God has preferences, and believers should likewise prefer Christ above all else, particularly during the Lord's Supper. John the Baptist and the priests of Zadok demonstrated this preferential love for God. Abraham and Isaac exemplified 'moderation' and 'yieldingness' in personal matters, contrasting with standing firm on matters of truth. Believers are encouraged to cast their anxieties on God, who cares for them, and to fill their minds with thoughts of Christ, leading to a peace that surpasses understanding.
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the opportunity, Stefan, to thank you all, the provision that you all made for us. I know we can all say that for those many that have labored, not just this weekend, but many weeks before. We thank you very much for the display of the kindness of the Lord through his people. So I just wanted to thank you very much for those things. I wanted to thank another individual, too, and I thought it was very appropriate that last evening I was speaking some about Saul and David and made really an outright misstatement. in Scripture regarding what David had gone in and taken from Saul. It wasn't his garment in the second case. Who can remember what it was? Speaking too fast, not thinking. I know you all caught it. Yeah, it was a cruise of water and a spear.
And there is a word in Scripture. We appreciate things like that. I really do. We're all one family. We have to help one another out. And I told the gentleman, he was very kind just to write down the reference. Oh, yeah, that's right. But we're all in this together. And we need those little helps, little encouragement, so that we don't make misstatements regarding the Word of God, because we desire to care for it and to treat it very, very respectfully. As we heard earlier about the inerrancy of the Word, every word, and even those that are not there, it's done for a purpose. And so we respect it in that way. There is in Acts seventeen in the chapter also that we were studying last night, a scripture that says that there were some that were more noble than others, those in Thessalonica.
They received the word of God with readiness of mind, but they also searched the scriptures to see whether these things were so. And that is a blessed statement. We need to search the scriptures. To say that the Lord Jesus did not have preferences is a misstatement. The Lord Jesus definitely had preferences. He had provincial preferences. He loved Galilee. He had, maybe we could say, residential preferences. There was one place that he loved to resort to, Mary and Martha and Lazarus' home. He had preferences. You can probably think of perhaps many others. I think he had preferences even in some respect, not a greater love, but preferences for some disciples.
There were three that on three different occasions were chosen to Be a little bit closer to the Lord in what was going on. The Lord had preferences. And we don't like to hear that much today, that some were more noble than others. We think that everybody should be grouped together and we shouldn't talk about things like that. But the Lord does have preferences. I'm thankful that some of his people have preferences. We think of John the Baptist who said, there is one coming after me who is preferred before me. And very likely the reason that John the Baptist was such a great man was because he preferred his Savior more than any other thing. We need to be people just like that.
If you've ever read any of G. Campbell Morgan's ministry or any of his writings, there's one quote that you'll see many times, and it's this, regarding believers. In some he is present, speaking of the Lord Jesus. Or rather, I'm sorry, I've started it wrong already. In many he is present. In some he is prominent. But only in a few he is preeminent. And that's a nice synonym for preferential things. The Lord Jesus is preeminent. Now it's a joy to get together on the first day of the week to make the Lord Jesus, not that we make him that, he is that, but in our own lives to push him up as the one that is preeminent, that we love to look at and behold and enjoy and love.
And I believe that the Lord's Supper is probably the time that we ought to prefer as a meeting of the church over any other, because it's the Lord's time. We read in First Peter chapter two about the holy priesthood that we have, which is an upward priesthood, the royal priesthood, which is an outward priesthood. And we have heard how we are a part of that Melchizedekan priesthood because of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is priestly ministry that we embark on when we get together to enjoy the Lord Jesus Christ. And God is always first. There are two chapters in the Old Testament, both the chapter forty-four. One in Isaiah and one in Ezekiel that tell us very plainly that God is first.
And there's no question about it. The Lord is first. The priests of Zadok in chapter forty-four of Ezekiel, they had been faithful through the hard times. The rest of the priests, they hadn't done quite so well. And the Lord said, well, to the rest of these families of priests, they can minister in my house, but to the priests of Zadok, they can minister to my heart, because they have counted me as being preeminent. The Lord's Supper, the breaking of the bread, is not some brethren fetishism. that we practice and other people don't. It's some tradition. It's the request of a loving God that knows exactly what we need. And we love to come together and remember the Lord.
