Marks Of Maturity (part 3)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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We've been doing a series on maturity, Christian maturity, personal, individual,

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Christian maturity, but also as a body, maturity as a body of believers.

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And today we're wrapping this series up. But just for the sake of review, we've discussed the last couple of weeks two of the basic marks of maturity.

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Those of you who were here can help us out. What was the first mark of maturity we discussed?

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If your spiritual brains can go back to two weeks ago, what was the first mark of maturity we discussed?

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Anybody? Okay, doctrinal truth or what

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I call doctrinal purity. What was the foundational central passage for that? Do you remember? No.

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I like that honest answer. Anybody remember the central passage for that? It's a central passage for the church.

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It's an ecclesiological passage. Ephesians chapter 4, right? Christ gave some as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor -teachers for the equipping of the saints until we all attain to mature manhood, no longer being children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried by every wind of doctrine.

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So he sets up a contrast between who is mature and who is a child.

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Children are tossed by every wind of doctrine. So it's important that we have strong foundational doctrinal truth or doctrinal purity.

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I was listening last night. Now you know what I do on a Saturday night before Sunday church.

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YouTube, I happened to catch a glimpse of Bill Hybels. You guys familiar with Mr.

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Hybels? And the video was about the power of a whisper.

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The power of a whisper. Now, of course, I can't relate to that because being Greek, my whisper is louder than somebody's regular talk.

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But anyway, the video was about the power of a whisper. Bill Hybels is pastor of Willow Creek Church in Chicago, Illinois, and is known pretty much for the modern -day seeker -sensitive movement.

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And he said in this video that the reason he began a church was because he heard a whisper.

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So these charlatans need to be exposed. His name is Bill Hybels. And we talked about how throughout the

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New Testament, everyone, including Christ and the apostles, told us to watch out for false teachers consistently.

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Christ, in the Sermon on the Mount, writes, Outwardly they appear as sheep, but inwardly they are savage wolves.

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You shall recognize them by their fruit. Paul, in Acts 20, when he addresses the Ephesian elders, he says to them to watch out for these wolves who will draw disciples after them.

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Then Peter talks about it in the second epistle, to watch out for these false prophets. The apostle

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John, in 1 John 4, 1, says, Test the spirits, for many false prophets have gone out.

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And also Jude talks about this, that some will secretly bring in heresies. So it's a consistent theme in the

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New Testament. And that's why it's important to have a doctrinal foundation. It's a sign of spiritual maturity.

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And remember, I highlighted that one of the roles of a pastor, Titus 1 .9, is to instruct us in sound doctrine on the positive side, but also to rebuke those who contradict it.

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It's a dual role of a pastor. So that was the first mark of maturity. What was the second one we discussed last week?

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Anybody remember? Christology, okay?

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The importance of specific doctrine of Christology. Do you remember the verse? Look in your bulletin.

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Colossians 1, right? Him we proclaim. Why? Warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, in order to present everyone perfect or mature in Christ.

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There cannot be any maturity apart from Christ. Knowing who He is, what He has done for us, but also becoming like Him.

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Galatians 4 .19, Paul said that I'm in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.

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So there is no maturity apart from knowing the doctrine of Christ and becoming like Him in character.

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That's a second aspect of maturity. So, doctrinal purity,

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Ephesians 4. Christology, knowing Christ, becoming like Him, Colossians 1. Today I'm going to sprinkle a little bit all over.

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So we'll try to keep up here. And I'm going to have us do a little bit more participation. I need three volunteers for these verses.

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And we're going to read them back to back to back. So three volunteers. Somebody can read 1 Corinthians 15, verse 9.

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Okay. Jonathan, Ephesians 3, verse 8. Brian.

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Hansen, you want to do 1 Timothy 1 .15? Thank you. So 1 Corinthians 15 .9,

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Ephesians 3 .8, and 1 Timothy 1 .15. And after each one reads them,

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I'm just going to make a brief comment, then we'll go right to the next one. 1

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Corinthians, yes, nice and loud. Okay, this is

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Paul writing, I'm the least of the apostles. This is a classic chapter on the resurrection of Christ.

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And Paul describes the gospel at the beginning of the chapter, I'm the least of the apostles. The book of 1 Corinthians was written about A .D.

