We'll turn to the book of Philippians chapter 4. We'll come this evening to the last four verses of the chapter and conclude our study in the book. Philippians chapter 4, please follow. I'm going to read from verse 10 down to the end of the chapter. Philippians 4, beginning at verse 10. But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again, though you surely did care, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in regards to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am to be content. I know how to be abased and I know how to abound everywhere. And in all things, I've learned both to be full and to be hungry. both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Nevertheless, you have done well that you shared in my distress. Now, you Philippians know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me concerning giving and receiving, but you only. For even in Thessalonica, you sent aid once and again for my necessities. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account. Indeed, I have all and abound. I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God. And my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren who are with me greet you. All the saints greet you, but especially those who are of Caesar's household. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Amen. And I will turn to Philippians once again, chapter four. When we come to the last four verses of the chapter, Now there are, as I said to the folk at prayer meeting on Wednesday, there are no wasted words in the Bible. The Spirit of God is the one who inspires this book, and so whatever we find in it is that which he has chosen to be in the Scriptures. You read the various books and you see the particular marks of the different individuals. who have authored these different books, but the overall author is God Himself, and the Spirit of God inspires this entire book. And so, consequently, whatever we see here is what God has chosen to put down, and so there are no wasted words. Scripture says that the Word of God is profitable, and everything in it is profitable. So there are no wasted words, and even the words that we find here In the closing verses of this epistle, we shall, I trust, find that there is, even in this, that which can be edifying and profitable for the people of God. So let's look then at verses 20 to 23. Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren who are with me greet you. All the saints greet you. Especially those who are of Caesar's household, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Now, the first thing that we see here is the Church of God. The Church of God. When the apostle writes here, he makes reference to four groups of Christians. You notice in verse 21, he speaks about every saint. Or rather, verse 21, greet every saint. in Christ Jesus. There he's talking about the saints in Philippi, the Christians who are in Philippi, and he says, I want you to greet everybody for me. Then he talks about, in the second place, the brethren. The brethren who are with me greet you. Now he's talking about saints in Rome, but he's in particular talking about those who are his fellow workers, people like Timothy and Epaphroditus. And then a third group is all the saints, see verse 22. All the saints greet you. So not just now the brethren, but all the saints who are in Rome, all the Christians there. That's the third group. Fourthly, especially those who are of the household of Caesar. And so that's the third group, all the saints in Rome. But then he says there's a particular group I want to mention to you, and that is those who are of Caesar's household. And so, as Paul talks about these four groups, he's really talking about the Church of God, and there are things that we can learn about the Church of God from these verses. What can we learn about the Church of God? Well, first of all, the Church is made up of saints. The Church is made up of saints. Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. All the saints greet you, but especially those who are of Caesar's household. And I suppose we still tend to think about saints in a Roman Catholic way. We still tend to think about saints as those special Christians, those Christians who are sort of a cut above those who are in a particular elite category. And they are the super saints. They are those, according to Catholic dogma, who are You see miracles in their lives. They've died, but there have been miracles in their lives. There's a special kind of holiness about them. And so they've been canonized and they've been made saints. They've been declared saints by the Roman Catholic hierarchy. And we tend to think of saints in that way. We still hear it mentioned in that way, but that's not how the Bible talks about it. And you can read the epistles and you can read that Paul writes to the saints here and to the saints there. And you can see even in our epistle here, Philippians chapter 1 and verse 1, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons, grace to you. And so he's writing to Christians. And when he talks about Christians, he's talking about saints, and when he's talking about saints, he's talking about Christians. And so if you're a Christian tonight, you're a saint. What does it mean? Well, it means, first of all, that you've been set apart. You've been set apart. A saint is someone who has been consecrated. A saint is someone who has been set apart for sacred purposes. The instruments in the temple were set apart. The cups and the vessels were sacred in that God had set them apart and they were to be for sacred use in the context of the tabernacle or the temple eventually. And these were for the purpose of the service of God. Well, that's