“Spiritual Growth, Part 7” by Romans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy21vd6jSps
Last week, we left off in our Series reviewing and examining what God had to say on the subject, and what several very insightful Bible Commentaries Spiritual Growth have to say as well, that Spiritual Growth is intertwined with Growing in Grace and Knowledge, recognizing the Authority of God in the world and in our lives, boldness and learning to be content in all things.
So, let's pick up where we left off last week: (Note: Major Headings, Themes and verses taken from Max Lucado's Devotional Bible, subtitled, “Experiencing The Heart of Jesus,” to which I have also added some of my own verses).
Spiritual Growth includes a Daily Walk: We read in Deuteronomy 5:33: "Ye shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess."
Adam Clarke writes of this: “Ye shall walk in all the ways, etc. - God never gave a commandment to man which he did not design that he should obey. He who selects from the Divine testimonies such precepts as he feels but little inclination to transgress, and lives in the breach of others, sins against the grand legislative authority of God, and shall be treated as a rebel.
That ye may live, that ye may enjoy life... that it may be well with you, and good shall be to you - God will prosper you in all things essential to the welfare of your bodies, and the salvation of your souls. That ye may prolong your days in the land - That ye may arrive at a good old age, and grow more and more meet for the inheritance among the saints in light.
On this very important verse we may remark, a long life is a great blessing, if a man live to God, because it is in life, and in life alone, that a preparation for eternal glory may be acquired. Those who wish to die soon, have never yet learned to live, and know not the value of life or time.
Many have a vain hope that they shall get either in death, or in the other world, a preparation for glory. This is a fatal error. Here, alone, we may acquaint ourselves with God, and receive that holiness without which none can see him. Reader, be thankful to him that thou art still in a state of probation; and pray that thou mayest live for eternity.”
Next, regarding our daily walk, the Apostle Paul's thought continues from choosing contentment while avoiding the snare of riches (above) to this next idea in 1 Timothy 6:11-12: "But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses."
The Preacher's Homiletical Commentary states, “I. Pursuit of the true riches is alone worthy of the man of God.—“But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after” (1 Timothy 6:11). God, and not worldly riches, is the sole object of the good man’s desires. He has got a glimpse of the other side of earthly things.
He sees their fleeting and evanescent character, and their incapacity to satisfy the soul. He soars after higher and Diviner things. He cannot rest in the material, but finds his pleasure in seeking those things that are above. His conception of God lifts him above everything that has limits. He sees another world shining with the lustre of unfading riches.
II. The true riches are spiritual.—“Righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness” (1 Timothy 6:11). No longer a man of the world, the good man finds his enjoyment and wealth in spiritual realities. He covets the grace which enables him to act righteously towards God and man, to possess the faith that brings the distant near and makes the unseen visible, a love that works in him a sublime patience in the midst of the greatest trials, and a courageous meekness that is the marvel and despair of his bitterest opponents. The true riches of a man are within him.
III. Pursuit of the true riches involves an earnest conflict for the truth.—1. Conflict for the truth is demanded by the profession of it already made. “And hast professed a good profession before many witnesses” (1 Timothy 6:12). Having entered into the conflict, the Christian soldier must comport himself with resolute courage. Having won so many victories already, he is urged on to fresh conquests.
The consciousness that he is engaged in a good fight nerves him with strength and determination. The least relapse into unwatchfulness and ease will be fatal to final victory. The highest prizes of the Christian life are not gained without strenuous and persevering effort.
2. The final reward of the conflict is in the future. “Lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called” (1Ti_6:12). The Christian soldier is battling not only for time, but eternity—not only for the present life, but for life eternal. The prize, though in the future, is not uncertain;
it is not a phantom hanging in the air, but a substantial reality to be laid hold on and firmly grasped. Even now by faith he has the substance of the thing hoped for, and after which he strives with increasing earnestness. By-and-by he will wear the victor’s crown.”
Let's dig deeper about our Daily Walk: A walk involves forward motion, and gaining both ground and momentum: Notice in the very first verse of the very first Psalm: "Psalms 1:1: "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful."
