To Die Is Gain

We are going to Philippians chapter one, and we're going to continue in our little series of studies from the book of Philippians. Philippians chapter one, and today we're going to read from verse 18 through to verse 26. It's the Apostle Paul that is writing. He is speaking to the church at Philippi, and this is what he says.

What then? Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. For I know that this shall 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. For to me to live is Christ, but to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour. Yet what I shall choose, I want not, or I know not. For I am in a straight betwixt two, 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 having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue 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. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this reading from his word.

The title of our sermon today is To Die is Gain. To Die is Gain. And what a precious legacy the Apostle Paul left to the church. when he uttered this little phrase, to die is gain. Yes, he was writing to the Philippians, but this is a testimony that he has left to the whole church by the direction of God, the Holy Spirit. Every saved soul, every redeemed child of God can face the harsh realities of earthly life and physical death with this comforting assurance. For a believer in Jesus Christ, to die is gain.

As Paul contemplated his death, he wrote to his friends in Philippi. He wrote to them of his expectation, his personal expectation of a blessedness, a happiness yet to come. Yes, he was in prison. Yes, he may well have been called to forfeit his life, he may well have been martyred, however God the Holy Spirit gave him an expression of gospel truth to cheer every saint as they anticipate their own mortality and a promise that will lessen the pain of loss at the passing of fellow believers from this scene of time.

Brothers and sisters, no saint ever lost out by moving from this world to the next. No child of God ever regrets passing into eternity. Tears are an earthly experience. In heaven, all tears are wiped away. All is gain when we lay down this body of flesh. It is gain to bid adieu to indwelling sin. It is gain to say goodbye to the troubles and trials of this life. It is gain to say good morning to heaven and to the Lord Jesus Christ. What Paul says of himself is true for you and me who trust in the Lord. To die is gain.

Death is not our friend. In fact, John calls it our enemy. So here we have a perspective. Here we have these things being set before us. John calls death our enemy. He calls it the last enemy that we shall encounter in this world. But now, Death is a toothless, defeated foe. It has no strength to hold us. The bars of death, the prison of death, the cell of death has been burst open. Its sting has been drawn, its poison all wrung out so as to be of no threat to God's people.

Death had asserted its right upon humankind for millennia, with very few exceptions. From the Garden of Eden and the fall of Adam, the wages of sin is death. But the resurrection of the man Jesus Christ revealed the limits of Satan's power and promised life to all who are joined to Christ.

Our mystical union with the Lord Jesus means we died with Christ when he died on the cross. It means we were buried with him when he was laid in the tomb. It means we came forth with him when he defeated death and rose again. And this picture that is set before us is a picture which we all can take hope in and place our confidence in.

For God's elect and Christ's redeemed people, death has lost its sting and the grave has lost its victory. Satan's loss is our gain. To die now for believers is gain. Instead of death being a prison and a source of fear to us, as it is to the men and women of the world, death is our means of entrance into Christ's spiritual presence and our access to eternal glory. Now, this is not me speaking. I have this on authority of the Word of God.

Hebrews chapter two and verse 14 and 15 says this, for as much then as the children, that is the elect of God, that is believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, we have physical bodies, He also himself, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, likewise took part of the same. He took a physical body like ours in order to represent us, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them his people for whom he died, God's elect, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. This is exactly what we've been saying. The Lord Jesus Christ represents us before his Father because God's elect had been given to Christ and united with him. This is what we call the covenant of peace or the covenant of grace.

God committed into the hands of Christ the well-being of a people. And by the Lord Jesus Christ's life, death, resurrection, we, being united to him, have the benefits and blessings which he secured and accomplished. In John chapter 14, a very familiar passage, verses one to three, our savior told his disciples and telling them, he tells every man and woman and boy and girl of faith, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. This heavenly union is God's purpose for his chosen people. It is Christ's promise in the gospel. and the gospel that Christ has sealed with his blood.

To die as a believer is gain. There's a useful balance, I think, presented to us in the way in which John talking about death as an enemy and the apostle speaking about gaining through death. There's a useful balance left to us, I think, which ought to help us approach our own mortality properly and wisely. Here's what I'm thinking. John tells us death is our enemy. So what?

Well, because death is our enemy, we do not run to it. We do not welcome it or embrace it willingly. We do not, for example, believe in euthanasia. We do not believe in assisted dying. We do not believe that men should take this right to themselves. Death is an enemy. It is not to be welcomed and embraced. And yet for us, death is also a spent force. So we do not need to fear it.

