Subject: STEPS IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.
Scripture: Ephesians 4:11-16; Hebrews 6:1-5
In thinking of a person's spiritual condition, most of us have a tendency to place him in one of two groups, looking upon him as being either a Christian or not a Christian. And, to a degree, we are correct in doing so. Jesus Himself divided the world into two great groups. He thought of people as being either on the narrow way that leads unto life or upon the wide way that leads to destruction. He separated people into those who confessed Him and those who denied Him. He divided the world into those who believed in Him and into those who did not believe, into those who kept His sayings and into those who did not keep His sayings. Likewise the Apostle Paul looked upon people as being in one of two groups: those who walked the way of the flesh and those who walked the way of the Spirit. Follow the New Testament from Matthew through Revelation and you will find that all the way through people are divided into two great groups, and travelling in one of two directions. It is also clear that the division continues on beyond this life to the judgment bar of Christ where we find that some are placed on the right hand and others on the left. Go on beyond the Judgment Bar into the farthest bounds of Eternity which God has revealed unto us and there we notice that there are still two groups - one group dwelling in the realm of outer darkness and despair and the other group being in the mansions of light prepared for those who love the Lord.
To a degree we are quite correct in looking upon people as being in either one of two groups in their relationship to Christ and as regards their spiritual condition.
But we make a great and sometimes tragic mistake if we stop right here in our thinking of a person's spiritual condition. We need to go further and note that within each of these two groups, there are different levels of spiritual condition. And, as professing Christians, we need especially to note the great fact that in the Christian life, there are different stages, different levels or different phases. While all genuine Christians stand in a state of redemption in their relationship with God, a fact that we have too long overlooked in our thinking about the Christian life is this: that in the normal Christian life there are certain steps which are, to a degree, distinct the one from the other. And these steps have to do with the depth of one's religious life and the height of one's spiritual experience. Not only so, but these are steps which must be taken by a Christian if he is ever to attain unto the fulness of the blessings which God has in store for him.
Far too often do we have the idea that all that matters in regards to our salvation is that we enter into the Christian life and once we get there, we have reached the goal insofar as our personal spiritual condition is concerned. Not so! The New Testament makes it quite clear that among Christians there are real differences; that among Christians there are different spiritual levels; that among Christians and in the normal Christian life there are steps still to be taken if one is to attain unto the goal set forth by Christ.
In our thinking about those who are not Christians in the world today, we sometimes think that the main task is simply to convert people to Christ, to get them to accept Christ as their Lord and Saviour and profess faith in Him. Let me say it slowly and carefully: this is not the great commission as set down by our Lord. The Great Commission as set forth by Jesus is not simply for His disciples to go into all the world and preach the Gospel, baptizing in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, but includes this further command: to teach people to observe all things whatsoever Jesus has commanded them. And there is sometimes a vast difference between getting people to profess faith in Christ and come forward for baptism, and getting them to go on into the experience of observing all that Jesus has commanded.
In many of the mission fields of the world today the great problem that the missionaries have is not so much getting people to come to hear the Gospel and getting them to respond to invitations to accept Christ, but is that of gathering those who profess into groups and teaching them and helping them to put the teachings of Christ into practice in their living.
I remember talking with Brother Grady Dulin some years ago after he had returned from a preaching mission in Cuba. He told of how wonderfully the people had attended the services and of how they had come to the altar in large numbers in response to the invitations to accept Christ. And as he talked, the thought came to my mind that with conditions so ripe and people so hungry for the Gospel, perhaps hundreds of us might go down and help gather in the harvest. But then this side of the picture came to light: that the church in Cuba had a tremendous task on its hands of teaching and nurturing in the faith those who had already responded, and that there is more to making Christians of people than just getting them to take the initial step.
I think of that, and I am reminded of a statement one of our bishops made to the effect that at one time in some countries where individuals were won to Christ individually and then left to live in the midst of unconverted people, as high as 80% of them eventually returned to their former religion.
I also remember reports that have come to me of those who apparently took the initial step of professing faith in Christ, and yet who failed to bring their own lives in many respects into harmony with the teachings of Jesus - one of the great problems here at home as well as on the mission fields.
One of the things that breaks the hearts of missionaries is to see people who had entered the Christian life in regards to their profession of faith but who had not moved on to the higher levels of Christian living give up their newly found faith under pressure and turn back to the old ways of life.
The words of John Wesley come home to the soul in this regard, when he said, "From the terrible instances I have met with in all parts of England, I am more and more convinced the devil himself desires nothing more than this, that the people of any place should be half awakened and then left to themselves to go to sleep again." He also said in this regard that "(he) was more than ever convinced that the preaching like an apostle, without joining together those that are awakened and training them in the ways of God, is only begetting children for the murderer --- the consequence is that nine in ten of the once awakened are faster asleep than ever."
