A moment or two, for someone coming from
Britain, Australia is an amazingly new country.
You remember it was not settled until the
year 1788, so it's not even 200 years
old as a country.
And its settlement has had an influence on
its character ever since.
I believe that it was settled by some
of the worst and by some of the
best people who ever lived and it's that
mixture that's continued.
The first settlement was in New South Wales
in the southeast corner of Australia in 1788
as a penal colony we shipped, transported, you
recall, men and women from Britain to Australia.
And with the first fleet that went out
went a friend of John Newton's, a man
called Richard Johnson, who was a faithful evangelical
chaplain.
But you can imagine what difficult work it
was to be a pastor among people who
had not called you, who did not want
you.
He was the pastor of the whole convict
settlement.
And the first few years were years of
great spiritual struggle.
And then at the end of the 18th
century, in the providence of God, some 30
missionaries, almost 30, went to Tahiti.
And that came to nothing at the time.
But about 7 or 8 of the men
who went to Tahiti came back to Australia
and they began to preach and to establish
free churches that were not connected with the
Church of England.
And then a little later on, 10, 20
years later, Presbyterians started to arrive.
And many of those people came from the
highland clearances in Scotland.
There had been great revivals in the highlands.
Many people were converted.
And then there was a time, it wasn't
of spiritual persecution, but it amounted to that.
People were literally burned off their land, their
homes were taken from them, and transported.
And many of these people were indeed the
salt of the earth.
And that was the admixture, as though God
was sending Christians into a very needy land.
And then during the last century also, of
course, Baptist influence grew.
As many of you know, Thomas Spurgeon was
in Australia and also New Zealand.
The Bible from New Park Street that Spurgeon
preached from was taken out to Australasia.
And his principles and the doctrines of grace
were taken out too.
And then as in the rest of the
English speaking world, sadly, there was this terrible
decline.
Liberalism came in, strong churches were weakened, preaching
fell into bad days.
And early in this century, as you may
know if you've looked at the life of
A.W. Pink, things were at a pretty
low ebb.
Although all traditions still existed.
For example, when Pink was in Sydney in
the 1920s, there were large midweek congregations that
he preached to.
And now that is almost all gone.
The traditions have gone.
And had it not been for a true
resurgence of the doctrines of grace in the
last 20 years, things would be unimaginably bad,
I think.
But one can say with thankfulness to God,
there has been a real resurgence.
It's come through many different channels.
One family of Reformed Baptists in Sydney had
a vision to use the basement of their
house to store books and to lend books.
And then they started a little shop in
the basement of their house.
And that has now grown to the largest
Christian bookstore in Australia with thousands of books
going out.
And it's to me quite amazing that so
many books can be sold.
Sydney, of course, is a city of some
three million people, including half a million Muslims.
Australia is a vast country in which the
population is grouped largely in about five cities.
So the doctrines of grace have spread.
And there are many young ministers in different
denominations who have been raised up.
By saying many, I suppose they are, as
elsewhere, only a remnant compared to the numbers
who aren't so persuaded.
But yet they are a considerable number.
And they would be men who would have
rejoiced to have been with us this week,
whose heart beats with the things that we
have rejoiced in together.
I shall never forget that when Mr. Martin
and I were in Australia in 1979 and
were just leaving, a man in all seriousness
said to us, a pastor, he said, you
know, if the things that you have been
teaching are not true, you will have a
lot to answer for.
By which he meant that these things cause
such disturbance and pain and difficulty in churches
that if they weren't true, and he said
it was great feeling and weight.
I believe he knew they were true.
But as you, brethren, well know, the word
of God experimentally preached and applied is a
disturbing force.
And a struggle is going on in Australia
as elsewhere.
And it's not a struggle that can be
identified by denominational labels.
It's going on in different denominations, different groups.
It's the problem of men being truly faithful
to the word of God and remaining in
their pastorates, being faithful to people's souls.
So do seek to pray for the churches
in Australia.
I know a number of brethren there have
been praying for us here this week.
And as I mentioned last night, there are
these meetings beginning on August the 9th for
nearly two weeks.
And if you were able to remember these
meetings in your prayer, then please do so.
So I mention these things just to encourage
you partly and to fill you in.
It is, and I know it seems a
very remote part of the world.
It isn't really.
I used to think that myself.
It isn't nearly so remote.
