Hebrews 5:11-6:12 • Jesus > Immaturity • Joel McCarty

Our scripture. This morning is from Hebrews

Hebrews 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5 will start in verse 11 and read through chapter 6,

verse 12, I'm reading from the Christian Standard Bible.

We have a great deal to say about this and it is difficult

to explain since you have become too lazy to understand.

Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone

to teach you the basic principles of God's revelation

again, you need milk, not solid food.

Now, everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced with the

message about righteousness, because he is an infant.

But solid food is for the mature for those who senses have been

trained to distinguish between good and evil.

Therefore, let us leave the elementary teaching about Christ

and go on to maturity, not laying.

Again, the foundation of repentance from dead Works,

faith in God, teaching about ritual, Washings laying on of

hands. The resurrection of the dead and

eternal judgment. And we will do this.

If God permits for it is impossible to renew to

repentance those who were once enlightened, who tasted the

Heavenly gift who shared in the Holy Spirit, who tasted God's

good word. And the powers of the coming age

and who have fallen away this is because to their own harm.

They are re crucifying the Son of God and holding him up to

contempt for the ground. That drinks the rain.

That often Falls. Jean in and that produces

vegetation useful to those for whom.

It is cultivated receives a blessing from God but if it

produces thorns and thistles it is worthless and about to be

cursed. And at the end we'll be burned

even though we are speaking this way, dearly loved friends, in

your case, we are confident of things that are better and that

pertain to Salvation. For God is Not unjust.

He will not forget your work and the love you demonstrated for

his name by serving the Saints and by continuing to serve them.

Now, we desire each of you to demonstrate the same diligence,

for the full Assurance of your hope until the end.

So that you won't become lazy. But will be imitators of those

who inherit the promises through faith and perseverance.

This is the word of the Lord. The 10,000 hour rule.

Anybody ever heard of that? Nobody only got one smart person

here. I'm just joking.

Y'all are all smart just lazy. I'm just joking.

That's a joke about the text. All right, in his 2008 book,

outliers the author Malcolm Gladwell says that 10,000 hours

is the magic number of greatness.

So he makes the case that for a person to be truly proficient in

something, they would have to intentionally practice that

thing for at least, 10,000 hours.

So, to put it in, Into perspective.

If you practice something for 20 hours a week, it would take

almost 10 years to become an expert by these metrics.

Now other authors and even Gladwell himself have pointed

out. That there are a lot of other

factors that goes into one success, such as natural Talent,

someone's family, and friends, their support system, and maybe

the quality of their teachers and trainers.

But the larger point stands, that growth takes time it takes

training Learning patience and Trust in the process and it's

not always easy as that me popping.

You know? I don't know.

Okay, I don't normally have that, all right, if it gets

really bad I can grab a handheld.

All right, so yeah, it's not always easy, right?

So last night my son was a little discouraged leaving his

baseball practice. I wasn't sure why, because I

thought he had a great practice. Once we started talking, we

figured out that it was because at the end of practice, he was

struggling to learn learn some new things.

So on the select team he's on the runners they can lead off

and still. And so when you're pitching you

have to actually pay attention and learn how to do a pickoff

move when you're running, you have to learn how to lead off

and then dive head first back to the base.

And so these are things that he's having to learn and

struggle through their not, the natural things you did, when you

play t-ball at an early age, right?

But any baseball player will have to struggle through that if

they want to mature and grow as an athlete, they can't just keep

doing the same basic things. They I didn't hit the ball off

the tee and run around the bases because the outfielders are

fighting over, right? Like at some point we mature

past that now we build on that Foundation that we learned back

in t-ball. We never ultimately leave it but

growing passed it to maturity and proficiency takes time and

perseverance and that's true for anything not just baseball,

right? If you've you're in a career or

you're a student you learn that it takes time to understand

things and to become proficient in them.

Today we're continuing our sermon series through the book

of Hebrews and our preacher is going to take a quick break from

unpacking these deep glorious truths about the priesthood of

Jesus to encourage his listeners toward perseverance and faith in

Christ. He is going to exhort them to

not grow dull, or lazy or bored with pursuing Jesus.

Because there are so many Treasures that await the person

and community that presses on into the depths of The goodness

of Christ. The reality is that giving over

our very lives to the pursuit of Jesus is worth more than any

Earthly skill or function that we could ever learn.

