Growing - what is that process?
Vern Peterman · Apr 3, 2011
What God Is Doing in Believers, No. 14
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926230325684

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So now we're turning a page and the way we have this planned out is basically each month we start on another subject and build on what we've had before. Growing is the word we'll be looking at here and there are some related words and ideas that we'll want to make sure we take a look at. Remember in January we looked at the spiritual anatomy of a believer, looking at the new man, the old man, new nature, old nature, and the continuing person, the part that actually does the growing, that actually does the being transformed, being conformed, and as we'll see next month, being sanctified. And then we'll go in the month of June to growing part two. And that is, oftentimes we think of growing, we think of the growth of the individual spiritual growth of the believer. But what we'll move on to in June is the growth of the body, which is, both of those are intended by God to be in parallel. And so we'll be looking at that in June.

Let's take a look at this. We've got an outline for what we're going through for the next several weeks here. Today, growing, what is that process? And just kind of do an overview of what it is. Next Sunday, growing, what is God doing? What's God's part in our growing? And thirdly, growing, what is the believer's part? And fourthly, growing, conform, transform and maturing, how does that all fit together? Now, what I have to tell you today may be shocking. I'm glad you're sitting down. We've been spending all this time on being conformed and being transformed, and that was with good purpose. I hope you found it useful and insightful. What we start with here, we use this word grow and a related word is mature. Let's take a look at the slight difference between the two words.

To increase in one or more spiritual characteristics along with development is to grow. What's the difference between just increasing in spiritual characteristics and development? One is character and one is maturity. Okay, notice the idea of increasing is it's the same thing, but it's growing, right? Whereas development may in fact be a new capacity or capability. So it's not simply increasing in the same character, but perhaps even a new capacity or capability.

When we think of our kids growing, when we think of a kid growing, we might look at measuring their height. And you can have pictures in your mind of somebody standing next to a wall or a doorway and taking a pencil and marking off the height. And then you can weigh them and other parameters for are they growing physically, right? But then, so that's just increasing in some number, right? But there might be some new capacity.

And an example, when a kid is smaller, they get to the place, well, at what age did they start walking? Were they walking before? No. They were, I think, just about now as a little Ellie Emerson's first birthday. And my understanding is she really loves chocolate. And it's also my understanding if she sees it, she will do this kind of military crawl across the floor with great vigor and speed. But it's a new capacity to begin walking. And one of the things Nancy and I noticed is as soon as Randy learned to walk, it wasn't but microseconds that he learned to run.

So it's not just an increase in some number, right? But it's also a new capacity and capability. And that can be a part of growth. So those are the two elements we want to keep in mind. There can be not just a gradual increase or maybe some kind of irregular increase, but an increase, but all of a sudden a new capacity. That's what I mean by development. A new capacity, a new capability that shows up that wasn't there before. One of the things that develops later in a child's life is the ability to think through the consequences of things. You notice that? and the ability to think through the consequences. That's a later development.

So then we have mature. To mature is to progress spiritually toward attaining full growth and development. We also call that maturity. We mature towards maturity. So that's They're related words, obviously, but not identical. Okay. What we're going to come to see here is that spiritual growth and maturity have an internal component and an external component. Lessons. When we say internal component and external component, what we're talking about is even, let's take a physical analogy. If someone grows Does the growth just happen regardless of what happens to them externally? It doesn't. What do people need to grow? What do kids need to grow?

Food. Not an Xbox. They need food. And what else? In other words, the food, the water, the nutrients, air, those are all kind of physical basics, but in order to guide their capabilities and also put them on the right path versus the wrong one, training. So those are external inputs. Inside them, things also have to be going right as well. As a matter of fact, if something isn't going right inside them, we'll probably be calling the doctor up and saying, what's going on here?

My kid's, it might even be the other way. My kid's only six months old and he's walking. Is that okay? When our kids, I think Randy was about 10 before we ever had a television, and we had a babysitter ask one time, are your kids going to grow up normal? Well, I hope not.

