Doctrine and Sanctification

Let's pray together. Father, I thank you for this evening, the time we have to study your Word tonight. Father, I pray specifically that we would have the presence of your Holy Spirit tonight to help us understand the journey of sanctification, O Lord, and specifically the role of doctrine, of biblical knowledge. in that journey. So be with me, O Lord, assist me as I teach and all of us as we learn and obey your word. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Did y'all get a handout which says on it, of course, charted for spiritual maturity to see it. We're just going to be working through this tonight. This will have a really different feel from the exposition that I did earlier. What I did before is what I would generally do on Sunday morning, an exposition of a passage of scripture. This is the kind of thing that I went through over probably more than a year more like 14 or 15 months on Wednesday nights in our church. Let me just tell you the genesis of this whole inquiry here. Jesus left us the Great Commission and in the Great Commission he told us what we're to be about. He said all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you and surely I'm with you always to the end of the age. So he commanded us to make disciples to baptize them and to teach them to obey. And I think so often evangelicals just stop with making converts and they forget the whole Great Commission is one of making mature disciples. And so, as I'm thinking about tonight, what's in front of us, the topic that we discussed is the role of doctrine, biblical knowledge of doctrine in the pulpit and the pew. So we're in the second half of that looking at just the life of lay people. Really, I don't want to make that distinction, frankly, of all Christians, pastors and non-pastors alike. What is the role that doctrine plays in our growing up in Christ? And there's one verse I feel like the Lord just gave me. It's not in your outline, but if you take a minute and look in Colossians chapter one and verse twenty eight and twenty nine, this would probably sum up my whole message. You know, there's a lot of verses that would do that and we're going to see some in the outline that I've given you. But Colossians one, twenty, twenty nine. Paul talks about his ministry and he says there, we proclaim him admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom. So that we may present everyone perfect in Christ to this end, I labor struggling, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me there. Paul's end is clearly established. He wants to present every believer perfect in Christ. Now, that word perfect could be translated mature. All right. Now, ultimately, perfection will elude us in this life. I'm not a perfectionist. I don't believe that perfection in Christ is possible in this world. I did a study on Wesleyan perfectionism when I was in my master's degree time. And, you know, it was really interesting. You know, they talk about some of these Wesleyans that were claiming to be perfect and Spurgeon said he would stomp on their foot to see how they would respond. You know, I was testing them. You know, I would not want to play the devil's role in trying to drag somebody away from perfection, you know, that kind of thing. But I don't believe in I'm not I'm not a perfectionist in that regard. But I do believe that we are constantly every day to be aiming for perfection. It's not it's not the case that the Lord would say to a Christian, well, today you get a day off, you know, or I'm going to lower the standard. You know, you've been tired. You've done a lot for me recently. You know, we're going to lower the standard. The fact is that any gap. between the way we're really living, thinking, acting, etc., and the perfect standard, which is Christ, is sin. Any gap between them is sin. And therefore, we need a constant covering in grace, don't we? Isn't that true? At every moment, we need to be covered in grace. And I don't think we will realize how much we need to be covered in grace until we see Christ at last, face to face. We realize how far we were from him. and how our best hour. You can take our best hour and take that as our whole life and say that that was everything. If we were like that 24 hours a day, whatever, it wouldn't even come close to measuring up to the heavenly standard. That's how much we need Christ. Righteousness imputed to us how much we need is perfect standard. But we need to set our hearts in perfection to aim for perfection every day. And it comes across in so many different ways, simple commands in some of the letters in the New Testament, Paul's letters, for example, it will say something like be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love. How many of you did that today? All right, perfectly did that. I didn't say perfectly. OK, one brother right here perfectly obeyed that command. See, every single command of scripture stands over us and is what Paul calls in Philippians, the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. You could take a single command like that, be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love, and it will stand over you the rest of your life, beckoning you upward. And so that is the issue that's in front of us becoming perfect in Christ. Now, what does Paul say in Colossians 128 is his method for seeing that about? He says we proclaim him. Admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, there's the role of doctrine. We need to have the doctrine of Christ proclaim to us, talk to us faithfully, we need to teach ourselves doctrine in our daily quiet times, we need to be just feeding ourselves with the word of God so that we can grow in grace. We need to know more and more doctrine in order to grow. Now, what I want to give you tonight is a kind of a. a description of what spiritual maturity is what I wanted to do as a pastor is try to decide or discern from Scripture and from life experience. What is it we're aiming for? I'd like to know when, you know, when is somebody a spiritually mature man or woman so that we can know that they're ready for leadership in the church or, you know, that they could disciple others? What are we aiming for in our discipleship programs? I wasn't finding a good, clear description of this, so I just started to brainstorm based on scripture and on my pastoral ministry experience and other things to try to get a target that we could aim for. Now, in an absolute sense, the target is Christ. And you know that that's what we're aiming for. We're aiming for total and complete conformity to Jesus Christ. So that's simple. If you want to know what the target of perfection or maturity is, it's to be like Christ, Christ like maturity, Christ likeness. And so it says that those whom God foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. That's what that's what God is doing in us, conforming us to Christ. So that's ultimately what we're talking about, but I think it's helpful to break that down into component parts to try to understand what that means. And so that's what I tried to do in this handout. I'm hoping to write these things into a book on sanctification and working on that for a couple of years. See, now I've told another group and you're going to say, well, how's that book coming? You know, as other groups have said to me and, you know, I just need to find the time to do this, but I think that at least the handout will be helpful to you and hopefully I can develop it. If you would just open up and look inside. It says the role of doctrine in the daily life of believers progressing towards spiritual maturity. That's what we're looking at tonight. Now, what is God's goal, his overarching goal in history? It's good to start there. God has one central purpose in history, and that is his own glory. He does all things for his own glory. It's good