The Kids Are Fighting

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:03.200 In standing, if you're able, and turn with me to first Corinthians chapter 2 00:00:03.480 --> 00:00:11.869 three. First Corinthians chapter three, I'll be reading the first four verses of 3 00:00:12.070 --> 00:00:34.020 this chapter this morning. First Corinthians three, verses one through four. But 4 00:00:34.140 --> 00:00:38.450 I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people 5 00:00:38.490 --> 00:00:42.770 of the Flesh, as infants in Christ. I Fed you with milk, 6 00:00:43.049 --> 00:00:47.890 not solid food, for you were not ready for it, and even now 7 00:00:48.689 --> 00:00:52.719 you are, you are not yet ready, for you are still of the 8 00:00:52.840 --> 00:00:58.200 flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are not? 9 00:00:58.640 --> 00:01:02.719 Are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For 10 00:01:02.799 --> 00:01:06.829 when one says I follow Paul and another I follow a police, are you 11 00:01:06.989 --> 00:01:11.829 not being nearly human? May God bless his word to us. You may 12 00:01:11.829 --> 00:01:36.810 be seated. Have you ever been in a situation where you left the room 13 00:01:36.930 --> 00:01:41.650 for a moment and you came back in and there was a fight? Parents? 14 00:01:42.209 --> 00:01:45.049 Have you ever been in a situation where you left the room for a 15 00:01:45.170 --> 00:01:48.920 moment and you came back in and there was a fight kids? Have you 16 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:52.560 ever been in a situation where you left the room for a moment and you 17 00:01:52.680 --> 00:01:55.519 came back in and all of a sudden there was a fight. You said. 18 00:01:55.599 --> 00:02:00.239 What happened here? I was gone for thirty seconds and everything's falling apart. 19 00:02:01.390 --> 00:02:05.909 One Minute I asked you to fold the laundry and next thing everybody's at 20 00:02:05.950 --> 00:02:08.310 each other's throats. Where did this come from? Where did this even happen? 21 00:02:10.229 --> 00:02:15.580 Something similar to that was happening in Corinth. Men of God had come 22 00:02:16.099 --> 00:02:20.580 to proclaim the Gospel, and indeed they did that. They came to build 23 00:02:20.580 --> 00:02:25.180 up the church. They were servants and messengers sharing the light of Christ with 24 00:02:25.340 --> 00:02:30.650 these gentiles. They came, in the truth of Christ, to build up 25 00:02:30.650 --> 00:02:35.849 the Church in the love of Christ. And that's what Paul did and that's 26 00:02:35.889 --> 00:02:38.610 what a Paul has did and that's what others did. And then Paul moved 27 00:02:38.689 --> 00:02:42.610 on, Paul moved away, and then he gets this report. He gets 28 00:02:42.610 --> 00:02:46.159 a report. In Chapter One, he mentions it in verse twelve that Chloe's 29 00:02:46.199 --> 00:02:51.360 people come to him. Or Chapter One, verse eleven, he says it 30 00:02:51.479 --> 00:02:55.000 has been reported to me by chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, 31 00:02:55.680 --> 00:03:00.750 my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says I follow 32 00:03:00.870 --> 00:03:05.030 Paul, I follow a police or I follow Sephas or I follow Christ, 33 00:03:06.789 --> 00:03:10.870 Paul says, why am I hearing about these things? What's going on? 34 00:03:13.099 --> 00:03:19.740 Instead of imitating Paul, instead of imitating his fellow ministers in their love, 35 00:03:20.860 --> 00:03:24.979 in their doctrine, the Corinthians, as we've considered before, we're treating these 36 00:03:25.099 --> 00:03:32.370 men like public speaking rock stars, like social media influencers, and then dividing 37 00:03:32.409 --> 00:03:39.689 up in factions underneath banners. Paul over here, Apollos over here. They 38 00:03:39.729 --> 00:03:45.800 were choosing teams, they were aligning themselves and fighting, but there was never 39 00:03:45.960 --> 00:03:51.599 any competition. That's what Paul says in verse thirteen. Is Christ divided? 