Dwelling on these things

Alright. Morning. You're going to walk in with a hot cup of coffee. That looks good. I already had a cup and I already want another cup. Something about that. Especially like I was mentioning, it's just a little bit of a chill out there this morning. Not chill, but briskness.

Philippians 4, 8 through 9. I don't know what Roger was thinking when he assigned these lessons out, but it seems like he gives me the best verses. And it's really hard to say that they're best verses, but... I had the best verses last week. I know, right? You did. So for some reason I feel like I've got some of the best verses in this particular class.

And there's just been a theme that's kind of interesting. Not only is there a theme through the book of Philippians that we've been looking at together, but it seems like every time I teach I'm kind of building on what even happened four or five weeks ago. So there's some similarities there with the things that I taught last time that we're going to look at. And so I feel like I've got a really good running start into it.

Philippians 4, 8-9, we titled this lesson, Dwell on These Things, and so obviously we're thinking about mindedness, we're thinking about where the perspective is. And so, as we get into that today, we'll just see what Paul has to say about that perspective of things that we should have, both for others and for the Lord and what He's given to us. So, if somebody doesn't mind just reading Philippians 4, 8-9 for us, just a couple verses. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things and the God of peace shall be with you.

Okay, so I think like any reading of Scripture, when you start seeing a list of things, and that's what we have here today is a list. And I think that it's pretty common for folks to jump into the Scripture at any point, whether you're one of those that opens up in the middle and just looks for something to apply. I've been there and done that.

It didn't work too well. Even in the context of a book like Philippians, you've got lists. You've got a big list, small lists, lists everywhere. And there's a lot of good reasons for Paul to utilize lists and these kinds of things in the repetition. But it's pretty common when you approach the scripture, especially a book like Philippians that's written to believers, to see a list like this and to say, okay, tall order, how do I measure up?

And you instantly start to think about what you're not doing, right? And I think this is one of those verses that could cause that kind of initial reaction. If you were to open it up and try to get your mind around it, you quickly see that your mind wasn't quite around it. And you think, ah. Even this morning, I don't know that I thought about what is true. I don't know that my mind was focused on what was honorable, what was right, pure. And you go down the list, and you accuse yourself of the things that you hadn't thought through for the day.

And then you go on to the very end of verse 9, and it's like, oh, the God of peace. Well, there wasn't much peace in the car ride this morning because of X, Y, and Z. Especially when you've got three kids in the car, right? So I have a good reason for my sin to you. It'll get worse. So apparently I have nothing to look forward to. No, I'm just kidding. It'll be different. Different, I like that word. It's like a replacement for...

It's why we come to church, because we need this. We need this, that's right. Well, I think that's what Paul was after as well, is that this is not so much about measuring yourself, but a reminder of what you need, and who you need, and who he is, and what that brings out as you're trusting and walking in him, as we've seen that God does the living, and we've seen that even in this particular book as we've studied it. So, looking at this list, we just want to get an idea of what it is that Paul is calling us to, and then start breaking it down and see how it's all tied together and as biblical identification elicits.

That's a new term. Have you ever heard that? Yeah. Vern coined that one day. I don't know that he ever used it outside of that conversation, but I said, I think I might just go ahead and use that one day. As biblical identificationists, we're going to have a different perspective on this list of things that we are supposed to keep and I'm excited to add to it because as we start to add to our perspective of what we are in Christ, it gets richer and the knowing of a person gets deeper. And so that's the enjoyment of approaching things that way. Let's look at the list. We've got true, honorable, NET Bible worthy of respect. I like that one. Right or just. Pure, lovely, of good repute, commendable, good rapport.

And whatever is those things, and then he goes on, if there is, and surely there is, any excellence, anything worthy of praise, these are the things that your mind should be dwelling on, is what we learn. And we'll look at each of these, and we'll break it down just like we typically do. But, I mean, it's definitely a list of things that would focus a mind. And here's what came to my mind as I was reading this.

How big of a deal is it in the world, and I'm talking about world religions, I'm talking about religions that don't even claim themselves as being religions, how big is it to set your mind on something? How popular of a term is that? It's a pretty big deal. You think about Eastern mysticism, how popular is it to get your mind in a place? It's very popular.

In fact, that's the essence of many of these Eastern mystical religions. It doesn't take us long to figure out that Eastern mysticism has made its way into the religion of politics today, into the religion of the postmodern and the academic setting. It's made its way into the average speak of a person who just sits and watches TV and has nothing more to talk about than common entertainment. So whatever the case, you've got Eastern mysticism creeping its way into every single form and facet, even Christianity, even churches.

And what are they attacking? It's interesting, they're attacking words for the purposes of having your mind focused on something. And where they take these things is often a nothingness, a mindlessness, a focus on nothing, a focus on mindlessness. And the idea is to get away from what you typically think about, away from the logic, away from the reasoning, away from the beholding and understanding and having heard and seen and listened, as we'll look at today, to get away from those things and to connect with something that is unfathomable. You can't discuss it. When you actually get your mind there, you can't ever explain it to anyone else because it's so unique to you and it's so different.

