So again, our text is Philippians 4, verses 4-8. Let's stand together for the reading of God's Word. Philippians 4, beginning at verse 4. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. Let your patient mind be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be nothing careful. But in all things, let your requests be showed unto God in prayer and supplications with giving of thanks. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall preserve your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Furthermore, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are worthy love, Whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue or if there be any praise, think on these things. And that ends the reading of God's word. Let's pray. Father, help us now to understand this and apply it in the context of our own world. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. And please be seated. Well, our interest this morning is in verse eight and its implication. in the for use in the life of the Christian in our day. And as we begin, then, if we want to search the implications of this text, there are some preliminary points that we ought to make. And first is back to verse seven for a minute. The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall preserve your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. There is this connection between the heart and the mind that Scripture presents to us that we should be clear on, and that is to say that the two go hand in hand. You'll see them employed together, for instance, in the promise of the New Covenant in Hebrews 8 and verse 10. Hebrews 8 and verse 10. For this is the testament that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their mind, and in their hearts will I write them. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people." You note the connection there between the heart and the mind, or the mind and the heart. And it's this way throughout all of Scripture. So the heart and the mind go hand in hand. Now, in that testimony, and again, look at it carefully in verse 10 here, in this testimony, I put my laws in their mind and write it in their hearts. Okay? That's the situation we're dealing with. And that's to say that the object of the mind's inspection, what the mind is thinking about, is then embraced inside the man and enters into his heart. And that's the way, that's the promise of the New Covenant. I'll put my law in their mind and write it in their hearts. And so the mind is thinking about this thing that enters into and is embraced in the heart where it then resides. That's the New Covenant. So what is the object of the mind's inspection? It becomes embedded in the heart of man, enters into his heart and lives there and becomes enduring. Now contrast that with Romans 1 and verse 28. And this is the text that ought to be familiar to us, but think of it in these same terms. Romans 1, 28. For as they regarded not to acknowledge God, even so God delivered them up to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient." Now, the Authorized Version says, even as they did not retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over. So it's the idea of holding him in the mind. What the mind rejects then, you know, is not embedded or not brought into the heart. And they didn't like to retain God in their knowledge. They didn't want to think about Him. They wanted to dwell and think upon other things. And so on the one hand, what the mind inspects, what the mind dwells upon, enters into the heart. And then on the other hand, what the mind rejects, you know, does not enter into the heart, and that's the situation we have to deal with when we come to this text. That's a little bit of background here. Now, note concerning the heart and the mind, many things in life are the objects of mental inspection. Okay, things are going on. Well, they're, you know, I'm thinking about this thing that happened. Well, that's the object of my mental inspection. But it's those things that are embraced by the man which enter into the heart. And so there are things that happen in front of you that you reject and that you put away and that you don't dwell upon. They don't enter into the heart. But what is embraced by the man as he mentally inspects various things out there in life, what is embraced by the man enters into the heart. And, of course, that highlights the problem of man's sinfulness. If we go back to Matthew 7 and verse 21. And this was, I'm sorry, Mark 7 and verse 21. For from within, even out of the heart of men, Proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, theft, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, uncleanliness, a wicked eye, backbiting, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man. And so now that sort of completes, it highlights the problem of man's sinfulness. He takes these things in. He has a mental inspection of them. And of course, the sinner is predisposed to this anyway, because he has a sin nature. But as he meditates upon them, they go into the heart, and then they come out of the heart in these evil actions that Jesus is talking about. And when he says it's the heart, it's from within that man is defiled. It's eating with unwashed hands. eating unbaptized, eating with unbaptized utensils or unbaptized foods or whatever. That doesn't