And the beautiful thing about giving over your life to Jesus

is that the spirit is the one who Bears the fruit in our

lives. And so the return on your

investment is guaranteed and eternal and it is well worth the

effort. So good morning again church, as

I mentioned earlier, my name is Joel and I have the privilege of

serving as one of the pastor's here, specifically the pastor

for preaching and oversight. As always, I want to thank each

of you for being here this morning and just taking time to

gather with the church, it is always an honor to see each of

your faces and know that we are in this together and that I get

to serve alongside each of you. So like I said, we're continuing

in this amazing book of Hebrews. Today, we're going to be in

Hebrews chapter 5 verse 11 through If you can make your way

Hebrews 5:11

there will also have some verses on the screen for you.

So quick review, remember the goal of the preacher of Hebrews

is to lay before his listeners. This Feast of the all Majestic

glorious nature of Jesus. He is imploring his here.

Is that Jesus is better than anything.

This world could ever offer including better than what

religion offers in this culture. It was the old Covenant way of

relating to God and so the entire theme of this book is

Jesus is better. Everybody say.

Jesus is better. We said every, well, not every

week, but most weeks, because we want to remind ourselves of

this. But in the midst of this flood

of this declaration of truths about Jesus, periodically

throughout the book. He will pause to exhort and warn

his listeners of. Not only the positive nature of

what it means to follow Christ, but also what it means to reject

Christ. And that's what our passage this

week. Is there called warning

passages. If you were with us, a few weeks

ago, we introduced to these warning passages.

There are five of them throughout the Book of Hebrews.

This is the third one. I don't have time to do a full

review. This sermons already, a lot, a

lot, a lot longer than I normally do.

Sorry, if you're in the kids space, but not going to a full

review. If you didn't get to hear that

sermon, I do encourage you to go back and listen to like the

first 15 minutes in that I introduce these warning

passages. It's helpful to have that broad

context. You can go back and listen to

it. It's called Jesus is better than

unbelief, and that's from February 19th.

If you want to listen to that later, if you missed it.

So as we go in today's passage, I just want to tell you up

front, it contains what is probably one of the most

contested and hard to understand sections in the entire Bible.

And I say this because there's a lot of different views and

thoughts on it and nobody. It's not, there's not a

consensus among Scholars and different views and I'll kind of

try to explain that but I promise you, I'm just telling

you up front. I will not be able to answer

your questions. I would love to Discuss this

further afterwards, feel free to grab me or we can grab coffee,

but I still don't fully. I think I grasped them but

there's a lot of humility there even though I spent a lot of

time researching and studying. So let's just understand that

going in. So let's get into the context.

I'm going to reread Hebrews 5 verses 11 through 14.

Hebrews 5:11–14

One more time. I'm gonna actually go back to

verse 9 of last week's Tech so we can get the context.

So Hebrews 5:9 it says, after he was perfected this Jesus.

Hebrews 5:9

He became the source of Eternal salvation for all who obey him,

and he was declared by God a high priest.

According to the order of Melchizedek, we have a great

deal to say about this. So the preacher says, Hey I want

to tell you more about the high priest of Jesus but he stops and

he says it is difficult to explain since you have become

too lazy or board to understand. Although by this time you ought

to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the basic

principles of God's revelation. Again, you need milk, not solid

food now. Everyone who lives on milk as an

experience with the message about righteousness, because he

is an infant. But solid food is for the mature

for those who senses have been trained to distinguish between

good and evil. And so, if you were with us last

week, you might remember how we saw the preacher begins diving

into the deep end of the depth of the riches about Jesus high

priest, and he has a lot more to say about that.

We're going to get to it. He's saying, there is no other

way to God, except through Christ.

The book of Hebrews makes that explicitly clear.

And he wants to continue exploring this idea because even

though like that truth seems simple on the surface like it

affects our entire life and it's like you could build on that

foundation for years for eternity because we actually

will. And so before he does that, he

stops and he inserts a warning about the problem of immaturity

in their midst. And that's the first point we

have today the problem. Of immaturity now admittedly our

preacher is generalizing right as speakers do, but he tells his

listeners that he wants to teach them more about their great high

priest. But it's difficult and he says

it's not difficult because it's a hard topic, it's difficult

because you have grown bored. This were translated lazy and

verse 11 is often translated dull.

It has the idea that their their mind has become bored.

They've just kind of grown mmm about the truth of Jesus and we

all find ourselves at times. But the question is, what do we

do? When we find ourselves there?

And he says, this boredom is the reason for their immaturity.