40 00:03:52.280 --> 00:03:59.069 The answer is, of course not. Imagine if half your body decided to 41 00:03:59.389 --> 00:04:02.830 align with your right hand and half of the other half of your body decide 42 00:04:02.870 --> 00:04:06.469 to align with your left hand, and then they were going to vigorously fight 43 00:04:06.550 --> 00:04:14.219 against each other until one one right. It would be maybe funny at first 44 00:04:14.539 --> 00:04:17.939 to see you punching yourself, but then it would be scary if it was 45 00:04:18.019 --> 00:04:24.490 serious, and ultimately it would be deadly. This is what's happening in the 46 00:04:24.769 --> 00:04:30.050 body of Christ. It's dividing up against itself in a ways that it was 47 00:04:30.129 --> 00:04:34.889 never intended for. The body of Christ is not a competitive market place. 48 00:04:34.970 --> 00:04:41.839 It's not sports teams or armies at war, the body of Christ as well, 49 00:04:42.519 --> 00:04:46.720 a body men, to be unified and unified in Christ. And yet 50 00:04:46.759 --> 00:04:50.160 here are the Corinthians saying I follow up, Paul, I follow a police 51 00:04:54.230 --> 00:04:59.870 and it's getting scary. If it continues on, it could even be deadly. 52 00:05:00.069 --> 00:05:02.709 And so Paul, after getting the stir disturbed, disturbing report from Chloe, 53 00:05:02.949 --> 00:05:09.180 writes this letter and he appeals to them in love. He calls them 54 00:05:09.339 --> 00:05:15.540 brothers, but he does want to humble them in their pride. He tells 55 00:05:15.579 --> 00:05:23.089 them that all this jealousy and strife are not marks of advancing and spiritual maturity. 56 00:05:23.129 --> 00:05:28.449 It's just the opposite, that strife and jealousy within the body of Christ, 57 00:05:28.649 --> 00:05:36.240 battling it out against itself, is immaturity, its worldliness being brought into 58 00:05:36.279 --> 00:05:41.879 the body of Christ. In worldly terms, it might look like they were 59 00:05:41.920 --> 00:05:47.360 progressing as one faction is gaining influence and authority over another faction. In the 60 00:05:47.399 --> 00:05:51.230 eyes of Christ, to put it in a term we might use, they're 61 00:05:51.230 --> 00:05:59.230 all acting like a bunch of babies. They're being immature her their fighting and 62 00:05:59.350 --> 00:06:04.379 quarreling, and that's what Paul is addressing here. And Chapter Three. It's 63 00:06:04.420 --> 00:06:10.019 what he's been addressing really since chapter one, and he brings this concern up 64 00:06:10.100 --> 00:06:14.779 after talking about some other things. He brings this concern up again about who's 65 00:06:14.899 --> 00:06:20.009 following who, and this is good for us to hear us here today. 66 00:06:20.209 --> 00:06:24.889 It's good for us to to hear this because we need to be reminded of 67 00:06:25.009 --> 00:06:28.970 these things, just like they need to be reminded of them. As long 68 00:06:29.009 --> 00:06:31.050 as we're in the world. We need to be on guard against jealousy, 69 00:06:31.689 --> 00:06:40.360 against strife and the unspiritual divisions within the church. And so that we might 70 00:06:40.480 --> 00:06:43.839 be on guard, so that we might hear this warning and lesson, let's 71 00:06:43.879 --> 00:06:49.870 pay attention to what Paul says here in these in these verses. The first 72 00:06:49.910 --> 00:06:55.470 thing to note is that Paul is talking to Christians. He's talking to Christians. 73 00:06:57.149 --> 00:07:00.870 That's important to say because it's maybe a little bit confusing the way he 74 00:07:00.069 --> 00:07:04.459 describes them as people of the flesh. Is he saying they're Christians? Are 75 00:07:04.540 --> 00:07:09.180 Not? I want to really impress this point, that he is talking to 76 00:07:09.259 --> 00:07:14.259 them as Christians. How do we know? Well, first, he calls 77 00:07:14.300 --> 00:07:17.410 them brothers, and he does that not because they are his members of his 78 00:07:18.050 --> 00:07:25.490 biological family, but of his spiritual family. We also know that in after 79 00:07:25.610 --> 00:07:29.410 one, verse two, he writes this letter to the