07 july 1, 2012 philippians, chapter 4, verse 8
TRANSCRIPT
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Philippians 4:8 July 1, 2012
First Baptist Church Jackson, Mississippi USA
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THINKING ON GODLY VIRTUES
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Wiersbe's Expository Outlines on the New Testament. Copyright © 1992 by Chariot Victor Publishing, an imprint of Cook Communication Min.
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The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Copyright © Moody Press and John MacArthur, Jr., 1983-2007.
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Philippians 4:8
“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right,
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whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”(4:8)
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The word “finally” indicates that Paul has arrived at the climax of his teaching on spiritual stability.
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The principle of: “dwell on these things” is both the summation of all the others and the key to implementing them.
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The phrase - “dwell on these things” -introduces an important truth: spiritual stability is a result of how a person thinks.
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Romans 12:22“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what
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the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Romans 12:2
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The imperative form of logizomai(log-id'-zom-ahee) “dwell on” makes it a command; proper thinking is not optional in the Christian life.
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Logízomai (the root of the English term “logical") – to take into account; to come to a "bottom-line”; to reason to a logical conclusion (decision).
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“dwell on” means more than just entertaining thoughts, it means: "to seriously evaluate”, "to thoroughly calculate” or"to strongly consider”.
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We as believers are “to consider” the qualities Paul lists in this verse and meditate on their implications.
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The verb form of “dwell on” calls for habitual discipline of the mind to set all thoughts on these spiritual virtues continually.
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The Bible leaves no doubt that people's lives are the product of their thoughts. *Proverbs 23:7 declares: "For as a man thinks within himself, so he is."
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The modern counterpart to that proverb is the computer acronym GIGO: Garbage In, Garbage Out
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Just as a computer's output is dependent on the information that is input, so people's actions are the result of their thinking.
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Jesus expressed that truth in Mark 7:20-23: "That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the
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(garbage out) evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and
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foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.”
Mark 7:20-23
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“What is down in the well comes up in the bucket.”
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Paul's call for Biblical thinking is especially relevant in our culture. *The wrong focus today is on emotion and pragmatism, and the
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importance ofserious thinking about Biblical truth is downplayed.
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People no longer ask: "Is it true?" but
1"Does it work?" and
2"How will it make me feel?"
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Those latter two questions serve as a working definitionof truth in our society that rejects the concept of absolute divine truth (the Bible).
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John 6:63 63 “It is the Spirit Who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”
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Truth is wrongly thought of as whatever works and produces positive emotions. *Sadly, such pragmatism and emotionalism has crept even into the Church.
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Some churches are often more concerned about whether something will be politically correct than whether it is Biblically true.
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Such a perspective is far different from the noble Bereans, who searched the Scriptures daily to see if what Paul said was true, not whether it fit in.
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Acts 17:11“the Bereans received the Word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.”
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Too many people go to church not to think or reason about the truths of Scripture, but to get their weekly spiritual high; to feel good about themselves.
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Such people are spiritually unstable because they base their lives on feeling rather than on thinking.
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Bill Hull writes,
“What scares me is the anti-intellectual, anti-critical-thinking philosophy that has spilled over into the Church.
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This philosophy tends to romanticize the faith, making the local church into an experience center. . . . Their concept of "church" is that they are spiritual
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consumers and that the church's job is to meet their felt needs.” (Right Thinking [Colorado Springs, Colo:NavPress, 1985], 66).
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Philippians 4:1919“And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
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John Stott also warned of the danger of Christians living by their feelings: "Indeed, sin has more dangerous effects on our feeling than on our thinking,
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because our opinions are more easily checked and regulated by revealed truth than our experiences" (Your Mind Matters[Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity,1972].
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God commands people to think.
*He said to rebellious Israel, "Come now, and let us reason together" (Isa 1:18).
