Philippians chapter 1. We looked
down to verse 21 this morning. Let's begin reading there. In
Philippians chapter 1 and verse 21. If you have a Pew Bible, it's on page
1278. 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 I
shall choose I know not, I want 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,
your progress, and joy of faith, that your rejoicing may be more
abundant in Christ Jesus for me by my coming to you again."
He says here in verse 21, for me to live is Christ. This man understood something
about what it was to be saved. And he said, the life that I
now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God
who loved me. Christ was this man's life. And
you know, if you're here this afternoon and He saved you, He's
your life. He's given you life and He is
that life that He gives. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live. And listen, yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me. So Christ was this man's life.
He said, for me to live is Christ. We received our life from Christ,
and you know something, we live by Him. We have His life, it
is His life, and we live by eating Him, by eating this redeeming
flesh and drinking His redeeming blood. He that eateth me, even
he shall live by me. And the aim of our life is to
know Christ, isn't it? You say, Bruce, don't you know
Him? You're the pastor. You better know Him. I know Him.
And you know Him. But what's your aim? Is it not
to know Him better? Haven't you got just enough knowledge
of Him to motivate you and to say with Paul, oh, that I may
know Him and be found in Him? Not having my own righteousness,
but that which is through the faith of Christ, that I may know
Him. And you know Paul meant something
else here when he said, this life that I live is Christ. He meant I want to live it for
His glory. All my motives, I want to be under His control. Every
word I speak, every action I have, I want it to be for His glory.
This is His life. If He has converted you, if He
has given you a new heart and a new spirit, you are no longer
your own. You are bought with a price and
therefore you are to glorify Him in your body and in your
spirit. which are Christ. So He said
here, for me to live this present life is for Christ living in
me. And all I do and all I say and
all I am, I'm living for His glory. For me to live is Christ,
and then He says for me to die is gain. You think of death that
way. Do we think of death as gain?
It's tough, ain't it? It's tough. I mean, it's not
natural to do that. Because deaths are enemy. But
here Paul said it's gain. How could it be gain to die?
Well, I think it would be gain if you had a wonderful, beautiful
mansion up on the hill somewhere and you lived in an old house
that was ready to rot down around you. When you say moving out
of this house into that mansion, wouldn't that be gain? Leaving
this world and the way it is now, sin everywhere, darkness
everywhere, death all around us. Leaving that would not be
gain. To die is gain. Leaving a body
full of weakness and pain and sorrow, oh my goodness, it's
gain, isn't it? It's gain for the Christian.
It's never a loss for a Christian to die. A believer is always
the gainer for dying. Blessed, happy to be envied are
the dead who die in the Lord. Now that's the secret, ain't
it? Who die in the Lord. There's a lot of people that
want to die. But boy, death will just be like jumping out of the
frying pan into the fire. In Christ. In the Lord. That's where it's a game for
us to die. And he says here in verse 22, But if I live in this
flesh, this is the fruit of my labor, yet what I shall choose
I know not. What's he saying here? Well,
he's saying this. If I continue to live in this flesh and serve
Christ, and I serve His cause, then I'll bring forth fruit.
That was his business to do that. My Father's glorified in you
bringing much fruit. And he said, so if I live, if
they keep me in jail, I'm going to continue to bring forth fruit.
If I get out and have my freedom, I'm going to bring forth fruit.
My labors will be fruitful. But he says, I don't know what
to choose. I don't know what to choose,
life or death. If it was left up to me, he said,
what shall I choose? I don't know. I don't know. We
don't know what's best for us, do we? We just don't know. One dear old lady in Spurgeon's
congregation, he said, dear sister, if the Lord left it up to you,
whether you should die today or not. He said, what would you
do if He referred it to you? She said, I'd refer it back to
Him again. He said, what if He referred it back to you? She
said, I'd just refer it back to Him again. In other words,
I don't know what's the best for me. Is dying best for me? I don't know. Is living best?
I don't know. And Paul said he didn't know
either. We leave those things with the Lord, don't we? Whether
we live or whether we die, it's His business. And I tell you,
I'm content to leave it there. When I die and how I die, as
long as He'll let me die in Him. That's all I'm concerned about.
