9. “The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.”
A man who was a “selfie king” always watched videos about gym workouts and read many books about the best diet plans. He had all the knowledge about the latest exercises, the correct form, and the best workout routines. He was so knowledgeable that he could give a lecture or a TED Talk on the subject. When he talked with anyone, he always spoke about workouts and diet, and he shared daily tips on his social media. But here’s the twist: he never actually worked out himself, not even for one day. He was overweight, had cholesterol and blood pressure issues, a heart problem, and weak muscles and bones. If he walked some distance, he would be breathless; if he turned quickly, he’d get cramps. But he went to the gym just to enjoy watching others sweat. He took selfies with other bodybuilders and posted them, and he watched videos and read for hours about workouts. He had all the knowledge about exercises and diet, but you might ask, “What is the use of all that knowledge?”
That is exactly what our Lord asked in the Sermon on the Mount. He spoke about two builders: a man who built his house on the rock and a man who built his house on the sand. The person who builds his house on the sand loves to come to church. It’s a good thing to do. It feels good to sing and have fellowship with people. It is wonderful to listen to a message from God’s word. He reads the Bible for hours and listens to sermons for years, but he does not do what he hears; he never practices. He is a foolish builder, just like our selfie king. James says that it is not only foolish but dangerous if we are only hearers of God’s word but do not become doers of it, because we deceive ourselves. It leads to dangers like false assurance. Just by hearing, we think we are believers and that we are growing, while we are not growing an inch. Our faith becomes weaker through disobedience instead of stronger. Our lives become a great example of hypocrisy—a gap or a disconnect between what we know and believe and how we live. We miss all the blessings of obedience and are chastised by God. The sad thing is that our lives are no way a witness for the gospel, but a stumbling block to many, preventing them from believing the gospel. Finally, if we don’t repent of that, we show that we were never saved and that we kept building a house on sand. Hearing the Bible and knowing the Bible without translating that knowledge into obedience is dangerous because we deceive ourselves.
There are others who come to hear God’s word as families, not for themselves, but for others. “If only my wife would hear this,” or “If my husband or kids would apply this to their lives, we’d have a happy family!” One child looked at her brother, whom she didn’t like, and sang the song, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like you!” We’re all like that; we think the truth applies to the other guy. That is wrong. I need God’s word. I need to learn to apply it in my own personal conduct.
In today’s passage, Paul is going to teach us about obeying God’s word. Paul is concluding his letter at its climax, beginning verse 8 with “finally.” In verses 8 and 9, he gives two calls. In verse 8, we saw his first call for godly thinking, where he said, “think on these things.” He gave us six virtues as objects to think about: things that are true, just, honorable, pure, lovely, and of good report. In verse 9, he transitions from godly thinking to godly living and practice. In the middle of verse 9, he says, “these do,” or “practice these things.”
Let us grasp this verse with three headings: A Call to Godly Living, the Objects of Godly Living, and the Promise of Godly Living.
A Call to Godly Living
You see that call in the middle of verse 9: “these do.” The verb means “practice these things.” Earlier, he taught us to think godly; now he teaches us to live godly. How do we live godly? We are all born ungodly; this doesn’t come naturally to any of us. So how do we live? The key word is practice, practice, practice. The word implies doing something repeatedly until it becomes a habit or a way of life. We need to discipline ourselves to practice certain things. We need to stop being lazy like the selfie king, who only hears and talks, and start to live a disciplined life of practice and working out. Practice creates habits.
At first, practicing something feels awkward and unnatural. Remember the first time you ever rode a bicycle or drove a car with a manual transmission? It seemed like there were 101 things to remember and do all at once. It was so difficult that we never thought we could do it. But we practiced and practiced, and slowly it became a habit. Now, you can get in the car and drive off while talking to others, and you don’t even think once about what you’re doing to drive that car.
