You know this world is full of preachers, but just a few were chosen. Stay tuned for Treasured Heritage, a preaching program spotlighting those servants who have gone on to glory. Isaiah 5417 says, this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. And now, Treasured Heritage. Open your Bibles, please, to the book of 1 Peter, the 2nd chapter. 1 Peter chapter 2, in your Schofield reference Bible, page 1312, 1312. We'll be reading the first six verses of this chapter. We'll read them responsibly. The 2nd verse is the text verse for this morning's message. We must stand, please, as we always do, for the reading of the Word of God. 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, that ye may grow thereby. If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. to whom coming as unto a living stone disallowed indeed of men the chosen of God and precious. Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Let's pray. Father, help us, this is thy word, we believe it to be the very truth, and we pray that you help us to listen today, bless it to our learning, help our lives to be changed. Bless our preacher in Jesus' name. Amen. That was really a recording of my voice. The monk was really moving his lips. He's a member of the Lisbon band. And I will not comfort you this morning. I will not afflict you this morning. I will give you some of the best instruction that you ever had. I'm going to tell you this morning why most preachers who fail, fail in their preaching. I'm going to tell you this morning why most Bible institutes are dead as last year's Christmas tree, and most seminaries are deader than most Bible institutes. I'm going to tell you this morning why many parents fail in relationship with their children. I really will help you. I mean that. We're admonished in the Bible, our text, to grow in the Lord. that you may grow thereby, the sincere milk of the Lord, that you may grow thereby. And the word grow there is in the linear, which means, or durative, which means grow, and grow, and grow, and grow, and grow. I want to speak this morning on three levels of spiritual growth. I hope you'll listen carefully. By the way, I know it's a little later this morning. Mrs. Colton took a little extra time in the offertory and wasted it. And so it's a little later. Again, I'll be finished by 1210. That's a promise that I always keep, except when I don't. And I'll be finished by 1210, and I'll be out of here by 1230. I promise you that. Father, bless me as I speak this morning. I believe I can be of help as you instruct me. May you instruct these through me. In Jesus' name, Amen. I ask you to sit up straight, listen carefully. You're going to have to follow a little more carefully than usual this morning. There are at least three levels of spiritual growth. I would divide spiritual growth into three major levels. Of course, there might be sub-heads under these. But I want to call your attention this morning three levels of spiritual growth. Level number one, immaturity. Level number two, immature maturity. Level number three, maturity. Everybody in this room this morning is on one of those levels of spiritual growth. Immature, or immaturely mature, or mature as a Christian. Now let me explain what I mean. Level number one means you're just saved, or barely saved, or that's all you are is saved. You may have been saved for years, but you've not had any growth at all. Bible means little to you. Prayer means little to you. You're a child of God. You're going to heaven with the skin of your teeth. You're saved, and you'll get there barely. And you're probably about the edge of town somewhere. I have to take the streetcar down to the main Golden Streets, but you're just, and there are hundreds of people here like that this morning, good, decent citizens, and I'm glad you're members of our church, and I want you to stay here because you need help and because I love you. But that's the immature Christian. Now quickly, the level number two would be the, well, let's go back to number one first. We're talking about the carnal Christian. I believe the Bible but don't know the Bible. Then to level number two. These are people that know the Bible. They want to be good Christians and study how. But let me say this, that's not a good motive for growth. They want to be good Christians and study how. They want to be good friends and they study how to be good friends. They want to be good husbands and wives and they study how to be good husbands and wives. They want to be good parents. And they study how? And be good parents. And they go from book to book and read book after book about the Bible. And they often go from Bible conference to Bible conference to hear famous preachers or well known preachers. well-known lectures and Bible teachers to learn all that they can. These are people who want to learn the Bible. This is what I call immature maturity. Here you will find Christians who always learn but never teach what they learn. They just learn more and more and more. Here you will find many pastors who preach but they do not relate to the people, many theologians, many Bible teachers. Get this statement. They assume that everyone knows what they know, and thinks like they think, and understands their vocabulary. Do you ever go hear a Bible teacher teach and you lift and say, boy, that guy is deep. And I ask him, what