Dwelling on These Things

All right, let's turn to Philippians 4. We're going to begin reading today at verse 1 and we'll terminate at verse 9. Okay. Therefore, my beloved and longed for brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved. Isn't that kind of the theme of the entire book? Stand fast, my beloved, in the Lord. Okay.

I implore Eurydice and implore St. Tricia, that may not be aptly pronounced, I think Nancy did a better job of that, to be of the same mind, the Lord suggesting there's something going on here historically. And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the Book of Life. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice.

Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, weep with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through or in Christ Jesus. Okay, our verses for today.

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, Whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good rapport, if there be any virtue, as if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. And the things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

All right. As usual, let's kind of see what we learned from previous studies, meaning specifically the last few weeks, four through seven. Are we rejoicing always? You know, in a sense, I kind of took that home a few weeks ago. Thank you. And I find myself resourcing a little bit more often. That seems to make the issues a little different. I don't know. It's simple to do.

We're told to rejoice always. How are we doing at that? You know, just thinking, you know, in my experience, I think that's positionally driven. You know, to think when we fall short in terms of our own sin nature, the world impact on our life here, on this earth that I'm rejoicing, I'm rejoicing in the way God sees me, and he sees me as righteous. Doesn't that give you a calming, a peace?

The platform of grace we live under is absolutely always there. So that allows us to rejoice always, including for us, Kathy Skog and Mike Doyle and Len and everybody else. It's hard to rejoice in trials and tribulations, but it says This is unconditional rejoicing.

The whole point is we're fixed. Our focus is on our Savior. It's on our Lord. That's what it's about. If it's focused on ourselves and the circumstances... That's the wrong place. We don't bring anything. We bring zero. Our faith is what we're called to respond to. And also Bob, our rejoicing, it has nothing to do with whether we're happy or sad or whether we're confused or any of that. Yeah, if you watch the CU game last night. That's American football for our Canadian friends.

All right, how's this one, be anxious for nothing? Are you kidding me? Anyway, but you know, there's a qualification. And what's the qualification to be anxious for nothing? That we take everything to the Lord with thanksgiving and prayer. I mean, that's the qualification to be anxious for nothing. We can't be un-anxious, if that's actually a word, without taking it to the Lord, right? Because anxiety is part of the human experience, is it not? Even small things make us anxious. Margaret, I was struggling with television this morning.

Anyway, we put the TV up for the dogs. Anyway, never mind. So anyway, that's the qualification. Oh, that's right. Of course I do. They're your dogs. They can't tell us what they see. So that's the qualification. Take everything. By the way, it's kind of like rejoicing always. Take everything to the Lord in thanksgiving and prayer. And here's the result.

Isn't this special? The peace of God will guard our hearts and minds. I mean, guys, you know, I remember, honey, when we did Philippians in our home Bible study, And this was almost everybody's favorite verse in the entire book. We did this a few years ago, but everybody chose their favorite verse. This is kind of the one they picked.

So how are we doing at this? By faith, we can do well. But when our faith is short or lacking, we don't do very well. All right. Let's turn to today's verse. Lots of whatever things here. But anyway, let me read it again. Finally, brother, whatever things are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, good report. If there's any virtue, if anything is praiseworthy, meditate on these things." Okay. Pretty rich verse.

So, you know, I've kind of just made a comment here. This is a very long list of Christian virtues and how we do it here. I mean, it's kind of like, are we rejoicing always? And are we not being moved by anxiety in terms of the issues that come up day in and day out? And ultimately, I think Do you have your list ready to make sure you're accomplishing all this? I don't know. I think if you think of maybe mainline churches, covenant theology and everything, people have lists. Am I being true? I mean, no, I think this is a life.

And we're going to come back to that in our lesson today. Coswell said, this finally signals the last of the three imperatives that explain how we stand firm, which relates to verses one, 2 and 4 that we read this morning. It also introduces Paul's next to the last exhortation in this list, here's a list, I'm sorry, in this list that deals with what the believer should spend his or her time thinking about. This subject obviously relates to prayer since both activities involve mental concentration. Okay, that's his view of this particular section of this verse, these two verses that we're studying today. Say, Bob? Yeah? You ever notice how the Apostle Paul can be long-winded?