church to whom he's 80 00:07:29.410 --> 00:07:31.759 now speaking, and he says to the Church of God that is in Corinth, 81 00:07:32.639 --> 00:07:39.519 to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together. In 82 00:07:39.639 --> 00:07:43.680 Chapter One, verse thirty, he says you are he says you are in 83 00:07:43.800 --> 00:07:48.350 Christ Jesus, who became to US wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and 84 00:07:48.589 --> 00:07:53.550 redemption. In Chapter Three, the chapter that were in verse twenty three, 85 00:07:53.589 --> 00:07:58.069 he says, and you are Christ's. In chapter six, he says you 86 00:07:58.110 --> 00:08:01.699 were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the 87 00:08:01.819 --> 00:08:05.379 Lord Jesus Christ and by the spirit of our God. So very clearly, 88 00:08:05.420 --> 00:08:13.209 multiple times in this book alone, we see how Paul identifies them and marks 89 00:08:13.290 --> 00:08:20.810 them out as Christians, fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. So what's going 90 00:08:20.930 --> 00:08:24.730 on then? What is Paul saying about them, if he's not saying that 91 00:08:24.850 --> 00:08:31.519 they aren't Christians? What is he saying? Well, Paul begins by talking 92 00:08:31.560 --> 00:08:35.399 about the past. Right, he talks. You use these past tense verbs, 93 00:08:35.440 --> 00:08:37.919 he says, but I, brothers, could not. This is in 94 00:08:37.080 --> 00:08:43.669 the past, could not address you as spiritual people. He is explaining that 95 00:08:43.710 --> 00:08:46.950 when he first came to Corinth, though, they were Babes in Christ. 96 00:08:46.309 --> 00:08:52.070 He couldn't address them yet as spiritual people. Now some people, as I've 97 00:08:52.070 --> 00:08:54.509 said, say this because they didn't have the spirit, but clearly they did. 98 00:08:56.580 --> 00:09:00.860 So why does Paul say it in this way? I think Paul's addressing 99 00:09:00.940 --> 00:09:05.460 them in this way because he's speaking to them according to their own vision of 100 00:09:05.620 --> 00:09:09.370 themselves. In other words, he's not talking about them as those who are 101 00:09:09.450 --> 00:09:16.409 either regenerate or unregenerate. He Uses Babes of Christ and brother those sorts of 102 00:09:16.490 --> 00:09:22.009 things to talk about their their regeneration. But when he says the word spiritual, 103 00:09:22.129 --> 00:09:24.679 he's using it in the in the way that they thought about themselves. 104 00:09:26.879 --> 00:09:31.919 They were spiritual, that is, born of the Holy Spirit, but they 105 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:39.470 thought of themselves as spiritual. They were proud, they were advancing, they 106 00:09:39.509 --> 00:09:45.870 were claiming apostles as their teachers, they were following these men, they were 107 00:09:45.950 --> 00:09:50.990 emphasizing that point and pointing that out to others. There was a lot of 108 00:09:52.190 --> 00:09:56.539 clamoring about wisdom, about place in the church, about authority and and and 109 00:09:56.940 --> 00:10:01.659 a position within the church and in all of this. They thought they were 110 00:10:01.700 --> 00:10:09.490 being, quote, spiritual. Paul says, I couldn't address you as spiritual 111 00:10:09.769 --> 00:10:16.250 people, as truly spiritual as those who act as Christ did, because you 112 00:10:16.289 --> 00:10:22.759 weren't, you're still not spiritual. You are people of the flesh. As 113 00:10:22.799 --> 00:10:26.840 infants in Christ they were puffed up, and Paul is saying, when I 114 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:31.440 came to you, you were still people of the flesh, and the proof 115 00:10:31.559 --> 00:10:35.509 is your Babes in Christ acting in fleshy ways. The proof is that I 116 00:10:35.629 --> 00:10:39.909 fed you with milk and not with food. Now, what does Paul mean 117 00:10:41.029 --> 00:10:45.990 by this? Well, he's not saying that he gave them a half portion 118 00:10:46.110 --> 00:10:50.259 of Christ. He's not saying that he gave them a little bit of Jesus 119 00:10:50.299 --> 00:10:52.659 a here and a little bit of Jesus there, but not all of Jesus. 