And the influences in Australia are just the
same as in other parts of the world.
Now let us read the word of God
in the epistle of Paul to the Philippians.
Philippians chapter 1.
Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ.
To all the saints in Christ Jesus, which
are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons.
Grace be unto you and peace from God
our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
I thank my God upon every remembrance of
you.
Always in every prayer of mine for you
all.
Making request with joy for your fellowship in
the gospel from the first day until now.
Being confident of this very thing.
That he which hath begun a good work
in you will perform it until the day
of Jesus Christ.
Even as it is meet for me to
think this of you all.
Because I have you in my heart.
In as much as both in my bonds
and in the defense and confirmation of the
gospel.
Ye all are partakers of my grace.
For God is my record.
How greatly I long after you all in
the bowels of Jesus Christ.
And this I pray.
That your love may abound yet more and
more in knowledge and in all judgment.
That ye may approve things that are excellent.
That ye may be sincere and without offense
till the day of Christ.
Being filled with the fruits of righteousness.
Which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory
and praise of God.
But I would ye 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.
And many of the brethren in the Lord
waxing confident by my bonds.
Are much more bold to speak the word
without fear.
Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and
strife.
And some also of good will.
The one preach Christ of contention.
Not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my
bonds.
But the other of love.
Knowing that I am set for the defense
of the gospel.
What then?
Notwithstanding every way.
Whether in pretense or in truth.
Christ is preached.
And I therein do rejoice.
Yea and will rejoice.
For I know that this shall turn to
my salvation.
Through your prayer and the supply of the
spirit of Jesus Christ.
According to my earnest expectation and my hope.
That in nothing I shall be ashamed.
But that with all boldness as always.
So now also Christ shall be magnified in
my body.
Whether it be by life or by death.
For to me to live is Christ 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 want not.
For I am in a strait 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.
It seemed to me brethren that at this
closing session this morning.
We could think again for a little of
the words of testimony.
Which the apostle gives us in the 21st
verse of this chapter.
For to me to live is Christ and
to die is gain.
Here are words which are not so much
words of instruction.
But words to speak I trust to our
hearts.
The apostles summary and testimony of his whole
purpose and life as a Christian.
Now you will remember that he spoke and
wrote these words.
At a time when there were many difficulties.
And not a few reasons for possible discouragement.
He had been a prisoner for more than
two years.
Taken under Felix and kept under Festus in
Judea.
Transported to Rome.
Speaks of his bonds.
Doesn't speak lightly of his bonds.
It was given to Paul to suffer for
Christ's sake.
As he tells us it is to all
Christians.
He was thus in a condition and circumstance
of restraint.
And had been for some while.
There was also the possible discouragement arising from
the ill will of professed believers in the
very church in Rome.
Those who preached Christ out of motives that
were unworthy of the gospel.
Who sought to lessen Paul's influence.
Who preached with a spirit of envy towards
Paul.
Even though they preached obviously the orthodox and
the true faith of Christ.
And then there was the illness of Epaphroditus
who was sick.
Paul says near unto death.
And God spared him.
Lest he says I should have sorrow upon
sorrow.
So Paul is not writing these words or
giving this testimony in a time of comparative
ease or freedom from difficulty.
He is in the very midst of difficulty.
And yet as you well know this is
an epistle of joy.
And these words are words of joy in
verse 21.
And the reason for Paul's rejoicing is his
consciousness of the wonder of God's providence.
Here he was in Rome.
Not indeed as he had once expected to
come to Rome.
For he had long looked forward to the
opportunity.
But there in God's providence he was in
Rome.
Not it is true free to preach.
And yet in the very palace in the
providence of God he was put in a
position where his very confinement and bonds added
to his preaching.
The providence of God and this is the
supreme reason for his joy.
The providence of God was working together for
the advancement of what was dearest of all
to the apostle Paul.
And that was the advancement of the gospel.
The exaltation and the honor of Christ.
And that is how he leads into the
words before our text.
His joy was that despite all things Christ's
name was being proclaimed.
The gospel was advancing.
Jesus was being exalted.
And so Paul speaks in these preceding verses
of Christ being magnified.
And of he being willing to live or
die provided that should be so.
And one can suppose that someone would have
perhaps unthinkingly said to the apostle, Well you
speak of Christ being honored and of Christ
being praised but what about your own welfare?
And what about your own happiness?
And what about your own future?