who saints are. Saints are those who have been taken out of the world. You are no longer in the world. You have been called out. You're the church. You've been called out of the world. And so, you've been called into fellowship with Christ. And you've been set apart from that which is ordinary. And set apart from that which is mundane. And set apart to God. You've been set apart for God's holy purposes. And so you're a sacred people. You're a holy priesthood. You're a royal nation, you who are Christians. Tremendous privilege. There is nothing ordinary or mundane about you. You are different from the world. You're different from the people in the world. Not because of anything essential about you. Not because there's something special about you, but because God has made you special. He's made you the object of His grace. He has taken you and called you out of the world, and He has made you His people. You're set apart because of His grace. And so, in a real sense, you're not an ordinary person. You're not an ordinary human being. You're a saint. You're set apart by God and different in a marvelous and wonderful sense. So a saint means that you're set apart. Saint also means that you're holy and you're getting holier. The vessels were to be clean in the tent, in the tabernacle, in the temple. The vessels were to be pure. Well, likewise, the saint is someone who is holy and the saint is someone who is getting more holy all the time and is increasingly being conformed to the image of Christ. coming more and more like the Savior. A saint is someone who is seeking to be pure, pursuing holiness, so that we might be fit vessels for the King, so that we might be fit temples for the Holy Spirit. He is, after all, the Holy Spirit of God. The interesting thing about saints, though, set apart and being sanctified from within, they're not living in monasteries. They're not living out in the desert somewhere. They're living right in the midst of people. They're living right in the midst of an ordinary world. The Apostle says, I told you to keep away from certain people. But he says, I'm not saying keep away from all sinful people, because that would mean you'd have to go out of the world. Well, we're not out of the world. We're in the world. We're right there. We're not of it, but we're in it. That's where saints live their saintly lives. That's what was happening with these people. Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren who are with me greet you. All the saints greet you, but especially those who are of Caesar's household. So there were saints in Caesar's household. There were people who were Christians. There were godly people even in Caesar's household. One writer says that Caesar's household was the regular phrase for what we call, writing in England, the imperial civil service. It had members all over the world. The palace officials. the secretaries, the people who were in charge of the imperial revenues, those who were responsible for day-to-day administration of the empire. All these were Caesar's household. This is of the greatest interest to note that even as early Christianity had penetrated into the very center of Roman government at this point. And so the Bible makes it clear that there were saints there. It's like saying that there were saints in Ottawa. There were saints in Washington, and there were saints in Moscow. And it was there that they were to live godly lives. In Rome, in the midst of Caesar's household, in Philippi, in Corinth, which was proverbial for its wickedness, there the saints lived. And there they shined their light for the Lord Jesus Christ. There, in the midst of tremendous ungodliness, they were called to live godly for the Lord Jesus Christ. And so saints live saintly lives in that kind of context. You see example after example in the Scriptures. Think of Daniel, for instance. There is Daniel in Babylon. Proverbial for its ungodliness as well. But there was a man, Daniel, whose life was blameless. And so when there were people who were enmity against him, and they wanted to find some charge against him, they couldn't find a thing. Because he lived a blameless life in the midst of that kind of ungodliness. You think of Nehemiah. Nehemiah, a man of, again, uncompromising godliness in a pagan setting. A man whose heart bled for Jerusalem, whose stones had been lying in the dust. A godly man in a godless setting. Or think of Joseph. The tremendous opposition he faced. But a man of whom the Scripture says the Lord was with him, and the Lord prospered him, and the Lord raised him up to such tremendous heights of power. And this, a man who was bereft of any kind of godly companionship. A man who is living a godly life in a godless setting. And you think of these people living saintly lives. Living lives appropriate for saints. living in the upper echelons of human government, walking the corridors of human power, but doing so in an uncompromising way, living godly lives in those kinds of settings, separate and distinct in the proper sense, the way Christians ought to be. That's inspiring, isn't it, when you think of these people. There are saints there in Caesar's household. There are saints there living in the midst of Rome, Tremendous, powerful city, but a squalid, wicked city as well. But there they are, saints of God. So what's the church like? Well, the church is made up of saints. Secondly, the church is made up of brethren. Church is made up of brethren. Verse 21, Paul says, greet every saint and the brethren who are with me greet you. It's a lovely word, brethren. It, let me read to you a definition that I loved as soon as I read it. It says that it speaks, this word brethren, it speaks of a fellowship of life based