Our Old Covenant reading this evening comes from Psalm 116. Psalm 116. I'll be reading the entirety of the psalm. This is the word of our God. The pangs of Sheol laid hold on me. I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the Lord. O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple. When I was brought low, he saved me. Return, O my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I believed even when I spoke. I am greatly afflicted. I said in my alarm, all mankind are liars. What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his peoples. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. O Lord, I am your servant. I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds. I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his peoples, in the courts of the house of the Lord. In your midst, O Jerusalem, praise the Lord. Our new covenant reading this evening is from Philippians chapter 1, verses 19 to 26. Philippians chapter 1, I'll actually begin in verse 18. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice. For I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance. As it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full confidence, with full courage, now as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which shall I choose, I cannot tell. I am hard-pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith. so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus because of my coming to you again. The grass withers and the flowers of the field, they fade and they fall, but this, the word of our God, it endures forever. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we come this evening to you who have spoken to us in your Word, you who have spoken finally to us in your Son, and you who by your Spirit continue to speak to us as we hear your Word, and that Word is brought to bear upon our hearts according to your power. Lord, we ask That you would lift our hearts, lift our minds, lift our wills to the glories of Jesus as we hear about him. Lord, would you change us. Lord, would you shape us. That we would indeed resemble our Savior. We ask in Christ's name. Amen. Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice, Paul said. Verse 18 there marked a transition in Paul's letter. He rejoiced that Christ was proclaimed by him during his imprisonment. And he rejoiced that Christ was proclaimed by those emboldened to speak the gospel. He even rejoiced that Christ was proclaimed by those who did so with selfish motives. And what we find in verses 19 to 26 is at heart the center of Paul's motivation and ambition, whether in life or in death, that Christ would be exalted. Paul's chief end is shown to be the glory of God, and the enjoyment of him forever. His only comfort in life and in death is that he belonged, body and soul, to Jesus. Even as this passage speaks to Paul's particular experience during a particularly difficult time in his life and in his ministry, we see here a paradigmatic expression of the Christian's most essential motivation and desires. For if it is true that the saints in Philippi, and we with them, are new creation in Jesus, united to him by faith through the work of his Spirit, and have resurrection life as our very principle of life, then it should follow that our being would be wrapped up in him. We'll begin looking at the Christian's joyful motivation as we look at this passage in verses 19 and 20, before then moving on to the Christian's tension and quandary in verses 21 to 26. Paul begins verse 19. For I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance." When Paul says this will turn out for his deliverance, what kind of deliverance is he talking about? Some indeed think that the deliverance in view is Paul being released from prison. Though his release, we see, is on his mind, we see that in verse 26, when he expresses his certainty that he'll remain in this life and he'll be able to continue to minister to the Philippians. I think we must recognize here that Paul's deliverance in verse 19 is much more than being released from prison. Especially given the fact that his deliverance is expected regardless of what happens to him. In verse 20, Whether by life or by death, whether he lives or he dies, deliverance is his. Though translated in our version here as deliverance, this word is simply the common expression for salvation. The most often word that's most often in reference to the eternal salvation that comes in Christ. Now, if only temporal release from prison were in view, then verse 20 would have quite novel uses of such salvation language as eager expectation and hope and courage. These terms here are packed with redemptive meaning for Paul. When Paul says, this will turn out, he's referring to the entirety of his situation. Of course, his imprisonment in particular here. And of course, then the entirety of his life, generally, as being entrusted to Christ for the glory of Christ. When he says, this will turn out, he is not saying that he will be saved in spite of the circumstances. We need to make sure we recognize that. He's not saying he's going to be saved in spite of these terrible things that are happening to me. But that whatever he faces will have the result of his deliverance, of his salvation. They're working for that end. Notice for a minute how Paul speaks about the means of his deliverance. He highlights two things here. First, Philippians prayers. Verse 20, we see, I know that through your prayers. Prayers for which he has already thanked them in those first few verses. Prayers that those saints pray on behalf of him, demonstrating their partnership with him in the gospel as they intercede before the Lord for him. Paul's growth and his increased measure of Christ in him is not accomplished in isolation, but through the means of the prayers of the saints. The Lord hears the prayers of the righteous. Think about that for a second. The Lord uses those four ordained prayers that you pray to bring about the salvation of his beloved one. to strengthen His saints. Your prayers are never in vain. The prayers of the saints are a means of grace for the saints. And secondly, he says, this will turn out for His deliverance through the help of the Spirit of Christ Jesus. At every moment, the Christian is united to Christ by Christ's Spirit. who is ever-present and always giving aid for