And Paul as though in answer to that
question says, For, that is explaining what he
has previously said, For to me to live
is Christ and to die is gain.
Again, the question so put is an entirely
wrong question because Paul has no life or
ambitions apart from Christ.
For me to live is Christ and to
die is gain.
Now brethren, I think I believe indeed that
these words give us a testimony of Paul
as a Christian.
I do not believe that Paul is here
speaking as an apostle.
He is not speaking in any capacity as
an office bearer in the church of Christ,
although he is that.
But he is speaking as a Christian.
And ultimately and in the deepest sense that
is what we have always to put first.
The unspeakable privilege of being Christians.
It's a great snare in the ministry as
I'm sure we've all found.
That the very work of the ministry, the
very work of preaching, the very work of
conducting public worship can almost at times become
a substitute for our own personal devotion to
the Lord Jesus Christ.
In other words, our work as ministers may
come before our position as Christians.
The disciples knew something of that temptation when
they came back to our Lord and told
Him how even the devils were subject to
them through Christ's name.
They were so taken up with the work
which God had enabled them to do and
it was noble work and it was God's
work, but they were taken up with it
in a way in which our Lord disapproved.
In this rejoice not, He says, that the
spirits are subject unto you, but rejoice rather
that your names are written in heaven.
That you are indeed my people and God's
children.
And I do believe that that is the
very first thing.
And as we look at this text from
the point of view of testimony, it is
the words of a man who reminds us
that being ministers we are first of all
nevertheless Christians.
And that being so, these words tell us
that a Christian is someone who has a
supreme regard for the Lord Jesus Christ.
For to me to live is Christ and
to die is gain.
If those words are words of Christian testimony
as I believe they are, then they are
telling us that a person who is a
Christian is someone who chooses and prefers Christ
before everyone else and everything else.
He lives for Christ.
He has, I say, supreme regard for Christ.
And love to Christ and devotion to Christ
are fundamental characteristics of the true Christian.
Well, that is a truth I trust we
preach regularly and yet how daily we need
to remind ourselves of it.
If any man love not the Lord Jesus
Christ, let him be anathema maranatha.
Devotion to Christ is indispensably the mark of
a Christian.
The Apostle John says, these are they which
follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.
Luke tells us the disciples were called Christians
first at Antioch.
And there it was at Antioch, you recall,
that Barnabas exhorted the disciples to cleave unto
the Lord.
Devotion to Christ and that devotion was so
marked in them by God's grace that they
were called Christians first at Antioch.
And isn't that simply what our Lord is
intending when He says, if any man come
after me and hate not his father and
mother and wife and children and brethren and
sisters, yea, and his own life also, he
cannot be my disciple.
If we are Christians, then Christ has to
be the first and central object in our
lives and in our hearts.
I think if we discuss the matter, we
would all agree that our greatest problem in
the ministry is the inability of people to
understand the greatness of the difference between a
Christian and a non-Christian.
Isn't that true?
It may be some people imagine that a
Christian is just someone who lives in a
certain type of way, has a certain type
of behavior.
Other people think a Christian is someone who
attends church and who has been baptized.
Others think a Christian is a person who
has orthodox opinions.
And all kinds of beliefs exist in our
churches and is it not true that our
fundamental problem, and a problem that is beyond
all human solving but is the work of
God's Spirit Himself, is to show the stupendous
difference between a Christian and a non-Christian.
A Christian is a person who is a
new creature and he is new insofar as
his whole life is now centered upon the
Lord Jesus Christ.
And we preach that, we seek to preach
it feebly.
And we must live it.
And that is Paul's testimony here before us
this morning.
Now looking at his testimony and with particular
regard to our position as ministers, let us
note a few further truths that I believe
lie in the verse.
When Paul says, for to me to live
is Christ, that certainly includes the truth that
Christ was the source of the Apostle Paul's
happiness and rest and contentment.
You know the answer to the first question
of the Shorter Catechism, that we are to
glorify God and to enjoy Him.
Christ is the believer's happiness.
Now I say that is in our text
surely by the whole way in which Paul's
testimony is given to us.
Here he is in imprisonment, in bonds, in
affliction, knowing hostility not only from the world
but from professing Christians, being in circumstances that
none of us would choose to be in
and which Paul had not chosen to be
in, and being in such circumstances not for
the first time but having been in that
condition many times, beaten with stripes, shipwrecked, persecuted,
suffering the loss of all things.