Back in verse 3-1, he says, finally, my brethren. And so when I hear that, I'm closing my Bible, you know, getting ready to go home. And then later on he says finally again, but he's building truth upon truth upon truth. It's a good point and I must admit I've been to many talks where somebody said the last point I want to make is that it goes on. Anyway, but we'll give Paul credit because the Lord's working through him. Okay, so here's Constable using the term finally.

All right, good, good comment. All right. So whatever things is used repeatedly here as I skip what I've re-read the verse and speaks of abundance and multitude. Whatever things speaks of abundance and multitude. What do you think about when you think about abundance and multitude? About everything taken to the Lord in prayer, thanksgiving. I mean, so In the Greek, this abundance and multitude means all of the above in detail and in robustness, if you would. So keep that in mind as we look at these various terms that the believer is to relate to in terms of his or her walk.

When you think of true, what comes to mind? The word of God, yeah. Okay, that's a good start. What else? Absolute truth. Did you have your hand up? You just had a cramp or something? I was going to say the person of Christ because he said, I am the truth. Oh, good. Okay. Facts. Facts? I like that. Facts? Okay. What'd you say? One of the aspects of truth is reality. That's what is really real. Oh, that's good. Okay, lots of good comments. And I think we're all on the right track. I'm going to share something personal. I got saved because of truth.

And I was skeptical. I grew up in a mainland church that never heard the personal gospel. Maybe it was presented, but I never heard it. college experience, you kind of go south in terms of religious things, if you're willing to use that term, loosely. And then I really was skeptical.

I thought anybody could use any verse in the Bible to make a point. And I witnessed that repeatedly. And then I've got a wife who got saved, my late wife, Sharon, who got saved. And her life changed a lot within a year. And I paid attention to that. And ultimately, I started to get into Scripture before I got saved and look at the validity and how reproducible it was. And ultimately, the truth is what got me saved. I mean, obviously, the Lord Jesus Christ's crucifixion and resurrection got me saved. But the point is, I came to that as a personal truth for me. So truth is really important.

And when we think of hope, faith and love, you know, why is the truth mentioned there? And I think everyone would agree that truth probably trumps all of this. faith, hope, and love. And so I think what is true, what comes to mind, and I think it's all wrapped up in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not truth entirely wrapped up in the Lord Jesus Christ. In the entire scripture, it's based on his prophecy to come, his promise of salvation, the millennial kingdom, the nation of Israel, and the new heaven and the new earth to follow. But it's all about him. And that's truth. So when we think about truth, we really lift it up. And let's look at a couple of verses for that.

John 1.14, And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And by the way, the word here, true and truth, are the same root word. So we can kind of look at scripture that reproduced that Greek word in several different forms.

And 14.6, and by the way, I could have gone with verse after verse, but I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No one can move farther than by me. I mean, so, I mean, Christ as truth is really the bottom line of what's true. So ultimately, I think we're going to say truth always wins. And Clark may remember this, but I'm not going to put him on the spot.

But, you know, raising five children We had too many kids because we had too many lessons to learn. Miles is on. Miles, right. He's got five also. Anyway, Miles, I'm not sure you would agree with that. He's agreed with that. He's nodding. Well, but the idea here is that no matter what the truth is, it always wins, even if you You know, it just the truth always wins no matter what. You know, these people who lie and then they get in the courtrooms. I mean, I'm kind of a sports fan.

So I'm going to give you one Cincinnati example. Pete Rose bet on baseball. He was an outstanding baseball player. I grew up in Cincinnati. He's still nobody's ever going to break the record for number of hits that Pete Rose has. So he lied about then betting on baseball and then ultimately He lied about the fact that he did. He didn't bet on games with the Reds win, but he lied about that again. And ultimately, you know, he lied twice and he's never going to get the whole thing because the commissioner said, you know, it's just really unacceptable. So, I mean, but but if he would have said the first time, yes, I bet on baseball and ultimately that may have been all that was necessary. I don't know.

Truth always wins, even though it's embarrassing or makes you feel inadequate or you're felt to be made to be inferior. It always wins. So I think that's something we all can learn from. But I think and also in my work, I also wanted to see the truth of the data. You know, I don't give away any false stuff here anyway, but we'll just leave that as it is, I think. But whatever thing is true, is really important here to Paul in this scripture.

Other things are noble which could be honest. I mean and you know here I'm just kind of wondering whether or not and by the way honest this word could be venerable or inviting or worthy of reverence. And I think the reverence is kind of in context the spiritual best interpretation of honesty. But you know here's an example of Titus 2. what the older men, that the older men be sober, reverent, same term, temperate, sound in faith and love and in patience.

