid, are now waxed bold in speaking and preaching
the gospel. And look, it says that they speak,
are much bold to speak the word without fear. We ought not to
fear man. Man cannot destroy the soul,
but God can. And the scripture says, God has
not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and
of a sound mind. Oh my. Some indeed preach Christ
even of envy and strife, and some also of goodwill. The one
preached Preach Christ of contention. One's causing contention. But
does Paul say, stop that? Why is he rejoicing even though
that guy's preaching with contention? Because the gospel's going forth.
He didn't say he wasn't preaching the gospel. Notice that? No. Some indeed preach Christ,
even of envy and strife, and some also of goodwill. The one
preached Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add
affliction to my bonds. They're looking to add affliction
to his bonds, and yet the gospel's going out. Isn't that amazing? The gospel's
unfettered. It can't be bound. Now, the preachers
of the gospel can be bound. God's people can be bound. But
the gospel's never bound. It's free. And it flows out and
accomplishes whatever God wills it to accomplish. That's why
I get excited about the messages going out here. They're going
to places we don't even know, beloved. They may be going into
countries that they've said, you can't download that stuff. We don't know. We have no idea. My. Look what he says. What then, notwithstanding every
way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached and
I therein do rejoice and will rejoice. For I know that this
shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of
the spirit of Christ. Look at verse 20. According to
my earnest expectation and my hope. Who's our hope? Our hope
is Christ. That in nothing I shall be ashamed. But that with all boldness is
always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether
it be by life or by death. I'm so sorry. So he's saying
here, whether I live or whether I die, may Christ be magnified. And he says this in verse 21,
here's our text. For to me to live is Christ,
and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this
is the fruit of my labor, yet what shall I choose, I want not.
For I am in a strait betwixt two, having the desire to depart,
which is to be with the Lord, and to be with Christ, which
is far better. Nevertheless, nevertheless, to abide in the
flesh is more needful for you, Remember, he was caught up in
the third heaven. He saw things he couldn't even talk about. He saw things he couldn't even
talk about. And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and
continue with you, with you all, for your furtherance and joy
of faith, that your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus
Christ for me by my coming to you again. So here are the words
of Paul. He's a prisoner for Christ's
sake. He's been in prison because he's preaching the gospel. And he's a brother, we see, that's
ready to leave this world. He's ready to leave. How do we know that? Well, he
says, he says, for I'm in a strait betwixt two, verse 23, having
a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better.
nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you
and he's told us in verse 21. Remember this is all by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit of God. Look what God the Holy Spirit
is showing us here. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Oh my! We also see in verse 19,
Paul still addressing the Philippians concerning that which is most
singularly important to the child of God, that Christ is to be
preached. He must be preached. He must
be preached. Look in verse 19 again. He knows
that the troubles the church is facing. And his own bondage
is troubling to many. In verse 19, he says, for I know
that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer in the supply
of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. He's just trusting the Lord.
Whether he lives or dies, he's trusting the Lord. And he assures
the believers at Philippi that these arising circumstances are
but part of God's providence, part of his will. My, he's in prison. And these
prisons weren't like the country clubs today. There's rats running
around in these prisons. And they feed them slop and they
better hope to get to it before the rats get to it. And here's Paul writing a whole
epistle in prison. My oh my. And again, this is
one of the prison epistles. And sometimes these prisons were
just a hole in the floor and they just lowered down food or
water. Some of them were dark caves.
Obviously he must have had some light to be able to write. But I'll tell you what, these
were rat infested prisons. They were not like today. Not
like today. And he assures, again, he assures,
just like I said earlier, he assures the believers this is
all falling out according to God's wise providence. All this
is happening. And then note in verse 20, Paul,
by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, speaks these words, according
to, according to, according to his earnest expectation and hope. Look at this, according to my
earnest expectation and hope. that in nothing I shall be ashamed,
that with all boldness as always, so now also in Christ shall be
magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death." He's
saying, whether I live or die, may Christ be magnified in my
life. Isn't that wonderful? This is
the cry for all of us, isn't it? As believers. We all say, by God's grace for me to live
as Christ, but to die as game. My, oh my. Do we believe that?
