Live in Harmony in the Lord

All right, so we are beginning Philippians chapter 4. We're going to be looking at verses 1 through 3 this morning. And so it's a little bit of a change, turning of a corner here, although we'll see that verse 1 really ties over from chapter 3. But let's go ahead and read verses 1 through 3 here, reading out of the New American Standard.

Paul writes, Therefore, my beloved brethren, whom I long to see, my joy and crown in this way stand firm in the Lord, my beloved. I urge you, Odea, and I urge Suntouke, to live in harmony in the Lord. Indeed, true companion, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel together with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the Book of Life. So, we get some fun names there.

You know, sad to slow down and pause to work on that pronunciation. We won't get too far into the weeds on that Greek there. I did a little bit of work on the Greek translation of the first phrase in verse 1. We'll look at verse 1 first here. And just to reflect a little bit more of a direct translation from the Greek, the NASB says, Therefore, my beloved brethren, whom I long to see, my joy and crown.

To be a little bit more direct, we could say something to the effect of, So then, my beloved and longed for brethren. Beloved and longed for are both individual words in the Greek, and they're both adjectives that modify brethren. So, this is a little bit closer probably to the Greek, my beloved and longed-for brethren. And some translations reflect that as well. But since I work on the NASB, I'm just kind of modifying what they have here. And then Paul refers to his beloved, longed-for brethren as my joy and crown. And then it completes that sentence, in this way stand firm in the Lord, beloved ones. So we want to ask the question, in what way?

And I think that, like I said, verse 1 really ties over. While we could say it should belong with chapter 3, we remember that the chapter breaks aren't inspired. So it all belongs together. But we just want to make sure that we understand how this connects with chapter 3. And so when we ask the question, in what way do we stand firm? Then I think we could say it's in the way that Paul has just finished describing in chapter 3. So let's look at that. We'll look at this phrase first, even though it's the end of verse one. We're going to look at it first because it's what ties back to the content in chapter three. So this will sort of serve as review.

So the words stand firm come from a single Greek word, stēko, stēko. And maybe that actually helps us remember the English because it kind of sounds like our word stay, you know, stay put. stand firm. So the complete Word Study Dictionary says that stako means to be constant. And it also says there that it is a synonym with the Greek word meno, which means to abide or remain. So it sort of has the effect of saying stay put. Don't step off this ground, is maybe a way that we could express it. And so what ground is that? If we're to stay put or be constant in something or abide or remain somewhere, where is that? And I think it has to do with our citizenship that Paul just made reference to in 3 verse 20. We have a heavenly citizenship in Christ Jesus.

So, Paul's been exhorting the Philippians to walk on the basis of their heavenly citizenship. Throughout chapter 3, he's been contrasting the legalist with the spirit-dependent believer. And we could say the legalist seeks to establish his own standing before God on the basis of self-effort, while the dependent believer seeks or sees that His works can't earn a standing before the Father, and so he depends entirely on the life of Christ as his life.

And Paul lives that. Paul says that if anyone has reason to put confidence in the flesh, I far more. But he came to count all of that self-righteousness as rubbish. And so now Paul looks to the life of Christ alone as that which is pleasing to the Father.

He says, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And that's the ground that we must not move off of. We must never move off of the ground of Christ and who He is, and Him as our life. So, that I believe is what Paul is referring to here when he says, in this way, stand firm in the Lord. In a way that he's just finished describing in chapter 3. dependence on Christ.

Say Miles? Yes. When I looked at this I had to decide whether we were talking about what he was talking about in chapter 3 or possibly in this way what he's going to say in verses 4 through 8. Yeah. Actually verses 4 through 8 is almost a repetition of what he said in chapter 3. Yeah, I think you're right, Bob. Yeah, I agree. I agree with that.

And parallel to that, back in John 15, Jesus says that he is the vine. And my father is a vine dresser. And then down in verse four, he says, Be at home in me or abide in me. You can't do anything apart from name. This is a parallel thought there. Yeah, absolutely. That's the ground on which we stand. Our union is Christ. We have to abide in Him in order to have any sort of production in our lives that is of any value to the Father. It has to be Christ's life. Absolutely.