In the field of evangelism it is a dangerous thing for us to get the idea that about all we have to do is to win people to Christ and then our task is accomplished. In regards to our own spiritual condition, it is a dangerous thing for us to get the idea that all that is necessary is that we become Christians and that then we have attained all that is necessary and that all that remains is for us to sit at ease in Zion until the Lord calls us home.
Accepting Christ is of course basic to the Christian life. Starting out in the Christian life is absolutely necessary to salvation. But there is more to a journey than just making up your mind that you will take it. There is more to a trip than packing up and taking the first few steps upon it. In Matthew 10:22 we find the words of Jesus: "He that endureth to the end shall be saved." He says the same thing again in Matthew 24:13 and in Mark 13:13. Throughout the New Testament we find that note of admonition to remain steadfast in the faith and loyal to Christ being sounded over and over. And in the last book in the Bible we find once again the same note in the familiar words: "be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life."
There is more to the Christian life than just starting out. Did you notice the task of the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers as set forth in our Scripture lesson a few minutes ago? If we have the idea that their main task is simply to win people to Christ, we have missed the message in part of these verses. Notice what Paul says once again: "And He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers" -why? for what purpose? Listen carefully: "For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: ..." A tremendous part of the work of Christian leadership is the perfecting of those who are already Christians, the edifying of the body of Christ which is the church.
We do not enter the Christian life fully perfected in the faith, completely edified. The experience of regeneration does not transform a person into a fully mature and perfected Christian with nothing higher to attain, nothing further to press on to, no higher level to mount up to.
Notice also a part of Hebrews 6:1, where we read, "Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ,let us go on unto perfection..." Having laid the foundations of the Christian life, let us not stop there, but let us go on.
Scripture after Scripture could be quoted showing that there is much more to the Christian life than just accepting Christ and becoming a Christian. And I believe, beloved, that one of the greatest obstacles to spiritual progress a professing Christian can have is to lose sight of this fact and get the idea that all there is to the Christian life is just to get in and that's it.
There are some very distinct steps in the Christian life according to the Scriptures. This morning let's look at some of them rather briefly, and as we do so, let's examine our own souls and see just how far along we as individuals are in our own spiritual lives.
Perhaps we ought to begin with the natural man, with the kind of persons we are when we come into the world. The natural man, before Christ comes into his heart and life, is a selfish person, one who seeks to put himself at the center of his life, rather than Christ. The doctrine of the selfishness, self-will and/or sinfulness of human nature is of course rooted in the Bible and a fact which can be plainly observed in the lives of mankind. When God's Word speaks about all having sinned and come short of the glory of God, it is setting forth one of the plainest facts of human history.
But I did not realize how widely this fact was accepted until a few days ago when I was reading an account of an American who was visiting with one of the high Russian officials in Moscow. They were discussing and debating the merits of the Communist form of government as compared with the democratic form of government, and one of the arguments that the Communist gave for their form of government where the country is controlled by around two to three percent of the people was the depravity of human nature. Of course he did not call it that. He said that "people are selfish and corrupt and cannot be trusted with private economic power." But either way you say it, it amounts to about the same thing. His argument against democracy of course breaks down over the fact that the two or three percent who seek to govern the rest are likewise selfish and corrupt, but it was rather interesting to note that even a high Communist official who professes not to believe in God at all still recognized the fact of the depravity of human nature.
In thinking about the steps of the Christian life, we begin with the natural man before conversion, and find that from the day of birth he is self-centered and selfish.
Then we come to the first step in the Christian life. Some might call it repentance or confession of sin, but actually the first stage of the Christian life is more properly referred to as regeneration or the new birth. Confession of sin, repentance, and acceptance of Christ as Saviour and Lord have to do with things that a person does in order to become a Christian, while the experience of regeneration actually brings one into the Christian life.
You remember how Jesus said to Nicodemus: "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God ... Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God ... Ye must be born again."
It is through the experience of the new birth that one enters the kingdom of God and becomes a Christian. Just as there is no way that we know of for a person to be born into this world, to enter this world, other than through the process of birth, so there is no way that we know of whereby a person can enter the kingdom of God other than by being born into it.
The first step of the Christian life is the experience of regeneration, the experience of being born of the Spirit.
Now in regards to the Christian life, there are some people who have the idea apparently that in the experience of regeneration all of the spiritual transformation which one needs is accomplished, leaving nothing to be done except to then grow in grace and in knowledge of the Lord until God calls us home.