We can read this verse, and risk reading over this verse if we are not careful: Consider the flow of events as we read this again: Here, we are cautioned regarding where and how not to walk: "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly..." That man is walking but NOT in the counsel of the ungodly.
Next, let's consider what John 12:26 has to say about our walk: "If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour."
Albert Barnes says of the phrase, “let him follow me,” “Let him imitate me; do what I do, bear what I bear, and love what I love. He is discoursing here particularly of his own sufferings and death, and this passage has reference, therefore, to calamity and persecution. 'You see me triumph - you see (me enter Jerusalem, and you supposed that my kingdom was to be set up without opposition or calamity; but it is not. I am to die; and if you will serve me, you must follow me even in these scenes of calamity; be willing to endure trial and to bear shame, looking for future reward.'”
As we continue our review and examination, Jesus said in Matthew 7:13: "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:"
There is a way or path that leads to destruction. Following the counsel of the ungodly will put a person on that path. But notice what happens when one takes that path: Their progress and pace is slowed until finally him doing what the blessed man will not do: "standeth in the way of sinners," He is no longer walking. Now he is standing in the way of sinners.
He is no longer making any progress in a righteous direction. He has stopped completely. And he is just standing there "in the way (or road) of sinners," But it doesn't stop there: A kind of spiritual stagnation sets in. The man who was walking in the counsel of the ungodly, and then standing in the way of sinners we next see him doing what the blessed man would not do: "... nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful."
The sinner is no longer standing there, he has taken a seat, and has gotten very comfortable sitting in what amounts to a seat of judgment. Why do I call it a seat of judgment? It is the seat of the scornful. What did James describe as "a fire, a world of iniquity, an unruly evil, (and) full of deadly poison" James 3:6,8.
Yes, it is the tongue. And the man who is not walking with the Lord, but rather walks according to the counsel of the ungodly, soon loses his pace, and finds himself sitting in the seat of the scornful. This is something God hates:
Notice in Proverbs 6:16: "These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren." Three out of the seven things God tells us He hates, involve the use and abuse of the tongue.
As we continue in our review of Spiritual Growth, we find that it includes Discipleship through the bearing of fruit: John 15:8: "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples."
The Life Application tells us, "When a vine produces “much fruit,” God is glorified, for daily he sent the sunshine and rain to make the crops grow, and constantly he nurtured each tiny plant and prepared it to blossom. What a moment of glory for the Lord of the harvest when the harvest is brought into the barns, mature and ready for use!
He made it all happen! This farming analogy shows how God is glorified when people come into a right relationship with him and begin to “produce much fruit” in their lives."
The Apostle Paul reminds us of the need to be familiar with and maintain Biblical doctrine: We read in 2 Timothy 4:1-4: "I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."
Alexander MacLaren says of this: “The prospect of dark days coming, which so often saddens the close of a strenuous life for Christ and the Church, shadowed Paul’s spirit, and added to his burdens.
At Ephesus he had spoken forebodings of ‘grievous wolves’ entering in after his death, and now he feels that he will be powerless to check the torrent of corruption, and is eager that, when he is gone, Timothy and others may be wise and brave to cope with the tendencies to turn from the simple truth and to prefer ‘fables.’ The picture which he draws is true to-day. Healthful teaching is distasteful Men’s ears itch, and want to be tickled.
The desire of the multitude is to have teachers who will reflect their own opinions and prejudices, who will not go against the grain or rub them the wrong way, who will flatter the mob which itself the people, and will keep ‘conviction’ and ‘rebuke’ well in the background. That is no reason for any Christian teacher’s being cast down, but is a reason for his buckling to his work, and not shunning to declare the whole counsel of God.
The true way to front and conquer these tendencies is by the display of an unmistakable self-sacrifice in the life, by sobriety in all things and willing endurance of hardship where needful, and by redoubled earnestness in proclaiming the gospel, which men need whether they want it or not, and by filling to the full the sphere of our work, and discharging all its obligations.”
Spiritual Growth includes both our walk, and our Faith: 2 Corinthians 5:7: "For we walk by faith, not by sight..." Peter points out in 1 Peter 1:8-9, that there were people alive even in his day who became Christians and never personally met or saw Christ. He says of them, "Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls."