Anyway, so those inputs are one thing, inputs of different kinds. It's everything from the basics that we need that Jessica alluded to, But other kinds of inputs also are a part of that growth and development and maturity, right? But we also have things going on inside of us physically. that are a part of using those inputs and those are put to growth and development. Well, the same thing happens spiritually. What kind of spiritual inputs do we need in order to have spiritual growth and maturity? What are the inputs that we need? Pardon? We need the Bible. We need God's Word.

And as a matter of fact, one of the things, we don't address it here in any degree at all, But one of the inputs is, in fact, that there are different levels of Bible for different stages of maturity. And there's reference, for example, for milk and meat for different ages and stages of spiritual maturity. So you're right. That's a good one. The Bible is a necessary input, just like Jessica made reference to the food. It's a necessary input for spiritual growth.

What else? Would prayer be something? Yeah, and let's talk about how is prayer a spiritual input, and what are the different kinds of it that can have an input on the growth of a person. I guess that goes along with what I was going to mention, that interaction. that we have, like we're having now, the interaction is important so that we would understand what others may be interpreting. See, these are important things to understand. You brought up prayer, but in fact there may be several different kinds of prayer that are involved. The interaction we talk about, let's talk about several different kinds of interaction. And so the reality is you're talking about there needs to be a spectrum. of interaction, and some of it's things like this, and some of it's things like, you know, sitting down one-on-one, some of it may be, you know, gathering in large groups.

You know, we're going to get together after the main service. What are we going to do? We're going to go together to interact, okay? And even, you know, it's funny, at one point in time I had somebody complaining because they couldn't get people into the main service because people are back there fellowshipping. I said, that's a wonderful problem. You know? Because it's the interaction, right?

And think about prayer. What kind of prayer is a valuable input? Think of the different kinds of prayer that are valuable inputs. Can you think of some? Communication with God about what? Between who? Between God and who? God and yourself. So that's one. And is there just one kind of communication with God?

No, that means there's praying for myself, there's praying for situations. We can pray at a small scale to something like, Lord, this thing is really bothering me. Could you heal it or give me some wisdom for knowing how to deal with it? Let's pray for our government leaders. What does Paul say? Pray for kings and those in authority everywhere. Why? So that we'd have the freedom to share the gospel.

So, I mean, we're talking things that are tiny, and maybe only we know about it, to things that are grand scale impacting the whole globe. And we can pray about all those things. Something that Nancy and I do regularly is we pray for our kids' families, we pray for their spouses, we pray for our grandkids. And so we can have an input into others' lives regularly And that's an input that's valuable too.

That's an input that's valuable too. Yeah. With observations and coming alongside the two interactions also? Yes. Explain more what you mean. I think you're on target. Coming alongside, that's the Greek word, paraklete, I believe. Yes. And that's to come alongside and support and to edify and encourage. Yeah.

And observation would be observing how others in the church meet circumstances and For example, like Doug being in the nursing home and how he manages that trial. He's not here. He hasn't been here for a few weeks. But we can continue to pray for him and here's the number, call him. So all these interactions, that's a tremendously valuable input. But you see how he responds to certain trials and stuff. I think that's really important. Yeah. It's learning things from the interactions with people. That's big.

Our prayers change as we mature and grow too. I know mine start out, I want, I want, I want, and now it's kind of, thank you, and they just change. People have asked the philosophical question, well if God knows everything and he's all powerful, do my prayers mean anything at all? First of all, scripture makes it abundantly clear that our prayer does mean something a great deal. Revelation says that the prayers are held in golden bowls in the heavenly scene. And that doesn't mean they run through the shredder, but that God values them.

And so there's that. I think the other aspect is prayer changes us. And I think that's what you're pointing to as well. Prayer changes us. So all these inputs, and we'll continue to talk about those in the weeks ahead here, all these inputs are valuable inputs. What about the components of prayer, thankfulness, and worship? Yeah, prayer is a spectrum, isn't it? Our interactions are a spectrum. Our interactions with God's Word are a spectrum.

In other words, there's a whole bunch of things to it. There's a lot of richness to it that is important for us to conceive of and understand. Okay. The second to last paragraph on page one, I'd like to talk this over just so we kind of get the big picture.

