Part of the chapter that I would like to focus on is toward the end there where he says in verse 11,
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.
And what I want to preach about tonight is that we should not be any more children,
that we need to grow up tonight.
And this is, of course, spelled out here, but turn, if you would, to 1 Peter, chapter number 2.
1 Peter, chapter number 2. We'll come back to 1 Corinthians 13.
Go to the right in your Bible, 1 Peter, chapter number 2.
You see, there's nothing wrong with being a child, and everyone starts out as a child.
We've all been children, and I'm just talking about physically now.
You're born a child, and you spend many, many years of your life being a child.
But Paul said, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
There's a time to be a child, and there's a time to grow up.
Look at 1 Peter, chapter number 2, verse 1.
The Bible says,
Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile,
and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word,
so that ye can stay a baby.
Is that what it says?
No.
He says, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word.
Why?
That ye may grow thereby.
If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
By the way, the purpose of food in your life,
and this isn't really what the sermon's about,
but this can also have to do with being a child.
The purpose of food in your life is so that you can grow thereby when you're a child,
and as an adult, it's to give you strength and energy.
The Bible talks about in the book of Ecclesiastes
that you should eat for strength and not for gluttony,
not for drunkenness.
And the Bible talks about people just eating food and being a glutton and lusting after food.
And you know, children, they don't have a lot of wisdom about what they eat, do they?
I mean, if you just let children choose their own diet, I mean, just imagine.
Just, what do you want for breakfast?
What do you want for lunch?
Well, you can have whatever you want.
It'd be candy.
It'd be ice cream.
Probably the most substantial thing they're going to request is a hot dog.
You know, hot dogs, french fries.
And they make very stupid decisions about their food,
because basically it's just being governed by what feels good on their tongue.
Whatever's going to tickle their tongue.
But you see, many adults are the same way today.
And they eat all kinds of horrible junk food and candy,
and they won't eat any vegetables or fruits or things, because they don't like that.
It doesn't taste good to them.
When God created all fruits and vegetables,
and said that they were to be meat for us and that they were good for us,
and yet people today will want to eat a bunch of processed chemical garbage,
and that's not what the sermon's about,
but a mature person, even biblically, they eat for strength,
not for drunkenness, not for gluttony.
They don't live to eat.
They eat to live.
And here he says that as a baby,
you should desire the sincere milk of the Word that you might grow thereby,
getting the right nutrition, the Word of God, the milk of the Word,
so that you can grow,
so that you cannot continually remain a baby for the rest of your life.
Now, we love having babies.
You know, my wife and I, we have a baby.
I consider them a baby until they start walking, you know.
And my youngest daughter is five months old.
And you know, it's great having a baby, and it's fun to have a baby,
and they're totally reliant upon their parents.
They cannot care for themselves whatsoever.
They cannot feed themselves whatsoever.
And they desire the milk of their mother's breast to feed them and to nourish them,
and that's their only nourishment.
And that's all fine and dandy for a child to be a child and a baby to be a baby.
But you know, there comes a time when it's time for the baby to grow up and become a child,
and when it's time for the child to grow up and become a man.
You see, I have no problem feeding a toddler or feeding a baby
or feeding a very small child,
but there comes a point in time when I want that child to feed itself.
And the first thing I want to show you tonight is that the difference between a baby and a man,
the difference between a small child and a man is that a child feeds themselves.
Go to Hebrews 5.
You're in 1 Peter, just go a few pages to the left in your Bible.
An adult feeds themselves.
A baby relies on someone else to feed it all the time.
I mean, if my wife does not feed that baby, he's not going to be fed.
It must be fed by someone else, but a man, he feeds himself.
I don't sit down and put on a bib and my wife feeds me.
And think about this.
If you went to my house and you saw me sitting there and you saw a bib on me,
and you saw my wife spooning applesauce into my mouth,
you'd say, that's ridiculous.
It's nonsense.
It's stupidity.
It's embarrassing.
You look like a fool.
Now, if you saw a baby doing that, it'd be fine.
But you expect people at a certain age to grow up and start feeding themselves.
Let's apply that spiritually.
Look at Hebrews 5.11.
It says, whom we have many things to say, talking about Jesus Christ,
and hard to be uttered, seeing you are dull of hearing.
