How to Grow Spiritually - Part 1 — Roy Daniel

The Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Need for Repentance

Or good morning. I don't have a watch, so if I take three hours it's not my fault. I preached this year at a church and I prepared six months for a message. That's terrifying. The minister got hold of it and he told them, oh well Roy Daniel has prepared six months for this message, he's only going to preach three hours though.

And luckily I didn't do that, it was only 40 minutes. Before I start and before I pray, and actually before I bring my message this morning, I'd just like to bring a short, I don't know if you call it a synopsis, I don't know, but a shortened version of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Because there might be someone sitting here today that doesn't know Jesus, that they think they know Jesus, they might be on a false foundation. And before I bring my main message, which is the start of three messages, which are going to be a little bit of a series, joined onto each other, they're not separate in any way, they flow into each other, and you'll come to see over the next few days why.

Before I bring that I'd like to bring a little bit of the gospel, and just in seven minutes, it's going to be very short, it's not exactly a message. But basically when a person gets saved, two things, as many things that happen, and it's wonderful, the riches that we receive in Christ Jesus.

But when we get saved, there are two basic wonderful things that happen, and the one is that we receive a new heart. A new heart also will I give you. And God changed our heart through Jesus Christ. We can't do that.

We can work and work and work forever, and we can never change our heart. I remember five years back when my heart was changed through Jesus Christ. The other thing is our sins are forgiven. Each one of us needs our sins to be forgiven.

Because every single one of us has broken God's law. We have lied, or we have stolen, or we've dishonored our parents. And to the world, that might be small. But in the holy eyes of God, that is worthy of the flames of hell for eternity, as punishment upon our deeds.

Every single one of us have sinned. And God calls us to repentance. Not one of us can, through our religion or our works or anything that we do, can we take away the sin that we have done. It's held against us.

If we die though, we go to prayer meeting. That we read our Bibles. That we do everything on earth. That we hand out tracts. All of that in one moment will be washed aside on the judgment day. And all that will be left for God to judge is the times that we have broken God's law.

And we'll be cast into hell. And of course, you know, we've been brought up to be told, and it's wonderful that Jesus Christ tasted death for every single man on earth. He tasted death for you. He tasted death for me.

He loved us, even though we didn't love Him. And He has done everything. When He said it is finished, He meant it is finished. He's done everything to make it possible that He as a gift can forgive us of our sins.

But He calls us, and Luke has written that, that's above Christ to suffer and to die. And that repentance and remission of sin should be preached. And that's the message that should be preached. Not just remission of sin.

Not just that you must receive Jesus Christ, but that you should repent. That you should come in humility of your sin to God. Now, many people, many people come to God, as I did many times in my life.

And they come for the wrong reason. They come because they are sorry about hell. They're scared of hell. They come because they like the minister, or they come because their friends come because it's the right thing to do, or they want to have a better life.

And coming with these wrong reasons, and they pray to become Christians and nothing happens in their life. They sometimes become religious afterwards, but nothing happens. And God calls, and the condition of receiving Jesus Christ into your life is that you have to repent, that you have to have humility and godly sorrow over your sins and over your life that does not love God.

And if you don't have that, you can forget about the God who loves you and longs to give you eternal life, that He will ever give unto you unless you come in humility of your sins. Now, me in my life, as I said, this is not a sermon.

It's a seven minutes just before I started my sermon. Five years back, I met with Jesus. But before that, many times I came to God for the wrong reasons. I remember as a seven-year-old boy, I prayed because I was scared of hell.

And nothing happened in my heart. And then I became religious, and I started to give out checks, and I did so many things for God, but there was not life. And seven years back, and many people looked up to me as a Christian, but seven years back, I remember being in my room, and God's Holy Spirit came down and showed me that I was a sinner.

With all the good works I did and with all the people who talked about me as a wonderful person and as an influence upon other people, God's Holy Spirit came down and showed me, Roy, you are a sinner.

You've never come in humility of your sin to God Almighty and been saved. And you know, the wonderful thing is if you're in that state, if you've come to the point where you realize you're a sinner and you're sorry about your sin and you want to turn from your sin, then you don't have to run around the world to earn salvation.

