Think on Things that are Virtuous

Well, sometimes the technology fails, but that’s all right. We still got our Bibles. There you go. We can open our Bibles today and study together God’s Word, and that’ll be a wonderful thing. And we do thank you for your presence this morning. We appreciate Tyler for leading our singing. He does a great job. And we’re going to be looking at Philippians chapter 4 and verse 8 this morning.
So turn your Bibles to Philippians 4 and verse 8 as we continue our series, Think on These Things. And we’ve just been every couple of months going through each one of these words that is in this list here of things that we are supposed to think about. And what are they? Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever 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. And the Bible teaches us that we have the ability our thinking, that we can think on the right things and we must think on the right things. So think on these things.

This is a command. This isn’t just a suggestion. It’s not just saying, well, if you have spare time, then think about these things. No, this is saying we need to be focusing. We need to set our minds on these kinds of things. And we’ve talked about these things. You know, the Proverbs teach us that we can control our thoughts. Proverbs 4 and verse 23 says, keep your heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life. And we need to make an effort to think on good things. And there’s no shortage. That’s the thing. There’s no shortage of good things to think about. The wonder is that we think on things that are not so good so much. Really, if you consider it, we think about things we shouldn’t be thinking about so much, but we really don’t have to do that. We can think on good things.

Well, what does it mean to think? And we’re on virtue now. We talked about good report a few months ago, but now we’re on virtue. Think on things that are virtuous. And what does that mean? Well, this is a Greek word, the Greek word arete, arete. And it means moral excellence, moral excellence. And it was a word that was common, very common in New Testament times, and it has the idea or the quality of being excellent, achieving something great, having real nobility within one’s life. One, but one who is morally excellent, you know, you can say, well, you need to be morally excellent, but then someone might say, well, how do I do that? What is the standard for moral excellence? And that’s the real trouble right there. And it’s translated virtue so much because when one is virtuous, you know, we think about a virtuous person as being morally excellent.

But the question is, you know, how do we know what is morally excellent and what is not morally excellent? And that’s a good question. And the answer is, of course, is God and his standard. We just sang a song a minute ago about being holy, God’s holiness, holy, holy, holy, you know. And so God is holy and he’s morally excellent. And it’s his standard that we need to be following when we’re thinking about virtue. And so this morning, as we consider how to think about virtuous things. We need to think about the standard. And I had a nice PowerPoint presentation going here, and I got three Ps this morning. So if you’re keeping notes and you want to keep up, the three points.

The first one is that to think on things that are virtuous, we must think about the primer for virtue. The primer. Maybe you remember what the word primer means back in grade school many years ago they had primers and what were those primers for they were to teach little kids the basics you know the fundamentals And they served as sort of a standard for going forward. And so much of education is like this. You know, when you’re in kindergarten, you just learn the basics, right? Or first grade, you start learning a little bit of math. One plus one equals two. You know, that’s about as far as I got in my head. But then as you go on, you get more complicated thoughts. You’re still studying math, but the math is more complicated. But it’s the same math. You don’t give up on what you started with. The primer was the beginning point, right?

And that’s what the Bible is. The Bible is our primer for virtue. We cannot invent the standard of virtue for ourselves. It’s not up to me. It’s not up to you to say what is virtuous. Remember these words from Jeremiah in Jeremiah 10 and verse 23, oh Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man who walks to direct his steps. So it’s not in me, it’s not in you. Well, where is it? It’s from God. Remember Proverbs 3, 5 through 7, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths. And then this verse, do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. God must be the standard by which we think about virtuous things, about morally excellent things.

And we get that standard today from the Bible because that’s God’s holy word. And in God’s holy word, God has revealed to us that that word is there so that we will have a moral standard. Maybe you remember 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, completely or thoroughly furnished to every good work. So there’s our primer for moral excellence, the Bible. And we need to study the Bible and we need to think about it daily.

Psalm 19 and verses 7 through 11 contain tremendous praise for God’s word. Maybe you remember this Psalm. You might want to open to Psalm 19 for just a moment and read along with me in verses 7 through 11. What does it say? The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgment of the Lord is true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yes, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward. God’s word is amazing. It has so much good in it. And it is our standard for moral excellence.

