Don't you love family reunions? Everybody in Kingsport was telling
me, tell all the brethren in Pikeville, we said hello. And
that word brethren means family. Family in Christ, right? And
it's just so good. It is so good to be with you
and be together. I'm so thankful for this opportunity. Thank you, Brother Tom. We went through Philippians recently
in Kingsport. And every time we go through
a book, I fall in love with it. I'm a new pastor, and so I study
a book for the first time right now. And it's just precious. You get to the end and you want
to start slowing down. You don't want it to be over.
You want to start over. And Philippians was wonderful. But there was something in that
book that blessed my soul. I mean, I have just fed on it
and fed on it and enjoyed it. And I want to bring it to you
tonight. And I pray the Lord will make it a blessing to you
as He's made it to me. But we're going to be in Philippians
1. If you'll turn with me to Philippians chapter 1, The Apostle Paul says something
here in this text that I pray the Lord would make me say. I
know we all pray this same thing. We pray the Lord would cause
us. If we're going to do anything, the Lord has to cause us to do
it. Isn't that right? And I pray He would cause us
all to say this, and I pray He'd give us a heart to mean it, truly
mean it. In Philippians 1 verse 21, he
said, To me, to live is Christ. To me, to live is Christ. A businessman
says, to me, to live is money. Right? It's understandable. An educated man, a researcher,
a man who's given his life to teaching and to learning. He
says, to me, to live is knowledge. A soldier, a true patriot, a
man who's given his career to the defense of the nation. given his body to fighting for
the freedom of the country. He says, to me, to live is honor,
victory. The religionist says, to me,
to live is my own self-righteous works. That's living. Me stacking
up everything I've done for God and for you, my neighbor. The Apostle Paul said, to me,
to live is Christ. To live is Christ. And he said
that right after he said the word for. For means because. Because, to me, to live is Christ. Now, let's see why he said four.
I just want to see the context of what he's saying here, and
then we're going to look at what he says right there. Look with me
at verse 12. He said, "...but I would, you
should understand, brethren, that the things which happened
unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel."
so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and
in all other places." He was in prison. He was in prison. But He is trying from prison
to comfort them by reminding them that every single thing
that has happened to Him is by the will and purpose of God Almighty. Every single thing. We've read
his account. He's written it down. He said,
I was beaten. I was whipped. I was stoned. I've been shipwrecked. What didn't
happen to him? What did not happen to that man?
But he said, it's all okay. It's all okay. And it is, isn't
it? It's all okay. No matter what
happens, To me, to live is Christ. No matter what happens, God is
the doer of it. Isn't that right? It's all for good. Didn't He
say, all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to His purpose. Why in the world
is this happening? Good. I don't really know why
this building was flooded twice, but I do know it was for good.
I know it was. All things work together for
good. He said in verse 12, it's for the furtherance of the gospel. Every single thing that happens
is for the furtherance of the message of the gospel. Every
single thing that happens is for the purse of God laying hold
of a sinner and crossing that sinner's path with the gospel.
To open up his eyes and his ears and his heart. Everything. And
in another place Paul said, everything that happens is for the glory
of God. And what more reasons do we need for the things that
happened? What more could we desire in
this life than good to come, God to receive all the glory
in it, the furtherance of the gospel, what more could we want?
Verse 14, he said, Many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing
confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without
fear. They see that if God did this
to Paul, and he's okay, then we'll be okay. Just preach the
gospel. It's okay. All these offenses
are going to come. It's okay. It's okay. Verse 15,
he said, Some indeed preach Christ even of envy." And you've read
these before. You know all these different
ways that he said men preach. And at the end of verse 18 he
said, "...I therein do rejoice, yea, and I will rejoice." In
all these different ways. Now Paul would have never rejoiced
In these different men He listed in their message, in their ministry,
He would have never rejoiced if they were not preaching the
gospel of God's free grace. Isn't that right? Hold your place
and look with me at Galatians chapter 1. Galatians chapter 1 verse 6,
he said, I marvel that you are so soon removed from Him that
called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which
is not another. There's only one. But there be some that trouble
you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we or an
angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that
which we have preached unto you, let that man be cursed. As we said before, so say I now
again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that
you have received, let him be accursed." So the men that Paul
was talking about over in Philippians, they were preaching the truth.
