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Once again, we come to look in the word, and once again I remind my heart and yours that this is not an academic process; we need to trust the Lord. It’s His Bible and He inspired it and now He has to reveal Christ to our hearts. I’m going to quote this verse from Revelations 14;13, “Blessed are the dead who died in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, so that they may rest from their labors. Their deeds follow with them.” We’re going to be looking at Philippians 1 in Paul’s comment about death. What is true in the natural, that is we die and we’re free from all our labor, and our works follow us, that’s also true spiritually. When we die to Christ, we’re set free from our labor, and then works follow. So, that’s intentional by the Holy Spirit to put that in there. Let’s bow together and commit our time to the Lord.
Father, we thank You for the privilege we have to gather, and we just hope for Your Holy Spirit to unveil the Lord Jesus in a fresh and living way, and to protect Your people from anything I might say to distract from the work of the Lord. Thank You, Lord, that we can trust You to protect us and guide us and meet us where we are, and take us where You would have us. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Once again, greetings. I think it’s a very big blessing in my life that the Lord allows us to meet; I don’t want to take it for granted. I’m very thankful every chance that we have. On the Mount of Transfiguration, you remember there was a voice. Matthew 17:5, “While He was speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, ‘This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him.’” So, we know that God is well-pleased with the Lord Jesus and what He is well-pleased with ought to please us, as well. He said that He was well-pleased with Jesus and to listen to Him. The word “listen” includes more than it comes in one ear and out of the others. In that connection, Isaiah 50:4, “He awakens me morning by morning; He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple. The Lord God has opened my ear; I was not disobedient nor did I turn back.” We are to hear the word of the Lord, but to hear as disciples. So, we are going to follow the Lord; He awakens our ears to listen as disciples. We greatly desire to proclaim the Lord.
I hope you notice that I bend over backwards to try to make this true. We’re not here to emphasize any particular doctrine or creed. We’re not into the systems, Calvinism or Arminianism or Dispensationalism, or any of the isms, covenant or reformed. We’re not looking to any church or denomination and we’re not even focusing on the Bible, on Philippians. I hope we learn a lot from our study in Philippians but we’re here to see and proclaim the Lord Jesus. That’s the emphasis the Lord has written in my heart, and while there is breath in my body and while there is reason in my soul, and while there is life in my spirit, until He takes me to heaven, that’s going to be the emphasis, to share the Lord and proclaim Him.
Let me give a broad review of where we’ve been, and then we’ll pick it up from there. We introduced the book of Philippians with two introduction principles. One was a theological background, and then we gave the historical background. The theological background is what shed light on the distinctive revelation of Christ in Philippians. Every book presents the Lord in a different way, and that theological background told us why and how Jesus came. He came to live the life that we couldn’t live, and He put on display that exchanged life, and He lived as God intended and created man to live and then redeemed man to live. Then He called us to live that way. Philippians 2:5, “Have this attitude in yourself, which was also in Christ Jesus.” The way that theological background helps us is that it shows us why He came, to live as we couldn’t live, and how to live that way, because the One whose name is above every name, before whom every knee will bow and every tongue will confess, that’s the One that is Lord of all in His glorified humanity, and He’s the One living in your heart. They say Philippians is a book of joy. How can you not be joyful if God really shows you the One who is living in your heart, and the One living in my heart.
That was our theological background. Then we looked at the historical background from Acts 16, and there you remember the story of going to Europe, to Macedonia and Gaul and meeting Lydia and the demon possessed girl, the jailor, and all of that. That background was to show us that the Apostle Paul was living the exchanged life long before he wrote it. Ten years later after is when he wrote the book of Philippians. We have the message on display in Paul’s life, and I showed you that, and now we’re looking at the record of that wonderful message.
One more piece of review. We began to look at chapter one, and the recurring emphasis in that chapter is confidence. All the way through the book is joy, so when I give you the word that describes the chapter, I’m going to put “joy” in front of it. So, it’s not only confidence, but it’s joyous confidence, a life filled with Christ is filled with joyous confidence. All through chapter one we see confidence. There were three particular areas in chapter one where that joyous confidence is expressed. Joyous confidence is not something that you have outside of the Lord.