Being spiritually conformed is an analog to physically conforming a material to a desired or designed form or shape. In other words, if I take a piece of sheet metal and I'm conforming it to a shape, you understand what that means physically. Well, that same word then is used spiritually. So what's happening spiritually is an analog. to what we express physically. Yes? What does the word analog mean? Analog means it has comparable characteristics. Okay. Comparable characteristics.

And there's a reason for using that. In other words, all the words that are used so far, conformed, transformed, and now the word growth, and along with that maturity, All these words are analogs, that is, there is a point of comparison with some physical process. That's how the word is used. We say spiritual growth. Why do we put the word spiritual in front of it? Because the spiritual growth is a comparable thing to physical growth.

So that's what the word analog is about. In this, the end goal of conformity is to the image of Christ. Being spiritually transformed is an analog, that is there's a comparison, to the biological transformation process. Remember we showed that here's this butterfly and it goes and lays eggs and the eggs come out into a caterpillar and then into a cocoon and back into a butterfly. That's a biological transformation. Spiritually transformed is a comparison to that, going from one form to the next.

My reason for bringing this up is growth and maturity are spiritual analogs of the process of growth and maturity in a human being from birth to adulthood, and scripture makes multiple uses of that point of comparison. When a person is brand new in Christ, what do we say that they are in Christ? A baby, right? And as they get older, their diet gets compared to physical things. When they're young, it's milk. When they're older, it's meat. So there is a physical comparison.

And that's why, as you go through Scripture, everything we've talked about so far has some sort of a physical comparison in order to help us understand the spiritual. But what we will find is that being conformed and being transformed together express the same spiritual processes as growing and maturing. So that's why I'm glad you're sitting down. In other words, we've been talking about being conformed and transformed. Growing and maturing are ultimately the same thing. Why would God use growing and maturing in addition to being conformed and transformed? Why not just use one or the other, if they're the same thing? Is God being redundant? Yeah? Hello? I think it's a clarification.

It's a deeper meaning, a more fuller comparison. Yeah. In other words, what we see is they're both, again, a comparison, analog, to something physical. But, when we talk about growth and maturity, it may bring us to some understandings and perspectives that we wouldn't have if we simply used the words conformed and transformed. Carol, you had your hand up? I'm not so sure anymore. I was thinking that one is more a God thing that happens miraculously at a given point. and the other one is worked on over time. Okay. Ultimately is God involved in our being conformed, transformed and growing and maturing? Yes. Do we have some part in that or we just lay there and God does it? We in fact do have a part, right? And so both of those are the case, but taking a different perspective can sometimes give us insights into the characteristic of what God's doing, which is why we have this elective.

Yes, into the image of Christ. That's right, and what we have is we have these words being conformed, being transformed, Molded would be another way to put it. We are growing into, matter of fact we are going to get into this church body growth idea. And what does he say? We are all growing up into the head even Christ. Does that sound like being conformed and transformed into the image of Christ? Yes it does. So what we have is they are overlapping word pictures if you will. overlapping work pictures so that with the different overlapping work pictures we get more clarity and certainty and perhaps new insights. Yeah, Holly?

So, would it kind of be that, you know, when you're growing and less mature, you know, your parents are feeding you and, you know, choosing what you're going to eat, but eventually, you know, if you are more on your own and just keep choosing to eat, you know, junk food, then that's kind of more your own responsibility after a while. Yeah, I mean, there gets to be a place where we do have a responsibility as adults, right? And what's going to be the result of eating all the junk food?

I don't know. Where are you going with this? Yeah, and that's something as we look at what are the inputs to spiritual growth, If I have not the best inputs, what's going on inside? Remember, there's the internal part and there's the external part. If the inputs, the external part, is not real good, then what is happening inside is going to be limited too. As we look at this, this has applications to us as a church body.

You know, what's God doing? Why are we meeting here? Is this just a sociological phenomenon? Or is this actually something that God intended and has designed and has an explicit purpose for? And I would submit to you the answer is the second. That this is not just intended to be a sociological phenomenon. As a matter of fact, if an unbeliever comes in here, they ought to be able to look at us and say, you know, I can't explain what's going on in this room here with these people in terms of my, you know, Sociology 101. There's something beyond what can be explained.

