What You Have Learned

The Final Instruction in Philippians 4:9

Well this morning we continue in the book of Philippians and we will put our attention on verse 9 of chapter 4. Though to prepare us for it, I will begin reading from verse 1 of chapter 4, so to remind us of where we have been previously in going through and getting ourselves to this point.

You may recall that this section, that chapter 4 verses 1 through 9, though it is not the only instruction, of course, the apostle gives in this letter to the Philippians, this letter to us today, it is sort of the wrap-up, the summary, his final instruction, the final imperatives and commands that he gives to the church before he wraps up the letter and in two or three more sermons after this we will ourselves wrap up the letter and then move on to other parts of the counsel of God.

But for this morning, verse 9 and I begin reading at verse 1. Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord. I entreat Iodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord.

I ask you also, true companion, help these women who have labored side by side with me in the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. Rejoice in the Lord always.

Again I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious for anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me. Practice these things and the God of peace will be with you. God bless the reading and now the proclamation and the hearing of His Word. Brothers and sisters in the Lord, the message here is fairly simple.

The gospel is meant to be lived. The gospel is meant to be lived out here on this earth, here during this life. The gospel is meant to be lived. These words that we have in Scripture, that Jesus Christ spoke Himself as He lived on this earth, that He spoke through His Spirit to the apostles as we have it here in the book of Philippians and elsewhere, these aren't just words.

These are your life. And not just your living, breathing, biological, physical life. These are your life in Christ. This is meant to be lived out now. And this is what the apostles have been pushing for throughout this letter.

That the Philippians and that you today, like them then, would live out this gospel. It means something to us today. It's not just wrote obedience, though obedience is so key and so important in the Christian life.

It is a loving, willing, enthusiastic obedience and compliance with His Word. Because His Word was given to live out in the here and now. Not just words combining into sentences. Not just definitions incorporating together into a sentence structure so we can understand plainly what is being said, but incorporating it into our very lives in the here and now.

The apostles' teaching, the learning He gave the Philippians, the learning from the Philippian letter we have to us today, was given for a purpose. It was given that we should mold ourselves to it. And that we should be molded by it.

That the gospel is meant to be lived out. And there is really the message for this morning. The message for much of this letter to the Philippians. You are to live out what is being taught. It's to be lived.

Towards the end of this verse that I read, we have the promise of God's presence. Now I want to tell you, presence, excuse me. And I need to tell you before we even get to that part, which we'll get to as we go through this preaching, Lord willing, that this promise of His presence is not an unconditional promise.

It is a promise given to those who comply with what came before it. Which is to follow the apostolic example that the Philippians had in person from the apostle Paul. And that we have in person from the apostle Paul in the living, breathing scripture.

Have you learned this gospel? The apostle says, what you have learned and received. Have you learned this gospel? Many of us can recite biblical facts until the cows come home. Some of us have memorized more verses than a beach has grains of sand.

And let us keep learning the facts of the Bible. Let us keep memorizing as much scripture as we can stuff into our limited minds. Would that God we remember and memorize more and more and more of it. But have you learned it in such a way?

Have you memorized it in such a way? Have you heard the preaching? Have you done your own studies in such a manner that it is incorporated into your life? That it is a part of you. That it, as it were, oozes out of everything you do.

Every response you make. Every situation that comes along. You have scripture that you have memorized. Yes, the facts of the Bible. The words of the Bible. And apply them. Having learned. Having received.

Having looked to the apostolic example. And so incorporating them. And living it out. Have you done so? This is the purpose this morning. As we give the last instruction of the apostle in his letter. To live it out.

That's his purpose. Since verse 1 of this chapter, he's been insisting that the doctrines that came before, and all the previous verses and chapters, they mean something deeper than just the words. It's not some mysterious thing like we need a Rosetta Stone to figure it out.

We have it in our language. It's plain. It's there. And as the apostle says in 1 Corinthians 10, I speak as to sensible people. Sensible people. Brothers and sisters in the Lord, have you learned this gospel?

Have you received this gospel? This teaching of it? In such a way that it's a part of your every step. As you walk by the way, and you wake up in the morning, and you're in bed at night, and all in between.