All of our joy is rooted in a Person, the Lord Jesus. So, as we went through the chapter and looked at these three areas, I tried to show you the aspect of the Lord. Because He is faithful, we can have joyous confidence, Philippians 1;6, “I’m confident of this very thing, He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ.” We can have joyous confidence that we are going to arrive safely in heaven and in our sanctification, because and only because He is faithful. We’ve got to trust His faithfulness because many who claim to be Christians have a false confidence. In other words, they are basing their confidence, not on what the Lord has done, but on some experience. Maybe they went forward at a meeting or raised a hand or signed a card or threw a stick in a fire or said some kind of a prayer, or they received some sort of a gift, they think, or something like that. That could be real or not, but 2 Timothy 2:19 is our resting place, “The firm foundation of God stands, having this seal; the Lord knows those who are His.” We don’t, and we have no right, to examine someone’s heart and judge them. The Lord knows those that are His.
We’ve got a couple of hints on how we can discern. For example, 1 John 2:19, “They went out from us; they weren’t really of us. If they had been of us, they would have remained with us. They went out in order that it might be shown that they all are not of us.” Even that is not 100%, and we need to be careful. We can have bold, joyous confidence if we are genuinely saved, if we have really trusted in the Lord. We know that if we’re real Christians, He’s going to keep us. It’s not depending upon some doctrine called “eternal security” or something like that. It’s not that; it’s a God that keeps us. Salvation is not a decision. Often, it’s presented that you’ve got to make a decision. That’s not salvation. Salvation is a revelation. Galatians 1:15, “When God who had set me apart from my mother’s womb, and called me through His grace and was pleased to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the gentiles.” It’s a revelation of God. Those to whom He has revealed Himself, and you know Him as your Savior, those are safe, and they are to be kept. How do I know? It’s because He’s faithful and He said that He’ll keep us because He’s faithful.
The second thing we looked at was that we could have joyous confidence in His working in our lives because He’s sovereign; it’s His sovereignty that makes all things redemptive. Philippians 1:12&13, “I want you to know, brethren, my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well-known throughout the whole Praetorian Guard and to everyone else.” Philippians 4:22, “All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar’s household.” All things are redemptive and all circumstances.
I love this verse in 2 Thessalonians 3:16, “May the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance.” How can He continually give us peace in every circumstance? The answer is because behind the scenes, He’s sovereign, He’s in control and all things are redemptive. There’s not any occasion for a lonely moment for a Christian to be depressed, not if he’s in Jesus; it’s not possible. Maybe you’ll get a little discouraged if a door closes or if some human prop gives way, or some creature resource dries up, or the roof caves in and there’s an accident or a bad doctor’s report, but He is sufficient and He’s on the throne. A true Christian is never a victim of any circumstance or second cause. It’s not possible. If we entered into this, God is sovereign.
We call Philippians the “prison epistle”. He wrote from prison four epistles. He wrote Philippians, he wrote Colossians, Ephesians and also Philemon. They put him in prison to shut him up. While he was there, he wrote the book of Ephesians, the book of Philippians, the book of Colossians and the book of Philemon. Has anyone been blessed by those books? They didn’t shut him up. The opposite is true; God is sovereign. In that connection, 2 Timothy 2:8&9, He said, “Remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to My gospel, for which I suffer hardship, even to imprisonment as a criminal, but the word of God is not in prison.” God is sovereign; you can’t stop His word.
We have no way of knowing how God is going to use whatever circumstance that you are in, or whatever circumstance that I’m in, but we can have joyous confidence He will, because he’s sovereign. Everybody knows Romans 8:28&29. I like to get a little part of 29 in there. We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Those He foreknew, He also predestined to become formed to the image of His Son. So, we know all things are working for good, and we know the good, to make you are more like Jesus, to conform you to Christ. So, we can be confident that He rules the good and overrules the evil. We can always know that’s the case. So, we can have joyous confidence because He’s faithful, joyous confidence because He’s sovereign, and last week we started to look at joyous confidence because He is sufficient; He’s enough and is always enough.
Philippians 1:20, “According to my earnest expectation and hope, I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness Christ will either now as always be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.” Paul claimed to have an earnest expectation and hope. Hope means you don’t have it yet. Expectation means you expect to have it when you need it. He’s saying that God is sufficient when I need dying grace, it will be there. When I need aging grace, it will be there. When I need suffering grace, it will be there. When I need grace because I’m sorely tempted to sin, the grace will be there. Earnest expectation because He’s sufficient.
