Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
Introduction
What is the Best Possible Universe?
I have a question for you to consider: What is the greatest possible world? When you think of perfect paradise – the greatest possible universe, what do you think of? Of every possible world that could conceivably exist, what is the best combination of circumstances - the most beautiful, beneficial, excellent, most spectacular, most awesome and awe-inspiring, most exciting possible universe? Whatever comes to mind – hold that thought and I’ll get back to it in a little bit.
Review
We’re studying through Php.4, we made it to vv.8-9, and last time we made the observation that there are two commands in this passage – think, and do. Verse 8 is all about how God wants us to think, and v.9 is all about how he wants us to behave. He wants us to think about things that are excellent and praiseworthy, and he wants us to put into practice the things we have learned from his Word. And at the end last time I made a point about the fact that those two – thinking and doing – always have to go together. When people emphasize doing and neglect thinking – they focus mainly on the commands in Scripture and don’t pay much attention to the information and doctrine and theology, they fall into moralism. And moralism is a sure ticket to failure in your effort to live the Christian life. You can’t obey the commands without understanding the reasons and motives and history and doctrine and all the rest.
Theologism
So watch out for moralism – that was last time. But on the other hand, many people err on the opposite side. Instead of focusing just on the commands of Scripture and neglecting the information, they focus on the information and neglect the commands. I don’t know if there’s a name for this one, so I’ll make up my own name and call it theologism. Theologism is when you emphasize theology - the facts and truths and principles of Scripture but underemphasize the commands and instruction about how we are to live.
Theologians write books and books and books about the various facts in Scripture – information about God, Satan, man, end times, etc. But very little on how we should live. If you want to know how to improve your marriage, or how to overcome a temper problem or how to defeat lust or increase your joy or self-control or love – you won’t find chapters on those things in theology books.
One popular trend now in preaching is what is known as Christ-centered preaching. I love the idea of Christ-centered anything but one problem with that movement has been that some of the proponents have become so consumed with making sure they talk about the death and resurrection of Christ that that’s pretty much all they talk about. They seem to think that if you just spend enough time thinking about the cross and the resurrection and about the grace involved in redemption you will just automatically live right. And so there’s no need for the preacher to tell you how to live. And if a preacher does – if there’s a whole sermon that emphasizes how to live without mentioning the cross, they call it moralism. (I don’t know how they deal with the book of James, which is an entire book of the Bible that talks about how to live and never once mentions the cross.)
Or another catchword they use a lot is legalism. They make it sound like if you are working hard to obey God’s commands, you are being legalistic. They say, “That’s too much law and not enough grace.” It’s not legalism when we put a great effort into living right. Nor is that moralism. It’s what Jesus taught us to do. Just look at any one of Jesus’ sermons. When he taught, he didn’t just give outlines of theological information. He talked to people about life – about paying taxes and helping poor people and marriage and finances and getting along with neighbors and the right way to worship. He never just lectured on theological abstractions disconnected from behavior.
And the Apostles were the same way. Just look at how the New Testament writers interpret the Old Testament. Huge portions of the OT are just information, without a lot of commands – stories, historical accounts of things God did and things people did. But whenever the NT mentions those things, the conclusion is always something to do with how we should live. They will mention something Abraham did and then say, “Therefore, live like this…” They mention something that God did with the Israelites, or Noah’s Ark, or this event or that event, and then say, “Therefore, live like this…” Scripture is filled with those kinds of arguments: because of this piece of information, live like this. Because of that piece of information, live like this.
How to Put Truth into Practice
So all that to say, it’s essential that we not just listen to God’s Word, but that we also put it into practice. But how do you do that? What can we learn from this passage about how to have greater success in getting what we know into what we do?
1) Change Your Thinking
We already learned once principle last time from the context – if you want to make progress in your behavior, you first have to make progress in your thought life. You can pull v.9 off without first going through v.8 and training yourself to think on whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, and praiseworthy. So we understand that, but what else? I think there are two more principles that we can learn from v.9 on how to have greater success in putting the truth of God’s Word into practice.
2) Grasp the Importance
The first one comes from the way Paul describes their learning process. He doesn’t just say, “Put what you know into practice.” Look at all the extra words he uses to describe what they know.
9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice.
