Open your Bibles if you would
to Philippians chapter 4 will continue our study in this wonderful
epistle written to the Saints at Philippi Greek City under
Roman rule and Paul's under house arrest in Rome and he writes
this beautiful letter to the Philippians we're gonna Read
from verses five to nine to see the context of our verse, which
is verse eight. And there's eight things pointed
out in this verse, verse eight of Philippians chapter four,
of things that we should think upon, things that we should meditate
upon or ponder. And for us, let us think upon
these things this week. Let us think upon these things
that we're going to look at today, this week. Philippians 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 supplication with
thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known
unto God and the peace of God, which passes all understanding.
So keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally,
brethren, whatsoever things are true, Whatsoever things are honest,
whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things
are lovely, whatsoever things are of a good report, if there
be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. Wonderful. And then it says,
those things which ye have both learned and received, and heard. So what have we learned? Well,
we've learned the Holy Spirit's taught us who we were and taught
us who the Savior is and why he had to come to save sinners
such as we. And then what we receive by the
grace of God, we've received the truth of the gospel, right? And heard, we've heard the gospel
proclaimed. And then Paul says, and seen
in me, which is seeing the Holy Spirit working through him, seeing
Christ in him, the hope of glory. Do, do. And the God of peace
shall be with you. Isn't that wonderful? Notice
the God of peace shall be with you. Not might be, shall be. If we're trusting Christ and
Christ alone, the peace of God, which passes all understanding,
will keep our hearts and minds. And look at what it says in verse
seven. Your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus. There's where our peace comes,
through Christ. Isn't it wonderful? It's wonderful. A lot of people in religion try
to get peace through what they do and what they say. There's
no peace in that. But there's peace through the
Lord Jesus Christ, isn't there? I mean, we got that, brother,
that peace with God that passes all understanding. People can't
understand it. Now, last week, we looked at
the first three of eight things brought forth in verse eight
of Philippians chapter four, which we are to think upon as
believers and meditate upon. Basically, that's what he's telling
us. Meditate, think, and meditation wasn't a bad word back then.
Like meditation, now you say, well, meditate on things, and
people think, oh, you're getting all Eastern religion. No, I'm
not. Meditation is just thinking upon something, that's all. Ponder
these things. And this is good for us to ponder,
these truths. And when we're overwhelmed with
this world, this is a good time to think upon those things. When
we're overwhelmed with situations in our life, This is a good time
to think upon those things. And really, these things are
good to think upon all the time, right? We've learned that, haven't
we? Because we're either, as Scott
used to say, we're either in trouble, going out of trouble,
or going into trouble in this world, right? So, these are things
that we can draw from, strength from. And last week we looked
at how they're related to Christ and the gospel. That's the amazing
thing. All these things mentioned here
are related to Christ and to his gospel. Because the gospel
says salvation is through Christ's blood and righteousness, right?
It focuses on him. And then in Christ, one of the
things we're going to look at today is lovely. Well, he's altogether
lovely to us, isn't he? My, and I'll tell you what, when
I start thinking about Christ, you know, you get some things
in the mail, sometimes you go, oh, but when you start thinking upon
Christ and knowing how he takes care of us, we can have a peace
about that then, can't we? I'm talking if you get a bill
or something there. Unexpectedly. We just trust him. He's so good
to us. He'll take care of us. Didn't
catch him by surprise, did it? So we're to ponder these things
as they are found in Christ and in his gospel. And again, all
eight things mentioned in this verse point and find, now listen
to this, point and find their perfection in Christ. They find
their perfection in him. See, man in religion is trying
to make themselves perfect, make themselves acceptable to God.