For when for the time ye ought to be teachers,
ye have need that one teach you again,
which be the first principles of the oracles of God,
and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
For everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness,
for he's a what?
A babe.
But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age,
even those who by reason of use,
have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
So, you start out on the milk of the word.
You start out as a baby.
You know, the day that you got saved, the moment that you got saved,
you were a babe in Christ.
You were born again.
And now, you know, even though you might have physically been an adult,
you're a babe in Christ.
And so you start out with the very basic things.
You start out with the milk of the word.
And someone else is usually primarily feeding that to you.
You're coming to church, and you're hearing the word of God preached,
and somebody's explaining it to you and expounding it to you.
But when you grow up, when you reach a full age,
it's time for you to start feeding yourself strong meat
and getting it on your own.
Now, how do you grow up?
Well, in order for a child to grow properly,
the Bible says here that strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age,
even those who by reason of what?
Use.
Have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
You see, in order for your muscles to grow,
in order for your bones to grow and develop,
you have to use them.
And it's the same thing spiritually.
You know, you start out as a babe in Christ,
and you start out getting the milk of the word.
Maybe you're going to church, and you're hearing some preaching,
and you're learning a little bit,
and you're getting some basic truths.
But you've got to put those things into practice.
You've got to do the work, and you've got to grow up.
You see, a spiritual baby, number one,
is one that doesn't feed themselves.
Everything's being fed to them.
It's the person who doesn't read their Bible on their own.
They just come to church and listen to the preaching.
If that's you tonight, you're a spiritual baby.
You need to grow up.
You need to take the bib off.
And tomorrow morning, on Monday morning,
you need to get up on your own and take the Bible,
take the knife and fork in your hand yourself,
and dig into this and read the Bible on your own.
Let me say this.
Someone who doesn't, they've never even read the Bible cover to cover one time.
They're not a mature Christian.
They're not an adult spiritually.
They're not grown up.
They're still babies, because their primary diet
is being fed to them and spoon-fed to them by someone else.
And God tells us to search the scripture daily
to see whether the things we hear from the pulpit are so.
God said that we are to read therein in the book of the law
all the days of our life.
And if you're ever going to grow up and be a mature Christian,
you've got to start feeding yourself the Word.
You've got to get up Monday morning and feed it.
You've got to get up Tuesday morning and feed it and read it.
Now, a lot of people will listen to preaching throughout the week.
They'll be preaching tapes.
And I like that too.
You know, listen to an audio of preaching.
Of course, today it's not tapes.
It's an MP3 that people have.
It used to be that we'd have preaching tapes.
You know, you listen to preaching tapes.
And there's preaching that you can listen to.
But even then, that's not a substitute for Bible reading.
And you may say, well, in the preaching tapes that I'm listening to,
there's a lot of Bible being used.
But wait a minute.
That's not a substitute for Bible reading.
You need to learn to feed yourself.
That's the difference between a mature Christian and a baby Christian.
He feeds himself.
But number two, not only that, he also is one that's doing the work.
You see, you're never going to get out of the stage of being a baby Christian
unless you're doing the work.
Now, there are a lot of so-called theologians out there.
They don't do the work.
They're not serving God.
They're not out in the highways and hedges preaching the Gospel to every creature.
They're not doing the work of the ministry.
They're not, as Paul said to Timothy, doing the work of an evangelist.
And yet, they claim to have all kinds of knowledge.
And they're going to go down really deep spiritually.
And they're really getting into the meat of the Word.
But God said, if you're not doing the work, if you're not using the Word,
He said, you can't even discern between good and evil.
You don't even know what you're talking about.
You don't even know your right hand from your left hand,
is what's said of the babes of Nineveh.
You can't even tell the difference between what is true and what is not true.
You're a baby because you're not doing the work.
And I don't care how old you are physically.
And I don't even care the number of how long you've been saved,
how many years you've been saved.
If you are not out using God's Word, you will remain a spiritual baby.
You will not grow up.
And there are many that are stuck in that mode right there.
They're stuck in that phase.
They are not doing the work.
The Bible says, but be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
So what who doesn't do the work is deceived.
And many times they think they know a lot.
And they think they've gone down deep.
But he said, you're deceiving yourself, for if any be a hearer of the Word and not a doer,
he's like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass.
For he beholdeth himself, and goeth this way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueeth therein,
he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work.
This man shall be blessed in his deeds.
