Spiritual Maturity Creates Unity Pt.1

Raul Ries: You really have to be careful what you watch on TV and going to the movies. The music that you listen to, the lyrics, it's really important that if you're going to follow God and you're going to follow Jesus Christ, then you need to draw the lines and boundaries in your life if you really want to be used by God today. Because Satan is taking advantage of people's lives.
Guest (Male): Welcome to Somebody Loves You Radio, the Bible teaching ministry of Raul Ries in Diamond Bar, California. As our study through 1 Corinthians continues, Raul will examine the connection between spiritual growth and unity within the body of Christ. In a world filled with distractions, it's easy to drift from the habits that help us grow closer to the Lord. But as we spend time in His word and remain dependent on Him, He continues to shape our hearts and strengthen our walk of faith. Let's join Raul Ries now for today's lesson.
Raul Ries: Turn to the book of 1 Corinthians, Chapter 3 this evening. Spiritual maturity creates unity in the church. Paul the Apostle, in writing to the Corinthian church, gave us some really great insights because of the problems and situations that the Corinthians were facing in their own lives. One of the problems that we have today and they had at that time was spiritual maturity. There were a lot of people in the church that were not growing and developing spiritually. The reason was because they were not studying God's word. So that caused a lot of problems to the church. We'll see in a moment here. I think it's really wise for us to understand that Paul is not putting down anybody, but he really wants to inform. At the same time, think of the church today. How many people are carnal people that have their own agenda, they have their own ideas, and they will not submit to the word of God? Many, many people today. Yet Paul in this chapter speaks about the reality of carnality and he exhorts every single person in the church about the things that were taking place in that church at that particular time. At the same time, think of today and what's happening to the world today. Let me go back to Chapter 2, verse 14 and 15 of 1 Corinthians. Why don't you turn there? Let's begin to read Chapter 2, verse 14. He says, "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." So the first thing that Paul talks about, he's talking about the natural man. What is a natural man? When you think of the natural man, you have to understand that a natural man has never, ever met God. He's a total heathen. He's the person that has been born into this world and he's never really been instructed, or maybe instructed but has rejected the truth of God. He is the person that is out there in the world without any fear about God, doing his own thing, and eventually doesn't even care if he goes to hell. The reason I say that is because the only person that can get ahold of a natural man is the Holy Spirit. He's the only one. You and I can't do anything about that. All we can do is as Paul is going to teach us. We can pray for people to be touched by the Lord. As they prayed for me and they prayed for you, people that I didn't even know that prayed for me and people still pray for me today across the nation. I get letters all the time and emails about people praying for me because we realize, number one as Christians, that we are in a spiritual warfare. There are demons that are cast down into this world that are trying to harass you and they want to mess with your minds, they want to mess with your lives. One thing that you have to not worry about is a demon cannot possess a Christian. Cannot. Yet Paul tells us and in the epistles, and even Jesus Himself, He said, "Greater is He that is in you than he that's of the world." No child of God coming out of the darkness into the light can be possessed. But Paul's going to tell us here that there's three types of people in the church: the natural, the carnal, and the spiritual. Which one are you tonight? I think it's really that we pay attention to what the scripture is saying because Paul wants to make sure that we understand that the natural man is the one that is a total heathen. He doesn't have any interest about God. He hates Christians. They hate God. They have no conviction and at the same time they're very foolish in the decisions that they make. Turn to the book of Romans, Chapter 1, verse 18. Let's see what Paul is saying as he's instructing the Romans. He gives us pretty great insight in Chapter 1 why the wrath of God comes upon the world. This is what he says in verse 18: "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." They're suppressing the truth of God. They don't want to hear it, they don't want to know about it, they want to do their own thing. Then he goes on to say this in verse 19: "Because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead." What he's saying here is that everybody in the world that is a heathen is without excuse. Why? Because every morning when I leave to go to the beach, if I come out in my backyard to get in my car, all I have to do is look up without any lights in my house, look up to the sky and I see the whole galaxy. It's amazing how many stars are out there. The Little Dipper, the Big Dipper. The heavens, when you're standing there by yourself looking up to the heavens with all those millions and billions of stars and planets, you feel like you're a little person. God is so huge. If I did not know God looking up to the sky, I would think, "Who made that? Who made that? The way everything is so perfect, so complete. The way the Earth rotates and every planet in order as the Bible speaks about it here." Paul wants us to make sure that we understand what he's trying to teach us. Look what else he says. He goes on to say again in verse 20: "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile or empty in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools." Notice they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made by corruptible man, of birds, four-footed animals, and creeping things. So what men did is they started making their own gods. They rejected God and they made their own gods. Paul is giving us insight. Check this out what he says now: "Therefore God gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie." Did you hear what he said? They took the truth of God and they exchanged it for the lie of Satan. Now watch what they did. He says, "And they worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever and ever, so