Hi, Nathan W. Bingham here. Before we get to today's episode, I wanted to make you aware of an upcoming travel opportunity with other listeners of Renewing Your Mind and Friends of Ligonier, a Caribbean study cruise that sets sail next February. I'll be there and Dr. Derek Thomas and Pastor Ken Jones will be our teachers as they lead us through the rich theological truths of Galatians 3. Enjoy eight days of teaching, refreshment, and fellowship when you travel with us on this Caribbean study cruise.
You can learn more and register at LigonierTours.com. I hope more mature your intellectual understanding of God is, the greater should be your childlike acceptance of His authority. Yesterday we saw that there is great confusion when it comes to meekness and that meekness is not synonymous with weakness.
And today we'll see that many confuse a childlike faith with childish faith, avoiding diligent study, avoiding theology, and neglecting the means of grace. Welcome to the Thursday edition of Renewing Your Mind. I'm Nathan W. Bingham. I've been challenged this week, have you? There is more to this series than the four messages that you're hearing this week, so I would encourage you to request the entire 12-message series while there's still time. Until midnight tonight, with your year-end donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org, we'll unlock this series and study guide and send you R.C. Sproul's book, Growing in Holiness, as our way of saying thank you. Explore God's blueprint for Christian growth when you respond today.
To close out this series, here's Dr. Sproul on what it means to grow in maturity. We've seen throughout this series a close connection between Paul's teaching of the fruit of the Spirit in his epistle to the Galatians and his exposition of the ramifications of love, of agape, in the great love chapter in 1 Corinthians 13. We started by a little bit of consideration of 1 Corinthians 13, and then we moved over to an examination of the list of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians. And now in this session, I'd like to go back to 1 Corinthians 13 for a moment to the last portion of it. Let me refresh your memory of what it says beginning in verse 8 of chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians.
Love never fails. Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. And whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
Now, this portion of the text indicates that we are moving in the direction of our final eschatological hope where the fruit of the Spirit will reach its fulfillment point. We are justified as we've considered, and justification is followed by the process of sanctification, which has been at center stage in these lectures. But sanctification has an ultimate terminal point in a consuming work of grace, which we call what?
Glorification. When all sin will be eradicated from our personality and that we will live lives totally and completely in conformity to the will of God in perfect righteousness. We in our redemption never expect to be deified, but we do expect to be fully and finally sanctified, not in this life, but in heaven.
The completion of this process will take place when God will purify us. Remember, I mentioned early on John's statement in his epistles, Beloved, behold, what manner of love is this, behold, what manner of love is this that we should be called the children of God. And we know not yet what we shall be, but what do we know? We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And I talked about the relationship between looking at Christ and at God and the prerequisite for that being purity. No man shall see God in this world.
Why? Because God is so pure, he can't even look at our sin. But we are promised the beatific vision. We are promised the ultimate glory of looking at God face to face, seeing him as he is. And isn't it interesting that that experience of the fulfillment of glory for us is linked to a moment of purification. And I'm not sure about the chicken and the egg here, whether our glorification is accomplished by God so that then we are able to look into his space, and that seems to be the pattern that we find there. Or is it somehow that when we see him, the very purity of the sight of him will be that final dose of sanctification, just being there basking in the glory of Christ and of God will do the final cleansing of our souls. But in the meantime, the Apostle tells us that we know in part and that certain processes along the way will pass away.
We know in part, we prophesy in part, but then that which is perfect has come, then the partial will be done away with. And then in verse 11, we read the classic statement, when I was a child, I spake as a child. I understood as a child. I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things.
You see, to think as a child, to understand as a child, to act as a child is perfectly appropriate for children. This morning, before I came over here to the study center, my granddaughter came to the breakfast table, and she said to me, Papap, and she put out her hand. She said, come with me back to your study because I want you to see who I'm talking to. And I said, who's that? And she said, Santa Claus. And I said, Santa Claus is in my study this morning? She said, yes, come see. And so she took me by the hand and led me down the hall and into my study, and there was the sofa sitting against the bookshelves.
And there was no one on the sofa. My granddaughter said, see, here's Santa Claus. And she started carrying on this very earnest conversation with Santa Claus.
And then I was sort of excess baggage in this conversation. She was so enrapt with this dialogue with Santa Claus that I decided to sit down. I sat down and all of a sudden she got very upset. She said, move. I said, what's the matter? She said, you just sat on Santa Claus.
The fantasy world of the child. I didn't rush out in alarm to call the psychiatrist. Her behavior was appropriate. But if you would have come to my house and behaved like that, I would have had serious questions about your sanity, because that's just not appropriate for an adult.