Lord, let me die. Let me die in You. Verse 22,
so he goes ahead here and he says this, For I am in a strait,
the twixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ,
which is far better. This word strait, I am in a strait,
it means to be put in a narrow place. So narrow that it makes
you desperate. It's almost like being a claustrophobic
and somebody puts you in a suitcase and locks it down. If I put my
wife in a closet and shut the door and held it, she'd probably
have a heart attack because she's claustrophobic. She can't stand
it. That's what Paul's talking about. He said, I'm in this narrow,
straight place and he says it's made me desperate. It's made
me desperate. This word is used in different
places. Remember when Jacob was having
trouble about whether to send Benjamin down to Egypt or die
of starvation? The Scripture says he was in
a strait. He was straitened. Am I going to send my little
child down and maybe get him killed? Or am I going to die
of starvation? Now boy, that's been shut up,
ain't it? When David had sinned against
the Lord and the Lord said, you pick these things. You want war? You want to be chased before
your enemy for three months? You want pestilence? What do
you want? The Scripture says, David said,
Lord, I'm in a strait. I don't know what to do. I'll
let you choose for me. That's what he said. Let me fall
this day into the hands of the Lord. The children of Israel,
when Saul became king, they had 3,000 soldiers. And Jonathan
went down and burned a garrison of the Philistines. He didn't
like them anyway. But when the Philistines said,
you better prepare yourself because we're going to fight. And when
they came over the hill, they had about 30,000 chariots. Thousands of horsemen and the
soldiers were without number. And the Scripture says, when
Israel saw it, they were in a strait. That's what it means to be in
a strait. And they hid themselves in pits, ran up into the mountains,
into the bushes, trying to hide themselves. They were in a strait.
That's what Paul said here. I'm in a strait. But he was in
a good strait. He wasn't desperate in a bad
way. The strait he was in, he had these two pressing in on
him. Am I going to depart and to be with Christ? Which is far
better. That was one. Or am I going to
stay in this world and serve the cause and the church of Christ? But boy, he was in a straight
about that. Let's look just for a minute
here at the first one. Here's the first one. I have
a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. Some people try to tell us that
you can't have assurance of your salvation. But you can. Now, if you're like me, you may
not have full assurance, and sometimes you may not hardly
have any assurance. But this man had full assurance
of his salvation, didn't he? When he faced death, he faced
it with language like this, I am ready to be offered. The time
of my departure is at hand. Why could he live in such full
assurance? It wasn't just because of the
visions he saw. It wasn't just because he was
caught up into the third heaven. I tell you why he could live
always in the full assurance of his faith. Because he said
this, I know whom I have believed. And if you believe the Lord Jesus
Christ, you've got no reason to doubt your salvation. You
say, Bruce, it's not him I'm doubting, it's myself. Well,
you should doubt yourself. All we are is failures. But you
shouldn't doubt him. Whatever he says is true. And
Paul says here, I'm ready to depart. I'm ready to depart and
to be with Christ, which is far better. This is a gospel hope. This is not presumption to have
assurance. Some people say they don't like
it's some kind of presumption, being lightheaded or something.
But it's not. It's a gospel hope, isn't it?
You don't find this in any other religions. You won't find this
in Islam. You won't find it in the Book
of Mormons. They don't have a gospel hope. But the gospel has a good
hope. And this is it. When you leave
this life, you're going to be with Christ. And you can have
the assurance of that. There's no doubt about that.
No reason to doubt the Lord Jesus Christ or His Word. Secondly
about this is this. Some have tried to tell us this
silly notion of unconsciousness when we leave this life. They
call it soul sleep. Have you ever read about that?
Well, Paul knew nothing about that year, did he? He said to
depart and to be with Christ. My goodness, it would have been
much better if he was going to be unconscious and inactive to
say, I don't want that. I have Christ's presence now
fit spiritually. I don't want to leave that for
nothing. Leave the reality of Christ and go off into unconsciousness
and soul sleep? He put no pause. He put no lapse
of time between leaving this world and being with Christ.