120 00:10:54.179 --> 00:10:58.659 He's just saying he gave Jesus to them in a simpler form. Milk 121 00:10:58.779 --> 00:11:03.179 is nourishing. It's intended to feed the baby, to help it to grow. 122 00:11:03.019 --> 00:11:07.210 It's not poison, it's not partial. He gave them what they needed, 123 00:11:07.490 --> 00:11:11.090 but he gave them in a simply gave them Christ in a simple form. 124 00:11:13.809 --> 00:11:18.210 And so, because he gave them to the gave them in the simple 125 00:11:18.289 --> 00:11:22.000 form. This way, he's saying, you see what I mean, you 126 00:11:22.120 --> 00:11:28.039 weren't that impressive. You weren't yet spiritual people. You hadn't yet grown up 127 00:11:28.159 --> 00:11:31.639 and matured into the things of the spirit, although you were born of the 128 00:11:31.679 --> 00:11:37.070 spirit. So, if I could put it really simply, Paul is talking 129 00:11:37.190 --> 00:11:41.710 to them as Christians, but he's talking to Christians who are not acting like 130 00:11:41.870 --> 00:11:46.539 Christians. Have you ever known anyone like that? Have you ever been someone 131 00:11:46.659 --> 00:11:54.220 like that? Clearly this is a category that exists on Paul addresses it here 132 00:11:54.340 --> 00:11:58.659 and we've experienced at ourselves. But though it's something that exists as a category, 133 00:11:58.740 --> 00:12:03.929 that exists Christians not acting like Christians, but Christians doing fleshly things and 134 00:12:05.090 --> 00:12:11.289 going after the way of the flesh, that doesn't mean it's good. Notice 135 00:12:11.409 --> 00:12:18.960 Paul's specific concern, however, his pacipices specific concern is not that they once 136 00:12:18.159 --> 00:12:24.320 needed milk, but that they still need milk. Notice what he says. 137 00:12:24.759 --> 00:12:26.279 I Fed you with milk, not with solid food, for you were not 138 00:12:26.399 --> 00:12:33.350 ready for it, and even now you are not yet ready. Of course 139 00:12:33.389 --> 00:12:37.990 they needed milk when they were Babes in Christ when they had come to them 140 00:12:37.190 --> 00:12:41.950 in this church was just forming, when they needed to hear the word of 141 00:12:41.029 --> 00:12:45.940 God and they needed to grow up. That's what babies need. Babies need 142 00:12:46.259 --> 00:12:50.980 milk. No one falls a baby for needing milk. That's what how babies 143 00:12:52.100 --> 00:12:56.940 advance to solid foods is by getting what they need. But the problem is 144 00:12:56.220 --> 00:13:01.090 is that the Corinthians were not advancing, the Corinthians were not growing. Paul 145 00:13:01.210 --> 00:13:05.009 is saying that they're not ready for it, that they weren't ready for it, 146 00:13:05.129 --> 00:13:09.409 and then when he hears this report some time later, they're still not 147 00:13:09.570 --> 00:13:16.600 ready for it. Now I don't want you to be confused about this image, 148 00:13:16.559 --> 00:13:24.279 because scripture does speak positively about this baby's and milk kind of image in 149 00:13:24.360 --> 00:13:28.389 terms of spirituality. The thing to remember here is, and I'll give you 150 00:13:28.429 --> 00:13:33.350 some verses along those lines, is that one image can be used in multiple 151 00:13:33.470 --> 00:13:37.830 ways. Right, you could use a plant, for example, to it 152 00:13:39.509 --> 00:13:41.779 to make an analogy for one thing and for another thing, and it's the 153 00:13:41.820 --> 00:13:46.139 same thing with babies and milk. The scriptures do that. So we don't 154 00:13:46.139 --> 00:13:48.539 want to conflate these images. If we do, we end up confused. 