Well this morning we come to the conclusion of our sermon series in Philippians, one that began all the way back at the end of September last year. And as we have seen is that Philippians is not only a letter that is filled with rich and profound theology, it is a most practical letter for all of life. And in the providence of God, this, as it turns out, has been a perfect book for us to consider in a pandemic. When you go to seminary, there aren't—it would have been a little bit of a South African accent coming out there—there are not many areas of counsel in terms of which books you are to teach during pandemics, etc. But as it has been witnessed, really, as we conclude in the light of what God has done amongst us, this book truly has been fitting for us. God has comforted us. He has exhorted us. He has built us up. He has fed us, He has even corrected us, all through the singular lens that comes through this letter from beginning to end of knowing Christ. As we look this morning at the last four verses of this letter, we find that there are three emphases that come through, and each one of them goes back, ties back to something more basic, like three flowers that are found in the same garden or three bags that hang on a single hook. What we have in our text are three truths that arise from who we are in Christ. That being glory, greetings, and grace, which flow from us being saints in Christ. Glory, greetings, and grace, which flow from us being saints in Christ. And so structurally, if we're looking at the sermon this morning, we are going to spend the bulk of our time in what is foundational to these three things of glory, greetings, and grace, and that being the church being seen as saints in Christ. This is something of an odd descriptor today for many. When we talk about the church as saints in Christ, though it was not odd in Paul's day. If someone came up to you in the row, in the street, or if you had a coffee shop and they asked you, are you a saint? You might be a little unsure of how to answer that question. You might be caught off guard. You might ask them, what in fact do you mean? You might even wonder in the back of your mind, is this a trick question? At first, you might even be tempted to blurt out, absolutely not. I am a sinner in need of God's grace. The word saint carries today a sense that is quite foreign to Paul's day and to the biblical text. If you read in the newspaper of someone being a saint, it's typically a reference to a person who's been canonized by the Pope. To be declared a saint, as was recently pronounced in 2019 of John Henry Newman, involves a many-stepped process. First, the man or woman needs to have been dead for at least five years. And second, there needs to be an extensive consideration of their life, of their teachings, of their prayer, how they prayed. And if they had lived a sufficiently holy life, then they would be called a servant of God. That was the second step in this many-stepped process. The third step in the process is the candidate for sainthood would receive the title of venerable if they had lived a life of heroic virtue, for they could either have been someone who was a martyr, or their life was just simply filled as being virtuous. If they were not a martyr and their life was filled with great virtue, they would need to have a miracle being ascribed to them in the light of their prayers for them to be called venerable. They are still not canonized as saints. Now, two steps remain. If the saint of God was declared to be a martyr, They were seen to be a martyr that was borne witness by the church. They were then declared to be blessed or called blessed. If the venerable servant was not martyred, as I said before, they had to have had a miracle ascribed to them. And then they would also be termed beautified or blessed in terms of the beautific vision. They were highly blessed. And so it permitted them in this stage or this step to be prayed to. They were venerated. They were not yet deemed to be a saint, but you could pray to them and they in turn would then pray to God on behalf of you. Now there is a last step for the blessed in order for them to be canonized as a saint and move from being, we've gone from servant of God to venerable, to blessed, and now on to being a saint is that the The description of a miracle being said of them or done by them would have to be proved that it was as a result of their intercessory prayers. If they prayed to God, God heard their prayer and a miracle was performed on behalf of their prayers. That would be the last step in the process. that would confirm them, such that the Pope could declare them to be a saint in a canonization ceremony, which was an act of the so-called infallible teaching authority of the Pope. And it's in this ceremony, this canonization ceremony, that this person, John Henry Newman, is now declared to be a saint of God. And as a saint of God, they are now to be in heaven. That's where they are. In other words, they are in a distinctly different place to the majority of other Catholics who have a slow road to heaven by way of purgatory. Now another thing that's interesting to note is just in the last four years the Pope has given another route, another option in which men and women could become saints. Pope Francis announced that the new pathway to sainthood is for those who freely and voluntarily offer their life to others in the face of certain or soon-to-come death, quote-unquote, as when someone takes the place of another who was to be killed. or to be condemned, there would be a kind of substantary role that would take place that would be