Be Mature In Understanding - Christopher G. Brenyo

Ascension Presbyterian Church Longwood

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1 Corinthians chapter 14, verse 13,

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Therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret.

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For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.

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What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with understanding.

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I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with understanding.

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Otherwise, if you bless with the spirit, how will he who occupies the place of the uninformed say,

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Amen, at your giving of thanks, since he does not understand what you say?

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For you indeed give thanks well, but the other is not edified. I thank my

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God I speak with tongues more than you all, yet in the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that I may teach others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue.

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Brethren do not be children in understanding, however in malice be babes, but understanding in understanding be mature.

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In the law it is written, with men of other tongues and other lips

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I will speak to this people, and yet for all that they will not hear me, says the

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Lord. Therefore tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to unbelievers, but prophesying is not for unbelievers, but for those who believe.

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Therefore, if the whole church comes together in one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those who are uninformed or unbelievers, will they not say that you are out of your mind?

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But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an uninformed person comes in, he is convinced by all, he is convicted by all, and thus the secrets of his heart are revealed.

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And so falling down on his face he will worship God and report that God is truly among you.

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This is God's holy and infallible word. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we have gathered in your name, we pray that you would illumine our understanding,

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Holy Spirit, that we might discern great things from your word, that we would prize knowledge and understanding insofar as it brings you glory and builds up the church.

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We ask these things in Jesus' name. Please be seated.

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The title of the message today is Be Mature in Understanding. Be Mature in Understanding.

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We live in an age of perpetual adolescence. Many people would prefer to never grow up.

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Grown men live in their parents' basements playing video games with no plans to work, to start a family, or to accomplish something meaningful with their lives.

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They do not want to go on to maturity. They are content with and desire to remain children.

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Paul, in his description of how the officers in the church should equip the saints in Ephesians 4, says,

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Till we all come to the unity of the faith and to the knowledge of the

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Son of God, to a perfect man. And in that language there, he's referring to that perfectness is completeness, it's maturity.

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It's not 100 % free from defect, but he's talking about growing up in godliness, growing up in Jesus to being a mature

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Christian. This should be the aim of each one of us. And we do this, he continues, in the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love, and here's his emphasis on maturity again, may we grow up in all things into him who is the head,

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Christ. Today in our section, because we've been talking about tongues for a number of weeks,

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I'm going to emphasize that section that begins in verse 20 primarily, about understanding and maturity.

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The backdrop has been what we've been talking about over these weeks recently, about Paul's interaction with the

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Corinthian church and particularly their fascination with speaking in tongues. Twice previously in the

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Corinthian letter, Paul called the congregation to wisdom, maturity, and understanding.

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Back in 1 Corinthians 2 he says, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, and part of the implication of that is, you're not receiving my teaching because I preach wisdom,

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I preach mature stuff, and you're immature. You don't like me because I'm preaching the truth of God's word, preaching the truth about Christ, his gospel, and how you are to conduct yourself.

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He said elsewhere in 1 Corinthians 3, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but as to carnal people, as to babes in Christ.

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I fed you with milk and not with solid food. For until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able.

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Now it's been amazing as we have been studying this book of Corinthians for a number of months now, when we see how

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Paul has introduced the themes, they popped up in the middle, and here they come again.

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These same themes kind of run through the whole book. There's a glorious continuity to this letter to the church at Corinth.

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He cited in this connection their strife and the divisions among them as symptoms of their immaturity.

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He says the reason you follow after Paulus and Cephas and me and have all these divisions, the reasons you quarrel over meat offered to idols, the reason you can't sit down at the

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Lord's table together, the reason all of these happen, the reason you prefer the spiritual gifts of speaking in tongues above weightier matters, the reason this happens at your church in Corinth is because you refuse to grow up in the faith.

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That has me thinking, isn't it about time we grew up in the faith?

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Isn't it about time we pressed on in godliness? Isn't it time we flee those sins of our youth and our immaturity?

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Isn't it time we grow up and be men and women of Christ? Little children, it's time for you to grow up in Christ.

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It's not something you do when you're older. Today, start growing up in Jesus. Today, start maturing in the faith.

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Some of us haven't been making much progress in the faith. Today is a little bit of a wake -up call for us.

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Today, we need to grow up toward maturity and understanding, on the one hand, that there's another side to this.

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We need to become infants as it concerns evil. So this is a double -sided...

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Paul says you need to grow up to maturity. Your thinking about spiritual gifts is all wrong.