This is where I would refer to Jay Byrne. Therefore, what's it there for, right? You can look forward, but it tends to be conclusive, I think. You have to look back. Either way, I think. Yeah, that's true. He does begin the verse with, therefore, my beloved brethren. And to Bob Wolford's point, you know, the in this way stand firm or so stand firm.

I mean, he's not, what he says in chapter four isn't disjointed from what he's just finished saying in chapter three. I think it's all very much tied together. He repeats many of the same things or kind of summarizes them in his closing chapter here. in chapter 4. But yeah, it all has to do with our standing in Christ Jesus, our position in Christ Jesus.

I wonder also if this isn't his focus in this letter, the concern for harmony in the church there. He was voicing about them and their love for him and care for him. but he noticed there's some problem among the ladies. And he's concerned about it, but he's so tactful. He doesn't get to it until here. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. It's kind of, we'll comment on that a little bit, the tact required in getting between Two women have a disagreement.

So I think that Paul describes this heavenly ground in Romans 5 verse 1. And he calls it there the grace in which we stand. And let's just read those verses 1 and 2. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we exult in hope of the glory of God. So we stand on the same ground before the Father as Jesus Christ Himself holds. That is a tremendously mind-blowing reality. That's our ground. The ground that we have is the ground that Jesus Christ holds. And that's a very gracious thing that the Father has done.

And the Christian walk that Paul has been talking about through Chapter 3 and continuing on is really nothing but holding that ground by faith. So there's no effort or striving involved in terms of work. When we talk about standing our ground or holding ground, it's not a matter of striving or work. In fact, in Philippians 3, verses 13 to 14, Paul has talked about reaching forward and pressing on toward the goal for the prize. And sometimes you'll hear believers, as you're kind of getting into that conversation, that discussion about works and faith and so forth, people often go to a verse like this, or usually it's kind of more of a vague sort of summary of Paul, some of Paul's teaching, where he'll use expressions like this, you know, I press on. But this is not an activity of works, this is an activity of faith. And so faith is the means by which we live the Christian life. And that's what it means to stand firm in the Lord, simply holding still by faith in our position.

So, just some comments on that. And actually, as I was working on this, Alyssa was going through some things she had done last year with the kids, and she'd done some work in Philippians with the kids, actually went through the whole book of Philippians last year, and just went through verse by verse, and used a little chart that they'd pull out the key words and look them up, you know, the Greek definition, define them, and then kind of do a basic translation of it. And this was Alyssa's translation of this phrase. And she says, keep your standing in the Lord, dearly beloved. And I think that was really right on. Just keep your standing. Keep the standing that you have. We have a standing. That's a permanent possession by grace. And we abide in our possession or we keep it or cling to it by faith. So that's the operative in there is faith.

So, yeah. So importantly, focus is on position. It's exactly right, yeah. Yeah, it really is. It really is all about position, you know. And just learning to abide there, really. Focus on your condition, not your position, and ultimately your life becomes self-righteous. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Absolutely.

So now let's jump back and look at the first part. Sorry, I forgot to put that up. Let's look at the first part of verse 1 now. So then, my beloved and longed for brethren, my joy and crown. And Paul uses here these four terms to describe the Philippian believers, like we said, beloved and longed for. are adjectives, joy and crown are nouns.

And both of these pairs, in English you can see the word and, in Greek it's the word kai, which means and or even. But the grammar here indicates that these words are synonyms. So using synonyms is a powerful way to express meaning that neither of the words can really convey left on their own. So synonyms kind of have an interesting job of both clarifying and giving emphasis. And of course we know they're very common in the Hebrew writing style, and of course Paul was Jewish, and so he'd been raised his whole life on synonyms and parallelisms, and so he uses them here very effectively. So just looking at Beloved and Longed For, These words show us Paul's feeling towards the Philippian believers. And as I said, they're adjectives, so they describe the brethren. And they describe them as those who are beloved and longed for by Paul. So, beloved is the word agapetos, which of course sounds familiar and comes from the root word agape. And this is just the adjective form of the word agape. So, this is beloved.