on an identity of origin. It speaks of a fellowship of life based on an identity of origin, says that brothers and sisters, they are from the same place and this word Brethren or brothers really literally means to be from the same womb, as we would expect. Literally a brother. They're from the same womb. Well, that's what the Bible, that's the word the Bible uses to refer to us who are Christians. We are brethren. We're from the same womb, as it were. This is a fellowship that we enjoy. This is a fellowship of life based on identity of origin. We are born of the same spirit, you and me. We have the same Father, you and me. You and I have the same elder brother. We're part of the same family. We have brothers and sisters all around the world. We're all part of the same family. And the marvelous thing is you look at Hebrews chapter 2, and you see that the Lord Jesus Christ, as I said, is our elder brother. Hebrews 2 verse 11, for both he who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one. For which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren. Isn't that astonishing? The Son of God is not ashamed to call you His brother. Verse 17. Therefore, in all things, he had to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in all things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. So he, in all things, becomes like us and accepted. He's just like us. He's one of us. And he's not ashamed to look at us and say, ah, these are my people. These are my brothers and sisters. What an astonishing thing. He is so closely tied to us that when people do things, when people give us a cup of water, when people do a deed of kindness to us, he says, oh, he says, when you do it to the least of these, my brethren, you do it to me. That's how tight he is to us. We understand those feelings. Oh, I tell you, when people are kind to my family, I love that. I love that. I saw someone this week do something kind to my family. And right away, I thought, oh boy, I love that. How do you know? The Lord Jesus looks at us. He says, that's my family. People do something kind to them. Oh, I like that. That's good. That's how tied He is to us. We're brothers. All of us brothers and sisters in Christ. Brothers and sisters with an elder brother who is the Son of God Himself. It's absolutely astonishing. You see, love, then, is to bind these brethren together. So he says, all the saints greet you, especially those who are of Caesar's household. The brethren who are with me greet you, the brothers. And what binds the brothers together? Well, Christian love binds the brothers together. You see, interestingly enough, even in that 21st verse, greet. Greet every saint. It doesn't sound too loving, but in fact it is. The older translation is probably even worse, where it says, salute. You know, salute the brothers for me. What is that? And then greet is a little bit better. But there's more to it. It's something like embrace. It's something like this. It's something like, give everyone a hug for me. That's what he's saying. There's more feeling here than comes across in our translation. Give them all, all those believers in Philippi. And you remember, you read this epistle, you look at verse 1, for instance, of chapter 4. My beloved and longed for brethren, my joy and my crown. He loves these people. And so he says, well, give them a hug for me. That's the brethren, you see. Romans 16 says, greet one another with a holy kiss. 1 Peter 5.14 says, greet one another with a kiss of love. Now, before the end of the service, let me say that I think that we don't have to kiss one another. But I think what they're trying to say is we're brothers and sisters in Christ. And however you greet in whatever culture, whatever setting, whatever situation, greet one another warmly. Why? Because you love each other. Again, it's not form, it's not just doing things, but one way or another you communicate to each other that you're part of a family, and you're thankful for that, and you love it, and you love one another, and so you greet one another and express that love in whatever way is appropriate. Because Peter says, above all things have fervent love one for another, for love will cover a multitude of sins. You see, doctrine is vital, isn't it? And I believe that with all my heart. Doctrine is vital and truth is essential. And if there's anything the church, especially in North America, that it needs is to stand on the Word of God and to preach the truth and be doctrinal in its affirmation to the world. But I'll tell you that when Jesus said, how were they going to know that you were my disciples? He said, because you love one another. And so we're going to preach the Word of God, Lord willing, in this church. And we're going to stand on the truth, and we're going to proclaim the doctrines of grace, and we're going to preach the whole counsel of God. But we'll miss the boat if we don't love one another. And I do believe that there is a significant amount of love, one for another, here in this congregation. And my wife and my family and I have experienced that deeply. And I believe others have as well. But oh, like Paul says in Thessalonians, he says, oh, I know that you know about love, but let me urge you to increase more and more. We'll never get enough of this. And so love one another. So what's the church made up of? Well, the church is made up of saints and the church is made up of brethren. And thirdly, the church is made up of all kinds of people. The church is made up of all kinds of people. And when you look at these verses, you'll see that There were Jews, Paul's a Jew, and there were Gentiles, probably many of the Christians in Philippi and Rome, probably most of them were probably