He said, while I live in this body, I am absent from the Lord.
But when I leave this body, I'm going to be present with Him.
There's no lapse of time. I don't know how the Lord can
take a poor man and Send His angels and roll Him up in their
wings and fly Him off to heaven as soon as He leaves this life.
But that happens. Man, how long would it take us
to get there in some sort of silly spaceship? We'd be old
men, wouldn't we? Still not get there. But I'll
tell you what the Lord Jesus told that thief. This day. This day. That don't sound like
soul sleep, does it? When Moses and Elijah came down
on the Mount of Transfiguration, they weren't unconscious. They
knew exactly what they were doing. And they spoke to the Lord Jesus
of the dead. It seems like those folks in
heaven know what's going on on this earth. I think they do.
But they're not sleeping. They're not soul sleeping. They're
not unconscious. I have a desire to depart and
to be with Christ, which is far better. And he uses this word
here, depart. Another place he talks about
is departure. Now what does that tell us? When
you're going to depart someplace, you know that you're not leaving
this place and not going anywhere. The nature of that word itself
is to say, I'm leaving this place and I'm going somewhere else.
And he called it a departure. I'm departing this old body that's
vile and weak and painful, and I'm going to be with Christ.
I'm going to depart this old world. I'm standing right on
the shore right now, and I'm going to depart. And I tell you,
it's not a long journey to get there. I'm going to be with Christ. There's no purgatory. There's
no lapse time. There's no soul sleep. When a
believer dies, they go to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. To
be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Notice how he didn't say this.
He didn't say, I have a desire to depart and to go to heaven.
Now, he could have said that because that's where he was going.
But I love this language that he uses, to depart and to be
with Christ. Everybody wants to go to heaven,
don't they? I bet you devils have a desire for that place,
but they're never going there. If devils went there, if lost
men went to heaven, you know they'd be miserable. And I tell
you why they'd be miserable. Because Christ is there. Christ
is there. Only those who love Him here
want to be with Him yonder. Only those who know Him here
want to be with Him yonder. I tell you there's something
about His presence. And we know just a little bit
about it. But there's something about His presence. Once you've
felt His presence, once you know His presence, you want to be
in His presence. Paul Peter said, Lord, why can't
I go with you? I know your presence. I'd lay
down my life if you'll let me go with you. That's how much
he coveted the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
why Paul said, it's not heaven. Oh, it'll be wonderful to be
in heaven. sweet place called heaven, the Father's house. But
this is what will make it heaven, to be with Christ. Oh, that I
might depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. That's not presumption, is it?
That's not being flippant at all. That's just a man who believes
this is a gospel hope that I've got. It's a gospel hope. Everybody
has a destination. when they leave this life. And
somebody is going somewhere immediately. There ain't going to be a lapse
of time going down either, is there? Here's what the wise man
said. He's talking about death. And
he said, When death comes, then shall the dust return to dust
from whence it came, and the Spirit shall return to God who
gave it. The soul. Every man is a soul. And when the body dies, that
soul goes out to God who gave it to be judged and assigned
to misery and damnation or to be received up into heaven. The
soul of a man goes to God. Boy, that's why we should, you
and I, brothers and sisters, everybody here tonight should
be concerned about the salvation of his soul. That's the most
important thing between the eternities. Because when we leave this world,
our souls do not cease to exist. They go back to God as soon as
they leave the body. I don't say they go up to heaven,
but God's everywhere. And when they leave this body,
He assigns it to heaven or to hell, to the devils or to be
with Christ forever. But Paul never uses this word
seldom, if ever uses this word death. He got a much more confident
way of speaking. Departure. To depart. The only time he ever used this
word death, almost the only time he ever used it, is when he talked
about our union with Christ upon the cross. We died with Christ. We were buried with Christ. And
if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall live with
Him. But you know the word that he loved to use when he was talking
about the saint dying? He talked about sleep. Not soul
sleep now. He means rest. He often used
that word. Those who sleep in Jesus will
God bring with Him. I wonder if Paul got that from
the Lord. Because remember when Lazarus had died, and the Lord
said, Our friend Lazarus is sleeping, and I'm going to wake him out
of sleep. And they said, Lord, if he's sleeping, he does well.
