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Praise the Savior, ye who know Him, who can tell how much we owe Him gladly Let us render to Him all we have and are 256.
Praise the Savior.
And tell how much we are gladly love stranded to him.
All we have.
More.
Thanks forever.
He is faithful changing.
Never.
Force, Lord, I'll consider.
Lost him.
Notification honestly you think myself and still believe me till they are all of our receiving.
Promise.
And we shall be where we would be, and we shall be what we should be what we should.
OK I sleeping till I stop and still believe.
Our receiving.
Run destroyed.
This chapter for reading that it includes the.
Verses 21 to.
And beyond.
So for connections sake I would perhaps we could start in verse 20, but.
Try not to miss the latter part of the chapter.
The Olympians chapter one and verse 20.
According to my earnest expectation of my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed for that, but that with all boldness as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be life or by death. For to me to live as Christ, and to die as gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor. Yet what I shall choose I would not.
For I am a straight particular having desire to depart and 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 you're rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again. Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ.
And whether I come and see you else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, and in nothing terrified by the adversaries, which is to them evident token of partition, but to you of salvation and that of God. For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake.
Having the same confidence which ye saw in me and not here to be in me.
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When Romans that are intelligent, service is to present our bodies as a living sacrifice.
We know in 2nd Corinthians 5 that when we come before the judgment seat of Christ, it's to manifest the Lorde mind in the deeds done in the body. It's in our bodies that we act, and sin is always connected with that which is done by man in his body and the very.
Evil principle that came into man when he disobeyed in the Garden of Eden is associated with his body, as we have in Romans 7 in Romans 8.
This body of death, and it's called a body of death there because it's sin in the body.
And so here the apostle in this 20th verse, he wants to magnify Christ in that body, a body of responsibility. And whether it's Christ is honored through his life or through his death, he wants to be sure that Christ is the one that's magnified in the body. And so each of us are living each day and in our bodies we are either acting.
To the honor of the Lord Jesus or otherwise.
And so it's an important responsibility that we have this day to also magnify Christ in our bodies.
You were mentioning before how the IT wasn't the apostles desire really that he would be delivered out of the prison. And when just if you don't mind just backing up to the 19th verse there he speaks about my salvation for I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. And some, some might think, well, that means that he's talking about his deliverance out of prison here. But really it's not that his desire was that he could stay in prison.
But he counted on the prayers of the Saints that his faith might not fail and that he might be strengthened by the Spirit of God while he is there where he is. It's not a case of being released. If that's what the Lord wants, that's fine. If not, he'll stay there. But his main desire was that his own body would be used to glorify Christ. And I think that's a beautiful thing to see that with this, with the apostle there, that he was satisfied again, carrying out what he says before.
In whatsoever state I am there with to be content. And there he sat in that prison. But he was going to be.
No matter where he was, he would be used by the Spirit of God for the good of the Saints.
So it's a good question to raise in our own souls. How much do others see of Christ in our lives? Because it's through our actions, our words too, but through our actions that Christ is magnified in our bodies. And it's easy to be a Christian when we're together on a weekend like this. We have one another, we enjoy the word, we fellowship together, we're in a secure hothouse setting, so to speak. And that's wonderful, Great opportunity to be together and we're thankful for it.
But as we go now, is there going to be something reflected of Christ in our lives back in our neighborhood, back at school, back at the office, the shop, wherever we operate from day-to-day, Others ought to be able to look on and see Christ reflected in your life and mine. I know it's perhaps a slightly different thought, but our brother Darryl read us that verse this morning in Corinthians, how that were changed into the same image from glory to glory. And it's by beholding the Lord Jesus where he is now.
Occupation with himself is going to give a reflection of Christ in our in our lives. And so I say we need to be exercised because brethren, we're epistles known and read of all men. And I think it's very searching to realize that all that this world is going to see of Christ is what's exhibited in your life and mine. And especially in a day when they've closed the word of God, they don't read the word of God.
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So they've shut their they've shut out the light of the word of God. What are our neighbors going to see of Christ this week?
What are those we associate with and come in contact with going to see of Christ in the next few days? It is what is exhibited of Christ in your life and mine through our actions, through our words, through just our occupation with Christ and some reflection of Christ in your life and mine. That's what they're going to see. And so we need to be exercised like Paul, his whole desire, his whole life.
His whole zeal and energy was that he would reflect Christ in everything that he said and did.
To see in this epistle the references to Jesus Christ. So back in verse six, we have until the day of Jesus Christ, verse 10, verse 11, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ.
The verse that we've just had the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and if you keep looking through this epistle, you find references to Jesus Christ many times. Well, why is that? Because Jesus Christ was the man.
That came and walked through this scene to the glory of his father. And so it's.
