Well, as we begin a new year, I want to put a phrase in your mind. I want to put a phrase, it's just four words. It's standing firm, straining forward. So that's the phrase, standing firm, straining forward. I'm going to say it a few times this weekend. But that's the theme that I've chosen for this weekend. And I hope that will be your theme, not just for 2020, but for all of your life, that you're standing firm, that you're straining forward. So, I ask, are you standing firm in the Lord? That's what I mean. Are you standing firm in Christ? Firmly upon Him as we just sung, the solid rock, the only solid rock, all other ground is sinking sand. And then if you're standing firm here in Christ, if you're a Christian trusting in Him alone, I ask, are you straining forward? Are you pressing on in the Christian life? Are you making progress? Are you fighting the good fight of faith, running with endurance the race that's set before you, pressing on and by God's grace becoming more and more like Christ? The sermons today and tomorrow are going to be from Paul's letter to the church in Philippi. You can open there if you would like. Paul's letter to the Philippians. And it's a very short letter. but a very powerful letter. My copy of the scriptures here, it's 2,029 pages, 2,069. Only five and a half pages are this letter to the Philippians. So if you do the math, that's less than one half of one percent of The English Bible is the book of Philippians, the letter to the church in Philippi. So, that's a very small portion of the scriptures. It's just four chapters, 104 verses, roughly 1,600 words in the original Greek. So, not a lot here. And yet what we find is we open this short letter that it's so full of wonderful and even memorable verses. If you think of some of the verses you've memorized, if you've done that, maybe several of them are from the book of Philippians. So it's a wonderful book. The impact of this short book is disproportionate to its size. So although it's very small, it has a huge impact. And it was hard to pick just a few verses for this weekend, but I've sought to pick a few that really bring out this theme of standing firm and straining forward. So Before we begin this morning here, I do want to challenge you. My challenge this weekend, and maybe even beyond, is to make this little book of Philippians your companion. So, as you spend some time with the Lord, and I would encourage you to do that, I know it's busy this weekend, you've got lots of activities, but as you can, slip away, spend some time with the Lord, and maybe take Philippians and read this short letter. Read it carefully, and read it prayerfully, and maybe even review some of the things that I'm going to be shedding some light on hopefully here throughout the weekend. And some of you might like to even write down some thoughts. I encourage that. I found that to be helpful in my own Christian life as I read the scriptures to write. That's my challenge, but as we look at this first session standing firm is going to be our theme and Paul was a man who stood firm in the Lord He stood fast in the Lord as he put it in chapter 4 but we're going to look at chapter 3 and I'm going to read here the first 7 verses of chapter 3 and We see here foundation of Paul's standing. So, chapter 3, verse 1, he says, Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation, For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the spirit, rejoice or boast in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so circumcise the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, concerning the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal persecuting the church, concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Let's ask the Lord for help as we open up this text. Father, again, we thank You that we can come and we can hear Your Holy Word. We pray for Your help. Lord, give us strength this morning. We thank You for another day. We thank You for the life that You give us. And we pray, Father, that You would give us energy. Pray that we would not be distracted in these moments as we open up your holy, your inspired, and infallible Word. We pray, Lord, for the help of your Spirit. Open our eyes, open our hearts, prepare us to receive your Word, to see Christ we ask in his name. Amen. If you've ever studied military history or just read history of wars and things like that, you know sometimes people speak of a battle or a key victory that was a turning point in the war. So after this battle things were different or maybe it's sports, maybe it's a basketball game and there's a turning point, something happens and from then on it's different or a football game, whatever it might be. Have you all ever had that in your life, a turning point? Some turning point in your life, and you say, this was a point where after this, things were different. So that's what a turning point is, right? It's a significant change when things turn around. So you might say, I've never been the same since this point. My life has been different, whether it's for the worse or hopefully for the better. But in my testimony last night, I mentioned a number of turning points, and there have been significant turning points in my life. But I could also speak of the turning point in my life. I could speak of the single most important thing, the single most important change in my life, and that is my conversion. And by conversion, what I'm talking about is that change that's rooted in God's work that we call the new birth, regeneration. So God was calling me as the gospel was being preached to me. He was calling me to Christ. He gave me a new heart. I was born again. And so I was enabled by God to believe in