to know that. Never forget it. Somebody I know, a student at Southeastern, we were talking about, it's like, you know, I'm just getting kind of tired of that glory thing. We're talking about that all the time. I said, well, brother, you know, it's not a trend or a fad. You know, it really is why he did it all. OK, it's not too hard to prove from Scripture. But, yeah, we never should get weary of that as a theme, you know, that is the central reason why God does all things to display his glory. Remember how he has said, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father is in heaven. In other words, that is, you live a good Christian life as you're generous or compassionate or just or merciful. You are displaying something of God, your creator, that way you're bringing glory and honor to him. all things for his glory. That's what it's for. So it says in Revelation 411, you are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they were created and have their being. God is the creator of all things, the ruler of all things, and therefore all things are for his own glory. And that's true also of redemption in Isaiah 43 is talking about Israel. And we as believers in Christ, we are sons of Abraham and part of this as well. It says, bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth. Everyone who is called by my name. Look at that. Whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made here. We could extend this not just a physical creation, but being newly created or born again in Christ. So for me, it's not just that I'm physically created and therefore glorify God, but we glorify God even better when we're born again. And when we have the indwelling spirit, we're regenerated by the spirit. We bring him even more glory. So God's central purpose is own glory. But how is he going to achieve that glory? What brings God glory in the world? And I would contend that that which brings him the most glory is saving sinners and transforming them and making them like Christ. There's nothing that brings him as much glory as that. That's the number one way that God glorifies himself in the universe. It's the pinnacle of the glorification that God does of his own name. So we see that in Ephesians 1, 3 through 6. Praise be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ, for he chose us in him before the creation of the world. To be holy and blameless in his sight and love, he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will. And there it is in verse six to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the one he loves. So God is glorified ultimately in this whole salvation process. It brings him great glory to save us. To redeem us, to rescue us from the dominion of darkness and bring us into the kingdom of the sun that he loves. I mean, to see us transform from people who hate him, to people who love him, from people whose lives are corrupt and shameful, to those whose lives bring him glory and who are law abiding, whose laws are written, his laws are written in our hearts and they're lived out by the power of the spirit in our lives. Now that brings him glory, that change does. And all the more when we're glorified and we have the radiance of Christ shining in us eternally, that's going to bring a maximum glory. So God's greatest glory, the salvation of his people. Now, I would break that into two parts as well. I believe that this that the salvation occurs from our own perspective. You start as an individual looking at there's an internal aspect, something that's going on with me personally, individually, and then there's something outside of me and external really to the ends of the earth. Now, I would contend that they are two aspects of the same thing. It's not intrinsically different. What's going on inside me is an intrinsically different to what's going on in the worldwide missions movement. It's the same thing, but it's helpful to break it into those those two things. And I was doing some preaching exposition through the book of Philippians, and I came across this Greek word Procope, which is translated progress. And I found it twice in Philippians one. And then from that, I drew out this journey aspect. Christianity was originally called the way the word way implies a journey, just as Jesus's words when he said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. That's all journeying kind of language. There's a sense of moving from here to there too often in evangelicalism. There's a static or a binary kind of black, white, dead alive feel. Are you born again or not? That kind of thing. And that's important and true. But we know that salvation is bigger than just justification. There's more parts to it than that. And so, therefore, having been justified, we then are compelled to work out our salvation with fear and trembling and growing grace. And so there's progress that needs to be made and that we're broke. OK, points toward it. There's two types of progress. Paul, of course, in Philippians one is writing to Thank the Church of Philippi for a financial gift that was sent to him because he's in prison. And if you don't have external support you're going to starve back then. And so it was amazing how God would raise up churches like the Church of Philippi and they'd send money and so he would be cared for in that way because he couldn't care for himself. And so he's writing them really the greatest thank you letter in history Philippians. That's what it is more than that of course. But in that, he's trying to explain his attitude about his chains and being in prison and about the fact that he's facing his own death, what he's thinking about that. And he wants to encourage them because they're facing the same kind of trials in their hometown. And he wants them to be encouraged. And he's using his own sufferings and his attitude about his sufferings. to encourage them, and so he talks about two things that have come out of his imprisonment. Look what he says in Philippians 125. He says, convince of this and that this that he's talking about is that he's going to be released. He thinks he's going to be released. He's not going to be executed. He said, I'm going to live and I'm going to be released. He says, convince of this. I know that I will remain and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith. Now, what does it mean progress in the faith? Well, I just think it's sanctification. It's becoming more and more mature in Christ. And Paul says, I want to help you do that. I want to use my spiritual gift. I want to use my life to help you grow up. Like it says in Second Peter, grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ, there's a growing. All right. That is what we call the external journey. It's external to Paul. I'm going to help you grow in your faith. And the you could be even to the ends of the earth. It could be an unreached people group. All right, so it's the external journey. Internally, he says in Philippians 112, I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. I'm sorry that the one twenty five is the internal journey of sanctification. The other one twelve is is evangelization. So I want you to know what's happened because of my imprisonment. The brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly. You know, all of a sudden, evangelists aren't afraid anymore to share their faith. They say, well, Paul's doing well in prison. He actually even seems to enjoy it. He's thriving. Why should I be afraid anymore? And so they're becoming bolder and sharing the gospel. And so, again, this Greek word prokope, what has happened has served to advance the gospel. Hence, if you look at the right below it, we have these two in these two journeys, the internal journey of sanctification, the external journey of worldwide disciple making brothers and sisters here to be about that the rest of your lives, the rest of