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Study of Philippians
I see that, very nice, very good, okay.
This revival, quote unquote, that's going on in Kentucky, how many of you have heard about this? Raise your hand, let me, okay. Many of you have, most of you have. I don't want to be two kinds of persons.
I don't want to be the guy who is always critical of something that is spiritually going on in another segment of the church that I'm not a part of. I don't want to just assume that because something's going on in another area of the church that it's therefore, consequently, bad.
I don't want to be that kind of a guy. I also don't want to be the kind of a guy who just naively accepts anything that happens in the broader church. So I've been following this, like many of you probably have, in the last week or so, and just a few observations.
The question, the claim is that this is a revival. A couple things about, just by way of clarification, there's a difference between revival and an awakening. Revival is what the church needs, awakening is what the nation needs.
Revival is what God's people need when they have kind of drifted into a lethargy and they're kind of asleep. They need to, we need, the church needs to be revived, made alive again. An awakening is a work of the Spirit in the unconverted where they're blind, they need their eyes open, and so they need to be awakened to the truth of the gospel.
I believe in our country we need both. We need revival in the church and we need awakening in the nation. And I would also point out that generally speaking, from a historical standpoint, revival precedes awakening.
Not always, but generally speaking, there's a revival in the church that then proceeds to bring about an awakening in the nation. So what's going on in Kentucky, and then it's kind of apparently filtered over to other places.
I've read there's something similar going on at Cedarville, another example somewhere up in Minnesota, at a college in Minnesota. As far, I don't know anything about Cedarville or the Minnesota thing, but as far as the Asbury experience, a couple of observations.
One is revival involves a refocusing, a re-energizing, it involves a coming alive again and focuses on Christ, and the Word, and the church, and a sensitivity to sin. So in a revival, God's people are much more sensitive to their own sin, and that leads to a repentance of sin.
Revival will cause God's people to have a renewed love for and focus upon Christ and His Word. A Holy Spirit revival does not focus on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not turn His attention upon Himself.
So that which claims to be a revival that is all about the Holy Spirit, you should be suspect, you should be questioning the legitimacy of that thing, because the work of the Spirit is to exalt Christ.
Jesus said when the Spirit comes, He's going to exalt me, He's going to exalt Christ. So a revival that minimizes or has very little to do with Jesus is one that should be suspect. So a revival promotes holiness, it promotes a repentance for sin, it elevates Christ, it also exalts the Word, God's Word.
There is a renewed love for, a revived love for, an interest in God's Word, and God's people just can't get enough of God's Word. And then a revival leads to a renewed love for, interest in, and participation in the local church.
So a revival always has an impact on the church, the local church. So as far as what's going on in Kentucky, I don't, at this point, I don't see much of any of that. Honestly, I see the exaltation of the Holy Spirit.
As far as repentance for sin, I've heard reports that there's confession of sin and so forth, but then the question is, what is the sin that is being repented of? For example, one of, I don't know how many, but I know at least one of the leaders, the worship leaders in this thing that's going on day after day, is openly gay, openly homosexual.
And the college itself is accepting of openly homosexual students on the campus, and they don't have a problem with that. And so it would seem to me that if a genuine revival is breaking out, then the person who is leading worship as an openly homosexual individual would be broken over his sin and repent of that sin and turn away from it.
Instead, what I've heard, one of the reports I've heard, is that one of the sins that is being, two of the sins that are being encouraged to be repented of are homophobia and racism. So apparently some of the faculty members at Asbury are opposed to the tolerance of open homosexuality, and it's being prayed that they will repent of their homophobia.
And then also racism, whatever, however that is supposedly being expressed there. And as far as the exaltation of Christ, I can't really comment on whether or not there's much of that. As far as the focus on the Word, there's very little of that.
The whole thing started at the end of a chapel service, I think it was 10 or 11 days ago, and the message, you can go on their website and you can find the message that was preached, and it was not a Word-centered, there was no exposition of Scripture, there was allusion to Scripture, but it was one of those kind of messages where the preacher gets up and he reads a text and then he tells a bunch of stories and does emotional sort of stuff.
And it was all about love, we need to love each other kind of a thing, which at the end of that, like 20 students stayed behind and they started having a little prayer meeting. After which fact, the administration caught wind of what was going on, and then they sent mass emails to everybody and just encouraged students to go back to the chapel and join in in the prayer time.