This is the point of you. This has been God's purpose. When He, by His Spirit, had Paul compose this letter, and God by His Spirit preserved it for all these years for us today. That you would put into practice what has been taught by apostolic teaching and example.

And the time to practice these things, the time to do these things, the time to incorporate them into everything you do, think and say is now. This is the day of salvation. This is the time. If you've been slack before, this is the time to repent.

Ask God to get you back on track. And infuse this gospel, this learning, this teaching, this receipt of all these words into your very being. God has given all that we need. God has equipped us in every way that is necessary in order to accomplish this.

He didn't give us some impossible task that we will never complete this task in this life. There's no complete sanctification. There's no sinless life in this life. And yet there's always the grasping after the image, the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, His Son.

And the time to begin that, brethren, is today. The time is now. Let's go through this one verse, this final instruction to the Philippians, and see how God has equipped us and given us what we need. Even as we look to how He equipped the Philippians then in the person of Paul when He was there with them physically and personally, and to us today in the living, breathing Word of God.

You have the equipment you need. You have the example that you need. In the Scripture, in each other, we have all that God intends for us in order to accomplish what I'm speaking of this morning. He says, what you have learned and received.

Excuse me. Learned and received. Speak as a pair of words of the teaching of the Apostle to them as He taught, as He preached, as He lifted out before them. To learn is to direct one's mind to something.

It has a sense of seeking to experience something, learning skills under instructions that you're going to put into practice, that you're going to put into play. This word for learning is not just the assimilation of facts and words and definitions as I said at the very beginning.

It means to want to, to go after the experience that the words convey to you. There's a couple of examples I want to give you on how this learning, this word for learn is used in Scripture. In Ephesians 4, verses 19 and 20.

The Apostle Paul writes, they, meaning Gentiles, the unconverted, that world out there, they have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. Now listen to the next verse.

But that is not the way you learned Christ. That is not the way Christ was taught to you. That is not the example we have in Scripture of the way Christ lived. That is not the apostolic example. That is not the experience that the learning should bring you.

You have not so learned or experienced Christ. You are different than that. You've been called out of that world. Learning has to do with this grasping after the experience, the actual living of the facts that have been imparted to you.

Hebrews chapter 5, verse 8. And this one is of particular importance. It was used in many other places in the New Testament. We'll stop with this one. Hebrews chapter 5, verse 8, speaking of Jesus Christ, it says, although He was a Son, He learned obedience through what was suffered.

Now what did Jesus Christ have to learn? Did He have to learn more Scripture? Well, in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God. That's Jesus Christ, the eternal Word of God.

In Him, the Word became flesh. In Christ Jesus, God became flesh and walked among us. What did He need to learn? Did He have to go in class and sit down as we did when we were younger and take notes from a lecture?

Well, of course not. What did Jesus Christ need to learn? He learned obedience? No. It means that He experienced what it is as a man, as a human being, living and walking and breathing in this sin-cursed and crushed world.

What it means to obey God. He was tempted in all ways as we are. He lived as you and I lived. He felt that crush of temptation upon Him the way we do. He faced all of that. He learned obedience not as in a classroom where he could regurgitate it on tests and say this is what it means to obey God and just give a paragraph answer.

No, it means He experienced it. Something He hadn't experienced before. It is eternal being as a second person of the Trinity, as the eternal Son of God. Before He was incarnated, He did not know what it was to experience obedience to God as a man.

See, to learn has to go from the classroom to the life room. To learn the way the Apostle Paul says here, what you have learned has to do with this experience. Experience, putting it into play. It says practice these things and you can anticipate we're going to get to that and spend a bit more time on that.

What you have learned and received. Now received is sort of a technical term. It has to do with the receipt of a tradition that has passed along. What you have learned and received. You have something that you're going to not just experience and put into play and practice in this life.

What you've received, you're going to by the example of your experience pass along to the next generation. As the psalmist says in so many places, one generation shall tell another generation of the marvelous works of God, of what He has done for me and what He does for you as you follow His ways.

