Mediator: Maturing in the Mediator | Sunday Weekend Service | Josiah Smith

Astronauts who spend months on the International Space Station, if you didn't know this, they have to exercise consistently.

I mean, every day, uh, with great intensity, because in zero gravity, they experience significant muscle and bone atrophy.

There's no resistance from gravity.

And the scary part about this is that this atrophy happens even if the astronaut doesn't feel it or is nevertheless unaware of it.

Of course, they are because they go through training, but it happens whether or not they feel it internally, at least right away.

An astronaut could feel perfectly fine floating through the station while his or her body was quietly unbeknownst to them getting weaker.

And in that sense, the drift is often painless, it's invisible, but it never really stops on its own.

Without resistance and daily deliberate work, the body inevitably declines.

And that's ultimately a picture of what the author of Hebrews is worried about in the church that he is writing to.

I want you to notice where we are at in this letter.

In the verses just before our text in Hebrews 5, 11 through 14, in the verses right before that, the author has been building toward one of the richest truths in the entire book.

In fact, the majority of the book from chapter 5 all the way through chapter 10 is all about the priesthood of Jesus, that Jesus is our great high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

And really, the author is he's ready to open it up.

He's ready to full throttle this thing and show them more of the glory of Christ.

But then comes verse 11 in our text.

He stops, it's almost as if he stops mid-thought.

It's as if he has a pen course that he's writing and he sets it down and he basically says, I have so much more to tell you about this, Christians.

But it's hard to explain because you have become dull of hearing.

So it gives a diagnosis for their issue.

And the problem that he states isn't really that the truth is too deep or too lofty.

The problem is with the listeners.

Something has changed in them.

They've drifted slowly and quietly, perhaps, and probably without noticing.

Yet they need someone to walk them back through the ABCs of the faith.

Now, what we need to wrestle with this morning is that in the Christian life, there is no such thing as standing still.

There is no such thing as really being stagnant.

What we're going to see in this passage is that like an astronaut in orbit, you are either being strengthened or you are digressing.

You are progressing or you are digressing.

So the question this morning is which direction are you moving?

And what remedies does God give us through the grace of Jesus Christ by His Holy Spirit and His Word to see progress and maturity rather than digression?

So I want you to see that as we open to our text.

Hebrews 5.

Let me read it for us, 11 through 14, the end of chapter 5.

And I want you to notice the argument.

About this, we have much to say.

About the Mekizedek priesthood that he just got done referencing.

Again, now he's going to expound it in chapter 7 and onward.

But here he takes a break, break.

He puts his pen down, he says, About this, I have much to say, we have much to say, and it is hard to explain.

For what reason?

Is it because it's too technical?

Is it too theological?

Is there too many big words?

No, he says, Since you have become dull of hearing.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God.

You need milk, not solid food.

For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.

But solid food is for the mature.

For those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

So it starts with this kind of confrontation, this diagnosis.

And that launches us, and that goes all the way through verses one and two, really, of chapter six, because in chapter six it brackets really well.

Verse one, therefore, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity.

So don't stay children, don't say infants, move forward, progress, mature in the mediator, if you want to say it that way.

The mediator, Jesus Christ, between God and man.

Mature in Him.

Go on.

Not the elementary doctrine of Christ.

We want to go on to maturity, he says.

But then he transitions and he gives perhaps the most strenuous warning in the entire book.

There are multiple warning passages.

We've dealt with some already, but chapter six is an infamous warning passage.

Chapter six, perhaps, above all chapters, maybe chapter 10 is a close second.

But chapter six, above all chapters in Hebrews, has given rise for so much anxiety, so much uncertainty, so much questions theologically.

How does this work?

How does this fit?

Now, notice we're not getting into that today.

We'll get into that a few weeks from now, so I have more time to study.

But notice the argument.

It says there's a confrontation, and then it launches into a warning.

It's a stern warning, a serious warning, really in verses four through eight.

But then the warning is followed by an encouragement, starting in verse nine.

After the warning, it says, Though we speak in this way, though we warn you in this way, yet in your case, audience, beloved, we feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation.

So he confronts them, he gives them a diagnosis, he warns them, those two things are connected.

Then he encourages them, and then he ends with assurance, which is really the whole point of Hebrews, to have assurance and confidence and to run the race of faith well.

So he ends with assurance, even in verse 13 of chapter 6, for when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself.

And he goes on to detail what all that means, but then he goes on in verse 18.

So that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

So he ends at the end of chapter six with assurance.

So it starts with a shame, if you will, a diagnosis, a confrontation.

Then it is followed by a warning, followed by encouragement, followed by assurance.

I mean, that's that's the argument as it unfolds.

Now we begin this morning with the diagnosis and the confrontation, the the confrontation of these listeners, of his audience that he's writing to.

We have much to say, and it's hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing.

Now, the way we're gonna work through this text this morning is we're gonna have one kind of overarching point and then some subpoints underneath that'll keep us moving through the text.

