We read from Holy Scripture this morning in the Epistle of Paul to the Philippians, chapter one. I'll let you read that first chapter. Paul and Timothy, to the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus, which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons, Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making request with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace. For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. In this I pray that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and in all judgment, that ye may approve things that are excellent. that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God. But I would, ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out, rather, unto the furtherance of the gospel, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places. And many of the brethren in the Lord waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife, and some also of goodwill. The one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds. but the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. What then? Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, And I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice, for I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed. but that with all boldness as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor. Yet what I shall choose, I want or know not, For I am in a straight between two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith, that your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to see you again. Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ. that whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel, and in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God. For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake, having the same conflict which he saw in me, and now here to be in me." Text for the sermon this morning is verses 9 through 11. In this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment, that ye may approve things that are excellent, that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. Beloved in our Lord Jesus Christ, the text that we consider this morning for our New Year's service is one in which the Apostle Paul declares to the congregation at Philippi that he both prays for them and tells them for what he prays. And this I pray. The words of our text belong to a rather lengthy introductory greeting of the Apostle to the church at Philippi, which is A church that held a particular place of love in the mind of the apostle, as is evident from the epistle itself. An epistle that is almost void of any rebuke or correction of false doctrine. and one in which he exhorts them to live in love. With the pastor, Timothy, Paul first blesses the congregation, and then he proceeds to declare that he prays always for them. That includes thanksgiving for them, verse 3, and requests that he makes to God for them, verse 4. And this shows why this is an appropriate text also for us to hear on a New Year's Day service. First of all, it is a word of encouragement and blessing from the pastor to his congregation. That's indicated by the fact the apostle includes the pastor Timothy in his greeting. and himself shows a pastor's heart. It's a reminder to both the pastor and the congregation of what his work consists and the goal that he strives for in his work. Secondly, this is a word that is also directed to the office bearers of the congregation. In verse 1, they are in fact included in the greeting of the apostle and the pastor to the congregation, one of the very few times that this actually occurs in Holy Scripture, making us take note. And that indicates that the office-bearers of the congregation are not above the congregation or lords over it, but part of it and servants of the congregation. And if their work is to be successful, they must receive this blessing for which the Apostle prays also. And lastly, another reason why this is an appropriate word for us today, is it is a prayer to God for the continued blessing of God in the future. The Apostle doesn't simply look back and reminisce with the congregation about their life and their work, and his own work and life, which he does to a certain extent in the Epistle. But he looks forward. He looks forward to their future. And looking forward to their future, he prays then to God, for what they need and what he desires for the congregation. So we do that also this morning. Consider with me the pastor's prayer for the congregation. First of all, the petition. Secondly, the possibility. And lastly, the purpose. In the text that we consider this morning, the pastor, even Timothy, along with Paul, informs the congregation of a specific request that he makes to God for them, that he makes on behalf of the congregation before the face of God in his work, not only as apostle, but then, like Timothy, a pastor. There is basically, and generally, one request that he makes for the congregation before God. And that request is given in verse 5. He requests for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. That's the basic request that he makes to God. and also because such fellowship already exists, that for which he gives thanks to God also, in verse 3. The idea of the and there, and the and with which the text begins, is that the prayer mentioned in verse 9 is simply a more specific form of the more general request for their fellowship in the Gospel. This is important because it indicates this is the most essential, basic, and fundamental work of God in the lives of His people, that is, in His church. It's simply what it means to be a church of Jesus Christ. A church of Jesus Christ is one where there is communion of saints or