There's two kinds of people.
There's the forgetful hearer.
No matter how much Bible they read, no matter how much preaching they hear,
they are not growing up.
They are not retaining what they need to retain.
And then there's the doer of the work.
And those are the only two kinds of people that there are.
The doer of the work and the forgetful hearer.
He said, if you're a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
And so part of being an adult is to do the work.
You know, my children don't go to work.
And in fact, my youngest child, Anna, does no work.
She eats and sleeps and plays and smiles and talks and cries and that's it.
And uses the bathroom.
That's about it.
You know, they get a little bit older,
and we start giving them a little bit of work to do around the house, right?
But even my older children that are doing a lot of chores and work around the house,
the amount of work that they do pales in comparison to the amount of work
that mom and dad will do on a given day.
Because part of being an adult is that you spend your life and your time working.
You spend way more time working than you spend playing.
You spend way more time working, really, than doing anything else that you do in your life.
That's the big thing that you spend, male or female.
Because although my wife doesn't go out to a job,
I mean, she's still working more often than not.
That's what being an adult is all about.
It's about doing the work.
It's not about coming to church and sitting and listening and taking it all in.
It's about getting out there and putting it into practice,
being a doer of the work, getting it done.
That is part of growing up and being an adult.
So number one, you've got to feed yourself.
And then you've got to go out and exercise that food that you've used
and burn those calories and work and get something done
so that you can then take in more spiritual food,
so that you can go do more work and do more work.
And you're growing and you're developing and you're advancing.
And we all should continually be growing spiritually.
None of us has arrived.
And the Bible says also, it says,
but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
That's 2 Peter 3, verse 18.
Go if you would to 1 Corinthians chapter 3, 1 Corinthians 3.
He said, but grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
He said in 1 Corinthians 3, 1,
and I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual,
but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
I have fed you with milk and not with meat,
for hitherto you were not able to bear it.
Neither yet now are you able.
Now, the thing about a babe in Christ is that they're carnal.
Carnal means fleshly, okay?
They're basically spending more time walking in the flesh
than they are spending time walking in the Spirit.
And he's saying here that a babe in Christ,
and look, there's nothing wrong with being a baby.
But what's the problem is when you stay a baby.
And you know, if you're controlled by the flesh in any area of your life,
and you're just continually living in the flesh,
that's a sign of an immature baby Christian.
Now, I've heard this phrase go around, this popular phrase,
and people said, there's no such thing as a carnal Christian.
I heard an independent fundamental Baptist pastor say that to me.
If you're carnal, you're not saved.
No such thing as a carnal Christian.
But you know what?
Paul said, I am carnal in Romans 7,
because we all deal with the flesh.
We all, yes, we're saved.
Yes, we have the new man, the spiritual man.
But we also have the old man.
We also have the flesh, and the flesh blusted against the Spirit,
and the Spirit against the flesh.
And these two are contrary, the one and the other,
so that we cannot do the things that we would.
But when you're living a carnal life,
and you're spending most of the time living after the flesh,
you know, that's a sign that you're a baby.
You need to grow up and walk in the Spirit,
put on the new man.
You say, well, what's the difference between walking in the flesh
and walking in the Spirit?
Well, let me just break it down to you.
When you're filled with the Spirit,
you're speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, okay?
And when you're a carnal baby Christian,
you're saying to yourself in rock and hip-hop and R&B
and country western, all the world's music,
all the stuff that you hear on the radio,
that's all about everything that has nothing to do with the Lord Jesus Christ,
and nothing to do with God, and nothing to do with the Bible.
And you're singing songs that are, you know,
you've been married for 20 years,
and you're singing all these songs about
guys going on dates with girls and meeting each other.
Grow up!
You're not in that stage.
You know, you're listening to all this music,
if it's in the hip-hop culture,
it's all about what?
Drugs and, you know,
illicit behavior with women, you know, to put it mildly.
You know, you're listening to all this blasphemous music
that's on the radio today,
and look, let's just face it,
you know that if you listen to the radio today,
there's a lot of bad stuff in the music that's coming out.
It's not put out by God's people.
And you can tell a spiritual measuring stick,
a spiritual barometer,
what kind of music comes out of your mouth throughout the day.
Are you speaking to yourself in songs and hymns and spiritual songs?
Are you constantly singing the music of the world?