defile the man, you fools. It's what's inside of the man that comes out that is defiling. And that's Jesus teaching, you know, in contrast with the Pharisees who ceremoniously wanted to baptize everything that they used and ate. The problem of man's sinfulness is within And it begins with the mind and what the mind examines enters into the heart and then it comes back out again in these various things, these various sins. So consider the counsel then of Solomon in this. In Proverbs 4, 1 to 8, Hear ye children the instruction of a father and attend to no understanding. For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law. For I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He taught me also and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words, keep my commandments, and live. Get wisdom, get understanding, forget it not. Neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee, Love her, and she shall keep thee. Wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore, get wisdom, and with all thy getting, get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee. She shall bring thee to honor when thou dost embrace her." And again, notice the connection. What is it to be in your heart? And the thing that you dwell on are one and the same. And, of course, it's wisdom. It's my instruction. It's understanding, you know, the good doctrine of the Word of God. Again, the words of the Lord in Luke 6, 45. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good. And an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil. For of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. And again, you've got this connection between the mind, what the mind dwells on, that enters into the heart, and then what comes out of the heart, showing the treasure, showing what the mind has dwelled upon and what has entered in, showing the treasure of this thing, and it actually determines what the man is. So you have to appreciate to come to this text. what we're commanded here in Philippians 4 and verse 8. You have to appreciate that connection between the mind and the heart. Between the heart and the fruits that come from what is in that heart. Well, in the second place, we ought to appreciate the conflict for mental attention, is what I'm going to call it. You realize there's a conflict in our world for attention, for mental attention. I mean, after all, what is advertising? And advertising is an attempt on the part of business concerns to interpose the inspection of its offerings. I'm a business, I made something. Well, I got this thing. Well, if I stand around in a closet, nobody's going to Nobody's going to look at what I have to sell. So what I have to do is advertise, which means I have to take my thing and thrust it in front of your eyes and make you see it and try to make you think about it and try to make you want it. That's what advertising is all about. But you ought to see this. In our society, you ought to see that there's all this information There are all people with all sorts of motivations that are competing for your mental inspection. And that is they want you to inspect what they have, and of course buy the product if it's a business concern on the one hand, but then multiply this. What about political concerns? What about political and economic goals? in a society which embraces democracy. Again, democracy in the sense that, well, to stay in power, I have to be voted for. To continue my agenda, people have to consent to it. Well, if you're in that kind of a background and setting, the society embraces this consent, this democracy, if you want to call it that, It's much easier to control attention than to answer questions about the bills that were passed and what's in them. Oh, it's 1,000 pages. You've got to pass it first to know what's in it. Or about the money and how it's spent or where it's gone or about any of the real questions that responsible men should ask. So if you want to maintain political control in a democratic society, it's much easier to control people's attention. Give them that to dwell on. Let's control their attention over here while we do whatever we want to do over here. And that may be a cynical view of our society, but I believe it's accurate. And so I think That is what is the goal, what we can consider the goal of Western society. Political manipulation of people through the creation of a mindset. In other words, it's not good enough, you know, it's sort of like this, okay. Elijah and Elijah, you know, and Elijah says to Elijah, You know, I want to be with you. When you go, when you go to heaven, I want a double portion of the Spirit that's upon you. Now give it to me. And Elijah says, OK, well, if you see me when I'm taken to heaven, then it'll be that way. And so he's journeying with Elijah. He says, OK, now you stay here and I'm going to go. No, Elijah says, I'm not leaving you. OK. And a couple of times this happens and they're telling him, you know that your master is going to be taken away today. He says, hold your peace, quiet, you know, and Elijah won't leave Elijah. And at the very point of Elijah being carried into heaven, there's all this stuff going on around, you know, to take Elijah's attention off him. And yet he focuses on Elijah and he sees him carried to heaven. Now, that's the same kind of thing. If you allow