I want to pick up this morning where we left off last time, and that it is joyous confidence because He is sufficient. I’d like to develop that a little more. First, I want to give something a little bit more technical, but I think it’s very, very important, and then illustrate it by the strong illustration He uses. He wants to show He’s sufficient in everything, so what illustration does He use? The answer is death, physical death, man’s most unsolvable problem. If He is sufficient in man’s most unsolvable problem, we can rest assured that He’ll be sufficient in everything.
First, let me be a little bit technical. What is meant by James 4:6? It says, “He gives greater grace.” Another translation says, “He gives more grace.” It sounds like grace is something bestowed by God, almost like a commodity. It’s almost like a liquid, or something like that. They say, “I need a whole glass of grace.” And someone else says, “I need more than that; I need several liters of grace.” Another says, “I need a gallon of grace.” It’s not enough and others need a whole truck load of grace. It’s not a liquid, and it’s not measured in pounds and ounces. Some need only a thimble, and some need a glass, and some need a pail of grace. And He gives more grace; if you need a pail, He’ll give you a pail. That’s not technically what is meant by grace. Technically, the theological description (I don’t like definitions as that’s too limited) of grace is God’s infinite favor toward those who are infinitely undeserving and infinitely ill-deserving. That’s grace; God’s infinite favor toward those who are infinitely undeserving and infinitely ill-deserving. He not only gives us what we don’t deserve, but He gives us the opposite. James 4:6 He gives more grace, but the verse that follows that says, “Therefore, submit to God.” You see, grace is a disposition found in God; it’s in Him and it’s in His heart. There is no such thing as grace apart from the Lord. Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ. It’s in Christ.
When you got saved, when I got saved in reality, we received everything that God has to give. He’s never going to give you anything else than He has already given you. Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare His own Son, delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give all things?” He has given you Jesus, and everything else is in Him. All things are in Him, and that includes His infinite favor to the infinitely un and ill deserving people. When Christ came into your spirit, He gave you everything He had to give, except one thing. There’s one thing He did not give at that time, and He’s giving it progressively, and that is eyes to see what we already have. That’s the only thing you lack, the eyes to see everything that is already yours. As you face changes in your life, trials or rejection or old age or terrible temptations or sickness or mortality, He’s going to give you eyes to see what you already have. He’s going to give you eyes to see a greater revelation of Him. That’s why Paul prayed in Ephesians 1:17, “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him; I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.”
Remember we went through Job and Job said, “I’ve heard of you with the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. It’s only for the purpose of analysis and simplicity that we talk about dying grace or aging grace or suffering grace; it’s all the same; it’s all Christ. That’s what He gives. I love 2 Timothy 2:1, “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”
That’s where it is; it’s in Christ Jesus. God didn’t give one Jesus to great sufferers and another Jesus to those who are not great sufferers. God’s provision to lift a heavy weight is the same as His provision to lift the light weight. All you ever need is Jesus, and His sufficiency, in every situation and every circumstance. The point is that when you need it, He will be there, and He’ll give you eyes to see that He is there. The Lord sustains the martyrs. We say that they had great grace in the fire and under the sword and at the scaffold and the lion’s den and all the rest. God gave them great grace, but that’s the same Lord that will help me with my backache, and with my toothache and with my gout and with my arthritis or sugar or whatever I have. It’s the same God and the same grace because it’s the same Christ. It’s not an exaggeration, and we’ll all admit this, when it comes to death, laying a loved one in the grave, if I lose a loved one, I need the Lord; I need grace. We’ll all admit that.
Do I need the same Jesus, not when I lose a loved one, but when I lose my keys or my pen, or lose my glasses, when I lose my phone? I don’t have that problem; I don’t even have a phone, but Lillian does. Anyway, the whole point is that Psalm 16:11, “In His presence is fullness of joy.” My joy is to be in His presence. Whenever I need Him at that time, He will be there and grace me with new vision, eyesight, to behold Him, and it will be sufficient; it will be enough.
So, we looked at joyous confidence, and I can arrive safely because He’s faithful. All things work together for good because He’s sovereign. I’ll have needed grace because I have Him because He’s sufficient. I want to focus a little more on the Holy Spirit’s illustration of sufficient grace, the sufficiency of the Lord in the hour of death, because that’s the illustration that He uses. It’s an extreme illustration because if it works there, it’s going to work everywhere. Let me read verses 20 – 24, “According to my earnest expectation and hope, that I’ll not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness Christ will even now as always be exalted in my body, whether it’s by life or by death, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I’m to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me. I do not know which to choose. I am hard pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, and that’s very much better, yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.”