We accept it rather as God's means of changing this fleshy body into a spiritual body. Because of sinful flesh, because of the fall, these bodies must be sown into the earth in dishonor, to be raised again in honor. Our fleshy bodies must return to the soil, return to the dust whence they came.

Paul tells us, 1 Corinthians 15, 42, concerning the resurrection of the dead, it is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

And this is the Christian's great hope. This is our confident expectation. We shall lay down our natural bodies in our coffins, in our graves, in our tombs, and we shall rise again with spiritual bodies. We shall have lost nothing of value in doing so, but we will have gained much. The Apostle Paul was a great gospel preacher and evangelist.

And now he was in prison. He had been reassuring, as we've seen in previous weeks, reassuring the saints at Philippi that despite his detention in prison, the cause of Christ would not suffer loss by his being in prison. Last week we saw that Paul had already learned that gospel witness was increasing.

Some preachers were preaching Christ, it's true, out of jealousy, hoping to obtain some personal advantage against Paul. Now the apostle didn't condone their duplicity, let's call it foolishness, waywardness, but he didn't complain against it either. He is pleased that Christ is preached for whatever reason. The truth was being declared. Paul also learned that others, out of love for Christ, and probably love for Paul too, were finding their voice, maybe for the first time, stepping up and preaching faithfully this gospel that they had learned from the lips of the apostle.

Either way, Paul rejoices that Christ is preached. And I mentioned yesterday that in the little note that I sent around, that it seems that what Paul says in these verses that are before us today, the verses that we read together, It seems that Paul is here in what he writes. This is one of those occasions when he applies his own teaching to his own thinking. Here's what I mean. He believed that all things work together for good for the Lord's people and for the Lord's work. All things work together for good. He wrote that to the Romans many years before. But here he is. living it in application. He is testifying to it in his letter to the Philippians.

Even ministry undertaken by these wayward, disobedient people to stir up contention against Paul and to inflict the Lord's prisoner, to afflict him more in his imprisonment, would in fact turn out to his benefit. That's what the apostle is telling us here. It would prosper the church with souls being added, and it would contribute to Christ's glory in curious, unexpected, and surprising ways. Therefore Paul rejoiced.

He was convinced that the prayers of the Philippians who desired good things for Paul and desired good things for the gospel would be positively and richly answered by one means or another to the glory of God. And that's a lovely lesson in there for us all, I think.

How foolish we are. How weak in faith when we get into a tizzy about temporal things. And I don't mean to criticize the Philippians by what I say here. Really, I'm thinking about myself and I'm thinking about the way we very often, as the Church of Christ, react to the uncertainties, the vagaries of life.

It behoves us all, when we are confronted with something unexpected, something disappointing, something untoward, something that causes us concern or anxiety or grief or hurt, it behoves us all to take a step back, pause, take a breath, and remember that all things work together for good. Whenever we face these uncertain outcomes, remember, we trust the Lord. We trust the Lord. We trust He knows what He's doing. We believe He has a purpose that is progressing inexorably to its glorious conclusion.

And we And these circumstances are an integral part of that process. Brothers and sisters, we have Christ's divine care every step of our way in life. And we have an appointed day of death. And surely, certain it is, there will be tears, there will be a little sadness, there will be a little loss, there will be some weariness, there will be pain, there will be some disappointment, there will be a readjustment of perspectives and aspirations and ambitions.

But we are the Lord's and we are precious in His sight. And there will be joy and delight and surprise and lots of opportunity for thanksgiving to the Lord for the great things that he has done. Paul's great aim was to glorify Christ. And I don't think that there's a person listening here today who does not share that goal, that ambition of Paul in our own lives. We want to glorify the Lord in the things that we say and the things that we do. And Paul was aware that his life may be coming to an end abruptly. The emperor could easily sentence him to death. It's thought that this emperor was probably Nero.

And yet, it was the apostles' hope and expectation that the Lord would support him and enable him to glorify Christ, whether by continuing to live and serve the Savior or through suffering death as a martyr. Whichever option, whichever pathway opened up according to God's providence, according to God's good purpose, the apostles Hope and expectation was that he would be enabled to glorify Christ in it.