Just nice to reflect on that man Jesus Christ.
And his walk through this wilderness scene in which we are currently passing through.
Content our brother.
Mention how Paul learned to be content in all things. There's only one way we can be content in all things is to know what God's purpose is and want that. What's God's purpose? To make us happy, make us feel good, etcetera? Of course not. God's purpose is to conform us to the image of Christ here and perfectly when we see Him in the air.
And all of lot life doesn't make sense unless you look at it through that lens of glasses until you see the only thing that's important to me is being conformed to the image of Christ. Nothing makes sense once you look at it that way. You're content in all things because you know God is conforming you. He's promised it. The God who cannot lie promise he's going to mold and changes to his image. And once we're in tune with that.
Everything makes sense in true contentment, whether you're flat, broke or rich.
Whether you're in pain, whether you're at a child's wedding or at a child's funeral or another one's funeral.
The only way anything makes sense is when we realize what God's doing and that's what we want, because God always knows what's best.
For me to live is Christ. This is not Roman truth, is it? This isn't Christ does the new life, the perfect life, the divine life. That's true. But what he's talking about here is the practical everyday living of the Christian pathway. Paul, I believe his exercises we've been saying was to get up in the morning and to live Christ, to reflect in by what he did and what he said something of Christ in his life. And so this is very practical.
It says our brother Bob Brimlow used to tell us where the rubber meets the road. This is here in the wilderness pathway. We're not home yet. This is living out something of Christ in your life and mine every day. Brethren, this is exceedingly practical. This is not doctrine. This is practical Christianity. Christianity is a very practical thing. Is that right, Don? Absolutely.
This is the practice.
Not the doctrine of Christianity, and sometimes when we're.
In school.
Some of us can still remember some of those days that we were taught that we were to make priority lists and something was given a list of things and there was something given to be #1 priority and #2 priority. And we hear about people saying we ought to prioritize that they are lives so that we have the most important things. Well, if Paul had made such a list, it had one item on it.
Just one Christ, number one, there was number 2. There was #3 there was no #10 in his life. There was just #1 Christ. And it's also significant to my own heart that there are times when the apostle Paul says we.
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And there are other times in his ministry when he says I.
And this is one of the eye cases, that is, he cannot speak for anybody else.
In this matter.
He can only speak for himself.
He doesn't say for us to live as Christ because as Jim said, it's a very individual, practical expression and God in his grace has given to us the apostle Paul as a patterned Christian. There is no other in the New Testament that is quite like Paul. He is a man that God took to the third heavens to see what heavenly.
Things are the true Christian place, and then sends him, as it were, back to earth to live in view of that, and he's put before us as a pattern and just to express how.
Much it has to be said for me to live as Christ.
I don't say it hasn't been said, but I have never read in my life and I have never spoken to a person who said this about themselves.
Accepting the Apostle Paul.
He's the only one, in my own personal experience, whoever used such words that would say face to face or even in a biography that said for me to live is Christ. And so as he presents to us here, there is plenty of room for us to take to heart for personal growth, the practical reality of that desire, if we can't say it as a fact as Paul could.
At least expressed that it is a desire. It's my desire that Christ be everything to me.
So later on we read that Paul could say my God shall supply all your need. He doesn't say your God will supply all your need, but he says my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus because he had proven that for himself. And so if I were to go to you and say my God shall supply all your need, I'm only am I really saying that from experience and from my own heart or am I just pair talking the apostle Paul? And so it shouldn't be an exercise us to say if I can go and encourage somebody else.
Well, I may be just pair talking the words, but I need to experience that in my own life in order to be able to say to you, my God will supply all your need because I've experienced my own life. And so it's a very personal thing with the Apostle Paul. And I was going to say too that that Christianity is not a religion.
Mr. Lundeen should say it's a life.
And so people will say, well, that man's got religion, but if that's all he's got, it's going to fade away. It's not going to help many. But if, if, if his life is Christ, he's got a life and that's going to what's going to be manifested. I trust it's not just religion with us, brother. It's got to be more, more than that if we're going to be able to walk on and please the Lord down here. Paul was forced, if I can put it that way, to say things by inspiration that were really not things he would have said otherwise. I don't think they were things he would have put out when he was ministering in the third loft in Troas or.
Ministering to the brethren or sitting at their kitchen table orally, but they were necessary that they be recorded by inspiration.
Even though they were things that were as to Paul's character, things that he wouldn't normally have said, for instance, and Don alluded to it when he said to the Corinthian brethren, be followers of me even as I am also of Christ. Would any of us dare say that? No, I don't think there's a person here I trust not that would dare say that, but because of the need at Corinth and the way they had been treating him and questioning things.