Do we believe what the scriptures say? Do we believe that we are to live for Christ? Amen,
brother. But that's our desire, isn't
it? We had a desire before that we used to want to live for ourselves.
And so did Paul, right? So did Paul. He was going around
wasting the church. But now here he is. He desires
now to live for Christ. For Christ, we see what living
for Christ is, it's magnifying the Lord in our lives. My, oh, my. And notice in verse
20, according to, in mean, as stated or indicated by, or, in
keeping with an agreement in which he has previously declared.
So this verse, the way he worded it, is attaching itself to what
he said above. And let's read it again. According
to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall
be ashamed. God give us grace to not be ashamed.
Right? God, give us grace to not be
ashamed. But that with all boldness is always so now also Christ
may be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. Beloved, expectation and hope
are things grounded in God-given faith. They're things grounded in God-given
faith, as declared in Hebrews 11, 1, which says this. Now, faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. You've heard
me say many times, if we hope for something, if we see it,
we're not hoping for it because we see it. We've not seen Christ. By faith, we see Christ. By faith,
we look to Christ. By faith, we trust and rest in
Christ. And that's God-given faith, right? We hope to see
the Savior. And we have assurance in the
scripture that all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, for
them to live as Christ and to die as gain. Amen. My, oh, my. And take a look at Philippians
121 and notice who's between life and death. Yep. Remember we saw that in John
17 too? Where he was in between believers
and unbelievers? Look at this. For me to live
is what? Christ. And to die is gain. My oh my. So whether we live
or whether we die, we who are the born-again blood-washed children
of God, For us to live is Christ. We live for Him now. We used
to live for self. Now we desire to pour our lives
out for Christ. Serve Him. Amen. I have a Father.
We desire to serve Him now. My oh my. And this is truth that
we see set forward in this wonderful verse. That to live is Christ
and to die is gain. Now how brief is the distance
between life and death, really? 80 years, 70 years, sometimes
30, sometimes even less. Yeah, I had a little nephew who
lived, he lived, I think 18 hours, about four or five years ago.
18 hours of life. Yeah, he lived his full life.
I'm gonna see him in glory. I believe I am. I'm going to
see him. I'm going to meet him in glory. Oh, David said, I'll
meet my son. He can't come to me, but I'm
going to meet him. Oh, yeah. Amen. What a comfort. Yeah. And how brief the distance between
life and death as we pilgrimage through this world. Like you
said, David, it's like a vapor. It's just it's a vapor. Our life
is like a vapor. You know, 80 years in light of
a thousand years is nothing. 80 years in light of 10,000 years
is nothing. 80 years in light of eternity
is absolutely not even registering on the meter. And yet for us
it's a whole lifetime. Isn't that amazing? Oh my. Do you know that our very
pulse beats a death drum? I remember reading Spurgeon,
and man, I'll tell you what. He says, you hear that clock
ticking? Tick, tick, tick. It's a clock ticking down our
time. No. And our heartbeat is beating
towards our death. It's a drumbeat. Boom, boom,
boom, boom, boom, to our death. Oh my, and that's true for saved
and lost, right? It's a death march. We may see
our friends today in health, and then tomorrow, they're in
the bed of affliction. I have a friend of mine from
McDonald's, and I saw him, I saw him about, well, before COVID
and all that, and he was doing really well and everything. And
then recently, he started having some heart issues. Oh my, he's
just all tore up. Doesn't come out very much, wore
right out, going through it. My, his name's Ernie, if you
remember to pray for him. And pray for his salvation. He
needs Christ, and I've often talked to him about him, and
that's all you can do is set Christ before him. That's all
you can do. But even his heart, that's a
drumbeat to his death, isn't it? My oh my. Our very pulse, again, that circulates
our blood, beats our death march. We may ride, we leave here, we
get in the comfort of our cars, we drive to home or to wherever
we want, but tomorrow, maybe the hearse driving us to the
grave site. See, we don't know. We don't
know. People can die just like that.