I’d like to make several comments on that wonderful passage. First, let me make a description, and this is probably closer to a definition. It’s the meaning of death. We say that death is separation, and it is; that’s what it means. It’s a separation. You can be separated from God by sin, and that’s spiritual death, or you can be separated from the flesh, and that would be victory in your life, victory from the Law as a rule of life, or it can be literal. That’s the illustration God is going to use here, that is going to the grave; it’s dying.
James 2:26, “Just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead. That is as close as the medical community can come to what is death. Death is when the spirit leaves the body. It has nothing to do with the heart stopping, and it has nothing to do with the straight line of the brain; it has to do when the spirit leaves the body, there is death. That’s why when Stephen’s body was stoned, he prayed Acts 7:59, “They went on stoning Stephen, and he called on the Lord and said, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” The body drops when the spirit leaves.
The spirit does not die. In fact, it can’t die; it’s immortal. The body dies and the spirit lives on. That’s why those who believe and teach the annihilation of the wicked are terribly deceived because they have the idea God will just annihilate the spirit. He will not; it lives on. The question is not will I live on, but where will I live on. The body is dead when it is separated from the spirit. Let me illustrate this through the death and the raising of Jairus’ daughter. She was twelve years old when she died. Luke 8:52-53, “They were all weeping, lamenting, but He said, ‘Stop weeping for her; she has not died but is asleep.’ And they began laughing at Him, knowing that she had died.” Jesus described that little girl as sleeping, and they mocked her. Then we read after He took her by the hand, Luke 8:55, “Her spirit returned, and she got up immediately, and He gave orders to have something to be given to her to eat. Her spirit has to return to her body, because when she was sleeping, the spirit left. He called it sleeping, but James calls it that she died, and then her spirit came back in this case.
When one is speaking of death, spiritual, physical death, He’s always talking about the death. You may not agree with me on this, but I hold in high suspicion those who claim they died and went up to heaven and saw God or some other vision, and then they came back to testify about that. I hold that in high suspicion, and it’s based on Hebrews 9:27, “It’s appointed unto men once to die.” You are going to die once. That would be dying more than once. I just don’t think that’s Biblical.
Death is separation; that’s the opposite of life. What’s life? The answer is union, and that’s how life is described, and it’s the opposite of death. It’s union with Christ. In this connection, when somebody speaks about the resurrection to come, he’s only talking about the body. I want to look at the Holy Spirit’s powerful illustration and ask this question, “Is the Lord Jesus enough? Is He sufficient when it comes to physical death? Can I have not only confidence but joyous confidence if one of my loved ones dies, and is He enough when I come to die? Can I die with joyous confidence? The answer is an unqualified yes. Let me develop that. He’s not only sufficient but we are called to appropriate Him and experience joyous confidence in the hour of death.
Paul’s testimony in verses 20 & 21, “That I will not be put to shame in anything, with all boldness Christ will even now as always be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death; to live as Christ for me, and to me to die is gain.” He adds in verse 23, “I’m hard pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, and that’s very much better.”
My Lillian and I had a very dear friend, a Christian sister, who had rheumatoid arthritis off the charts. I’d never seen such swollen joints in my life. She was in constant pain, and she longed for death. She said, “I can’t take this pain anymore.” She prayed and went to healing meetings, and she tried all medication, and she had no relief. In a bout of severe depression, she took her own life. We were, of course, very disappointed to see that she did that. But why she did it, she wanted an escape from that terrible situation, from that pain. On the level of earth, you can’t blame her for wanting to be delivered from that. But I bring that illustration up to call attention to the Apostle Paul. He said, “Death is better; I long for death; it’s very far better. But it wasn’t because he was looking for an escape from suffering. He was not. His life in Christ was filled with joyous confidence. This life was not terrible to him. It wasn’t tough and it wasn’t drudgery, and it wasn’t a burden or wilderness or a veil of tears you’ve got to pass through. That wasn’t his heart. His life was Christ, and he was filled at all times and all places with the joy of the Lord. He found the real possibility that he would face violent death. He’s in Rome waiting for the verdict. If Rome says he’s going to be executed, he could have his head chopped off or some other method of death. He said, “According to my earnest expectation, whether life or death, then as now, as always Christ is my life; let Him be exalted in my life or in my death.” He was claiming, don’t forget now, Paul is thirty years in Christ when he writes this. What he’s basically saying is, “I have seen the sufficiency of the Lord day after day, day in and day out for thirty years,” and coming now to face death do you think he’s not going to be sufficient? “He’s going to drop me, now, after all he had given me? There’s not a chance of that.”