be it. For this reason God gave them up to their passions; for even their women exchanged the natural use of what is against nature, and likewise the men, also leaving their natural use of the woman, burned in their own lust one for another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which is due." What does he mean by that? Well, number one, he's talking about lesbians and homosexuals. When I talk to a lesbian or a homosexual they say, "Well, the Bible doesn't teach against it." It's right here. It's right here. You're not born a homosexual. You're not born a lesbian. You become one. You make the choice to become that. So it's really important that we understand that we don't hate lesbians or homosexuals or fornicators or liars or whoever they may be. We hate the sin because they're trying to excuse their sin. They want to be acceptable in society and yet God does not accept it. Does not accept it. I think that what's happening to young people today, they're buying the lie rather than the truth, thinking in the high schools how they're influencing in the textbooks. They're bringing into the textbooks now homosexuality, lesbianism, so you can not only be educated on that, and you can be acceptable and then you can make a choice what you really want to be. But according to the Bible, God condemns it, God judges it. The Bible says that no homosexual, no lesbian, no liar, no fornicator, no person that is a sinner will inherit the kingdom of God. Plain as that. Yet they have homosexual churches. Think about that. Homosexual churches, and they think they're right. Yet they must read a different Bible than I read. Because here he says God gave them over to a reprobate mind. Why? They rejected the truth of God. If you reject the truth of God, God will give you up. "Go do what you want to do, and then you pay the consequences." So it's really important that we stick by the word of God, not by anything else in this world. Look what else he says. He goes on in verse 29: "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge," you see, they didn't want to retain God in their knowledge in their minds, "God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to their parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but they also approve of those who practice them." What does he mean by that? You go to a movie and you sit down and you watch this movie and it's rated R. All of a sudden there's a love scene and you're sitting there and you're looking at it and you're a Christian. You don't get up and you don't leave or anything else. You know what he says? As you're watching that scene and you're enjoying what those actors are doing, you're just as guilty as them. Just as guilty as them. You're participating in it. So you really have to be careful what you watch on TV and going to the movies. The music that you listen to, the lyrics that are bouncing off into your brain. It's really important that if you're going to follow God and you're going to follow Jesus Christ, then you need to draw the lines and boundaries in your life if you really want to be used by God today, in these days that we're living in, because Satan is taking advantage of people's lives. Paul has just told us what the natural man is all about. The wrath of God is against them. The only way that he can get out of the wrath of God is to be born again of the Holy Spirit. So now watch. Go back to Corinthians. Look what he says now. He's not going to deal with the spiritual man in verse 15. He says, "But he who is spiritual judges all things." Notice what he says. A person that comes to Christ and becomes a spiritual, mature child of God, everything he does, he does what? He uses discernment. Is it good for me or is it bad for me? Am I going to get tripped by it or am I going to stumble by it? Should I go or should I not go? You need to make a stand, fully completely. That's something that you need to understand because you can have friends, but when your friends want to drag you into sin, you need to draw the line and say, "You know what? I can't do that," even if you lose your friends. All you can do is pray for them. That's what I did when I came to Christ. I told them I couldn't go anymore to their little parties, I couldn't do the things they were doing. I never lost contact with them. I prayed for them and I loved them and one by one they started coming to Jesus Christ. One by one. Because I did not compromise and that's what God intends to do with each one of us individually. To be not the natural person but a spiritual person, one that obeys God's word. As we stand in the body of Christ and we draw the lines in the sand and you say, "For me and my house, we're not going to compromise. We're going to serve the Lord. Choose you this day who you're going to serve, but for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord Jehovah God. We're not messing around." That's what Paul is bringing about. The natural man, the spiritual man. Look what else he goes on to say. He says, "Yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ." Because of the word of God and because we became born again of the Holy Spirit, now we have the mind of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is leading our lives, guiding and leading, convicting us of sin. Now Paul in Chapter 3, let's look at it. Now Paul here is going to talk about the natural we talked about and the spiritual, and now he'll speak about the carnal man in the church. What's incredible about the carnal man, he's going to talk about the immaturity of a carnal person. They've received Christ, but at the same time they're one foot in the world, one foot in Christ. Totally divided. Paul the Apostle, if you want to get a better picture, read the book of Romans Chapter 7, where Paul says, "The things I want to do, I don't do. I want to do what's right but I can't." Paul was giving to us the insight to the carnal man. Then you come to Chapter 8, verse 1, and then he says, "Therefore there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Holy Spirit of God." The spiritual man does not walk after the flesh, but after the things of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is there to convict us. Now Paul in Chapter 3, verse 1, he begins: "And I, Paul, brethren, could not speak to you as spiritual people but as carnal and as babes in Christ." Notice that. "I couldn't talk to you the way I'm talking to mature people. The reason is because you're a carnal person. You haven't developed, you haven't grown. You're still sucking on milk. You