Habits come from practicing these things over and over. A lifestyle is nothing but habits. They determine your daily routine. Those habits happened because we kept doing certain things regularly. Habits can be either your friend or your foe. They can build or destroy us. If we are practicing godly things, we develop godly habits. At first, when you’re changing from ungodly practices to godly habits, it may seem awkward, like learning to drive a car. Just keep at it; practice it until it becomes your routine.
So, Paul here calls us to godly practice. It is not a command to believe something; it is a clear command to stop being hearers and start being doers—to practice. Stop being a foolish builder, building a house on sand; stop deceiving yourself by only hearing, and just DO. It is in the present imperative, meaning he is calling for a continual practice. The key word of the verse is that big “do.”
Objects of Godly Living
Okay, we understand the importance of practice. What should we practice? Paul gives us four objects for godly practice: “The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me.” These are the objects of godly living. It is as if someone said, “Paul, we are simple people. Can you tell us a practical, easy, concrete way how to live godly lives?” Paul says, “I will do that. One example is worth 1,000 words. As your apostle, look at me.” The things you learned, received, heard, and saw in me are the objects for godly practice.
We can group these four things into two categories. Two things include all of Paul’s teaching—”learned and received”—and the other two, Paul’s life—”heard and saw.” These words indicate two sides: Paul’s side as the giver and the Philippians’ side as those who received them.
The first two words talk about all of Paul’s teaching: learned and received. “Learned” includes all the teaching, instructing, and discipling of Paul. He personally taught them in their church, one-on-one, and in their houses. You will see in Acts that Paul repeatedly taught for years, publicly, personally, and from house to house. It includes not only his personal teaching but also all they learned through this epistle. Remember all the truths we learned from chapter 1? He says not to just learn and deceive ourselves, but that all that you have learned, you must practice.
The second word is received. This word is a technical term for the revelation from God. Here he may refer to the revelations he received from Christ and gave to the church. Remember he keeps saying, “I received from the Lord.” In the communion passage, he says, “What I received from the Lord, I delivered to you.” In Galatians 1, he says, “The gospel I preached to you was not from a human; I received it from God.” So the word “received” may indicate the revelation of God that came through Paul. “What God delivered to me, I received. What I delivered to you, you received.” You not only learned and understood but received, meaning you believed and responded by accepting them as God’s truth. So these two words, “learned” and “received,” include all of Paul’s teaching. Paul says these are the things you should practice for godly living.
The second group is heard and seen. These are not a repetition. The first two words talk about his teaching, but these two words talk about Paul’s life. “Heard” means all the things they heard about Paul from others. The word had spread everywhere about this man, Paul. “You have heard about my life from other people, how I lived, how I served God, and how I lived as a witness of the gospel.” Even now, they would hear from the Ephesians about his life in jail. Remember, he said everyone in Rome heard about his chains. They had surely heard much from others about his ministry, his character, his lifestyle, and his preaching. “What you have heard about me and is true of me,” he says, you should practice those things. The final and fourth word is what you have seen. This is a first-hand experience. “You have seen me live among you. You have seen my life and lifestyle with your own eyes.”
So these four words—”what you’ve learned” from my personal teaching to you; “what you’ve received,” that is, what I received from God and gave you; “what you heard” about me through many people; and “what you have seen” with your own eyes in my life—you must practice. Wow! What a truly godly life this man must have lived. Everything he taught and everything he lived, his whole lifestyle, should be a model for all godly living.
When he says, “follow everything in me,” there is no pride in this. This is the same man who said in an earlier chapter, “I have not attained, I have not become perfect.” Though he knew he was not perfect, by God’s grace, God had made him and his lifestyle an authentic model for all believers’ godly living. There was an upright integrity in his life. He did not teach one thing and live another. He did not act one way in public but have a secret life of sin in private. You could follow him around 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and see a man who walked with God, even in the terrible trials he encountered. The Philippians had seen with their own eyes how even when beaten with rods unjustly, with his back swollen and bleeding, thrown into a smelly prison with his feet and hands in stocks, Paul was singing praises to God. Paul’s Christian life was real even in the crunch, and so he could honestly, without pride, call people to follow him as he followed Christ. He says this repeatedly in the New Testament (Phil. 3:17; 1 Cor. 4:16; 11:1; 1 Thess. 1:6; 2 Thess. 3:9; 2 Tim. 3:10). “Follow me because I’m living according to the revealed Word and Will of God.”