He was forced by inspiration to say that because, as Dawn said, he was raised up at the beginning as a patterned St. to those who would hereafter believe when he says for me to live is Christ. He was forced by inspiration, as it were, to pen these words for the blessing of the Philippian Saints and in the context of what he was writing to them and for our encouragement today. But we might ponder this, this expression and say, what does he really saying?
00:20:06
Well, if I can put it in everyday language, you know, the athlete says for me to live is sports. And he gets up in the morning and he goes out to train, spends a few hours training after whatever other duties he has in the day. He spends some more time training, spends time with his coach. He's living sports. Maybe he's looking forward to the day when he's going to compete at the Olympics or professionally or whatever it may be. The student says for me to live his education, he's looking forward to the day he's going to get his degree. And so he spends his day studying, not just in class, but he's doing research afterwards and so on.
The businessman and I see them in the airport every week for me to live his business. And the minute they are allowed to use their Blackberries and their cell phones, when the plane touches the tarmac, they're doing their business. They're rushing to the business lounge to get something done before the next flight and the next seminar or the next sales meeting. For me to live is business. Well, I know brethren, there's many practical sides to life. We're going to go back to business and school and whatever.
Sphere of things God has placed us in, but can we say right over all that and we need to do everything heartily as unto the Lord, whether it's our business or family matters, practical matters, whatever it be, but can we write across it in our own souls for me to live as Christ? Now again, that's something that we have to deal with in our own souls. We don't go around saying it publicly, but do we really say in our own souls for me to live as Christ? In other words, no matter what else I have to do today.
Whether it's going to the office or school or keeping the home or doing the shopping or traveling back from conference for me to live as Christ, you know, in the third chapter, Paul said this one thing I do, you know, that's not multitasking, that's focus. One thing I do now, there were many facets to Paul's path of faith and service, but over it all, he said this one thing I do, I'm pressing toward the mark. I've got Christ as my goal. I've got Christ as my object for me to live as Christ.
And I don't think at least for my own soul, we can drill this into our hearts enough, brethren, to have this focus, this object, this desire. You know, David said one thing of I desire to the Lord. He didn't stop there. He said that will I seek after? And what was it that I may dwell in the House of the Lord, when forever. No, that's the 23rd Psalm. But in the 27th Psalm, that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life. In other words, David's exercise was to walk in the conscious sense of the Lord's presence with him every day.
Now do you and I have the exercise to walk in the conscious sense of the Lord's presence, that there might, that Christ might be magnified in our bodies.
That's fairly what he said, dear brother.
Put it in simply another way, we all need to make that choice. It's a choice we make.
Each one of us in this room, young and old, you make the choice whether you're going to live for Christ. And then if you do make the choice, whether you're in business or whatever, even in business, you make a choice. I'm going to live for Christ even in this business. If I'm going to school for education, I'm going to make the choice in school. I'm going to live for Christ even in school. It's we need to get a hold of this truth.
You need to make the choice what you're going to do.
Ever a Jewish young woman in Iran?
And of course, she had to wear the chador in public.
Which she didn't like to wear, of course, and but she worked at a business and she happened to be in the lunch room with a man.
Just the two of them were in there and it was their opportunity to say why are you so happy?
And his reply was, I follow Jesus.
She was from a family that had lived in Iran 2700 years, a Jewish family.
And the man gave her the gospel, and I think she was saved right there.
And then he gave her.
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She knew. She looked around. She knew it was very dangerous for him to even mention the name of Jesus.
And then he gave her an address to go to in the middle of the night.
She went there, knocked on the door and the door opened and they were. She was just received with welcome. We've been praying for you for months.
You know, we we look at the laws changing in our land.
We've assumed.
Will always have the same liberties.
But, brethren, we have this option always.
And it's really the most powerful one. Personal testimony.
It's more powerful than a page of literature handed out.
You can hand out literature and if personal testimony don't add up.
That's not going to come into literature.
But I was thinking of how our brethren in many oppressed lands are.
They're going on with Christ and you know, they're praying earnestly for us.
It's one thing they can do.
In their circumstances is intercede for us. We we have so much we take for granted. But what a wonderful thing this is for me to live as Christ years ago Borodin, I don't know if you're familiar with him. He was a famous name among the Communists. He was the one who took communism to China in the early early.
Early 40s or maybe before that.
One statement he made.
If I could just have more people like the Apostle Paul. But he was educated in Indiana. He was so successful at spreading communism to China that when he went back to Russia, Stalin had him killed.
And you know, we just.
I couldn't help but be impressed that he valued a man whose.
Object never wavered.
And of course, he thought.
The imitation.
Of Christianity, Communism seeks to imitate a lot of it, but without God.