your lives. They really are infinite journeys. All right, because let's take the internal journey. The standard is absolute perfection in Christ. Right. Absolute perfection, Christ. What is the goal of the external journey? Well, that people from every tribe and language and people in nation will be standing around the throne worshiping Christ. Right. Is there enough work for us to do in those two areas? What do you think? Is God glorified by making progress in that? Absolutely. That's our work. That's our church's work. That's your church's work. That's your work personally, the rest of your life, those two things. And it brings God glory when you make progress. You see what I'm saying? Now, the two journeys, as I've mentioned, are really one in the same thing. They're not intrinsically different. They're the same thing. And Ephesians teaches us that Ephesians 4, 11 through 16. It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists and some to be pastors and teachers to prepare God's people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure, the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants. Now, it's up there in that word infants. That's the opposite of mature, right? A movement from being an infant to being somebody who's not an infant is a process of maturation. You're maturing. Then we will no longer be infants. When will we no longer be infants? Well, look back when we attain to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. That's the standard of maturity. Well, how does that happen? Well, when the body of Christ is built up. Well, how does that happen? Well, when the individual members of the body of Christ do works of service, spiritual gift ministry, right, like administration or help or prayer or financial giving or all the spiritual gift ministries build the body of Christ. Right. When does that happen? Well, when apostles, evangelists, pastors and teachers teach the word. You see, so it starts with the teaching of the word, the body of Christ is motivated to do works of service, that works of service build up the body of Christ, the building up of the body of Christ goes until all of us reach unity. Who's the whole all? It's the elect that Paul mentioned in Ephesians one until all of the elect are fully mature in Christ will be doing this. That's the end of time, friends, so we're going to be about this work the rest of our lives. Then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Verse 15. Instead, speaking the truth. Now, before you turn the page, you're all turning. I can see you're turning the page. I see the page is turning. All right. That word, the truth there right before you turn the page. The truth is doctrine. Right doctrine. Speaking the truth. All right. That's what we're talking about here by speaking the truth. Now, turn the page in love. We will, in all things, grow up into him who is the head that is Christ. How do we grow up by speaking right doctrine to each other in love? That's how it happens. So what is the role of doctrine for the pew, for the people? And it's right here growing up into full stature in Christ, growing up into maturity in Christ by speaking right doctrine to each other. We have to saturate ourselves in right doctrine in order to grow up into maturity. Other than that will be infants, immature, blown and tossed by all different kinds of teaching. Do you see that? But instead of that, we're going to grow up into all him and again, grow up as maturity. It's a journeying right until we're more and more like Christ from him, the whole body joined and held together by every supporting ligament grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work. We all have work to do. And so as you help a brother and sister, a brother or sister in Christ grow up, you have a counseling situation, having trouble in their marriage, struggling. And, you know, maybe your woman, you've got a friend, another woman's having trouble with her husband in some way. And you just sit down and just bring some biblical insights to that situation. She's established. She's confirmed. She's comforted. You've helped her grow up a little bit. You've just built up the body of Christ until it's more like Christ as a result. It's going on all the time. And and doctrine is at the center of it. That's what we're looking at. Now, our focus tonight is the internal journey. This is not a missions talk. We're not so much talking about unreached people groups, although I do mention them. But this is an issue of each individual Christian layman out in the pew isn't so important to me, but just every Christian, the internal journey of sanctification, growing grace and a key passage for this or many key passages. Roman 617 is one that's very, very vital. You know, Romans six to eight. are the sanctification chapters par excellence. These are the best three chapters in the whole Bible on how to grow in Christ. It's Romans six through eight. There are many key statements, but I want to zero in on Romans 617. Romans 617 is one of those typically dense Pauline statements that you can just read over and miss all the things that are in there. But look what it says. It says, But thanks be to God that though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed The form of teaching to which you were entrusted. Wow, what's in there? Well, let's let's draw out just one thing that's rather stunning, OK? And I think it's really encouraging. If I can just for a moment simplify the concept by leaving out some words, I know there are curses on those that drop words out of the Bible. I'm not doing that. I'm teaching right now. OK, I'm just trying to draw out concepts. OK, it's still in your Bible and still in mine, too. But I want to just simplify, thanks be to God that you obeyed. Let me say that again, thanks be to God that you obeyed. Now, that is stunning. Most people would think obedience is our job and our job alone. Why should God get the glory or the credit for my obedience? Right. Imagine you're at Christmas, all right. And your spouse hands you a gift and it's clearly marked. It's for you from your spouse and you open it up and it's a it's a beautiful new Christmas sweater like the one you've gotten every Christmas the last 15 years. It's another Christmas sweater and you're excited and you're very very glad the colors are fine for you and you're excited. And having read the tag and all that you then turn to your oldest child and thank that oldest child for the sweater. What do you think everyone in the room is going to do at that moment. They're going to correct you. They're going to say it's from mom, from dad, you know, they're going to think you give thanks to the one to whom it is due. When your wife or your husband gives you that beautiful new Christmas sweater, you ought to thank them for it because they they deserve the credit. Thanks be to God that you obeyed. To God be the glory for your obedience. Heaven forbid that you would ever take the credit for your own obedience. Is your obedience important to your salvation? You better believe it. It is the mark of salvation, the fact that you are now obedient to God. This is love for God to obey his commands. That's what he's saving us to. But thanks be to God for from him and through him and to him are all things, even our own obedience. But there's more in the verse than just that. Thanks be to God that though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed, obeyed from the heart that form of teaching to which you were entrusted. Now, this is an incredible concept. Form of teaching is doctrine, is it not? It's a body of doctrine. But now look at it. It says you were entrusted. That's passive. Let me make it simple. How many of you parents have how many of you of you here are parents with kids? All right. All parents have kids. OK, but how many of you have? How many of you have ever