I want to bring you a message
today from these first eight verses. But if a preacher wanted
to waste his time and have a ministry built on wood, hay, and stubble,
all he needs to do is make his ministry to be built around building
rules and regulations. for unconverted men and women. If you want to waste your time
trying to teach folks how to live right, set up standards
for them and rules for them to go by. And that you're talking
about wasting your time and your effort is trying to get unregenerated
men to live for the glory of God. And the reason being, the
religionist doesn't love the law giver. He doesn't love Christ.
He doesn't love the one who gives the law. He doesn't know God.
He doesn't love Him. And if a soul doesn't love Christ,
he can never have the right motive for what he does. Could never. He doesn't love Christ. He doesn't
have the right motive for what he does. Our Lord Jesus said,
if you love me, if you love me, keep my words, keep my command.
And I'll tell you something else why we would waste our time doing
that. The religionist doesn't understand grace. He doesn't
understand grace. He doesn't understand that salvation
is altogether of the Lord and the grace of God. That God doesn't
save him because he had any merit or any worth or any worth or
anything that would commend him to God. Instead of him saying,
by the grace of God, I am what I am, he says, I thank thee,
O Lord, that I'm not as other men are. And the religionist doesn't have
the life of God. That's why you'd waste your time.
He doesn't have the life of God. Our Lord Jesus told Nicodemus,
you must be born again. That that's born of the flesh,
that's all it'll ever be. Corrupt, weak, sinful, death
all over it, under the curse. So you must be born from above,
must be born by the Spirit of God. to have the life of God,
to have a nature and a mind and a will to know God and embrace
God and to commune with God. And he doesn't have the life
of God, so he can't relate. Now, I'll tell you some things he
can understand. He can understand what I call commercial Christianity.
Do you know what commercial Christianity is? That if you do certain things,
then God will do certain things for you. If you do something
to do what's right, then God will do what's right for you.
You do something good, God will do something good for you. You
do something bad, God will do bad towards you. That's what most folks think.
That they, you know, it's a commercial Christianity type thing. Don't
you want to do something for Jesus? Don't you want, you know,
we'll make Jesus acceptable to you on your terms. When the Scriptures
does not make Christ acceptable to men, God's got to make Christ,
God's got to make men acceptable to Himself. We're only accepted
in the beloved. And he can understand outward
morality. He can understand what we call
outward morality. When folks look at him, you know,
but he don't know anything about inward peace. He don't know anything
about a new heart. He don't know that peace that
passes understanding. He don't know what it is to rest
in Christ. And I'll tell you what he can
do, and I know this from experience. He can memorize Scripture, quote
them. He can learn doctrine. You can
catechize him, he can learn doctrine. But there's no life in doctrine.
Life's in Christ. You know, he can lay hold, but
he cannot lay hold of the power of the Scriptures. That's what
our Lord told the Pharisees. Ye do err, neither knowing the
power of God, nor the Scriptures. See, they don't know the power
of the Scriptures. They don't know the victory of
the Scriptures. That's why Paul says they're ever learning, but
never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. They have a form
of godliness. They have a form of it. A shell
of it. But the very power of it, they
don't know anything about, they deny it. And I'll tell you something
else why we would waste our time trying to get folks to live by
rules and regulations and standards we set up for them. It's because the religionist,
the unconverted man, he wants to do something for God and Give
something to the Lord Jesus Christ instead of receiving the Lord
Jesus Christ. You see, they don't want to receive
Him, don't want to bow to Him, don't want to take Him. They
want to give to Him instead of Him giving to them. Huh? And I'll tell you something about
Him, and I say we've learned this over the years. He may continue
in the faith, and He may quit. He's absolutely unpredictable.
He's unpredictable. He may love you today, and tomorrow
He may turn on you and say the awfulest things in the world
about you. He may be faithful to worship,
and He may not. He may show up, and He may not.