And so it is imperative that we know and understand the word of God. As the psalmist said in Psalm 119 in verse 11, your word I have hid in my heart that I might not sin against you. Are we hiding God’s word in our heart? Are we thinking about it, memorizing it, letting it move us, letting it direct us, letting it guide us? Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly with all wisdom. Colossians 3 and verse 16 says, And for those who delight in the word of the Lord, their meditation is on it day and night. Psalm 1 and verse 2. Are we thinking about God’s word? To think about things that are virtuous, we must think about God’s word. The primer for moral virtue.

But then secondly, we have the person of moral virtue, moral excellence of virtue in the Bible, and that is Jesus Christ. We need to understand and know who Christ is. First of all, we’ve got to understand his sinlessness. You know, Christ did no sin. He always did the Father’s will in his life. You know, we had the Lord’s Supper a minute ago and we give thanks for the bread. We give thanks for the fruit of the vine. And when we think about the bread, we’re supposed to think about his body. We think about the fruit of the vine, we’re supposed to think about his blood. And when I think about the body of Christ, that God gave him a body. And that he used that body. He always used that body to glorify God. It’s amazing to me. It’s mind-boggling. I can’t do that, but he did that. He always used his body in the right and the correct way. And God gave him that body so that he could live a pure and morally excellent life.

Virtuous. He is the person of virtue. He never sinned. Hebrews 4 and verse 15 says, we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but in all points was tempted like as we are yet without sin. Oh, he knows what it’s like to be tempted. He knows what it’s like to resist temptation because he always did it. We don’t always do it, but he did. And he was sinless. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 1 Peter 2 and verse 22. And he was manifested to take away our sins. And in him there is no sin. 1 John 3 and verse 5. So Jesus was sinless and he lived that morally excellent life. And so we want to think about it.

We’ve got to go to Jesus Christ. We’ve got to go to the person of Jesus and we’ve got to follow him. How do we follow Christ? Well, that’s something we’ve got to work on and we learn to do every day within our life as we consider it. Jesus made that invitation, you know, in Matthew 11, verses 28 through 30, to follow him. He said, come to me, all you who labor. And I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am meek and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. So Jesus invites us to follow him. He wants us to take his yoke upon ourselves.

And as we follow Jesus, we begin to learn that being one of his followers, being one of his disciples, means that we’re all in, in everything that we do, every part about us must be given. In Matthew 16, verses 24 through 25, Jesus said to his disciples, if any desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. And so we need to take up the cross, take up our cross, the cross that we must bear and follow Jesus Christ. It’s not about saving our life. If we try to do that, we’re going to lose our way and we’re going to end up a very worldly and earthly person. But if we deny ourselves, we take up the cross and we follow Jesus, we actually save our lives. And I’m not just talking about eternal life. I’m talking about life right now. We make our lives better because we are following him. So we need to learn how to follow Christ in our lives. The Apostle Paul said this, imitate me. Just as I also imitate Christ. And so to be someone who thinks about virtuous things, you know, we’ve got to think about Jesus. We’ve got to follow him.

And we’ve got to share him with others. You know, it’s not enough to just sit back and relax and enjoy Christianity, quote unquote. It’s not enough. We’ve got to share Christ with others. We have become disciples of Christ. Now we want others to become disciples of Christ. And why is that? That’s the mission of the church, you know, to go into all the world and make disciples of all the nations. Why is that? Because God is trying to restore what was lost. In the beginning, because of Adam’s sin, he’s trying to restore that in the church through his son, Christ Jesus. And he wants everyone to be part of it. And so we want to make disciples. Paul said in Colossians 1, verse 28, Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. And so we go and make disciples of all nations, Matthew 28, 19.

Jesus said, if anyone does not come unto me, or if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, in his own life also, he cannot be my disciple and whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple. Luke 14, 26 through 33. Now that’s a great challenge for us. And Jesus laid down that challenge because it takes everything that we have to be a disciple of Christ. God doesn’t share. And I know what you’re thinking about that. Well, of course God shares. He gives to us. But when it comes to people, God doesn’t share. He’s a jealous God. He wants us. He wants all of us, every bit of us, to be his and his alone. He doesn’t share with the world he doesn’t share with false idols he wants his people to be his people and so we need to give ourselves wholly to him and then finally….