fellowship in the gospel. In verse 7, the apostle makes clear that this is a spiritual fellowship, not simply one in which there's a carnal, earthly connection and relationship. but a spiritual fellowship of love in the heart for God and for one another. That is, there's a union of mind and of soul and of will, a single-minded purpose and goal at work in the congregation. And why the Apostle then says that they experience fellowship as he remembers them, and by having them in his heart, he himself enjoys that fellowship even though he be in bonds and far away, because it is one that he says he longs for in his bowels. The Apostle also makes clear in the context of our text that this fellowship is something that God works. He calls it a good work that God begins and God will perform until the day of Jesus Christ, verse 6. This great work of God is essentially the work of God fulfilling his covenant promise that he will be our God and we will be his people. He fulfills that essentially in Jesus Christ, in the incarnation of Jesus Christ that we have just celebrated at Christmas, the infleshing of the Son of God so that God is with us, but then he works that in the congregation, so that there is a church that is joined to him and enjoys his fellowship, and they enjoy fellowship with him. Notice also, in a general way, that this fellowship of verse 5 is a fellowship in the gospel, that is, the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. which should make sense since that gospel is found only in the church, which is entrusted to preach that gospel and, as he points out, care for that gospel. This fellowship then takes place in the instituted sphere of the church. That's why the Apostle includes the office bearers then in his greeting. The church is a gathering of believers that is organized under the offices of the elders and deacons. And this is really the idea of true unity. The only true unity is unity in the gospel, that as opposed to a false unity or false ecumenism, which creates fellowship, but does so at the expense of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. But this isn't the extent of his request. It's only a general summary, which he then expands upon in the text that we consider this morning. There is a lesson here, of course, for pastors, elders, and deacons, and even members too, which is that we should never really leave our prayers general before God, or even abstract. but get in the habit of making our prayers specific. We often make prayer before God and we have our pet phrases and lines that we repeat that perhaps we've learned or taken from others, but we may not understand what we mean Therefore, it's helpful often to take more general requests that we make and then make them specific. Helps us in our own mind to know exactly for what we pray. And then it's also helpful too when God grants what we need. That's how then we know our prayers are answered and we can give Him thanksgiving for His answer. This is also helpful because when the Apostle does become more specific, he teaches us then what is his own specific work and desire for the church, as well as the calling of the church more specifically. When we look at our text, verses 9 through 11, we see that there are three particular petitions. They are related, of course, but three particular petitions that the apostle, and thus the pastor, makes for the congregation. Together, they describe the way in which fellowship comes about and by which it's manifest in the church. But now, then more specifically, we may say there are these three things. First, he says he prays, quote, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in judgment. We may think of this as the first and main specific request that the pastor makes for the congregation, that your love may abound yet more and more. This phrase is biblical code for what we call sanctification. In fact, we may easily define sanctification as abounding more and more in love. That's really what sanctification is. There is more than that, of course. Sanctification is holiness. The words are virtually interchangeable. To be sanctified is to be holy, but to be holy is to love God and the neighbor for God's sake more and more. The confessions adopt this language. In question answer 89 of the Heidelberg Catechism, we read that conversion is a sincere sorrow of heart that we have provoked God by our sins so that we more and more hate and flee from them. Now that's the negative side of sanctification. If one is to abound in love more and more, there must be also then a hating and a fleeing from our sins more and more. But notice the confessions adopt that language. Same thing in question and answer 115, where after explaining the law of God, we read that the law of God is strictly preached. so that all our lifetime we may learn more and more to know our sinful nature and pray for the grace of the Holy Spirit so that we become more and more conformable to the image of God. That too speaks of sanctification. Sanctification may be defined as becoming more and more conformable to the image of God so that we look more and more like God Himself. And one can summarize that as simply love, to the image of God which is love. This then describes our life as a church. It's describing now what it means to be a living member, what it means to be a church, what it means to be a member of the church. Namely, it is one of progressive holiness or consecration to God in love. There are three implications of this. Number one, that there is always in the members of the church a desire to grow, to grow. More and more speaks of growth. That is, we're never content with a certain stagnation or even regression that is abhorrent to the living member of the