Alright brethren, let's turn
to Philippians 4. Our subject is peace which passes
understanding. I come across some old notes.
And this was the first message, first passage I've preached from
in New Jersey was this passage. That was December 10th, 2005. Let's read it together, verse
4. Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. Let
your moderation, that's your patience, your steadfastness,
Your forbearance, let it be known unto all men. The Lord is at
hand. The sovereign, supreme, almighty
Lord is present. He's at hand. Be careful for
nothing. Be troubled. Be anxious for nothing. But in everything, by prayer
and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known
unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth
all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever
things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things
are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue,
if there be any praise, think on these things. Think on these
things. These are all things Paul did. These are all the things he did,
and they saw him do this, and he said, those things which you
both learned and received and heard and seen in me do, and
the God of peace shall be with you. All right, let's look at
this now. First of all, he says in verse
four, rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. Now, believers have lots of troubles
in this world. Our Lord told us that in this
world you shall have tribulation. But our Lord is speaking here
through Paul, just as real as He did when He walked this earth,
and He tells us, Rejoice in the Lord always, even in the trouble. You know, in the Lord, we have
every reason to rejoice. God the Father blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in the Lord in eternity when He chose
us by His grace. When the Spirit of God quickened
us, He quickened us together with Christ in the Lord and made
us to know we're seated there in Him, in the heavenlies. at
God's right hand. He called us into Christ's marvelous
light. And it's in the Lord that we're
complete. It's in the Lord we have our
righteousness. It's in the Lord that His people are just before
God and reconciled to God. And our sovereign Lord's ruling
everything. So we have every reason to rejoice
in the Lord always. When we face trouble, and even
when our heart's breaking, when we're sorrowful, Turn your affection
to Christ above. Turn to Christ above. These things
that we're looking at here, remember Paul said in another place, be
renewed in the spirit of your mind. And these things have to
do with what we have our heart, our affection on, and what we
have our mind on. You turn your affection to Christ. You meditate on what the Lord's
done for you. And you think about all the spiritual
blessings God's given us in Christ. You think on those things. Not
on things below, on those things. And rejoice in the Lord always. David faced trouble all his days.
All his days he faced trouble. But this is what David said in
Psalm 34.1. He said, I will bless the Lord
at all times. I'll bless the Lord at all times.
His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall
make her boast in the Lord." And that's really what rejoicing
in the Lord is. It's boasting in the Lord. Why
not? Isaiah said, I will greatly rejoice
in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my
God, because he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He hath covered me with a robe
of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments,
and a bride adorneth herself with jewels. I've got every reason
to rejoice in the Lord, even when times are bad. That's the
paradox when the Lord said, blessed are they that mourn. Happy are
they that mourn. That's God's people. We're happy
and we mourn. But we'll be comforted by the
Lord. He promised that. Secondly, look here. Verse 5,
let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at
hand. This is the only place the word moderation is used in
the Bible, or the only place it's translated moderation in
the Bible. It doesn't mean temperance in food and drink. That's not
what it means. It means be patient, be forbearing. You know, when they brought that
woman calling adultery to our Lord, He showed moderation in
how He dealt toward her. It means be patient, be steadfast,
trusting Christ, forbearing whatever you have to bear with before
all men. When trouble comes, any type
of trouble comes, that's what usually causes us to lose our
patience. But when any trouble comes, we
have to remember this, brethren, the Lord's ruling it. And not
only is he ruling it, as Paul says here, the Lord is at hand.
It doesn't just mean that he's coming soon, which he is, but
it means he is right here present at all times. That's a common
theme in this writing of Paul's. He said it back there in Philippians
2, the Lord's in your midst. He said it again in Philippians
3, whatever you need revealed, the Lord will reveal it to you.
He's present. And he says it right here, the
Lord's at hand. The Lord's present. That first trip I made up to
New Jersey, I saw an illustration in my notes. The day before I
flew up here, a huge snowstorm hit. And I was flying through
O'Hare Airport in Chicago, and that's the year an airplane,
the day before, an airplane skidded off the runway at O'Hare. And
then the forecast had snow and ice and all that in the forecast
even while I was here and when I was leaving. Now that might
not be a big deal to y'all. Y'all from the north. I'm from
the south. I think you had more snow that time, that trip, than
I'd ever seen in my whole lifetime. Nothing gave me comfort, nothing
kept me knowing everything was well except knowing the Lord's
ruling everything and underneath are His everlasting arms. I can
get on that plane, He's holding it up. And if He wants to bring
me home, He'll bring me home. Whatever comes our way comes
by the hand of our sovereign Savior, whatever it is. Whatever
it is, He's always at hand, He's ever present. Psalm 46.1 says,
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. And we know whatever the trouble,
whatever it is, God's working it for our good. That means,
I made this statement in Danville, that nothing bad is happening
to God's people. Isn't that what the scripture
says? We know that all things work together for good, to them
who are the called, to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to His purpose. That means He's working all things
together for our good, even the things we think are bad. So we've
got every reason to be patient before men, and the Lord's at
hand. William Cowper wrote, him we
all know, He said, God moves in a mysterious way his wonders
to perform. He plants his footstep in the
sea and rides upon the storm. Deep and unfathomable binds of
never failing skill, he treasures up his bright designs and works
his sovereign will. You fearful saints, fresh courage
take. The clouds you so much dread are big with mercy. and shall
break in blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble
sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence,
he hides a smiling face. His purpose will ripen fast,
unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste,
but sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure to err
and scan his work in vain. God's his own interpreter, and
he'll make it plain. Our sovereign God's ruling everything.