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You need to grow up in godliness. You need to peer deeper into the things of God as revealed in Scripture as the apostolic doctrine comes to you in the church.

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You need to grow up in these things, but you also now need to make another positive move.

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You need to regress as it concerns evil. You're going to find this very funny, and it's embarrassing.

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I asked Shuman this question.

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I think he laughed out loud. He's not here. What's he doing? Where is he?

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I asked Shuman. He came here about seven years ago. I don't know how long ago it was, but seven years ago.

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And we were talking about something. I said, Shuman, I've got to ask you a question. I know I should know this answer, but what is a hashtag?

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I have no idea what a hashtag is. People are saying it and talking about it. I'm old enough to remember telephones that had the pound sign.

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And they called it the pound sign when I was growing up. It wasn't called hashtag anything. And the reason

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I was wondering about this is the world had passed me by a little bit seven years ago.

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I didn't know what a hashtag was. It wasn't on Twitter. I didn't know what it meant. And he laughed and said, well, this is what it is, and explained it to me.

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And he was very kind, ultimately, but he kind of laughed and said, it's kind of ridiculous. You don't know what this is. Several times

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I've had people explain to me cultural trends and terms that are prevalent in our age.

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And only after they explained what they meant did I realize that I'm thankful that I've lived a more sheltered existence.

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I'd rather not have been exposed to the evil that's prevalent in the culture.

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However, too often, sounding good on that side, but too often

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I have been wise in the ways of the world. And less mature in the ways of Christ.

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So Paul speaks directly to you and to me. He says, you need to grow in your understanding of Christ.

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You need to grow in your understanding of what it means to be a Christian. And you need to unravel what you've been learning in the world.

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A powerful, potent message to the people of Corinth who struggle with various forms of immorality.

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But how much more so to us. We are to be a holy and consecrated people, and we have been mucking about in the world.

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We have been wise in the ways of this wicked world. And Paul calls us to be wise, to grow up in Christ.

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The whole of the message really is this today. Like the Corinthians before us, we need to grow up to maturity in the area of knowledge and understanding.

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We strive toward a childlike innocence in the evils of this world.

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I've got a few points for you who are taking notes. Number one, the tongues case study.

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The first point is the tongues case study. Number two, the importance of growing in understanding.

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And on to maturity. Number three, the importance of growing in understanding and on to maturity.

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Number three, prophesying, which we understand to be teaching, is the

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God -ordained method of evangelism and discipleship.

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Prophesying, teaching, is the God -ordained method of evangelism and discipleship.

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I've got to turn mine on, somebody else's. Number one, the tongues case study.

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Verses 13 through 18, as well as verses 21 through 23, we see something about how

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Paul uses the issue of tongues to reveal the maturity, the immaturity of the

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Corinthian people. In this letter, the immaturity of the

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Corinthians has been on display. They valued the show of religion and the external signs, but neglected the call to love.

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You'll remember that from a few weeks ago. And they were not concerned, as they should be, about the edification of the body.

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This revealed their gross immaturity. They didn't want the teaching, which leads to understanding and maturity.

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And I have to say, for us today, our appetites speak to where our hearts are.

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What is it that you desire in this life, and how does it jive with scripture?

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It's like when you're working on your budget. You start looking at all of your debit card purchases. You begin to realize what is really valuable to you by your bank ledger.

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You see what your heart is set on. You see what you're doing with your money. You get a sense of where your heart is.

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In this issue with the tongues, there is a clear sign that they are more interested in their own advancement, more interested in promoting their cause and exalting themselves, than they are about glorifying

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God on the one hand and building up the church on the other. We've been talking about this for a number of weeks.

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And what's interesting is the example he used to skip down to verse 21. There is a quotation here from the book of Isaiah chapter 28.

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It says in verse 21, in the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips,

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I will speak to this people. This shows up, I believe, first in Deuteronomy 26. And it's also found in Isaiah 28.

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With men of other tongues and other lips, I will speak to this people. And yet, for all that, they will not hear me.

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Why does Paul quote this obscure passage from Deuteronomy and this passage from the book of Isaiah?

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Well, he's really punching them in the gut when it comes to tongues with this.

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Because this is what he says. The prophet Isaiah came and he preached repentance and a return to the law, to obedience to the people of Israel.

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But they wouldn't hear him. He was teaching them, he was prophesying to them about their need to turn again to God, to find mercy, to repent, to receive correction, to be taught in the word.

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But they wouldn't do it. And also in that section, there is a warning about the impending occupation of Israel.

