Spiritual Maturity - 1 John..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. I want to speak to your soul, my dear brother, my dear sister, about a very important topic. As I have said to you before, as I have said to you before, and perhaps I'm going to pray once again for this, but let me just introduce this topic and then we will pray once again, perhaps.

Brethren, as As I said to you before, perhaps the last week or a month ago, whenever I have the opportunity to preach to you from this pulpit, what I'm trying to do with this first letter of John, which is a very practical letter for the life of the Christian. When we read 1 John, we're seeing the evidences of what a genuine believer is and the expectation of God of what a true saint, a true Christian should be. And what I'm trying to do through this letter He's presenting to you the most important topics of the passage, so that then I will do the exposition of the passage. And what we're doing in the last few sermons is that we're addressing the passage that's found in verse 5 in chapter 1. through verse 2 in chapter 2.

And we have not done the exposition of that passage yet because that's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to address important topics that are contained in that passage. Once we have clarity about those topics, we can move into the exposition of that passage as I did with verses 1 through 4. Last week, I spoke to you, or we preached from this pulpit about a spiritual lying, if you remember that, and we did that from verses 6, 8 and 10. It says, if we say that we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie, it says in verse 6.

In verse 8, it says, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, that is lying to self, and the truth is not enough, that is verse 8. And then in verse 10, it says, if we say that we have not seen, we make him, God, a liar, we are lying, and the word is not in us. I try to speak to your soul about this topic of spiritual lying. What I want to do this afternoon, my dear brethren, brother, sister, my dear friend here within the sound of my voice, is address the second half of those three verses, verse six, verse eight, and verse 10, in which the apostle says those things that they do not have. It says in verse 6 that if they are liars, They do not practice the truth.

You see that in verse 6, right? In verse 8, it says, if we say that we have not seen, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Verse 6, we do not practice the truth. Verse 8, the truth is not in us. And then you see the second half of verse 10, speaking in the same line of argument, The apostle says, the Word is not in us.

You see that there? We practice the truth. The truth is not in us. Or we don't practice the truth. The truth is not in us.

And in the second half of verse 10, it says, His Word is not in us. Truth is meant to be practiced. Truth is meant to be in us. And that truth is the Word. of God.

What I want to speak to you today is about spiritual maturity. Spiritual maturity, my dear brethren, because the man who is a spiritual liar is a person who is not mature in the spirit. But if we are not walking in darkness, but we are walking in the light, then we suppose, according to the scriptures, that we are practicing the truth, that the truth is in us, and that the work of God is in us, namely, that we are spiritually mature. I want to speak to your soul about the topic of spiritual maturity, and I hope, brethren, that this will help us to move through the different topics of this portion of scripture, and of course, to growing conformity to the Savior, to our Redeemer, to the lover of our soul. His name is Christ, growing in conformity to Him.

So let me please pray for these words, and then we will get into what the Lord has for us in this portion of Scripture. Father, I come before you in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. There is no other name that has been given to men through which we can come. to the Father. You're the way, the truth, and the life.

And no one comes to the Father except through the person of Jesus Christ. So now we're coming as brothers and sisters in Christ before you, O Lord, to ask you. You may help us in the feebleness of our thoughts and in the feebleness of our words to preach the word in season and out of season, to exhort, to reprove, and to bring correction, Lord, to your people that we will desire to be like the person of Jesus Christ. Help us, O Lord. in the infirmities of our flesh and help us, Lord, in the infirmities of our minds.

I pray, Lord, that we will be edified and that we will bear fruits of righteousness in the person of Jesus Christ and for the glory of the Father who gave his Son for the world to be saved. Bless us, Lord, with your presence and bless us in the preaching of the word and in the hearing of the word. Give us the faith that is needed. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

My dear brother, my dear brother and sister, There is absolutely no greatest privilege that a sinful soul can be given and a group of sinners can be given and that of coming to the presence of the Lord by the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ and be forgiven of their sins. As Christian, my dear brother and my dear sister, we are partakers of the greatest blessing that any soul can receive. There's absolutely no money. There's absolutely no power, no reputation that can be received in exchange of the greatest blessing that a soul can have. And that is the salvation of their soul.

What does it profit a man if he gains and obtains everything in this world, but they lose their own soul? Within the sound of my voice, dear brethren, there are people who, by the grace of God, have come to a genuine knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by merits of the Savior, will have their sins forgiven, and they will enter into the eternal life. eternal presence of God, because Jesus Christ died on the cross for them. But in the same way, within the sound of my voice, there may be people who know that they are dead in their trespasses and who have not come to a genuine knowledge of this Lord of ours, Jesus Christ. And if they die, even as I speak, they will be confronted with the reality of the books being opened and God reading into the conscience of that person, exposing the deepest and the darkest of the secrets that abide in the mind and in the heart of that person.