their continued life and growth in him. This really is showing the outworking of that great promise of verse 6. That he who began a good work in you will bring it to its completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Right? It's not individual or automatic. But perseverance comes through God's appointed means and is worked in his saints by Christ himself. Paul does, we find out, have conviction that he will be released from prison, and we'll see that in verse 25. But that is not his hope, nor is it his eager expectation. His deliverance is certain, Because it is in Christ who is his Savior, his Lord, his present help in the day of trouble. This is a hope that transcends his present circumstances. An eager expectation and hope that is not informed by his trials, but instead informs every trial that they are in fact in service to Paul's glorious salvation. through his Savior, Jesus Christ. This great deliverance, that is the hope upon which Paul is clinging, comes regardless of what happens to him. Jesus is his. He belongs to Jesus no matter what. No matter what happens, Christ will accomplish his good work and receive all the honor and all the praise and all the glory therein. Whatever happens to Paul, Christ will be honored because he belongs, body and soul, to his faithful Savior, whether by life or by death. Now, I'm no fan of bumper sticker theology. In fact, I don't even have any bumper stickers. But if there had to be a short phrase to summarize the orientation and approach of the Christian life, I think verse 21 does it. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. When Paul says, for to me, we need to understand that he's not some type of proto-postmodern when he's saying that. He's not a relativist speaking his truth, right? For me to live is Christ, maybe not for you, No, he's speaking the truth for the Christian. This is what is true of the Christian. The for there is referring back to verse 20, to the honoring of Christ and the salvation of his saints in every circumstance of the Christian's life and death. For since God has saved me, as verse 6 said, he brings to completion all of his work. So that to live is Christ. What is the life of the Christian in this world? It's Christ. Perhaps that was on St. Patrick's mind when he penned his prayer, right? Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me, Christ in the eye that sees me, Christ in the ear that hears me. To live is Christ, which simply means that as the Christian has been united to Jesus, day by day, Christ is being formed in them and in increasing measure supplied to them by his own spirit. Matthew Henry says it beautifully when he says, the glory of Christ ought to be the end of our life. The grace of Christ, the principle of our life. The word of Christ, the rule of it. The Christian life is derived from Christ and directed to him. He is the principle, rule, and end of it. So often, it is our troubles and our trials that dictate our demeanor. Yet what we find here is freedom from the dictates of circumstances. Freedom from unmet expectations and grievous disappointments. And it is only found in life wrapped up in Christ. where his glory is your glory, where his delight is your delight, where his life is your life. When he is everything, that is when you find that everything else is serving his saving ends for you. How does the Christian weather chaos and turmoil in this world? To live is Christ. To live is Christ. But there's a tension for the Christian. You see, to live is Christ, to die is gain. It's really a most glorious tension. Now, there's been some attempts to try to balance this verse as if it's somehow weighted incorrectly. Even by Calvin, who interpreted this verse as, to me, Christ is gain in life and in death. But that attempt to equate the two sides misses Paul's eschatological emphasis here. To die is gain, is not the same as saying to live is Christ. There's a genuine superiority to death. Now, not death itself. Death is the last enemy. Death brings sorrow and mourning to those who remain, and rightly so. Death is an intrusion into God's good world. But for the Christian in a sin-cursed world, death is the door to which saints enter into the presence of Jesus. Not that life does not provide the Christian with union and communion with Christ. but that death ushers in communion with Jesus that is face-to-face, and is therefore far superior. In life we live by faith in the Son of God. Through death we come to behold Him face-to-face, faith replaced by sight. It is gained because the presence of Christ is the Christian's chief aim. It is the Christian's chief joy and the Christian's chief delight. We often speak about various tensions that Christians live in. Right? Being in the world and not of it. Battling sin, but no longer having sin be a master over us. We're not enslaved to sin. And often those tensions we live in are a mix of good and bad. Paul brings out a Christian tension in verse 21, which is not a tension between bad and good or less and more, but a tension between gloriously great and gloriously even greater. Of course, in Christ, there is no losing. In Christ, there is no disappointment. The Christian's eager expectation and hope means that life is lived for, in, and through Christ. And that death, though its means may be terrifying, its means may be frightening, See, for the Christian, there is no shame in death. For the Christian, the guilt and curse which has resulted in death for mankind since Adam has once and for all been removed by Christ who took the guilt of his people's sin upon himself. He endured the cross, despising the shame, and satisfying the justice of God, was highly exalted, and brings his people safely and surely into glory. So that his death could not hold him, neither can death hold those who are found in him. Death has no claim on us in him. And we see then in verse 22 and 23 that this tension then comes to pose a quandary, a question between life and death for Paul. For we see that if to live is Christ, life is not some kind of holding ground for those awaiting heavenly glory. You see, there is a reason that the Lord does not immediately, upon new birth, transfer his saints into glory, but instead leaves them to live in this world. It's not an accident. Look at verse 22. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which shall I choose? I cannot tell. We see there that the result of the life in Christ for the Christian in the flesh, it means fruitful labor. Paul will continue fruitfully ministering and serving his Lord. It has to, it must be fruitful. His labor is not in vain. His strength is not wasted. But it bears fruit of eternal value. Given the choice between life and the flesh and death, which is gain, Paul's undecided. Verse 23, I am hard-pressed between the two, he says. Here's the Christian quandary that Paul finds himself in. I'm hard-pressed between the two. But for him, it is preferable to depart and to be with Christ, for that is far better, he says. As Paul uses this language of departing, he's likely using an image associated with his tent-making occupation. To depart is to break camp, to set out, like when Israel would set out on their way towards the Promised Land as they were in the wilderness. They would depart from where they were, heading to where they're going. And what Paul is alluding to here is the transitory nature of life in the flesh. We're a wilderness people. That's just who we are. We're pilgrims on the way. We live in tents, seeking a better country. We are those who are heading towards a permanent residence with Christ. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Now, we recognize that the departure of our souls from our bodies is a temporary state until the resurrection. Which is our ultimate hope. But nonetheless, it is entrance into paradise. It is entrance into the presence of Christ, just as Jesus promised to the thief on the cross. Now, we may think that such a statement regarding the preference to depart is simply a statement of Paul's autobiography. Well, this was my desire. What's your desire? Well, it's true that it was Paul's desire, as he writes to the saints in Philippi, yet it is And ought to be the deepest desire of every saint. Now the world may hear such statement and think it a fairy tale. A fairy tale that helps poor fools sleep at night. But let's not forget where Paul is. Paul is staring the very real possibility of execution in the face. He really does not know for certain whether or not he is going to be executed during this imprisonment. Eventually, he will be executed. Now, given such an execution that could be coming to him, Paul is not looking at the execution and saying, oh, that would be wonderful. He knows what they do. It wouldn't be a surprise. Execution is nothing to be desired for what it is. It's the result of such that gives Paul, gives the Christian, their most blessed reward. All, and we with Him, ought to desire more than anything to be with Jesus. Our souls long to be with Him. That is the deepest longing of our souls, is to be with Jesus. And every sin that promises us joy and every sin that promises to give us happiness is really just counterfeiting for what we have and will have with Jesus. That's what sin is. That's what sin is doing. Yet to live is Christ. You see Paul going back and forth here. The Christian quandary continues. See, life in the flesh is not to be diminished in its worth and usefulness. Though not ultimate, it is life in Christ. And as the love of Christ serves as the example of life in this world, Paul knows that for his own sake, death is better. If he's looking out for what's best for Paul, it is death. But for the sake of the saints, remaining in the flesh is more necessary. So knowing that his fruitful work is still needed, he's convinced that he'll continue on for a time in order to minister to the saints in Philippi and the saints elsewhere. See, it's not quite time for the apostle to lay down his mantle and join with the saints in glory. But that's no disappointment. To live is Christ. There are certain things that Christians are sure about. We are absolutely sure about the gospel. We are absolutely sure that God keeps his promises. We are absolutely sure of our heavenly inheritance. But we're not so sure how the Lord is going to work those things out in the particulars of our life through his providence. We don't know how many years we're going to have. We don't know all the good works that he's prepared for us to walk in. We don't know how Christ will choose to be honored in our bodies, whether by life or by death. We just don't know. But we really don't need to worry about such things. The plan belongs to God. For we know that it will be his good work brought to completion, and it will result in his glory and praise. We know that to live is Christ. That we, like the Philippians, we have prayers to pray. We have brothers and sisters whose lives in Christ will be blessed by our intercession for them. We have sisters and brothers to encourage and to love and to support and to comfort. We have children to raise in the Lord. We have neighbors to tell of the glories of Christ. We have lives to be lived that are lived in, with, and through Christ. If our lives are indeed oriented in, with, and to Jesus, then we, like the Philippians, hearing these words from Paul, have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, do we not? Whether it be because of the fruitfulness of the work that God has for us to do, whether it be the ministry of the saints to us, who themselves exhibit Christ and spur us on in Him, There's nothing to lose for the Christian. Yes, there are sorrows. Yes, there are trials. Yes, there is heartache. But there is no sorrow that heaven cannot heal. Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot cure. Christian, saint in Christ Jesus, you possess Christ, and there is nothing and no one greater. Christian, saint in Christ Jesus, you belong to Christ. and there is no greater comfort. To live is Christ. To die is gain. May that be your theme. May that be the tension of your life in Him. Let's pray together. Our God, as we come this particular passage to this particular confession of Paul, the confession of the Christian, surely this is a weighty word. It is a word of life and death. And yet, Lord, When we think of the weightiest things of this world, Christ weighs more. Christ is more sure. We have greater hope. We have a more eager expectation. Oh Lord, would you soothe our souls with these words. Would you comfort our hearts with these truths. And would you lead us to walk in a manner that is worthy of this calling? We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.