But a closer examination of the Scriptures reveals that this is not quite the case.
When one is born of the Spirit, he acquires a new spirit which is referred to as the Spirit of Christ. To be born of the Spirit means to receive a new spirit, a new nature, a nature that loves the things that God loves and hates the things that God hates. It means to receive a nature which is so in harmony with the will of God that it gains the victory over sin. We read in 1 John 3:9 these revealing words: "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." This is not to say that a born-again Christian cannot backslide, but is to say that sin is incompatible with the Christian life and that as a Christian I cannot willfully and deliberately violate the will of God. For example, you may say to me, "Preacher, after the service tonight, let's get a case of beer and go have us a poker game," and I would reply, "I can't do that. I'm a Christian." You would know what I would mean. You would know that while I am physically able to down a beer or two and shuffle poker cards and pitch a few dimes and pennies in the pot, yet as a Christian knowing the will of God in relation to that kind of a thing, I cannot indulge in such actions.
Spiritual birth results in a person loving God and loving his fellow man and results in victory over sinful acts. The official Methodist position at this point is that a person who has been born of the Spirit cannot as a regenerate believer, consciously and willfully commit sin and that no person who willfully and consciously of his own free choice voluntarily commits sin has Biblical authority for looking upon himself as being a regenerated child of God in a present state of salvation.
John Wesley, in describing the results of his Aldersgate experience on his life in regards to sin, said that the difference was chiefly this: that before his heartwarming experience he had been striving with all his might under the law but was sometimes if not often conquered; but after his experience, he was always conqueror.
Regeneration is a wonderful thing. The transformation which it brings to a person's life is marvelous. It leads one to love God and want to please Him in all things. It results in one having such a nature that he loves his fellowmen. It results in victory over the committing of sin, so that one who is in a regenerated state does not willfully and consciously violate the will of God.
But there are some things which regeneration does not do. Someone has said that it changes a person's heart but does not change the content of his head. There is much truth in that. While being born of the Spirit will change the affections of my heart, it does not automatically change the content of my mind. We read that Jesus Himself grew in wisdom. We find that the New Testament takes note of the fact that Christians are to be taught. And we find through personal experience that even as Christians we gain much of our knowledge line by line, precept by precept. The very fact that a person is born of the Spirit does not mean that he automatically comes to know the entire Bible and the will of God in all things and that his mind is immediately packed with all the spiritual knowledge that many spend decades in seeking to acquire.
Nor does regeneration apparently do away completely with all of the old selfish nature of the natural man. It is difficult to draw an exact line at this point and say with full knowledge the exact effect the new birth has on one who is regenerated in regards to the old natural man. That one who is born of the Spirit is in a position to gain the victory over carnal human nature is plain. But how completely the old carnal nature is abolished in regeneration is open to question.
There are many who hold to the position that the old Adamic nature continues to live right on in the life of the regenerated person, though held in subjection by the new nature. You remember, perhaps, Uncle Buddie Robinson's experience at this point. He was wonderfully converted at a camp meeting in Texas and for about three months he testified that he had constant victory in his soul. But one morning he said he woke up with a bitter taste in his mouth and a more bitter taste in his soul and felt that he had slept his religion off. He got on his horse and rode over to the home of one of the church stewards and told him what had happened. The steward said, "Well, Bud, you are having your doubts now... When you got converted you didn't get old Adam took out, and he's in there and will stay till you die."
Well, put it like you want to put it, it is a fact that some of the old selfish spirit seems to hang around the life of a person who is born of the Spirit, and there is often a struggle and warfare within the soul of the Christian, the old selfish nature seeking to pull him in one direction and the Spirit of Christ leading in the other.
If you doubt that, just think about how you sometimes feel when the offering plate comes by. You know the money is going to help advance the cause of Christ, to minister to human need, and to spread the Gospel throughout the world. And you feel the pull within your soul to reach down into your pocket and place not only the tithe but even more on the altar. But there is also another voice that begins to talk about how you need that money for some of your own needs, the old voice of self speaking up. There are two voices speaking within the soul, each leading in an opposite direction. And it is plain that the old nature is hanging around somewhere. It is also rather plain that the voice we listen to tells pretty clearly just which nature is in control and whether or not we are being led of the Spirit of God.
Regeneration does impart to a person a new nature. But it does not change the content of his mind. It does not get rid completely of the old nature. And it does not transform a person immediately into a mature Christian.
