Growing In Christian Maturity

Hebrews 5:11-14 and the Call to Christian Maturity

Once again, as we look to the Word of God, let us ask Him to bless our time together. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we ask once again the presence of Your Spirit that we might understand Your truth. Indeed, Father, this evening as we look at a text that is difficult in its exhortation, convicting in what it says, we ask that by Your Spirit You would cause our hearts to be pliable in Your hands, that You might bring conviction where needed, encouragement where needed as well.

We pray in Christ's name, Amen. We have been working our way through the book of Hebrews, and this morning we looked at the first 10 verses of Hebrews chapter 5, and in the last few verses dealt with some rather weighty issues of the relationship of the divine and the human and our Savior, His perfection and His becoming the source of eternal salvation to those who obey Him.

Now in verses 11 through 14, we have somewhat of an excursus, somewhat of an aside for just a moment, for it seems that the writer needs to bring some correction to those that he is addressing. Up to this point, there really hasn't been anything other than an exhortation to all believers to press forward, but here in verses 11 through 14, we have somewhat of a rebuke, somewhat of an expression of concern.

So beginning in verse 11, the writer says concerning this subject, it's either this subject or concerning whom, it can be taken either way, uh, we have much to say to you, but it is difficult to explain.

It is a hard thing to speak, literally, because you have grown dull of hearing. You have grown dull of hearing. For by this time, you ought to have been teachers, but you again have need of someone to teach you the elementary principles, literally the ABCs of the oracles of God, and you have come to have need of milk and not solid food.

For though everyone who partakes of milk is a novice, unaccustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is a child, but solid food is for the mature, the complete, the ones through discipline have trained their senses to be able to discern between good and evil.

Spiritual Dullness and the Need for Growth

Thus, the section that we look at this evening from the word of God, this, as I mentioned this morning, could very well, could just continue right on into Hebrews chapter 6, and we've been looking forward to encountering Hebrews 6.

It's unfortunate that Hebrews 6 is probably one of the most well-known texts in all of the book of Hebrews because of verses 4 through 6, which really are not a central aspect of the argument of the book, but it could continue right on into that because the writer here seems to bring some correction to the congregation.

There seems to be a problem that has developed in the congregation. Now, that doesn't mean that we've been wrong all along in saying that this is a book that is meant to, in essence, encourage believers who have been put under pressure to go back to the old ways, but there is a sense in which a person who would succumb to those pressures is demonstrating a certain immaturity on their own part.

In fact, if they were already teachers, if they understood the word of righteousness, then they would be able to see the very same things that this writer is expressing to them anyways. And so, truly, it is the case that those who are subject to the danger of apostasy within the Christian congregation are very frequently those who have become stunted in their spiritual growth.

And that is what we see in these words. He begins by saying there's so much more that I could say, and I sort of wish that he had. It would be wonderful. There's these places in the New Testament, for example, when Paul writes the Thessalonians, you have no need that I should tell you these things.

But if he just had so many of the books lining Christian bookshelves would never have been written. Well, then again, they might have anyways. But so many of the things that are sort of teased there, that, well, I had already explained all these things to you, and we want to go, but please, sir, could you do it again?

We'd like to hear that. He says, I have many things that I'd like to say to you, either concerning this subject of Jesus as the Melchizedek priest, or about the person of Jesus as the Melchizedek priest.

You can take it either way. But he says, it is difficult to explain it to you. It is hard to interpret for you, literally. And it's not because the subject itself is beyond explanation. And it's not because the writer finds some lack of ability in and of himself.

I know I certainly feel that when I'm trying to go after the book of Hebrews. Almost every section I go, wow, why did I go here? Can we go back to John? This would be a little bit easier. That's not really what's behind it.

He says the reason that it's difficult to explain these greater things is because some type of a process has taken place amongst the congregation, and they have become dull of hearing. Now, it seems you'll notice in verse 11, you have become dull of hearing.

And the very same verb, in the very same form, appears in the next verse, and it says, you have come to have need of milk. Both would seem to indicate that this was a process that took place over time.

That it hasn't always been the case. And as we look, for example, at the book of Revelation, we look at the letters written to the churches, we see there hints and pictures of the same kind of process where a church can start off well, but then it starts to go a little bit off track, not completely.