Having all things in common and all that. But what a wonderful thing is this privilege for me to live is Christ. And the other factor is we don't have to live, you know?
We naturally have a very powerful instinct of self preservation.
But we don't have to live.
Here's the other side. To die is game.
And he would lay his life before Christ for it all.
And.
Says they had lost their first love and they're exhorted to return to their first works. 1St works are associated with first love. And so a new bride, she doesn't wake up on the morning after her marriage and say my priority number one for today is my husband #2 is to do the laundry #3 is to do the washing. In fact, her husband is not even a priority. It just flows out of her affection for him.
And so, you know, we need to be, and I'm not at all countering what has been said about priorities. But if if you're going to make crisis a priority in your life, perhaps you're missing something. If we are occupied with him, he is our priority, isn't he? And so this book is often being divided up the four chapters into Christ our life, Christ our pattern, Christ our object, Christ our strength.
I'll call my question over in my mind. What the?
Differences between.
Living for Christ and living Christ.
Here it says for me to live is Christ. It doesn't say for me to live for Christ. And I, I think that you just touched on that.
We're living for Christ there. There seems to be a little bit of a a little bit of a disconnect.
But if we are living, if our life is Christ, there is a real bond and connection. Wonder if maybe we could just.
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Maybe discuss a little bit the difference between living for Christ.
And our life is Christ.
How many times do we use to hear try to love God any more than you do Just sit down and and think about how much he loved you. And so it's been said never try and be a testimony you live for Christ. You will be a testimony. It'll show on your face and then you and and in your life. And so I I perhaps that answers a little way. It's it's not a case of trying so much because if we're going to try something and emphasize that we're going to fail in some way. But if I just live Christ.
It'll it'll, the testimony will be there.
Of the Spirit of God in us too. It is the Spirit of God which produces Christ in us. It's not some action from within ourselves that generates the life of Christ. It's the Spirit of God that does it. And so it's it's good for us. We were Speaking of this isn't this isn't a doctrine of Romans. This is practice but it's very difficult to live a life of Christ without.
Really understanding the doctrine of our position.
In Christ and what the work of Christ has made has brought us to and so.
I think it's important for us to realize that we do need to understand the doctrines that maybe we have in Romans so that the life of Christ might be might be lived in us in a practical way. It's to live Christ really is the thought in this verse. The is is an italics if you notice to live for Christ is a conscious decision.
And I'm thankful when a young person says I really want to live for Christ. I've come to that point. Maybe they've come to some crossroad in their lives and there's been a real work of the Spirit of God and conviction in their soul and purpose of heart. And they say, I want to live for Christ. And I'm thankful when I hear that. But to live Christ is the unconscious.
Christ, in our scene, in our lives, it's so that another looks at you.
And says, I see Christ in that person. I see Christ in what they, in what they do, in what they say.
It's Christ. Could you be dropped somewhere? Somewhere where they've never had the testimony of the gospel and the life of Christ be seen in you from day-to-day? Somewhere where you couldn't speak the language, Somewhere where you couldn't communicate other by than by your actions?
And after a week or a month or a year, you finally learn the language and you're able to maybe present the word of God to them, but they've already seen Christ manifested in your life in a practical way. And so when Paul says for me to live, his desire was to live Christ. It's not so much to live is Christ, but to live Christ. In other words, he said, I want Christ to be seen in me.
When I go about my daily life, my daily routine from day-to-day, so those that came from the presence of the Lord, they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. There was something seen in not so much what they said, but by their actions and their life. There was something seen of of Christ.
And read verse three. I believe it's a. It's a.
It's a perfect display of what we're Speaking of in the Lord Jesus.
Verse three of Hebrews chapter one. Who being the brightness of his glory.
And the expressed image of his person, the Lord Jesus.
You could say lived God.
He was the brightness.
He was the brightness of His glory in the expressed image of His person. And so for us to live Christ would be to do the same thing, display the brightness of His glory and expressed image of His person. I wonder if that's a there's a thought there.
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I think the verse has. It's important to see the second-half of the verse.
In connection with the first half, they are connected together.
When he says for me to live as Christ and to die is gain.
How can?
Dying be gained.
In the connection with the first half of the verse.
The Lord Jesus.
Was everything to the Apostle Paul.
He was.
Absolutely everything to his heart. And when he says to die is gain, he recognized that even in death he was going to have more.
Of the very thing that was everything to himself, he doesn't say it's gained for you Philippians. It's a personal thing. He's speaking about himself. And in fact, the verses which follow say that he expected to live for their sake.
But for himself personally, you get it in the third chapter when he's talking about himself and he he says I want Christ for my gain. And then he talks about death and he says as it were, you know, I think I would benefit if I died because.
If I died, I would go through and experience that the Lord Jesus went through.