church. As a living member, he desires to grow more and more and more. Number two, the implication of this teaching, this prayer of the pastor for the congregation, is that we may expect in the church different levels of growth in sanctification in the church. On the one hand, the Bible teaches that every member is sanctified. There is no such thing as a merely justified believer. If one is justified, he is also sanctified. The church is a church of saints, of holy ones. And nevertheless, because of the nature of sanctification, there will be growth and different levels of growth in the church. And thirdly, This prayer that we may abound more and more in love, that is, may grow in sanctification, indicates that we must never expect to arrive at perfection in this life. This is why the Apostle adds, until the day of Jesus Christ. Anyone who expects in the church that there will be no time in which this prayer is appropriate, a time where it's even inappropriate because I have arrived at the love that I ought to have, is wrong. The prayer more and more always applies to young and old, the church in its day back in the day of the apostles or its church today, it always applies. This might surprise us that the Apostle prays as he does, that your love may abound yet more and more, and that this is speaking actually of sanctification because we don't often associate the two. But we ought to do that. If we're to put meat on the bones of what sanctification is, It is to identify sanctification as a growing more and more in love. Sanctification is to more and more to keep God's law and to hate and flee from sin. That's how it's always defined. But the keeping of the law, as you all know, is summarized by one word, love. so that growing sanctification is specifically to grow more and more in love. Good works, therefore, are defined according to love. They are those in which one loves God and loves his neighbor for God's sake. This points out that we mustn't allow love to be minimized in the church as a reaction, perhaps, to false teachers who preach about false forms of love. You and I are well aware that there are many churches that have abandoned the gospel, that do not teach true faith in Jesus Christ as revealed in scriptures, and engage in union with all sorts of unbelievers and unbelief, and those who live in wickedness under the guise of love. One of the common slogans of our day is that love wins. There's no place for hate. And you all know that what they mean is you are to love all sorts of abominable behavior. You may condemn it. You may preach against it, or we'll throw you in jail. We'll kill you. We'll persecute you. We will put you out. But we mustn't allow that attitude and that false gospel to make us minimize or even reject the preaching of love or the desire of it in the congregation. We must, however, know what we're talking about, which is why it's important that the apostle adds, yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment. Notice that. He doesn't simply say, I pray that your love may abound yet more and more, but that it may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment. The apostle does that for a reason, because he understands the difference between true biblical love, the love that only God can and does work in the church, that love that is sanctification from all false forms of it. And it's related to growing more and more in knowledge and in all judgment. You may think, of knowledge and judgment as two riverbanks, with love as the river flowing in between those riverbanks. The idea is that is what keeps the love, as it were, pure, true love as opposed to other rivers and streams of love. What those two words indicate is that the object, with which love is concerned has to do with spiritual things, not earthly and material things. It really has nothing to do with them whatsoever. Else, why does he pray to God? if we are to abound more and more in love, simply based on the knowledge that we have of someone from an earthly point of view, because of their relationship to us, say, by blood, or by proximity, or because we share certain things in common, or perhaps even we subscribe to the view of mankind himself, which is God loves everybody and therefore we should too. That's not true. Those two words, knowledge and judgment, indicate that love is a spiritual matter that concerns sin and goodness or holiness, concerns the kingdom of God versus the kingdom of this world, concerns salvation as opposed to damnation. concerns God as opposed to simply man. And there's a close relationship between those two words which indicate something about love. Love is not a mere emotion. Love is not merely feelings. Oh, it's feeling. It's something we feel. It's something that affects the emotions. We all know that. The world knows that too. But it's much more than that. That's evident from the fact that God commands love. No man may ever say, well, I fell out of love with my wife, and now I love another woman. That may be how he feels, but nevertheless, that's not love. That's not truth. God commands that man to love his wife and love your neighbor too. Now why is that? The answer is because love also pertains to knowledge and judgment. That is, it's a matter of the mind also and the will. And the will that can be directed by the mind. A man who says, I no longer love my wife, needs to be told what the truth of the Word of God is so it's firmly in his mind, so that his will then is redirected by that mind, the sanctified mind, and the man says, I will love my wife. The knowledge here is therefore the knowledge of the truth of the Word of God, and the judgment is what one does based upon that knowledge. Judgment is the perception of the spiritual reality