You be patient, forbearing, trusting Him. He's at hand. All right,
thirdly, verse six. For this same reason, he says,
be careful for nothing. Be anxious for nothing. That's
tough for us, isn't it? Sinner's got a sin nature in
us, and trouble comes, and we just, it's just, it's just in
you by nature to just get overly anxious. He says, don't be careful. Be careful for nothing. Think
about this, brethren. God gave His only begotten Son.
He gave His only begotten Son for elect, chosen sinners who
God coveted to save from eternity. And our Lord Jesus laid down
His life. He gave His blood to satisfy
His own justice for His people and to make us the righteousness
of God. The Spirit of God came and gave us life, eternal life
in Christ Jesus in regeneration. The Lord said, whoever liveth
and believeth in Me shall never die. He robed us in the righteousness
of Christ. He made us holy, turning us to
the Lord to see. He perfected us and given us
this new heart to see Him and know Him. This is what he did for us. Romans
8.30 says, moreover whom he did foreknow, him he also did predestinate. Whom he predestinated, him he
also called. Whom he called, him he also justified. Whom he justified, him he also
glorified. He did all that for his people.
What shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who
can be against us? Now listen to this. Here's the
cure for our anxious worry over little things that we need in
this world. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him
up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things? How shall he not? He gave his
son, how shall he not meet our need and whatever other little
thing it is we have in this world? Our Lord said, take no thought
for your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink,
for your body, what you shall put on, He said, look at the
fowls of the air. Look at the flowers of the field.
God feeds them. God clothes the flowers. And
He said, in worrying and being anxious over it, you can't change
it. You can't add anything to it.
He said, your Heavenly Father knows you have need of these
things. Your Heavenly Father feeds the wild animal. He clothes the flowers of the
field. Are you not better than they? He feeds the sparrows.
Are you not better than they? Your Heavenly Father knows you
have need of all these things. He knows everything we need.
He says, seek you first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.
These other things will be added to you. He said, take therefore
no thought for tomorrow. Don't you find it just absolutely
useless to get anxious and worrying about things, the day that hasn't
even come yet? And usually the things that we
worry about often don't even happen. We just create worries
for nothing. He said, there's enough for this
day right here. Enough evil in this day. We need
to get through this day. Just trust the Lord today. Did
you see that? The Lord gave His Son. He gave
us everything. He gave us salvation. He'll provide
everything else. Fourthly, look here in our text,
Philippians 4, 6. But here's what to do instead
of being anxious and all of that. He said, But in everything, by
prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests
be made known unto God. In everything. In everything. Whatever the providence that
God has seen. And this works two ways. Whether
it makes you extremely happy, you feel like you've been prospered,
as we would say, I've been blessed, you feel like you've been blessed,
you can fall into a great snare over that. Or whether it's troubling
and you are sad and mourning, or anything in between, in everything,
whatever the providence, thank God for it. You mean thank God
for things that make me Make me weep? Yeah. Yeah. Why? Because it's God's
will. He sent it. Listen, in everything
give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you. Whatever providence God has sent
to you, it's God's will for you. And it's God's will that you
thank Him for it. Even when it causes you bitter tears. That's
right. Just like we thank Him for good
things, we thank Him for the things that we consider bad things,
because the truth is they're not bad things. Oh, they may
be some tragic things that come to pass as far as earthly things
are concerned, but what He's working for you through those
things is not bad at all. For our light affliction, which
is but for a moment, worketh for us, it works for us, a far
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at
things which are seen, but at things which are not seen. For
the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which
are not seen are eternal. Sometimes it takes God's sin
and affliction to turn us from things below, to turn us from
things below. You know, whatever you're trusting
in in this life, and it gives you your peace and your calm
and your, it's little by little all going to be taken away. You
know, if it's temporal things, it slowly, your financial state
will change, those things will one by one be taken away as you
age. Family, one by one, everybody older than you is going to be
taken away. I remember Brother Henry saying,
and Sister Doris saying one time, when they were in their nineties,
they said, we don't have any friends older than us anymore. Everything that we put any confidence
in this world, God's going to take it from us and show us the
only peace we have and the only salvation we have is Christ.
