The First Branch of the Text, the Scholar
By our immoderate worry, we take his work out of his hand. Worry, when it is extreme, either distrustful or distracting, is very dishonorable to God; it takes away his providence, as if he sat in heaven and did not mind the things here below; like a man who makes a clock, and then leaves it to run by itself. Immoderate worry takes the heart off from better things; and usually while we are thinking how we shall live—we forget how to die. Worry is a spiritual canker which wastes and dispirits; we may sooner by our worry add a furlong to our grief than a cubit to our comfort. God does threaten it as a curse, "they shall eat their bread with worry." (Ez. 12:1) Better to fast—than eat of that bread. "Be anxious for nothing."
Now, lest any one should say, "Yes, Paul you preach that to us which you have scarce learned yourself; have you learned not to be anxious?" The apostle seemed tacitly to answer that, in the words of the text; "I have learned, in whatever state I am, therewith to be content," a speech worthy to be engraved upon our hearts, and to be written in letters of gold upon the crowns and diadems of princes.
The text does branch itself into these two general parts.
I. The scholar, Paul; "I have learned."
II. The lesson; "in every state to be content."
The First Branch of the Text, the Scholar, with the First Proposition.
I begin with the first: The scholar, and his proficiency; "I have learned." Out of which I shall observe two things by way of explanation.
1. The apostle does not say, "I have heard, that in every estate I should be content," but, "I have learned." Whence our first doctrine, that it is not enough for Christians to hear their duty—but they must learn their duty. It is one thing to hear and another thing to learn; as it is one thing to eat and another thing to cook. Paul was a practitioner. Christians hear much—but it is to be feared, learn little.
There were four kinds of soils in the parable, (Lu. 8:5) and but one good ground. This is an emblem of this truth—many hearers—but few learners.
There are two things which keep us from learning.
1. SLIGHTING what we hear. Christ is the pearl of great price; when we disesteem this pearl, we shall never learn either its value, or its virtue. The gospel is a rare mystery. In one place, (Ac. 20:24) it is called "the gospel of grace;" in another, (1 Cor. 4:4) "the gospel of glory;" because in it, as in a transparent glass, the glory of God is resplendent. But he who has despises this mystery, will hardly ever learn to obey it. He who looks upon the things of heaven as unimportant things; and perhaps the driving of a trade, or carrying on some politic design to be of greater importance, this man is in the high road to damnation, and will hardly ever learn of things concerning his salvation. Who will learn that which he thinks is scarcely worth learning?
2. FORGETTING what we hear. If a scholar has his rules laid before him, and he forgets them as fast as he reads them, he will never learn. (Ja. 1:25) Aristotle calls the memory the scribe of the soul; and Bernard calls it the stomach of the soul, because it has a retentive faculty, and turns heavenly food into nutrition. We have great memories in other things, we remember that which is vain.
Cyrus could remember the name of every soldier in his huge army.
We remember injuries; his is to fill a precious cabinet of the mind, with dung. But as Hierom says, how soon do we forget the sacred truths of God!
We are apt to forget three things: our faults, our friends, our instructions. Many Christians are like sieves; put a sieve into the water, and it is full; but take it forth of the water, and all runs out.
Just so, while they are hearing a sermon, they remember something: but like the sieve out of the water—as soon as they are gone out of the church, all is forgotten. "Let these sayings, (says Christ) sink down into your ears;" (Lu. 9:44) in the original it is, "put these sayings into your ears," as a man that would hide the jewel from being stolen, locks it up safe in his chest. Let them sink in. The Word must not fall only as dew that wets the leaf—but as rain which soaks to the root of the tree, and makes it fructify. O, how often does Satan, that fowl of the air, pick up the good seed that is sown!
USE. Let me put you upon a serious trial. Some of you have heard much—you have lived forty, fifty, sixty years under the blessed trumpet of the gospel—what have you learned? You may have heard a thousand sermons, and yet not learned one. Search your consciences.
1. You have heard much against SIN. Are you hearers—or are you learners? How many sermons have you heard against covetousness, that it is the root, on which pride and idolatry grow?
One calls it a metropolitan sin; it is a complex evil, it does twist a great many sins in with it. There is hardly any sin—but covetousness is a main ingredient of it. And yet are you like the two daughters of the horse-leech, which cries, "give! give!" How much have you heard against rash anger, that is a temporary insanity; that it rests in the bosom of fools. And upon the least occasion do your spirits begin to take fire? How much have you heard against swearing. It is Christ's express mandate, "swear not at all." (Mat. 5:34) This sin of all others may be termed the unfruitful work of darkness. It is neither sweetened with pleasure, nor enriched with profit—the usual colors with which Satan paints sin. While the swearer shoots his oaths, like flying arrows at God to pierce his glory—God shoots "a flying scroll" of curses against him. And do you make your tongue a racket by which you toss oaths as tennis balls? do you sport yourselves with
oaths, as the Philistines did with Samson, which will at last pull the house down on you? Alas! how have they learned what sin is, who have not learned to leave sin! Does he know what a viper sin is—who will play with it?
2. You have heard much of CHRIST. Have you learned Christ?
The Jews, as Jerome says, carried Christ in their Bibles—but not in their heart. The sound "went into all the earth; (Ro. 10:18) the prophets and apostles were as trumpets, whose sound went abroad into the world. Yet many thousands who heard the noise of these trumpets, had not learned Christ, "they have not all obeyed." (Ro.
10:16) (1.) A man may know much of Christ—and yet not learn Christ. The devils knew Christ. (Mat. 1:24) (2.) A man may preach Christ, and yet not learn Christ—as Judas and the false apostles. (Ph. 4:15) (3.) A man may profess Christ, and yet not learn Christ. There are many professors in the world, who Christ will profess against. (Mat.
7:22, 23) Question. What it is then to learn Christ?
1. To learn Christ is to be made like Christ, to have the divine character of his holiness engraved upon our hearts. "We all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image." (2 Cor. 3:18) There is a metamorphosis made; a sinner, viewing Christ's image in the looking-glass of the gospel, is transformed into that image. Never did any man look upon Christ with a spiritual eye—but he went away quite changed. A true saint is a divine landscape picture, where all the rare beauties of Christ are lively portrayed and drawn forth—he has the same spirit, the same judgment, the same will—with Jesus Christ.