Gentiles, and there were slaves and free. Many of the early church were slaves and some of them, of course, were free men as well. Paul was a free man. And male and female, as you know, you read Romans chapter 16 and that tremendous list of people that Paul says, I want you to greet in Rome. And so there's male and female. But the marvelous thing about this early church is that all this tremendous diversity, and Paul says in Galatians, there's neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, bond nor slave, nor free men, but they're all one in Christ. That's the astonishing thing. Dr. Lloyd-Jones says that there are, in the Christian church, all kinds of people. He says it's not a matter of nationality. It's not a question of being born in a particular country, nor of being a certain tradition. Neither is it a matter of a particular psychological temperament. No, he says there are all kinds of people, all kinds of nationalities, all kinds of backgrounds and ethnic groups. And he says to this day there are still Jews and Gentiles in the church, men and women of scientific and artistic outlook, men and women with various trainings and differing antecedents from every conceivable culture. All over the world you will see it. And that's the marvelous thing about the Christian Church. It's something I absolutely adore about the Christian Church. I've come from a land where there originally was all kinds of division, and all kinds of differing, and all kinds of bickering, and oppression, and lines drawn between peoples. And it is absolutely astonishing and wonderful to be in a Christian church where men and women from every type of background and every ethnic group are all one in Christ. That's absolutely wonderful. I got an email this week from a Christian pastor in Singapore, a Chinese man. And he says, brother, and I love that, he says, dear brother, I'll read that sentence over again, dear brother, and he says, I've got a Christian sister. The Christian sister, one of my sisters over in Singapore, don't know her yet, but she's over there. And he says, she's coming to Canada. She's going to live in Alberta for a bit. And he says, is there a Christian church, a good church you can recommend in Alberta? I won't get into that. But I took great delight in writing back to my brother in Singapore. Church is made up of all kinds of people. set apart by God, set apart for God, a glorious institution. You count it a privilege to be part of the church of God. I'm talking about the church of God as a whole. It's a great privilege to be part of the church of Jesus Christ, bought by God, belonging to God, and the church that God will bring to glory one day. Well, you see then something about the church of God. Secondly, second point is this, the word of God. The word of God. Look at verse 22 in our text. Verse 22, all the saints greet you, but especially those who are of Caesar's household. That's a remarkable thing. There were those who were amongst Caesar's household. Go back to Acts chapter one and verse four. Acts chapter one and verse four. And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, you have heard from me. And so they wait. You read Acts chapter one from verse 12 on, you see the church is gathered in an upper room. So that's a small group of people. But then, then you read about the acts of the word of God and you go, for instance, to chapter six of Acts and verse seven. Chapter six and verse seven, then the word of God spread and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith. The word of God spread. Then you go over to chapter 12 and verse 24. You remember these verses? Remember when Dr. Hagen showed this to us, when he took us through a study of Acts, chapter 12 and verse 24. The word of God grew and multiplied. Chapter 13 and verse 49. What's going on in Acts while the word of God is growing. Verse 49, and the Word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region. You see what's happening there in Jerusalem. And then the Word of God begins to spread. Then the Word of God begins to grow. Then the Word of God begins to go into all of these different lands. And then we go over to chapter 14 and verse 3. But the multitude of the city... Oh, that's not the one I want. Verse 3. 14 and verse 3, therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord. who was bearing witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. And so the Lord authenticated with these signs of an apostle, authenticating His word and what they were preaching. Then you go over to chapter 17 and verse 11. Acts 17, verse 11. These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica in that they received the Word with all readiness and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. The focus was the Word. As the Apostles went out, they preached. And as they preached, they preached the Word. And when people listened and heard and received, they received it as the Word of the Living God. Chapter 19 and verse 10. chapter 19 verse 10 and this continued for two years so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus Christ both Jews and Greeks, and then verse 20 of the same chapter, so the Word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed, and it starts in Jerusalem, and it grows, and it grows, and it prevails, and it spreads, and the Word of God is blessed and empowered by God until we read here that Paul says there were Christians even in the household of Caesar. Amazing! What was going on? Well, there were these people, these civil servants, these people who were in positions of influence, these people who were in positions of power. And God used them. And God drew them to Himself. You read the kinds of things In chapter 1, you read about this a little bit. Chapter 1 and verse 12. Paul is in prison, but he says, I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel. And so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard and to all the rest that my chains are in Christ. And God began to use Paul and others to speak to the guards and then to speak to others. And so that there was, as a result, people in the whole Caesar's household who were Christian men and women. Absolutely astounding and exciting. You and I easily, easily grow discouraged. It's a day of small things in which we live. And we long for big things. And we get discouraged sometimes when we don't see it. But I want to point out a verse to you. Go over to 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 9. 