And he realized his disciples were so ignorant, and he said,
He's dead. If I have to stoop down and speak
in your language to use this old bitter stinging word, death,
I'll do it. But I'm telling you, he's just
sleeping. He's just sleeping. And Paul picked up on that word.
And that's what he said. He's sleeping. Why didn't he use this word death? Because the whole nature of death
has changed for the child of God. What's the sting of death? Sin. But the child of God has
no sin. Not before God. He looks at it
and sees it in Himself. But before God, He's sinless.
Because Christ has taken all of His sin and atoned for it. He has no sin before God. Oh, brothers and sisters, God
had to figure out a way, if you want to say such a thing, that
we could come before Him and be as holy as He is. How in the
world could that be? In His Son. He puts our sins
upon His Son. He bears them to the cross. He
atones for them. He puts them away. Behold the
Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. We are
in Christ as He is. So are we in this world. The
blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. Now God can
look upon us and we are sinless with the righteousness of Jesus
Christ on us. And therefore, Since all our
sins have been taken away, the whole nature of death has changed. The sting of death is sin. Sin is gone. And so is the sting. Christ tasted death. What did the Lord say? He said,
He that keepeth my sayings, he shall never see death. He shall
never see death. He that believeth on me, Though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And he that liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. What's he going to do then? He's
going to sleep. He's going to rest in the Lord. Is anybody
in here afraid to lay down and rest? My goodness. I'm not afraid to lay down and
rest. Well, that's what it is to die for a saint. I have a
desire to depart, to die, to sit in and rest in the Lord Jesus
Christ. If we're in Christ, our souls
will never taste of death. Never taste of death. No, they'll
go where they're refreshed and confident. I think you and I need to be
more familiar with this subject, don't you? Because all of us
are going to die. All of us are going to die. We're
all going to sleep. We need to be more familiar with this. And
when we are, I think we'll realize then, we've got no reason to
be afraid of death. Not in Christ. The second thing, the first thing
is therefore to depart and to be with Christ. Or, he said,
to remain on this earth and serve His church. There in verse 24
and verse 25. 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. Those are two things that put
him in a straight. I want to be with Christ. I want
to stay here and serve His church. and help His church. Boy, that's
an honorable strait to be in, ain't it? What do you mean here, the futherance,
the progress of your faith? He said there in verse 25, I
want to stay here and abide with you for the futherance, the progress
of your faith. Faith is a gift of God. But you know it can be increased.
It can be strengthened. It can be made stronger. Look
over here at 2 Thessalonians, just over to your right for just
a minute. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. Hear what he says
about the faith of these believers in 2 Thessalonians. We are bound to thank God always
for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth
exceedingly. Faith can grow, can't it? The
Lord gives it to us. It can be increased. He's the
one that has to increase it. But you know He uses so many
different means to do that. And Paul says, I long to stay
here with you that I may be the instrument in God's hands of
the furtherance of your faith. Even the increase of it, making
it stronger, and for sure, it has to continue. We begin in
faith, and you know something, we can never quit believing.
There's never a time that a child of God can quit believing. He
will quit believing, but he can't quit believing. We belong to Christ. He has redeemed
us. Listen to this. He has reconciled
us to God. If you continue in the faith,
grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope
of the Gospel. We must continue. We must continue
in the faith. Look what he says in another
place. 1 Thessalonians chapter 3 and verse
1. Well, this early church, bless
their heart, they were in battles. Satan was trying his best to
stomp it out. And he would have, too, if they
hadn't had the Savior that they had upholding this church, building
it up. But look at the means here the
Lord Jesus uses to strengthen the faith of His people. 1 Thessalonians
3. Wherefore, when we could no longer
forbear, We thought it good to be left at Athens alone and sent
Timotheus, our brother and minister of God and our fellow laborer,
in the gospel of Christ, look at this, to establish you and
comfort you concerning your faith. I wonder how you would comfort
a man concerning his faith. Maybe help him to realize he's
in the faith. Have you ever doubted whether
you were in it or not? Maybe helping him to realize and understand
the faith he has is real. Maybe confronting him with all
these scriptures to help him trust the Lord better. To believe
God more. I don't know of all the ways.