But there's a little loss of balance. There becomes some apathy or lukewarmness, and it depends on which church and exactly how it manifests itself. But evidently, in this congregation, something has been taking place to where a dullness of hearing has developed.

Now, I know that it's hard for some of you to believe, but I'm getting older. And I keep getting reminded of this by my daughter, who will be turning 21 tomorrow. Just wanted to make sure I mentioned that, because I would get rebuked on the way home if I didn't.

But it just seems that every once in a while I have to go, what? Could you repeat that? And I just get this look. And every parent here has seen this from their kids. Now, to us, it's because they're mumbling.

And they're just not enunciating their words properly. But from them, it's just because mom and dad are getting old. And so this dullness of hearing. Sometimes I really do wonder, do I need to go get some hearing tests done or something like that?

It's not like I listen to really loud music or anything like that. Are people just mumblers anymore? I'm really not sure what it is. But a dullness of hearing here is not just they're having trouble hearing.

They didn't have a nice microphone system back then. Instead, it's a much more subtle and dangerous thing. A dullness of hearing means you're hearing the words, but they're just bouncing off of you. They're not being joined with faith in the person who is hearing.

And this is a dangerous disease. It is a dangerous disease that only exists within the church. And seemingly, it is a disease that is primarily one that afflicts people who have regular exposure to the truth.

It's not that these people were not hearing the truth, but they were becoming dull to hearing it. Maybe there was a lack of excitement in recognizing that they had the great privilege of hearing the word of God, being exposed to the things of God.

And think about what it was like in this day. I mean, these were recent events. You could hear from people who were eyewitnesses of the events of Jesus' ministry. And yet, it is the tendency of the human heart to become dull of hearing.

Think of the people of Israel. If we don't learn anything from the Old Testament, we should certainly learn that the very people who walked through the mountains of water in the Red Sea, who daily saw the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire, who saw miracles with regularity, still had hard hearts.

What an amazing thing that is. And so, here are people. And they had heard the truth. The truth is being explained to them. It was being presented to them. But they had become dull of hearing. Sometimes, we'll all have to admit it.

You'll be sitting right where you're sitting right now. And you'll hear something said and you'll start a thought process in your mind. And three minutes later, all of a sudden, you tune back in and you have no idea what's happened in the in-between time.

The mind has gone off and wandered someplace and you end up thinking about things that have nothing to do with actually what's going on. And all of a sudden, you tune back in. And all that stuff that was between time was just noise, just words.

It really wasn't accomplishing anything. The writer goes on to describe this and saying, by this time, so evidently, this congregation had some experience, some past, some history to it. By this time, you ought to be teachers.

That does not mean he was saying to every single person in the congregation that they should have become elders. It should be just an incongregation filled with elders. No. But they should have been able to teach others what was being proclaimed to them in the congregation.

And that's where I want to stop for just a moment and ask us a question. How about us? By this time, you ought to be teachers. That means there should be a diligence in listening to and applying and understanding and remembering the Word of God as it is presented to you in this place, so that if the opportunity arises within the home, within the workplace, within the school, within the extended family, whatever it might be, that it should not be some shockingly amazing thing that we could take what we have been taught and explain it to others.

That we should have the ability, after a certain period of time, to be able to say these things to other people. That we should have a grasp. Now, that's what it takes to be able to teach. I do a lot of teaching.

Last week, I was at Golden Gate and we did an intensive Jan Term class where you started at nine o 'clock in the morning, you got done at five o 'clock in the afternoon. So, hours and hours of teaching.

And I learned a long time ago that if you're going to teach, you're going to find out very, very quickly whether you have a serious, in-depth grasp and understanding of the subject. I learned that before I started teaching.

Most of you know, I was a double major in college. I was Bible and Biology, minor in Greek. And I had to take some very difficult science classes. And I had one professor. His specialty was limnology.

Limnology is the study of inland lakes and streams. Roxy knew that. I can tell that from here. She knew what limnology was. That frightens me to death, but it's okay. And he was a limnologist. So, when it came to anything in that field, he was right there.