There's always the grace of God extended to every single soul that there is absolutely time for them to come to the person of Jesus Christ and to be recipients of the grace that covers even the reddest of sins. that when we come, brethren, as a church, what we're doing here, even with some of the brethren not able to be here, it's a reason to rejoice. Our Lord Jesus Christ died upon the cross 2,000 years ago, and because of His death, He set apart a group of people, His church, and He has commanded His people that they will come every Sunday, every Lord's Day, to worship the Savior in spirit and in truth, with faith, with much love and grace one with the other, so that we will be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ." Every time that Jesus Christ is mentioned, every time that the Scriptures are expounded, every time that the Word of God is preached in season and out of season, The Father is glorified in the person of Jesus Christ, and the Church is made more like the Savior, like the one who died for her upon the cross. And this is a great manifestation of rejoicement, my dear brethren.

We have been justified by faith, and because of that justification by faith, we have peace with God. And in that glorious grace of our salvation, we stand and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God that is to come. And not only that, my dear brother, but we also rejoice in tribulation, knowing that tribulation produces endurance and endurance character and character of hope. And that hope, my dear brother, does not disappoint. because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that was given to us.

My dear brethren, in due time, Jesus Christ died for the ungodly, and that is all of those who were dead in their trespasses. We can come together as a church to celebrate the gospel, because it is in the gospel that the glory and the righteousness of God is revealed. These scriptures, my dear soul, say that the heavens declare the glory of God. That is, that every time that a sinner opens his eyes to see the created things, everything that has been made by the hands of the Lord, that the heavens declare the glory of God. God has revealed himself in that which is created.

but there is a greater revelation of God. And that revelation of God happens in the gospel of Jesus Christ, of which I am not ashamed. The gospel that is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. It is in the person of Jesus Christ, brethren, dying upon the cross, being powerfully resurrected, that when we see by faith through the Scriptures what he accomplished upon the cross, that we can see the greatest revelation of the one who has not been seen by human eye.

But in the person of Christ, the sinner can have entrance into the throne of grace, and see this glorious God, majestic attributes of this triune God of ours revealed in the person of Jesus Christ, the love of God revealed in the person of Jesus Christ, the decree of the Lord and the power of God revealed in the person of Jesus Christ, the long-suffering of God revealed in the person of Jesus Christ, the patience of Christ or the patience of God revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. Every time that by faith, brethren, we see into the Scriptures and see the person of Jesus Christ, we see the attributes of the triune God clearly revealed. No need for intellectual men to go into a systematic theology, to doctrines of men, to try to see the attributes of God. It takes only to humble your knees and to come with the Scriptures before the presence of the Lord and in Jesus Christ, see the revelation of God himself for the church. And the saints, brethren, rejoice in all the attributes of God.

We rejoice in His love. We rejoice in His long-suffering. We rejoice in His patience. We rejoice in His providence. We rejoice in His kindness towards us.

And as people who hold up the Scriptures, we also rejoice in the sovereignty of our God. that this God who humbly died upon the cross 2,000 years ago in the person of Christ, that this God that condescended to live among sinners, this God that in the person of Jesus Christ dwelt among unrighteous and wickedness, that tabernacled among us, this God is absolutely sovereign over everything. He is in control of everything. There's absolutely nothing that takes place under heaven and on earth and even under the earth that is outside of the sovereign control of God. Rulers, kings of the world, judges of the world, governments, people, all of them, my dear brethren, under the sovereign control of our gods.

And sometimes, my dear brethren, we are tempted to see the sovereignty of this majestic God as something that happens outside of us. We see and acknowledge that is God, yes, it is in control of creation. God, yes, he's in control of the government. Yes, he's in control of the things that are taking place. Yes, he's in control of absolutely everything that happens.

But sometimes we forget a very powerful reality about the sovereignty of the Lord. For God to be in control of absolutely everything that takes place and happens, he must be in control of the hearts of men. Brethren, that is a fearful thought. God is not only a sovereign God that is in control of things. He was just playing with balls and making sure that things work according to what he planned.

God is in control of absolutely everything that takes place because God is a ruler, sovereign and governor of the hearts of men. Your emotions, your feelings, your thoughts under the sovereign control of the fearful God who knows it all, the one who can see it all. The one who created the heavens and the earth and who created your soul. The way that God is sovereign over everything that takes place is by being sovereign over the hearts of men who make things happen. And if you want the witness of the scriptures, then it just only takes that you will go to Judges chapter 12, and then you will read the story of Samson as he's going down to the Philistines, and then he falls in love with a Philistine woman, something that was prohibited.

for the Israelites to fall in love or to marry a woman from the Canaanites or from the Philistines. And when he returns home, he says, Papa or Mama or Father or Mother, I want to marry this woman. And his father says, how come, son? Are you going to marry a woman from the Philistines? Why don't you come to Israel and choose a woman unto you, and you can marry her?

And the scripture says, their parents or his father did not know that what Samson was feeling in the heart, attraction and love, from this woman, it was ordained by the Lord so that he will have a reason against the Philistines. Samson coming and being taken by the beauty of this woman in the Philistines? No! It was ordained by the Lord that he will have a reason against the Philistines. Oh my dear brethren, if you go to 2 Samuel Chapter 17, I think there was a man whose advice was received by the people of Israel as if it was the Word of God.