Christ and to repent of my sin. That was my conversion. the great turning point in my life. I didn't have a dramatic conversion. I told you all that last night. I couldn't point to the exact moment of this, but I can say this now. I can say that I once was lost, but now I'm found. You can say that once I was completely blind, but now I see. I was dead even, dead in trespasses and sins, and yet I've been made alive together with Christ by God's grace. So that's my testimony, and if you're a Christian, that's your testimony. Well, I want us to look at the Apostle Paul, look at his story, his testimony here. And Paul is one of the most remarkable men in history. And I'm not just saying that to exaggerate. Paul is one of the most remarkable men in history. And he had a very dramatic conversion, if you all can remember his conversion. Before his conversion, he persecuted the church. He even says that here in what we read. So if you had been a Christian in the early part of the first century, you would have feared Paul. If you heard that Paul was coming to town, that would have been something that would have struck fear in you because you're thinking, am I going to be drug away to prison? Am I going to be executed? So he was someone to be feared if you were a Christian. We read in Acts 8.3 that he made havoc of the church, entering every house and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. This was Paul. But one day, Paul had a life-changing encounter with the risen Lord Jesus. This was Paul's turning point, and after this, everything was different. He was heading to Damascus, and we read in Acts chapter 9 that he was still breathing out threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. So he was on a mission to go to Damascus and to find Christians and to bind them, to put them in prison. And then we read this, the turning point of his life in Acts 9, beginning at verse 3. I'll read here. As he, Paul, journeyed, he came near to Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell down to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you, Lord? Then the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads. So he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what do you want me to do? So from that point on, Paul was never the same. Paul was a new man. He was a converted man, a Christian man. All things were new for Paul. Even as he says in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, if anyone is in Christ, if they're a Christian, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. If you're a Christian, all things have become new. Paul was a new man. And I want us to see this morning in our text at least three ways in which Paul was a new man. So three ways in which he was a new man. And we'll look first at a new confidence in Paul's life. And then we'll see that Paul had new values and new ambition. So the first thing I want us to look at is Paul's new confidence. So at the beginning of chapter 3 here, Paul's warning the Philippians. Verse two, he says, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation. Now, these dogs, the evil workers, and so on, he's talking about one group of individuals. There's a group known as the Judaizers during Paul's time, and they were dangerous men. These were men who were teaching false doctrine, and these Judaizers were supposedly Jews who had become Christians. They claimed to be Christians, but what they were teaching is that Gentile Christians basically had to become Jews before they became Christians. Gentile Christians had to be circumcised in the flesh in order to be saved. And Paul recognized that that was undermining the gospel. So that's why Paul says, after he says, beware of them, he says, but we are the circumcision. We're the true circumcision who worship God in the spirit, rejoice or boast in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. So these Judaizers were boasting in the flesh, they were having confidence in the flesh, and they were, in general, boasting and having confidence in their law keeping. And they were boasting and having confidence specifically in circumcision, this circumcision in the flesh. So, their confidence was totally misplaced. It was not in Christ Jesus, but in the flesh. And Paul used to be like them. But Paul used to be like them, but even superior to them. And so what Paul's doing here, he says, you all boast, these Judaizers boast, but I actually have far more reason to boast. He's not going to do it, but he says, I've got far more reason to boast than any of them. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, Paul says, I more so. That's in verse four. So what follows here after that in verses five and six, we could call it a spiritual resume. You know, you have a resume that you're looking for a job or something. You're going to put all of your achievements on there. You want to impress somebody and say, hire me, whatever, let me into your school, those sorts of things. This is something of a spiritual resume for Paul. And it's superior to the resume of the Judaizers. What we have here are, as somebody has put it, seven advantages in which Paul could boast. I'm not going to go through them, I'm basically just going to read them, but I want you just to have that in your mind, that what Paul is doing is he's laying out something of a resume, a superior resume. He could boast in these things, but he does not do it. So there's four things that are inherited privileges, Jewish privileges, and then the last three things are personal achievements in his life. So let me just read it again without further comment here, but he says, if anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so. Circumcise