They were preaching the truth. They preached the truth about
man's absolute sin. Man's sin and depravity. They
preach the truth about God's right to choose whoever He wants
to choose and pass by whoever He wants to pass by. I was telling
Brother Tom, driving in here, coming into Pikeville, I thought
about all the little towns I passed between Kingsport and here. But
it pleased the Lord to put the Gospel here. And it pleased the
Lord to call out some people here. What's the difference in
these people as opposed to all those people? The grace of God. That's it. And those men back
in Philippians, they preached God's right to choose whoever
He wants to choose and pass by who He wants to pass by. They
preached the truth of the saving power of the blood of Christ
alone and the keeping power of the blood of Christ alone. They
preached who He came for. He came for sinners. Men hate
that, don't they? I thought he came for the good
people. Nope. He came for sinners. So Paul said, because of that,
I rejoice. I rejoice. Even though some of
them preach it of envy, he said, back in Philippians 1 verse 15,
some indeed preach Christ even of envy. They were envious of
Paul and jealous and he's in prison now, so they're going
to step into his shoes He said in verse 15, some preach it of
strife, some are maybe a little more arguing than others, but
he said some preach it of goodwill. Some say, let's just forget about
this and stay on Christ. How about that? Verse 16, the
one preached Christ of contention, not sincerely supposing to add
affliction to my bonds, but the other of love, knowing that I'm
set for the defense of the gospel. Verse 18, he said, what then?
What difference does it make? Notwithstanding every way, whether
in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therein do
rejoice, yea, and will rejoice." And the reason is because to
me, to live is Christ. And if Christ is preached, that's
all I need. That's it. Verse 19, he said,
For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your
prayers 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. Either way. He said, for to me,
to live is Christ and to die is gain. Now, I want to take just a minute
and look at what it means to say, to live is Christ. And then I want to take a look
at what it means to say, to die is gain. All right? What does
it mean to say, to live is Christ? First of all, it means He is
the source of my life. He is the source of my life. He is where my life started. Look with me if you would at
John chapter 3. John chapter 3. Verse 1 says, There was a man
of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same
came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that
thou art a teacher come from God. For no man can do these
miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered
and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus
saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he
enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus
answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born
of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel
not that I said unto thee, You must be born again." Do we believe
that? Do we believe we must be born
again, born of God? Do we believe if a person is
going to live eternally, he must be born of God? Not by the will of man, not any
other way, but of God, only of God. Do we believe that in the
same way that we had absolutely nothing to do with our physical
birth, we had absolutely nothing to do with our spiritual birth?
Paul said, to me to live is Christ. It all starts with Christ. He gets all the glory for it.
If it were not for Christ, I would not be. I just would not be. The next thing it means to say
to live is Christ is, He is my sustenance. He is what sustains
me. He is what feeds me. You know, only a sinner who feeds
on Christ can understand what it means when a man says, I feed
on Christ. A person who does not feed on
Christ, that's the silliest statement that they've ever heard in their
life. Nicodemus said, are you telling me a grown man has to
go back into his mother's womb? Look with me at John 6. Some
men said the same thing right here. John 6 verse 51, Our Lord
said, I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any
man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that
I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the
world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How
can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto
them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except you eat the flesh
of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you have no life in
you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal
life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh
is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. And he that
eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and
I in him. As the living Father has sent
me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he
shall live by me. This is that bread which came
down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna
and are dead. He that eateth of this bread
shall live forever." Have you ever fed on Christ in a service
and after the service just been so full you thought, I'm stuffed.
Please stop talking. I can't hold any more. I just
can't hold any more. Have you ever been so satisfied
at the thought of the blood of Christ? So satisfied. He said, My flesh is meat indeed,
and My blood is drink indeed. And it is. It is. The Lord asked Peter, He said,
Do you love Me? Do you love me? Peter said, Lord,
you know I do. You know I do. He said, then
feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. With what? What
do I feed them with? The apostle Paul said, and every
believer says, to me, I'll take Christ. What will you have? What would you like? I'll take
Christ. To me, to live is Christ. Feed me Christ. He's the only
one who can nourish me and satisfy me. My life comes from Him. My life is supported by Him.