I was at a church meeting one evening. It was a Sunday evening service where they had a kind of roving microphone. And remember one of the ladies stood up towards the back of the room. It was a much larger room than this. towards the back of the room and raised to have the microphone. She said, there is something going on here that I have to have.

So what she said is, I can't explain what's going on here on the basis of my sociology 101 and all the worldly explanations. there is something beyond there. And that's what God intends. God intends that there be spiritual occurrences, spiritual events, spiritual processes going on among us, both within us and among us and between us, that this world just can't explain. Because there is, in fact, spiritual interaction taking place, spiritual input taking place that can't be explained and just physical and sociological terms.

Okay, let's look at page two here. At the top there it says growing, growing, gone. We can say that one component of healthy physical growing is getting taller over time in the right proportions, of course, and gaining of healthy mass. But there are other aspects of growth that we look for, such as gaining in knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, as well as the development of mental and physical capabilities, capacities, and skills. These physical components of growth can be compared to the spiritual aspects of the growth of the believer. The New Testament epistles have a number of references to the individual believer's spiritual growth, increase, and progression.

These include And here's Acts 9.22, Paul, a new believer, what does it describe of him?

Acts 9.22, but Saul later called Paul, kept increasing in strength and confounding the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that this Jesus is the Christ. And he was a young believer. Here is Colossians 1, 9-12 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. 1 Peter 2, 1-3 Therefore putting aside all malice, and all deceit, and hypocrisy, and envy, and all slander, as usually happens in the world, right?

Okay? Like newborn babes, and by the way, this is the word for the youngest of the youngest newborn. This isn't just infants down the road. This is brand new. Long for the pure milk of the word so that by it you may grow in respect of salvation. Do you get saved more? No. You grow in respect to the salvation that you already have. See that? By the way, this growth approach, I would suggest to you one of the reasons why this is particularly helpful is that it's helpful in parenting. You got me on that? It's helpful in parenting because it so directly compares to the physical growth process that it is a guide to parents as to what is to go on spiritually in the lives of their kids. Even as a grandparent, I can be in support of that process, understanding this.

2 Peter 1 4-8 For by these he has granted to us his precious and magnificent promises, so that by them we may become partakers of the divine nature. having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now, for this very reason also, apply all diligence in your faith, supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness. In your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love.

These are all dimensions of growth, are they not? For if, better as, because actually there is no if in the Greek, for as these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. These qualities are yours and are increasing. That sounds like what? Growth, right? Yes, follow up. In Greek, so... No, in this Greek. There is in Greek, but not in this one. Oh, okay. Yeah, this sentence. Okay. Yeah. In this particular sentence, it's not an if, it's an as.

But as these qualities of yours are increasing, they render you neither useless nor fruitful. 2 Peter 3, 17, 18 at the bottom of page 2. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And we'll be taking a look at this two weeks from now, but that word grow is an imperative.

You've got a choice. But it isn't just a command to make a choice, you know, pick something. It's in a particular direction. You must choose in a particular direction as an act of will. Second thing with 1 Peter 2, long for is also imperative. Yes, it's also interesting in each one of these scripture references, there is a goal. And the goal is probably you could state it as God's will for that individual. Like in the first one, Acts, the goal is to confound the Jews because they're bringing in a new covenant, I guess, or it's a different way of looking at spiritual things, so the purpose is to confound the Jews. The second one is to walk worthy.

And so that's God's will for the believer? I think this is a very important point. Christians sometimes will just burst arteries trying to figure out God's will. And it's often this fork in the road thing when really most of God's will is not at all unclear.

What do you say? Walk. And how you walk. Is that unclear? No. It's not unclear. And look at all these increasing, increasing. long for the pure milk of the word so that by it you may grow." Is that God's will? Yep! It's not unclear. Most of God's will is not something we have to go and strain and agonize over. Most of it is abundantly clear.