So there's the use of the term, not used terribly frequently in scripture. But it's not honesty, really truth. I mean, I mean, Paul states these as separate attributes of the Christian life. But I'm wondering how different those really are. Anybody's thoughts about that?

Well, notice that's translated whatever is right in the numeric standard. So whatever is right or whatever is truth, right? Yeah. So actually it's all, you know, Aletheia is the truth, the word for truth, right? And so it's certainly connected. That's for sure. Well, he's being redundant, but that's okay. It's in the list here. Okay.

Whatever things are just, what do you think about when somebody talks about things being just? Yeah, here again we kind of have a difference in the way it was pure is in the American Standard. Yeah, upright, righteous, virtuous. Again, not too different than truth and honesty.

I mean, what do you think about our own justification? I mean, that's entirely not due to us, but that's kind of what this attribute of the Christian life is all about. We're justified. in Christ Jesus and so that just this is the life of him working out in us.

Go ahead. It's me. Go ahead. I just I was trying to unmute my mic and I saw I'm a little delayed here. But to me, the difference between honesty and truth is honesty is more personal. It's what is true. I mean, you're saying, like if somebody said, you know, are you being honest? You're saying what you believe is true. Whereas truth to me is more of a...

I'm not saying this well. I mean, there is... It's rough when you've been sick. Your mind just does not work. I think that the honesty is more personal rather than, you know, it's what I'm being honest in what I'm saying. That doesn't mean it's necessarily what is true to the world.

Do you see the distinction I'm making? Yeah, yeah. It's kind of the idea that you can be sincerely wrong, you know? Right, exactly. You're very sincerely honest about what you believe. You just gotta write, you know? Truth is truth. Truth is truth, yeah. Well, you know, Clark mentioned what's truth is facts.

I mean, to us, the Bible is facts. I mean, you know, our faith is based on, to some extent, things that we haven't seen yet. But all that aside, our faith is considered based on facts. That's just not the historical facts, it's the fact of who we are as sinners saved by grace.

So anyway, I think you're sharing an idea that seems worthy of some conversation. Say it again, Miles, what you said. I think it was kind of interesting. Now I can't remember what I said. I think I was quoting somebody there. I'm sincerely wrong. Sincerely wrong, yeah. Well, actually, we're going to be talking about that in the main service. The Jews were sincerely wrong about obtaining their righteousness. They were heading in the wrong direction. But that's what they believed. That's what they believed. They believed that. Their truth. They were going to go for it, keeping the law. I'm not sure that's what Paul implied there. I'm kind of going off track here, maybe. Sincerely wrong.

Guys, we're all very honest. You know, the sun comes up from the west. That's what I truly believe. All right. I think we need to move on. Whatever things are pure and and, you know, from from as true from every fault and immaculate. So, you know, I'm not sure those are great terms to describe this, but that's what Strong's gave us is other terms that might be worthy of consideration.

And we have a verse here, too. 1 John 3, everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. So that's kind of a positional kind of truth. The purity we have as believers relates to our position and that's to transform our condition. Pure. And here in 1 John 3, it suggests that the hope we have in him, meaning in Christ, purifies himself. So again, All these things are wrapped up in the new life we have in Christ Jesus, right? This is not buffing up the flesh. That's not what Paul's calling us to. He's calling us to a new life.

Whatsoever things are lovely, acceptable, winsome, pleasing, amiable, only New Testament news. And although some commentators take us to other verses, it's a different word. And I think we need to be careful not overly interpreting a word that's not 4 or 8. Whatever things are of good report, being spoken in a kindly spirit with goodwill towards others, again, only New Testament news. Interesting.

I mean these things all are consistent with the Christ life, are they not? If there is any virtue, we'll come back to if in a second, any moral excellence, for instance, modesty, I mean The humility we have in Christ is not the self-flesh-induced humility. This is the humility and meekness that the Lord himself walked in, and that's another nature in us.

Second Peter 1.5, but also for this very reason, giving all diligence and to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge.

Interesting. All right, we're going to move now a little bit more into a discussion that relates to the what if. And if there is anything praiseworthy, commendation would be a term we could use for praiseworthy. Compare the following use of praise. I mean, this is an example. John 12, 43. For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. What do you make of that in terms of commendation? Approbation lust. Approbation lust.

