Good to go on to other things,
but there are often times where I look at the letters in the
New Testament, even after I teach them or study them or meditate
on them myself. We've journeyed through them
as people, as a congregation over the last year, really. We
still are going to miss some things. We're going to forget
some things. We're going to put ourselves in a place where if
we're not careful, we'll ignore some things. And I want you to
understand that at the end of Paul's life, he got to the point
where nothing mattered in his life but the gospel. I mean,
nothing mattered now, but we see the end of Paul's life in
Acts chapter 20. We see what he did. We see when he went back
to Ephesus, what he said and how he cried out to the elders
of that city. And he told them very certainly
that he would never see their face again. That the Spirit of
God had told him definitely in his heart that this would be
the last time that many of them would lay eyes on him. He knew
he was going to die for the sake of the gospel. And he did. His
head was taken from his body and his life departed. And he
says in this letter that we are reading that in that moment he
honored Christ in his life. And in that moment he honored
Christ in his death. And so by the same power that was in Him
to give Him life eternal, to give Him the power to have that
type of zeal, to give Him the ability and the endurance to
rest in the sufficiency of Christ and be empowered by the gospel
of Christ, this same power rests in us. And Paul's writing to
the Philippian church shows us that there is a unified mind
and a unified faith and a unified power. One God who is Spirit,
who is Father, who is Son. And this God works mightily,
effectually in the people for whom He has called. His power
works mightily and effectually in all who are in Christ. And
that we are to see this power and recognize this power, not
tap into it, for it has tapped into us. We are not to claim
it, for Christ has claimed us for His own. We are to live because
Christ is alive with us. And so in this understanding
of things, friends, I will promise you it doesn't challenge everything
that you are as an American. It challenges everything you
are in your liberty. It challenges everything that
you understand about the fullness of truth. in the world in which
we live. We are supposed to be discerning,
discriminating. We are supposed to be those who
have a unity of mind. And when we find ourselves not
of one mind, there is someone in that party, sometimes both
in that party, who are not of the mind of Christ. For there
is no such thing to have brothers and sisters in discord who are
paid for and purchased by the blood of Jesus. It is an impossibility
that Paul even says, as we saw there in the very first part
of chapter 4 of Philippians, where he says, I want Euodia
and Sintica to be resolved. And he even says, I want you,
my faithful servant, to deal with this and tend to it. And
all of that which Paul has begun to teach, and all of that he
has already argued for in this letter, boils up to this practical
application that there should be no strife among you. There should be none of these
things because we ought to rejoice in the Lord, not be bound up
in the junk of relationships. We ought to have the mind of
Christ, not worried about our own self-interests. These are
not my thoughts. These are the words of Paul verbatim
from this letter. We ought not to be praying for
God to deal with our circumstances. We ought to be supplicating for
each other. We ought to be praising God for the hell that we live
in, knowing that it is because of Christ that we rest in sufficient
joy. We ought to be of a people who
are seen, as you've heard this before, to be a people for God's
glory by the power of God's grace in Jesus Christ. That is who
the church is, beloved. And Paul, even in these days,
he gets to this place in chapter 4 where we start to see some practical
things. Think this way. Do this thing.
Act this way. Talk this way. And it's very
easy for us to then focus so certainly on this portion of
this letter. It's very easy for us to go,
ah, finally, things that I can do. And as you'll see this morning,
you'll realize that these were things that not only the Christians
of Philippi could do, but these were things that the Greek Stoics
were already doing. And these were things that the
philosophers of Rome were already engaged in. There was a morality
and being above reproach, and there was a system of rightness
and justice that lived in the Pax Romana. The Roman peace that
the emperor kept by the Roman guard. There was a sense of morality
much like our culture today. Well, not maybe as much. There
was a sense of morality much like the birth in the first few,
I don't know, decades of our culture, of our country. To where
people have confused, much like in Rome, people would confuse
the morality of culture as Christianity. And so as we look at this today,
you've got to keep in mind everything that Paul has taught. And I would
love to spend two hours right now just revisiting starting
in verse 1 of chapter 1 and just going all the way through. We
could just do three hours just sitting here and just being excited
and I would lose my voice for good today. But there's no evening
service so it's okay. But we're not going to do that.
By the Lord's grace you will have the remembrance of His word.
You don't need me to put it out there every time we get together.
By the Lord's power and the Lord's grace, He will effectually stir
up that which is stored inside of you by His affection, by His
Spirit. And it will agree with what is
true. It will grow and settle the seeds
of truth in your heart to a place where the fruit of Christ is
very visible. And God alone will get the glory.
You cannot stroke your own back and pat your own shoulder and
say, look at me, I've got it. You cannot say, I'm so proud
of you, son, for living for Christ, for it is not Christ. It is not
your son that lives, but Christ that lives within him. No one
should be proud of anyone when they walk with the Lord, because
that is just absurdity and absolute ignorance. We ought to praise
God when we see each other walk with God, because it is the work
of God. It is not the work of man, because
the work of man can simulate righteousness. But it is filthy
rags before a holy God. So as we begin today, I just
want those in your thoughts. I want these things in your heart.