So that's the root problem is their boredom to describe their

immaturity. He uses a pretty basic

illustration that we can understand a day.

If a mature adult only ever drank milk, we would realize

that there was something wrong and that that it would be hard

to sustain them. It would be common sense and so

he's kind of logically saying why would it be any different

spiritually? Just as we expect a person to

grow in maturity in regard to what they can handle, what they

can eat? One of the things that I want my

kids to grow into maturity, is that they can wipe their own

butts, right? Like when we hit that point,

like, there's not as many streaks on the underwear.

We're like growing in maturity. Y'all know, it's true if you

have kids, right? Like, I want you to grow in

that. There would be something wrong

if like we're continuing that later in life, right?

And so the author at that wasn't in my notes, I don't know why.

I use that illustrate, my worst illustrations are when they're

not in the note. So But he expects followers of

Jesus to grow in maturity, in their understanding of sound

Doctrine, and their knowledge of truth.

It's common sense. And the idea here like we hear

these words and they come across as harsh and we think the goal

of his talk is to shame his listeners, but that's not it.

He actually wants them to grow in their understanding and so to

do that, he wants them to recognize where they are.

There is nothing wrong with an honest, acknowledgment of where

we are in. In our spiritual journey, I

would actually argue that. That is the first step to

experiencing growth. There are times and seasons were

all we can handle is milk for new Christians, the foundation

of basic troops has to be late. They should be drinking milk and

infant should be drinking milk, but generally speaking a healthy

disciple of Jesus will always because we know we're dependent

on Christ. We will always be actively and

humbly learning and growing continually digesting.

Truth about who God is and what he's accomplished in Christ.

We're always Ways experiencing that all and that Wonder until

one day our eyes, no longer see dimly.

But we see him face to face. And so the idea proposed by our

author is, if that's what's to come.

Why wait, why not explore these riches now?

Don't grow bored with Jesus. Because if we do at best, we

remain, immature Christians at worst.

We could prove ourselves to be false professors of Faith who

never truly believed in the first place.

And we're going to flush this out, okay?

So stay with me. So if, if knowing the problem of

immaturity is a part of the way, we grow our author continues to

give us the evidence of immaturity.

Well, how can we tell what happens when we only nurture

ourselves with milk as he ABS it.

And he says that this is evidenced by being unskilled in

the message about righteousness. Some translations, say, the word

of righteousness, this word is Reema or the message.

It's not logos. It's not the person of Jesus,

it's what the righteousness means.

How do we acquire and believe? What do we believe about how we

acquire righteousness? Contextually.

I think this is important. I don't see any other way to

interpret this in the context of Hebrews, except that our author

is saying that. If one believes that

righteousness could come from any other way, besides the work

of Christ because that's what his listeners are struggling

with learning their own righteousness.

He says that describes an immature Christian like a basic

Christianity 101. We can't Christ did not our

righteousness, not of Works lest Any man should boast.

And we may think well, of course that's true.

I almost went back to like old school like we may think well

preacher. Of course that's true I never do

that. Like hypothetical people talking

to me? Well, brother Joel not anyways,

all right. Here's the thing.

The reality is there are many who profess Christianity, who

think they have earned their righteousness and are trusting

their own works, and merits to achieve, their right standing

before God. And no matter how moral, those

people may seem, no matter how many scriptures, they can,

quote, the Pharisees knew the scriptures, but they miss Jesus.

And so, if we don't understand basic principle of

righteousness, by grace alone, through faith alone, then we

prove ourselves to be immature and in need of spiritual growth.

Inversely those that are mature. He says have had their senses

trained to understand the difference between good and evil

as one commentator pointed out again, contextually this most

likely is in regard to the dominant message of Hebrews.

What is evil as described by the author of Hebrews.

It is going back to the law. It is running underneath the law

and trying to earn salvation. That is actually evil it.

Trying to measure up base by one's own works.

And the reality is those that are spiritually mature, they

will sense and smell forms of legalism creeping up in their

own lives and the lives of others, they'll be able to smell

it. And since it, you can always put

your maybe words on it and I think that's the main

interpretation here. Now, I also want to point out

and this is also some interpretations, it is true that

as we grow in Christ, Likeness as we recognize what he's done

for us and we are transformed into His Image by the work of

the spirit. It is true that we will be able

to understand the difference between moral good and evil as

well. The choices that we make if we

truly trust God's plans in his ways and we say Jesus is better,

we trust your plans and your ways, we will be able to also

sense when other standards of Good and Evil arise in our

midst, right? When people call good.