fitting here, or when a pregnant mother refuses medical treatment for herself so that her baby might be born alive. Well, today, there are currently about 2,000 candidates in the Roman Catholic Church or that the Roman Catholic Church is considering for sainthood. And so when you ask the question, are you a saint? You might want to first check your pulse to see if you are in fact alive. Hopefully we would all emphatically say, no, I am still alive. But in another sense, is this in fact what Paul is getting at when he talks about the saints? See, in verse 21 of our text, Paul says, greet every saint in Christ Jesus. Did the Philippian church have access to heavenly saints in their prayers by which they greeted them? Is that what was in view of Paul's thought here? Another thing is this, is are these saints really more closely united to Christ than the rest of us? That's the teaching in the Roman Catholic Church concerning sainthood, is that they are more close to Christ than the rest of us. Is that what the biblical text, in fact, teaches? And so what we find in the system of sainthood, this many tiered or multi-stepped system of sainthood, is that there ends up being a kind of multi or a hierarchy of believers within the church. Well, if we have another look at the very next verse, verse 22, we find that Paul refers to saints again. He says, all the saints greet you. Now listen to the qualification. All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar's household. That's the believers who are in Caesar's household who are alive. What we find is that multi-stepped process towards attaining sainthood is fundamentally at odds with what we find is the teaching, normative teaching of scripture. And it has undermined the biblical teaching of the church. Paul says that you and I are to affirm. We might remember back as we go back to the very first sermon as we consider the opening text of this letter. Paul begins his letter to the Philippians as follows. He says, Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi with the overseers and deacons to all the saints. That's who the letter is addressed to. It's clear that he's writing to the living and not the dead. Every believer in the church in Philippi is a saint, not merely elders or deacons. Or what we could actually do and or could say to keep in step with the emphasis that Paul is saying. All believers in the Philippi are saints, including the elders and the deacons. Paul is not referring to a subset of believers when he says, greet every saint in Christ Jesus, as if he's referring to greeting those canonized saints in heaven through your prayers. Friends, this is life changing truth. And this life changing truth cannot be lost. See, what Paul is indicating here is the primary mark of our identity is this. If you are in Christ, you are a saint in Christ. This is seen throughout the Bible, both the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, the Old Testament, the New Testament. The people of God are referred to as saints of God. And most of these references throughout the Bible are to those who are alive. Saints are not those who are crafted into statues on church buildings, portrayed in stained glass windows. They are those who trust in the promises of God. Those who have been born again by the Spirit of God, those who have been made holy by the work of God in Him applying the benefits of Christ's life, His death, and His resurrection to us in the here and now. This changes everything. Listen to a few verses. Psalm 30, sing praise to the Lord. O you His saints, And give thanks to His holy name. Psalm 97, O you who love the Lord, hate evil. He preserves the lives of His saints. Remember in Acts, Acts chapter 26, where Ananias, he speaks to the Lord, actually this is early Acts 9, Ananias is speaking to the Lord concerning how much evil Paul had done to God's saints at Jerusalem. at God's people, His church. What was taking place? Paul was not persecuting canonized saints up in heaven. He was persecuting the church of the living God in Jerusalem. Paul himself later on says in Acts 26, as he stands before a gripper, and he says the following, he says, not only did I lock up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from their chief priests, When they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. See, to be a saint is to be a holy one before God. Someone who has been set apart unto God, having been consecrated to God by the saving work of Christ and the Holy Spirit. See, what we find in our text, if we walk away with one thing this morning, is that the identity, our identity in Christ is that of being a saint in Christ. It's who we are. You see, outside of Christ, you have no access to the benefits of Christ, to all that he's purchased. and His death and His resurrection. Outside of Christ, you are still lost in your sins. Outside of Christ, you are called unholy. You are under His condemnation, under God's judgments. But in Christ, Everything has changed. And this is the wonder of the gospel. It's why it's good news, why it's absolutely remarkable. Your identity has changed. Let's just pause for a moment as if we personally stopped and thought about this. When you look at yourself and you look at what you've done, things that you wrestle with, your own weaknesses, your own sins, your struggles, your failings. You might be tempted to say, there is no way in all the earth that I am a saint. And you're exactly right. Being a saint is not about your performance. Being a saint It's not about what you have done, though God certainly calls you to follow Christ and to obey the law. See, this