Either way, by God's grace, Paul believed his life and his death would serve and glorify Christ. If Paul lived, he would live for Christ by continuing to preach the gospel. If he died at Nero's hand, his martyrdom would inspire a new generation of preachers. If he lived, he would serve the churches and he would nourish the body of Christ as he had been doing. If he died, he would be with the Lord and the blessing of Christ's presence would be Paul's experience evermore.

The means, the methods, the men and the women that the Lord uses to serve his cause will vary according to His will, but the outcome is never in doubt. The Lord will take the glory, and it behoves us as the Lord's people, as Christ's church, to be circumspect, even when we are disappointed, even when we are uncertain about what the future holds, to trust the Lord and commit all our ways and all our times into His care and keeping. Paul understood this.

He charged Timothy, a young preacher, a young preacher being prepared for the ministry. He says to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 4, watch thou in all things Endure afflictions. Do the work of an evangelist. Make full proof of thy ministry. Do what falls to you. Do what the Lord directs you to do in all your ways. The apostle was teaching Timothy what to do as the apostle's life came to its end and his ministry would cease.

Paul was ready to hand over the baton to the next generation and to submit to the Lord's will and timing if that was what was required. And he says in that same passage in 2 Timothy chapter 4, he says in verses 6 to 8, For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. Paul was acknowledging the sovereign power of Christ in his life and in his experience of grace.

To live is Christ, he tells us. Conversion. Changes a man. That's a truism, I suppose. Change changes a man. Conversion converts a man. But Paul had written in Galatians 2, verse 20, I am crucified with Christ. That wasn't how he had always been. He once had been a persecutor of Christ. Now he was crucified with Christ.

He goes on, All spiritual life comes from the Lord Jesus and that is what occurs at conversion, at regeneration and conversion. The Lord is the efficient cause of that change. He is the author and the instigator of a believer's life of faith. and Paul's conversion and that spiritual transformation was Christ's gift to him. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

The apostle Paul lived on Christ by faith, and he lived for Christ by desire. He dwelt in Christ by spiritual union, and Christ dwelt in him by the spiritual new birth. Paul was a new creation. He belonged to Christ and Christ belonged to him. Should Paul live, he would live to the glory of Christ. Should he die, he knew his life would not end but that he would at once enter into glory and be in Christ's immediate presence. This would be the greatest personal blessing to the apostle. And he teaches us to think likewise.

In death, Believers leave behind the troubles and the cares of this world. When a brother or a sister passes, could we ever begrudge them that? They might leave a gaping hole in our lives, but we could not begrudge them leaving the troubles and cares of this world behind.

They leave the corruption of indwelling sin behind them. They no longer experience unbelief or doubt. Pain is gone. The temptations of Satan are no more. And men and women of faith enter at once into the presence of God and embrace the Saviour. They're in the company of angels and the great congregation of the Lord's redeemed people. This is what the apostle had in mind as he spoke of to die is gain.

And here as he writes to Philippi, Paul confesses that he has a dilemma. He is in a strait betwixt two. What does that mean? Well, it's like he's going through a channel with two shores. and he's wondering which shore his little craft is going to be directed to.

He feels himself to be hovering on the edge of eternity, knocking as it were upon the door of heaven. I used to have a friend, at least one or two people will remember this who are listening today, who said that he was just in God's waiting room waiting to enter into, well that's what Paul was like. That's what the apostle is talking about here. He was in a straight betwixt two. He was hovering on the edge of eternity and he was knocking upon the door of heaven.

Eagerly anticipating Christ's promise of eternal life and everlasting habitations. He sees, as it were before him, the divine light. He sees life, love, joy, peace, rest, comfort. He sees eternal glory. He desires to enter in, to be with Christ, which is far better than anything this life can offer. And yet, as he sits there in Rome, imprisoned in captivity, he realises there is still much to do. He realises that his work is not yet done and he feels it would be better for the church, it would be better for the Philippians in particular, that he yet serve the cause of Christ in this world a little longer. When Paul looked forward He anticipated the eternal weight of glory waiting for him. He longed that his spirit might be with the Lord. But when he looked around him, he beheld Christ's church and he saw its need.

And he felt a willingness to delay his own happiness for the benefit of the Lord's people. And so he says that he was in a straight betwixt two, between two conflicting desires. Robert Hawker commenting on this passage says, Paul paused over the prospect of these two options. He paused over the prospect and he left it with the Lord.