Singing the music on the radio?
Singing?
And look, we all hear it.
Even if we don't listen to it,
I don't have the CDs, I don't have worldly CDs,
I don't have the music in my home,
but guess what?
You're still going to hear it.
You hear it at work.
You hear it when you go to the store.
You hear it everywhere you go.
It's playing on speakers.
But look, is that what you go around humming and singing
and thinking about, and in your spare time,
is that what you're going to turn on?
You know, you're going to turn on unsaved people
to sing to you about meaningless things.
The Bible says,
He put a new song in my mouth,
even praise to our God.
And notice, He didn't put the new song in my ear,
He put the new song in my mouth.
Praise to our God.
And God commands us,
Praise the Lord.
Sing praises to His name.
Let everything that breath praise the Lord.
Spiritual songs versus the carnal songs of this world.
That's going to determine how spiritual you are
and how much of a baby you are
versus how grown up you are spiritually.
What kind of music is in your mouth?
And you know, we could go through
all different manner of tests
of someone who's carnal versus somebody who's spiritual.
Somebody who longs to read God's Word
versus longing to read everything else.
And there are other books that you read
for different reasons and different situations,
but the bottom line is,
this ought to be our main book.
This ought to be what we long to read.
This is the only spiritual book.
Any other book that's out there is a man-made book.
There is no other book that's written by God.
There's no other book that's God's Word.
And so, if we're spiritual,
if we're filled with the Spirit,
the Bible says that we will let the Word of Christ
dwell in us richly with all wisdom,
speaking to ourselves in Psalms and Hymns
and spiritual songs.
And then tied in with that and related to that,
go to Ephesians 4.
The next thing about babies versus adults is that,
you know, babies and children, they lack knowledge.
It's not that they're stupid.
It's just that they just haven't learned.
They lack knowledge.
They don't have the knowledge that an adult has.
An adult is gonna have a lot more knowledge than a child.
Now, children might think that they have a lot of knowledge,
but adults have more knowledge.
And look what it says in Ephesians 4, verse 11.
It says, He gave some apostles and some prophets
and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers.
Why?
For the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ.
The body of Christ is the local church.
And God gave pastors and evangelists and prophets.
And in those days, He gave apostles.
Of course, there are no more apostles.
But He gave them for the perfecting of the saints
and for the work of the ministry
and for the edifying of the body of Christ
till we all come in the unity of the faith
and of the what?
Knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man
under the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ
that we henceforth be no more what?
Children.
And what characterizes children?
They're tossed to and fro
and carried about with every wind of doctrine
by the sleight of men.
Sleight is someone who's trying to trick you or deceive you.
A magician will often be used as sleight of hand tricks.
It means that it's deception.
So it says, by the sleight of men or deception of men
and cunning craftiness,
whereby they lie and wait to deceive.
But speaking the truth in love,
may what?
Grow up into Him in all things,
which is the head even Christ.
You see, part of the reason of coming to church
is so that you can grow up.
And the reason you're going to grow up by coming to church
is that you're coming to church to gain knowledge.
Now, if you're going to a church
where you're never gaining any knowledge,
you're in the wrong church.
If you're going to church,
it's the same thing every week, same thing.
I've heard that before.
I already knew that.
Yep, knew that.
This is a pretty big book.
1189 chapters, 31,000 some odd verses.
There's a lot to learn.
I wouldn't go to a church where I'm not learning anything.
Where I've heard it all before, seen it all.
Hey, you go to church to learn something
so that you don't remain a child
that can be easily deceived.
The Bible says there are people
who are lying in wait to deceive.
Their goal is to deceive.
Their purpose is to deceive.
And especially with the internet today.
It's very easy for them to creep into your house
with all kinds of bizarre doctrines.
The Bible says be not carried about
with diverse and strange doctrines.
For it is a good thing that the heart be established
by grace, not with means which are not confident
that which have been occupied therein.
We should not be just carried about
with every wind of doctrine,
every cute new doctrine that comes out.
Wow, I've never heard that before.
That sounds really neat.
That sounds pretty cool.
You know, but it's not true.
It's false.
I've sat in a service and heard pastors preach things
that aren't in the Bible, just made up stuff.
And then people say, wow, I've never heard that one.
I never thought of that when I read that passage.
And I'm thinking to myself,
yeah, it's because it wasn't there.