We prefer the Lord, just like John did, we pray more than anything else. He is our preference. He's the one that we love. I thought of Joshua. and how it was very clear that there were things to be remembered. You recall that after they had followed or the Ark of the Covenant of the Most High God had gone down into the river and the waters had separated and the priests had stood in the midst of the waters. It was a very special position because afterwards the Lord said that he wanted them to take twelve stones. There were also twelve stones where they camped that night, but there were also twelve stones that were to be placed at the place where the priests' feet stood. And it says, I believe it's in verse ten of chapter four, that this was the place that they stood until the work was finished.
And we had rehearsed for us earlier that phrase that the Lord Jesus Christ said, It is finished. And when the work was finished and all of the people had passed clean through Jordan, there was still the remembrance that they went back, that their children asked questions about, Daddy, what is this down in the river? I can see some stones down there. It's awful dark and cold, but I can see some stones down there. What are they there for? And they could tell them, their parents, that this was the place where the Most High God came down to earth and went through the Jordan to lead his people into the Promised Land and could begin to recite things about the redemption of the Lord as he redeemed them from Egypt and brought them finally safe home to the Promised Land. We have a remembrance which is very much like that.
It's not stone, but the place in the New Testament where it speaks about if your father or if you asked your father for a piece of bread, would he give you a stone? The Lord has given us a piece of bread, in effect, to remember the Lord Jesus Christ, his body that was broken, that was given for us. We remember something much higher than that. In a certain respect, it's the same, but in another respect, it's infinitely greater. And it ought to be preferred in our Christian life, in our local assembly fellowship. This is for the Lord. There are other times when we can get together and pray and focus on our needs, and other times when we can share good things from the Word of God. But this is a time when we can pour out our heart to the Lord. We prepare a lot for messages.
We don't prepare oftentimes our hearts, men, women, children, to come before the Lord in silence or verbally and to appreciate Him and to give Him thanks for what He has done. That ought to be something that we prefer, something that is very important we know to the Lord's heart and ought to be to ours as well. Think of the Lord Jesus as being the one that framed the world. and then came down and put on a carpenter's apron and began to frame some other things. When he speaks in Matthew chapter seven, you'll find that wood is mentioned many times over because a carpenter knows his wood. And a carpenter has had a splinter in his eye before.
He knows what it feels like to have a splinter in his eye. He also knows what a beam looks like and the size difference. And he can tell by looking at a tree what type of wood it is and whether it would be good to work with or whether it wouldn't be good to work with. And the Lord Jesus knew something about the wood of the cross of Calvary that was going to come up. He knew those things. And He also knew my sins. And He was willing to take my sins, every one of them in His own precious body on the tree. And He calls us to remember that. And I thank the Lord for the opportunity that He gives us to do this in remembrance of Him. We ought to prefer it. Now we've been looking in Philippians chapter four. and a few verses.
I'd like to continue. And we'll read again in verse one. Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved, and long for my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. I beseech you odious and beseech sin, that they be of the same mind in the Lord. Did I entreat thee also, true Yokefellow, help those women which labored with me in the Gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellow labors whose names are in the Book of Life.
Rejoice in the Lord all way, and again I say rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Now this short five-word phrase in our A.V., In verse five, saying the Lord is at hand, I suppose could be taken from two different ways, and probably the context bears this out. If we look at the end of chapter three, verses twenty and twenty one, which we spoke about last night, speaking of our citizenship, we know that we look for the Lord Jesus Christ, and we believe strongly, just as the New Testament teaches, in the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord is near, because our citizenship is in heaven.
I don't know if you've ever been excited about the word is before or not, but I finally got excited about it in this verse. The word for is, my citizenship is in heaven, is the very same word which is used in chapter two, which speaks about the Lord Jesus Christ when it says, He made Himself of no reputation. He took upon Himself the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. The verse that I was looking for actually was in verse six. And the first phrase there is who being in the form of God. That word being is the very same word which translated is in chapter three and verse twenty.