And I know others will come in as we get going, because it seems
like the preaching is getting quicker and quicker as we get
into the door. But I want you to be aware that there is great
things at work here. And there are great things at
stake here. Let me tell you what they are. Number one, there are
great things at work, as Paul would tell the Ephesian Christians,
that there is a spiritual realm that we do not see. There is
a realm and a principality of powers that are working against
us. There's also flesh that works
against us. Our own bodies, our own minds,
our own humanity works against us because it has fallen. It
is unable to see. There is no right standing even
when we live in a right way. It is not righteousness. It is
just expectation. Jesus says that there is no prize
for doing that which is expected. He uses it in this sense, in
this parable, that there was a slave that worked in the field,
and as he worked in the field, because it was what he was supposed
to do, after he worked a full day, do we say to the slave,
he asks rhetorically, come, put your feet up, dine with me at
the table, for you've worked a hard day? No, Jesus says. He
turns to the servant and says, where is my supper? We do not
get accolades for walking in the way we should walk. We are
created to be holy. We are created to be righteous.
And when we act that way, it is not to our credit. But really to our judgment. And
so those things are at work and there are some things at stake.
Most importantly, the name of God is at stake. For if we claim
the name of Christ as our own, if we say that we are indeed
the church of Jesus Christ, His body, that means that the head
of our body is the Lord, the Christ, Jesus. And that everything
that we do, and everywhere that we go, and every direction that
we turn, it exemplifies our head. So what is at stake is that the
name of Christ is at stake in our lives. And as we hear the
word of the Lord, it is not for our entertainment, it is not
for our academics, it is for our worship, which is just exemplified
in our living. It's portraying the power of
Christ in our attitudes, in our hearts, in our minds. So we know
that that is at stake today. Secondly, what is at stake today
is your eternal soul. Because as the Old Testament
would say, today is the day of salvation, friends. There is
no such thing as tomorrow when it comes to the economy of grace.
There is no such thing as later when it comes to hearing the
Word of God. For there is truth in both the Old and New Testament
where God, after we hear the Gospel and reject it because
of our prideful condition, there is a time when God will seal
our hearts and not allow us to believe. You hear that? There's a time where he will
cut us off from hearing the truth and we will sit in our pride
and be justly condemned. Friends, that is a horrifying
thing. And so I say to you today, no matter where you say you are,
test yourself to see if you're in the faith. Work out your own
salvation with fear and trembling, trusting in him who is faithful
to bring you to righteousness, to bring you to eternal life.
For Christ is faithful even when we're faithless, because he cannot
deny himself, is what Paul tells Timothy. And so that's at stake. And finally, what is at stake
is that the unity and the power of the gospel through the church
of Jesus Christ, because that is to the end that we preach
for the application of our lives. It is for our worship. It is
for the name of Christ. It is for our individual souls.
But collectively, we are the body. One singular body of Jesus
Christ made up of many saints who are alive today in this earth.
Some of which are starving for truth. Some of which are confused. Some of which are angry and hurt.
Some of which are being scattered. Some of which are being misled
by charlatans and wolves. And some of which are losing
their lives this very moment. Because they are standing for
the gospel of Jesus. And so friends, there's a lot
happening today. There's a lot happening in this
moment. We aren't just doing church. We are the church. And
that same power that is active and living in the lives of Paul
is the same power that's actively and living and immutable and
unchanging and eternal in the lives of us. In our lives. Right now. And as you'll see,
and as you've seen, there is nothing under the sun that we
experience in this world that is outside the purview of God's
supremacy. The Lord is with us. The Lord
is near. We closed our service with that
reality last week. Let's look at chapter four. Look
at verses four all the way through verse nine. I'll read that and
then we're going to pray. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again,
I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known
to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be
anxious about anything. But in everything, by prayer
and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known
to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses
all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in
Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is
true, Whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is
pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable. If there is any
excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about
these things. What you have learned and received
and heard and seen in me, practice these things and the God of peace
will be with you. Let's pray. Father, we are so glad that You
are a God of peace. We are so glad that You are the
God who rules sovereignly over all things. Father, there is
no darkness that can hide from your light. There is no evil
that is outside your hand. There is no wickedness that can
run from your grace. So father, we thank you. We thank
you that you sent into our hearts, the light of the knowledge of
the glory of your face through the face of Jesus, through the
words of Christ, through the lives and death of the apostles. We thank you father. May your
gospel be proclaimed in our lives. And may your gospel be lived
and fulfilled in our deaths as we await our Savior from heaven,
Jesus Christ. Open our hearts, open our minds. In Jesus we pray. Amen. I have
to excuse my cough this morning. Well, there's much to remember,
as I've already said. Can somebody get me a cup of
water from there? Thank you. Because I can feel
a cough coming on. We closed out last week with
the peace of God. The peace of God being with us.
The peace of God that surpasses all understanding. This is something
that is incomprehensible. Because the Bible says that it's
incomprehensible, that it's beyond our human reason. There are many
opportunities for us to idealize and come up with ideas or philosophies
of what that means. We could consider the fact that
maybe there is just a there's a deeper relationship or a deeper
meaning that we must dig for. We must somehow somehow try to
find the hidden mystery of the incomprehensible piece of God.
But ultimately, ultimately, what we see, thank you, brother. Ultimately,
what we see. Is that? Thank you. is that it
is not comprehensible. It is not something that we should
be seeking to understand because it is not understandable in human
ways. It is not understandable with
human reason. The peace of God that surpasses
all understanding can only be seen and comprehended through
the Spirit. There's only an opportunity for
us to worship in the ineffable reality of God's mystery and
His peace. We closed this time last week
understanding that the peace of God is not something given
to us as a substance, but the reality of God's presence with
us, and that we as the people of God, who are now the body
of Christ, rest in a sovereign peace. I suggested it this way,
that what worries God? What troubles God? What bothers
God? Nothing! So in the same way that
as you are supreme and sovereign, over small things in your life. And something pops into my mind,
it's a very uncanny example, but I remember this very vividly
as a child. We were at some amusement park
somewhere, and I was with my father, probably around eight
years old, seven years old, and we're going into this ride, and
this ride was some kind of a haunted cave or monster haven or something
like that. I don't know why parents take
their children into such things. You know, and you enter into
the channel and you're going into this mouth of a dragon.