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55, so you need to keep this in mind. Paul wrote Corinthians around A .D. 55. And at that point in his maturity, he refers to himself as the least of the apostles.

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A tight group, a small group, okay? Let's see what he says in Ephesians. Brian. Thank you.

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So least of the apostles, here he refers to himself as what? The least of all the saints.

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The circle is growing. Paul wrote Ephesians circa A .D. 60 to 62.

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About five to seven years after he wrote Corinthians. So when he wrote Corinthians, he saw himself in his

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Christian life as the least of the apostles. Five to seven years later, he sees himself as the least of all the saints.

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How about at the end of his life? Sam, 1 Timothy. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom

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I, Paul, am the foremost. At the end, nearing the end of his life.

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Or as other translations put it, the worst of sinners or the chief of sinners. So watch this.

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So Paul, as he grows and matures in the Christian life, his perspective of his own sinfulness.

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So let me just give it to you. This is the mark, if you wanted to jot it down. It's a growing awareness of our own sinfulness.

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A growing awareness of our own sinfulness. So things maybe ten years ago that you wouldn't even dare think about.

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You might think about twice because you're having a growing awareness of your own sinfulness like Paul did.

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It might be your motive. It might be something you said to somebody that wasn't quite encouraging.

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Ephesians 4 .29. Might be some jealousy, envy. Might be the things, those sins in your life that you might not think about.

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Now because of your growing awareness of them in your life, you begin to think about them. Because as Paul grew, matured, he went from thinking of himself as the least of the apostles.

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To the least of all the saints. To the worst of sinners. So as you mature in the

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Christian life, that should be a mark of your maturity. That your perspective of sin grows.

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And why does that happen? Because as you grow closer to the Lord, as you get to know Him more personally through the

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Scriptures, you realize who He is and who you are.

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And that's why you have a growing awareness more and more of your own sinfulness. Okay.

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Closely linked to this is another mark of maturity. This deals with our sinfulness. So a growing awareness of our own sinfulness, but also a growing hatred of sin.

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As you have a growing awareness of your own sinfulness, as you mature, you also have a growing hatred for sin.

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Now let me make a distinction here. We'll look up some verses. Turn with me briefly, if you would, to the epistle of 1

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John. Now we've been talking about marks of maturity. And I want to highlight this again as we discuss this issue of sin.

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The distinction that needs to be made is that between a mark of maturity and a birthmark.

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Or a mark of maturity and a mark of salvation. Of a spiritual birthmark.

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And the reason this is important is because a lot of times in Christian circles and in evangelical churches, what happens is somebody will say, well,

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I don't see this mark in this person's life, but they're truly saved, but it's a mark of maturity.

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But what it truly is, it's not a mark of maturity, it's a characteristic, an evidence of salvation.

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So when we get the two mixed up, we give people a false sense of assurance and people are self -deceived.

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Let me show you this. In 1 John, somebody read the last chapter 5, verse 13. This is the author's authorial intent, what we call the purpose for why he wrote.

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1 John 5, 13. Thank you.

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So John is writing, the disciple whom Jesus loved, in order, purpose clause, that you may what?

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Know that you have eternal life. You can have assurance of eternal life. And we'll see what

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John does just briefly here, obviously, that he doesn't retest our assurance based upon some religious experience we had.

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Or because I was 11 years old, I prayed the sinner's prayer. What does he do? Somebody, if they can jump back to chapter 2 and read verses 3 and 4 of chapter 2.

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How can we know that we have eternal life? Chapter 2, verses 3 and 4.

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Whoever has it, you can just go ahead and read it. Great.

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So what's a mark of salvation based on this verse? Obedience. Now, somebody had mentioned, it's not wrong, we grow in obedience as we mature, but if we just use that as a mark of maturity and say, well, this person has never shown a pattern of obedience in their lives, it just means they're not mature.

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Well, according to John, it might mean they're not even saved, because obedience is a sign of genuine salvation.

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This is how we can know. How about chapter 3, verse 14 of the same epistle? Chapter 3, verse 14.

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We know that we have passed from death to life. John is using the same phraseology, being the apostle who wrote the gospel of John, that Jesus used in John 5, 22, 24.