You know, I didn't hear it either.
That's because he made it up.
But you see, the baby Christian is really easily deceived.
I mean, it's pretty easy to trick children.
Yeah, you walk up to a child and say,
hey, look, I'm gonna take my thumb off my hand.
You know, all right, see, I got my thumb.
All right, wow, how did you do that?
Look, oh man, I'm moving it around.
Hey, look, I'm gonna put it back.
See?
Wow, you know, hey, what's up behind your ear?
Hey, you got a daughter in your ear.
There you go, all right.
There you go, Johnny.
But anyway, it's easy to trick children, right?
It doesn't take much.
You don't have to be an expert.
Every dad is a magician, you know, to his children.
There's a few little, you know,
you don't have to sleep.
It's pretty easy.
But if I had an adult audience, they'd say,
come on, it's stupid.
I know what you're doing.
I can see right through that.
See, the difference between children and adults,
the children are gullible.
And the reason that they're gullible
is because they don't have knowledge.
And spiritually gullible people,
they don't know the Bible.
And you see, if we have the knowledge that we need to have,
we're not going to be easily deceived.
Like, for example, I was sitting in a service one time,
and this pastor got up and preached,
and he said, you don't need the word of God to be saved.
It's not the word of God that saves you.
It's just the truth that saves you.
You don't need the Bible.
I mean, somebody could get saved without the Bible, he said.
He said, it's the truth that saves you.
And this was the verse he quoted.
You should know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free.
And all kinds of people are, amen, amen, amen.
But you see, if they would have had knowledge,
they would have known that that's nonsense.
They would have known that faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God.
They would have known that the sower sows the word.
They would have known, being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible,
by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.
They would have known, of his own will begat thee us,
with the word of truth,
that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
They would have known,
for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved,
how then shall they call upon him,
in whom they have not believed,
and how so they believe in him,
of whom they have not heard,
and how so they hear without a preacher,
so that faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God.
They would have known,
where he said, of his own will begat thee us,
with the word of truth,
that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
And on, and on, and on, and on.
But even if they didn't know all that.
Let's say they didn't know any of that.
What if they would have just known the context of the verse,
you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
Let's turn there, John chapter 8.
Go there quickly, John chapter 8.
You see, if they would have known the context
of the verse that was being preached,
they would not have been deceived.
You see, because when I sat at that service,
and I heard him say,
you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free,
my first thought was John chapter 8.
I knew it was John 8.
And then I went through the context in my mind.
Here's what I went over in my mind.
Look at verse 31.
Actually, look at verse 30.
This is the first verse I thought of.
Verse 30.
As he spake these, what?
Oh, imagine that.
As he spake these words, many believed on him.
Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him,
if you continue in my what?
Then are you my disciples indeed,
and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
Now, is this guy taken out of context or what?
It's not even a complete sentence
because the complete sentence begins in verse 31.
Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him,
talking to people who are already saved,
telling them to continue in his word,
and then you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
He's saying, well this proves you can get saved without the word.
This verse right here shows you can get saved without the word.
But anybody who had any knowledge would know verse 30
and they'd know verse 31.
And I hope that someday if you're sitting somewhere and you hear that,
you're going to have verses coming into your mind that you learned in church
and that you fed yourself at the dinner table of the word of God at home
and that you won't just be a child.
Hey, you don't need the Bible to get saved kids.
Yes, you do need the Bible to get saved.
You need the word.
It's the word that's saved.
David said, thou hast quickened me by thy word.
He said, Jesus Christ said, it is the spirit that quickened it.
The flesh profiteth nothing.
The words that I say unto you, they are spirit and they are life.
That's what's going to quicken you.
But even if they didn't even know all that,
let's say they didn't even know that,
maybe they would know this part.
Sanctify them through thy truth.
Thy word is truth.
So saying you don't need the word,
you just need the truth is meaningless because guess what?
God's word is truth.
This is what truth is.
Jesus Christ said, I am the truth because he was the word made flesh and dwelt among us.
You see, if we know these things, we're not going to be deceived.
And there are a lot of deceivers out there.
Many deceivers are entered into the world, the Bible says.
They confess not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.
This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
We run into people all the time and they're going to try to deceive you
in all different ways.
The JFWs will come knock on your door.
The Mormons will come knock on your door.
The TV preacher is there.