And then longfor is epipathetos and it's the adjectival form of the verb that we've seen twice in in Philippians already in 1 verse 8 and in 2 verse 26. So here we have the verb and Paul wrote, For God is my witness how I long for you with all the affection of Christ Jesus. So we just want to see that because Paul's repeating himself here. He's already told them he longs for them all with the affection of Christ Jesus and now here he's just referring to them as his beloved and longed for brethren. So it's a really repetition. He also used the word with Epaphroditus in 226 because Epaphroditus was longing for you all and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick. So longing is is used in context where physical separation between believers is in view.

Sometimes, like we saw, the idea is translated as, I long to see you. Depending on your translation, here in 4.1, you may have that. But the desire, or the idea, is a desire to be present with our loved ones in Christ. So, because we love them, we desire to be with them. And we know what that's like, to be at a distance, and to desire to be close and be present with one another.

You know, there's this interesting thing in Paul he talks about, you know, when you're gathered together and I'm with you in spirit. I've kind of puzzled over that a lot. I don't really have the answer to exactly what Paul means by that except that, you know, in Christ we are one.

In Christ we have an eternal union. And so there's a sense in which we can never be separated. But there's also a sense in which there's a physical distance between us as believers at times, and so we long to be close. And I think that's one of the things that would be resolved, perhaps, is the way to say that, in eternity, is that we will never be separated.

This wasn't in my notes, actually. We were doing some cleaning in the office, but yesterday we came across the first love letter that Alyssa ever sent to me. And we kind of had a funny story in that we met I asked her if she would go out with me, date, whatever it was, and then I had to leave for a two-month trip on the road, and so in the letter she said, you know, it's hard to say goodbye and looking forward to the day when we won't have to say goodbye, and that kind of became a theme of our entire engagement, you know, soon there will be a day when we don't have to say goodbye. And that's kind of the way it is for believers, is that someday there will be a day when we don't have to say goodbye. So, I think that's kind of what Paul has in mind here. Longs to be with them. So, So then Paul uses the nouns joy and crown to tell us what the Philippians are to him. Because these are nouns. I'm not a real grammarian. I asked my 14-year-old, I said, is this what you call a predicate nominative? And he said, yeah, I think it is. So he knows better than me.

But kind of renaming the beloved brethren using a noun, my joy and crown. So my joy is hurrah from Cairo, which is to rejoice. So pretty simple. And Paul keeps using this this word and this letter. He keeps saying, rejoice in the Lord. I'll say it again, rejoice. And so this is a real theme of the letter to the Philippians.

And then we have the word crown, or stephanos. And we don't want to think of this maybe as the thing that a king wears. This is the laurel wreath worn on the head. And it had many uses in the Roman culture. And Stephanos carried the idea of something in which a person may glory. So, two ways in which we see... I think this came from the Complete Word Study Dictionary.

The first usage is, as the prize conferred on victors in public games and elsewhere, a wreath, and the use, too, is figuratively, an ornament, honor, glory, that in which one may glory. So you can see how a word like that, you know, the trophy awarded to a victorious competitor becomes something in which they glory. You know, we put our trophies up on our shelves, right? And we glory in them, as earthly as that may be. But, you know, the use of the word figuratively is something in which we glory, an ornament or an honor.

So Paul talks about this actually in 1 Thessalonians 2 verses 17 through 20. And I think this is actually quite parallel. So he says there, but we brethren haven't been taken away from you for a short while. Notice the same theme actually. He's talking about this distance between and the longing to be together. And notice again what you're saying, in person not in spirit. That's what I was referring to earlier. Paul has this interesting concept that I don't entirely understand. They're separate in person but not in spirit. We're all the more eager with great desire to see your face. For we wanted to come to you, I Paul, more than once, and yet Satan hindered us.

For who is our hope or joy or crown of exaltation? He modifies crown there with that word exaltation, so our crown of glory and crown of exaltation. Is it not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming? For you are our glory and joy. So actually quite parallel to the verses we're looking at. And so, notice as well how clearly Paul has in view the coming of the Lord Jesus right at the end there. And we need to be reminded that the coming of Christ is also in our immediate context here in Philippians. Just back in 3 verse 20, where Paul says, "...for our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ."

So there's a connection between the coming of Christ for the Church and Paul's Stephanos crown. And Zodias makes a very good comment on this Thessalonians passage which helps us understand the historical context. I struggled with this a little bit at first. I found this comment really helped to illustrate what Paul was saying.

Oh, sorry, there's the verse from Philippians 3.20. But here's the quote from the Word-State Dictionary.