of truth versus falsehood. And knowledge is the grasping of that for one's blessedness. They go together. And they are what keep love true and right. That's the first thing the apostle prays for. The pastor prays for the congregation. But then there's two other closely related things that he prays for. The second is that he approved things that are excellent. The idea there is that the apostle is praying that they grow in love more and more in knowledge and judgment to the end that, for the purpose that, they approve things that are excellent, that is, not things that are bad, not things that are evil, not things that are wicked. Part of knowledge and judgment is that one is able to discern between good and evil, that which is excellent and that which is harmful. And this further defines what it means that one grows in love more and more. And again, why is this here? Well, because everybody claims to grow in love more and more. If I were to ask any one of you, did you grow in love more and more this past year? You're all going to say yes. I'm going to say it. You're going to say it. And if we enter into some church in our neighborhood, knock on the door and say, I want to talk to you and ask you a question. Do you grow in love more and more? They all say yes. Every single church. Every single member of the church, no matter where it's found, is going to claim this. You could take that proverbial man who hates his wife. Says he fell out of love with her, but he really hates her. He's doing awful things in his marriage. Corner that man and confront him with his sin. He's going to tell you he's growing in love more and more. He's going to tell you that. It's not unusual for a person who has to be put under discipline for rather severe sins to claim he loves God more and more. Well, the falsehood of that is exposed when one realizes that to grow and love more and more is to approve things that are excellent. That implies there's a real danger in the church. There's a real danger for the members of the church to approve things that are evil. Because there's an evil one who presents lies always as truth. And then we have a depraved, sinful human nature that we don't do justice to. Part of growing in knowledge and in judgment is to understand our own human nature, and that of all of us as members, and realize our propensity to believe a lie, and thus a danger we approve things that are evil and not excellent. But notice that even though that's not natural, that's not easy, the Apostle makes it clear that in the Church of Jesus Christ, where true love abounds more and more, that's exactly what happens. That's exactly what its office-bearers are able to do when they're sent into church. or someone has injured another where there is not real love. They know the difference between true love and false love. They know the difference between sinful behavior and wicked behavior. And they deal with it accordingly. That's what he means by approved things that are excellent. It's a church that says, now this is what's excellent. This is what's good. This is what true love is. This is what's right. And we condemn everything else. We deal with everything else. Sin is that which we hate and that which we flee from. And I can assure you, that it's the exact opposite discernment, it's the exact opposite approval of that where the members believe a false gospel, and in fact may be preaching a gospel of love to the high heavens. closely related, and that, notice again, this is a result or part of growing in love more and more, that ye may be sincere and without offense until the day of Christ. These are two more good descriptions of love or of sanctification. The first is sincerity. Sincerity has the idea of that which is pure because all the impurities have been sifted out. The church and its members that abound more and more in love are a church and a membership where not more and more impurities are tolerated and allowed and taken in and excused and minimized and justified and parties formed to defend it and keep it, to cover it up, but where they're sifted out, where they're taken out. It's where the members more and more live unto God and to one another, not themselves. Sin is selfish, sincerity, and without offense. Today, offense is defined as me saying something or you saying something that someone doesn't like. So if you preach the Word of God that homosexuality is a vile sin, they say, I'm offended by that. Don't say that anymore. And that notion has crept into the church. Don't call me a drunkard. I'm offended by that. Say, I have a problem with alcohol. Don't call me an adulterer. I'm offended by that. Call me someone who had an affair, if you call it that. No, that's not offense. Offense is to cause someone to stumble into sin. And that's done today under the guise of love. We're a congregation that's abounding in love more and more, such that we're not going to call this what it is. And the result of that is other members then stumble into that sin. It's no longer sin in the church. It's no longer dealt with in the church. That's real offense. Offense, biblically, is to cause someone to sin. The apostle is saying, my one great desire. The pastor is saying, my one great prayer to God. is that you abound in love more and more. Not just any love, not that love that is sung about in the world's songs and preached about in a false gospel, but a love that is in knowledge and in judgment such that you approve things that are excellent. Not just what you hear or what you think is excellent or others say is excellent, but that what God says is excellent. And so that ye are sincere and without offense until the day of Christ. And that includes offending Christ himself. There's much, much