OK. That's an interesting term. Other comments? You know, to some extent, I think. Is the praise of men always flesh based? If there is anything is praise worthy. I mean, thank everybody for reflecting on their history in the job place. I mean, in a sense, you feel good when you're praised about a performance that you're there to do, right? I mean, with your boss. You know, in a sense, in my career, a grant that's funded is praiseworthy of my research or my scientific direction or accomplishment. Anyway, I'm only using that as an example. But do I?

The question is, how do I interpret that praise? To whom gets the glory for that, right? Come on, the class is silent today. Jimmy, what do you think? Well, I think that when you talk about the praise of men, if someone's praising you for your growth in Christ, then that's praiseworthy of the Lord, I suppose. But if they're praising you on your accomplishments and your work, that's more fleshly, maybe. Well, does that make it wrong? to be praised for what we're here to do in terms of earthly existence. I mean, think about this a little bit. You know, whatever we do, isn't the price of life manifesting itself in whatever we do?

You're a representation of, really, the faith, the truth. And if other people recognize, who knows that what they recognize is fleshly or really what you're portraying, as Hal said, you're the only Bible somebody may read. Okay, yeah. And you know, I think we can get schizophrenic by saying, what's the source of my response?

I mean, we have a life to live in Christ by faith. And also, we're called to not either live in Christ who lives in me, right? And if we're here questioning every response to what happens in our lives, you go kind of Yes. I think it's your motivation if that's all you're doing it just to get everybody's praise versus if you do it to please the Lord or for God's glory and then men praise you, you know, that's up to your motivations. First of all, to please them, you know. Well, but I think the Christ-like way we're praised for an earthly accomplishment, you know the source of that accomplishment, but somebody else doesn't, as Margaret mentioned. They may have no clue.

But what do you do if you're praised by men in your earthly existence? You say, thank you, right? And that's all you need to do. I mean, there isn't any other response. Do we always, and by the way, in my President's Address for the American Diabetes Association, I thank the Lord at the end, and I got criticized for that. Yeah, I know. The world will criticize that. So the question is, was I wrong? You know, whatever. I'm not asking judgment for that. All I'm saying is the praise of men does not have to be all... I mean, it doesn't have to be flesh.

I mean, if we understand the basis by which we walk, we walk by faith, then in nature we are. I don't think there's anything wrong to praise somebody if they're worthy of merit. if they deserve it, that's great. Now, where his praise comes from, we may not know. Okay, but the world system really is motivated only by the pleasure, are they not, the sin nature? I mean, their praise, they take for themselves, they get kind of, you know, lifted up by that, and that's all self. They get puffed up. Well, we have ceremonies and congratulate ourselves on how good we're doing. Aren't we wonderful? But what I'm calling everyone to, and myself, is if we're praised by the world system, you'd say, thank you, you move on, give back to the Lord. He knows everything, right? He knows everything. So we don't have to... Go ahead, please.

I was just going to say, as I look at this verse, to me it says that they love the praise of men more than the praise of God. So to me that's, you know, their priorities are out of whack. What is the praise of God? Say that again. If there's anything praiseworthy. So what are we talking about here? What's praiseworthy in terms of God? Whatever is good, whatever is pure, whatever is noble. Yeah. Okay. It kind of relates to virtues. This is a summary of this verse. All these things, truth and and good report and pure and just. Wayne, do you have a thought? I'm just thinking about praise for trials. How about that? Yeah.

And that really affects how we pray, too, doesn't it? We all pray that people are going to get better and feel good. Thank you, everyone. But, you know, the praise is that God would be glorified through the growth we all experience in these trials and tribulations. It's hard to know how Bob would be taking that and Bob Locke would be taking that in right now. But all that aside, God knows that circumstance too. Say Bob? Yes.

Back in the last chapter, Paul talked about everything he did before he was saved. And he observed the law. And what we have here in chapter 4 has nothing to do with the law. It has to do with principles. Good point. Okay. All right, let's continue. If, is this a first or third class conditional? If there's anything praiseworthy? That's a question to the class. And by the way, what precedes is if there is anything of virtue, right? Because there's anything of virtue or if there's anything that's praiseworthy, first or third class tradition. First. So what I'm indicating is the first class is sense. That's an expected result. Right. Worse. If a subjunctive, it may occur. It may not occur. Wiest has an opinion, but no other commentator that I looked at has an opinion about this. So what was his opinion? What's that? What was his opinion? It's a first-class condition.