And in those cases where God really wants you to buy the blue Chevy instead of the yellow one, He'll let you know. But, you know, Christians get all wrapped around the axle about trying to pick the right fork in the road. And it's really, you know, most of the time God doesn't care about that.

What His will is, is so clear. He tells you again and again. And thank you for bringing that up. That's just a tremendous insight that we do not need to go straining. If God has not made it clear about these forks in the road, If God hasn't made it clear, don't sweat it.

So he's going to tell me which one to pick up? Yes, he's going to tell you whether he wants you to buy the blue or the yellow Chevy. Or which fork? Yeah. We should not go and bust an artery over forks in the road. God has made so much clear. He's far more interested in that you fellowship with him than whether you get all wrapped around the axle about whether it's a blue or yellow Chevy. Yes, Bud?

Yes, the will of God is something that feeds us unlimitedly. Yeah. And we don't see these things. How many times have you made prayer and it didn't happen? Yeah. Well, now, the will of God figures into all of this stuff. Yes, absolutely. And it's manifested sometimes highly rewarding to say, Lord, you've kept me out of that thing I was so kind to do. Yeah. Yeah, you put it this way, thank heaven I was frustrated, right? Yeah, exactly. Okay, let's turn to page 3 here.

Increasing in the spiritual realm is also conveyed by passages in Paul's writings that contain a figure of speech in this form, from and its noun to noun, such as the one we saw in 2 Corinthians when we were studying through that. But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph. This is a triumphal procession. that the Romans and other ancient cultures would have, and manifest through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to the one an aroma from death to death, and the other an aroma from life to life. Life to life is a figure of speech that means growing. And guess what death to death is? It's growing, but in a negative direction, right?

So this is a figure of speech you'll find in the New Testament, and that's what shows up in 2 Corinthians 3, the very next chapter. Verse 18, But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, increasing glory. What did we say glory was? The radiant essence of who God is, right? increasing in that aspect of God, the radiant essence of who God is. So it's another way of talking about increasing, growing, maturing, more and more.

In the physical realm we have a pattern of growth, maturity, and decline. That's the way it is in this physical realm. Is that what God intends in the spiritual realm? No. So notice that there's a reference to growth, but there is no command, look, we need to see it declining spiritually.

Make a choice. Right? Is that what you see in Scripture? No. You don't see that. Why? Why don't we have this command, boy, you'd better decline. It's about time. Yeah, that maturing and then reaching some point of stability and then decline, that's the principle for this physical realm. What scripture does, it takes only that growth part and says that's normal.

My grandfather used to put it this way, he says, for the unbeliever, life is like the funnel that's large at the beginning and narrow at the end. For the believer, it's the other way around. For the believer, it's the other way around. He says it gets larger and larger as we proceed through life. Whereas the unbeliever is the other way. The funnel gets narrower and narrower as they proceed through life.

The same idea is communicated with words like, excel still more. That's 1 Thessalonians 4, 1 and 10. Or, about still more and more. Philippians 1, 9. So we have this growth and maturity. growing, growing, gone. My reason for that, saying that, is rather than having this growth, maturity, and then decline, it's we're to be growing and growing until we're gone. Right? You can grow up until your last days.

I remember my, I went to see my grandfather, because we were at that time living in Nevada, And my grandfather was in California, so it was some hours drive away. I went to see him just weeks before he went home to be with the Lord. He was 97. And he was in a care home.

And so I took him out into the lobby and I brought my guitar with me. And so we just sang hymns together out in the lobby. And other people were kind of, oh, this is interesting. But we just sang hymns together, you know. Here's my grandpa. He can't see very well. He can't hear very well. But he remembered the hymns and we could sing them together.

And he was growing until he went home. Growing, growing, gone. Growing, growing, gone. So it's not the principle that this world goes to growing, maturity, decline. It's growing, growing, gone. Growing until we go home. One way to look at it, you could say growing home. You're growing home. That's what we're here to do. And that's why we gather here at Holy Hills, is we want to grow home. Grow until that day when the Lord takes us home.