You don't have to run around the world to do good works, to pay for your forgiveness of sins. The wonderful thing is, as I said, Jesus Christ has done it all. And therefore, in one moment, as I did seven years back, when you are truly humbled of your sin, you can look to Jesus.

And in that one moment, because He has done it all, because it was finished with Calvary, He can change your heart and He can forgive your sins. And He did that to me seven years back in my room. I can show you the spot in Cape Town, South Africa.

And then there was fruit, and then there was life. The Bible became a new book to me. It became alive. Not that I understood all of it, but slowly, as I read it, portions became alive to me. I had a love for God, I had a will that deep in my heart was a love that wanted to do God's will, that wanted His smile.

And only God could have given me that heart. You cannot change your heart. God did in one moment what I couldn't have done in 20 years of going out on treks and going to Bible studies and going to camps and being a good boy.

God did in one moment as a gift when I came in humility of my sins. And I'd like to challenge you, if there's anybody here who is like me for 18, 20 years of my life, well, not 20, sure, 18, 24, math.

But if there's anybody like that, and you know you haven't become alive in Jesus Christ, that you've got works, that you go to Bible studies, that you know the Bible, then I encourage you at this camp to make right with God because tomorrow might never come.

And that's a fact, it's not a thought. Well, let us pray before I go to my sermon. Father, oh, thank You for Thy mercy and Thy love. Thank You that You first loved us, that we are rebellious, Lord, and that we so often, with all the light we have, we don't humble ourselves.

Father, thank You for the cross of Jesus Christ. We're so much with God. Lord, we are bought with the Christ. Therefore, glorify God in Your body and spirit, which are God's. Father, I ask You today, and I'd like to thank You for this meeting, that we can gather around that word, but that You would open up our eyes to behold the wonders in that word, Lord.

There are lies, and so many Christians lie. There are lies that are keeping them back from obedience and going deeper in the knowledge of God. And Father, I ask You to show them for the truth today and tomorrow and the next day, and every time my daddy and I preach, and through people in this camp, Lord, that the truth would set free people from the lies of the devil that hold them back from going through with God.

Father, shine upon us, as only God Almighty can, for Thou art light, for whatsoever maketh manifest is light. And I ask this all in the name of Jesus Christ, also that You will bind the devil and his demons, concerning this meeting.

In Jesus' name, Amen. Well, I've already said good morning. You know, one of the saddest things about history, one of the saddest things about history, is that people do not learn from history. People do not learn from the mistakes that other people made in the past in history through ignorance and through pride.

One of the basic and famous examples of this, I suppose, and you guys know your history better than me, so forgive me if I get some of the dates wrong, but when Napoleon, I don't know if it was a few hundred years back, when he went up to Russia, and he went, I think it was over a million trips up into Russia, he decided, and he made a big fatal flaw, to go up in the winter time, to attack Russia when it was approaching winter time.

And winter, as they say, is for Russia. And he went with this huge army into Russia, and he went up to Moscow, and all the Russians did was they were destroying the food supplies all along the way. Eventually, at Moscow, he had a semi-victory, where he had more people die of the enemies than of his army, but it was short-lived.

After the food supply there died, or was used up, he went on, and the supplies were cut off and cut off, and they eventually began to starve, and they had to retreat in humility. And very few of that large army was left, because they attacked Russia in the winter time.

A time later, I don't know if it was a few hundred years later, in World War II, Hitler did not learn from history. I don't know if he was too proud, or he didn't know. I don't know if he took history lessons.

But, he went up to Russia, it was in the summertime, I think, and he decided, while they were having operations in Russia, to have a major operation in the winter time. The Battle of Stalingrad, I don't know if that's pronounced right.

And outside, in the winter time, as those poor troops of his were in a terrifying cold, they eventually, a hundred thousand of them had to surrender outside Stalingrad, I think in 1943. And he made exactly the same mistake as many years before in history, Napoleon had made.

And in each case, he was a deadly bro to their campaigns to take over the world. They did not learn from history. And with that thought in mind, that we have to learn from history, I'd like to ask a question.

Measuring Spirituality Biblically

How do you, and this is perhaps one of the most important questions I can ever ask a Christian on earth, is how do you measure your spirituality? How do you measure your spirituality? That's important.