the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. Concerning the law, a Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church. Concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. I don't know if you all have in your mind some sort of spiritual resume, if you've ever had that in your mind. Wow, I'm pretty good. These are some things that I could boast in. But let me just say this, however impressive your spiritual resume might be, Paul has you beat. Paul has all of us beat. So as we look at Paul's life and we think about maybe our prayer life, Paul has us beat. He has us beat in knowledge of the Scriptures. He has us beat in evangelistic zeal. You name it, Paul has a superior spiritual resume. And yet what Paul is saying says, however great these things are, God has been good to me, I've got these experiences, but he says I have no confidence in them. He says they're nothing to me. He's not going to boast in anything apart from Christ. And that really is his burden here, is to say that. Paul, as a converted man, has a new confidence. It's not in himself, but it's in Christ. It's no longer in the flesh. So he's not going to boast in his achievements. He once did that. He once would have pointed to this resume, and he would have boasted, and that would have been his confidence. But he's no longer rejoicing in his own righteousness, in his own law-keeping, and so forth. He's rejoicing and boasting in Christ alone. Now look at verse 9. Verse 9 is really the greatest expression of Paul's new confidence in Christ. Verse nine, Paul says, as a converted man, he now says, I want to be found in him. I want to be found in Christ, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. Let me read that again. This is a good verse to meditate on as you think about looking at this book more carefully. Paul says, I want to be found in Christ, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. So what do we see here? We see that Paul has lost confidence in his own righteousness. And now he's gained confidence in the righteousness of Christ. What's happened is Paul has come to see that those things that he once boasted in were really just rags. He was clothed in filthy rags, his own righteousness. And now he looks at the righteousness of Christ and says, I want to be clothed in that righteousness, his righteousness. the psalmist in Psalm 130 asked this powerful question, says, if you, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? So if you, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? In other words, as we stand before God, the holy God, the righteous God, The psalmist is saying, and this is true of all of us, said, Lord, if you should mark all of my iniquities, if you should take all of my sin and write it in your book and bring it before me in your court, I could not stand. So your thoughts, your words, your deeds, even this day, Every day we sin. And if that should be brought before the holy and righteous God, none of us would stand in the judgment. We've all sinned. We've all fallen short of the glory of God. And we deserve His wrath and judgment. We could not stand. And that's what makes the gospel such good news, is there's this bad news that we can't stand before God, but God, as I said last night, has made a way for sinners to stand before Him in the judgment. And that's by sending His Son, who lived a perfect life and has a perfect righteousness, and He died on the cross, and our sins, the sins of all who would believe in Christ, were placed upon Him. The Bible says He actually became sin. he who knew no sin became sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him." So there's this great exchange where our sin is put on Christ and His righteousness upon us, and that's the only way anyone could stand before God is if they're standing in the righteousness of Christ, not in their own righteousness. That's what we need. We need to be found in Christ, not having our own righteousness. That's how we're going to stand. So I ask you, what's your confidence before God? I want you to picture that if you can. You're going to stand before God one day. I saw that on a billboard driving here. It says, you will stand before God. You will meet God. That's true. You're going to meet God. And what will be your confidence on that day? Where are you going to point when you're standing before the judge of all? Are you going to point to yourself? Are you going to point to your resume, say, hold on, I got my resume somewhere, and you bring it before him? No, because you won't stand. Your confidence must be in Christ alone. Put no confidence in your flesh. The Gospel leaves no room for boasting. I read this last night, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, but listen again. It says, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. So we see here something of Paul's new confidence. It's in Christ alone. But I want us to see secondly here Paul's new values. Paul's new values. You can tell a lot about a person by what they value most. tell a lot about a person by what they treasure, what's most important to them. In fact, our treasures are like little windows into our hearts. You can't read somebody's heart, but if you know what they value most, you get a little window into their heart. And Jesus says that in Matthew 6, 21. He says, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. I remember in college, this was one of my fraternity brothers. He was a Christian, and his father had died. And it was a tragic death. It was unexpected. And I didn't know his dad, but I went to the funeral along with several of my friends in college there just to support my friend. And I'll never forget this experience at this funeral. It was