Open your Bibles to the book
of Philippians chapter 4. We're going to continue in verse
8. Today, Lord willing, we're finished verse 8. Spent the last
three weeks. This will be the third week on
it, simply because there's so much packed into this little
verse. It's very much good instruction for we who are the people of
God to think upon these things, because in this world there's
a lot that crowds our minds, a lot of different things. we can easily be distracted from
the things of the Lord, all of us, we all have that trouble with the flesh. And these
are just some things the Holy Spirit has set before us for
us to think about and ponder, meditate upon. And I was talking
to someone this week, who was it? I was talking to someone
who's a young believer, and And I was saying, you know, it's
okay to meditate on things. They had come out of like Easter
and meditation and all that. And I said, meditation is not
a bad thing, depending on what you're meditating upon. Because
the scripture tells us to meditate on the word of God and to meditate
upon the things of Christ. And when it says think upon these
things, it's just to really contemplate them, to really roll them around
in our minds, which is just, That's true meditation, right?
You're just thinking upon something. So, as we read this verse in
the context, let us remember that this is an exhortation by
the Holy Spirit of God for us to keep these things before us. And they all have their center
in Christ. all of them find their perfection
in Christ too as well. Let's read this Philippians chapter
4 verses 5 to 9. Let your moderation be known
unto all men the Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing but in
everything by prayer and supplications with thanksgiving. Let your requests
be made known unto God. in the peace of God, which passes
all understanding. So keep your hearts and minds
through Christ Jesus. Here's our text. 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 a good report, if there be
any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things which ye have learned
and received and heard and seen in me do. And the God of peace
shall be with you. So look at that. He tells us
here at the latter part we're going to be looking at if there
be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things.
And again, as we've been looking through this verse, we see that
they all find their center in Christ, and also too, they reflect
the gospel as well. The good report, the best report
is the gospel, right? And remember, who is the gospel
all about? It's all about Christ. So again, it finds its center,
right? Honest, the gospel is an honest
report, isn't it? It's true. It's something great
to think upon, because the gospel is about a person. It's about
the Lord Jesus Christ. Just like salvation's in a person,
it's in the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation's not in what we do,
salvation's what He's done. I was listening to Tom Harding
last night on Ephesians, because we're getting ready to go there.
And he was saying, true saving faith, it looks outside of itself.
It looks to God. It looks to Christ. When we were
in religion, when I was in religion, it was looking in still. No,
we look out to Christ. We look at what He's done. And
it's wonderful. It's a total opposite, isn't
it? It's a total opposite. And isn't it amazing? I was pondering
this as I was putting this message together. Isn't it amazing that
that we sinners who once had no desire to worship God, we
had no desire to praise God, now we praise God. Now we praise
Christ. Isn't that amazing? That's amazing,
isn't it? And it's only because we're born
again. We'd be given faith to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, but isn't it amazing? Now, we may
have even attended church for years. I know Karen said, you
know, she sat under Scott Richardson for years, years, and never heard
anything. Until one day she heard, by the
grace of God. So whether we're out in the world
living a life of riotous sin, or whether we were in church,
right? Both were dead in trespasses
and sins, right? There's no difference. People
think, oh, they were a notorious sinner. Well, you can be a notorious
sinner sitting in a church pew and not be saved. Because it's what, it, when we,
when we grasp the depths of our sin, oh my, isn't it wonderful
God in Christ paid for it all? Isn't it wonderful? It's wonderful. And isn't it amazing that God
has given we who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ faith, which
now enables us to praise him? We had no faith. We may have
sang worship songs, or if we were growing up in church, we
may have sang songs, but they didn't mean anything. But now
they mean something, don't they, Sister Carol? Now they mean something. Now they're wonderful. Because they praise our King.
And think of this. We who had no desire to worship
Him, now only want to worship Him. We want to be with God's people.
We want to praise Christ. That's a miracle of grace, beloved.
Look what God's done, right? Again, look at what God's done.
And we will say, Lord, look what you've done. Look, you've done
this, Lord. You've done this. You've turned this rebel into
a praiser now. You've done it. It's all of you.