And what's interesting about that is that it is completely opposite of what Paul had in mind in this passage and what's embedded through the book of Philippians and all through the New Testament and even the Old Testament about thinking through the things that God has said, reasoning them. There's an expectation of understanding these things and there's an expectation that of course this is who you are. Of course this is what you understand. Of course this is what you do.

So you just think about looking at a list like this or looking at words like this or even trying to get your mind around something and you step outside of this setting and enter into most church settings or any other kind of mystical perspective and the challenge is going to be stop thinking. You're thinking too much. You need to get in a quiet place. and let your mind relax. You need to find yourself and in order to do that you need to set everything aside and reach that divine place where your mind is literally disconnected. It's an unplugging, isn't it? And here Paul says, don't unplug. Stay plugged in. Stay plugged in because here's the list of things that you would think if you were remaining plugged in.

And that's obviously an analogy for faith, right? And it's all wrapped up in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's all wrapped up in the person. And this is what's really cool about the lesson that I'm going to give it away. Every single one of these things is tied to the person of Christ. There's not a single one where you can't find a reference that we're going to look at that isn't tied to the person of Christ. So here's what's also interesting.

I'm picking on Christianity because it deserves to be picked on in some cases. I'm not trying to be harsh, but I've been in this boat, and you've probably been in it with me, where you have these things that are attributes that you want to keep, but they're disconnected from the person of Christ. That's no better than trying to empty your mind and achieve nirvana. It's another list of works and things that you're doing in order to achieve a certain place, right?

So here, what we're saying is that yes, we have a list. Yes, we have attributes. Yes, we have characteristics. But as we're going to see, each of them are tied to the person of Christ. And that's cool. That's different. That's biblical. That's New Testament. That's a biblical identification list. And it's totally different than what you might see in another setting, even if you're in the church. But anything other than that is putting yourself under law and also buffing up the old nature, right? That's right. It's just honeyism, right?

Sure, I'll think about what's true. You shine a little here. Yeah, I'll think about what's honorable. You know, I should be seen as being honorable and lovely in some people's eyes. You know, you shine a little here and a little there. So, that's right.

You've got that perspective on life and, you know, we can definitely fake it till we make it. I talk about that a lot, and I'm good at it, to be real honest. I'm good at faking being pure, being lovely. But there's a difference between trusting the Lord Jesus Christ and His loveliness, and His purity, and His righteousness, which is tied to the word right, all coming out because it's not me, it's Christ's life in me, and that's a different thing.

And that's what we're going to look at today. So this word true, These are all adjectives that are describing character attributes in a person. In the case of Paul's perspective and context here, we're talking about the adjectives that explain the brethren and also himself. Okay, and so we'll see that he ties them to himself.

But this particular word ties back to the idea of truth, not only as an objective principle, but a character-based principle, which we've been talking about. So whatever is true, in other words, whatever is true in character, And as a believer, where do you ever figure out what is true in character? And John 14, 6 lays that out, and notice here that this is the first attribute or first adjective that we've looked at in this list, and already we're finding principles where the exact same term in the exact same way is used of Christ. I am the way, the truth, and this is used, I said in the exact same way, the same word is used as a noun here because it's describing the person and not the character. the person, he is the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but through me. And so it is because of Christ's character and being in essence of truth that we understand the adjective of truth, that we understand the character attribute of truth. And it's only connected to the source of truth that we could ever think on truth, that we could ever identify with truth. It's not an objective thing that can be understood outside of Christ. And that's what's interesting.

Paul had this in mind, and he ties it, he's tied it all the way through the book of Philippians. And just because we're separating chapter 4, 8, and 9, and looking at it separately, doesn't mean that it should be seen out of context as a person of Christ, which he's referred to over and over. And in this particular passage, he refers back to the God of Peace. And so there's still that personal connection, and we'll look at that a little bit later.

So, finally brethren, going back here, whatever is true, whatever is true, whatever is of true character, these are the things that you're to dwell on. Let's move to the next one, honorable. Another way of thinking of it, worthy of respect. Another adjective, and it's related to this idea of worship. This root word is used in many different ways with regards to worship and giving praise.

Whenever I teach the concept of praise or honor or giving honor, especially with a Christian who might have a little bit of suitcase baggage in growing up in the church or whatever, praise is not related to singing per se, although it could be. Praise can be done behind a steering wheel, quietly on a long drive. It can be done in a chair, holding your child and thinking about the way that the Lord has designed uniquely each individual creation. I mean it doesn't matter the place or the expression, it's the focus and the actual content that is at play here. And when we look at honorable and we look at the relationship of that word to praise, we see that the praise is focused on the Lord and it is assumed that the object of the praise is worthy to receive it. And so Paul's saying, think about the process of giving honor and praise to an object that receives it. In this case, the personal object of God.

And the same word, the root word there is used in Acts 6.14 to refer to Lydia being one who honors or worships God, gives praise to, gives worship to. And I often mention the singing thing there. Singing is a great way of expressing worship. especially that. But in today's society, it's often assumed that worship has to be done in song. When in fact, worship can be done at the reading of Scripture in the quietness of the woods, if you want.