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Jesus chided the unbelieving Pharisees and Sadducees for demanding a miraculous sign from Him. *Instead, He challenged them to think and draw
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inferences from the evidence they had, just as they did to predict the weather (Matt 16:1-3):“Red sky at morning”…Discern the signs of the time
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Hebrews 11:1 KJV 1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
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God gave us His revelation in the Bible and expects us to use our minds to understand His truths. *Careful thinking is the mark of the Christian faith.
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Paul called for believers to "set their minds on the things above, not on the things that are on earth" (Col 3:2).
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More than a dozen times in his epistles Paul asked his readers, "Do you not know?" *The apostle expected believers to think and
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evaluate.
*Believers must discipline their spiritually sensitive minds to think about right spiritual realities.
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In this brief list, Paul catalogues eight godly virtues to concentrate on:truth, honor, righteousness, purity, lovely things, things of good repute, excellence,
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and things worthy of praise.
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The Word of God is the repository of what is true.
*In His High Priestly Prayer Jesus said to the Father, "Your word is truth" Jn 17:17.
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In Psalm 19:9 David wrote, "The judgments of the Lord are true," *while Psalm 119:151 adds, "All Your commandments are truth."
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The Bible is true because the "God of truth" (Ps 31:5; Isa 65:16; Eph 4:21) inspired it. *Thinking on whatever is true means reading,
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analyzing, and meditating on the Word of God. *The remaining seven virtuous categories of thought are all based on the truth of God's Word.
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All seven of them are ways to view the truths of Scripture. *When a dentist takes out a tooth, he wants to get it all out but leave the bone alone.
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So at the dental school we tell the students during an extraction:“What we want is the tooth, the whole tooth, and nothing but the tooth.”
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Second, believers are to think on whatever is honorable, whatever is noble, dignified, and worthy of respect.
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Semnos (honorable) comes from a word meaning "to revere," or "to worship." *In its other New Testament uses, it describes the dignified lifestyle required
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of deacons (1 Tim 3:8), deaconesses (1 Tim 3:11), and older men (Titus 2:2). *Believers must not think on what is trivial, temporal, mundane, common, and
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earthly, but rather on what is heavenly, and so worthy of awe, adoration, and praise. All that is true in God's Word is honorable.
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Third, believers are to think on whatever is right.
*Dikaios (right) is an adjective, and should be translated "righteous."
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It describes whatever is in perfect harmony with God's eternal, unchanging standards, again as revealed in Scripture.
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Believers are to think on matters that are consistent with the law of God.
just – right towards others.
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Psalm 19:8a
8 “The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart;”
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9 “The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever;The judgments of the LORD are true;They are righteous altogether.” Psalm 19:9
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Dwell on things that are:1 true 2 honorable 3 righteousness4 pure
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Fourth, believers are to think on whatever is pure. *Hagnos (pure) describes what God in Scripture defines as holy, morally clean, and undefiled.
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In 1 Tim 5:22 it says: ”Keep yourself free from sin (pure).” *Believers are to purify themselves because Jesus Christ is pure (1 John 3:3).
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pure -- "chaste," in relation to ourselves.
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Psalm 19:8b
“The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.”
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Fifth, believers are to think on whatever is lovely.
*Prosphiles (lovely) appears only here in the New Testament.
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It could be translated "sweet," "gracious," "generous," or "patient." *Believers must focus their thoughts on what the Bible says is pleasing, attractive,
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and amiable before God. lovely -- lovable
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Sixth, believers are to think on whatever is of good report.
*Euphemos appears only here in the New Testament.
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It describes what is highly regarded or well thought of.
*Believers' thoughts are elevated by Scripture to fix on the loftiest themes.
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As "lovely" refers to what is lovable face to face,of good report is referring to the absent (Php 1:27).
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Philippians 1:27 27 “Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear
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of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel;”
Philippians 1:27
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The seventh virtue: praise -- whatever is praiseworthy; not that Christians should make man's praise their aim but they should live so as to deserve men's praise.
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The eighth virtue is to dwell on -- have a continual regard to, so as to "do" these things(Philippians 4:9) whenever the occasion arises.
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In summary, Paul exhorts, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. *The key to godly living is godly thinking.