Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] All right, men, let's grab our Bibles and turn to Hebrews, chapter five.
[00:00:06] And we're going to spend some time looking at verses 11 all the way through chapter six, verse three.
[00:00:13] And this is a really, really fascinating kind of section of God's Word. And in fact, if you were to kind of take a look at the structure of the Book of Hebrews, one of the things you would find or notice maybe, is that this section here is actually a parenthesis in the book Hebrews.
[00:00:33] And it may actually be helpful to understand that many scholars actually believe that the Book of Hebrews is actually a sermon.
[00:00:41] It was a sermon that was at one point delivered to a predominantly Jewish church, and hence the Jewish flavor of the book and the title, Hebrews.
[00:00:52] The author of the Book of Hebrews is unknown. There's lots of speculation that we don't have time for here and now because we're most concerned about what the author of Hebrews wants to convey to our. Our heart, especially in this parenthetical section. But what you need to understand is that if this is a sermon, and I think there's a good case to be made for the fact that it actually was a sermon, you have to see what the preacher and the author here is actually intending to do.
[00:01:23] You see, it's kind of like a pastor who's in the middle of preaching a sermon, and then he gets to a point in the exposition where he has to hit the pause button and say, hold on, we've just come across something. I'm about to tell you something, but there's something more that we actually have to talk about first. There's something we have to deal with in order for you to grasp the things that I wanna get to. We can't get there yet. There's something I need to address in your life and in your heart. It's kind of this really, really sweet and important pastoral moment in the middle of this sermon, so to speak.
[00:01:57] And it's like the preacher is just kind of pulling you near for a minute and saying, I need to have a pastoral heart to heart with you.
[00:02:05] I need to really get into your life in a unique way, in a significant way. And I need to do it actually in a kind of painful way, because something that I need to say to you isn't gonna be easy for you to hear. It's gonna be kind of challenging for you to hear. It's gonna be a little bit painful.
[00:02:23] But you need to understand that I love you. And so you have to hear this.
[00:02:28] It's of Vital importance.
[00:02:31] It's critical. And so we're going to pause everything and we're going to talk about what we need to see right here. In fact, there's something you need to hear. You'll notice that the word here actually in verse 11, kind of jumps off the page.
[00:02:47] And that's actually something that's a thread or a theme that's being pulled through the book of Hebrews up to this point.
[00:02:57] He's telling us that there's something that we need to hear, but there's a problem with the way that we're hearing. And the first thing we read in verse 11 is this, that he has much he has to say. And it's hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing. Now, now, again, this is probably around the third time that he's addressed the issue of hearing in the the lives of the hearers and in the life of the church all the way back in chapter two, verse one, he begins to address their hearing. Here's what he says. Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have, lest we drift away from it. And right there you get a sense of the urgency, don't you? And what he has to say and what he's saying is not peripheral, it's not tertiary. It's something of eternal significance. It has everything to do with your steadfastness, your immovability, your strength in the Lord.
[00:03:48] And then he continues this line of thought. In chapter three, verse seven, he's quoting here from the Old Testament. And he says this today. Look at this. If you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebell on the day of testing in the wilderness.
[00:04:07] And his concern is that the people who are hearing are going to have hardened, unbelieving hearts.
[00:04:14] There's this strong sense of urgency here that he is leaning into.
[00:04:20] And again, he's trying to help us understand something that's so pivotal for us to grasp. It's essential for our spiritual health. And there are many. Here's his point. There are many who are in the church of Jesus Christ who have made professions of faith, even who appear to be in the family of God. But they're at great risk of falling away from the faith.
[00:04:44] And so when we come here to chapter 5, verse 11, hear him say it again about this, we have much to say about what exactly? Well, we're going to get to that about Melchizedek, and he's going to go on in chapter seven to explain Melchizedek, but he's, he's trying to convey something here. It's hard for me to explain this since you have become dull. Dull of hearing.
[00:05:10] The people he is speaking or writing to here are not ready or able to understand what he has to deliver to them.