entrusted your kids to someone else for safekeeping? Raise your hand. How many of you? All right. Is that a big moment actually deciding on a date with your wife? It's great when your kids get to be old enough to do the babysitting, not to pay anymore. So it's getting expensive. Ten dollars an hour or something like that. But anyway, that's a big moment. These are your precious children, your own flesh and blood. And you are going to entrust them to someone else for safekeeping while you're out on your date or whatever you're doing. You're going to entrust them. That's an important word. According to Roman 617, You were entrusted to something you were entrusted to doctrine. For safekeeping. Now, what does that mean? It means you're not done being saved yet, and God has basically handed you over to the gospel until you're done being saved. Are any of you done with the Book of Romans now? You're finished now. You don't need it anymore. I'm already saved, brother. What do you mean you're already saved? Actually, that is a biblical way of speaking, saved in the past tense, but we're also being saved and we will be saved. Salvation is an ongoing work, and therefore we have to be entrusted to doctrine until we're done being saved. And when are we done being saved? What's the finish line of all of this? It's the resurrection body. When you have your glorious resurrection body, when your body is as glorified as Jesus is, when death no longer has mastery over you, when the body of sin is finally destroyed and you are in a glorified body and every fiber of your physical being points you to God rather than dragging you away from God, when you're living in the new heaven and new earth, then you will know you're done being saved. You've reached the finish line at last. Now, my reading of eschatology is that nobody is done being saved. Nobody. Because nobody has a resurrection body yet. Everybody's waiting. We're all going to get it at the final end. Jesus is the first fruit. He has his resurrection body. He's the pattern. But at the final day, we will all be conformed to his body. Now, people's spirits, souls absent from the body, present with the Lord, they are totally conformed to Christ. Perfect. Those that have died and gone, but they don't have their resurrection bodies yet. And in the end, together, we will all get them on that great and final day, the resurrection day. And that's the finish line until then, until then, while we are in this body, we need to continually be being saved. And how is that? We're entrusted to doctrine. He has handed us over to good, solid theology. So you will need doctrine the rest of your lives to continue being saved. You need to keep reading Romans. There's more in here than you thought there was. There's more in here than I think there is. It's incredible. This is just one verse. All right. So that's the general idea. laypeople and pastors, all of us need doctrine the rest of our lives to continue this salvation journey that we're on. That's that's what I'm getting at. All right. Now, what I want to do is step away from these ruminations and just talk about what is it we're shooting for? What is a taxonomy or a description of spiritual maturity? One day I was sitting on my couch. And I just started to brainstorm. I still have a little piece of paper, you know, on the back of it is some somebody's phone number and something we had to get done like seven years ago. But on the other side, I have this list of just aspects of spiritual maturity. And I just started to brainstorm. So when I think of somebody who's mature, what do they like? And, you know, I just started to make a list. And what I want to give you here on page three and four, I think, is an overview or initial description of spiritual maturity. All right. And it's already got some work done on it. I just brainstormed in no particular order. And then I started to notice they came in four categories. And that is the essence of the book that I'm writing, is that spiritual maturity comes in four parts. Knowledge, faith, character and action. And I believe they come in that order and there's a certain progression to it. Knowledge is the ground of faith. Knowledge plus faith transforms character. Out of a transformed character, we live differently. That's what I'm arguing. OK. and that knowledge biblical knowledge and experiential knowledge both primes the pump for everything. And so therefore you need to be feeding on the word of God the rest of your life. That's what I that's that's the whole way I'm arguing here. So we'll start with knowledge. All right. A spiritually mature person knows the whole Bible very well. What does very well mean. Well, we're working on a standardized exam right now that you have to pass at 90 percent. No, there's nothing like that. You just know the Bible. If you if you don't know the Bible well, you may be a Christian, but you're not spiritually mature. That's all I'm arguing. All right. So there's a progress of just knowing facts about the Bible, knowing where, you know, the book of Haggai is and even better what it teaches and says, you know, things like that. Number two, a spiritually mature person has an abundance of life experiences that God has used to shape him or her. All right, we'll talk more about this in a minute, but that's the knowledge area. Number two, faith. A spiritually mature person believes that everything the Bible teaches is true. A spiritually mature person is consistently convicted about indwelling sin and repents readily. They're not arrogant or prideful. They don't stumble over the word repent. They do it every day. And so it's not a burden to be told you need to repent. They know that they need to repent and they're readily convicted about indwelling sin. A spiritually mature person actively trusts in Christ as Savior, Redeemer and provider. There's a Christ focus in faith. You're trusting in him. You have entrusted yourself to Christ. As one of the hymns says, venture on him, venture wholly, let no other trust intrude. You have ventured out like on a bridge onto Christ. If Christ fails, you will die and go to hell. But Christ will not fail. So that's the thing. You have ventured out and you're trusting in Christ. A spiritually mature person has a lively sense of their trust in Christ as Savior, Redeemer and provider. A spiritually mature person has deep assurance that specific promises in the Bible will come true. You know, like George Mueller. His life verse open wider. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. I mean, he claimed that for ten thousand blessings for his orphans. He just trusted in the promises of God for legitimate things. He was a faith filled person and mature spiritually mature person is able accurately to discern God's leading in specific life situations. You know what I'm talking about? I just felt the Lord leading me to do this and that. And they're discerning of that. They have the sense that God leads and they are able to discern that. Character, what kind of person are they? What are they like? Well, I already said they're like Christ. That's so that's ultimate goal. But what does that mean? What are we talking about? Well, a spiritually mature person loves God and God's people deeply from the heart and hates evil. So it's a love hate issue. You're loving God and what's good and what's righteous. And you're hating what is wicked and evil and wrong. It's not just one. It is both number nine, a spiritually mature person consistently chooses what God would have them choose and rejects what God would have them reject has to do with the will, what you actually choose. A spiritually mature person has the mind of Christ, allowing his or her mind to be controlled by the spirit, a thinking pattern, an attitude, you know, like it says in Philippians to have this mind in you, which was also in Christ, and then