did you learn while he was talking? Boy, that fellow, he really knows the Bible. But do you know it more than you did when you heard the fellow before you heard the fellow speak? You see, level number two is that group of people who learn and learn and learn and learn and either never teach at all the Apostle Paul mentioned in Hebrews. He said, some of you are learning, but it's time that you taught. And so these, level two, is like that. Level three, listen carefully, level three. Level three is maturity. What is a mature Christian? A mature Christian is one who realizes that truth is given to transfer and help people. Truth, you're not to be a collector of truth, you're supposed to be a spreader of truth. And so maturity is somebody who learns and wants to learn and realizes that learn is given to transfer and to help people. Level number three, don't leave me, realizes that he cannot speak on the level of his attainment but the level of the student. So he must take the truth and speak on the level of the one to whom he is teaching. I'll be helping Hilda Lapina to conduct the Nationwide Youth Conference. That's because both of us are young men. I'll be conducting the Nationwide Youth Conference. Every time we have one, I think of that person we had. Brother David left, and Brother Lapina was just the Band of Youth Rector, and I said, we can't have youth conference this year. Oh, he said, yes we can. I said, who's going to conduct it? He said, you are. I said, me? A 60-year-old man conducting a youth conference? He said, that's what you're going to do. And I said, no way. Well, he talked me into it. He convinced me I was young, and I was ready to go. Boy, I was all ready to go. Walking down the alley for the first service on Wednesday night, walked to the door, walked in the door, and some long-haired hippie punk young person walked up to me and said, hey, old man, what you doing conducting a youth conference? He's still unconscious. And he found out I can conduct a youth conference. But anyway, the honest truth is that far too many of us, we are not able to break what we know down into the level of those whom we're teaching. I'll be conducting a youth conference. Guess what I'll be Wednesday night, Thursday morning, Thursday afternoon, Friday morning, and Thursday night, Friday morning, Friday. Guess what I'll be? Exhausted. But I'll be a teenager. Now, I'll take some truth that I know that they don't know and put it in their vocabulary. But you see, the Bible teachers that look down near Pharisees, those snoots, those of us who are fundamental preachers, they know it and know it, but they assume that everybody understands like they can understand and has their vocabulary. Brother, that's what teaching is. Teaching is reaching down, trying to bring somebody up to your level of knowledge. then two weeks from tomorrow morning I'll be conducting vacation Bible school and guess what I'll be? I'll be a kid and you come if you don't believe it you come to see me I'll be a kid Friday I'll be rubbing liniment all over my body and taking hot baths with the But I'm trying to say, ladies and gentlemen, you're not going to reach that child of yours unless you take the truth you know, and he doesn't know, but speak it on his level. I don't mean slang now. I don't mean saying, hey, cool, baby, cool, and boy, you're neat. I don't mean that kind of stuff at all. And we have far too many Christians using the world's language and the world's vocabulary, not talking about cursing now, not talking about immorality now. I'm talking about slang the world uses. Cool means not hot. Neat means there ain't wrinkle. Now I'm trying to say it's time we quit using the language of Ashdod and use the language of our God instead. So what happens is this. This first level over here is immaturity. Then a fellow decides to learn, and he learns and learns and collects truth like a fellow would collect coins or collect stamps and collects truth and collects truth, but he never is able to convey that truth to those that don't know the truth. But now there is a higher level, Mr. Professor, I'd like to tell you. Mr. Theologian, I'd like to tell you. There remains yet some growth and grace for you also. And that growth and grace is when you take another step up, where you take the depth that you know and transfer it, because teaching is not a display of knowledge, teaching is a transfer of knowledge. So this level number three realizes that he has to speak on the attainment level, on his attainment level, is it profitable or helpful? So he takes his profundity and puts it, don't leave me, he takes his profundity and puts it in a vehicle of simplicity and transfers what he knows in this vehicle of simplicity to the learner. And the learner learns what the teacher knows. The honest, simple truth is, to know a truth for the purpose of knowing is vanity. I'll say it again. To collect truth like you collect stamps so you get all puffed up with truth and you're intellectual is a waste of time, it's vanity. To seek a truth, hear me now, to seek a truth for self-enjoyment or self-edification is selfishness. If one is too deep to be understood by the shallow, he is of no value whatsoever. Illustration. Dr. Cowling. An intellectual. Ph.D. in, I think, some kind of, what? Engineering. Georgia Tech University. Eleven years on the faculty at the