So these things are working for us. That's what He's showing
us in every one of them. So we not only thank God for them,
He says, let your requests be made known to God. Tell God what
you need. Christ shed His blood, He made
us holy and righteous to give us access to God's holiest of
holies, to His throne room, so we can come to God. and ask him,
let your request be made known. That's a whole lot different
from going and making demands. Let your request be known. Go
there and let, he already knows, but he said, I'll have my people
ask me, go there and ask him. Christ came into this world and
he not only reconciled his people to God, he came into this world
so that he's like his brethren without sin, so that he knows
the feeling of our infirmities. And the Hebrew writer said, we've
not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of
our infirmities, but was in all points tipped it like as we are
yet without sin. That means whatever you and me
face, whatever it is, Christ knows it. He was touched with
it. And he did it without sin. Let us therefore come boldly.
Come welcome, knowing you're welcome. Come to his throne of
grace. that we may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in time of need. That's the purpose of these
things, brethren. It's to turn us from everything
that we're trusting in here below and where we're finding our peace
in and all of that, turn us from that and bring us to the Lord
to pour out our heart and thank Him for sending it And this is
what all God's people will do. When you see the good he's worked
in turning you from something in this world that would have
caused you to perish, you'll thank him. And while it's going
on, you come there and you let your request be made known. Now,
in all of these things, brethren, as we turn our affection to Christ
above, all of this is in Christ. You rejoice in Christ alone.
You patiently trust in Christ knowing He's at hand. You're
not anxious because you know He's present. You're thanking
Him for sending whatever painful providence it is. You're letting
your requests be made known to Christ. Do you see how everything
here has turned us to Christ? And this is what Paul says our
Savior will do. This is what He'll do for you.
Verse 7, and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding,
shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. I want
us to get what this means, and this is so important, and I hope
everybody here will listen carefully. This is so important. Without
a doubt, the peace of God is infinite, and it's beyond our
understanding. We see through a glass darkly
right now, but that's not what this means. Even when we cannot
understand what our Lord is doing in providence, even when we're
perplexed we don't understand what He's doing, the peace of
God that He gives in the heart and the mind surpasses our need
to understand what God's doing. You'll have peace without even
having to understand what God does. It'll be peace that passes
you even needing to understand it. It's not God removing the
trouble that gives you peace. If you only have peace if God
removes your trouble from you, you're in danger. You're in danger. Your confidence is in things.
It's not in God. God doesn't have to remove the
providence. He doesn't have to remove the
trouble. God's our peace. Christ is our peace. And He's
able to give you peace in your heart in the midst of the trouble.
And it passes your surpasses your need to even understand
what He's doing. And that settles our heart, it
settles our mind on Christ so that we don't have to understand
all the details. We have peace knowing God's doing
it. God's doing it. Do you think the little ones
here, do you think they understand everything that Ben and Sarah's
doing in the household? They have no clue what all goes
into maintaining that home. But they know who's doing it.
And they're not worried about it. Mom and daddy's got it. Your father, he knows. Our Lord
said, your heavenly father knows what you have need of. He's doing
it. He's doing it. And you know a lot of times when
he sends us something painful, he's doing just what we've asked
him to do. You look up that hymn sometime
about, I asked the Lord to grow me in grace. It almost brought me to despair,
he said. The Lord sent painful providence.
Christ said, peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you,
not as the word gives. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid. He said, these things I've spoken
to you that in me you might have peace. That's where the peace
is. All of this is pointing us to Christ. In the world you'll
have tribulation. Be of good cheer, I've overcome
the world. Being justified by faith, we
have peace with God. There's where the peace is. Fifthly,
think on Christ now. You got your mind set on Christ
and this is what he's been doing. He's been turning us to our Lord
Jesus and what we have in him. Now, and also when you're thinking
about your brethren, Paul's speaking here to these sisters that were
having discord with each other. And he said, now you think on
Christ, and you're going to think on all these things, because
they're all in Christ. And he said, when you think of
your brethren, he said, you think of good things. You think of
the good things Christ has worked in them. He said there in verse
8, Finally brethren, whatsoever things are true, Christ is the
truth. Whatsoever things are honest,
whatsoever things are just, Christ is working all things justly.
Whatsoever things are pure, He's purified His people. He created
a new man in us that's pure. Pure minds, Paul said. Whatsoever
things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report. Now
listen, when you think of your brother or your sister, if there
be any virtue, just any, if there's any in them, if there's any in
you, If there be any praise, you ever heard them praise God?
You ever heard them give all the glory to God? Think on these things. Think
on those things. My grandfather used to sing a
song to me. I didn't know who sung it, I
had to look it up. It's an old, well somebody else sang it a
long time ago, but Bing Crosby used to sing it. And I looked
it up and the songwriter got this from hearing a sermon preached.