Now, I'd like to give a very bad example. I'm not very good at thinking up examples. But, for instance, if you believe that it is a very spiritual thing, that you are a very spiritual and very spiritual people, jump up and down a lot, and that makes them spiritual, and you want to become spiritual, then you will, probably, every day, I don't know if you do it in front of the mirror, jump up and down to become spiritual.

What you believe will affect what you do to become spiritual. How do you measure your spirituality? It's important what you believe as a spiritual person and how to become it. And to answer this, I'd like to ask another question.

How did, and this is the first sermon, how did the Corinthian church measure their spirituality? How did the Corinthian church measure their spirituality? I'd like to pray for a short time again, before I carry on.

Father, I'd just like to, in short, ask you that this sermon, Lord, that you would open people's eyes, Lord. Perhaps you are bound with the wrong belief as to how they should grow spiritually, and what is a spiritual person.

And not only you can do this, Lord, and set people free from the lies of the devil that hold them back with chains from growing as you intend them to. In Jesus Christ's name, my dear Father, Amen. How did the Corinthian church measure their spirituality?

Well, to answer that, I'd like to ask another question. How did the public measure themselves in those days? How did the public, the Corinthians, the general public, the non-Christians measure themselves in those days?

Well, Corinth had what is known as the Ishmaelian Games. I don't know if you've ever heard of that. The Ishmaelian Games, I'm probably pronouncing it incorrectly. It was second in popularity only to the Olympic Games.

They loved sport. And so, if you were powerful and you were talented, you were quite something special in Corinth. The second thing they had was the outdoor theater with 20 ,000 people. It was an arena for gladiators to fight against wild beasts.

20 ,000 people could look at them. In other words, again, if you were powerful and you were talented, you were quite something. They also had an indoor theater with 3 ,000 people. You could sit, and it was used for plays and for music.

In other words, if you were very talented at music or you were a good public speaker, then you were also quite something in the public sphere of Corinth. They had a culture of Greek wisdom. There was a lot of, they believed in wisdom and knowledge and wise.

In other words, if you were a professor-type person, you had a lot of knowledge and you could debate your point well, then you were quite something in the public in Corinth. And lastly, if we look at the heathen religion, this is not the church religion, but among the heathens religion, then there was a lot of prostitution going on.

And also, if you had a lot of experiences in the heathen religion, if you could, in fact, if you look at history, if you could speak in a lot of tongues in the heathen religion, then you, if you had these amazing experiences, were spiritual.

And something wonderful. And to sum up quickly, if you had a lot of power and talents, if you could sing well, if you could talk well, if you were a good public speaker, if you were good at debating your point, if you were a professor-type person, if you had amazing experiences in the public place, then you were quite something special.

And unfortunately, this measurement of what you were in society flowed over into the church. It flowed over into the church. And you had a church that just as if you were powerful and talented, you were something, so if you could do powerful miracles, you were something special in the church.

Just as if those who were talented in the public were special, so if you had a lot of talents in the church, you were special. Just as if you were a public speaker, you were good in the public side. Very good preachers were considered very spiritual.

Just as if you had a lot of knowledge, if you could debate your point in the same, even if you had a lot of knowledge of the Bible, you were wonderful. And just as they in the heathen religion spoke in tongues and considered you to be very spiritual and wonderful if you had a lot of experiences, so in the church they had the same problem.

That if you had amazing experiences and wonderful things happening to you, emotional and otherwise, then you were something special. If you had experiences, if you had talents, if you had amazing miracles happening to you, then you were something special in the church.

And this incorrect, this incorrect measure of spirituality led to at least three problems in the church. It led to at least three problems in the church. And I like to look at at least, as I say, three of them.

There are obviously many more. The first one, as people tried, as I say, what you believe affects what you do, they tried to grow spiritually by having these experiences and growing on their talents and so on.

Spiritual Experiences Do Not Prove Salvation

That the unsaved people felt comfortable in the church. The unsaved people felt comfortable in the church. You can just imagine coming to a church in those days. You sit in the church, you're unsaved, you never repent of your sins and you have an amazing experience happens to you.

Say you get healed or something. And then you sit there where you have an amazing feeling and you think that's what they're saying is to be spiritual and therefore I am spiritual. And the unsaved people feel comfortable in the church.

