Let us look back to the portion we have read, Philippians chapter 3, centering your attention particularly in words we find in the last two verses of the chapter, as the Lord enables us. For our conversation is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Saviour, Lord Jesus Christ. who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself. Whose strands of thought that we want to follow through here tonight? First of all, the words at the beginning of verse 20, Our conversation is in heaven. And the word conversation here actually means our citizenship is in heaven. The believer's citizenship is in heaven. And this conversation, of course, should be centered around that, but particularly our citizenship is in heaven, our status. And the other strand of thought that we have, is the Christian hope. We look to heaven from whence will come our savior, the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we have the hope of a redeemed, a splendid redemption, a splendid redemption of bodies. He shall change our vile body Our body of humiliation is the sense there, no disparagement of the human body at all meant. He will change our body of humiliation that it may be designed, that it may be fashioned after his own glorious body. What a glorious hope is that. And the third strand of this hope is that he is able He is able to do this. He is able, according to the working whereby he is able, even to subdue all things to himself. We must let God be God, and he is able. The believer's citizenship and the believer's hope and this reason as we consider these for gratitude, the Monday thanksgiving of communion and gratitude to be expressed in obedience to the one who has brought us into such great privileges in Christ. We have contributed nothing to that, but our sin and its shame, but they have been purchased. These privileges have been purchased at great cost, as we have sought to remember on a Passover. First then, the Christian, the believer's citizenship. It's in heaven. Believers are like a colony of heaven, living on earth, but they belong to heaven. They are a colony of heaven living in this world. They are foreigners in this world, really. They are pilgrims in this world, passing through this world on the way to their true destination. They are to be sought and liked in this world. They are to be in the world, but not of it. Their citizenship is above." That was so relevant for Paul to write to Philippi, to the Philippians. Philippi was itself a colony of Rome, and their citizenship, they were Roman citizen while living in Philippi at a distance from Rome. at a distance in a sense and not in another for the believers. Our citizenship is in heaven. We are a colony of heaven on earth. Our king is in heaven. Our government is in heaven. Government by that king through word and sacrament. the discipline of the church in accordance with this truth. Yes, we are to be citizens of this world, but our primary citizenship is in heaven. And we are to be obedient citizenships in this world as long as that obedience is not interfered with by demands that are contrary to the rules of heaven. We are a people who are greatly privileged. We have great wealth, wealth in terms of grace and glory, ultimately. Great security belongs to the believer. God is his refuge and strength and strength to present day. Even although the earth will move, he need not be afraid. He is like a elitist servant. Oh, to have our eyes open to the host of armed guard, guardianship that is round about him in the midst of all the difficulties, temptations in this world. And what glorious prospects. He already has eternal life. Eternal life has already begun. but o'er to have the full possession and enjoyment of it awaits him yet, where there shall be no more sin, where there shall be no more temptation, where he shall be enabled to the full enjoyment of it without any trammelings of sin at all. And yet he must live worthy. This is a way that he must express his thanks. He must seek to live worthy of that great citizenship. And that is, I think, the reason why this text begins with the word far. And that word far links us back to verses 17 and 18. They are to be followers of me," says Paul. And Paul was a follower of those godly men who had gone before him. And we, in our turn, are to be followers of what is set down before us, the foundation of the apostles and elders, and prophets, I should say, word of God, and We are to seek to walk in the old paths. And we are to seek to shun. This must be another way in which gratitude is to be expressed. We are to seek to shun ways, false ways. Notice how he says in verse 18, we are to walk in a way that, I mean Paul is an example, but then we are to shun other ways. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and don't tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. False teachings that must be shunned by the believer. We tried to look at part of that yesterday morning. We looked at the heresies of the false teachings of legalism, seeking to seek out, find our title in something of our own doings, and it can be very subtle. Sometimes our own commitment to the church, lifelong commitment, sometimes our prayer life, sometimes our attendance in the public means of grace, different ways that the enemy can insinuate into our thoughts that we are earning, titled to glory by our own doings, and O how we must be on guard against that. We contribute nothing but our sin and its shame, all to be leaning weight of our never-dying soul's security on the passion and the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Another heresy we noticed yesterday, libertinism, you could call it, or antinomianism, founded upon a false understanding of scripture. For example, you're not under law but under grace, that is a truth of scripture, but we must not make it an excuse for licentiousness. And other texts of Scripture, we should sin that grace may abound. And some people use that as an excuse, a way of let us live licentiously, that grace may abound. Freedom free from the law of blessed condition, says