talks about his humility. There's a way of thinking that that is part of your character. It's a humility there and a way of thinking the mind of Christ. A spiritually mature person desires God and the things of God above all things. That's what they yearn for. You ask, what do you really want? What do you really want? I want God. That's what I want. If I have God, that's all I need. If I could just have God, if I could have Christ, I want Christ. Like Paul says in Philippians 3, I want to know Christ. That's what I want. Nothing else matters to me. It's just that I could know Christ. So a spiritually mature person wants that yearns for God, yearns for Christ. A spiritually mature person's feelings are constrained by the truth of God and by his nature. This has to do with your emotions, your feelings. Feelings are servants of perceived truth. What you think is true affects how you feel. Feelings don't lead, they follow. They follow what you believe. Let me give you an example from the Bible, give you a plain example. Think about what did Jacob feel? When he got Joseph's coat of many colors, which had been dipped in animal blood. And his sons, his deceptive and wicked sons, brought him this coat and said, we found this garment, could this be your sons and all this kind of thing? What was Jacob feeling at that moment? Come on, somebody tell me, I know the I know you're there, I see you. Somebody tell me what was Jacob feeling as he's holding that bloodstained garment, was he feeling? Grief, intense grief based on perceived truth. What is the perception of truth? What does he think has happened? Joseph is dead, ripped to shreds by an animal. Is it true? No, it's not true. Where is where is he? Well, at that moment, he was probably at the Midianites. Pretty soon he'll be sold into the Potiphar's home and he's got all kinds of adventures yet to go. And all that time, God never told him anything. Could God have told him, by the way, Joseph's alive, he's in Egypt. Could God have told him that? Actually, he did tell him that. Don't you remember when he didn't want to leave the promised land, when the sons came back and said, Joseph's alive, he wants you to come? He's like, ah, you know, how can it be? And he's finally convinced, but he doesn't know if he should leave the promised land. God appears to him and says, go. Joseph's own hand will close your eyes. You could almost say, if you're Jacob, why are you telling me now after letting me twist in the breeze for decades thinking he was dead? All of those times I cried, all of that misery for nothing. But what would Jacob have done if God told him the truth right off? What would he have done? Go get him, right? Rescue him, buy him out of slavery, get him back, get his son back, right? Nest the whole thing up. No exodus, no Red Sea crossing, no Passover, none of that. So God was willing to let Jacob suffer for many years, thinking his son had been ripped to shreds by an animal and go through all of those emotions. What is my point? Emotions follow perceived truth, not actual truth, perceived truth, maybe actual truth. If it's truly true, then your emotions are connected to reality. But at any rate, feelings of an emotionally of a mature person are connected to truth, biblical truth. That's all I'm getting at. And a spiritually mature person, number 13, is characterized by an abundance of Christlike character traits, such as. And by the way, when I did this, I thought this over 15 months. You know how many character traits there are described in the Bible? I mean, it's not just the fruit of the spirit. There are tons of them. I think I had a list of like something like 80 of them. What kind of person is a mature Christian? That's a deep question. Such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control for the spirit. Right. But other things, courage, submission, humility, compassion, justice, purity, and many others described as these are virtues, traits, et cetera. That's what kind of person number four. What kind of actions do they have? Well, a spiritually mature person consistently presents his or her body to God as an instrument of righteousness. What does that remind you of? Well, Romans 12, one was Romans 12, one say. says, therefore, in view of God's mercy, I urge you to do what presents your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. That is the first step of all physical obedience in the world. Physical obedience. I mean, you're moving a muscle group, you're doing something, you're acting in the world, speaking, moving, lifting, carrying, hanging any inward, OK, any action you're doing. You know what I'm saying? Well, the beginning of it all is presenting your body to God. these hands mouth eyes all of it is yours. God take it and use it. That's what he's getting at. Number fifteen spiritually mature person obeys God and personal holiness by putting sin to death in the power of the Spirit. Just going to battle against a spiritually mature person consistently worship Christ by the spirit. According to biblical truth spiritually mature person handles each human relationship properly. This is a matter of stewardship as dictated by Scripture actively loves other Christians. That's a stewardship matter has a well-ordered and godly family life. Either the husband or wife son or daughter brother sister whatever your role is you play it according to Scripture submits gladly to lawfully ordained authorities deals with every human being with spirit controlled behavior. interpersonal relating properly a spiritually mature person regularly disciplines him or herself for godliness by Bible intake prayer fasting corporate worship and self-control and lawful pleasures. In other words it's spiritual disciplines. These are spiritual disciplines just having a quiet time having a developed prayer life. Right. And what I mean by self-control and lawful pleasures like eating eating is good but gluttony is bad. You know sexual or marital relations is good as God defined it bad in every other way. So it's just a matter of carrying yourself properly and self-control in those areas spiritually mature person spiritually mature person is active in advancing the kingdom of Christ by evangelism discipleship prayer and sacrificial acts of benevolence to the poor. So that's just an outward life of ministry doing works evangelism other things. Number 20 a spiritually mature person is a good steward of earthly gifts as subject a subject of the kingdom such as money time spiritual gifts opportunities and any good and perfect gift. For from him and through him and to him are all things and we're stewards right there all his and so as a steward you look at your money every dollar you have is God's all of it not just the time all of it and so you just look at it that way spiritually mature person thinks that way and same thing with every time you sit on an airplane next to an unbeliever you are the steward of that occasion. What did you do with it? Make the most of it. You know, witness to them, try to say something about the Lord. Number twenty one, a spiritually mature person does everything for the glory of God, working at his or her assigned God assigned task with all his or her heart and the strength God provides. This is about work. You basically work. You've got work to do. So do it. Oh, you look at it. I say that is overwhelming. I can't do all that. Twenty one things. Actually, it's probably more than twenty one. These are just the ones I brainstorm and organized. All right. Let me give you a summary. Let me summarize the data. Page five knowledge. Knowledge is factual and experiential knowledge of God and of oneself derived from God's word, God's world and God's providential dealings with the person over time. This knowledge is essential to, but not the same as personal, intimate, covenantal knowledge of God, which is the essence of