Evil and evil good. When everyone is doing what is

right in their own eyes. We will also be able to sense

and smell that as well. And so, our author desires for

his listeners, to be trained and settled in the understanding of

the basics of Christ, Works Christ work and how that flushes

itself out in the lives of Believers.

And this has to do with the foundational truths of

Christianity, those those are settled those Score things so

that they might flush themselves out.

And we might grow, even though his words might seem a little

harsh to our ears. He is actually incredibly

hopeful. He kind of seems discourage that

first like, yo, I can't move past these things and then he

actually does move past them. So so he actually, you know,

maybe like any author speaker, he kind of uses that as a

rhetorical thing and then he's encouraged and he calls them to

press on. Look at chapter 6, verse 1 and

2, he says, therefore if this is how immaturity and maturity

works, For let us leave the elementary teaching about

Christ, don't leave Christ but the elementary teaching about

Christ and go on press on to maturity.

This word is even like in the passive form.

Like we are carried on by another person to maturity not

laying. Again, the foundation of

repentance from dead Works. Faith in God, teaching about

ritual, Washings laying on of hands.

The resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.

And so here, our author Begins to Define what he means by milk.

What does he mean by we're only feasting on milky, he does it by

naming three couplets. Okay.

The csb kind of translate a little funny, but a lot of

translations, you can see those couplets.

He's not trying to give an exhaustive list about the

foundations of Christianity. He's rather giving some of the

core examples that he hopes his listeners will settle on.

And he must believe that in some sense, they know and understand

these core doctrines because he doesn't Explain them.

He does it teach on and he simply gives them a list and he

reminds them that they should have these things kind of

settled at this point. The first couple of truths, he

mentions is repentance and Faith.

Okay, he specifically says again, contextually repentance

from what dead works, could going back to earn your

salvation. We repented from that, right?

And then we turned in faith to God instead of oneself or

rituals or the sacrificial system.

Mmm, the next couplet he mentions is ritual Washings in

the laying on of hands. Now, this is the most confusing

for commentators. The most likely idea here is one

of baptism, which was the entrance into the Christian

faith. This sign of the sealed Covenant

that had already taken place in one's heart and sometimes laying

on of hands went with that. Okay.

He hopes that mature Christians would begin to understand both

what baptism is and what it's not.

Especially if some are still counting on old Jewish Washings,

which there was to save them if they're counting on these are

like, like, we need to settle that and then the last couplet

is the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.

So, from the very beginning of the church, over 2,000 years

ago, it has been understood and believed that there will be a

final resurrection of the dead and that all will stand before.

God, And the reward that we will receive will be Eternal either

to Eternal damnation or eternal life.

And he hopes he saying I'm hoping that these things will be

settled on. These are our quarters.

Like there's not many things we hold with the close hand here,

but he's like some core things. Like we're going to read the

Nicene Creed later. Like that's what we're talking

about these core truths of Christianity.

We want to settle on these and he encourages them to leave

these Elementary teachings. Now again he doesn't say leave

Christ, he says leave these Elementary teachings about

Christ But we need to understand, this doesn't mean

leave and never return to them. It means we're not like relaying

the foundation. That's a big process doesn't

mean that the foundation, isn't there.

It doesn't mean that it's not what is built upon?

As Paul said, there's no other Foundation that can be laid

except that which is Christ. Like that's the foundation and

so he said like can we settle on Christ alone?

Because if we can't settle on that then like we can't even

talk about spiritual maturity. We can't even get there.

As a child, you don't learn your ABCs.

Just so you have a great song to sing with other people.

When you get older, right? If you're still running, I mean

cool, you can sing that song, right?

If you're teaching your kids or something else, but it's not

just something. We sing for the sake of singing,

it the ABCs are built upon to form beautiful.

Life, changing words, and paragraphs and sentences and

songs and all these other beautiful things and that

Foundation is always still there.

But we Leave it to see more beautiful flourishing.

The idea here is that these foundational truth about Christ

by the work of the spirit would be settled in her heart, so that

that could flow up into every fiber of our being and change,

everything about us Christ Alone, through faith alone, that

transforms us. And that is the only foundation

that can be late. Everything else is sinking sand.

it's like the roots of the tree that are planted so the tree can

blossom and flourish to maturity and this is what our preacher

wants to lead his listeners to he says it plainly in verse 3 of

chapter 6, Because I want to tell you about the depth of the

riches of Christ and we will do this 6:3 if God permits.

