Deepening Faith: Pursuing Spiritual Maturity in Christ

 

Summary

In our journey of faith, we are called to delve deeper into the mysteries of God's word, to seek the profound truths that lie beyond the surface. The love of Christ, which surpasses all knowledge, invites us to stretch our spiritual muscles and pursue the fullness of God. This pursuit is not a mere intellectual exercise but a heartfelt desire to grow in grace and knowledge. Just as a man at a banquet doesn't stop at the appetizer, we too must not be content with the foundational truths alone. We are called to move beyond the elementary principles and press on towards spiritual maturity.

The Apostle Paul, in his letters, encourages us to leave behind the first principles and strive for perfection. This journey requires effort and a willingness to engage with the deeper, more challenging aspects of our faith. It is akin to studying a subject where the initial chapters are simple, but as we progress, the material becomes more complex, demanding greater effort and understanding. Similarly, in our spiritual lives, we must move beyond the "told to the children" versions of scripture and seek the richness of God's word in its entirety.

This pursuit of deeper understanding is not just for personal edification but also for the benefit of others. As we grow in knowledge, we become equipped to help those around us, to share the hope that is within us, and to shine as lights in a dark world. Our spiritual growth should lead to a genuine concern for the unregenerate, a desire to share the truth of the gospel with those who are lost.

However, this concern must be genuine and not driven by a carnal zeal that seeks numbers or adherents. True spiritual concern arises from a deep compassion for others, a reflection of Christ's love for humanity. It is characterized by patience, seriousness, and a willingness to bear with others as we share the truth of God's word.

In this age of quick fixes and superficial understanding, we are called to a deeper, more meaningful engagement with our faith. Let us examine ourselves and strive for a spiritual life that reflects the depth and richness of God's grace.

Key Takeaways:

1. The love of Christ surpasses all knowledge and invites us to pursue the fullness of God. This pursuit requires a deep hunger and thirst for spiritual growth, moving beyond foundational truths to embrace the profound mysteries of God's word. [22:11]

2. Spiritual maturity involves leaving behind elementary principles and striving for deeper understanding. This journey requires effort and a willingness to engage with the more challenging aspects of our faith, much like progressing through complex chapters in a book. [25:00]

3. Our spiritual growth equips us to help others, sharing the hope within us and shining as lights in a dark world. This genuine concern for the unregenerate reflects Christ's love and is characterized by patience and seriousness. [33:31]

4. True spiritual concern is not driven by carnal zeal or a desire for numbers but arises from a deep compassion for others. It reflects a genuine desire to share the truth of the gospel and is marked by patience and a willingness to bear with others. [40:19]

5. In an age of quick fixes and superficial understanding, we are called to a deeper engagement with our faith. This involves examining ourselves and striving for a spiritual life that reflects the depth and richness of God's grace. [48:47]

Youtube Chapters:

- [00:00] - Welcome
- [22:11] - The Love of Christ
- [22:44] - Hunger for Spiritual Growth
- [23:39] - Desire for the Word
- [24:12] - Beyond the Basics
- [25:32] - Effort in Understanding
- [26:11] - Reading the Bible
- [27:48] - Hebrews' Encouragement
- [29:31] - Tabloid Christianity
- [30:56] - Evidence of Growth
- [32:24] - Helping Others
- [35:04] - Instinct of New Life
- [37:41] - Concern for the Unregenerate
- [40:19] - True vs. Carnal Zeal
- [44:18] - Compassion and Patience

Study Guide

Bible Study Discussion Guide

Bible Reading:
1. Ephesians 3:18-19 - "May have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."
2. Hebrews 6:1 - "Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God."
3. 1 Peter 3:15 - "But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect."

Observation Questions:
1. What does the Apostle Paul mean when he talks about the "love of Christ which surpasses knowledge"? How does this relate to being filled with the fullness of God? [22:11]
2. How does the sermon describe the process of moving beyond the "elementary principles" of faith? What analogy is used to explain this progression? [25:00]
3. According to the sermon, what is the role of spiritual growth in helping others? How does this reflect Christ's love? [33:31]
4. What are the characteristics of true spiritual concern as opposed to carnal zeal, as discussed in the sermon? [40:19]

Interpretation Questions:
1. How might the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, challenge our understanding of spiritual maturity? What does it mean to be filled with the fullness of God? [22:11]
2. In what ways does the sermon suggest that spiritual maturity involves effort and engagement with more challenging aspects of faith? How does this compare to studying a complex subject? [25:32]
3. How does the sermon illustrate the importance of being prepared to share the hope within us? What does this preparation entail according to 1 Peter 3:15? [32:55]
4. What are the dangers of carnal zeal in spiritual matters, and how can one discern between genuine spiritual concern and a desire for numbers or adherents? [40:19]