But point number one, let's let's think about it this way: be rightfully concerned about lack of spiritual maturity.

That is what he's addressing in this text.

You are children, you are infants.

And even in verse one of chapter six, let us go on to maturity.

His concern is maturity or lack thereof.

So he's diagnosing them, he's confronting them.

And I want you, just like the author was concerned with the audience that he was writing to in Hebrews, I want you to be concerned with spiritual maturity.

Now it's worded that way intentionally, be rightfully concerned, because there's a way to be concerned about maturity and spiritual growth and even spiritual progress, if you want to call it that, that it is unhelpful, unbiblical, unfruitful.

There's a way to be concerned about maturity where it becomes a sort of works righteousness, where it's just about clenching your fists harder, it's just about doing more, being better, growing more.

And in that sense, no, that's not what I'm saying.

That's not what the author of Hebrews is saying.

But nevertheless, there is a right way to be concerned about lack of spiritual maturity, and that right way is detailed here in the text.

The author's concern.

Why are you children?

Why are you kids?

Why are you still on milk?

Why are you not on solid food?

Why have your powers of discernment not been trained by constant practice?

You need to grow up, the author of Hebrews says.

We don't have a right concern about lack of spiritual maturity.

And we ought to be able to diagnose, even given this text, whether that's true of us.

Now let's work through the text and try to make sense of okay, is it true of us?

Why was it true of them?

And what lessons can we learn along the way?

But letter A, kind of subpoint on your outline there.

Here's what the text tells us.

You are either in spiritual maturity, you are either progressing or digressing.

There is no in between.

We already kind of talked about that with the astronauts and their atrophy and things like that.

But this is what the text tells us.

You are either progressing or digressing, there's no in between.

Now, where are we getting that?

Look at verse 11 again.

Verse 11 says about this, which that this is the Melchizedekian priesthood, which he picks back up in chapter seven.

So he takes a long break to encourage, to rebuke, to warn, and to give assurance.

And then he goes back to the Melchizedekian priesthood and he details it in chapter seven and on.

But he says, About this, we have much to say.

We got we want to talk about it more.

There's more implications, there's more that needs to be addressed, there's there's more that you need to understand, but it's hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing.

Now, where am I getting this?

You're either progressing or digressing.

There's no in between.

Well, look at verse 11 carefully.

It says, You have become dull of hearing.

The way that he writes this, the way that he asserts this diagnosis is that they are now something, the audience that he's writing to, these Christians, these Hebrews, they are now something that they did not used to be.

Do you see that there in the text?

You have become.

You were once something else, perhaps further along, for perhaps maturity, but there's been a digression.

You have become dull of hearing.

It doesn't happen overnight.

There's a process that takes place, but he says, You have become.

They are now something that they didn't used to be.

Hearing was once not characterized by their dullness, or you could translate it, sluggishness.

It was not characterized by that, it was characterized by something else.

So, in this instance, the direction that they're going is digression.

They're not going forward, which is why in chapter six, at least as he writes to them right now, that's why in chapter six he says, Let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity.

Let's go forward together.

Let's not digress, let's not be sluggish, let's not grow dull of hearing.

You have become something that you once weren't.

Now let's let's go back, let's go on, let's let's continue to mature.

The direction in this sense is digression.

Now, the diagnosis as he describes it here is that phrase dull of hearing.

What does that mean?

What does it mean to be sluggish or dull of hearing?

Well, this sounds similar to chapter 3, verse 13.

Turn there with me.

Chapter 3, verse 13.

This is in the middle of the author's kind of excursus as he's talking about the nation of Israel that were hardened in their unbelief.

They were disobedient, they rebelled, they did not make it into the promised land, they did not receive God's rest.

So there's an encouragement in verse 12.

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, which is also kind of a synonym, a parallel phrase to what we're seeing.

They're sluggish in hearing, by the way.

In the Bible, oftentimes hearing, your heart has ears.

Let me just say it that way.

That's a weird way to put it.

But your heart has ears, right?

And that's the that's the whole point.

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

But exhort one another every day, encourage one another every day, as long as it's called today.

And we all know what today is, right?

Today is today.

But exhort one another every day, as long as you call it today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

So this is a parallel phrase, hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, that they've grown hardened in some sense.

There's a callousness that is true of Christians in this context.

He's writing to believers, which is why in chapter six he says, Though we speak in this way, in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation.

So he's talking to believers.

He's not talking to unbelievers, and he's saying that they have grown dull of hearing, that they have uh have been hardened in some sense by the deceitfulness of sin.

A spiritual drift has taken place because you're either progressing forward, you're going on to maturity, leaving behind something, or you're digressing.

And that's what we see here, that there's a spiritual drift.

They're digressing.

One author put it this way: Dullness is a heart so inattentive and so unresponsive to the word that no hope, no faith, or patience is born in the particular circumstances of their life as they find themselves right now.

Of course, does it stay that way?

No, that's the whole point of the author that he's trying to urge them towards maturity.

