Missing the Mark Series: Unwilling to Be Taught

Missing the Mark Series: Unwilling to Be Taught

But tonight we're going to be in Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3 and verse number 13. Philippians chapter 3 and verse number 13. Paul says, Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded. And if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk. So in verse 14 is the word mark, but it is the word for goal or finish line.

I press, he says, I press toward the finish line, towards the goal, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. The prize for Paul was to not be found in having his own righteousness, but that righteousness which is simply by the faith of Christ, that he would not hear well done by the world and by his peers, but that righteousness which is simply by the faith of God in Christ Jesus. Well done, you've done many good works. No, well done by the Lord, because he, well, as we do today, we walk by faith. We walk by faith, not by sight. Our righteousness is not by our own works, that we should boast, not of works which we have done, but by his grace, by God's grace, by faith in his grace.

Paul was attaining or accruing righteousness through his own works. But as he says here, I'm not attained, and neither am I already perfect, but he was motivated, of course, by Christ and Christ's love, and so he was pressing toward the finish line. And then at the end of his life he would say, I have finished my course. I've kept the faith. There is laid up a crown of righteousness for me. Not because, he said, I strive according to his working. It's all by God's grace that I am what I am.

And he would say that it was not that he should boast, but he said, I would not boast save in the cross of Jesus Christ my Lord. That's what he had his eyes on. He had his eyes upon Christ and his work, not upon himself, not upon, look at all the things that I have done. No, he said, I count those things but dung. I count that, and that's what he means here when he says, forgetting those things which are behind. All of that I have counted but loss. I've counted it as wasted, vain, that I may, that I may, that I may, that I may, that I may, that I may, that I may, that I may, that I may, that I may, that I may, that I may, that I may please him, that I may have my eyes set upon him, that he is the goal.

And all that I am, and all that I hope to be, and all that I know, and all that I will know, and be able to do, is found in him, is found in Christ. He used to take confidence in his own flesh, but now he says, we are the circumcision, the true circumcision, the Jews inwardly, who have no confidence in the flesh. Our confidence is in the Lord. The Lord, the one who stands at the end of the way. He is the way, and he stands at the end of the way. He is the goal of everything we do. Why do we do what we do? Why do we sing? Why do we pray? Why do we study? Why do we witness? Christ.

It is for him, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Looking unto him. That's the goal. He is the goal of the Christian life. But, sad is the day that a person will say, I've attained. I don't really need to keep learning. Sad is, forbid the thought that we would say, you know, I really just don't, I don't need to learn anything else. And maybe we would, maybe someone wouldn't just come right out and say that. But, it can be observed that, that we can act that way, like we don't have anything else to learn or to gain.

You know, when we look at someone, I think of different ones of you, in our church, that said, I want to wear out. I don't want to rust out. I don't want to wear out. I don't want to, I don't want to stagnate. I don't want to come to the end of life and just be, in so many terms, a bump on a log. I want to be active in mind. I want to be active in body. Well, God didn't save us so we can be bumped on a log or think that we've achieved and we've attained everything there is to learn and everything there is to do. Is to do. There's always more.

When we die, there will be more. When we die, there will be, or when the Lord comes back, He wants to find us watching and working and about His business. Even if that means, even if that's on our deathbed and the only thing we can do, I think I told them this week at Breckenridge, I said, even if you come to the end of your life, if we come to the end of our lives and we can't physically do anything, we can pray. We can, we can be about the Lord's business even there.

But what is it that keeps us, that would produce the thought, that would bring about the thought in our minds, you know, I've kind of like, I've arrived, so to speak, or I've, I just don't really have anything more to do. Well, pride. Pride, pride says, look at all I've done and all I know. And, and laziness. It's slothfulness. Laziness or slothfulness. We saw that recently. We're to be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, right? Not slothful in business, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.