It doesn't matter. You can be alone. You can be together. It can be corporate. It can be individual. It can be out loud. It can be quiet. And Paul, in this particular case, what kind of worship do you think he's talking about? Assuming that we're dwelling on something, which also, as we're going to learn, means to meditate. You think that's an out loud kind of praise? Not necessarily. You might refer to it and talk about it with others. But in this case, I think Paul's talking about what's going on up here. There's a worship process going on in your mind. And it doesn't mean that it necessarily has to be corporate.

I think that's pretty cool, especially with today's confusion around that subject. Any thoughts about that? It kind of opened up a worship can of worms, didn't it? Good deal. Doesn't the word worship come from attributing worth? Yep, adoration. So you can certainly see how music would fit into that, but again, as you said, we attribute worth to things with our words and with our our whole life. Yep.

And just to kind of take a little sidestep there, and I'm just touching on a popular thing, and I don't know that it's super advantageous to us, but for those that we will come into contact with, and, hey, I come to Holly Hills, and this is a different kind of worship experience. It's like, okay, wait a minute, let's back up off the experience and what you're seeing, and let's remind ourselves about what's at the essence of this thing. You may do it this way or that way or whatever, but the content and the focus and the worthiness doesn't change regardless if you're in Uganda, Holly Hills, or down the street at a megachurch. The point is that the expression, as long as the expression is consistent with worship, and that could be argued, I know there's a lot of arguments surrounding that, the perspective is what's being thought. what's being said.

Not so much how it's being said, but what's being said. And the how comes into play at some point. I'm not suggesting that it's a topic that should be just swept under the rug, but I'm saying that the honor and the worth and the praise is concerning yourselves, first of all, with where your head is in relationship to a person. Okay? It's in relationship to a person. And in the Acts 16, 14 passage, we see that it's related to God for Lydia.

And Paul's saying, don't forget, your mind is on what is right, or what is true rather. And now he's saying, and your mind is on what is honorable, or what is worthy of praise, or what is worshipful. So, how much time do we spend, and I'm not suggesting a law-based measurement and answer here, but how much time do we spend on things that are not honorable or worthy of praise? This is the balance that Paul wants you to consider here.

That when you're walking with the Lord, He is of the forefront of your thinking. He is the one who comes out of the worship as opposed to spinning around. You get really tied into X, Y, and Z at work. You get really tied into circumstance, relationship, whatever, and all of a sudden you start honoring something or someone that causes the mind shift.

It's the perspective issue that Paul's bringing into play here. And it's interesting that what is very, very tied to worship when it begins to happen in a consistent way? The Israelites got in a bondage to this over and over and over and over and over and over. What comes out of a consistency of worship? Idolatry. Okay, so where your mind goes initially here leads into the process of what we call idolatry and it gets to a place where it's a habitual perspective. Okay, now that's not, I don't think Paul had in full view the extent of worship in that sense, but he's definitely drawing us back to the root here.

Does that make sense? Let's look at the word right. I lost a paragraph here somewhere. This word is tied directly to the word righteous. What is right? What is righteous? And when we teach righteous, it's very difficult, especially in this age, to understand that term. It's not a term that the world can relate to. The closest they get to is what is righteous or what is right by way of the law. and whatever governing body they happen to find themselves under will determine their perspective and their definition for that term.

But when we get to a biblical perspective, the word righteous is determined ultimately by God's holiness. And if you don't understand the Lord's holiness, you can't understand righteousness. And if you don't understand, in this particular case, 1 John 2, 1-2, He's talking about the righteousness of Jesus Christ. He is, not an extension, but in essence, the fullness of God's holiness. When you're thinking about what is right, what is just, there's no justice here, there's no right being done here. Paul is saying that righteous or right is not tied to some principle of law or governing body.

Is what was right in the Roman system for him righteous? It may or may not have been. Was it right that he was chained to a Praetorian guard? Was he seeing righteousness being carried out through Roman rule? No, he wasn't. Was he in fact causing insurrection and misleading people and causing people to not pay their taxes and all of the different kinds of things that would have been accusations of any believer in the day?

No, it wasn't right by Roman standards, but what was righteous is that he was suffering on behalf of the righteous one. And so he was identifying with what was right based on Christ. And even by the circumstances of Christ, I mean, Christ suffered unjustly according to even the Roman rule. Pilate even found there was no guilt in the man, but yet still punished him. It was not right.

You see, but here, Paul is saying you need your mind dwelling on what is righteous. And that is found in the person of Christ. My little children, he says in 1 John, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. That was a big one we talked about. It was fun.

And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. Not only is he perfectly holy with no blemish whatsoever, the standard of righteousness, but we have an advocate in him. And so it's not some high and lofty God in the clouds that we have to somehow maneuver and persuade to do what we want them to do by buying them off with some act or whatnot. But here he's saying, the one that is righteous, the standard of righteousness, he's our advocate.

He's the one that stands at the court and says, I know him, he's mine. The gavel's been placed fully on the table of decision making and he is justified, he is just, he is righteous, he is mine. And I surround him with my righteousness. I clothed him. You see, he's clothed in my righteousness. There is no sin that you can see on this child of mine. And that's what Paul's bringing to light here is that this source of right is tied to the one who has stood at the courtroom of justification and declared us righteous. It's a very different picture than considering what is right or what is wrong.