And yet Paul in these circumstances is able
to tell us that he could rejoice.
And he could rejoice because the cause of
his true happiness was unchanging.
For to me to live is Christ.
That is to say, so long as I
have Christ, I have enough.
Isn't that what Hebrews 13 says when we
read, Be content with such things as ye
have, no matter what they are, for he
hath fed.
I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
The only possible ground for Christian joy and
contentment in this fallen, unbelieving world, the only
possible sure ground of contentment is the Lord
Jesus Christ himself.
When Paul says, for to me to live
is Christ, he is telling us that he
has a source of happiness which is unchanging
and unaffected by everything that this world can
do.
What a wonderful truth that is, isn't it?
As we see the world around us and
people attending our churches and as we read
our newspapers, the one thing that continually surely
is before us is the fact that there
is no happiness in this world of any
sure nature because men and women set their
hopes upon that which is passing away.
The very things upon which people pin their
hopes of lasting contentment and happiness are perishing
in their hands.
People trust in their abilities, in their employment,
in their loved ones, in their possessions.
Whatever these things are, they are frail and
passing and are like the wind that goes
and comes not again.
We brought nothing into this world and it
is certain we shall carry nothing out.
And how pathetically true it is that we
live in a world where everyone is seeking
to find rest and happiness in sources where
it cannot be found.
Old Samuel Rutherford used to say, build your
nest in no tree here for God has
condemned this whole forest to destruction.
I was glancing the other week at the
biography of the opera singer Maria Callas.
What a distressing book.
Made me think that we should look into
such books a little more often than perhaps
we do.
A modern person, affluent, fortune, dying in her
early 50s, saying at the age of 53,
I have nothing.
That is the modern world.
Onassis, with whom she was closely related for
nine years, the great millionaire, climbing, as he
says, to the top of the tree.
And his biographer says that when he got
there, he found there was nothing.
That is the world.
There is no sure happiness here.
It is all slipping through men's fingers.
And so when Paul says, for to me
to live is Christ, he is telling us
that here is a sure source for us,
brethren, and for all God's people, of rest
and joy in this present world.
Well, the application is clear enough for us.
What is our real happiness based upon?
And in the ministry, what is the real
source of our happiness?
And let us beware of the temptation of
thinking that it is our work or what
we are doing.
It has to be more than that.
It has to be Christ himself.
I love the words of the Italian Marquis
who was converted at the time of the
Reformation, Caracchiolos is his Latin name, who had
to give up his estates in Italy and
flee to Geneva.
And his loss was so considerable to the
Church of Rome that he was offered a
free passage back and restoration to his estates
on certain conditions.
And this noble Christian who was sitting under
the word of God in Geneva sent the
message back, let their money perish with them
who esteem all the gold in this world
worthy to be compared with one day's society
with Jesus Christ and his Holy Spirit.
That's what Paul is saying here.
Today in the city of Singapore, which is
a great strategic center in Southeast Asia, as
you know, there are two ministers working by
the name of To.
And their spiritual history traces back through their
family to William Chalmers Burns 100 years ago
who went out to China.
They like to think of that and others
of us do too because if you've read
the life of Burns you will know that
there was comparatively little fruit from his labors
in China.
And when Burns died, having never returned to
Scotland, when he died all his possessions were
sent home and they all came in a
little box.
And the box was opened in his old
family home and a child who was there
observed this happening and saw what was taken
out of the box.
A Bible, a flag, one or two shirts,
a few oddments, and that was about all.
And the child said, he must have been
very poor.
Well, perhaps he was.
But Burns in China was a man possessed
with true and all sufficient happiness.
You've read the life of John G.
Payton, I trust, who went out to the
New Hebrides in the late 1850s and on
the island of Tanna was beset by great
difficulties.
Cannibal people who had never heard the gospel.
Then his wife died after childbirth.
Their little baby boy then died.
He was left alone.
His house finally was burned down.
He lost everything.
Spent a night hiding in a tree.
Tells us that in the middle of the
night as he hung in that tree, the
words were as clear to him as though
they were written in gold right across the
sky.
Lo, I am with you always, even unto
the end of the world.
Now, that is the source of the Christian's
happiness.
That is certainly included in what Paul means
when he says, for to me to live
is Christ.
So long as I have Christ, I have
enough.
