What Does it Mean to Be Spiritually Mature

What Does it Mean to Be Spiritually Mature? “My need and Thy great-fulness meet, and I have all in Thee” ~ Unknown. www. prshockley. org Template copyright www. brainybetty. com 2005

Please comment on quote: “Truth without enthusiasm, morality without emotion, ritual without soul, are things Christ unsparingly condemned. Destitute of fire, they are nothing more than a godless philosophy, an ethical system, and a superstition. ” ~ S. Chadwick. 9/10/2020 Template copyright www. brainybetty. com 2005 2

A. Positioned in Christ: Two Basic Categories to Know (Positional Sanctification): 1. The believer is justified, redeemed, regenerated, reconciled, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. God’s wrath has been satisfied (propitiation) and the believer is now a member in God’s family. Salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone. 9/10/2020 Template copyright www. brainybetty. com 2005 3

A. Positioned in Christ: Chafer continues: They received the free gift of eternal life by placing their trust in Jesus Christ, who is God, who died on the cross for their sins and who rose bodily from the dead. As a result the believer is united to Christ (Romans 6: 4 -5). 9/10/2020 Template copyright www. brainybetty. com 2005 4

Consider the following quote: • “The believer is in Christ in terms of position, possessions, safe-keeping, & association. Christ is in the believer giving life, character, & dynamic for conduct. ” • ~ Dr. Lewis S. Chafer, Grace: God’s Marvelous Theme, pg. 305. 9/10/2020 Template copyright www. brainybetty. com 2005 5

Consider the following quote: • “To the Christian, Christ has become, in the divine reckoning, the sphere of his being, and this reckoning contemplates all that the Christian is and all that He does. ” • ~ Dr. Lewis S. Chafer, Grace: God’s Marvelous Theme, pg. 309. 9/10/2020 Template copyright www. brainybetty. com 2005 6

B. Growth in Christ: 2 nd Term: Progressive Sanctification: 2. Since the believer is united to Christ, the believer is able to grow unto spiritual maturity, maximized for His glory-even in the midst of three formidable and unrelenting foes: the world, the flesh, and the schemes of Satan’s counterfeit kingdom. 9/10/2020 Template copyright www. brainybetty. com 2005 7

6 Ignorances Observed Regarding the Spiritual life: • I’m defining “ignorance” as referring to the Christian believer who stands “unknowing” regarding the finished work of Jesus Christ and the divine blessings therein. It can be either intentional ignorance or unintentional ignorance. 9/10/2020 Template copyright www. brainybetty. com 2005 8

Please respond to these three question… 1. Why aren’t we more godly than we actually are? 2. Why aren’t our churches more effective in being all that we are called to be? 3. Why aren’t we more effectively being used by God to change the lives of others? 9/10/2020 Template copyright www. brainybetty. com 2005 9

6 Ignorances observed regarding the spiritual life: Justified but is unintentionally ignorant on how to grow spiritually mature. Justified but believes obtaining spiritual maturity is primarily by human effort. Little cooperation with the Holy Spirit is needed if not totally disregarded. Justified but waits in vain for the promise of holiness perfectionism in this life. Justified but willfully ignores in rebellion to the command to be spiritually mature (antinominianism). Justified but believes that it is entirely the Holy Spirit’s work to grow one unto spiritual maturity; spiritual maturity is entirely a passive work; little responsibilities are placed upon the believer for spiritual maturity (out of balance). Justified but unintentionally equates spiritual maturity with the amount of “doctrinal knowledge” the believer knows; the more doctrinal, the more spiritual. This notion neglects the cultivation of personal holiness by copyright both inward thoughts and 9/10/2020(living out biblical truth Template www. brainybetty. com 2005 outward conduct). 10

On this 6 th ignorance: • This last view unintentionally equate doctrinal knowledge with spiritual maturity. In other words, there are those who contend that the more doctrine you know the more spiritual you are. While the mature believer will know biblical doctrine, it is doctrine appropriated in how the believer lives, moment-by-moment, not merely knowledge of it that yields spiritual maturity. In other words, one is to rightly know and appropriately live out doctrinal truths, not merely know it. Personal holiness + the intimate knowledge of biblical truth is needed for spiritual maturity. 9/10/2020 Template copyright www. brainybetty. com 2005 11