But nevertheless, there is a digression spiritually that takes place.

So the question is what causes, broadly speaking, spiritual digression?

If they've digressed, if they were once something, but now they have become something else, dull of hearing, what happened?

What took place?

Now, let me give you four things just to think about from the context of Hebrews broadly that I think answers this question.

What caused their spiritual drift, their spiritual digression, and by extension, what might cause ours today?

The first I would say is neglect.

That's a broad category.

But neglect, I'm thinking of Hebrews chapter 2, verse 1, where the author says that we ought to pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away.

Hebrews 2:1

So even there, there's a there's an urging, there's a warning.

Pay attention, cling to Christ, look to Him.

That's how chapter three begins.

Look to Jesus, consider Jesus, the author, the perfector, the apostle, and high priest of our confession.

So being neglectful is not paying attention to what you have heard.

Being neglectful is not rightly meditating on, treasuring, delighting yourself in the truth and the glory of who Jesus Christ is and what he accomplished for you in and through the gospel.

That's what neglect is.

And that looks any number of ways in our life.

It looks like a lack of even just time in the word, a lack of a ver of a prayer life, but neglect.

We're not paying attention.

And what does the author of Hebrews say in chapter 2, verse 1?

If we're not paying much closer attention, we're drifting away.

Those are the two options that the author of Hebrews gives us.

You're either clinging or you're drifting, you're progressing, Hebrews 6, 1, or you're digressing.

You have become dull of hearing.

And a neglect of Jesus, of who he is, of what he has done, of his righteousness, of his grace, of his mercy, not going to the throne of grace that is open for you to come confidently to the Lord to receive mercy and grace.

That's neglect.

And neglect in that sense leads towards spiritual digression.

It leads to the kind of thing where someone, like the author of Hebrews, could say, it's hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing.

You've been sluggish.

There's a hardness of heart by the deceitfulness of sin.

There's things going on that are hindering your growth and your flourishing and your maturity in the Lord.

And some of that comes down to our neglect.

The second thing I would say, what causes spiritual digression?

Craving for comfort.

Now put that in the context of Hebrews.

Because in Hebrews, uh the audience that's being written to, they are facing persecution, they are facing uh suffering, they are facing opposition, and they're being pressured in a sense, I think largely by the Roman government and those kind of in cahoots with the Roman government at this time to abandon Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and the gospel they proclaimed and go back to Judaism.

So they're facing persecution, they're facing a suffering, and as a result, they're craving the comfort rather than their current experience.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

The author, the author is addressing a particular group of Christians that is in a difficult circumstance.

Now, why is it that Rome is so concerned about Jesus?

Well, up until this point, Rome has been an occupying power of Israel for quite a while, right?

Even so much so that they've got, hey, this is all working out.

You do your thing, we'll do our thing.

And you know what?

Why don't you take some of your people that'll collect taxes for our people?

It'll be great, right?

And then the people they hated the tax collectors, and some of the disciples were tax collectors.

But that that's the so they've been occupying Israel for a long time.

Everything had been operating hunky dory, we're all we're all good and well.

Jesus, the Messiah, the long-awaited king, steps on the scene.

Everything gets upended.

I mean, even in the book of Acts, it says that they had turned the world upside down.

And Rome is like, what is going on?

We had an agreement.

I thought we were all on the same page.

Uh, we were okay with this Judaism thing.

We were okay with your temple, we were okay with your sacrifices, your days of atonement.

Uh, but but Jesus and and his disciples, his apostles, and everything that's going on, 3,000 people being added to the church in one day.

We're not for this, we don't want this.

And so the church is facing persecution.

And as a result, it's a natural response.

We can sympathize with this, but there's a craving for comfort.

They didn't want persecution, they didn't want suffering, they didn't want hardship.

And so, in their minds, they might be thinking it's it's easier for us just to go back to the status quo.

What Rome's okay with, what our religious leaders are okay with, our Pharisees, our Sadducees.

Oh, we if we just go back to Judaism, if we just keep doing the things that we've always done, it'll be it'll be okay.

And the comfort perhaps is causing them to drift.

They've been saved, they've been born again, that can't be taken from them.

That's not the point the author is making, but they've digressed, they've shrunken back because of something that is external to them in this sense persecution, suffering, hardship, and they're craving for comfort.

They're they're pining after it.

And the author of Hebrews addresses that in multiple points throughout the book.

So we have neglect, right?

You must pay much closer attention lest you drift away.

You have a craving for comfort, not wanting uh, in their instance, persecution or suffering or hardship are for us, right?

We just our comfort is not to escape oftentimes, difficulty caused by our our commitment to Christ.

Our comfort is just because it's our comfort, because it's what we want.

It's it's how we want to live our lives, it's the things that we want to find pleasure in.

And those things uh perhaps have a less legitimate reason than the people that the author of Hebrews is writing to, but nevertheless, the the comfort, the craving for it is the same.

And that can cause spiritual digression.

Here's the third thing: doubt in God's power and promises.

