Spiritual Stability, Part 5: Godly Thinking (Philippians 4:8) John MacArthur

Let’s open our Bibles to the text of our  message this morning, Philippians chapter 4,   returning to the passage verses 1 through 9.  Philippians chapter 4 verses 1 through 9 and   our subject is spiritual stability. When the  apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth,   “Be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding  in the work of the Lord,” he was calling for   spiritual stability. When James wrote that a  double-minded man is unstable in all his ways,   that, too, was a call for spiritual stability.  When Peter wrote that God desired to perfect,   confirm, strengthen, and establish you, that also,  as the result of casting all your care on Him,   was a call to spiritual stability, and when  the apostle John said that he had no greater   joy than to hear that his children walked in  the truth, he spoke of spiritual stability.

Those are a few samples to indicate to us how  significant a theme the theme of spiritual   stability is throughout the New Testament. Over  and over again, we, as Christians, are called upon   to be faithful, to be consistent, to be stable,  to be strong, to be bold, to be courageous,   to be unwavering, to be uncompromising as the  children of God, and this really gets right at   the very heart of Christian living. The call  of God upon us is that we should be stable,   firm, strong, and, of course, that against  the onslaught and the attack of the world,   the flesh and the devil, therein lies the  spiritual battle. Persecution, hostility,   rejection, testings, trials, temptations – all  of these kinds of things come at us to topple us,   to make us unstable, and the call of the  New Testament is for us to be stable.

Now, we’re learning about how to be  stable. It’s one thing to be called   to spiritual stability; it’s quite another  thing to understand what that call involves,   and so as we look at Philippians chapter 4  and these first nine verses, we are given   here a pattern of truth that produces spiritual  stability. Obviously, all of us who know and   love the Lord Jesus Christ would affirm that we  want to be stable. No one likes being defeated,   no one likes being a loser, no one likes being  beaten down, no one likes being depressed,   no one likes falling under temptation and  therefore into sin, no one likes persecution,   no one really enjoys going through a test and  failing it. The assumption, then, is that there   is a desire within us to experience the full  expression of our identity as an overcomer. We want to be a winner. We want to triumph  spiritually. We want to be the victor.   We longingly look at someone like Paul and wonder  if he’s even human because he seems to experience   so much spiritual victory in the middle of so  much spiritual warfare. But the question that   comes back to us is, even though we want this  and even though we understand that this is a   biblical issue, how can we be stable? How can we  hold our ground? How can we not become the loser   and remain the winner? How can we not be defeated  and triumph? How can we not be depressed and be  

joyous? How can we ride across the top of all  of the waves, as it were, that come against us? Well, I believe Paul gives us the answer to that  very, very important question right here in this   wonderful passage. The key phrase I draw you  to is in verse 1. We’ve noted it each time,   and this is message number five in the series.  The key phrase is this exhortation or command:   Stand firm in the Lord. That is a command and that  is the bottom line here in the text, Stand firm   in the Lord. Stand against doubt. Stand against  temptation. Stand against trials and tests. Stand   against persecution. But notice also the little  word “so” or “thusly” or “in this way,” and Paul   is saying, “Now I’m going to tell you how. Here  is how to stand firm,” and then he proceeds to   give a number of disciplines, principles by which  we, as believers, can enjoy spiritual stability.

Now, do you remember principle number one?  Spiritual stability requires cultivating   peace in the fellowship. We looked at verse 1,  we saw Paul’s expression of love. We looked at   verses 2 and 3 and saw how deeply he desired  the unity of the church and he wanted those   two opposing women to get together and  he wanted the church to help them in   the process. Why? Because individual spiritual  stability is the result of corporate harmony,   corporate peace. Where there is peace in the  church and harmony in the church, the church   is stabilized individually. On the other hand,  where there is discord, conflict in the church,   it breeds insecurity. So the first virtue that is  necessary for spiritual stability is peace. Peace. The second is in verse 4. Not only does spiritual  stability mandate cultivating peace in the   fellowship, but secondly maintaining a spirit of  joy; maintaining a spirit of joy. “Rejoice in the   Lord always,” he says, “and I will say again,  rejoice.” The rejoicing, you will please note,   is in the Lord. If you attach your rejoicing  to your circumstances, it will come and go.   If you attach your rejoicing to the Lord, it  will always remain the same because He never   changes nor does His relationship to you ever  change. So you learn to rejoice in the privileged   union you have with Christ, which transcends  circumstances. So the second virtue, then,  

necessary for spiritual stability is a surpassing,  overruling joy that is not subject to difficulty. Third. The third principle we noted was that  spiritual stability comes to those who learn   to accept less than they deserve. Learning  to accept less than you deserve. Verse 5:   “Let your forbearing be known to all men.”  What he means by that word “forbearing” is   really your willingness to accept less than  you deserve. He’s talking here about the   spiritual virtue of humility. You can call  it forbearing, you can call it contentment,   you can call it humble graciousness. It  is the attitude of a person who seeks   nothing so that when he gets nothing,  he’s not concerned with that. Humility. The fourth principle also in verse 5 and then on  to verse 6 is this: Spiritual stability requires   resting on a confident trust in the Lord – resting  on a confident trust in the Lord. He says in verse   5, the Lord is near; then verse 6, so be anxious  for nothing. What are you going to worry about   when the Lord is there? If you understand who God  is and if you believe Him and you believe in Him,   then what are you going to worry about? He  transcends every problem. He transcends every   difficulty, every test, every trial, every  temptation. So the bottom line here is how   much do you know about God and how much do you  trust God? If you trust God, you will transcend  