Paul warns them, rebukes them in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 34, Awake to righteousness and sin not, for some have not the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 34. Now I was in England and I was speaking to a young 25 year old.

I think that's how old he was about. And he was telling me about how he goes to these clubs and he's in the world and he loves the world and he does the things of the world. But then he said to me, Roy, I am definitely a Christian.

I am definitely a Christian. You know why, Roy? Because I feel, I have an amazing experience feeling God's presence. And in my heart I said, your feelings are lying to you. And then I quoted to him from 1 John.

He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. You don't cherish, you don't love the commandments of God. Love not the world, neither the things of the world.

For he that loveth the world, the love of the Father is not in him. And you know he looked at me. He said, Roy, if those verses are in the Bible, then I'm not saved. I'm not saved. No matter what experiences you have which make you feel, you see an incorrect measure of his spirituality because he thought if he feels the presence of God, therefore God is there.

Led to him feeling that he was spiritual when he was not. There's 11 tests in 1 John. 11 tests as to whether a person is saved or not. We're not going to go through all of them tonight. Good morning. And after those 11 tests which God lays out and says these words, these things have I written unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life.

These things, these 11 tests have I written unto you that you may know. You know not one of those 11 tests is feelings. Not one of those 11 tests is feelings. They're seeking after God and holiness and to do God's will.

And there's life through the Holy Spirit in which he opens up the Word of God, but there's no feelings. I once met a rebellious boy in South Africa. A biker. And I remember speaking to this boy and this boy was definitely not saved.

Not only was he very rebellious against his parents, but he lied to his parents. His parents told me. And the agony that they go through is this boy lies to his parents. Do you know what he said to me?

He said, Roy, I know that I'm a child of God. You know why? Because I feel this amazing peace that God gives me that goes through my body that gives me knowledge that I'm of God. Why, Roy, would God give me peace?

Why, Roy, would God give me peace if I was not saved? Though he lied and though he was rebellious. Incorrect measure of his spirituality. I met a person in another town in Natal, South Africa. I was preaching to some drunkards.

And this one drunkard came to me. He smelled, he reeked of drink. And I know that God loves drunkards. He wants to save them, not leave them in their sin. But this man reeked of drink. And he came to me after I had preached.

And he said, Roy, and he wanted to tell me, he said I had cancer or something going right through my arm, this terrifying disease. My arm was literally falling off. And he said, I went to this minister.

I was in this church and he was preaching. And suddenly it was all healed from top to toe. Every last little bit was gone. I'm healed, Roy. And according to him, because of that, there was no way that he could be unsaved.

Though he reeked of drink. Because he had an incorrect measure of his spirituality, he thought if he had miracles happening to him, if he was healed, then he was saved. And God never said that in his word.

He said, woe unto thee, Chorazin Vesada. You should have repented. Not, wow, you're spiritual, because you had miracles happening in your midst. The Antichrist will deceive many through miracles. And the Antichrist is not spiritual.

There's nothing wrong with miracles. But he was ignoring 1 Corinthians 6 verse 10, which says, no drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of God. No drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of God. I know one person, he was at one of these places where they sing to God.

And he was crying as those stupid music was on. He was crying and tears were rolling down his face as he worshipped God. And that was a measurement of spirituality. If you look to the person emotionally as he worshipped God, and tears rolling down his face, and surely this person was spiritual.

But that night, that person slept with a woman. That is not a measurement of your spirituality. If you are crying all the time, it's wonderful to cry. But it doesn't mean anything at the end of the day compared to so many more important things.

Your experiences emotionally, physically, do not mean that you are saved or that you are right with God. Not only were the people in this church, this is not my second point yet, in sin, not obeying the gospel of Jesus Christ, not having repented of their sin, come in humility and turned and accepted Jesus Christ and are living a life that they want to live in obedience to Him.

But there are Christians, there are Christians in this Corinthian church who are living in disobedience, living in disobedience and compromise. Because they truly thought they were spiritual when they started to disobey.

There are four books written by Paul, four letters. We have two of them in the Bible, 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians, Paul calls out to the Christians. He calls out to them and asks them to repent.