eternal life and which awaits us in heaven. There's a lot of things in here, and I don't know I can take all the time. I'm talking about head knowledge here and life knowledge. Have you ever heard head knowledge? You know what I'm talking about? Oh, it's just head knowledge. But then it became heart knowledge. Well, I really analyze that whole thing for a while. First of all, I'm not sure what part of my body other than my head is going to know anything. I'm really into hand knowledge. OK, you know, I'm thinking kind of the head is given for knowing, isn't it? So what is it we're talking about? We're talking about something that's just had knowledge. and not heart knowledge. Well, I think it has to do with knowledge, faith, character, action, head knowledge. That's not anything else. It means it hasn't made the transition over to being believed and then transformational inside the heart. You know, it's true, but you don't really genuinely seem to believe that it's true and it hasn't transformed you. All right. But I say that head knowledge is a good thing. And frankly, you can't have any heart knowledge that doesn't begin with head knowledge. Jesus said, you know these things, you'll be blessed if you do them. Well, you can't do them if you don't know them. Right. So therefore, we must know these things. Anyway, that's what I'm getting at. But knowing God, which is eternal life. Now, this is eternal life that they may know you. The only true God that is much deeper than just factual knowledge, like a theology exam about God. There's a deep, rich knowledge. And we'll talk about that as time allows. And I don't see any way we're going to get through this whole handout, but I'll get as far as I can try and explain what I mean by this knowledge. All right, it is spiritual information, middle of this page five knowledge section is spiritual information, portions of truth that can be understood, the building blocks of a system of truth foundational to everything in life. Synonym is understanding. Now, what am I getting at here? Basically, I believe every good thing you learn, every precept or insight or anything you hear in a sermon or reading a good Christian book or conversation with somebody is like a brick or a A block of a city of truth being erected inside your heart, and it takes a long time for the whole structure. You know how Rome wasn't built in a day. It takes a long time for your theology to be erected and become mature. It takes a lot of listening to the word of God. It doesn't happen overnight. Some people, it happens faster than others. But for all of us, it takes a long time. So it's a city of truth being erected in your mind. All right. Wisdom, discernment, illumination, comprehension, etc. are also related words when focused on a building block of truth. However, the disposition of soul known as wisdom is more of a character trait. Knowledge is therefore particular and wisdom is a general character of the soul. So that's knowledge. Faith. Faith is a strong assurance of the existence and invisible nature of the invisible world. Do you all believe that there is an invisible world around us? Do you think there are like angels and demons in that invisible world? Do you think there's an invisible being called God in that invisible world? Do you believe in Jesus, though have not you have not seen him? You love him because you have seen me, you believe, blessed are those who have not seen and yet to believe faith is everything right. We've got to believe in it. Now, I think there are two invisible worlds that Christians must believe in, too. One is the invisible spiritual world which is present now and exists now. God is in that world. So are all kinds of interesting beings described in the book of Revelation. Angels and demons are in it now. That's one world. The other is the future world of God's promises that doesn't exist anywhere except in the mind of God and in the word of God. Like the New Jerusalem, where's that? It's nowhere, but it is in the word of God and it will happen someday. And if you're a Christian, you believe in that, even though it's not here yet. It's a future world and you believe it's going to happen. Definitely. You can picture it in your mind because you believe the promises of God. Those are the two worlds that Christians believe in the invisible spiritual world. Remember, Stephen said, Look, I see heaven open and the son of man standing at the right hand of God. Remember? That could happen tonight, wouldn't that be awesome? Right here in this church, right? Heaven open and you see Jesus standing at the right hand of God. But that's possible. All right. That's around us all the time. But then there's that invisible future world that God is going to make for his own glory. And he will make it because he has promised that he will. All right. That's a faith. Faith is the assurance that that world is there. And it's true. All right. Based upon the Word of God, faith has both a positive and a negative aspect. Positively, it is the assurance of blessing you hope for based upon the promises of God in Scripture. Negatively, it is a conviction of sin and urge to repent and turn away from wickedness based on Scripture's warning and the coming judgment from God. That, by the way, I got from Hebrews 11.1. Basically, Hebrews 11.1 says faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen, the word conviction. literally means reproof or rebuke. No English translation picks up on that except NAS comes close when it says conviction. Every single use of that word in the New Testament has to do with rebuke or correction for sin. And so what I think is that faith has two sides, a positive and a negative side. Positively, the sweetness of contemplation of the future promises of God, that someday we'll see him face to face, that he loves us, that we will be like him, for we'll see him like he is. Negatively, that God is holy and hates all sin and there is actual sin in me and to grieve over it and to own it as our own. That's an act of faith to believe and be convicted of sin. And we need both while we're in this life. Both are aspects of faith, assurance and conviction. Both of them. It is by faith that you feel the sting of rebuke and want to change, isn't it? Isn't it by faith you feel that you sense the judgment day aspect of that and you say, I don't want to be like that. I want to be holy, etc. All right, thirdly, character. Character is an internal nature conformed to Christ in that which he loves and that which he hates. It has to do with love and hate. I got that out of treatise on religious affections. The soul is either drawn to something or repelled from it. All right. Before you are Christian, you are drawn to some really nasty things and you are repelled from some wonderful things. When you became a Christian, everything changed. All of a sudden you wanted to go to church. You wanted to read the Bible. You wanted to sing praise songs. You wanted to do those things. You were attracted to things that used to repel you and conversely, things that used to attract you. You saw them as wickedness and you didn't want to do them. So you love what God loves and you hate what God hates, but not enough. And so in sanctification, you love even more intensely what God loves very intensely and you hate even more intensely what God hates intensely. That's the development, love and hate. But that's character. All right, so in eternal nature, conform to Christ in that which he loves and that which he hates, resulting in a will conform to his, resulting in a mind conform to his, resulting in a full flowering of internal virtues listed in many places in the New Testament, such as love, compassion, kindness, humility, et cetera. So that's what we're talking about, character. And then action, action is an external lifestyle of habitual obedience. Now look at that word