I had a conversation with a co-worker this week. He's been a little rough around the edges, and that's okay. You know, I can be that way too. But at one point in the conversation, he really wanted me to understand that he wasn't as bad as I might think he was. Which is okay. We all kind of want to reset the stage with certain people. It's like, hey, I know I'm giving you a hard time, but I'm not that bad, blah, blah, blah.

Maybe you've done that yourself. He said, really, I'm a good person. I'm right. I'm right. I'm really a good person. Underneath it all, I'm really a good person. I said, well, how do you define good? I'll tell you, the look on his face, I've never seen someone quite...

It was not a frustration, which was interesting. I thought it would kind of get under his skin. It was a puzzled. It's like, that is a conundrum of a response. And then he went on to say, you puzzle me probably just like I puzzle you. And I said, well, that's probably good for now. We're building on something here. There's a confusion about the way this guy defines things is just a little different.

And it's not that I am any more right or righteous or honorable or true than he is. I know the one who is these things. I know the one who is the source of these things. And ultimately I can say, look, it's not that I'm good, but the one that I know is good. And that's the standard, and that's what's right, and that's my advocate, and that's the one who stands beside me in the courtroom of justice.

See, good is a justice term, it's a legal term, and he was using it, and I didn't want him to quite get away with it, but at the same time I wasn't ready to lay it down, you know, just because the timing wasn't the right timing in my... and you'll see him tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow.

And I'll see him tomorrow, and we'll keep having this conversation. No way. It's very good to do that, because sometimes you can draw a line in the sand, and then it's all over with. You're so-and-so, and you're so-and-so, and you're labeled, and it's no place to go from there. The Lord's put this individual in my life for a good reason.

There's a lot that I'm learning and I'm excited to continue to get to know him and see what the Lord has to teach me through him. So we have this word, right. It's interesting how the word true, right, honorable, all these words, if you were just to look them up in Webster's, you'd have a much different perspective so far of what Paul is talking about dwelling on these things. And that's what I guess I'm most concerned about with Bible study is that it's not being done to the degree that you're understanding these words and understanding the context of the person of Christ as they relate to them.

Because you can't identify with somebody you don't understand. You just can't do it. You're going to end up falling back on, well I learned what right was and true was and honorable was when I grew up and however you define that when you grew up and however your world view defines it, that's where you're going to place your perspective. But here, there's no room.

And I love how the Bible, how God chose to communicate Himself in the Scripture, in the written word, with stories surrounding the words, so that you can't confuse what they mean. You know, oh, I want this to mean this and this and this. Well, there's a story surrounding it. If you mess with the word, you mess with the whole story.

It's like dominoes. The whole thing just falls apart and becomes meaningless. Well, that's what I mean. I want meaningless. I know that's what you want. You say that, but you actually don't. You want meaning. And you need meaning, and you're looking for meaning, and you're just reworking things, but the Bible doesn't allow for you to rework things.

It's so awesome that there are stories surrounding these words to keep them in place through times. And that's a really unique thing about about the scripture. I was just working through a study recently where we were talking about the difference in some of the ways that the word is unique, a unique book. That's what Holy Bible means. It just means unique book. Nothing special about the word holy in that it just means unique. This is a unique book.

Why? You've got 66 writers, all from three different continents, different languages, different places, different jobs, and yet they write all these stories and they use these words in contexts and in ways that keep them concretely defined between each one. It's really amazing. I mean, you've got roots of roots of roots of words. You've got this word, which gives way to this word, this word, this word, and they're all used and they have this kind of waterfall connection that's just so different and so unique than any other single author's perspective.

Even a single author doesn't use words correctly in their own writing. They tend to misuse them. But here we have something so unique about the scripture in that the words are surrounded by these stories and they get used over and over and over. When you think of holy, what are the stories in the scripture that you think of? Where is God's holiness shown in a story? And that's what's neat about even teaching kids. You can teach them what's right. You can teach them what justice is. You can teach them what being justified means.

Isaiah, the whole story of Isaiah has a lot to do with the story of justification and being justified and standing before a God of holiness and the experience that he went through as he confronted a holy, righteous God. And so you have these stories connected to these words. This would be the thing that came to mind because these brethren were taught these traditions, these stories, these oral connections with the scripture. They were taught this way. In fact, they were disciples, as we'll see, and that's what it means to hear and to listen and learn. We've got another word, pure. Sincere motives. Your mind should be focused on motives that are sincere.

Well, I didn't do it. I thought it, but I didn't do it. Paul says, well, when your life is in Christ and when you have the mind of Christ, you don't think it, not do it. You don't think on those things. Those things are not what come to mind. And I know that that's a very troublesome way of communicating, especially to young believers. It's like, well, I think it. I can't stop thinking it."

Well, that's because you haven't grown into an intimacy with Christ to where it's not something that's not on your mind. You've still got the flesh-mind thing going here. The sin nature has still got a habitual way of causing your mind to think through things. And yes, you don't choose to do them, and that shows some maturity and some growth. It shows that you trust Christ there, but an intimacy and a focus on the Lord causes your mind to shift in a way that can't be explained in law. I can't teach you to do it. I just can't teach you not to think about these things. You know, I cannot do that. No teacher can.