We're seeing it in conflicts around the world. People dying
just like that. Horrendous deaths too. Because
of the sinfulness of man. But just gone like that. No warning. Just gone. My oh my. See people say, well,
I'll wait for tomorrow. What if tomorrow doesn't come?
What if you get in a car and get in a car accident and die? and you meet your maker, dead
in trespasses and sins. Oh my, death's all around us,
beloved. This is just a tent. When I die and when you all die,
this tent is gonna go into ground, isn't it? But our spirit, for
we who are born again blood-washed saints, we're gonna be with the
Lord. to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
That's amazing. It's gonna happen for us by the
grace of God. And think of this. Think of how
closely death is allied to life. All around us, the lamb in the
field, full of life, it must soon fall under the knife. The
cattle, we see, we drive by cattle all the time, don't we? In the
fields. being fattened to the slaughter. Oh, it's all around us, beloved.
Trees. Trees grow. They grow up, and then they get
felled, and they're either used to build houses, or for products
like that, or paper. But they live, and then they're
felled, and they die. Think of this, too. Empires.
Think of the Greek Empire. Alexander the Great rose up,
conquered a whole bunch of the known world, then fell. When he died, it broke off into
four different pieces, never to be the same. And then Rome
came in. Rome rose up right after that.
Where's Rome now? Gone. Where's the great Persian
empire that ruled a huge swath of Asia Minor? Gone. Where's the great horde of Genghis
Khan? He built an empire that went
all the way into Europe. Where is it? It's gone. It's gone. Death comes for all. And how often do we hear the
coronation of a king or president or a prime minister
and then death comes? Oh my. Death reaches far into
this world, doesn't it? Far into this world. And it stamped
all terrestrial things, all earthly things with the broad arrow of
the grave. Even stars die. See a shooting
star, the death of a star, with planets that circled it, worlds,
dying. It's all around us, beloved.
But let we who are the redeemed be thankful that there's one
place, there's one place where there's no death. There's one place where the death
bell is never heard, beloved. The entrance into that place
is by death, though. And we are going to a place where
life reigns, because He who is life eternal is there. What's
His name, Brother Dave? Jesus Christ, amen. The Lord
Jesus Christ, our Savior, our Redeemer, our King. And life reigns, beloved. When we
leave here, we actually leave, we leave the land of the dead
and go to the land of the living, beloved. Our brothers and sisters
in glory are living more live now than they've ever been before. My, oh my. Again, there's a land where the
death bell never sounds, the grave sheets are never woven,
and the graves are never digged. Praise God for that blessed land
beyond the skies, which is only heaven because Christ Jesus is
there. That's the only reason it's heaven. Face to face, we'll
see our Redeemer. And the only reason it's heaven
is because we're going to behold the face of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. And
we are going to sing praises with a multitude that no man
can number, beloved. My, my, no wonder to die is gain,
right? To be there, to see Him. And
then, we get the fellowship with one another. When there's no
sin, brother. Perfect. We love each other here.
Imagine how we're going to love each other in glory. Oh my gosh.
Real love. A love for each other that's
not impeded. My, and Brother Brian and you
and Sister Linda, you won't be husband and wife there, but you're
gonna love Christ together. You're gonna know each other.
I believe that. I believe we're gonna know people.
My, oh my. And what a wonderful news this
is. To die is gain. My, now we as
believers, we're born into this world just like everyone else,
right? We're vessels of honor, we don't know it, but you can't
tell a sheep from a goat when we're first born into this world. I was telling Vicky, when I saw
your picture with your long hair, and I said, man, Dave and I,
we'd have been fast friends, we'd have been running around.
And I said, yeah, oh yeah, no, that's how we would have been.
But look at us now. Look what the Lord's done for
him. Give him all the glory. Hallelujah. Look what he's done. He saved our souls, brother.