I'm going to give you one more. To live is Christ means He is
my end goal. He's my end goal. He is my heart's
desire. It has to be of God for a sinful
man or a sinful woman who is of this world and loves this
world and is eaten up with this world and cannot get enough of
this world to prefer Christ over everything else. It has to be
of God. It just has to be. But when he does a work on his
child, that child says with absolute sincerity in his heart, I want
Christ. I want the Lord Jesus Christ. He is all I need. He's all I
want. He's all I want. There's a song
and it says, take the world, but give me the Lord Jesus Christ.
Give me Christ. I absolutely adore this verse
of Scripture. Look with me at Psalm 17. Psalm
17. David said in verse 15, Psalm
17, 15, he said, As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I awake
with thy likeness. That's what I want. I won't truly
be satisfied until I awake in the likeness of my Lord. I want
to Be with Christ. I want to be just like Christ.
I want to live with Christ. That's life to me. That is life
to me. Somebody made the statement,
and it's so true, if a person does not enjoy worshiping our
Lord on this earth, they're not going to enjoy heaven. Don't you want to sit down at
His feet? experiencing what it's like to
not have this body of sin and death, experiencing what it's
like to have the Spirit without measure, just as He is, so are
we. And wouldn't you love to hear
directly from the face? He said, I'm going to behold
your face in righteousness, and I'm going to be satisfied. I'm
going to be so satisfied at that moment. To me, to live is Christ. Now go with me back to Philippians
1. Verse 21, Paul said, "'For to
me to live is Christ,' and then he said, "'To die is gain.'"
Now why would he say that? Why would he say that? Death
is loss. We can clearly see that. Anybody can see that. In death,
a man loses his life. Isn't that right? In death, a man loses his breath. God formed man from the dust
of the ground and He breathed the breath of life in him. A
baby comes forth and that baby takes his first breath. And then
it never stops. And when a man dies, he loses
his breath. His eye loses its sight. His ear loses its hearing. His heart loses its emotion. His foot loses its motion. A man who dies loses his wife. A woman who dies loses her children. My mother literally said goodbye
to four children before our Lord mercifully took her. Said goodbye. Everything we can see in death
is loss. Every single thing we can see
in death is loss. But do you know what 2 Corinthians
4 verse 18 says? It says, Believers, look not
at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not
seen. For the things which are seen
are temporal, they're temporary. But the things which are not
seen are eternal. And Paul says right here, if
a believer can say, to me to live is Christ. If a believer
can say that, to me in his heart. And you know, you don't have
to fool anybody in your heart. We can act pretty well on the
outside, but in the heart. If a believer can say, to me
to live is Christ. Hidden in Christ is where life
is. Covered in the blood, that's
where life is. If a believer can say that, then
for that believer, he said, to die is gain. Now I'm going to
tell you what Charles Spurgeon had to say about this, and I'm
going to quote him because it is too good to not just repeat
exactly what he said. We've never had an original thought
since we started doing this, have we? People think we do,
but there's only one message. There's only one message. There's
only one scripture. This is the only place where
plagiarism is a must. If you don't plagiarize, God
will remove you from that pulpit. There's just nothing new. Tell
me the old, old story. Give me the old paths, right?
But we have our commentaries, and we hear other men say things,
and then we repeat it, and we don't give anybody credit for
it, and people think we came up with it. And I'm not going
to do that with Charles Spurgeon because this was in Metropolitan
Tabernacle. A message he had, it was so good. The way he said it, his air,
his tone in how he was saying it, it blessed my heart so much.
I'm going to repeat it to you, okay? Just repeat to you what
he said. He said, in everything a believer loses on this earth,
He gains far more in eternity. He said He lost His friends,
did He? He lost His family? He lost His
brethren? He said as soon as He dies, He
gains infinitely more than He lost. As soon as He dies. That's the truth, isn't it? That's
the truth. He gains true, connected relationships. We hugged each other, didn't
we? We hugged each other. We love each other, don't we?