That's the neat thing. I mean, my eyes don't work as well as they used to. To read, I need glasses. There are parts that hurt that I didn't used to. I used to run track, and now I think it would put me in the hospital. But, so there's physical decline, but guess what? Spiritually, it's not the same principle.

God intends that we're growing and growing until we're gone. We continue to grow. Yeah. Until the last days. Until the last days. Let's explore that just a little bit. You hear what Craig just said? We continue to grow and eternity. Why? How could we grow in eternity? How could there be any growing going on? There's got to be a lot to learn.

Ephesians 2.7, he says, on into the rolling ages of eternity, he is going to show, that word show means to demonstrate physically, he's going to show us the wonders of his grace.

And you know what that's going to do? It's going to make us grow. And why would he show us if it was just sort of like, oh boy, you know, I've seen this before, where's the coffee break? Why would that be of any interest to us? It's because we'll continue to learn and grow. We will be in awe. Like the song says, after 10,000 years, we've just begun. We will be in awe, continuing to grow and learn.

How is that possible? How is that possible? Well, it says that the angels now are observing the current world and how God's kindness and perseverance and love is being demonstrated here on earth. So the angels are experiencing this same growth and process that you're experiencing. And that's an interesting thing.

While the Lord has us growing and has the intent that we grow until we're gone, while the Lord has us doing that, Ephesians 3.10 says that God is pointing the angels to watch us. To watch us. So you're walking angel college. You're walking angel college. Yeah, and what's interesting is while we grow by beholding the Lord, the angels grow by watching us as we behold the Lord.

That's very interesting. Here they're with the Lord, and the Lord says, in order to grow, I want you to watch them. So anytime you think, well, I'm all by myself. No, you're not. You are walking, breathing, living angel college. The angels, by God's deliberate intent, are watching you in order to learn about God's character. This is phenomenal stuff. And His character is infinite and His grace is infinite. And that's the gate. That's because when we walk through heaven's gates, we still serve an infinite God. And when do you catch up with infinite? Right? You don't get there. There is always room and place to grow when He shows His grace a zillion years from now It is still a growing process for us. We will still gasp in awe.

We'll be going, and it won't be, oh, I've seen this before a thousand times. When are we going to get a coffee break? I'm tired, you know. It won't be that. Because there will always be that growing process. It is not like it is here where we say Vern's been talking for five hours, I need to get up and walk around and get a drink or something. We just don't have those limitations there. Yes.

You know, from the book of Revelations, when we did that study, if we gain anything from that at all, we can see that it's a very busy place. So when you're talking about being bored, I don't think that would be the case at all. It's a busy place and it's also a place that is so phenomenal that it is difficult for us to get calibrated. Here, towards the end of the book of Revelation, twice John makes the mistake of beginning to worship an angel, not because he had any intent. to do anything wrong, but because he was not spiritually calibrated to tell what's the magnitude of glory of this angel versus the Lord himself. And you're right, we will take quite a while just to get our bearings. because the glory is so phenomenal. Imagine, here's an angel, a created being, the Lord shares his glory with that angel and the angel is so phenomenal that John can't tell the difference between that and the Lord yet. This is amazing stuff. Alright, let's look at the bottom of page 3.

How does growing relate to maturing? To this point we have been relating mostly to the words grow, growing and growth. But how does growing relate to maturing? Maturing and growing are certainly similar in related words, but maturing relates more to moving towards the end goal of character and capability. There is a goal, a direction towards which we are maturing. When you continue to mature, at some point it is anticipated you will reach maturity.

Scripture never talks about it is normal to reach a point of decline. See, we have whole programs in the government and on the private side and everything else to deal with the fact that as we get older we get to a place of finally there's a decline. That's not in God's program. You see in there where God says, well, these people are going to decline spiritually and that's just the way it is and it's normal. You see that? No, you do not see it in Scripture. There's no accommodation to it.

But there is this end goal. And tell me, in a person, what's the end goal of our maturity? The image of Christ. We are creating the image of God. That's been blurred, and the distinction kind of marred. but we are being conformed to, transformed to, and growing into the image of Christ. So God's Word teaches both concepts along with using other terms that convey the same thing, increasing, that sort of thing.