Praise your mighty name. My. And I've often thought of
this because I was one who used to use his name in vain to my
shame. Now I praise him. That's amazing. That's amazing. You know, even that scripture,
I remember my mom using this as a curse, but the scripture
says that we're saved for Christ's sake. People use that in vain. And here we are now saying, we're
saved for Christ's sake. Isn't that amazing? That's amazing. And we're not cussing when we
say that, we're amazed. And that's what it says in Ephesians,
that God saved us for Christ's sake. That's incredible. And
now the name we once cursed, we praise, we worship, we adore
him. It's absolutely incredible. Oh, now we sing praises to him. Look what God's done. Today we'll look at the last
two things brought forth in Philippians chapter 4, which we are to think
upon while we journey through this world. This is things that
will help us daily, hourly. Let's read verse 8 once again.
And let's remember that as we read these things again, I'm
going to bring forth that these things find their center in Christ.
That's the key. They find their center in Christ.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things
are honest, whatsoever things are just, he's a just one, isn't
he? Oh my, it's just amazing. Whatsoever things are pure, He's
the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. Let's go back. True. He's
the Word incarnate. Whatsoever things are honest.
He never lied. He's perfect. He's sinless. All
right? Whatsoever things are just. Whatsoever
things are pure. Whatsoever things are lovely.
Oh, he's altogether lovely to the believer. Whatsoever things
are of a good report. The gospel is a wonderful report
because it reports about Christ the Savior. Isn't that wonderful?
If there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on
these things. So today we'll be looking at the last thing
brought forth in this verse, if there be any praise or any
virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things. Now, we see that we are to think upon
that which has virtue. The Greek word for this is defined
as excellence. Excellence. Who is the most excellent one?
The Lord Jesus Christ, isn't it? He's the epitome of excellence. He's sinless, he's spotless.
And think of this, Brother Brian, there's nothing more excellent
than Christ, is there? Nothing even comes close, does
it? Right? Nothing even comes close
to the excellency of Christ. Oh my. So all those things find
their center in Christ that are listed in verse 8. And I ask
you again, is there anything more excellent than Christ to
contemplate, to think upon? You see how the scripture just
heads us right in to Christ? Now in religion, they say, well,
you got to do these things. Well, no, I find all those in
Christ. Is it not a joy for us to meditate
upon Christ? It is, isn't it? It's wonderful. It's wonderful. Turn, if you
would, to 1 Peter. 1 Peter. The same word is translated
praises over in 1 Peter. But again, it means excellence.
Excellence. 1 Peter 2, verses 9 and 10. The same Greek word over here
is translated praises. Verses 9 and 10. But ye are a
chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people,
that ye should show forth the praises, that's the Greek word
there, excellencies, of him who hath called you out of darkness
into marvelous light. which in times past were not
a people, but are now a people of God, which had not obtained
mercy, but now have obtained mercy." Now I'm going to read
you this verse. I'm going to read you verse 9
in the Greek literal Bible. Listen to this. They don't have
praises there. but they do have the word in
the Greek that it means. I had to put this in, this is
beautiful. But ye are a chosen race, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so you may
proclaim the excellencies of the one, having called you out
of darkness into his marvelous light. The excellencies. Do we not proclaim the excellencies
of Christ? Do we not praise the excellencies
of Christ? He redeemed us with his blood.
We're sanctified in him. It's wonderful. We're justified
in him. These are excellencies of Christ.
It's wonderful. And in the Greek it says praise,
in the King James it says praises of him. In the Greek literal
it says excellencies of the one. So they take him and turn it
to one. Meaning there's only one worthy
of our praises. Isn't that wonderful? That's
why I had to include this for us. Because it's so wonderful.
It's so wonderful. So in the Greek literal, the
word one is actually capitalized. So it says there, that you may
proclaim the excellency of the one, capitalized. There's only
one. Isn't that wonderful? There's only one. Instead of
him, there's only one. There's only one God-man, isn't
there? Just one. There's only one who
is God in the flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ. There's only one
who can save sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, Sister
Dee. Isn't that wonderful? Oh my.
And so the one who is excellent is the Lord Jesus Christ. And
it's he who's called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.
