Man’s law says that to be ignorant of the law is no excuse for not following it. And we are held accountable for being lawful citizens. But in reality, you cannot be expected to know more than that which you are taught.
For example, I have never been taught how to use a jackhammer. And since I have not been taught, I cannot be held accountable for not having that information. I could probably figure it out myself over time, but then I would still end up being taught, even if it were being self-taught.
The Apostle Peter says for us to be on guard against false teachers and preachers, and to concentrate on our spiritual growth.
2 PETER 3:18 says,
‘Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.’
These are the words of an old man, written down as his legacy for us. It took a lifetime for Simon, the brash and outspoken young man to grow into the Apostle Peter, the bold and focused man of Almighty God. And the very faults of his younger character became his strengths as he grew to maturity in Christ Jesus.
I think we can take these words, as the starting point to correct what I feel is a very neglected duty of American Christians. A neglect to see the importance of growing in Christ. A neglect in realizing that the only way to grow in Christ is to read the Bible every day; and to even to study it to learn more about Christ and His will for us.
Let me start by talking about how;
1. CHRISTIANS NEED TO GROW IN CHRIST JESUS
We are to grow in the grace AND knowledge of Jesus. Both of these things are directly connected to Jesus. He is the Author of our Grace, and He is the Object of the knowledge that allows us to grow in Him.
Now, we should all know what ‘knowledge’ is. Miriam-Webster’s dictionary defines ‘knowledge’ as;
‘Having awareness of something gained through experience or association.’
In other words, if you don’t read it, if you don’t study it, you will not have any knowledge of it. And if you do not have knowledge of it, you will not have it. And that is exactly where many churchgoers are today: They don’t read the Word, yet they want to know it. So they depend on somebody else to read it for them, (pastors and teachers), and then they only make themselves available to hear it for one hour a week.
Now, let’s talk about God’s ‘Grace’. Grace is the undeserved love in which we have been favored by God through Jesus. And Grace manifests itself in the growing Christian as Godly integrity. Your main focus in life should be to rest closer to His heart with each passing day.
And if your love for Him is real, you should be reading more of His Word with each passing day; to receive His knowledge and revelation so that you can lead a productive Christian life, and not languish in a watered down and lukewarm version of Christianity.
Many people consider themselves as being good Christians when all they do is go to church for one hour a week. These people spend 40-60 hours a week on their jobs, but are not willing to spend more than 8 hours a week in the house of the Lord. These people do not give a full tithe, but think nothing of spending more than a full tithe when they go out to a restaurant once or twice a week.
These people complain about having to go to church more than once a week because of the distance they must drive, or because gas costs so much nowadays. But they will be quick to drive twice that far without any complaints to go somewhere they want to go.
And these people try and read many books ‘about’ the Bible, but will not pick up the Bible and study it daily. Many of these books are absolute fiction, but since they claim to be about the Lord, people read them and are mislead. I think these are the people Jesus refers to as ones who literally make Him sick.
In REVELATION 3:16, Jesus gets very blunt.
‘So, because you are neither hot nor cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.’
Jesus wants us to be excited and on fire for His glory. He does not want us to sit by, idly doing nothing. He wants us to learn how to be better Christians. The key word here is ‘learn.’ We cannot learn unless we read, and yes – even study His Words.
Many people never get any more intimate with Christ than they were the first day they accepted Him as Savior. And that leads me to ask:
2. WHAT KEEPS CHRISTIANS FROM GROWING IN CHRIST?
One reason many people never grow in Christ is due to more and more American churches concentrating on how many people they have in their sanctuaries, rather than how many people they are reaching for Jesus in their sanctuaries.
Their attitudes are self-focused, and have nothing to do with honoring Christ Jesus or giving Him any glory. I have even heard a few preachers say that if they don’t have a big congregation, they are wasting their time in that church.
Let me say this to all of you who think that way: If your church remains small, it will still be all worthwhile in God’s eyes if you only plant one seed and later that seed sprouts for God’s glory! Let me quickly and fully explain the depth and impact of what I just said: Billy Graham was one seed that sprouted. If that was the only thing the preacher who planted that seed did in his entire ministry, it would have been excellent in God’s eyes.
Our churches need desperately to get back in focus and start teaching the Bible to its congregations and forget all about this ‘need’ to grow large churches, or be looked at as ‘that wonderful preacher.’ After all, neither a church nor a preacher, has the ability to get you into heaven. The only way you can get into heaven is to develop your own heart toward God by growing closer to Jesus. And you will never grow in Christ, unless you are willing and available to do some reading and studying on your own.
There is a passage in the Bible that should be your guiding light in the search for truth.
In JOHN 8:31-32, Jesus is talking to the Jews and He tells them about His truth:
‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’
Let’s analyze this passage. Jesus is talking to His children, the Jews. Did you know that through our belief in Jesus as our Savior, He is also telling us the same thing? If we really hold to His teaching, we are His disciples. That means if we read His teaching, and then live the way we want to, we are not His followers, even if we attend every church service. We must believe in Him as the truth, for that is the only way we can hold to His teaching.
So I believe that the two biggest hindrances we have in experiencing Godly growth are: Our unavailability to spend time in His word, and our overwhelming need to focus on what we want and not on what He wants.
If we do strive to live for Him, He tells us that we will then know and understand the truth of God, and that truth will set us free from the lies Satan has buried us under.
I like the part where Jesus tells us:
3. THE TRUTH SHALL SET US FREE
Again, our theme in life should be nothing less than to: ‘Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.’