Let me just give you one other illustration
of the same truth, which I read quite
recently.
During the Second World War, there was a
Church of Scotland minister who was still in
France when the occupation occurred, Donald Caskey.
Some of you may have read his autobiography.
He became really a witness among the resistance
forces and worked as a chaplain among the
resistance forces.
And then finally he was captured by the
Gestapo.
Imprisoned in the south of France, in one
of the buildings that was specially used to
imprison and torture and interrogate prisoners of the
Gestapo.
And he tells us how in his early
days in that place, he was in a
room, of course, on his own, on a
deep basement of the house where there was
a long corridor and there were others he
knew in the corridor, but he knew not
who they were.
But he heard one day another prisoner obviously
being taken, arrived, taken for interrogation.
He knew what that meant.
Dragged back along the corridor in silence, thrown
into his cell room, door slammed in silence.
And then suddenly the voice of singing, and
it is this man, and he is singing
the words of Paul Gerhardt, Paul Gerhardt, O
sacred head so wounded, what language shall I
offer to thank thee, dearest friend, for this
thy dying sorrow, thy pity without end.
Those wonderful words that we often sing.
Doesn't matter where a Christian is, whatever circumstances,
in Christ he has enough.
For to me to live is Christ.
Now there is something else too, of course.
There is much more.
But these verses also remind us that the
Christian is one who lives in the light
of two worlds.
And therefore that must be true of us
also as ministers.
For to me to live is Christ, and
to die is gain.
Paul doesn't simply tell us what his view
was of this present time, but he speaks
of life and death, of time and eternity,
this world and the world to come.
And surely that is Christian experience.
The Christian is someone who once lived for
this world alone.
Once upon a time, brethren, we could all
say, for us to live is this.
And perhaps, who knows, it was sport, or
our ambitions, or our work, or our family,
or whatever it was, but whatever it was,
it was confined to the limits of time
and this world.
A non-Christian can never say, and does
never say, for to me to die is
gain.
But a Christian is one who looks at
everything not only in terms of this world,
but in terms of the world to come.
He has heard the words of our Lord
Jesus Christ in that awesome parable, when the
rich fool is addressed by God, who says,
Thou fool, Thou fool, to live for this
present time, to suppose that because our bonds
are full and all is well, that we
can be content.
Well, brethren, we have been delivered from that
if we are Christians.
But that motivation needs to remain at the
forefront of our minds.
We must always be saying to ourselves and
to one another, Yes, we do live, and
we live.
May God help us for Christ.
But also, we are to die, and we
don't put that thought from us.
We don't regard it as a calamity, but
rather we say, to die is gain.
We are looking for His appearing.
It would be, it ought to be our
preference to serve Christ without sin, to serve
Him perfectly, to stand before His face.
And that is our hope, is it not?
And therefore, an ever-present motive for the
minister of the gospel is the reality that
he is living in the light of two
worlds.
And indeed, Paul tells us that that motivation
was so necessary for him that he says,
If in this life only we have hope
in Christ, we are all men the most
miserable.
In other words, so much is Paul dependent
upon the truth and the reality of that
which is to come, that without that future
reality, he tells us, the present moment would
be unbearable.
And if we don't feel that way, it
must be because we are too content in
this world.
And we don't faith enough of the tribulations
that belong to those who are faithful to
Christ.
According to the New Testament, the Christian needs
the motive of knowing that the sufferings of
this present time are not worthy to be
compared with the glory which shall be revealed
in us.
We need that motive.
And it was that motive, of course, so
deeply that filled the hearts of men like
William Carey and William Chalmers Burns and others
who took the Gospel to the ends of
the earth.
And I do believe, I'm sure you do
also, brethren, that we need a recovery of
that motive in our day.
We've been speaking and hearing of the fear
of God and what it means to please
Him and be faithful.
And it certainly will mean tribulation.
It may even mean, as it was for
Paul, as he says in chapter 3, he
suffered the loss of all things.
But all things in this world are but
as nothing compared to the wonder of the
truth of what God has prepared for them
that love Him.
The labor, the pains, the cost, the persecution
of this moment, says the Apostle, is not
worthy of being compared to live, yes, and
to die also.
And the Christian is looking at both.
When Dr. Lloyd-Jones was near to his
death, I received, I suppose, it might have
been the last rebuke that I had from
him.