And then he knit our hearts together. All of us. Isn't that wonderful? Brother Brian, I didn't know
you and Sister Linda at all. Right? And look how he's knit
our hearts together. It's amazing. My, we're family
here. We got Sister Jill and Sister
Diane. Isn't it? Vicki? Man, everybody
listening? Yeah? Who's a born-again believer? And we're all going to see each
other and spend eternity together, forever, because to live is Christ,
but to die is gain. And after we're born again, the
believer desires to begin to live for Christ now. See, we
didn't want to live for Christ before the Lord saved us. But
now, in living for Christ is serving Him, thinking upon Him,
loving the gospel, right? All comes to us by the Holy Spirit
of God, right? See, it's it's salvations of
the Lord. He's the one who rots all this in us. Because it is
not natural. Like we're going through that
fruit of the Spirit in Galatians. That is not natural for us. That fruit
is not natural. Now we have a fleshy love, but
we're talking about love of the Spirit in Galatians 5. Oh my. And after we're bought to see
the dying Savior redeeming us from all our sins, making a propitiation
for our sins, we now desire to serve Christ. We now desire to
live for Christ. From the moment by faith we see
that slaughtered lamb of God. And he was slaughtered, wasn't
he? Dying on Calvary to save us from our sins. Redeeming our
eternal souls by his perfect sin atoning work and preserving
us in his evil world. From that moment, we begin to
live for Christ. The moment we're born again,
we begin to live for Christ. My. Now some may ask, what does
it mean to live for Christ? Well, it's to live in the truth
that my life is hid with Christ. To live in that. The believer's
life is hid with Christ. And then we say Christ lives
in us, just as the scriptures say. So the Christian says for
me to live as Christ because for me to live is to live a life
which does not depend upon myself. You ever think of that? We now
live a life that we don't depend upon ourselves anymore. We look
outside ourselves and up to Christ. That's who we depend upon now.
Isn't that amazing? Christ is our all. He's our all
in all. No wonder Paul wrote that. No
wonder when he's saying to live as Christ, no wonder he's saying
Christ is my all. You take away Christ, we don't
have nothing. We're just, we have death, yeah. We have condemnation. We have death. But in Christ
we have justification, we have sanctification, we have redemption.
Ooh, my. Gets you excited, doesn't it?
Gets you excited. My oh my. So we don't, our lives
don't depend upon even ourselves or anybody else. We've given
our lives to Christ. And think of this. You hit on
how he's the living water. Not only do we depend upon him
for our physical life, but we depend upon him for our spiritual
life. He's the bread of life that feeds us spiritually. He's
the living water that we drink and feast upon. What's the two
things you need to survive? What's the two things, basic
things, that man needs to survive? bread and water. These people go on hunger strikes.
They live on bread and water. Bread and water. That's it. Those
are the two things. Now you're going to lose some
weight if you go on that diet. And I'm not talking the diet
of Christ. I'm talking physically. But I'll
tell you what. You live on the bread of life,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and you drink of the fountain of His,
of who He is. You're going to grow spiritually,
let me tell you. The Holy Spirit is going to grow
you. Oh my, my oh my. So without bread I become a skeleton
and I die. Without water, I just dry up and die. Do you know the believer has
three parts that needs to be sustained? The body, right? Which must have its proper nutrients,
bread and water, other food. The soul, which must have knowledge,
right? We grow in the knowledge of Christ. And then the spirit, which what?
Feasts on Christ. Feasts on Christ. Oh my. Without thought, my mind becomes
stagnant and stale. I don't learn anything. And without
Christ, my newborn spirit isn't fed. So we feast on Christ,
don't we? That's why you come here. We
feast on the gospel. You see? Oh, we come here for
spiritual food, don't we? And I'm getting fed when I'm
putting the masses together. And you get fed when the Holy
Spirit shows you the truth and you rejoice in the truth that's
set before you. I'm rejoicing in the truth as
the Holy Spirit's teaching me. And I'm feasting on Christ. Who's
the heavenly man? Who came down from heaven? The
Lord Jesus Christ, didn't he? He's the heavenly man. And so
the Apostle Paul here, he also means the course of his life
is a life lived for Christ. It's not a life lived for self
anymore. It's not a life lived for self anymore. Here we are
on a Wednesday night. Right? I'm sure that before the
Lord saved us, there were many other things that would have
captivated us on a Wednesday night. Right? But here we are, gathered together,
desiring to hear the gospel, desiring to hear the things of
Christ, desiring to feast on our Savior, who's the manner
of life for his people. He's the bread and water. My
oh my. And then think of this, Paul
says, if you ask me after what I fashion my life, I don't fashion
it after any other man but Christ. You know, I've heard people say,
follow me as I follow Christ. And I know Paul said that, but
that's Paul. Follow Christ with me. Let's
desire to mold our lives to Christ. Right? I'm a flawed human being. The more you get to know me,
the more you're going to find out I'm flawed. But let's look
to the perfect one. Let's look to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I understand what Paul was saying there. He's saying,
follow me as I follow Christ. Follow me as I mold my life to
Christ. Right? But I'm not going to say
that about me. I'm just a poor sinner. Saved
by the grace of God. I'm going to follow Christ with
you, brethren. Right beside you. And I might stumble a few times
and land on my knees, Dave. You might have to pick me up
a couple times, brother. Well, the Lord will pick me up.