He embodied both the law and the gospel. The law: He stood as a living example for loving God with all his heart and loving his neighbor as himself. The gospel: He lived as a living sacrifice to God as a redeemed man, selflessly serving others by saving their souls through the gospel, and toiled tirelessly to help his converts grow in sanctification and be glorified at last. He showed how he selflessly suffered for the glory of God and the welfare of people. Here, he knows it is God’s will for all believers to follow all they learned, received, heard, and saw in Paul as an authentic example of godly practice.
We have to understand that at that time, the New Testament books were not written yet. So when churches needed to learn how to live godly lives, they had to learn from the apostles’ model. The standard of Christian belief and the standard of Christian behavior was embodied and shaped in the teaching and the example of the apostles. That is why in Acts, they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching. The apostles were called to be living models of New Testament Christianity. He modeled the standard.
The Glorious Promise for Godly Practice
Paul not only calls us to godly practice and gives practical objects for that practice, but he also adds this glorious promise to motivate the Philippians to godly practice.
It is a marvelous promise: “the God of peace will be with you.” To the extent that the things you learned, received, heard, and saw in me you are practicing in your life, this is the reward of grace. Here is the gracious promise that will be realized in the experience of all who obey this command. “The God of peace will be with you.”
You remember in verse 7, the third gospel duty, that we should not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, let our requests be made known to God with thanksgiving. There, he said, “and the peace of God will act as a garrison of soldiers around our hearts and minds in union with Christ.” But here, you see there is something more glorious than the peace of God. It’s not just the peace of God, but the source and author of that peace, the God of peace Himself, who will be with you now. He will manifest Himself in this attribute to your soul in its fullness. They will know the enjoyment of the presence and communion of God to a peculiar degree unknown to others.
How can I explain the attractiveness of this to people who have very little experience? It is like trying to explain the glory of sunlight to a man who was born in a dark prison and has never seen the sun. How, then, can our feeble human language describe the action of Almighty God manifesting Himself as the God of peace upon a soul in all the fullness of this attribute? This is God who is never troubled by the ups and downs of life or the storms of circumstances because He is sovereign and accomplishes all His purposes through these things. When such a God deigns to visit with His more immediate presence, oh, what peace that soul will experience!
The Lord said the same promise in another wonderful way in John 14:21: “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” Verse 23: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.” This turns their very souls into the sanctuary of the Most High, revealing Himself with an endearing character.
Think of all the things Paul could have said about God: the God of glory, the God of power, the God of wisdom, the God of grace, the God of love. He is all of those things. Why does he say “the God of peace”? Because more than anything, for you and me to live a gospel-worthy life, to make us adequate for all life situations and all the difficulties, to go through life rejoicing always, to be gentle with all men, and to not worry, we need the God of peace with us. In the midst of difficult life situations, the God of peace is with us, and therein lies your rejoicing, your gentleness, your calm, your quietness, and your confidence. Under this character, God reveals Himself to His obedient people. The psalmist said, “Great peace shall they have who love his law,” “a perfect peace,” “a peace that surpasses all understanding.”
Paul experienced this. It was so real to him. He faced endless trouble all the time. What made him face all that with a godly mindset? It became his favorite of God’s attributes. We see very often in his letters that he refers to God that way. In Romans 15:33, he says, “Now, the God of peace be with you all.” In 2 Corinthians 11:13, he says, “And the God of peace shall be with you.” In 1 Thessalonians 5:23, he says, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely.” In 2 Thessalonians 3:16, he says, “Now may the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance.” It became a favorite of his, “the God of peace.”