[00:05:18] He tells them that they have become dull of hearing.
[00:05:21] And so in this kind of pullover moment, there's a pastoral heart to heart that I want to try to capture a little bit even in the tone and tenor of this message for you men, because I believe the truth he wants to convey is equally as applicable to us today.
[00:05:36] And my heart for you is that you would hear what God has to say to you, that you would not be dull of hearing, that there would be a sensitivity in your heart. I love what Eric prayed leading into this message, that there would be a leaning in. And man, I don't know. I don't know kind of what you're grappling with in your life. I don't know where you're at with the Lord. Maybe you're still trying to figure that out. But God knows. God knows exactly where you are in your life at this very moment. And here's what that means. He knows exactly what you need to hear. Amen.
[00:06:14] And so here's what I just want to ask you to do as we get into God's word, I just want to ask you, just take a moment and bow your head and I just want you to pray.
[00:06:23] I want you to pray something very simple. God, help me to hear exactly what you want me to hear. Hear.
[00:06:32] God help me to hear exactly what you need me to hear. God, I believe. I believe you're speaking to me through your Word.
[00:06:42] And impress upon my heart everything that you want from me, right here, right now, from this text.
[00:06:53] That's our heart's desire.
[00:06:57] So we say to you right now, speak, Lord, for your servants are listening.
[00:07:03] We pray this in Jesus name.
[00:07:05] Amen.
[00:07:11] He goes on to explain why he's hit the pause button in the middle of this exposition. Look at verse 12. 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. For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.
[00:07:36] But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment, trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Therefore, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.
[00:08:05] And this we will do if God permits men. What God wants us to hear is hopefully very obvious to you. What God is doing is he's calling us men to maturity.
[00:08:21] He's calling us out of the spiritual infancy, the adolescent stage of the spiritual life into a kind of strength, a manhood, a maturity in Christ likeness. That's what God wants for you. The question is, what exactly does this mean and what does it look like? How does this happen in our lives? And I want to show you this in two ways. The message is going to be front loaded on the first point and the second point will be a little bit.
[00:08:51] But here's what we need to see. If you're going to be spiritually mature, you need to move from milk to meat.
[00:08:59] It's such an awesome analogy in the text, a built in illustration.
[00:09:06] But I want you to notice something really important that he's speaking to people who have been in the church for some time. He's not speaking to new believers. It would be understandable if there were new believers that he was talking to who certainly needed the milk and they needed the basic things and the fundamental things. But he's not. He's looking at a group of people, of brothers, and he's saying essentially, listen, you have been around the truth. You have tasted and seen that the Lord is good.
[00:09:37] You know these things, but you're still drinking the milk.
[00:09:46] He says to them that he wants to talk to them again about the priesthood of Melchizedek. And what's fascinating, I know many of us have probably wrestled through Melchizedek. He's going to get to Melchizedek in chapter seven and he's going to explain the connection between this priest king from the Book of Genesis and how he is ultimately pointing to the greater priest king, Jesus Christ.
[00:10:07] And there's a sense in which he's looking at these people in the church and he's saying, guys, you should have already been able to pick up on this in the Word of God, but you're not paying attention to the Word of God.
[00:10:19] You're missing so much.
[00:10:21] And he says that they've become dull of hearing.
[00:10:26] Literally, the word dull of hearing can be translated like this. They become slow to learn.
[00:10:32] The word really means sluggish. It's used in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, to describe somebody who refuses to tackle hard work. It describes slothful men, passive Men, he's talking here about laziness, spiritual laziness.
[00:10:54] He's going to use the same word again in verse 12 of chapter 6. Look at what it says. He says, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Again, we are being reminded of the eternal significance of this. It's no mistake that he hits this pause button right before he gets into one of the great warning passages in the book of Hebrews.
[00:11:18] And part of the reason men, this is so significant is because the author of Hebrews is concerned that there are some people who are in the church, but who are not actually in the Lord.
[00:11:32] And his concern, what he's highlighting here at just a high level, is very, very important to understand.