You'll carry us both, eh? Two hands, right? I remember a preacher saying
this, a grace preacher. I had never heard, I had never ever heard
a preacher say this. Gene Harmon got up at the conference
and he says, don't follow me, I mess up so much, I'm gonna
let you down every time. I had never heard a preacher
say that. I had never ever in my life heard a preacher say
that. And then Donny Bell gets up and preaches that he's a sinner.
I'd never heard a preacher call himself a sinner. I heard preachers
call everybody else sinners. But this guy gets up, this Donny
Bell, eh? Oh, we love him, don't we? He says, I'm just a sinner!
I'm still a sinner, but I'm saved! Praise God, eh? Oh, my. Oh, my. So every born-again,
blood-washed believer can say, to live is Christ and to die
is gain. Imagine Paul on the shores of
Philippi. He lands there and shackles.
He's being led up. He's being taken to Rome. But
imagine the first time he came to Philippi. He lands on the
shores. And there by the riverside where all the ships were gathered,
there's many merchantmen. And they're busy. And we see
a man. Paul sees a man busy with his
ledger. Counting everything. Counting all his stuff up. And
he says, for me to live is gold. For me to live is money. And
then there's his clerk. His clerk's employed in business
for his boss. And he says, for me to live is
sustenance. This is how I feed my family. Oh my, then Paul enters the city
and stands and listens to some people speak. And some man says, young man,
for me to live is learning. I want to learn as much as I
can. And then another stands clothed
in chain mail and says, ah, for me to live is glory, is a soldier. For me to live is glory. I scorn
all your modes of life. I live for glory. But then there comes amongst
them a humble tent maker named Paul. And we see the features
upon his face. And he steps in the middle of
them and he says this, for me to live is Christ. Me to live is Christ. Imagine how they smile with contempt
upon him. They scoff at him for having
chosen such an object for me to live as Christ. What does he mean, they ask themselves.
The learned man stopped and said, Christ, who is he? Is he that
mad fellow of whom I heard? who the Jews said he was mad
and they executed on Calvary's cross. And the learned man, he steps
back and then the clerk replies, is it he who died, Jesus of Nazareth,
the king of the Jews? And the Roman soldier says, and
do you live for a man who died a slave's death? What glory will you get by fighting
his battles? Oh, my. We don't want the glory. We just stand back and watch
the Lord fight for us, don't we? See, but natural man doesn't
understand that, beloved. And the trader chimes in and
says, what profit is there in your preaching? You don't make
no money. My. And the merchant's clerk
thought Paul mad, for he said, how can he feed his family? How
will he supply his wants if all he lives for is to honor Christ? I got news for folks. God takes
care of his sheep, doesn't he? And David said he'd never seen
one of the Lord's begging. My, oh, my. Paul knew whom he believed. He was like Job. Job said, I
know my Redeemer liveth. I know. I'm going to see him.
I'm going to see him in his flesh. The worms destroy this body,
yet I'll see him. And Paul is, in a way, saying
the same thing, because he's saying, well, to live is Christ,
but to die is gain. I'm going to get to see him.