So we have neglect, we're not paying attention, we have a craving for comfort in their instance, persecution, suffering, hardship.

They wanted that to go away.

But also they had a doubt in God's power and promises.

Not a doubt that encompassed their life, but a doubt certainly that was creeping in in the midst of persecution, which is why I think of the examples that are given in chapters three and four of Israel, of the Israel, of Israelites.

They are right outside the promised land.

And and what happens?

They send the 12 spies, 10 come back, they give the bad report, everything goes off the the wagon, the wheels fall off the wagon, right?

Everything they start to rebel, they disobey as a result.

They are not united with with those who believed because of their unbelief and their disobedience, and they did not make it into the promised land, they did not receive God's rest.

And all of that, he was warning and encouraging the the author.

The author is encouraging the the Hebrews hey, hey, don't do that, don't be like them, don't be overcome with doubt, don't worry, don't worry about this.

Believe in God's power, believe in God's promises, which is, by the way, what he talks about in chapter six.

Remember what I talked about?

Assurance.

He talks about assurance and connects it to God's promises.

Verse 13 of chapter six, he said, For when God made a promise to Abraham, and then he goes on in details.

How he's going to keep the promise, how he's going to make sure that the promise comes true, how we know that we can trust the promise.

Verse 17.

So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath.

So that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

So he's encouraging them.

Remember what he did.

Remember how he promised to Abraham.

Remember how he kept it to Abraham.

Remember how he continues to keep every jot and tittle of every promise that he's ever made.

Be encouraged.

And so a lack of trusting in God's power, a lack of trusting in God's promises leads to in instances and circumstances in Israel.

It leads to unbelief.

Right?

God, I don't know if I don't know.

I don't know.

I'm having a hard time believing.

I'm having a hard time trusting.

I'm having a hard time.

This doesn't make sense.

I know that you're powerful.

I know that you've promised.

How could this be true?

And so the author of Hebrews is trying to encourage them.

Hey, remember the promise.

Remember what he said.

And even in verse 19 of chapter 6, we have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever at the order of Melchizedek.

Be encouraged, he says.

We have this hope.

It's an anchor for our soul.

Jesus has gone behind the curtain, the Holy of Holies, as a forerunner after the order of Melchizedek.

He secured an eternal salvation to those who believe.

He made purification for sins.

He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

Trust in God's power, trust in God's promises, and a lack of doing so leads to spiritual digression.

So we have neglect, not paying attention, craving for comfort, not wanting in their instance, persecution, suffering, or hardship, doubt in God's power and promises, which comes into our hearts in any number of ways for any number of reasons.

And number four, what causes spiritual digression?

Downplaying obedience.

Downplaying that the reality in Hebrews specifically is that faith and obedience are inseparable.

You see them used, it almost feels interchangeably at times, as we even we talked about last week.

Because Hebrews 5, verse 9 says, and being made perfect, he became the source of all eternal salvation to all who obey him.

Hebrews 5:9

Now, of course, obedience follows faith.

That's always the way that we see it in scripture.

Even later on in Hebrews 11, we talked about this last week.

Abraham believed and he obeyed.

By faith, Abraham obeyed.

So it's not salvation by obedience, but obedience is always a fruit, something that flows out of faith.

And downplaying that can be something that causes spiritual digression, which is part of what he's going to address.

He's going to address it in a variety of ways.

He's going to talk about the word of righteousness.

He's going to talk about powers of discernment trained by constant practice.

But his concern is not that they know a certain number of facts about who Jesus is.

They're concerned that the truth of who Jesus is transforms them, that they live a righteous life, that they go on to maturity, that works its way out in the way that they think, speak, live, what they do, how they spend their money.

He wants all of that to be skillful in the word of righteousness.

And right now he says, You're not.

You're unskilled in the word of righteousness because they've they've digressed.

You have become dull of hearing.

Which, by the way, someone who is not a Christian can't become dull of hearing because they're deaf, right?

Biblically speaking.

Hearing they do not hear, Jesus says, seeing they do not see.

So he's talking to Christians.

You you have hearing, you have the ability to hear, but but they can become dulled by neglect, by craving for comfort, doubt in God's power and promises, downplaying obedience, all of these things and more, but just trying to keep it in the context of Hebrews cause spiritual digression.

So we need to recognize that you are either progressing in the Christian life towards spiritual maturity or you're digressing.

There is no in between.

We must pay much closer attention lest we drift away.

Although we have much to say, it's hard to explain since you have become dull of the hearing.

Now here's the next thing that the author of Hebrews says, verse 12.

Let me read it for us.

It says, For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God.

You need milk, not solid food.

Now notice that phrase, for though by this time.

Time has gone by, so much so that he's saying, What's going on?

Enough time has passed and you have not matured.

And that tells us something I think that is very important for us to understand.

Letter B on your outline.

Time as a Christian does not automatically mean maturity.

Do you see that in the text?

Time does not automatically mean maturity.