He says, Here Paul has in mind a custom of cities preparing wreaths of various material olive, ivy, oak, beaten gold, in anticipation of the arrival of high-ranking dignitaries. These wreaths were either worn on the body and clothing or strewn about the streets. They were emblems of joy and expressions of devotion given by the people to the visiting official. As such, the Thessalonian converts are analogous to these wreaths and represent not what Christ will give to Paul, but what Paul will offer to Christ in joyous tribute to him at his return.

That really helps me a lot. You know, especially when he says, not what Christ will give to Paul. Not a trophy for Paul's hard work, so to speak, but something that Paul can offer up to Christ, if that makes sense. Because I think when we hear Stephanos and we know the fact that it was a reward given to an athlete for competing, and we kind of get this idea that while Paul's working hard to gain something, a trophy that he can put on his shelf, But the reality here is that Paul is preparing for the return of our Savior, Jesus Christ, like the anticipation of the arrival of a high-ranking dignitary, and he is weaving his crown, so to speak. He's twisting together these this ivy or this oak, and he's preparing something that he can present to Christ as as a glory.

And Paul viewed his converts very clearly as those whom he would one day present to Christ. In 2 Corinthians 11 verse 12, Paul says, For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy, for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. So those whom Paul led to Christ were the fruits of the gospel of grace. The thought of one day presenting these believers to Christ as Christ's bride brought Paul tremendous joy, and he really anticipated that day. He really eagerly looked forward to that.

But it won't be a celebration of what Paul had done. It will be a testament to the power of the cross. It'll glorify Christ for what he has done through Paul as a vessel. Now does that kind of make sense why Paul could present this to Jesus not as a trophy on Paul's shelf but as something that glorified Christ because everything that Christ did, everything that Paul did, was the life of Christ through him.

It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives through me. Not to say that Paul is perfect in his walk, but just saying that the things that will remain, the things that will be a glorious wreath at Christ's coming, are the things that Christ did through Paul.

So, yes, please. Just a parallel thought to that. He has asked us to walk in the works that he has prepared for us to walk in. Yeah. It's what God prepared Paul to do. And so, you know, it's in the Revelation too, that they throw their crowns before the Lord. Yeah. It's that idea in parallel, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, I was thinking that too. So, that's great, Roy. So, let's look at a question here. What made the Philippians the joy and crown of Paul? Was it the stellar behavior of the Philippians, or their good works, or their religious observances?

No. It was the fact that they are the bride of Christ. They are those purchased by the blood of Christ, washed with the pure water of his word, and they are the product of pure grace. The church is more precious to Christ than anything else, and Paul took great delight in the Philippians as such. Paul delighted in them because Christ delights in them. And that's why Paul uses the word beloved for these believers twice in this verse. Paul sees them as Christ sees them. So they're Christ's beloved, therefore they're also Paul's beloved.

And G. Verne McGee is beloved. If you listen to him, right? Yeah, sorry. Yeah, we do. I was just thinking that that's the way we should see our brothers and sisters in Christ. It is. they have some wrinkles here and there maybe or we have some wrinkles and you know we have issues maybe one with another but the bottom line is we're all saved by God's grace and it's marvelous to see God's work in a group of people and you see that that's such a small and in today's world it seems there's a small number of people that that is and we're so thankful that they're we can be part of them so yeah yeah that's that's for sure Beautiful thing. Well, let's try to finish up, see here, verse 2. Paul seems, it seems to be kind of an abrupt jump here to dealing with this cat fight. But it is connected. And so, let's ask ourselves this question here.

Understanding that we are talking about the Beloved Bride of Christ, which will be presented to Him at His return, how does that help us, how does that help set up our understanding of verse 2? So, like we've been talking about for the last few minutes here, understanding the church as the pure and spotless bride of Christ, how does that shape our thinking about petty squabbles that take place in the church? Now, trust me, if you're in the middle of a petty squabble, it doesn't seem petty to you at all, right? It's the most important thing happening right now. But in light of the relationship that we have to one another, is there really room for these kinds of squabbles, right? So looking at the... I think I got out of order there. Let's see. Let's do it like that.