And the gospel of Christ is an excellent thing to think upon,
too, isn't it? The gospel proclaims that God himself has saved a
people. God himself. The Word of God willingly left
heaven to save our soul, sister. Willingly. Willing. Sent by the Father and
willingly come. And it proclaims the excellent
one, doesn't it? The Lord Jesus Christ. There's
no one compared to him. He's incomparable. He's the excellent
one. Nothing compares to him. And the gospel of Christ is a
virtue or an excellent thing to think upon. Let us ponder.
Let us ponder forth. that the excellent one, the sinless,
spotless lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnated
in flesh, how the gospel tells us of how he came to this world
and fulfilled the law of God perfectly and made it honorable
in the room and place of his people. That's incredible. But
then it gets even more incredible, doesn't it? The wrath that was
due us, sister, fell upon our king. willingly. And not just ours, all the elect
of all the ages. And he bore it all. He paid everything
God demanded. So everything, everything that
a sinner needs is found in Christ. It's amazing. And we just look
to him by God-given faith, don't we? After we're born again. We
find out, Christ redeemed me 2,000 years ago, and we're never
the same again. Isn't that wonderful? It's so incredible. How he died in the ruined place
of his people, redeeming us. How did he redeem us? By giving
his life, by shedding his blood for us, as our substitute. And the gospel brings forth how
the Lord Jesus Christ, by his perfect life, wove a coat of
righteousness for us. And in Romans, Paul writes that
the righteousness of God is revealed in the preaching of the gospel.
Well, who's the righteousness of God? It's Christ. Isn't that
wonderful? So the gospel reveals Christ,
proclaims Christ. It's wonderful. And it brings
forth that, again, by his perfect life and his substitutionary
death and his substitutionary life, he has completely provided
all that the church needs for salvation. And all that we need from the
time we're born to the time we go home. All our sins are paid for. He
takes care of us and watches over us the whole time. And then
He lovingly brings us home. It's absolutely amazing. Absolutely
amazing. In Philippians, look a little
bit further down in Philippians 4. This is bought forth in verse
19. But my God shall supply all your
need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. Now,
of course, false preachers will grab that and say, look, you
got to name it and claim it. It's not talking about worldly
riches. Worldly riches fade away. Worldly things fade away, right?
They're all temporary. What's eternal? Salvation in
Christ. Justification in Christ. Redemption
by Christ. And what do we need? We need
all those things. We need the law to be fulfilled
in our room and place, don't we? And that's why Paul writes
in Ephesians 1-3 that all spiritual blessings are found in Christ.
God supplied all our need, didn't he? My oh my. Isn't that amazing? And we may be down and out sometimes,
but the Scripture says the Lord's people won't be beggars. We may
be low sometimes in what the world looks at, but we'll not
be beggars. He always takes care of His people.
Always. My, oh my. But more importantly,
He supplies all our spiritual needs. Physical needs and spiritual
needs are total opposites. We all have physical needs and
we all have spiritual needs. But Christ provides all the physical
needs for the whole world, right? Saved and unsaved. And then for
his people, he supplies all our spiritual needs. It's amazing. Turn, if you would, to Luke chapter
10. Again, what's the one thing needful for sinners? Salvation.
To be saved from our sins. People say, well, they'll be
saved from hell. Well, hell's just, hell's, hell, because we're
sinners, hell is there, right? Hell is just the soul that sins,
it must die. That's a result of our sin, right? That's the punishment for sin.
And that's what we deserve, even as believers, but we don't, We
don't get that in Christ. We get grace and mercy from God.
But look at this in Luke. Luke chapter 10. We'll see this brought forth.
Again, what's the one thing needful? We'll see it in this passage.
Luke chapter 10, verses 38 to 42. We're going to see what the
one thing needful for. Oh, and Mary finds the one thing
needful. Martha's cumbered about going
about doing all this stuff. She, well, I gotta take care
of all this stuff. And Mary, Mary knows this is
the best place for me to be. And this is the best place for
all of us believers to be right here. Certain, verse 38. Now, it came to pass that as
they went, they entered into a certain village. Notice that.
