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And we have the reading there in 1 Corinthians chapter 3. I just want to show you what it says here. It says, verse number 1, And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. So Paul's wanting to speak to this church as, you know, he wants to look at his church as spiritual people. You know, mature, developed, loving the Lord. But he really identifies them as carnal. You know, and we understand that as, you know, as saved people we have this dual nature. We have our spirit, the new man. We have the flesh, the old man. And, you know, Paul is hoping that he could preach to the new man. He's hoping that people are walking after the Lord and growing in the Lord. But he finds the church is full of babes in Christ, carnal babes in Christ. And, you know, I want to talk about this topic about being babes in Christ. I know I've preached on it a few times, but the more and more, as the years go by, the more I realize how many people are truly babes in Christ. And, you know, I'll give the title of the sermon. The title of the sermon today is The Illusion of Christian Maturity. The Illusion of Christian Maturity. What I mean by that is that, you know, we can hear some little ones right now. Like we can hear them, you know, making sounds. Or we understand when we see a little child. We know that's a babe. We know it's a toddler. And when we see a full grown adult, we say, well that's an adult, you know. Our eyes don't deceive us. It's quite clear, you know, when we can identify a child or we can identify an adult. But what about in the spiritual life? Is it that clear to identify a babe from an adult? And it's not really. Because if we just use our physical eyes, everyone here looks pretty well kept, mature. But I don't know. I really don't know how many babes there truly are. I don't really know how many carnal believers there truly are in the church. And there's nothing wrong with being a babe in of itself because the moment you get saved, you know, you start as a babe. You're born again of the Spirit. You're born as a baby in Christ. And you need time to grow and develop. And what I always say is if it takes a good 18, 20 years, 21 years, apparently 26 years for your brain to be fully matured, why do we not think it takes that long to mature as a believer, as a spiritual person, you know. Sometimes we have this idea that I got saved and a few years later now I'm a fully mature adult. And I think there is an illusion or a deceptiveness that might fall in your own eyes about your spiritual maturity. Now I want you to know who it says in verse number two. It says, And look, I'm not trying to say that this church is a baby church. I'm not trying to say that whatsoever. But what I am identifying as time goes on, especially the last few years, probably since COVID days, I've never realized, and maybe it's just out of my own ignorance or being a little bit naive, I just did not realize how many people I interact with that are truly babes in Christ. And again, it's not a bad thing, but the idea is that babes need milk. They need the sincere milk of God's Word. And sometimes you try to deal with meaty topics. But if you've not matured and grown, you cannot receive, you cannot consume, you cannot digest. The meaty side of God's Word. Now, like I said, the title is The Illusion of Christian Maturity. And we can deceive ourselves that we are more mature than what we truly are. And even when I look at my own life, I mean, look, as obviously as a pastor, I've got to have reached a certain level of maturity. But even I know within myself, I've got much to grow. I've got much to learn. I've got much more to develop in my own life. And because if Christ is the standard, then I've got a long way to go. But if I'm just comparing myself to an average man, I can say I'm pretty well matured. But again, that is the major issue that I find, is that people stop comparing themselves to Christ. People stop looking at Christ as a standard. And they start looking at other people, whether saved or unsaved, and then determine whether they've matured or whether they're still a babe in Christ. Now, as we continue in this chapter, Paul starts to identify areas of their church or in their lives that make them carnal or babes in Christ. And I want you to think about these things as well. You know, I'm not here to judge you. I'm not here to criticize you. I want you to be able to take these verses and meditate upon them. I want you to start thinking, is this me? Am I not as mature as I think I ought to be? Or, you know, maybe you just say, pastor, I know, even before you start preaching, you might say, I know I'm a babe in Christ. I know I'm carnal. And that's good. But at least being able to identify who you are will then allow you to grow and develop and be that person. But sometimes we can have the illusion and we think we're mature. We think we've grown, but truly we still are a babe in Christ. And I want you to notice what he says in verse number three. He says, For ye are yet carnal, for whereas there is among you, this is what he says, this is why you're carnal. This is why you're a babe in Christ. For whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men? Are ye not carnal? The first thing that he picks up there is envying. You've got envy in your life. Say, what is envy? Envy is essentially when you're discontented, when you're discontented by someone else's qualities, someone else's possessions or someone else's success. All right? So I want you to start thinking about that. Does it bother you when you see others, whether saved or unsaved, whatever it is, right? It doesn't matter. You look at others and you look at what they've achieved in life, you say, well, they don't deserve it. They don't deserve those possessions. They don't deserve those riches or they don't deserve that status in life. They don't deserve that success. You know, that is envy. And when you've got envy in your life, are ye not yet carnal? Are ye not a babe in Christ? Can you keep your finger there and come with me to Psalm 73? Come with me to Psalm 73. Psalm 73, envy is a sign of immaturity. Envy is a sign of carnality. Envy is a sign of a babe in Christ. You know, the Bible says that we ought to rejoice with those that rejoice. You know, I've been completely, like, transparent, like, completely honest in this regard. Envy is something that I used to deal with many, many years ago, but these days I just don't care. Like, anyone that succeeds, anyone that does well, I rejoice. I'm so happy. You know, I want more pastors. I want other churches. You know, if we ordain a man here one day and you go inside a church and you start, like, you get, like, a 500-member church and I'm still struggling with 20 to 30 people, I'm not going to have envy. I'm going to go, keep going, bro. Keep serving the Lord. Like, honestly, it doesn't bother me. And, you know, there have been times that I had employees under me, for example, in the workplace, and I've spent time training them, mentoring them, encouraging them, trying to get them to apply for better positions so they could get the promotions, and they've gotten the promotions and they've gotten other promotions and they've done better and they've got higher positions than me. Honestly, in my heart I'm like, keep going, well done. I'm like, oh, man, I can't believe it. I was like, keep going. You know, like, honestly, this is an area of life that many, many years ago that I used to have a problem with, but it doesn't bother me anymore. And that's regarding whether