It's a common belief in our day and age that time and age equals automatic maturity.

I've been walking with the Lord for 20 years, therefore I am mature in these ways.

Now that should be the case, and the expectation of the author of Hebrews is that yes, time has gone by, you should be growing, but it's not always the case.

It's not necessarily the case, and that's part of the problem.

It's he says, though by this time, he doesn't say how much time, but clearly this is not a brand new church.

These are not exactly brand new believers.

And he says, Well, well, the amount of time that has passed isn't told to us, it isn't specified.

It was nevertheless enough to become inappropriate and concerning in the eyes of the author of Hebrews.

Do you see that there in verse verse 12?

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, there's something you ought to be.

Time has passed.

The maturity that should have accompanied that time is not there.

It's concerning for him.

It's it's concerning.

So we can't just say, I've been a Christian for 30 years, therefore I'm mature.

It's just that's not how it works.

That's what he's saying.

You time has gone by, sure, but but you're not a teacher yet.

You need someone to keep teaching you.

You you need someone to go back to the basics.

You should have progressed, but you haven't.

You haven't happened.

There's an expectation for growth to happen over time.

But of course, what we're seeing in the text is there's a realization that that hasn't taken place.

And he goes on.

Okay, well, if what what way should they have grown?

Well, he says, You ought to be teachers.

For though by this time, however much time has passed, whatever, whatever the amount of time is, we don't know, because that that would be just that'd be our luck.

We we would have a number of time there, and that would be some dogmatic thing that we would make in our lives.

That's not the point.

But he's saying enough time is passed, you ought to have grown, and you haven't.

You you should have grown, you ought to be teachers, he says.

Now, what does this mean?

Well, he's not talking about teachers in the the formal office sense.

He's not writing to a group of Christians and saying, all of you need to be elders and pastors.

That's not his point.

He's talking about teachers in a very broad way, right?

He's basically just saying Christians that are able to teach the basics about Jesus with a sense of integrity because they live what they teach.

And by the way, the issue is not their regurgitation or their lack of understanding or in the in the sense of the facts.

I'm sure if you ask these Hebrews, hey, tell me the gospel, they could probably tell you.

Maybe they didn't know all the implications of the Melchizedekian priesthood.

But I'm sure that how they got saved, they could tell you that.

It's not a matter of information, that's not the concern.

The concern is that the information, it's it's not leading in their life to transformation, to greater righteousness, which is why he goes on to say, you're unskilled in the word of righteousness.

Which righteousness, what is that?

It means to live rightly in the sight of God.

So he his concern is not again, not just a series of facts, but they ought to be teachers, but they can't be, because they can't say with integrity, follow me as I follow Christ, at this stage, because they're not growing, they're not maturing in the way that they should.

You ought to be teachers.

But they can't be because of their immaturity, at least with where he finds them.

Here's a challenging reality that I that I see in this text.

Some of us are not where we ought to be spiritually.

I want you to see in this text that there's expectation for growth.

By this time, you ought to be teachers.

That's that's an expectation.

Time has passed, you should be here, but you're not.

And of course, there's grace for that, and that's the whole point.

He's going to continue to minister the grace of Jesus Christ to them.

That's his solution to this.

But nevertheless, his diagnosis is you're not where you need to be.

And the same thing can be true, and often is true of us.

That it could be said of us, if someone was writing you a letter or someone was writing me a letter, you ought to be.

And none of us are apostles.

I get that.

None of us have the divine revelation to speak in these very authoritative ways.

But nevertheless, the expectation for growth here that we see in the Hebrews is that we we ought to be growing.

And so there's a reality in this text, and even true for us, that perhaps we are not where we should be for any number of reasons.

But that's what he's addressing.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, yet you should be progressed further than you are.

The reality here is that, of course, we we maybe are not where we ought to be, maybe we're not where we want to be.

But the the way to get there is not just try harder, the way to get there is to look to Jesus, the author and perfector of your faith.

That's what he's going to go on to say.

But nevertheless, there continues to be an expectation for growth and maturity.

And if we have a lack of concern for spiritual maturity, if if growing is not an expectation that you have, like there is in this text, there is an expectation for growth.

There's no way around that.

You ought to be teachers, but you're not.

You should be growing.

Therefore, let us go on, he says in chapter 6, verse 1, to maturity.

There's an expectation for growth.

And a lack of concern for spiritual maturity puts us in the crosshairs of this text.

Potentially dull of hearing, not being where we ought to be, not mature in the ways that we should be.

And so what do we need?

We need the Lord, we need help, we need the Spirit of God, we need the Word of God, we need the grace of God, which is why, by the way, all of this was started, this whole conversation began back in Hebrews chapter 4 with the throne of grace is open.

Hebrews 4 · chapter mention

You can go freely and confidently and boldly to receive mercy and grace in times of trouble.

And the time of trouble is when you recognize, perhaps the spirit reveals to you, perhaps you read this text and you say, Man, that's me.

I ought to be something that I'm not.