Receipt is a technical term for a tradition with a duty to pass it along. In 1 Corinthians 15 .3 Paul received the gospel from Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians 11 .23 Paul received the Lord's table from Jesus Christ as a tradition that He what?

Passed along by writing it in Scripture and giving it to us. 1 Thessalonians 2 .13 Paul writes to them that they received His words as they are, as what they really are, as God's words. Not just a nod and a stroking of the chin and saying that's a very interesting thing that you're telling us, like the Epicureans and the Stoics in Acts 17.

We'll talk to you about this another time. We're going to punt you. No. This receipt is something infusing into the very being and to be passed along to others. Colossians 2 .6 They received Christ Jesus as Lord.

And finally, chapter 1, verse 11 of John's Gospel. It says, for all who received Him, Jesus Christ, He gave the right to be called sons of God. You see, learning and receiving, it has to go from classroom aspect to life room.

Not just facts. Not just sentence structure. Not just definitions of words. It's an experience. It's a learning that is meant for living. As Alistair Bakes, Truth in Life ministry, has it. I think you might have gotten it right from here.

The learning is meant for living. The learning is commanded to you for living. God's Word is not sent except that it accomplishes that for which He sent it. That's Isaiah 55, verse 6. So what did He send it?

That you would learn it? That you would know it in your mind? Yes. That you put it into play in your life. And receive it. That as you put it into play, as you parents make examples of yourselves to your children, this is what you're doing.

You're showing that you have received it and are passing it along as you model to me and to others in the Lord in your churches what it means to follow Christ. You have received it in the way it's meant and are passing it along by your very example.

Hearing, Seeing, and Living Out the Apostolic Example

Heard and seen. What you have learned and received, that's one pair of words. And heard and seen from house to house. The Apostle taught with words. He taught them what the Bible says. They heard it from Him as He proclaimed the Gospel to them.

You can read about that in Acts 16 when He first came to Philippi and He went to the riverbed where Lydia and the ladies were having their prayer meeting. And there He taught them the Gospel. And there Lydia and her household were converted.

And there He was beaten with rods for having chased the demon out of that girl who could make predictions and made a lot of money for her owners. And there in Philippi, He was beaten with rods for that terrible crime and thrown into prison.

And there in Philippi, what they had heard and seen in Him was what? When the angel caused that earthquake, the chains fell off, and He was free to go, and He stayed and proclaimed the Gospel. They heard and saw.

They heard and saw what it means to live out the Gospel. And even this letter was written from prison. In prison He says, I rejoice, yes I will rejoice, even though some preach the Gospel for wrong motives in order to afflict me the further.

Yet I rejoice because Christ Jesus is being proclaimed. Showing them, showing us, showing you what it means to live out this Gospel. Heard and seen. You see, we have what we need. You have what you need in order to accomplish this.

Micah chapter 6 verse 8 says, He has shown you, oh man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? Let's stop there for just a moment. Has He not shown you what is good? Do we not have in the living Word of God, Jesus Christ, in four Gospels, the history of the Lord Jesus Christ walking on this earth for His ministry period and all that He did and said and His miracles and His prayers.

He has shown you, oh man, what is good. And as Jesus Christ by His Spirit spoke to the apostles, not just Paul, but Peter, but James, but John. He's shown us what is good. And He's shown us what's required of us.

He's shown you what's required of you. We'll go on with Micah. But to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God, this is what God requires of you. And my point here is not to take Micah 6, 8 apart.

Of course, I'm not going to do that now. My point is He has shown us. He has made it simple. He has made it sensible. He's made it accessible. And we know what we are to do. Do you not know, brothers and sisters, if you've read this book on your own, does it not make sense on its own merits, on the face of it, as we've gone through these past few, maybe even several months.

I'd have to look at my notes to see how long it's been in this book. He's shown us what to do. He's shown you what He requires. So here in Philippians chapter 4, the things required by God have been shown.

He's supplied to you the means to actually do the things that He requires. He's shown you in His living Word what this looks like in life. So what did He mean with the receipt, excuse me, with having heard and seen the Gospel, that they heard and saw it?

