What Does God's Word Provide for the Christian--Part Three
What Does God's Word Provide for the Christian • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction:
1. Today we are going to be talking about how God provides everything we need for spiritual maturity.
A. As parents we understand the need for maturity in the lives of our children.
1. Maturity can spare a child a lot of heartache.
A. Maturity can lead a child to make the right decisions in life.
2. Without maturity children can make the wrong decisions leading to problems in adulthood.
A. Children without maturity can make decisions such picking up their first cigarette and smoking it which leads to addiction.
B. Children without maturity can make decisions such as being pressured into going to drinking parties which can lead to all different kinds of problems that can affect one into adulthood.
1. addiction—alcoholism
2. teen pregnancy
C. Children without maturity can make decisions such as bad grades which can affect a child into adulthood in their careers.
B. Maturity is imparted to a child when the child has...
1. Good parenting.
2. Age
3. Knowledge .
4. Wisdom
C. It is in these four areas that we will impart spiritual maturity to our children.
1 . As Parents we do everything we can to impart these things to our children.
1. God’s Word provides everything the Christian needs to be a mature Christian.
Body:
1. God’s Word provides everything the Christian needs to be a mature Christian.
A. God’s Word provides the starting point for good parenting.
6 Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.
1. Pointing children in the right direction is the starting point which begins at birth with training.
4 And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.
2. God’s Word provides a promise to the parent of the end result.
6 Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.
3. God’s Word provides the road map to this end result.
4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. 10 “So it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build,
A. Spiritual maturity is the end result of proper parenting.
B. God’s Word provides the means for age to spiritually mature us.
1. Simply because we age does not mean we will mature.
12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. 14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
A. Spiritual maturity starts when we are young and grows with us as we seek God.
1 Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, Before the difficult days come, And the years draw near when you say, “I have no pleasure in them”: 2 While the sun and the light, The moon and the stars, Are not darkened, And the clouds do not return after the rain; 3 In the day when the keepers of the house tremble, And the strong men bow down; When the grinders cease because they are few, And those that look through the windows grow dim; 4 When the doors are shut in the streets, And the sound of grinding is low; When one rises up at the sound of a bird, And all the daughters of music are brought low. 5 Also they are afraid of height, And of terrors in the way; When the almond tree blossoms, The grasshopper is a burden, And desire fails. For man goes to his eternal home, And the mourners go about the streets. 6 Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, Or the golden bowl is broken, Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, Or the wheel broken at the well. 7 Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it. 8 “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “All is vanity.”
B. We must seek Him in order to grow and become spiritually mature; if we do not age will not spiritually mature us.
1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; 3 for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? 4 For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal?
3. God’s Word provides the means for us to obtain knowledge of Him.
1. Simply because we have knowledge of God does not mean we are spiritually mature.
20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.
2. Knowledge can be improperly used which does not lead to spiritual maturity.
A. The demons have knowledge of God.
19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! 20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?
B. False teachers have knowledge of God.
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
3. Knowledge is the starting point of getting to know God.
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
A. It is through this knowledge of God’s Word that we begin to know about God’s salvation.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
B. Until one is baptised into Christ they have not officially accepted the spiritual maturing process.
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
C. When one is baptised into Christ they are reborn and have enough knowledge to be a babe in Christ.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
D. God’s Word provides the means for us to obtain wisdom to used the knowledge we obtain through study.
1. God Word provides us a means for us to obtain wisdom.
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
A. We ask of God in two ways...
1. Prayer
2. Study
2. God Word provides wisdom to all who seek it but it is through prayer and diligently seeking His approval by becoming a worker who does not need to be ashamed.
A. Wisdom is knowing how to rightly divide the word of truth and putting into practice in ones life.
15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Conclusion:
1. God’s Word provides everything the Christian needs to be a mature Christian.
A. Good parenting is the starting point for proper decisions.
B. Age provides the necessary time.
C. Knowledge provides the means for us to know God.
D. And wisdom provides the building blocks.
2. The question is are you taking advantage of what God’s Word has provided?