stuff to take your attention off the real issue, you're going to miss a lot. And in political society, in Western society, with this democracy, what they want is people who are carried away in their attention by whatever it is that somebody puts out there. Okay. And so, It's a certain mindset, and I would say the mindset is that of stimulus response. Man is to be a Pavlovian dog that reacts predictably to what is presented. So what I'm trying to develop in my society, if I'm going to hold on to political domination, is the kind of a man whose reaction can be predictive. And I, of course, have to study his reaction in order to tweak, in order to know how to present the stimulus in a way that will draw him in to the debate. I have to study this. And I mentioned, I think the other night, that it was Facebook now has patented the technology to read your face through your iPhone when you're on Facebook. They're going to read your face and your reaction. Now, it hasn't been employed yet, but the technology has been patented. Now, what's the point? The point is we want to know how to manipulate you. I mean, who cares whether you like a post or not? They do, because they want to present to your attention the thing that will draw you into their network. and take your mind off of whatever they want to take your mind off of. Man should be a Pavlovian dog that reacts predictably to the stimulus that is presented to him. And so we can influence your activity by presenting to you mental manipulation, objects of mental attention. and you will contemplate what we present to you. As presented, you will think about that. In fact, the less contemplation, the more mere reaction, the better. Man is being programmed to be manipulated. And there are business concerns that have this goal because they want to sell products. And there are political concerns that have this goal because they want to maintain power. And this is the way, this is what our society is. And so we've moved from a society that has, that works intellectually to a society that is stimulated and responds, and that's what men want. We want to move the masses. We want to influence the masses. That's the political concern of a democratic society. And you ought to be aware of that situation. So again, all this is important when we think about our text. Now, biblical man, and we might call him regenerate man, is not to be an object of manipulation. Man who is created in the image of God is to control the objects of his own inspection. Okay, and this is, this is, I mean, what I just said is earth shattering, especially in the modern world. I'm telling you, you, if you're a Christian, you are to control the objects of your mental inspection. It's a matter of commandment. It's a matter of what God says to you. And this is the first remarkable point about verse 8. Man is to control his mind. And again, there's a reason because what's the object of mental inspection goes into the heart and then later comes out in the activity. But man is to control the portals of his heart. The mind. What the mind thinks about. Mental inspection. And of course, the control is directed by his love for God. He's to limit his mind as to the objects of his mind's attention. You're to limit it. I'm not going to think about that. I'm not going to dwell upon that. Now look, the stimulus that's out there in the society may present itself all of a sudden at any one time and place. You know, it presents itself and you have to do something with the stimulus that's presented to you. And, of course, you're mentally, as a Christian man, to scream, well, that I'm not going to look at. That I'm not going to think about. I'm not going to dwell on that with my mind, though I've made a decision. Since I control my mind, I control the portal of my heart, I am going to make certain requirements or I'm going to judge what is presented to me and make a decision about whether to think about it or look at it or know it. OK. So you're directed by love for God and you limit the objects of your attention. And the Christian man consciously seeks to do this on a daily and hourly basis. He is not the object of external stimulus. He's not submissive to external stimulus. He judges it. He controls his attention. and his access to the objects he contemplates. And that's what's wrapped up in verse 8. Whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatsoever things are worthy love, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things. And that's Paul saying to the Christian man, You have the choice of what to think about and you're and this is an object of commandment with God. You are to use the portal of your mental attention in the way that God commands you to use it. And that's what the scripture is telling us here. OK well so you control your attention. You control the access to your heart through the objects you contemplate. and means there are parameters then that are there in order to qualify for mental contemplation. And of course, those are the parameters of our text. We can classify, you might, and if I tried to classify them, I could say, look, we're to dwell on the positive things, and I don't mean that in the sense of the positive thinking movement of Vince Appeal or somebody like that, but I'm saying, you know, broadly classified were to think on what's good, what the