It'll never happen. It can't. But we look at these things and
all our perfection, we're sinners saved by grace. One day we're
gonna be perfect though. When we leave this world, we
won't sin ever again. Thought, word, or deed. My oh my. And right now we're
being conformed to the image of Christ, right? We're still
sinners, but we're sinners saved by the grace and mercy of God
through Christ's blood and righteousness. That's wonderful. What a hope
we have. And last week's message emphasized
the importance of actively cultivating a Christ-centered mindset. Right? And that's what we're,
that's what I try to set before us, is to cultivate a Christ-centered
mindset. To keep our eyes set upon Christ
all the time. I need that. I need that. As you were saying,
Sister, we can leave the service or I can listen to a message
and then forget about what the preacher even said. Right? It happens to all of us. We're
all susceptible. And like Charlie said, that's,
Charlie said, well, that's why we need to hear the gospel. It's
so true. A friend of mine, a missionary
friend of mine said, the whole reason we need to have the gospel
set before us continuously is because we so easily forget.
And that's so true, isn't it? Of all of us, of all of us. It's amazing. But see, isn't
God faithful? He just keeps setting that word
in front of us. He just keeps setting it, and
little things we remember are like gold, aren't they? Oh, the
ones we write to our heart are just like gold. I was listening
to something this week, listening to a fellow talking about that.
I never knew you, right? And those people, those religious
people said, well, Lord, look what we've done, look what we've
done. He says, you know what the believer's gonna say in front of the Lord?
Look what you've done. Isn't that true? I loved it. I was like, oh man, that's so
wonderful. Look what you've done, Lord.
Think of the messages going out here. Look what you've done,
Lord. Right? It's all Him. Think of us in our daily walk
and how he takes care of us and provides for us. Look what you've
done, Lord. Think of us being redeemed by
the blood and righteousness of Christ. Look what you've done,
Lord. Think of us being born again by the Holy Spirit of God.
Look what you've done, Lord. You know, like he used to say,
Karen, when you guys were taking care of stuff for jail, we're
doing it for the Lord. Well, look what the Lord's done.
Because in our natural state, we would never want to do that.
Look what the Lord's done. Oh my! Isn't that wonderful? We're here in a grace church,
listening to the gospel being preached, when we never would
have wanted to be here before we were saved. Look what the
Lord's done. Isn't that wonderful? Changes
our whole perspective, doesn't it? It's wonderful. Wonderful. My so there there's an importance
of actively cultivating a Christ-centered mindset and in urging believers
to to urging us to think upon these truths that we're going
to look at. Let's read verse 8 again. Look at this, finally,
brethren, whatsoever things are true, that's what we looked at
last week. Whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things
are just, those three things we looked at last week, and they
find their center and their core in Christ. This week, whatsoever
things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things
are of a good report, all find their center in Christ. And then
next week, Lord will it, if there be any virtue and if there be
any praise, think on these things. They all find their center in
Christ, beloved. It's beautiful. My. So we are to meditate on
the virtues like truth, honesty, justice, purity, loveliness. And you know what these are?
These are pathways to contentment. They make us content in the Lord. And there are also pathways to
humility because we look at those things and go, I'm none of those. But Christ is all. Isn't that wonderful? That's
our Savior. That's our Redeemer, Jesus Christ,
our Lord. My. And then we also drew from verse
eight, studying verse eight last week, that again, all these qualities
point directly to Christ and his gospel. And these virtues
offer a means to overcome distractions and find peace amidst life's
challenges, don't they? Amidst life's challenges. Again,
true salvation and righteousness are solely found in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Not through personal merit. We
have no merit before God at all, do we? On our own. All the merit
we have before God is in Christ. In what He's done. His perfect
sin atoning work. Oh my. Therefore may we give
God all the glory, we who believe. May we who are the redeemed of
the Lord give God all the glory. May we encourage one another
also to focus upon Christ. to focus on Christ's redeeming
grace as the foundation of our purpose in this life, right? Do everything unto the Lord,
and as our joy. Our joy comes from Christ, doesn't
it, brother? It comes from him. Isn't that
wonderful? Our peace comes from Christ,
Sister Barb. It's wonderful. And again, let's read verse eight
again. We'll see our next thing that
we should think upon. Finally, brethren, whatsoever
things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things
are just, whatsoever things are pure, That's our next point. Whatsoever
things are pure. So the Holy Spirit here sets
before us to think upon whatsoever things are pure. Remember, Paul's
just a penman. These are the words of the Holy
Spirit of God. And he's telling us what to focus
upon. Why? Because we need to be reminded. Isn't it wonderful? And this
isn't just to the saints that were at Philippi. This is to
all of us now today too, isn't it? Right? Whatsoever things
are pure. Now, think of this. Are we pure? No, we're impure, aren't we?