Christ does it as you grow in intimacy with Him. And that's what's unique. And this pure comes from Him. Again, tying back to the person of Christ. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself just as He is pure. Where's your focus? Christ. Where's the purity of mind come? It comes from the focus on Christ. And even that purity comes from Christ. Again, all source in the person of the Lord Jesus.

The word lovely is made up of two root words here combined together. Literally it means toward brotherly love. You see the word phileo, you know that word, you've seen that word. Prose meaning focusing on, giving to. So here we've got a kind of love that is being focused on the brethren. A kind of brotherly love where you're thinking about the dearness of someone. You're thinking about the belovedness of someone. Here you're thinking about those things which cause people to be pleased with something.

So, you may be thinking about things which you see in a young believer, an older believer, or a non-believer that you think about in terms of the Lord's potential for them, that which is lovely. Often, it's easy to get, especially from an unbelieving perspective, to think about someone, and I think this has to do with brotherly love, but I'm going to maybe stretch it a little bit, probably not warranted in this passage, but when you think about love towards an unbeliever, If you think about the potential of what the Lord's life in them could be, it changes the focus of that person. Instead of who they are in their flesh, of course they are. Of course they frustrate you. Of course their sin is ugly. Yours was too.

But when you're thinking about the way the Lord loves and you're expressing mindfulness towards them or another believer in terms of what the Lord wants to do in them, that changes your focus of a person. And it causes you to be ministry-minded too. even for us. You look at me and you say, well what does the Lord want to do with me? And the same thing goes for you. What is the Lord doing with you?

As you walk and trust Him, how is your life and your intimacy with Him going to grow and cause changes in your life? And thinking about that surrounding a person, it's pretty interesting. Paul uses this word, it's not only focused on believers, it's also focused on Christ.

But look here at 1 Corinthians 16.22, it says Paul used the last part of this word. If somebody wants to look that up and read it, that'd be good. Roger, if you don't mind.

1 Corinthians 16.22, Paul uses the last part of this word phileo about the believer's love for the Lord Jesus. That's a different kind of love that we can give each other in the same sense because ultimately there is a special, unique love between the bride and his groom. 1622 please.

If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be accursed, Maranatha. Yeah, that's it. The love of the Lord. So the love Here, the mindedness and focus of love is on Christ. Was there a time where you didn't feel like you loved the Lord and you were cursed? Oh! But in Christ, the love for the Lord is consistent.

It'll never change. And when you're in Christ, guess where your love is always focused? And who are you, ultimately? Are you your condition of its shifting perspectives? You are the position. of in Christ. And in Christ you love the Lord. And that's what Paul's talking about here.

In John 16.27, Donna, do you mind reading John 16.27?

But here, Paul uses the same word, and he's using it of the love of the Father toward the Son. This same kind of love exists within the Trinity. For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. Okay, and here the father's talking to the son and expressing that kind of love towards one another.

So that's a tall order. Think on the type of loveliness or the towarded, if that's a word, focused brotherly love that comes from God. We oftentimes talk about agape love, but phileo love is God's love too. We forget that. You can do this but you can't do Agape without God. You can't do Fileo without God either. Phileo is a type of love focused on brethren, and it's also focused even on the person of the Trinity, between each other. There's that type of love too. Remember, God's love encompasses all three types, not just two or one. So here we've got right, honorable, true, lovely. Again, exciting, but if you just spin it to character attributes, you really start shrinking in your chair pretty quick.

And then of good repute, well spoken of, worthy of praise, good rumor, characterized by words of good import or acclamation, praiseworthy. Christ is proclaimed to be praiseworthy by the heavenly angels and the elders in Revelation 5, 12. It says, worthy is the lamb that is slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. Okay, so that word being well spoken of, is also used of the way that the Lord is spoken of in the book of Revelation. Hey Jim, it just occurs to me that when we use the word believe on the name of the Lord Jesus, we're using this That's right.

So just to kind of bring out what Roy was saying there, believing on the name of someone, the name represents a person and that's the way that's used. Who is this? Do I know this person? Can I trust this person? Can I trust his name to be worthy of what they're saying is true? And the only way that you can know whether you trust a person is to know who he is and what he's done, right? And so here, in the case of the heavenly angels, they've seen him. And they've seen his wisdom and his might. And where did they see it? It says that on the Last of the sixth day of creation, what did the angels do?

They sang and shouted. You think Sports Authority Field is loud when Peyton Manning enters the field? That's nothing compared to the roar of angelic beings. Remember, they're innumerable. 10,000s upon 10,000s just surrounding the throne. seeing the wisdom and the might of the Lord in just the six days of creation. And it's like fireworks are going everywhere, and it's oohing and aahing. And it's angels. I think they can probably hold a tune. But that's right. To believe on the name is to believe on the reputation. What's the rumor about this person?