behavior in the church going on under the guise of love that is offensive to the good shepherd of his flock. That, beloved, is my prayer for you here in this congregation as your pastor. That, I may tell you, is my fervent prayer. When I pray for this congregation, this is what I pray for. And I pray it to God, because only God can work that. You aren't going to do that. I'm not going to do that. No one can do that. That is possible. In fact, it's the only possibility. And the Apostle indicates that when he adds, being filled with the fruits of righteousness. The Apostle is saying a lot by that short little phrase. On the one hand, he's saying that what he prays for, abounding more and more in love, is the fruit of something. And it's a fruit in which the congregation is filled. In fact, he even expresses confidence of that. But let's break it down and understand what he's saying. The righteousness that's talked about here is not the righteousness of your own love. That love in which the congregation abounds more and more. The righteousness that's mentioned here is the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ Himself. We have to understand how the language is being used here. Righteousness all by itself. What is that? Righteousness in general is perfect obedience to the law of God. To put it another way, righteousness is to perfectly love God more and more. But righteousness in and of itself is perfect love. It is to love God perfectly and the neighbor as God requires, perfectly. If we have to add love God more and more, that indicates there's a certain imperfection of our own righteousness, of our own love for God. And that's why he can't be talking about that. What he's referring to is the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ, His perfect love for God and for the neighbor. Perfect love without sin that now is imputed to you by faith on the basis of what Christ does. Christ's righteousness is imputed to us. And that has a fruit. I hope I'm making that clear. That what he's talking about is, number one, pointing out that our love, no matter how much we abound in it more and more, will never meet the standard of righteousness. It will never meet that standard. It can't. We've already demonstrated how that is and why that is. So he's not talking about that. He's talking about the righteousness notice which is by Jesus Christ. That is, the righteousness of another through faith in Jesus Christ The believer hears the Lord say, your sins are forgiven, not because of your love, or not because of your sin either. It's imputed freely to you. And along with that, my perfect obedience, my righteousness. Something very mysterious about that. Because righteousness is perfect love. Love in which there is no need to abound more and more. It's perfect. It's exactly what God requires. So the apostle is pointing out that if the congregation is to grow more and more in love, the only possibility of that is that it understands in the first place that its love, more and more, is not the righteousness God requires. It's not sufficient. It's not enough. It couldn't possibly be satisfaction before God. If the congregation is to abound in love more and more, it must see that as a fruit of the righteousness which is by Jesus Christ. And this is exactly why much of the love that is talked about that supposedly is abounding more and more is no love at all. It's exactly because Christian churches have that all backwards. They've been infected by the lie that says the exact opposite of the Apostle, which is that righteousness is a fruit of abounding more and more in love. You see, if I abound more and more in love, then I'm abounding more and more in righteousness, So righteousness is the fruit of love. It's not true. The church is being taught, and we have to be aware of the temptation in our own heart and soul to imagine that the more and more I abound in love, the more and more righteous I am before God. And that's not possible. It's simply another way of saying, You're justified by works. That's what that means. When in fact we're not justified by works at all, but justified by faith. Faith in what? Faith in the righteousness of Christ. faith and righteousness that is not my own but by Jesus Christ that comes to me because I'm conducted to him by faith and through faith I receive that imputation so that the righteousness of Christ as my own. And only then is there the possibility of love. Only then is there a possibility of abounding more and more in love. And let's understand what he's saying, too, is that this is the fruit of the righteousness which is by Jesus Christ. I don't know if we understand this as we ought, but the sure fruit of faith in the righteousness of Jesus Christ as our own, imputed freely for His sake, without regard to any of my merits, any of my work, any of my sin even, the inevitable fruit is abounding in love more and more. We often say to ourselves, Beloved, when there's a lack of love or it's not abounding, you know what we need? We need to know more and more what love is. We need to know more and more what abounding it is, and it's not true. Often the problem as we're not living our life by faith in the righteousness of Christ, but instead relying on our own righteousness. And when we rely on our own righteousness, then what happens is the standard of love gets reduced to our level. Love is what we make of it. Love isn't set according to the standard of God's law and the perfection of that, but it's what we say it is. And so then we end up approving not what's excellent and perfect and right, but a love that's actually evil and wicked and sinful. Oh, that's not really sin. That's not really evil. That person really just loves their neighbor. It's