Alexander MacLaren writes, “JOY IN BELIEVING. The Apostle has just previously been speaking about the great and glorious things which are to come to Christians on the appearing of Jesus Christ, and that naturally suggests to him the thought of the condition of believing souls during the period of the Lord’s absence and comparative concealment.
Having lifted his readers’ hopes to that great Future, when they would attain to ‘praise and honour and glory’ at Christ’s appearing, he drops to the present and to earth, and recalls the disadvantages and deprivations of the present Christian experience as well as its privileges and blessings.
‘Whom having not seen, ye love,’ that is a very natural thought in the mind of one whose love to Jesus rested on the ever-remembered blessed experience of years of happy companionship, when addressing those who had no such memories. It points to an entirely unique fact.
There is nothing else in the world parallel to that strange, deep personal attachment which fills millions of hearts to this Man who died nineteen centuries ago, and which is utterly unlike the feelings that any men have to any other of the great names of the past. To love one unseen is a paradox, which is realised only in the relation of the Christian soul to Jesus Christ.
Then the Apostle goes on with what might at first seem a mere repetition of the preceding thought, but really brings to view another strange anomaly. ‘In Whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.’ Love longs for the presence of the beloved, and is restless and defrauded of its gladness so long as absence continues.
But this strange love, which is kindled by an unseen Man, does not need His visible presence in order to be a fountain of joy unspeakable and full of glory. Thus the Apostle takes it for granted that every one who believes knows what this joy is. It is a large assumption, contradicted, I am afraid, by the average experience of the people that at this day call themselves Christians.
We notice— I. The All-sufficient Ground or Source of this Glad Emotion. ‘In whom,’ with all the disabilities and pains and absence, ‘yet believing,’ you can put out a long arm of faith across the gulf that lies, not only between to-day and eighteen centuries ago, but the deeper and more impassible gulf that lies between earth and heaven, and clasp Christ with a really firm grasp, which will fill the hand, and which we shall feel has laid hold of something, or rather has laid hold of a living person and a loving heart. That is faith.
The Apostle uses a very strong form of expression here, which is only very partially represented by our English version. He does not say only ‘in whom believing,’ but ‘towards whom’; putting emphasis upon the effort and direction of the faith, rather than upon the repose of the heart when it has found its object and rests upon Him.
And so the conception of the true Christian attitude is that of a continual outgoing of Trust and its child Love; of Desire and its child Possession; and of Expectation and its child Fruition towards that unseen Christ. It is much to believe Him, it is more to believe in Him; it is—I was going to say—most of all to believe towards Him. For in this region, quite as much as, and I think more than, in the one to which the saying was originally applied, ‘search is better than attainment.’
Our condition must always be that of ‘forgetting the things that are behind’; and however much we may realise the union with the unseen Christ in the act of resting upon Him, that must never be suffered to interfere with the longing for the larger possession of myself, and fuller consequent likeness to Him, which is expressed in that great though simple phrase of my text ‘believing towards Him.’ Such a continual outgoing of effort, as well as the rest and blessedness of reposing on Him, is indispensable for all true gladness.
For the intensest activity of our whole being is essential to the real joy of any part of it, and we shall never know the rapture of which humanity, even here and now, is capable until we gather our whole selves, heart, will, and all our practical, as well as our intellectual, powers in the effort to make more of Christ our own, and to minimise the distance between us to a mere vanishing point, ‘Believing towards whom ye rejoice.’
That act of trust, however inadequate the object upon which it rests, and however mistaken may be our conceptions of that on which we lean, always brings a gladness which is real, until disappointment disillusionises and saddens us. There is nothing that so sheds peace over the heart as reliance, absolute and quiet, upon some object worthy of trust.
It is blessed to trust one another until, as is too often the case, we find that what we thought to be an oak against which we leaned is but a broken reed that has no pith in it, and no possibility of support. So far as it goes, all trust is blessed, but the most blessed is simple reliance upon, and aspiration after, Jesus Christ.