Asbury College, if you know anything about it, it's in the charismatic camp in Christianity, so there's a frequent emphasis on trying to drum up things by the Spirit. So, I just wanted to share those thoughts with you at this point.
Coincidentally, providentially, I recently received, purchased the DVD documentary on revival, and we're going to see that in March on a Sunday evening service, it's a lengthy thing, so we need to plan for that.
But anyhow, that will be very helpful for us, because by that time, about a month from now, by that time, a lot will shake down as to what's actually going on. I think revival is something we want, we long for, and equally, awakening in our nation.
The devil knows that, okay? He knows that, he knows what we want, he knows what we'd like to see, and the devil will often have his counterfeits to the real. So, time always tells in this. It's a terrible mistake for, it was a terrible mistake for anybody to just jump to the conclusion that there's a revival breaking out on a college campus.
That's something that time and reflection concludes, that a revival has occurred. It's not something that in the middle of it, where there's a lot of emotion going on and so forth, that you can immediately jump to that conclusion.
So, Jonathan Edwards, of course, in the first Great Awakening, was caught up in the middle of all this, and was able to write a very helpful book that distinguishes between true and genuine stuff, because there was a lot of fake stuff going on in that awakening, and he was very helpful in distinguishing some of that.
I just wanted to share those thoughts. It's not definitive, this is opinion and observation on my part, but I just thought it would be helpful for us to kind of orient ourselves as we see stuff in the media.
I mean, even Tucker Carlson has gotten reported on this thing, and you're seeing it on all the social media sites, and it's really being promoted out there as some great thing that's going on. It may turn out to be a great thing, but time will tell that.
All right, Ed, sorry to take your time this morning.
All right, one of the Psalms that is a favorite of mine is 104, and verse 34 in Psalm 104 in the ESV says,. And I think that kind of captures the spirit of Philippians pretty well. We're in Philippians 4 this morning, verses 6 through 9.
Let's read that. And finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Those things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do, and the God of peace shall be with you. So to begin with, let's look at verse 9. Those things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do, and the God of peace shall be with you.
So that's a call by Paul to follow him. Now let's go back and look at verse 17 in chapter 3. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have for an example. So there's Paul once again calling them to follow him.
And so these verses to me seem like bookends, and what's between seems to be a description of the things in his life that Paul presents as example worthy. These are things we can follow Paul in. So why would Paul tell the Philippians to follow him?
Was Paul proud, saying, look at me, you want to be just like I am? Or, you know, here's all the ways I'm wonderful. I don't think that was Paul's attitude at all. I think this is the voice of someone who knows his heart.
He knows he's pressing towards the mark with all that he's got. He knows that he's heading towards the prize of the highest calling of God in Christ Jesus. This man is a leader who is keenly aware that if he challenges others to follow him, he must run in a worthy way.
So if you're a leader and you're pressing toward them, if you are a leader, are you pressing toward the mark? Most of us are leaders in some way. Most of us are leaders in our families in some way, at least.
And, you know, if your family follows you, will they be pressing towards the mark? Is it not humbling to call someone to follow you? Not in the way of boasting and pride and deceit, but in genuine humility and concern for your followers.
You know that you must not mess up now, though you're so prone to do that. It's not wrong for a shepherd to call the sheep to follow him if he knows that he's taking the sheep to a place where it will benefit them.
It's good for a shepherd to call the sheep to follow him. It shows that he cares about them and is directing them to something good. So Paul wants something good for his followers. He wants them to know the peace of God that he's experienced.
This passage is largely about having peace. He starts explaining his mindset that has resulted in peace for him. And we can follow Paul even in our day. This is not a peaceful world. It's full of turmoil and violence, and, you know, we need the peace of God.
We need the peace of God in our hearts. So after the first call to follow him, Paul kind of runs through some things. In verses 18 and 19 of chapter 3, he tells them what type of example not to follow.
In verse 21, he talks about how struggles with the flesh will end in peace at the resurrection. In verse 4 .1, he tells them to stand fast in the Lord. In 4 .2, he urges them to have the same mind. He wants peaceful interactions between members of his team.
Verse 4 .3, he asks others to promote peace as well. In verse 4 .4, he encourages us to rejoice in the Lord. In 5, he wants sweet reasonableness to be known to all. So now we're up to our lesson for today.