We're a bunch of sinners. But think of he who was pure,
right? Christ was pure. He's the perfect,
spotless Lamb of God. In Him is no sin. None at all. He's God in the flesh. He's God in the flesh. He's the
only man who never sinned in thought, word, or deed. He's pure and perfect in all
ways. He honored God's law and magnified
it in our room and place. It's amazing. Also, the gospel
of Christ is irrefutably pure or perfect. The gospel is perfect.
It's pure. Nothing but the blood of Christ
can cleanse us from all our sin. Nothing but the blood of the
sinless one, the pure one, can cleanse us from all our sins.
It is Christ alone who by himself purged his people, the elect
of God, from all our sins. Hebrews 1, verses 2 and 3 says
this. Hath in this last days, this
is God, hath in the last days spoken unto us by his Son, we
know that's the Word of God, we know that God in the flesh,
the Word of God in the flesh is Jesus Christ, whom he hath
appointed heir of all things. God appointed Christ to that. by whom also he made the worlds. Christ is the creator, who being
the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person,
and upholding all things by the word of his power. Now that's Jesus. That's the
Jesus of the Bible. Jesus of the Bible is not written
in his hands. Oh, I hope you choose me. Oh. If he upholds all thing by
his power. That means when we come to Christ,
we come to him because of his power. We're made willing in
the day. Amen sisters of his power. That's right. Oh. and upholding all things
by the word of his power when he had by himself. He didn't need no help, did he? It wasn't Jesus done all he can
do, now the rest is up to you. No, when he had by himself purged
our sins. Hallelujah. Purged our sins. sat down on the right hand of
the majesty on high. Hebrews chapter 1 verses 2 and
3. Isn't that wonderful? That's
our Jesus. He's a sovereign king. And right
now, he's sitting on a seat of power. Oh my. That's our king. That's our savior. Turn if you
would to Titus chapter 2. Titus chapter 2. We're going to look at a verse
here. First of all, the Greek word for pure means this. It speaks of purity in all things. Whose purity in all things? Christ. His gospel. And then it also
means this, innocent, pure, blameless, perfect, holy. Who does that
point to? Christ, amen. Certainly don't
point to us, does it? Doesn't point to this world that's
under a curse either. And it's beautiful, but it's
still under a curse. So innocent, that's Christ. He's never sinned. Pure, He's
perfect. He's pure, perfect, blameless,
and holy. And you know what? Now here's
something to blow your mind. In Christ, that's what we are. We're sinners still. But God
looks at us and doesn't see us. He sees Christ. And one day,
Christ is gonna present us blameless, spotless. Isn't that amazing? We've already
been justified, right? By Christ, just as if I never
sinned. Oh my, this gospel gets better
and better, doesn't it, beloved? He just gets better and better.
Look at this in Titus, look at this. Titus 2.13, look at this. And 14. And think of this in
light of our text that speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. Looking
for that blessed hope in the glorious appearing of our great
God and Savior. Savior there in the Greek is
deliverer. Look at that. Looking for our
great God and deliverer. And who is he? Jesus Christ. Now look at this. Who gave himself
for us. That's the elect, right? That
he might redeem. That means to ransom in the Greek. Us from all iniquity. Iniquity
there is wickedness. How many people think they're
wicked? Not very many people, right? But the people of God
know we're wicked. And to purify, you know what
that means? To cleanse. To cleanse. Unto himself a peculiar,
now this was interesting. I looked up that word peculiar
in the Greek. It means this, beloved or beyond usual. We're beyond usual, beloved.