But Timothy did. Timothy did. Comforts you concerning
your faith. Look at this. That no man should
be moved by these afflictions. For yourselves know that we were
appointed thereunto For verily when we were with you, we told
you before that we should suffer tribulations, even as it came
to pass, and you know. For this cause, when we could
no longer forbear, we sent to know your faith, lest by some
means the tempter have tempted you, and our labor be in vain. But now when Timothy came to
us and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity, You
have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to see us and
we to see you. Therefore, brethren, we are comforted
over you and all your afflictions and distress by your faith."
One of the things that you continue believing, you ain't made shipwrecked. The Lord uses means, doesn't
He? And you know something, when
I look at some of you, And I think this is the way we all should
feel about each other. Your testimony, your testimony
and your life encourages me in the faith. Your faithfulness
to the Lord Jesus Christ every day, that encourages me. When I see some of you come in
the door back there, it encourages me. If you don't realize that
your faithfulness to the Lord, your living for His glory is
an encouragement to the faith of other saints, then may God
help you to realize it. Because we're encouragement one
to another. That's why Paul said, the Lord has left me here and
I bless Him for it. For the furtherance of your faith. And he said something else. For your furtherance and joy,
your joy of faith, the joy of the Lord is your strength. Fill
with all joy and peace in believing. John said, I have no greater
joy than to hear of my children, my friends, my brethren, that
they walk in the truth. We are hampers of one another's
faith. And I tell you, if you see me
being unfaithful, you know what it's going to do? It's going
to discourage you. Ain't it? When I see some of
you being unfaithful, it discourages me. It gets me down. Faithfulness,
we lift each other up. Unfaithfulness, we sort of tear
each other down. And when we see one another serving
the Lord, bearing witness to Him, living for His glory, it
fills us with joy. Does it not? John Bunyan used
to say when somebody left his ministry, it was like taking
red-hot pinchers and pulling the flesh from his body. That's
how it hurts. That's how it hurts. Don't it
thrill you to see the same people year after year after year serving
the Lord? I remember when I worked, I'd
worked in a steel mill, a hot ford shop for years, and we was
laid off a couple of years, and I had a fellow that I worked
with, he was an electrician, and I was a millwright, but we
worked together sometimes, and I hadn't seen him for probably
a year and a half or so. And they called me back to work,
and me and him got together and did a little job one day, and
I knew he was a little bit quiet about something. I think he was,
I think the Lord had really saved this fellow. But he finally looked
at me. He said, I want to ask you a
question. And I could tell, boy, his face was so intense. And
he said, are you still on the way? That's bothering him. I said, Claude, by the grace
of God, I'm still on the way. And he laughed. He just laughed. He said, oh, that's wonderful,
he said. That's wonderful. His scalp was lit up. Why did
that encourage him? Why was that such a joy to him?
That's the way it is, isn't it? Boy, you ask some people that,
and the answer is negative. No. And boy, your heart sinks. What happened to you, man? But
boy, when they say, by the grace of God, I am. I've continued
this day by the Lord's mercy on me. Oh, that's wonderful.
That's wonderful. That's wonderful. When I see you, Shannon, when
I see you come in the doors and go by your house and we're talking
about the Lord, this thrills me, fills me with joy. That's
why it fills us with so much joy having these two come all
the way from Anchorage, Alaska. Why did Wayne want to move here?
You know why he wanted to move here. It wasn't for the oceanfront
property, was it? It was for the church. I want
to go somewhere to hear about Christ, to be with the Lord's
people. Isn't that encouraging? That
just fills you with joy. I have no greater joy than to
know that my children, my friends, my brothers and sisters walk
and live in the truth. And that's what Paul was talking
about. You've got influence over people,
and you affect people. You affect them in a negative
way by your slothfulness and unfaithfulness, or you affect
them in a good way by your faithfulness. May God help us all to realize
that.