Our scripture. This morning is from Hebrews
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
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.
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.
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.