2 Timothy 2, verse 9, listen to what the Apostle says, and let it encourage your soul as you look at our own day. He says, I'm suffering trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains, but the Word of God is not chained. Now, Paul is making reference here to a later imprisonment, would prove to be, I think, his last imprisonment. And he's not making reference to his first, this imprisonment that we're talking about here in Philippians, but the principle is the same, that though he is chained, the Word of God is not chained. And the Word of God that we read about in Acts, that kept by the power of the Spirit, prevailing and growing and spreading, is still doing it. And so we don't get discouraged. And we see again and again in the history of the church that God works in such an extraordinary way to bless his people and to use the word of the living God so that extraordinary things happen. Dr. Lloyd-Jones commenting on this says that he was astonished to find out that as he's writing at this point, I believe in the 50s, He says that the most remarkable work is going on in Germany today. And it is going on amongst ex-SS men. You know, World War II. You know the Germans, the Nazis, the SS. These wicked people. Wicked men. Men, he says, who have been guilty of the most terrible atrocity. They have been awakened to the horrors of their past life. And there have been a great number of conversions among them. And so when you read this, there are saints in Caesar's household. And Lloyd-Jones says, you know, there are saints now amongst those who used to be F.S. men in World War II. Perpetrators of the most horrendous actions. God's saving them. The Word of God's growing, you see. prevailing, the word of God is spreading. So you see, you and I ought not to be discouraged. Should we not trust God for the same kind of thing in our day? Should we not pray? Should we not pray for our country? Should we not pray for men and women in Ottawa who are walking those halls, those corridors of power? Pray for them. Pray that God will save them and know that God is able. And pray for people in Washington. Pray for men and women there. Pray for people in the Middle East. Pray for people in Israel. Pray for leaders in Lebanon. Pray for leaders in all of those Middle East countries and pray that God will do a great work and know that He's able because we saw that God saved people in Caesar's household. And so what do we do? Well, we go to prayer. And we pray that God will open up doors. And we pray that God will bring about opportunities for His people to bear testimony. And we pray, as Paul said to the Thessalonians, pray that the Word of God will prevail. That it will run and have free course. And so we pray for that. And we work. And then we watch. to see what God will do. So the word of God, that's the second thing. Thirdly, the grace of God, the grace of God. You see, verse 23. The last text in this wonderful epistle, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, we know about grace, don't we? And we thank God that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is that by which we have been saved. We thank God that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is that by which we have been justified. Out of His grace, God has chosen to provide a sacrifice so that you and I might be justified. His Son has done a work. So that on the basis of that work, you and I might be justified. But Paul says, you're justified freely by His grace. And so grace, that unmerited favor of God, we're saved and we're justified. But now grace continues with us. And Paul says, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. You see, the grace that has brought us safe thus far is grace that will lead us home. What does grace do? in our lives. Well, first of all, by the grace of God. We are endued with all graces, that is, the grace of God works graces in us. Let's look at a second Corinthians chapter eight and verse seven, second Corinthians eight and verse seven. Notice how Paul describes liberality. Second Corinthians eight, verse seven. But as you abound in everything, in faith and and knowledge and all diligence and in your love for us, see that you abound in this grace also." What grace? Well, liberality, because that's what he's encouraging. He wants them to be liberal and to be generous in their giving towards the needs of the saints in Jerusalem. And he says, well, I want you to be generous. And he says, as you are growing and manifesting these other virtues, you know, faith and speech and knowledge and so forth, he says, Well, manifest this as well. See that you abound in this grace also. Well, you see, that's what the grace of God, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ does in us. It brings about and works in us other graces, other virtues, other indications of the work of God in our lives, and liberality, love, diligence, knowledge, and so on and so forth. And so when Paul says, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you, he's saying, may the grace of God be at work in you in such a way that these virtues continually are being manifested in your life. You're growing in holiness. Becoming more and more conformed to the image of Christ. That's what grace does. What's more, grace strengthens and sustains us. Grace strengthens and sustains us. Go over to 2 Corinthians 12 this time and verse 8. Concerning this thing, the thorn, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, Paul says, I will boast even in my infirmity that the power of Christ may rest upon me. And so this grace, you see, is that which strengthens because you have a thorn. And you'll have a difficulty and you'll find that these sometimes are things that God doesn't take away. The devil attacks you through it, but the Lord has a purpose in it. And the promise of Christ is that his grace will sustain you and his grace will strengthen you and you will be then equipped to face all of these difficulties and all of these trials and even that particular thorn, the grace of God will sustain you. And then also, the grace of God will be sufficient. It'll be all that you need. My grace, Paul says, is sufficient for you. And Spurgeon says, when I read that in a time of discouragement, when I read that when I was so low, And I read that and I said, Lord, of course it's sufficient. Obviously, it's sufficient. The grace, the sustaining power of the infinitely powerful God is surely sufficient to sustain me. And he says, I laughed a holy laughter. And so it's tremendously encouraging, isn't it? to think about the grace of God and the fact that we are sustained by grace, we're strengthened by grace, and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is sufficient for us. Dr. Lloyd-Jones says, whatever may happen in life or in death, whatever may take place in any conceivable situation or circumstance, whatever may be your lot, The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ will be sufficient. It will uphold you. It will sustain you. It will even enable you to rejoice in tribulation. It will strengthen you, establish you, hold you, keep you, answer your every need, take you through every situation, and ultimately present you faultless, perfect, in glory in the presence of God. No wonder Paul says, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. And let me say also, it's the grace of the Lord Jesus. It's not just any grace. It's the grace of the Lord Jesus. And it's so entirely fitting that Paul should conclude this epistle with this word, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because Paul, all throughout this epistle, is focusing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Again and again, he comes back to Christ. Paul is preoccupied with Christ. And you work your way through the epistle, you read the epistle through in one sitting, and you will find that the number of times the apostle mentions the Lord Jesus Christ is astounding, more than 40 times. He mentions the Lord Jesus Christ on average about once every two or three verses. And listen to what Paul says about Jesus. He writes to these people. They are saints in Christ Jesus. He talks about himself. I am a slave of Jesus Christ. He talks about his imprisonment and he says these are my chains in Christ. What is it that sustains him in prison? That Christ is being preached. What does he want to happen in his life? That Christ would be magnified in my body. What does he want in his life? He says, well, to live is Christ and to die is gain because it means more of Christ. What does he want from them? He says, I want you to live a life that is worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then He says, how are you to live? Well, live in this way. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. And even with practical matters, He says, I want to send Timothy to you in the Lord. I am trusting in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you. Is there joy in the Christian life? Yes, there is joy in the Lord Jesus Christ. And He says to them, I want you to rejoice in the Lord. And what about his prospects? What about the work that lies ahead? He says, oh, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It's all wrapped up in Christ. The work that's living for Christ. The work is enabled by Christ. And the prospects in the world to come, that's the fact that I'm a citizen of the Kingdom of Christ and my stance in this world is one of anticipation, waiting for the return of Christ. And then he says here, well, now let me conclude. May the grace of Jesus Christ be with you all. And so you and I want to make absolutely sure we're like that. That we're those who are just intoxicated with Christ. We're just wrapped up in Christ. Every second word is about Christ. Your conversation and your conduct and your character. So deeply influenced. by Christ. Your mind automatically, by default, turning to Christ. Your thoughts. God is in all your thoughts. Christ is in all of your thoughts. That's what we want. That's what Paul was like. That's the third thing. Let's keep our eyes fixed on Christ, that by His grace would be sustained. And then lastly, the glory of God. The glory of God. Verse 20. Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen. That's not his last verse, but it's really the last word. Everything, Paul says, everything, do everything for the glory of our God. As you grow in grace, as you serve the Lord, as you witness to the world, as you take up responsibilities, As you raise your family, as you serve in the workplace, as you interact with people, as you shine your light in this generation, do it all and do everything for the glory of your God. Let's pray.