Okay, all right. This is an expected outcome. Yeah, and you can, you know, you can figure that, I mean, if you, Roy, you know, you can figure it out from the Greek. I tried, I didn't get it. No, it's not easy, but it is possible to do that. And we should reflect that since he's a Greek guy. Right. And could I add this? Go ahead, Roy. Yes, please, Roy. I was going to ask you to help us out here.

Yeah, it's in the context of whatever is real praise. Praise, it's not just praise, it's praise worthy of being praised. It's in that context that we have this if, and that's basically reality then. This is not a condition of unreality. I don't know if that helps or not, but that's the reason that is given by Wiest and others.

So, in a sense, if we went back and interpreted the verse using the first class conditional, it would say this, you know, finally, brother, whatever things are true, etc., etc., etc., if since there is any virtue, since there's virtue, and since this is praiseworthy, meditate on these things. I mean, the idea is that the believer in the new life in Christ Jesus is manifesting these virtues. And therefore, ultimately, these are determined by the Lord to be virtuous and praiseworthy.

And one of the things here too, Bob, is don't focus on the bad. I mean, he's emphasizing the good in contrast. Right. Well, he's not giving us the alternative, is he? He says this is what your life should look like. So aren't these virtues of the Christ life? And so what we're called to in the end of this verse is to meditate on these things. What is meditation?

I'll just add to that before we answer that question. Everybody's responding so quickly here. Not as we implement this term today. I'm sorry to put you in a bad seat. But to reckon, to count, compute, calculate, you know, count over again, consider. This is the same term that's used in a verse that we think about all the time, Romans 6 11, right? Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed of the sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. That same word is used for reckon, consider, calculate, I like what Brother Hal would say about this verse, you say about this one, you're putting it down as true, you're an accountant, you're right, this is a truth, I'm putting this truth down, and that's why all those first class conditions are there, it's based upon all this truth, reality, that's where your mind should be, you're not focused on untruth, you're focused on the truth. What's the world system meditating on today?

I mean, oh boy. Gosh. You know, the point that was made at a mainline Baptist church that I attended for a while was that, you know, memorize Scripture and then actually meditate on Scripture and then, my bad, memorize Scripture and then meditate on it. I ultimately found that ultimately the meditation came, you know, you meditate on the Scripture and then you memorize it. I mean, there's kind of a reverse Meditate, again, is really tossing things over repeatedly in your mind. I mean, we all have verses, I'm sure we can quote that we use all the time.

And that's really repeating and considering those truths for our lives. Bob? Yes, please. Would it also mean remembering? That'd be good, yeah. That's another adjective we can use to describe meditation. One thing we can repeat is These are things that become kind of blood and guts of who we are. I mean, the things that we continually toss over and really deal with. Hey Bob? Yes sir? It's plural here too. And so it's a body truth, not necessarily a personal truth, but a person in the body. In other words, as a Philippian church, count yourselves plural. Isn't that neat?

As a radiating candlestick, the church is dead indeed to sin. So there was a time in my life, and I'll just share this again personally, So, 2 Corinthians 4, 17 and 18, "...for a wide affliction is but for a moment, which worketh in us a far more eternal and exceedingly great glory, while we look not at the things that are seen, but the things that are not seen. Because the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal."

I mean, I didn't memorize that verse. I just went to there and that verse has become just heart and soul. We all have verses like that, but that's an example of how we meditate. We have a verse that we on to, we look at, and by the way, reading it multiple times becomes part of us, okay?

That's my opinion. So, first I, we need to get finished here. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you. So, Constable says, wholesome conduct should follow wholesome thinking. Seems a little light. A little bit light. Wholesome. A quick one-liner, right?

So what's Paul saying here? Be like me and the God of peace will be with you? Is that what he's saying here? Well, be like Christ. Bob, couldn't you say that 8, doesn't that describe our Savior? Isn't that all those attributes are Him? And we have his life.

So, hey, that's that's probably. Yeah. Well, first of all, the verbs in this verse, all the verbs be in this verse are active indicative. And importantly, we're told to do. And in the Greek, this refers to practice a habit and accomplish the habit. So this do is not, oh, you know, how you doing and you're doing. Now, this is something that should be really a major part of our lives. So, a few verses here, I'll maybe read them quickly. And we have confidence in the Lord concerning you both that you do and will do the things we command you.