He calls out to them and asks them to repent of their disobedience. And in 2 Corinthians chapter 7, he thanks them for repenting. In 2 Corinthians chapter 7, he thanks them, the Christians, for repenting.

You see, these people were not being led by the word of God. They were being led by their experiences and their feelings. They were not being led by the word of God, but by their experiences and by their feelings.

I have a problem with that term. Not that it can't happen, but I'm being led by the Holy Ghost. And I know it's very possible. I know it happens. I can tell you wonderful stories how God has led missionaries in the past and it's just wonderful in different circumstances.

But many people, when they say that I'm being led by the Holy Ghost, all that they are actually saying is I'm being led by my feelings and I'm being led by my experiences. That's all they say. I met a girl up in Nellspruit, South Africa.

I remember going up to this town, sitting with this girl in front of me. She had, I believe, wonderfully been saved earlier. I will not judge her. But she had this boyfriend. And this boyfriend was not saved.

And I couldn't believe it. And I said to this girl, I wonder from the Scripture, I wonder from examples in life where it does not work, where saved people have been married to unsaved people and it has just not worked out.

The hardship, and even if it did work out, who cares? The Bible says what fellowship is like with God. And she looked at me and she said, God, Roy, God has told me that he is for me and God, I believe, has brought him upon my path.

God has told me that. She has peace about this boy. And she is ignoring the Word of God. Whenever you have feelings or leadings, just go back to the Word of God, please. Because God never contradicts His Word.

Obedience as Heaven's Measure of Spirituality

How, I'd like to ask a Christian before I go into the second problem in this church, how does heaven measure your spirituality? How does heaven measure your spirituality? Matthew 5 verse 19,. And whosoever therefore shall break one of the least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.

He shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven, no matter what experiences he has. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever shall do and teach the commandments of God, so simple, God makes it.

Matthew 28 verse 19 and 20, after telling them to baptize people, He says, teaching them, these are the new converts. What are you going to teach them? Experiences? No, teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.

That's the first thing you should teach a new convert, is just very simply obedience. Obey. So Christ said, I once, I was at a, Brother Don talked about eight times the next week, I was preaching 20 times in one week.

Terrifying. And among all the other things you had to do as well. And I remember it became 21, because on Saturday when I had to preach something three times, they whisked me off on a car. It was a wonderful place where people prayed through the nights.

I love to go to places like that. And they were praying through the nights and God is working in a wonderful way. And suddenly they got me in a car and we went off to a place where they're having a conference and these people that had come there at this conference were young people, young Christian leaders, a whole large group of them, and underneath them Christians so-called.

I haven't met them. And I came to this place, I've never met the people before in my life, they'd never met me. It was wonderful. They thought I was an American, I don't know where they got that from.

So they were practicing their English. And I came there and I preached and I preached something similar to this. And then I asked them two questions. I said to you, you as Christian leaders, and I'd never met them before, I said, you as Christian leaders should be teaching the people underneath you obedience, obedience to God.

And I asked them a question. When last did you ever hear a minister, and they came from different church backgrounds, wherever, did you last hear a minister preach anything like, for instance, obey your parents, honor your parents?

And every single one of those Christian leaders among the youth shook their heads and they said they'd never remember ever that anybody ever preached that. What is the church preaching? And God said, preach obedience.

And then I said to them, some of you are probably thinking today, some of you are probably thinking as you sit here, that if I went back to my youth group or something like that and I started to take away all the fun stuff that they're there for, and all the entertainment, and I started to actually sit them down and say, let's learn the commandments of God, let's teach them this.

Then, they would probably get bored. And you wouldn't want that, would you? They wouldn't want that. I said, but then you've got a problem on your hands because then you've got a whole group of unsaved people in front of you.

Because God Almighty said in 1 John 2 verse 3 or 4, and hereby we do know that we know him. And I believe this with all my heart. If we keep his commandments, he that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments is a liar.

And the truth is not in him. No matter what experiences, feelings, religion, or anything on earth you have, if you don't have a heart that desires and longs to do God's will as revealed in his word, then you are not saved.

You do not know God. That word keepeth means to guard, to preserve, to cherish, to guard, to preserve, to cherish. If you do not guard, you do not preserve, you do not cherish and love the commandments of God, then God says you do not know Jesus Christ.