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They're going to be taken captive. And the irony of this revelatory is what happens here in this section in Isaiah.

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What's so striking about it is the people of Israel did not understand the language of the

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Assyrians. And God judged them. He said, you're not repenting at the clear teaching of Scripture.

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So I'm going to send foreigners into your land. And then you're really not going to know what's going on.

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So he's really striking a death blow to their preference for Toms in this section.

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He says, you won't listen to me. So guess what? Assyria is going to take you captive.

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They're going to be listening to you. You're going to be learning a foreign language. You won't be listening to the clear preaching of Scripture any longer.

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You're going to have to take up a foreign language to know what's going on. Tom's case study finds the

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Corinthians lacking or wanting. Their appetite spoke to the condition of their heart.

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And their hearts were not right in this matter. They weren't seeking the glory of God. They were seeking something else.

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Their second thing. The essential part of this message today is the importance of growing and understanding.

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Look at verse 19. He says, in the church

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I would rather speak five words with my understanding that I may teach others also than 10 ,000 words in a tongue.

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He's saying that it's so much better for my teaching to be connected to my understanding.

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So that I might be a blessing to the body. That I might instruct the body in having this private prayer language with God.

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And having a need of an interpreter to sort it out for others. Paul says,

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I need to understand that I may be able to teach others.

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So I have to ask the question. I'm going to put the theological students on the hot seat today.

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Let's put myself on the hot seat today. Thinking about this.

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Those of you who are very theologically interested. You're on the hot seat today. Do you acquire knowledge and understanding that you might be a blessing to the church?

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To build up the body? Or is it for some other form of self -exaltation?

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Paul says, I would rather have five words of understanding and knowledge that I might be able to build up and strengthen the body.

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So the whole purpose of studying and acquiring this knowledge and gaining understanding is not that I might puff out my chest.

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That I, instead, might build up and strengthen the body. So all of us who like to get in our little theological debates.

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We like to study things. We like to be the guy who knows the answer. Do you want that for the good of the body?

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For the glory of Christ? Or for something else? The Corinthians wanted something else.

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And I think the Holy Spirit wants us to check. We want something else. Because if we do, we need to repent.

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That's totally wrong. Totally misplaced. And now the real thesis of our message, verse 20.

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The heart of our thinking today. Brethren, do not be children in understanding.

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The first thing I want to do is I want to challenge us in this way.

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I think there's a lot of things in the area of doctrine and practice in the life of the church that we're uncomfortable with.

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Or don't want to deal with. But it does require some effort on our part. We actually have to study the

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Word of God. And to be frank and honest, we don't want to devote the energy to doing that.

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But life would be easy for us. But to be a disciple is to be a learner.

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It's at the heart of what it means to be a disciple. A follower of Christ is to be a learner. So not just the theological students, but all of us are students of the

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Word of God. And this should cause you to wonder, am I a student of the

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Word of God today? Is that something that's important to me in my life as a Christian? If it's not, it's not possible for you to grow in understanding.

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You're going to remain in ignorance. It's not possible to grow apart from the means that God has supplied for us in His Word.

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All the things that are attached to that. Do not be children in understanding.

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In our first opening words, do you identify spiritually with the guy who lives in his mom's basement and plays video games?

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35 years old, doesn't have a job, doesn't want a life, doesn't want to grow up. Said, oh,

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I'm a hardworking guy. Okay, are you a hardworking guy? But are you desiring to grow up into maturity in Christ?

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Or are you content to stay where you are in your infant stage, your early childhood stage, or your adolescence?

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Where to grow up to maturity? Recently, I was on Facebook and memories popped up.

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And I'm not a sentimental person. It's not my nature. I really love my wife. I love my family.

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But it's a very present thing. I don't long for former times. I love the times that I'm in. I'm not worried about the past.

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I love where I am today. I saw a picture of all my kids, and they're all little. A couple of them weren't there yet.

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And I was, my heart was just, my heart melted looking at the pictures. Jacob and Caleb used to be cute kids.

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And they grew up. And just my heart, it was such a wonderful time.

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They were little and all those things. And I remembered something that I discerned some years ago.

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That we don't want our children to stay children. We want them to grow up.

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I want my children to marry godly people and have godly children. And do great things for God's glory.

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I don't want to stay in the perpetual state of Little League and adolescence. I want to grow up. I want my kids to grow up.

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And I want to die. I'm looking forward to all of those stages. To do the work, and to finish the race, and to be done.