And when you focus on the Lord Jesus Christ, you have everything you need to know of whether or not He is of good repute. And the answer is, He is of perfect repute. And then we go to the second part. We've talked about whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute. And he says, and if there is, and it's assumed to be true, if there is anything excellent, anything worthy of praise, think on these things. So he just continues to extend the dwelling and the focus of mind. The word excellence here also used in the New King James Version, virtue. What gives man his moral worth? Remember, I'm a good person. His efficiency. Who is this person in terms of moral worth? His superiority in terms of how does God view this person? Is he pleasing to God? And it's interesting that the gospel message itself is tied up in a person's understanding of this about themselves.

What happened when Adam and Eve chose to trust mixed truth with lies, in the words of Lucifer, and then to also believe their own lies that they could even weigh the decision out themselves? What was it that caused their Creator to separate Himself from He the Creator and His creature in the garden?

It was an issue of moral worth. You've now introduced sin, the sin nature, into your person and their separation here. What's another word for separation in the Bible? There's death. And moral issues cause death. They cause separation. And that's the perspective that God has on it.

And it doesn't take but a few days, assuming that it was a few, I don't know how many days it was, till Adam and Eve decided they knew better than God what was right, what was moral, what was excellent. If we come from Adam's nature, what hope do we have on focusing on what is excellent? only to have a new nature, only to have the second Adam, Christ's nature, when we are in Christ, our moral worth is not at question anymore. And that's the personal nature of the gospel, and it's also the personal nature of where our minds should dwell. See, the whole thing about the scripture is that it never lacks personality. It never lacks being tied back to person. If somebody would say, what's so different about Christianity, biblical Christianity?

I'd say, well, it's tied to person. You say, well, what person are you talking about? Well, that's good that you want to know that, because that introduces us into the study of theology. Who is God? He's a person. You know, he's not a force, he's not hidden, he's not distant, he's a personal. And, not only is he personal, what he creates in man, not in any other form of creation, but in man, he assigns a unique category to them, a unique kindedness to them. Do you know what that's called? When he says, I made them in my image. That means they've got personality. See, Christianity is about personhood and the relationship of persons. It's all tied up in that. And here, excellence is tied up into the person. It all goes back over and over. 1 Peter 2, 9-10, rather. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellence of Him." Again, proclaim, praise, worship, excellence, moral character. Who? Christ. "...who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. For you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God, who had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."

So excellence again tied in the person of Christ. And then finally in this verse worthy of praise, It's got two different roots as well, but when you tie them together, you've got the idea of upon praise, or that which is worthy or deserves praise. You see a consistency here of terms? They're all tied together, and they're all used throughout Scripture.

I love this reference, Ephesians 1, 6 through 11. Nancy, you want to just read Ephesians 1, 6 for us? But notice that even if you were to read all the way through Verse 11, that same word of worthy of praise is used four times for the praise of the Lord for what He has so marvelously done in blessing us with every blessing of Christ. This is a big verse for Biblical identificationists, isn't it?

We go back here because this verse helps us clarify where we are. and what we have. It's very clearly stated, but notice how the word worthy of praise or that particular combination of words is used here. to the praise of the glory of his grace which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved. Praise of worth here. You can just scan. Scan through verses 1-6 and look for the words worthy and praise there.

You'll see there's just this connection back to what Paul is talking about here. Just to be reminded, this is where Paul wants our mind. So, do you think He wants your mind in a place where you're seated with Christ, in the heavenlies? Where all your heavenly riches dwell, all your blessing is? Yeah, this is where our mind is.

And if it's not, then you have a decision. And it's interesting that you have a personal decision to make in terms of trusting the Lord for what He has said is true of you, and reckoning and counting it as so, and moving on. Again, the word reckoning, we'll get some out of that word we're going to look at here in a minute. It's all tied back into where your mind is focused, where you're going with things, where your perspective is.

Let's look at whatever and if. These are the words that are in between this list. Why would Paul use all these different connections here? But they're often used in such casual ways in our speaking that they're not thought of. But Paul uses them specifically here for a reason and his intent is to be inclusive of all that it has the character of Christ. So it's not excellence. It's not worthy of praise. It's not true. It's not right. It's all of these things. All of these things make up God's character. And so these words connect things.

The if at the end of the verse is a fulfilled condition. So when he says, whatever is right, pure, holy, I'm sorry, right, honorable, pure, worthy of good repute, and so forth. And then he goes on to say, and if there is anything excellent or worthy of praise, and that if at the end is a fulfilled condition. So Paul is saying, he's not saying, I wonder if. He's saying, if in fact, because there is something worthy of praise, it's an assumption to be true.

It's better to phrase it. You can use sense, but it's better if you say it's... You can put sense in there. But I find it's better to say it's assumed to be true. It's a logical argument. Assumed to be true for the sake of this discussion. People put sense in there. I'm not totally discounting that, but I find it better in my head to do that. Assumed to be true for the sake of argument, or for my discussion here. That's right. I'm going to stick with fulfilled condition.

Only because you guys aren't smarter than me and I don't want this to be on tape. I keep saying tape. Who uses tape anymore? You'd think I was like old fashioned. I think I am. I'll go old fashioned. Nothing wrong with that. Dwell. This is a cool word, I like it. Look it to my eye. To think about something in a detailed and logical manner. In other words, what's that? It's reckon. Yeah. Dwell, reckon, think.