So what will we do? We will move into these depths

but I love that even in this. He recognizes that ultimately

maturity and understanding is not based on human effort or the

eloquence of one's words, but rather on the work of the

spirit, he's like this is the plan. if God permits, And that's

his aim very soon and I'm looking forward to it because we

get past this difficult text he will get to exploring the depths

of Jesus as our high priest. What?

He introduced back in chapter 5, he will continue on at the end

of chapter 6 and into chapter 7. But before he does, he continues

this exhortation by revealing, the end result of our board on

with Christ. Again, these warning passages

intentionally use extremes to kind of wake us up a little bit

and say, well, if that's the end result of boredom with Christ,

why would I go there? I'll turn to Christ, right?

It's a, it's a rhetorical means to wake his congregation his

listeners up. So that's what he does in verses

four through eight. Again, this is the text.

That is extremely complicated. Let's read it together again.

I think we'll make sense of it if you're 64 3, it says for we

will move on if God permits because it is impossible to

renew to repentance those who were once.

Enlightened, who tasted the Heavenly gift who shared in the

Holy Spirit, who tasted God's good word and the powers of the

coming age and who have fallen run away.

This is because to their own harm.

They are free crucifying. The Son of God and holding him

up to contempt for the ground. That drinks the rain.

That often falls on it and that produces vegetation useful to

those for whom. It is cultivated receives a

blessing from God but if it produces thorns and thistles it

is worthless and about to be cursed and at the end will be

burned. We saw the problem of

immaturity. Now, we see the danger of

immaturity. So again, there's a lot going on

in this few verses. I don't have time to dissect

everything, many views, many of them valid some of them not but

I think again one of the main thing is going on here is that

the preacher wants to make plainly aware of what our

boredom with Christ and his listeners boredom with Christ?

And spiritual immaturity can lead to as a means of helping

wake us up and that in V is making the decision to walk away

from Jesus and the church community at large.

I don't mean just one individual church, I mean the The Universal

Church community so this warning is a means of Grace for those

who are in Christ, truly in him to Spur them toward a greater

pursuit of knowing Jesus. So let's look a little closer to

understand how this flesh is out, okay?

We're going to try to explain some of this.

First of all, remember this is a specific context to a specific

people, right? So he's talking to That probably

experienced Pentecost in the early Church in these Jews that

had experienced these things that are in danger of going back

to that old way, okay? But I do believe that it also

has application. So let's like, who is it that he

describes Falling Away, who are these people?

So in verses four through five at a cursory reading, it could

seem as if he was talking about actual Christians.

He uses strong language, but we've already seen this a

previous sermons again, later, I love to give you scripture to

back this up, but the book of Bruised and the entirety of the

scriptures, very clearly teach that those that are truly in

Christ, cannot lose their salvation.

All that the father has given me.

I will hold onto, right? That's what Jesus says, we can

turn in the first place, so you can't lose it, okay?

But this does seem to describe those who are fully invested in

the church Community. Not just those who may be heard,

some Plan of Salvation at one time, but those who were like

fully in right? Maybe the example is those Jews

that Saw Pentecost saw the Spirit moving.

It was more than just hearing, there was an experiential

understanding of Truth and there's even sincerity in the

involvement. But in the end, these people

reject that in favor of their own self-righteousness, they

were informed but not transformed.

These seem to be the soil that Jesus describes in Matthew 13.

Jesus made it very clear that this would happen.

People who originally received the word with joy.

There's, there's an emotional experience, even But there's no

route and these people fall away because of distress or

persecution. Okay?

And let me say something very, it is not our job to label who

those people are and who those people aren't, right?

We're not. I've heard this used is, you

know, evidence of people because they left one specific Church

like, well, they must not be Christians and it's like, whoa,

like, let's be careful about that, right?

But if that's the case, if this is how we interpret it, then the

warning is to those who might be in the church Community, who are

considering rejecting Christ for whatever reason, because of

pressures persecutions and our author is exhorting.

Those people because again, he's not labeling, he doesn't know

who it is and who it isn't? He says, we'll play around.

This is a life and death matter. There is eternal judgment that

awaits. So this isn't a game, this isn't

something we just kind of trifle with and and play with.

And we can we can have doubts and questions and we wrestle

through those. Like that's there's so much

space for that for like these core things.

Like we are, pleading and begging.