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Verily, verily, or truly I say unto you, that he who hears my word, Jesus said, and believes Him who sent me, has eternal life, and has crossed over from death to life.

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Same phrase that Jesus used John is picking up on here. He says we know that we have passed from death to life.

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In other words, we know that we have eternal life. How? Because we love the brethren. A love for other believers, that commonality that we have in Christ, is a sign of genuine eternal life, not just a mark of maturity.

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Now, having said that, look at chapter 1 of 1 John. Now we're discussing going back to the issue of sin.

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That was just a precursor to let you know that we have to distinguish between a mark of salvation versus a mark of maturity.

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But here we're talking about sin today, having a growing awareness of our own sinfulness, but also, at the same time, as we mature, a growing hatred of sin.

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And notice what John says in chapter 1. If somebody can read, somebody who hasn't read verses 8 and 10.

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Thank you, Pradeep. Verse 9, of course, is in there. If we confess our sins, we all know that verse. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.

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If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. So at the outset of his epistle,

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John says, listen, this is how you can know, authorial intent, chapter 5, verse 13, that you have eternal life.

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You'll see these things in your life. Birthmarks, spiritual birthmarks, obedience, love for the brethren.

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But that doesn't mean you're perfect. And those of you who are married know that for sure. Why are you smiling at me?

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Right? Because we know we still have our flesh until glory. So John says there are certain genuine changes in a true believer's life, but at the same time, don't think that you have no sin.

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But what is our attitude towards sin as we mature? For that, let's turn to chapter 3 of 1

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John, still in the same epistle. Chapter 3, verses 8 and 9. Anyone want to read that?

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Thank you. Pretty clear, right? He's talking about spiritual birth, being born of God.

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Sounds like John 1, 13. John 3 with Nicodemus, being born of God. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of whom?

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The devil. Actually, if we were to read further in verse 10, John says, and this is how we know who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil.

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Pauline theology, you're either in Adam or in Christ. Johannine theology, you're either a child of God or a child of the devil.

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And he says, how do you know? He who practices sin is of the devil.

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Verse 9, no one born of God, he mentions born of God twice there, at the beginning and at the end of the verse, makes a practice of sinning, why?

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For God's seed abides in him and he cannot keep on sinning. Now remember,

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John is not talking about sinless perfection. He introduced his epistle in chapter 1 by saying, those of you who say you have no sin, you're liars.

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What he's talking about is an unbroken pattern of sin. And this is not a mark of maturity again.

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This is a mark of salvation. If you were to take a flight over a forest, and the forest was

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Christian, you've never been to a Christian forest? I have. If the forest was

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Christian, just go along with it, you'd see an abundance of fruit.

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You'd see a lot of green. Now if you come down from the plane, and you walk through that forest, within that abundance of fruit and abundance of green, you'll see some rotted trees there.

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This is the believer's life, whom God has transformed through the changes he has wrought, and yet he has some sin still lingering.

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In an unbeliever's life, if you fly over that forest, overall you're not going to see an abundance of fruit, because there is none.

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So that's what John is saying here. Now having established that, in terms of our sin, we do have sin still in our lives, but as believers, it's not something that is an unbroken pattern of sin.

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Now how does that relate to maturity? For that we're going to go to Paul. So turn with me, if you would, to Romans chapter 7.

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I mean, we can spend weeks on Romans 7, but we'll leave the rest of it to Pastor Mike, who's doing

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Romans in 16 weeks, which I'll believe it when I see it. Looking forward to that, that's great.

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Romans chapter 7. So, as a mature person, not only do you have a growing awareness of your own sinfulness, like Paul did, as he matured, he saw his sinfulness more and more before the holiness of God, but you also have a growing hatred for that sin, as you mature.

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All right, let me read this. It's a little bit long, but we'll get through this. I'm not going to go into too much detail, but let's start in verse 7, and we'll go through verse 25.

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Actually, I'll have two people read, actually, and I'm going to do this intentionally. If somebody can read from verse 7 through 13, and somebody else, from verse 14 to the end of verse 25 there.

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So, one person, 7 to 13. Okay, thanks, Michael. And somebody from verse 14 to the end. Jonathan, thank you.