And what's neat is that it's think about these by reason of logic. In other words, you have all the pieces to come to this conclusion, this is where your mind should be. It's not a, well, I think I'd like to go out for, you know, Italian food today. It's not like a whimsical thinking, you know, although Italian does sound good, even this early. That's weird. Keep a mental record, bear in mind, keep these things in the forefront of your thinking based on the logical reasoning that you've done.

Now I am not trying to disconnect the personal nature of the relationship and intimacy with Christ for the sake of a kind of archaic logical reasoning. But one thing that I have seen is that reasoning and logic have taken a really huge backseat in Christianity because it's often assumed that reasoning and logic and thinking through the progression of things just, you know, you get too academic about it. I would argue that the academic part of it is a presupposition of a final conclusion. So it's okay to be academic about things and say, oh, well, this leads to this, this leads to this. That's what we're doing here. But what is the consequences of that reasoning? It goes beyond a knowledge that is pure head knowledge. Oh, now I understand it.

So my hope is not that you just understand these things, but that you believe them to be true. And that's where it goes on to be personal. You can't truly worship the Lord if you don't know who He is. If you don't have an understanding of the fact that He's pure and righteous and true and holy.

Mindedness, which we're about to talk about, dwelling, reckoning, all of these things presuppose that you've already logically thought through the character of who you are reckoning on, both yourself and the Lord, and the results of these things. I don't want to disqualify the academic exercise, but I want it to go beyond that and saying, look, we're looking at the reasoning and the words and the logic that was put into the scripture itself, but realizing that it goes beyond a knowing impersonally to a very personal knowledge.

And we've talked about that even in the book of Philippians. And what it boils down to here, notice this. You know you like it. All that is being woven into Philippians is an issue of perspective. It's getting all the pieces together and putting them together in such a way that your mind can see clearly on something. It's abiding above or looking down or however fancy way we want to refer to it. The perspective is we view things the way the Lord has said they are. and we believe them to be true. We not only understand it, but we trust it.

It's the truth. It's reality. This is the way it is. God's perspective on me is truth. It is reality. God's perspective on you, as I think about you, is truth. It's reality. And this is the kind of mindedness, or dwelling, or logitimai, that Paul is causing us to think about, or wanting us to think about. When we get involved, which we are now, in the elections, we will hear a Republican perspective, a Democrat perspective, but we won't hear God's perspective. That's what we're getting here, aren't we, from the scriptures. It's God's view. And I've heard them both say, they're the guys lying. I hate to say that, because it's really all false, but God's perspective is truly true. is about God's perspective.

And the word for Neo, this whole idea of mindedness and where your mind is, is woven all throughout this book. I'm surprised we didn't, I want to go back kind of and talk about, I don't know if we touched on the themes, we kind of scattered up the introduction. I did some introduction, I talked about definitely joy being a central focus and you know, this kind of thing, but yeah.

Don't forget we have this section at the end and I assigned you to have this word. So if you're worried about not getting that message out, you're going to have a chance to do that. We'll do it. We'll do it at the end. I did it because I knew you were excited about this whole topic. I am. Thank you, Roger. I am excited about this topic because it's the area that I personally struggle with the most.

Understanding something, but not being minded about it to the degree that the scripture says. It's one thing to get it, and it's another thing to believe it. And see the Lord's life living through you in excellence, and righteousness, and purity, and focusing on the love of the brethren, and these kinds of things that come from Christ. And it's not something I sit down and say, oh, Jim, this, this, and this.

I mean, yeah, I can do that. And yes, I can perform the balance sheet. It's quite natural for me to do that. But where I know I struggle the most is this mindedness thing, this freneo thing, this having the mind of Christ, not so much that I'm sitting there with the scripture all the time, looking up things, but trusting the person of Christ with as far as I know who he is and what he's done.

And what I've learned of him, especially in this New Testament perspective that we now live in, that's applicable to me, and reckoning it as reality. That's a totally different growth process, in my opinion, than it is to just understand what's being said here. And so that's why I keep going here. Here's something that's interesting though. Mindedness is all about Christ's positional truth. But we have the mind of Christ.

This is a big deal to me. If I was going to write a book, this might be the book I'd write. I might even just do it on Philippians. Conditional truth. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. This is where I'm at. So many times during the day. Where's your mind? It's not in who you are. circumstances. It's your relationships that aren't going right the way that you want. And it's not on the person of Christ, which is where it needs to be.

And when that occurs, of course all of those things of obedience that we've talked about in 1 John take place. That's what is the logical conclusion and output of the mind of Christ. So I'm excited about that. I'm excited to see the Lord in each of us as we turn from a flesh-mindedness to a Christ-mindedness. And by turn, it's tied into that idea of belief. Okay? Not a work.

Philippians 4.9 in seven minutes.

The things that you have learned, this is cool, I like this verse too, it ties in so well. The things, of course it does, it's supposed to. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things. Uh-oh. We've got practice going on and the God of peace will be with you. So we've got another list here. Learned and received and heard and seen and me. Practice these things and the God of peace will be with you. Anybody want the God of peace to be with you? Then practice those things. What do you got to do? How do you do it? What's the doing part? That's what everybody wants to know, right?