positive things are as opposed to something else. Now you can contrast that idea with the sour disposition of men who find nothing good. And I have met men like this who remarkably in their outlook are You know, they're just remarkable men who can never find anything good in anything. I don't know if you've ever met people like this. But at one time I was warned about a guy that was like this and I began to find it. And it's almost a game. I remember playing the game with this guy. So this guy can't find anything good. Well, let me present to him good things. Let me try to find something good to talk about. OK. And so it's almost a game to test them. to say something good has happened. And they will find, and I found this with particular men, they will find something bad in that good thing that you want to talk about, that you mentioned. I mean, it's almost a game. It's so bad, you can have fun with it. Some way to reverse it, some way to turn it into a bad result. Now, do you know anybody like that? Does anybody know anybody like that? There's a few few hands of people like that. OK. All right. But the Christian is not to be that. No, that's the opposite of what the Christian is to dwell on with his mind. He's to dwell upon the true, the honest, the just, the pure, the lovely, whatever is good report, whatever is praiseworthy, worthy, if there's any virtue. OK. When I was a kid, you know, in all the five and dime stores, they had these three monkeys connected. You know what I'm talking about? See no evil. He had his hands on his eyes. The next monkey had his hands on his ears. Hear no evil. And the next monkey had his hands on his mouth. Speak no evil. So see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. These were trinkets that they sold kids in the five and dime store when I was a kid. I haven't seen any in years. But that's what they were something like that. So something like that is to be the Christian principle here. You know you are not to dwell on you are not to make mental inspection of in your mind what is evil but you are to dwell upon what is good pure lovely honest of good report. Think on those things. Now that's not to say that the Christian is blind to evil or It's not to say that in the battle with evil there is no time for mental inspection. I want to know what evil men are doing. I want to know what the scandal is. I want to know what the attack is. But beyond the duty of that, beyond the work that calls upon my attention, when my thoughts are free or when I have freedom of attachment, to dwell on things I must think on, according to this text, what is pure and good and right. And I must do that self-consciously in control of the access to my heart that my mind is. And so that's what I'm called to do by the text. So I am called by this text to control the access to my heart. I am called by this text to govern the objects of my mental inspection so that they meet the criteria of God's Word, and with the result that the works that I bring forth in my life are works that flow from a heart that has has buried in it the truth, the good things, what is honorable to God. Now, that seems simple enough. I don't think it's too tedious, but the application of this thing runs completely counter to men's ideas about life. It's completely counter. It's completely the opposite of men's idea about life. For example, there is this resurgence of classical education in Christian circles. And these men reason that, well, because the battle that we have as Christians is with classical culture, therefore, we're going to train our children by making them familiar with classical culture in a way that will prepare them for the battle. And so what are they doing? They're reading Plato and Socrates and Aristotle, you know, in their Christian education system. OK, so you're educating Christians by reading Plato and Aristotle and giving them that formula of things, making them familiar with pagan society, immersing them in preparation. Remember, it's always justified as preparation. But you've got to see that it's not true. It's not honest. It's not a good report. It's corrupt and wicked and evil. It's contrary to the text. And yet this is the mindset. We're going to prepare them. And not only that, they're going to watch movies, too, and critique the pagan movies. Take notes. You take notes. We're going to watch the pagan movie here, and you critique it and take the notes. Write down all these things. Now my point to you is none of those things, not classical Christian education, not watching movies to critique them so that you could engage in the cultural battle, none of those things are biblical. They're unbiblical directly because they are refuted by the text at hand. And in order to drive that point home, let's turn to Isaiah 7, verses 14 to 15. This is a messianic text concerning the coming Savior, in other words. And here's what the text teaches us. Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and she shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat. till he has knowledge to refuse the evil and to choose the good. Now that is a text that's patterned after the commandment we have here in Philippians. How do you teach a child to refuse what is evil and to choose what is good? You do not immerse him in what is evil with notepads to take notes. You know about how is he and what's wrong and you know you know you you feed him in the figurative sense butter and honey you feed him what's good and he develops a taste for what's good so that this thing over here is repulsive. And that's the way you're and it's the same thing that our text is telling us in Philippians 4 and verse 8. If you dwell on what's good you'll be prepared to reject what is evil. If you dwell on what's evil, if you make that your mental contemplation, then the ground is prepared for the internal appropriation of that evil so that it comes out in the works of your life. So again, if you want child raising, if you want to know how to raise children, don't immerse them in the world. Shelter them. Isn't that evil? Shelter your children. That's what you should be doing. Sheltering your children. Feeding them butter and honey so that they have a taste for that. For what's good. For what's true. For what's honest. For what's of good report. If there's any virtue. If there's any praise. Whatever's lovely. You feed them those things so that they develop a taste And that's their total context. And when the opposite comes along, it will be repulsive to them. So foreign to them that they want nothing to do with it. And that's the point. So you prepare a child for battle with evil by developing a taste for what's good. Rather than making him a connoisseur of Plato and Socrates, you show him the truth and the beauty of its connections and its results. And when he's a man, there's time enough to study the tactics of the adversary. I mean, it's not all that hard to figure out. I mean, it's the same playbook repeated over and over again. So it's no big deal. Well, along these same lines, so that's one application. Along these same lines, men use excuses to dwell on things that are worthless to their souls. Now in Rome, the cry was for bread and circuses amidst a collapsing society. And it's the same call today. The worse the society gets, the more interest there is in sports and entertainment. The more interest there is in the welfare, what are we going to do about school loans? And the social programs, we've, you know, this is horrible, we're not, you know, more interest in social programs than school loans. And then what the other strumpet ladies are doing out there who sing, who croak for a living. Okay? So, our attention, and that's the attention, again, the attention. This is the competing attention in this society. This is what competes for your attention on a daily basis. Now, the point is, if we're going to be consistent with the text, our attention ought to be on things, not bread and circuses, not social welfare and Lady Gaga. Okay? It ought to be, our attention ought to be on the things that are useful to ourselves and to others. And that means the outright rejection of popular pagan culture. which really ought not to be so hard for us as it seems to be. It's not hard. And that extends then very particularly to the music you allow in your homes. You know if you take the popular radio and country tunes, you're dwelling, it's worse because it's a The music is a mnemonic device. It's a device that you use in order to remember the thing. You're not only just dwelling on evil, you're memorizing the evil in a way that it recycles and recycles in your mind and goes into your heart. You see, and so it's terrible as a Christian to listen to popular music. The radio the rock and roll the country tunes you're bringing evil in it's all mixture and error virtually all of it. Can you find a good song out? Well if that good song is out there it's mixed with 20 others that aren't. And the only thing worse than popular music is the effeminate Christian music. Because it comes under the color of truth. And so you cannot allow the teaching of that in your homes. In your life and in the life of your children you can't allow a pagan outlook to dwell in the contemplation. You see and so you know you keep singing that song you say well yeah it's really not a good song. Like we were we were somewhere having lunch with somebody and what was what was the thing. Oh no I'm not even going to mention it. It's a shame to even mention the thing. But here this girl is humming this perverse, fornicating, pagan tune at lunch. And it's playing in the background in the home. And I looked at her, or her father looked at her at some point. He says, oh yeah, I know it's a bad one. I like the tune, though. The tune carries, you know, if you play the tune, I know what the lyrics are. I listen to that stuff to my own detriment, you know, as a young man. So you can't allow this pagan outlook to inform your children's thoughts, your children's contemplation. This paganism ought not to be what they are contemplating in their mind, even to the point of rejecting it. Because this text is telling us, no, no. You don't dwell on, don't dwell in your mind on the objects that are evil, that are corrupt, that are wicked. No, whatever is true, honest, of good report. That's what you're to be thinking about. And so it comes down to a question of having your heart right. And I, you know, I'm also not going to apologize about music. You know, I grew up taking these things as a teenager or whatever. And when I became a Christian, I was reading John Locke and reading in the principle approach and talked about the right of property