your difficulty because you will understand who  God is, you will understand the purposes of God,   you will understand that God is still in control,  and you will therefore be calm in the midst of   your storm. Let’s call this the virtue of  faith. These are the virtues that make for   spiritual stability – peace, joy, humility, and  faith. You trust God and you know He’s in charge. The fifth principle, and the one at  which point we stopped last time is this:   Spiritual stability requires reacting to problems  with thankful prayer. In verse 6, you remember,   Paul said instead of worrying about things, pray  – but, he said, pray with thanksgiving – pray   with a thankful heart. So let’s say the fifth  virtue is gratitude – gratitude. You show me a   person who has peace, the peace that the Spirit  of God produces, joy, a person who is humble,   you show me a person who believes truly in  God and you show me a person who is thankful   in everything and I’ll show you a person who  is spiritually stable. Those are the virtues.

Just a footnote from last time on this note  in verse 6 about praying with thanksgiving,   no matter how difficult the problem. If you  rightly understand what you’re going through,   you should be thankful. No matter what  persecution, no matter what trial,   no matter what temptation comes your way, first  of all, you can be thankful that in it there is   the purpose of God. Right? God is accomplishing  some purpose. All things are working together   for good according to His purpose. In it also  there is the perfecting work of God. Through   every difficulty He conforms you more and more  to be strong and to be like His Son. In it also   there is the provision of God, for it allows  Him in difficulty to manifest His care for you.   In it there is the promise of God that the God who  takes you through and cares for you now is the God   in whom you hope for a future deliverance which  will lead you into His very eternal presence.

So in the middle of your trial, you can be  thankful for the purpose of God being worked by   that trial. You can be thankful for the perfection  of God being worked and accomplished in your life.   You can be thankful for the provision and care of  God in the process. And you can be thankful that   it’s only a taste to assure you of the future  promise of God to be revealed in the day of   Jesus Christ. You need to learn to be thankful,  and if you really know who your God is and you   really understand who your God is and you really  know that He’s working out His perfect plan,   you can have a thankful heart in any difficulty  at all. You don’t need to lose your stability. Let me give you perhaps the most interesting  illustration of this. Do you remember a man   named Jonah? Jonah had a predicament that  is unimaginable, absolutely unimaginable.   Somebody sent me a little sign this week.  It’s been a very difficult week or so for me,   a lot of battles, and somebody knew I was  kind of struggling with a lot of things   that were going on. They sent me a picture of  two penguins. They were standing like this,   facing forward and one of them was consumed  down to the middle by a huge fish and the   other one was saying, “Remember God  is in control.” That’s easy for you   to say – and I couldn’t help but think of  Jonah. That was exactly his predicament.

As you come to Jonah chapter 2, it simply  says, “Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his   God from the stomach of the fish.” Now,  if you were in the stomach of a fish,   what would your prayer be like? Maybe not a lot  like Jonah’s, maybe a lot of screaming and crying   out and pleading and “What are You doing, God?  Where are You? Where have You gone? Why is this   happening?” That was not Jonah’s approach. Listen  to this, Jonah in the first place must have had   his senses about him as he was floating around in  the gastric juices because this is what he said,   verse 2 chapter 2, “I called out of my distress to  the Lord and He answered me. I cried for help from   the depths of Sheol, Thou didst hear my voice  for Thou hast cast me into the deep, into the   heart of the seas and the current engulfed me,  all Thy breakers and billows passed over me.”   I mean he pictures himself sinking into the sea.  “So I said, I have been expelled from Thy sight,   nevertheless I will look again toward Thy holy  temple.” In other words, he says I’m so far down   here, God doesn’t know where I am. He can’t find  me. “I will look again toward Thy holy temple,   water compassed me to the point of death. The  great deep engulfed me. Weeds were wrapped   around my head. I descended to the roots of the  mountains. The earth with its bars was around   me forever. But Thou hast brought up my life from  the pit, O Lord my God. While I was fainting away,  

I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to  Thee into Thy holy temple. Those who regard vain   idols forsake their faithfulness, but I will  sacrifice to Thee with the voice of thanksgiving.” He says, “I will sacrifice to Thee with the  voice of thanksgiving.” If there’s one thing   a fish can’t stand, it’s a thankful prophet.  It made him sick and he vomited Jonah out in   verse 10. Here was a man who was in  the direst imaginable circumstance,   an unthinkable trauma who in the midst of it all  expressed his great prayer of thanksgiving. Now,   that, in spite of Jonah’s other weaknesses  reflects a great amount of spiritual   stability. And then he says, “Salvation is  from the Lord.” There never was a wavering   in his confidence of God’s ability to  deliver, should He choose to do so.

Now, back to Philippians chapter 4  where Paul says if you pray like that,   if you manifest that kind of thanksgiving  because you have that strong faith,   you will find – verse 7 – the peace of God will  guard you from being unstable. The peace of God   will bring a tranquility and a contentment and  a consolation beyond human device, beyond human   explanation, beyond human understanding. He  says it really surpasses all comprehension,   and it’ll guard you from instability. We call  this the virtue of gratitude, a grateful heart. You see, spiritual stability is experienced  through these means – peace, joy, humility,   faith, and gratitude, and when your life is  characterized by those spiritual attitudes,   you will be able to experience difficulty and  not lose your balance and not get knocked over   and toppled. But Paul is not through. He now  reaches, I believe, the climax and another   essential key to being spiritually stable  and, really, the key to everything in verse 8.