We need examples. We need demonstrations. Do we not? Some of us are better at reading an instruction manual and then putting it into practice. My son happens to be very good at that. He can read a book.

He can look at the pictures. And he can go out and do it. I often see him do this on the car. I'm just amazed. He's not a professional trained mechanic, but he has that knack. Most of us, though, hopefully most of us are like me, a little more pedestrian.

And we need those examples. We need to see it played out. I was trying to think of a way to illustrate this. And many of you know I'm kind of a knot freak. When I was doing a lot of rock climbing and mountain climbing, I learned to tie knots.

I practiced knots blindfolded with my winter gloves on and tying them so I couldn't feel the rope, but I could do it by instinct. I practiced knots. So let's imagine for a moment that you're walking along a park and somebody precious to you slips down the side.

Now they're not hurt, but they're 50 feet down and you can't go down because it's too slippery. You need to get them back up. You have a rope. And the rope has a weak spot in it. You realize if you toss it down and that person grabs onto it and you pull them up, it's going to break.

And all of a sudden you remember your pastor's a knot freak. You say, Pastor, what do I do? I say, you need to tie a sheep shank. You need to tie it right now. You need to isolate the weak part of the rope.

And I'll show you how to do the three loops and how to pull the middle loop through and isolate the weak spot and do two clothes on the outside of that loop. Pull it tight. Toss it down. But be sure that the weak spot's isolated.

Can you do it? Without your smartphone? Well, no. And if you want to see how to do that exactly the way I told you, it will work. You can come to my office later and I'll show you. I have a piece of rope or an old shoestring that I play with.

We need things demonstrated. It helps to have it demonstrated. I can't just give you the words all the time. Neither does Scripture. God knows our frenzy. He knows your weaknesses. He knows that you need with your eyes to see what your mind has received.

And so the Philippians heard and saw in the Apostle Paul. And so you today hear and see, I would argue, the Apostle Paul, unless somehow this is not a living, eternal word of God. Unless this word of God is not breathing today to you now.

No, we have that example. I would argue, as much and as vitally as they did then. And, as they did then, we today, you today, right now have each other. Brothers and sisters, who is the example that this other person needs to see what it means to follow Jesus Christ?

We need to point right to ourselves. Each one of us. It says, it's me. I'm the one who needs to be heard and seen to speak the words of God and show what they mean. I'm the one who needs to live it out.

So when this person is standing on the top of a trail and someone is down there and they need to pull them up, that they know how to tie that sheep shank. They know which scripture to go to, we should say.

Right away. And it could be because you, because I modeled it in some way before them. When that temptation comes upon them, when that choice is there, when that response to an unruly child is upon them, how do we know what to do?

First and primarily, we know from the word of God, a whole, complete, and sufficient word of God that tells us everything we need for godliness and for holiness and for growing into the image of Christ.

That's first. That's primary. And, really, really, really close to that, and I don't want to give it a number because we just go on and on and never get off that topic, but really close to that is you.

You should be that example. I should be that example because I'm the pastor. Yes, pastors are to be the example. But so are you. All of us together. To model this, to show what it means, to not just have learned a technical thing that we can regurgitate, but have received it in heart and soul, from mind to heart, that six-inch journey that we talked about, and let me hear it and see it in you.

We have the examples. In Braveheart, there's a scene really early on in that movie where young William Wallace has just lost his father, died fighting the English, and long comes his uncle Argyle to take him home and train him.

And as he's standing there by the grave of his brother, Argyle is holding this broadsword. He sees William Wallace looking at it with sort of envy, and he's very interested in it. And Argyle says to him, first learn to use this.

He taps him on the head. Then I'll teach you to use this. This is a broadsword. And is it not the same for us? First learn to use this. First learn the facts of the Bible. I did not denigrate memorizing the facts of the Bible, memorizing verses.

I made a little fun when I said, some of us know more verses than there are grains of sand on a beach. And that's great. We need to know them. Learn to use your mind. And learn to apply it. Learn to apply it to the situations.

