Growing to Maturity: Developing Christian Character with R.C. Sproul — Transcript

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1. 0:01SPROUL: In this final session, in this series, we're going to be considering, growing to maturity
2. 0:09in our Christian life.
3. 0:11First, let's open with prayer: Father we thank You that You have given us the unspeakable
4. 0:19privilege by which we can address You as 'Father,' by adopting us into Thy family and giving
5. 0:30us that Holy Spirit by which we cry, 'Abba.'
6. 0:36We know that we are children, and yet we know that Thou hast called us to grow to adulthood
7. 0:46in the kingdom.
8. 0:48Help us now as we consider what it means to be mature.
9. 0:54For we ask these things in the name of Christ, amen.
10. 0:59We've seen throughout this series a close connection between Paul's teaching of the
11. 1:06fruit of the Spirit in his epistle to the Galatians and his exposition of the ramifications
12. 1:15of love -- of agape – in the great love chapter in 1 Corinthians 13.
13. 1:20We started by a little bit of consideration of 1 Corinthians 13, and then we moved over
14. 1:26to an examination of the list of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians, and now in this
15. 1:31session I'd like to go back to 1 Corinthians 13 for a moment, to the last portion of it.
16. 1:37Let me refresh your memory of what it says there, beginning in verse eight of chapter
17. 1:44thirteen of 1 Corinthians.
18. 1:47"Love never fails.
19. 1:51Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail.
20. 1:55Whether there be tongues, they shall cease.
21. 1:58Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
22. 2:04For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect is come then
23. 2:14that which is in part shall be done away."
24. 2:18Now, this portion of the text indicates that we are moving in the direction of our final,
25. 2:25eschatological hope where the fruit of the Spirit will reach its fulfillment point.
26. 2:33We are justified, as we've considered, and justification is followed by the process of
27. 2:39sanctification, which has been at center stage in these lectures; but sanctification has
28. 2:46an ultimate, terminal point in a consuming work of grace which we call what?
29. 2:57Glorification, when all sin will be eradicated from our personality, and that we will live
30. 3:05lives totally and completely in conformity to the will of God in perfect righteousness.
31. 3:14We, in our redemption, never expect to be deified, but we do expect to be fully and
32. 3:21finally sanctified -- not in this life, but in heaven.
33. 3:29The completion of this process will take place when God will purify us.
34. 3:37Remember I mentioned early on John's statement in his epistles -- "Beloved, what manner of"
35. 3:42-- "Behold what manner of love is this, that we should be called the children of God?
36. 3:48And we know not yet what we shall be, but what do we know?
37. 3:55We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is," and I talked about the relationship
38. 4:03between looking at Christ and at God and the prerequisite for that being purity.
39. 4:12No man shall see God in this world.
40. 4:15Why?
41. 4:16Because God is so pure He can't even look at our sin, but we are promised the beatific
42. 4:23vision.
43. 4:24We are promised the ultimate glory of looking at God face to face, seeing Him as He is;
44. 4:30and isn't it interesting that that experience of the fulfillment of glory for us is linked
45. 4:37to a moment of purification, and I'm not sure about the chicken and the egg here -- whether
46. 4:41our glorification is accomplished by God so that then we are able to look into His face
47. 4:49(and that seems to be the pattern that we find there), or is it somehow that when we
48. 4:54see Him, the very purity of the sight of Him will be that final dose of sanctification.
49. 5:03Just being there basking in the glory of Christ and of God will do the final cleansing of
50. 5:09our souls.
51. 5:11But in the meantime, the apostle tells us that we know in part and that certain processes
52. 5:23along the way will pass away.
53. 5:26We know in part, we prophesy in part, but then that which is perfect is come, then the
54. 5:32partial will be done away with.
55. 5:34And then in verse 11 we read the classic statement, "When I was a child I spake as a child, I
56. 5:49understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish
57. 6:00things."
58. 6:03You see to think as a child, to understand as a child, to act as a child is perfectly
59. 6:09appropriate for children.
60. 6:15This morning before I came over here to the study center my granddaughter came to the
61. 6:21breakfast table, and she said to me, "Papap," and she put out her hand.
62. 6:25She said, "Come with me back to your study because I want you to see who I'm talking
63. 6:32to."
64. 6:33And I said, "Who's that?"
65. 6:35And she said, "Santa Claus," and I said, "Santa Claus is in my study this morning?"
66. 6:40She said, "Yes, come see."
67. 6:43And so she took me by the hand and led me down the hall and into my study, and there
68. 6:48was the sofa sitting against the bookshelves, and there was no one on the sofa.
69. 6:55But my granddaughter said, "See, here's Santa Claus," and she started carrying on this very
70. 7:01earnest conversation with Santa Claus.