This is the major point that he wants to make,  the high point. In order to be spiritually stable,   and frankly, in order to experience peace, joy,  humility, faith, and gratitude, you must be   focusing on godly virtues. You must be focusing on  godly virtues. You cannot experience godly virtues   unless you focus on godly virtues. Verse 8 says:  “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 anything worthy  of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.” Now, here the apostle Paul sums up what he’s  been saying. The word “finally” indicates that   he has reached a climax at this particular  point, and this is the great – in a sense,   the great summation of everything, the great key  to all the other elements, and what he is saying,   basically, is summed up in that last phrase of  verse 8, “Let your mind dwell on these things.”   Spiritual stability is a result of how you think  – of how you think. Now, modern psychology today,   which has a corner on – supposedly on helping  people, says that if you want to be stable,   if you want to get your act together, if you  want to be delivered from your schizophrenia,  

from your various neuroses and psychoses,  if you want to be a calm, comfortable,   stable person who’s got it together, one of the  things you need to do is look into your past. You need to sort of get out the dredge  and dredge up the scum of the past,   you need to dive into the trash bin of your past,  you need to find your old sins and your old hurts   and the abuses and mistreatments and all of the  chaos of your past, the garbage of your life,   the old sins and failures, and you need to  poke around, stir it up, deal with all of it,   regurgitate it all, et cetera, et cetera. They  may even go to the extreme where if you happen to   go to a psychiatrist who develops primal therapy  techniques, he’ll stick you on the floor, stuff   pillows around you, put you in a fetal position,  and try to get you to feel the pain of your   prebirth experience in the womb of your mother,  and that is the start of the path to stability.

This, of course, has spilled over  into Christianity as well. However,   in the light of verse 8 it seems to me  to be utterly obtuse and ridiculous for   what the apostle Paul here says is  clearly this, that you are to focus   your attention completely on things that  are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely,   and of good repute. The focus of the Christian is  away from those things of which it is a shame to   speak for they are the things of the darkness,  as Paul calls them in Ephesians chapter 5. So Paul wants to sum up and what his final  and summing point is – is that you must,   if you want to be spiritually stable, learn  how to think on the right things. As I said,   the key phrase – let’s look at it now – is in  verse 8: “Let your mind dwell on these things.”   This is a call for right thinking. The verb is  logizesthe. It’s an imperative which means it’s a   command. It means not just to think in the simple  one-dimensional sense, it means to evaluate,   it means to ascertain, it means to use  your faculties to consider the validity   and implications of these things. In other  words, to develop these kind of thinking habits.

Now, I want you to listen carefully to what I  say. This seems obvious. You, as a believer,   are a product of your thinking because it says  in the Bible as clearly as possible, “As a man   thinks in his heart, so” – what? – “is he.” You  are the product of your thoughts. The computers,   people say, G.I.G.O., garbage in, garbage out.  Whatever you program is exactly what you’re going   to get. You are the product of your thinking. Now,  what is particularly frightening about that in our   culture is that it seems to me that thinking is  not really that important today. We are not so   concerned about thinking as we are about two other  things. Let’s call them emotion and pragmatism. We are concerned about feeling and we are  concerned about success; we are not so concerned   about thinking. In other words, people don’t ask  this question: Is it true? And they don’t ask the   question: Is it right? They ask these questions:  Does it work? and How will it make me feel?   That’s what they want to know. They don’t want to  know is it right, they don’t really care if it’s   right. They don’t particularly care if it’s true,  but will it work and will it make me feel good?   That’s a tragic thing to face, but that is in  fact the nature of our society. The mind is  

depreciated in our culture because we are into  a feeling kind of culture. Even in theology,   it is sad to say that the issue is not  always is it right or is it true but will   it divide or will it offend? Those  are new things for us to deal with. You see, the noble Bereans were noble because they  searched the Scriptures not to see if these things   felt good and not to see if these things worked  and not to see if these things would not offend,   but to see if these things were so. Now, we  live in a culture that is fast learning not   to think because it is fast learning  not to read, which creates thinking. Paul Robinson, a professor at Stanford University,  was a contributor to the latest edition of The   Little Brown Reader, which comes out and is for  those people in the English and communications   field. I was sent a copy of the article he  wrote entitled, “TV Can’t Educate.” It’s   quite a fascinating article. He, simply coming  from a secular mind analyzing our society and   the mode of communication that is effective  in the thinking process, simply says this:   “The only way to learn is by reading.”  It’s the only way to learn because words   on a page freeze a thought, you can analyze  it, you can synthesize it, you can verify it,  

you can meditate on it. Pictures don’t  create thought; they just grab emotions. He goes on to point out the fact that the worst  possible TV is educational TV because it is a   contradiction in terms since TV can’t educate.  He said, “You would be better off never to have   educational TV because at least in your mind  there would be a vacuum that someday might be   filled with a real thought.” We have a society  that doesn’t think. We’re not into is it true,   is it right, we’re into how does  it make me feel and does it work. Bill Hull, in a book entitled Right Thinking  written in 1985, writes, “What scares me is   the anti-intellectual, anti-critical thinking  philosophy that has spilled over into the church.   This philosophy tends to romanticize the  faith, making the local church into an   experience center. Their concept of church is  that they are spiritual consumers and that the   church’s job is to meet their felt needs,” end  quote. And what is happening in the church is   that people are going to church not to think,  not to reason about the truth, not like the   noble Bereans to search the Scriptures to see  what is true, but they’re going there to get a   weekly spiritual fix, a weekly spiritual high,  so they can feel that God is still with them.  