He's not dead. He rose from the grave. Matter
of fact, he arrested me on the road to Damascus. My, oh my. And he said, Paul,
salsa, why kick us now against the pricks? Why are you kicking
against Providence, Paul? Paul's kicking and kicking. And
he wasn't kicking when he got arrested, was he? Small. And notice what the Lord
said, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Who's Saul persecuting,
brother? He's persecuting believers, isn't
he? And we're so connected to Christ that he says, why are
you persecuting me? My, what a Savior. He's the head
and we're the body, brother. Oh, my. where the head is, this
head, this body falls wherever that head, well, the head tells
me to go over here, I'm gonna go over here, right? Well, if
our head's in heaven, where are we gonna be? Well, amen, brother,
I know, we're gonna be in glory. Yeah, we're already seated in
heavenly places. I heard something today, oh my
goodness, I gotta share this with you. He said, our life,
this preacher said, our life's like a parade, right? we see
from the side of the roads. We only see a section of the
parade at a time. So a trial comes, that's a section
of the parade of our life, right? God's above it, what does he
see? He sees the end, he sees the beginning, and he sees the
end, and he sees it all the way back again. Isn't that amazing? What a way to view it. We're
like standing in the road, so we only see what's in front of
us. He sees it all, beloved. You might hear me use that again,
because to me, that's just magnificent. It explains. He sees it all. And if our life's like a vapor
to him, it's nothing. In time, my oh my. My, oh, my. So let's look at
this here. We who are the redeemed cry out,
take me, Lord, and take me forever. Let's read our text again. For
me to live is Christ, and then that we see, and to die is gain.
You know, our reward's already gone before us. Amen. People all go trying to
make all these rewards. Our reward's already in glory.
It's preceded us. Genesis 15 1 and These things
and after these things the word of Lord came to Abraham and a
vision saying here. We go. I love these two words
fear not Fear not fear not why cuz God's been he is justice
is being appeased in Christ the blood of Christ's cleanse us
from all our sin fear not and Fear not, Brother Brian. Amen. We don't got to fear. Our sins
are paid for. Fear not, Abraham. I am thy shield
and thy exceeding, exceeding, exceeding great reward. If we
have Christ, we don't need any other reward, do we? He's our
crown of glory. He's already went before us. My. Now let's consider the death
of the Christian. Death comes for all, unbeliever
and believer. All of us. It comes. It smites the righteous and the
unrighteous. And that's only in Christ. We're
only righteous in Christ. But this is not the end for the
believer. We're glorified. We've ascended up to the Father
and to our brethren who are buried in the grave, and they are evermore
with God. My oh my. So let us, let we who
are the redeemed take comfort with these words. To die is gain.
Now we who are left behind sorrow, but yet we should rejoice too.
Because they're gone to the reward. They're seeing, they're seeing
the reward face to face and that's Christ. My oh my. How is it the gain? How is it gain when we die? Well,
the rich man who knows not Christ, he dies, and he can't take nothing
with him. It's all left behind. Everything,
it's all left behind. Oh my. All his wealth is gone,
all his power, all his influence, everything's gone. And you know
what? He's now on the same level as
a poor sinner who died in their sins. Everyone's on, we're all
guilty before God, right? We're all on the same level,
the scripture says. The scripture says, naked came I out of my
mother's womb, and naked I shall return thither. Oh my, thus thou
art, and unto thus thou shalt return. Which of any of our worldly
goods can we take with us when we die, Brother Dave? Nothing,
oh, nothing. Nothing at all. So death is a
great equalizer, isn't it? No, you don't need nothing when
you die. Only Christ. Only Christ, yeah. But death is the great equalizer.
It slays rich and poor and everybody in between. My oh my. So that's all loss
for the unbeliever. Look how much they lose. And
then they're without Christ. Oh my. They've lost their friends. They've lost their family. They've
lost their power again. They've lost their influence.