is one of the most egregious aspects of this Roman Catholic claim concerning sainthood, is that not only is this notion of sainthood not found in Scripture, but the focus is upon the goodness and the holiness of the person not upon Christ. It draws away from the wonder of who Christ is and what he has done for sinners such as us. And so it's not surprising that instead of stressing the biblical teaching that we need to pray to Christ in our time of need, that they advocate rather to pray to a canonized saint who on our behalf will pray to God. But scripture is so clear that Christ alone is our mediator to the Father. Christ alone should be the one who consumes us and our passion so that we can echo together with Paul, to live is Christ and to die is to gain Christ. You see, being a saint is not foundationally about your or my goodness. It is not based upon performance. It is based upon Christ's performance. The issue is whether or not you are in him. If you are in him, you are a saint in Christ. If you are not in Christ, you are not a saint of God. See, on the opposite end of the spectrum, there's some who say that when I look at myself in the proverbial mirror, Our reaction is that I'm not that bad. In fact, I'm mighty fine. If I can just for a moment dare to remove those rose tinted glasses and to simply say that without Christ. Like I once was, you are wretched, lost in sin. Blinded by darkness. deceived by the serpent, and in desperate need of knowing the magnificence, the holiness, and the astonishing perfection of who our God is. You see, our English language and my speaking, my limited speech just does not do justice to the magnificence of who our God is, of how great he is. He just is not like us. He is not a better version of us. He is not just slightly better or bigger or more holy. And the reason why we are like that at times when we think I'm not that bad, is because we have not seen the absolute brilliance and otherworldly beauty and holiness of our God. And so we don't see with clarity the demands of the law and we diminish the seriousness of sin. And when we are mired by sin, God does not seem so wonderful or so near. At times, we as the church can forget what it means to be in Christ. When you are in Christ, you are no longer far off from God. You are no longer alienated from Him. You know, having once been clothed in unrighteousness, in filthy rags, you are now clothed in the righteousness of Christ, and you have a new standing before God. Because you are in Christ, you are holy. You are a saint in Christ. And this is because when God looks at you, if you are in Christ, what does he see? He sees the very righteousness of Christ. The judgment that should have fallen upon you has fallen upon him. because Christ took your sin upon himself and became your substitutes if you are in Christ. Remember Paul, Paul as a believer He sees himself as the foremost of sinners, the worst of sinners, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Yet simultaneously, he knew that being in Christ, he was a saint. He was washed by the blood of the Lamb. He was made a new creation by the Holy Spirit. And being a saint had to do with whether or not Paul was in Christ. Once he persecuted the saints, then, by God's grace, God called him to become a saint in Christ. To be a saint simply brings this into view. Are you in Christ or are you in Adam? It's not anything to do with whether you have a heroically virtuous life or whether or not you have performed a miracle or God has performed a miracle through your prayer. Do you know this, that this term saint is the most common title that is said of believers in all the New Testament? Not only is this title used more frequently than any other title in the New Testament, but the title is used from Matthew's gospel all the way through into Revelation. And yet in our modern parlance, the title of saint has been replaced by the title of Christian. Christian is used just three times in the New Testament. The word believer is used just 15 times. But the word saint, or to all the church the term saints, is used more than 60 times in the New Testament. Friends, your identity is not first and foremostly based upon your experiences or your childhood memories, whether they were traumatic or wonderful. Your identity is not found whether or not you have, depends upon the size of your financial portfolio or your status in life. There is nothing better than knowing Christ. and having your identity rooted in the reality that you are in Christ. That you can say, by the grace, kindness, and mercy of God, that I am in Christ, and as such, I am a saint, made holy, set apart unto God. This is not a work of my own, but it is a work of God. Yes, like Paul, we wrestle daily with indwelling sin, which, as the Hebrew author says, it clings so closely. But we are not the sum total of our experiences. God has miraculously broken in the God who gives life to the dead and who calls things that are not as though they are. The psychology of our age will simply say that you are the sum total of all that you have been, all that you are, and all that you desire. Dear friends, we have a miraculous God who breaks into our life, that even into the midst of that, He turns an identity and He founds it upon Christ. And he says, wretched sinner, enemy of God, I call you to myself and I call you a son and I make you a saint. You know that in Romans chapter one in verse eight or verse seven, Paul says the following, he says to all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints or called as saints. when Paul writes this language is helping us understand