Ahithophel was his name. David had this man in such a huge reputation that whatever word this man would say, Ahithophel in 2 Samuel Chapter 17 and onwards, was taken as the Word of God. The kings will come and hear whatever He says, and these are the words that whatever He says, we will do. And it was not only King David, but everyone in Israel will take the word of Ahithophel as the words of God. It only took the decree of the Lord, we are told in the following chapters, for Him to change completely the perception of the people of Israel.

And that advice of Ahithophel that was considered to be the word of God then was rejected by everyone. And everyone said, we're not going to follow Ahithophel anymore. We're going to follow this other person. Thinking that they had decided on their own, the Scripture says, it was ordained by God that they will not follow the advice of Ahithophel, but the advice of another person. Brethren, if you continue through the Scriptures, there will be testimonies and testimonies and testimonies that will prove this truth.

that God is sovereign because He is sovereign over the hearts, the emotions, the feelings, and the thoughts that are within people. When the kingdom was going to be divided, it was God the one who raised enemies against Solomon to bring about the decree of the separation of the kingdom. It was God the one who lifted the hearts of three enemies, of three adversaries against Solomon so that He will accomplish the purpose that He wanted. And this is not only, my brethren, a story of something that takes place in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, we're told in 2 Peter chapter 2, there will be false prophets among you.

The Lord says in 2 Peter 2, not that there may be, not that there is a possibility that this will take place, but rather, he says that there will be prophets among you. And then Jude corroborates and confirms that in Jude in verse 3 to 5, when he says, while I was very diligent to write about the common salvation that we have, I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints, for certain men had crept into the church, unnoticed, unaware, who were marked out for this condemnation long time ago. Brethren, the hearts of men, the intentions of men, the emotions and feelings of men, all of them governed by the sovereign decree of the Lord. God is not the author of evil. God is not the author of unrighteousness, but He's sovereign over absolutely everything that takes place.

And the reason why I'm saying this, my dear brethren, is because when we speak about spiritual maturity, we are tempted in our prideful flesh to believe that maturity is something that is developed in and of ourselves by doing this or doing that when maturity and spiritual maturity is ultimately a work of the Holy Spirit, enthroning the person of Jesus Christ in the heart of the saint that he or she will die to serve, and the Lord Jesus Christ will be king and ruler in the heart of that person. My dear brethren, the sovereignty of the Lord, and even the sovereignty of the Lord over our thoughts, our feelings, and our emotions is not to move us into carnal, fleshy ways, but rather is to move us to humility. Because apart from the sovereign grace of the Lord, nobody will be saved. Apart from the sovereign grace of the Lord, the heart of men will remain dead in trespasses. Apart from the sovereign grace of the Lord, the Christian will remain in his sins.

Apart from the sovereign grace of the Lord, we will not have hope of eternal life. But it's because of the sovereign grace of our Lord that we can humble ourselves and acknowledge that apart from Him, we are nothing. And it's because He's so good, condescending, and loving that we can trust in that sovereign decree of our Lord. My dear brethren, Why are you going to pursue maturity in the flesh? Why are you going to try to pursue maturity with the endeavors of men?

Maturity according to your understanding in the flesh and my understanding in the flesh is just simply to be better than others. to obtain and accumulate experience in so many years, so that based on that experience that I have accumulated, now I have matured. And based on what I have done, based on what I have experienced, based on what I have seen, now I have come to a point in my life in which I'm matured and I'm the standard that is to be followed. Very contrary to what genuine spiritual maturity is according to the Scriptures. The maturity of a child, if you think about a baby born, it starts with full dependence upon mom and upon dad.

This is how they start to mature. They depend so much, and as they're maturing, they disconnect from parents because now they're self-sufficient. When it comes to the spiritual matters, my dear brethren, it happens the opposite. We start depending on the Lord as little babies, depending on food and depending on care and depending on protection. And if the Christian grows to a point in which he or she thinks that they are now good to go on the run, then they're probably taking the path of darkness.

Because spiritual maturity for a person is seen in their continuous and ongoing dependence up to the point of death, and even growing on dependence, and growing on neediness, and growing on connection and fellowship with the Lord. spiritual maturity, my dear brethren. As you can see here in these verses that we have in front of us, this spiritual maturity, brethren, is connected to what? You tell me. What does spiritual maturity depend on?

It says, practice the truth. The truth is not in us. The Word is not in us. Spiritual maturity depends, is directly related to, the Word of God in us. There's absolutely no one who is able to be spiritually mature apart or in separation from the Scriptures.

There's absolutely no person, he or she could be very religious, and they could be very reputable in the eyes of men. But when it comes to the eyes of Barak Hussain at all, there's absolutely no one who can obtain spiritual maturity apart from the work of the Holy Spirit in and through the Scriptures. My desire today is to point you to what spiritual maturity is. I want to point you to some signs of spiritual immaturity, and then I hope that by seeing the Lord Jesus Christ, then we will decide to grow in the likeness of our Lord and Savior. So, brethren, if we were going to define spiritual maturity.

If I was going to give you a definition of spiritual maturity that is supposed to be seen and observed in the scriptures, it would be something like this. Spiritual maturity is the individual spiritual condition, individual spiritual condition of righteous living, righteous living. that is the result of genuine fellowship with God in the Scriptures. My dear brethren, once again, if I was going to give you and speak to your soul of spiritual maturity, I would say that spiritual maturity is the individual, not collective, individual spiritual condition of righteous living that is manifested in living righteously that is the result of fellowship with God in, I'm not saying through, as if you pay attention to prepositions, in the scriptures. This is what a spiritual maturity is, brethren.