Ever to yearn for Him, not with the yearning of those who have no possession, but with that of those who, having a little, desire to have more, is to bring into our lives the one solid and sufficient good without which there is no gladness, and with which there can be no unmingled sorrow, wrapping the whole man in its ebon folds. For this Christ is enough for all my nature and for the satisfaction of every desire.
In Him my mind finds the truth; my will the law; my love the answering love; my hope its object; my fears their dissipation; my sins their forgiveness; my weaknesses their strength; and, to all that I am, what He is answers, as fulness to emptiness, and as supply to need. So, ‘believing towards Him, we rejoice.’
But note that the joy is strictly contemporaneous with the faith. Tear away electric wire from the source of energy, and the light goes out instantly. It is as another Apostle says, ‘in believing’ that we have ‘joy and peace.’ And that is why so many of us know little of it. Yesterday’s faith will not contribute to to-day’s gladness, any more than yesterday’s meals will satisfy to-day’s hunger. Present joy depends upon present faith, and the measure of the one is the measure of the other.
Notice again—II. The Characteristics of the Christian Gladness. ‘Unspeakable,’ and, as the word ought to be rendered, not ‘full of glory’ but ‘glorified.’ Unspeakable. Still waters run deep. It is poor wealth that can be counted; it is shallow emotion that can be crammed into the narrow limits of any human vocabulary.
Fathers and mothers, parents and children, husbands and wives, know that. And the depths of the joy that a believing soul has in Jesus Christ are not to be spoken. Perhaps it is better that it should not be attempted to speak them.
It is in shallow streams that the sunlight gleams on the pebbles at the bottom. The abysses of ocean are dark, and have never been searched by its light. I suspect the depth of the emotion which bubbles over into words, and finds no difficulty in expressing itself. The joy which can be manifested in all its extent has a very small extent.
Christian joy is unspeakable, too, because just as you cannot teach a blind man what colour is like, and cannot impart to anybody the blessedness of wedded love, or parental affection, by ever so much talking—and, therefore, the poetry of the world is never exhausted—
so there is only one way of conveying to a man what is the actual joy of trusting in Christ, and that is, that he himself should trust Him. We may talk till Doomsday, and then, as the Queen of Sheba said, when she came to Solomon, ‘the half hath not been told.’
‘Glorified.’ There is nothing more ignoble than the ordinary joys of men. They are too often like the iridescent scum on a stagnant pond, fruit and proof of corruption. They are fragile and hollow, for all the play of colour on them, like a soap bubble that breaks of its own tenuity, and is only a drop of dirty water.
Joy is too often ignoble, and yet, although it is by no means the highest conception of what Christ’s Gospel can do for us, it is blessed to think that it can take that emotion, so often shameful, so often frivolous, so often lowering rather than elevating, and can lift it into loftiness, and transfigure it, and glorify it and make it a power, a power for good and for righteousness, and for ‘whatsoever things are lovely and of good report’ in our lives. And that is what trusting towards Christ will do for our gladnesses.
Lastly, III. The Obligation of Gladness. Peter takes it for granted that all these brethren to whom he is writing have experience of this deep and ennobled joy. He does not say, ‘You ought to rejoice,’ but he says, ‘You do rejoice.’ And yet a verse or two before he said, ‘Ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.’
So, then, he was not blinking the hard, painful facts of anybody’s troubled life. He was not away upon the heights serenely contemptuous of the grim possibilities that lurk down in the dark valleys. He took in all the burdens and the pains and the anxieties and the harassments, and the losses, and the bleeding hearts and the cares that can burden any of us. And he said, in spite of them all, ‘Ye rejoice.’ Do you?
I am afraid there is no more... proof of the unreality of an enormous proportion of the Christian profession of this day than the joyless lives—in so far as their religion contributes to their joy—of hosts of us. We have religion enough to make us miserable, we have religion enough to make us uncomfortable about doing things that we would like to do. We are always haunted by the feeling that we are falling so far below our professions, and we are either miserable when we bethink ourselves, or, more frequently, indifferent, accordingly.