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I don't want to go back in time. I don't want to live that over again. Does that work hard possibly?

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Am I leaning on a key or something? Somebody else? Sure. The culture says we want to be young always.

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We want to stay young and youthful. We want to be immature. We want to kind of just go out and have fun.

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And we have a problem today in our age because recreation now trumps work.

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Recreation is what you used to do after you worked a lot. You got a little bit of recreation and then you got back on the work again.

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But now recreation is what we start with in our days, in our time. And that's immature.

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That's adolescence. For the Christian, we cannot stay in this place of ignorance.

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We need to be devoted students of the word of God. We need to be devouring the scripture.

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We need to be reading good books. We need to be listening to sermons. You need to be sitting on the edge of your seat when

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I feebly preach the word of God. You need to be hanging on every word saying, Lord, give me more fodder for the mill.

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Give me more grist for the mill that I might praise you and worship you and obey you. That's how we should be living our lives.

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And we're lacking. God is so gracious to us. We need to start again. But now we're getting confronted with this.

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We have to act upon it. We can't be children in understanding.

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But we do have to be children when it comes to evil. I would venture a guess that every person in this room,

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I hope you're entirely offended by me. I hope you're mad at me if you leave today. Every one of you in this room, myself included, is more content with worldly things than you ought to be.

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And I'll say it later in application, but we don't blush anymore. We don't wince at evil anymore.

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The people of God used to wince when evil was in their presence. We don't wince. There's no blushing of our face.

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We're very content with our lack of holiness and our now full -born, full -blown worldliness.

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We need to become innocent again. We need to become offended again that God's glory and His holiness are mocked every day by sinful men.

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We need to change our consumption of entertainment. We need to change our consumption of the

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Internet to reflect godly people. We need to replace that.

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We're ignorant about the things of God because we're wasting our time pursuing the things of the world.

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We have no time for Jesus because we're drunk on other things.

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So Paul's message is very direct and very clear. You better be about the business of growing and understanding the wisdom and knowledge of God.

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And you now better becoming less sophisticated when it comes to the things of the world.

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We need to grow up in our understanding of Christ and the law of God and we need to become little innocent children as it relates to evil.

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To turn this analogy around, we spoke negatively about not growing up, only drinking milk.

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1 Peter 2 says, As newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.

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We need to grow up into maturity in Christ. Well, number three, point three, prophesying in the older language, teaching, is the

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God -ordained method of evangelism and discipleship. And Paul goes on to describe the effects of tongues on believers and unbelievers.

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And the message that brings true and strongest in this section is that the teaching of the word of God, particularly in the life of the church, has the power to change lives.

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The proclamation of the gospel, the teaching of the word has the power to change lives.

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It brings conviction. Verse 24, If all prophesy, an unbeliever or an uninformed person comes in, he is convinced by all, he is convicted by all.

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What happens? In the faithful proclamation of the word of God, the secrets of your heart become exposed.

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I hold up a gigantic mirror to your life and your sins are exposed.

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And the great news about that is you can repent and remember the gospel forgiveness again when you see in reality and truth what your sins are.

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You see, if I never look at my sins, if I never hold up the mirror, I can't grow. It leads, it says, to repentance.

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Verse 25, The men will fall down on their faces and worship

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God. It leads to worship. And the last phrase

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I think is utterly striking and remarkable. Again, verse 25, You will worship

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God and report that God is truly among you.

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This whole book is about mankind's estrangement, in one sense, from God because of his fall into sin.

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And it's also about God's willingness to come into communion with sinful people like you and me because of the blood of his dear son,

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Christ. This story is about the failure of humanity to keep covenant with God.

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This story is also the absolute success of our God to keep covenant with his people and to save us and to secure us and to make us alive in Christ.

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It really follows that we should be really good students about these things.

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We should be highly committed to growing up in Jesus. You're highly committed to build your business?

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I'm happy for you. I think you should build your business. You're highly committed to teaching your children?

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I think you should be highly committed to teaching your children. However, you better also be highly committed to growing up to full maturity in Christ.

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Be honest with yourself today. You have been staying in your childish ways far too long.

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It's time to grow up. Well, how do we do that?

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First, we must recognize that it would be a terrible waste to remain in a perpetual state of adolescence.

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Wouldn't it be sad for one of our kids in our church to see them 20 years from now and they had not grown up?

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They just got to stay where they were. Ephesians 4 says we are no longer to be children taught to and fro by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine like the trickery of men.