If a doctor, and I think some of them have, if a doctor stops learning and stops growing in his pursuit of knowledge of what will be helpful for his patients, you don't really want that. That kind of a doctor. You don't want a doctor that's just taking the lazy way out and thinking, you know, I've got it made in the shade. I don't have anything else to learn. And they're not, and they're not really aiming to improve. They're just rocking and knocking along.

And you know what happens, as we've said many times before, when you have something that's stagnating, it breeds a foul smell and it breeds corruption, doesn't it? It has a corrupting effect on others. Or we might say like a knife that you never sharpen. Well, I sharpened my knife a couple years ago. Well, it gets duller and duller and duller with use because if it's not sharpened, well, we need the fellowship of the saints. We need the study of God's Word. We need trials to sharpen us, to keep us from stagnating, to keep us from getting dull.

Because we do, we do tend to get dull. We tend to get stagnant in our lives. But there's no reason that we have to unless we have pride or laziness in our hearts that would lead us to that. Paul was diligent. He was diligent because he realized, look at what all the Lord has saved me from and everything I am right now is because of His grace. And He's put a desire in my heart to do His will and to know His will. And so I want to strive according to His working that works mightily in me.

I am a bond slave. I am a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ and I'm going to serve Him until I die. I'm going to do His will. That was his mindset. I'm running a race, as he would say. I'm running a race that's set before me. Um, but look in Proverbs chapter 3. Proverbs chapter 3, verse number 5. In verse number 5, Proverbs chapter 3, verse number 5, we read this. You know it. We probably don't even have to turn here. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding in all thy ways.

Acknowledge Him. And He shall direct thy paths. Acknowledge and confess your need of Him. Acknowledge what He's saying to you and how He's directing you or what He's commanding you and He will direct your paths as you comply with His will, as you believe His word and comply instead of failing to believe and not being compliant with His will as we've seen. Be not wise in thine own understanding, be not wise. Here's the big part of the problem right here. Be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil.

This, you cannot, you cannot, we cannot, I cannot coast through the Christian life. If you're coasting, you're going to drift, right? We've got to move forward with the Lord in the Lord's will in our lives. We've got to keep learning. We've got to keep growing, growing the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Fear the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, isn't it? Fools despise instruction, but the wise will hear and increase learning.

It's said that in the philosopher Plato, I'm sorry, of Socrates, rather, in Plato's work, Apology, Socrates explains that he became known as wise because unlike those who confidently believed that they knew things that they didn't, he recognized his own ignorance. He came to the conclusion, I do not think I know, what I do not know. I do not think I know something that I don't actually know. The story is that the oracle at Delphi declared Socrates the wisest man. Socrates was puzzled because he didn't consider himself wise.

He investigated by questioning a number of different people, politicians, poets, craftsmen, and after talking to many different individuals, it's said that he discovered that many people thought they possessed knowledge they didn't actually have. Socrates, however, recognized the limits of his own knowledge and he came to the conclusion that perhaps he was wiser than they were because he knew that, he said, I know that I know nothing. I know the limits of my knowledge and there's so much more to know.

And this is obviously not speaking of a Christian here, but it's just, the point is, knowledge in and of, for its own sake, puffs up, doesn't it? Knowledge tends to puff us up and make us think, yeah, look what I've learned, look what I've done, look what I've accomplished. That's pride. But in his own way, he was acknowledging, humbly, I have much more that I don't know, but it seems like I'm one of the most, one of the very few that, or maybe the only one that's, that's not puffed up falsely with an understanding that, a thought that I know something that I don't know.

You know, it's been said before, it's okay to say, I don't know. If we don't know something, don't just pridefully try to make it look like you know something that you don't know. It's just, it's okay. I'll try to find the answer to that, but I don't know it. We always have more to learn. There are, the scripture teaches us about the fool and the scorner, though. Those are two individuals that don't like to be told. They like to appear that they know everything. Or they don't want to increase learning.