We keep seeing that word certain. It's so neat because it just
tells us this is all planned and purposed by God. A certain
village. Not any village, a certain village, right? And a certain
woman, look at that, oh, it's wonderful, named Martha, received
him into her home. And she had a sister called Mary,
but here it is, here's the best place for us to be, right here,
right here, beloved, which also sat at Jesus' feet and heard
his word. But Martha was cumbered by much
serving and came to him and said, Lord, doest thou not care that
my sister had left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she should
help me. She goes to the master. She goes to Christ and say, she's
not helping me, Lord, the God of the universe. She's not helping
me. Tell her to help me. I'm doing all the work. Look
what I've done. She's not even helping me. Look
at my sister. She's just sitting there. That's
the attitude. That is the attitude, really.
She might not be saying those words to Christ, but that's the
attitude behind it. I've done all these things. Oh, my. Tell her, therefore, to help
me, or turn and help me. And Jesus answered and said unto
her, Martha, Martha. Thou art careful and troubled
about many things, but one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen
that good part, which shall not be taken away
from her." What a lesson for us. What a
lesson for us. The best place, hey, Brother
Brian, for us to sit is to sit and listen to the gospel. What
a lesson for us. We can get so cumbered about
serving. We get so cumbered about doing all these things. No one's
helping me. What's going on here? I remember my mom. We used to go
over for dinner and we didn't do it after she talked to us.
But we'd go and we'd eat and we'd all take off. And she's
left with piles of dishes and stuff, right? Well, she let us
know. And we all helped her out to
that. We said, you go sit down and we're going to do all the
dishes and clean up. But now I understand why she
did that. And I can understand why Martha
did this. But see how the Lord pointed
out, what's the one needful thing? To sit at the feet of Jesus and
listen to his words. Mary wasn't about to let this
opportunity where she could sit at the master's feet and hear
his words pass by. There would always be time to
serve. There would always be time, right? All the time. But to sit at the master's feet?
And how do we get distracted in the day and in our lives?
All these things get cumbered about in our lives and we We
don't just sit at the feet of Christ for a little while. Vicki and I watched this guy
who does a podcast, and he said, he said, man, I started my day,
I got out, I didn't read my Bible, and I didn't do, didn't, you
know, talk to the Lord. And he says, which, and he's
not a do-do-do guy, he's not like that at all. And he says,
but I just didn't do that. And he says, I got started on
my day, and it got busy and all this, and things started falling
apart in a day. And he goes, I realized that
I should always make time for the Lord. whether it be even
driving down the road in his truck and talking to the king
or listening to somebody talking about our king. And he realized,
I need that. And so it was a lesson for him,
right? And so we see it here, too. It's a lesson for us. Martha's
all covered about. And it's not a bad thing she's
doing. She's serving, isn't she? But her focus is on the serving
rather than on the master. Oh my, what a lesson for us,
eh? Again, thinking upon, she's listening to the words, thinking
upon what the King's saying. And we hear that in the gospel,
don't we? When the gospels speak, we hear. We hear the things of
Christ and then we think upon them. We can carry them into
our day then, can't we? It'll give us strength, beloved.
It'll give us strength. My. And we see in verse 39 there,
Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus. She could listen to his words. And Mary did well. Spurgeon said
Mary did well to avail herself. This is what he said. Mary did
well to avail herself of the opportunity of sitting at Jesus'
feet and hearing Christ's words. That's so true, isn't it? She
did well. And a veil there is just exercising,
just sitting at the feet of Christ. Realizing that was important.
My. It's wonderful. Now another verse
which shows us all we need is found in Christ is over in Colossians.
Turn if you would to Colossians chapter 2. And we see again how
God supplies all our needs. So we saw the best thing for
us is just to sit at the feet of Christ. And you're pondering
the words of Christ. And when we hear the gospel preached
and proclaimed, we ponder the words of Christ, don't we? We
ponder his words. Look at this over in Colossians
chapter 2. And let us meditate upon these
things that all we need, all that a sinner needs is found
in Christ. Everything. everything. I often quote these
verses. It's good for us to keep looking
at them though. And these are a good portion to meditate upon
for a believer. Colossians 2 verses 9 and 10.