[00:11:38] He's essentially rebuking people in the church out of love because he's concerned that they might not actually be truly saved. And what he's saying is, if you remain perpetually as a spiritual infant, there's a good chance you might not actually have been spiritually born again.
[00:12:08] And so he moves into this description of where they are and where they ought to be.
[00:12:17] He's saying, you need a good shakeup. You need to be moving forward. You need to grow up.
[00:12:23] And I want you to see too, when he's talking about Melchizedek, it's really interesting because we think this is some complex theological issue that's really difficult to understand. But that's not his contention. He doesn't say that this is intellectually difficult to understand. He says it's difficult to explain because they're dull of hearing.
[00:12:43] It has nothing to do with the depth, so to speak, of the content he wants to deliver. Listen here. This is so important. It has everything to do with the desires and the inclinations of the people he's trying to preach to.
[00:12:57] He's saying you don't hunger and thirst for the truth. You don't wanna know the depths and riches and wonders of the word of God. And so you have no capacity to understand what I'm about to hand for you. You have no interest in spiritual things. And this ought to be incredibly concerning to you because you should be well past the milk right now in your life, man. How, how desperately the church of Jesus Christ needs this message today.
[00:13:25] Let's define some terms so we know exactly what we're talking about. Milk here.
[00:13:29] And I think solid food need to be understand on two different levels. It needs to be understand from both an intellectual level and a.
[00:13:39] In other words, both milk and solid food have an intellectual component and a moral or ethical component kind of built into them.
[00:13:52] Here we see that he's telling them that they should be past this stage of milk. And that first has to do with their intellectual understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can think of it like this. He's telling them that they should have grappled with and understood the basic content of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we spent a lot of time in the last kind of night and day just highlighting the content of the gospel, the beauty of the gospel, that Jesus Christ is the son of God, that he wrapped himself in flesh and he came to this earth as a perfect substitutionary sacrifice. That he was died, that he died on a cross and he suffered the wrath of God, that he was placed in the grave. But three days later he rose again, victorious over sin and death, and has now been exalted to the of the Father where he rules and reigns on high. Amen. That is the fundamentals of the gospel. And he's saying, you gotta get this into you. You gotta be settled on these truths in your life, but you can't stay there.
[00:14:58] So the intellectual component is the content of the gospel. But he's moving us beyond simple content. And what he's really doing is he's building in this idea of the calling of the gospel. This is the kind of built in eth component of the gospel. It's not just what you believe, it's what you do with what you now understand.
[00:15:19] And this has everything men to do with the commitment that the gospel requires of all those who encounter the living God in Jesus Christ.
[00:15:29] And I want you to think of the language that we hear in the Bible that kind of helps us understand this idea of commitment. It's all about taking up your cross. It's about dying to self. It is the language of absolute and total surrender.
[00:15:48] It's the willingness to count the cost. It's the willingness to suffer for the sake of the name.
[00:15:56] It's what you do when you make that decision to follow Christ, it's coming face to face with what Jesus requires of you to give up your entire life in order to find your life in him.
[00:16:12] And the other side of that is when you come to grips with the fact that it's worth it, that Jesus is so worth it. And here's why this was significant at the time that the author of Hebrews was writing, because the people that he's writing to, they're so tempted to go back to Judaism.
[00:16:30] I mean, if they just go Back to Judaism, then the persecution will.
[00:16:35] They won't be persecuted by the Roman government anymore, who is not after the Jews. They had relative peace with the Jews at the time, but they were certainly putting pressure on Christians. They won't be persecuted by the Jews who hated them because they hated Jesus.
[00:16:54] It's the message, in many ways, of Hebrews. It's like, listen, it can be really easy to go back to your old life, but here's what we're. What I'm trying to tell you, that Jesus is worth it. That's the message of Hebrews, right? Jesus is better than you could possibly imagine. Don't go back to the shadow when you can hold onto the substance, right? Jesus is. He's greater than the angels. He's greater than Moses. He's the great high priest. He's the greater sacrifice. He is the greater temple. He's the greater land. Jesus is the greater everything.