And going through the experience which the Lord Jesus went through, I would then be raised by the same power by which He was raised. And in that happening to me as it happened to Him, it would be an opportunity for me to know Him better.
And that's everything to my heart to have him, to know him better. And so it's a it's a very personal expression of what was everything to the heart of the Apostle Paul and and he in any possible way in which he could have more of the compelling fulfilling.
Person of Christ, he wants it.
And even death itself he sees as gaining for himself more of that which is everything to him. And, and I think we see another aspect of him. And Jim was bringing out some of that too. That's seen in Galatians 2 and 20. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.
And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. That it covers some of the aspects that we've had a little bit before us as well, that the apostle was done with the old life.
Now he had a new life. Christ was that life as Colossians 3.
Presents it and also he goes on in the end of it. I live by the faith of the Son of God. That is, I live by that faith which has the Son of God as its soul and supreme object. And that's the life that he was living. And it's connected with what we have here. But I think it's intensely the sense of Paul's own heart. He is absolutely everything.
Into his heart, going back to what we had before us earlier about being a testimony. We are all a testimony one way or another.
We're either a good testimony, Christ, or we're a bad testimony.
And.
Living the life of Christ. So people see Christ in me and I, to my shame, I would say I have probably failed in that regard most of the time. But I want to relate a story, a true story that Brother Eric Smith told us many years ago. Many of us remember Brother Smith and he labored in Peru and Bolivia for over 30 years and he was responsible, with the Lord's help, for setting up many assemblies.
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Countries and he would go about and visit those assemblies, of course, because he had a love and care for them and he would he would go and visit and if they had problems going on there they would usually.
Will say in their culture, they felt that was they would ask brother Smith, well, what what do we do about this? We got this little problem here. We got this situation, What do we do about it? And they weren't learned in the word. So brother Smith would sit down with them and and from the word of God, he had explained. But the one that stuck with me and probably any of us that heard this, he said, I recently visited an assembly, I believe it was Peru or Bolivia and it was it was not a large assembly, but they had two leading brothers.
They had two brothers that took the lead and the one brother was a little more humble than the other one and the other brother, he sort of put himself forward but and did more of the talking. There were other brothers in the assembly, but Brother Smith was there for about a week and he noticed that whenever the one brother spoke, the other brother just totally norded. He'd even close his Bible.
He totally ignore him and this went on and brother Smith noticed this that he he went to this dear brother and he said, brother, I've noticed that when your brother sitting there.
When he reads the scripture, you don't turn to it when he prays you what is going on here? And he said Brother Smith.
I don't have anything personally against that brother, but he says I can't hear what he's saying because of the life that he lives.
He says one thing in meeting but he doesn't live that kind of life. I said I'm sorry but I can't hear what he's saying to me because of the way he lives and acts.
And Brother Smith went to the other brother and they talked it through and sure enough, this brother was not living the light that he should be living as a Christian, and especially if he's going to be a teacher and then put out the words. So I just say that hopefully as a good example.
We are judged by how we act, you know, that's a stronger witness than what we say.
You know, put a little shoe leather on that.
For the younger people, what do we mean whenever we say live Christ or people see Christ in US? Well, personally I'd consider an insult if somebody called me religious.
What do they mean, Philippians, Or what should we mean Philippians? 48 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things, those things which you have both learned and received and heard.
And seen in me. Do we often say, you know, we want to manifest Christ, but it's so vague. What does it actually mean? Manifests his personal characteristics, not religion, not a stiff neck and a fancy suit and thumping her Bibles. Nothing wrong with that, I guess. But when you say something, do your peers know that what you've said you're going to do regardless?
When there's a conflict, will unsaved people bump you and ask you what's right and what's wrong and more than likely can't attend that direction? Another list if you don't mind me reading it. Galatians chapter 5, verse 22 or 24.
For the fruit of the Spirit is.
Is Lovejoy peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance against such thing? There's no law. Usually when I hear unsaved people talk about somebody being religious, they're not referring to these qualities. They're referring to somebody so hard headed they can't get along with the guy.
That doesn't. That's not very long-suffering.
You know, if we're truly, if Christ lives in me, if I'm living by faith and the one who brought me into death with him.
This is what's manifest. Not stubbornness but long-suffering. Not argumentative, but peace.
00:45:02
You know, young people, if you're unsaved associates are a little confused by you, something's wrong.
I know my unsaved friends, so-called friends are confused.
You know, why do you live a moral life? It makes no sense to the unsaved, a virtuous life. If we're living Christ, we're kind of an enigma to people because we don't make sense. We're nice, we're honest.
But yet we don't live in immorality. We don't do immoral things.
Yet we're offering them love, not judgment.