obedience. Obedience means God's commanded you to do something, right? Do you think you can ever get ahead of God's commands? Do something that is pleasing to God, but he hasn't commanded it. Think about it with me. Can you ever do anything in your life that's good and pleasing to God, but he didn't command you to do it? No, you can't. Do not the commands of God cover everything in life. Can you do more than love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbors yourself? Can you ever get ahead of the commands of God? Therefore, All of action is obedience. It all has to do with obedience. It has to do with obeying what God has told you to do. You know, and it bothers me when people separate you as a savior and Jesus Lord, you know, I'm saying the whole Lordship thing, I'm thinking, I don't understand that we are being saved from rebellion, aren't we? Are we being saved from disobedience? We're being saved from breaking God's law. So now we can obey from the heart what God's told us to do. Habitual obedience is the more you obey, the easier it gets to obey. You know what I'm saying? The more you evangelize, the easier it gets to evangelize. The more you give to the poor, the easier it is to give you give your money away. The more that you obey in all these areas, it's habitual obedience. That's Roman six present. Develop the habit of righteousness. Grow in slavery to righteousness, leading to holiness. That's what he's talking about there. Habits can be good or bad. Let's have good habits. What do you say? May I say that Scripture memorization is a good habit? Can I plug that little free booklet out there? Go ahead and take them. I hate to bring any of them back to Durham. Memorize Scripture. It's a wonderful habit to get into, and it will prime the pump, as I'll talk about in just a moment, for the rest of your growth in your Christian life. So, an external lifestyle of habitual obedience to the commands of God, as recorded in Scripture, touching every area of life, stewardship, and behavior. OK, so that's what we're shooting for. Knowledge, faith, character, action. Now, I want you to look to the back of the handout I gave you. Forget the next words, the upwards spiral. I just want to show it to you in pictures. Some people really like pictures. I like pictures. Do you like pictures? Here we go. All right. First, a chart. See right here? A pathway to Christian maturity. Knowledge, faith, character, action. You see it? It's like third to last page. A pathway to Christian maturity. Nod your head if you're looking at it. There we go. All right. Knowledge, you start in the upper left hand corner. Knowledge is factual and experiential spiritual information. What do I mean by factual? I mean, stuff you read out of a book. What book? Well, this one. OK, facts about God. Can anyone tell me a fact about God that comes from the Bible? Anybody volunteer? Tell me a fact about God. He is holy. How do you know that? Because the Bible says so. Right. How many facts about God are there in the Bible? A lot. OK, there are tons of things. Think of all the systematic theologies are out there cataloging all the facts are about God. Factual knowledge about God is wonderful. It's great. Read the Bible. Grow in your knowledge of what God is like, but it's not enough. There's also experiential knowledge of God. What's that stuff you learn by living stuff that happens by experience? Now, I know we're like Bible first and maybe even Bible only people, but that's impossible. You can't be Bible only people. You must live in order to understand the words of the Bible. It's a living book, right? Remember how I cited to a verse earlier, be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another and love. How do you do that disconnected from life? Let's say you take a baby and they're born and you put them like in a plastic kind of cell and feed them and whatever. I mean, that's hideous to even imagine. Who is that guy, D.F. Skinner, that did that? I don't know. It's weird psychology test. I would never do it. But that baby will not understand what compassion or kindness or humility is. They learn it by looking at their mommy when their mommy takes care of their needs or when they're four years old and hurt themselves. And you see what I'm saying? There's a whole wealth There's a whole wealth of experience that you develop. And then when you read the Bible, it interprets that experience and tells you what it's about. So actually, the two of them are going together. But I put factual above experiential because the Bible takes priority over our experience and helps organize it for us. Those two things together make up the knowledge I'm talking about. Knowledge is factual, experiential, spiritual information that leads to faith. I'll talk about why in a minute, but it does. Knowledge leads to faith in the believer. And faith is assurance of and commitment to spiritual truth. And I've already listed these bullet things you can just read them. But that's what it is assurance of and commitment to spiritual truth. Faith leads to character which is internal nature conformed to Christ in affection, will, thought, desire, emotions, leading to virtues, just being like Jesus inside yourself. And that leads to action, external lifestyle of habitual obedience, first in presenting of self to God. resulting in a sevenfold obedience to God's commands in holiness, worship, relationships, spiritual disciplines, mission, stewardship and work. That's the whole chart. This is what I'm shooting for in our in our discipleship program at our church. This is it. And so is it possible for us to say, you know, I don't want to do all that. I'm just going to choose the faith box and work on that one. You can't. I'm not going to do any of that. I'm not really much of a Bible student. I'm just going to work on character. I'm going to be like Jesus. It doesn't work. It can't be done. These things go together. Even if you don't think they go together, even if you think this is really like MIT technical like and I will never read this again the rest of my life, you're still going to be doing this stuff. You know what I'm saying, because this is what we're doing. This is just a chart of the stuff that the Bible is teaching you're going to be doing. You're going to be reading the Bible, learning about him. You're going to be living and having a life and you're going to be believing things and you're going to be a certain kind of person and you're going to live a certain kind of way. That's what's going to happen. Now, what I'm arguing is that this is how we make progress. And I believe that action leads back to knowledge again. So how does the cycle work with the next thing? How does the cycle work? Well, knowledge leads to faith. How does it do that? Well, Romans 10, 17 tells us. Faith comes from what? Hearing what? Hearing the word of God. And hearing, I think, means not just I mean, you can get it from reading, you know, in your quiet time. Hearing has to do with a disposition of the soul to hear God speak to you. You're standing humbly like a servant and he is speaking to you. Right. That's where faith comes from. God speaks his word. You hear and faith comes from it. The word creates the faith. And isn't that the way it should be? God said, let there be light and there was light. God said, let there be faith and there's faith. So God's word creates faith. Does God, God's word nourish a growing faith? If you want more faith, where do you get it from? Read the word and obey it. You want more faith, you want a growing faith, then trust God for what you already know. And you'll find that you'll have a stronger faith. See what I'm saying? Anyway, faith, knowledge leads to faith, faith leads to character. How well, Philippians 3, 16, 17 is a good example. This is Paul's prayer for the Philippians, sorry, Ephesians 3, 16, 17. This is a