They've lost their honor. They've lost their wealth. It's
all gone. It's all gone. My oh my, it's
all gone. All that they've toiled for in
life is gone. So that they're no better now than the poorest
person in this world. who passed away. They've died without Christ,
and they will suffer loss. So surely for the unsaved, death
is loss. But our text says this, to die
is gain. Paul's writing to believers,
isn't he? Our corpse is going to go in
the grave. Our tent's going to go in the grave, isn't it? Every
one of us. Every one of us. But our spirits
can go with the Lord. Remember that thief? Just remember me, Lord. Today
thou shalt be with me in paradise. Shall. Again. Oh my. That word keeps popping up, doesn't
it? We may leave all our worldly
goods, and we will. We won't take nothing with us.
All our worldly goods. But you know, all our worldly
goods are nothing compared to seeing the glory of God face-to-face
in Christ. Nothing even compares to that.
Nothing. So for the born-again blood-washed
believer, seeing Christ face-to-face, death is gain. Death is gain. We lost nothing compared to what
we gained. And we're redeemed. Again, we,
as I said earlier, we are going to leave the land of the living
or the dead, just like that, and we are going to wake up,
just like that, in the land of the living. And the land of the living is
where Christ is. There the believing mother meets
her infant. There the father meets their
brothers in Christ. There we will cross one another,
my dear brothers. There we will cross one another in love. My, oh, my. And then the believing husband
meets the believing wife. Never to be more married or given
in marriage, but to live together like the angels of God, loving
Christ, rejoicing in Christ. And some of us have friends in
heaven. You guys, before I came here, there was many people who
departed this world. I've known a few of them who
have departed. Richard and Irene, who were so
dear to us. Newell, Joel, Jim, So many. Denise. People who were just
dear to us. Kathy. My. Gone home. Gone home. Now they, they know now that
to die is gain. My oh my. Some of us are friends and some
of us have dear ones and glory. Brother Wayne Carrick, I never
met him, but you know I'm going to meet him one day. My, oh my. They've crossed the stream and
we're left behind. My, it won't be long. And you know who else we'll see?
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. We'll look into the face of the
Apostle Paul and say, I read your books, man. You pointed
me right to Christ. All you did was brag on Christ. We'll see him. And Paul will
go, there's the one I wrote about. There he is. Look at him on the
throne. Look at him on the throne. Yeah,
he won't want no glory. He'll say, there he is. There
he is, Brother Dave. Look at him. We'll see each other just like
we see each other now, but with no sin. Imagine that,
beloved? We're going to see each other
like we do now, but with no sin. Oh, how blessed we are in the
company of poor and perfect saints on earth, right? Which we all
are. But how wonderful, how much sweeter it'll be when our fellowship
with our brethren has no sin. No sin to heed or to even impair
any kind of fellowship. I find we have such sweet fellowship
here, but imagine what it's going to be like when we all get to
glory. Oh my goodness, you can't even compare. Turn if you want
to Revelation chapter 5. Revelation. We're going to get
a glimpse. We're going to get a glimpse here. Here we go. We're going to get a glimpse
of one of my, I don't like to say favorite portions because
the Bible, I don't want to pit one part of the Bible against
the other, but this is a, this is a wonderful portion here.
This is a wonderful, Revelation chapter 5. Look at this. My,
oh my. Starting in verse 5, okay? Here
we go. And one of the elders said unto
me, Weep not! Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root
of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven
seals thereof. So God had a book in his hands,
and the only one who could loose it was the Lamb of God. Look at that, the Lion of the
tribe of Judah. That's one of his titles, beloved.
The Root of David. And I beheld, and lo, in the
midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, and in the midst
of the elders stood a lamb, as it had been slain, having seven
horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent
forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book
out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And
when he had taken the book, the four beasts and the four and
twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of
them harps and golden vials full of orders, which are the prayers
of the saints. God hears every one of our prayers,
beloved. Man, they're stored up. They're stored up. And they sang a new song. Here
we go, brother Dave, we're going to sing a new song. Woo! My, we're going to sing. Every
born-again, blood-washed saint going to sing this new song,
right? What are we going to say? Thou art worthy. Well, we're
going to stay right there, right? Thou art worthy, Lord. Thou art
worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for Thou
was slain and has redeemed us. Even in heaven, we're rejoicing
over the fact that Christ redeemed us, beloved. Right? He redeemed
us to God by thy blood out of every, look at this, every kindred
and tongue and people and nation. and has made us unto our God
kings and priests. And we shall, there's that word
again, reign on the earth. And I beheld and I heard the
voice of many angels round about the throne, and of the beasts
and the elders. And the number of them was, look
at this, 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands. In
other words, a number you can't number. Saying with a loud voice,
here it is, here it, oh, look at this verse. Worthy is the
Lamb. Does this make you want to shout
it out? Worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power, and
riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessings. He gets it all, doesn't he? He
gets it all. He's the only one who's worthy
of our praise. He's the only one who's worthy
of heaven's praise. Him, God the Father, and God
the Holy Spirit, right? Oh my, look at this. and every creature which is in
heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as
are in the sea. And all they that heard I saying,
blessing, and honor, and glory, and power be unto him that sits
upon the throne forever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen.