155 00:13:50.220 --> 00:13:54.659 So, for example, first Peter to too says like newborn infants long for 156 00:13:54.809 --> 00:14:01.169 the purest spiritual milk that you may grow up into salvation. Right. Paul's 157 00:14:01.210 --> 00:14:05.850 not saying don't pay attention to what Peter said. He's talking about something else 158 00:14:05.850 --> 00:14:11.000 altogether. We should always be like infants, and remember Jesus tells us if 159 00:14:11.039 --> 00:14:13.480 we to receive the children of the Kingdom of God, we need to be 160 00:14:15.200 --> 00:14:20.320 as children. The image is here in Peter and with Jesus's words, are 161 00:14:20.399 --> 00:14:26.029 images of longing, of trusting, of sense of dependence, and that's something 162 00:14:26.070 --> 00:14:31.389 we never grow out of, that's something we grow into. But Paul is 163 00:14:31.509 --> 00:14:37.470 making a different point, though with the same image. He's talking about them 164 00:14:37.590 --> 00:14:43.460 being spiritual babies who need to grow up. So it's important to keep them 165 00:14:43.539 --> 00:14:48.779 just in different categories and in your minds, various members of the church. 166 00:14:48.980 --> 00:14:54.210 We're quite impressed with them themselves, but Paul was not impressed with them, 167 00:14:54.289 --> 00:15:01.409 the Lord was not impressed with them. In essence, they were acting like 168 00:15:01.690 --> 00:15:07.279 babies, and this reminds us that as Christians we are called to grow up, 169 00:15:09.480 --> 00:15:13.000 we are called to grow and to mature again. First, Peter to 170 00:15:13.279 --> 00:15:18.039 too says that when we drink the pure spiritual milk of the word of God, 171 00:15:18.879 --> 00:15:20.990 we do it so that we may, he says, grow up into 172 00:15:22.070 --> 00:15:28.029 salvation. In Second Peter Three eighteen, Peter Rights, but grow in the 173 00:15:28.149 --> 00:15:33.110 grace and knowledge of the Lord and Save Your Jesus Christ, Paul says, 174 00:15:33.110 --> 00:15:37.659 in Second Corinthians three hundred and eighteen, and we all, with unveiled face, 175 00:15:37.820 --> 00:15:41.100 beholding the glory of God, are being transformed into the same image, 176 00:15:41.500 --> 00:15:48.059 from one degree of glory from to another. And First Corinthians Fourteen twenty, 177 00:15:48.139 --> 00:15:54.649 Paul writes, brothers, do not be children in your thinking, be infants 178 00:15:54.769 --> 00:16:00.210 in evil, but in your thinking be mature. And again Paul and a 179 00:16:00.289 --> 00:16:06.960 fusions for fourteen, he gives to US apostles and prophets of angelist teachers, 180 00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:11.600 so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves 181 00:16:11.639 --> 00:16:15.039 and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness, 182 00:16:15.399 --> 00:16:25.509 in deceitful schemes. That's why Paul came. Paul came to to bring 183 00:16:25.710 --> 00:16:29.990 this effect about, to help them to grow. So we want to be 184 00:16:30.070 --> 00:16:33.500 Childi we want to be like babies, and we don't want to stay like 185 00:16:33.740 --> 00:16:37.659 babies. We always want to stay like babies in the sense that we're always 186 00:16:37.700 --> 00:16:41.460 dependent, we're always in need and we want the pure spiritual milk of God's 187 00:16:41.500 --> 00:16:45.500 word, but we don't want to be like babies and stay like babies and 188 00:16:45.580 --> 00:16:53.129 that we never mature and never mature in the Lord, never grow. What 189 00:16:53.289 --> 00:16:59.169 does maturity look like? In a recent book called the Vine and the Trellis, 190 00:16:59.250 --> 00:17:03.359 the authors summarize maturity, I think, into three helpful, memorizable categories. 191 00:17:03.960 --> 00:17:11.759 They talk about conviction, character and capabilities. Maturity is knowing what we 192 00:17:11.920 --> 00:17:15.990 believe and why we believe it. It's not being blown arount by every wind 193 00:17:17.069 --> 00:17:22.069 of doctrine. It's knowing the truth and being solid in it. But maturity 194 00:17:22.150 --> 00:17:26.470 isn't just knowledge, it's also character. It's not just having theological knowledge, 195 00:17:27.509 --> 00:17:33.059 knowledge of God, but it's also acting like his children, being like his 196 00:17:33.140 --> 00:17:37.140 children, that it's having those true seep down into our hearts that cause us 197 00:17:37.180 --> 00:17:45.210 then to act accordingly. There's conviction and there's character and there's also capability. 