Looking at the Greek words in verse 2, the words live in harmony are literally the same thing to think. So a lot of translations actually render this be of the same mind, which is a little bit abstract to me, be of the same mind. But we could maybe say something like to get on the same page. And what is the same page for us as believers? It's not just having the same doctrinal creed or having the same ideas about church organization or something like that.

It's having the mind of Christ. The mindset or attitude of humility. And that goes all the way back to Philippians 2, 2-5 that we've studied before. where Paul says, there, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose, do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves. You don't merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourself, which was also in Christ Jesus.

And of course he goes on. I didn't know how much of that to include. I wish I could just kind of keep reading that portion. But it's not sourced in us. This is the mind of Christ. It's about who He is. And in a body where others are thought of as more important than ourselves, there isn't going to be a lot of conflict. There may still be discipline and correction on certain things, but it's going to be carried out in humility and love.

Now, let's see about verse 3 here, where Paul says, Indeed, true companion, I ask you to help these women who have shared my struggle and the cause of the gospel." So this is a personal exhortation to help these two women, Euodia and Syntyche. Now, we could ask the question, who is Paul's true companion or yoke-fellow?

And the word there for yoke-fellow is syzygos. Now, it seems that several of the good Greek scholars, including Kenneth Wiest, lean towards this actually being the proper name for an individual, one of the believers at Philippi. And Weiss says that, here's his quote, he says there was a practice among first century Greeks at their Christian baptism to discard their pagan name and be given a new name, descriptive of their new characters in Christ. And so this could be that someone took the name Suzugas or Yokefellow.

Now that wasn't my first thought. When I first read this, I thought, well, I think Paul is just using a general term so that any believer at Philippi could kind of pick this up. Well, I'm Paul's yoke fellow, and I can help these women. However, kind of on reflecting a little bit more on this, I thought it might not be too helpful to have everybody in the local church attempting to get in the middle of Euodia and Syntyche, right? I don't know how well that would go. Now, John Wolvard actually had an interesting comment on this.

He believes that the Yolk Fellow was actually Epaphroditus, who was the person who was bearing the letter to Philippi. And his point was that the only person who would know who the Yolk Fellow was without any ambiguity would be Epaphroditus, because Paul would have told him. Paul would have said, Epaphroditus, one of the things I want you to do when you get there is to deal with these women. And why would he then embed it in the letter? So that Euodia and Syntyche actually knew that Paul had sent Epaphroditus for that job. That could be as well. But in any case, it does seem likely that Paul is handpicking a particular man who he knows to have the required sensitivity and tact to help these women without escalating things.

Well, we'll just comment here on this phrase who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel together with Clement, also and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life. And Paul here, he's talking about these two women who have shared my struggle. So he wants to comment on the fact that both of these women have labored alongside him in the work of the gospel. He doesn't tell us exactly how that was done and in what way that was, but they did labor with him in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of the fellow workers. And I just thought it's important for us to realize that the work of the Gospel is indeed work. Paul is often talking about his labor, and he had many believers who had joined with him in that work.

In chapter 1, actually, Philippians 1.22, Paul said that he felt torn between going home to be with Christ or staying here to labor, where he says, if I'm to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me. And this also implies that that labor is over the moment that Paul goes home. But we want to see here that Paul expected his labor to be fruitful. And the picture here is really of a farmer. A farmer who labors over his crop all summer. And he doesn't just do it for the fun of it. He labors with the goal of seeing some fruit.

And while that's all true, we have to be careful to understand two keys to Paul's gospel labor. And we can answer two questions. One, what was the fruit that Paul was aiming at? And two, what was the source of Paul's work? Or was it really his work? We kind of talked about that already a little bit this morning.

I think we find the answer to both of those questions actually in Colossians 1 verses 28 and 29. Paul says, for this purpose also I labor. And what purpose is that? Well, that's verse 28. That we may present every man complete in Christ. That's Paul's goal.

That's the fruit that he's looking for in his labor, to present every man complete in Christ. It's not just getting people saved, though birth is necessary. It's not just getting people to participate in Christian behavior, because that can be done completely out of the flesh. Paul wanted believers to be brought to maturity and notice that he says complete in Christ. That's the necessary element if Paul's labor is going to bear the fruit that he's looking for. So believers must be coming to count on their union with Christ, their death to the old man and life in the new man, Jesus Christ.