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I was watching as it was being read, and especially some of you who are married. When we got to verse 15, I'm thinking, you're probably thinking, man, that describes my spouse.

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I do not understand my own actions. Describes all of us.

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What Paul is saying here, I want to highlight in verses 17 and 20, a repeated thing that he says here in verse 17, it is no longer

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I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. Verse 20, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

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There's still indwelling sin. There's a change of life that God has wrought through the spiritual birth, as John says in his epistle.

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But Paul here is dealing with our sanctification. If you were to look at Romans, birds -eye view of Romans, okay?

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Romans chapter 1, the first 17 verses is your intro, where he sets the theme. Verse 18 of chapter 1 through chapter 3, verse 20, is condemnation.

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Condemnation. Chapters 4 and 5 have to do with justification. And chapters 6 through 8 have to do with sanctification.

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That's where we're at. We're in sanctification here, just to give you a bird's -eye view.

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Now, a lot of people will say, look at verse 14. What is Paul describing here? Is he saved?

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Is he not saved? Paul himself, he's talking about himself, I, verse 14, he says, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.

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There you go. Paul is an unsaved man there. He's sold under sin.

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But remember, chapter 7 is part of the greater whole of chapter 6 through 8 in sanctification.

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And if you turn with me briefly to chapter 6, I'm just going to walk you through some verses to show you that Paul here is talking as a saved man.

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We have to take it within the context of chapter 6, 7, and 8, the process of sanctification.

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Chapter 6, I'll just walk you through these. Verse 7, he says, for one who has died has been what?

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Set free from sin. Verse 14, for sin will have no dominion over you.

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Verse 17, but thanks be to God that you who were once, past tense, slaves of sin, we were once slaves of sin, no longer.

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Verse 18, he continues, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

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Verse 20, for when you were slaves of sin. And verse 22, but now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God.

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So what Paul says in chapter 7 about how we are to look upon our sin as mature

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Christian is based upon what he just said in chapter 6. As true believers, as Christians, those of us whom

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God has saved, we're no longer slaves to sin. Sin no longer has dominion.

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We have been set free from sin and become slaves of God and slaves of righteousness. So Paul is saved in this passage that he's talking about.

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So we want to see Paul's wrestling with his own sin in this passage. Part of the way we know that he is saved from what

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I highlighted in chapter 6, another way is I split that passage in two. The first 17 verses that were read, or rather from verse 7 to 13, the tenses in the original are all in the past tense.

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Once he gets to verse 14, the verses are in the present tense. So in verse 7 to 13,

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Paul is describing his life pre -Christ. Verse 14 on, he's discussing his life as a believer, as a believer.

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How else do we know this? Let me give you some more. I call this the 3D effect. It's not real 3D, it's

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IMAX 3D. So this is what it's like. Here are the 3Ds we know that Paul is describing himself as a genuine believer.

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First of all, he detests his sin. He detests his sin. He hates it.

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Verse 15, he says very clearly, I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing

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I want. I hate. Remember, maturity is a growing hatred for sin.

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Not only does he detest sin, the second D is he desires to do what is right.

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God is putting him a desire to do that which is right in his eyes. Verse 18, 19 and 21.

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Verse 18, he says, for I, Paul, have the desire to do what is right. Verse 19, for I do not do the good

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I want. So I find, verse 21, it to be a law that when

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I want to do, right. So this is a desire that God has implanted in him, to do that which is righteous in the eyes of the

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Lord. So at the one hand, he detests and he hates his sin. And then the other hand, he desires to do that which is right and pleasing to God.

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But the third D is also significant, is that he delights in God's law.

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He delights in God's law. Actually, the Greek word delight there has to do with taking pleasure.

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Do you delight in the law of the Lord? Do you take pleasure in the word of God? Verse 22, for I delight in the law of God in my inner being.

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So these things do not describe somebody who is unsaved. They are descriptions of not only a person who is saved, but who is maturing in their

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Christian life. Paul is having a growing hatred for sin, a growing desire to do what is righteous, and a growing delighting in God's word.

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J .C. Rowland in his book, Holiness, says this, The best commentators in every era of the church have almost invariably applied the seventh chapter of Romans to not only just believers, but to advanced believers, mature believers.