They are spiritually unstable because they  live on feeling rather than on thinking. The Christian must not be a victim of his  feelings. He must not get caught in a pragmatic   trap of does-it-work/is-it-successful. John  Stott has written in his helpful little book,   Your Mind Matters, this: “Indeed, sin has  more dangerous effects on our faculty of   feeling than on our faculty of thinking  because our opinions are more easily   checked and regulated by revealed truth than are  experiences,” end quote. Very wise statement. In searching a little bit deeper into this  subject this week, I took a book of my shelf   entitled Stations of the Mind, written by William  Glasser, an M.D. psychiatrist who is basically the   father of reality therapy, the innovator of  a kind of psychiatric therapy called reality   therapy. He has an entire section in that book on  the brain and how it works. Coming from a secular,   psychiatric mindset, it’s quite curious what  his research has led him to conclude. He shows,   for example, that humans are not simply  what they call S-R animals. S-R means   stimulus-response. You see, traditional, pagan,  humanistic psychiatry/psychology simply sees  

man at the end of an evolutionary process.  We are simply the pinnacle of evolution,   we’re along the lines of all other animals. In  fact, if you go back earlier than that, we’re not   much different than a rock or a leaf or whatever.  We’re just at the end of the evolutionary chain,   out there on the top of this thing, but we have  the same characteristics as those other elements   along that evolutionary chain; therefore,  we are a stimulus-response kind of animal. And that is why, for example, you have a man  like Pavlov who gets a bunch of dogs and runs a   bunch of tests with dogs and whenever there’s a  certain situation to stimulate them, they start   to salivate, and you take Pavlov’s dogs and you  translate it over into human behavior because all   we are is fancy dogs, that’s all. So whatever made  Pavlov’s dogs salivate should be conclusive about   human behavior. So you come up with the conclusion  that we are S-Rs, we are stimulus-response people.   When the stimulus is there, we respond, and given  the same stimulus, we have a predictable response.

This has been pretty much unassailable truth in  the evolutionary mindset. Glasser attacks it,   interestingly enough, and says frankly that man is  not controlled by a predictable stimulus-response   factor. Man is controlled from the inside, he  says, by what he wants and by what he desires,   and he says what he wants and what he desires is  predetermined by what has influenced his what?   His thinking – his thinking. He says you  can give one man the same kind of stimulus   several times through his life, and you  might get several different responses.   If it were a factor in human design that  he always responded in an S-R fashion,   then his response would always have to be  the same to the same stimulus, but it isn’t. Furthermore, you can take 15 people, give them all  the same stimulus and get 15 different responses   because man responds not by the outside stimulus  but by what he wants and what he desires, he says,   which is programmed by what has influenced  his thinking. His response is not mechanical,   says Glasser, it is thoughtful. That’s very  important. It is thoughtful. The mind then   becomes the command center which determines  his conduct based upon how he thinks,  

based upon how he’s been influenced to think.  So how one thinks is the critical issue. You’re   not just a fancy dog, you’re not going to  salivate every time the same deal happens.   You’re going to react according to how you  think. The mind, then, has the power to shape   you and to shape your action and consequently  is the most powerful element of human life. Lord Palmerston said in the House of Commons in  July 21, 1849, quote: “Opinions are stronger than   armies, opinions will in the end prevail against  the bayonets of infantry, the fire of artillery,   and the charges of cavalry,” end quote. He’s  right. Armies come and go; ideologies last.   It’s amazing how powerful opinions are. Now, from the biblical perspective, it  becomes very clear how important thinking is,   and that is precisely what Paul  is calling for in this verse.   He is saying you’ve got to learn how to  think on the right things. Let’s talk a   little bit about what the Bible says about  thinking. What a very basic issue this is.

First of all, God has commanded us to think.  Do you remember Isaiah 1:18? You remember what   God said? He said, “Come now, let us” – what?  – “reason together.” Let’s think this thing   through. He didn’t say, “Come, let us feel one  another.” He didn’t say, “Come, let us experience   this together.” He said, “Come, let’s reason.  Let’s think this through.” In Matthew chapter 16,   the Pharisees and the Sadducees came to Jesus,  they said, “We want to see a sign. We want You to   show us a sign. Do something spectacular that will  overwhelm us.” And He said, “Well,” He said, “you   can look at the sky and tell what the weather’s  like, why can’t you look at the revelation of God   and figure it out?” In other words, “I’m not going  to give you some spectacular show in the sky,   I’m going to ask you to consider what the  facts are that you already have access to.” Jesus furthermore said, “Even though someone is  raised from the dead, they won’t believe if they   didn’t believe Moses and the prophets.”  Always, the Bible calls on men to think,   to reason. You see, that’s why the Bible is a  book. When God gave us His revelation, He did not   give us a movie. He did not. He did not give us a  series of music videos. You know what? He didn’t   even have built-in organ background when you read  the Bible. Nobody is humming. There’s nothing to  

touch your emotions except the contemplation  of truth. No stimulus other than truth, which   requires thought. So Scriptures assume that the  first priority is to think because it’s a book.   Don’t you see how different this is from  the modern-day sort of Charismatic movement   where everyone is running around, not looking  for truth but looking for what? Experience,   emotion, feeling. The Bible is, by  its very nature, calling men to think. Psalm 32 verse 9 – verse 8 actually, “I will  instruct you,” says God, “I will teach you in   the way which you should go, I will counsel  you with My eye upon you.” In other words,   “I’ll give you all the truth, all the instruction,  all the teaching, all the counseling.” Verse 9:   “Do not be as the horse or as the mule which  have no understanding.” Think. Don’t be like   a horse or a mule; think and you’ll have access  to My truth. Psalm 73:22, the Psalmist admits,   “I was senseless and ignorant, I was  like a beast.” Don’t be like that.   Think. Listen now, careful thinking is  the distinctive of our revealed faith.   Let me say that again. Careful thinking  is the distinctive of our revealed faith.