it's unsaved or saved people. I just, I essentially want people to do well in life. I want people to find joy and succeed and enjoy the labor of their hands. But you've got Psalm 73, Psalm 73. And I want you to notice these are the words of the psalmist, and he says in verse number 2, he goes, Why is that? Because it says in verse number 3, He goes, I became envy toward the foolish. I became envious. I saw the prosperity of the wicked. You know, he said, I'm trying to live a good, clean, righteous Christian life. And others are just turning their backs against God, they're chasing the world, and they seem to have all the riches. He goes, this brought envy into my life. I started to envy the foolish. We're not going to read the whole chapter. Maybe you can read the whole chapter in your own time if this is an area that you struggle with. But drop down to verse number 12. He says, How is it, Lord? Lord, I'm going to church. I'm reading the Bible. I'm trying to live a righteous life. Lord, when I'm tempted to sin, I'm fighting against those temptations. I want to please you, Lord. I'm winning souls. But how come I'm still poor? And how come all these other people who seem to be contrary against you, Lord, that are ungodly, they seem to have all the riches? That's envy. And if you have that, that's a sign of immaturity. I'm just telling you what the scriptures say. That's a sign of being a babe in Christ. Now drop down to verse number 15. The Psalmist says, If I say, I will speak thus, because if I start to spread my feelings about this to others, he goes, I should offend against the generation of thy children. He goes, man, I don't want to offend anybody. He goes, I'm really struggling with this. I kind of want to tell others why I'm struggling, but he goes, I'm going to offend other people. Then he says this, verse number 16. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me. He goes, look, I can't go around offending my brothers and sisters and Lord. I can't just make this a problem. And then he says this in verse number 17. He goes, so this was painful for him, this whole idea was painful to him. He goes in verse number 17. Until I went into the sanctuary of God, then understood I their end. Now the sanctuary of God of course for him is the temple at that time, or not the temple, is the tabernacle. And that was known as the house of the Lord. For us the house of the Lord is the New Testament church. So he goes, I used to be envious until I went to church and I understood their end. I understood they're going to die and they're going to go to hell essentially. Because it says in verse number 18. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places. Thou castest them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation as in a moment? They are utterly consumed with terrors. He goes, I know their end. And I know the love of riches brings all kinds of problems in the world anyway. Like on the outside they look great and on the outside they look to succeed. But really they're full of terrors, they're full of fears. And their end is destruction. They're going to be destroyed by the hands of the Lord. So he goes, why am I envying them? They're going to be destroyed by God. And I get to live in his righteousness. I get to live with him in heaven. I get to have all the riches, not of the earth, but I get to have all the riches that I get to inherit with Jesus Christ in heaven. So it says Moi, I was envious until I went to church and I learnt this truth. And so Brevin, I don't know, maybe you're an envious person. Maybe that's something that you struggle with. So I want you to come to church this morning and learn the end of the wicked, the end of the ungodly. Don't envy these people. And please understand when you suffer with envy and you're looking at others and what they're doing and what they're succeeding in, that's why Facebook can be such a scam sometimes because it brings that envy. You see people do so well, but they're only posting the positive things. And if someone's just constantly posting about how great their life is, it's to cover up how miserable their life is. Honestly, that's just the truth of it, Brevin, but it's so easy to come to envy other people. The other thing that gets mentioned, not just envy, goes and strife. Strife is angry disagreements, conflicts. Is your life full of angry disagreements? Is your life full of conflicts? Now some people cannot work this out. I'm going to tell you how to work out whether you are a person of strife. Some people cannot figure it out. Because every time they suffer strife, I'm talking about Brevin here. They have conflicts and arguments. Quite often someone says, well, I'm being persecuted. I'm just living so righteously and I'm just suffering the persecution of the devil. Like they're the number one Christian and the only thing the devil cares about is them. And causing them strife and problems. There are many Christians like this that think every time they have some type of conflict, it's because they've just been living so well in life and the devil just hates them. You know, what I've discovered in life is, here's how you know if you're a person full of strife. You need to understand this concept of the common denominator. The common denominator. Now you have to apply this. If you're a father with 12 kids, you have to apply the common denominator rule. That's the idea that when you have kids or even church members, and let's apply it to church members. When sometimes church members are going, let's not apply, because I always throw my kids under the bus. I won't do that this time. I'll just apply to church members. Sometimes amongst church people just get frustrated at each other. For whatever reasons. And there can be conflicts and this brother doesn't talk with that brother or that sister doesn't talk with that sister anymore. And you know there's something that happened. There's some type of issue, some type of conflict. And you may be able to say, well, you know, maybe it's just human nature, it's just sinful nature. Maybe they're both wrong. Everyone always thinks they're right. Doesn't matter. Everyone always thinks they're right and the other person's wrong. And you say, whatever. Sometimes you can't fix everything in life. There's always going to be some level of rough patches between people. But then you find another disagreement, another conflict in church. Or some other conflict in church. And then you start discovering, hold on, it's always the same person. It's always that same person with that one and then that person with another person. That same person again. And there you start to notice, okay, there's a common denominator. It's that same person who's causing strife over here, over there, over here. And there you can identify that is a person of strife. Alright? Just like children. When there's constant arguments and fighting amongst children, you start to identify as patterns start to develop, it's always that same kid. I want to give a name to one of my kids that don't have a, let's see. We're going to call him... Wesley. Wesley. Thank you. So my son Wesley, right? I wake up one morning and there's, you know, you hear argument and fighting and, you know, he's not letting me play on his computer. Wesley doesn't let me. Whatever it is. I was like, I don't know, is it Wesley or is it... Alpha. Alpha. Is it Wesley or is it Alpha? I have no idea. Okay? They're both arguing. And then later on, you hear another squabble going on and some other kid this time, Bethany, you know, the sister Bethany over there, says, Dad, you