And it means this, I love this, special to oneself. We're special
to God. We're beyond usual, we're peculiar
people, but we're special to God. That's all in the same Greek
word. Now that's incredible, isn't
it? Isn't that amazing? Oh my gosh. Peculiar people, zealous of good
works. Now we desire to serve our King. My. Listen to this verse, Titus
2, 14, in the Greek literal Bible. Who gave himself, that's Christ
for us, that he might redeem us from all lawlessness, which
we're a bunch of lawbreakers, aren't we? By nature. And might
purify to himself a people specially chosen. Zealous of good works. Specially chosen! Elections are everywhere, isn't
it, beloved? Why do men hate it so much? We
look at it and go, if God hadn't chosen us, we never would have
chosen Him. If He hadn't loved us, we'd never
love Him. And we marvel, not because of
anything in us, that we're especially chosen people. That's amazing. Now think of it. In our natural
state, we wouldn't even chose ourself, would we? Isn't God amazing? Isn't God incredible? Remember
when we were making baseball teams as kids? Do you remember
that? You guys ever do that? We used to have baseball games
in Canada. And we'd pick. Well, I couldn't run very good
because of my hips. So I was one of the last ones chosen.
But you know what? It didn't matter to me because
I got picked. Isn't that amazing? The Lord
chose us, beloved. According to his will and purpose. And that's revealed in the pure
preaching of the gospel, isn't it? And remember what Paul said?
I'm not going to hold nothing back from you that's profitable. I did that message on Thursday. Why preach election? Because
we're not going to hold nothing profitable from you. Oh my, that's my favorite doctrine
of the Bible, beloved. Because I know that if God didn't
choose me, if God didn't make me a preacher, I never would
have been a preacher and I never would have chosen him. I never
would have ran to him. But it's all because of his grace
and mercy. And even our supposed choice
of him is all because of God's Mercy and grace and his drawing
power and given us faith to believe because if he didn't give us
Faith then the scripture says there's none that seek it after
God So we never would have saw them that's what makes election
amazing oh My gosh, it's incredible Marvel beloved of God the perfect
one gave himself for sinners who are the imperfect one this
is wondrous and the perfect one, the Lord Jesus Christ, God in
the flesh, was sinless, innocent, pure, blameless, perfect, and
holy. And so let we who are the redeemed
think upon these things this week. Let us think upon these
blessed truths. Let's read Philippians 4, 8 again.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things
are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are
pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things... There's
our next one. The fifth thing that the Holy
Spirit sets before the Philippian believers and us to think upon
is whatsoever things are lovely. Lovely. The Greek word for lovely
here speaks of that which is adapted to excite love and to endear him who does such
things. So we are excited, we're adapted
to excite love. You must be born again to love
Christ. And then we endear ourselves
to him who's done it all for us. who is all of our salvation. Oh my. Think of this. To the believer,
the Lord Jesus Christ is altogether lovely. And nothing compares to him.
1 Peter 2, verse 7 says this, unto you therefore which believe,
he is precious. But unto them which are to be
disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the
same is made the head of the corner." So, I remember a time
when Christ wasn't precious to me, do you? And now He's so precious,
isn't He, Brother Travis, Sister Karen, Sister Marcia? He's so
precious to us. He's everything to us. He's our
hope. He's our foundation. He's our...
Redemption. To those who've been born again
by the Holy Spirit of God, Christ is altogether lovely. Listen
to what the bride of Christ says in Song of Solomon about Christ.