Application Questions:
1. Reflect on your current spiritual journey. Are you content with foundational truths, or do you feel a hunger to delve deeper into the mysteries of God's word? What steps can you take to pursue spiritual maturity this week? [22:44]
2. Consider a time when you felt challenged by a complex aspect of your faith. How did you respond, and what did you learn from that experience? How can you apply this learning to your current spiritual growth? [25:32]
3. Identify someone in your life who may benefit from the hope you have in Christ. How can you prepare yourself to share this hope with them in a way that is gentle and respectful? [32:55]
4. Think about your motivations for sharing the gospel. Are they driven by genuine compassion for others, or is there a desire for recognition or numbers? How can you cultivate a more Christ-like concern for the unregenerate? [40:19]
5. In what ways can you engage more deeply with your faith in an age of quick fixes and superficial understanding? What specific practices can you incorporate into your daily routine to reflect the depth and richness of God's grace? [48:47]
6. How do you handle spiritual conversations with those who may not share your beliefs? What strategies can you use to ensure these interactions are characterized by patience and seriousness? [46:06]
7. Reflect on a recent situation where you felt a burden for the spiritual state of others. How did you respond, and what might you do differently in the future to align more closely with Christ's example of compassion and patience? [48:15]

Devotional

Day 1: Pursuing the Fullness of God
The love of Christ is a profound mystery that surpasses all knowledge, inviting believers to pursue the fullness of God. This pursuit is not merely an intellectual exercise but a heartfelt desire to grow in grace and knowledge. Just as a man at a banquet doesn't stop at the appetizer, Christians are encouraged to move beyond foundational truths and embrace the profound mysteries of God's word. This journey requires a deep hunger and thirst for spiritual growth, urging believers to delve deeper into the mysteries of God's word and seek the profound truths that lie beyond the surface. [22:11]

Ephesians 3:18-19 (ESV): "May have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."

Reflection: What is one area of your spiritual life where you feel you have only scratched the surface? How can you begin to explore the deeper truths of God's word in this area today?


Day 2: Striving for Spiritual Maturity
Spiritual maturity involves leaving behind elementary principles and striving for deeper understanding. This journey requires effort and a willingness to engage with the more challenging aspects of faith, much like progressing through complex chapters in a book. Believers are encouraged to move beyond the "told to the children" versions of scripture and seek the richness of God's word in its entirety. This pursuit of deeper understanding is not just for personal edification but also for the benefit of others, equipping believers to help those around them. [25:00]

Hebrews 6:1 (ESV): "Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God."

Reflection: Identify a challenging aspect of your faith that you have been avoiding. What steps can you take this week to engage with it more deeply and mature in your understanding?


Day 3: Equipping to Help Others
As believers grow in knowledge, they become equipped to help those around them, sharing the hope within and shining as lights in a dark world. This genuine concern for the unregenerate reflects Christ's love and is characterized by patience and seriousness. Spiritual growth should lead to a genuine concern for others, a desire to share the truth of the gospel with those who are lost. This concern must be genuine and not driven by a carnal zeal that seeks numbers or adherents. [33:31]

1 Peter 3:15 (ESV): "But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect."

Reflection: Think of someone in your life who is struggling or lost. How can you share the hope within you with them in a way that is gentle and respectful?


Day 4: Genuine Compassion Over Carnal Zeal
True spiritual concern is not driven by carnal zeal or a desire for numbers but arises from a deep compassion for others. It reflects a genuine desire to share the truth of the gospel and is marked by patience and a willingness to bear with others. This compassion is a reflection of Christ's love for humanity, characterized by patience, seriousness, and a willingness to bear with others as the truth of God's word is shared. [40:19]

Colossians 3:12-13 (ESV): "Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive."

Reflection: Reflect on your motivations for sharing your faith. Are they driven by genuine compassion or something else? How can you cultivate a heart of true compassion for others today?


Day 5: Deeper Engagement with Faith
In an age of quick fixes and superficial understanding, believers are called to a deeper, more meaningful engagement with their faith. This involves examining themselves and striving for a spiritual life that reflects the depth and richness of God's grace. It is a call to move beyond superficial understanding and engage with the profound mysteries of God's word, seeking a spiritual life that reflects the depth and richness of God's grace. [48:47]

James 1:22-25 (ESV): "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing."

Reflection: What is one practical step you can take today to move beyond superficial engagement with your faith and delve deeper into the richness of God's word?