James 1.22, but be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

And 1 John 3.22, and whatever we ask we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing him in sight. Remember, the commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ are basically living the new life.

I mean, we don't go back to the Old Testament here, right? All right, so that's doing. So doing is the emphasis here. As the consul said, wholesome conduct should follow wholesome thinking. Robertson says the preacher is the interpreter of the spiritual life and should be an example. So we look to our elders in terms. Roger, we're watching you. So yes, but how? And I'm going to say this.

Paul is clearly our human example of what the Christ's life is all about. So isn't it neat that the Lord, you know, has given him as our example. In fact, the first Corinthians 11, this is another one. Imitate me just as I also am of Christ. Notice, I am of Christ. I mean, it almost takes you back to his history as a Pharisee, right? I am. He identifies with the personal Lord Jesus Christ. So we look to Paul as a human example of what the Christ's life really looks like.

And isn't it great that God has given us so much details through Paul and the other epistles through Paul as to what that life is all about. So do we look at Paul or just Do we look at Paul and or just learn Christ in us is the hope of glory? So what's the answer there? Well, I think both. We look at Paul as that human example, but we're not going to walk in Paul's shoes nor are we walking in Christ's shoes. Paul lived the new life and exemplifies that in the Scripture. By the way, we see Paul fall short at times too, like we do. So thank you, Lord, for giving us a human example of what this new life is all about.

All right, I'm going to close with Darby and then we'll stop. All right. I put my head down because I'm not sure which pair of glasses to use. Darby, moreover, the Christian, although walking as we have seen in the midst of evil and of trial, is to occupy himself with all that is good. and is able to do it thus at peace, to live in this atmosphere, so that it shall pervade his heart, that he shall be habitually where God is to be found.

This is an all-important command. We may be occupied with evil, and it shall pervade this heart, that he shall be habitually where God is to be found. This is an all-important command. I guess I duplicated that. We may be occupied with that, duplicate that. Okay, so let's go down.

But if occupied through his grace with that which is good, with that which comes from himself, the God of peace is with us. In trouble we shall have the peace of God in our ordinary life, and for the deed of this nature we shall have the God of peace. Paul was the practical example of this with regard to their walk. By following him and that which they had learned and heard from him and seen in him, they should find that God with them.

So I apologize for the redundancy. Sometimes when you split things and move pages. I know. My bad. But I think Darby hits the nail on the head. If you look at the first and third and the last quarter here and go and forget the duplication. But anyway, a good summary. I think we want to follow up on that here. So Bob. Yes.

You probably know by now I'm a firm believer in everything in context. And to sum all this up, if Paul does this, when you jump clear down to verse 13, he says, I can do all things through him who strengthens me. And all of this stuff, all of these things are done through Christ. Not of ourselves. Right. That's good. And that in effect summarizes in one line what Darby tried to say in a long paragraph. Thanks. Yeah, that's very, very nice. All right. Any other thoughts on this, Jim? Yeah.

I've noticed that, you know, the world doesn't like absolute truths. Of course. And God's Word is absolute truth. In the world you find half-truths and partial truths and You know, most of the truth that's only in the Word of God will we find the ultimate truth. But Jim, that's your truth, not my truth.

I'll tell you, in science, that's the driving force to find truth. hypothesis, there's an answer and that's what they're seeking. But it's the truth of physics or geometry or biology. Bob, just a little tangent, but isn't it sad that at least my observation is that science has been perverted by politics. And pretty soon science, I'm thinking of climate change and that sort of thing, pretty soon science gets directed for agendas and no longer is Let's see, what does the data show? The data gets changed.

I mean, I read too many things, but anyway, I'm just curious if you have any thoughts about that. Does it fit our agenda? Does it fit our agenda? I'm sure you agree with it. It's sad to see that. It really is. Well, I've got a magazine called Science, and the editorials are always there. I, you know, I say to Margaret, every science issue I read, I probably take one or two things away that influences my knowledge of something that I worked with or am still thinking about. So it's worthwhile scientifically for me to stay up, but it's the world system scientifically for us. It really is. I just want to say that every time that Roy says that truth is reality, it just, it really, it really impacts me.

I love that. Amen. That's great. Sounds like a benediction to me. Jim, close us in prayer, would you please? Father, we thank you so much for your word that we can study it. deeply, and we can examine it back and forth in every other way that we can look at it, but it's always the truth, and we believe that it's the truth, and we thank you so much for it. Thank you for all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.