Amen. I agree. And the four and 20
others fell down and worshiped him. Look at this, that liveth
forever and ever. That's our Savior. Because he
lives, we live, right? He's the head and we're the body.
Look at that. He lives forever. Oh, beloved,
we only have a few more days to labor in this world. In this world. We hear the Savior's
words. Fear not, little flock. Oh, trials
come and tribulations and we hear, fear not, little flock. Fear not, my little sheep. Oh, my, oh, my, oh, my. Love the Lord, death is no loss
to us. It's all gain. It's all gain. One day, by the power of our
great God, we will ascend up to glory, just like that. And we'll meet the armies of
heaven. We'll meet all, we'll see a host that no man can number. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. And we will sing, worthy is the Lamb. We're gonna sing
that, I can't wait, can you? And we're excited now about it,
why? Because we're born again, we
have a new heart now. Now for us to live is Christ.
It wasn't before, it was to live for Wayne. Now it's to live for
Christ. Right? Oh my. And do we do it imperfectly?
Yes. But God don't count that against us, does he? No. Because all our sins have been
forgiven in Christ. So we cry with joy to die is
gain. To die is gain. What's the most
precious thing in this world to man other than our children? Gold, right? You know what the
streets are, Dave? They're gold. We'll be walking
on gold. The most precious thing to man
is pavement and glory. My, oh my. That tells you a lot,
doesn't it? That tells you a lot. Are you
poor here? Oh, if you're in Christ, you'll
be rich when you're in the presence of Christ. Do you suffer tall
here? In glory, there'll be rest forever. Rest forever. Do you desire to be in glory? Well, when we pass from this
world, we shall see the king face to face and we will behold
him forever. All because of what he's done
for us. Here we heard the curses of mankind. But in glory, we'll never hear
them again. All we'll hear is praise to our
great God. Here we see through a glass darkly,
don't we? But there, face to face. And
you know what else too? You know how scripture says,
I have not seen nor heard? In glory that'll be fully manifest
to us. We can't even imagine, we can't
even imagine what heaven's like. The minute we're in glory, it'll
be manifest to us. We'll go, I've never seen nothing
like this. I've never seen this. My eyes have never seen anything
this beautiful. And there's the king. Oh my. You know what else is never in
heaven again? Darkness. Darkness. No more darkness. Dave, you won't ever be in darkness
again when you go to work. We won't be working, though.
We'll be serving. Yeah, in Christ is the light.
Oh my, oh my. Oh my, and I say this. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinners. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
Paul said to the Philippian jailer, and thou shalt, shalt be saved. My, oh my. Turn, if you would,
one more place. We're gonna turn to Revelation
chapter seven. We're gonna close with this.
Verses nine to 12. Revelation chapter 7 verses 9
to 12. After this, I beheld and lo a
great multitude which no man could number. That's the elect
of God. Look at that. Of all nations. Of all, Canada,
US, right? Russia. Nations that existed and have
fallen now. Of all nations. Look at this. And kindreds, and people, and
tongues stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed
with white robes, and palms in their hand. And they cried with
a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon
the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels round about
the throne, and about the elders, and the four beasts fell down
before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Blessing
and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might
be unto our God forever and ever. And what's left to say? Amen. There's nothing left to say,
is there? Amen. That's it. Brother Brian,
could you