In Proverbs 1, verse 7, what do we read there? Proverbs 1, verse 7. It says over there, that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. They don't like it to appear that they need to learn. They would rather remain in their folly than to humble their pride and fear God and actually learn and increase understanding. In Proverbs 9, verse 8, it will say over there, in Proverbs chapter 9, verse 8, it says, Proverbs 9, verse 8, it will say over there, in Proverbs chapter 9, verse 8, it will say, Proverbs 9, verse 8, it will say, Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee. Rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.

A scorner doesn't like to be told he's wrong. In Proverbs 13, verse 1, it says here, that a wise son heareth his father's instruction, but a scorner heareth not rebuke. Does it like to be told that he needs to learn? He doesn't have a will to listen and learn. He'd rather run his mouth, right? He'd rather keep scorning rather than hear and receive instruction with the fear of the Lord and with humility. Scorners refuse to learn from their mistakes. They keep doing the same foolish things over and over again, and they keep repeating. the same sins because they refuse to learn.

They refuse to acknowledge they need to learn. But the wise never stop learning. The wise fear the Lord and realize there's always more to follow. He knows the way that we take and he will direct our paths if we just trust and obey him and lean not to our own understanding and be not wise in our own eyes. We really think we're wise in our own eyes is when we stop learning. When we stop learning what the Lord has to teach us and how he wants to lead us.

A wise man will hear, Proverbs 1.5 says, a wise man will hear and increase, will increase learning and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels. Look in Proverbs 9, verse 9. What does it say there as well? Proverbs 9, verse 9 says this, give instruction to a wise man and he will be yet wiser. Teach a just man and he will increase in learning. And what is it that motivates a wise man to want to keep, what is it that motivates him? It's the fear of the Lord. It's the acknowledgement that I know nothing and he knows everything.

I am just a vessel and I leak, but he's the fountainhead. He's the source of wisdom. And even the knowledge that I have will go bad just like those, blueberries, if you leave them on the counter. They'll go bad within a short amount of time if you don't keep going back to the source, the bush and picking some fresh ones. What knowledge you have will corrupt through pride if you don't continue to humble yourself and go back to the tree or go back to the vine or go back to the bush.

The Lord says, without me, you can do nothing because the vital life source comes from the vine. We're just a source of wisdom. We're just a branch. Without Him, we know nothing and we can do nothing. He sustains and gives and sustains life. Well, teaching and learning. Paul was always, yes, learning of the Lord and sharing with others. Giving the Word to others. Preaching the Word. Teaching the Word to others of what God had given to him. His life was not just about only talking. His life was, and giving, his life was about receiving.

The Lord taught him many things through the trials that He sent to him. He saw just this morning what I have learned in whatever state I am. The Lord has taught me. I've learned to be content. I've learned to be content. I've learned both how to abound, how to be a base, and how to abound. I can do all things through Christ. Not through some knowledge that I got downloaded, you know, years ago and I'm just sort of, I'm just sort of running on this old knowledge that I received. No, I have a real living relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

And anything that's gained, anything to me, I count it but loss. That I may know Him and I may grow in Him and I may show forth His praises. Because this is, you know, we have a book, we have a Bible we read, but it's not, we don't worship the paper. We worship the one revealed on the pages of the paper that we read. We worship, we thank God for the paper. We thank God for the book. Thank God for those who went in blood, sweat, and tears, gave their blood, sweat, and tears to record and to translate the Word. But it is God's Word.

And it's in those sacred pages that we see Him. You know, the scripture, not the scripture, but the song that we sing, take time to be holy. Speak off with thy Lord. Spend much time in secret with Jesus alone. I may be mixing the verses up, but you know the hymn. Take time to be holy. Take time to be holy. Take time to be holy. Take time to be holy. Let Him be thy guide. And we need to take time in God's Word with Him and hear what He's saying to us. Learn of Him.