includes the right to destroy property. And so that's what I, you know, that's right. I don't want these records. I don't want these albums, this music to fall into somebody's hands and pervert them. like it would pervert me. So I destroyed it systematically. OK, so I systematically destroyed the music that was popular pagan culture when I became a Christian. I'm not going to apologize for it. No, I'm telling you, that's what you have to do, too. You have to. And if you have it in your heart that I'm going to dwell on what's good, true, honest, of good report, then you have to make it your application when you go out there to perform your activities. You've got to apply it some way. And so I said, now what do you replace all the popular music with? Well, the only thing I could come up with was Handel's Messiah. I took out a two-hour cassette of Handel's Messiah, and I played it over and over and over again. You think that's strange? I'll be honest, I didn't have any taste for it when I began playing Handel's Messiah. It's thrilling now. Because I developed a taste for it. Because what was the contemplation of my mind went into my heart and it became what I liked. In the same way that popular music that you contemplate goes into your heart and becomes what you like. And Handel's Messiah became more interesting because I said, you know, I think they're quoting scripture. I think they're singing scripture. Where are those scriptures that they're singing in the text? And so then I got out my concordance and I'd play a little bit and stop and do a word study and find it. I had the whole list. of Scripture Tech. Fascinating. And then it became, you know, then it became interesting to me, you know, he's preaching the gospel through the lyrics that he has chosen from Scripture. Now, what's his theological view? Fascinating. But again, that's that's my point here. That's the contemplation of a man's mind and how it goes into his heart. And so, you know, whenever I whenever I feel lonely or feel like, you know, there's nothing good going on out there, you can handle some Messiah on and it all goes away. I feel like a champion when I get done with that, because the promise of God will triumph in the world. So, again, you have to see what are the long range implications of thinking on what is evil. in order to appreciate the test. Placing what is evil in your mind and heart through song will result in hypocrisy as a result of your family government. If you want that, if you want the total result of your family government to be hypocrisy in your children and in yourself, then ignore this. And if you don't, flee it. You need to flee what is evil and the contemplation of what is evil. Well, that's the application in terms of music. But let's not forget the evening news, which I tend to do because I've never also allowed a television in my home since the day we were married. I've never had a television in my home. Never come home as a hireling and sit back and turn the knob, turn the thing on, and let it tell me, let it throw up to me what is to be the object of my inspection. Here, think about this. Here, think about this. And it's this whole stream of disconnected things, if it's the evening news, that I'm to give attention to and think about. And so the picture of a hireling And again, it's why he's a hireling, because the object of his mental contemplation is whatever somebody throws in front of him, he says, OK, I'll think about that. Giving attention to all that the world would have him give attention to. Now, again, that culminates in the evening news. where they scour the world to find something contrary to our text. They scour the world to find something bad. The big story tonight. Fire burns through a building. Six people are dead. 20 alarms. You know, and the big story. That's the big story. Or car crashes. Or kidnappings. Budget deficits. Payroll cuts. But the Predators advanced. And it's our team. after all, and it's raining tomorrow, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, you know, that's the evening news. And the point is that people throwing in front of you the object of your mental contemplation and you building your life on this kind of a thing, it's all error, according to our text. It all results in the impotence of the Christian Church. And if you want to understand that, you need to take the text in verse 8 seriously. You won't understand it until you start systematically destroying what is evil and focusing your contemplation on what is good as we're commanded in the text. So that the use of your mind is controlled by you and you dwell on the things that you're commanded here. So until we control the use of our minds, we won't understand the things that I'm talking about. I'm speaking from experience now for the good and for the bad. And so that's why the text means so much to me. I don't have any problem with preaching on it. It's simple because It brings on a long history in my life as well. Let's pray. Father, help us to take this seriously and to take this as a command. Help us through faith to apprehend the fact that we are commanded to control our minds and the objects of our inspection. And we pray you would give us the zeal to do it and show us blessing and the benefits of faithfulness in this point. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.