198 00:17:45.410 --> 00:17:51.089 Maturity is putting ourselves in the nervous of God and in the service of others 199 00:17:51.170 --> 00:17:59.279 and growing in it, in worship and hospitality and mercy, and these are 200 00:17:59.440 --> 00:18:03.000 things that we make progress in while we are here on earth, and so 201 00:18:03.079 --> 00:18:07.720 it's worth asking from time to time, am I growing? Because this is 202 00:18:07.920 --> 00:18:11.559 a goal. This is a goal, Paul States, for this church. 203 00:18:11.839 --> 00:18:14.789 He wants them to be growing, and so it's right for us to ask, 204 00:18:14.829 --> 00:18:18.150 am I growing? Am I growing in my conviction and my knowledge of 205 00:18:18.230 --> 00:18:22.509 the faith and the depth of it in my heart? Am I growing in 206 00:18:22.630 --> 00:18:27.180 my character and integrity and in Godliness? Am I growing in my capabilities, 207 00:18:27.700 --> 00:18:32.940 my ability to serve and to use the things that God has given me as 208 00:18:33.019 --> 00:18:40.779 a good steward and as his child? Here the Corinthians are not growing, 209 00:18:40.819 --> 00:18:47.410 and Paul describes one way that looks. It looks like jealousy and strife. 210 00:18:48.650 --> 00:18:52.930 Christ loved US first that we might love him and love others, and when 211 00:18:52.009 --> 00:18:56.200 that takes root in our heart it flows out into action. We know what 212 00:18:56.319 --> 00:19:00.200 that feels right. You know what it feels like when somebody is truly loving, 213 00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:07.400 generous, and there's forgiveness, listening, helping, patience, kindness, 214 00:19:07.039 --> 00:19:11.390 long suffering. Indeed, Paul will spend some time talking all about how love 215 00:19:11.549 --> 00:19:18.710 looks in chapter thirteen and other chapters in this book. And when that comes, 216 00:19:18.789 --> 00:19:25.299 when we cut, when we know the love of Christ, but when 217 00:19:25.339 --> 00:19:30.339 we separate ourselves from Christ, and when we put ourselves at the center, 218 00:19:30.579 --> 00:19:36.220 what happens? Strife and jealousy, divisions, when it's all about me, 219 00:19:36.740 --> 00:19:40.369 what I want right now, my hopes, my fears, my frustrations, 220 00:19:40.450 --> 00:19:48.690 I need it right now, then we get these kinds of divisions. Calvin 221 00:19:48.730 --> 00:19:55.920 says that they were undervaluing the apostle and his preaching and were prepared more to 222 00:19:56.039 --> 00:20:02.799 listen and pay attention to the subtle and showy ways of other teachers or looking 223 00:20:02.960 --> 00:20:07.150 only for Paul to be to be a fancy speaker. And then, and 224 00:20:07.390 --> 00:20:11.990 and then, in not only treating him poorly and treating the doctrine of Christ 225 00:20:11.069 --> 00:20:17.549 poorly, they then treated others poorly. We see in Corinthian in the Corinthian 226 00:20:17.670 --> 00:20:22.099 letters, that that wasn't just a problem with the apostles and the other teachers, 227 00:20:22.779 --> 00:20:26.380 but there were problems with the Lord's supper, problems with making other people 228 00:20:26.500 --> 00:20:30.579 stumble and difficult ethical situations, fighting about spiritual gifts. It's just one thing 229 00:20:30.660 --> 00:20:36.009 after another after another. When we read about all these problems in the Corinthian 230 00:20:36.130 --> 00:20:40.210 church, it's a little bit easy to shake our heads and judge. Wells 231 00:20:40.289 --> 00:20:44.009 Corinthians, man what a mess. Glad I didn't belong to that church. 