And as we come to church, there's absolutely no point in obtaining knowledge and just simply having a structured doctrine there in our minds if we do not put ourselves, our heart and our souls and who we are through the word that is preached, designed to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. The first thing that you need to have in your mind is that spiritual maturity is an individual spiritual condition. It's not a condition of the physical, it's not a condition of that which is material as the baby grows and they mature, but rather it's a spiritual condition. And this is individual in nature. We do speak about collective maturity for the church, but for the church to be collectively mature, the individual must be mature.

It's an individual matter. That means that your maturity is a matter that pertains only to you. It does not matter the spiritual maturity of your brother or your sister. What matters and what should take priority to you is where your heart is. Spiritual maturity in the individual will move the collective to spiritual maturity.

And this is very important, my dear brethren, that we are to think about spiritual maturity as something that is of individual responsibility. And if you were going to think about a word that will help us to understand spiritual maturity, that word will be completeness. Completeness is that which we want to obtain when we speak about a spiritual maturity. You are a vessel, an earthen vessel. By grace through faith you have been made a vessel of the Lord.

And that vessel, that container, is always filled with something. And spiritual maturity is just simply taking that earthen vessel and filling it in and completely with the presence of Christ and with the power of the Spirit and the abundance of the Word. Your vessel, my dear brother or sister, is filled with something. And the more spiritually mature that you are, the more that your vessel will be filled with the person of Jesus Christ. This concept of completeness, or fullness, determines how mature you are.

And, of course, I want to show you that. That is not my words only. From the Scriptures, if you come to Ephesians chapter 4, you will be able to see the concept of completeness attached to spiritual maturity. So please, very quickly, come with me to Ephesians chapter 4, And then you will see how the scriptures use this concept of completeness. I don't think about any other synonym for completeness.

So fullness, to be filled, right? As in maturity, Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four, please, brethren, let us go there. Let us read these words as if in the context of the church, but individually for your soul. In verse 11, here is speaking about Christ and the gifts that Christ gave to the church in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11, it says, and he gave.

the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers, to equip, they were given with the purpose of equipping the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain, here's speaking of each one of the members in the congregation all together, we all attain the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood, or to a man that is fully grown, And then it's going to say, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. I hope that you can see that there. It says, mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That is, for the church to be mature as a body, the fullness of the measure of Christ has to be mightily present in the community of the believers. That is that maturity is just simply filling us spiritually with a person of Jesus Christ.

Same happens in the individual. My dear brother, spiritual maturity is just simply taking your vessel that has been given to you and filling the contents of that vessel with a person, the words, the passions, the affections, and everything that Christ is so that everything that you naturally are is removed outside that is dying to self and Jesus Christ abides in you and you are maturing spiritually. Your vessel is supposed to be filled and complete all the time. When your vessel is filled with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, then God provides to you a better and greater vessel. He enlarges your heart, your soul, and he provides more of Jesus Christ as you grow.

But if you are taken by pride, if you're taken by the destructions of this world, if you're taken by the affairs of this world, if you're taken by the love of this world, if you're taken by Satan and the things that are on in this world, if you're giving yourself to the affairs of this world rather than to Christ, What do you think are going to be the contents of your earthen vessel? Others than the things of the world, the passions of the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of that will take place in your earthen vessel and will make you walk in darkness, make you a spiritual liar and not be a spiritually mature believer. My dear brethren, do you think that Jesus Christ has called us to live as spiritual liars? Do you think that the Lord Jesus Christ, even in this night of glory, has called us to walk in darkness? Has called us to walk in secret sins, lying to self, deceiving ourselves, deceiving the brethren, deceiving the church, deceiving the outsiders, pretending to be something that we're not?

That is not the desire of the Lord Jesus Christ, brethren. The desire of the Lord Jesus Christ is that He will have the fullness of Christ dwell in us, even in verse 14 of 15. of chapter three, he will be the fullness of Christ in our hearts. That is his spiritual maturity. And that is individual, my brethren, individual.

Even though you have a spouse, you have a husband and wife and children, and you have brothers and sisters, it's individual responsibility. and thine to self, taking up your cross, and follow the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And this, I said, when I was giving you the definition of spiritual maturity, I said that is the individual spiritual condition of righteous living. It's not something that happens in the heart only, my dear brethren. But spiritual maturity will be attested, and it will be evidenced, and it will be seen and observed by righteous living that is discerned in the outside of the person.

And I want to show you that with the Scriptures in Hebrews chapter 5, if you come with me. There is a powerful, powerful third portion of the Scriptures that speak about maturity. The practical requirement of maturity is that a person cannot be mature, spiritually speaking, only abstractively. It's not only about those men who are very good at doing things, only in theory. It's not about only those people who are very good at understanding this and understanding that only in theory.