The radio preacher.
The internet preacher.
And the billboard that says that Jesus Christ is coming back on May 21st.
You know, who's seen that billboard?
Oh man, if you're in California, that thing is everywhere.
Because that company is based in Oakland, California.
And it says right on it, the Bible guarantees it.
You know, there's no scripture reference given, but just the Bible guarantees it.
Jesus Christ is coming back on May 21st.
And people are thinking, oh man, is this real?
Is this probably going to happen?
Because they have no knowledge.
They're easily deceived.
They're easily fooled.
And thousands of people follow Harold Campion.
He's already predicted that Jesus was going to come back in the 90s.
And he sold tickets and everybody came to this theater.
And they're all waiting for it to happen.
It didn't happen.
He's already predicted it multiple times.
He's a liar.
He's a deceiver.
He teaches that it's a sin to go to church.
We believe all the churches.
I mean, I thought he was about 150 when I was a kid.
I don't know how he's even staying alive.
But the bottom line is, this guy says we need to get out of all churches.
All churches are wrong.
And just listen to my radio broadcast.
And just send in your money.
Anybody with any ounce of maturity in them is going to see right through that guy.
That he's bogus.
And people will call into his program.
And he's this hyper-Calvinist guy.
And I'm not any kind of Calvinist.
But they try to call this guy and say,
what about this verse where it says that Jesus Christ died for every man?
Well, it doesn't really mean everybody.
It means every man that he chose.
What about where it says he's the savior of all men,
especially of those that believe?
No, that all is just the elect.
Oh, okay.
But see, if you don't have knowledge,
you can be deceived by some of these things.
Some people will be fooled.
Some people will be tricked into believing in foolish things.
And they'll follow foolish things because they lack knowledge.
And you see, it's okay for a child to lack knowledge.
It's okay that Anna doesn't know the Bible.
It's okay that my children, they're learning.
But you've got to grow up.
Your goal is to grow and not stay in that phase of being a baby, being a child.
Go to Matthew 11.
Matthew chapter 11.
And I'm losing my voice tonight.
Matthew chapter number 11.
He said in 2 Peter,
grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
You grow, you gain knowledge.
You grow, you become a worker.
You grow, you feed yourself.
You grow, you're not eating just applesauce.
You're not just eating squash and a smoothie.
You're actually eating something like meat.
Okay, you actually need something a little more substantial to feed you
because you're a little bit older.
But he says in Matthew 11, 16,
and this is why I preach this message because this is the day that we're living in.
He says,
but where unto shall I liken this generation?
It is like unto children.
Basically, he's saying this generation is a generation of adults,
but they're like children.
Sitting in the markets and calling them to their fellows and saying,
we've piped unto you and you have not danced.
We've mourned unto you and you've not lamented.
For John came neither eating nor drinking and they say, he hath a devil.
Some man came eating and drinking and they say, behold a man clot in us in a wine viper.
A friend of publicans and sinners, but wisdom is justified of her children.
Let me get back to where I started, 1 Corinthians 13.
He said, 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.
But today we live in a generation where adults behave like children.
Jesus said it about his generation.
He said, I look around and I see a generation of children.
He said, they're not children, but they're like children.
They're adults, but they're like children.
And today we see adults who want to pretend to be children.
We see people that are 30 years old,
but they think that they're a teenager.
They dress like a teenager.
You know what I'm talking about.
They think they're cool.
They think they're hip.
You go to church and there's the youth pastor,
and he thinks he's really cool.
He's like 40, but he's right there with the teens.
And so he's going to all the movies.
He's playing the video games.
He's got the spiky hairdo.
He's talking like the young people.
He's really cool.
It's time to grow up.
Now we as men need to embrace manhood
and not try to be like the teens and try to be like the kids.
Hey, let's stay up all night, eat pizza, play video games.
It'll be really cool.
We need to grow up.
And our life should be about things that men's lives are about,
like work, like work, like reading the Bible, like preaching,
like going out soul winning, providing for our families,
and not act like a little kid,
and not try to look like a little kid.
I mean, a man doesn't sit there and have some spiky hairdo.
You know what I mean?
He's just, he's past that.
He's not trying to be on every trend of this new band
that just came out, this new movie star.
And you know, we all want to look like Bieber or whatever.