So, we’ve seen the primer for virtue we’ve seen the person of virtue now we have the place of virtue and what is the place of virtue it is the church of Christ. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having wrinkle or spot or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. The church is the place of virtue, and that’s where we need to be.

If we’re going to think about virtuous things, we’ve got to think about the primer for virtue, the Bible. We’ve got to think about the person for virtue, Jesus Christ. And we’ve got to think about the place for virtue, and that is the church of Christ. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 11 verse 2, I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you a chaste virgin to Christ. He was talking about the church, talking about the place of virtue. If Christ is virtuous, and he is, then his bride also must be virtuous, and the bride is the church of Christ.

But the church is also God’s kingdom, and if the king is virtuous, then the citizens must also be virtuous. And we are in God’s kingdom today. Christ said to Peter, On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. I will give unto you the keys of the kingdom. The keys of the kingdom. To what? To the church. That’s what the church is, the kingdom of God. Paul wrote that he has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of his love.

We always like to watch the Polar Express at Christmas. You say, well, what in the world does that have to do with anything? Well, there’s one scene in the Polar Express where they’re up in the North Pole and there’s a package, a big present and it’s for one of the characters in the movie. Anyway, the present is on a conveyor belt. Maybe you’ve heard of what a conveyor belt is. The package is on that conveyor belt, and you hear this big, loud noise, a klaxon sounding. Buzz, buzz, buzz. And then what happens? The conveyor belt starts turning, and off this package goes. It gets conveyed into another room, you know, where it then ends up on Santa’s sleigh, right? A conveyor belt. It conveys, it moves something from one place to another. We have been conveyed into God’s kingdom. We’ve been moved from one place to another, out of darkness into light, out of despair and into hope, out of sin and into righteousness. We’ve been conveyed. God conveys us into his kingdom. And we’re in that kingdom today.

The church is the kingdom and the church is Christ’s body. You are the body of Christ and members individually. 1 Corinthians 12, verse 27. Ephesians 1, verses 22 and 23 says, he put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body the fullness of him that fills all in all. And the bride must be pure. The kingdom must be pure. The body of Christ is pure. And if we’re going to think about virtuous things, our thoughts need to think about the church, Christ’s bride, God’s kingdom, the body of Christ to think about virtuous things.

We need to think about the primer for virtue, the Bible, the person of virtue, Jesus Christ, and the place of virtue, the church of Christ. Have you been thinking about virtuous things? Well, if so, then you may have been thinking about the word of God and Jesus Christ and the church of Christ because all of these things are virtuous things and things that we need to think about regularly. And how do we then respond to God’s demand for moral excellence, to think about virtuous things?

Well, if you’re in the world and you’re sinning every day and not even realizing it most of the time, you don’t have your mind on virtuous things. Maybe you know that. And maybe this morning you think, you know what, I need to get my mind on right things. I need to come to Jesus and to think about how I can be virtuous.

To start that, you’ve got to open yourself up to the word of God, to the primer for virtue, right? Because that’s where it’s taught. Hear God’s word. And we’ve got to believe it. We’ve got to believe that in that word of God, there is virtue and that it teaches us virtue and it gives it to us by the person of virtue and puts us in the place of virtue. We’ve got to believe it. We’ve got to repent of our sins because sin, if we keep doing it, is not going to make us virtuous. It’s going to keep us outside of that place where we want to be. Repent. Confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the person of virtue. We’ve got to make him our all. And be baptized for the remission of sins. To have all the unvirtuous things of our life forgiven. And to turn and be in the place of virtue, which is the church of Christ, the body of Christ. We’re baptized into Christ. Galatians 3 and verse 27 tells us the place of virtue. And then we walk the virtuous life. Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life. Revelation 2 and verse 10. Why not become a child of God this morning as Tyler leads us in the song of invitation. Let’s stand and sing.
End of transcript. Thank you for reading along!