When it comes to spiritual maturity, we're speaking about righteousness that is practiced and righteousness that is seen. Hebrews chapter 5, it will speak of this in connection to the words of God. If we read together, brethren, from verse 7, chapter 7, it says, here, The author, before we read, brethren. Here, the author of Hebrews is going to speak about lofty matters. When I say lofty matters, complicated things that are difficult to understand from the scriptures.

And then he's going to point here to the role and the importance of spiritual maturity. It says in verse seven of chapter five, in the days of his flesh, that is the Lord Jesus, offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears. Remember, it gets eminent there. and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death. And he was heard because of his reverence.

Gethsemane, crying to the Lord, let this God pass from me. Verse eight, although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, that is accomplishing the purpose, and being made perfect, he became the source, that is Christ, of eternal salvation to all who obey him. being designated by God as a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. What?

What is that? What are you saying, whoever wrote this letter? You're speaking about the sufferings of Christ in Gethsemane, that he was made perfect into obedience, and he was made the source of salvation, and says that he was designated by God as a high priest after the order of Melchizedek? What are you talking about? He says then in verse 11, then the connection between a spiritual maturity and understanding what he has just said.

Verse 11. About this, namely, that God has made Jesus Christ the high priest after the honor of Melchizedek. About this, we have much to say. And it is hard to explain. Why?

Since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God, of the words of God, in other words. You need milk, not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the work of righteousness since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by Constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

My dear brother, I said to you that a spiritual maturity is an individual spiritual condition that is to be understood as completeness, right? I said that just like five or 10 minutes ago. Completeness, fullness, that your vessel is meant to be complete. This is what we see here. It says, since you have become both here for though by this time you ought to be teachers.

That is, at this point, your vessel should be filled in such a way that you will be the source of knowledge unto others. But because you are dull of hearing, your vessel is not filled with knowledge and the presence of Christ. And for that reason, even though you should be teachers of all of these spiritual matters, you are in need to be taught. because your vessel is not in fullness or in completeness as it's supposed to be. And then we are told there, my dear brethren, not only that, it says you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God, connection to the words of God.

And this is important aspect of the spiritual immaturity. It says here in verse 15, for everyone who lives in the milk is unskilled in the word of God. righteousness. That is connected in verse 14, which says, but soul food is for the mature, and the mature are those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice. It says in verse 13, unskilled, lacking the skills of the word of righteousness.

And the skills of the word of righteousness are seen in the head, brethren? No. The skills of the words of righteousness are seen in the constant practice to distinguish good from evil, that is, in the righteous living. This morning, when you opened your eyes, whatever time you opened your eyes, remember, this morning you were extended grace, you were extended life, and you opened your eyes. As soon as you opened your eyes, You were confronted with the reality of practical living in which you were supposed to discern between good and evil.

And you're alive before the Lord started. You were alive, you were asleep, but you were not conscious. But your life started. And you were presented before you options of righteousness and unrighteousness. Righteousness and maturity, my dear brother or sister, is not primarily lived in the head.

Righteousness and spiritual maturity is seen, observed, and witnessed in practice to distinguish good from evil. The Word of God feeds you and informs you of your discernment. You are to discern righteousness from unrighteousness, and that is to be seen in the presence of Christ that is taking you to apply that Word. The things that you have said during this day, the things that you have thought during this day, brethren, the things that you have seen on this day, the steps that you have taken the steps that you have not taken, the words that you should have said that you did not say, the place that you should have gone that you did not go. The life of the person is meant to be a manifestation of the spiritual contents that abide in the heart of the person.

And a mature person is the one when they come in humility before the presence of the Lord, their vessel is so mightily filled with the words of Christ, with the presence of Christ, with the wisdom of Christ, with the presence of the Spirit, with the leading of the Spirit, with the light of the Spirit, that when that person naturally and organically live, speak the words of Christ. Sees the things that Christ will see and does not see the things that Christ will not see. Go to the places that Christ will go and the places that Christ will not go. Treat wife and husband in the way that Christ would do. Treat children and parents and friends and neighbors in the way that Christ will do.

Because brethren, spiritual maturity is not a powerless seminary decree that cannot accomplish righteousness for men. but his spiritual maturity is accomplished with the person of Jesus Christ in the heart of the saint. And that is not for the pastor, that's not for the elder, that's not for the bishop, or whatever name you want to give it, for absolutely every single Christian. Brethren, and that is absolutely connected to the word of the Lord. Let me tell you this, if your conscience is witnessing to you that you are a righteous person, a good Christian, when your life, in your life, you don't see any devotion or connection to the Word of God, let me just tell you and rescue yourself from that place of self-righteousness and hypocrisy, because there's absolutely no one under heaven, on earth, who will accomplish and obtain the presence of Christ, humanly speaking, that is a grace that is given, apart from the Scriptures, dwelling richly in the heart of that person.

Oh Lord, that I may keep your words in my heart, that I may not sin against you. Because if I didn't have the word of God in my heart, then I will sin against you. Brethren, absolutely connected to the words of the Lord. And that is when we return to 1 John, there we can see the applications in spiritual maturity. I said to you that spiritual maturity, brethren, is the individual spiritual condition of righteous living, according to Hebrews chapter five, verses 11 onwards, that is the result of fellowship with God.