71. 7:04And then I was, you know, not -- I was sort of like excess baggage in this conversation;
72. 7:10she was so enraptured with this dialogue with Santa Claus that I decided to sit down.
73. 7:16I sat down, and all of a sudden she got very upset.
74. 7:18She said, "Move!"
75. 7:19I said, "What's the matter?"
76. 7:20She said, "You just sat on Santa Claus."
77. 7:22The fantasy world of the child.
78. 7:27I didn't rush out in alarm to call the psychiatrist, you know?
79. 7:33Her behavior was appropriate, but if you would have come to my house and behaved like that,
80. 7:43I would have had serious questions about your sanity because that's just not appropriate
81. 7:53for an adult.
82. 7:55Well, Paul says the very same -- "When I was a child I behaved like a child, I thought
83. 7:59like a child, I understood like a child; but when I became a man I put away childish things."
84. 8:08Now, there's a grave misunderstanding that is throughout the Christian world about this
85. 8:13very point.
86. 8:15We find people who have a built-in allergy to serious and sober and diligent study of
87. 8:22the Word of God, and the excuse is given continuously, "I don't need to study seriously the Word
88. 8:31of God because I want to preserve a childlike spirit, a childlike faith.
89. 8:38I want to keep it simple."
90. 8:42That is not an expression of Christian maturity, but where does the misunderstanding come in?
91. 8:54The Bible does call us to be like children.
92. 9:01We must become as children if we are to enter into the kingdom of God.
93. 9:06You remember when the disciples had their dispute as to who was the greatest in the
94. 9:10kingdom of God and who's going to sit on the right hand and who's going to sit on the left
95. 9:14hand?
96. 9:15And Jesus astounded them by taking a little child and setting the child in their midst,
97. 9:19and said, "Unless you become as this child, you won't even enter the kingdom of God."
98. 9:26And we are called again and again to this childlike spirit.
99. 9:29But dear friends, there is a very, very important difference between childlike and being childish.
100. 9:41OK?
101. 9:43The Holy Spirit is not childish.
102. 9:51To be childlike means that at certain points we are called to resemble children, just as
103. 9:58the way the young child has an almost absolute, blind confidence and faith in his parents
104. 10:09-- what Augustine called a 'fides implicita' -- an implicit trust in whatever their parent
105. 10:17says.
106. 10:18You know, if the father says that money doesn't grow on trees, then the child believes it.
107. 10:23Now, that doesn't happen for very long.
108. 10:25I mean there comes an inevitable period where the children don't believe anything that their
109. 10:30parent tells them; but in early childhood there's this, you know, almost sense of awe
110. 10:39the children reveal towards their parents' authority because you think of the things
111. 10:45-- and the ways -- in which the child is dependent upon the parents.
112. 10:49The child doesn't know that fire burns until it sticks its hand in the flame, and the flames
113. 10:54are so dancing and enticing, and the child -- his parent -- says, "No," and the child
114. 10:59doesn't quite believe it.
115. 11:00And then it touches the fire, burns its hand, and all of a sudden the parent has credibility.
116. 11:05They say, "Wow!"
117. 11:07And I can remember when my son was about five years old, and he went to Sunday school, and
118. 11:15the teacher said to the children, "Who wrote the Bible?"
119. 11:20My son shot up his hand.
120. 11:22He said -- then they said, "Alright?
121. 11:24Who wrote the Bible?" and he said, "My daddy."
122. 11:30Now, that's a lot of faith.
123. 11:33That's not only faith, that's credulity.
124. 11:38Now, when we are called to have a childlike faith, it doesn't mean that we're supposed
125. 11:42to have a simplistic faith or an uninformed faith or an unintelligible faith, but what
126. 11:49it means is that I must have the same kind of confidence in my heavenly Father -- that
127. 11:56I trust Him implicitly.
128. 11:59Now, that is not unreasonable.
129. 12:02That is not superstitious.
130. 12:03In fact, the more mature your intellectual understanding of God is, the greater should
131. 12:10be your childlike acceptance of His authority because the more you understand of the character
132. 12:18of God, the more utterly inconsistent with rational thought it would be that God would
133. 12:24ever deceive you because His track record is perfectly consistent.
134. 12:30You see the reason why children lose trust and confidence in their parents is that they
135. 12:35do begin to see actually that their parents do make mistakes, but when have you learned
136. 12:43that of your heavenly Father?
137. 12:47The deeper your understanding of the things of God, the more childlike is your sense of
138. 12:52awe and appreciation for the veracity of God and for the integrity of God and for the benevolence
139. 13:03of God.
140. 13:05And so in that sense we are called to be childlike, but not only in that sense.
141. 13:13There's another sense in which the Bible calls us to be like children -- to be babes in evil.