You know what I mean. I'm like, okay, we're about to be consumed
by this creature. So I was already horrified. I can't see anything
in there. And what you can see is what
they want you to see, which are these grotesque images of creatures
and monsters and goblins and witches and all sorts of things. It reminds you of people you
might know. And I'll never forget the fear that I had. And time
after time, I kept feeling something grab my arm and snatch. And what
the people were doing inside this haunted cave or whatever,
is that they could see, because they'd been in there a while,
and their eyes were acclimated to the dark. And they would just
take children's arms and sort of pull them, but not pull them
out, just scaring the daylights out of me. And finally, I felt
a hand come on my head, and I'm screaming and hollering. And
my dad says, son, it's okay. I know what they're doing. Don't
worry about it. So he draws me in, holds me really
close, and as these people's hands reach over, he would push
them away. He'd just knock them off. You know, now as a grown
man, and I look back on that, it's just a bunch of people in
rubber suits and furry gloves. He knew that! He knew that. He had supremacy over that situation.
He had all the knowledge of what was going on, and he knew there
was no real danger. There's a small picture. Much
like Augustine and his Trinitarian views we've been looking at on
Tuesday nights. You know, just philosophy, but small pictures,
just the same. God is not shaken or worried
about anything. And nothing happens and God goes,
I didn't see that coming. And so in the same way, the peace
that surpasses all understanding is that we are in Christ who
is sovereign. So as Christ is at peace, we
are at peace. And the application of that is
that we pray, entrusting our anxieties, entrusting our cares,
entrusting our fears, entrusting our lack of knowledge of what's
happening and how it's going to turn out to the one who does.
Much less we see in Peter's epistle where it talks about Jesus who
was reviled. Jesus was lied about. Jesus was
spat upon. Jesus was ridiculed. Jesus was
mocked. Jesus, the creator, the supreme
sovereign ruler of the universe, who from his mouth brought all
that is into existence. He became a man and lived in
this earth and suffered. The God-man from heaven. And
he was reviled. What better position did he have?
What right did he have to stand and stop these people's mouths
and say to them, I am your God, stop and be quiet. He had all
right. But he didn't. He did not return
revile with revile. He did not stand and affirm himself
as God. But he entrusted himself quietly
to the one who was faithful. So just as Jesus and His humanity
trusted God with His anxiety, so can we. For we are in Christ,
and Christ is in us. And the outcome of that type
of trust is joy. We rejoice with thanksgiving
that is beyond understanding. We rejoice, as Peter would even
say, with a joy that is inexpressible. We rejoice, and in doing so,
as you've seen in this text, that the God of heaven and the
peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard
your hearts and will guard your minds in Christ Jesus. We went
back to Peter again last week, I think, in reference to that,
that it shows us that we are kept, that we are secure. We
are guarded in heaven with Jesus Christ. Even though we are not
there yet, we are guarded in Him. No one can snatch us from
Him. And so in this, that there is
nothing that we can do in the depths of our desire to run from
Christ when we have been bought by Him, we have no longer, we
no longer have authority over our destiny because God in His
greatness has saved us. And He will guard our hearts
and minds. And in that, then He says that there are some things
that should be thought about. Do you ever think about what
you think about? Do you ever do that? Yeah, I
do too. A lot. And it's a frustrating
thing because if you think about what you think about, it's sort
of like looking at a mirror on the wall with a mirror behind
you. Am I looking at that reflection? Or that one? Or that one? Or that one? You ever done that?
Be careful. Because you can fall into this
weird weird mode of just thinking about everything. But friends,
we ought to think. We ought to think, and especially
when the Bible commands us as Christians to think, we ought
to think. What is this thinking? We've already seen Paul mention
this several times. He talked about having the mind
of Christ. He talked about all of these
realities that we have with discernment. Discriminating, having the ability
in our mind to think on what we see and make a judgment on
what we know should be. We ought to have wisdom. So we
ought to be thinking. The Scriptures replete with commands,
especially in the New Testament, to meditate on the Word of God.
To renew, what does Paul say to the Romans, to renew your
minds. It's the renewal of your minds
that give us, of our minds, that gives us the ability to be worshipful. To not be transformed or conformed
to the world, but to be transformed by what? The renewal of our minds. Then at the outcome of renewing
our minds on what? What Paul is about to say right
here. It's just a reiteration of that from a stoic perspective
so that these Philippians go, wait a minute, I've heard this.
Wow, Paul is showing us that the supremacy of God is invading
the truth of humanity. I'll show you that in a minute.
That even when men get it right, apart from God, it's God's fault.
God is supreme. But we ought to think about things.
We ought to think, finally think about these things. Think about
the peace of God. Think about that which I've written
to you. After all, has not God created language and writing
so that we could understand Him? Have we not learned eternal life
through the thinking and the response, the responsiveness
of what language does in our minds and our hearts? Have we
not been given the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
through the face of Christ who is revealed through the Word?
Do we not know how to worship because of what we've learned?
What does Paul say to the Ephesians? This is not how you've learned
Christ. Don't live and act this way because you haven't learned
Christ like this in your mind. But the world learns and then
creates a new Christ. The world learns and contemplates
and thinks and creates a new God. The world, as he would say
to the Galatians, has bewildered you. Because they brought to
you a new creative gospel. A gospel that merges Judaism
and Christ. A gospel that merges worldliness
and Christ. A gospel that says, oh, you can
have your cake and eat it too. You can be sure on both counts.