And you could tell when he was teaching, he didn't have a bunch of books open and stuff like that. It was coming from here. And he was passionate about it. He was confident. And you could ask questions and the answer would be quick and understandable.

Despite how complex the class really was. It was one of the toughest classes I ever took. But I had him for another subject in biology too. I had him for a genetics class. And that was a train wreck. He had the book open and he was reading from the book.

And when you'd ask questions, you could see he was uneasy. He had been asked to teach a subject that he really didn't know. And it was obvious. It was obvious. You find out very quickly. I've told people many, many times.

You want to find out if you really know the doctrine of the trinity? Teach the kids that subject. It's one thing to teach other adults that have the same technical language. But you can really find out if you have a grasp when you teach the kids.

And here I think what's being said is, there needs to be a process in the Christian life of maturity. Of coming to understand, seeing the harmony and the scope of the Christian faith, so that each one of us is able to express the grasp and understanding that is ours to others.

Now, not everyone's called to be able to have the gift of teaching and be able to simplify it down to a certain level. But there needs to be able to be this maturity. Maturity. Being able to be teachers.

If not, then we have become stunted. We are not growing as we ought to grow. And that's what he says here. By this time you should have been teachers. But you again have need for someone to teach you the elementary principles, the building blocks, the ABCs of the oracles of God.

The word of God is how we would normally put it. Here, oracles, plural, the very sayings of God that he has revealed over time. You're having to go back to the basics again. Now, was this simply because of an apathy?

Had there been a distraction? That's happened many times. Oh my, how many generations have seen movements come along that have distracted from the real core of the faith and gotten people all excited about certain things over here.

And then when the movement cools off, there's a need to go back and refresh yourself on what you should have been preaching the whole time. We're not told. But we are given a very familiar example here when he tells us that, well, you've come to the point where you need milk again and not solid food.

Milk, Solid Food, and the Word of Righteousness

Now, we've got plenty of little ones running around here that none of us really have to have a whole lot of explanation of this particular example. We all understand when we see mom get out the bottle or that time and all of a sudden the Cheerios are rolling down the aisles of the church because we're starting to get to a little bit of solid food there.

There's supposed to be some development. But if we saw somebody coming in and he's 12 or 13 years old and mom still has a bottle, we all go, that's not right. Something's gone wrong there. There's supposed to be a process of maturity going on here, but something isn't right.

And so he says, everyone who's partaking of milk, he is a novice. He is untrained, unskilled. He lacks capacity at the word of righteousness. And of course, again, whenever we encounter a phrase like this, there's all sorts of discussion.

Word of righteousness. What does that mean? Does that mean the word about righteousness? Does that mean righteousness in the moral sense of behavior? Or in this context, is it the revelation of how God brings about righteousness, his own righteousness, and how he brings about righteousness?

Well, I think that would be it here because we're right in the middle of discussion of the high priest, eternal salvation, etc., etc. And he's saying, there's much more I'd like to tell you about this, but I can't because you've become dull of hearing.

His assertion is they're unskilled. They're a novice. We've all seen this situation in the past as well. I can tell you that until I attempted to teach my firstborn to drive, I did not have white in my beard.

There has never been, in my entire experience, a more soul-shaking, frightening, helpless feeling than to sit in the passenger side of a vehicle with a less than 16-year-old male in the driver's side of the car.

There is nothing worse than that. And so, why would I be so scared of that? Well, because of that word, unskilled, untrained, novice. I didn't have any confidence that that person's really quite there yet, but they've got to get some experience somehow.

And so, here we go. And I had that very same feeling the first morning. And I remember this day, it's burned into my conscience, when Summer went with Josh alone to school at PC, and off they went down the road.

And I was like, oh, Lord, I hope I see them again someday. Because of that same concept. And I think Summer was saying the same thing. Oh, Lord, I hope to see my parents again someday. Yes, most definitely.

There is a lack of experience. Now, why would he even say that if, again, there should not be amongst believers a natural growth in grace that gives us a facility with the Gospel? It should not be something that's difficult for us to do to talk about the very fundamentals of the faith.

How we have peace with God. And yet, in our day and age, there is a widespread concept that basically says, look, what you're talking about here is just for the advanced people. In fact, there's an entire heresy that has grossly infected major elements of evangelicalism that basically can't even begin to understand what this text is about.

