Grow forward or face reversionism

When Paul writes about how “we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual,” he’s talking about comparing and relating the things of God with other similarly spiritually-minded Believers.

Paul gives a contrast to the unsaved or natural man: [14] But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

“The natural man doesn’t understand anything, but the spiritual man, the man who’s in tune with the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit, he gets everything,” explains Jordan. “As Paul continues, [15] But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. [16] For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

“The spiritual man is not understood because the natural man doesn’t receive the things this man’s involved in. The spiritual man is the Believer operating the way God created him to operate. The natural man has a negative volition toward sound doctrine--there's no interest. The other is filled with the Spirit, minding the things of the Spirit.

*****

“Those are the two extremes and in between are another two types of men. Paul writes in I Corinthians 3:1: [1] And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

 “So you’ve got a third and a fourth category. He says to the babe in Christ, ‘I couldn’t talk to you as a spiritually-mature Believer; I had to talk to you like a baby.’

“The carnal man has to be treated like he’s a baby, but he isn’t. Hebrews 5 gives a comparison kind of situation: [11] Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.
[12] For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
[13] For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
[14] But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

“The things he wanted to teach them about the everlasting eternal life ministry and priesthood of Christ, under the new covenant, were not hard to teach; it was that they were hard to say because the recipients weren’t able to get it!

“Here’s the problem with their being dull of hearing: ‘For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again.’

*****

“Notice verse 13 very carefully because sometimes we don’t thoroughly teach that verse. These people ought to be full-grown but they aren’t, so he has to go back to the beginning and treat them like a baby.

“The same things happening in Corinth are happening with the Hebrews Believers here. They aren’t following the edification process in their program and that’s what he nails them for in Hebrews 6. Notice what he says in verse 13 to identify a baby Christian: ‘For every one that useth milk is unskilful.’

“If you’re not skilled in the Word, more than just in turning the pages, but in the USE of the Word of God in the details of your life, that demonstrates you are a spiritual infant because again, how does God work in our life? Through His Word.

“You don’t feel the Holy Spirit’s ministry. You don’t sense it during the song service, or during the preaching, or in a ‘quiet time.’ It isn’t the thing that you feel or sense; it’s not the inner impressions. It’s not the voices or the circumstances; it’s the quiet working of the Word of God that you understand with your heart and respond to in faith.

*****

“Paul writes in Romans 7:14, [14] For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.’ There’s the Believer in the throes of bondage and defeat to his old nature.

"And it’s the carnal mindset. It’s the, ‘I’m going to perform, I’m going to accomplish, I’m going to serve.’ As verse 23 says, [23] But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

“It’s a thinking process whereby the Believer walks under a performance system, relying on his own energy, his own flesh, his own thinking to accomplish the goals, as opposed to being spiritually minded; that is, someone who’s fully understood his own bankruptcy and is trusting and walking in the grace of God and the love of God to us in Christ, and that’s where his confidence is.

“That’s the man who’s just relaxed. ‘Ahhhh.’ He took a deep breath and just relaxed in the love and grace of God to him in Christ. In spite of his failures, in spite of his inabilities, in spite of his performances and his good works. Just, ‘Man!’ and settled down. It’s a thinking process.”

*****

“The baby takes the milk; the easy doctrines. The spiritual man can eat meat and take the advanced doctrines. Now, is there anything wrong with being a baby? Absolutely nothing.

"When you’re born, as Paul says in I Corinthians 4:15, [15] For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.

“When you get saved, you get begotten; you get born, regenerated and you are, as it were, a baby in Christ. You don’t know an awful lot; you haven’t had time to grow.

“I’ve said to you many times, when you get saved you get put into Christ and you’re complete in Christ; there’s no more that God’s ever going to give you. At that moment, God gave you everything you’re ever going to have.

“The issue from that moment onward is NOT to get more complete; the issue is GROWTH and edification. That’s the only issue. You’re not getting more of God’s righteousness; it’s just understanding how to use what God gave you. It’s an education process; a renewing of your mind process.

“A baby is complete; he just isn’t mature yet. The issue is growth in maturity. The only difference between the babe in Christ and the spiritual man is the matter of time to grow from infancy to maturity; to adult status.

“Can I say to you, the WHOLE issue in the Christian life is growth. You’re not trying to gain any 'more.' You’ve already arrived. You start at the top. You’re not at the bottom of the ladder and trying to climb up to God by doing various works, activities, ceremonies and religious activities, or by stopping doing some things.