Rather, consider the proper view we should have as believers: • “The more this truth [Word of God] is brought before the mind, the more we commune with it, entering into its import, applying it to our own case, appropriating its principles, appreciating its motives, rejoicing in its promises, trembling at its threatenings, rising by its influence from what is seen and temporal to what is unseen and eternal; the more may we expect to be transformed by the renewing of our mind so as to approve and love whatever is holy, just, and good. Men [and women] distinguished for their piety have ever been men of meditation as well as men of prayer; men accustomed to withdraw the mind from the influence of the world with its thousand joys and sorrows, and to bring it under the influence of the doctrines, precepts, and promises of the Word of God. ”~ Dr. Charles Hodge 9/10/2020 Template copyright www. brainybetty. com 2005 12

Is this your prayer? “Give me the love that leads the way, The faith that nothing can dismay, The hope no disappointments tire, The passion that will burn like fire, Let me not sink to be a clod: Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God. ” ~ Amy Wilson Carmichael 9/10/2020 Template copyright www. brainybetty. com 2005 13

Positional Sanctification Justificati on The spiritual life of the believer is the life of Jesus Christ reproduced by the child of God by means of the Holy Spirit Obedience is our responsibility: Gal. 5: 16 Active - Perfect Sanctification Holy Spirit is Transformer: 2 Cor. 3: 18 Passivity Doing Undergoing Progressive Sanctification The Holy Spirit Faith is yields resultant the instrument. Growing fruit. moment-by conformity to Natural moment Carnal Person Spiritual Person Christ by means of the Trust Alone in Christ Alone Holy Spirit. Deliveranc Freedom Not merely a decision, but a life of consecration. Not merely e from the consecration, but separation. Not Penalty of Power of 9/10/2020 Template copyright www. brainybetty. com 2005 14 merely separation but transformation. Sin

VIVIFICATION Walking: Controlling: Gal. 5: 16 Eph. 5: 18 Yielding: Rom. 6; 8; 12: 1 -2; Phil. 2: 1 -11; Col. 3: 12 -18. Accurate Knowledge & Obedience to Scripture: MORTIFICATION Confession of Sin: 1 John 1: 9 Mortification of Sin: Rom. 8: 13; Col. 3: 5 Ps. 19: 7 -11; Rom. 12: 2; 1 Pet. 2: 2 Pro-actively depend upon the Holy Spirit in the details of daily living (vivification)moment by-moment (time is a succession of moments). Pro-actively and sincerely confessing all known sins (confession of sin): 1 John 1: 9. Pro-actively mortify selfish appetites, fleshly tendencies, & deeds-moment by moments (Romans 8: 13; Template Colossians 3: 5). www. brainybetty. com 2005 9/10/2020 copyright 15

Consider the following quote: It is a most difficult and arduous achievement to renounce ourselves, and lay aside our natural disposition. For the flesh must not be thought to be destroyed unless every thing that we have of our own is abolished. But seeing that all the desires of the flesh are enmity against God (Rom. 8: 7), the first step to the obedience of his law is the renouncement of our own nature…. Moreover, the very name mortification reminds us how difficult it is to forget our former nature, because we hence infer that we cannot be trained to the fear of God, and learn the first principles of piety, unless we are violently smitten with the sword of the Spirit and annihilated, as if God were declaring, that to be ranked among his sons there must be a destruction of our ordinary nature…. John Calvin and Henry Beveridge, Institutes of the Christian Religion, electronic ed. (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 1996), III, iii, 8. 9/10/2020 Template copyright www. brainybetty. com 2005 16

Consider the following quote: …. Both of these we obtain by union with Christ. For if we have true fellowship in his death, our old man is crucified by his power, and the body of sin becomes dead, so that the corruption of our original nature is never again in full vigor (Rom. 6: 5, 6). If we are partakers in his resurrection, we are raised up by means of it to newness of life, which conforms us to the righteousness of God. John Calvin and Henry Beveridge, Institutes of the Christian Religion, electronic ed. (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 1996), III, iii, 9. 9/10/2020 Template copyright www. brainybetty. com 2005 17

Final Thought: “No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying. The pulpit can be a shop window to display one’s talents; the prayer closet allows no showing off. ” ~ Leonard Ravenhill, Why Revival Tarries, pg. 23. 9/10/2020 Template copyright www. brainybetty. com 2005 18