And so that's why I say there's no need to lay down rules or
regulations. Give church laws for Him. His
profession's just a passing fancy. I remember years ago, and I've
seen this happen so many places, and I've experienced it myself. But I was down in Goodnessville,
Tennessee one time at a church down there, and they had a big
poster on the wall. And it was written in a handwritten,
but with big, big black letters. Had about 10 or 12 things up
there that folks in that church had to do. They had to attend
so many services. The women could only dress certain
ways. The men could only do certain things. They had all these rules
down there. And I got to asking the preacher, you know, and I
said, I said, well, we're, you know, he said he had 1,300 church
members. The building is smaller than
ours. I said, where are they all at? He said, they're back
sleeping. They're not living for Jesus,
you know. You know why they weren't living for Him? They've seen
all them rules and regulations. They can't do it. You can't live by what somebody
else tells you to do. You live by Christ. Christ gives
life. The shepherd's responsible for
the sheep. Can the shepherd take care of
his sheep? Can the shepherd teach his sheep where to go and what
to do? Does he not lead them in and out to find pasture? And that's why he says, but the
believers not like that. The Lord Jesus, or as Thomas
said this, he said, he's like a tree planted. Now somebody
else got to plant a tree. A tree can't plant itself. We're
like a tree planted by the rivers of water. And he's a house that's
been built on the rock, not on the sand. He's a living stone
in a living temple. He's in the true vine, the Lord
Jesus Christ, and he's a permanent branch. You know what our Lord
Jesus called them? Jewels. When I make up my jewels,
we're jewels in the crown of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll
tell you something about a believer. He is in love. He is head over
heels in love with the Lord Jesus Christ and everything that pertains
to Him. Everything that goes with Christ,
they love. They love His person. They love
His work. They love his dealings with them,
they love him in the scriptures, they love him in his heart, they
love him in their mind, they love him 24 hours a day. They may not manifest that love
at certain times in a certain way, but in their heart of hearts,
they love him and need him and acknowledge him and cleave to
him. I know that's so. And I'll tell you something else
about the believer, not like the religious, that he will persevere
to the end. He'll persevere to the end. He
will go to the end. And like all believers, he'll
die in the faith. He will die in the faith. And
there's here the Apostle Paul. He comes to describe some people
he's writing to. And this is what we're talking
about. This is the folks that we're preaching to. And this
is the message we're preaching. He says, therefore, my brethren. Calls them my brethren. You know, he's talking about
my brother. You know, why would you call somebody brethren? You
know, Bruce Crabtree always says at all times, my brethren and
sisters. He says at all times, my brethren and my sisters. You
know why we call them brethren? Greet the brethren with a holy
kiss, because we are brethren. We have the same God. We have
the same family. We have the same Spirit. We have
the same Father. We have the same goals. We have
the same aims. We're gathered here as God's
family this morning. We're brethren gathered together
here. It's not just a time. We're of
the household of faith. And then he goes on to say here,
my brethren, my brethren, what a wonderful thing to call one
another, my brethren, my sister. And then he says, dearly beloved,
dearly beloved, Who are you dearly beloved by?
First of all, you're loved of Christ. Those whom God loves,
dearly beloved of God Himself. And then the Scriptures tell
us that our Lord Jesus says, By this, by this shall all men
know you are my disciples, because you'll have love one toward another.
And there's faith and hope and charity, and the greatest of
these is charity. And then he not only says that
they're my brethren and dearly beloved, but he describes them
this way. He says, longed for. Longed for. I long to see. I long for you. I long to see
you. I long to be with you. I long
to have a dark desire to see you. I long for you. I long for
your fellowship. I long for your presence. I long
to be with you for a little while. Look what he says over here in
Philippians 1a. Long for it, long to be with
you, long to see you. And he said here in Philippians
1.8, For God is my record. I go, and God records what I
say and what's in my heart. How greatly I long after you
all in the bowels, in the hearts, in the soul, in the heart of
Jesus Christ. I long for you. And God records
that. God's my record that I do that. And then back over in our text,
not only does He say, Are you longed for? But He says, You're
my joy and crown. My joy and crown. When I think
of you and I consider you... And you know how the Philippian
church started? Paul and Silas being put in jail.
And the Philippian jailer being converted. in his household. That's where the Philippian church
started at. When the Apostle Paul and Cyrus
were in prison and were beaten, and God opened the prison doors,
and they came out, and that Philippian jailer was about to kill himself,
and Paul said, do thyself no harm, we're here, we ain't going
no place. He began the priesthood, and now that's why Paul says,
you know, you're my joy, you're my crown. You give me more joy
when I think of you. and fellowship with you and pray
for you and enjoy preaching the gospel to you, you give me more
joy than I could ever possibly get in this world. And you're
my crown. If I have a crown, you're the
crown. When I look at you, you're the
crown. You're my crown. What crowns do I have in the
future? You're my crown. You're the one,
when I look at you, you're the crown of my ministry. And then he comes down here and
he gives us six directions, six directions for these disciples.