How can you be calm in the midst of everything—temptations, doubts, fears, troubles, and attacks? When you experience the presence of the God of peace. How can you experience the God of peace in your soul? When you obey this command. So he says, “In a peculiar way, those who practice these things in obedience to the word of God in their daily lives, they will know Him as the God of peace.” They enjoy the fruits of His presence. They enjoy dimensions of His communion with an uncondemned conscience, the likes of which careless walkers and careless livers never know.
But Pastor, you said our Lord is always with us. Yes, that is true. God is always with the believer as He promised. But do we always experience the blessing of His presence? No. The wonder of this promise is that we will experience His manifested presence in our souls and always sense His presence, especially as the God of peace, filling us always with the calmness and peace that comes from His divine presence. Paul says you can experience that when we put our knowledge of the Christian faith into daily Christian conduct.
And so the glorious promise by which he would motivate the Philippians to careful and constant obedience is the promise that the God of peace shall be with them. You see, for the true child of God, nothing is more desirable than a greater enjoyment of God himself. There is nothing that you can hold before a true Christian that more excites him or more fills him with keen anticipation than the promise that, in a given path of obedience, he shall know dimensions of communion and fellowship with God that he would otherwise never know.
This is a good sign to examine our spiritual state. For those of you sitting here, when you hear words such as these—”do these things, and the God of peace shall be with you”—does that excite you, or do you say, “Oh, hum, so what’s new?” If Paul could have said, “If you practice these things, there will be an increase in your bank account, God will fulfill all your dreams, the God of prosperity will bless you with a house and a car, and make you popular and famous like a celebrity,” that may be very exciting to you. But to say, “the God of peace shall be with you,” doesn’t strike any notes of joy or expectancy or holy excitement, does it, my friend? That’s an indication that you are still not truly born again and have not tasted true life in Jesus Christ, the eternal life of God, the joyful experience of that communion, which is only known to those who repent and believe the gospel. If that doesn’t excite you, this is a warning to you to turn from your sins and believe in Jesus Christ, because you are under a dangerous spell of the devil in this world without the experience of eternal life.
Okay, so there is a call for godly practice, the objects of godly practice, and a promise for godly practice.
Applications
There are four applications: two for me and two for all of us. Aren’t you happy today that there is an application even for the Pastor specifically?
First application for me: As a pastor, I should not only teach the great doctrines of God’s word but also teach you specific practical applications and ways to live those great truths. See, he does not say, “what you have learned, received, keep deeply thinking of those things.” No, he says, “do these things.” That means he has taken all those great gospel truths and taught them how to practically apply them in their own personal lives. Only then could he say, “do these things,” right? If he just taught them all the great truths, all the theology, the doctrines of grace, and the five points, and never brought any practical applications, he could never say, “do these things.” So it is my great responsibility not only to teach you truths but to make it very practical for you to apply in your life.
This is so important. There are so many even good expository preachers who say, “We just teach them the truth and principles, we explain the Bible, and the Holy Spirit will teach them how to apply it, and they will learn the applications.” If that were the case, Paul could never say, “do these things.”
There are people who say, “Oh, we are new covenant believers, we don’t need commands or ethical guidance. We don’t need the letter; we need the Spirit. The only command we have in the New Testament is to love, love, love, the greatest command.” “If you just make us love God, we will obey his commands. We need a simple gospel and a simple faith, and we don’t need any specific practical applications. The Holy Spirit living in us will automatically make us live godly lives. We don’t want an objective standard of commands now; we have a subjective, self-interpreting standard of our own righteousness.” Oh, if that is the New Testament religion, Paul himself never knew that. If we say that, we make a mockery of much of the New Testament teachings, which have specific, detailed instruction in practical godliness written by the same Holy Spirit. The same Paul you read, after teaching great doctrines, what does he do in Philippians, Ephesians, and Colossians? He takes those great gospel truths, then goes on to tell how husbands should live, how wives should live, how children should live, how workers should live, and how the church should live before the Gentiles.