It's like one gentleman I met years ago who was a Christian,
Orthodox, Jew-Buddhist. He practiced all of it. Being cynical and sarcastic just
sort of comes natural for me. I said, well, do you brush your
teeth and clean the toilet at the same time? I mean, you're pretty talented.
What? And I offended him. I said, I'm
sorry, I don't mean to make a joke. He said, but how do you do it?
These things are mutual. Well, I just want to make sure.
I'm going to believe in them all. And these three make sense
to me, so I'm going to believe in them all. That the God of
Abraham, and then this Jesus guy, and then this Zen stuff,
just in case. This Nirvana, this, what's all
this stuff? Just in case. We're just going to do it all.
I'm like, it doesn't work that way. We can't just decide we're
going to believe just in case. You can't get saved just in case.
You can't believe just in case. You can't try Jesus. You can't
say a prayer and then all of a sudden you just think, because
you've commanded God to save you, He will. That's blasphemy.
Many people confess Christ. In John chapter 2, the end of
that chapter, most of everyone believed in Christ, but Jesus
knew they were liars. They thought they weren't. Nicodemus
was one of those. And he confessed Christ as the
one come from God. And Jesus says, you can't see
me. Except you be born from the Father. How can I be born? Are you not the teacher of all
Israel? And yet you don't understand
these things. Friends, you must be born of Christ. You must be born of God. And
when you are, Your thinking has changed. Your mind has transformed. But the idea of repentance in
its core meaning is a change of mind. Did you know that? We got it backwards. I'm just
going to stop doing all this bad stuff. And I've repented.
No, you have not! You can love these things and
not do them, you have not repented. For your love of things that
are not Christ is idolatry, which is sin. If your mind is not hostile
toward sin, you have not repented. We have not repented. I'm not
preaching to you, I'm talking with you. It is about a mind change. It is about a heart change. And
only God can do it. Only Christ and His Word can
transform you. Only the power of the Gospel
can make your mind change. What does it look like when your
mind changes? Well, we don't think on earthly
things. Paul's already mentioned it. There are those... Listen,
friends, when we think on earthly things, what does John say? We
do not have the love of God in us. Now, it doesn't mean that
we don't have the love of God in us this moment. It's not to
say that we as Christians won't have a momentary lapse of wisdom
and belief. But our spirit is not at peace
with that. We reject that. We repent of
that. Our minds don't like it. Our
bodies don't want it, though it is there always tempting us.
We don't want that which is unholy. We hate our sin. We hate it. If we don't hate our sin, Christ
isn't in us. He cannot be in us. We cannot
be His. To say that Christ is with us
and we do not hate our sin is to say that Christ loves our
sin and that Christ is powerless against it. You see what's happening
here? You see what's happening with
these Philippian Christians? He's showing them, he's already
shown them, now he's showing them again the reality of the
gospel in their hearts. That there are those who think
about the world and who long for the world and who minister
in a worldly way because of what they want in their flesh, their
pride. What if it's just this? What if it's just a pastor that
wants to see his church grow real big? And he thinks with everything
in him that it's glorifying to God, but ultimately when he lays
down, he feels good because he's got reputation. His belly is his God and destruction
is his end. Listen to that church. Just because
these people over in Philippians chapter one preach the right
gospel does not mean they were of Christ. Destruction is their end. That's why you see some men,
when they see the reality of their pride, they step aside
for a season to work on that sin. When they come into a conference
and people clap for them and then they just don't preach that
day because it ruins their heart. They're enemies of the cross.
When our minds are set on earthly things, we're enemies of the
cross. Friends, you and I are not enemies of the cross if we
are in Christ. But if we're not in Christ, if we live in this
world, if we live in unbelief, we're enemies of the cross of
Christ. We do damage to the gospel if we stay around the church
and live like the world. We do damage to the testimony
of grace when we remain amongst God's people, but we live like
the world. Like cancer in the hand, as much as we need our
hand, we don't need to die because of it. So is the same way for
unbelievers who are part of the church, who are part of the proximity
of the church, who live in rebellious sin, public sin, knowing willful
sin. And none of us can say we're
without sin or we would be telling a lie, according to John. But
we walk in the light. We strive for holiness. We love
that which is good. And we'll see now what Paul is
coming to. We need to think. We need to
think because what we think informs our mind and what we talk about
to ourselves. That's what thinking really is,
isn't it? It's a schizophrenic endeavor. There's this little me inside
of me that talks to the real me inside of me. And then the
me outside of me does some things because of that. See, that's
three people. Now we're like Justin Martyr,
some of his theology. We do that, we think. And what
are we going to think on? What we put into our brains is
actually going to meditate into our conscience. Our consciences are going to
think about that which we feed it. And so if we put in, it's
like in the very beginning days of computer programming, One
of the first terms that I remember learning in the fifth grade,
sixth grade, is gigo. Isn't that what you said, Dr.
Queller? Garbage in, garbage out. That's what it stands for.
So you put some junky code in the computer, some junky stuff
happens. Now that's some old, I don't
even think they use those languages anymore that I used to learn.
Maybe C++ or BASIC. But if you put some junk down
on paper, you put some junk down in the code, all you're going
to get is garbage coming out. If you put the world in your
mind, all that's going to be there is the world to come out.