It is the result of, that is that you cannot accomplish this in any other way but through fellowship with God in the person of Christ in His Word. The preposition that I used is not through His Word, as if the Word of God was only means, but rather I'm saying in His Word, saying that the Word of God is not only the means, but more than that, is the source of revelation of God. I cannot know God apart from the person of Jesus Christ who has revealed himself to me through a special revelation, namely the Scriptures. Because when my eyes are opened to see the heavens and the earth, that declares the glory of God. And that speaks of the divine power, the eternal power, the divine character of God.

And because of that testimony, men are left without excuse that there is a God, that creation is not able to save the soul of a sinner. Hence the need of preaching the gospel as what is written in the scriptures, because the scriptures perfectly reveal God himself in the person of Christ, and that's why his spiritual maturity starts from the moment of salvation by grace through faith, and he continues, he necessitates, he needs fellowship with God. the Word of God. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing, right? Word of God.

Brethren, do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you will be able to test, that you will be able to discern what is the will of God, that you will know the heart of God, and that will of the Lord is good, it's perfect, and it's acceptable. acceptable brethren. Once the heart of a person, Romans chapter 12, that was, once a person is filled with the renewing of the mind that comes through the holy scriptures, the heart of that person is brought into alignment so much to the person of Jesus Christ that the will of the Lord is good It's pleasing, it's acceptable, it's perfect. It's not that I have to obey the will of the Lord, as it was something that I don't want to do, but I have to do because it's the will of God, but rather it's acceptable. That is, I receive, Lord, your grace.

I receive, Lord, your will unto my life. I receive, Lord, your providence unto my life and what you have decided for me, I receive it because it's the will of the Lord. How are we going to say, my dear brethren, that we believe in the sovereignty of the Lord, that we rest in the sovereignty of the Lord when it comes to practical matters? And then our hearts are deviated into ways of self-righteousness, deviated into ways of let us fix these matters on our own. Let us fix these matters with our own power and with our own wisdom.

Spiritual maturity is seen in the heart in alignment with God's spiritual condition individually. external righteous living, result of fellowship with God in the words of the Lord. Three signs I want to give you of the words of God abiding in you. We'll get them from those verses. Brother, attention to this.

How do you know that indeed a Christian, many of you, most of you profess to be in Christ. How do you know, my dear soul, that the word of the Lord has taken a place so prominent in your heart, that Jesus Christ is so enthroned in your heart, that indeed you love the Savior of yours in your heart, not externally with religion, and that this love of Christ, this presence of Christ, this word of Christ in you has moved you into a spiritual maturity that you can confirm with clear conscience according to the scriptures. sign that you are not a hypocrite. In verse 6, it says, if we say that we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. If you know, because you will know, your conscience will testify that to you, that you are walking in darkness, and you dare to open your mouth and call yourself a Christian, and to call yourself a person that is in the context of the church, then you're not only walking in darkness, but you are a hypocrite.

And of course, you're not spiritually mature. You are a hypocrite. If there is a presence of hypocrisy, or whatever word you use to speak of that, in your heart, then my dear brother, They're not only walking in darkness, but let me tell you, you're the one who needs milk. You're the one who needs all of these things broken down in ways your mind can be filled with doctrines and books and all of these unknowns and things like that. But your heart is in need of milk.

The basic oracles of God are necessitated in your heart. The basic principles of the faith are required in your soul because of the ways of hypocrisy. Second way is given to us in verse 8, and this I call it spiritual pride. If you are walking in hypocrisy, if you are speaking words of righteousness and religion while in the secret place, you are a sinner, and you're walking in darkness, you're a spiritual hypocrite. But then in verse 8, spiritual pride.

I mentioned this, of course, from a different perspective last week. It says in verse 8, if we say that we have no sin, the self-righteousness, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. The spiritual pride that moves a person to deny the presence of sin in him or her is the manifestation of the lack of the truth in the heart of that person. Hence, that person is not spiritually mature. A person who is spiritually mature is the person who, by the abundance of the word of God in his or her heart, will easily come to the understanding and realization that even though the Lord can work in you in sanctification and holiness, sin is still in you.

The sin is still present in you. It's spiritual pride or self-righteousness. And the third, and I think it's the most practical one, as I said last week also in verse 10, my dear brethren, The third requirement for you to know that you are growing in spiritual maturity is victory over sin. Victory over sin. And it's given to us in verse 10.

It says, if we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. What do I mean by victory over sin? And this, I think, will free us. Brethren, if you pay attention by faith, and the things that I say correspond to the Scriptures, I think it will free us and it will take a burden off our shoulders that at times will not allow us to move in ways of Christ-likeness. Dear brethren, victory over sin is not the fact that you do not sin anymore, but rather victory over sin is the fact that you deal with sin walking in the light.

And I've mentioned this in the past. That is that when you sin, You come in confrontation with the light of God that convicts you of the sin that is within you, and you do not respond like Saul, like a liar, saying, I have no sin, making God a liar. But rather, when the light of God is shining upon you, you agree with the light of the Lord, and then you receive the forgiveness that is found in the person of Jesus Christ, and he's just and faithful to forgive you your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness, and victory over sin has been granted, because forgiveness covers that love, the love of God that is found in the person of Jesus Christ upon the cross. When the sinner comes with genuine repentance by faith and forgiveness is granted, then God has canceled the debts. He's the propitiation for our sins that has enabled us to move on.