Do you remember what we learned back in v.6 about when a writer uses a whole lot of words to describe something that could be described with one word? It means he’s emphasizing that point. So in v.6, using all those different words for prayer meant: pray your face off! I think Paul is doing the same thing here. Instead of “Put into practice what you know” he says, “Put into practice what you have learned and what you have received and what you have heard and what you have seen in me.” And in saying all that he’s making a big deal about the learning process.
Obviously, you can’t put what you learn into practice until you’ve learned it. And so Scripture places a massive premium on learning. And by using all these terms, Paul is emphasizing how much effort he put into teaching them. He used any and every method possible. First he says, the things you learned. That’s the word for learning something as a disciple from a mentor. Paul discipled them, and taught them the way Jesus taught his disciples.
Then he says the things you … received. That’s a special term that was used to describe receiving the great traditions of the fathers that have been handed down. And the idea is that you are receiving them for the purpose of you passing it down to someone else. So here he’s elevating the material that they learned – it’s none other than the holy, sacred, Scriptures themselves – the ancient truths handed down through the generations. This is the word used to describe that moment when Moses received the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. This wasn’t just some people getting some tips on life from a wise man. This was the Word of God that has come down through the centuries in that sacred moment when the baton was being placed in the hand of the next generation, so they could guard it and pass it to the next generation.
Next he says the things you … heard. Paul preached and taught and counseled – verbal instruction of all kinds and in various contexts. It reminds me of what he said to the Ephesian elders.
Acts 20:18 …“You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia. 19 I served the Lord with great humility and with tears, although I was severely tested by the plots of the Jews. 20 You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. … 27 For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God.
I didn’t leave anything out, I gave everything to you, I preached publicly, I taught privately, I showed you by example… - why is he saying all that? He wants to draw attention to how important these things they learned really are.
That’s why Paul was willing to be beaten again and again, stoned, whipped, imprisoned, mocked – whatever was necessary to get this message to the people. It’s why he spent so much time and effort writing letters to the churches - longhand. It’s why his sermons were so long. In Acts 20 he preached so long that Eutychus fell asleep, and tipped out the second story window and died on impact then Paul went down and raised him from the dead, then went back upstairs and finished his sermon which lasted all the way to sunrise.
And while teaching verbally, he was also teaching by example.
9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me
If you want to make progress in the Christian life, you need to use both your ears and your eyes. Listen to Paul’s teaching, then watch his example. And it’s interesting, because each chapter in Philippians follows that pattern. Paul gives some instruction, then he shows us his example. “Here are the principles you need to understand, and here’s what it looks like in practice.”
Sometimes we falter in our spiritual growth because we try to learn only by hearing, and we neglect watching. So we are practically walking Bible commentaries, but we don’t have much success because we don’t also learn by following someone’s example. We’re too private for that. We just want to listen, and then in the privacy of our own heart figure out how to put it into practice. But you can’t make spiritual progress that way. Some things you just have to see someone else doing. You have be close enough to mature believers and be around them in enough different life situations where you can watch and see how they react to things and how they handle all the various little issues of life.
The Philippians did that with Paul (and Timothy and Epharoditus as well) Not only did Paul really go out of his way to use any and every method possible to teach them but they went out of their way to use any and every method to learn.
So what’s being emphasized here is: 1) how much effort Paul put forth to teach them these things, 2) how much effort they put forth to learn them, and 3) how sacred and holy these things are that they received. So here’s the principle I think Paul is giving us to enable us to have better success in putting what we’ve learned into practice: remind yourself of the importance of it. When you are tempted to disobey God's Word, or you’re too lazy to do something the Bible calls you to do remind yourself that these are the ancient truths of holy Scripture handed down to you from God himself.
And remind yourself of how much effort - all the blood sweat and tears you put into learning these principles. Think of all the hours in church, and all the countless hours reading and meditating on Scripture throughout your life. You put forth all that effort for a reason!
Think of the people who have died - all the blood that has been spilled through the ages by missionaries in order to get this message to you. Think of how hard pastors work to study and teach. Think of the work of the scholars – men who spend their entire life studying ancient languages or who go through the arduous effort of learning Greek and Hebrew and Latin and German and French and Spanish and Italian just so they can wade through scholarly theological works written in those languages so they can have a little better understanding when they write a commentary. Think of how much effort has gone into getting these truths to you.
All that just so you would get this message and obey it. Our behavior is so incredibly important to God.
Why is Behavior so Important?