We enter this world as babies. And we also enter the spiritual kingdom as babies...as "babes in Christ" the Apostle Paul puts it. Writing to the Christians at Corinth, he says, "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able." (1 Cor. 3:1-2.) In 1 Peter we read, "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word..." And you remember how Jesus, in speaking to His disciples on one occasion, told them that He had yet many things to say unto them, but that they could not bear them at that time (John 16:12).
In the spiritual world as in the physical realm, there is a stage of infancy or childhood and a stage of maturity with the intervening stages between the two. Regeneration is the first step in the Christian life, but wonderful though it is and great though the transforming power of the new birth is, it is not all there is to the Christian life.
Following regeneration, there is the second step which we may refer to as growth in grace. If we enter the Christian life as babes in Christ - as indeed we do - then it follows that spiritual growth is essential if we are ever to attain unto spiritual maturity.
And it is right at this point that many people seem to bog down in their Christian living. If we have the idea that all there is in the spiritual realm for us to do is to become a Christian and that's it, why then we throw the door wide open to the idea that all we have to do is just to keep trusting the Lord until He calls us home to Heaven, and close the door to the idea of pressing on toward spiritual maturity. The consequence of that kind of thinking is that a person who has entered the Christian life tends to become self-satisfied and runs the great risk of failing to grow spiritually.
We have a rather sad example of this sort of thing in the 5th chapter of Hebrews. The writer of Hebrews is speaking of some of the deep things of the Spirit and seems about to take wings and soar into the heavenlies in what he has to say, but he stops rather abruptly in his writing to say this concerning Jesus: "Of Whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe." (Hebrews 5:11-13.)
Here is a group of Christians who have been in the Christian faith long enough to have become mature Christians and teachers of the things of God to others. But they apparently got into the Christian life and sat down, failing to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the deeper spiritual things. As a result they were still babes in Christ and had even slipped backward in their spiritual condition as indicated by them now needing to be taught again the first principles of the oracles of God.
There is a vast difference in the spiritual maturity of those who name the Name of Christ. There are some who are babes in Christ, infants in the spiritual kingdom. There are some whom Paul describes as "novices", those who have newly come to the faith, beginners we might say. And there are those in the intermediate stages of spiritual maturity, and then those who have attained unto spiritual maturity.
And it is a fact easily observed that a person's spiritual maturity is not determined by the length of time he has been in the Christian faith primarily. It is determined more by the earnestness with which he takes his religion, the diligence of his Bible study and study of the things of God, and his willingness to obey God and his desire to attain unto Christlikeness because of his love of the Lord. There are some people who have been in the church for many years and who have perhaps become old and gray-headed warming church pews whose spiritual depth is still so shallow and childish that to them religion still seems a form of personal soul insurance against the fires of hell rather than a channel of serving God and living for His glory and helping to bring the world home to Him. There are some who have been naming the Name of Christ for many years who are still babes in Christ so far as their spiritual knowledge, their spiritual vision and their spiritual service and growth is concerned.
And there are others who, though they have newly come to the Christian life, have applied themselves so diligently to a study of the things of God and have given themselves so completely to serving God and walking in His will that they have already attained unto a spiritual level where they seem to touch the mountain tops from time to time.
Again and again and again does the New Testament bring to our attention that as Christians we are to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and press on toward spiritual maturity. Each of us would do well to examine his own soul at this point and see whether he has bogged down into spiritual babyhood or has moved on toward spiritual maturity. And by spiritual maturity, I think we would do well to keep in mind not simply our knowledge of spiritual things, but also the extent to which we see things the way Christ sees them and feel the way He feels and have come to the place where the things he taught are practiced in our own daily lives.
Regeneration - the pathway into the Christian life. Growth in grace - moving on from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity. And then the next step in the Christian life - though it may come anytime after regeneration and the earlier the better: sanctification, the filling with the Holy Spirit, the being made perfect in love.
Down across the years there has been much discussion about this step in the Christian life. There have been hundreds or books written on the subject, and much said pro and con.
But after all men have had their say on the subject, the word of God still lifts up the fact clearly and plain that there is a work of grace for God's people that the world cannot receive which is referred to as the baptism or the filling with the Holy Spirit. It is an experience that endues the Christian with power from on high for the doing of the work which God has assigned unto him. It is an experience which has something to do with dealing with whatever of the old selfish nature remains when a person is born of the Spirit. The Apostle Paul spoke of the old man being crucified, that the body of sin might be destroyed. Crucifixion refers to death, and beloved, God has something better for His people than a condition of life where there is a warfare within the soul between the old selfish nature and the new nature imparted in the new birth. Thanks be unto God, there is a spiritual level wherein the old Adamic nature is not simply kept down but is put to death so that a person is free to love God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength and to love his neighbor as himself without having old self trying to interfere all the time.