So that just as the Lord Jesus Christ in utter essence always has been, always will be who being very God himself. There's no question about that. That that same statement is made regarding our citizenship which is in heaven. There is no question about it, just as much as the Lord is God. So the believer has a citizenship, certainly in heaven. And so the Lord is near in his return. Now I tend to think that maybe we could take the other definition, and that is in nearness, in proximity, in geography, if you want to talk about it in that way. It says in verse four, Let your moderation be known unto all men, the Lord is at hand.
He's right here. He's at our elbow. He's right next to us. He's standing shoulder to shoulder. His shoulders are quite a bit higher than ours and quite a bit broader, but he is right here. How can you let your moderation be known to all men? Well, it's because the Lord's right here. And the Lord tends to take care of things. Now, this word moderation, they've used, they've exhausted the English dictionary to try and get a definition of it, I think. Gentleness, kindness, yieldedness. Many different words have been used for it. And I think, and I'd like to take a look at a couple of different passages in the New Testament, but there was a way in which it was commonly used, and that was in disrespect, that when you have the right for something, you stand back and you step down, and you become yielded in that situation to another believer, to the world, to whatever might be around, knowing that the Lord is at hand.
Now, First Corinthians chapter eight and nine are probably a very good topic regarding this. And let's turn there, read a couple of verses. First Corinthians chapter eight and verse nine, a divine commentary. When it becomes a personal matter, we give all the ground. Let's read verse three and then verse nine. But if any man loves God, the same is known of him. Some of us were talking earlier about how our memory work seems to be going. This is a good verse to memorize. It's short, it's succinct, but it's an exceedingly deep verse.
If any man loved God, the same is known of him. Let's go on to verse nine. Sometimes take some time to read chapters eight and nine. But take heed, lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that are weak. Let your moderation be made known unto all men. One of Paul's favorite phrases we know was one that we talked about earlier, and its steadfastness, or to stand fast, chapter four and verse one. And you can probably recall some other times in the New Testament where the Apostle Paul uses this. In Galatians chapter five, we're called to stand fast in the liberty that is ours. In Thessalonians, to stand fast in the gospel.
He wants us to stand fast and true. And when it comes to the things of the Lord and Scripture, we never step down. In love, we stand fast. But when it comes to personal things, and when it comes to the respect of other saints and our appreciation for them and our love for them, when it has to do with these personal things, though it's our right, we take the step down and we esteem others as being better than ourselves. Let your moderation be made known unto all men. In Genesis chapter thirteen, we read about Abraham, a man who was given a land. But for some reason the herdsmen of Lot and the herdsmen of Abraham were not real happy with one another.
And they strove with one another. And the land that was all Abraham's, he stood back. He stood down. And he even gave Lot the first choice. That was his by right. But exemplifying the character of God, he stood back and he gave it to his relative and he even gave him first choice. You remember Isaac. Isaac was a little bit different than his father in some respects and different than his son in other respects. And Isaac decided that he was going to dig out the walls of his father and one by one he dug them out and he named them the names that his father had given them.
You recall that he dug out the first well. And the herdsmen at Gira, they strove with him over that well. And then you read that he moved on and he dug another well. And they strove with him for that well, too. And then he moved on and he dug another well. And he named it Rehoboth. Take some time to read what the meaning of that is. And this time they did not strive with him anymore. Now, you could say, well, he should have. They were his by right. They were his fathers. They were his by airship. And he should have stood up for these wells of water. But instead, he realized that there was perhaps a need, that there were others that he could go to, because the Lord is sufficient.
His father had been sufficient in providing many wells for him. And he was willing to give up what was his by right. And I wonder if it's not harder in each one of our lives, and maybe even in his, to sit down, to be quiet, and to stand back than it is to stand up and say some word that probably is not very thoughtful or very kind. We know that's the fact. It's much easier to stand up for all rights in this day and age as a believer or as a human being or whatever to stand up for all rights than it is to step back, realizing that the Lord is at hand and that the Lord is sufficient. Now, if it would have been Abraham, he would have taken his three hundred and eighteen armed men, and just like he did to Kettle A.