So let's explore that. As he wrote Philippians, Paul was chained to a Roman soldier 24 -7, and he'd been chained to that soldier for two years. And, you know, he'd previously had an adventurous life traveling all over the place from city to city and encouraging multitudes of people.
But now he has very limited movement, can't go anywhere, sees very few people. He's under house arrest, has all kinds of legal problems and uncertainty about the future. And, you know, I get cabin fever after just a day or two of being stuck inside in the winter.
And I know that if I was chained to somebody for two years, I'd be going pretty stir-crazy. So Paul's a man who knew peace in his heart despite his circumstances. He had a lot of reasons to feel anxiety, but he's at peace anyway.
The Philippians sent financial support. Philippians 4 .18 says,. But I have all and abound, I'm full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you. The Book of Philippians is basically a thank you letter to express gratitude for their gift.
And the Philippians were concerned about Paul. And this would have been an ideal time for Paul to ask them to pray and ask them to pray for help in his situation if he was worried about his situation.
But rather he urges them to commit their burdens to the Lord in prayer. And I think this is what Paul had been doing. And it brought calming to his soul. In verse 6 it says,. So what does this word careful mean?
It means anxiousness or full of care. So Paul's telling them not to worry about anything. This is an example that Paul is setting forth, describing how they can follow him. Paul's not worrying. The idea of worrying has to do with being pulled in different directions, being pulled apart.
Anxiety robs us of joy. How can you be joyful if your heart's full of worry? Joy is a big theme in Philippians. In verse 4 Paul had just encouraged them to rejoice in the Lord. How can we be rejoicing if our heart is stewing on some concern?
When Paul says be anxious for nothing, this is a command. It seems strange to us that to be anxious it would be disobedient to God. But worrying is a failure to trust God and his control. We certainly want to be aware of issues.
We can be concerned about them and give thought to how to address them. But we shouldn't let things pull us apart and strangle our peace. So stop panicking and stop trying to solve things in your own strength and instead trust God.
Rather than feeling obligated to solve all the problems around, seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness. We often worry about things that we have no control over, but God is in control. God has invited us to trust him and to enjoy his peace and provision.
To live a life free of worry is to know that whatever happens God is in control. He trusts that he cares about you. He trusts that he knows what you need. And just like he provides for the birds, he'll provide for you.
And you may find that provision comes from different places that you didn't expect. And then verse 6, be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
So here we come. We've come to the word but. So that means that this is what should take place rather than being worried. This is on the other side of being worried. God is providing an alternative activity to worrying.
And that activity is to pray. So notice the big contrast in this verse. Don't worry about anything but pray about everything. If something's on your mind, that's reason to pray. Literally, be careful for nothing means stop worrying about even one thing.
Paul uses four different words for praying. Prayer, supplication, thanksgiving, and requests. The word prayer is generally a term for intercession to God. It's a general term for prayer. Its essence is worship and devotion.
The word supplication in this verse comes from root word meaning to lack or to be deprived of or to be without something. So being without something we need will cause us to worry. Instead we should tell the Lord what we need.
Supplication is a cry for our personal needs. And then we have thanksgiving in this verse. It's an expression of gratitude. Recognize what God has already done for you. And ask at the same time ask him to provide for you.
And then there's requests. Make known to God what specific things you need. Bring to God whatever's troubling you. And when we pray it helps us to be dependent on him, to trust in him, to grow. In verse 7, And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
When you cast your burdens on the Lord, the result is peace. Notice that it's not just any peace but the peace of God. And God owns peace. He can give it. And it's the peace of God. God owns it. This peace passes all understanding.
It's not something that we can intellectually comprehend. There's no explanation for it except that God provides it. When we pray, God may choose not to change our circumstances. But God will change our heart and give us peace about that.
It's beyond our understanding how Paul could have had peace in his situation. And then verse 7 again. And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Notice the word shall. This is a promise to claim. If you've made your prayer and supplication, thanksgiving and requests known to God, then you can expect that God will indeed keep your heart and mind.
The word keep is a military term. And it's used of a sentinel that watches guard. It can also refer to a guard that watches over a prisoner. And Paul lived with this every day. And he knew how secure that was.
There was no way he was going to get away from that. And so Paul was being watched over in a more secure way than even his Roman guard was watching over him. And God was protecting Paul's heart so that he wouldn't worry, so that he wouldn't have anxiety, that anxiety would not overtake him when preceded by prayer.