exactly because this is the inevitable fruit of justification by faith without works that in fact the church can and does discipline sin in its midst. An individual under discipline may claim all they want. I love God and I love my neighbor and I believe my sins are forgiven. They're lying. They're lying. The inevitable fruit that we believe that we are righteous by Jesus Christ alone is that I love him and love my neighbor more and more and more. Nevertheless, this is something the Lord Jesus Christ is pleased to work by means. He imputes it to us. He grants it freely for His namesake. But notice that He works it through the church and by the church. This is why the Apostle is praying what He does and saying what He does. One of the great benefits of looking at a passage like this is you see in the Apostle himself and the Pastor Timothy how they see their basic duty and the basic goal they desire in their ministry. The goal is not simply to teach the people the difference between right and wrong. The law of God. What constitutes love and what constitutes sin. The basic duty is to preach the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ, righteousness through faith in Him and Him alone. And to do that, with the goal or the desire that love may abound more and more and more in the congregation. That's the duty and the prayer of the officers, too, which is why he mentions them in the context. This is important for the church to know and to understand. The church must know and understand that their pastor prays this to God, and prays this to God for their benefit and their blessedness, that this is the goal and the desire of all of his labor, all of it. All of his goal, all of his labor has that goal in mind, that the church grow to bound in love more and more and more. Even the preaching. of salvation or righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. The righteousness which is by Jesus Christ, not the righteousness which is by your abounding more and more in love. Those fine, important distinctions aren't made to be orthodox. They're made because that's the only way for the congregation to truly abound more and more in love. But let's look at the purpose. The purpose of all this has nothing to do with the pastor. The purpose of this has nothing to do with the elders and the deacons. The purpose of this has nothing to do with you. If it does, then our abounding in love more and more is simply self-congratulations. It's just more of the fake pseudo love that's infected so much of the church. A love of the world. Now this is the love of truly good works as opposed to those that are false or look good. Glittering vices, as a reformer put it. It's unto the glory and praise of God. That's humbling. That's humbling, humbling even for your pastor. Your pastor is even prone to say, I pray this because, well, it's fruit upon my work. It's something that validates me or validates you. Now there's a certain amount of truth to that. The apostle himself will point that out to the Philippians and other churches too. There was a certain validation of his own ministry and his own labor by the fruits thereof. But that's not really what moved and motivated him. It was always to the glory and praise of God. That's always what's at stake. The church needs to remember that when it proves things that are not excellent, it says, this behavior is okay and we're not going to do anything about that. We're going to overlook this. And we're all going to pretend we love each other when secretly we hate each other in our hearts. We know that we believe this and we have these certain doctrines, but I'm going to continue to slander and gossip and backbite my neighbor I know what God requires, but I'm still going to be stingy with the earthly goods that God gives me and keep them mainly for myself. We have to understand what's really at stake. It's about God, and the glory of God, and the honor of God. Please remember that. It's not about me. It's not about you. It's not about Trinity Protestant Reformed Church. It's not about the Protestant Reformed Churches. It's about the glory and honor of God. And that is what characterizes every good work. That's what characterizes true love. Look it up in the Heidelberg Catechism. a good work, that is true love. The true love that we are to abound more and more always has God as its object. The man who says he no longer loves his wife and has fallen out of love with her will never love his wife unless he does it to the honor and glory of God. The man who says I have the right to remarry after I divorce my wife because I say so Because it's for my good and honor doesn't know what love is. The question is, what does God require? And what's honorable before God? This is really what characterizes every good and approved prayer too. The apostle was confident that God would work this. And God would work it until the day of Christ's coming. And so is this pastor. Why? Because we pray it for God's sake, We pray it for the end that God be glorified because it's God who alone can make us that we abound more and more in knowledge and in judgment. Amen. Let us pray. Lord our God, we thank Thee for Thy Word, Thy Word which reminds us of the great goal of Jesus Christ, the great goal of all of His work and all of His labor, of His atoning death and His resurrection. That goal is that we be righteous as he is righteous, but not simply in word, but in deed. That we be righteous as he is righteous, and thus we pray, O Lord, that we may abound more and more as a congregation, being filled with the fruits of the righteousness which are by Jesus Christ. And in his name we pray, amen. Turn to 348. Let's sing stanzas four, five, and six. Four, five, and six of 348.