know, I got hit by Wesley. Wesley hit me, Dad. I'm like, what? Wesley, what are you doing? Right? And then later on down the track, you know, you hear the dog barking because someone, you know, pulled the dog's ears or something like that. And who's outside? It's Wesley outside. You know what it is? The common denominator is Wesley. He woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Okay? He's having a hard time and the one that needs to be corrected is going to be Wesley. He's the common denominator. Okay? He is the one full of strife today. Let me explain to you how I come across it in life. I get a phone call and, look, I'm not trying to offend anybody. Call me. I don't want anyone to go. Call Pastor Kevin because I'm going to be an object of his preaching one day. Don't think like that. I'm not really preaching against someone, an individual, okay? It's just something I want you to learn. And I get a phone call from a brother or a sister, right? And, oh, Pastor, please pray for me. And of course I'll pray for you. Of course. I love you. Okay? But, you know, I just can't get along with ex-church member at church. And you know what? At work my boss is just frustrating me. And then, Pastor, also my spouse. I've got turmoils at work. I've got turmoils at church. I've got turmoils at home. My family. Even my friends don't want anything to do with me, Pastor. Well, why do you think that is, Wesley? Why do you think that is? Ah, just, you know, persecution. No, no, no. You're the common denominator. You're the problem, Wesley. Right? You are the issue. If you're having problems with that person and that person and that person, they're not the problems. You're the problems. You're the problem. You're the one that is full of strife. I learned this with my first IFB, Pastor. He goes, it's like a man who walks around and says, my life stinks. You know, my family stinks. My work stinks. Church stinks. Pastor Kevin stinks. Everything stinks. But all along, the foul stench was coming from something just under his nose right here. No, you stink. You've got a problem. You're the person of strife. And I'm just telling you, if you have strife, everywhere you go, that's you. You're carnal. You're a babe. Okay? And you think you're doing so well and so righteously and I'm so mature. No, you're very immature. Because everywhere you go, you cause problems and strife. That is a carnal Christian. And again, the illusion is, I'm so good and the devil hates me. No, you need a lot to grow. Okay? Because life is not full of strife. There will be strife in places you go, don't get me wrong. And you will suffer persecution for living righteously and godly, of course. But that should not be your life, just constantly, every time you go and everywhere you interact with, you're the problem. What else does he mention? Envy and strife and divisions. Are you not carnal and walk as men? Divisions. You know what divisions are? People that cause separation. Can you come with me to Proverbs 16? Proverbs 16. Proverbs 16. Proverbs 16, please. Divisions. People that cause separation. Divisions. Fire. A froward man soweth strife and a whisperer separateth chief friends. You know when a church begins to have division and we side here and we side there and we don't come into agreement with how we side upon things, that shows signs of an immature carnal baby church. Look, are we always going to agree on everything in life? Of course not. You know full well there is no one in the world that you agree 100% with. I mean the closest maybe I would hope to say I agree 100% with God and whenever I disagree with God I'm the problem. I hope we can get to that but any other human being you're never going to agree 100% on everything. And when that happens people want to cause division. Come over here, come over to my side. Or you go around digging up evil. You start to look at people's past and people's mistakes and you start to put their life on blast so you can have a view towards someone that you didn't have before. You used to love brother so and so, you used to love sister so and so and now you just can't see them in the same way. The way that this comes up in church, you'll start to notice this, is that one Sunday you're talking with, I'll just use brother Ash for example, one Sunday I'm just talking with brother Ash, we're having a great time, we love each other, we're fellowshiping with each other, we care for one another, we pray for each other and then the next Sunday brother Ash doesn't want to talk to me anymore. He just completely ignores me or I completely ignore him. And I don't know if that's ever happened to you. You come to church and you're like, what happened? Weren't we just like best friends last week? Didn't we care about each other all this time? And then you turn up and go, well maybe one week, you know, they're just having a bad day, right? Whatever, right? And then you turn up next week, they ignored me again. They didn't say hi to me, they just completely ignored me. What's going on? I was talking to sister so and so, they greeted sister so and so but they just didn't say hello to me. I'll tell you what happened. A whisperer came along and said a few words to their ears and they're causing division. Okay? That is so easy to happen, whisperers, gossipers, did you know, did you know he said that, did you know he said that? Man, I've had it happen even this last year at church. People ringing up, church brethren, did you know this is what pastor Kevin said about you? It's like, man, what context? Do you even have context about what that was said? Did you know that brother over there? We've got no issues amongst each other. Why are you ringing us causing problems about something that was said six or seven years ago that has nothing to do with the events today? There are wicked people like this. And I'm telling you, they're carnal. They're babes. They cause division. Alright, the thrower man soweth strife and a whisperer is a separator of chief friends. Brethren, there's no need to go about digging up evil. Look, if I had a microscope, if I had the knowledge of God in your life, I'm going to find dirt in your life. I'm going to find evil in your life. And if you had a microscope and looked at my life, you'll find the same thing. Alright? That doesn't give us reason to put our lives on blast. We've been forgiven by the Lord Jesus Christ. He's paid for our sins. Why are we going to dig up past sins when Christ has loved us and forgiven us and was punished for the sins that we've committed already? We dig those things up and spread it around. I'm not saying it's happening. I'm warning you, right? If it doesn't happen, it may happen. People love doing this. That envy and strife, divisions, this is a sign of you being a babe, a carnal Christian. And you've got the illusion of Christian maturity. Can you come with me to Philippians 1? Come with me to Philippians 1. Philippians 1. Philippians 1, 15 please. Philippians 1. Because within our circle, I'll tell you what this looks like. I'll tell you what the illusion looks like. But don't you know, pastor, I'm a soul winner. And thank you for those that went soul winning yesterday. Great results. Great results. Don't let me stop you from soul winning. Do more soul winning. Don't misunderstand me. But some people think, because I'm a soul winner, this proves I'm mature. This proves I'm not carnal. This proves that I'm not a babe in Christ. Soul winning does not prove anything. Honestly, it's something that we should do. It proves your love for Jesus. But it doesn't prove