Instead of Growing, Some Disciples Grow Worse and Worse

When we are looking at inward and outward religion, there are different effects to each. This devotional reading looks at the effects of not growing in grace.

Nuggets

A lukewarm believer is not following Jesus as He requires.
Indifference comes from our love of God failing.

In the last devotion, we talked about the positive effects of growing our inward religion. This devotion looks at when we don’t grow.

Let’s look at all that Boston said. He wrote, “In the different effects of the religion which those profess. Grace is of a growing nature (Proverbs 4:18). And the longer that saints have a standing in religion they will be the more firmly rooted (Psalm 92:13, 14; Proverbs 26:14). But others think they are right, and they seek no farther, and some, instead of growing better, grow worse and worse (Revelation 3:16).”

Resource

This devotional looks at when we think we are right — but aren’t. What causes this?

Let's Put It into Context #1

To read devotions in the Habitual Holiness of Heart and Life theme, click the button below.

Here is a running list of nuggets for the theme.

Devotions in the Outward and Inward Religion study

Here is a running list of nuggets for the study.

We are using Boston’s sermon as the foundation for this series.

Resource

Let's Put It into Context #2

Salvation starts with grace, but it doesn’t end there. It is our choice to accept salvation or not. It is also our choice as to what we do with it.

What we do with it is sanctification. Sanctification is about changing our character to be like God’s.

Sanctification is a gradual growing process. It is going to take time – and be a struggle – to be changed to have God’s character.

We have to choose to turn away from sin and turn toward the Son. We have to choose to turn away from the world and turn to God.

We must be planted and firmly rooted in the house of the Lord.

God comes to us as we are. He calls us to repentance and salvation. Then God starts us on the growing process.

It is our choice to become firmly rooted in God. We do that by meditating on Christian truth – seeking Him.

The process of sanctification has to be a success in order for us to enter into God’s presence. We are called to cleanse and purify in order to draw near to God.

Our #1 priority is getting our relationship right with God.

Lacking Perseverance

“So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth” (Rev. 3: 16 ESV)

A lukewarm believer is not following Jesus as He requires.

Remember, we are looking at people who call themselves disciples but aren’t. They are the Matthew 7:21 disciples. Our job in this study is to determine if they are goats.

They could be nominal disciples. Or they could be formalists.

Nominal disciples are those boasting they love God without even trying to imitate Him — those who dig on religion and its rituals without having a change in heart.
A formalist is a person who gives the appearance of being a disciple but, in reality, isn’t.

The thing we don’t know is whether they made a genuine profession of faith or not. Since the verse in Revelation looks at the church of Laodicea, we are going to assume they made what they thought was a genuine profession of faith.

I guess one of the first things we need to do is figure out the condition of being lukewarm. Is it due to a lack of perseverance or indifference?

I love Boston’s definition of perseverance. He said it is the continued standing in a state in which we find ourselves.

Resource

Germane to this discussion is Boston’s reminder that not all who profess to be Christians persevere.

But then Boston said something I have to process. He wrote, “Saints may lose the evidence of grace, so that they cannot discern it in themselves. They may lose the exercise of grace. They may lose much of the measure of grace they have had.”

Resource

Saints’ grace gets worse. We get to the point we can’t see God’s grace in us.

Isn’t that bad?

If holy exercises of grace – faith, fear, watchfulness, etc. – are not firmly planted and rooted in God, we lose them. That is much to lose.

How do we lose grace? We don’t resist Satan’s temptation. We, instead, get caught up in the world’s snares. These corrupts our hearts.

I am reading that lukewarm means that we are not growing. We are not seeking to get closer to God. We may just be trying to remain status quo.

We’ve got to grow, or we don’t live. That is the opposite of losing.

In order to grow, we have to pursue the path of Light – Jesus.

Being Indifferent

“And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold” (Mat. 24: 12 ESV)

Indifference comes from our love of God failing.