Homer, just maybe wiped these Philistines out. It would have been his son. He might have sat down at a table and bartered with him and ended up with six or seven more than he started with. But not Isaac. He just stood back and he stood back and he showed a strength of character that the Lord Jesus Christ shows and that his saints today ought to show. Let your moderation, your yieldedness, when it comes to the personal things in our Christian life, Remember regarding the word, we stand fast. But regarding personal things in our life, when we have the liberty, the Lord is sufficient and we stand back and we esteem others better than ourselves. The Lord is near.
Wear out others with your yieldedness. I think that's what Isaac did. He finally just wore them out. They had enough. They had a lot of water. He just stepped back and he stepped back and the Lord continues to supply to him. We need to wear out other saints in our love form and our yieldedness. Let your moderation be made known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. We can afford to do it. The Lord takes respect for those that do it. He prefers people that do that. And the Lord is no man's debtor. We read in verse six, Be careful or be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving. Let your request be made known unto God, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
There's a little bit of mathematics in this verse. In verse six, it can be stated literally, Be careful for not one thing. Just one. Be careful for not even one. But then he says, But in everything, with thanksgiving, with prayer and supplication, let your request be made known unto God. We have been appreciating immensely our high priest's ministry on our behalf, that he cares. There is in Scripture, and I'm sure that you can think of many other folds than this. We'll just talk about a four-fold antidote to anxiety. How's that? In verse six, be careful for nothing. Be anxious for nothing.
A couple of scriptures come to mind in this, if we are going to be anxious for nothing. One that we can add, that we could add, is that our high priest is praying for us in glory. That would cause us to not be as anxious as we otherwise would be. Practically, these things are not easy. But how about this? In First Peter chapter five, seven, let's go there. First Peter chapter five and verse seven. And you didn't need to turn to this because you had this verse memorized, but perhaps not the next two. First Peter chapter five, verse seven. Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you.
Number one, the Lord cares. He cares. There is in chapter two of this same book of Peter, if we turn back, there are a smattering of the topics that are brought up before our mind from Isaiah fifty-three. Now Peter and Paul and some of these individuals that write much of the New Testament, John, it's obvious that they knew their Old Testament and had done a lot of memory work. And he probably was spending some time in Isaiah fifty-three when he wrote down this section of Scripture. And Peter, in a sense, is drawing us at the end of the book to a place of strength and character in the Lord Jesus Christ to let us know that in spite of all the trial and tribulation in our life, that the Lord cares about us.
And he wants us to cast our care upon him. Sometimes our cares seem so heavy that we can't cast them on anything. And I forget exactly which Psalm it is, at Psalm thirty seven or forty, but in the margin it says to roll away those things that are heavy on the Lord. That's what it seems like sometimes. Our chairs are so heavy, we can't cast them anywhere, but maybe we can just roll them over on the Lord, casting your cares upon Him because He cares for you. At the end of chapter two, we read this, verse twenty three, when He was reviled, He reviled not again. When He suffered, He threatened not. But he committed himself to him that judges righteously, who his own self, bear our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness by whose stripes he are healed.
And Peter in essence has set up the tone for us. He says, you cast your cares, where the God of glory cast your sins. and then find out whether or not he's strong enough to bear them up. This is the man, this high priest, who has the perfect sacrifice, bore the sins of the world. And we bring our cares in spite of how colossal they may be to us. And we lay them at the place where God laid our sin. And we find out the breadth of the strength and the love and the care that the Lord Jesus had for us. That's a good part of the antidote. Another in Matthew chapter six.
We'll begin reading in verse twenty-five. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body. What ye shall put on is not the life more than meat, and the body more than raiment. Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought had one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for Raymond? Consider the lilies of the field how they grow. They toil not. Neither do they spin.
And I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. I think we get the idea as we read the Old Testament and the glories of Solomon and his temple and his palace and other things as well. That somehow heaven's going to be a little bit like that. And the Lord wants to disabuse us of that thought right here. He says, you know something, all the glories of Solomon are eclipsed by a flower. Something that you can go out and look at in the field if you'd like to. What we have to look forward to is exceedingly more glorious than that, greater than Solomon this year. Wherefore, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye, of little faith?
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things that the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Father in heaven, we can say of them they know. He knows. He cares. He knows. Let's go to Philippians chapter four and read about the last two. In verse five, let your moderation be made known unto all men.