your maturity. And I'll tell you why this happens within our circles. It's because we see other independent Baptist churches that are not soul winning. We identify that, and because we're comparing not to Jesus, but we can compare church to church, or pastors to pastors, or brethren to brethren, we start thinking, oh, we must be the good, look at us. Because we are soul winning, and they are not. Oh, they're doing it only once a month, Pastor Kevin. But we're doing that every week. So we are definitely the elites of the elites. Now let me show you this. In Philippians 1.15, Paul says to the Philippian church, Some indeed preach Christ, look at this, even of envy and strife. What did we learn earlier about envy and strife? It's a sign of carnal Christians. It's a sign of babes in Christ. Because there are some in our church that preach from envy and strife. Even of envy and strife. And some also of good will. So, they're both preaching Christ, they're both soul winners, but one does it out of envy and strife, and one does it out of good will. Okay, now, they're both preaching Christ, praise God. But don't they have very different ways of approaching that? And this is what Paul is identifying between these two groups of people. Obviously, if we're trying to win people to the Lord, we want to be able to do it out of good will, out of favor, out of love for the lost. Out of the mission to further the kingdom of God. Look at verse 16. If one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds. So, because there are some preaching out of contention. Verse 17. But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. You see, the two groups again. One group does it out of contention, strife and envy. The other one does it out of love. The other one does it out of good will. But then he says this in verse 18, very interesting. He says, What then? Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. He goes, even there are some that are just carnal, and they're doing it for all the wrong reasons, I still rejoice because at least they're preaching Christ. So even doing it with the wrong spirit and the wrong attitude is still better than not preaching Christ at all. Okay. But that doesn't mean that you should be one that preaches Christ out of contention. You understand that? It doesn't mean, all right, it's good for you to be out there continuing. And you know what this looks like sometimes? And again, I'm sorry if it's someone here. I'm not. But there is almost like this hero attitude out there soul winning sometimes. Pastor, let me tell you about this time that I went there and I just rebuked that person sharply. I found out there were Mormons behind the door, and I told them they're going to hell. It's like, oh, Pastor Kevin, I really showed them. I really put them in that place, didn't I, Pastor Kevin? And I try to be a loving, encouraging bro. Bro, I'm glad you preach the gospel, but that's not the way. But in my head I'm thinking, what a babe. I can't believe you're so carnal. That's what I'm thinking deep down. I'm just telling you the truth. You're a carnal Christian. You're doing it for all the wrong reasons. You're not as mature as you think you are. You're causing contention. It's like people sometimes just, they can't wait. I just want to cause an issue. I want to cause problems. I want to add afflictions. Boy, that person, brother, you know, if that's you, you need to preach the gospel out of good will. You need to do it out of love. That's the right way to do things. But what I'm trying to show you, brethren, is just because I'm soul winning doesn't mean you're mature. I'm glad you're soul winning. Don't stop soul winning. I'd rather you go soul winning out of contention, but if you are doing that out of contention, if you're being driven by envy and strife and contention, you're a babe. You're carnal. You need to grow. You need to mature. You need to be more like Jesus Christ. So I want to show you that because I feel like this is an issue in our circle of churches sometimes, and I've seen this happen multiple times. I'm saying even with my own church members, thinking that I'm going to just have a great time. Oh, man, I'm glad you told that person off. I'm glad you, whatever, you slammed the gate when you walked out. I'm glad you just yelled at the dog because he was barking and you were a poor testimony of a member of this church or something like that. No, in my mind, I'm just thinking you're a carnal, babe. You need to grow. You need to mature. You've got a long way to go to be someone that is mature and developed and adult and spiritual in their life. So the illusion of Christian maturity is an issue. Can you come back with me to 1 Corinthians 3? 1 Corinthians 3. What else does Paul identify about this church, this carnal, baby church? Verse number 4, he says, 1 Corinthians 3.4. He says, For while one sayeth, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Paulas. Are ye not carnal? Who then is Paul? And who is a Paulas, but ministers, by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? You start to become man-centered in your faith. And this is hard to see. I'd never thought that I would come across so many that are man-centered. I'm of this preacher. I'm of that. I'm of this movement. I'm of this and that. It's like, what? We're of Christ. I'm glad of the man that God's used us of the years. And I'm going to tell you my story, where I learnt this. And I've probably shared it many, many times, but it's an important part of my Christian maturity and Christian growth. My first independent Baptist church, Seven Hills. Bethany Baptist Church. Now called Southland Baptist Church. It's like 90% Filipinos, but maybe it's changed now. Anyway, that's the first IFB church I ever went to. That's where I got baptized. That's where I got married. I still love the church. I still love the people that are there. I love them. And I love the pastor that was preaching. I was there for two years. And boy, I've never heard preaching like that before. I went to a Baptist union church growing up, but it's about God's love, God's grace, and that's about it. It's good to know that about the Lord, but there's so much more that we need to learn in the Bible. And so I learned so many fundamental truths, and it really helped me in that time of my life, in my early 20s, to go from being a teenager mentally to an adult, you know, to start thinking like a man, start thinking with maturity. That church gave me a lot of great doctrines to ground myself in and to go, man, the Lord wants so much more from me, you know. And I learned so many great things. And because I learned so many great things, because I received so much wisdom, that also changed my life. Then, not even realizing, I was looking up to the preacher. I was looking up to the pastor, thinking what a great man that pastor is. To this day, the fact that I'm a pastor today is because by that example that I saw, I said, boy, it'd be great to be a pastor. I'd like to be a pastor one day if that's God's will for my life. That's why I'm a pastor today. It's because of that great example that I had there in that church. Well, after a few years, I left that church after two years, but a few years later, found out that the pastor, you know, committed adultery, you know, ended up getting divorced and his wife got remarried, his ex-wife got remarried, he got remarried, destroyed his ministry. And I won't go into all the details or his name either, but destroyed his ministry. And I remember just thinking, no. When I first heard the news, I was like, no