The peace of God was standing watch over Paul like a sentinel. And God's peace can stand watch over you as well. And then the last part of verse 7. And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Notice that peace comes through Christ Jesus. Jesus is the prince of peace. Notice the name Christ is used here. When I think of the name Christ, it emphasizes his kingliness, how he's in control of things.
We can rest in his providence. Peace comes exclusively through Christ. The verse in John 14, 27 that says,. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
So peace comes when trusting the prince of peace and is found through prayer. And then in verse 8, it says,. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
So we come to the word finally. This is the second time and the final time in this book that Paul uses this word in Philippians. He's wrapping it up. And this is the main thing he's asking them to follow him in, to focus our thoughts on good things.
For two years, Paul's had little to do other than to think. And he's become an expert on what a person can think about. Paul asks us to think on these things. He wants us to make them the subject of careful consideration.
The word think is logizimae in the Greek, and it shows up in English as logarithms and logic. It's a math term. It carries with it the idea of making careful calculation, and it requires great concentration.
The tense of the verb means that they should always be thinking about these things. And it's an active voice, which means they should take action to do it. And it's also an apostolic command from Paul, which means it has divine authority.
So if we're always focused on the right thoughts, we'll live rightly. Right thoughts produce right living. We can't focus our thoughts on what's wrong and expect right actions. So Paul gives us several good things we can focus our thoughts on.
Each thing's going to help train our minds so that we'll do the right things. Before each topic of thought, Paul says, whatsoever. And it seems that Paul's trying to leave this topic of thought as open as possible.
It covers anything, whatsoever. The thoughts we dwell on can be whatsoever topic we want to think about, as long as it fits within these criteria. So whatsoever is true. The Greek word is alethos, which means that which is reliable and faithful, as opposed to what is false or a lie or deceitful.
It means genuine, real, whatever aligns with the word of God. True living as opposed to false living. Not artificial, not hypocritical, not a facade. So that's true. Whatever is honorable is the next one.
The Greek word is semnos, noble, dignified, lofty, elevated. High and lofty morality. Think about things that pull you up, not what takes you down. This is opposed to the mire of the world. Get your mind off of low and base things and focus on principled, decent and upright things, things that are noble, things that are elevated.
Focus on building and not tearing down. And then the next one is whatever is right. The Greek word is dikaios. This word has to do with the scales in the marketplace. And when the scale was fair and it balanced, it was said to be right.
Are you thinking of how you can make sure what is right happens in your dealing with others? Or are you devising ways to tilt the scales in your favor? Do we think of the perspective of others? Or are we only thinking of things from our perspective in selfish ways?
Philippians 2 .4 says, look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Are you looking on both sides of the scale to make sure it balances for others you have dealings with?
And then the next one is whatever is pure. The Greek word is hagnos, which comes from a root word meaning holy or unmixed with moral impurity. Set apart to be clean, unmixed with filth, virtuous, unstained by corruption, lust or greed.
Something special. Think about how special others are. Think about how special your God is. And then whatever is lovely, prosophiles is the Greek word. Pleasing, attractive, beautiful, reflects ethical beauty.
Sweet, gracious, generous, friendly towards. The opposite of what is raw, crude, rude, stingy and ugly. It's something beautiful in the eyes of God. Are we thinking about things that are beautiful in the eyes of God?
The world often labels things as lovely, which are just bait to get us to think on things that are unlovely. And certainly a great many things that are found in God's creation fall into the lovely category.
And a great many things in God's word fall in the lovely category. Whatever is of good report is the next one. This means something that's highly regarded or well spoken of. It doesn't mean things that are well spoken of by the world.
It means things that are well spoken of by God. Things that are attractive, not repulsive. Let's look at Ephesians 5 .14. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give light.
I think I've got the wrong verse, sorry. Anyway, we should think on things that are a good report. Now we have two more things that appear to be different than the others. Rather than saying whatsoever, we now have in this verse it says, if there be any.
In the Greek it's literally whether any. So it seems as far as I can find, the meaning is nearly the same. It's two different Greek words, but the meaning is very similar. In a translation I have from a Greek professor, he uses the word whatever for all the different items of thought.
Maybe these last two items summarize the first items. I'm not sure. The first of these last two words is virtue. If there be any virtue. Virtue has to do with valor and excellence. We want to think thoughts that can be commended by God.
