July 15, 2001  •  Pastor Randy Smith

I have great memories of visiting my grandparents in Toms River. One thing I can vividly remember was their four humongous blueberry bushes. Daily we would pick berries until our fingers turned blue!

A few years back I tried to relive those childhood memories. I bought some blueberry bushes and planted them near my home in Chicago. I soon came to realize that due to the climate and soil, blueberry bushes don’t grow well in the Chicago area. My three bushes yielded a whopping dozen deformed blueberries in the first year. I thought, OK, this is only a start. With great expectations for the second season, I was soon disappointed as my bushes failed to produce a single berry. With great patience, I persevered to the third season and again, all three bushes failed to yield any fruit. I was beginning to wonder if they were really blueberry bushes! After all, the sure mark of a fruit-bearing bush is the fruit that it bears! By the sixth season, all hope was abandoned. What do you do with a fruit bush that doesn’t bear fruit? They aren’t attractive in themselves. You got it; my bushes never saw the light of the seventh season. They were cut down and burned with the rest of my yard waste in the fall of 1997.

This reminds me of the words of Christ in John 15, "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch, and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned."

In the same way that I expected fruit on my blueberry bushes, God expects fruit in the lives of His children. God is not being literal. He is not expecting apples to be dangling from our fingertips. He is calling for an attitude produced in our heart through the Spirit which produces righteous actions. In other words, He wants attitude fruit that produces action fruit. The two must go together. Action fruit without fruit is legalism. However, attitude fruit with action fruit is true spirituality.

Some may say I was foolish to wait seven years for my bushes to bear blueberries. After all, blueberries are an expected product from a blue berry bush! Apart from the fruit, the bush is useless! Well, imagine the patience of God who waits on his children year after year to bear fruit.

Fruit is not optional. Fruit identifies us as Christians. It shows we belong to God. Jesus said in Matthew 7:16 that we will be known by our fruit. Apart from our fruit, what use are we in the hands of God? Just as time revealed the nature of my bushes before they met their final fate, time will reveal the nature of God’s spiritual children before they meet their fate at the final judgment. Just as the lack of legitimate fruit was obvious to me, the lack of legitimate fruit will be obvious to the Creator of the universe, the One who knows all things.

Last week, in part 5 of "Distinctives of a New Testament Church," we examined the topic of backsliding. We can define backsliding as growing some blueberries and then skipping a season or two. This week we’ll examine the positive side of the coin: spiritual maturity, growing in Christlikeness and bearing fruit. We can say this topic is like yielding a larger crop of blueberries than you did the year before.

As I said last week, it is God’s will for you to grow. Jesus explained why. "By this My father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples" (Jn. 15:8). Growth and bearing fruit glorifies the Lord. If we are not living for the Lord’s glory, we are living for our own. God wants us to grow into the beautiful image of Jesus Christ. And if we claim to be "alive" in Christ, isn’t it only natural that we will grow to be like Christ? Since it is God’s goal for us to grow, shouldn’t it likewise be ours too? Since our growth brings God the greatest joy, shouldn’t it bring us the greatest joy as well?

I’ve subdivided this message into three parts: First, Immaturity Reckoned. This means that we all need to begin somewhere. Arnold Schwartzenegger at one time sucked on a pacifier and rode in a stroller. Second, Immaturity Repugnant. In other words, there comes times in people’s lives when they are expected to reach specific levels of physical, social and emotional maturity. As an earthly father, I would be very concerned in twenty years if my daughters were still three feet tall, played alone with Barbie dolls, wet their diapers and cried when they didn’t get their way. On a spiritual level, our heavenly Father’s expectations are no different. Third, Immaturity Routed. If God expects growth what tools has He given His children to mature spiritually?

The objective this morning is simple. I want to allow the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God, to convince you that growing spiritually and bearing fruit is an imperative for the Christian walk. I’ve appropriately entitled this message, "Growing, Maturing, and Bearing Fruit." Let’s begin in 1 Corinthians 3 with "Immaturity Reckoned".

1. Immaturity Reckoned

"And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to babes in Christ." (1 Cor. 3:1). Notice how Paul begins chapter 3 in the past tense. I believe he is recollecting his original visit (and only visit up to this point) to the town of Corinth during his second missionary journey. The year was approximately A.D. 51 and the great Apostle bought the gospel to a pagan and hostile city.