way. No, I refuse to believe it. I don't think it's true whatsoever. Because I had an idea of that man. I'm a pull, I'm a polis. He said, no, there's no way these men can let me down. And to find out later on as more came out, yeah, it's true. And boy, I had a hole in my heart. I just couldn't explain it. I went through shock. I didn't know what to think. I didn't know what to believe. I was just confused. And I was like that for a few weeks. Day after day, just waking up, kind of miserable. I can't believe it. Now, some people have a really horrible response when this happens. They start hating the man. They feel like, he personally offended me. No, no. And to the point where sometimes people are like, now I don't even believe the doctrines I heard from that man. That's stupid. Because when you hear doctrines, you're meant to go to God's word and reinforce, are these things true? Are they just a man's opinion? Is it God's commands? Is it wrong? Pastors can get things wrong sometimes. And then you establish yourself from God's word after you've heard the preaching. That's what you're meant to do. But when people don't do that, and they just hang on every word of the preacher, when the preacher fails, then they're like, now I don't even know if anything's true. Again, that's a sure sign of immaturity. But I remember just for two weeks, just like being cast down, just upset, sad, sad. Sad is the best way to describe my emotions. Not angry, just sad. Not even disappointed, just more sad than anything else. And then it took me two weeks to finally wake up to myself and go, hold on, I'm still saved. Jesus died for all of my sins. Everything I learned, all the doctrines I learned for those two years, they changed my life for the better. I only had a great experience with what I heard and what I got taught, and what developed in my life. The doctrines that I believed, because I went to the Bible and confirmed them to be true, I still believe those things today. Well, God used this man for a few years in my life, and praise God, and then my eyes shifted from a man to Jesus. But here's the thing, if you went back all those years ago and said, Pastor, are your eyes on a man? I'd say, no, no, no, it's on Jesus only. It took something like that to happen, the failure of man to make me realize, hold on, my eyes were in the wrong place. And I would have just been completely deceived. I had the illusion in my mind that my eyes were in Christ. But truly they were not. Because when a man fails, it shouldn't surprise me. Men fail all the time. If you've read the Bible, and you know these great men that we talk about in the Old Testament, guess what? They fail often. It should be no surprise. Oh, of course, the only one that will never fail me is Jesus. And that Jesus will sometimes use good men Godly men, I hope Jesus uses me in your life to further your training, your development, your maturity. But guess what, brethren? I'm going to fail. Nothing like that, hopefully. I don't want anything like that in my life. But I'm going to let you down sometimes. You know what? And what will get you out of church is when a pastor fails you and you're just out there or you're causing divisions. My preacher is better than your preacher. This man's better than that man. And brethren, these things are sure signs of Christian immaturity. Baby, carnal Christians. Not spiritual, not well developed, not mature. Look what he says in verse number six. I have planted, Paul says these words, I have planted, so he planted this church, Apollos watered, Apollos helped to mature this church, but God gave the increase. Brethren, anything we, like you can apply this to salvation if you want. You can apply this to Christian growth. Whatever increase there is, is thanks to God. And God only. And God will use these men to plant and to water. Look at verse number seven. So then neither is he that plantseth anything, neither he that watereth. He goes the one that plants and the one that waters is neither is he anything. Like men are just men. He goes by God that giveth the increase. Brethren, we're just men. We're just women. We're sinners. We fail. Every pastor's going to fail. Some big, some small. Every pastor's going to let you down. Every man of God that you look up to that has watered or planted, you know, they're going to fail in some regard. And for you to mature and to grow, you need to have your eyes on God. Alright? The one that gives the increase. For then neither is he that plantseth anything, neither he that watereth. Can you come with me to Psalm 12? Come with me to Psalm 12. Psalm 12. And I'm not speaking about any pastors here today. I'm speaking about myself. Because I've had situations where I've let down a brother or a family or someone like that in church. It's like, that's it, pastor. I cannot be in church any longer because of your failure. It shouldn't have come to church because of my success. We come to church for Jesus. We come to serve him. We come to please him. If I forget to thank you, like, you know, when I come to Sunday's, I thank you for the preaching. You know what? I sometimes just don't want to thank anybody. Not because I'm not thankful. I'm so thankful for all your labors and all your efforts. But I want you to draw your thanks from God. I want you to get to a point in your life where you say, you know what, if no one appreciates me, no one appreciates my labor at Blessed Our Baptist Church. Pastor Kevin never listens to my sermons. Pastor Kevin has never said he likes my sermons. You know, but I'm going to do it anyway because I'm doing it for the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the right way to go. That's the best way to go. Because then no man can ever let you down. Psalm 12. Psalm 12. We're about to read it. We won't read it just yet. But I'll tell you how else this looks like, not just when pastors fail, but this way that, you know, I'm a polis. I'm of Paul. I'm of Cephas and all this stuff. This is how it also comes out sometimes when someone comes up to me and says, you know, Pastor Kevin, this is the only good church in Australia. People say this. Or they say something like, you're the only pastor in Australia that speaks the truth. And I know that is not true. I know there are great pastors out here in Australia. I know there are some great pastors here in Sydney. I know there are some great... Now, is this the best church? Yes. But it's not the only good church. Okay, it's not the only good church. And when people say, you're the only pastor that speaks the truth, I'm like, man, you don't even see me get up when I get to preach. I'm so afraid of saying something wrong because I know my limitations. I know I'm just a man and I'm doing the best I can to proclaim God's word. If I know that I can fail, don't look at me like this. Don't look at me like I can do no wrong. It's because I'm going to let you down when I do wrong. I'm going to let you down when I say something wrong. I'm going to let you down. You're going to be out of church when I'm not living up to the standard, whatever standard that was put for a man that is unachievable. When that happens, you're out of church. You're disgruntled. You cause divisions. You cause strife. These kinds of words, the only good church, the only pastor that speaks the truth, this tells me you are carnal. You know, I'm of Pastor Kevin. I'm a Kevinite. You're carnal. You're carnal. I love you, but you're carnal. Look at Psalm 12, verse number 1. Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth, for the faithful fail from among the children of men. The Psalmist says, Lord, help us. We haven't got godly men, right? We haven't got mature men. He goes, everyone just fails. Look at verse number 2. This is how they fail. They speak vanity. Everyone with his neighbor, with flattering lips, and with a double heart, do they speak. Flattering lips. Pastor, you're the only pastor. It's flattering lips. I know I'm not. Pastor, you can do no wrong. I know I can. Again, if we had a microscope in everyone's lives, we all know we have sin. We all know we struggle. We all know we have weaknesses. But you see, what stops the godly man from increasing is the flattering lips. The only good church, the only good pastor. I know that person, because I've seen it already. That person that comes into church with those words will be the first person out of church, very quickly, as soon as something doesn't go according to their way. Because they've got the wrong eyes on wrong things. They demonstrate, they think, oh no! See, I'm looking for the best! I'm looking for the greatest! And so pastor, you don't live up to the standard I wanted, so I'm out here again. That's self-righteousness. I think I'm a chewer. I think I know better! But it just shows everybody you're a baby. You're carnal. You're foolish. It happens. I'm not trying to scare anybody or try to put it down on today. I'm here to rejoice in the Lord. I just don't want to see you fail. I don't want to see you guys collapse under the illusion of maturity when you're still babes in Christ. And there's nothing wrong with being a babe. But it's identifying that I'm a babe and I need to grow. I need time to mature. I need to stop thinking about these men that have planted and watered as some heroes. The hero is Jesus. All the time. My eyes must be on God all the time. And I need to be ready when my pastors fail. When my church members fail. I'm doing it for the Lord. I come to church to serve Jesus. If people forget to thank me, I know Jesus will thank me. I know He will bless me. I know He will reward me in heaven. When your eyes are in the right place, brethren, that's when your maturity will develop. Can you come with me to Hebrews 5? Hebrews 5, please. Hebrews 5. Hebrews 5. Paul had to deal many times with people that should be mature, should have been leaders and grown in the Lord, but he would have to call them out for being babes still. And one of the strongest passages we have here is in Hebrews 5.11. Hebrews 5.11. He goes, Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye a dull of hearing. You know what's another sign of Christian immaturity? Is when you're dull of hearing. It's like, you're listening to the sermon today, right? Right now. Like, I already know this. Don't want to hear it. Nothing new. Pastor Gavin's preached this about six months ago. I'm done. Can't you come up with some new material now? I don't know if I preached this six months ago. I have no idea. But anyway, a dull of hearing. You know, when you become dull of hearing, what you're essentially saying to yourself deceptively, I know everything already. There's nothing that I can come here and learn. When that happens, you become dull of hearing. And then it says this in verse number 12. 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 it become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. He goes to the Hebrews. You ought to be teachers by now. You ought to have matured. You ought to have grown. You ought to be able to eat the strong meat that come from God's Word. You're still choking on the meat. But I've got to come back and teach you the milk again. The most basic principles of the Bible all over again. Because I've got to start from scratch. And he goes, the reason is because you've got dull of hearing. You know, church was no longer exciting. Hearing, preaching was no longer interesting. You think you know it all. There's nothing more for you to learn. And because of that, that's proven that you've not matured, you've not grown, you're still a babe in Christ. You're still a babe in Christ. Verse number 13, it says, For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. A babe is someone, we see here, that is unskillful in the word of righteousness. I'll talk about that in a moment. Verse number 14, But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use, a reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. He goes, those that are of full age, those that have matured, those that are adults, are those that have put to use the things that they've learnt. The ones that have had their senses exercised. They put it into practice. They're not hearers only. They're doers of the word. They're the ones that have matured. They're the ones that have grown. But one thing he says here, the one that is unskillful in the word, in the Bible, in the Scriptures, he is a babe. Now again, if you're just recently saved, or you've only been saved a couple of years, and you don't know much of the Bible, that's okay. You're not expected to be skillful in the word. But one thing that I've really, it's really opened my eyes in the last few years is, how many people seem to know, or do know, the right doctrines, the right things to believe, and even to the point of becoming judgemental to others that can't see what they see, but they're right. They're right about what they see. But then when I ask them, where is it in the Scriptures? Ah, you know, it's in there somewhere. I don't know if you've ever come across that. People that know. And they know that they know. And they're right. But can you teach that from the Bible? Can you show me that in the Scriptures? Well, you know, isn't it logical? Doesn't it make sense for that to be true? Yeah, of course, but where is it in the Bible? Somewhere in there. You know what, that person, because it's not their knowledge that makes them mature. It's their unskillfulness in the Scriptures that makes them immature, that makes them a babe in Christ. And again, I'm not having a go at anybody. But people that consume sermons after sermons after sermons after sermons after sermons after sermons, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Where is it in the Bible? I'm not against consuming sermons after sermons after sermons after sermons after sermons. As long as you're digging into the Scriptures and digging into the Scriptures and digging into the Scriptures and digging into the Scriptures and judging for yourself whether these things are true. That's a sign of maturity. But I've come across so many that know so much. But they don't exercise it. They don't put it to use. And they don't know where it is in the Bible. And often these people are very quick to be offended. Or they're very judgmental of others that don't know as much as they do. And I've always said this and I mean it. You're better off knowing a few things and doing those few things than knowing everything and not doing any of it. Like if all you know is the Gospel and you did the Gospel, you obeyed the Gospel, that's better that you're saved than being some scholar that knows the Bible and knows the history and knows the culture of the day but is still trusted in the works Gospel. There's no profit in that. You're going to be destroyed. Same thing happens to believers. Those that are saved. I know it all. I know why they're wrong. I know why that past is wrong about the rapture or whatever. But you don't do it. You don't live in the Christian life. Your life is full of envy, strife and divisions. You're still cuddle. You're still of Apollos. You're still of Cephas. You're still unskillful in the Word. You