That's a lovely thought, isn't it? What a happy place to be, as a redeemed and a justified believer in Jesus Christ. To be content, to be reconciled in one's own mind. To be ready to commit to the timing of our passing from this world into the next, from one state to another. to leave that decision with the Lord, believing that he knows best. We want to go to glory, but we want to serve the glory of the Lord and the well-being of his people as long as he calls us to do so.

Actually, the apostle speaks of He uses a little phrase, having this confidence that he will see the Philippians again. Now, perhaps his confidence was indeed granted to him by special revelation. The apostle had special revelations as an apostle on numerous occasions from the Lord. And maybe the Lord revealed to him in this moment that you will see the Philippians again. And that's the reason he wrote of having this confidence. he saw that his work was not yet over. Or perhaps that little phrase simply is an expression of hope on the Apostle's part, that the allegations that the Jews had set against him wouldn't stand up in court, that they would soon be dismissed and his release would be granted.

Let me just make a little point, a historical point here, if I may. It is a question that is not resolved, it seems, as to whether Paul was executed at this time and also if he was imprisoned once or twice in Rome. If it was two times that he was imprisoned, as I think the balance of probability makes it appear, then he may indeed have been released to visit Philippi again and other places before being rearrested a couple of years later under a harsher regime. at which time he was ultimately martyred. So what I'm saying is that we do not know precisely whether he was martyred on this occasion or whether he was released and then was rearrested and then was martyred at a later date.

That, I think, seems on the balance of probability from the reading of various passages in scripture to be the likelihood. Let me give you an example there. This appears to have been a somewhat gentle captivity. Paul was in his own rented house. He had people visiting him. When he writes in his second epistle to Timothy, it seems to be a much harsher regime that he is under. And that and various other things about various locations appear to suggest that Paul may have had two captivities. being experienced differently in these ways.

Be that as it may, I want to finish today by drawing attention to how frequently the Apostle mentions Christian joy. when he is writing these passages, when he is writing to the Philippians. And I want it to be mentioned because I think that we all ought to draw an application from it in our own life's experience. Now, I know that we're going to return to this in later passages in Philippians, because as I say, it is a frequent subject. But I want to point it out now.

So full is this letter of the joy of the Lord and the joy of faith. And Christian joy is actually a frequent theme in Paul's ministry to other churches as well. But he began this section with an expression of joy that the gospel was being preached, sometimes for good reasons, sometimes for bad reasons, but it was being preached despite his incarceration and for that he rejoiced. And he ends this section by wishing the joy of faith to the Philippians in Jesus Christ.

And I want us just to pause and dwell on that for a moment. As believers, It is our unique privilege to rejoice in the Lord Jesus. Now, there are pleasures of sin in this world which give men and women of this world joys and pleasure. But it is to us that the joy of the Lord is granted. The joy of the Lord is our inheritance.

I don't imagine for a moment that the world was a better place in Paul's day as far as morality was concerned, as far as ease of ministry or worship or of preaching the gospel, all of the things that are dear to the heart of the Lord's people, to Christ's church. I don't believe that the world was an easier place in those days than it is today. I'm sure the church had lots to moan and grumble about at that time, the time of the Corinthians and the Galatians and the Philippians and the Thessalonians. And we can go around like a man in black, finding reason at every turn to lament the state of the world.

But again, Let us remember, this is how the Lord is accomplishing His purposes. The troubles that we see in the world, the pressures that we feel, the disappointments that surround us, the gradual falling away of moral standards, these are all according to the Lord's will and purpose for the accomplishment of His glory.

Like Paul, let us rejoice when Christ is lifted up and the gospel is preached. And Christ is being lifted up and the gospel is being preached in these days. Let us rejoice in the deepening and in the furtherance of our faith by whatever means the Lord chooses to bring about that growth. And how will he bring it about? Likely by trials. But let us rejoice in it. Was that not what James tells us? Rejoice when you fall into divers temptations.

Let us rejoice in and for fellowship with Christ. Let us rejoice in the joy of heavenly gain that lies before us. Our Saviour had done, or has done, so much for us in his life, in his death, in his resurrection, and in uniting us to himself and giving us our inheritance in him. If we can say, with Paul, For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. That's reason to rejoice right there. May the Lord bless these thoughts to us today. Amen.

To Die Is Gain

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