One author described Corinth as follows, "Sin abounded in the cosmopolitan city of Corinth, the chief city of Greece. At one time it was the home of at least 12 heathen temples. The worship ceremonies carried out by a thousand temple prostitutes connected with the temple of Aphrodite (the goddess of love) bled blatant immorality throughout Corinth-so much that the Greek verb translated ‘to Corinthianize’ meant to practice sexual immorality. Prostitutes openly plied their wares and meat markets thrived on the sales from the sacrifices offered in the temples. The Corinthians ate well, satisfied their sexual urges without condemnation, flirted with the wisdom of men, and did all they could to keep their bodies as beautiful as those of the Greek gods. They (were intrigued by Greek philosophy and) loved to listen to great orators. For the 250,000 citizens there were almost two slaves per person."

Who would have thought that such heathen would respond to the message of salvation found only in Christ Jesus, but they did. God is able to break through the hardest heart bent on depravity and draw it to a righteous relationship with His Son. Paul concurs in chapter 1, "God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord" (1 Cor. 1:9).

However, when Paul first came to this idolatrous city, naturally, he taught them the elementary things of the Word. They didn’t know the difference between the Light of the world and a lightning bug. Without watering down the gospel, Paul spoon-fed these people God’s marvelous plan of salvation. Anything less would have been comparable to teaching a first grader molecular biology.

Let’s allow the text to speak for itself. Verse 1, "I could not speak to you as spiritual men." (1 Cor. 3:1). You were immature. You were motivated by the world’s thoughts and actions.

Verse 1- "I spoke to you as men of flesh." You followed your own selfish desires and not the desires of God. You esteemed the wisdom of the world over the wisdom of God. Your behavior was carnal and worldly.

Verse 1- "I spoke to you as babes in Christ." You were babies in your Christian knowledge and experience. You lacked a hunger for maturity and growth in Christlikeness. You depended on milk.

I do believe Paul’s intent thus far was not to bash the Corinthian church. He was simply stating a fact that is true for all believers new to the faith. We all must begin somewhere, and when we begin we must start with the basics.

For example, I bought a surfboard earlier this week and had a chance to use my surfboard Tuesday evening. In watching others from the shore, it didn’t appear to be a very difficult activity. Let me say it’s a different story when you’re out there, bobbing up and down on 4-foot swells. You see we don’t do much surfing in the Midwest, so you can imagine I am a beginner of beginners. I don’t need to know the finer points or lingo of the sport. I simply need to know how to stand up on the board! And if you want to see me succeed, don’t criticize my choice and application of wax and the ankle strap that is on the wrong foot. Rather be patient with me, encourage me and start teaching the fundamentals.

Since the Corinthian church members were babes in Christ, Paul fed them the diet necessary for a baby…milk! Look at verse 2. Paul said, "I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it." The context gives us a pretty good clue as to what Paul meant by milk. The author of the book of Hebrews defines it even further. "Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil" (Heb. 5:11-14). John Piper said, "Milk is the uniquely designed material to get a proud sinner started on the path of humility and hope, mainly the word of the cross, the message of Christ crucified." No parent of a sane mind would ever try to cram meat down a newborn’s throat. Like a baby who can only eat, drink and dream about milk, Paul fed the infant church an appropriate diet.

Allow me to be clear; this does not in any way intend that Paul watered down his gospel. The only difference between spiritual milk and spiritual meat is the depth and detail of the doctrinal instruction. We don’t learn new doctrines as we mature in the faith, we simply learn more about the doctrines we already know. The difference is in form, not content. For example, John 3:16 is one of the finest verses to share with an unbeliever. But even the greatest theologian has yet to plummet the spiritual depths of John 3:16. John Calvin put it well; "Christ is milk for babies and strong meat for men."

Baby Christians need the uncompromising milk of the Word, but as they grow, only the meat (the deeper truths) will satisfy a heart for one filled with the Spirit and seeking to mature in their relationship with the Lord. Meat is not for smart people, but humble people.

But I ask you as a parent, how would you feel if your child never grew, if he or she consumed only milk from a bottle well into their teens? Paul had the same spiritual concern for his beloved church in Corinth.

2. Immaturity Repugnant

Allow me to reread verse 2 in completion, "I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able" (1 Cor. 3:2). "Corinthians, I am beginning to get very concerned! It was OK to be nourished on the milk during the infancy of your faith, but that was 5 years ago. By now you should have outgrown that state! You had Peter and Apollos as instructors. I, Paul, spent 1-_ years with you personally in ministry. You are without excuse. Grow up! I want to provide deeper teaching for your growth, but you are not able to receive it. Where is the fruit of the Spirit in your life? What evidence is there that you truly belong to Christ?"

You know, it’s funny when a baby acts like a baby; but when an adult acts like a baby, nobody is laughing! Paul was grieved over the lack of growth in the Corinthian church. It grieved Paul because it grieved God.

