The Roadmap to Maturity | Part 2

From the Love We're Finding studios in Memphis, Tennessee, I'm Byron Tyler, here with Kerry Vaughn, the CEO of Love We're Finding. Kerry, we have been in a series this month of January called Back to the Basics, and I've really enjoyed it. I love it, and it's a reminder to all of us that are we doing the basics well? Are we doing the simple things well? Because I believe that if we're not obedient in the simple things, God will not move on to the next thing. And so this is a great reminder to go back to the fundamentals of our faith and to make sure that we're living those out in a way that's pleasing to God. Well, some might ask, you know, why are we spending this time in the basics? You know, give me the meat. Let me move to something, you know, deeper.

And I think that question can be best answered by Adrian Rogers himself. He had this to say. I don't know that we have been distracted from the basics. I don't believe we know the basics. I'm amazed as I go about speaking in various places and I meet church leaders, deacons, and I hate to say it, sometimes pastors who are very shallow on the very basic rudiments of the Christian faith.

And so whether we're coming back to the basics or up to the basics, rediscovering or discovering, it is time that Christians understood what they believe and why they believe it. It is impossible to build a good building without a firm foundation. And so many are living in the area of emotions, and I'm not opposed to emotions.

I shout at ball games and I smile when the grandbaby comes in the room. But emotions won't carry us through. We've got to have some rock solid faith, some faith with spiritual steel and concrete in it.

And that's the reason we're doing this series Back to the Basics. Well, Carrie, we always enjoy hearing from the listeners as they tell us about how the program is encouraging them in their walk with Christ. Here's a response. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for these powerful messages and the work you all do so that men like me can grow in their faith.

Didn't that encourage you? Oh, absolutely. That's why we come into work every single day, right, is that we are, by the grace of God, through the word of God, impacting lives. Well, Carrie, that reminds me of some verses I read in my quiet time this morning in 2 Peter 3.

Take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. And it's so important that we have the basic foundation of our faith and that we're growing in that. We're growing. We're moving forward, because if we're not moving forward in Christ, right, we're moving backwards.

There's never a time where you're just standing still. And so I think that's a great word to all of us, but that's up to us, right? Nobody can do that for us. That's right. And I think through this sermon and this series, we have some opportunities to help people get to where they need to be.

Well, there's a great tool based out of the series Back to the Basics called What Every Christian Ought to Know, and it's on our website at lwf.org. And it is Adrian Rogers at his best, what he's most passionate about. Right.

It is vintage Adrian Rogers. It is 50 years of ministry poured into one program. And I would encourage the listener, your Bible fellowship class, your family, your neighbors, your co-workers, get it, use it as a mighty tool to draw closer to the Savior. It's an eight-week program, individual study on all of the basics we've been talking about during this series. And so I encourage you to go to the website, lwf.org, and you can stream it.

You can also download it and watch it. It'll change your life. Well, as Dr. Rogers would say, we are moving believers in maturity and ministry. Well, with today's message, The Roadmap to Maturity, Part 2, here's Adrian Rogers. We divide people into different categories. We say there's upper class, middle class, lower class, there's this or that. But it's not the blue book of society or the bank book of finance, but it is God's book, the Bible, that puts us into these three categories of persons. There is the natural man. There is the spiritual man. There is the carnal man. Either you're a natural man, a spiritual man, or a carnal man. You're a natural woman, a spiritual woman, or a carnal woman. Now, you say, why do you want me to categorize myself?

Well, obviously, I want you to be a spiritual person. But you see, the Bible is like a roadmap to guide you to get to where you need to be. Now, there's one thing important about any map, no matter what map it is, a map is not of much value to you unless you know one thing, where you are now. Now, if you don't know where you are now, what good is the map?

But if you know where you are now, you can say, I'm here and this is where I need to get to. So, here's what I want us to do. I want us to ask three questions. The first question I want to ask, and I want you to answer it, are you a natural man doing what comes naturally?

Well, you say, yes, that sounds pretty good to me to do what comes naturally. Well, the Bible says in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 3, you are by nature the children of wrath. The Bible says, in our own nature, there is nothing good.