Why? Why is behavior so important? Why does it matter so much to God that human beings act a certain way? He’s running the entire universe – doesn’t he have more important things to do than worry about whether I’m cutting corners on my tax return or thinking some impure thought or being gentle and understanding with my wife? Why do things like that matter so much to God?
The Kingdom of God
To answer that question, it helps to back up and consider how v.9 fits into the whole, big picture of the message of the entire Bible. The Bible is basically the story about the kingdom of God. It begins on page 1 of the Bible which is the first place where we see this idea of ruling over the whole world. It's going to happen through these creatures that God has made in his own image.
But then, these creatures that are supposed to be the ones through whom God reigns, his vice regents, rebel. They are supposed to carry out his reign, but they don't even submit to his reign themselves. Under the influence of the serpent, they establish their own kingdom. So now you have two kingdoms - a human/satanic one, and God's Kingdom.
So how is God going to fix this problem? It starts with a guy named Abraham. God promises to bless the whole world - all the nations, through this man. And the farther you read in the Bible, the more God reveals about how that is going to shake out. It will happen through a human king, like David. You keep reading in the prophets and you find out this king is going to be God himself - the wonderful counselor, everlasting father, prince of peace, Mighty God. And of the increase of his kingdom and of peace there will be no end. All the nations all of humanity will willingly, gladly, joyfully, eagerly bow before his authority.
So along comes Jesus. And here’s how he summarized his entire message:
Luke 4:43 I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God … because that is why I was sent.
And that’s what he trained the 12 to do as well.
Luke 9:2 he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God
Jesus taught us all to pray, “Let your kingdom come.” Then, after Jesus died and rose from the dead, before he ascended into heaven he hung around 40 more days on earth – doing what?
Acts 1:3 …He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.
So, the Messiah finally arrived to establish this world-wide kingdom, but he didn’t establish it in its final form. He got it started, but between his first coming and his Second Coming the opposition kingdom is still in place.
Ephesians 2:2 …you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
So you have these two kingdoms – man’s kingdom on earth and God’s kingdom in heaven. The objective of history now is to get from that to Rev.11.15.
Revelation 11:15 …The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.
One kingdom, where every single person in the world joyfully, eagerly, enthusiastically, and gladly submits to the rule of the great King. Every last soul, everywhere in the world, wholeheartedly excited about serving the King.
Revelation 5:13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!"
That's the story of the Bible. And that’s the answer to the question I asked at the beginning. What is the best possible universe? The most beautiful, happiest, most awesome, most spectacular, most exciting, most satisfying possible state of affairs? It’s Rev.11:15, where every person in the world wholeheartedly and happily submits to the reign of King Jesus. That’s where all history has been going since page 1 of the Bible. And every book in the Bible is explaining some component of God’s plan for getting us from where we are now to Rev.11:15.
Our Role
Now, what is our role in all that? And where are we in the whole storyline right now? Our role right now is to inject as much of that future kingdom into this present world as possible. And we do that by willingly, eagerly, gladly bowing the knee to the reign of King Jesus in our lives. Our role is to live out Rev.11:15 and Rev.5:13 here and now – right in the middle of the kingdom of Satan.
And by doing that, we can actually move up the date of the Second Coming. We can make it happen sooner by doing two things. First, by spreading the news throughout the world.
Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
That’s done through evangelism and missions and preaching the gospel. And the second way we move the date of the Second Coming up is by becoming more holy and righteous in our behavior – more willing, eager, and glad.
2 Peter 3:11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.
So that’s the big picture of the whole Bible, and that’s why our behavior is so important. God doesn’t give us all these commands about how to live just so we can get along with people or avoid various temporal consequences of sin. He gives the commands and instruction about how to live right because of our role in this massive project God has been working on from that day he said, “Let there be light…” to the day when the 7th trumpet sounds and the announcement is made that the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. Our behavior, our thought life, the way we talk to people, our attitudes, our actions – they are all crucial elements of us fulfilling our role in this grand, magnificent, cosmic, eternal story.
Err on the Side of Action
So God is constantly calling us to action, and the enemy is constantly trying to prevent us from taking that action. And one of his most effective methods is fear. They are afraid to act because something might go wrong. They are like the guy in the parable of the talents who buried his talent in the ground and was all proud of himself when his master returned because he stayed on the safe side – no risk. He kept it safe. But he ended up being rebuked as a wicked, lazy servant. God gave us spiritual gifts and abilities, and he wants a return on his investment.