The Lord is at hand. He's there. Maybe we can put it that simply. The Lord is there. There is no question about the Lord being there. The molests have been very kind to Sarah and I over the last day or two. And I can only imagine in my mind if we had gone into their house the first evening. enjoyed it immensely. It's very comfortable. I mean, the lights were just right and the couch was just so soft. And there were things on the table that were just so right. And in the bedroom the light was on. You know, all these preparations that show the kindness and the love of the Lord's people. You can imagine walking in saying, hello, Jamie, how are you today?
And I just brush right on by him and walk on into the house and begin to explain how nice it is. Boy, this is great. We sit down to have a little bite to eat. Later on, they haven't gotten a thing out of me yet. They asked me a few questions, still haven't gotten anything. Well, where are you from? Maybe that'll work. A little something about the state that you love, not a statement. Tell me about your family. They're thinking, maybe he thinks something about his family. He'll begin to talk to us, say a word, not a statement. And as we're sitting down at the table and I'm enjoying the pictures on the wall and the lights just at the right level and the quiet music that's playing in the background, I finally get exasperated with it all. and say if you would just please be quiet for a minute I'd really like to sit down and enjoy the atmosphere and enjoy the music and enjoy the lights you can sit there and talk all you want but as far as I'm concerned I don't want to talk to you first of all and secondly I doubt if you even exist so let me get on with just enjoying the things that are around me just like we are with the Lord in effect we see the lilies of the field that are laid out for us We see the beauties of the Godhead that are portrayed for us in His creation.
We see the love of the saints. We see the moderation of the saints, and we get a picture of what the Lord is like. And we enjoy it. We take it all in. But guess what? The Lord is there. The Lord is there. He's the source of it all. And He's the one that wants to commune with us. And He's the one that can assure us that He's near, that He cares. that He knows, He knows intimately everything that's going on in our life, and He does care. There's something else in this chapter. In verse six, He says, Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your request be made known before God. I have to tell you something about my memory works now that I think about it.
I was memorizing this verse a couple of years ago. And for some reason, I don't know why it was, but I would always invariably forget that little phrase with Thanksgiving. I could get through the verses, no problem, and then I sit down and read my Bible again and say, wow, I missed that. It's like that in life. And that became very vivid to me. With Thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God. Now there's a little literal translation. of this phrase, let your request be made known unto God. And it could be by just changing unto God. It's really the same, but before God. There's an emphasis on that.
This isn't just your next door neighbor that you're talking to. This is the omnipotent God of the ages. And you let your request, which seems so huge to you, and you let them be made known before God. In everything. with Thanksgiving. I was reading a book on mathematics a while ago, and I learned something that I had never heard of before, and that's this, that a knot, whether it's in a rope or there are other types of knots that you can think of, like two wooden rings that are together, or maybe a ship inside of a bottle, these kind of things that we can't get apart. Do you know that they only occur in three dimensions?
You don't have knots in two dimensions. You don't have knots in four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten dimensions. You only have them in three. And the Lord being bigger than us, in chapter three of Ephesians, it speaks about the dimensionality of the love of the Lord. And there are at least not three dimensions, there are at least four. And the Lord knows what is tying us up. And what we are embroiled and entwined in these days, and the Lord in his care, he's at hand. We let our requests be made known before God. We just present them to us. Yes, he already knows them, but he likes to see his own people trusting him with the things that they care about. Only in three dimensions, the Lord's bigger than that.
Be anxious for nothing. Let your requests be made known before God, no matter how colossal, no matter how trivial. Now, what happens if we do this? It says in verse seven that there is a peace of God which passes all understanding which shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Is that hard to do in practice? It's exceedingly hard to do in practice, but that's what the word says. Let your request be made known before God and the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and your minds through Christ Jesus.
There's a little word for keep that we know. In fact, it's in some of our margins, I'm sure, and it has to do with the word to garrison. Shall garrison your hearts and minds? Protect it. It's the very same word that's used in Second Corinthians chapter eleven, where it speaks about the city of the Damascus being kept with a garrison. And the Lord is the one that places that garrison so that nothing can get in to disturb the peace of God. At the beginning of this verse where it says, the peace of God passes all understanding, we find that the very same word again, let's take a look back to chapter two. We'll return to the same place. And again, the author, in a sense, is defining for us some of the concepts and words that he's going to use later.