Maturing also has within it the concept of ages and stages of maturity. That's something we've alluded to here, but we'll talk about some more later. As we will see, growing and maturing has certain spiritual inputs that promote and provide for the growth and fit the level of maturity, as well as a corresponding character and outward expression of that character. When a person's outward expression is ahead of or behind what that person's outward expression ought to be, we say that person is immature or mature for that person's age and stage.

The same can be said spiritually. Maturity in a child is recognizable. As a matter of fact, especially as I look around, I've been here almost 10 years now, I look around and we've had kids that have been born and we see them developing and we say, boy, they really are growing up. And we can tell. Sometimes the parents wonder, but the rest of us can tell. But the same can be said spiritually.

That we recognize spiritual maturity. We also recognize, and in fact we're going to see as we go through this, signs of what does spiritual immaturity look like. So we know what maturity and immaturity look like. Do we know what it's like physically? Yes we do.

And that's why we've got different children's classrooms for different ages, right? Because based on their maturity level in varying degrees, different classrooms are going to be appropriate for different ones. And we don't have the infants in here and we've got the PowerPoint slides, give them a handout, make sure they've got a pen. Why? They're not mature enough for that.

Do we get worried about that? No, that's just normal for where they're at. But there is a description of what's normal for each age and stage of physical growth. There is also a normal for each age and stage of spiritual growth. What is of concern is if we see someone physically who ought to be at a higher level.

Paul writes, you know, I ought to be able to do this with you, but I can't. Why? Because you're still immature. So spiritually there is a comparable, you know, you ought to be here, but you're not, and that concerns me. Paul writes to the Corinthian church, and what does he tell them? They're still fleshly. I ought to be able to write to you and give you more meat and substance, and I ought to be seeing different behavior, but it's apparent that you're still fleshly. You're behind where you ought to be. You're not where you ought to be. Let's look at page 4, last page here.

Growing and Maturing. Spiritual Inputs, Character, and Expression. Some of the spiritual inputs that provide for the growth and toward maturity of the believer include God's Word, as one Holly pointed out earlier there, the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Next, the body of Christ by the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

One of the reasons we gather and have the other interactions that we have. And then finally, circumstances, especially including trials. By the involvement of God's Word, by the involvement of the Holy Spirit, by the circumstances, do you have a comparison to being conformed and being transformed? Yes, you do. And that's why we say growth and maturity are the same ways of expressing being conformed and being transformed. But we see both of those sets of words used in order that we have greater understanding, because they provide additional insight. And, as we'll see over the next couple weeks, we'll focus on God's responsibility, God's work in this and our part.

Here's from Chester McAuley, his notes on Philippians 2, 12, and 13. His notes on Philippians expresses God's part and our part in this growing and maturing process this way. Here's what he writes about Philippians 2, 12. Verse 12 points to a weakness on the part of the believers at Philippi. They tended to be a bit lax in their Christian lives when Paul was not present.

127 also says the same thing. Paul does not say they are to work for their salvation. He doesn't say that. But they are to work out their salvation. They are to work out the salvation they already have. Philippians 1, 1, and 7 make it clear that they already say the term work out means to carry something to its goal, its ultimate conclusion. In English we might say he worked out a salvation, excuse me, a solution to the problem.

We must remember that there are three phases of salvation. First is the justification phase wherein we enter the family of God by faith. Second, there is the sanctification phase that involves growth and development in the Christian life. Third, there is the glorification phase of salvation that occurs at Christ's return when we will be made like Him.

Now, the divine enablement part, the next part, the words to will point to the Lord's desire for us to will to decide to make quality choices. It is not the will of the Lord to crush the believer's volition. Ever hear somebody say, well, the Lord's got to break my will? You know, that's not biblical. The Lord doesn't say break your will. Some even have the misunderstanding that our will is somehow nailed to the cross and died there at the cross. There isn't any such thing.

Buddhism says your will is supposed to be dissipated and evaporated. In Christianity, all the way through, God wants us to will. God wants us to will. Paul writes to the Galatians, and he says, walk in the Spirit, which is a command, and that's a willing.