You might ask; why have they failed to grow? The answer is found in the beginning of verse 3, "For you are still fleshly." What’s that? Simply put, the flesh is the remnant of our unredeemed state that is crucified, but still active in our lives causing us to pursue our own selfish tendencies in contrast to the Holy Spirit, which enables us to pursue godliness. If the Spirit promotes growth, we could say that the flesh retards it. Paul said it this way in Galatians 5:16, "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please." Following the flesh is the greatest inhibitor to spiritual growth.

Kris Lundgaard, in his excellent book "The Enemy Within" (a detailed study of overcoming the flesh) said, "The flesh hates everything about God. Since it resists everything about God, it resists every way we try to taste Him and know Him and love Him. And the more something enables us to find God and feast on Him, the more violently the flesh fights against it. It takes its battle to every quarter of the soul: When the mind wants to know God, the flesh imposes ignorance, darkness, error and trivial thoughts. The will can’t move toward God without feeling the weight of stubbornness holding it back. And the affections, longing to long for God, are constantly fighting the infection of sensuality or the disease of indifference."

No doubt the flesh does its job to keep Christians baby Christians. Christians should be characterized by the Spirit, yet the believers in Corinth were characterized by the flesh. They were being influenced by the wrong power. They were men of flesh in verse 1 because of their immaturity and newness in the faith, but they were fleshly (a different Greek word) in verse 3 because of their sinful failure to grow. One Commentator said, "The Corinthian church was much like the world, there was no difference in their conduct. An unbeliever is naturally unspiritual without the Spirit, a believer who is unspiritual must repent." It is impossible to heed the world and the Word at the same time; we must make a choice between the two.

In case the church at Corinth begged to differ with Paul, which would have been another indication of their immature fleshly lifestyle, Paul gave two examples of their fleshly characteristics. Verse 3, "For since there is jealously and strife among you are you not fleshly?" Paul worded this rhetorical question in the Greek grammatically expecting a positive response. Since the heart of the flesh is self-centeredness, jealously and strife will always be found in an immature congregation. What were their specific sins of jealousy and strife? Verse 4, "For when one says, ‘I am of Paul,’ and another, ‘I am of Apollos,’ are you not mere men?" Look at 1:11, "For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe's people, that there are quarrels among you. Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, ‘I am of Paul,’ and ‘I of Apollos,’ and ‘I of Cephas,’ and ‘I of Christ.’" As a church we must be for Jesus Christ, that unifies us, that glorifies God. Fleshly party divisions demonstrate jealously, and jealously always provides a breeding ground for strife.

Generally speaking John MacArthur once said, "A fleshly or carnal life will corrupt morals, weaken personal relationships, produce doubt about God and His Word, destroy prayer life and provide fertile ground for heresy." One doesn’t have to look far in this letter to the Corinthian church to see their problems with the flesh: divisions (chapter 1), worldly philosophy (chapter 2), judging others (chapter 4), incest (chapter 5), lawsuits (chapter 6), sexual immorality (chapter 6), divorce (chapter 7), stumbling blocks (chapter 8), idolatry (chapter 10), gender roles (chapter 11), improper use of the Lord’s table (chapter 11), improper use of spiritual gifts (chapter 12), lack of love (chapter 13), selfishness (chapter 14), and misunderstand crucial doctrine (chapter15).

Wow! That makes us look pretty good, or are we? It’s easy to pass judgment on another church, but what about us? Are we fleshly? Are we walking like mere men and not the spiritual beings we ought? Immaturity Reckoned, Immaturity Repugnant, and now…

3. Immaturity Routed

Recent polls have uncovered a conflicting trend in our society: religion is on the upswing, but so is crime and immorality. In addressing Southern Baptist leaders, George Gallup addressed this apparent paradox by saying, "We find very little difference in ethical behavior between churchgoers and those who are not actively religious. The levels of lying, cheating, and stealing are remarkably similar." Gallup continued, "Eight out of ten Americans consider themselves a Christian, yet only half of them could identify the person who gave the Sermon on the Mount, and fewer still could recall five out of the Ten Commandments. Only two of ten said they were willing to suffer for their faith." Erwin Lutzer of Moody Memorial Church in Chicago said, "Within evangelicalism is a distressing drift toward accepting a Christianity that does not demand a life-changing walk with God…many evangelicals (today) do not realize that the church has always been an island of righteousness in a sea of paganism…but as a result they turned the world upside-down." Are we turning the world upside-down? I ask you today, is the church influencing the world or is the world influencing the church?

It’s like the young boy who wanted his crow to sing like his canary. He put the cages adjacent to each other in hopes that the good would rub off on the bad. After a few days he gave up in disgust. The crow didn’t sound like the canary; unfortunately the canary sounded much like the crow.