So we're going to pattern our hairstyle after Bieber,
and we're going to pattern our clothing after Bieber,
and then this basketball icon, and this movie star,
and this guy, you know, grow up.
Put away childish things.
Be a man.
Embrace being a man.
Act like a man.
Grow up.
Quit trying to be a child.
Here's a funny story.
My sister and I went down to visit my grandma.
And my grandma is, I love my grandma.
She's actually about to turn 90 coming up.
And she is as sharp as a tack.
I mean, she has not changed.
I mean, since I was a little kid, hasn't changed.
It's amazing.
I mean, I hope I'm doing that good when I'm not.
I asked her what was her secret.
And you know, I'm watching her eat In-N-Out Burger
and eating just all kinds of just snacks and whatever.
How do you stay alive?
You know, how are you so healthy?
She said, you know what, I really, she's like, she was serious.
She's like, I really honor my father and mother.
I think that's the key, because he said your days will be long.
And she just is really doing great for me.
But anyway, she was living in a place.
She had her own apartment.
At this time, I think she was 88.
And she's living in her apartment.
And it's a place where you're self-sufficient.
But it's a place where elderly people live.
But she does her own thing and has her own apartment.
But it's just kind of a place for elderly people.
It's a discounted place for them to live
and get a good deal on the price and everything.
So we went and visited her there.
And we picked her up.
We took her out to eat.
We went shopping.
We hung around with my sister and I, that is.
We hung around with my grandma.
And there was this guy that was sitting by the front door.
And he was a really old man.
And he seemed like a really friendly guy.
And he was saying, we said hi to him.
And I've been there to see my grandma a bunch of times.
I'd seen this guy a bunch of times.
Hey, how you doing?
Come on, shake his hand.
You know, real nice, friendly guy.
And we're walking out.
And my grandma, I said, man, that guy
seems like a pretty nice guy.
And my grandma said, yeah, you know,
but they say that he has the mentality of a 15-year-old.
And usually when you hear about this,
they'll talk about, you'll see maybe somebody who's disabled.
And they'll say, hey, this person,
even though they're 20, their mentality is like seven.
Or maybe their mentality is like a three-year-old,
people who have handicaps.
And instead of being a, they're physically a 20-year-old,
but they're mentally a three-year-old.
But she said, I guess they say he's mentally a 15-year-old.
And I'm thinking to myself, mentally a 15-year-old?
Isn't a 15-year-old pretty much fully developed mentally?
And I said, it just sounds like he's a pretty fun guy.
He has the mentality of a 15-year-old.
What does he do?
Play a lot of video games?
You know, this old man, he just wants to hang out and party
and just have fun.
And he's always goofing up.
You know, he likes, you know, it's just,
it cracked me up so much.
It's funny.
But you know what?
Are you 30 with the mentality of a 15-year-old grow up?
Now, I'm young.
I'm 29, so I can be a little bit younger now.
I'm just kidding.
But anyway, you know, you're 30.
Maybe you're 40.
Maybe you're 50.
And today, people want to, they want to dye their hair
to somehow make it seem like they're not really that old.
But yet the Bible says the hoary head is a crown of glory
if it be found in the way of righteousness.
The Bible says that the beauty of young men is their strength.
And the beauty of old men is the gray head.
So the Bible says that gray hair is a beautiful thing.
The Bible says it's a crown of glory.
But our society says, oh, you need to put this chemical
on your hair and turn it brown and turn it blonde.
You know, because you don't want to look old.
That's the last thing.
You know, you got to look young.
And you're not fooling anybody.
We know how old we are.
You know what I mean?
We can see through that dye.
We see the roots.
We can tell that you're not 20.
But the bottom line is it just shows the mentality
that elderly people are trying to flee being elderly
and pretend to be young.
Pretend to be something that they're not.
When in reality, they ought to wear it as a badge.
They have gray hair.
Now, I don't know.
I have like one or two little gray hairs mixed in.
I'm not there yet.
But you know, I promise you this.
When my hair turns gray, I'm going to wear it as a badge bar.
I'm not.
I'm pledging right now on May 15, 2011,
I will not just for men will never grace this scale.
I'm pledging it right now.
Because your life comes in stages.
There's a baby.
There's a child.
There's an adult.
There's the old man or the old woman.
That's part of life.
Embrace it.
Be where you are.
You know, it's better at the end of a thing
than the beginning thereof.