University of Tennessee. Chosen faculty member of the year in that university of tens of thousands of students. Dr. Cowling stands up here at youth conference and every kid here understands what he's saying. He takes great deep truth parents, are you listening to me? Teachers in Howells-Mendelsohn College, are you listening to me? He takes great deep truths that the students do not know, and he puts it in the vocabulary that they can understand, and a vehicle of simplicity, you never transfer profundity in a profound vehicle, it can only be transferred in the vehicle of simplicity. Dr. Evans, perfect example. Dr. Evans is an intellectual. We're both historians, great historians. We're both great students of history. I know all about Babe Ruth, Red Grange, Jack Dempsey, and all the great historical characters in the world. Dr. Ebenes knows about Henry VIII, and he knows every one of his wives by name, and all the kids of each wife. He knows about Charlemagne, and what Charlemagne and what he did. She did. Whatever it is, did. But I simply say, you'd never know that Dr. Evans is profound. You'd never know Dr. Scott is profound. That's because he's not profound. But Dr. Evans is a scholar. He was once Immature as a Christian, he became an immature Christian, which means that he learned great truth and learned the great depths of the Bible and the great depths of life, but then he grew a step higher and got to where he didn't act like he knew a lot, and people would hear him because he takes great truth and breaks it down where they can understand it, thereby they can learn it. There used to be a theologian in America called Dr. Barnhouse. You've heard of him? Dr. Barnhouse. Dr. Barnhouse was a great Bible knower, but not a great Bible transfer. He called John R. Rice the common man's theologian. That's a great compliment. That means that Barnhouse is down here on level number two, where Dr. Rice is up here on level number three. Barnhouse knew the truth, but couldn't teach it. Dr. Rice knew the truth and knew how to spread it and put it in a vehicle of simplicity. And that's one thing wrong with the parents of America today. And that's one thing wrong with our institutions of so-called higher learning. Brother, the idea of preaching behind this pulpit is not to show you how much Bible I know, but for you to go home knowing the Bible I came with. And that's why I put it in vehicles where you can understand it. That's what Jesus did. He took the great doctrine of salvation, the great doctrine of justification, the great doctrine of propitiation, and the great doctrines of grace, and explained them by a drink of water, or eating a meal, or getting married, or opening a door, The greatest and deepest truths ever taught to mankind were taught by God Himself and Jesus, who is the truth. He took that great truth, He placed it in simple vehicles and transferred it to those who listened. One of the sheep ran away. A corn was lost. A fellow went out and sold a crop. Boy left home, ran away. Fellow was beaten and left for dead on the road to Jericho. A man hiring laborers. A man growing a vineyard. These illustrations, I was preaching at a Bible Institute years ago, and they did not care for me because I told too many stories. And I said to them the last day I was there, I said, I know you have not enjoyed my preaching because you think I tell too many stories. I said, let me warn you about somebody else that may come through one of these days. Don't have him. I said, I won't tell you his name, but he'll tell a story about a prodigal son or a good Samaritan, or a man went out in the field or so. Let me tell you, ladies and gentlemen, people need to know the great truths of God that people will not learn those great truths by impressive theologians or paralysts who are unable to reach the level of their children to teach them truth. They accuse him of being shallow. They accuse Jesus of being shallow. I'm like several statements. Level 3 is not interested in becoming a good Christian, but in pleasing God and helping others. I said maturity. Real maturity is not trying to become a good Christian. Real maturity is wrapped up in trying to help others. Level 3 is not interested in being a good lover, but in wanting others to be loved. Level 3 is not interested in being a good friend, but in others having a good friend. Level 3 is not trying to be a good preacher, but trying to help those to whom you preach. Level 3 is not interested in being a good wife, but in her husband having his needs met. Doesn't matter whether you're a good wife or not, it's your husband having his needs met. Doesn't matter whether you're a good husband or not, it's your wife having her needs met. It doesn't matter whether I'm a good preacher or not, or you're growing in grace. That's it. Am I comforting you? Am I encouraging you? Am I teaching you? Level 3 is not interested in being a good teacher, but in having the students learn. Level 3 is not interested in displaying knowledge, but transferring knowledge. Level 3 is not concerned about being a good giver, but for others to have what they need. Level 3 is not interested in being humble, but in serving others. Here's the danger of going to college. Listen to me. I say to my students, you come here and learn theology, and learn more theology than your country preacher back home knows, and go back