Ron Dunn Podcast - For Me To Live Is Christ

Episode Date: June 11, 2019

From the sermon series "That I May Know Him"

Well, I want you to open your Bibles tonight again to the book of Philippians and again to the first chapter, Philippians chapter 1, and I want to read verses 12 through 21. Philippians chapter 1, verses 12 through 21. Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel. Of course, his circumstances were bad. He was in jail. And yet, he says, 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, and that most of the brethren trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear. Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from goodwill. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives,

thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment. So what? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that this will turn out for my deliverance or my spiritual welfare through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. According to my earnest expectation and hope that I will not be put to shame in anything

but that with all boldness Christ will even now as always be magnified in my body whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. When I was in seminary, in homiletics class, one of the most difficult things that we had to do was that when we prepared a sermon, and we'd have to turn this in to the professor, but there was a part of it there that we had to sum up our whole sermon in 25 words. Take the whole message and sum it up in 25 words. You don't do that, do you, David?

Now, the professor did this for three reasons. One, so that we would know what we were preaching about, that we would focus so that our message would be focused. Secondly, so that we would not ramble and go off into other territories. And third, to make it difficult for his students. But the truth of the matter is, and this is usually the way it turns out, as much as I hated to do that and as hard as it was, it was probably one of the most beneficial things that we did. Summing it up in just a simple statement. And if we couldn't do that, then we weren't focused in our preparation. And that's what Paul has done with the Christian life. There are so many ways

to describe the Christian life. Books, thousands, thousands, thousands of books have been written on the Christian life. But here in this passage, in one sentence, Paul has distilled all that really is the essence of the Christian life and is summed it up in that one phrase in verse 21. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. That is the Christian life. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. It's interesting he says for to me to live., I think it'd be a good exercise for all of us to get a piece of paper and write that down. For me, for to me to live is, and then fill in the blank. What is it for us? Some of us would say, might say, for to me to live is my job or my family or wealth or profession or progress or whatever, a thousand things. But the believer in the Christian life, he fills that in with one word, Christ.

For to me, to live is Christ. Paul was a Christ-filled man. Paul was a man whose life focused on Jesus Christ. Christ was the air that he breathed, the water that he drank, the food that he ate. It was everything. Christ was everything to him. And he could say, for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. So I want us to look at this passage tonight and discuss for a few moments what is the Christian

life. Talking about the Christian life. And the first thing that I want to say is that Paul is telling us here that the Christian life is possible. Now that may seem a simplistic statement, but you don't know how many times I have had people say to me as I've tried to witness to them, oh, I just can't live the Christian life. I just can't live the Christian life. Well, of course, they're right. Nobody can live the Christian life. Only one person can live the Christian life, and that's Christ himself. And Paul says, for to me to live is Christ. In other words, Christianity is not practice. It's not even profession, but it is a person, and that person

is Jesus Christ. And Paul was in union with Christ. He was in Christ, and Christ was within him. And so the Christian life is possible because, you see, it's not we who live it, but it's Christ who dwells in us, who lives the Christian life through our mortal body. Everything opposite of my nature is in Jesus, and Jesus is in me. The truth of the matter is, there is no demand made upon my life that is not a demand made upon the life of Christ within me, you see. The resources of the Christian life are not our efforts, not our strength, not our programs, but the resources of the Christian life are Christ Himself. This is why Paul says in chapter 4 and verse 13,

I can do all things through Christ. And that's better translated by saying, I'm ready for things through Christ. And that's better translated by saying, I'm ready for anything through Christ who pours His strength within me, you see. Paul said, no matter what I face, no matter the circumstances, I'm ready for it. I'm ready for it. I'm ready for anything, and I'm ready for everything. Why? Because of Christ who pours His strength within me, you see. So whatever you face, and you may face problems,

and you're facing difficulty, and maybe you're facing some dire circumstances, but I want you to know that Paul says, that is not your business. It is the business of Christ. And whatever resource you need to handle the situation or the circumstance that you're in, Christ is able to meet those resources. You see, we need to stop

trying to live the Christian life and allow Christ to live His life through us. If we could just somehow forget ourselves and understand that God does not expect anything from us in our flesh but failure. And there's no way that we can ever live up to the demands of the Christian life. And if we would just let Christ handle it. Dr. Stephen Oldford used to have this expression. He said when he would meet with a difficulty or some adverse circumstance, he would say, over to you, Jesus. This is your business. I step back from it, and you're going to have to deal with it. And he also used to use a story, or not the story, but the illustration that Paul

was like this, that when there came a knock at the door, and he said, who is it? He said, he's the devil. And he said, who are you looking for? He said, I'm looking for Paul the Apostle. He doesn't live here. Jesus Christ lives here, you see. It's Christ who lives in me.

