Spiritual Growth

"Spiritual Growth" – Romans 1:11-14 “For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established… I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.” That last sentence is the key: we must learn in life to be debtors, because the only way Paul reached that end in his ministry was that he always felt himself a debtor. The study walks through what it means to be established —affirmed, certain, secure, solid, consistent—, and why that firmness was a matter of life and death for the Romans under Nero’s persecution. It teaches that growth comes through the ministry of the Word, and that the Bible must be read every day, because the Word teaches, educates and equips: it is a soldier’s training, not trifles. It shows that the faith common to us is not transmitted but lived; that Paul could teach because he had already lived it in his own body, and that he who comforts has comforted disciples. It passes through the hindrance of verse 13 and the longing for some fruit, through the burning tears of 2 Corinthians 2:4, through the heart without duplicity or blemish in 2 Corinthians 11:3, and through the daily care of all the churches in 2 Corinthians 11:28-29, which wears out the nervous energy of a servant of Christ. It closes with Paul asking for his cloak and his books while the axe was being sharpened: who was ever as brave as he?

I. “I am debtor.”

A. The only way Paul reached that end in his ministry was that he always felt himself a debtor.

1. It is easy for us to free ourselves and let go: we love to pay so as to owe nothing.

2. All believers must learn from Paul: to be debtors of His holy will.

B. We grow in spirituality because we are dying to the flesh.

1. The flesh has much to offer you; but you will be charged interest.

2. Why live paying interest if we can grow spiritually?

II. There is much road to walk.

A. When you come to this road, you learn you will face many trials, because they will not want you to grow.

1. I cannot afford to stop: if I stop, I destroy myself.

2. I may still be saved, but how? By fire? No one should love being saved by fire.

3. We live on this earth, but this earth is not where our life is: we live it because it must be lived.

B. The way to live on the earth is growth, and it is spiritual growth.

1. We must develop as spiritual beings, not carnal; then you will understand the mysteries around you.

2. Do not come blaming anyone, nor speaking of other people, pulling and tearing.

3. Many are the afflictions of the righteous; and out of them all the Lord delivers him.

III. Paul’s concern: that they be established.

A. What he wrote was what he lived every day.

1. He was a man who greatly loved God, with force, drive, authority and such a close knowledge of God.

2. He longed by every means for the growth of those Roman brethren, under Nero’s persecution.

B. What is it to be established? That they be affirmed, that their certainty be stable.

1. That they be certain, secure, solid, consistent: firm and sure — that is a believer.

2. With the certainty that we have known the truth that made us free, who is our beloved Jesus.

3. If we are established, nothing high, low or deep can separate us from so great a love.

C. The persecution over them was meant to kill them; to endure it required spiritual growth.

1. In Rome women were set up as torches: compare that with the persecution we receive today.

2. “I have many problems”: tell me the road by which to take them away. They cannot be taken away.

3. Through various trials we learn and grow; and God never allows what we cannot bear.

4. In none of the trials does God have any interest in our perishing.

IV. Growth comes through the ministry of the Word.

A. The more you know the Word, the more spiritual a person it makes you: read the Bible every day.

1. “I do not understand it”: at school you kept at it until you memorized it. That is how one learns.

2. What I read is for me: the verse that was for you today was not for someone else today.

3. In the Scriptures faith is known, and how men and women were able to overcome their struggles.

B. Everything left written for us is very strong: it is not for fantasizing.

1. It is so that we share in the pain, the anguish, the wisdom, the knowledge, the counsel.

2. It is a soldier’s training: I have all the rules I ought to have.

3. A just man does not live on weak themes: he lives in spiritual growth through the Word.

C. The holiest need to be more and more consolidated.

1. The more you love holiness, the more you must be affirmed and the more solid you must be.

2. One comes to carry you off, and you say: one moment. For me it is not so, so no.

3. The carnal have not taken the Scriptures into account, and so they are short of solidity.

V. Mutually comforted by the faith common to us.

A. To be comforted is to be fed, to be made capable of being strong.

1. If I am comforted, I can tell when someone brings me a truth and when he does not.

2. There is a faith common to us, which we all ought to have alike.

3. Of my faith I cannot give you any: it is not transmitted, it is lived.

B. Paul includes himself, because what he writes he has already lived.

1. He could teach, write, exhort and raise disciples, because he had already suffered it in his own body.

2. He paid a high price: stoned, without food, sleeping in the middle of the desert.

3. What we live cannot compare with him: we can admire him and learn from him.

4. He who comforts will have comforted disciples: it is the teacher who is multiplied.

C. Paul’s humility was not above receiving help from other saints.

1. “As you are comforted, I have been comforted”: there was no spirit of superiority in him.