The only hope for the church is to be a church which grows (mature) in respect to their salvation (1 Pet. 2:2), to be a church that teaches the pure Word of God without tickling ears, to be a church that values purity so much we don’t shrink away from our responsibilities to discipline, to be a church that seeks to apply the whole counsel of God without picking and choosing what we desire to follow, to be a church that finds great joy in God and the disciplines of the Christian life, and to be a church that emulates our precious Lord Jesus who was obedient to the point of death (Phil. 2:8), all for the glory of God.

We concur with Paul. It’s one thing to be nourished on the milk of the Word when we are initially born-again; however, it’s another to crave only milk after years of salvation. With all this said, why don’t people hunger after the meat of the Word? I’ve heard people say they don’t want to go too deep because it produces divisions. Ironically, the Corinthian church had divisions because they didn’t go deep enough! I believe the real problem is that Christians today want to be comfortable. We get saved, we begin hungering for the things of God and we grow. Soon we realize that this Christian life is work! With the privileges come responsibilities. Soon we realize that we are being persecuted for our faith. Soon we realize that our flesh is offended to go deeper into the Word, because the deeper we go, the more our sin becomes evident. Our pride bucks at the system and convinces us that we are simply religious enough. We stop growing.

"I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please, not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don't want enough of Him to make me love a homeless man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please."

Are you mature or do you settle for $3 worth of God? As we did last week, the first step is to realize our condition.

1. Realize Your Condition

Comparison of Childhood Faith and Mature Adult Faith:

Are you content where you are? Or do you really want to mature? Well, how can we grow?

2. Realize Your Potential

Fish that may grow many feet long in the ocean only grow proportionate to the size of the aquariums that contain them. We too must get outside of our bubble and believe with faith in a God that can do all things. Why can’t the next Billy Graham be sitting right here in this sanctuary? Why can’t the next Elizabeth Elliot be sitting right here in this sanctuary? William Law said, "If you stop and ask yourself why you are not so devoted as the (early) Christians, your own heart will tell you that it is neither through ignorance nor inability, but purely because you never thoroughly intended it."

After all, has not the living God taken up residence in your heart through the person of the Holy Spirit? Think about that Christian. The Creator of the universe has chosen you as His temple. The same power that parted the Red Sea, closed the lion’s mouth and resurrected Jesus from the grave indwells you for the purpose of transformation. A lack of growth shows that same power is unproductive in your life. God wants you to bear fruit so others can see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven (Mt. 5:16). He wants to produce something more in your life than simply what the world and the flesh can achieve. If we would only submit to His Spirit, which works mightily within us, great transformation would take place in our lives and great things would be accomplished for His kingdom.

3. Realize Your Tools

God’s power is not an instant zapping, but rather He works through the disciplines of the Christian life to mature us as we submit to Him. The disciplines take discipline: holy sweat, casting off encumbrances, dedication and goal setting. He commands us to "Discipline (ourselves) for the purpose of godliness" (1 Ti. 4:7). Disciplines such as: Prayer- dependence on God, humility. "Be devoted to prayer." (Col. 4:2). Bible Reading- God speaks to you. If He says it, He’ll do it! If He promises it, claim it! If He commands it, obey it! Be like the righteous man in Psalm 1 who meditates on the law day and night. Repentance- turning from sin and turning to God daily, as the sin is purged out, the newness of life becomes more evident. Fellowship. Spiritual Armor- protects from the attacks of the evil one. Trials. Service. Accountability- "Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another" (Pr. 27:17). Self-examination- "Test yourself to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves" (2 Cor. 13:5).

Faithful exercise of these disciplines through the Spirit results in maturity. What would Paul say if he wrote a letter to The Grace Tabernacle? Would we like the Corinthian church be rebuked for our failure to grow and bear fruit?

You know, based on the infancy of the Corinthian church, one might wonder if they were really born-again. Yet the Apostle Paul, though concerned, lovingly and patiently stood by their side believing that in due time these individuals would show the fruit of their salvation. He addresses them as brothers and sisters in Christ (3:1). He addresses them as "babes in Christ" (3:1). Most remarkably, in 1:2 he addresses them as "saints". Saint simply means "holy one" or "set apart". Naturally all Christians are saints because they are made holy in position by the blood of Christ. Yet, God expects us to practically grow in Christlikeness as well, whereby our lifestyle is ever maturing to our position as a saint.

Beloved, are you maturing as you hunger for the meat of the Word? If not, why not? That progression is expected. That progression is the surest mark of our spiritual adoption. That progression should be our greatest desire and joy, because in it we glorify our heavenly Father. May we as a church live lives abandoned to God’s glory, honor, and praise as we grow and mature into the image of Jesus.