I'm not saying that you're sinlessly perfected, that you can't fail, but if you don't have that heart that God only can give you, then you do not know Jesus Christ. So the first problem that came from this incorrect measurement of their spirituality was sinners felt uncomfortable, felt comfortable, sorry, in the church, and people were disobedient in the church.

Spiritual Immaturity and the Pursuit of Experiences

The second problem is much of Corinth was filled with babes in Christ. 1 Corinthians 3 verse 1. And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto Corinth, or even as unto babes in Christ.

You see, as they sought to grow, they believed that the way to become spiritual was to have experiences, was to have talents, was to have knowledge, was to be able to speak well, was to whatever. They were seeking these things because they believed they were spiritual.

As young spiritual babes, they sought these things and of course you can't grow without seeking these things. And they were kept back from the way that God intended us to grow in leaps and bounds, from the way God intended us to throw our lives into a groin.

And so they were held back by chains because of what they believed was spirituality, from growing. They were called babes in Christ. I once had met many of people like this, but I once sat with a girl.

I made sure her mother was sitting with her for two hours, dissecting, trying to, all the lies that the devil had put in this person's life, holding her back from faith and believing that she was saved, for two hours.

And at the end, she said to me, Roy, I cannot be saved. It is impossible that I can be saved. I said, why? She said, Roy, I take this Bible, and I said, God, please lead me concerning something. I can't remember what it was.

She said, Lord, please lead me concerning that thing. He said, Roy, open up the Bible randomly at any certain point in the Bible. And I just open up the Bible, and there's nothing. And she said, I cannot be saved.

She was looking for an experience, some wonderful miracle a miracle as a proof of his salvation. Of course, I thought that that's rubbish. You know how dangerous that is? The old Wesleyans used to do it, very godly people, in the 1800s in England.

There was once a lady. She had a friend who fell under and said, I'm going to commit suicide. I'm at the point of suicide. And she didn't know what to do with this poor lady. So she went to her Bible, and she said, God, what must I do?

And she opened up her Bible at any random point, and she read, Go and thou do likewise. It's a very dangerous thing to do. I think she didn't obey that. Oh, people get held back from growing. They're seeking and feeding on experiences and not doing what God intended them to do, to grow in leaps and bounds.

I met the boy. In fact, he was a co-worker with me as a missionary. I've worked with quite a few missionaries. This person was working with me for a few months. I remember driving across Africa from town to town to town to town.

And this boy was struggling at one stage. And he came and met some people. He prayed with them, and he mightily met with God. It seemed wonderful. He had a peace. He just talked about this peace. It was too wonderful, this feeling going through his body.

He said, Roy, it's so wonderful. Every morning I wake up, just right through the day I've got this flowing, oozing, wonderful peace. So I waited. I knew it was coming. At least I thought, but it did take a bit longer than I thought it would.

One morning, I was driving in the car with him. Actually, no, wait. He woke up. And suddenly he told me, Roy, something terrifying is happening. He says it's gone. I said, I was waiting for that. He said, it's gone.

What have I done? Have I sinned? He had no idea. He couldn't understand. Why is this peace gone? It was so wonderful for so long. And I said to him, I was waiting for that. And I told him, basically as I remember, two things.

Two things. If you continuously had amazing feelings oozing out of your ears forever and ever, then the devil would start to complain. Number one. And number two, God knows that you cannot, it is impossible to grow spiritually as a Christian, as you should, until you come to the point where you can believe God based solely upon His Word, not upon feelings and peace.

He had to learn that. Wilderness. You know, if you were spiritual, if you had amazing experiences and miracles, feelings or whatever, if that was the measurement of spirituality, then the Israelites in the wilderness were very spiritual.

I mean, they had miracles daily. They had a cloudy pillar of fire by day. They had a cloudy pillar of fire by night. They had manna every single morning and evening or so. God remember, that manna felled and they ate of that manna.

Deuteronomy 29 verse 6, their clothes and their shoes did not wax old. Daily they had miracles. And if that was the measure of spirituality, then they were very spiritual. But they were so unspiritual.

With all the miracles and all the experiences they had in their midst, they were so unspiritual that God says in His Word, Exodus 13 verse 17, that they were not ready for war. They were not ready for war.