home and look down your nose at him, I'll send you home to stay. Let me tell you something, the greatest preacher in this world is the guy that got you saved back home. I trained you back home. I can take you colleges across this country and I wouldn't send my poodle dog to one because he's too highbrow. But listen carefully to me. I can take you colleges across this country. They'll take students from churches all over America. that come from simple churches that sing the gospel songs and they'll take them to the music department and make a bunch of highbrow musicians out of them. They care more about Tchaikovsky than they do about Fanny Crosby. They care more about Michelangelo than they do about the Sunday school teacher back home. And they go back home and make fun of the music program back home. Let me tell you something, ladies and gentlemen. God in heaven did not intend for us to train a bunch of snobs. You heard the story. This country fella. As you know, all country folks are ignorant. City folks are more ignorant, but all country folks are ignorant. This Zeke, his ball went off to college. He came back home. Hey, some of you theologians quit looking like that. I'm tired of looking at you. Somebody ought to expose you every once in a while and let you know that you are bringing yourself down to the level of people that need your help. Well, that back to when I went off to college. This fella, Azik's boy, went off to university. He came back home for the summer after the first year. And his friend next to the farm next to him said, understanding that you're a boy, have you done off to get some learning? He said, yeah. He sure has. He said, what has he been learned? He said, you wouldn't recognize my boy. He said before he went to college, he'd plow a row on the farm, and he'd say to the mule, whoa, Reb, turn around and get up! But after a year of college, he says, halt, Rebecca, pivot, and proceed. I bet you old Reb didn't know what to do. That's why my mother, what my mother did the year I could not go to school. She knew I loved sports and she put math down to the level of sports and taught me math by learning the batting averages and figuring the batting averages of the professional baseball players. She taught me geography by teaching me what the terrain and crops were like. In the cities that were in the major leagues, she taught me history by teaching me the history of all these places. I'm trying to say the honest simple truth is we are rearing a bunch of people that are not transferring knowledge and that's one reason why young people... Look, you wait till these kids leave here next Friday afternoon. Come out there Thursday night to the lake. And watch me play a fool with those kids. Last year, I told the guys in the same group, jump in the lake and I'll buy you a suit. I pushed one in, the rest followed. By the way, I don't need a new suit. But you wait. There's no such thing as old people, it's just people who got old. No, sir. And these fellows, you guys at your family devotions have a revival meeting. Sit still, Junior. You do that while you're preaching, not while you're teaching at all. But I'm trying to say that level number one is immaturity. Level number two is maturity but unwillingness or inability to take what you know and transfer it from your mind to somebody else's. Level number three is ever learning the truth and then ever teaching the truth and putting it on the level of vehicular simplicity where folks can understand it. Let me warn you, those who reach level three will be considered shallow by level two. Dr. Barnhouse and Dr. Rice, the common man theologian. Let me warn you, get this statement. Level number two manufactures its own depth, manufactures its own love, manufactures its own humility, and manufactures its own meekness, which are all counterfeit. Some of the most mature Christians in this room are considered shallow by those collectors of truth. Whose barn is full, yet feed nobody. I ask you a question. Bring it down to your level. What are you doing with what you know? There are people sitting in this room that have been sitting here 40 years. You never have taught anybody a single thing that you know. Well, you sit by the house and I can't teach your son. That's one thing I like about the Amish people. And I don't like their plan of salvation, but I like the fact that those Amish boys grew up to have a trade. If some of you guys would spend less time at the bowling lane with your boy, and make building interesting to your boy, and teach your boy a trade, in Jesus' time every boy hadn't been taught a trade by his Jewish father by the time he was twelve years old. What are you doing? What do you know? Listen carefully. You don't learn, and learn, and learn, and learn, and learn, and learn, and then after you've learned it all, you teach, and teach, and teach, and teach, and teach. So what do you do? You learn, and teach, and learn, and teach, and learn, and teach, and learn, and teach. Now, the honest simple truth is, we have students at Howells Anderson College that are sitting in class after class and making A's. But you don't want a bunch of A's. You just hear the Bible Club spoken about, but you know what they are. You're too busy collecting truth. You're no more than a stamp collector, a coin collector. You're a truth collector. But the truth is, you're