232 00:20:45.170 --> 00:20:51.359 But isn't that just a sign of our own pride to look at struggling brothers 233 00:20:51.400 --> 00:20:55.880 and sisters, even from long ago, and to mock them, shake our 234 00:20:55.960 --> 00:21:00.759 heads at them? What does that say about our own hearts? What does 235 00:21:00.839 --> 00:21:04.269 that say about us? And what about our brothers and sisters that are alive 236 00:21:04.349 --> 00:21:11.029 today in our own congregation and another churches? Do we love them as we 237 00:21:11.230 --> 00:21:15.829 ought, or do we puff ourselves up over them? Do we even doing 238 00:21:15.990 --> 00:21:22.180 it spiritual things, calling ourselves spiritual wall at the very moment exhibiting great amount, 239 00:21:22.299 --> 00:21:26.900 great amounts of pride? This is not to say that there's no difference 240 00:21:26.940 --> 00:21:33.569 between right doctrine or wrong doctrine, or right practice and wrong practice. There 241 00:21:33.690 --> 00:21:36.730 is, of course, differences between these things and we ought to make those 242 00:21:36.809 --> 00:21:42.089 distinctions if we are to hold fast to Christ. But when does good doctrine 243 00:21:42.250 --> 00:21:48.680 or good practice excuse bad behavior? Never, is the answer to that. 244 00:21:48.720 --> 00:21:53.839 It never does. In fact, a failure to show humility really shows a 245 00:21:53.960 --> 00:22:00.799 failure to truly understand and truly believe and be evicted about the grace that we 246 00:22:00.960 --> 00:22:06.710 have received in Christ. It's perhaps the most ironic thing in the world for 247 00:22:06.789 --> 00:22:11.069 a Christian who is experienced the grace of the Lord not to show that grace 248 00:22:11.710 --> 00:22:17.019 a to others. Christian had US thinking the other night, from God's word, 249 00:22:17.059 --> 00:22:21.299 about the servant who was forgiven so much. Let me ask you, 250 00:22:21.380 --> 00:22:25.859 did that servant in Jesus's parable there? Did He know that he was forgiven? 251 00:22:26.259 --> 00:22:30.250 I suppose so. Right. He had been forgiven a lot. He 252 00:22:30.329 --> 00:22:34.210 seemed to be. There's no sense that he wasn't aware of it, but 253 00:22:34.369 --> 00:22:38.809 that knowledge remained in his head. It didn't penetrate into his heart, and 254 00:22:38.890 --> 00:22:44.250 so that's why he goes to this other man and demands so in such a 255 00:22:44.319 --> 00:22:51.559 strong way, so little, at least comparatively, and that's what immaturity looks 256 00:22:51.599 --> 00:22:56.640 like. Maturity is sort of starting, it's sort of knowing, it's having 257 00:22:56.680 --> 00:23:00.589 a beginning, but not moving forward, not flowering, not coming into the 258 00:23:00.710 --> 00:23:06.789 thing that we are called to be. And that's what God's desire for us 259 00:23:06.910 --> 00:23:12.259 is, beloved. He wants us to grow, not just in one part 260 00:23:12.299 --> 00:23:18.220 of the Christian life but in all of the Christian life. God's desire for 261 00:23:18.259 --> 00:23:23.740 us is just like your parents desire for you. They wanted you to grow 262 00:23:23.779 --> 00:23:32.170 up, and God desires the same. Now, in pointing out these things 263 00:23:32.369 --> 00:23:37.369 and in intentionally calling us all to humble ourselves a little bit, and maybe 264 00:23:37.410 --> 00:23:45.160 even a lot, I don't want to overly wound you were overly depress you 265 00:23:45.279 --> 00:23:49.559 either. We need to be warned and we need to be on guard against 266 00:23:49.640 --> 00:23:55.039 complacency and self centeredness. It's true, they seep in, they attack our 267 00:23:55.119 --> 00:23:57.950 hearts, they hold fast to us, and these things don't align with the 268 00:23:59.069 --> 00:24:03.910 Gospel. But it's because of the Gospel that we also don't have to despair. 269 00:24:04.190 --> 00:24:07.750 It's because of the Gospel that, even when we feel we are so 270 00:24:07.269 --> 00:24:11.700 controlled by it, by our self centeredness, when we struggle with envy, 271 00:24:11.779 --> 00:24:15.779 when we struggle with jealousy, when we find ourselves getting in fights all the 272 00:24:15.900 --> 00:24:21.420 time, getting in arguments all the time, it's because of the Gospel that 273 00:24:21.539 --> 00:24:25.250 we have hope. It's because of what God has done for us and his 274 00:24:25.769 --> 00:24:30.089 work, his spirits work in us, that we have hope. None of 275 00:24:30.130 --> 00:24:34.609 