[00:17:28] And so he's like, look, don't go back to what's not greater.
[00:17:33] Go back to what cannot save, but what only points to what can save.
[00:17:38] He's worried about Christians falling away from following Christ. And so he's pulling them in to protect them. And, man, I would just say to you, look, we're not tempted to go back into Judaism. I get that. But maybe, maybe we are even, as Robby mentioned in the last session, maybe we're tempted to kind of assimilate back into the world because it's easier that way.
[00:17:56] I wholeheartedly agree with what Robby said. I don't think it's been as difficult to be a Christian in the country of Canada, at least that I.
[00:18:04] I mean, we are living in unprecedented times.
[00:18:08] And maybe, maybe you're not tempted to swing back into Judaism, but maybe you're tempted to capitulate to the creeds of our culture.
[00:18:14] Maybe you're feeling the pressure to just conform. Maybe you're feeling the pressure to embrace what they say about gender and sexuality, or at least not to speak up.
[00:18:24] What they say about marriage or the right to human life.
[00:18:30] Maybe it's subtle or maybe it's right in your face, but what he's calling you to is to see that Jesus is worth everything.
[00:18:39] And, man, this is the milk right here that we need to understand.
[00:18:43] And what the author is saying to us is simple. He's saying, this must be a settled issue in your life.
[00:18:52] Are you truly committed to Jesus? There's no fence sitting right. Jesus is like, I don't want anybody lukewarm. Get in or get out, but stop Seeking, sitting on the fence.
[00:19:03] You cannot drift. You gotta lay down everything, drive the stake into the ground. And, man, some of you maybe did that in the last session. Maybe you've done that at some point over this weekend. Maybe your moment is right now. Maybe your moment is right now. When you hear the voice of God calling out to you, saying, today, today is a day of salvation. You have been teetering on the edge, one foot in the world, one foot in the church, and Jesus is saying to you, hear me today, Hear me today. Jump all in with Jesus Christ and the only gospel that can save.
[00:19:38] And when you do that, when you have that so firmly committed, listen, it doesn't matter what the world throws at you. It doesn't matter the kind of pressure they put on you. You're already resigned that you've already given everything to Jesus. So what, they want to throw you in jail, that's fine. They want to take your life. Send me to heaven.
[00:19:56] You can take it all because I've already given it all.
[00:20:00] I've given it all to the One who's given all for me.
[00:20:06] I've decided to follow Jesus.
[00:20:08] There's no turning back.
[00:20:12] Solid food, the solid food is what will keep you standing firm in the strength of his might. It's what's going to build into you. That strength that Robby talked about in that last session going to be what allows you to keep on not just surviving in the midst of Babylon as an exile, but thriving as you sojourn towards the promised land, the new heavens and the new earth, the home that awaits all those who are in Christ Jesus.
[00:20:42] It's an understanding, if you look at the context here, not just of a depth of doctrine, but really an Old Testament foundation for New Testament truth.
[00:20:57] Again, the Book of Hebrews masterfully lays out how the Old Testament connects not just to the New Testament, but how it finds all of its fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
[00:21:11] And so what he's doing is he's telling us that you need to move towards a deeper understanding of how the Old Testament fits together from beginning to end, how it's woven together, this. This beautiful tapestry telling us the story of redemption.
[00:21:27] And that's going to help you stand firm, because along the way, you're going to see not only what's been true for the people of God of all times, that they always suffer before glory. It's always going to be hard this side of heaven, but God will always be with you. He will never leave you or forsake you. And the Goal is for you to keep clinging to Yahweh is to keep clinging to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, is to keep CL to Jesus Christ, God incarnate.
[00:22:00] It's to get you to the point of recognizing what Luke 24 says out of the lips of Jesus. Was it not necessary for the Messiah first to suffer, then enter into his glory? Of course it was. This has always been the way it has been for the people of God.