Orr wrote a book called The Christian View of  God and the World. In one paragraph, he says   this very insightfully: “If there is a religion  in the world which exalts the office of teaching,   it is safe to say that it is the religion of  Jesus Christ. It has been frequently remarked   that in pagan religions, the doctrinal element  is at a minimum. The chief thing there is the   performance of a ritual. But this is precisely  where Christianity distinguishes itself from other   religions – it does contain doctrine. It comes to  men with definite, positive teaching. It claims to   be the truth. It bases religion on knowledge,  though a knowledge which is only obtainable   under moral conditions. A religion divorced  from earnest and lofty thought has always,   down through the whole history of the church,  tended to become weak, jejune, and unwholesome   while the intellect deprived of its rights within  religion has sought its satisfaction without and   developed into godless rationalism,” end  quote. Boy, that is a great statement.

To sum up what he says, if there’s any religion in  the world that exalts the office of teaching and,   therefore, the idea of thinking, it is the  Christian religion because it is propositional,   it is written. It is not a ritual. It is not an  experience. It is a revelation of truth. And then   he says, “When the church ceases to think and  reason and divorces itself from lofty thought,   then,” he says, “the mind or the intellect,  deprived of its rights in religion, will pursue   something outside of religion to fulfill itself  and thus comes the rise of godless rationalism.”   So maybe the church contributes to rationalism   because it offers nothing to the mind when  it is weak and witless as it so often is. Now, when you come to considering this matter  of the mind, the Bible has a lot to say,   has a lot to say about thinking. Let me give you a  little theology of thinking – coming quick so hold   on. What about before you’re saved, what does it  say about your mind? Here it comes. First of all,   your mind is depraved, Romans 1:28. It’s  depraved, debased, debauched, wicked,   evil, that’s what that means. Secondly,  it’s blind, 2 Corinthians 4:4. Thirdly,   it is futile, vain, worthless, useless,  Ephesians 4:17. Fourthly, it is ignorant,  

Ephesians 4:18. Finally, it is  foolish, 1 Corinthians 2:14. So you can say to an unbeliever, “My  friend, I don’t know you real well,   but I do know a few things about you I’d  like to share. I don’t know what your IQ is,   I don’t know what your academic background is,  but I want to tell you that your mind is depraved,   blind, futile, ignorant, and foolish.” And you  know, you’d be exactly right – exactly right.   So depraved it does not choose what is good, so  blind it does not know what is good, so useless   it does not perform what is good, so ignorant  it doesn’t even know it’s doing all of this, and   you’re left with the only alternative: everything  is foolish. That’s the mind of man, fallen man. The gospel, then, penetrates, right? Now, what  about the mind at salvation? Is the gospel   concerned about the mind? You better believe  it. Do you remember what we’ve been studying   in 1 Peter 3 where Peter says you must be able to  give to every man who asks you a reason for the   hope that is in you? You have to be able to show  him a reason for this. Why do you believe this?   In Matthew chapter 13, Jesus said, “Sometimes  the seed falls” – verse 19 – “on the ground   and the seed is the Word of the kingdom and  the hard ground is the heart that does not  

understand it and Satan snatches it away.” It  demands reason and it demands understanding. An element of salvation, an element of it,  is occurring within the mind as a person is   coming to a proper comprehension  of truth, truth about himself,   truth about his sin, truth about God, truth  about Christ, truth about the work of Christ,   truth about the future. That all comes into  the mind. That’s why it says in Romans 10 that   faith comes by hearing a speech about  Christ. It’s not some esoteric thing;   faith comes through the mind, through the reason.  “Come now, let us reason together,” says Isaiah,   “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall  be as wool, though they be red like crimson,   they shall become as white as snow.” Let’s  reason that. The gospel hits the mind.   That’s what made those Bereans so noble, they  searched the Scripture, they thought it through.

J. Gresham Machen, that great student of Scripture  in his book, The Christian Faith in the Modern   World, said, “What the Holy Spirit does in the new  birth is not to make a man a Christian regardless   of the evidence, but on the contrary, to clear  away the mists from his eyes and enable him to   attend to the evidence.” That’s the point. He  sees it. He understands it by the working of   the Spirit of God. Well, this we know because  men are saved to be worshipers, right? John 4,   the Father seeks true worshipers, and a true  worshiper worships in spirit and in what? Truth.   So if we’re saved to worship in truth, then truth  is crucial. Salvation is God’s work on the mind. You see, it is unacceptable to worship God apart  from the truth about God. That’s why Paul was so   upset when he got to Mars Hill in Acts 17 and  he found a bunch of erudite Greek philosophers   who built an altar to what god? The unknown  god – how absolutely ridiculous. That does   not please God. God isn’t saying, “Well, it’s a  nice gesture and I really understand the spirit   of it and I accept it.” Not on your life. God is  not the unknown God, God will be worshiped only   according to the truth of who He is, and so Paul  immediately informed them of who God really was.