very sad because as you get the pictures of this man and they're talking about this man and person after person comes up and all I'm hearing is that this man, he loved rock and roll, he loved his cars, I think he was a geologist. I didn't hear anything about Christ. I didn't hear anything about anything beyond this world and his interests and his work. And I just remember leaving that, almost depressed and just saddened to see that here is a man whose treasure was completely on earth, and it all passed away with him. And now he had to stand before the Lord, and all he could say is, well, I loved cars. I loved rock and roll. So this man did not lay up his treasure in heaven. It was all here on earth. And we could say he had his values mixed up. But not Paul. As a converted man, Paul, he not only had a new confidence, but new values. He had completely re-evaluated things. So look at verse 7. This is that great statement of transition. So he gives his resume and then he says, but what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. So it's a counting language here. You should notice that. He's talking about gain and loss and counting, accounting language. We all have these kinds of accounting changes. So, you know, one thing that you used to enjoy, you no longer enjoy those kinds of things. I was thinking about this, Big Macs. I used to like Big Macs. I grew up going to McDonald's. It's just we were on the run as my family, and I loved a Big Mac. But now you would literally have to pay me to eat a Big Mac. And we had this conversation in the car. I asked her, I said, would you have to be paid to eat a Big Mac? She agreed she would. She said $100. I said, that's probably about right. I might eat a Big Mac for $100. So this is the point. It used to be game for me. You know, I'm going to devour that. It was gain. And then now, it's not just nothing to me. It's actually loss. Like, you've got to pay me to consume that. That's an accounting change. And you all have probably had these things in your life. So Paul, in a much, much, much deeper way, has had an accounting change. So the things that were once in his gain column have been moved to his loss column, his resume. It was once gained to him. That's what was his profit. But he says, I count it all as loss. And I want you to notice something. He doesn't say, I count it all as nothing, as zero, but actually negative. It's loss. I count it all as loss. So the things he once prized are actually less than nothing to him now. The things he once boasted in, they've lost their value. And why? Why has Paul undergone this re-evaluation of his value? Well, there's two words here that I think really sum it all up at the end of verse 7. For Christ. So that explains it. For Christ. So, Paul has found the pearl of great price. That's Christ. He has found the greatest treasure. And since he's found the greatest treasure that has changed everything, his values have completely changed. And what he once called treasure, he now calls trash. It's loss to him. And I think those words for Christ really sum up Paul's new life in Christ. That sums up the Christian's life. It's for Christ. Paul's reoriented his life, refocused his life around his treasure, Christ. And so now what Paul can say is that life is all about Christ. He even says, for me to live is Christ. We read that in chapter 121. So life was all about Christ for Paul as a new man. Look at verse 8, verse 8 of chapter 3. He says, yet indeed, I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and I count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ. So notice that word excellence. All things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ. And what does it mean to be excellent? We think somebody excels in something. When we say somebody excels or something is excellent, it's above other things. It surpasses something in worth or in value, and that's what Paul is saying. Paul is saying, I found something of superior worth, and it's Christ. It's the knowledge of Christ, he says in verse eight. It's of surpassing value, far more precious than anything. So we could say that Paul would rather gain Christ than gain the whole world. Compared to Christ, he counts all things as rubbish. And that word is a word for trash. And the King James Version translates it, dung. And it is a word that is pretty strong. It's the sort of stuff that's only fit for the trash dump and for the sewer. He says, all things are rubbish. So, what we could say clearly is that the world has lost its grip on Paul. We're born into this world and the world has a grip on us. But for Paul, the world has lost its grip on him. And why is that? Because now Paul has been gripped by something else, by someone else, and that's Jesus Christ. So the world has lost its grip on him. And I ask you, what about you? Does the world still have you in its grip? What do you treasure? What do you value most? What do you think about most? What are you most excited about? Is it the things of this world or is it about the Son of God and all that Christ is and all that He's done for the salvation of sinners and all the spiritual blessings that are in Christ for the believer? What's in your gain column? So if Christ is not your treasure, then you have your values mixed up. Your columns are switched. You're treasuring things that are just fading. Things that go away. Things that won't last. Things that you won't take to the grave with you. Things that, in the end, are rubbish or trash. There's nothing more excellent than knowing Christ. That's the clear teaching here. There is no greater gain than gaining Christ. There's no greater gain than gaining Christ. Whatever you might have in your mind is the