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The commentators who do not take this view have been, with a few bright exceptions, for the most part,

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Arminians. What a surprise. Against them is arrayed the judgment of almost all the

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Reformers. Pastor MacArthur says this in his book, Faith Works, concerning this chapter.

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He says, referring to Paul, that he hates sin. He loves righteousness. He delights in the law of God from his heart.

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He thanks God for the deliverance that is his in Christ. Those are all responses of a mature

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Christian. In this case, a seasoned apostle, not someone floundering in the throes of a desperate state of established carnality.

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In fact, it is the description of a godly man whose occasional sin feels like a constant thing when set against the backdrop of his holy longings.

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All true believers should be living at precisely this level, struggling with the tension

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Paul describes between an ever -increasing hunger for righteousness on the one hand with a growing sensitivity to sin on the other.

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End of quote. It's that constant tension that Paul, as a mature believer, was experienced.

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And we ought to, as we become more aware of our own sinfulness, and we have a growing hatred for the sin.

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Galatians 5, verse 17. Somebody return to that and read that for us. This kind of encapsulates what

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Paul is saying in Romans 7. Romans 7 is Paul's personal sanctification, as he teaches us on sanctification.

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But in Galatians 5, he talks about it in a different manner. It kind of brings it all together.

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Galatians 5, verse 17. This is, of course, the passage of the flesh and the spirit, the fruit of the spirit. That's the context here.

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Let's see what he says in Galatians 5, verse 17. Jared.

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For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit. Ultimately, why? To keep you from doing the things you want to do.

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You desire to do what is right, but because of the influence of indwelling sin, it keeps us from doing the things we want to do.

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There's a constant battle in our sanctification process. So maturity means, as it relates to our sin, salvation means that God has saved us.

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What does the word Jesus mean? You will give him the name Jesus because he will save you from what? Your sin.

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Not only your sin in terms of future judgment and wrath, but also your sin, Romans 6, in terms of its mastery and control and dominion over your life.

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But at the same time, we have indwelling sin in us. So maturity means that I have a growing awareness of my own sinfulness, as Paul did as he matured, but also a growing hatred for sin and a hunger for the things of God, a hunger for righteousness.

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Any comments or questions about how sin relates to us as we mature in our

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Christian life? Very mature group.

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Okay, one final one I want to comment on. Go ahead.

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Yes, I missed a point. Bill. What's that?

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Or thereafter, there you go. In glory. Okay, let's look at it this way, soteriologically, okay? Since I love soteriology,

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Bill knows that. Soteriologically, okay? We have the three tenses of salvation. Justification.

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Okay? Sanctification. Justification. Romans 4 through 5. Sanctification. Romans 6 through 8.

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And glorification. Justification. God has saved us from the penalty of sin.

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I'll give you the three Ps. From the penalty of sin. Sanctification. He is saving me from the power of sin.

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Glorification. He will, future tense, we will be saved ultimately from the presence of sin. Obviously, in His presence, there is no sin in heaven.

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We'll be completely glorified. We shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. That will happen at death or at the rapture.

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So, the whole process, this is really soteriology, the whole process of salvation is not just, you know,

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God saved me from the wrath of God, and now He's left me to myself to deal with my indwelling sin unto myself.

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God would be a fool to do that, because His salvation would not be complete. What does Philippians 1 .6

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tell us? That He who began a good work in you will what? Bring it to completion. Through the whole process, through sanctification, all the way to glory.

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And boy, I'm thankful for that, aren't you? I'm really thankful for that. Actually, on that, turn with me to Titus 2.

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This will show us a little bit more of the whole process of salvation as it relates to our maturity in reference to our sin.

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Titus 2. Somebody can read verses 11, believe, yes, 11 through 13.

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11, 12, and 13. Yes, go ahead. Thank you.

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There's the whole package. The grace of God, we're saved by grace from beginning to end, has appeared bringing salvation to all men.

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And here's our sanctification, verse 12, training us to renounce what? Ungodliness, worldly passions, to live self -controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.

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A growing hatred for sin. That's the mark of maturity. And ultimately, that same grace that teaches us to deny all this stuff is the one that will bring us home to glory.