Quotes


"the moment a man gets any sort of incing of that well of course he's stretching every nerve he wants to get at this and get after it look at at all this tremendous treasure and he is anxious to partake of it do you know anything of this eagerness do you know anything of this hunger and thirst after this do you feel that in a sense you want to spend the whole of your time after this delving into the Mysteries the profundities of this great word of God all the treasure that is here" [00:22:20]

"the man who's got true spiritual life is always a man who's not content with the preliminaries what do I mean by that well as I've been saying there are steps and stages in this truth there is foundational truth that's not my term it's the apostles term other Foundation can no man lay than that which is laid but then you see you build on the foundation and you go on or to use the language of the author of The epistle to the Hebrews there are what he calls in the first verse of chapter six of his great epistle the principles of the doctrine of Christ therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ let us go on unto Perfection" [00:24:12]

"as you go on you have to use your mind more you have to make a greater effort now this is something that we all surely must agree with anybody who's ever studied any subject knows that you have your preliminary lectures you read the early chapters of the book it's fairly simple and plain sailing but as you go on it becomes more involved it becomes more difficult and you have to make your effort yes but you're going on and you're grasping it more and more and you're hoping eventually you'll get right out Into the Depths now it's exactly like that in this spiritual life" [00:25:32]

"when people in older age later on in life who've been Christians for many years still only reading a little section surely there's something wrong and then take books which help you with the Bible oh well if you're a child well you want to just a little comment you remember they used to bring out books at one time I remember it well novels and other things they brought them out under addition called told to the children what they did was this of course they abstracted the story from the whole book to make it easy for the children told to the children quite right that's absolutely abolutely sound method it's good teaching but of course as you get older you don't read the addition told to the children you read the whole thing" [00:26:11]

"our fathers you read their lives you'll find that they struggled with the word itself they read those massive commentaries and it takes time to read them and they struggled with them they read books on Doctrine and and on Theology and thus they deepened and they got a deeper understanding and they were bigger men and women and they began to know something about the higher reaches of the spiritual life the possibilities in the life of Grace you don't enter in and then just maintain that the rest of your life no no you go on launch out into the deep you press forward after this Mark this prize of the High Calling of God in Christ Jesus Jesus our lord" [00:30:56]

"the man who truly has this life within him given this apprehension of the deeper truth is anxious to obtain it and is therefore anxious to make this effort he wants to go on and to appropriate this he's no longer with the childish almost babyish form Christian people are we still taking Christian truth in a tabloid form or are we facing it and tling it on a deeper level we living in an age of course which takes everything and wants everything in tabloid form it's the age of digests even in biographies they no longer write a full biography it's a sort of study a kind of picture what's going wrong with us" [00:29:31]

"the man who really has this life in him he desires more and more of this knowledge and of this truth in order that he may help others you see he's not living to himself any longer he's got understanding and he wants to help these others how can a man help others if he doesn't know if he can't explain the Apostle Peter again in his first epistle and in the third chapter says be ready at all times to give a reason for the hope that is in you or as a him puted men die in darkness at thy side without a hope to cheer the tomb take up the torch and wave It Wide see that's the argument" [00:33:31]

"the regenerate has a concern for the unregenerate again surely this follows and doesn't need any demonst ation we've already had a great illustration of this in the first chapter of John's gospel you remember when we came to those cameos the pictures of the first disciples whom our Lord called called John the Baptist was standing one day with two of his disciples and he pointed out and said Behold the Lamb of God and they went and they spoke to our Lord and He took them to his house they came and saw where he dwelt and ab bed with him that day for it was about the 10th hour then we read one of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew Simon Peter's brother he first findeth his own brother Simon and said unto him we have found the Messiah which is being interpreted the Christ and he brought him to Jesus" [00:35:04]

"there is is such a thing as a carnal Zeal even in connection with Christianity as you get the same carnal Zeal with these Cults and false religions that are round and about us at the present time how do you tell the difference between the two well I suggest that these are some of the tests with the false with the carnal these are the characteristics it is invariably suggested to people to do this by the authorities it isn't that a man feels the desire to do it he's told to do it he's in get another he's put into it at once it's a part of an organization the man doesn't work it out as it were it doesn't come from his heart no no it's imposed upon him he becomes a part of a system" [00:40:19]

"the man who's got his life in him is a man who doesn't do things mechanically the devil can produce that and man himself can arrange and organize that but here is a man who knows something of a soul Agony for The Souls of others he feels something of the compassion that our Lord felt we are told that our Lord looked out on the multitude he saw them as sheep without a shepherd and he had compassion upon them and the man I say who's got something of his life he knows something of this compassion and he's not lighthearted setting out to get that new adherence and converts there's a deep seriousness again in him in in this matter this seriousness is something that runs right through the life of the man who is truly born again" [00:44:18]

"he's got such a concern for the man's Soul he will not let him go because he belongs to the Lord that would not let him go and thus in his life you see in his attitude towards the unregenerate he is producing reproducing using or rather there is reproduced in him the life of his blessed Lord and Master my friends do we know much about this concern real deep concern for the souls of others does it weigh upon us do we know something of the burden y let me take it and enlarge it do you feel something of the burden of the whole present situation does it grieve you does it trouble you are you praying about it" [00:48:47]

"the spiritual Outlook is one that realizes the depth and the gravity of the problem but also the Heights and the endless limits of the grace of God well God willing we'll go on with this examination next Sunday morning but may he give us Grace to examine ourselves in the light of some of these thoughts" [00:49:33]

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Transcript
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