You know, faithful men rebuke others and I
had many faithful rebukes from him.
And the last one that I recall was
this.
I was speaking to him about a Christian
who had been a mister fearing, lacked assurance,
went through his life in carefulness of spirit.
He seemed to have no great persuasion of
the reality of heaven.
But when this dear man came to die,
he was really in heaven some weeks before
he got there.
He had one foot in this world and
one in glory.
And we had never seen anything so wonderful
as the reality in that dying man's bedroom
of the presence of Christ and so on.
Well, I was speaking about this to Dr.
Lloyd-Jones and I said to him, if
only he could have lived as he died.
Oh, he gave me a withering rebuke to
that.
He said, don't underestimate what it means to
die.
He thought to die like that was indeed
a wonderful thing.
It was all very well for me to
be talking about how people should live.
But he was saying, let us also prepare
for death and if we can face death
as that dear Christian did, what a glorious
testimony it is to the gospel.
Well, I shall remember that.
I hope.
And we need to remember it.
And we need to live it.
To die is gain.
One other truth here.
I believe that when Paul says, for to
me to live is Christ and to die
is gain, he is saying that the Christian
life is something that is inexplicable and mysterious
and cannot be understood by the world because
the world doesn't know Christ.
Behold what manner of love the Father has
bestowed upon us, says the apostle John, that
we should be called the sons of God,
therefore the world knoweth us not because it
knew him not.
You can't explain a Christian to a non
-Christian because to know what a Christian is
you first have to know Christ.
Now that should be true and is true
in the ministry also.
Some of you have read the life of
William Grimshaw in the 18th century.
Ryle writes about him.
If you have, you'll remember that when in
the ministry he was converted, he was suddenly
called Mad Grimshaw.
People previously understood the man.
He was a polite clergyman, fairly orthodox, nothing
very startling about him, but then the man
was converted and people began to say he's
gone mad, Mad Grimshaw.
And when Grimshaw died, this was the text
that he asked to be put upon his
grave for to me to live is Christ.
If you ever get to Haworth in Yorkshire,
go and see the grave of William Grimshaw
where Whitfield used to preach.
For me to live is Christ.
The world can't understand that.
That's why when people are converted in our
congregations, their parents or their sisters and so
on, they say they've gone crazy.
You have to know Christ to understand a
Christian.
So then, these truths, brethren, indicate to us
that to be a Christian is a most
glorious, wonderful privilege.
As I close, let me just say one
or two words on how Paul came to
talk like this.
Isn't it the longing of our hearts that
we should also say what Paul says here?
How did Paul come to talk like this?
I believe there are two main reasons and
I give them to you as briefly as
I can.
The first is that it is simply the
consequence of knowing Christ.
Everyone who knows Christ regards Him as precious.
Unto you, therefore, which believe He is precious.
The New Testament teaches us it is impossible
to know Christ, that He is the Lord
of glory, the Creator of all things, the
One who was made sin for us, the
One at whose name every knee shall bow,
the One who is coming to judge.
It is impossible to know Him and live
for oneself.
That's what the Gospel teaches, isn't it?
He died for all that they which live
should live henceforth no longer unto themselves.
And when Paul came to know Christ from
that moment, he began to live for Him.
That's true of every Christian.
And that means that to be more devoted
to Christ, we need to know Him more.
That, again, leads us straight to the work
of the Holy Spirit.
Paul believed that he would be saved through
your prayers, the prayers of the Christians to
whom he was writing, and the supply of
the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
And the supply of the Spirit of Jesus
Christ is that which leads us into a
closer knowledge of Christ.
So Paul says in chapter 3, that I
might know Him.
Paul, as it were, feeling that he stands
on only the edge and the beginning of
the ocean to know Christ.
And the more we know Christ, the more
devoted we shall be to Him.
We all, beholding as in a glass, the
glory of the Lord, are changed into the
same image from glory to glory, even as
by the Spirit of the Lord.
That is the Spirit's work, to lead us
into a clearer knowledge of Christ.
And that clearer knowledge of Christ is knowledge
which leads us more and more to seek
to live only for Him.
You understand, of course, brethren, that when I
say this is the language of every Christian,
I do not mean that every Christian speaks
these words with the same degree of intensity
and conviction.
It is the mark of aged saints that
as they ripen for glory, they say the
words of Philippians 1.21 with greater sincerity,
with greater passion.