don't know why. You just heard it and you believe it but you haven't gone to the God's Word. You can't teach others. You're not a teacher. We need to start again with the milk of God's Word because the milk is easy to digest. The milk is easy to do. The milk is easy to focus on. You need to start again in the milk and build yourself up to be mature and to grow. Do you see why one of my concerns as a pastor is the illusion of Christian maturity? Because I don't know. I actually don't know. I look at everybody. I don't know. I don't really know if someone's a babe or someone's a mature. Because it's not like a little baby. You can tell that. You can't tell that until the rubber hits the road, until a great trouble develops, until an offence happens, until a pastor fails. Then I start to see the character. Then I start to see the maturity. Are people focused on the Lord? Are people seeking the spiritual things? Are people seeking God's kingdom first? Or is it just man-focused? Is it carnality? Is it just to be right and to prove others wrong? But you don't exercise it yourself. You don't use the Scriptures yourself. And boy, I've seen so many of these people fail in life and struggle in life and give up on the Lord. Not that they're not saved, but just give up living a life that pleases God. It's a real problem. And I want to change that. I don't know how else to change it but to preach about it and to warn people and for you to judge yourselves. Am I growing? Or am I just a baby? Am I pretending? Do I have the illusion of maturity? Or am I really someone that acts out of love? Am I just seeking contention and strife? You know, just to look good. But do I really have Christ Jesus teaching me? Do I have the fruits of the Spirit coming out of me? Am I growing? Can you come with me to 1 Corinthians 8? 1 Corinthians 8. 1 Corinthians 8, please. You guys know this passage. Man, I just didn't realise how true this passage was until the past few years, honestly. And I think Brother Matthew preached a sermon on charity. Was it you, brother? Charity as the greatest, what was it? The greatest quality of a Christian. I believe that. I believe that to be true. And in 1 Corinthians 8, verse number 1, it says, Let's just stop that for a moment. Knowledge puffed up. Man, some people seem to be skillful in the Word. They've got the knowledge, like I'm trying to say. They know what's right. And because they know, they get puffed up. They start to look down at others. Again, we're comparing ourselves to Jesus. Whatever knowledge you have, maybe you have more knowledge than I do in the Scriptures. Alright? You go, I'm knowledgeable. Okay, good. But do you have God's knowledge? Are we not comparing ourselves to Jesus? Are you at Jesus' level of knowledge? And when you start doing that, go, man, I'm not. Praise God for the knowledge that I do have, but I still have lots to grow. And doing that keeps the humility. But no, look at me! Ah, I know the pastor over there. Pastor Kevin thinks he's a good pastor. He likes him as a friend, but I know he's wrong on the end times. I know he's dispensational, so he's wrong. And I know better than he does. But that pastor who's my friend has charity, has grace, has mercy, is skillful in the Scriptures, helps the brethren, is sacrificial with his time. Ah, but he's wrong in the rapture. Yeah, you're right, he's wrong in the rapture. But he's your brother in the Lord. Love him as your brother. Thank God that he's been used by God to plant and to water. But God gives the increase. When pastors fail and people attack pastors, like, he's just a man, he's your brother in the Lord. Love your brother. Love his family. Careful people. Put into practice everything that God's shown you in the Scriptures. Prove yourself to be mature. Instead of tearing down everybody when they fail. I'm telling you now, pastors fail. I'm going to fail you, just put it down. I'm going to fail you. Because I'm going to sin, I'm going to do something to upset you. I'm going to forget to thank you. I'm going to forget to call you. You're going to say, pastor, I'm in hospital, can you pray for me? Yes, and I forget to visit you. Whatever, I've got a busy life. But I'm not making excuses. I'm going to fail you somehow. I promise you. And when I do, you say, oh, pastor Kevin told me he's going to fail me. Alright, at least he was honest. But my eyes need to be on Jesus. And I'm going to forgive my pastor Kevin when he does that. And I'm going to forgive my brother when they fail. I'm going to forgive my sister when they fail. Because how much more has Christ forgiven me? 1 Corinthians 8, 1. It says, knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. If any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing, yet as he ought to know. Oh, I know. You know nothing. Again, we're comparing ourselves to Jesus. But if any man love God, the same is known of him. Loving God. Love, charity. Man, this is so much more important, reverend, than how much you know. Know and have charity. Learn, have wisdom. I want you to study. I want you guys to be the smartest believers in Australia. I want you to know what you know because of the scriptures. The fear of God is the beginning of knowledge. It's the beginning of wisdom. I want you to be wise, knowledgeable people. But if it's just knowledge and no charity and no love, you're nothing. It means nothing. It's not impressive. You're a baby. You're immature. You're carnal. Can you come with me to Galatians 6? Galatians 6. Galatians 6. By the way, I have a part 2 to this sermon. It's going to come on Thursday. If you make it to Thursday, I'll be preaching part 2 on this sermon. Right now, all I'm focused on is the illusion of maturity. I want you to ask yourself, am I really still a babe? Or am I still a teenager? I thought I was mature. I wasn't an adult. I thought I was fully grown. But now I'm being challenged by God's Word and I realize, man, I've got so much more to do. I've had my eyes in the wrong places. Maybe that's you this morning. If it's you, I just want you to be challenged by this. And look, if you're a truly mature believer, praise God for that as well. But mature believers? No. They still have much to grow. Mature believers are not prideful. Mature believers are very humble because they're comparing themselves to Jesus. And they still see themselves as people that need so much more to develop. Man, when you get dull of hearing, I know it all, you're headed the wrong way. You can destroy yourself. Destroy your walk in the faith. So I've got a part 2 coming later on, on Thursday. Part 2 is about becoming mature. Right now, we're just highlighting the fact that people will think they're mature when they're not. And in Galatians 6, Galatians 6, verse number 3, For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. We think we're something! You're nothing. We deceive, we can deceive himself. We can deceive ourselves, brethren. Oh, look at me, look at me. Look how many, I go sowing every week, right? I know all the doctrines. Bless it up, our church is the only good church in Australia, all these things, right, whatever it is. And you think you know something, when he is nothing, you deceive yourself. And I want you to understand, this is a truth of the scriptures many places taught, that we as believers, we can deceive ourselves. We can lie to ourselves. We can believe our own lies. Ah, I'm mature, I'm grown, I know. I'm the best. They're all rubbish over there. These brethren, they're hopeless brethren. Man, it surprises me how many times I come across this. In