I'm not growing in the ways that I should.

The answer, the solution to that is go to the throne and receive the mercy and the grace that you need to grow in the ways that God has told you you ought to be growing in.

So a lack of concern.

If we're just like, well, it'll it'll it'll come, or or whatever, whatever kind of things that we might say, or um, it puts us in the crosshairs of this text.

There's an expectation for growth.

And we don't do it on our own.

It's not something that we we bootstrap.

This is a divine work of God by the Spirit of God and the grace of God.

But nevertheless, there's an expectation that the author has that they should be growing, they should be farther along than the than they really are.

Now, here's what we continue to see in the text.

He goes on and says, You need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God.

You ought to be a teacher.

You can't be though, because because you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God.

Now, what are these basic principles?

I'm gonna be honest with you.

I don't actually know.

I don't know what they are in the text.

I could I could give you my own list that I would think this is basic to Christianity.

This is like every every Christian should know these things.

But the text itself doesn't explicitly say it.

Now, the best answer that I've seen, though I'm not really convinced of it, so maybe it's not the best answer, but the answer that I've seen is in verses one and two of chapter six.

So if we let's just read together, verses one and two of chapter six, therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ.

Of course, that is that is parallel.

Let's talk about the same thing, basic principles, elementary doctrine of Christ, those things are talking about the same thing.

Just let us leave those and go on to maturity, and then it lists a couple things, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instructions about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

So a lot of commentators will see those two verses and will say that's the basic principles of the oracles of God.

I'm not convinced of that.

I'll tell you that in two weeks when we get into chapter six.

Nevertheless, it's not incredibly clear what the basic principles are.

But they certainly, I can tell you this with certainty, they certainly revolve around the gospel, and they certainly revolve around Jesus.

Because that's the whole point in the midst of this.

We're talking about Jesus, we're talking about his priesthood, we're talking about how he he obtained an eternal salvation for those who obey him.

We're talking about how he's a priest after the order of Melchizedek.

We're talking about how he's a priest just like Aaron, but in a better way, right?

Chapter 5 is he's similar, chapter seven, he's better.

So it's about Jesus, it's about the gospel.

That much I know is clear, but the specifics of it we we don't really see.

It doesn't spell it out.

They do correspond to the elementary doctrine of Christ, those are parallel terms, but nevertheless, we don't really know.

But there is some some block of teaching, if you will, that the author of Hebrews says this is basic.

And you gotta you gotta grow in, you gotta grow up, you gotta move on.

And he says the the basic principles of the oracles of God.

Now, what is that?

That I do know.

The oracles of God seems to be addressing the the scriptural revelation that points to Jesus.

Now, a simpler way to put that, what the Bible says specifically as it pertains to Jesus.

I mean, that's the oracles of God.

The prophets are speaking, they're speaking for specific reasons, and oftentimes that they're speaking, they're they're they're laying a foundation that would ultimately find its fulfillment and climax in Christ.

Right?

There's a lot of details that could go into that.

But the oracles of God are the scriptures and how they speak to, how they reveal, how they point to Jesus, what he is, what he did, who he is.

All right, so that's the oracles of God.

It's similar to Jesus teaching his disciples in Luke 24, 27.

He says, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, right, the oracles of God, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

So that's the oracles of God.

What God has said, what God has revealed, what God has spoken about Jesus.

Right in this context, about Jesus, the basic principles of the oracles of God, what the scriptures say that should lead you to Jesus, whatever those basic principles are.

And so he says, without giving specifics, the author of Hebrews says that they are needing to relearn the ABCs of Christianity, of what it means to follow Christ.

Again, I don't think the issue is that they could not tell you what the gospel is.

I don't think the issue is that they could not tell you who Jesus was.

Again, maybe not all the specifics that he's going to go into with um, you know, the bulls and the goats and how uh the the tabernacle on earth is a copy of heavenly things, all the things he's gonna talk about.

Maybe not all of that, but the gospel of Jesus Christ for sure is what saved them.

And so they they understand it, they know it.

They could tell you if you ask them, hey, Hebrews, what what's the gospel?

They could they could lay it out uh to you.

So his concern is not so much about them relearning and in kind of rote memorization.

A is admit that you're a sinner, b is believe in Jesus Christ, C, confess.

Like that's not what he's saying.

He's not saying let's walk back through that.

He's he's talking about the reality that they have believed this, they've been transformed by it, but they're not they're not maturing in it, they're not progressing in it.

That's the whole point.

This is seen as a negative thing, right?

Because they ought to be progressing.

That's the word used.

You ought to be a teacher, you ought to be growing.

Now, by the way, I want to just clarify because in verse one, even in verse what we're talking about here in chapter five, where it says you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracle of God.

And then verse one of chapter six, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ.

What the author of Hebrews is not saying is that the basic ABCs about the gospel in Jesus, that you can put those in a box and put them over there in the corner and move on to deeper and better things.

That's not what he's saying.

He's saying that that you ought to progress and mature in the basic principles of the oracles of God.