And that should be our longing, that if
God spares us a year henceforth, these words
will be more real to us, that our
experience of Christ will deepen.
That surely God will do for us by
His Holy Spirit.
But another second truth, it is not simply
knowing Christ more, but in a sense it
is even more wonderful than that, that the
life that we live as Christians is after
all life in union with Christ.
How much Paul says about that in this
epistle.
The saints in Philippi are in Christ Jesus.
Christ is going to be magnified, says Paul,
and where?
Well, in verse 21, in my body, in
my body.
Christ who is our life.
I live yet, not I, but Christ liveth
in me.
If when we were enemies we were reconciled
to God by the death of His Son,
how much more being reconciled we shall be
saved in His life.
There again is the work of the Spirit.
By the indwelling of the Spirit, the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself is present in our hearts.
It is not that we are living one
life and seeking to devote it to Christ.
It is more than that.
It is the truth that the very life
which we have is life in union with
Christ Himself.
In fellowship with Him.
Belonging to Him.
United to Him.
That is why to die is gain.
Union with Christ is union forever.
Who shall separate us from the love of
Christ?
Shall life or death or principalities or powers
or things present or things to come.
Nothing can sever the believer from the love
of God which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord.
And that is where we are as Christians.
In Christ.
Just 300 years ago this summer in Scotland
were the months that were known as the
killing times when many Christian men and women
were put to death for their faith.
And included among them those two women of
whom I am sure many of you have
read Margaret MacLachlan and Margaret Wilson.
Margaret MacLachlan drowned first on a stake out
in the tide as it came in.
Margaret Wilson who was not quite 18 was
to be drowned second on a stake much
nearer the shore.
And as the first woman was drowning with
the waters coming over her head the persecutors
of the younger woman said to her And
what do you think now of her?
And the reply to that was in those
beautiful words this young Christian said I see
Christ there.
She said Think you that we suffer?
No.
She said.
It is Christ in us.
Now that is the heart of Paul's thinking.
For to me to live is Christ.
He is in Christ.
His life is Christ.
His very bonds are in Christ.
Everything about Paul is in union with Jesus
Christ himself.
Well brethren it is time for us to
stop.
Let us never forget I am sure we
have been reminded of it that to do
good in the work of the ministry we
must be more devoted to Jesus Christ.
Everything we read in the scriptures everything we
read in Christian biography reminds us of that
truth.
To be near to Christ is the source
of only the only source of effective usefulness
in this world.
And it matters not what gifts we have
or what churches we have or anything else
but if we are not near to Him
our words will do little good in this
world.
If you have not yet got Samuel Rutherford's
letters that nice thick book that is now
out I encourage you to get it.
I have a Baptist friend in Sydney who
has just been reveling in it for months
now.
Same truth.
Rutherford put in prison that will silence him.
That will be an end of him.
The very opposite.
Rutherford in prison says he is like a
man drunk with wine.
Presence of Christ is there.
He writes letters which are scattered all over
Scotland and being read today.
And what are these letters but letters which
speak of the wonder of being Christians.
That Christ is our Saviour and presently with
us.
Well brethren may God help us to heed
these truths and to take them to ourselves.
Without me ye can do nothing but His
gracious promise Lo I am with you always.
Shall we pray?
O Lord our gracious God and Father we
do seek together to thank Thee for Thy
love and kindness and grace to us.
We thank Thee for this opportunity again this
week to meet in Christian fellowship.
We thank Thee for the blessing of knowing
the unity of Thy people.
And Lord we pray that Thou wouldst ever
increase it in our hearts, in our churches,
amongst the preachers of Thy word in this
and other countries.
We pray Thee to deliver us from all
disunity from all that would grieve Thy spirit.
We pray that we might look more steadfastly
to Christ and to Him alone.
We thank Thee for those who have been
with us and we pray Lord that as
we separate and some to travel long distances
we ask for Thy care and guiding hand
upon us all.
Bless our homes and families.
Be with those who could not be present
this week and we remember especially our friend
Ernie Riesinger we ask Lord for Thy special
blessing and strength and grace to be given
to him.
We pray too for our families and loved
ones.
We ask that Thou wouldst be near to
them and uphold them.
Lord receive our thanks and our praise.
Send us on our way rejoicing.
Pardon all our sins.
As we ask in Jesus' name.
Amen.