Because from their perspective, you don't have to repent to be a Christian. You don't have to be a disciple. That's just for super Christians. This anti-lordship salvation system. A rank heresy. A damning heresy.

I don't even consider it to be a part of the faith. As radical as that may sound, Jesus' first preaching was repent. And when your message is, you don't need to, I don't really think that you're presenting the Gospel in any way, shape, or form.

But even leaving that heresy aside for the moment, there is this attitude amongst many people that, well, you know, we don't want to offend anybody. And we just want to meet everybody where they are. I've told this story before, but it fits here.

And so I'm going to tell it again. I was teaching at the church we were at before we came here many moons ago. And you may recall, I told you that at one point, we were going to be covering the Book of Romans in the quarterly that was provided for the entire denomination.

And I was extremely concerned to see that at times we'd be covering three chapters of Romans in one 20-minute lesson. Not exactly going into depth. And so I sort of changed a few things, and I took a little more time.

I was trying to at least familiarize the people with a meaningful outline of this entire presentation of the Gospel. Well, somebody complained. And I was asked to go to the Minister of Education's office.

Yes, it was a large church. You had ministers of everything. And I went to the Minister of Education's office. And he told me he fully understood the desire to do these things. But he said, you need to understand what our mindset here is.

When you're preparing your lesson, what you need to do is you need to think that every person in front of you, this is the first day they've ever been in Bible study. Every week. And I just sat there.

And I was like, I see. Okay. And so I stopped teaching because I couldn't do that. You can't build a foundation and then build upon a foundation when you just keep doing a few dribbles of milk every single week.

That's all you're allowed to do. And there is this mindset amongst people that somehow the sheep of Christ will be offended if you dare say, you know what? Grow. Glorify Christ by growing in the grace and knowledge of Him.

There's so much here. Keep growing. Don't become apathetic. Don't become accepting of where you are now. Oh, you might offend somebody. I just don't see how the Spirit of God is going to allow the sheep of Christ to be offended by that.

And so he says, everyone who partakes of milk untrained, a novice, inexperienced in the word of righteousness, a child. But then he gives us the proper contrast. Solid food, the meat, the steak. The solid food is for the mature.

Now, none of us ever reach a position of perfect maturity or perfection. But there is a state of maturity. We've all known, especially very seasoned saints who become consistent, not only in the application of wisdom to life, but in how they respond to difficulties in life.

We've thankfully seen those types of people. So, solid food is for the mature. But notice the description of this kind of maturity. The original language uses a form here where you put an article, and then you put all these descriptives in, and then you put the final word that the article is modifying.

So it becomes like bookends. It's a very common thing to do in the Greek language. So, literally, it says, the ones through discipline, through practice, having their senses trained, and then having, possessing.

They are possessing trained senses that they have trained over the years. And it's interesting. I think we mentioned this at an earlier point. But this discipline is the word from which we get a gymnasium.

So it's talking about that training, that kind of physical training that a person does at a gym. We have a few folks around here that might know something about that. At a gym. And so it is not something you do just once, or something you do just once a week.

But if you're actually going to make any kind of advancement in that way, it has to be something you do on a regular basis. To exercise, to train. And these are people who have practiced this. They practice discipline.

It is not just something that just happens to them. They make the specific personal decision, I am going to pursue a goal. And the pursuit of my goal is the ability to discern good and evil. I want to be able to discern, to judge.

The very same term used of debating, actually. And that's what debating is supposed to be able to do, is to allow you to judge between right and wrong. And here, the mature person is a person who not just once in their life, but as a manner of life, has made the decision, I desire to be a mature Christian.

I desire to train myself, to regularly discipline myself, so that I might have the faculty and ability to be a discerning person. And if there is anything that can be said about the broader church in our day, is it not an utter lack of discernment.

The amazing things that we see going on under the name of Christ. And yet, I will encounter people, and they are but babes. They may have professed faith for decades, and yet they are still but babes.

And they're like, oh, but this person over here says this, and this person over here says that. I just don't know. And part of me feels terrible for them, because clearly, they're not in a place where there's anyone standing up and giving guidance, and giving consistent preaching from the Word of God.