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Waiting, verse 13, for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

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So that's the whole package. It's a complete package. The last thing I want to mention is kind of unrelated to the first two, but I do want to get it in here.

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So we have marks of maturity, doctrinal purity, understanding who Jesus is and becoming more like him, having a growing awareness of our own sinfulness as we mature, and also a growing hatred for that sin at the same time.

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The last one I just want to highlight is, I'll call it a teachable spirit, a teachable spirit.

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Remember one time when my wife and I lived in New York, we were ministering there. One of the guys I was discipling, both his wife and his only daughter came to me or to us, to my wife and I, and said we're having some complaints about their husband and their father.

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So I sat down with him and I said to him, let's look up this verse, Proverbs 27 .5.

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I said, why don't you read that for me? And he read it and it says, open rebuke is better than hidden love.

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He read it and he looked up to me and he says, okay, I'm ready. Let me have it. So I explained to him how he was, because of his work and some other side projects he was doing, he was not prioritizing his life as a husband and as a father.

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And fortunately he had a teachable spirit. It's a mark of maturity. Usually, you know, when we are told something about our lives, we tend to back off and say, whoa, we put up a wall, a defense.

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But fortunately my friend did not do that. Let's turn together to Proverbs 9 .8. Wisdom literature on this last mark of maturity.

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Having a teachable spirit. As we turn there,

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I used to be on staff years ago with the navigators and we used to have a saying that the people that we disciple, the men we disciple, we're looking for men who were

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FAT. FAT stood for an acronym. F -A -T. What it stood for,

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F was those who were faithful, well done, good and faithful servant. The fruit is the result of what

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God does. We are to be faithful to what He's called us to do. A stands for available and T stands for teachable.

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If we're going to work with somebody, it's 2 Timothy 2 .2. The things you've heard from me, Paul tells Timothy, entrust to faithful men, right?

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To faithful men who will be able to do what? To teach others also for generations. So having a teachable spirit is very important.

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Okay, somebody read for us Proverbs 9 .8. Two questions for you.

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Not just for you, Bob. Bob's like, he's looking right at me. Are you a scoffer or a wise person?

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How do you know that? When you receive reproof, what's your reaction?

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That'll determine if you're a scoffer or a wise person. That's a rhetorical question. The next question is for discussion.

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Why, when we are reproved, why do we tend to get defensive? Let me hear some answers.

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Why do, if somebody says something to us, why do we get to have a tendency to become defensive?

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Who said that? Thanks, Becky. Pride. Okay, anybody else? Becky, it seems covered the whole gamut.

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Correct. Long time, yes.

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Yeah, good point. Excellent. Bruce. Yeah, I can.

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Especially when you're putting the effort into it. Yeah. But I think pride is kind of the root issue.

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One of the ways that you know this is, not having a teachable spirit is a symptom. You know, you go to the doctor and you say,

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I have these symptoms. Can you tell me what the core issue is? Well, not having a teachable spirit is symptomatic of pride.

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So, as Becky highlighted. So, Proverbs says that either we will hate the person who comes to us or we will love the person who comes to us.

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Think of, with me, of Nathan and David. 2 Samuel 12.

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Don't turn there. We know the story. What was going on there? What did Nathan say to David and what was

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David's response? Remember that? I see you. He said, you are the man.

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Before which, David said what when Nathan told him this story? Kill him.

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David was outraged. He wanted it to be punishment. He literally didn't know that he was talking.

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But then, when Nathan said, you are the man, what was David's response to that? Yes. It's very contrite.

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Yeah, contrition. Somebody else said something here. That he recognized his sin.

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Yeah. Of course, we have the great Psalm in Psalm 51. But he did say in 2 Samuel, as recorded there, that I have sinned against the

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Lord. He recognized that. And he says in Psalm 51, he talks about a broken and contrite spirit you will not despise.

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But I have sinned first and foremost against you. So a teachable spirit is also an important mark as we continue to grow in the

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Christian life. When my wife and I go driving long distances and stuff, we always check each other, well, watch this, watch that, and the backseat driver and that whole thing.

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I'm sure you all experienced that. But, you know, we call it when we're driving, we have what we call on the left side a what?

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That we can't see unless we turn our head. A blind spot. A blind spot.