So, beware of this kind of church, which may even call themselves reformed, and spend all their time teaching the sovereignty of God, the grace of God in saving the worst sinners, the doctrines of grace, the work of Christ on behalf of sinners, his death, his resurrection, his heavenly session, his second coming. All of these are wonderfully taught, but if there does not flow out of that teaching an equally strong emphasis upon the practical implications for our daily lives, you may be in a deceptive place. It may form a very subtle, refined antinomian church. So, as an application for me, I need to bring practical applications from all the truths we learn.
Second application: He also says, “what you heard and saw in me.” This means as a pastor, I not only should bring applications to you, but I should practice that in my own life. See how I am also caught. I should exemplify in my lifestyle all I teach. Not only here before you, but when you hear about me and my life in my family and at my workplace, the people who see my life, what you heard. I should practice living as an example for the practical truths I taught. If I taught, “Rejoice in the Lord always,” you should see me living like that. “Gentle to all men,” I should be gentle with all men. “Do not worry,” you can see me never worried about anything, never tense. Wow, see, I stand frozen in an accused box.
What a heart-searching application for me. You ask me, “Am I living all that I teach?” I sometimes jokingly threaten the Lord, “If you ask me such tough questions like this, I will run away like Jonah.” Let me make a confession: though not perfectly, I try in every way to practice what I teach. But there is a long path to go and many things to change. You should pray for me specifically that God should give me more grace. I should be an example of all that I teach. Because if I am not living like that with my wife and children, dealing with problems in my life in a biblical manner, and demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit in my relationships with them, then I need to get out of the ministry.
I want to open the doors into my life. I want you to observe my life to see if I am practicing all I preach. I welcome you to ask me questions. “Pastor, how do you practice this in your own life? I saw that day you behaved like that and spoke like that. Is that worthy of the gospel?” I promise you, I will not get upset, but I will thank you for such honest feedback. Because we are not here to just pat one another’s back. We should also encourage and watch over one another’s souls so we walk in a disciplined manner to glorify God. My applications are over.
Now, two applications for all of us
This truth shows us why we enjoy so little of the presence of the God of peace. Our enjoyment of the presence of the God of peace is directly related to our Christian conduct, not how much we know. Paul shows in this verse that practical obedience to God’s word is of vital importance, because the sense of God’s presence as the God of peace is directly linked with it.
So this verse shows why so many of us experience so little enjoyment of God’s presence and peace. We come to church to hear God’s word and enjoy his presence and his grace, but when we go home on Monday and Tuesday, where does that presence go? Yes, he has promised to be with us, but do we experience it? Here is the reason for that: our weak resolution to practice godliness, to practice what we learned. The presence of the God of peace is promised to those who practice these things, not just hear and go. Blessedness is not for the wayside or for those choked by thorns, but for those who with perseverance hold fast to the word and practice it.
Oh, this is a great discovery of our problem. The main problem in our church is not knowledge. You have enough knowledge from years of preaching that when people check your knowledge, they would think you know more than other pastors. You have enough knowledge of the truth and wealth in Christ to give you joy, unspeakable and full of glory. You have enough knowledge of how to live in practical godliness in your personal life, your family life, and your work life.
The main great weakness and problem of our church is not knowledge; it is our conduct, our practice, our lifestyle in our homes, at our workplaces, and wherever we go. In the mundane day-to-day activities, again and again, we fail to practice what we learned. Isn’t that the reason we have so little enjoyment of God? You don’t have to do a big research to find an answer. It’s a simple reason. You simply are not doing what you know you ought to do. Again, why? Can I say honestly, laziness! We live in spiritual laziness when it comes to practice. Like a selfie king, we want selfies in church and to learn so many things, but we will not get up and go out and work out or practice those things in life. Why the laziness?
If you study the traits of a sluggard in Proverbs, you will see how hateful it is, even in our own spiritual life. It may be an exact description of spiritual laziness. Let me show three or four traits.