If you put false truth, all there is is false truth. If you put
ill relationships, if you put lust, if you put pride, if you
put anger, if you put self-esteem, all that there is in there to
come out is that. But if you think on heavenly things, there
is heaven. If you think on glorious things, there is glory. I've
always argued that we cannot do and give and be that which
we do not have to offer. We cannot give what we do not
possess. And if we want to give truth,
we must possess truth. If we want to have the mind of
Christ, then we must absorb the truth of Christ. But the reality
is that Paul's already said that we who are in Christ have the
mind of Christ. You know how that's shown? Is that we have
a hunger for Christ, resulting in a hunger for his word, resulting
in a hunger for his body. We want to be a people. That
focuses on thinking about Christ. that we get to become what so
many so-called Christians would say are radical Christians. To
which I would answer, we are normal Christians. When Christ
and the contemplation of Christ is always on our minds, in everything
that is normal, that is healthy, That is pure. That is true. How do you turn an eternal God's
voice off in your head? You don't. How do you turn the conviction,
the draw, the discipline, the pressing, the power of the Spirit
who is God away? You can't. When you are His,
you can quench it. But you know how you have to
do that? That's a willful, willful thing,
not going to listen. That's like sticking our finger
in the face of God. And in the context of where Paul
would say, do not quench the Spirit, it's in the context of
being angry with each other. That we would rather tend more
time and focus thinking on our feelings and our hurt and the
dareness of the boldness of that person to do something or say
something toward us than we would the fact that we have sinned
against Christ and he has forgiven us. The heart and the mind must think. And the mind of Christ thinks
on that which is eternal. Not one time in the Gospels do
we ever see Jesus taking glory for himself. Not one time in
the Gospels do we ever see, even in his temptation, that he ever
lost sight of his purpose and his mission. Friends, listen
to this. Not one time in the entire New Testament do we see
Jesus failing in his priorities of putting the Father and the
glory of God first. He perfectly revealed His mind. And His mind is a perfect reflection
of His heart, what His affections are, and vice versa. Jesus Himself would say, out
of the overflow of the heart, what? The mouth speaks. Friends, the mouth doesn't speak
if the mind, well, that's probably not true for all of us, isn't
engaged. We know that which we are saying
and we hold to it. Much like my grandmother used
to always say, a drunk man can tell no lies. I disagree with
that. But in the sense that I think
she meant it is that when people's inhibitions are let down, they'll
tell you things they never intended to say about true things. And they'll confess stuff that
they never intended to confess. because their heart is overflowing
from their mouth. Their mind is being revealed
by the ears, by what's going out to the ears of the people
around them. Friends, what is it that our lives display? What
is it that our mouths portray? What is it that our hearts love?
What are we showing the world? Christ. The flesh is Endowed with fear,
doubt, hurt, anxiety, plans, hopes, dreams, commitments, and
worldly wisdom. But God's plans, God's peace,
the power of Christ is so far beyond extraordinary. It's so
far above all of the things that our flesh could muster. Even
when we are striving in the smallest detail to honor Christ with that
which we desire and purpose and plan. Friends, it is still falling
so short from God's glory that there is no measurable way to
explain it. but the peace of God that surpasses
all comprehension. This peace produces the results
of things that the flesh cannot do. In context, we see these
two missionary women who work with Paul amongst others who
are having problems, and Paul says to them, it's over. You will reconcile now. There it is. It's over. That's
the answer. Why? Because you have the mind
of Christ. You have unity in the faith. You can pray with
thanksgiving. Quit worrying about your personal
petty preferences. Quit worrying about your personal
pain. Quit worrying about how she's offended you and you've
offended you. If you aren't forgiving, you're still wrong even when
you've been harmed. How do we do that? We can't accept
that Christ is in us. And our minds are set on the
eternity that He's promised and sealed for us. And our minds
are focused on Christ beyond and above all things. Friends,
it really is a supernatural thing. But it does require some discipline.
I mean, look at this text. Finally, brothers, whatever is
true, Honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, if anything,
excellent, if anything, worthy of praise. What's the command?
Think on these things. So, brothers, finally, think
on these things. And practice these things. You
see those two commands? So we've got to think on these
things and practice these things. Well now, here is where we get
bogged down. And this particular text right
here is one of those things that leaves itself open to incredible
interpretation. What in the world is Paul talking
about? Because if we are to look at
things objectively in the Word of God, then we should look at
them that way. But I would suggest to you that
it's going to sound contrary to what we know is true. We ought
to be looking at things subjectively in the Word of God and through
the subject lens of Paul. What did Paul mean? Not what
do we mean. Not subjectively from our point
of view, but we objectively look at the subjective responses of
Paul. We look and see exactly what
Paul meant. Who was he talking to? What's
the purpose of his writing? Why in the world would he have
this occasion in the first place? We've gone through that. We understand
everything that's going on in Paul's life. Everything that's
going on in Philippi. It's turmoil. Paul and Silas
have been in prison in Philippi. When they planted the church,
and beaten, and the chains fell off, and the Roman guard came
to faith, and all this stuff happened. Then they left. And
then he's in prison again. In Acts chapter 20, if you read
the farewell sort of speech to the people of Ephesus from Paul,
you see that he says, I don't know what's going to happen to
me, but God has told me that every town that I go in, I will
suffer imprisonment. He knew his prison ministry was
the only thing he was ever going to have. And it was only through
the prison ministry that he had time to write. And so I would
suggest to you that is, that's one of the great benefits to
us that we see Paul by the hand of Christ being imprisoned. Christ
put him there, not my words his. I've been imprisoned because
of Christ. So, if we're to look at these things, we need to say,
what is this? Where are these things going? What is pure? What is true? Do you see these
things? Do you understand them? Or are
you looking and saying, well, because some people think it's
honorable to be promiscuous. Some people say they believe
that there is excellence in selfishness. Hedonism. Looking after one's
own self-interest or objectivism. Let me be a hedonist. And I will
help others as long as it helps me. That's what the Scripture
calls out. It's wrong. But yet, sometimes,
yes. Tell you what, let me finish
this and we'll talk about it. The word is powerful, sister. Excellence, noteworthy, praiseworthy,
noble, true. Pure. How do we know what these
things are? How do we define them? We don't.
