Time and Spiritual Maturity

Driving home: Not one. Not one. Not one. Not one. One of those things happens automatically with the passing of time.

James's description of life as a vapor is illustrated by the white smoke from a car's exhaust pipe, emphasizing life's brevity and transient nature.

And then he answers his own rhetorical question in this way, It is a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. What he's saying, kids, it's like that white, billowy, smoke-like stuff that came out of the car in front of you on the way to church this morning. Vapor. Vapor coming out the exhaust pipe.

1:39 - 2:04 Read in full sermon

The point: Keep a good conscience before Almighty God, not knowingly clinging to unconfessed sin or refusing to make wrongs right.

A person following a healthy diet but then consuming arsenic or rancid food illustrates how a defiled conscience negates the benefits of using the means of grace.

It doesn't matter how much we use the means of grace if we allow the poison of a defiled conscience to work through our system. It would be like a man having a healthy diet prescribed by someone with his Ph.D. in nutrition and having eaten the food for the day prescribed by the Ph.D. in nutrition than to sit down and have a half an ounce of arsenic, or to drink a half a glass of polluted water, or to eat rancid food as his dessert. You see the taking in of the other will negate all potential for good of the former. And a man, a woman, a boy or girl can be using all the public and private means...

18:36 - 19:40 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that mere good intentions will not make you more mature in Christ; active engagement with the means of grace is required.

The tragic sight of a five-year-old infant still in arms is used to convey the grievousness of spiritual arrested growth in believers who ought to be mature.

No, he is allowing adequate time for the acquisition of a truth here and a truth there and a perspective here and a deeper understanding there But he said on account of the reality you are and what he tells them they are is that they are still babes not in the proper sense that Peter speaks of it as newborn babes but they are babes as the result of arrested growth One of the most tragic realities in the physical world to see a five year old infant still in arms There is something grotesque and grievous How must the Heavenly Father feel when he looks at the host of his five year olds that are s...

28:09 - 29:37 Read in full sermon

The point: Deal immediately with issues God puts His finger on regarding priorities, rather than tabling them or rationalizing them away.

The difference between Macy's parade balloons (all air, no substance) and real spiritual bone and sinew illustrates the distinction between superficial and genuine spiritual growth.

but under the preaching of the word in your private reading of the word in family devotions in your interaction with a brother or sister in just an ordinary conversation in maybe a more formal reproof or rebuke or exhortation You see I am describing the public and private in Christ one of these divinely constructed conduits into the soul of a believer by which God supplies him life and health and spiritual vigor and all of the vitamins and minerals essential to solid growth of spiritual bone and sinuant muscle so that what we have is not the growth and the maturity of the balloons that are blo...

31:04 - 32:32 Read in full sermon

The point: Confront and deal with any idolatrous relationships (to people or things) that are hindering your spiritual prosperity and maturity.

Believers who rationalize sin and resist conviction are likened to wearing a 'spiritual flak jacket' that deflects even powerful preaching, indicating a dangerous state of spiritual dullness.

to some thing any time an idolatrous relationship on the screen of your mind and you've spent the whole year trying to rationalize no there's nothing wrong with that but you see the living proof that you're rationalizing is you've not prospered you've not become mature in Christ and you will not become mature in Christ as long as that issue is undealt with your spiritual senses become dull it's a kind of defense mechanism you can only stand spiritual pain for so long before you start putting on a flak jacket you can't stand getting shot at so long and you say I can't take it anymore rather tha...

36:31 - 37:59 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin details the consequences of arrested growth: an unruly spirit, an ungoverned tongue, diminished credibility, and persistent unmortified sins (e.g., gossip, gluttony…

Some people's tendency to absorb all gossip in the church is compared to a vacuum cleaner, highlighting their unmortified sin of listening to evil reports.

if you have the courage to ask your credibility with your kids is no greater they're less likely to just overlook those inconsistencies the unruly spirit the ungoverned tongue still ungoverned the vulnerability to God the false gossip and false reports why is that? in this assembly over the years I've seen a pattern I could chart it you always have about a dozen people who are like gossip vacuum cleaners any gossip in the church just seems to be sucked in their direction it's amazing they generally don't ply their trade with anybody and everybody they hear the whirr and feel the shhh of the va...

43:13 - 44:36 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin details the consequences of arrested growth: an unruly spirit, an ungoverned tongue, diminished credibility, and persistent unmortified sins (e.g., gossip, gluttony…

The failure to lose weight due to self-indulgence or the destruction of one's body through thinness idolatry are given as concrete examples of unmortified sin and lack of self-control.

why? the scripture says it's an evil mouth to an evil report not only is it evil to give a false report it's evil to listen to it your lack of credibility all those pounds you said were going to come off that were the fruit of your self indulgence and lack of self control they're still there you've just had another year to figure out excuses they don't lie they're still there and I'll tell you something they didn't get on there nor were they sustained by breathing air no air anywhere what puts on pounds it's the holiday season it's my birthday time some of you on the other end of the spectrum ...

44:36 - 46:04 Read in full sermon

The point: Remember from where you have fallen; face the reality of your spiritual state without denial.

The complex, self-deceptive ways Christians rationalize their lack of growth are compared to a Rube Goldberg machine, emphasizing the intricate nature of denial.

it's more clever than one of those Rube Goldberg things you've seen them haven't you where you drop a penny at the one end of it and it rolls down and trips this and then another thing and out the other end five different little contraptions something happens on this end that's the way the denial mechanism is Jesus knew that and he said to these people remember face reality remember and what were they to remember remember from whence you are reality infallibility you have left it now you remain until in the deep there is an echo of acknowledgement that my assessment is according to truth face ...

53:08 - 54:36 Read in full sermon

The point: Ask your spouse for honest, 'judgment day' feedback on your spiritual growth.

Martin shares his personal practice of asking his wife and children for honest feedback on his spiritual growth, encouraging listeners to do the same.

described me and I I don't want to be a piece with his temper but I don't want any growth in me well honestly dad let your kids be a mini judgment day and I'm not asking you to do something I have not personally done and I've got a wife and kids here who could rise up and call me a liar if it were not so ask your wife then when the kids go off to their room say honey don't be a sapphire and lie to the Holy Ghost I solemnly charge you to speak to me with judgment day honesty have you seen any growth in me are you living with a husband that's more like Christ now than he was in the first day of ...

57:24 - 58:49 Read in full sermon

The point: Ask your spouse for honest, 'judgment day' feedback on your spiritual growth.

The 'growth' of a man who shrinks in size is used to illustrate the paradoxical and tragic state of spiritual regression, where one is still a believer but has diminished in Christlikeness.

your growth is so evident to us as your pastors and that's biblical to commend people I have no greater joy John says than to know that my children walk in the truth that was read to us this morning the epistle to Philemon you notice how Paul could say I have confidence you're going to do what I tell you that's not wrong and there's some of you we've seen your growth before our very eyes growth in openness growth in spiritual sensitivity and transparency growth in consistency in the public means of grace but there's some of you if someone held a pistol to my head and said give me a judgment da...

58:49 - 60:15 Read in full sermon

The point: Be absolutely honest with God, even if it feels frightening, knowing that until you are 'naked,' He cannot clothe you.

The frightening prospect of being completely honest about one's spiritual state is compared to being stripped naked in public, highlighting the discomfort of confronting self-deception.

And that's going to take time. And for some of you, it may be as though you were being stripped naked and stood out in the middle of Bloomfield Avenue. Or...

62:30 - 62:42 Read in full sermon