First trait of a sluggard: Proverbs 13:4, “The soul of a lazy man desires, and has nothing.” Oh yes, “I desire to enjoy God. I want to live worthy of the gospel. I desire to grow and bring souls to Christ.” You hear about all these truths, and you desire to live like that and change your life. You really desire that, but why do you not get it? Proverbs says because you are lazy. The soul of the sluggard desires it, but you have nothing. You don’t do things. You don’t practice. In contrast to that lazy person, “But the soul of the diligent shall be made fat, rich.” The other person gets it, spiritually his soul is becoming fat and rich, why? Because he is diligent, a hardworking person who perseveres. Growth in grace comes by the way of diligence, not by the way of being a sluggard, just desiring. And some of you simply are not diligent. And why aren’t you diligent?
Well, let’s look further about the sluggard and a second trait. Why he desires but doesn’t get anything. Chapter 20:4, “The sluggard will not plow by reason of the winter. He will beg during harvest and have nothing.” He will not plow because it is so cold outside in the winter. He will not work hard or practice, but he will keep giving excuses and looking at difficulties. “Oh, I know if I practice and obey God, I will be blessed. If I plow, I will be blessed. But it’s too cold out, it’s so difficult to go out there to plow. I will get a cold.” It’s so comfortable inside the house, with a hot bedsheet, so he will not plow by reason of the winter. When you have a good opportunity, and God speaks to you to practice, you give excuses. So what happens? Therefore, he shall beg in harvest and have nothing. There are difficulties in doing these things. Then there are more reasons. Chapter 22:13, “The sluggard says, ‘I cannot go out, there is a lion in the streets, it will eat me.'” The lions are in his own head, not in the streets. He’s just looking for flimsy excuses to stay inside where he is and avoid the hard work and responsibilities that are out there in the street.
Proverbs 21:25, “The desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hands refuse to labor.” He’s killing himself with desire, but his hands refuse to labor.
So how does he run his life? Doesn’t he realize the realities and consequences if he goes on like this? See his escape route. Proverbs 19:15, “Laziness casts one into a deep sleep.” The sluggard is marked by a deep sleep. He sleeps deeply, and that puts him out of touch with reality. That is how he escapes reality, with sleep, sleep. Proverbs 26:14, “As the door turns upon its hinges, so the sluggard upon his bed.” You see, the door that turns in the same place for hundreds of times—if it had traveled, it would have traveled a long way, but it is in the same place. So is the sluggard’s progress. He’s going nowhere. He gets enough motivation and ambition to turn over and go back to sleep and forget everything. He hides his face in the sleep of forgetfulness. It costs too much. That is a problem with some of us. We are in a deep spiritual slumber about eternal realities about our lives. We don’t realize why we are living or what we are achieving in life. We are sleeping while great opportunities are passing by. Life is running fast, and we are getting older, losing opportunities, and the great issues of life are postponed. You’re not aware of them, like a sleeping man who becomes oblivious to all reality about him. We are living only with desire, with no progress.
God says you will experience the blessings of the God of peace if you practice this and work hard. But if we are lazy, we will only desire and not do anything, and we will see difficulties and give excuses, and we will live in a dream world where life runs fast. We will never realize how many opportunities we have wasted. Are we spiritual sluggards? I hope you can see that in the mirror: “Why do I desire but not achieve anything in my spiritual life?” “Because I am lazy.” “I keep giving excuses about the winter and the lion in the street.” And then I live in a dream world of spiritual sleep while life runs fast, and I never progress, like hinges on a door in my spiritual progress.
Why do some grow so fast in Christian life and maturity, while others take so many years? The only difference is that one decides to practice at any cost. When the word of God speaks to their heart and shows sins in their life, something is done about it at the level of adjusting priorities of time, of entertainment, of relationships, and of business. Nothing else matters. They are committed to godliness.
The other person who doesn’t grow for years desires it but is unwilling to pay the price. They will boldly come to another sermon when their conscience tells them they have not done anything about the last they heard, and now they hear it and are disturbed enough to turn over like the hinges of a door. But they do nothing. Oh, may God wake us from our laziness. May we hear his word today: “The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.”