And I say they cover all the rules, all the regulations needed,
six very plain and needful reminders. And the first one is this. He says in the last part of verse
1, Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved, long for my joy and
crown. Now watch this, stand fast in
the Lord. Oh my, stand fast in the Lord. He didn't say stand fast in the
church, he said stand fast in the Lord. And if you stand fast
in the Lord, I believe you will. And the reason this is first,
the first direction he gives, the first needful reminder, is
because this is the first. Stand fast in the Lord. That
stand fast means stand and guard the truth you have. Guard your
profession. Guard what you know about Christ.
Stand fast in Christ. Because Christ is our foundation. Christ is the fountain of our
life. And so stand fast in Christ. You see, we're chosen in Him.
Loved in Him. Redeemed by Him. And when Paul
says, stand fast in the Lord, he means this, stand fast in
the gospel. Don't be moved away from the
gospel. Or even one gospel. Just one, hey, two or three different
gospels. I heard, you know, there's people
preach and teach that there's seven different gospels. One
gospel. Just one. And Paul says, you
know, be not removed from the gospel unto another gospel, because
if you do, there's not another gospel. than that we have preached
unto you. Stand fast in that gospel of
Christ's redemption, of Christ's sacrifice, of Christ's putting
away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Stand fast in that liberty
of Christ, Paul told the Galatians. And what does he mean by that?
He says don't let nobody under any circumstances at any time
put you under any kind of bondage. Don't let them bring a law to
you. Don't let them bring a holy day to you. Don't let them bring
a feast to you. Don't let them bring a sacrifice
to you. Don't let them bring a work to you. Don't let nobody
put you under any kind of bondage. Stand fast in the liberty that's
in Christ. Don't let nobody tell you that
the law is the rule of life. Christ is our rule of life. The
love of God in Christ is our rule of life. That's the royal
life on which we live. That's the royal life on which
we live. And stand fast in His power to keep you. You know who's
going to keep you? You going to keep yourself? He says, stand fast in His power
to keep you. When you feel like you're going
down, remember this, I'm the Him that's got the power, able
to keep you from falling. to falling as to not only that,
but present you faultless. And His presence with glory.
Huh? And stand fast in the faith.
The faith. What faith are we talking about?
The Gospel. What you believe. Not your subjective
faith, but what's set forth before you in the Gospel, in the Scriptures,
in Christ. Stand fast in the faith. Stand
fast in the fellowship of believers. You know, John said it this way,
he says, they were not of us. For no doubt, if they had been
of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out from
us. Went out from us. Went out from the gospel. Went
out from the truth. Went out from Christ. And all
I tell you, you know, in our Lord Jesus Christ says, no man
can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me for him, unless
it is given to him of my Father. Many disciples heard that, and
they turned around and walked with him no more. He turned to
his twelve and said, Are you going to go too? Are you going
to go too? Simon Peter said, Lord, to whom
shall we go? Where are we going to go? Where
could we possibly go? I don't care about all of you.
I'm staying right here. You know why? Because you've
got the worms. Salvation is made up of worms.
The Scripture's made up of words. We believe words. Words have
meaning. Faith has meaning. Grace has
meaning. Christ has meaning. His work
has meaning. The cross has meaning. These
things have meaning. And all stand fast in that. And
then he says this. Also, not only that, but look
what he says here in verse 2. Not only stand fast in the Lord,
dearly beloved, But I beseech you, Odysseus, and Tyche, that
they be of the same mind in the Lord. Be ye of the same mind.
Now, here's what happened here. You know why he says, I beseech
you, Odysseus, and Tyche, that they be of the same mind in the
Lord? Because they was in odds with one another. And in the
end, they had some kind of disagreement. Maybe one of them wore a dress
that looked just like the same dress they wore in the same dress
at church some day. Who knows? But David got all out of pocket
about something. And they was at odds with one another. Maybe
one of them said something about their hair. Who knows? I tell
you, don't take much of your folks at odds. But it's a good
amount of anything. And that's why Paul says, he
said, look, you tell these women to be of the same mind. Anything
else other than the faith that we have. And you know, I know
this, when two people When there's two people at odds with one another
in the church, you know what the first thing they do? They
start looking for allies in their cause. Trying to get people on
their side. That's why you don't have business
meetings. Let me tell you, let me show
you something. That's why you don't have business meetings.