Paul says it very soon. When I was a child, I behaved like a child, I thought like a child, I understood like a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. Now, there's a grave misunderstanding that is throughout the Christian world about this very point. We find people who have a built-in allergy to serious and sober and diligent study of the Word of God. And the excuse is given continuously, I don't need to study seriously the Word of God because I want to preserve a childlike spirit, a childlike faith.
I want to keep it simple. That is not an expression of Christian maturity. But where does the misunderstanding come in? The Bible does call us to be like children. We must become as children if we are to enter into the kingdom of God. You remember when the disciples had their dispute as to who was the greatest in the kingdom of God, and who's going to sit on the right hand, and who's going to sit on the left hand, and Jesus astounded them by taking a little child and setting the child in the midst and said, unless you become as this child, you won't even enter the kingdom of God. And we are called again and again to this childlike spirit. But dear friends, there is a very, very important difference between being childlike and being childish. The Holy Spirit is not childish.
To be childlike means that at certain points we are called to resemble children, just as the way the young child has an almost absolute blind confidence and faith in his parents. What Augustine called a fides implicitum, an implicit trust in whatever their parent says. You know, if the father says that money doesn't grow on trees, then the child believes it.
Now, that doesn't happen for very long. I mean, there comes an inevitable period where the children don't believe anything that the parent tells them. But in early childhood, there's this almost sense of awe that children reveal towards their parents' authority.
Because you think of the ways in which the child is dependent upon the parent. The child doesn't know that fire burns until it sticks his hand in the flame, and the flames are so dancing and enticing, and the parent says no, and the child doesn't quite believe it, and then it touches the fire, burns his hand, and all of a sudden the parent has credibility. When we are called to have a childlike faith, it doesn't mean that we're supposed to have a simplistic faith or an uninformed faith or an unintelligible faith. But what it means is that I must have the same kind of confidence in my heavenly Father, that I trust him implicitly. Now, that is not unreasonable.
That is not superstitious. In fact, the more mature your intellectual understanding of God is, the greater should be your childlike acceptance of his authority. Because the more you understand of the character of God, the more utterly inconsistent with rational thought it would be that God would ever deceive you.
Because his track record is perfectly consistent. You see, the reason why children lose trust and confidence in their parents is that they do begin to see actually that their parents do make mistakes. But when have you learned that of your heavenly Father? The deeper your understanding of the things of God, the more childlike is your sense of awe and appreciation for your appreciation for the veracity of God and for the integrity of God and for the benevolence of God. And so, in that sense, we are called to be childlike, but not only in that sense. There's another sense in which the Bible calls us to be like children, to be babes in evil.
That's almost a compromise, isn't it? Because the Bible recognizes that babies are born with original sin and that babies are not innocent of wrongdoing, but the destructive capacity of the sin of a two-year-old is not worthy to be compared with the destructive capacity of the sin of a thirty-two-year-old. The sins of infants are unsophisticated sins. They're naive sins. They're sins. But they are, relatively speaking, far less harmful than the sins of the adult. There aren't too many two-year-olds who commit murder.
I don't know of too many two-year-old bank robbers or two-year-old rapists or two-year-old embezzlers. The point is that even though we continue to sin as Christians, and God is not telling us and endorsing us to continue to sin, but he's saying, continue to sin, but he's saying, be babes in evil. But, says the Apostle, in understanding be men. If the fruit of the Spirit is to grow to its fullness, to maturity, it requires a mature understanding of the things of God.
When I was a child, I behaved like a child, spoke like a child, thought like a child, I understood like a child, but I'm not a child anymore. And I am not called to a childish understanding of the mind of Christ or of the Word of God. One of the most disconcerting bits of wisdom that was communicated to me as a seminary student came in our homiletics class, which is a class instructing us on how to preach. And we were told this, that if you are the pastor of a congregation where the average person in your congregation is college educated, and if you want to have an effective ministry with that, never, ever preach above an eighth-grade level theologically, or you'll lose them.
Or you'll lose them. And I remember when I heard that, I was crushed. I said, wait a minute, that cannot, that must not be. It may be true that that's where the educational level in theology is, because most people have not had an opportunity to be trained in theology in college or in seminary. And most people, you know, even though they are very intelligent and very knowledgeable in other matters, are not particularly well versed in theology, because their training ended with Sunday school. And maybe it is true that the studies show that the average college educated person in the church is at an eighth-grade level theologically, but we cannot accept that.
We must not accept that. No wonder the Christian community makes no impact if we are competing with a sophisticated world from an eighth-grade proficiency level. We are called to grow up into the fullness of Christ, to get the mind of Christ so that the fruit may be born as a redemptive power in the world. Paul goes on and says, for now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as I also am known. He's setting before us again a future goal. Yes, we will not be able to understand all the mysteries of God in this world, but we are not to be satisfied with ignorance. My beloved brethren, I would not have you ignorant, all gnosis, without knowledge.