The word that's used here for the phrase, passes understanding, is the very same word that's used in verse three of chapter two. And here it's used in this way, in the latter part. But in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. That's the same word. Now, if we use, if that was translated in this case, it would say this, and the peace of God, which is better than understanding. Wait a minute. What is it that I want to know every single time I go into a trial? I want to understand. Lord, I don't know why this is happening to me. The disciples look at this poor blind man over there and they say, Lord, we've got to figure it out.
It's because his parents sinned. That's why. Well, that wasn't the answer of that man's trial. When we go into a trial, we want to know why, Lord, are we going through it. What is it, Lord, that you're doing in our life? If we could see the end, Lord, then it'd be fine. We could maybe make it through. What aspect of my character needs a little bit of honing? Okay, Lord, if that's it, all right, I'm willing to go through it. The Lord says, you know, if that were good enough for you in my love, I give you an understanding of it, but there is something better in my infinite wisdom, and therefore I'm not going to give you an understanding. I'm going to give you, I may afterwards, but I'm going to give you the present peace of God.
He says, let your request be made known before God, a God who is near, who cares, who knows. And again, no matter how big that problem is, when we step into the throne room of God, there is nothing that can touch the peace of that place. Not the things that are going on in Washington, D.C., the things that went on in Bosnia, the things that went on here and there in my life. They don't touch the peace that inhabits where God is. They don't touch him. He says there is a peace of God, which is better than all understanding. And it will garrison your hearts and your minds through Christ Jesus. Do you remember Hezekiah?
He looks around and he says, Lord, I'm not sure you're really understanding all these things. And I need to lay out what these Assyrians are doing before you. They were surrounding the city and he lays it out. But when he prays, he starts it somewhat in this way. To the God who is the God of heaven and of earth. And then he continues on with his prayer. And therein he begins to give us an idea of what it is to make our requests known before God. He gives God his position, who he is, the God of heaven and of earth, the God that knows and cares, and is omnipotent in all things. What is that about all those little Assyrians running around in the hills out there? And we can say that looking at it from this perspective.
I don't imagine he said that. If Psalm one twenty-one was written by Hezekiah, he says, I look into the hills. From whence does my help come? Well, the Lord isn't in the hills. The Assyrians might have been. I guess in the omnipresence the Lord is in the hills too. But there were Assyrians crawling everywhere. He says, I can look into the hills. There are problems there, Lord. But I am going to bring up my request before God. From whence does my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. And he understood the bigness of the character of God himself. Yesterday, Mr.
Glock made reference to the prayer of Nehemiah and its brevity. And Nehemiah, when he refers to the big men on this earth, he was very respectful and he called him King. Oh, King. When he speaks about him to others, when he speaks to him, he says King. But when he prays regarding this person before the Lord, he says this man. That's all he is. He's a man. Now, he might be King down on the earth, but compared to the Lord, he's just a man, this man. A man that's sitting out on an apple somewhere in this vast orchard that is infinite. And God is the one that inhabits it all and makes it all and knows it all. This man that seems so big in our eyes, this idea, this trial, this problem, this tribulation in our mind which seems so big.
He says, let your request be made known before God. Everything shrinks in the presence of God. Everything comes to be known in the peace of God. We thank the Lord for that. It's always better than knowing. When our hearts cry out in dark days and days of trial, we can resort to passages like this and just say, Lord, I need something even better than understanding. And that's the knowledge of your presence that you're at hand. But I can let my moderation be known that the trials that I'm going through, you know them. And Lord, I'm going to entrust them. I'm going to make them known before God. And Lord, your peace.
I desire it to come in and to take control of the situation and in my faith and trust in you. I will leave it all with you, Lord, because you can take care of it. You can protect me in it. We need to be careful what to put into a mind that is at peace. And he goes on saying, Finally, brethren, it's the same phrase that he uses at the beginning of chapter three. As for that which remains to be said, brethren, here's the rest. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report.