Paul wasn’t claiming to be brave because he admitted that he had expectation and hope, “I don’t have what it takes now; I’m chicken hearted. I don’t want to burn at the stake; I don’t want to be thrown in the lion’s den; I don’t want to be killed by a sword.” He wasn’t claiming to be brave; he was claiming to have the sufficiency of Christ when the time came, and he would be in the presence of the Lord where there is fullness of joy. So, his life with Jesus was very wonderful. The circumstances of his life were God’s business. Paul looked at his life and all that was going on and he said that none of this is any of my business, so I’m not going to dip into God’s business; stay out of God’s business. That’s what twelve year old Jesus told Mary, “Don’t you know I have to be about My Father’s business?” This is His business.
When I was a student at Moody Bible Institute, I think those of you who are familiar with Moody know that they incline to the Dispensational system of theology. Therefore, they are ruggedly dogmatically pre-tribulation Christians. If you’ve ever studied eschatology you know that some Christians are quite divided on the events and what order they appear. Is the rapture going to come first or the tribulation come first, and there are those who are mid-trib. Charles Baker said that he was pan-trib, everything is going to pan out in the end, or something like that. We all have our leanings, and we probably have proof texts to buttress up our leanings, but I have known some pre-trib Christians and I was one of them. I wanted pre-trib because I didn’t want trib. I was avoiding. I read about the tribulation; I don’t want to be there. So, I wanted the rapture for one reason only, and that was to escape. It wasn’t to have Jesus exalted, whether by life or by death. I just wanted to escape. Paul was different; he loved life because life was Christ and Christ was fulness of joy. He lived his whole life filled to the brim and bubbling over on all sides at all times with the joy of the Lord.
Paul claimed that death, verse 23, would be very far better, and not just better but very far better. In the original according Bishop Ellicott, there’s a triple comparison, and it’s, “better, better, better,” and Paul said, “For me to live is Christ and to die is better, better, better.” The Presbyterian commentator Johnston translates it, “Better by very far.” C.C. Coffin, he says, “By much; very far better.” Dr. Martin says, “By far the best.” You get the idea.
When I became a student at Columbia Bible College, we had a meeting where they greeted the new students, and it was a chapel meeting. I can’t remember if it was the President or somebody else, but every year when the new students were greeted, whoever that speaker was and I think it was Alan Fleece, he would get up and say, “Now, students, I hope you have the mostest, bestest year of your life.” That’s Paul; to live is Christ and to die is mostest, bestest. It’s the best you can have.
This passage in Philippians 1 raises another question among earnest Christians. He mentions dying and he mentions being with Christ. Philippians 1:23, “To depart,” that’s death, “to be with Christ,” that’s glory. All Christians, if they are true Christians believe that there will be a day, like we read in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, “We will ever be with the Lord.” All Christians believe that, but some differ on when. When does that take place? There are those who believe that when a Christian dies, they are immediately with the Lord. In other words, we say to someone who dies, “They are with the Lord,” and they are going to heaven and it’s a meeting right away. Other believers believe in what is “soul sleep” and that is when a Christian dies, they are unconconscious until the resurrection, and then at the resurrection when He raises the dead, they will be in the presence of the Lord. They don’t doubt Christians are going to heaven, but when. Is it immediate or is it down the road at the resurrection?
I know not all agree with me on this, but I believe and I lean and teach that it is immediate. I don’t deny a glorious resurrection is coming; I know that’s true. But my understanding, resurrection refers to the body and not to the spirit. Paul wanted to die, and the mostest, bestest to be with Christ. I just can’t imagine him thinking that he might be sleeping for several thousand years and then be with Christ. The dying thief is an argument that those who learn this way take, that he was promised to be that day with Him in Paradise. In Revelation 6 we read about those who were beheaded for the sake of Christ, and they are talking to the Lord and saying, “How long?” So, their body is certainly dead; they don’t have heads. But they seem to be conscious with the Lord. The rich man, their bodies are in the grave, and yet there is communication. Revelations describes those who were martyred in the tribulation and describes them as standing before the throne and the Lamb. Their bodies aren’t doing that. So, that’s my leaning. 2 Corinthians 5:8, “Be of good courage; rather to be absent from the body and at home with the Lord.” That’s my conviction but those who believe in soul sleep, they don’t deny the realities. They, also have verses. Ecclesiastes 9:5, “The living know not, for the living know that they will die, but the dead do not know anything, nor they have any longer a reward; their memory is forgotten.”