Another aspect in which we may.
Can I say help ourselves to understand this 21St verse is.
The apostle said to die is gain.
Again, we're speaking about his personal life. He's not talking about service to others.
But another way of looking at it is to ask myself the question, what would I lose?
If I died.
What would I lose?
If I died.
And if I look at it that way, then I may say that which I would lose expresses that Christ is my life and.
The things that I would feel that were lost to me would be what else beside Christ is actually presently has a importance in my life in addition to Himself. But if it is truly, as Paul could say, he would say there's nothing presently that is before my heart and my life that personally would be a loss to me.
If I were to die because Christ was solely his life. But I think if we ask ourselves sometimes and we look at our own, those things that give us pleasure, those things that are important in some sense to us in our lives, that would be immediately and forever left behind.
Are those things which really.
Us. What else is going on in US? And that's important to us. That is not simply Christ my life.
Every living person has to act that question.
What am I living for?
If that person does not ask himself this question.
And just keeps on living. He's going to end up standing before an abyss and looking down.
And justice, be desperate.
We all go to school. We all went to school and we learned how to read and write because we knew we had to go through life.
And we all learned something.
Where there was a trade or profession.
Or whatever it was, I wanted to be a teacher one time. I never ended up being one.
And the basic question for young people today is what am I living for?
The Apostle Paul, his goal at first was to kill Christian. That's what he was living for.
But then Christ came into his life and he turned him around, and after that he knew what he was living for.
And we all have to come to.
To answer that question, what am I living for? Now we have a scripture that says in whatever trade, I just, I don't quote it, but I just say what it means and whatever trait you are and keep on doing that. Well, why does scripture tell us that?
Because.
When we know Christ in whatever we do, we keep on following him whatever we do.
And the basic thing for us is to spread the gospel, to spread the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and to glorify him. That's basically what we are living for. For me that is. And that's what it was for the apostle Paul. Living for Christ. We keep on doing what we are doing, but while we are doing what we are doing, once we know Christ, we know what we are living for. And it doesn't matter how old we are, whether we are five years or 15 or 50 or 75.
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The minute we get to know Christ, that's when we know what we are living for.
And a person who does not know that he really has lived in vain. He's lived for nothing. It's a very sound thing to think that, but it's true.
In a nutshell, it might be where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
The Lord Jesus treasure is here on earth and our treasures in heaven.
I think that's a good point, and that's good to.
Acknowledge these things and be before the Lord in in self judgment if you will, and seek whether we're young or old to live Christ.
But is there not a a danger to seek to approach that in the way the man did in Romans 7?
Perhaps it's been suggested here, but I would read another.
Couple of verses just to give us that object that would enable us to do so. We've often been reminded, you mentioned old sayings and we've been reminded of the danger of self occupation. And in the second chapter of this book, one verse is verse 13. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
First John chapter 32 verses.
Second Verse Beloved now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear.
We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is, and every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure. And again, I, I don't mean to take away from anything that was said. And we should have that desire. And I've had someone tried to explain this third verse to me once saying that if we acknowledge this, why, we'll purify ourselves. We're going to, we're going to do this. I think we all perhaps understand that. That's not really the thought, is it?
There's the hope of his appearing in association with him that brings about an ongoing purification. That's really his work, isn't it? And well, we need the Lord's help and it should be our exercise to judge those things and seek to to ask him for grace to practically be able to live Christ. But again, I think our focus should be back on on him, himself, his word, his coming and.
We will be able by grace to to in some small measure.
Show that out again, what you're saying to not be occupied with being a testimony, but simply.
Occupation. We will do so.
In that verse, it's important to see that to Him is not in himself, but it's in Him.
It's in Christ he that hath his hope in him purifies himself. It's not in himself, although that should be true too. But I believe the thrust there is in the Lord himself, isn't it? Air Canada's frequent flyer program uses the slogan Live for the moment. And isn't that what the world does? They live for the moment. And that spirit of things can often seep into our own thinking and our own lives as believers. But Paul always, as a believer, lived in light of eternity.
And brethren, we need to live in light of eternity. And when Paul says to die is gain, there's another aspect to it too. He knew what was on the other side. He'd been caught up to the 3rd heaven. He'd heard unspeakable words that it was not lawful for a man to utter. He didn't see Christ here as the other apostles had in the flesh, but he'd seen Him as a risen, glorified man at the right hand of God. And he knew what was ahead.
And with that, before his soul, he could, he didn't live for the moment. He lived in the light of eternity. And when he said to die is gain, he knew what was ahead. And when he goes on here in these verses to say he couldn't choose, we're talking about choices. But here's a choice Paul couldn't really make. And he says, I don't know what to choose. But when he realizes that for him to remain in the body for a time was for the blessing and for needful and for the blessing of the people of God.