The first truths that people learn when they become a Christian are the most important. Even the lessons little child learn in Sunday school contain all Godly truth. It is the faith in that truth that saves all who trust in it; all who submit to it; simply and fully.
That is the entire message from our God. If we will but just trust in the truth of His Son; if we will but submit to it; we will be set free from the bondage the devil has us under.
Henry Blackaby wrote, ‘When God was ready to judge the world with a flood He called upon Noah. When He wanted to build a nation for Himself, He turned to Abraham. When He saw His children being beaten down under Egyptian bondage, He came to Moses as a burning bush.
These were three of the most ordinary of men. But God had work to do, and He used the men He could trust to do that work. God has always given His people assignments that are too big for them to handle alone, all so that a watching world could see - not what we can do - but what God can do through us.’
Let me ask you a question: Can God trust you to do His work for Him? Can He rely on you to carry forth His wonderful message of glory and grace?
Have you ever heard the expression, ‘Out of the mouths of babes ….?’ It just seems the natural order of things for children to speak the truth without trying to sugar coat it and make it politically correct. And because of their ability to do so, they are free from the bondage of having to make up things or distort things like we adults seem to do.
In Sunday school, a class of children were given an assignment for the next week. They were to write down things in their lives that they know are true. The next Sunday, they read these truths out loud.
··· Patrick, said, ‘Never trust a dog to watch your food.’
··· Mike said, ‘When your dad asks, ‘Do I look stupid?’ don’t answer him.’
··· Karen said, ‘Don’t ever use felt markers as lipstick.’
··· And little Eileen said, ‘Never try to baptize a cat.’
Those lessons we learn in the beginning of our walk with Jesus do not leave us as the lessons we may have learned as children in school leave us. We first learn simple arithmetic; one plus one equals two, and so forth. But as our education progresses, we soon find our way into Algebra and even further if we have an interest in it. And as we grow our knowledge in math, we get further away from our simple arithmetic we learned early on.
But not so with our growth in Christ. We do not grow away from our earliest lessons, but we hang on to them tightly as we continue to grow in grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
And speaking of truths, there is one sentence that has more truth in it than any other sentence ever written.
It is found in JOHN 3:16.
‘For God so loved the world, that He gave up His only Son; so that whosoever would believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting and eternal life.’
Now, that is what God has offered us. It is the most serious thing in anyone’s life, yet how many of us actually take that seriously? How many of us actually sit down to analyze that promise? And how many of us even try to pattern our daily lives after it? Sadly, the answer is; ‘precious few of us.’
It is like when God does something very good for someone, and they share it with me, my retort is always the same: God did something wonderful for you because He really loves you – now what are you going to do for Him in return? And then, I explain that all God wants is for you to believe in and love His Son.
We are called to seek the truth. Please be aware that our sinful nature will always try to look at the world first, but there is no truth to be found there. And since there is no truth in the world, there can be no real freedom in the world. All truth and all freedom come from God alone.
But just as truth shall set you free,
4. THE TRUTH ITSELF, HOWEVER, IS NOT FREE
We are also called to grow in Christ, but that growth is by the sweat of our spiritual brow. Our spiritual growth is only obtained through spiritual warfare. One thing we can always look forward to in life is having the devil try to tempt us into sin. And that is from the day we are held accountable until the day we die. It will never stop.
Our Christian heritage, however, gives us the weapons to deny the devil his dues. We are given Godly courage; Godly strength; and other tools that help us in the battle, or spiritual warfare. As the Apostle Paul tells us, we are to persevere daily in our race, keeping our focus on the rewards at the end of the race, not on the sins we encounter on our way to the end.
As I said, we are called to grow in knowledge and grace in Jesus Christ. The best way I have seen to diminish our growth is to stop focusing on Him; get too busy to read His Word; put your prayer life off until ‘later’; and to pretty much replace Him in your life with the things of this world.
If your belief is to be of any use to you at all, it is to be revived and kept alive by being constantly used. It cannot be put to bed in the dark dormitory of your heart, for it will slowly slide away. And then you will be that lukewarm and invisible Christian that does nothing for the glory of God.
Here is another Godly truth. Christian truth unpracticed by those who hold it, corrupts itself and corrupts them.
So Peter tells us that the alternative to growth is apostasy. And apostasy is known as the turning away from God to follow another desire. This may sound harsh, but to all the people who flock to church for that one hour a week; for those who try to blend in with the crowd so nobody will know they are Christians; for all those people who never pursue knowledge by studying for themselves – you are all on the verge of becoming apostates and hypocrites.
To pursue the truth of God will cost you dearly. To chase after God, you will lose many of the things you enjoy in this world. To gain knowledge of the Lord will also give you something else; a knowledge of the evil the devil is trying to bury you under. To seek the truth of God will keep you alive, though. And any way you cut it, alive is much more practical to us in every way than death is.
So, your journey in growth is a wonderful trip, but it is not free and it will have a price: That price will be your willingness to let go of the world and hang on to God.
The Apostle John tells us another harsh, but true, teaching on this.
1 JOHN 2:15
‘Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him.’
He is telling us what we ought to do; love the Father and leave the world. Now that we know this, we should all remember what Jesus’ brother James told us.
JAMES 4:17
‘Anyone then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.’
And that is our message for today. Let me summarize quickly.
A) We are given a command to grow in Christ.
B) We let two things stand between us and that growth; Our unavailability to get into the Word and study it for ourselves, and our desire to live how we want, and not how He wants us to live
C) But if we really receive the Godly truth, it will set us free.
D) We must realize, however, the truth is not free, it requires work from us.
INVITATION