And in Luke 10:27, it says you must love  the Lord your God with all your heart,   all your soul, and all your mind. You see,  salvation is an intelligent response to God’s   self-revelation in Scripture prompted by the Holy  Spirit. True faith is not an irrational leap,   true faith is not some contact with the ground of  being, as Paul Tillich used to say. True faith is   not some explosion into a non-quantifiable  event. True faith is not some mysterious,   irreproducible, unspeakable encounter. True faith  is a reasonable trust in the revealed truth about   the true God. It is a process of thinking.  Salvation is impossible without thinking.

When Jesus was talking to His  disciples in Matthew 6, He – well,   all the time when He was talking to them, He  wanted to get them to think, but in Matthew 6,   you know, they were bemoaning the fact  that they might not have food and clothing,   and you remember He came to them and He basically  says the birds of the air, they’re taken care of,   and you see how the lilies of the field are and  the grass of the field and all of that, and O, you   of little faith, why don’t you just believe God  to take care of you. Remember that in Matthew 6? Martyn Lloyd-Jones, in his classic The Sermon on  the Mount, writes this little paragraph on that   section – I think it’s worthy of repeating. He  says, “Faith, according to our Lord’s teaching   in this paragraph, is primarily thinking, and the  whole trouble with a man of little faith is that   he doesn’t think. He allows circumstances  to bludgeon him. We must spend more time   in studying our Lord’s lessons in observation and  deduction. The Bible,” he says, “is full of logic,   and we must never think of faith as something  purely mystical. We do not just sit down in   an armchair and expect marvelous things to  happen to us. This is not Christian faith.   Christian faith is essentially thinking. Look  at the birds. Think about them and draw your   deductions. Look at the grass. Look at the lilies  of the field, consider them. Faith, if you like,   can be defined like this: It is a man insisting  upon thinking when everything seems determined   to bludgeon and knock him down in an intellectual  sense. The trouble with the person of little faith  

is that instead of controlling his own thought,  his thought is being controlled by something else,   and as we put it, he goes round and round in  circles. That is the essence of worry.” Now,   get this: “That is not thought, that is  the absence of thought,” end quote. Great. What does he mean by that? He means if you  worry, it’s because you’re not thinking;   you’re being bludgeoned by your circumstances. If  you rise above them and think about your God and   think about His purposes and think about  His promises and think about His plans,   you won’t worry. Right? Remember that  when you worry. That’s – people say,   “You worry. You think too much.” No, you think  too little. You think far too little in the   right direction. Faith is not optimism.  Faith is not psychological self-hypnosis.   Faith is not wishful thinking. Faith is  a reasoned response to revealed truth.

Now, we talked about what your mind was like  before salvation. We talked about how God   moves your mind at salvation. What about after  salvation? Well, your mind’s been transformed,   you’ve got a new mind. You don’t have a  new brain but you have a new mind. That is,   you’ve been infused with a new divine  capacity to reason. The Spirit of God   has invaded your thought processes.  Unbelievable, isn’t it? You don’t   just think as a human brain anymore; you  think as a human brain mingled with the   Spirit of the living God who lives within  you. You have all new thought patterns. To show you this, look at Romans chapter 8.  Romans chapter 8 and verse 5. This draws it   as simply and clearly as any passage. Verse 5  of Romans 8 says, “For those who are according   to the flesh” – that’s unregenerate  people, non-Christian people – “those   who are according to the flesh set their minds  on the things of the flesh.” To put it simply,   unsaved people have an unsaved mindset. Fleshly  people have a fleshly mindset. They think about   fleshly things. But – verse 5 – “Those  who are according to the Spirit” – the   regenerate – “set their mind on the things  of the Spirit.” You have a new mind. Verse 6:   “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but  the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace.” You have a whole new mind.  It’s not set on the flesh,   it’s set on the Spirit. It’s incredible.  The word here, phronma, means mindset,  

a whole new way of thinking is what it means.  Not a new brain but a new way of thinking. All   of a sudden, your thought patterns which are  physical and human are injected with thought   patterns which are divine and supernatural.  The Spirit of God moves into your thinking,   and now that mind which was once depraved and  blind and futile and ignorant and foolish is   totally different. It no longer thinks on the  fleshly level, it thinks on the spiritual level. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 30. When  we think about what Christ gives us in salvation,   what He brings to us, what He provides for us,  what He grants us, it’s absolutely thrilling,   but just note this – maybe you overlooked this  one. First Corinthians 1:30, “By God’s doing   we are in Christ,” he says, we have become in  Christ. Then it says, “Christ Jesus who became   to us” – what? – “wisdom from God.” Isn’t  that a marvelous reality? All of a sudden,   now we have the wisdom of God, and the Old  Testament psalmist says – Psalm 92:5 – “Thy   thoughts are very deep.” Now all of a  sudden, we can plunge the deep thoughts of   eternal God. We think in ways we never  thought before. We think God’s thoughts.

