We are in Philippians in the first chapter. Philippians chapter one. Paul is declaring his prayer for the Philippians. He's encouraging them, having mentioned his love for them abundantly, and he continues to do so. But he is telling them his desire or his prayer for them. And I believe it's the same prayer that all pastors of the gospel really pray for the congregation.

Lord, keep us looking to you. Lord, don't leave us to ourself. Lord, cause us to grow in grace. Lord, knit our hearts together. All these things he doesn't necessarily say in Philippians, but that is the prayer that the Lord's pastors pray for the congregation. Of course, also we pray, Lord, save me and save my children. That's what we pray. But he's encouraging them or continue to encourage them by declaring his hope for them. And let's read this together.

Philippians 1, 8 through 11. For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Christ. In this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment, that ye may approve, that ye may approve things that are excellent, that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ. being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. Now, our title comes from verse 10.

Look at that again that you may approve things that are excellent. I've titled the message excellent things Now, how do you approve? Things that are excellent. Well, I looked up the original word approved in the scripture. What was the translation and they gave? three different Examples of what this word means one is to discern One is to perceive and one is to recognize so to discern excellent things. That's what the Lord has to do for his people is give us discernment. I've said this before, and most that I've spoke to about this subject agree that they had the same experience when the Lord first revealed the truth to me, the Bible rewrote itself. I didn't, that's the first time I'd ever read the Bible as far as I was concerned, because it totally said something it never said before.

Christ was on every page. He got all the glory. And that's excellent things, isn't it? Lord had to give me that discernment to be able to do that. He has to give you that discernment to be able to do that. He does it by his spirit, by his grace. He gives faith to believe him.

So this is the discernment he's hoping for of things that are excellent. So in other words, what he's telling them is set your affections on things above because there's nothing excellent about us. There's nothing excellent about you and I at all. So he's saying Christ is excellent. Christ in you the hope of glory. Set your affections on things above.

I was encouraged as I was studying this because I found out the Lord is described, his attributes, his person, his character is described as excellent things. And we're gonna look at four of those this morning, I hope. And if the Lord be our help, maybe we'll be able to see a glimmer of our Lord's excellence. Our Lord's excellence. That's our prayer. First one's found in Job chapter 37, he is excellent in power. Turn there with me, Job 37. We are at the point of Job right now where Elihu began preaching the gospel to Job. You remember Job had three friends. They weren't, they weren't friends. Uh, they were very discouraging of Job, very discouraging to Job. They said, it's all your fault. You had to do this and you had to do that. And he didn't encourage him at all, but Elihu was a younger man. And so he waited until the older man got finished. And then he begins to speak. And I want you to notice how he describes our Lord.

In Job 37, at this also my heart trembleth and is moved out of his place. Hear attentively the noise of his voice and the sound that goeth out of his mouth. He direct it under under the whole heaven, and his lightning unto the ends of the earth. After it, a voice roareth. He thundereth with the voice of his excellency, and he will not stay them when his voice is heard. God thundereth marvelously with his voice.

Great things doeth he which he cannot comprehend, we cannot comprehend. For he saith to the snow, be thou on the earth, likewise to the small rain and to the great rain of his strength. Think about that. The Lord said, be there on the earth and the snow and the great rain is on the earth. He sealeth up the hand of every man that all men may know his work.

Then the beasts go into dens and remain in their places. Out of the South comes the whirlwind and cold out of the North. By the breath of God, frost is given. By the breath of the waters is straightened. Also by watering, he weareth, he wearieth the thick cloud, he scattereth his bright cloud, and it is turned round about by his counsels, that they may do whatsoever he commandeth them upon the face of the world in the earth. He calls us it to come, whether for correction, or for his land, or for mercy. What he does is for correction, for his land, or for mercy. Now that's the Lord's description right here, but look at the whole sum of it at the very end. Look at verse 23.

Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out. He is excellent in power and in judgment, and in plenty of justice he will not afflict. Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out. Why? Because he is excellent in power. Excellent in power. Our God is seated. in the heavens.

Our God reigneth eternally. Our God doesn't need anything from anyone. He doesn't want for nothing. Our God is all powerful. You remember in John 17, the Lord said, Father, thou hast given me all power, all power, both heaven and earth. The Lord is all powerful. Now his power is not just excellent. It's unstoppable.

It's unchangeable because it's our Lord. He says, I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Scripture says, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. So if he's all powerful now, he's going to be all powerful forever, forever and ever. I love his description here. As he talks, he says his breath By his breath, the frost is given. Another place, Elihu tells him, thou hast measured the waters in the hollow of thy hand.