If there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things. Be careful where you put a mind at rest. We need to fill our mind not so much with things, but with the Lord Jesus Christ. And as you go down through these different things that are mentioned, these different character qualities, you find them borne out in the one who is honest, who is the faithful and the true. Revelation chapter three, him who is true, who is lovely, who is of a good report. There is no loveliness like the Lord Jesus. The report that's been given of him from the Father, from the earth, from every single angle, it's always been good.
And we need to fill our minds, brothers and sisters, with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest and just. You think on these things. Fill our minds with them. You'll never have need of more material. In chapter three and verse ten, he says, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings. And we could just keep going on. Because it's going to take the ages to come, and not even then, will we ever get a full view, a full knowledge of His grace and His kindness to us who believe?
It just keeps going on and on. And, and, whatsoever things are just, they're lovely. I think you get excited when you read John. And the Gospel of John presents this character, this Son of God, as someone that he just can't get over. He knows exactly how to deal with every character because he knows them. And they slept with him and they walked with him and they were in the boat with him and they saw the things that he did and the love that came from his eyes. And they saw him rise up on a cross and they realized it was for their sins. And they fell in love with him just like the Apostle Paul did and just like Stephen did and just like the saints at Philippi were called to do and had done.
Thankfully, many of them, they fell in love with the Lord. I'll tell you, we look forward to seeing the Lord. Him whom having not seen, we were reminded this morning. We love. We're going to see someone that's infinitely greater than Solomon, in a place which is incomprehensible. But the Lord tries to give to our finite mind some idea of the greatness of the sun, and we love to behold them in Scripture. We look forward to it, don't we? I had mentioned that we were working in some of the islands, quite a way south and east of here. At one point in time we were down there and the Queen was coming to Nassar, New Providence. I don't remember what it was, but this was a huge event for these people.
Now we being good Americans, we're not all that involved in those sorts of things. I guess it's nice to have a Queen. We've never had one. So maybe we don't have the respect and the appreciation for a monarchy like they do. But the Queen was coming to visit and that Friday night, I remember the people all talking about it, she was going to hold a state dinner. And there were certain people that were invited. There were the magistrates on this particular island that were invited. And everybody was all abuzz in talking about who was invited and who was not invited. By the way, I was not invited. I don't know why, but I was not invited. Good thing, I guess. But you can imagine yourself being there, sitting next to all of these worldly important people, and sitting next to some duchess, you'd be all thumbs.
You know, what do you do at a place like, how do you dress? Thirty-nine forks over here. Twelve spoons over here. A few knives in between. Crystal up here, not just one glass, three or four. You don't know what to do with yourself. Had a dinner like that. I wouldn't know what to do with myself. What do you talk to a duchess about? I don't know. Windrowing? Harvesting? I don't know what you talk to a duchess about. We had a little snouser that lived down the street that was duchess. It's as close as I've ever been. I've never been closer to that. I don't know what you talk about. And I would be uncomfortable in a place like that, but I hope that you wouldn't be uncomfortable. Because very soon as the bride of Christ, you are going to sit at meet with the King of Kings and with the Lord of Lords.
He's made you meet to be able to do that in the place of His peace and the place of His glory. And He calls us while we're still here on earth to just simply let our request be made known before God. and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will just take away everything else maybe that we need to think of, and we can just rest in the Lord and say, Lord, my thoughts, my understanding, thankfully, I don't have to understand it, because you know something, my mind's small. And what I can understand, it doesn't mean much. What God can understand is everything, and so I'll just leave it with Him. And, Lord, your peace, I ask you to bring it. It's all yours.
We thank the Lord for those things. Our dear Heavenly Father, we just are grateful for thyself, grateful for thy Son, given to us as a gift. And, O Father, that we might appreciate him more, his loveliness. But every time that we speak of him, we're never in danger of speaking too highly of him, of giving a good report. Father, give us again higher thoughts and more precious words regarding our Savior and a greater love and a greater moderation for one another. I think of what the Apostle says in verse nine as he closes this section. It says, the things that you have now seen in me do. And Lord, we ask that as we follow on now through this coming week and through the rest of our Christian lives that we might look to these great examples in Scripture and ultimately to the Lord Jesus Christ and in love with his love constraining us, be obedient, rejoicing and peaceful in our Savior.
We're thankful again then for him and we pray in his name. Amen.