Go to chapter 2. Chapter 2 verse 11: “For who  among men knows the thoughts of a man except the   spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, the  thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit   of God. Now we have received not the spirit  of the world but the Spirit who is from God,   that we might know the things freely given to us  by God.” Unbelievable. The only one who knows a   man is the spirit of that man. That’s analogous  to the fact that the only one who knows God is   the Spirit of God, and we have received the Spirit  of God; therefore, we have the knowledge of God.   So we have the wisdom of Christ, we have the  knowledge of God granted us by the Holy Spirit. Look at verse 15. “He who is spiritual  appraises all things.” Great statement.   “Yet He Himself is appraised by no man for  who has known the mind of the Lord that he   should instruct him? But we have” – what? –  “the mind of Christ.” Isn’t that incredible?   We’re not like the natural man in verse  14 who doesn’t know anything about God,   it’s all foolishness to him. We know the mind  of Christ, we now understand the wisdom of God,   the Spirit of God brings us knowledge about God  that we would otherwise never, ever have. And you   know as a Christian you have that? You know, now,  Paul wrote to these Corinthians. You remember this   group wasn’t really that great. They had a lot of  major problems. They still had the mind of Christ,   they still had the wisdom of God, they still  had the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit.

In fact – chapter 10 – after he’s just blasted  them for a number of chapters on their sinfulness,   in chapter 10, he’s going to talk to them about  how they have desecrated the Lord’s table – to   add to all the other terrible things they did,  they were desecrating the Lord’s table – but   look what he says to them in chapter 10 verse 15:  “I’m speaking as to wise men; you judge what I   say.” “What do you mean by that, Paul?” “I mean,  look, what I’m telling you, by God’s grace and   through salvation, you have the divine wisdom to  evaluate. You can understand this. You can apply   this.” That’s how we are to think, consistent  with the wisdom of God granted us in Christ. It says in Colossians 3:10 that the new self  is renewed to a true knowledge according to   the image of the One who created him. In other  words, we’ve been given a new mind; therefore,   2 Corinthians 10:3 says the weapons of  our warfare are not what? Fleshly. The   weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, they are  spiritual weapons. They are weapons, it says,   that destroy speculations and every lofty  thing raised up against the knowledge of God,  

and we are taking every thought captive to the  obedience of Christ. Isn’t it amazing? We can go   through the world and literally take every human  thought captive to the truth in Christ, can’t we?   We can force it to submit to what we know is  true about Christ, true about God, true about   Scripture. We have a new mind. You ever strained  anything through a strainer? We have the ability   to strain all the data in the world and purify  it. We have the mind of Christ, the mind of God. So the Christian life, then, becomes characterized  by a new mind. We have a new mind. But may I   challenge you? Have you noticed that sometimes  your mind gets dirty? Have you noticed it needs   a periodic cleaning? Well, in Romans 12:1-2, it  says that we not only are to present our bodies,   a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto  God, which is an act of reasonable worship,   but we are not to be conformed to this world  but to be transformed by the renewing of your   mind in order that you may know what is the  good and acceptable and perfect Will of God.   We are continually in need of renewing our minds –  continually renewing our minds. In Ephesians 4:23,   Paul says, “Be renewed in the spirit of  your mind.” In 1 Thessalonians at the end,   chapter 5 verse 21: “Examine everything  carefully, hold fast to what is good,  

learn to think, refresh your mind, clean your  mind, renew your mind.” Gets dirty in the world. Peter says in 1 Peter 1:13: “Gird up your mind  for action.” Got to take care of your mind,   folks, that’s what he’s saying. That’s what  Paul’s saying, Peter’s saying – take care of   your mind. John Owen, a great Puritan writer, said  this: “That good which the mind cannot discover,   the will cannot choose, and the affections cannot  cleave to.” And then Owen said, “In Scripture,   the deceit of the mind is commonly laid down  as the principle of all sin.” You must take   care of your mind. We are, therefore, called  to mental discipline. Colossians 3:2: “Set your   mind on things” – what? – “above, not on things  on the earth.” Paul often says in his epistles,   “I would not have you to be” – what? – “ignorant.”  Ten times in 1 Corinthians and Romans he says,   “Do you not know?” “Do you not know?” “Do  you not know?” He’s always filling in the   gaps of their lack of knowledge and  Jesus often used the verb “to think.”   We must be committed to thinking  and thinking on the right things.

This isn’t really new to the New Testament.  If you go all the way back to the instruction   of Proverbs chapter 2, it says, “My son, if  you will receive My sayings and treasure My   commandments within you, make your ear attentive  to wisdom, incline your heart to understanding,   for if you cry for discernment,  lift your voice for understanding;   if you seek her as silver and search for  her as for hidden treasures, then you will   discern the fear of the Lord and discover the  knowledge of God for the Lord gives wisdom,   from His mouth comes knowledge and understanding.”  In other words, you’ve got to go after it. You’ve   got to mine it like you were mining  silver. You’ve got to work to get it. And by the way, if you’re faithful to make  the maximum effort according to Psalm 119:34,   God will give you understanding. The Christian  mind tragically has succumbed to the secular drift   and we have a Christianity today that doesn’t  think. It’s somewhat hysterical, melancholy,   melodramatic – it doesn’t think. It’s really  tragic. We’re asking the wrong questions. We’re   asking, “How will it make me feel?” and “Does it  work?” instead of “Is it true?” “Is it right?”   We’ve got to learn to think on the right things.