And so that was Paul's purpose. And what about the source? And as we already said about striving, how did Paul strive? Did he grit his teeth to get it done? No, it was according to his power, which mightily works within me." That's the source of Paul's laboring. So if it was Paul's labor alone, then it would be worthless, because self can only produce the works of the flesh. But if it was Christ working through Paul, then his labor in the Gospel was really Christ's work through Paul. And then the fruit would be Christ's fruit through Paul. So really Paul is just a vessel for the life of Christ. And Christ was the one working through Paul. So that's kind of handling that briefly. Do we have time, Roger you can tell me, do we have time to finish whose names are in the Book of Life? If you do it quick. So let's just answer this briefly. What is the Book of Life?

This is actually not a common term in the New Testament. It shows up through the Old Testament. But the only other places it shows up in the New Testament are in Revelation, actually. And the most helpful reference, I think, is in Revelation 20. verses 11 through 12, which is speaking of the Great White Throne Judgment.

And we won't read all that right now, but we see that there are books opened and there is another book, singular, and that is the Book of Life. And we see in that passage that the dead are judged according to their deeds which are written in the books, not the Book of Life, but in the books that were opened first. And it says that the only thing written in the Book of Life is the names of those who have received life. So these dead, their names are not in the Book of Life. And so there really is only one question when it comes to eternal destiny.

Are you dead or are you alive? Are you separated from God in sin or are you alive to God in His righteousness? And if you're one of the dead people, the walking dead, then you're going to stand before the Great White Throne, and you'll be judged according to your works.

But if you are one of those who has received life on the basis of grace through faith, then your name is eternally in the Book of Life. And so, you know, just one brief kind of concluding thought is that what I should also say is that the names of those in the Book of Life is not just the Church but all of those who are righteous by grace through faith from every dispensation of believers. And this is actually Just in closing, I think an okay question to ask someone who may not be a believer, you know, is your name in the Book of Life?

And just a couple of verses, or sorry, one verse, two translations, 1 John 3, 14, we know that we have passed out of death into life. And Wiest translates that, as for us, we know absolutely that we have passed over permanently out of the death into the life. And that's something that we can know, and every person can know that. They can know with certainty that they have passed from death into life and that their name is in the Book of Life.

And so that's a way you may start a conversation with someone in terms of their eternal destiny. So there we go. Overtime, but I guess there was more there than I thought. So we rushed through the last bit, but that's okay. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that we can know with 100% certainty that we are alive eternally in Christ Jesus.

We share his life. And because of that, we have His righteousness. We have a standing before you that is permanent and unchanging in the heavens. And Lord, we look forward to the day when we will stand there together and there will no longer be any distance between us. And we will side by side behold our risen, glorified Savior, Jesus Christ. It's in His name that we pray. Amen.

Thank you, Miles. That's great. Good job. Thanks, guys. Sorry about cramming through the last little bit there. It's fine. It's always that way. It never seems to change. If you have any other thoughts on it, just give me a call or message. Bob had a thought here. Everybody go back and look at Psalm 69.

I mean, that's the first 28 talks about the Book of Lack of Temptation. Because Paul, I mean, David is reflecting on all the adversaries that are out there. And it's used in context, very much related to the righteous versus the unrighteous. I mean, you can look at it prophetically, but also in context, he's separating the works of the devil and the flesh and the world system versus what David's been called to by faith. So it's interesting to look at.

But that's the old Testament news. Yeah, it's interesting and you'll see in that verse there, he talks about being blotted out of the book of life and I just, I really wouldn't have had time to get into dealing with that, but you'll notice that in the Old Testament. No, that's good, but it's interesting because you will notice that phrase used in the Old Testament, they said he had blotted out of the book of life and you know, and so then that opens up the question of, well, can a person be, you know, can they lose their salvation? That would be one of those Arminius arguments where they might go to.

And I think there is something different in context between what David perhaps has in mind, or whoever that is that wrote that song, and what we have in the New Testament. We have over and over reminders in the New Testament that our salvation, our righteousness, our standing is completely secure and unchangeable. And so because our righteousness is based on an unchanging reality, then, you know, we can't be blotted out of that book of life, because our life is Christ's life, and it's a permanent possession. Amen. Yeah, all right.