And it's trying to help our puny brains to understand a little glimmer of the awesomeness of our God. But in truth and reality, this mind can't comprehend. Faith just believes Christ. We can't understand his power, his glory, his awesomeness. Yet by his power, He became a man.

He became a man. He is excellent in power and by his own power, according to his own will, he became a man to redeem sinners, his chosen sinners like you and like me. By his excellent power, everything was created for the salvation of his people. He chose to create everything that you see with your eyes for the salvation of his people. By His excellent power, He rules and reigns.

And I love the thought that He Men believe God to be doing something. What is the Lord doing? The Lord's seated. It's just coming to pass as he has purposed it. We're doing stuff. The lot falls in the lap, but the whole disposing's of the Lord. The Lord's not playing chess. He's not playing games at all. He's seated.

He's seated because he has all power. He has excellent power. By the same power whereby salvation was to be accomplished, it was accomplished. He set everything in motion in order for it to happen, and everything that's going to happen happens because he makes it happen. He's the all-powerful Lord.

I love that nothing can take him off guard. Nothing can sneak up on him. Nothing can undermine him. Nothing can manipulate him. He knows everything. Where could we hide if we wanted to hide from his eyes? There's nowhere we could hide. This is our God. This is his excellent power. With that power, he accomplished eternal redemption for every person that he loves. Every person that he died for, he accomplished it all by himself. How glorious is his excellent power? Now, the second place. tells us that he has an excellent name, an excellent name. Turn with me to Psalm 148. Psalm 148. Look what he says in verse seven.

Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps. Fire and hail, snow and vapor, stormy wind fulfilling his word. Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars. beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying fowl, kings of the earth and all people, princes and all judges of the earth, both young men and maidens, old men and children.

Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is excellent. His name alone is excellent. His glory is above the earth and heaven. He also exalted the horn of his people and the praise of all his saints, even of the children of Israel, a people near to him. Praise ye the Lord.

His name is excellent. His name is excellent. What makes his name excellent? Well, There's many reasons, but one reason that we love dearly is that it is the only name given among men whereby we must be saved. The Lord hath highly exalted him and given him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. His name is the highest name. His name is the most honorable. Matter of fact, it's the only honorable name. Our names are not honorable. He has all honor. He is exalted by his own name.

They said that his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, the Mighty God. He's called the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, which was, which is, and which is to come. He's called faithful and true as he rode upon a horse.

That's his name. He's faithful. All the names it would take us. He's. If we did all of his names, we just would just continue to say names until the hour was up. He's the good shepherd. He's the savior of his people. He's the successful redeemer of his elect. Brethren, his name is excellent. Excellent. There's no other name given like his name, not like the Son of God. No, the Lord Jesus Christ, by this name, demons have been cast out. Men and women, boys and girls have been healed, brought back to life.

You remember, Peter and John went to pray at Acts, and they met a lame man. on the wayside and he said, was begging for alms is what he was doing. They were going to the temple to pray and he was begging for alms. And what did Peter tell him? He said, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And immediately he rose up and walk. And then what does it say? He went walking and leaping and praising God.

That was by the power of the name of Jesus Christ. He has an excellent name, an excellent name. The most glorious part of his excellent name is that by it, his people are redeemed. His people are redeemed. It is Christ in you, the hope of glory. I said, call his name, Jesus. For this reason, he shall save his people from their sin. His name is excellent. His name is glorious. Matter of fact, he has a more excellent name than even the angels.

Hebrews 1.4 says, being made so much better than the angels as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. And I read a commentator that said, well, yeah, he's just referring to him being the son rather than being an angel. I said, well, that's fine. That's his name too, the son of God. I don't have a problem with that.

His name is excellent. He has a more excellent name than even the angels. The name of Jesus implies his character. His person, his identity as both God 100% and man 100%. It identifies him as being the creator. It identifies him as being completely sovereign. As we heard about his power just a moment ago, his name indicates who he is, what he accomplished for his people. He's the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

And he is the seated successful redeemer of his people making intercession for us beside the father. His seat is the highest seat. He's at the right hand of the father. He said, come sit down here at my right hand till I make that enemy by footstools.

How glorious. How Excellent is the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Thirdly, his loving kindness is excellent. His loving kindness is excellent. Turn with me to Psalm 36. Look at verse five through 10. Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens, and thy faithfulness reacheth into the clouds. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains. Thy judgments are a great deep. O Lord, thou preservest man and beast. How excellent, how excellent. And that word excellent actually translates precious. I like that too. How excellent is our loving kindness, O God.

Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the fountain of life, and thy light shall we see light. In thy light we shall see light.