Thoughts of excellence. High quality thoughts. Thoughts of valor. Thoughts of courage and bravery. Do the things that you think on have this element? Are you thinking of doing brave and excellent things?
And then the last one is if there be any praise. Would the things that you think about be praised by God? Are your thoughts praise worthy? Are you thinking of doing things that God could praise? So we've finished the list.
God wants us to make these things the object of careful reflection. He wants us to concentrate on these things and seriously think about them. Notice that all of these are positive thoughts. There's no mention of criticism.
There's no mention of sarcasm or foolishness or complaining or ridicule or lust. It seems that these criteria have to do with our attitude as well. Our perspective. God wants us to have a positive perspective and not a complaining perspective.
One person could be thinking about something from a godly perspective that conforms to these criteria. But another person, I think, could be thinking about the same topic from a worldly and negative perspective.
So what is your thought attitude? Your thoughts come out in your actions. Let's look at an example. What if you're at work and someone made a mistake that cost the company a lot of money? What's an ungodly perspective to that?
Criticize them for not knowing what they're doing. They must be stupid. I would never do that. That's the ungodly perspective. But what's the perspective when you employ the list of thought words from Paul?
How can I help that person? Did they realize what they did? Can I help them understand how to avoid a recurrence? Can I help them a way to salvage some of the cost? So from our list of good thoughts, what specific words does this response involve?
Any ideas? What kind of thoughts would lead you to respond to a person in a kind way who just messed up bad? Any ideas?
Yes.
I'm sorry.
Mm-hmm.
Anybody else?
Dan? Yeah.
Good.
Jim? Yeah.
Show them the love of Christ. Anybody else?
All right.
Well, I had honorable, which means dignified. So you help this person retain their dignity in the midst of trouble. And I also had right, which means fair to the other person, looking on the things of others.
And yeah, so these thought words, if you dwell on them enough, you can put them into practice in the way you act out things in your life. And that's one of the things that's most important. I wonder how many of us would be willing to put up a list and a description of our thoughts.
How many of us would put up a list of our thought life as an example for others to follow like Paul did? Would you be able to list noble and good things? Or would the list include negative things that nobody should be following?
And now Paul gives four different ways that the Philippians can follow his example to do things. Verse nine, those things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in me, do, and the God of peace shall be with you.
This is not just a one time deal. The word do means to habitually practice. And Paul wants them to do these things in an ongoing, regular way so that it becomes a habit to them. First, they can do the things which they've learned from Paul.
And this shows the importance of learning from biblical teaching and preaching. So Paul had taught them the things from the Bible and had preached biblical things to them. And he calls on them to act on those things that they've learned from him.
And then secondly, they can do the things that they have received from Paul. This is referring to the things that Paul wrote to them in the book of Philippians. The letter that he sent to them. And we have the same writing from Paul.
And we have much more other writings than the Philippians did. But when we read the Bible and study and seek to understand it, we have received God's word and we should seek to do those things. And then thirdly, they can do the things that they heard of Paul.
This is talking about accounts from others that they heard about Paul. How Paul was ministering to others. How he was reacting to being in prison. What was his attitude. How he traveled all over the place and ministered to people.
They certainly had heard of Paul's actions. And he was calling them to follow his actions and these things that they had heard of Paul doing. And finally, they can do the things that they saw in Paul.
They should imitate the things they saw Paul do. How he walked in the faith. How he traveled hundreds of miles to minister to others. How he reacted to persecution. The great risks he took to serve God.
And how he acted and reacted in every situation. So Paul is calling them to do the things that they saw Paul do. So Paul wanted them to be imitators of himself. He wanted them to live in a manner consistent with his life and his example.
Paul's call was to take action, not just to think. You've observed these things, now do. Those things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in me, do. God wants us to do, not just endlessly think and observe.
What's the result of following good examples and thinking the right thoughts? The result is right actions. And what's the result of right actions? The God of peace will be with you. From verse 9. Those things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in me, do.
And the God of peace shall be with you. So that's the lesson for today. Does anybody have any thoughts or comments? Let's have a word of prayer.
Close.
Our Father, we just do thank you for the book of Philippians and Paul's writings. We just pray that you would help us, Lord, to focus our thoughts on these things. Help us to do the right things as well.
We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
Thank you, Ed. Somebody very graciously brought some tempting morsels and put them on a table in the foyer. Are they still there?