prayer for the Ephesian Christians. I pray that out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being. You can take a pen or something and underline the words inner being. Inner being another word for inner being might be character. Your inner self, who you really are inside. So he prays that out of God, out of his glorious riches, he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. So by faith, Christ will take over more and more of your inner being self. That's a transformed character, friends. Jesus is just taking you over inside by faith, by trusting. So what happens? You read the Bible. You believe it. It changes you to be more like Jesus. Does it in there? No. Jesus said, make a tree good and its fruit will be what? Good. Make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. Right. You want to know what kind of tree it is? Look at its fruit. What kind of person is a statement about his or her character? Right. Character results in an outward lifestyle of action and obedience. And so that's what Matthew 12, 33 is. Now, an external lifestyle of habitual obedience feeds back into knowledge. How? Well, let's say one of your habits is to have a daily quiet time. How will that feed your knowledge? Well, isn't it obvious? Let's say you make a commitment to read through the Bible in a year. See what I'm saying? Will your knowledge base grow thereby? You better believe it will. It'll grow and grow and grow because you are having an action pattern of reading through the Bible in a year. Do you know that George Mueller read through the Bible 100 times in his life? Have any of you ever read through the Bible in a year? You ever done it? Is it easy to do, brother? You've got to be at it every day. What happens if you miss a day? You've got to make it up. Now, you can have a double reading the next day or you can kind of tithe it out over the next 10 days, you know, but either way, you're in trouble. It's a steady, strong pace, you know, five or six chapters a day. I mean, you're just cranking it out. George Miller did a hundred times one hundred times. That's unbelievable. What was his city of truth like inside his heart. How much did he know of the stories of Joshua and Josiah and Elijah and John the Baptist. These people he came across them twice a year. You know what I'm saying. That's incredible. And just amazing. So when you have an action habit, it will feed back into knowledge. Or how about this? Suppose you step out in faith and trust in God, go on a short term mission trip. Never been overseas before, but you go to do some evangelism in a city, etc. Will you learn a bunch of stuff thereby? Will a bunch of experiences happen to you that you would not have if you hadn't trusted God? Yes. So it feeds back. Action feeds back into knowledge. Does it stay flat? Well, look at the next thing. M.C. Escher. Have you ever seen this thing? Round and round, knowledge, faith, character, action, but you never get anywhere. Look at that. See the monks going endlessly, endlessly going up and they never getting anywhere. Round and round they go and they never get anywhere. Well, that's not right. That's not right. We need to make progress. All right, look at my little chart, the next one, it says growing in grace. I like this better upward, ever upward, the upward call of God in Christ is knowledge, faith, character, action, upward, more knowledge, more character, more faith, more character, more action, growing in Christ's likeness. See, I think we should make progress. But, you know, I wasn't satisfied with this either. These four lines going up and never touching. So I said, you know, what is the ultimate goal of our sanctification to become like Christ? So I thought it's more like a pyramid. Here we go. This is in David Macaulay's book. Goes around knowledge, faith, character, action. But in the end, there's a point that we're getting toward. We're heading towards something. We're heading toward Christ. So it's knowledge of Christ, faith in Christ, character conformed to Christ and actions like Christ. That's the focus. That's how we're growing. All right. Now, that's the overview of basically the life of sanctification. What role does doctrine play in all that? Well, isn't it obvious? It's that it primes the pump for everything. It starts the whole ball rolling every single day. You take in the word of God, you hear what he is saying to you, you believe it, faith is generated in the heart because the word of God has come into you. The word coupled with your faith leads to obedience. You know, a transformed character leading to obedience. That's what happens now. Are you saying that this goes on rigidly? Aren't there? I mean, don't we ever skip like go from knowledge to faith down to action? Look, I think these things are going on all the time. And so I don't have any idea if what I'm doing now happened after old character transfer. I don't know that all I'm trying to do is make a logical order here. Not one that, you know, like I can't do anything until I do step two. You know, that's not it. I mean, you're just going to be doing this stuff all the time. You're going to be reading and obeying and following and loving and serving and all that. I'm just trying to give you a lot logical order. But I believe that the reading and the taking into the word of God primes the pump for everything. So what then finally what then is the role of doctrine in the life of those in the pew and in the pulpit for that matter. It is to help us to grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ is to prime the pump for all of this so that we're not infants anymore but rather we are mature and growing more and more like Christ. Now I'm going to stop here. I've given you a ton of information. And the stuff that's in the rest of this chart, you can read it, distinguishing between knowing about God and knowing God himself and all these things are helpful things. And I've got probably another hundred and fifty sheets besides on all of this. But what I'd like you to do is take the things that I've shared with you and bring them back to God and prayer and back to the word like debris and search and see if these things are true. And if they are, you know what I could urge you to do? Take page three and four, for example, and just start praying these things for yourself. You know a spiritually mature person knows the Bible very well. Spiritually mature person has a rich life of experiences etc. spiritually mature person that are just start praying them for yourself and then extend it start praying them for your spouse start praying them for your children for your parents for your friends for your pastor for your Sunday school leader or Bible study leader or somebody you know another Christian start praying these things. I believe that God is glorified by spiritual growth. He's glorified when we become more and more like Jesus. And I believe we must hear and obey the Word of God the rest of our lives in order for that to happen. Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the time we've had tonight to study these things. Lord, I know there's a lot of material we've covered very quickly. Father, I pray that you would just be with my brothers and sisters in Christ here. I pray that you would set in front of them a yearning to grow and be more like Jesus, that they would not simply be satisfied with with mediocrity in the Christian life, with being an average Christian or something like that, or just going to church But they would yearn to be more like Christ, more courageous, bolder, more fruitful, taking risks even for Christ and missions and reaching out in amazing ways. Father, I pray that you would just take all of the local churches that are represented by the folks sitting here and bless them lavishly by their obedience to the word. We pray this in Jesus name and for his glory. Amen.