greatest thing. I want this house. I want this job. I want this, this and this. There's no greater gain than gaining Christ and being found in him. I'll tell you about a very different funeral. We had a man in the church in Louisville, and he died about three or four years ago, an old man. And this man, his name was Ralph, he treasured Christ. He was a Christian. Christ was his pearl of great price. And I didn't get to go to his funeral. I wish I had got to go to it. But I know that at that funeral, they sang this song. And let me read the words to you. I'd rather have Jesus than silver or gold. I'd rather be His than have riches untold. I'd rather have Jesus than house or lands. I'd rather be led by his nail-pierced hand. I'd rather have Jesus than man's applause. I'd rather be faithful to his dear cause. I'd rather have Jesus than worldwide fame. I'd rather be true to his holy name. He's fairer than lilies of rarest bloom. He's sweeter than honey from the comb. He's all my hungering spirit needs. I'd rather have Jesus and let him lead than to be the king of some vast domain or be held in sin's dread sway. I'd rather have Jesus than anything this world affords today. Can you say that? That you'd rather have Jesus than anything that this world affords, that this world can give you. So that's Paul's new confidence and his new values. But as a new man, as a converted man, we see thirdly and finally that Paul had new ambition. Paul had new ambition. So let's look at Paul's new ambition. We don't typically think of ambition as a virtue, do we? Ambition, I looked it up, one definition was an ardent desire for rank, for fame, for power. And it does seem that Paul had this kind of ambition before his conversion. Paul wanted to climb the ranks in Judaism, and in fact he did. He had gained quite a reputation for himself. He even says in Galatians chapter one that he had advanced in Judaism beyond many of his contemporaries, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of his father. So he was very ambitious before his conversion. And after his conversion, Paul was still an ambitious man. And the key is that conversion, it doesn't remove ambition, it redirects it. It redirects it. So Paul has his ambition redirected at his conversion. So It wasn't killed, his ambition, it was sanctified. He had an unholy ambition before his conversion and now it's become a holy ambition. His ambition was no longer self-centered. That's how we think of ambition mostly. It's all self-centered, all about me climbing the ladder or whatever it might be or fame. It's not self-centered anymore. His ambition is Christ-centered so that no longer is he saying, I must increase, but he's saying Christ must increase. He's not saying I must be known, but he must be known and I want to know him. So his ambition has been changed. And where do we see that in our text? Well, Paul says, as we read, that he wants to gain Christ. He has a desire there, an ambition to gain Christ. That's verse eight. Verse nine, he says he wants to be found in Christ. So he doesn't, he has no more ambition for his own righteousness. Right? He doesn't want to be righteous in himself. He was trying to do that. He's like, look how blameless I am. Look at, look at my law keeping. He said, I've put that ambition away. I don't want to be righteous in myself. I want to be righteous in Christ. I want to be clothed with his righteousness. He says that I want to know the power of Christ's resurrection. We see that in verse 10. Then he goes on and says in verse 10 that he wants to know the fellowship of Christ's sufferings. And he even says that he wants to be conformed to Christ's death. We see that also in verse 10. So what Paul is saying is he's quite willing to suffer with Christ if he may, as he puts it in verse 11, attain to the resurrection from the dead. So these are all of his new ambitions as a new man. And if we were going to sum it all up in one phrase, I would sum it up with what we see at the beginning of verse 10. So look at the beginning of verse 10. Paul says that I may know him. So Paul's great ambition, his highest ambition in life was to know Christ. I want to know Christ. That was his ambition. And he was willing to suffer the loss of all things for that. Listen again to the words of verse 8. Indeed, I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ. I want to ask, though, as we think about this, his ambition to know Christ, this knowledge of Christ that's so excellent, what is it? What is the knowledge of Christ? There's just two things that I want to point out from the text. And the first thing is that when Paul speaks of a knowledge of Christ, he's speaking of a personal and an intimate knowledge of Christ. So that the knowledge of Christ is not just knowledge about Christ. It's not just about him. Knowing a person is always more than knowing about a person. So you might say, well, I read an Abraham Lincoln biography. I know Abraham Lincoln. I would say, no, you don't. You know maybe something about Abraham Lincoln, but you do not know him. So knowing a person is always more than knowing about them. And that's what Paul is speaking about. Paul says in verse 10 that he wants to know Christ himself. He wants to know Christ personally. He's not just talking about when he says the knowledge of Christ, he says this is excellent. He's not just saying it's just some other subject of interest. Just like we might say, you know, I want to study biology or I want to, you know, the knowledge of the human body or of the solar system is excellent. No, he's not talking about the knowledge of Christ as this other subject of interest. This is a personal relationship that he's talking about. He links knowing