The reason we enjoy very little of the presence of God is because God always meets us on the path of obedience.
Lastly, an application for all of us. This truth not only shows why we enjoy so little of God’s presence, but this also shows why we have so little gospel success. The gospel powerfully impacts society not only when we preach it, but when we live it. That is when the presence of the God of peace in our souls brings souls to the gospel. We pray God should bring souls to the gospel. If we want God to do that, we have to have not one or two, but many true models of practical godliness in our church. Men and women who show us in their lives how to live the Christian faith in the real world. In the Philippian church, Paul knew there were other examples. He said in 3:17, “join in following my example, and note those who so walk, have them as a pattern.”
A pastor was saying in an interview why God blessed his church and used the church to spread the gospel throughout that city. He said when people come to our church, they not only hear the truths of God’s word from the pulpit stage, but they see on the ground a lot of people clarifying those truths in models of godly living. Church families invite new visitors into their families, and when they spend time with their family, their house becomes an interpreted classroom of truths in the dynamics of husband, wife, parent, child, and child-to-child interpersonal relationships. Not only from the pulpit, but even on the ground, they hear the gospel preached. This is what God used to impact their society.
Do you see why we are not used by God for gospel success? We hear, but we don’t do. We need many models for practical godliness. All of us, starting with me as pastor, deacons, and Sunday school teachers, should realize our responsibility and be able to say with Paul, “The things you learned, received, heard, and saw in me—practice these things.”
As parents, we should be able to say to our children, “The things, dear children, you learned, received, heard, and saw in me—practice these things, and the God of peace shall be with you, as you see me experiencing that peace always.”
How sad it is for children whose ears are filled with godly instructions and whose eyes are continually beholding ungodly patterns. They keep saying, “Do as I say, but don’t do as I do.” Nothing creates perhaps more skepticism or doubts about truths, leading to cynicism and hatred of truths in the minds of children growing up in Christian homes than when they have parents who only preach to children and don’t practice that in their life. They come to church and think, “Ah, all this preaching is just drama and a useless waste of time. My parents are never going to follow it, so what’s the use of listening? Because I know my mother and father don’t truly believe the preacher. They tell me what he tells me, but they don’t live it, and he probably doesn’t in his own home, so there’s no reality to the whole thing anyway.” We put so much effort into making truths clear to you. Don’t ever rob our witness by denying these truths in your life. When people see you in church and come to your homes, may what they’ve heard from the pulpit be lived in the houses, and may they see it in your kitchen, in your living room, and in your ordinary conversation.
Skepticism and doubts about truths leading to cynicism and hatred of gospel truths abound where the truth is preached but not lived. It is a sad stumbling block and hindrance we create for gospel progress when we live inside the church like Judas, hearing the truth and knowing the truth, but by our lives, we deny it.
Let me ask your consciences, how long are we going to cause a hindrance to the gospel by our lives? How long are we going to be spiritual babies?
God’s will is that we follow Paul. We are called to practice what we learned, received, heard, and saw in him. We are to be a standard for the gospel to those around us. Will those who have seen our lives see any resemblance? How completely different we are from the apostle Paul. We don’t experience the divine presence in our soul. We have no clue what it means to have the peace of God manifesting himself to our soul, filling us with comfort. Will God approve of such a state? Even men cannot approve of it. Our own conscience will not. Oh, let us wake up from being such lukewarm Christians. We not only harm ourselves living like this but all those around us, creating a stumbling block. We who call ourselves Christians are accumulating more blood guiltiness for ourselves than unbelievers by betraying, to their eternal ruin, multitudes who fix on us for their standard and example.
We have to grow up to be models of godliness. Study his character; mark it in its most sublime traits in the scriptures. Read his life in Acts and read his teachings and thoughts in the epistles and follow them, as that is God’s will. Let his principles be yours, his spirit yours, and his conduct yours. Then the God of peace will be with you.
What a tremendous thing it is to have a church full of people who are true, valid models of what practical godliness is. Oh, I pray we become a church like that.
Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Bangalore 