Christ in me, the hope of a glorious life. And it is only as we understand that in being saved, we are exchanging our life for the life of Christ. If you've ever read the secret journal of J. Hudson Taylor, I wish you would because in it he talks about the exchange life. The fact of the matter is the believer has no life of his own. Why? He's dead in sins and trespasses and we died with Christ and the only life that we have is the life of Christ that lives in us. And so the

Christian life is possible because it's not up to us but it is up to Jesus Christ who dwells in us by faith and the moment we come to him and trust Him as our Lord and Savior, He takes up permanent residence in our lives and He expects then to take over and to be to us everything that we need. The resources of a Christian life are Christ Himself. So first of all,

the Christian life is possible. But the second thing that I want to spend more time on is the Christian life is practical. Now, Christians have often been accused of being, how is it, so heavenly that they're of no earthly use? Well, to tell you the truth, I've never met a Christian who was so heavenly that he was of no earthly use.

I'd like to see one sometime. But Christians are sometimes criticized for not being practical, for living in a make-believe world. And that's the way the world looks at us today. All you have to do is to take notice of the national debate, the national voice. What are people talking about? They don't talk about God. They don't talk about Christ. They don't talk about the Christian life as they used to in our society. They talk about everything else,

and they have relegated and marginalized the Christian life as something that, well, a few people who can't make it on their own, and they're heavenly minded, and they're of no earthly use, and those are Christians. And broadly, the world today looks upon Christians as impractical people. You see, we are a pragmatic nation. And we want something solid. We don't want to talk about invisible things. And life is here and now. And we don't want to talk about eternal things.

And those who do are not practical. And they're of little use. The world places no value today on a person being a Christian. The world places no value upon a person knowing God or knowing Christ. Because, well, that's not really life. That's not reality. But Paul says the Christian life is practical. Notice he says,

For to me to live. For to me to live. In other words, Christianity has to do with life, with everyday experiences. For to me to live is Christ. And there's a great example. He gives us a great example of this. Here is Paul in prison. He is unjustly convicted and he is surrounded by unfaithful companions who are trying to make it harder on him. I love these verses.

He says, most of my brethren trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment. Isn't that interesting? You might think that Paul's imprisonment would cause some not to want to trust in the Lord, but Paul's imprisonment always is making people trust the Lord more. And your imprisonment, your difficulty, your heartaches as you go through them and allow Christ to express himself always raises the faith of those who watch. So he says, some of them, because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the Word of God without fear. Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even from envy and strife, but some also from goodwill.

The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition rather than from pure motives. Now, here's why. Thinking to cause me distress in my imprisonment. Now what Paul means by this is that since he was cast into prison because he was preaching, there are some brethren who think, well, if we preach, that'll make it harder on Paul. That'll make them treat Paul rougher and meaner. And so the reason they were preaching was not because out of love, but selfish ambition. They were wanting to gain Paul's converts,

and while Paul was away, these preachers were going to play. And so their's selfish ambition and also to try to add to Paul's own distress while he was in prison. Well, listen to how Paul answers that. He says, what then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice. Now, he says in verse 19, one of my favorite verses, for I know that this,

all of this, my imprisonment, the injustice of it, all of these unfair treatments that I'm receiving from my colleagues, I know that all of this will do what? Turn out for my deliverance. Some translations, I believe the Williams translation reads spiritual welfare. This will all make me better.

You ever say that? I know that all this that I'm going through is going to make me better. It's going to turn out for my spiritual welfare. That's usually not the way we approach those things, is it? Oh, God, deliver me from this so I can be a better Christian. Lord, if you'll just heal me, I can be a better Christian. Lord, if you'd just save my husband, I'd be a better Christian. Lord, if you'll just give me a better job, I could be a better Christian.