And the whole reason of such experience lies here, we have not an adequately strong and continued trust in Jesus Christ working righteousness in our lives, nobleness in our characters, and so lifting us above the regions where mists and malaria lie. Let us get high enough up, and we shall find clear sky.
You call yourselves Christians. Does your religion bring any gladness to you? Does it burn brightest in the dark, like the pillar of cloud before the Israelites? ‘Greek fire’ burned below the water, and so was in high repute. Our gladness is a poor affair if it is at the mercy of temperaments or of circumstances. Jesus Christ comes to cure temperaments, and to enable us to resist circumstances.
So I venture to say that, whatever may be our condition in regard to externals, or whatever may be our tendencies of disposition, we are bound, as a piece of Christian duty, to try to cultivate this joyful spirit, and to do it in the only right way, by cultivating the increase of our faith in Jesus Christ.
‘Rejoice in the Lord always’; the man who said that was a prisoner, with death looking into his eyeballs. As he said it, he felt that his friends in Philippi might think the exhortation overstrained, and so he repeated it, to show that he recognised the apparent impossibility of obeying it, and yet deliberately enjoined it; ‘and again I say, rejoice.’”
Finally, Ephesians 2:10, Spiritual Growth involves our being created unto good works: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto" (and not because of) "...good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."
The Sermon Bible tells us, “I. The special infirmities of men vary. The fault of our nature assumes a thousand forms, but no one is free from it. I look back to the ancient moralists, to Plato, and to Seneca, and to Marcus Antoninus, and I find that they are my brethren in calamity. The circumstances of man have changed, but man remains the same.
How are we to escape from the general, the universal, doom? We want to remain ourselves and yet to live a life which seems impossible unless we can cease to be ourselves. It is a dreadful paradox, but some of us know that this is the exact expression of a dumb discontent which lies at the very heart of our moral being. Is there any solution? Paul tells us what the solution is: Christian men are "God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus."
II. "We are God’s workmanship." The branch is in the vine, though as yet the leaf has hardly escaped from its sheath, and the flower is only timidly opening itself to the sun and air. The Divine idea is moving towards its crowning perfection. Never let us forget that the life which has come to us is an immortal life. At best we are but seedlings on this side of death.
We are not yet planted out under the open heavens and in the soil which is to be our eternal home. Here in this world the life we have received in our new creation has neither time nor space to reveal the infinite wealth of its resources; you must wait for the world to come to see the noble trees of righteousness fling out their mighty branches to the sky and clothe themselves in the glorious beauty of their immortal foliage.
And yet the history of Christendom contains the proof that even here a new and alien life has begun to show itself among mankind. A new type of character has been created. Christ lives on in those whose lives are rooted in Him.” R. W. Dale, Lectures on the Ephesians, p. 185.
The Heavenly Workman. "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works." It is true that we do not improve ourselves; it is all of grace; yet good works are binding upon us all the more. On the other hand, let us not take credit to ourselves. We should never have come into the workshop but for the heavenly Artist.
I. A great difference in the material. It is useless to say that all men are equal. We are not all born alike. From the fault or misfortune of our progenitors, we may start in the race with heavy burdens that we cannot shake off. Besides, we differ in both physical and mental constitution.
Let it be understood that the Great Workman does not expect the same results from every kind of material. There is one thing He expects from all and something He has a right to expect, and that is what all can do: we must love God. Let us be charitable with each other, for all the material in God’s workshop comes there to be beautiful.
This thought will help me to bear with my fellow-Christian, because I know that he will be improved before he leaves, and it will teach me to be modest, inasmuch as I should not be there if I were perfect. God is the almighty Artist. Other artists are limited, if in nothing else, certainly in time, but not so with Him who is at work upon us; and whatever God touches He ennobles.” T. Champness: “New Coins From Old Gold.
There is much more to discuss regarding Spiritual Growth, and I plan, God Willing, to review and examine what God's Word has to tell us on this critically important topic. I invite all of you hearing or reading my words to join us next week at this time for our next Installment, Part 8, as we continue in this Series.
This concludes this evening's Discussion, "Spiritual Growth, Part 7."
This Discussion was originally presented “live” on March 1st, 2023.
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