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That's really more unselfish than if I came to that conclusion in my soul, because I might come to that conclusion in my own soul. Well, I want to go home, Lord, but if there's something you have for me to do for the blessing of others, I'm content to stay. But I never had the experience Paul had. And when you think of what Paul had experienced, to be actually caught up to the 3rd heaven, to paradise, to the eternal dwelling place of God, to know what was ahead, and then to be able to say now, brethren.
I want to go, but I'm content because it's for your good and blessing. What an unselfish attitude. Could he have done that if Christ wasn't before his soul? I don't think so. But Christ was so much before his soul and his desire to live Christ and for the blessing of others that he said Even though I've had a little experience, I've had a little taste of what's ahead, he said. I'm glad to remain for your blessing.
It shows us that he had grown personally in his life in such a way that.
Self centeredness and his own desires were not what controlled or motivated Paul, but the Spirit of Christ which was.
Totally for God's glory with self having no place in it. And so the appalled could speak about himself and personal gain. But when it came to the matter of going on forward, he thought about the needs of the Saints in Philippi. And as it were, his soul could say well.
Christ wants those things, their needs fulfilled.
So I'm going to still be here because there was he wasn't motivated.
Even while the desire to be part be with Christ was in him, it wasn't what motivated his actions or his his behavior, but it was rather the Spirit of Christ in him by the Spirit of God, which recognized the needful part. And so that was what was going to happen. And he had a sense in that. It's an amazing thing that a person could have that sense in them.
And recognized they weren't going to at that point in time be put to death really, because they were so in fellowship with the heart of the Lord that they could see that which was the line of, of what the Lord was doing and.
Without.
A personal agenda without a self will involved in it or with the whole spirit of the old. The flesh wasn't there active. He had the flesh in him, but it wasn't working. It wasn't active in him when he says this. And so he says, well, I, I'm going to, I know I'm going to remain for your sake.
So he puts self totally aside after having expressed what was in his heart to have Christ and so on. As Jim said, he couldn't make a choice, but he knew what the Lord's choice was. And that was, that was fun. That was everything.
The Apostle? Excuse me.
Quickly, in the late 18th century, 19th century, the missionary cry often the preachers would say only that which is done for Christ will last. I need to be rewritten. That's what we're saying. Only that which is done through Christ will last.
Well, they remarked as I was going to make was simply Apostle Paul said in another place, by grace.
I am what I am and we have to realize that if we make the choice that for me to live as Christ, We can't do that in our own strength. We have to have. We can say that trusting that the Lord will give us grace to live for Christ and grace is available to us all. He wants us to make the choice to live for Christ.
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But we can't do it in our own strength.
We have to have the grace of God in order to live for Christ.
Our brother in our time is slipping away. I was wondering if we could have a few words on the 27th verse before our time goes. It says, only let your conversation be as becometh the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel.
What I had in mind was that which becometh the gospel of Christ.
And striving together for the faith of the Gospel.
A neighbor, Jill. Before we take up the 27th verse, I'd like to make one more comment.
With respect to the 23rd and the 20.
4th verses There's a contrast here, brethren. There's the better part.
And there's the needful part.
If the Lord Jesus.
Before the Rapture, if it doesn't occur today, sometime today, the Lord takes one of us to be with himself, we will have the better part.
Nancy Weeks today has the better part.
She has a better part than anyone that is sitting in this room at this moment.
To be with Christ, which is his desire, the Lord, when he talks about.
He doesn't talk about heaven, really.
There are multiple instances in which the Lord's personal desire is that we be with Himself.
And so to have his desire fulfilled, that we are with himself, as Paul says, to depart to be with Christ.
That's the better part. But if we are still here in this room today, it's because in one way or another, they're still for us, the needful part.
With respect to the Apostle Paul, the needful part was the needs of the Saints of Philippi and elsewhere.
And so it was in the Lord's way, needful for Him to remain to fulfill that needed part. It may be the same for us. There may be something that the Lord is using us for Himself that is needful, and we will remain until it is fulfilled that maybe the needful part is that which is unfinished in His work.
In us that is not in conformity to himself. And so he's passing us through circumstances and discipline from the hand of the Lord because he loves us, He's chasing us and so on. And it's needful. It's going to make when we are with Him a better, richer experience for us as having gone through the training. And it may be a mixture of those things.
But we're still here because they're still in us. A needful part. But at the same time as Paul, could we we look forward, we trust eagerly to when the Lord can I use the expression promotes us to the better part.
Another translation gives the.
Word for flesh to be the body if I live in the body.
And the other one that we had here. Nevertheless, to abide in the body is nor more needful for you.