The minute you have a business meeting, you've got folks at
odds with one another. Some want some thing, some want
another thing. The next thing you know, you've got folks, well,
I ain't a monk or that. I don't like that. But I don't
know why anybody would want to do this, and why would anybody
want to do that? And so that's why we just don't. And the thing runs just as well. Oh, how good it runs! You know,
like that. But when two people are divided,
that's why, look what Paul said here in Philippians 127. Oh,
be of the same mind. And here's the thing that we're
to be in the same mind of. Listen to it. Only let your conversation,
your manner of life, your character, your conduct, be as it becometh
the gospel of Christ. Conduct yourself, let your life
be as the brain glory as becomes the gospel of Christ. You claim
to believe the gospel of Christ, you came to trust Christ, so
you let your conversation, your manner of life, be as it becometh
the gospel of Christ. that whether I come and see you,
or else I'm not with you, until I hear of your affairs, that
you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together,
now listen to it, for the faith of the gospel." That's all we
need to be doing. If we're of the same mind in
the major things, in the faith, in our relationship with Christ,
with God's sovereignty, of man's utter inability to save himself,
of salvation being of the Lord, that the Bible being God's inerrant,
infallible, verbally inspired Word, of salvation being by the
Spirit of God, being a revelation, and being regenerated by the
truth. We're all in the same mind in
the nature of things, that nothing else is everything else, just
tinsel. Ain't even worth mentioning. I don't know how many times this
has happened over the years. It ain't happened in a long time.
But I remember several times over the years, you'd meet folks,
and they'd be from another congregation. They'd start saying, well, I
don't like this, and I don't like that, and I think this shouldn't
do this. And you'd always ask them just one question. Just
one question. That's all you ever ask. One
question. Does he preach the gospel? Well, yeah, he does.
Well, then there ain't nothing else to worry about. It don't
make no difference what kind of oil he puts in his car. It don't make no difference what
kind of car he drives. It don't make no difference, you know,
if his wife works or doesn't work. Does he preach the gospel? Is he preaching the gospel when
he gets in the pulpit? Is he telling you of Christ being
your only hope before God and His righteousness, your only
righteousness? Yeah. Well, then what else you got
to complain about? And, you know, after a while, folks realize
that, and they say, man, that's right. But that's, that's what,
that's what babes in Christ do. God help us to grow up. And let
our unity, now listen to me, let our unity be determined by
our relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. You know that old
hymn we sing, blessed be the tithe it binds? Our hearts in
Christian love? The fellowship of kindred minds
is like to that above. Huh? And then look what he says
here in verse 4. Here's a third thing he talks
about. Stand fast in the Lord. Be of the same mind. Don't be
at odds with one another. And then he says in verse 4,
Rejoice in the Lord. Always. Always. And again, I say rejoice. You
know the word rejoice is used in this epistle ten different
times. Ten different times. I'm not
counting the word joy, but just rejoice is in this. I'll preach
the message years and years and years and years and years ago.
I remember it very well. I remember the title of it. Reasons
for Rejoicing. And here it says rejoice in the
Lord. And wouldn't you love to learn this by experience what
it is to rejoice in the Lord? Now, we have trials, and we don't
rejoice in trials. We don't rejoice in heartaches.
We don't rejoice in troubles. We don't rejoice in the things
that that we're going through in this world. You know, you
have trials, you have troubles with your body, and troubles
in your home, and trouble with your children, and troubles with
your health, and trouble with your finances, and troubles with
your cars, troubles with your houses. We have troubles. But,
beloved, we don't rejoice in them, but rejoice in the Lord
that ordains them and sends them. What would we do if we didn't
have Christ to rejoice in? What would we rejoice in? Huh? Rejoice in the Lord. Know God
help us by respect. And there's always, always reasons
to rejoice, always cause to rejoice. What about rejoicing in grace?