142. 13:24That's almost a compromise, isn't it, because the Bible recognizes that babies are born
143. 13:32with original sin and that babies are not innocent of wrongdoing, but the destructive
144. 13:40capacity of the sin of a two-year-old is not worthy to be compared with the destructive
145. 13:48capacity of the sin of a 32-year-old.
146. 13:50The sins of infants are unsophisticated sins.
147. 13:57They're naïve sins.
148. 13:59They're sins, but they are, relatively speaking, far less harmful than the sins of the adult.
149. 14:10There aren't too many two-year-olds who commit murder.
150. 14:16I don't know of too many 2-year-old bank robbers or 2-year-old rapists or 2-year-old embezzlers.
151. 14:28That the point is, that even though we continue to sin as Christians, and this is not -- God
152. 14:34is not telling us and endorsing us to continue to sin -- but He says, "Be babes in evil"
153. 14:40-- that is, let us not be sophisticated sinners.
154. 14:44It used to be thought by many people, even into the nineteenth century, which was perhaps
155. 14:50the most optimistic age in western civilization, that man's real problem was a lack of education
156. 15:00and with the radical change and the knowledge explosion that came with the Industrial Revolution
157. 15:07and the breakthrough into the modern world, there were scholars upon scholars in the nineteenth
158. 15:12century who really believed that evil could be banished from this world as man evolved
159. 15:17to a higher plane of virtue by means of education.
160. 15:26We had a whole -- just think of how many colleges and universities have been started in the
161. 15:31last 150 years, born of this optimistic spirit that all we need to do for man to end wars,
162. 15:40to end suffering, to end evil is to educate them.
163. 15:44Even Socrates believed that sin, in the final analysis, was simply a matter of ignorance,
164. 15:52of wrong knowledge, and hence this spirit of unbridled optimism.
165. 16:00Even when World War I came, it was called what?
166. 16:02"The war to end all wars" -- but now man is coming of age and is learning how to deal
167. 16:08with his environment so that he won't destroy himself.
168. 16:10That spirit of optimism has crashed to the ground because what we've discovered is that
169. 16:18the more we educate people, unless the fruit of the Holy Spirit is taking root in their
170. 16:26lives, all we are doing is producing more sophisticated sinners.
171. 16:32Now, we can kill each other with nuclear bombs instead of bows and arrows.
172. 16:39We're educated but not reformed.
173. 16:43Now, we are called to be babes in evil, "But," says the apostle, "in understanding be men."
174. 17:05If the fruit of the Spirit is to grow to its fullness, to maturity, it requires a mature
175. 17:18understanding of the things of God.
176. 17:23When I was a child I behaved like a child, spoke like a child, thought like a child,
177. 17:32understood like a child; but I'm not a child anymore, and I am not called to a childish
178. 17:41understanding of the mind of Christ or of the Word of God.
179. 17:47One of the most disconcerting bits of wisdom that was communicated to me as a seminary
180. 17:55student came in our homiletics class, which is a class instructing us on how to preach,
181. 18:02and we were told this: that if you are the pastor of a congregation where the average
182. 18:08person in your congregation is college educated, and if you want to have an effective ministry
183. 18:15with them, never, ever preach above an eighth-grade level theologically, or you'll lose them.
184. 18:31And I remember when I heard that I was crushed, and I said, "Wait a minute!
185. 18:34That cannot be.
186. 18:36That must not be.
187. 18:38It may be true that that's where the educational level in theology is because most people have
188. 18:43not had an opportunity to be trained in theology in college or in seminary and most people,
189. 18:49you know even though they are very intelligent and very knowledgeable in other matters, are
190. 18:52not particularly well-versed in theology because their training ended with Sunday school; and
191. 18:59maybe it is true that the studies show that the average college educated person in the
192. 19:04church is at an eighth-grade level theologically, but we cannot accept that.
193. 19:11We must not accept that.
194. 19:15No wonder the Christian community makes no impact if we are competing with a sophisticated
195. 19:25world from an eighth-grade proficiency level.
196. 19:34We are called to grow up into the fullness of Christ, to get the mind of Christ so that
197. 19:45the fruit may be born as a redemptive power in the world.
198. 19:52Paul goes on and says, "For now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face.
199. 20:02Now, I know in part, but then shall I know even as I also am known."
200. 20:09He's setting before us again a future goal.
201. 20:12Yes, we will not be able to understand all the mysteries of God in this world, but we
202. 20:18are not to be satisfied with ignorance.
203. 20:22"My beloved brethren, I would not have you ignorant" -- agenosis -- without knowledge.
204. 20:30God's Word -- God the Holy Spirit is the teacher.
205. 20:32He's the teacher of truth, and He's given to us so that we may know these things, that
206. 20:37we may know the truth, and that the truth may set us free.
207. 20:43Truth feeds the soul.
208. 20:46Well, in the few minutes I have left, let me just conclude by saying this: that for
209. 20:56the fullness of fruit there must be nurture, and it takes time for fruit to reach maturity.