Okay, let's talk first about the things that were learned. Obviously there was a progression of teaching that took place, and there was an acquiring of information on the part of the Philippian believers as a result of Paul's instruction. And he's saying, these are the things you've learned. The things that you've learned. The things that I spent time talking to you about, both formally and potentially not formally. The things that I taught others and they entrusted to you. Does Paul talk about that? He does talk about teaching and entrusting and that being passed on.

So there's lots of different ways that that could take place and we see it used both in a direct learning and an indirect learning through other channels. And in our case, we're learning directly from the letters that were written from that time. We're not listening to Paul speak. We're listening to the words that he spoke as being carried along by God.

But this word, learned, is also rooted in the word disciple, which is a learner. And so he's referring to the process as disciples that they went through in learning something. So you spend enough time with these particular saints that there's plenty for them to draw upon. These things that you've learned, and in their mind they would have had a lot of things that they would have learned.

What about the things that they received? They acquired information from someone. The idea here is that they took something and they received it. Have you ever heard the illustration, I said it but they didn't receive it? Or you really need to receive this? It's kind of a big thing in certain church settings. Receive this word, brother. Well, the idea is right. Don't just hear what I'm saying. Receive it as if it applies to you and that there are conclusions that you can draw from it that are applicable about you or about the situation or about God or whatever.

It's used by Paul many different times to refer to his teaching or to being taught. So this word is connected to what they've learned and how they learned. So they not only learned but they received what they learned. But they also heard. Okay, so this is a different sense here that we haven't looked at yet, but they heard through audio, the verbal teaching of Paul that was communicated. They also were able to both hear it and they paid attention to it. So it wasn't just a, you know, you talk about the difference between listening and hearing. This was something that they heard and understood. This wasn't something they just listened to and was like, I was there, present. It entered my ear but I don't know what to make of it. Because remember this is tied in a connection with having received it as well. But this assumes that you've paid attention and that you are carrying out or obeying or doing what you listen to.

In Ephesians 1.13 it says, In him you also, after listening, or having paid attention and obeyed to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed. See, they heard it, but what did they do in response to it? That they weren't believing. Right? They believed. And as a result, they were sealed.

Is believing a work, by the way? Scripture talks about it as a work, but it doesn't assign merit to the work. There's a difference. Apparently it's a unique type of, a one-of-a-kind type of something that you are to do, but it doesn't receive merit associated with it. Whereas everything you do after having believed, when you do it in Christ, does receive merit, reward, and so forth, but it's Christ's work, which is what's interesting. So, your belief is the only merit or only work that doesn't have a merit associated with it.

Everything else is Christ's work. Because what happens to the rest of it? It gets burned up, remember? It doesn't matter. I like to think of it as the merit is in the object where I believe. It's Christ's work that you're putting... In other words, He's your substitute. And I think when you say the object of the substitute, Because Christ as my substitute does the work. And by trusting that he is my substitute, the work gets done.

In this case, they heard, they paid attention, and they believed. They not only heard but saw, so perception and observation. What's interesting is that all three of these particular words, learned, received, heard, and seen are all connected with the word and. And so there's this emphasis going, you did this, and this, and this, and this, all surrounding the message, and it was not only spoken, it was written, and it was lived out. You read it, you've seen it, you've heard it, you've observed it, and they're all in the active voice. They all took part in that. And so the conclusion is that being spiritually minded or Our spiritual perspective is not simply a spectator sport.

It has a listening, and a seeing, and an observing. It has all of these components to it. And in this particular case, it refers to Paul's... Oh, I'm running out of time. Let's look at the practice these things piece. Let's read the expanded translation and I'll wrap it up. Sorry we're over a little bit.

Finally, all of you being spiritually related by reason of their mutual relationship in Christ. All those things that are true, all those things honorable, all things right, all things pure, all things lovely, all things of good repute. Since there is moral excellence, and since there is worthiness of praise, carefully consider, there's that word, reckon, carefully consider, logitimae, and reckon upon these things. And it's related to a person.

And then to kind of wrap up this last verse, the things you have learned as a disciple and received from me, your teacher, you heard them, you've seen them, as a reality in me, you must put them into practice. Putting them into practice has to do with what? Trusting Christ to do the work through you.

Okay, so I didn't get to go into that in depth But that's the that's what Paul's saying here And then finally the God of peace and I I looked that up the God of tranquility It's the God of no worries as we use it today The God of no worries his peace will be with you It is the God of peace will be with you so as to provide every resource, literally his life, for doing the work of the believer in this particular case. So again, a huge encouragement back into the intimacy and mindedness of Christ as a result of these things comes the life of Christ in you. And you get peace with it. You get no worries with it.

Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for your word and thank you for the truth that we can come back to and remind ourselves of who you are and what you've done and that when we believe on your name and we believe on who you are and what you've done that we can literally come to a personal knowledge and a relationship that is life-changing. that not only is positionally true, which is the reality, but we can see our condition being molded and shaped and conformed to your image. And I just thank you for that and I pray that each of us would think through these things and would trust you with them. In your name we pray. Amen.