Jesus didn't tell a lot of parables warning us of the dangers of overactivity. He didn't tell a lot of parables warning us of the dangers of getting out ahead of God and being too eager to serve in ministry. But he did tell parables warning us about the dangers of indolence and being derelict in our calling.
James 4:17 Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
Frances Chan has a great section in his book You and Me Forever on this. Sometimes people are paralyzed by fear or failure. They are so afraid that they might do the wrong thing that they do nothing. We need to learn to err on the side of action, because we tend to default to negligence. So many won't do anything unless they hear a voice from heaven telling them precisely what to do. Why not default to action until you hear a voice from heaven telling you to wait? For example: Why not assume you should adopt kids unless you hear a voice telling you not to? Wouldn't that seem more biblical since God has told us that true religion is to care for the widows and orphans (James 1:27)?
Too many people are sitting around crossroads for direction from God waiting for him to give them the go-ahead to move, making plans, preparing, year after year goes by and they're not moving. They want to be so careful, and make so many preparations, and wait so long for clearer and clearer guidance – putting out “fleeces” (God, if you want me to do this ministry, then make it rain on the left side of the hallway at church…). When Christ comes back and says, “Why were you just sitting there?” they're going to say “I was waiting for you to give me the go-ahead.” Christ might say, “The go-ahead? I told you – this is a race! I gave you go ahead when I fired the gun to start the race the day you became a Christian.” In a race you start running and keep running until you get to the finish line. You don't stop at every turn and wait for permission to proceed.
Put what you learn into practice. And I know people who listen to my teaching can get pretty overwhelmed. You might be thinking, “How can I put it into practice? You give us six months’ worth of work to do every single week. There’s no way to do it all.” Fine, just pick one thing to do that. Pick one thing to work on and work on it and put it into practice. Then, you make some progress in that, move on to something else. You don't have to do it all, but do something. You don’t have to take all the remaining steps of sanctification today, but you do need to take the next step. Always be working on some spiritual principle that you're trying to put into practice in your life.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus preached a whole sermon on how to live and then he closed that sermon by describing a man whose life falls apart in the storms of life and another man whose life stands firm no matter how stormy things get and the only difference between the two is one puts Jesus’ words into practice, and the other doesn’t.
3) Incentive: God with You
So, what do we learn from this passage about how to be successful in putting what we have learned into practice? First, change the way we think. Second, remind ourselves of the importance of what we have learned. Now one more – keep your eye on the reward that he promises here. In order to help us obey his commands, God very often give incentives. What’s the incentive in v.9? What reward does he promise if we will put what we learned into practice?
Philippians 4:9 Whatever you have learned … put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
That’s the incentive. The more you put the truth into practice, the more God will be with you. In v.7 you get the peace of God, but in v.9 you get the God of peace. In v.7 you get the gift; in v.9 you get the Giver. He will be with you. Now, what does it mean for God, who is omnipresent, to be with you?
God with You
If you look up all the references in the OT to God being with someone it’s usually in contexts of protection, provision, or God granting success. Very often you read, “Do not be afraid, for I am with you.” That’s the protection part.
Isaiah 41:10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Isaiah 43:2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned
Acts 18:10 For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city."
When God is with you, you are protected from harm. And you’re provided for.
Deuteronomy 2:7 the LORD your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything.
There are also a lot of passages that connect God being with a person with that person having success in everything they do.
Genesis 39:2 The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered
Genesis 39:3 …LORD was with him and … gave him success in everything he did
Numbers 14:42 Do not go up, because the LORD is not with you. You will be defeated
1 Samuel 18:14 In everything he did he had great success, because the LORD was with him.
So that’s what is being offered here in this verse as an incentive to obey God. The more you put God’s Word into practice, the more God will be with you. The more he will protect you, provide for you, and grant you success.
He is always with you to some degree, if you are born again. He is your Father, so he will never leave you or forsake you. But it’s a personal relationship, and so it is affected by what you do. You can do things that distance you from a loved one, and you can do things that draw you closer. That’s true of every relationship, including your relationship with God.
I was reading a book by Steven Furtick, and there are a lot of good things in there, but one part that was disappointing was this: “One culprit that contributes to [being suspicious of God’s love] is the whacked-out … religious teaching many of us have encountered. When I first became serious about God, I frequently heard church people talk about how careful we must be that sin doesn’t ‘break our fellowship with the Lord.’” Then he went on to mock the idea that fellowship with God could be connected to our behavior. But isn’t that exactly what this verse is saying? If we put his Word into practice, he will be with us.