Mary and I talked about this yesterday morning. We began to
talk about where would we be if it wasn't for the grace of
God if God hadn't saved us. You know what you are in yourself
and what you think and what you feel as a believer in the things
you go through in your mind, in your imagination, and in your
play. Imagine what it would be like
if you didn't have the grace of God. I know how bad I was
before God saved me by His grace. So how bad would I be had not
God never saved me and lived a life without Him year after
year after year after year? Would I still be married? Would
I be a drug addict? Would I be a drunk? How wicked
would I have fallen? Or would I be a lost religionist
attending a Baptist church somewhere, bragging about how much I've
done for the Lord in the last week, Which one would I be? But always, always rejoice in
His grace, because it's always, it saves us, and it's always
sufficient in it. And rejoice in His love. He said
He loves us with an everlasting love and with cords of loving
kindness. And that love never fails. His
love never depends on us. We love our children, we love
our wives, but beloved, our love is not like the love that God
has for us. Our love's conditioned, but His
is not. I don't care how down you get,
He loves you. I don't care how high you get, He loves you. It
does not depend on us. And rejoice in that blood that
cleanses us from all sin. Oh, rejoice in that blood. Oh,
His blood that cleanses us before God, makes us acceptable before
God, that says, God, pass over us. And then rejoice in His providence. Oh my, that good providence of
God that governs our lives and directs our lives and works all
things to our good. Oh my, to bless his holy name,
and then rejoice in his presence. You know what he said? Told his
disciples, I'll never leave you. I'll never, ever leave you. Never. Simon Peter, you're going to
deny me three times. Oh no, not me, Lord. No, no. No, these other fellows might,
but I'm not going to. Simon Peter, I'm going to never
leave you, never forsake you. You may deny me, but I'm never
going to deny you. You may warm at the enemy's fire,
but I'm never going to deny you. I'm going to always, I'm going
to never leave you." And then we rejoice in His righteousness. You know there's only one righteousness
that gives us a standing before God, and that's the righteousness
of Christ. And that righteousness is given
to us imputed to us. And you know how righteous we
are in God's presence? It's called the very righteousness
of God Himself. And let me tell you something.
When I get there, if God takes me home today or takes me home
next week or next year or whenever He takes me home, I'll be no
more righteous when I get there than I am right now. Now, ain't
that a blessing to know that you're as righteous as you're
ever going to be. People talk about living a righteous life. You've got to be righteous. You've
got to be made righteous. And God imputes and gives to
us the righteousness of Christ. God blessed us the man to whom
God imputes his righteousness without words. And oh, what a righteous standing
before God, that God Himself looks at us, and when He sees
us, He sees His Son! And then rejoice in His intercession.
And oh, ain't you grateful that Christ right now takes up your
cause, takes up your case, takes up your name, knows you, and
is continual every day. And then Paul says, Rejoice that
your names are written in the Book of Life. Written in the book of life.
You know, if your name was ever written there, it was written
there, always written there. God don't write it down the day
you believe, or the minute you believe. You believe because
God's got your name written down there. And He brings the gospel
to you, and He don't say, well, He believes. Now let me get my
book out and write His name down. No, no, that's not... God never
changes. He's everlasting. He declared
the end from the beginning. And you know, He put my name
down there and passed it from the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. And in His sovereign mercy, one
day He crossed my path with the gospel of His grace. Crossed
my path with the man that told me the truth. And I seen Christ.
I saw His glory. I saw His power. I saw His righteousness. I saw my need of Him. And I threw
everything away and counted it done to have Christ and Him alone. And you know, I found out later
that my name was always in the Book of Life. I didn't know it
then, but I know it now. Oh, my. Then look what it says
here. And I, you know, got that little article in the bulletin
this week. The Armenian says, you know, if you're being married
and if you don't live right, God will erase it. Then you start
living right again, He'll put it back in. You know, you go
out here and get back out in the world, and then you run it
out again, and then, you know, you renew up, come back to the
altar, dedicate your life, and you put it back in there again.