His mouth is most sweet, yea, he is altogether lovely. This
is my beloved, this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. So
do we not proclaim now, Sister Diane, that Christ is altogether
lovely to us? He's everything. He's lovely. He's precious. Because He saved
our eternal souls. And He did it willingly. And
without any cause in us for Him to save us, except for His everlasting
love that's been set upon us. But that's not in us. Now we have the love of God spread
abroad in our hearts and we rejoice over the gospel. It's amazing. And then marvel that Christ is
altogether lovely to we rebels, we who were rebels, and the fact
that he is lovely to us due to the fact that we love him only
because he first loved us, 1 John 4, 19. How long has he loved
us for, Brother Brian? Amen. His love never changed,
did he? He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever, right? Think of that. His love for us
has never changed. That's remarkable. That's remarkable. Now let's read, let's read verse
eight. And may we think upon these things
this week. May we think about how lovely Christ is to us and
how the gospel of Christ is unquestionably lovely to the believer too. It's
precious to us. Let's read Philippians 4, 8 again. Finally, brethren, whatsoever
things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things
are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,
and here we go, whatsoever things are of good report. Well, here's the six things set
before us by the Holy Spirit of God. Whatsoever things are
of a good report. Now the Greek word, this is me,
means well-spoken. Good report is one word in the
Greek. And it means this, well-spoken
of. Reputable, which means having
a good reputation. It's a good news. It's good report,
isn't it? It's the best report sinners
will ever hear. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the gospel of salvation in
and through Christ alone is the best report that anyone can ever
hear. Salvation for sinners in and
through the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ alone.
That's good news for sinners. The question is, as always, are
you a sinner? It's the best news any sinner
could hear. Salvation for sinners who by
birth, nature, and choice are sinners from the top of our head,
Scripture says, to the bottom of our feet. And yet there's
salvation in Christ alone through his blood and righteousness.
Oh my, I love what Scott said. Since I heard the good news,
I heard no bad news. I understand exactly what he
was saying. Oh, this world is full of bad
news, right? But here we have the best news.
The best news. Oh, my. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. This is why it's good news, too,
to everyone that believes. Turn, if you would, to Romans
chapter 1. Romans chapter 1. Marvel. At the good news of the
Bible, as it proclaims Christ died for the ungodly, Romans
5, 6 says, when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ
died for the ungodly. That's what the scripture calls
us. My, that's what we were in our
natural state. Look at this, Romans chapter
one, verses 16 and 17. Paul writes, for I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. No, why? For it's the power,
that's the dynamite of God in the Greek. It's the dynamite.
It's the power of God. Unto what? Unto salvation. My. To everyone that believed,
to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein, look
at this, I love this. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. Who's the righteousness of God?
Jesus Christ. Who's the Lord of our righteousness?
Jesus Christ. I love this. So the gospel is
the preaching of Christ and Him crucified in salvation through
His blood and righteousness, right? And Him rising again from
the grave, dead for three days, rising from the grave for our
justification. And look at this. I love this. For therein is the
righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is
written, the just shall live by faith. Who's the just? God's people, washed in the blood
of Christ. Isn't this, it's wonderful. And then marvel again, over in
Romans 4 verse 5, if you're still in Romans, We'll read verses
five to eight. Marvel again at the good news
of the gospel of salvation by Christ's blood and righteousness. And look here, it proclaims that
God justifies the ungodly. Look at this. And that's what
we're called in our natural state, beloved. Look at this, Romans
4, verses 5 to 8. But to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, who's the one who
justifies the ungodly? Christ. His faith is counted
for righteousness. Look at this, look at this verse.
Look at this. Even as David also described
the blessing of the man unto whom God imputed righteousness
without what? Works. Isn't that amazing? It's all
based on Christ's work, not on our work. It's wonderful. Saying,
blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are
covered. Look at that. It's proclaiming
a work done. A work done. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. All our sins were imputed to
Christ and his righteousness is imputed to us. Marvel then, let we who are the
redeemed rejoice, as Jesus Christ came to save sinners such as
we. Listen to this, I'll close with
this, Matthew 9, 13. But go and learn what that meaneth.
This is when the Lord said, I come not to save the righteous, but
sinners. They that are whole need not
a physician, right? And this is what he says after
that. Go ye and learn what that means. I will have mercy and
not sacrifice. For I am not come to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance. Amen and amen. My, my, oh my, oh my. Brother Charlie, can you close
us in prayer?