O continue thy loving kindness. unto them that know thee and thy righteousness to the upright in heart. Now I looked up the word loving kindness. Right there was one I didn't know it translated was precious. I like that. It's precious. It's excellent. The Lord's loving kindness is described as excellent here. So I wanted to know what loving kindness meant. So I looked at the translation and this was encouraging to me. It means goodness. It means kindness. It means faithfulness. And it means merciful. Goodness, kindness, faithfulness, and merciful. How excellent is the goodness of God in loving kindness?

Well, Moses said, show me your glory. And he said, I'm going to put you in a rock. I'm going to put you on a rock, in the cleft of the rock, and I'm going to cause my goodness to pass before you. Well, what was that goodness? It was his glory. The glory of the Lord is his goodness towards his people. It's the salvation that was wrought on Calvary's cross for the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. It was, that's his goodness. You want to see his goodness. You have to look back to the cross.

That's why David said, goodness, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. I was loving kindness is goodness towards us. How excellent is his kindness towards his people. Do you remember Mephibosheth? David called him in to his, he said, is there any left of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?

This is our Lord before time ever began in election, choosing a people. That's what that's a picture of. And then you see the spirit is the picture of going and retrieving him from Lodabar and Makar, bringing him before the king. And he said, what is thy? What is thy servant that thou should lookest upon such a dead dog as I am? He said that I may show him goodness for Jonathan's sake. Do you know why the Lord shows us goodness?

For the sake of Jesus Christ alone. Not because of what we do, but because of his excellent, loving, kindness to us, his people. He's also saying here, how excellent is thy faithfulness. How excellent is thy faithfulness towards your people. Lamentations says this, this I recall to mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. Because his compassions fail not, they are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. How excellent it is faithfulness to his people. How excellent is his mercy to his people? This is all that he's saying right here, his loving kindness.

David said in Psalm 50 verse one, have mercy upon me, O Lord, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions. He said, purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be made whiter than snow. He had sinned with Bathsheba and the Lord had given him repentance. He was begging God to forgive him. He said, have mercy upon me.

You remember the Pharisee and the publican. The publican wouldn't lift up his eyes when the Pharisee was bragging about how good he was. Pharisee said, I'm thankful, Lord, that I'm not like this person. It says he prayed within himself. He was praying within himself. He was exalting himself, what that means.

He said, Lord, I thank you that I'm not like this person. I'm not like that person. I do this and do this. But that publican, what'd he do? He smote upon his breasts and wouldn't look up. would not look up so much, but said, Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. And the Lord said, one of those men went home justified. And we know which one it was, it was the publican.

Oh, how excellent is his mercy towards us? How excellent is his loving kindness towards his people? Mercy means not getting what you deserve. Grace means getting what you don't deserve. Mercy means not getting, What you deserve. What do we deserve? We deserve death. We deserve hell. We deserve eternal torment. But we didn't get that. Why? Mercy. The Lord showed mercy.

And mercy is found in one place, in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Our only hope is that the Lord took our place upon the cross of Calvary. That in mercy, he took our punishment, fulfilled the law's demands, satisfied the wrath of God, that we might go free. So that you have mercy and grace at the same time. Going free is not what we deserved. That's grace. Moreover, he made us adopted sons and daughters of the most high. We have a heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ.

Oh, how excellent is his mercy towards his people. Our hope is that God spared not his own son, but freely delivered him up for his people. so that his mercy could be given to us-ward. No wonder Jeremiah said this, but let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, saith the Lord.

If you want to glory, glory that you know the Lord. Moreover, that he knows you. If you know him, it's because he knew you first. That's right, isn't it? If you know him, it's because he knew you first. He says, if you're going to glory, glory that you know him.

Remember the disciples came to the Lord and they said, Lord, uh, we're casting out demons. They were proud of themselves. And, uh, he said, don't, don't rejoice that you're healing and casting out demons. They rejoice that your name is written in the Lamb's book of life.

That's the hope that we have and rejoice in the eternal life that God's given you because of his excellent mercy, because of his excellent mercy. Because of his mercy, he says in Jeremiah 31, the Lord hath appeared unto me old, saying, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Therefore, therewith, he put kindness and with loving kindness, he says it means the three was goodness, kindness, faithfulness, and mercy. He says, with goodness, kindness, faithfulness, and mercy have I drawn thee.

And all of them are excellent. All of them are my loving kindness to you. Now our final excellent attribute is His excellent greatness, His excellent greatness. Turn with me to Psalm 150. I can't tell you how excited I got whenever I typed in the word excellent and it popped up all these things about how our Lord's excellent. I'd never saw that before. And that's the excellence that Paul's talking about to the Philippians. He's saying that you might be able to discern God's excellence more and more. That's growing in grace, isn't it? Seeing less and less of self, seeing more and more of him.