2. With so many wounds and so many stripes, who has time to grow proud?

3. The notions we form of spiritual levels, because we pretend to something, are false.

VI. “But was let hitherto” (v. 13).

A. Many times he purposed to come to Rome and could not arrive.

1. Perhaps by the direct restraint of the Holy Spirit; perhaps by the opposition of Satan.

2. Paul did know the reason; for us nothing is certain. Imagine the anguish.

B. His longing was to have some fruit: something that, on arriving, would produce an effect in them.

1. The effect of a conviction, of a surrender, of a truth, of a liberty.

2. The human being is by nature very hard to reach: how do you pierce the heart?

3. The greatest fruit of the gospel is that the Word be buried in their hearts.

4. So that nothing disturbs their walk, so that they be stable, so that they be soldiers.

C. His purpose was to see the Christians of Rome edified in the faith.

1. He was no longer edifying his own: he sought that that people be built up in faith.

2. Teach your own to grow; for if you stay carnal, that is what is stamped on your descendants.

3. What you did not teach spiritually in your house is exactly what they lack.

VII. The obligation to share the good news (v. 14).

A. Paul sought souls won for Christ in the capital of the Roman empire.

1. When God chooses, that is a seal, and it burns in the heart.

2. He loved the Romans: those who would imprison, scourge and kill him. God had set that seal on him.

3. To be a debtor is to carry a weight: he who owes is obliged to satisfy a debt.

B. Whoever has Christ has the answer to the world’s deepest need.

1. He has the cure for sin, the way of escape from hell, and the guarantee of eternal blessedness.

2. That puts us under the solemn obligation of sharing the good news with people of every culture.

3. The horrors of hell are eternal: a flame never quenched, an eternal thirst, and no one at your side.

4. If you do not feel yourself a debtor, it is no burden to you; and being able to speak of Jesus, you will not.

VIII. The tears of Paul (2 Corinthians 2:4).

A. “I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have unto you.”

1. One cannot be a pastor without feeling this very thing that Paul said.

2. They were burning tears of pain: not clear, but little flames of fire.

3. Comparing ourselves with Paul is not the purpose; knowing and learning from Paul is.

B. The apostle was more affected by the sin in Corinth than the Corinthians themselves.

1. They did not want spiritual growth: they had settled in the flesh, in the earthly.

2. They were not to read the letter as an attempt to wound them, but as a proof of love.

3. When the heart is touched, we cast blame and justify our own evil in someone else’s body.

4. Let us begin to shed tears: it is the surest evidence of spiritual growth.

C. We should take just rebukes as from the Lord, and be thankful for them.

1. If the Lord touches the sore, we ought to be grateful.

2. If that sore remains, God hardens the heart; and when God hardens it, no one can soften it.

3. Unless the Lord build the house, it is in vain. Take care whom you contend with.

4. He has rewards to be won now, in this life; what is carnal is discredited in heaven.

IX. Without duplicity or blemish (2 Corinthians 11:3).

A. He feared the saints might be deceived and their minds corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

1. “Sincere fidelity” denotes a heart occupied with a single object.

2. That they not let the affections of their hearts be dragged away by anyone else.

B. It is easy to drag a heart away.

1. Whoever means harm takes you with subtlety and begins saying things that accumulate.

2. All of that penetrates the heart through someone’s voice, and suddenly you feel a weight.

3. Let us guard the heart: do not receive what you are not to receive.

4. The serpent deceived Eve by appealing to her mind; so today the appeal is to your intellect: take care.

C. He wanted a heart without duplicity and without blemish.

1. The blemish and the duplicity you may have, only you know.

2. If there is anything we must guard, it is not other people: it is ourselves.

X. The care of all the churches (2 Corinthians 11:28-29).

A. “That which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.”

1. If he hears of a Christian falling ill, he feels that illness upon himself.

2. He bears the sufferings of others in sympathy: he joins their cause.

3. If a brother has been made to stumble, he is indignant, because it was unjust.

4. He grieves in their tragedies and rejoices in their triumphs.

B. All of this wears out the nervous energy of a servant of Christ.

1. It shatters the nerves and turns into anxiety and distress; no medicine helps: it must be endured.

2. My absolute passion is that you be well and that you have spiritual growth.

3. Because when one grows spiritually, one grows loving.

C. He overcame: his life and his death were tragic.

1. Without food and with much cold, he asked for his cloak and the books he read.

2. He had hours left, and in the distance they could be heard sharpening what would behead him.

3. Who was ever as brave as he? And we live comfortably, giving place to what will condemn us.

4. Guard your soul.