To believe the gospel of Jesus. So it is for those people but it

is also for those of us who are truly Christ, who might just

find ourselves lazy and board. It is meant to stand even if

it's not to you because you are in Christ.

And I hope you have that full assurance and I'm confident that

we're going to get to that. But here's the thing.

Even as you listen, just like you might hear a son, might hear

his father. Tell his daughter don't run in

the road. The sun can learn from that,

right? And so those that truly belong

to, the father will see this warning and we will avoid the

end of Destruction. This is actually one of the

means of your perseverance is to point out.

What happens if we reject Christ?

It is a gift to us verses 7 and 8 illustrate this.

We could talk the scriptures. Do this a lot.

This idea of burying and producing fruit, the range, just

falling. It, is this almost passive

Spirit work in US, But we can look at our lives and say what

is bearing fruit or is it thorns and thistles that are useless?

The main message here is that life without Jesus is useless

and leads to destruction. So so if these people described

are those who are informed but not transformed.

What do we do with it? Is impossible to renew to

repentance these people that he describes some people think this

is a rhetorical argument where he's making kind of a absurd

statement that for these people to leave when crucifying Christ

again is. So it can't happen.

That's one view. There's other views quite a few

interpretations here again, don't have time.

So I want to just share a couple of thoughts K where I've kind of

landed I think. One view understands this word

impossible to mean generally impossible.

The root word in the Greek, could also be translated week or

powerless. And the idea here is that this

person is weak. It is nigh impossible for this

person to be renewed to repentance through, the normal

means of experiential Grace, we use that even in our culture, it

is impossible for this team to beat that team and we don't mean

literally impossible or say like the odds of it are so low,

right? And the idea here, it's

important. Want to remember the idea here

is that those that have experienced Christ and heard the

message and reject it. Generally and they walk away.

Generally don't easily come back.

Okay. Another key thing I think is

important to remember is that this conversation about these

people comes just after the preacher says, I'm going to move

to deeper things with you guys if God permits.

I think it's important to remember that the thing he says,

because I always want to what is this for for.

It is impossible. It's like because of what I just

said it is impossible. So this if God permits, why does

this fit here? And I think what he could be

saying is that because he turns to language that is third person

for the one who rejects it is, impossible to renew the one,

he's not talking to them directly anymore and I think

he's maybe telling the church, hey, to restore or renew these

individuals that have rejected, you can't restore renew them to

repentance. They've rejected kind of the

basic foundational truths about Jesus that we would normally

communicate to each other. See a means of Grace that the

church does to each other. We were store each other to

repentance. It's to confession.

We do. We remind each other of the good

news of Jesus, in the futility of running.

After other things, that's a means of Grace as we are engaged

in community together. And he said, hey, with these

people that have rejected that core message of the Gospel is

not going to work. This is impossible.

If these people have rejected Christ work, then the normal

means of Grace of rehearsing the gospel message to each other.

It is Weak and Powerless. And again this largely Bears

true, but this doesn't mean we give up hope This is important

to understand. The scriptures and human history

are replete with stories of those who walked away for a Time

who even denied look at Peter. Look at King David.

But God brought them back to his fold because they were his.

I can't read this passage without remembering Matthew 19,

the disciples are astonished at the impossibility of the rich,

entering the kingdom of God and Jesus says, looks at them and

says with, man, this is impossible, but With God, all

things are possible. So however, you interpret this

my encouragement to you pass. Oesterle.

If you have people in your life, who you've seen walk away?

With God, all things are possible, we don't give up, we

pray, and we plead with the spirit to supernaturally work in

the lives of those. We love who have walked away.

And then we continue with those that are still in our midst to

Bear the burdens that are actively engaged.

We restore those who have fallen as Galatians says, in love and

humility and patience, we don't get angry at them for asking the

questions. We don't get mad We bear with

them, long-suffering, patient. Because at the end of the day,

we all need Jesus. That's what Galatians says.

Consider yourself. Lest you also be tempted And so,

what is this drive us to do? It drives us to build on the

foundational truths of the gospel.

And this active building on this Foundation is one of the means

that God uses to keep us from ever rejecting these core

foundational truth. That's why I encourage people

that are wrestling with some of their faith.

Do that in community, like, let's wrestle.

Some things need to be torn down.