For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. So he's
God in the flesh. The whole Godhead dwells in him
bodily. Look at this. And ye, Paul's
writing to the saints, and ye are what? Complete. In the Greek, you can't, that
means, well, you can't put another drop in. If you put another drop
in, it'll overflow. Complete. It's perfect. In who? In Christ. In Christ. Isn't that wonderful? We're complete
in Christ. This is amazing. And then, which
is the head of all principality and power. He's absolutely sovereign.
Look at that. So Paul's bringing forth that
the believer finds full satisfaction of every spiritual want in Christ. Every spiritual need is satisfied
in Christ. Fully. Fully. Think of this. We're unrighteous by birth. Right? He's pure righteousness. We're sinners. We're sinners. By birth, nature,
and choice, Christ never sinned in thought, word, or deed. We cannot pay the penalty for
one of our sins. Christ pays the penalty for all of our sins
through his blood and righteousness paid in full. We could never fulfill one law
of God. We're law breakers, because the
scripture says if you break the law in one law, you're guilty
of it all. We're guilty of it all, right?
So we know from Romans 3 that the law was given so that the
whole world may become guilty before God. Christ fulfills the
law of God perfectly in the room and place of his people. My,
what a Savior. He fulfilled it and he made it
honorable. He made the law honorable by
fulfilling it in our room and place. So we're not anti-law. We love the law of God. They
accused Paul of saying, well, you're saying the law is nothing
now. And we're gonna look at that in our study in Acts today.
Paul says, no, no. He just knew that Christ was
the end of the law for righteousness. So marvel, beloved God, as we've
seen in that verse in Colossians 2.10, he's the head of all principality
and power, the head of the church and the head of all things. Let's
go back to our verse one more time. It says, 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 a good report, if there be
any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Here's the verse 8 from the Greek
Berean Study Bible. Finally, brethren, whatsoever
Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right,
whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable,
if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think on these things. Turn,
if you would, to Revelation chapter 5. There's only one who's praiseworthy
in all the universe. Now, man liked the praise of
man, right? We believers do not seek the
praise of man. We want you to praise, and we preachers want
you to praise Christ. Want you to praise Christ. That's
why we preachers, we can fall into that too. And we preachers
have to keep telling you and telling ourselves that Christ
gets all the preeminence. It's all about Him. You know,
we preachers are flesh, just like anyone else. We get real
prideful sometimes. I like what Donnie says, the
Lord just keeps us low. Donnie and I were talking about
one time, he says, one time you preach a message and you feel
like, oh man, I did a really good job on that. You know, that's
just our pride, right? And no one will say a word, right? And then when you feel like you
fell flat in your face and you just blew it, people go, that
was a wonderful message. He goes, that's just the Lord
keeping us low, brother. I'm like, amen. It's true! It's true! Oh my gosh,
you guys. Revelation chapter 5. Now here's
the one who's praiseworthy. Here's the one who's praiseworthy
to the believer. Revelation chapter 5, verses
9 to 12. And they sang a new song. This
is the redeemed of the Lord. Thou art worthy to take the book
and to open the seals thereof, for thou was slain and has redeemed
us to God by thy blood. So that's how we know it's the
elect singing the song. out of every kindred, tongue,
look at this, I love this, and people, and nation, I just love
that. The body of Christ is the people
of all, every tongue, every nation, every tribe, beloved. now has
made us unto our God, kings and priests, and we shall reign on
the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the
voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts, and
the elders, and the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000,
and thousands of thousands. I mean, to number, you can't
number. And here, who are they praising, saying with a loud
voice, worthy is the Lamb. There's the one who's praiseworthy.
that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength
and honour and glory and blessing. And also the gospel of God, the
gospel of salvation in and through Christ alone will cause saved
sinners to praise the one alone who is worthy, the Lamb of God,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the gospel proclaims salvation
only in the Lamb of God, only in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
see, at the end of verse 8 now, there's one more thing where
it says, think upon these things. This is neat. The word think
in the Greek is an act of careful reflection. An act of careful
reflection. Let us carefully reflect on the
Lord Jesus Christ this week. and may we glorify God as a result
of that. May our hearts sing out in praise
to the only one who's praiseworthy, the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Brother Jim, will you close us
in prayer?