Christ. This is important to see. And again, maybe read this on your own and meditate on this. But what Paul is saying is really important here. He links knowing Christ to gaining him and being found in him. So that's what he thinks of when he thinks of the knowledge of Christ, gaining Christ, being found in Christ. He says that's what makes it so excellent, this knowledge of Christ. So you see how personal those statements are. gaining him, being found in him. That's the language of union with Christ, personal union. So that's what he has in mind here. It's a relationship with Jesus Christ. And we find more details of this in the text that are going to confirm that this knowledge is personal, relational knowledge. In verse eight, he doesn't just speak of the knowledge of Christ Jesus. Look at what he says. It's the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. And that's the only place where Paul uses this exact language. 53 times he says our Lord in his letters, but he says my Lord only once, right here. So it's the knowledge of Jesus Christ, my Lord. And he's gonna go on and say, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things. So it's not the knowledge of Christ for which I have suffered, but for whom I have suffered. It's a person, a personal knowledge of Christ. If you were to read the Old Testament and you read about knowing God, that's an important concept and it talks about a relationship, an intimate relationship with God when we speak of knowing God. And that's what Paul has in mind when he speaks of knowing Christ. It's to have an intimate and a personal relationship with Him. That's the first thing that I want you to see. But the second thing to know about this knowledge of Christ, not only is it intimate and personal, but it is a saving knowledge of Christ. And that knowledge, then, is truly excellent. So, to have the knowledge of Christ that Paul's speaking about, it's to have a life-giving relationship with Christ, a saving relationship, a soul-saving relationship with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only Savior of sinners. It is, as I said, to be found in Him, not having your own righteousness, but that righteousness which is from God alone, the righteousness of Christ, which is only yours through faith in Jesus Christ. So it is to be justified, to have your sins forgiven and to be declared righteous in the sight of God. That's what he's talking about with this knowledge. Now, nobody will be saved by religion. I find it interesting. I don't know if y'all have heard about the rise of the nuns in America. I'm not talking about nuns, the women in the Catholic Church, but I'm talking about N-O-N-E-S. And these are people your age, mostly, who, if they were filling out a survey, they would say, you know, what religion are you? They would say, none. I have no religion. I think there's a growing dislike of religion in our country and beyond. And really, in some ways, we can say that God doesn't really like religion, if it's empty. So religion doesn't save anybody. Nobody's gonna be saved by their religiousness, by their law-keeping. Well, hey, I read my Bible, I did this, I did this, I checked off all the boxes. We're not saved just by religion, just by going through the motions. It's a relationship. That's what salvation is about. It's about a personal knowledge of the Savior, Jesus Christ. So do you know Christ? Do you know Christ in this way, this personal, intimate and saving way, not just about Christ? You do need to know about Him. That's why I'm talking about who He is and what He has done. We have to know these things. But it's far, far, far more than knowing about Him. Do you know Christ? Is He your Lord? Is He your Savior? Are you trusting in Him for your salvation? Is He your only hope, your only trust, your only confidence before God? And if He's not, you're still dead in trespasses and sin. So this is the most important thing. Do you know Christ? If you know Christ, you have eternal life. Jesus, just before his death, prayed a prayer. We have it in John 17, and we find this remarkable statement in John 17, verse 3. Jesus says, this is eternal life, that they may know you, the Father, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. You see what he's saying there? He says, this is eternal life. To know me, to know Christ. Knowing Christ is eternal life. That's what Paul's talking about. Knowing Christ savingly and personally. So Paul's a converted man. He's a new man. He's got a new confidence. He's got new values, new ambition. And all of this was focused on a person, Jesus Christ. So Christ was his confidence, Christ his treasure, Christ his desire, his ambition. Paul, we would say, was standing firmly upon Christ. And if you would stand firm too, and that's my hope and that's my prayer for all of us, if you would stand firm too, your song must be what we just sang. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ, the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. Let's pray. God, we thank You for these moments to open Your Word and to see Christ. Lord, we thank You for this man, Paul, and his conversion, Your grace in his life. Father, we pray that You would deal with us in the same way, that all of us here would have our confidence in Him alone, that we would treasure Him above all, that we would desire to know Him. Father, we ask for this sort of knowledge. May all of us here know Christ and be found in Him and gain Him and have His righteousness. God, we thank You that there's eternal life in Christ. Help us today, help us this week and all of our life to see Christ more clearly. We pray, Father, that our love for Him would grow. We ask this in His name. Amen.