different levels. I'm not saying that, like, I use extremes, just to highlight it, right, to make it clear. But I see this so many times, and it disappoints me. Because I don't think I'm trying to preach, I don't think I'm trying to develop those kinds of believers. I hope not. And if I'm failing to pass them, and if I'm failing to pass them, I need to fix that. You know, if I'm causing people to think there's something when they're not. If I'm causing pride in my church members, then I'm failing as a pastor. I want to teach you humility, charity, mercy, grace. Put it into practice. Live that life. And have the knowledge that goes with it. Praise God. Exercise your senses to the knowledge God's given you. Put it into practice. Be a doer. And it's okay to have the milk. And to go, you know what, sometimes strong meat, that's a bit too much for me. Pastors preach it for Isaiah. It is a bit too much for me sometimes. It's going over my head. Alright, don't worry about it. Consume what you can consume. Take the milk that you can take. Drink the milk. Grow from the milk. The milk makes you strong, gives you calcium, gives you strong bones. Milk is good for you as you continue to grow and develop. And humility is good for you. And set your eyes on Christ. But what we learn in Galatians 6 here is that this is one way we can deceive ourselves. In verse number 4. Let every man prove his own work. And then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden. Every man prove his own work. This is how you can deceive yourselves. Let's say as a church, like yesterday for example, we had souls saved. Praise God for that. Excellent. Keep going. And we can say, well, I'm in a soul winning church. But I don't do soul winning. And that's okay. It's between you and the Lord. You should be soul winning. It's a ministry of reconciliation that God's given to all of us. Alright. Maybe you can't go soul winning as much as someone else. But let's say you're like, I'm not interested in preaching the gospel to anybody. But I go to a soul winning church though. Alright. But you've got to prove your own work. And what happens is sometimes when you're part of something that is succeeding, you think you're a success. But it's not your own work. See, God wants us to put into practice our own labours and efforts to serve Him. I'm using that as an example. What's another example that I can use? Like you can be a poorly performing employee but your business hits targets by the labours of others. You're working at McDonalds or something and you're lazy and you don't put your burgers together properly. But you're hitting your sales targets and you're like, I'm the best employee. We're great. We're successful. But you're not proving your own work though. You've deceived yourself. You think you're something more but your efforts don't demonstrate that. That's why you need to bear your own burdens. You've got to put your own effort in. Your own labouring. And essentially what I'm trying to finish here brethren is that when you ride off the coattails of others, you start thinking you're some type of success. And sometimes if you surround yourselves with a lot of maturity, and that's the right thing to do by the way, but you can think of yourself as mature or developed but still you're a babe in Christ. You need to prove your own work. And then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone. You can be like, Lord, I've grown. I'm maturing. Lord, I'm doing things for you. I'm faithfully serving you, Lord. You know, one place that you can truly put it into practice is church. Church service. We say, hey, we're coming to we're having our services at this time. Service. My question to you is, how are you serving? How are you helping? Blessed Hope Baptist Church. Now look, if you're just turning up and you're sitting down, praise God. Great to have you. I want to bless you. Me preaching, this is my service to you today. But I want to ask you to ask yourself that question. How am I proving my own work? How am I putting into practice the things that I've learned to serve brothers and sisters here and as I serve my brothers and sisters I'm serving the Lord Jesus Christ. What am I doing to help this church flourish and to grow? How am I carrying burdens here and supporting my brethren? Because that's the blessings of church. Is that you get to put into practice the things that you've learned. You get to serve. You know, and the best way I think the best way to serve honestly, is just by cleaning up. The best way I learned to serve the Lord Jesus Christ in my churches, was cleaning the toilets. I just thought, you know what, I'm going to do the lowest job that nobody cares, nobody appreciates, nobody knows and I'm just going to clean those toilets and I just know by doing it, by humbling myself that the Lord's going to see that and He's going to reward me. I don't need the praise of men. I don't want the praise of men. I don't even want Jesus to see it. So I'm going to do the jobs that nobody you know, people don't want attention usually. I just do the ones that nobody knows. Just the little things. You know what, I see hymn books laying around after service so I'm going to go and collect them. No big deal, I'm going to put them away. I'm going to keep this place neat and tidy. When I walk in on the streets and I see the rubbish on the streets and you know, all the garbage and all that stuff out there I'm going to just quietly go and pick all that up and put it in the bin. I'm not going to say any word, I'm just doing it for the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a great way to begin serving the Lord, honestly. Whatever you do for this church I appreciate. I may never see it. I love you for it though. But put into practice the things that you've learnt. You know, just lowering yourself, humbling yourself and just, you know what, instead of, oh that kid dropped that you know, drink. I'm not going to say that. I'm just going to tidy it up. I'm going to clean it up. I'm doing it for Jesus. I'm doing it for the Lord. My eyes are on him. In fact, it's good that that kid made a mess because it gives me a chance now to serve the brethren. It gives me a chance to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Instead of criticising you know, the little ones or whatever it is, right? Anyway brethren, let everyone prove his own work and then shall he have rejoiced in himself alone. You know what, when you serve God and you've gone to church and I did that yeah, I served the Lord today. You don't have to show off. Hey everyone! You know the little kid over there dropped that and I picked it up? Guys, did you see me do it? Just rejoice in yourself alone. Say, Lord I did it for you. It changes your life. It brings the humility. Okay, the lowliness that you need to understand where you are in your spiritual development. Because man, the praise of man, well done, well done, woo! You're the only great pastor in Australia, well done. These things brethren, they're so horrible, they're so destructive. It appeals to the ego of man and it applies to the flattering lips. You know, these things are illusions of Christian maturity. So anyway, brethren, I hope you've learned something today. I hope you've been challenged. And look, if you're mature and you're grown, fully developed, praise God. Like I said earlier, if you know you're fully developed and you're well rounded as a Christian, then you're going to be the most humble one out of us all. Because you know how much more you've got to go to be more like Jesus Christ. Okay, let's pray.