He gains loving, binding relationships. Now, without taking our eyes
off of the Lord Jesus Christ, I used to feel guilty about desiring
to see my brethren in glory. I felt it was diminishing my
desire to see my Lord, but this was such a comfort to me. Our
Lord said, I'm going to give you two great commandments. The
first one is you love the Lord your God with all your heart.
And the second one is you love your brother. You love your neighbor
as yourself. God commanded us to love and
desire our brethren. So, without taking our eyes off
of Christ, absolutely not, without diminishing our love for Him,
all because of Him, all because of what He has done, because
of the way that He has purposed for things to be, the reality
of eternity is, As soon as a man leaves this world, he gains friends,
he gains family, he gains loved ones that cannot be numbered. Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah,
Paul are that man's congregation. Yes, I attend worship with them.
He's my brother. He's my friend. We talk. all around Christ. All around
Christ. We sit together at the feet of
Christ, worshiping Christ, all because of Christ. Spurgeon said,
he said, that man lost many believing loved ones in his life on earth. While he was alive on this earth,
he lost believing loved ones throughout his time. And we do,
and we have. We've lost some recently. He
said, but as soon as he dies, he gains them all back. Every single one of them. When the Lord brought Lazarus
back from the grave, Mary and Martha were the exact same people
to Lazarus as they were before. And Lazarus was the exact same
person to them as he was before. Same person. They picked right
up where they left off. And that's what will happen for
believers in glory. They know even as they were known. They all know who they were.
They all know why they're there. Every single one of them. They
all together cry. There's a song that they all
sing together. They cry, Unto Him that loved
us. and washed us from our sin in
His own blood." Isn't that what they're singing up there? They
know who they were. They know what they were. They
know why they're there. When the Lord came back from
the grave, He appeared to the eleven, and they were so afraid
and thought they'd seen a ghost. He said, touch me. It is I myself. It's I myself. It's me. It is me. And Spurgeon said,
every believing relationship that we lost on this earth is
going to be waiting for us when we get there. Every single one. He said, there the mother meets
her unborn infant. He said, there the father meets
his children. He said, there the venerable
patriarch, the grandfather, greets his family to the third and fourth
generation. He said, there brother clasps
brother to his arms. I have three sisters, Sarah,
Hannah, and Becca. All thanks to my Lord. He has caused all three of them
to cry out to Him for mercy. All three of them, and I'm so
thankful, it's so rare. There are four kids in our family.
I'm the oldest. And all four of us, all three of them are
clinging to the blood of Christ. That's all their hope. If they're
not under His blood, they're damned. And if He chooses to
show mercy to them in His blood, they're saved. That's their hope.
That's what their confession is. And we get together, all
of our family gets together once a year, and we love it. We just love it so much. We hug. We're all a bunch of huggers.
And we tell each other we love each other. We just love seeing
each other. We love each other so much. And I just can't imagine the
thought of entering into glory and there are my three sisters,
hugging them, knowing here we are. Here we are. We had this
hope all through this life. Here we are. The blood of Christ
truly did atone. That was our hope. That was our
belief. That was our gospel. That was
everything we were clinging to. And He really did save us. He really did prepare a place
for us. We hear the truth that we're
going to love everybody the same in glory. I just mentioned my
three sisters. And I have a wife sitting right
here. And no love can compare to that. There is no love that
can compare to that. And we know and we believe that
all love will be the same in glory and that can be a disappointment
to us. I love that love. I love that
special relationship. I don't want that to become common. Right? And we hear that, you
know, we're all going to love the same, and it can be a little
bit disappointing to us that the love we have for someone
in a special, special way could be downgraded to the love we
have for everybody else. But that's not how it works in
glory. The love that we have for everybody else is upgraded
to the love that we have for that special person. And the
love we have for that person and everybody else is upgraded
to the love that Christ has for us. It's not even upgraded to
the love we have for Him. That's not nearly good enough.
It goes all the way to the love that He has for us. To die is
gain. Everything gains. Everything
increases. Spurgeon said, their brother
clasped brother to his arms, and husband meets with wife.