And then, you know, even as we share one with another, we can be like iron sharpening iron where we where we we share of the things that God is speaking to us about individually. Well, it's interesting that knowledge puffs up, but if we are truly made wise and hear what the Lord is saying to us, it's not just about the knowledge for its own sake, but it's more of that understanding of what we read the Lord says, take my yoke and learn of me. That's the way we learn. That's the way we truly learn and increase understanding and wisdom in our lives.

And our paths are directed is when we're we submit our will to His will and say, teach me, Lord. Show me thy way, O Lord. Teach me the way that I'm supposed to go. That's kind of like that we said recently the was it Wednesday night? They forsook their nets and followed Him. They're talking about following even a rabbi so closely that you're going to be covered in the dust of his feet. I want to learn. And this Christian life, we're disciples. The disciple life is a learning life. It's a learning. There's something new to learn with every stage of life.

You know, we're, you know, we just have a new teenager here and we have all four of our children now in school at the same time. This is a stage of our lives. And there's going to be another stage. And there's going to be another stage. And we're all going through different stages of our lives and different, different tests and joys and privileges. And we want to learn as we walk with the Lord through each one of those, those stages. We need to have the curiosity, we might say, of the Bereans when they search the Scriptures. What does the Scripture say about this? About this matter.

We hear things. We are brought to think about certain things because of the things we've heard preached or the things that we're going through at different times in our lives. What does the Scripture say? They search the Scriptures daily, it said. Well, we need to have a tender heart so that we can learn. Not a proud heart, but a lowly, a tender heart so that God can impress His thoughts upon our hearts and minds. We need to, we need to let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom. We need to hunger after God's Word.

You know, the, there's, there's this thing that we sometimes say, I think when we were, when I was growing up, we had a next-door neighbor and their son was what we would, what I heard, mom and dad refer to as a professional student. Professional student. In other words, he went to school for over a decade and he just kept going to school and kept going to school. He never actually, as far as I can remember, he got, went out and got a legitimate job. He was just always, always learning. He was always in school.

Well, we don't want to become professional students as Christians in that sense. Where we're just hearing and we're just getting fat with knowledge, but we're not, you know, kind of like you, you want to eat a good meal, but then what's the purpose you eat the meal? Well, you eat the meal and then you go out and you work and you exercise and you use the strength that you got from the meal rather than just getting fat and becoming a couch potato, right? Well, we don't want to become spiritual couch potatoes as Christians where we're just so fat from knowledge.

Well, I got all this knowledge and it will make us have a big head. It will fatten us up, but we won't be strong in the Lord because that knowledge has to be tested. It has to be tried. You know, we pray it all the time, don't we? Help us to apply the things we've learned today. Help us to apply the things, you know, when we have our own personal devotional time, studying God's Word. Well, you know, you know, we need to take some of those things that we've learned and maybe share it in a note that you write with someone. Talk about it in a conversation. Share something the Lord showed you.

Even as you're walking through some trial and the Lord has helped you to see something and learn something new, well, what do we do? If we have a bounty, you know, I think the staplers and the bounty in their garden, they're sharing it with other people, right? I mean, that's something we do if we have extra of something in the natural realm. Well, if the Lord has blessed us spiritually, then we're not to be just a reservoir. We're to be a channel, a blessing to share the overflow of what God's blessed us with.

And yet, we're not just to be, it's also true, I think about this as parents, as parents, as a pastor, I've got to be careful that I'm not just, I've got to be, I've got to be sure that I'm feeding in order that I can, that I'm being fed so that I can feed. I've got to be, you know, a husband and wife relationship, a parent with child relationship, a caregiver with a, with a loved one that needs care. That individual needs to be recharged, so to speak. They need to be, sometimes they need that rest and that recuperation so they can continue to give.