And the result is, well, you see what the result is. But at the same time, if they were but reading, would they not encounter all these constant exhortations? And would they not themselves realize, you know, I seem to be described as one who can only handle milk.

Or what's worse, they'll get so far off track, they end up thinking that false teaching is the real meat. They end up in shipwreck of faith. And so, here is a contrast that is presented to us. And it's one that we as believers here must take very seriously.

Warning Against Spiritual Stagnation

Now, I have to admit, it probably would have been better. I'm not sure how I would have done it. It probably would have been better to have preached this particular sermon in the morning. Because we look around and there are fewer of us here.

And those that are here normally on a Sunday night and a Wednesday night as well, you're already showing a seriousness about gathering and utilizing the means of grace. And so, maybe I am, in fact, preaching to the crowd, to the choir.

I'm sorry, we don't really have room for a choir here, but we just have you sit out there. So, maybe I am preaching to the choir, but I don't think that anyone has ever gotten to the point where they don't need to hear the warning that is here.

And we need to remember, the warnings in the book of Hebrews have the purpose of exhorting believers to proper behavior in glorifying God. People say, well, you know, that they're just hypothetical or whatever, then they don't have any use.

God uses these warnings in the hearts of His elect people. We hear these words and we go, I don't want to be stuck just drinking milk. Christ isn't glorified when I am constantly in the spiritual nursery.

I don't want to be there. I want to be a teacher. I want to be able to teach, not in the sense of usurping someone else's authority or everyone's running around teaching, but when the opportunity arises, with my children, my wife, my family, my co-workers, whoever it might be, when the opportunity arises, I want to be able to speak Christ's truth to them.

And that means I need to understand it. And yeah, that means we once again are talking about priorities. Where are our priorities? Are we in danger of adopting the attitude that says, I know enough. I'm comfortable with where I am.

Should there not always be some lack of comfort in that sense as to where we are? Is there not more? I know that I am finding this preaching through Hebrews to be one of the most personally challenging things I've ever done.

This is not easy material. And I feel a tremendous burden upon me to try to make it as clear to you as I can. And yet I, this morning, thinking about that ninth verse, he having been perfected, becomes the source of eternal salvation to everyone who obeys him.

My goodness, we could have spent three sermons just on that. And I hope when you see something like that, that you want to do more study of it. You want to consider it more. It's not just something, mark that verse and then the mind is off someplace else.

My hope is you look at something like that and go, my, there's a place for meditation. There's a place for me to pray on a verse like that and consider these things and to think about what eternal salvation is and how Jesus is the source of eternal salvation.

Oh, there's just so much. But you see, we're only going to do that if we find the light in it. You're not going to do that because some guy on a Sunday night said you should do that. You're going to do that when you find the light.

And so, once again, this book catches us up short and says, listen to me. Are you in danger of going back to drinking milk? Or do you want to press on? Solid food, be a teacher. Not to puff yourself up, but because that is the natural progression of the person who is indwelt by the Spirit of God.

We want to be conformed to the image of Christ. And to be conformed to the image of Christ requires that we know more and more of his word. We see its consistency, its harmony, its beauty. And the greatest step of maturity is being able to take these things and apply them to our lives as we experience all of the things that God brings into our lives that can sometimes be so difficult and so challenging.

There's where true Christian maturity comes from. It doesn't come from a program at church. It doesn't come from 40 days of anything. It comes from this consistent application via the Spirit of God of His truth in our lives.

Prayer for Conviction, Perseverance, and Growth

Let's pray together. Our gracious Father, we do ask that by your Spirit you would bring conviction to our hearts. Each and every time we stop, we dawdle along the pilgrim road. We become fascinated with the things of the world once again, rather than pressing forward toward the celestial city.

When we become complacent, when we become apathetic, when we think we've reached a position that's good enough, O Lord, help us to realize that we've lost sight of the real purpose why we are doing anything.

That is to bring honor and glory to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You have given us such a rich heritage. In the lives of those who've gone before, such a rich source in your word. May we not be like those who draw back.

May we not be like those who become stunted and are happy just with the bottle of milk. May we press forward to your honor and glory. We pray in Christ's name, amen.