not supposed to just learn. You're supposed to learn and then go out and find somebody who knows less than you know and teach them what you know. And put it on their level. And I'll promise you this. The guys out there building great churches on mission fields and across America went to Howells Anderson College are guys that went out on Saturday and taught those people on their bus routes and Bible clubs and other ministries. They taught them what they learned Monday through Friday. I'll say it again. You don't learn and learn and learn and learn and learn and learn and then teach and teach and teach and teach and teach. What do you do? You learn and you teach. You learn Then you teach. Now in my text, when you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you. When you ought to be teachers. Some of you people ought to get a Sunday school class. You ought to call the church office and ask Ms. McKinney and tell Ms. McKinney that you want a Sunday school class. You get you some boys and girls and children and teenagers, and you teach them the Bible. You've learned and learned and learned and learned and learned and learned, but you're just like a stuffed toad sitting on a log. You're about to explode, but you don't ever teach anybody anything. Listen carefully. You say, well, the high house, I'm not a preacher. God didn't call me to preach. God called you to convey what you know. I think about the teachers I had. I think about my district teacher in college. Her name was Miller. If the Antichrist is a woman, it'll be Mrs. Miller. This is Miller. She's one of the smartest ladies I ever knew in my life. And boy, you walk out of that class and you say, wow, isn't she brilliant? But wait until test time to see what she taught you. I shouldn't have done this, but I did it. A lot of things I shouldn't have done, I did. I plan to do some more things I shouldn't do, too. But wait a minute. She gave us the test, the first test. Forty students. Nobody made an A. Nobody made a B. Seven people made C's. And 33 made F's. I was one of the seven that made a C. No applause, please. Thank you. I was one of the seven that made a C. Thirty-three kids. They paid tuition to go in there and listen to her display her knowledge. So, I asked to speak. She said, Ms. Tiles, what do you have to say? I said, Ms. Miller, I said, nobody made an A, nobody made a B. Why is it they make A's in other classes and F's in your class? I said, ever dawn on you? that a grade on a test paper not only explains the ability of the pupil to learn, but the ability of the teacher to teach. I don't know why, but she got upset with me. But there's Mr. Tyson. He taught the same course Ms. Miller taught. Brother, he acted it out. I mean, he taught the same history courses as Ms. Miller taught. He knew it, and boy, he lived. When you got back there with Napoleon, brother, you were on the battlefield with Napoleon. He took the great truths of history. That's what Dr. Evans does. The great truths of history. He made them live. Shoot. I mean, praise the Lord. And then shoot. When I was a, when our kids were little, I'd go to their bedroom every night at bedtime. I want to tell you a story. There was this fella. He was a Jew. Name was A.B. Finkelstein. He was a Jew. He left Shrewsburg one day. He was walking down toward Jericho. I do that. And all of a sudden somebody came up and they grabbed him and they hit him and hit him again and hit him and knocked him down and he was on the ground half dead. Please walk by." Looked at him, passed by on the other side. Whenever I got to teaching my kids the Good Samaritan story, bless God, I was soaked with perspiration. Ladies and gentlemen, spiritual growth, maturity, is when you have been immature but you have learned. But not just learn truth, but learn how to convey truth. I see Ms. Evans back there. I want to go to her speech class sometime. Every few loads in America, I want to go to Ms. Evans' speech class. She's a fool. I don't mean in speech, I mean in every area, but she's a fool. She'll teach you more about preaching than all the homiletic teachers in America will. Why? She has learned truth. She was immature, she became mature, immature and immature, she got the truth, but bless God she decided she was going to put it on the level in a vehicle of simplicity so her students could walk away carrying the same baggage that she had when she entered the classroom. Who are you this morning? Immature? How much Bible have you read this week? How much have you prayed? How much Bible truth have you tried to learn? Immature, or are you immaturely mature? You know the Bible, but you're doing nothing about conveying it. Maybe you don't even try. I said again, get your Sunday School class, get your bus route, and take the truth of God that you've learned and spread it! That's what this book is all about. That's what truth is all about. Or is it the fact that you are so impressed with your intelligentsia that you want folks to be impressed with how much you know? You better keep on saying, whoa, Rev, turn around and get up. That's the language Rev understands. Would you bow your heads, please? Who's gonna preach the Bible and never compromise at all? Who's gonna give their heart and soul to spread the gospel? We appreciate you listening to Treasured Heritage. Tune in at the same time every weekday to hear God's Word.