I don’t want to badmouth Steven Furtick in any way – I just use that as an example because I’m afraid there are many pastors these days who seem to think that your fellowship with the Lord stays exactly the same whether you are obeying him or sinning against him. And I don’t know if Furtick thinks that – it’s just the impression I got from that paragraph. But I hear that kind of thing a lot, and so I just want to make sure we all understand – God is a person, and he has described our relationship to him in terms of normal relational realities. Scripture doesn’t present his attitude toward us to be some kind of robotic, static, automated favor that completely ignores how we act in the relationship. There is an element of our relationship with him that stays the same no matter what. He remains our Father even when we sin against him. But it’s like a human father. When your kids are being obedient and respectful, the relationship is smooth. When they are disrespectful and disobedient, you’re still their father, they are still in the family, you still love them and accept them – none of that changed, but the closeness you have with them is most definitely affected. Same thing in marriage. If your spouse sins against you or hurts you really bad, you’re still just as married as ever, but the closeness of fellowship is harmed by it. And the Bible compares our relationship to God to both a father-child relationship and a husband-wife relationship. And this passage is as clear as crystal – God will be with us when we put his Word into practice. Our behavior has an impact on how much God is with us.
2 Chronicles 15:2 The LORD is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.
Don’t expect God to be with you when you’re not with him. But when you are with him – you put his Word into practice by obeying his commands and repenting when you fail to obey then God will be with you, with is the greatest possible thing that could happen in your life. It’s what you need. You need that more than you need anything else. Whatever problems you have, whatever fears are looming, whatever anxieties are pressing, whatever challenges or opportunities or heartbreaks – whatever you have going on, what you need more than anything is for God to be with you. It will give you success in what you do as you serve him, it will protect you from the things you’re so afraid of it will fill your heart with joy and hope, it will build you up and strengthen you.
God of Peace
And when God makes that promise to be with you, there’s another little bit of theology he wants you to know. He wants you to know something about what he is like. He is the God of peace. When the NT writers spoke of peace, especially in a context like this, their concept of peace was heavily influenced by the OT concept of SHALOM. The word SHALOM has a huge range of meaning - it refers to overall well-being – prosperity, protection, provision – a lot of the same ideas connected with God being with you. He’s the source of all that, which is why his being with you brings all that into your life. On the night of the election last fall, when it became clear that Trump was the winner, there was celebration among Trump voters. And there was great dismay among non-Trump voters – even to the point of tears. Why? Why so much celebration on the one side, and why so much distress on the other side? The answer is the same for both questions. It’s because people really, really want to live in a wonderful place and they believe the President has a huge impact on whether the United States is a wonderful place. You might have a great job and great family situation, but that’s not enough. You also want your little wonderful situation to take place in wonderful surroundings. And by wonderful surroundings, I mean a place where there is peace, security, safety justice, fairness, beauty, prosperity, opportunity, love, joy, good health, and overall well-being. In other words, you want to live in the midst of a whole lot of SHALOM. And Trump voters were excited when he won because they believe his policies will result in more SHALOM and non-Trump voters were upset when he won because they believe his policies will diminish or threaten the SHALOM. But all the voters have one thing in common – the far left, the far right, moderates, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Socialists, Communists, Libertarians - we have a strong, deep, compelling desire to live in a place of SHALOM. And we all think some government leader is going be able to give us SHALOM.
And we’re right. Perfect peace is going to come from a government leader, but not Donald Trump. Not Hillary Clinton. The first world leader who will ever manage to pull it off will be King Jesus when he returns. He will bring perfect peace and well-being, because he is the God of Peace. Perfect justice, perfect righteousness, reversal of the curse (wolves and lambs will eat together children will play with cobras, all the nations will rally to come honor King Jesus, a flood of SHALOM like a river - it will all come from the God of peace. The prince of SHALOM. One day his SHALOM will flood the entire world in every way, but at this stage, we get it in partial measure – in accordance with how much we put his Word into practice.
He is the God who is totally at perfect peace within himself he is the God who can bring peace into your relationships and your church and he is the God who can guard your heart from the ravages of anxiety with a peace that transcends human understanding... , and he is the source of all SHALOM and he will be with you if you learn his Word and put it into practice.
Small Groups
Share prayer requests (especially requests about something you would like to put into practice in your Christian life more) and pray for each other (each person pick one other person to pray for).