Victory over sin. Not that you are a perfect person who does not sin anymore, but rather, You're sensitive to the Word of the Lord. Why? Because the Word of God is in your heart. The Word of the Lord is in your heart, and you agree with the conviction of the Spirit.

And then you say, I have seen. And even though I have seen, now I know by this light that is shining upon me that I can move on. When there is a testimony in your life that you cannot move on from sin, that means that you are not hearing the words of the Lord in conviction, or that you don't have the faith, or you don't believe that Jesus Christ died upon the cross for your soul, or that you're not receiving the forgiveness of the Lord, or worse, that you're saying, I have not sinned. Last week, I illustrated with you spiritual pride or spiritual liars with whom in the Old Testament. What king did I use last week to illustrate the scene of a spiritual line?

Saul. Come with me now to the same passages there in Samuel, because now I want to illustrate to you spiritual maturity with one who replaced Saul. Who was the one who replaced Saul? David. So please come with me to 2 Samuel.

Let me illustrate this. This is the experience of the spiritually mature believer. Now, the sin that David faced, or the unrighteousness that he faced, is not going to be different to the sins that we face. But what we see in David is what the Spirit of God is supposed to do in the life of the believer as they grow in spiritual maturity. Now, brethren, you remember that David sinned.

Of course, he was a sinner. He sinned many times. But there was an awful sin that he committed against a person taking his wife. You remember that? The name of that person was Uriah the Hittite.

So you come with me, please, to 2 Samuel 11. Uriah the Hittite, then he took illegally and sinfully his beautiful wife, whose name was Bathsheba. Very good, it says, just to remind ourselves, in verse 1 of chapter 11, it says, In the spring of the year, the time when the kings go out to battle, 2 Samuel chapter 11, brethren, pay attention to this. This illustrates the heart of the spiritually mature person. In the spring of the year, the time when the kings go out to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him, and they ravished the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained at Jerusalem.

It happened late one afternoon when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house that he saw from the roof a woman bathing him. And the woman was very beautiful. That was Sheba. Now, we know what happens there. He's going to illegally and unrighteously going to take this woman.

And not only that, but after that, once he realized that this woman is pregnant, you can read that in your own time in chapter 11, what is he going to do with Uriah? He's going to get him killed. And he's going to devise many satanic and unrighteous ways, because that is satanic, what he did, killing him in that way, to kill Uriah, so that he will be able to be with Bathsheba, right? After that, in chapter 12, you remember that there was a prophet of God that is going to come to confront David. You remember his name, right?

Nathan is going to come to confront David with his sin. And the way that he's going to confront him is powerful because he's going to give him an analogy. He's going to place David in the seat of the judge, and he's going to put him to judge a hypothetical situation in which David says, this person is to put to death. And then Nathan is going to say, this person is you. We have that confrontation of which we are not going to read.

You can read that in chapter 12 in your own time, but I want to point you to something very important. Let's read, please, then in verse 7. Confronting words. The accusation, the judgment of God, brethren. Come in there.

It says in verse 7 of chapter 12, Nathan said to David, you are the man. This is now Nathan, brethren. This is God. bringing judgment upon David, as just the sinner, who is outside of Christ, who is outside of the cross, is confronted with the validity of his sin, and says to that man, you are the man. Verse 7, it continues, thus says the Lord, because Israel I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul.

And I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And these were too little. I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the Lord to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with a sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with a sword, the Ammonites.

Now, therefore, the word of the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be my wife. Pay attention to verse 11. Thus says the Lord, behold, I will rise up evil against you out of your own house. I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of the son. This judgment is going to be fulfilled by whom?

Absalom, his son, is going to do this. Verse 12, for you did it secretly, but I will do this before all Israel and before the Son. He says, I will do it. Remember, God is sovereign over absolutely everything. Verse 13, this is the response of a sinner who has been confronted with his sin.

He says, David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. Did he sin against Uriah and Bathsheba? Of course he did. But the sin went beyond that. Our sin pattern goes beyond that.

I have sinned against the Lord. The light, the convicting light of the Holy Spirit came upon David. His eyes were opened to come to the realization that his sin was not only against Uriah or Bathsheba, but he had sinned against the Lord. condescending grace coming upon David to show him his crooked ways. And he responds in agreement, I have sinned.

And Nathan is going to utter glorious words, very gospel-filled words. And Nathan said to David, the Lord also has put away your sin. You shall not die. But Lord, the wages of sin is death and his sin. But the Lord is the one who has put away his sin, David's sin, and you shall not die.

Nevertheless, verse 14, there's going to be consequences of the sin that has been committed. Because by these deeds you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die. Consequences of sin. But brethren, David, received the forgiveness of the sin that he had committed when he acknowledged his sin. He acknowledged that.

Now, he received the judgment that will come upon them. You remember what? He was struck with disease and was going to die. And then, David, you remember what happened after that? David is going to give himself unto much prayer and fasting and supplication, asking the Lord to despair the life of the child, just not to bring that judgment.