You are by nature children of wrath. The natural man is born into the natural world and therefore he is blind to the spiritual world. Look in verse 14. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him.

Now, watch this. Neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. That is, they're spiritually understood. Now, look at the word receive. Do you see it there in verse 14? The natural man receiveth not.

That word receive literally means to welcome. He does not welcome spiritual things. He has no appreciation for spiritual things. Now, go back to chapter 1 and look in verse 18. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness.

Do you see that? It's foolishness. Look again in verse 14. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness unto him.

You see, he's born in the natural world. He is blind to the spiritual world. He doesn't enjoy the true things of God. The Bible says he does not welcome the things of God, and neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned.

They are spiritually understood. When you talk to an unsaved man about Jesus, and he may remonstrate with you, and he may say, I just don't see it, don't argue with him. Friend, he doesn't see it.

He is telling the truth. He just doesn't see it. He is born to the natural world. He is blind to the spiritual world, and therefore he is bound to the material world.

This world is the only world that he knows. He is a materialist, pure and simple. He has no capacity for spiritual things. Now, that's the first category. Let's move to the second category of persons. The first category is the natural man. Now, the second category, there's the spiritual man. Verse 15, but he that is spiritual. Now, the natural man does what is natural.

He does what comes naturally. The spiritual man does what comes supernaturally. The spiritual man has not been born only once.

He has been born twice. Look, if you will, in verses 11 and 12. For what man knows the things of a man save or accept the spirit of man which is in him? Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God.

Now, notice verse 12. Now, we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God. Now, let me give you the three marks of the spiritual man. The spiritual man lives by the spirit. Verse 12 says he has received the spirit of God.

That is, this man has been born twice. He's been born of the spirit. What is salvation? Salvation is not merely getting man out of earth into heaven. It is getting God out of heaven into man. He receives the spirit of God. He has been born again. Learn this about Christians. Christians are not just natural people who decide to do better.

Christians have been radically, dramatically, supernaturally changed by something called a new birth. He receives the spirit of God. God moves into him.

God inhabits his humanity. Now, don't get the idea that a Christian, therefore, is like a tadpole who becomes a frog. You see, there is a frog in every tadpole and if he just keeps maturing, he'll become a frog. Now, that's the kind of Christianity some people believe in.

They think, well, I'll go to church and learn to do better. I'll grow up and be the frog I ought to be. A Christian is not like a tadpole who has become a frog. A Christian is like a frog who has become a prince by the kiss of grace. It is a miracle. It is a miracle. It is not just simply a change, a gradual change becoming more of what we are by nature.

It is becoming what we could never be by nature. He is a person, number one, who lives by the spirit. He has received a new life and because he lives by the spirit, he learns from the spirit.

Now, look in verse 12. Now, we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God. We know that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. When you receive the spirit, you receive the organ of spiritual knowledge that you might know God. Now, remember the natural man, verse 14, he doesn't receive the things of the spirit of God for their foolishness unto him.

He can't know them because they're spiritually discerned, they're spiritually understood. So, when a man receives God, he receives, when he's born again, he receives life from the spirit. He lives by the spirit and he learns by the spirit. When you get saved, even if you're a little child, God turns the light on in your soul. The Bible says the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord.

What does that mean? When God wants to illuminate you, he takes your human spirit, he puts the oil of his Holy Spirit in that human lamp and God illumines you from the inside. No man lives by the spirit. He learns from the spirit and he is liberated through the spirit.

Let me show you this. Look now in verse 15. But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. Now, what does that mean, judges all things? Does that mean he sits on a bench and he says, this is right and this is wrong?

No, no, no. It's talking about inward discernment. Actually, some translations give it this way. The spiritual man discerns all things. He has a different value system. He sees things through a different lens.

Actually, this word discern is a legal word. And what it means is this. It means to make an examination and on the basis of that examination, make moral and spiritual judgment. He that is spiritual makes an examination and on the basis of that examination, he makes moral and spiritual judgment. But what is the difference between the natural man who tries to do that and the spiritual man? Well, the spiritual man, he sees with the mind of Christ.