Psalm 6:5, “There is no mention of you in death. In Seoul who will give you thanks? Daniel 12:2, “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake; these to everlasting life, others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.” The issue comes down to what is sleeping? Is it the body or is it the spirit? But as I said, they believe everything. There is really no contradiction in one sense. Philippians 5:10, “Whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him.” Is there anything that those who believe, “I’m going straight to heaven,” and those who believe, “I’m going to heaven when I wake up at the resurrection,” is there any common denominator truth? The answer is yes; they both believe this. When a Christian dies, their next conscious moment is with the Lord. We all agree. Let’s not divide over things like that. Is it pre-trib, is it post-trib, is it mid-trib, is it a-mil, is it pre-mil, all of those kinds of things, is it instantaneously going to heaven, is there a period of rest in between? Whatever it is, I can have joyous confidence in the hour of death that the Lord will be sufficient.
Psalm 119:1:60, “The sum of Your word is true. Everyone of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting.
” Who is right? Am I right because I say we are going straight to heaven? Is somebody else right because they say they’re not going to be raised until the resurrection? I’m going to tell you right now who is right; God is right. Something is not true because I believe it; it’s true because it’s true. Something is not untrue because I disbelieve it. Truth is truth, and God’s word is going to stand. If I’m right that I’m going to see the Lord as soon as I die, and if I’m not right, I’ll see Him at the resurrection. But in either case, my first conscious moment after death is to be in the presence of the Lord, and in His presence is fullness of joy. Paul expected in hope that Christ would be sufficient in his death. 1:20, “According to my earnest expectation and hope, I’ll not be put to death or shame in anything, but with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.”
I want to say a word about a dilemma; I’m pressed between this and pressed between that. Verse 23, “I’m hard pressed from both directions, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, very much better. Yet, to remain.” Two things are mentioned; remaining in the flesh or departing to be with Christ. Paul expected that whether he lived or died, he’s going to exalt Christ. But he calls dying “very far better”. I think Paul set himself up as a straw man here. It’s not up to Paul, “Shall I live or stay.” It’s not up to you to decide, “Shall I live or shall I stay.” That’s in God’s hand. It think he set it up saying, “If I had the choice, which I don’t, what would I choose?”
I’m going to leave Paul for a moment and give a little piece of my own testimony because I was asked, this was when I was a student at Moody, “Would you rather be raptured or would you rather die?” I thought about it, and before I thought about it I was thinking about my dear mom. She’s been dead for forty-three years, and Lillian’s mother has been dead for twenty-three years. Probably I know as many in heaven now as I know on the earth. I thought that through, and I thought, “I think I would rather die than be raptured.” They asked me why, and my answer was, “Because I’m selfish.” The reason I say that is because my mother, if I’m right, is experiencing something and I don’t want to miss that; I don’t want to miss what those in heaven are having until they get their new body. I know I am going to be raptured, according to Thessalonians 4:17, “We who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds.” Who is the “them”? Those are the ones that are dead. I’m not missing the rapture. I can get both because if I die, I won’t miss anything, and then I’ll get raptured when everybody else gets raptured. That was my reasoning.
I changed it now. I don’t want death first and I don’t want the rapture first; I want God’s pleasure. I don’t care which He uses. I think that was Paul’s reasoning here. He’s not saying, “I’m hard pressed between this or that, between going and staying.” I think he’s saying, “If it were my choice, it isn’t this or that; it’s this now or this later.” He’s not going to miss this; he’s going to get both. He said, “If I had a choice….” Let me ask you. If you had a choice. If the Lord said to you, “I’m going to give you a choice. You can come to be with Me right now, and it’s very far better gain for you; no question. Or I can leave you on the earth for a while to help others come to know Me, and have that privilege, and then later you can have the glory that was promised.” Which would you choose? I think, I don’t know your answer, but my answer is that I don’t mind delaying it, if I can stay on the earth and help somebody else find the Lord, that would be so awesome. I would love that. I think that’s what Paul was saying. He’s not saying, “I’m choosing between what’s best for me or best for you.” He’s not saying that. He’s saying, “I’m choosing between now or later.”
We aren’t quite finished with this; we’ll pick it up next time, but we’ll close here.
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