And then like Argyle swore, you can handle, you can wield the sword that God has given us, the sword of the Spirit. And what is that? It's the Word of God. That's from Ephesians chapter 6. Can you imagine the Apostle Paul standing in our midst and saying something very similar?

Seeing our eyes drawn to this unsheathed sword, which is the Scripture. And then like Argyle, he wraps our foreheads and says, but have you learned to use this first? Have you learned? Have you received what it is that you now want to wield?

That you should be wanting to wield? Or is this not just what he's done? Has he not given us that experience, taught us to use that sword? Let me ask you this way. Or put it this way to you. Two weeks ago, we looked at verse 8.

The second of the last command in this letter to the Philippians. Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable.

Do you remember how we went through that? T-H-J, true, honest, just. P-L-C, pure, lovely, commendable. And I said, my mnemonic, my memorization trick is the Japanese police. By which I mean, nothing positive or negative about Japanese or police or anything else.

It's just the way I remember it. Have you remembered that? Is that not Argyle tapping your head and said first learn to use this? First get these incorporated into your thinking. And then we can go to thinking about these things and applying them.

How else would you practice that? He says, what you have learned and received, and we talked about that. What you have heard and seen, that example. What is next? Well, just let them lay there. As I said, this word of God, Isaiah 55, chapter 55, verse 6.

It was sent for a purpose. And God intends that purpose to be accomplished. What is it? It is to practice these things. Practicing the gospel life is not an easy thing. It is hard work. We need to remember the gospel.

We need to memorize God's word. We need to practice its application. We need to see it in each other. And put it to effect ourselves. What you have learned and received and heard and seen and heard, practice these things.

And what is these things? What are you to practice? Well, I just said it. Things that are true, honorable, just. Pure, lovely, commendable. If there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, thinking about these things.

These are the ones that now in verse 9, you are to put into practice. I want to ask you. Now, I have said it a few times in verse 8. Stop and take a moment. Have you thought about these things? Is our God able to wrap you on the head and say, first learn to use this?

Or can you stop Him and say, I have learned this. Did you memorize that? A little mnemonic or whatever way you have. When I made that mnemonic, I forgot to mention that many of us learned it in the old King James or in different versions.

And you have to find your own way of doing it. But the question still remains, have you learned these things in a way that you know what they said? We preached through it a couple of weeks ago. I said, think about these things.

It is a constant command. It goes on throughout life. Have you thought about these things? We are getting ready to put them into practice. Practice these things. But before you get there, did you think about them?

The people who are out in the cars listening on 1 and 1 .7, I can't see your eyes. And I don't want to just pick on the people who are sitting in front, the few, the proud, that are sitting before me so I can see your eyes.

I used to be a teacher. I was a substitute teacher. And I knew what homework was supposed to become. And I had a way. And I don't know if I can still do it. You kind of lose your game face. I haven't been a substitute for a while.

I used to look at the kids. Teacher says you have homework. I expect to see it. Three and four. One at a time. So I ask you. I look at each of you. Even you out in the cars. Even you who are looking at the Facebook livestream.

I'm sorry. The livestream, whatever that is. Did you do it? Did you spend a day thinking about any or all of those six things? Did you spend an hour thinking about them? Did you spend anywhere close to as much time as you gave to the thoughts about your job, about your hobbies, about your other interests?

If the answer is no, I got to ask you. How will you put them to practice? You haven't learned it to experience it. You haven't even learned it to be able to regurgitate the words. Have you? If you have not, did you give it any thought at all?

You need to practice these things. First learn them. But let's assume that you have learned them. Let's assume that we know what they mean to be true, honorable, just. To be pure, lovely, commendable.

To think about things like that and now ready to put them into life. Practice. The word practice is very interesting. It means to get beyond something. To push on through. In an epic Greek poem, Homer used it to talk about crossing a sea to get to the far side and the furthest port.

It's to leave a way of life or thinking behind. To travel on a road in order to achieve something. This word that the Apostle Paul uses here when he says practice these things is a very strong word. Put in the effort.

Like being at a gym and giving that last push on the bench press. As you put on that last ounce that you could possibly do so you can get more the next time. So you can take a further step towards the image of Christ.