Look, if you will, in the last verse in chapter 2, but we have the mind of Christ. When a man receives the spirit of God, he learns through the spirit, he lives through the spirit, he is liberated through the spirit because this world system doesn't squeeze him into its mold. He sees through things. He sees what is happening in today's world. He's not like the marching millions that are going on to oblivion and going on to hell.

He has a value system that is completely different. He sees things from God's viewpoint. He has the mind of Christ. And he sees through this world. He's not bound to the material world. He is liberated.

He is liberated by the spirit of God. He sees through things. Now, the Bible says he discerns all things. He judges all things, but no man judges him. What does that mean?

It means he understands the unsaved man, but the unsaved man doesn't understand him. They say, well, what makes him tick? Boy, is he weird. Hey, folks, might as well face it. Those folks out there think we are Looney Tunes. They really do. I mean, they think that somehow we have jumped the track. The Bible says they think it's strange that we don't run with them in their excessive riot. They think that we are the funny ones. Like that woman went to the psychiatrist, had the fried egg on her head and two strips of bacon over each ear.

She said, I came to see you about my brother. They really think that we are the funny ones. He who is spiritual discerns all things. He judges all things, but no man judges him. They don't understand him.

They don't know what makes him tick. I had a preacher friend down in Florida. He was a drummer in a nightclub, a nightclub band, and the spirit of God got hold of Hugh Beasley, and he got saved, and he knew he was in the wrong place. He knew he was doing the wrong thing.

He became a mighty pastor and an evangelist, but he took his drumsticks on one night and just ran them through his drum. Somebody said to him, Hugh, what's wrong with you? Are you sick? He said, no, I just got well.

I just got well. Now everybody else thought he was crazy. You see, he discerns all things, but he cannot be understood.

No one understands him. So what are the marks of a spiritual man? He lives by the spirit. He learns from the spirit. He is liberated through the spirit.

Now, let's move on to the third category. Have you found yourself yet? Maybe you have.

Maybe you haven't. Maybe you're a natural man, born into the natural world, blind to the spiritual world, bound to the material world. Maybe you're a spiritual man. You live by the spirit. You learn from the spirit. You're liberated through the spirit.

Or maybe, maybe you're a carnal man. Now, the natural man does what comes naturally. The spiritual man does what comes supernaturally. The carnal man does what comes unnaturally. The carnal man is sort of a spiritual monstrosity.

He's neither fish nor fowl. He's one of these persons who has been saved, but yet he is a very strange person. Look, if you will, in verse 3. And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual. Now, he calls them brethren. They were in the church, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. And I have fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.

Let me give you the three marks of a carnal man. First of all, the carnal man is a Christian, but he is defeated. You know any defeated Christians? He is defeated. Verse 1 speaks and verse 2 speaks of his inability. He doesn't have victory.

He doesn't have the ability to do a thing that a mature man ought to do. He cannot walk spiritually. He cannot war spiritually. He cannot work spiritually.

He just is marked by his inability. He is a baby. And he says, And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. Now, he's not talking about little physical babies. He's talking about spiritual babies. Did you know that in this church we've got a lot of spiritual babies, and some of them have been babies for 40 years? Babies for 40 years. Now, there's a legitimate childhood. Again, I want to go back to that little babysitting home. That is a beautiful baby, and that mama's holding that baby right now, a beautiful baby.

That's legitimate. We've had babies in our home, and we love them. My sons are grown now. It was a thrill the first time one of my sons said to me, Dada.

But if one of them were to say to me, Dada, today I think I'd swat him. Now, it's all right for a baby to be a baby, but the problem is that we have folks who have never grown up. Paul said, I couldn't speak unto you as spiritual. You haven't been liberated through the Spirit. I had to speak to you like little babies.

You are defeated. A carnal Christian is really kind of a contradiction in terms. It's like speaking of a heavenly devil. Now, I want to say this, that I believe in the Christian world today, the average Christian is carnal. I didn't say the normal Christian because the average Christian is not normal.