us have advanced to perfect maturity yet and none of us will until the Lord 276 00:24:34.890 --> 00:24:41.680 returns. But in this life, as we are humbled and reminded about these 277 00:24:41.720 --> 00:24:51.519 things, we also turn to the Lord for forgiveness and for sanctification. We 278 00:24:51.599 --> 00:24:56.789 love these things sting. It hurts to think about the divisions within the body 279 00:24:56.910 --> 00:25:00.910 of Christ. It hurts to think about the ways in which we ourselves have 280 00:25:00.150 --> 00:25:10.380 caused them. But the Lord causes the sting. He prods us to drive 281 00:25:10.420 --> 00:25:15.740 us to the cross. He does it so that our pride might be homeled, 282 00:25:15.740 --> 00:25:19.420 so that we might see how much we need him and not ourselves. 283 00:25:19.460 --> 00:25:25.250 You see, it's his work of sanctification in us. He wants to show 284 00:25:25.410 --> 00:25:29.410 you how much you need Christ, so that you might cling to Christ and 285 00:25:29.609 --> 00:25:36.559 not yourself. And when we look to Christ, who went to the cross 286 00:25:36.759 --> 00:25:41.359 for us, who didn't grasp and hold on to the glory of God or 287 00:25:41.799 --> 00:25:48.759 try to claw after it any way, but simply submitted himself out of love 288 00:25:48.960 --> 00:25:52.630 for us and went to a cross and died for our sins. When we 289 00:25:52.710 --> 00:25:56.509 think about those things, when we think about what he's overcome, when we 290 00:25:56.630 --> 00:26:03.190 think about like that servant should have, how much we've been forgiven, how 291 00:26:03.589 --> 00:26:07.859 big and broad God's love is, how vast, he said, how vast 292 00:26:07.940 --> 00:26:15.019 the separation is between us and our sins when the Lord forgives them, when 293 00:26:15.019 --> 00:26:18.529 we think about how this Gospel comes into our lives and takes people who are 294 00:26:18.609 --> 00:26:23.490 once clamoring and fighting and always struggling and striving against one another to make it 295 00:26:23.609 --> 00:26:26.450 to the top. And then the Lord comes and says, I give you 296 00:26:26.650 --> 00:26:32.410 everything. You don't need to do that anymore, you don't need to fight, 297 00:26:32.609 --> 00:26:36.400 you don't need to claw, you don't need to clamor, I will 298 00:26:36.440 --> 00:26:41.519 take care of you. Every hair in your head is numbered. You are 299 00:26:41.599 --> 00:26:45.519 so valuable to me, so so precious to me, that my own son 300 00:26:45.599 --> 00:26:49.509 has died for you. When we come to remember those things, beloved, 301 00:26:49.549 --> 00:26:57.269 and we come to believe those things, the Lord begins to dissipate the feelings 302 00:26:57.390 --> 00:27:03.819 of strife and self centeredness that are in our hearts. He works in US 303 00:27:03.900 --> 00:27:07.180 and reminds us that we don't have to clamor anymore, we don't have to 304 00:27:07.380 --> 00:27:11.339 fight anymore, we don't have to prove ourselves anymore, because we have all 305 00:27:11.460 --> 00:27:18.490 that we need in Christ. And as we begin to realize those things, 306 00:27:18.569 --> 00:27:23.049 as we begin to believe those things, to put faith in those promises, 307 00:27:25.690 --> 00:27:30.839 we will grow. One of the good things about the Gospel. Well, 308 00:27:30.920 --> 00:27:36.559 the greatest things about the Gospel is it's not all up to us. When 309 00:27:36.599 --> 00:27:41.680 the Lord chooses us and him each blocks us out of all of this misery 310 00:27:41.799 --> 00:27:45.309 in which we've thrown ourselves into. He doesn't just set us loose and say 311 00:27:45.349 --> 00:27:51.269 well, figure it out. He works in us, even as he is 312 00:27:51.390 --> 00:27:56.390 doing in you this morning. So trust him, put all your trust in 313 00:27:56.509 --> 00:28:00.619 him, and he will care for you and care for the whole body, 314 00:28:02.099 --> 00:28:07.059 bringing healing and rest. Let's pray that God would do that and that we 315 00:28:07.099 --> 00:28:11.940 would accept these things, receive them by faith our