Lord, if you'll just deliver me from this, I'd be a better Christian. It's interesting, as I've read Philippians, and Philippians is writing from a cell in a Roman prison. It's interesting that at no time does Paul pray for his release or even indicates that he wants to be released. Now, if I were in prison and I'd been imprisoned unjustly and I wrote you a letter to the MacArthur Boulevard Philippians I'd say folks I want you to know things are tough

and I'm being mistreated pray that God will get me out of this place how in the world can I preach the gospel while I'm bound here in this prison I want to be free. Let me pray that God will let me be free. Rebuke the devil and plead the blood and station angels and wear garlic around your neck. Do whatever it takes.

But the devil has me in prison. And you need to get me out of here so that the gospel can progress. I tell you, it's amazing. Paul never one time indicates his desire to get out of prison. Now, I imagine he didn't particularly like being there. It's not that. But he knows, as I read earlier, as we read earlier, he knows that these circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel.

And that now, he says, Christ has become well known throughout the whole governor's palace. You see, as somebody has said, Paul may be bound, but the word of God is not bound. And so Paul says, I know that all this will turn out for my spiritual welfare. And God's going to do it through two things. Through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Through the prayers of the saints and the provision of the Spirit. And notice he puts the prayers of the saints first. I believe, and Dr. Allen will correct me afterwards if I'm wrong, I believe that the prayers of the saints are as essential as the provision of the Spirit. In our situation that we've been in the last year, the Holy Spirit has provided.

But I want to tell you, I wouldn't be here tonight if it hadn't been for the prayers of the saints. And I've been overwhelmed by how many people have been praying for us, people that we, as I said earlier, don't even know, have never met. And I am confident tonight that not only has the Spirit supplied us with our needs, but God has done it through the prayers of God's people the prayers of the saints

and he said I know that this will turn out and he goes on and he says in verse 20 and here's another verse I love according to my earnest expectation that phrase means to be watching for something with your head turned away from everything else.

It's an intensive word. It means concentrating your hope and ignoring every other interest. And literally it means to strain forward like with outstretched head. Paul says, my earnest expectation, my desire, my intense desire, my earnest expectation is this, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, here is the message, Christ will even now, as always, be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. Now, folks, the main thing is not whether you live or die.

The issue is, will Christ be magnified in your body either way? Paul said, the great issue for me is not whether I live or die. My earnest expectation is not that I'll get out of prison. My earnest expectation is not that I'll escape the martyr's sword. My earnest expectation

is that I won't be put to shame or put the Lord to shame, but that whether I live or die, Christ will be magnified in my body. In my body. This body of human flesh. Paul says it's like a microscope that makes things large. He said, I want when people to see me and see me in my body, I want them to see Jesus big.

Or like a telescope that makes things far off and draws them near. I want my life to be like that, that when people see me and they see how I live and how I respond, I want them to see Jesus, not only how big He is, how great He is, but how near and how close He is.

The issue is not whether I live or die. The issue is not whether I live or die. The issue is that Christ may be magnified in my body. The Christian life is practical. It has to do with living. And it has the power to take a humble, even suffering life and make of it a magnifying glass in which people see Jesus bigger than they've ever seen Him.

Have you ever met anybody like that? Have you ever met anybody that when you're with them, Jesus seems nearer than he's ever seen before? A dear friend of mine died a year or so ago, and on my website I wrote kind of a eulogy. His name was Jake Self. He's the first one to let me preach a revival.

I was 16. He asked me to supply for him one Sunday, and I did. Pretty Boy Floyd's aunt was a member of that church. It was in Akins, Oklahoma, and Pretty Boy Floyd was buried just a little ways off. He was a Baptist, you know. And then I was working in my dad and uncle's service station one day, and he drove in in his Nash. He had a big old Ambassador Nash.

Aikens, Oklahoma is way out in the sticks. And he said, Ronnie, he said, I want you to preach a revival for me. Two weeks. I had three sermons. And I said, okay, I'll do it. And we preached the gospel. He had things printed up, bulletins printed up. He said, here's the gospel preached under the stars.