210. 21:07If you've ever grown fruit, you know that.
211. 21:10Last year I bought four fruit trees and put them in my front yard, and I have been feeding
212. 21:14them and fertilizing and everything; and I have two peach trees -- or two pear trees
213. 21:21-- not a sign of fruit, and it will probably be two or three more years before any fruit
214. 21:26comes on that tree.
215. 21:28My one apple tree has grown to be about 15 feet tall, but there's not a single apple
216. 21:34on that tree.
217. 21:36The other apple tree's only about eight feet tall, and I went out there the other day,
218. 21:41and I counted fourteen little apples on that tree.
219. 21:44And I was excited because there was the presence of fruit, but I also recognized that those
220. 21:50apples are going to be small.
221. 21:52They're not going to really be tasty.
222. 21:53They're not going to be ripe.
223. 21:54They're not really going to be edible this year, but to see the progress, to see the
224. 21:58presence of fruit beginning to appear on the tree was exciting.
225. 22:02But boy, it takes patience, and it takes nutrients.
226. 22:06It takes nurture, and as we've said in the discussion period together, it seems like
227. 22:13everybody is looking for a shortcut to hurry up the process, to have instant growth, instant
228. 22:21gratification -- five easy lessons to be a fruit-bearing Christian.
229. 22:29But there is no substitute for the classic, traditional method of growth in the Holy Spirit.
230. 22:37There are Christians who believe if they go and somebody lays hands on them that they
231. 22:42will instantly be transformed into mature Christians.
232. 22:48It doesn't work.
233. 22:53When I joined the church for the first time I had to take a vow, and one of the vows in
234. 22:58our church was that we promised before God to make diligent use of the means of grace.
235. 23:08Now, you've heard that phrase -- diligent use of the means -- not just use of the means
236. 23:15of grace -- diligent use of the means of grace.
237. 23:21If you neglect the means of grace, the fruit will be sketchy at best.
238. 23:32I can leave those trees alone and peradventure after a season a few distorted, misshapen,
239. 23:44worm-eaten apples may appear; but if I want healthy fruit, edible fruit, tasty fruit I
240. 23:52have to pay attention to those trees every day.
241. 23:59Diligent use of the means of grace.
242. 24:02What are the means of grace?
243. 24:04When we talk about 'means,' we are talking about ways or methods or, in this case, instruments,
244. 24:14or, an even more simple word, are tools.
245. 24:23Think for a minute how important tools are as laborsaving devices.
246. 24:30I talked to my son about elementary principles of economics.
247. 24:37I said, "When it comes down to a job that is to be done, we're talking about time, energy,
248. 24:43or money.
249. 24:44Those are your choices."
250. 24:45He said, "What do you mean, Dad?"
251. 24:46I said, "Well, we have a lawn out here that has to be kept.
252. 24:49Now, the cheapest way to do it is to go out there with a pair of scissors and cut each
253. 24:56blade one at a time.
254. 24:58The problem is it costs you a bundle in time and in energy, alright?
255. 25:06The easiest way in terms of time and energy is to go hire somebody to do it.
256. 25:10It costs you money but no time, no energy.
257. 25:14Usually we go for something in between.
258. 25:16We go out and buy a power lawnmower where we minimize the financial costs, minimize
259. 25:21the temporal costs, and minimize the energy costs, and sort of come to a compromise.
260. 25:25But in every decision like that you're dealing with those factors."
261. 25:29And I said, "You know, the point is, tools facilitate.
262. 25:36Tools make jobs easier.
263. 25:39That's why we use them.
264. 25:40That's why they're invented."
265. 25:44And the tools for spiritual growth are the means of grace.
266. 25:47If you want to know the easy way to grow, then get the tools and use the tools.
267. 25:54And what are they?
268. 25:55You know what they are -- prayer, Bible study, the sacraments, fellowship.
269. 26:04You know, if you plant one apple tree you're not going to get any apples.
270. 26:14Remember I said I planted four trees?
271. 26:17Two pear trees, two apple trees.
272. 26:19I had to have them because if you have one man or one woman you're not going to have
273. 26:24any children.
274. 26:25You've got to have two.
275. 26:26You've got to have fellowship if you want to have fruit.
276. 26:31You cannot do this in isolation.
277. 26:34You need the body of Christ.
278. 26:37You need the discipline of the church, and you need the tool of service.
279. 26:46Serving God is a means of grace.
280. 26:50Bearing witness helps to bear fruit.
281. 26:54Being involved in the work of Christ produces fruit -- not only fruit for the kingdom of
282. 27:01God but fruit in your own soul, and so I conclude with this final exhortation and word of encouragement:
283. 27:11don't neglect the means of grace.
284. 27:15Make diligent use of these things that the fruit of Christ might be perfected in your
285. 27:24life.