Psalm 150, look at verse one and two. Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary. Praise him in the firmament of his power. Praise him for his mighty acts. Praise him according to his excellent greatness. Verse six, let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. His excellent greatness.

His excellent greatness is how salvation came to be. It's by his own hand that salvation was accomplished. It's his excellent greatness that he elected, by his excellent greatness, he elected a people. By his excellent greatness, he redeemed those people. By his excellent greatness, he regenerates and keeps those people.

It's his excellent greatness that enables us to receive the gift of faith by his grace. No wonder David said in Psalm 48 verse one, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God in the mountain of his holiness. Now I wrote an article about his excellent greatness.

I believe that's what I titled it, but it refers to his supreme, unsearchable and infinite nature. It, it encompasses his limitless power, boundless knowledge and wisdom. And I'm reading it all right off the, right off the bulletin. You can follow along if you want to. It's his sovereign authority over all things. He has a, I think I deleted that part. So don't read anymore. He has a perfect nature. That we can't comprehend. This is his excellent greatness that we can't. He's unfathomable. We can't fathom God. I didn't have ourself. He has to give us the ability to discern him.

He's past finding out because of his excellent greatness. The glorious news in this perfect nature. By his greatness, he's given it to his elect people. That's glorious being born of his spirit, born from above by his will, by his power and all by his grace for his glory. Truly his greatness is excellent brethren.

Let's close by going back to Philippians chapter one. Let's read that verse 10 again, that you may approve, that you may discern, that you may understand or that it would be revealed things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense to the day. of Christ. Why are we sincere as believers? Because of his excellent greatness, because of his excellent long-suffering, because of his excellent power, because of his excellent redemption, that's why. Because he keeps his people. He keeps his people.

The next time that you have discouragement, and we do, we all do, and I say this often, and I'm gonna continue to say it, either you're in a trial, You're coming out of a trial or you're going in a trial. And it's true for all of God's people, all of his elect.

We don't know when trials will come, but we know that there'll be there. Our adversary, the devil walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. The good news is, is he has to go before the Lord to get permission before he does anything to one of God's people. He has to go before the Lord to do it before he can do anything.

He's, uh, there's a, uh, allegory about that. In Pilgrim's Progress, it said he was walking to the beautiful city, which is a representation of heaven or Zion. And as he's going, he sees a lion far off, and the lion's roaring loudly, and he's scared, he's frightened. And Pilgrim's gets a little bit closer and a little bit closer, and finally he realizes, okay, well that lion's on a chain, so it can't get to me. And so he keeps walking, then he notices something else. That lion doesn't have any teeth. What am I afraid of? It doesn't have any claws. That's Satan. He's on a short chain.

God braineth, brethren, because of his excellent greatness. All he can do is just roar at the elect of God. There's nothing more that he can do. And to be able to do that, he has to ask permission first. Oh, the Lord. Next time you get discouraged, remember of his excellent greatness, all of his excellence. May God grant us the ability to set our affections on excellent things of our great God and savior. Maybe he grants the ability to discern or perceive or recognize his excellence. You can look around. It's about to turn into spring. I was hoping it was here last week. It's not cold back off really fast on us, but everything's going to start budding. Everything's going to get beautiful.

Um, That's His excellent greatness. That's Him. Everything that we see, it was made. We have types and pictures all over the place of salvation itself. A tree's a good example of that. How the fruit that it bears comes from the seed within itself. This has to have the sun, has to have water. Well, that's what our Lord accomplished. How about a caterpillar that turns into a butterfly?

Explain that. People say, well, we think we got it. We think we got the science figured out behind it. I don't. I don't have a clue how that works. All I know is he goes in one thing, comes out another thing altogether. But you know what that's a picture of? Exactly what God does for his people. Gives them, makes them new creature. Old things are passed away, behold, all things are kind of new.

That is his excellence. When you see the stars at nighttime, you look up and you see how little we are. on this celestial ball floating on nothing, hanging on nothing, rotating at the exact perfect speed that it needs to rotate so that we don't get smushed or fly away one.

Remember that it's his excellence, but remember that the reason that he did all of this, that I've said the physical is for the salvation of his people. That is where you'll find the most beautiful picture of our Lord's excellence is on the cross of Calvary. Let's pray. Heavenly Father calls us to meditate on these things, bless them to our understanding. Thank you for your excellence. In Christ's name, amen. Let's take a break.