So you can be that once more example to someone else. Practice these things. That true, honorable, just. Pure, lovely, commendable. Those things that you're supposed to have thought about. That we're all supposed to have thought about.

If you're not growing in the Lord, if you're not experiencing the peace that we're going to speak about in a few moments, ask yourself, have I thought? Ask yourself, have I thought enough about these things that they can be practiced with any integrity, with any consistency, with any accuracy?

I'll let you answer that yourself. But practice these things. A medical student practices. Does he not? Does she not? You practice on cadavers. You look and you see what Gray's Anatomy can only illustrate in words and in the pictures that you have.

And then perhaps do surgery with a chief surgeon watching in close in case anything is needed to be, he needs to intervene in any way. You practice. But after practicing, we have a family here whose son just became a doctor.

And he's gone from practicing, in that sense, to being a practitioner. To being a practitioner. Now a practitioner, we know, is one who practices. So it gets sort of circular and something roundabout.

And it doesn't mean that you stop studying. You continue to practice and get better. But the main idea is he goes from practice to practitioner. And so you go from practice of memorizing those things, think about these things, and there's many, many more in the Scripture.

And when we went through that, we pointed that out. It's just that one place we're focused on because that's the one verse we're preaching from. Many other things to think about and do in Scripture. These six are enough for most of us.

I saw some eyes looking away from me and I said, did you think about them at all? So let's go back to these just six. We need to go from practice to practitioner. And this is what the Apostle Paul says.

Practice these things upon what you have thought. So with us, Christian. Christians all. To become practitioners of the faith. Now how does this come about? It sounds like I'm saying you just need to do this and we do just need to do this.

That would be a true statement. We don't do this alone. We don't do this on our own. Why is it you would even want to go through this effort? Why would it be even attractive to you if I say that you can be like Christ and grow more and more into His image?

That we'll never get there completely in this life? It's because God has worked in you. It's because God by His Spirit having converted your soul, having given you a new heart to believe, having remade you and given you new desires and new ambitions, which is to be like Christ.

It is God who works in you says Philippians 2 verse 13. Both to will and to work for His good pleasure. What is His good pleasure? That you should will and work. That you should, can I say, practice those things that the Apostle Paul has spoken of here.

God works in you that you might work for His good pleasure. Philippians 4 and 9 calls to us. It says, here it is. Here is that work which He is working in you so that you might work for Him. That you might be that example to someone else.

That you might pass this tradition on to others, to your family, to your children, to your spouse. Here it is. What is God working in you? Think about these things. How do you work for His good pleasure?

By working these things out in your life so others can see. Become a practitioner of these things which cause Him pleasure. Practice these things without which there is no expectation to have the peace of God.

So have you thought about that? Ernest Hemingway once spent an entire day working on a novel. I don't know which novel it was. He spent an entire day asking himself, should he say in a sentence in his novel that the man didn't have a penny in his pocket or the man was penniless?

For a novel. I think Ernest Hemingway was a great writer. You may not agree with that. That's not important. He spent the entire day penniless or didn't have a penny. Which one is right? Which one is correct?

Which one works best? Which one will sell the book? I don't know what he was thinking but he had to get that exactly right. Perfect words. Have you given any thought to these things? Have I given enough thought to these things?

To write a novel, Ernest Hemingway, I think, would have outdone us all for no other purpose than to write a book that would be published and sold and he's going to die and leave it behind and all it is is a book worth reading if you have the time.

Not an eternal living word like we have before us. Not the will of God which he is working in you. As you think about things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable like so many other places in scripture.

This is hard work. This is really hard work as I gave you in the definition of the word for practice these things. Getting to the far side of an ocean, a great sea in a storm. It's hard work and it's meant to be hard work.

It's hard work and it should be hard work because the goal, because the end game is worth achieving. It's Christ Jesus. It's to be like Him. It's to grow into His ways as we practice these things. As we work them out in our life.

What is promised to you. I keep talking about the image of Christ being more like Him. But God makes another promise here through the apostle. And the God of peace will be with you. What you have learned and received and seen, excuse me, heard and seen in me.