some, I can sin as I please and still have remission. Nonsense, but oh how we can be caught up with it. And then there's the many other falsenesses of our own day. Treating truth as if it were limited by the bounds of human logic. and human logic belonging only to this world, and ruling out the supernatural, and ruling out miraculous, and ruling out God as a consequence. And oh, how that has become part and parcel of the life of our nation. We must be on our guard against these and many other heresies that seek to creep into the life of the church. and be an expression of ingratitude rather than of gratitude. Something then of the just a touching, a brushstroke touch of the believer's heritage, the believer's citizenship. And we should seek to live in the light of that great privilege, to the glory of the one who has earned it at cost for us. Secondly, the Christian hope. Three strands, and the first strand of that Christian hope is that we anticipate the sure return of Christ. And This was so important for the Philippians. They were subject to persecutions. You find that if you look at chapter one, for example, and also in part of chapter two, I've taken a note here, verses 27 to 30 of chapter one, there's a reference to persecutions and oppressions. And where there is that sort of persecution and oppression, there'd be a looking forward to the coming of Christ as the vindicator. as the one who will be a deliverer from these persecutions of the world. But whether they are physical oppressions of that nature, the believer, the true believer, will have a target. His hope will be going out towards that second coming. That is a glorious prospect. And it should be that, just as it was when the first coming, the likes of Simeon and Anna. And we should be looking forward to meeting him, something metaphorically anyway, like Simeon could say as he held that child in his arms, no, let us though thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Something of that spirit of waiting, expectantly. for the coming one. Those who are pre-millennialists, I sometimes envy them. They speak of Christ coming, and when he comes, that he's going to be on the earth for a long time, a thousand years, they say, and that he's going to set up a kingdom on the earth. Whereas those of us who have another mind Postmillennialists or amillennialists, we think of the Christ coming and the day of judgment will be then. And we expect certain things to happen in accordance with the prophecies of Scripture first. We expect the Jews to be brought in first before that happens. But the premillennialists, and this is why I don't agree with them, but this is why I envy them, they are looking forward to his coming to be on the earth. And men like McChain, you read the sermons, and the Boners, they belong to that way of thinking. And when they went to bed at night, they used to open the curtains, open the curtains wide, and they would say, perhaps tonight, perhaps this is the night he comes, and we want to see him as he comes. That spirit of expectancy, that should be with a Christian. We expect some things, as I said to the prophets of Scripture, to happen first before he comes. As a result, we tend maybe not to have the same expectation, but we should have. We should be ready for his coming when we are brought out of this world to meet with him. And we know not when that shall be, but there should be an awaiting. That word waiting or looking for, it's a very strong word in the original language. It's an intense waiting, an eager waiting, a prayerful waiting, waiting for the coming of the Son of God in glory. He came in humiliation first, but when he comes the next time, he was going to come in glory. He's going to come with a retinue of angels. And he's going to call, the trumpet will sound, will be called to give account, to be called into his presence. Wonderful thing for those who have known him in this world as their savior and as their friend. And awesome things for those who have neglected his exhortations and invitations to them in this world. But that is a glorious prospect, the second coming of the Savior. Another strand of this hope was that we anticipate a splendid redemption of bodies. Notice how he speaks, who shall change our vile body. Now the word vile does not mean that it's not a, it's not a, it's a word that we would understand it today would be a disparagement of some way, in some way of the human body. That's not what's intended. What's intended here is the body of our humiliation. That's the sense of it. It's the same body as Christ took to himself at his incarnation. He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. There was no sin with him, but he came as near as it was possible to our sinful condition without himself being sin. But it's the body of our humiliation. And when he comes, Oh, there's a glorious prospect here. It's not that it's going to be resuscitated. That's what happened maybe with Lazarus when he was called forth there to the grave, but he could die again. But the transformation that's going to happen here, death will be no more. Oh, death, where is thy sting? Oh, grave, where is thy victor? there will be an organic connection between the present body and that glorious body that Christ is going to give to his people. They will be passioned like unto his glorious body, the glorious body that he has now in heaven. The believer will have a body similar to that. You find Paul referring to it in the letter to the Corinthians, chapter five, which we often read. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, our present body dissolved at death, we have a building of God that's That's the body, the new body, the transfigured body that will be given, a building of God and house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Those who have already gone to heaven, they will come down, but those who have or on the earth of his believing people, they will be called up in the air to meet with him in the air, and there will be a transfiguring with this glorious body designed after the fashion of Christ's own body, glorious body. That awaits the believers. This is not a make-believe. This is the word of God. This is the truth. This is a glorious hope. And the third strand, why this is so, is the mighty resources of God, who shall change our body of humiliation, that it might be fashioned like unto his glorious body. How is that going to be possible according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself? This is the third component of the Christian hope, as it were. There's the anticipation of the return of Christ. There's the anticipation of this glorious body that was to be given. And then there's this strand, according to his glorious powers. And I was already said, we must allow God to be God. all things, he's bringing all things to a glorious consummation. That consummation was not going to be the day of victory. The day of victory is already past. The day of victory has been there in the cross of Calvary. It belonged in the Roman place of his people. But that day which we speak of as the consummation will be the exhibition, public exhibition, to angels, good and bad, what Christ has done for his people. That day they shall be brought with joy and mirth on every side into the palace of the King, and there they shall abide. This is the prospect. And we must seek grace to be thankful, day by day, that that is the hope that we cherish. We must seek grace to be thankful for the citizenship that belongs to us now in Him. We must remember to seek to live worthy of that citizenship. We must be men and women of prayer. We must be on guard against the enemy of our souls, who would take away from us the joy of that salvation. We must seek to live close to him, come to know him more deeply, as we have been saying already throughout the weekend, and live to his honour. We must turn over in our thoughts again and again this Christian hope, the second coming, and we must seek to have an expectancy of spirit, an expectancy of spirit towards that great day. The best is yet to come for the believers. It's all been purchased, but oh what awaits you in him, let us pray. We pray that the wonder of the wonder of it all would press in upon us more and more, would take captive our thoughts, would take captive our conversations, for they that feared the Lord speak often one to another, and a book of remembrance was opened for them in heaven. We have reason to be great optimists, and we must seek grace that the enemy of our souls would not instill in us that spirit of pessimism and of depression. Oh, help us to lay hold of the resources of the one who is able to save to the uttermost all who come to him. all who come to Him like in Christ. Make us dependent upon the Holy Spirit in His ministry day by day, moment by moment, to keep us in the path of gratitude and thanksgiving. May the enemy of our soul not be allowed to filch from us the sense of wonder, the sense of amazement, of the greatness of the provision of thy sovereign grace. Open our understandings more and more into the amazement of it. Receive us with the pardon of sin again. Amen. I'm going to sing in conclusion in the Psalm 100 to the tune alt hundred, all people that on earth do dwell, sing to the Lord with cheerful voice, himself with mirth's praise foretell, come ye before him and rejoice. The whole psalm, all people that on earth do dwell. Aum. In the light of heaven and earth, sing to the Lord with cheerful voice. His shall endure, his praise for ever. ♪ Look ye before him and rejoice. ♪ ♪ Know that the Lord is Lord indeed. ♪ ♪ Well and the way he did us make. ♪ We are his hope, he loves us dear, And for his sheep he loves us fair. ♪ Who better than this Israel praise ♪ ♪ Come prostrate on his horse and cheer ♪ ♪ His Lord and bless his name always ♪ ♪ All it is simply told to do ♪ ♪ For why the Lord hath called it to ♪ ♪ This message is forever sure ♪ Let us stand to hear the vows. Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship and communion of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, rest on and remain with you. Amen. Well, friends, we have come once again to the end of a communion season. And I was reminded that in the Greek, there are two words for time, one when the time is just a point, and the other for when the time seems to go on in circles in a good way. And I feel that this communion season could well be described as the latter. That while the days have gone past, the richness of the Lord's blessing upon us has indeed been immense. I would like to thank the visiting ministers with us over this communion season. We thanked Mr. MacDonald last evening as he took his leave from us, and we pray the Lord will give him journeying mercies. Now we thank Mr MacLeod who has been with us over these days and had much of the burden of yesterday and labouring under a physical burden as well. We know that the Lord indeed has been good to him and has answered prayer. We have had great encouragement from the visitors from other congregations. On one of the evenings we had the largest number gathered within the building since the pre-Covid days, so we are thankful for that. I'd like to thank the elders for their extra duties, the presenters and the deacons, We do appreciate it very much at a time like this. And to the ladies for the fellowships and for the extra work that they had, for those that provided hospitality and opened their homes for fellowship. But friends, isn't it ultimately, when we come to the end of a communion service, that it is the Lord himself that we give the honour and the praise unto. We always ask the question, perhaps not openly, but in a measure, what think ye? Will he come to the feast? And he has come to the feast, he has come and he has provided with us a feast of good, full and fat things. our souls have been fed and it is to the Lord that we give all of the honour, the praise and the glory and we pray that he will continue with his blessing long after we have departed this place that the spiritual fruit and the spiritual blessing will indeed be evident for many a day and many a year. Thank you.