He doesn't say, you guys, when you grow up, you'll quit willing. He doesn't say that. He puts that imperative there that even my grandfather, here we are, he's weeks if not days away from going home to see the Lord. The Lord still wants him to will. Willing goes along with growing. It's not the erasing of willing, the erasing of choices that means maturity. We will have choices. We will make acts of will all the way to our last breath. Yes. So you could basically say that's the goal of growth and maturing, right? What's that? Our ability to will in accordance with God's will for us, or to please Him.

He wants us to do that all along the way. So the more knowledge that we have, the more growth and maturation that we go through, the more we are able to do that. Willing is not just something God wants us to do in a vacuum. He doesn't just put us in the closet and say, make a choice. What does He do?

He brings us along so that our perspective and our understanding and even our sentiments and feelings all come towards a point where willing to walk by the Spirit, willing to be in fellowship with the Lord, goes along with that maturity. The willing doesn't go away. The willing remains all the way to the very end. Let me read the last part of that. He rather desires that we actively choose to please him. The words to work show the result of the choices of the will. Good choices lie behind fruitful production.

Some elements of Christianity, some of the Quaker elements and what not, have the idea that our will was nailed to the cross and that we increasingly have a dissipation of will, and as we grow, we arrive at a dissipation of will. That's not what scripture teaches. Romans 6, you've been crucified with Christ. You've been baptized in Him, so crucified, buried, and raised with Him. And so what's the conclusion?

Romans 6.11, you've got a choice to make. You need to make a choice to consider and to reckon yourselves dead to sin. And growth does not consist in the dissipation of that choice. We will will until the very day that we walk through heaven's gates. That's God's intent. It's not the will or choosing that's diminished. Okay, so this is just an introduction.

Next week we'll take a look at this and look at what is God's part in this growing process? What has God done? What is God doing? Where is God taking this? What's His part in this growing process and maturing? And then after that we'll look at what's our place? What is our part in this growing and maturing process? That'll be next.

Questions? Exasperations? Inspirations? Perspirations? Anything? Yeah, Sam? I have a question. Jeremiah, it says that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Yes. So, as we become Christians, we still have that heart. Okay, and let's get specific. What part of the heart is he referring to? The deceitful and desperately wicked. What part of the heart? The sinful.

The sin nature. He's referring to the sin nature and it's a good description. Did sin nature ever come to you and say, hey, I'm going to tell you the truth? No, the sin nature is an expert at coming in and making a lie look pretty good. That's the deceptive part. So when we become a believer, do we get a new heart or do we grow and mature and in the process we develop more in a line with the new nature? In our position, we are the new man, all of whom we are in Christ, which has a new nature, and so in that respect we get a new heart, we are a new creature and a new creation. The sin nature is attached to this body and associated with this body, which is one reason God hasn't gotten rid of it. He'd have to kill you. It's attached to this thing. But there will come a day when we won't have this one. We'll have a new one. Thank the Lord. We will have a new one that doesn't have a sin nature attached to it.

So when we talk about having a new heart, part of that is our position. And part of it is also the ability to grow. Can the unbeliever grow spiritually? No. And so the capacity to grow comes along with our being in Christ. All of who we are in Christ is the new man, which includes a new nature, and by the way, a new history. A new spiritual history, right? In Christ. And so then we have the capacity for that continuing person to grow that was never there before.

So it's all being worked out through the process of God and man. God's doing his part. Well, yeah, if it wasn't for God doing his part, there wouldn't be any part for us to have. He just says, okay, you guys got to be perfect. None of us are going to make it. Not going to happen. But that's not what he does. So God has made a provision to save us, spirit, soul, and body. We've got the spirit and soul part taking care of the body parts next. I hope it's soon. Alright, let's pray.

Lord, we do thank you for the insights. This is an exciting and precious set of insights that we're going to be looking at here. Thank you for the opportunity and the ability to explore them and the deep and precious truths in your work. Thank you for the richness of it. We thank you in Jesus name. Amen.