Now, what are they? Let’s look at our text. Very  simple. I don’t even need to comment on them,   actually, you can see them for yourself. First he  says, “Finally, brethren, whatever is true.” Now,   if you want to know what’s true, where are you  going to go? To the Word of God. John 17:17:   “Thy Word is truth.” Psalm 19:9, Psalm 119:151,  et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. The truth is   in Christ, Ephesians 4:21 tells  us that. The truth is in God,   2 Timothy 2:25 tells us that. So if you want to  know the truth, you go to the Word of God. It’s   the focus and the locus of all truth. So  if I’m going to think on whatever is true,   I’m going to dwell on the Word of God first  of all and on anything else that is true. Secondly, he says, “Whatever is honorable,”  that means worthy of respect. Whatever is noble,   whatever is dignified, whatever is reverent,  whatever is lofty, not trashy, mundane,   common. The word really comes from a term meaning  to worship. Whatever is worthy of awe, whatever   is held in high regard, whatever is greatly  respected, whatever is worthy of adoration,   that’s what I think about. Thirdly, he says,  “Whatever is right.” And the word is righteous   here – righteous. Whatever is in perfect harmony  with the eternal, unchanging, divine standard of   a holy God revealed in Scripture. I am going to  think on what is true. I am going to think on what  

is worthy of worship. I am going to think on what  is absolutely consistent with the holiness of God.   And then he says, “Whatever is  pure,” hagnos, meaning morally clean,   undefiled. Whatever is morally pure and morally  clean, I will think on that, not the other junk. Then he says, “Whatever is lovely,” that means  winsome, pleasing, attractive, amiable. It’s one   of those words that we only find here in the New  Testament, an unusual word. It means whatever is   sweet or gracious or generous or patient. It can  a lot of sort of facets. Whatever is attractive   and lovely is as good as any word to translate  that term. And then he says, “Whatever is of good   repute,” which means well thought of. Whatever is  highly regarded. That’s where I put my thoughts.

You know where that keeps me? That  really confines me, doesn’t it?   If I look at the world, am I going to find  the truth? If I look around at the world,   am I going to find what is honorable, what  is right, what is pure, what is lovely,   what is of good report? When I turn on  the television, is that what I’m going to   see? When I go to the theater, is that what I’m  going to see? When I read a book or a magazine,   is that what I’m going to see? When I have a  conversation with friends, is that what I’m   going to experience? The point is, you’ve got to  protect your mind because that is what determines   what you want and what you desire and that’s what  determines how you react to the stimuli of life. And then he says, “If there’s any excellence  and anything worthy of praise, let your mind   dwell on these things.” And those are statements  that we could just as well read “since there is   excellence and since there are some things  worthy of praise, please focus on them.”   Please. Your mind is the greatest treasure you  have in terms of those gifts of human life,   and now as a believer, your mind works in concert  with the Spirit of God. You must protect that   mind, and the way you protect it is how you  think, and you must protect its influences.   You must avoid those things which negatively  influence your thinking. There’s no – there’s   no quick fix to this. There’s not any easy  formula to spiritual stability that you can  

get in four counseling sessions. There’s  not any little book that you can write and   say here it is. You can’t bottle it  and tell them to take a dose a day. Spiritual stability is a product of cultivating  peace in the fellowship, maintaining a spirit   of joy, learning to accept less than you’re due,  resting on a confident trust or faith in the Lord,   reacting to problems with thankful prayer and  all of that flows out of focusing on godly   virtues that begin to dominate your thinking  patterns, and that’s what produces the peace,   the joy, the humility, the faith, the  gratitude that make your life stabilized. Now, the only remaining issue here –  and Paul knows it – is to say, “Look,   if you want an example of all this, look at me.”  Verse 9: “The things you’ve learned, received, and   heard and seen in me, practice these things and  the God of peace shall be with you.” You’ll not   only have the peace of God – verse 7 – you’ll have  the God of peace – verse 9. Paul says, “I’ll be   the model.” And then he goes on from there to give  us illustrations of how he literally transcended   his troubles, his persecutions, his difficulties,  his testings, and maintains spiritual stability.

Beloved, as a man thinks in his heart, so  is he. We must learn to guard our minds.   You cannot expect the fullness of spiritual joy  and usefulness unless you desire the right things   because that’s what moves your behavior,  and your desires are a direct reflection   of your influences. So brethren, think on  these things. Let’s bow together in prayer. Father, gratefully we express appreciation for the  fact that You have ministered to us this morning   in many ways. You have given us the privilege of  sitting, as it were, at the feet of the Spirit of   God, to be taught. Help us, Lord, to understand  the unbelievable privilege of having the mind   of Christ, the wisdom of God dispensed to us by  the Spirit of God, so that we can properly know   what is right. Help us, Lord, to protect the  mind, to learn to think, to set our minds on   the things that matter. Thank You, O God, for  the rich repository of Your Word and all those   many books that speak of Your Word that provide  for us an unending well of fresh, clear, cool,  

refreshing water of truth, that we might truly  be saturated with that which is true, which is   honorable, which is right, which is pure, which  is lovely, which is of good repute. And since   there is excellence in the Christian life and  since there are some things so worthy of praise,   we would think on these things. Guard us, Lord,  that we might be all the more to Your glory. Amen. You've been listening to John MacArthur,  Bible teacher with Grace to You. For free   access to all of John's lessons and a listing  of study Bibles and books available for sale,   visit Grace to You's website at gty.org.  John MacArthur and Grace to You reserve   all copyright protection under applicable  law. Our copyright policy is available at   gty.org and it includes instructions for and  limitations on duplicating this digital file.