You don't move on from them in the in that in that sense where we leave it in the past.

We grow and flourish and mature and and are progressing in them.

That's the whole point.

Go on to maturity.

So you start with the gospel, you end with the gospel.

Christ got Christ saves you, He sanctifies you, He completes the work that He starts in you.

It's all about Christ.

But you grow and you flourish and you and you continue to mature in the doctrine.

So don't read verse one of chapter six of saying, put it on this on the side and keep going.

That's not what he's saying.

He's saying, hey, you know this.

You you ought to continue to abound and progress and grow and mature even more in these things, but you can't, he says, because you you need to be taught the basic principles of the oracles of God.

You need milk, not solid food.

This is where he transitions and is really kind of putting his finger in their chest and saying, You're you're you're a child in the faith, you're not growing, you're not progressing.

And what is what is a characteristic of children in the faith?

Well, let's read it in verse 13.

Everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.

So let her see on your outline.

Children in the faith are unskilled in righteous living.

This is where he's he's building this argument.

You ought to be teachers, but you're not.

You need to be taught again the basic principles of the oracles of God.

You need milk, not solid food, because you're unskilled in the word of righteousness.

Those who are unskilled, those who are on milk, because they are children.

They're not mature in the faith.

Children in the faith are unskilled in righteous living.

Now, the word of righteousness, there's also a lot of debate as to what exactly this means, but it seems to overlap well with what the Proverbs says about wisdom.

Now, if you can remember back in the summer when we were going through Proverbs, we defined wisdom as skilled living in God's created order.

Skilled living.

Understanding who God is, understanding who you are, understanding the way that God created the world, and knowing how to navigate that with some level of skill that grows and increases through the fear of the Lord.

I mean, that's the book of Proverbs.

And that parallels well here, I think, with the word of righteousness.

A child is someone who is unskilled in the word of righteousness.

They lack the skill, they lack the experience.

But someone who's mature, someone who's growing up, someone who's no longer being a fool or foolish in the ways that Proverbs details, but is heeding the instructions of his father, heeding the instructions of ultimately our heavenly father, who's growing in our fear, growing in the fear of the Lord, there's a there's a skillfulness that comes with that.

So again, unskilled carries the idea of inexperienced.

They aren't progressing in living a righteous life that corresponds with someone who is maturing.

And the issue is not information, it's not ignorance, at least in terms of facts and details.

It's a lack of exercising the truth.

It's a lack of living what they know to be true.

I mean, that's what he's talking about, because he's going to go on in the very next verse and say, but solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

So children in the faith are unskilled in righteous living.

They do not have, because the fear of the Lord is not increasing, they're not abounding in wisdom.

They're shrinking back because of any number of things, neglect or uh craving comfort or doubting in God's promises or downplaying the significance of obedience.

That's talked about all throughout the scripture, whatever the case may be, they're children in the faith.

They need milk, not solid food.

Now, what's interesting is that Peter talks about that we are to long for the pure spiritual milk.

So the author of Hebrews is not saying that you don't need milk.

He's saying that milk is supposed to do something in your life as a Christian, just like with a child.

It's supposed to grow you and develop you, to strengthen you.

But eventually, what happens with children?

They get weaned, they start eating solid food.

I mean, that's the whole point.

And that's what he's saying.

If you stay on milk, if you live on milk, you're unskilled in the word of righteousness since you're a child.

And that's not a good thing.

That's not where you ought to be.

This is your current condition.

And he states this right before the the stern warning that he gives in chapter six.

So staying a child in that sense is not a, you could call it a safe option.

This passage leads us straight into the strongest warning in the entire book in chapter six.

And so he's saying, Hey, you are you're you're you're not growing, you're not progressing, there's cause for concern.

And then he he really tells him in chapter six, here's why you should be concerned.

But but being a child in the faith, at least in this instance, is not a good thing.

And so his point is you need to grow, you need to mature, you need the solid food, you need milk.

Not solid food.

Which, by the way, the solid food here is not doctrine or theology as we would define it.

The solid food is specifically about the truth of who Jesus is that is lived and believed and cherished and pursued and obeyed.

I mean, that's the solid food.

Because again, he's going to talk about that in chapter of verse 14.

So it's not the deeper thing, it's not revelation and all the signs and the symbols and what does this mean and the trumpets and the bulls and the timelines and the it that sometimes we think of that as deep because it's hard to understand.

I had one person one time tell me that they were going to another church because the pastor talked about deep, solid things like Theophanies in the Old Testament.

A theophany is an appearance of God, a Christophany.

That's an appearance of God, where God takes on some kind of form.

That's a whole other thing.

But they were like, oh, it's so deep, it's so meaningful.

We're going to go over there and talk about theophanies.

But that's not what he's saying here in Hebrews, right?

He's not saying let's talk about theophanies.

Let's not let's not break out all of our textbooks about the intricacies of theology.

Let's not talk about the hypostatic union.

We're going to talk about that and teach on that.