And the day of one's death than the day of one's birth.
That's in the Bible.
And so you got to embrace old age.
Caleb did his mightiest works at age 85.
Moses did his greatest works after he was 80 years old.
And yet today, we have this mentality.
You know, you got to stay young and look young.
You got to dress young.
If you wear this, you'll look younger.
And if you tie your hair like this, you're going to look young.
I'm not mad at people who tie their hair.
I'm not against that or anything.
I'm just saying, you know, I am against it for myself.
I'm not going to do it.
And you know what?
Frankly, I think you should grow it out.
Just be real.
Keep it real, my friend.
Gray hair.
Let's bring it back.
I'm serious.
I mean, I see a lady with long gray hair.
You know, I think that's great.
I like it.
Because they're just being real.
They're just being who they are.
And not trying to turn back the clock somehow.
You know, you only get one time through this life.
You know, just be a 40-year-old if you're 40.
Be 50.
Be 60.
Be what you are.
And don't try to be a child.
But we glorify childhood so much.
The music, the movies, everything.
It's all about childhood.
It's all about being young.
But you know, there's a glory in the middle age
and a glory in the old age.
And there's all different stages of life.
Make it your goal to grow up.
You know, you talk to children and they want to be older.
If you tell a child who's 12, wow, you look like you're 15.
They think that's great.
You tell a woman who's 25 that she looks like she's 45.
It's a pretty different story.
But you know, I'm just kidding.
But the point is that children, they want to grow up.
They want to mature.
And as children, spiritually, if you're a child,
you should want to grow up.
You should desire to be mature and to be older.
Get into the Word.
If you've never read your Bible cover to cover,
that's the first step for you.
It's time to take up that fork and knife
and read through cover to cover one time at least.
And then a second time.
And then a third time.
And then get plugged into church,
where the pastor can preach to you
so that you might grow thereby and learn more
so that you're not easily deceived.
And then get out there and do the work.
Get out there and go house to house
like they did in the book of Acts.
Go out there and preach the Word.
To be a teacher of the Word.
And he said, if you're a teacher of the Word,
he said, for the time you ought to be teachers.
But you have need that won't teach you again.
Which be the first principles of the Oracles of Christ
and are such as that need of milk and not of strong meat.
And everybody should be a teacher of the Word.
Even if you're not preaching behind the pulpit,
you're out there teaching the gospel of the unsaved.
You're teaching your children.
You're teaching, as we heard about yesterday
from Pastor Tom being the, you know,
teaching the elder women, teaching the younger women.
You know, and preaching the Word,
teaching the Word, doing the work, and growing up.
Put aside.
And look, those of you that are in your young 20s,
and we have a lot of people in our church
in their 20s, leave behind the things of childhood.
Put away childish things.
Grow up.
Be a man.
Don't, get rid of the childish hairdo.
Get rid of the childish, the video games, the comic books.
You know, it's time to get past that stuff, folks,
and grow up, and man up, and be mature.
And today, it's like you're not a man
until you're 30 or something.
You know, they want you to just fool around
for your whole 20s.
It's like this teenage, extended teenage period.
You know, when you're 13, begin to man up, grow up.
When you're 12, I mean, when Jesus was 12,
where's the part where he's on Xbox all day?
When he was 12, you know what he was doing when he was 12?
He was in the temple with the doctors and lawyers
asking them questions about the Bible.
And they marveled at his questions,
and they marveled at his understanding of God's word at 12
as he sat in the temple and talked Bible.
He grew in wisdom, and in stature,
and in favor with God and man.
He grew up and became a man.
That's what we ought to do.
And ladies, this goes for you too.
You know, I've been gearing this as toward more of the men,
but ladies, it's the same thing.
Put away childish things.
Grow up and be a lady.
Get serious about life.
Don't spend your life fooling around and wasting your time.
Don't be like that guy that had the mentality of a 15-year-old.
Whatever that means.
Never heard of an elderly person with a 15-year-old mentality until then,
but we need to be men.
We need to be women that are of full age
and that know how to use God's word.
Let's power up and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word,
and we thank you for the nutrition that we get from your word spiritually
and also from the preaching of your word.
God, I just pray that we would please just put that into use and study and work and eat
and help us to grow up
and to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
and put away childish things and become a man, become a woman.
And in Jesus' name I pray, amen.