Because you can give, give, give, give, give and do, do, do, do, do. But if you're not continuing to draw upon the source of strength and of wisdom, then you're just going to become depleted. You're going to become so depleted. And that's, I think I mentioned that hymn, Take Time to Be Holy. It says, spend much time in secret with Jesus alone in that hymn. We need to, spend time in secret. Sometimes even our Lord, He was so busy working miracles and doing things that He drew aside into a place to pray with His disciples. He drew aside into some place.

There is a place for getting alone and getting quiet or getting alone in prayer. Well, all of that being said, we must as Paul says here in the text tonight, we must be careful to always remember in what we're doing that it's not about we've not already achieved or we've not already as he says here in verse 16, attained but let's have this mind he says in verse 15. Let us be perfect. Of course, that's talking about in Christ. As many as are in Christ, let us be thus minded. What's this mind? That we're pressing toward the goal. We're pressing toward the mark. We're pressing towards the finish line of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

The end and aim of our lives is that we are looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. As we do that, as we do that, let's be reminded that we're always forgetting those things which are behind us but reaching forth for the Lord's glory to the things that are before us. How many things does the Lord have to still teach us in our lives? How many things does the Lord have let's not despise the chastening of the Lord even because even through the chastening the Lord brings in our lives He's teaching us something.

You know, there's some very difficult things. There's some very difficult things that we have to go through, but we must fear the Lord and humble ourselves and say, there's a lot that I still don't know. There's ways that God is going to yet even use me to be a blessing to others, but I've got to learn what He's teaching me. I've got to keep my eyes on Him. If I get my eyes, if I get my eyes on the means by which God is putting me through the wringer, we might say, putting me through the wringer, we might say, then I'll become bitter and I'll lose that learning and that humble spirit of learning of the Lord.

But like George Washington Carver, I know I've referred to him a number of times over the years, he would say that when he got up every day he got up, he viewed himself as tuning in to God's radio station and learning more of Him. And a lot of that, yes, about His Word, but also about, you know, he missed a lot of things, about having many words, natural things. He said, there's always more to learn in so many words. There's always more to gain. Let's not stagnate. Let's not be lazy. Let's not be mentally lazy. Let's not be proud and think, well I've done pretty good for myself.

You know, sometimes as we get older we might think, well, we've done a lot. No, the Lord always has- as long as He has us here, He's got more to teach us. He can teach through any number of means, let's not commit the sin of thinking in some form or fashion that there's not more to learn. No, there's more to learn as we walk with the Lord daily. Let's not stagnate. Let's not grow dull through our lack of tenderness toward the Lord and our lack of the fear of the Lord and letting Him teach us by getting our eyes on men and getting distracted from what is the Lord actually teaching us through this?

He doesn't want us to get our eyes on the problem. He wants us to keep our eyes on Him so that we will see the solution to the problem. So that we will see how we can even gain the blessing and be able to share the blessing with others. That He's showing us through the things that He's teaching us in the trials. So may the Lord help us with that. Let's pray. Father, thank You for these moments we've had in Your Word. Help us not to be wise in our own eyes. Help us not to lean upon the arm of flesh to respond and react to things thinking that this will be the way to handle it.

Lord, help us to always have that tender heart that's humbled and willing to learn what is it You're trying to teach us. How to think, how to act, how to react to things, Lord. Help us to remember that we need to forget those things which are behind. Lord, help us to put those things behind us that You've saved us from and to reach forth unto those things which are before us. That we would press, we would earnestly, press forward toward that goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. May this be our spirit every day. May we not let anything distract us from that.

That we might lean to Your Word and upon the Holy Spirit for understanding rather than leaning on our own understanding. That's a stagnant and it will corrupt. It will be a corrupt understanding. But as You teach, as we take Your yoke upon us and learn of You, then we can really be a channel of blessing to our neighbor, to our children, to our brothers and sisters, to those that are without Christ. We can have something meaningful to say. We can have something meaningful to do for Your glory. Bless us now as we conclude this service with a final hymn. Bless us as we go out this week, Lord, just to be about Your business, to learn of You and help us to be a channel of blessing, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.