And so we met outside in July. And they had lights strung up, you know, and benches put out. I don't know how many bugs I swallowed that week. I only had three sermons, so I went down and bought a book called 101 Sermon Starters or something like that. And I preached one sermon that I honestly, to this day, didn't have the slightest idea what it was about. I just got it out of a book and I preached it and I had no idea what it was talking about.

But old Jake, every time you met with Jake, first thing he would say is, are you loving my Lord Jesus? And then you'd never get away from him without praying. Never would. He'd say, let's pray. And he'd talk to the Lord as though the Lord was right there.

And when I was in Jake Self's presence, I felt nearer to the Lord. The Lord seemed so near. And his life seemed so big. It made a tremendous impact on a teenager. And I've never forgotten it. I would pray that somehow your life, your body, my body, might be a magnifying glass of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And that we might say the issue is not whether I live or die, whether I get this job or not. It would be interesting, somebody sitting next to an airplane and they say, what business are you in? My business is to magnify the Lord. I wonder what they would do with that kind of answer. But that is true, isn't it? And notice Paul says,

now as always. He didn't suddenly, as many of us do, get in a desperate situation. All of a sudden, he said, now I want Christ to be magnified. I mean,

that was always his life. In good times, it was always his life. And there are many of us that when we get a bad diagnosis from the doctor, or we lose our job or go bankrupt, or the stock market falls, and we find ourselves in adversity,

then, oh, we really want the Lord to bless us, and we really want to trust Him. Then, but Paul doesn't have to make any changes. He says, now as always that Christ shall be magnified in my body. The Christian life is practical. But the third thing is this. The Christian life is profitable. For to me to live and to die is gain. The word gain is a bookkeeping term.

I think what Paul is saying is that for me death is just cashing in on the principle and the interests of the investment I've made of my life in Jesus Christ. For to me, to live is Christ. I don't fear death. Why? Because that just brings me more of Christ. If living for me is Christ,

then death only enhances. Now you can't say that about anything else. If for you to live is wealth, then death takes it away. If for you to live is pleasure, death takes it away. If for you to live is prestige and fame and fortune,

death takes it away. Anything else, death takes it away. Anything else, death takes it away. For to me, to live is this and to die is loss. And every time I hear of some great person dying or some celebrity dying, it always reminds me, friend, how much did they leave?

They left it all. They left it all. And now they're just like anybody else. But you see, when you can say for me to live as Christ, then you can say death is profitable. Death is gain. You can't say that about anything else.

Because death is going to take you away from everything else and take everything else away from you. You see, death, the great enemy, is turned into our servant because it ushers us into the very presence of the Christ who is our life. I remember when I was in the hospital

in the early days, and I'd been there for several weeks, and the doctors still didn't know what was wrong with me. They'd done all that surgery and done all those tests and they still didn't have a clue as to what was making my lungs bleed and scar. And I could hardly breathe.

I couldn't move. And I knew I was going to die. I really did. And I remember one night Kay would be staying with me all day and she'd leave about 6 p.m. No use her staying at night because I'd be going to sleep. But I remember on this night I said to her, honey, I know you're tired and need to go home. I want to ask you something. I want to ask you to stay with me tonight. Because I'm afraid if you go, I'll never see your face again.

And I knew that I was dying. And I died that night. And I lay there with tears in my eyes because of it. But you know, after a little while, there came upon me such a peace that I don't think I've ever experienced. Now, maybe it was the dope that I was on. I don't know about it. But truly, I believe it was the Lord. I stopped crying, knowing I was going to die. But I had no fear of it. Because I knew that death

would only serve me better and bring me into the presence of the Lord. The Christian life is profitable. For to me, to live is Christ, but to die just brings me more of what I've been living for. Christ himself. Isn't it wonderful to be a Christian? Don't you praise God for his

great invention of salvation and the grace that has been bestowed upon us so that we can look the biggest enemy of man, death, in the face and say, death, you are just my servant. And you can take me if you will, but that will just bring me more of what my life has been all about. If you would like to listen to additional Ron Dunn messages, visit sherwoodbaptist.net slash bookstore and search Ron Dunn. For more Ron Dunn materials, including sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from a study Bible, please visit rondunn.com.