God has defined them already. Paul has defined them already.
And friends, when we start looking in this, Paul is saying to think
about these things. Think about the culture. Think
about the virtues. Think about that which you know.
And he lists these things. Now, interestingly enough, listen
very carefully because this is important. Paul is listing these things
and he's not listed them anywhere else in Scripture. As a matter
of fact, three of them, the words are never used again in Scripture.
But if you were to go to the Stoic writings, to the Greek
philosophers of the, I don't know, 3 B.C., you would see this exact list.
I want you to hear it. It blows your mind, hey friends,
Paul and Peter both use Assyriac, Byzantinian, they use all sorts
of different texts. We saw in Titus, Titus uses some
odd books that aren't even scripture. It's like using a cultural reference
to bring home a point. And Paul is using these references
here and he's taking them over. He said, all you people know,
just like Paul does to the Corinthians, you say, everything is permissible. But I say. Because that was the
word of the day. Whatever. Everything's okay.
And the Christians of that day had taken that phrase and said,
Christ is gracious, everything's okay. And Paul says, that's silly. Everything's not okay. Everything's
not okay. Everything's not worth doing
because it must be honorable. It must be pure. It must be true.
They're not beneficial for Christ. They're not beneficial for you.
You've got to learn that which is true. And so, if you went
and you looked, if you understood the Stoics, Stoicism would say
that destructive emotions, stinking thinking, created poor judgment
and bad wisdom. They felt that the natural balance
and harmony of the universe must be maintained, that the best
way to maintain it is for everybody to live by a moral standard.
That's what the Stoics believed. And this is some of the lists
of things that they themselves would write. Now let me show
you what Paul is using. Was Paul preaching Stoicism?
No, Paul is rebuking Stoicism by using Stoicism. That's Paul's
evangelistic efforts. Paul's expression, I mean, he
went to the Aragopolis, Snuffleupagus. He went there in Greece, in Athens. He went there and he walked in
front of the philosophers and he showed them all of their gods.
Most of our evangelistic efforts would be, let's go down there
and take a hammer and break all the false gods and rebuke it. Jesus did that with the Jews
Not with the world Paul did that with the Jews not
with the Greeks Paul never preached against the Greeks By belittling
them now listen Paul would look at what they did believe and
say man You're without excuse didn't he say that the Romans?
You got the answers. You know, you got the answers.
The problem is that you keep on trying to add to the answer.
And I'm going to tell you the answer. The answer is this unknown
God right here. The one whom you put here first,
the one that calls you to create all the other ones that you had.
You said, who is this God that we know? Who is this God that
we know exist? We don't know this. Oh, this
sounds good. That sounds good. So the unknown God is the first
one. And he says, you should have stopped here. And let me
tell you who he is. His name is Jesus Christ. And he created
this world and he came to this world and he came to the womb
of the woman he created and he became a man and he was still
all God and he was all man at the same time. And he lived the
life that was required of each of us. And if you believe that. If you trust in him. And you
know what he did. Not only did he live a holy life,
but he was put to death by the will of God the Father. So that
in his life he would be worthy of dying a death that he did
not deserve to pay for your sins. To pay for the idolatry of all
of these false gods. So that you could live And not
only did He die, but He was raised to life, and He's alive today,
and He's ascended into heaven, and He waits for you. And by
faith, you believe on Christ, and you have eternal life, you
have understanding. This is the God of heaven. And
it said many, many grumbled against Him, but some were intrigued. They wanted to know about this
God who died and came to life. In the same way Paul would argue
with the philosophers of Athens, he also would argue with the
Greek people of Philippi. Listen, you are amongst a culture
who hates you. Listen to this now. And these
very people who are doing this stuff to you aren't even living
by their own moral code. But they know it! They know they
ought to think about what's true. They know they ought to think
about what's noble, right, pure. Is it pure to lock you up because
you believe on Christ? Is it noble? Is it worthy? Is
it admirable? No, they're not even living by
their own moral standards. But you know that these standards
are still also in place for us. For they came from God, not from
these men. No one is without excuse. The
law of God is carved into our consciences because we are made
in His image. We know what is right. We know
what is wrong. We know. We know we are condemned
by the holy justice of God because we are sinners from birth. We
know that we are fallen. And the only thing that keeps
us from, well, is unbelief. Unbelief keeps us from seeing
that. Rejection of truth through unrighteousness. Paul says it. You suppress the
truth. You know what's right. You know
you're supposed to walk holy. And none of these people are
walking holy. But don't throw out what they know is good because
they know it's good. And I'm in the middle of a pretty
intense situation with a person who believes in a false religion.
A world religion, an eastern religion. And my comment to him this morning.
Was you're not even you're not even living out your own faith,
well. You must not believe in Dharma. You must not believe in balance,
because if you did, you wouldn't be doing these things. As the
world knows, they know. They create their own system
of understanding how to bring it. And ultimately the Stoics
said, if you followed all these things, you'd find true happiness.