There is a spiritual level wherein the heart is pure and one is made perfect in love, even though his knowledge is still in part.
Call it sanctification, call it the baptism of the Holy Spirit, call it the second blessing, call it the rest of faith, call it being made perfect in love or whatever you will, there is a step in the Christian life not to be identified with either the new birth or growth in grace which results in spiritual power and an indwelling fulness of the Holy Spirit not to be obtained in any other way that I have found in the Scriptures.
Though the disciples were certainly Christians before the day of Pentecost, something happened to them on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came down and filled them that had never happened to them before. It transformed their ministry and sent them forth as flaming and effective witnesses of the Lord Jesus.
And Peter said that the promise of the gift of the Holy Ghost was not only for them but was to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
In the Methodist Church this step is referred to as being made perfect in love, for when the Holy Spirit of God fills one's soul, then one loves God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength and loves his neighbor as himself. God is love, and one cannot be filled with the Spirit of Christ or the Holy Spirit without being filled with love.
Among the questions which every Methodist minister is required to be asked before being received into full connection into the conference are these: "Are you going on to perfection?" (You remember the words of our Scripture: "let us go on unto perfection...") "Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this life?" And then this: "Are you earnestly striving after it?"
Thus we see that three of the definite steps in the Christian life that all of us are to take are regeneration, growth in grace which continues all the way through one's earthly life, and then sanctification or being made perfect in love which comes as an instantaneous work of grace when one meets the conditions.
That brings us now to a fourth step in the Christian life, a step which brings one to such a spiritual level that the very thought of it is enough to both humble a person and make him want to shout glory almost in the same breath. We might refer to this level of the Christian life as the level of glorification, a level made possible even as all the others only by an outpouring of the matchless grace of God and the work of God in the human soul.
When you and I think about Heaven and the things of eternity, I suppose most of us are prone to think about the kind of place it will be and who we will meet there and something of the conditions we shall find there, with the longing hope in our souls that we shall arrive there safely. And I expect that most of us in our thoughts about Heaven have overlooked one of the most important things of all: namely, the kind of persons we, ourselves shall be if we enter there. For after all is said and done, the glory of a place depends not altogether on what the place is in and of itself but upon the kind of people who dwell in it. Turn the devil and his angels and his crowd loose in the Garden of Eden and there is no doubt in my mind but that it would soon cease to be a place of paradise. Put the Lord Jesus and the holy angels and those who love His appearing in a barren and rocky wasteland and He Who can make the desert bloom like a rose would no doubt transform it into a place of beauty and joy and blessedness.
And so, in our thoughts about the future life, we would do well to keep in mind that one of the most important things of all is that of the kind of people we will be and must become if we get there.
I know a little something of the kind of a person you are here on this earth. I do not know all about you, of course, but I do know a little something about you. And you know a little something about the kind of person I am on earth. But what kind of person will you be yonder in eternity? What kind of person will I be in the other world?
Well, if we are Christians and if we travel the Christian pathway right on through, we can find a description of the kind of persons we will become right here in God's holy Word. We will of course be holy and godly persons, without any taint of sin in any way, shape or form. But the Scriptures are more specific than that in describing the future persons Christians shall be.
We read in Romans 8:29 that we are to be conformed to the image of Christ.
We read in Ephesians that we are to come "unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."
John in his first epistle puts it like this: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." 1 John 3:2.
Just think about it, beloved! A stage in the Christian life where we who started life with a depraved human nature bent on selfishness and self-will are not only utterly cleansed of all sin and transformed into holy and righteous persons, but a stage in the Christian life where we become conformed unto the image of Christ - yea, a stage in the Christian life where we are transformed into the very likeness of the Lord Jesus Himself insofar as our moral being is concerned!
John says that we don't know yet what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is!
It will be glory! That's what it will be! For the great goal of the Christian life is not simply to save one's soul and enter into Heaven someday, but is to press on toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus until through the work of God's Holy Spirit and our submission to His blessed will, we attain unto the likeness of Jesus Christ.
Regeneration! Growth in grace! Sanctification! Glorification! These are steps in the Christian life which lead on to ever higher ground until at last he who takes them stands in the Presence of God, a fit person to dwell in the realm of the blessed throughout the endless ages praising God from Whom all of the blessings flow! May God help us to keep moving in the Christian life until we are filled with His fulness and conformed to the likeness of Christ. And may God so move on our hearts and lives that not a single one of us will try to take any short cuts and try to skip a single step in the Christian life. Let us all pray...