Yeah.
Just to go on then for a moment to the 27th verse. It's helpful to read at least this first part. I'm just going to comment on this first part. Other can comment on the rest. But if you read it in Mr. Darby's translation only conduct yourselves worthily of the glad tidings of Christ. You know a tremendous message has been entrusted to you and me. We think of Paul's gospel and the message that he has given to us, gave to those in his day, and that which is preserved to us by divine inspiration.
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We think of the testimony in the gospel, as we've spoken of that was going out from the assembly at Philippi. But Paul reminds them to walk, worthy to conduct themselves, worthy of that message that had been conveyed to them. What a message has been conveyed to you and to me. We don't have the apostles as they did in the early days. We don't have the Philippian Saints as we are reading about here. The players have changed, but you're one of the players. I'm one of the players.
And we've been given a great message, but there's a conduct that is in keeping with the message that you and I have been given.
Some comments were made already, but I think of the hymn we used to sing as young people. Your walk speaks so loud that the world can't hear what you say.
And so there's a conduct that is worthy of the glad tidings. We're here to present Christ by our lives, by what we say. We're here to present Christ to this world. Now, are we walking worthy of that message and that person that we are left here to represent and to present to this world? Again, this is very, very practical. It's easy. And I want to just go back for just for a moment to a comment that Lemoine made about Christians and other lands.
You know, it's easy to live for Christ in a sense, when there's no outward persecution or opposition. But you know, I've said about our brethren in Egypt and other places.
There's no half hearted Christians there. It's one or the other. There are maybe, but in a sense it's one or the other. You've got to be all in, all out for Christ. You can't hide your Christianity in a sense. And you know what the result is going to be. Why was Paul a prisoner? Why was he suffering as a Christian? We're told to suffer as a Christian. Christianity in Scripture is not a popular thing. They were first called Christians at Antioch.
Was it a popular thing? Was it a mark of favor? No, it was a mark of derision. And Peter speaks of suffering as a Christian. And so we can't expect any better treatment than the Lord got. But are we walking worthy of that? And what would happen tomorrow if we didn't have the liberties that we have today? What would happen tomorrow if we had to bar the windows and doors to meet for a Bible reading? What would happen tomorrow if we.
Risked our lives.
To present Christ or to live Christ in the world in which we live, the area in which we live? I can't answer that for my own soul. I've never been put in that kind of test. But we need to seek grace, brethren, as we leave this place to walk worthy of that which has been committed to us.
Two, that the verse is collective.
As Jim brings before us, we aren't collectively more than we are individually and as emphasized, the individual. But we also need to recognize, brethren, that this worthiness here that Paul was concerned about was the collective walk of Philippi because there was sisters and so on. There were things in that assembly which he saw were a hindrance to the collective.
Conduct that is worthy of the gospel.
I doubt not. They're not only the service people that are interacting with us in this building and in the food area and so on, but even the town of Pella.
Looks upon us as a collective whole and yet judges us by what they see in individuals.
In US, and so there is a responsibility for us to seek to walk collectively in a manner which is worthy of the message which we present to this world. Back in the first chapter in the 15th verse, it says some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife, and some also of goodwill. The one preached Christ of contention or the word could be factious Over in chapter 2 it says, let nothing be done through strife, or the word is faction again, or vain glory.
There was this tendency, as there is with us, to have friction between us.
And the Apostle Paul is, it seems to me, is saying in verse 27, if there is conflicts, brethren, this is the conflict that I would have, that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind striving, or as Mr. Darby translates it, with one soul laboring together in the same conflict with the faith of the glad tidings. That's the conflict he would have us in, not with each other.
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There was a general I think during the civil War. Mentioned this elsewhere recently, but there was a general during the civil war and he found two of his soldiers.
And conflict with each other. And he went up to the two of them and he, I think he put his hands on them and he pointed them across the way to where the enemy was. And he said, gentlemen, there's the enemy. Well, of course in the gospel it's not an enemy as such, but it is the fact that it is striving together one with the other. For there is an enemy, it's Satan, but seeking the.
Blessing of souls in the Gospel. But if the two were striving with each other.
He properly recognized it was going to harm them in the what was really the common purpose.
180.
We are.
A stranger here.
And it's horrible.
Hardest to hear and I can't hear our home.
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This hymn in Philippians chapter.
One first of all.
Just go back to the 27th verse, Philippians 127.
Only.
Let your conversation.
Be as it becometh.
The Gospel of Christ We find the same word both in English and in Greek, basically in the third chapter.
Verse 20.
For our conversation is.
In heaven.
From whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our body of humiliation, that it may be fashioned like unto His body of glory, according to the working, whereby He is able to subdue all things unto.
Himself.