No more to be married or given in marriage, but to live together
like the angels of God. He said, some of us have more
friends in heaven than in earth. He said, we have more dear relationships
in glory than we have here. We think of people as being so
gone. Oh, it was so great knowing them. He said, they're just over
there. They're just over there. He said, the company of poor
imperfect saints on earth is good. It is, but how much better
the society of the redeemed. How much better. He said, we
leave a few, a little band below, and we say to them, fear not
little flock, And then we ascend and meet the armies of the living
God, the host of the redeemed." How glorious. He said, to die
is gain. Everything about it is gain.
He said, a man loses his wealth, does he? You know, naked came
I into this world and naked I'm going out. Oh, you can't keep
any of it. A man loses his wealth, does
he? He lost all of his estate. all of his substance? Were his
fingers on earth bright with pearls?" He said, wait till he
sees the pearly gates of heaven. Wait till he sees the pearl of
great price. What is any of that wealth going
to be after he sees Him face to face? Revelation 21.21 says
there are twelve gates. in this heavenly city, and each
gate is made out of one pearl. Somebody will say, well, that's
all spiritual. Yes, it is. It sure is. But our Lord prophesied
in the Old Testament things like this, a virgin shall conceive. That's all spiritual. No, a virgin
conceived. This is how you'll know your
Lord. He's going to go riding into town on a donkey. The cult
of an ass. What did he do? He went riding
into town on a donkey. He says there are 12 gates, and
each gate is made out of one pearl. I don't think one of his
words are going to fail. Whether they are or not is irrelevant. But just wait. Just wait. To die is gain. Spurgeon said,
had he gold in his storehouse? He said, mark you the streets
of heaven. They're all paved with gold. He said, might I die
this hour if the Lord took me right now? He said, might I die
this hour, I think I would say something like this, farewell
Sabbaths, I'm going to the eternal Sabbath of the redeemed. Farewell
minister, I don't need you anymore. I might have told you this in
one of the times that I've been here, but I was able to go to
Mexico one time. And while I was there, Brother
Cody had his Bible on the coffee table and I was curious if I
could understand Spanish. Come to find out, I can't. But
I picked up his Bible and I wanted to go to a scripture just to
You know, see if I can make anything out of it. So what did I know
off the top of my head? Psalm 23. So I went to Psalm 23. Verse
1 said, Jehovah es mi pastor. The Lord is my pastor. Spurgeon
said, farewell minister. The Lord is my pastor. I don't
need you anymore. He said, and think about this,
think about this. He said, farewell ye prayers
of God's people. My spirit shall hear forever
the intercession of my Lord. Just think about that. You know
our Lord, He broke bread with His disciples, didn't He? He
broke bread and gave thanks. Can you imagine listening to
Him pray? Can you imagine? Spurgeon said, Here we see through
a glass darkly, but there face to face. There what I hath not
seen nor ear heard shall be fully manifest to us. He said, Brethren,
to die is gain. It's gain. He said, Why weep
we the saints to heaven? I can't help it. I'm an emotional
person. I cry a lot. And at a funeral, the next funeral,
I'm going to cry. But Spurgeon said, why weep we
the saints to heaven? Why need we lament? They are
not dead. They are gone before. Stop. Stop that mourning. Refrain thy
tears and clap your hands. He said, what? Weep for the heads
that are crowned with the glory of heaven. Weep for the eyes
that see the Redeemer. Weep for the hearts that are
washed from sin and are throbbing with eternal bliss. Weep for men that are in the
Savior's bosom. He said no. Weep for yourselves
that you are still here. Weep that the mandate has not
come which bids you to die. Weep that you must tarry, but
weep not for them. Don't weep for them. He said,
don't weep for poverty that has been clothed in riches. Don't
weep for sickness that has inherited eternal hell. Don't weep for
sinful mortality that has become immaculate." He said, weep not,
but rejoice. Rejoice. For to me, to live is
Christ, and to die is gain. It's so much gain. Isn't that
wonderful? Isn't that wonderful? It's so
much gain. So much gain. How glorious. I pray that it will be a blessing
to your hearts. Thank you, Brother Tom. Thank
you.