how it is that we become saints of God. They are called as saints. It emphasizes the effective call of God. In other words, when the gospel is preached, it goes out to many, and many hear the wonder of the gospel, of what it is that Christ has done. But it's a general call for all to believe. But there is a specific or a particular call that God in the midst of all of that speaks, and it's effectual. It's an effectual call. And in calling them to Himself, what takes place, He calls them as saints. It's the work of regeneration. It's the work of the Holy Spirit. To be born again from above by the Spirit is to be made new. Your identity is miraculously transformed and you are made a saint. You see, one of the things we must grasp as we see this text in Romans 1 is that salvation does not begin with an existential crisis in which you or I are awakened from our slumbers and thus we cry out to God, but it begins with God who calls us. And in calling us, he works faith in us to believe. We respond in faith. as the one who raises the dead, just as Jesus called out to dead man Lazarus. And in his effectual call, in his miraculous working of the power of the Holy Spirit who calls the dead unto life, Jesus calls out to Lazarus and he says, come forth. And Lazarus arose, believing in new life and was a new man. In Romans chapter 8 we read that God predestines from eternity men and women unto salvation. He also calls them. Those He predestines He also called. Those He called He also justified. Those He justified He also glorified. You see, what we see in this text in Romans chapter 8 is that what starts out in eternity is made actual in the present by God's effective call in your heart and mine. And in that place we are declared to be saints. Now, I've got to bring this to a close. I told us that we had three hooks that hung, or three rings that hung on a hook. And very briefly, I want to consider glory, greeting, and grace, which overflow from our identity in Christ. You see, to give glory to God the Father forever and ever is our first ring. To greet the saints in Philippi and to have the saints who are with Paul send their greetings to the church in Philippi is our second ring. and to receive the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in the benediction of Paul, for their walk is our third ring. All of these being normative expressions of what it means to be a believer, to be a saint. See, a non-Christian doesn't glorify God. He has no interest in that. They also do not know God is Father. They do not cry out by the Holy Spirit working within their soul, Abba, Father. They do not send heartfelt expressions of love to the church as if they were united in one body, one people, one household. They are not enlivened by the grace of God and able to walk with the supernatural aid of the Holy Spirit, knowing the comforting and the quickening work in the benediction of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirits. They know not these things. You might be here this morning. And deep within you, there's a growing hunger to know Christ. Feel something of a stirring within? It's as if God is working within your soul. I exhort you to cry out to God, to call upon his name. As the Bible says, is that you will be saved. Glory, greetings, and grace are marks of saints. Yes, it's true that only those who persevere to the end are called saints of God. Whoa, what did we just do there? What does scripture say? Only those who persevere to the end will be called saints of God. Yeah, that's true. Because more basically, saints who are in Christ persevere to the end. Depends where you look from. Saints who are in Christ Jesus, who are united to Christ, born again by the Holy Spirit, will persevere to the end. And if you look from the end, only those who persevere to the end are those who are called saints. Those who are called saints will persevere to the end. Dear brothers and sisters, why? Because God is at work within us. As we saw earlier in the letter, to be a saint is not to be passive or to be quiet in your faith, the so-called let go and let God. Remember, we covered the false teaching of quietism. You and I are to work out our faith with fear and trembling and the power of God, who is at work in you. And thus, in Him working in you, He will keep you from falling into the other era, and that being of legalism and self-efforts. And so what are some of the fruits of those who are saints in God, those who will persevere to the end? What are some of the evidences of a true and a lively faith? Well, part of that are these three things, glory, greetings, and grace. that with all of our hearts, with all of our mind, with all of our strength, we will give glory to our God and our Father forever. You and I will greet the saints with deep affection in our soul as those who are one in God. God the Father. And as saints, we will live out our calling in the light of God's grace, that supernatural work of the Spirit of God, which enables you and I to forgive when it feels like it's just too painful, to rise up when it's too hard, to hold on when it feels like we can't, and to be quickened when nothing else in all the world seems like enough. That is what the grace of God does, the enabling supernatural working of the Holy Spirit in your life and mine. And how is it, and what is it, that we need more than anything? How could we script Paul's letter, if it was left up to us, what would be the best thing for him to say to us? As he said to the church in Philippi, it would be exactly how he ended. Saints of God, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirits. Let's pray.