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Ephesians 4 says the saints need to be equipped for the work of ministry. The saints need to grow up.

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There's another side, and this is the area I think we need to repent the most.

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We must return to a childlike innocence when it comes to the evil ways of this world.

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We need to blush again. We need to wince and cringe again, which we don't do anymore, in the sight of evil acts in the conversation.

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We don't longer need to be wise to the world's ways. Christians have become too comfortable with evil and worldliness, and this applies to you.

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This isn't for someone else in the room. This isn't other Christians out there who don't go to as great a church as us or whatever.

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This is you. You become too comfortable with evil and worldliness.

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Number three, the only way to grow in understanding is through the

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Spirit -enabled ministry of the Word, meditation, prayer. You need to attend the preaching ministry of the church.

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You need to be engaged. You need to study the sermon topics on your own.

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You should actually leave here today as a Sabbath day activity. You should reflect upon the text of Scripture that we talked about.

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You should think about the Westminster Confession that we talked about this morning. You should think about the hymns that we sang. You should think about what your family needs to grow in godliness.

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You need to be putting all these thoughts together and to rehearse them in your mind and go over them again. We don't have time for that.

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We've got too much going on. We don't have time to spend any time with each other. Additionally, we need to seek a deeper understanding of these things.

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I'm preaching at a level or a depth that's this much in this subject. I can preach this much more.

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You need to sometimes go on your own and preach that much more to yourself in study of the

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Word and that topic. You need to expand the application as you learn more about the subject.

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You need to find more ways that this applies to your life and to act upon it. I need to have a vibrant, personal intake in meditation on the

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Word. This is something that can only happen in private. This is not just for family devotions.

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This is not just for studying for a sermon or studying for a lesson or so you can teach something.

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You and I need to be diligent, private students of the Word.

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If we're going to mature, we have to do it when no one is looking. We have to study when no one is looking.

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We need to read good books. Christians should be readers.

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A lot of times people say, I'm not a reader. Well, you need to become one. I don't really like to read.

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Well, you're going to start. You need to start reading. Apparently, this is an important way that God communicates with us.

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We need to study the important doctrines that we might be able to discern spiritual matters.

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Something else that Protestants fail to realize often, we need to make full use and benefit from the

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Lord's Supper that we're going to have here. This is spiritual nourishment par excellence.

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We need to come and say, Lord, I need all the nourishment that you promised in the Supper. Give it to me.

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Please, Lord. We need to come. We say this, We're asking to grab hold of God in heaven.

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To grab hold and lay hold of Christ. That's what we're doing. We say that. Our Thanksgiving prayer is,

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Oh, Lord, we ask you to bless us. Give us the blessing. At the end of it all, he says, here's your blessing.

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Take it. Make full use of all the things that he's provided for us.

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And finally, pray for understanding, discernment. Have you prayed for wisdom lately?

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God promises he will grant you wisdom. Isn't that amazing? If you ask for it, ask for it.

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Give it. Number four, be active, active pursuit of the greater knowledge of God, Christ's gospel, his law.

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This is the high calling of every Christian. It also follows that this pursuit should be accompanied by an eagerness to mortify the flesh and the sinful deeds of the body.

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You shouldn't be comfortable in your sin. You should be putting it to death. It should also be noted that this call to grow in wisdom, knowledge, and understanding is also a call to holiness, to righteousness.

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We've forgotten that if you don't have that, you won't see the Lord. Without holiness, without righteousness, no one will see the

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Lord. We confess today that we are infants in understanding, but we have

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PhDs in worldliness. Oh Lord, I pray that you would flip the scales in the power of your spirit, that you would cause us to hunger and thirst for righteousness, that we would love holy things and repulsive, evil, wicked things would be putrid and disgusting to us going forward.

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That we would be repulsed by the things the world celebrates which are contrary to your word and will.

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Oh Lord, I pray that we would love holiness and we would love more of the beauty of Christ than the ugliness of this world.

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Oh Lord, we come as a wounded people today. I pray that there's been heavy conviction today.

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Oh Lord, I also pray that you would comfort your people and they remember that through the wretchedness and through all of our failures,

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Christ has loved us. And Christ has died for us and delivered us from this bondage of death.

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He's conveyed us into your glorious kingdom of light. Oh Lord, help us to live as children of light as a result of your gospel and this hope that we have in Christ.

40:18

Oh Lord, our bellies are growling. We need spiritual nourishment.

40:24

We pray that you would supply it for us at the table. And we ask these things in Jesus' name.