can't eat solid food. If I give you solid food, you'll choke on it. You're just a little infant baby." Do you know that the majority of a lot of churches and the majority of most of the body of Jesus Christ today is immature and it's carnal? A very small amount of people in the church are spiritual today as in the Old Testament times. Seriously. When you look at people's lives—and I counsel a lot so I talk to a lot of people—it's incredible that they've been in the church for so long and the things that they're doing. It's like I talked to a couple the other day, they've been here five years. A young woman and a young man, and they've been here for five years and they're living together. I said, "How can you sit here for five years and continue to live together in your sin and not get married and do what God says in obedience to His word? How can God really bless you? How can you really have peace, the peace of God in your life when you're living a life of willful sin against God and to sit in the church and listen every Sunday morning or Sunday night or Wednesday night and not be convicted by the Holy Spirit?" Then I told them this: "Maybe you're not even Christians. If you don't have any conviction, you're probably not even born again of the Holy Spirit of God." Because you can't sit here in Calvary Chapel or any Calvary Chapel that teaches the Bible and continue in your sin. You cannot because of the teaching of God's word. That's why there's so much immaturity and carnality in the church. Why? Because churches are not teaching God's word systematically, Genesis to Revelation, to have the full counsel of God. These infants in the body of Christ are people that have never read through the Bible. Never read the word of God. They've never been from Genesis through Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and all the way to Malachi, and then from Malachi from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Acts, Romans, Corinthians, and Galatians, Ephesians, Philemon, and then Philippians and all the way through the book of Revelation. Never. And yet you should read the Bible all the way through once a year. So it's really important for you to understand that you need to become a student of God's word. "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that doesn't need to be ashamed." When you don't know God's word, you're ashamed. Think of when your friends come to you and say, "Hey, I think you're a Christian. Are you a Christian? Can you please tell me what does it mean in the book of John Chapter 15, this verse?" And you go, "I don't really know." You're a Christian and you really don't know? "Well, I haven't really read the Bible." Or they ask you for a book in the Bible like the book of Habakkuk or Amos, and you say, "I don't know where that's at." You don't even know how many chapters in that Bible, how many books in the Bible in the Old Testament, New Testament, how many Apocrypha books? Those are not in the Bible. They're historical books. So it's really important that Paul is exhorting these people that are not developing, they're not growing, and they're immature. They have one foot in the world and they have one foot in Christ, and they're totally divided when it comes to the unity of the body of Jesus Christ. They're the ones that are constantly causing problems in the church. They're the ones because they're not spiritual. They don't hear God's voice. They grieve the Holy Spirit of God because of their sin. So here Paul, notice again what he's saying here. He's really informing us concerning these things. Then again, the works of the flesh in Romans Chapter 5:8, Galatians 5:16 through 19, Ephesians Chapter 5, verses 3 to 7, and then again in Romans Chapter 7, verse 5. But notice what he says here in verse 1 again: "And I, brethren, could not speak to you as spiritual people but as carnal and as babes, as infants in Christ." Infants in Christ because they're not mature in the word of God. Verse 2, he says, "When I gave you to eat, I fed you with milk and not with solid food." He couldn't give to them what I'm giving to you tonight, the word of God like that. They couldn't study it because they didn't have a hunger for it. They didn't want to know about it. Paul tells them here, "If I were to give it to you, you would have grown spiritually, but instead of growing spiritually, you're growing more to the world than through Christ." And yet in the book of Hebrews Chapter 6, he really gives a warning, and in Hebrews Chapter 10, pretty heavy warnings. Read them when you go home. It'll blow your mind. Then he goes on: "I fed you with milk and not with solid food, for until now you were not able to receive it, and even to the present time you are still not able." That's the problem. They could not receive the word of God spiritually. They were having a tough time. They couldn't receive God's word in their own lives.
Guest (Male): Today's message reminds us that spiritual maturity isn't measured simply by what we know, but by how faithfully we follow the Lord every day, especially as others are watching. You're listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. Today's lesson was titled Spiritual Maturity Creates Unity Pt. 1. We'll be happy to send you a complete version with much more teaching for a donation of five dollars or more. To get your copy, just call us at 800-634-9165. To help you continue studying the practical truths found in 1 Corinthians, we'd like to offer you Raul's eleven-part series, Unity, Holiness and Love. Available on CD and flash drive, these messages explore how the Bible speaks into everyday life, from resolving conflict and strengthening relationships to wisely using the spiritual gifts God has given us. To order Unity, Holiness and Love, visit somebodylovesyou.com or call 800-634-9165. We'll send the eleven-message CD collection for twenty-three dollars, or the flash drive for fourteen. Again, that number is 800-634-9165. You can also order by writing to us at Somebody Loves You Radio, Post Office Box 4440, Diamond Bar, California, 91765. Thank you for your faithful partnership in this listener-supported ministry. Your gifts help us continue sharing the timeless truths of God's word with listeners across the nation and around the world. We hope you'll join us again next time as our study in 1 Corinthians continues. Together, we'll consider what it means to leave worldly patterns behind and live as God's people wherever He's placed us. This program is sponsored by Somebody Loves You Radio in Diamond Bar, California.