That'd be a horrible way to live, wouldn't it? And that'd be an
awful God to have to worship. One day He swore you, and the
next day He's against you. One day He puts you in the book,
and the next day He takes you out. One day He saves you, and
the next day He loses you. Whoo! Man, that would be a tough
way to live, wouldn't it? Then look what he said here in
verse 5. Here's the fourth thing, verse
5. He said, Let your moderation be known unto all men, the Lord's
at hand. Now, what does this moderation
mean? Let it be known unto all men. Well, this reference here,
let your moderation be known, is not to just eating and drinking,
though this is included, and it's important. But the word
here, and I look this up, moderation means gentleness and sweet reasonableness. Let everybody see how gentle
you are, how sweet reasonableness you have, that you're not argumentative,
you're not high-minded, you're delightful to be around and be
with. Let all men," he said here, whether in the church or out
of the church, see and recognize in you some humility, unselfishness,
considerate, a forgiving spirit, a forbearing spirit, general,
considerate, and patient. That's what he's talking about.
Look, I'm going to show you over here, Titus is that book right
before the book of Hebrews. Look at that with me. Titus chapter
3 and verse 2. And, oh my, you know, when you
deal with other people in the severity of law and justice,
oh, that's what our Lord Jesus said, you know, said, you want
to cast out the beam that's in you, the moat that's in another
fellow's eye, and you've got a beam in yours, that's what
he said here. Be sweet and reasonable. That's when you talk to somebody.
They're not, they don't put you off. They don't make you feel
uncomfortable. They don't make you feel uneasy. And this is
what Paul meant here in Titus chapter 3 and verse 2. To speak
evil of no man. But be no brawlers. What does
that brawler mean? That means wrestling around?
No, that means arguing and fussing and fighting. And just making
an argument and everything. But be gentle. Showing all meekness
unto all men. So let's not deal with with other
people in severity of law and justice. He said, Let all clamor
and wrath and bitterness and evil speaking be put away from
you, and be ye kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. And then he says,
The Lord's at hand. Now that has two things. Let
me tell you two things about that. When it says the Lord is
at hand, that means the Lord's at your right hand. He's for
you. He's present with you. He'll enable you to do that.
And also, it means this, the Lord's on hand. He may come to
get you just any time. So you be careful how you treat
other people. You be gentle, sweet. Let everybody know how
moderate you are. And so that's what it means.
And then look what else it says here. Let me show you another.
Here's the fifth one. In verse 6, Philippians 4. Be careful for nothing. But in
everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests
be made known unto God." When he says here, be careful for
nothing, you know what that means? That word careful means worry,
anxious, fretting, worrying, murmuring, wondering what's going
to happen. And he says, be careful for nothing.
Don't fret, don't murmur, don't be over-anxious about things
in this world. and things in this world. You
remember that fellow says, you know, I've got so many things
I'm going to have to tear down the barns and build some bigger
ones. You know what he says? That rich fool, spread it over
his barns and ended up losing it all. That rich young ruler
came to Christ. Christ told him to sell everything
he's had and give it to the poor. And he walked away. And perished
with his riches, and his riches perished with him. And Lot's
wife, God brought him up out of Sodom and Gomorrah, and she
was on her way out of there, and she looked back, and she
said, Oh, my home, I'm leaving my home, my family, my friends. And she fretted over them, and
worried over them, was anxious over them. And God, she perished
right in the way. That's what he's saying about
here. Oh my. That's what he says, be careful
for nothing. And then he says, in everything. In everything. What do you reckon he means in
everything? It means don't let nothing keep
you from praying. In everything. By prayer. Do you know, instead of in this
world being anxious and worried and fretful and murmuring and
wondering how it's going to come out. In everything. When these
things come up, in everything. Praying. Pray. And with supplication,
ask God what you need. Pour out your heart to God. Tell
Him what you need. Tell Him what's on your mind.
Tell Him what's in your heart. Because He knows anyway. And
then He says this. And then do it with thanksgiving.
Oh, how thankful. How much thanksgiving must we
give? And then here He says, whatever
it is that you want, whatever it is you desire, tell God about
it. Tell God about it. If you've got a worry, an anxiety,
an anxiousness over some criminals, tell God about it. He's the only
one who can do anything about it. Have you ever been able to
change one of your children the way they are? Have you been able
to change your husband or your wife? But I know who can. And I know
who can change me when I'm out of pocket. Of course, I don't
get out very often. Do I, Mary? Oh, beloved, you know, God's
the only one that can give. He's the only one that can do
for us. We want him to do for us. We want him to. We do. That's
why we pray. And then, look, here's the last
one. Here's the last one. And oh, and he says, you know,
when we do these things, the peace of God that passes all
understanding will keep your hearts and minds in our Lord
Jesus Christ. The world don't know what this
peace is. Religion don't know what it is. But it passes our
understanding, the peace that God made with us in Christ. And
then he says, and here's some facts. Think on these things.