But the point is, is that's not his point.

He's not saying, let's get really into the weeds about the nitty-gritty of theology.

Solid food is the basic principles of the oracles of God that are abounding more and more and more in Christians that it's leading to maturity.

That's what solid food is.

And that he's and he's saying that children never grow up, they never get beyond that.

And it's not a safe option.

It's something to be concerned about.

It's something that we have to be uh concerned about, a lack of spiritual maturity.

That's our overall port uh point.

Be rightfully concerned about the lack of spiritual maturity.

Now, here's how he finishes it in verse 14.

Let's put this down for point.

Letter D.

There we go.

Those mature in the faith grow through regular obedience to God, regular obedience to God's word by faith.

Those mature in the faith grow through regular obedience to God's word by faith.

Now, verse 14 is about discernment.

Because I know some of you might read that verse and go, the word obey is not there.

It doesn't say obey, but I want you to read what's actually in the text.

Solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers.

Now listen to the words that are said of discernment, trained.

The word trained, by the way, is where we get the English word gymnasium from the original word here.

Trained by constant practice, by habits, discipline, doing the same thing in a particular way for a particular result or goal.

Trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

So verse 14 is about discernment.

That's someone who's mature.

They're marked by discernment, being able to distinguish right from wrong, good from evil.

But discernment, we see in this whole section, grows out of obedience.

This whole section is not simply about knowing the truth, it's about living it.

It's about how how it's about how they are not living their life, how they are unskilled in the word of righteousness, how they are spiritual infants who are not practicing the truth.

And what kicked us off the very uh context of this whole passage is verse 9, and being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.

And obedience, of course, flows from faith.

It's all rooted in faith, but the argument continues that same line of thought.

Hey, we we can't talk to you more about this because you're you're not living a life where your obedience is growing you and maturing you by faith, of course.

But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment, trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

Now, notice the juxtaposition those who are children are unskilled, they're inexperienced.

Those who are mature are trained by constant practice.

It's the opposite.

So he's saying that they need to grow in discernment.

Discernment grows out of obedience.

So obedience, holy living, having skill in the word of righteousness, is trained by constant practice, it says, by habits and by discipline.

The practice is obedience that is fueled by growing in our knowledge and love of Christ.

That's ultimately his driving point here.

Hey, you're not obeying, you're not living the truth, you're not growing, you're not maturing, you're not abounding in these things.

So, how do we do that?

Do we just try more?

Do we do we make a list and check it off?

Do we check it twice?

No.

Right?

We don't do that.

We we look at the one who begins a good work in us and will complete it.

We we look to the one that is the author and perfecter of our faith.

We look to the one who secured an eternal salvation to those who believe, to those who obey.

So all of that is fueled by growing in our knowledge and our love of Christ.

And in that sense, we we spiritually feast on the riches of all Christ is and all Christ has done.

I mean, that's what Hebrews is all about.

Feast on who Christ is, what he has done.

And as we do that, like a child that gets weaned from their mother's milk, we will grow.

That's what the author of Hebrews is telling us.

I want you to remember that the astronauts that we started with at the beginning, in orbit, a drift is sort of the default.

Nobody floats into strength.

The same is true of your soul.

You will not stumble into maturity just by being a Christian for enough years.

You see that in the text.

Though enough time has passed, you ought to be teachers by this time, but you're not.

Either you're progressing or you're digressing.

So the question is, which direction are you moving?

Now the Hebrews doesn't leave us there.

The solid food, again, is not a set of harder rules or deeper theological facts.

It's Jesus.

He's our great high priest, our sacrifice, our forerunner, our king.

And the mature that are being talked about here aren't people who've moved past the basics of Christ.

They've gone deeper into them, feasting on who he is and what he's done until it shapes every aspect of their life.

So, friends, do not settle for milk.

Don't mistake time for growth.

And open your Bible this week, hungry.

Embrace by faith what you read and keep coming back.

Treasuring Christ will make you grow and mature.

And author, the author of Hebrews tells us we are to feast on him.

Let's pray.

God, thank you.

For the reality that though we may not be where we ought to be, that by your grace, God, that we can continue to progress, that from one degree of glory to the next, we can be conformed greater into the image of your Son.

So, God, I pray that we would take seriously, we'd be rightfully concerned, uh, in an anxious kind of way, not in a legalistic works, righteousness kind of way, but where we recognize that as the author of Hebrews has an expectation for growth, we should have an expectation for growth.

But that growth comes from feasting on Christ, treasuring him, loving him, knowing more about what he has done, how his priesthood secured an eternal salvation.

God, I pray that we would grow, that we would abound, that we would mature more and more and more.

And that maturity would not be something that we see as insignificant in the Christian life, but something that we ought to expect that by your grace, by your spirit, through your word, that we can have our powers of discernment trained through constant practice.

So God, I pray that that would be true of this church, and I pray that you'd be glorified in that pursuit in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, thank you guys for being here.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

You are dismissed.