Some things need to be. Can I use the word

deconstructed? Right, that's a hard word right

now some things need to be torn down but that Foundation of of

salvation, by grace alone, through faith alone of, of all

these things that he mentions. Like man we want to build on

that and reconstruct Beauty and life because that's what

settling on this will lead to the the lot of the things we're

tearing down our things that were built on, a totally

different Foundation of legalism, and Prosperity Gospel,

and other things that exist out there, So, after all of that,

thankfully, for my sake, this passage ends with some explicit

encouragement. And I think this is an

important, the author. He gives some hard things, but

he doesn't stop there. Look at verses 9 through 12.

I love this, even though we are speaking this way, so, he

recognizes this is hard. Dearly loved friends.

Only time he uses that in Hebrews, in your case, we are

confident of things that are better and that pertain to

Salvation for God is Not unjust. He will not forget your work and

the love you demonstrated for his name by serving the Saints

and by continuing to serve them. Now we desire, each of you to

demonstrate the same diligence, for the full Assurance of your

hope, you see, this language of assurance and hope until the end

so that you won't become lazy or bored, but will be imitators of

those who inherit the promises through faith and perseverance.

After exhorting them toward maturity, he encourages them

with Incredible words of. Hope we saw the problem of

immaturity, the danger of immaturity and the last thing

we'll see, is the call to maturity.

Even though I just said all this, I am confident of things

much better for you, dearly loved friends, and this is my

encouragement to you. I don't know where all of you

are. But if you are sitting here,

wondering if you're in danger of Falling Away, the fact is and I

mean this you should be encouraged.

I have yet to meet the person who has rejected God that cares

about what God thinks about them.

The fact that you care the fact that you even want to care the

fact that you even want to be settled on.

This is evidence that the spirit of God is at work in you.

Because on our own, we just reject it.

So, even though there might be some immaturity in the church

Community, it is not a reason for Doom and Gloom, and he tells

them this God is Not unjust. The fruit of the spirit in your

lives, will not be overlooked and I want to encourage you.

I Echo the words of the preacher of Hebrews here in New Eden.

I have watched the way you served one another I've watched

as you've treated each other as brothers and sisters, and

fathers and mothers, and daughters and sons honoring each

other with your words and actions.

It is a beautiful family. I've watched the way you've

confessed sin and stumbled forward.

I've watched the way you've wrestled with and taught each

other, the beautiful doctrines of God patiently and humbly just

learning together. I've watched you sacrifice with

love and send families to the ends of the Earth, so that

others might hear this foundational gospel message.

I am absolutely confident of better things for you church, so

be encouraged. Your works that are done not to

earn salvation but out of gratitude of what Christ has

done God sees those. And he is not unjust, there is

eternal work that is being done because of that and even more

than that, he sees the work of Christ on your behalf.

And so he looks at you remember this passage about going on to

maturity comes on the heels of talking about Christ becoming

the perfect and complete son who obeys perfectly.

That's not an accident. We don't press on to maturity

without getting the fact that Christ first pressed on on our

behalf. And so when God sees you he sees

complete mature perfect. That is why he is all of this

with an encouragement to be imitators of those who inherit

the promise of God, through what faith and perseverance.

This word is more commonly translated patients.

It is. This active waiting on God to

fulfill what he promised. So the heart behind this is not

to hang on in your own strength. If we take this passage as a

call to start, earning your way into God's favor, we've missed

it, this passage is a call to trust in Christ alone, through

faith and then through suffering through pain through doubts and

struggles to just wait on God to fulfill what he promised with

patients. See, at the end of the day, we

can only demonstrate what Christ has already assured.

Us will come to past, we can only work out.

What Christ has already worked in US, we can only pursue

knowing god because God made himself known through Christ

pursuing us. We love because he first loved

us. He became flesh and entered our

world as we'll see. Next week with his life, he

became he becomes our sure and steadfast hope he enters into

the most holy place. He pressed on to maturity and

completeness. So we might receive the promise

of hope and it's based on his work.

He says, I'm swearing by This Promise by myself because

there's no one greater to swear on.

I'm still in Kevin's passage next week, it's all of grace

alone. And so the encouragement is,

here's the Hope set out like a beast sees what Christ has

already done, its the hope of the Cross and Resurrection.

With this death on the cross. Jesus, purchased life for all

who would believe in, trust in him.

He becomes the sacrifice for sin.

He absorbs all of the evil that the world could throw on his

shoulders, the thorns and thistles that, our sin, and

immaturity produces, they were rammed into his head and he

willingly took it And he's laid in a tomb buried, underneath the

weight of sin and death and the enemy.