He said in this verse eight, he said, think on these things.
What things? In this matter of these directions I've given you,
of being of the same mind, of standing fast in the Lord, rejoicing in the Lord, being
moderate to all things, being careful for nothing, think on
these things. When it comes to the matter of
our attitude and our spirit in this world, meditate on these
things. What things? Well, first of all,
things that are true. There are things that are true
in this world. And there's enough lies told every day. And we hear
them told, we turn on your television, you leave it on very long, you're
going to hear somebody telling a lie. From the top down, somebody's
lying. When they open their mouth, they're
moving their mouth, they're lying. Now, ain't that right? You turn on television, this
politician's lying, that other politician's lying. I mean, they're
just making it up as they go. Lying. But there are things that
are true. Do you know what's true? The
gospel's true. God's Word's true. Christ is true. And I'll tell
you, think on things that are honest. Honest. Oh my, how many things are honest
and true. You're honest. I can think on
you, James. I can think on you and say, you're
honest. You're honest. There I think
on you and you're honest. Be honest in business. Be honest
in your speech. Be honest with one another. Be
honest in your dealings. Be honest with men and women
when you get the opportunity. And then, not only that, but
think on things that are just. Just. That means making things
equal. Just. Especially in the sight of God.
Things that are just in the sight of God. God looks at us. And
then, not only that, but things that are pure. Do you know what's
pure? When he says here, things that
are pure, he means things that are opposed to pride. Prose to envy, to jealousy, and
covetousness, and self-seeking. Things that are pure. Pride's
not pure. Envy, jealousy, and covetousness.
Think on things that are pure. And oh, beloved, not only that,
things that are lovely. Oh, my goodness. Oh, do you know
how many things are lovely in this world? The gospel's lovely. Christ is lovely. God's people
are lovely. Faith is lovely. Charity is lovely. Kindness is lovely. Neatness
is lovely. Holiness is lovely. Oh, so many things are lovely
in this world. Lovely, lovely. And, oh, compassion's
lovely. Generosity's lovely. All these
things are commendable. And then look what else he says
here. And whatsoever things are of a good report. That means don't bring me no
bad news. Bring me good reports. Tell me
good things. That's what Paul, he wrote to
him. He says, you know, I want to hear about you. I want to
hear a good report. I want to hear about your faith.
I want to hear about your love. I want to hear about your perseverance.
I want to hear about your adherence to the gospel. That's what I
want to hear. I want to hear a good report.
I want to hear that you're steadfast in the faith. I want to hear
that you love one another. I want to hear that you're standing
by one another. I want to hear that when God
puts you in a trial, that you said, My grace, He said, Oh,
I trusted Him, and His grace was sufficient. Whatever's of
a good report, a good name, a good reputation, a good opinion. And
then Paul says here, he said, If there be anything to praise,
any virtue, Think on these things. Think about them. Think about
them. Cultivate them. And anything that's virtuous
and anything worthy of praise. And you know why. I'm going to
tell you why we do these things. Because the Scripture says, as
a man thinks in his heart, that's what he is. You know, our thoughts
lead to deeds. And our deeds manifest our character.
And that's why it says, keep your heart with all diligence,
for out of it are the issues of life. And if this is things
that I just told you about, these things we meditate on, think
of it, these things, well, beloved, this heart, God's made it new. And think on these things. Well,
we want our thoughts. That's why I said think on these
things. As a man thinketh in his heart, that's what he is.
If we think on these things, that's what we want to do. We want to stand fast in the
gospel, be of the same mind, rejoice in the Lord, let your
moderation be on the Lord, be careful for nothing, and think
on these things. Think on them. Think on them. Our Father, in the blessed name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, we bow our hearts here in your presence.
We bless you for your mercies given to us today, for your kindness,
your patience, for the truth as it is in Christ that you made
manifest today. Thank you for the worship we've
had. Thank you for your presence, for the power. Thank you for
giving us believing hearts, seeing eyes, and hearing ears. We bless
you in the Lord Jesus' name. Amen.