But they never did. But Paul argues differently.
Paul says, if the world is labored, they will never find joy. You
must know this and think about these things. Listen. We are
to see what we see in this world that is evil. And we are to recognize
and give praise to God for that which is good. even when it comes
from wickedness. If people stand in opposition
to that which is sinful, even when they're saying and doing
things wrongly, we don't condemn the actions or the attitude,
but we can say, that is good that we should stand in this
way. That is good that we should stand. You see people today,
when people are being beaten on the street, you know what
they do? They film it. Where's the day where people would run
in, you were scared to death to get into a fight, especially
someone weaker, because you know all the guys standing on the
street would take you home to the shed. Now they're going,
ooh, you too. And there's a problem because
as long as the world exists, it's going to get worse and worse
and worse because God is going to continue to allow these unbelievers
to suppress the truth through their unrighteousness and then
He will turn them over, what He says in Romans 1, to a reprobate
mind, to do that which is unnatural, which is to sin against God.
Unnatural to sin against God. So think about these things.
Learn what is good in the world and praise God for that which
He is already planting in the hearts of people. But ultimately, we know the other
part of that is that Paul would never put power or a position
of authority in philosophy. He takes it and he snatches it
from him. He says, look, this is in Christ alone. And he says that these things,
knowing Christ brings this peace, not doing these things, not walking
with purity, doesn't bring you peace. Knowing Christ who walks
you in purity brings you peace. Because how do you walk in purity
when you've already been impure? How do you walk in truth when
you've already been alive? How do you think on things that are
excellent when you've already ruined your reputation? How do
you have praise in your lips when you've already cursed God?
How do you do all these? Because Christ restores you. He sets you up to His right side. You sit with Him in the heavenly
places. You are equal to Him in brilliance. Listen! Because
His brilliance is how you shine. You are equal to Him in righteousness
because His righteousness is yours. And one day, though we
struggle in this world, the Scripture says He will come from heaven
and He will make us pure forever. No more guilt, no more sin, no
more temptation to do either. So let's look at this list for
a moment in closing. Whatever is true, What is true? Well, there's a lot of things
that people say are true. But in Corinthians 1, chapter
13, verse 16, I think, it says that all truth is God's truth. So that which is true belongs
to God. That which is not is a lie and
doesn't belong to Him. Friends, even when charlatans
who hate Paul and wanted to see him suffer preached the trueness
of God, God's truth came from their mouths even though they
didn't belong to Him. Don't you hear that? What is true? It calls for discernment,
to look at everything we see, we think about these things.
What is true? If what I hear right now, is this true? Is what
you're hearing from my mouth true? How do you know? Because
I use emphasis? Because there's zeal? Because
I have a position of authority, a little plastic thing? Microphone,
I can talk louder than everybody else. Is that how you know it's
true? No. You need to discriminate what
you hear, and you need to look at the infallible truth of God's
Word, and you need to discern if what I'm saying is true or
not. The reality then would be that the Spirit of God would
give you the wisdom to know the difference. So think about what is true.
Everything. Think about what is true. Whatever
is true, think about whatever is honorable, noble, right, pure,
lovely, admirable. What do these things mean? Honorable,
noble. We hear that word used all through
the New Testament. All through the Old Testament.
What is a Proverbs 31 woman? A noble woman, an honorable woman. It talks about men of honor. Paul gives instruction to Timothy
about being honorable and noble. Having that reputation of doing
what is right and standing above the rest. Not in a self-righteous
haughtiness, but in a humility. Think about that which is right.
What comes to mind in that? Righteous. What is righteous? Everything that is righteous
is just. Justice is righteous. Holiness is righteous. So we
ought to think on these things. What is right? What is pure? What are we to watch? Who are
we to look at? Christ is our righteousness.
Christ is our hope. Christ is our justice. And we
ought to think about these things. Whatever is pure, what does that
mean? Well, in a pure sense, no pun
intended. You can't use a pun in the same
word. In a pure sense, Things that
are morally above reproach. Think about what is moral. Think
about what is above reproach. But it's not just the worldly
way of reproach or morality. It's the wisdom of Christ that
is pure. What is truly pure? His name
is Jesus. There is nothing else. I'm not
talking about the creation. But there is no other person
that has ever walked this world that has ever been pure. Adam
and Eve for just a few minutes. And Christ forever. Think on
these things. What is blameless? That's a better
word for pure in some sense. Purity is used. We ought to think
purely. We ought to walk in purity. We
ought to have pure thoughts and pure actions. We ought to have
pure motives. We see these things in the New
Testament. We ought to have blameless motives. We can't be called into
question. We can't be in a sense where what we're doing and how
we're engaging and how we're thinking and what we're loving
can be called into question. Oh, you're doing this because
of something you're going to get. No, it's got to be pure. Christ did
not do what He did for His benefit. He did what He did for the glory
of the Father and to ransom a people who could not come to Him otherwise. What about lovely? Admirable? What is lovely? You know, the only time this
word is used in the New Testament is right here. Lovely. And it translates in
some sense, pleasing, agreeable, desirable, delightful, pleasurable. What is pleasurable to us? For
the mind of Christ, what is pleasurable? Is the Word of God pleasurable?
Is holiness pleasurable? Is peace with each other pleasurable?