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And spiritually, we have blind spots sometimes. And that's why we need others to come alongside us.

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What's the ministry of the Holy Spirit amongst these many ministries? Oh, by the way, speaking of the

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Holy Spirit, what's the ministry of the Holy Spirit? Conviction of sin. He convicts of sin.

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What else does he do? He's the paraclete. Paraclete, parakletos, means to come, to be called alongside.

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So the Holy Spirit is called alongside us to bring conviction and to comfort us.

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So in a way, that's what we do in the body. I'm grateful for the men in my life who came to me at certain times in my

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Christian life and growth who came and spoke to me into my life. Not just to say, good job,

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Harry, but you know what? There's this area in your life that you really need to take a look at. I'm grateful for that because we need one another to encourage one another in that aspect.

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So having a teachable spirit is a definite mark of maturity. We have a couple of minutes.

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I want to give it free flow. If you want to mention, comment, or question anything about the issue of doctrinal purity,

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Christology, having a growing hatred for sin, what we talked about today, or a teachable spirit.

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Yes? You want me to go over that again?

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Yeah. Okay. Justification. Okay. The three aspects of salvation.

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Of course, a lot of what we've been talking about in these marks of maturity, we've been in the middle of sanctification, right? But make sure of this.

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Those whom God justifies, He will sanctify. Sounds like my soteriology class, huh,

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Bill? Because if He doesn't sanctify you, it's not a complete work of salvation.

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The person was probably never justified. So, okay, let's go through that. Justification basically has to do with imputation.

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It has to do with the fact that God sees us before, as Paul does, in Adam, and then he was our federal head, and we have

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Adam's sin credited to our account. And the only way we can get to heaven is to be as perfect as Jesus, as sinless as He is.

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So what God does is He credits Christ's sin, Christ's righteousness,

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I'm sorry, our sin to His account. 2 Corinthians 5 .21, He made Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the what?

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The righteous of God. You guys know it. I can see you whispering it. So justification is a declaration, it's a judicial term, that God declares me righteous because He's imputed,

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He's credited to my account the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. By the way, it's a great evangelistic tool.

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I tell people the only way you can get to heaven is to be as perfect as Jesus. What do you want to do? Okay. It's the only way.

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And the only way you can be as perfect as Jesus, as perfectly righteous as He is, is to have His righteousness credited to your account.

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So justification, He declares us righteous. Sanctification, He makes us righteous. In justification, we're declared righteous.

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In sanctification, as we grow through these marks of maturity, He's making us righteous. In glorification, ultimately, we'll be glorified in heaven without the presence of sin in His presence.

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Does that make sense? Does that help? But to say it the way I said it earlier, justification, He has saved us from the penalty of sin, from God's eternal wrath and judgment, because Romans 8, 1, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, either in Adam or in Christ Jesus.

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Sanctification, He's saving us currently from the power of sin as we deal with indwelling sin,

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Romans 7. In glorification, He will ultimately save us from the presence of sin. Yes, yes.

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Yeah, it is. That's another distinction. Sanctification is a good job.

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You weren't even in my class. Very good. Sanctification is an ongoing process where justification is a one -time act.

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A good reference to use, J .C. Ryle has a good stuff that he's written on the distinction between justification and sanctification, which some of those things that you've highlighted there.

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Justification is a one -time act. We're declared righteous. It's final. It's a verdict, whereas sanctification is an ongoing process, so very good.

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Well, let's pray. Lord, we are thankful for the revelation You have given us clearly through Your Scriptures, Your Word.

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Thank You, Father, that we can be a part of a body that preaches the unadulterated Word of God, and we allow the

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Word of God, all Scriptures breathed out by You, and is profitable for teaching, reproving, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.

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I pray for our continued maturity as a body of believers, but as individuals, that we would continue in doctrinal purity, that we would continue to proclaim

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Christ and know Him more, know who He is and what He's done for us in becoming more

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Christlike. Lord, that we would continue to have a growing awareness of our own sinfulness as we mature, the way the

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Apostle Paul did, and that at the same time we would have a growing hatred for sin. And, Lord, always we realize, even as we've matured, we've never arrived, that there are still blind spots in our lives, so help us to be humble and to have a teachable spirit.