Truth feeds the soul. On the few minutes I have left, let me just conclude by saying this, that for the fullness of fruit there must be nurture, and it takes time for fruit to reach maturity. If you've ever grown a fruit, you know that. Last year I bought four fruit trees and put them in my front yard, and I have been feeding them and fertilizing them and everything, and I have two pear trees, not a sign of fruit. It'll probably be two or three more years before any fruit comes on that tree. My one apple tree has grown to be about 15 feet tall, but there's not a single apple on that tree. The other apple tree is only about eight feet tall, and I went out there the other day, and I counted 14 little apples on that tree, and I was excited because there was the presence of fruit, but I also recognized that those apples are going to be small. They're not going to really be tasty. They're not going to be ripe.
They're not really going to be edible this year, but to see the progress, to see the presence of fruit beginning to appear on the tree was exciting, but, boy, it takes patience, and it takes nutrients. It takes nurture, and as we've said in the discussion period together, it seems like everybody is looking for a shortcut to hurry up the process, to have instant growth, instant gratification, five easy lessons to be a fruit-bearing Christian, but there is no substitute for the classic traditional method of growth in the Holy Spirit. There are Christians who believe if they go and somebody lays hands on them that they will instantly be transformed into mature Christians.
It doesn't work. When I joined the church for the first time, I had to take a vow, and one of the vows in our church was that we promised before God to make diligent use of the means of grace. Now, you've heard that phrase, diligent use of the…not just use of the means of grace, diligent use of the means of grace. If you neglect the means of grace, the fruit will be sketchy at best. I can leave those trees alone, and peradventure, after a season, a few distorted, misshapen, worm-eaten apples may appear.
But if I want healthy fruit, edible fruit, tasty fruit, I have to pay attention to those trees every day. Diligent use of the means of grace. What are the means of grace? When we talk about means, we are talking about ways or methods or, in this case, instruments, or an even more simple word, tools. Think for a minute how important tools are as labor-saving devices. I talked to my son about elementary principles of economics. I said, when it comes down to a job that has to be done, we're talking about time, energy, or money.
Those are your choices. He said, what do you mean, Dad? I said, well, we have a lawn out here that has to be cut. Now, the cheapest way to do it is to go out there with a pair of scissors and cut each blade one at a time. The problem is it costs you a bundle in time and in energy.
The easiest way in terms of time and energy is to go hire somebody to do it. It costs you money, but no time, no energy. Usually, we go for something in between. We go out and buy a power lawnmower where we minimize the financial costs, minimize the temporal costs, and minimize the energy costs and sort of come to a compromise. But in every decision like that, you're dealing with those factors. And I said, you know, the point is, tools facilitate. Tools make jobs easier. That's why we use them. That's why they're invented. And the tools for spiritual growth are the means of grace. If you want to know the easy way to grow, then get the tools and use the tools. And what are they? You know what they are.
Prayer, Bible study, sacraments, fellowship. You know, if you plant one apple tree, you're not going to get any apples. Remember I said I planted four trees, two pear trees, two apple trees. I had to have them because if you have one man or one woman, you're not going to have any children. You've got to have two. You've got to have fellowship if you want to have fruit.
You cannot do this in isolation. You need the body of Christ. You need the discipline of the church. And you need the tool of service. Serving God is a means of grace. Bearing witness helps to bear fruit. Being involved in the work of Christ produces fruit, not only fruit for the kingdom of God, but fruit in your own soul.
And so I conclude with this final exhortation and word of encouragement. Don't neglect the means of grace. Make diligent use of these things, that the fruit of Christ might be perfected in your life. To have a childlike faith that isn't childish requires the diligent use of the means of grace. of the means of grace.
That's an important reminder for us today on Renewing Your Mind as we live in a time where we're always seeking to find shortcuts, a silver bullet for sanctification. If you haven't been with us all week, today's message is from Dr. Sproul's series, Developing Christian Character. It's a 12-message series and we'll unlock that series and the study guide in the free Ligonier app when you make a year-end donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org or when you call us at 800 435 4343. Your gift will help Renewing Your Mind reach new people in the new year and you'll receive three resources to help you grow in Christian character. It's the series you heard today, it's study guide, plus we'll send you Dr. Sproul's book, Growing in Holiness. But today is the final day for this offer so give your gift at renewingyourmind.org or by using the link in the podcast show notes while there's still time. Only hours remain. Renewing Your Mind is a daily outreach of Ligonier Ministries, a global discipleship ministry reaching over 100 million people every year. Ligonier's outreach would not be possible without your support and tomorrow you'll hear a recent call that we had with Ligonier's closest supporters updating them on what the Lord has done through this ministry in 2024 and our strategic plans for 2025. Don't miss tomorrow's episode with several special guests. That's Friday here on Renewing Your Mind. you