Why can we be indifferent when the love of God is so amazing? There could be several reasons.

Many of us are casual about our relationships with God. There could be several reasons for that.

We are casual about a lot of things. We may not have given a lot of thought about what it really means to be a disciple of Christ. Maybe we decided it was more than we signed up for.

It could be that we are uninvolved. You know, it takes a big commitment to search for and seek God.

Searching for and Seeking God

Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3)
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16)
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11)
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2)
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11)

Too many times, we think it is a one-and-done conversion. Conversion is the product of repentance, when we turn away from our sins and return to God, that secures salvation.

Repentance is acknowledging our separation from God and expressing sorrow for breaking God’s laws and commandments by making the commitment to change our sinful ways to ways of righteousness through obedience.
- Sin is not believing that Jesus is our Savior to save us from our actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
  - Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
    - Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
      - Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
      - Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
      - Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
    - Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
    - Virtues are standards of moral excellence.
- Obedience means submitting ourselves to the will of God as it is presented to us and living our lives accordingly.

Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart.
  - Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.

Glossary

Oh, yes. Our acceptance of God’s Plan of Salvation is a one-time deal.

But that is the start of the Sanctification Road. Sanctification is the transformational process of the mind, body, and soul, which begins with regeneration; gradually changes our nature and morals through the promptings of the Holy Spirit; and ends with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness.

Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal new birth and requickening that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit to give us new character.
- Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
  - The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.

Glossary

The ABCDs of Salvation

If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.

A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord

D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to live the way in which God has called us

The Disciple’s Job Description

That definitely isn’t a one and done.

Lack of perseverance and increased indifference may be the symptoms, but Matthew 24: 12 tells us the root cause — sin.

Dale told us that the wicked are indifferent. Non-believers are identified in Scriptures by the terms wicked, dead, cursed, and evil.

Wicked means that the person purposefully does not follow God’s laws and commandments.

Resource

We know there are many more who are indifferent to Jesus. “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Mt. 7: 13-14 ESV emphasis added).

Jesus wants us to be more than lukewarm – either way. It is easy to think that Jesus wants us to be either hot or cold.

But that isn’t really right. Jesus wants us to gain salvation. “And Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost’” (Lk. 19: 9-10 ESV).

Jesus would prefer that we be hot, not cold.

Being lukewarm gains us nothing.

Davies wondered — as a I did at the start of this section — how we could choose to be lukewarm and indifferent to the gospel. He felt it was because of presumption, pride, and self-flattery.

Resource

These feelings do not lead to conviction and repentance. It is an insult to God and Jesus.

Part of being lukewarm means our prayers hit the ceiling. The reason may be that our hearts aren’t in it. We aren’t worshiping in the spirit.

Marsden gave us a progression of spiritual decline.

Doubts and insensibility come first.
Worldview opinions and actions pull us.
We lose our love for God.

Resource

We have to persevere, not give into feelings of indifference.

Making the Connections

We have to remember we are talking about believers here. They have made a profession of faith.

This is like the Parable of the Sower says. “Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants” (Mt. 13: 5-7 ESV).

We asked if being lukewarm meant indifference or a lack of perseverance. We also noted that Arnot said that sanctification will always be a success.

For sanctification to be a success, we can’t have a lack of perseverance.

But does lack of perseverance mean we lost what perseverance we had, or we weren’t saved in the first place?

From what we have been reading so far in the series, I don’t think we can answer this question.

How Do We Apply This?

Don’t stop growing.
Be content in gradual growth.
Have Godlike purity as our goal.
Constantly pursue wisdom.
Use our reflected light to witness.
Work to gain fruitfulness.
Begin now to bring forth fruit.
Utilize the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper to be more fruitful.

Resources

Father God. We praise You for Your gift of salvation. Thank You for forgiving us of our disobedience and making a way that we may be restored to You. Help us to become planted and firmly rooted in You. Lord, we don’t want to be lukewarm. We want to be totally focused on You. Amen.

What do you think?

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