Is forgiveness pleasurable? Is hope pleasurable? Yes! Think
on these things! Think on these things that are
pure! Not hate, destruction, pity, depression. Think on life,
hope, joy, glory, power, supremacy. What does he mean? Okay, so I'm
supposed to just think about these things, and if I affirm
in my mind these things, my mind will change? No, you can think
about them all you want to, but if you're not in Christ, this
thinking will not produce any change. Because we won't be able
to filter what Paul means by them. We won't be able to look
and say, is this pure? And friends, this is a very touchy
position because a lot of times it makes us want to fall into
two categories. Either, oh, this is just legalism.
No one said anything about walking right makes you right with God. That's what legalism is, is that
if I do these things, I will honor God. No, you can't honor
God even when you do them. They're honorable to God if He's
the author of them. Where do you get that? Ephesians
2, verse 10. 8, 9, and 10. For by grace you are saved through
faith. This is not of your own doing,
but a gift from God that no one should boast. For you are God's
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, to think
on truth, noble, rightness, purity, lovely, excellent, praiseworthy
things. which were created by God beforehand for you to walk
in. John 3 at the end of the discourse
with Nicodemus. The light is shining, but people love the
darkness. They don't love what is true,
what is pure, what is light. I am the light that came into
the world, John would tell us. Jesus would say. But people love the darkness
rather than me, because their works are evil. Because when
you step into the light, you sing for what you are. And if you
step into the light because you are thinking on good things and
you're honorable and pure and righteous, you step into the
light so that people go, wow, look at what God is doing! Not
look at what you've done. That's what the Bible is teaching
us. So what does it mean to give
careful thought about these things? Think about these things. Give
careful thought. Give disciplined focus. Give
measurable discrimination. Make evaluation every moment. Is this music good for me? Is
this message good for me? Is this meal good for me? Are
these things worthy of praise? Are they excellent? The word
here in excellence is not used anywhere else in the Greek. And
it actually translates identically to excellent character. Think
on things that are excellent for your character. Why? Because
they're a display of the power of Christ. What is good for you
to do? Civic virtue is another way of
looking at it. How do you live amongst the people
of God? And how does the world around
you see you? Hasn't he already told us that?
Look at me, follow me, identify with me. Look and see how I act
and live. And I'm following Christ, so
follow Christ and follow me as I follow Christ. Follow the apostles. Paul just said that. And he's
going to say it again. Look at verse 9. What you've
learned, What you've learned thus far, what you've learned
today, what you know is true, what the Spirit of God is saying
in your heart is true. These are the things that you
must want. Practice. Have you learned about faith?
Have you learned about hope in Christ? Have you learned about
forgiveness in Jesus Christ? Have you learned about your own
guilt before God? Have you learned about your inability
to walk right with God except in Christ? Have you learned these
things? Then practice them. Practice your faith. Live it
out by resting in the assurance of Jesus Christ. by trusting
that Christ alone is the only hope you have, that what He did
and who He is is absolutely sure and certain in the context of
this Word, and that only by His work and only by His life and
only by His Word are you able to stand before God and say,
you are forgiven. Or for Him to say, you are forgiven. Give careful thought to these
things. What you've learned and what you've received, what you've
heard and what you've seen in me. Listen to this, church. Practice these things. Practice these things. Now this is a place where we
can find ourselves falling into another trap that we'll just
get up from our seats today And we will begin to start making
affirmations that we'll walk in certain ways. Be very careful. Not that that's bad. But don't assume that these practices
will set you right with God. Hear me, beloved. Hear me. We cannot earn salvation We cannot
work toward righteousness. We cannot hope in our efforts. And we cannot say, I know that
I have eternal life because I love things that are pure. But we
can say, oh God, walk and work in me these things as I trust
in you. And when I fail you, you are
faithful. Turn me from these sins. Turn
my mind away from the love of these things. Help me, lead me
to forgiveness, lead me to hope, lead me to a promise that only
you can fulfill. Live in Christ. My prayer is that as you think
about these things, that you recognize that justice and righteousness
and holiness, as I've said and will say again, is only in Christ
Jesus. Let us close with this particular
verse in our minds. In chapter 2, verse 5, he says,
Have this mind among you, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who
though he was in the form of God, did not count his equality
with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing. taking
the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of men, and being
found in humanity or human form, he humbled himself by becoming
obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore
God has highly exalted him and bestowed upon him the name that
is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every
tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. So beloved, believe in Jesus
Christ. Put your faith in Christ today
alone. Nothing else, not even your faith. You do not put your faith in
your faith. You put your faith in Christ. I have eternal life
because Christ in his mercy saved me through his life and through
his death and has promised me eternal life through the resurrection
of himself from the dead. And that power is mine in Christ. Believe it. Hold to it. Rest in it. Let's pray. Lord, there is no word. There's
no way. That we can answer our own questions.
There's no hope among the collective mind of our wisdom. There's no
strength in the power of our resolve. There's only strength
in the cross of Christ. For on the cross, your son died
to pay our debt to you. So that as he cried, it is finished. There was no longer anything
we could do. Not that there was before. But
there is no longer a debt owed to you. Because Christ has paid
it. Father, strengthen our hearts.
Guard them from this worldly way. Guard our hearts, Father,
with your peace through Jesus Christ alone. from the flesh,
from temptation. Guard our minds, Lord, as You've
promised, as we rejoice and praise You for Your glorious grace.
If nothing ever, ever else leaves our lips, let it be rejoicing.
Let it be thanksgiving. As we pray for You, Father, pray
to You, Father, for all that we need, mostly for the joy that
comes in Christ alone. So, Father, your spirit is among
us. You are in us. You are with us. You are near. So work into us salvation that
can only be yours, only for your glory. That all may believe in
your son, Jesus, and it's in his name we pray.