I think it was Dr. Vance Havner who said that the church today is so subnormal that when a person becomes normal to the rest of the people, he seems abnormal. You see, when I talk about a carnal Christian, I must say I believe that the average Christian is carnal, but not a normal Christian. A carnal Christian is a spiritual Christian.

That's normal. Don't think that you have attained if you become a spiritual Christian like, oh, you've done something wonderful. Everybody ought to be a spiritual Christian. It is the carnal Christian who is doing that which is unnatural.

He is defeated and he is dependent. Look, if you will, in verse 2. Paul said, I have fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto you were not able to bear it, and yet now are ye.

And Paul is saying, I have become to you a spiritual nursemaid. You come to hear me preach and I give you a bottle. Did you know that carnal Christians, if they grow at all, they're dependent upon spoon-fed sermons? They're dependent upon some teacher, some pastor to teach them.

They want to come to church on Sunday, let the pastor give them a bottle and burp them on the way out. I mean, that's it. They are defeated and they are dependent. And I'll tell you the third mark of a carnal person. Not only is he defeated and not only is he dependent, but he is divisive.

Continue to read here. He says in verse 3, For ye are yet carnal, for whereas there is among you the envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men, that is, as other men? For while one saith, I am of Paul. Oh, I love brother Paul. He's my favorite teacher and preacher. He's so full of doctrine. Another says, I am of Apollos. Oh, I love brother Apollos.

He's such a wonderful orator. Paul says, are you not carnal? Who then is Paul and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believe, even as the Lord gave to every man?

I planted Apollos water. God gave the increase. What happened to this church? They were dividing up over trifles, like little babies. Paul said you like little babies.

Have you ever noticed how babies and children get upset over trifles? I took the family fortune, our family fortune, about all $150 of it and decided we were going to go in 1962 to San Francisco to the Southern Baptist Convention. We rented a travel trailer so we could take our children with us. We went all the way out to San Francisco. I'd never been anywhere that far from home.

This was our big trip. Then we got there to Fisherman's Wharf. I'd always heard of Fisherman's Wharf. And there were the restaurants. I mean pricey restaurants. I mean, back then I think a meal was maybe $7 and that was a lot. And I said, Joyce, let's eat on Fisherman's Wharf.

She said, all right. Let's bring our family in there. We got a table by the window. They brought that food in there. I thought, man, here we are. San Francisco Fisherman's Wharf, nice restaurant.

Let my son order from the menu. We were getting ready to have a big time and I looked over there, his chin was quivering. Big old tears coming down his cheeks. I mean, this was our big moment.

And there's that ankle biter. I said to him, son, what's wrong? He said, they've got beet juice on my food. He'd ordered beets and the beet juice had run across the plate. And I want to tell you folks, I mean, here we are and some beet juice.

It's a wonder I didn't beat the juice out of him. Babies, children, immature. You watch them in the churches. These are the people who are divisive. It is carnal people who can't get along. They have their favorite preachers.

They have their favorite teachers. They have this, they have that. And they will split a church over the difference between Tweedle-dee-dee and Tweedle-dee-dum.

They will. I've had far more difficulty in churches with so-called carnal people than I have with drunkards or anything else. Just carnal people. They're babies. They are defeated. They're dependent.

And they're divisive. The natural man, he does what comes naturally. The spiritual man, he does what comes supernaturally.

The carnal man, he does what comes unnaturally. Do you have the markings of a natural man, a spiritual man, or a carnal man? Take time today to prayerfully figure out where you are in your relationship with Christ. Ask God to show you. And if you have questions about who Jesus is, about what he means to you, if you want to begin that relationship, go to our Discover Jesus page at lwf.org slash radio. You'll find resources and materials that will answer questions you may have about your faith. Again, lwf.org slash radio and click Discover Jesus. Well, thanks for studying in God's Word with us today. A convicting message from Pastor Rogers. But, you know, one of the most powerful statements was a Christian is not like a tadpole has become a frog. A Christian is like a frog has become a prince by the kiss of grace. Don't you love that? I hope you've experienced that kiss of grace. Please join us next time for more profound truth simply stated right here on Love Worth Finding.