“You start out blessed with all spiritual blessings and the whole issue is to learn all that God has given you already and to let those things be what fills up your life. Focus on those things so those things live in and through your life.

“In that process toward manhood, there is a problem along the way when a person who doesn’t grow and doesn’t follow the edification process the Holy Spirit uses, that’s called carnality. We call that, based on Ephesians 4, ‘reversionism.’ That is, reverting back to acting like you’ve never been saved.

“What happens in the functioning of that individual is that they literally function as though they weren’t saved. I’m not talking so much about the activities that they carry on, or what you look and see; I’m talking about the way their inner man operates.

*****

“Your soul has a storage chamber, a place where information is stored, and what happened when you were unsaved is human viewpoint was taken in and you decided some of it would be what you wanted to live by and you stored it in your soul. When you get saved, those files are still there. What you’re to do is jettison these ideas by taking in sound doctrine.

“Now, if you don’t get the Word of God rightly divided in, you see what kind of problem you’re going to have to start with? Garbage in, garbage out. ‘To be scriptural but not dispensational,’ to quote verses for what you’re doing but those verses not be rightly divided, is MORE dangerous than just to have your own idea.

"Because having your own idea is only your idea. To take God’s Word and pervert it, look at Proverbs 13:13 (and you’ve always got to watch out for 13 and two 13s means it’s going to be a real ‘good’ verse!): [13] Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.

“You need to remember that verse. We’re going to see that verse again in a minute in Ephesians 4 about those people giving themselves over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. Just destroying themselves. Why? Because they despised the Book.

“You take that Book and mishandle it like that and you’re just bringing death into the pot. That’s the most dangerous thing—where you think you’re right, you think you’re doing God’s service, but you’re messing the thing up.

“The edification of most Believers never gets started because they never get here. What they take in is denominational doctrine. We know that because we’ve all been there, or most of us have.

*****

“Somebody visiting here a couple of weeks ago said, ‘Well, who are you guys?’ I said, ‘We’re just saved people. We’re just members of the Body of Christ.’ ‘What kind of church is this?’ ‘This is a grace church.’ ‘Well, who are you associated with?’ ‘Well, here they are, all around the building here.’ ‘Is that all?’ ‘Yep, that’s it; that’s us.’ ‘Well, what denomination are you?’ ‘We don’t have a denomination.’ ‘Well, how can you do that?’ ‘I don’t know, we do pretty well, thank you.’

“The thing is, all the stuff that the religion out there does isn’t what this is. When you’re unsaved, you take all that mess in. You get saved, you start out with the word rightly divided, you’re designed to take it in; your spirit takes it in.

“Your will says, ‘I’ll believe that,’ and transfers it down into your soul and you’re designed to build-up down here that doctrine. There is a specifically established FORM of sound w-o-r-d-s. It’s a design, a particular edifice of doctrine, so that you become oriented to grace. Not the ‘law system,’ but God’s grace system.

“As you do that, you grow to the place where you function on the basis of grace. That’s when the doctrine works its way out of you, through your body, and the life of Jesus Christ that is manifest through the Word of Christ dwelling in you is manifested in you and He lives out through you on a daily basis.

“The problem is when it doesn’t work that way there’s a process in Ephesians 4 that describes what it is to go back and act like an unbeliever. The unsaved man doesn’t have any light and is negative toward the Word of God.

"He’s got this big blockage up here (in his mind) where he doesn’t want the Word of God down there (in his soul). All he wants is human viewpoint and religious tradition and the ways of men. ‘[12] There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

“How do the unsaved walk? In the vanity of their mind. They became vain in their imaginations. That word ‘vanity’ means an emptiness. They’re air heads. Literally, they are vacuum heads.

"A vacuum sucks stuff into it and so this person, their head is like a straw that just draws in false doctrine. It sucks in all these different ideas; the human viewpoint, the legalism, the mental-attitude sins and the emphasis on the details of life that are drawn in by that vanity of mind--by that mind that is just worthless and of no good and just sucks in the human viewpoint.

“The fact is the Believer CAN do that and Paul’s saying, ‘Don’t do this!’ He wouldn’t tell you not to if you couldn’t do it. He warns, ‘Don’t walk like an unsaved man walks in the vanity of their mind!’ Don’t walk with this worthless, vain, empty mind because an empty mind is like an open garbage can; somebody’s going to throw something into it.”

 (to be continued tomorrow)