He got the chorus, the first line of the chorus from here
in the sermon. Made me wonder if he got it off of this, from
this text, if that was the sermon. But here's the point right here.
This basically sums up what Paul's telling you. You probably know
this old song. You gotta accentuate the positive. Eliminate the negative. Latch
on to the affirmative. And don't mess with mystery in
between. It says, Spread joy up to the maximum. Bring gloom
down to the minimum. Have faith or pandemonium is
liable to walk upon the scene. That's what Paul is saying. Turn
your mind from these things below and your meditation from ruminating
on offenses and things that trouble and look at everything we have
in Christ and what he's done. you know, when we're talking When you're thinking about what
Christ has worked in His people, Paul said, if there's any virtue,
any praise, he said that before in Philippians 2.1, he said,
if there be any consolation in Christ, if there's any comfort
of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bows and mercies
fulfill you, my joy, that you be like-minded, having the same
love, being of one accord in one mind. Grace and mercy. If we know what we are, and we
know what sinners we are, and we see how constantly we need
God's mercy and we need His grace. Grace and mercy are going to
give brethren the benefit of the doubt. We're going to give
brethren the benefit of the doubt. If there's any work of grace
in them, If they glory in the Lord, if they praise the Lord,
if they walk with the Lord for any time and receive one another,
Paul said in Romans 14, without doubting and without disputing. Why? That's somebody Christ died for.
But you just give it the benefit of the doubt that the brother
or sister is somebody Christ died for. And here's why. Because
Christ said, whatever you do to them, you're doing it to me.
So I think it'd be safe to say, I'm going to take for granted
that's one Christ died for. That's one Christ robed in his
righteousness. That's one that's complete in Christ. And if we say, well, I see such
and such and such and such, well, let's just turn that mirror around
and look at ourselves. Do we not see it in ourselves?
But if there's any virtue, it's not a small thing to believe
God. It's not a small thing to persevere in faith. If they've
done that, the Lord did it. And if there's any whatsoever,
instead of speaking critically, let your requests be made known
to God. Thank God for them and ask God's grace upon them. Let
your requests be made known to God. These are the things Paul
did. And he said, what you've heard,
what you've learned, he said, you do it. And here's what he
said will happen. The peace of God, which passes
all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus. He said in verse 9, and the God
of peace shall be with you. You see, the devil wants to disrupt
this peace. He wants to divide you from your
brethren. He's the chief one spoken of
when it says, he that repeateth a matter separates chief for
him. He wants to separate you from Christ, and he wants to
separate brethren from brethren. Don't let him do it. You turn
to the Lord and you let your request be made known to Him.
Ask the Lord to keep you. What do we see Thursday night?
The work of righteousness. This work Christ has accomplished
for us. When you see Him and you know that work of righteousness
is finished and you've been made righteous in Him, at the work
of righteousness, the effect shall be peace. The effect of
righteousness, quietness and assurance forever. He said this,
here's how sure this peace is. He said, the mountains will depart,
and the hills shall be removed, but my kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed,
saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. If God says I'm going
to be at peace with you even when the mountains are dissolved,
I'm going to still be at peace with you because that's my covenant
to you. And I'm going to do it because I have mercy on you."
Well, what in the world are we to do for one another? Have mercy
on one another. What's mercy? Holding from each
other what we deserve. Somebody hear me say that and
they'll say, he must need mercy. You're right, I do. I do. You got that right. I need forgiveness. Need it every hour of every day.
So do you. And God gives it to his people.
So let's do that for one another. Think on these things, President.
Think on these things. Let's go to Him. Our gracious
Heavenly Father, we ask You to turn our hearts and our minds
away from things below. Keep us settled on Christ above.
Lord, when we're alone, when we're going through the day,
doing the things we have to do. We pray, Lord, You keep our hearts
and minds set on Christ. When we begin to think about
other things, turn us again. Just keep us meditating on You,
and we can't exhaust the subject. That well is so deep, we'll never
plumb the bottom. Keep us, Lord, just thinking
about who You are, all Your virtues, and all that pureness of your
character and everything about you and your promises, how sure
they are, how steadfast they are. Help us remember what Christ
did for us. And Lord, keep our minds and
our hearts in peace. We don't have to understand everything
you're doing. You're wisdom. You're infinite. We're finite. We don't have to
understand it. Just help us to Just give us
peace of heart and mind, Lord, knowing You've got it, knowing
Christ is not going to let us go, knowing we're accepted and
knowing that of one another. Lord, we pray You forgive us
because we're so often anxious and full of unbelief and looking
at this world and just tangled up with everything that we shouldn't
be. And we pray, Lord, You forgive us for Christ's sake. Keep us
looking above. It's in Christ's name we ask
it. Amen.