But he rises again on the third day and he completes the work on

our behalf. He is greater than your

immaturity and he says, it's not that.

I'm just mad at you for being immature.

Like, I'm inviting you into Union with me.

I want this relationship. That's the invitation.

He said you can know God through Christ.

You can pursue me. This relationship that the fall

broke. You can now be restored to that

and explore the depths of it. Here you go.

You got eternity, get started. The answer to your boredom is

not to white-knuckle it to do more to get busy to write new

laws and new resolutions. The answer to your boredom is to

be reminded again, of the all sufficient work of Jesus Gaze on

his goodness. Look at the finished work of

Christ. And as that happens as that

Foundation is laid and settled, we will respond in gratitude and

we will actually be transformed He is more glorious than

anything else you could ever imagine.

And I know, it doesn't always feel like it because we see with

eyes dimly. So I recognize that as excited

as I am here on Sundays because I'm gathered with the church

Monday morning, I don't want anything to do with the truth

about Jesus. Sometimes I just want an app

which can be a glorious, right? Jesus, nap, too.

But here's the point, if we could spend eternity searching

and learning and we've only begun to grasp the surface,

That's why the gospel is so beautiful simple enough for a

child to understand and believe, but deep enough for the smartest

Minds in the world, to explore for eternity.

That's why our preacher is adamant.

That he's the only way he'll say this.

In Hebrews 10, there's no other sacrifice for sin.

You might be looking for something better, and I get that

long and that desire, but there is nothing better.

There's nowhere else to turn and he is worth pursuing because he

pursued us. And we don't pursue him to earn

anything when we see the Life. Death, burial, resurrection of

Jesus. And that's captured.

It's like, why would I want to run anywhere else?

If we really get what Christ has done for us, our response is one

of deep gratitude and joy. Not he's necessarily, but

following Jesus, abiding in him, resting in his work, trusting

him in the everyday, waiting into the depths of his love.

Through faith and patience, you will inherit what's in store.

His kingdom will come and his will will be done.

And all the things were searching for.

And longing, for all the promises we desire to come to

pass will, I'll pain sin, death will cease.

This is the day long for been jokingly because he's in pretty

team and I was telling about how tough the sermon was like one

more pray for Jesus to come back at 10:30 last night and I was

like, why don't you just pray like earlier in the day because

I don't want to prep for nothing.

So, I remember where I was going with this.

Jesus is returning, I don't even know.

Oh, I know what it is. Yes, one day we will no longer

be bored because we will see Jesus face-to-face.

We will no longer have to wrestle with immaturity because

we will be presented like a bride adorned for her groom,

perfect and complete in Christ. We will dwell with God, we will

be his people. This is the Hope.

And so what do we do with this church?

How do we respond in the here and now and between the first

out of and of Jesus, and the second return when the days are

long and the night is hard, the goal of this passage is not for

you to grow fearful. It is to encourage you.

In the Assurance, you have in the gospel.

So we Press On Together pursuing Jesus serving each other in love

we teach each other, we humbly learn whether this comes through

a Bible study or growth Partnerships or missional

communities and decision. Just head knowledge, it is fully

transformed the way we live. That's why he talks about what

they do, not just what they know.

And here's the thing. I don't care who you are, I

don't care, your education level, you are welcome to this

table of knowing Christ, come on, come feast.

You don't need a seminary degree.

It is not a prerequisite, just trust in the word of Christ.

He's done everything. And in the end, it's all for

intimately knowing Jesus together pursuing him, more and

more. And so we hold tightly to the

gospel. That's why it's important for us

that are members of Newton. Understand, like, you are a

piece. That's not, yes, Elders, protect

sound, dr. Lee we honor you, we submit to

you together mutually as members.

We bear each other's burdens. We were knew each other to

repentance and we together. Pray for those who have gone out

from our midst, that the spirit might give them eyes to see,

perseverance of the Saints is a community project, you are not

meant to do it alone. So maybe we constantly remind

each other of the gospel, maybe press on toward the flushing out

of the Gospel into maturity into the depths of gospel truth.

And may our eyes be fixated on Christ because he is better than

your boredom. He's more attractive than

anything else. That could be offered us.

We wait with patience, hanging onto faith in the work of Jesus

alone in close. Let me leave you with this

encouragement from Paul to the Philippians church.

He says, I am sure of this that he who started a good work in,

you will carry it on to completion until the day of

Christ. Jesus be encouraged Church.