The Lord has spoken that this judgment will come. But David is praying and supplicating before the Lord, asking that this will not take place. And the Lord is not going to respond with that. He's going to respond positively to that. In verse 22, we know that the servants of David were very concerned because they knew that if David will know that David has died, as it actually happens, That's something that is going to happen to David, because he was so in distress before the child died.

What is going to happen now that he knows? Verse 22, it says, he said, or better, in verse 20, then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. Let me read before that. Let us read from verse 22. 15 And the Lord afflicted the child that Uriah his wife bore to David, and he became sick.

16 David therefore sought God on behalf of the child, and they fasted and went in and laid all night on the ground. And the elders of his house stood beside him to raise him from the ground, but he would not, nor did he eat food with them. On the seventh day the child died, and the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead. They said, Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen to us. How then can we say to him, the child is dead?

He may do himself some harm. But when David saw that the servants were whispering together, David understood that the child was dead. And David said to his servants, Is the child dead? They said, He is dead. And then David arose from the earth.

and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his clothes. And he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. He then went into his own house. And when he had asked, they set food before him, and he ate. Then his servant said to him, what is this thing that you have done?

Who can understand this, David? You were so afflicted before. And now that the kid has died, now you behave like if nothing had taken place. It says in there, you fasted and wept for the child while he was alive. But when the child died, you arose and ate food, he said to them in verse 12, verse 22.

While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me. And the child may live, but now he's dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? Shall I go with him?

but he will not return to me. He continues, then David conforted his wife, Bathsheba, whose son had died, Bathsheba, and went into her, and lay with her, and she bore a son. And he called his name Solomon, and the Lord loved him, and sent a message by Nathan the prophet. So he called his name Jedediah, which means loved by the Lord, because of the Lord. Brethren, seen, had, being committed, right?

Sin had been committed. And sin is not good, it's not peace, and it's unrighteous, it's horrible. And the outcome of that sin is horrible. The death of that child is horrible. It's something that no one desires.

But when the realization of God's forgiveness comes upon the shoulders of a sinner who deserves not only death, but eternal death, and that person is free from the condemnation of sin and receives and experiences the forgiveness that God gives to the point that one sin and the consequences of sin has been dealt with, that person can move on. Brother, the saying is not to be insensitive, if that is a word that you have in English, and I hope that you do, or non-sensitive to unrighteousness and to sin. We are to be broken and contrite and cried and weeped because of unrighteousness and because of sin, because of our sin, because of the unrighteousness that we have committed. But the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is greater than the sin that we have committed. Otherwise, there's no salvation.

If there is one sin that is greater than the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross, then there is no salvation. But the Lord Jesus Christ died upon the cross being God himself. So by the wrath of God being poured upon him, the judgment that his people deserve will be fully taken upon the cross, forgiven. so that when they, by faith, are united to Him, can live the life of faith in the person of Jesus Christ, moving to greater manifestations of His presence and of His glory. And that requires the experience of forgiveness.

going forgiveness, and my dear brethren, my dear soul, spiritual maturity requires that a person will be so aware by faith and through the power of the scriptures, of the gospel and the cross, that when that person sins, true conviction will be brought to the heart and the flesh, but rather knowing that every time they come to the cross, they will be forgiven. And that forgiveness is called victory over sin. We don't have the ability to defeat sin on our own, brethren. Redemptification is the sprinkling of Christ's blood upon us that prepares us to obey the truth. He was not only a propitiation for our sins, He is the propitiation for our sins, and He is seated at the right hand of the Father.

And every time that He intercedes for us, He desires that by faith we will receive the forgiveness that is always available there, that we will not be like an immature child. You know what is a sign of immaturity, my dear brethren? What James says in chapter 1. Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. And let patience have its perfect word that you might be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

And if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach. And let him ask in faith with no doubting. For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea. Driven and toast by the wind, for let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Signs of maturity, my dear brothers, my dear brothers, signs of maturity is that the truth and the grace of God will be so settled upon your hearts You will not be like a child driven and tossed by the wind from one place to another, changing big decisions from one place to another like a child. If that is your life, you are a child, spiritually speaking. And our wives, our families need men who are settled in the truth of Christ, who are settled in the person of Jesus Christ. No lacking faith. from one place to another, tossed by any cunning doctrine, by every wind.

Brethren, we cannot obtain all of those things in our own. We need the person of Jesus Christ enthroned in our hearts. Sisters, you are not going to accomplish maturity if you're like a wave of the sea from one place to another, from one place of life to another. but rather you are to be established, you are to be firmed in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, that is what is spiritual maturity. Because my dear brethren, if there's no spiritual maturity in the individual, you know what happens to the church?

It happens to what happens to the church at Corinth. I belong to Apollos, I belong to Christ, I belong to this one and I belong to this one. they started to be fractions and divisions among them. And you know why? Come to me to 1 Corinthians 3 to finish this, brethren.

This is what happens to a church whose members are like waves of the sea. driven and toast by the wind. You remember Ephesians chapter 4 speaks of the same, toast by any cunning doctrine. It's speaking of one place to another, not requiring solid food, but in need of milk.