[00:22:17] And this has this securing and stabilizing and strengthening effect in the life of the believer. The more you understand of the word of God, the stronger you become, the more able you are to withstand the pressures of the world, the temptations of the world, the persecution from the world, because you stand firm in the strength of his might.
[00:22:39] I want to maybe help illustrate this for you.
[00:22:42] And then I want to pull this apart a little bit, but I just. This past week, I celebrated a birthday and.
[00:22:48] Thank you. That was kind of you to celebrate with me. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm over 40, which means you no longer celebrate. You're just in that middle stage where everything's the same.
[00:23:01] But my kids, I have three kids, and my oldest daughter, she's kind of, you know, right on the 16 marker. And then I got a teenage son who's 14. And then I got a son who's 8, almost 9. And my kids are very different, obviously. They love to write me kind of handwritten cards every birthday, which I so look forward to. And my daughter, again, daughter, 16. It's like a card back in front. Most thoughtful, kind, caring, encouraging words you can possibly imagine. Praise the Lord for daughters. Right? Praise the Lord. Because my teenage son. Five words. Happy birthday, dad. Love, Josh.
[00:23:42] Take what we can get.
[00:23:45] And then the third born, who is a bit of an age gap.
[00:23:50] You just never know what you're going to get and.
[00:23:53] Which is awesome. I'm like, okay, what's he gonna come up with now? So this is. I just wanna show you. I had a picture here. This is what he comes up with.
[00:24:01] So we'll talk about the picture in a second.
[00:24:05] But if you can't read, let me read that to you. Men, this is how you command respect in the home. Happy birthday, Holy Pastor.
[00:24:16] I love you, Pastor dad, you are funny. You are the best pastor ever.
[00:24:22] My wife says to me, she's like, does he ever call you Holy Pastor? I'm like, I didn't think he knew I was a pastor, let alone that he thought I was holy. We have a confused child He's a.
[00:24:34] But I show you this because then, right there is a very inaccurate depiction of me because my biceps are way bigger than that.
[00:24:45] That's why I told you, me and Bill, we're gonna keep our shirts on. So.
[00:24:49] But this is what he thinks of me. Here's why I'm saying this. I just think that my youngest son, he's.
[00:24:56] Both my boys are at that stage where they just, you know, they want to work out. They want to kind of, you know, they're getting into sports, and we got a little garage gym that I try to get in there, and they get in there with me and my son. He's just like, my youngest guy. He's like an animal. He's just, like, wanting to do everything he can, but he's this, like, tiny, spindly little dude, you know, he's just like. Like lanky and small and wiry, and he's constantly asking me questions about how he can get bigger and stronger in the gym.
[00:25:25] And one of the things I keep telling him is his name, by the way, is Caleb. Not Calid. Yeah. A little bit of dyslexia.
[00:25:35] But I tell him. I keep telling him, I'm like, listen, Caleb, there's some keys to your physical growth that you have to understand. And there's two. Some of you. You really. Well, there's two basic keys to kind of gaining strength and size in the gym. It is a proper diet and consistent exercise. Right? Those two things go hand in hand.
[00:25:57] And so I'll often talk to him about. He's like. He's like, working. He's like, dad, why am I not getting any bigger? And I'm like, son, you can't. He's like a bird. He just pecks all day long. I'm like, you just. You can't eat a bag of ramen noodles every day and expect to put on, like, throw an egg in there or something. That's a protein, by the way. You're welcome.
[00:26:19] But I'm trying to help them understand. You know, there's a saying in the fitness industry, right? Eat for the muscles you want, not for the muscles you have.
[00:26:28] And part of the key, again, is the consistency, the regularity of the activity, the exercises that are going to build up those muscles over time.
[00:26:39] And, man, I don't show you this because I think.
[00:26:44] I think this is an accurate depiction of what I look like or who I am. Here's why I show you this. It's not like a pat on the back. Look. Oh, my son thinks I'm this holy pastor, here's why I show you this. Because I want that to be something that inspires me to be who I'm supposed to be in the Lord.
[00:27:00] And man, we can clap for that, because this is what the Lord is expecting of all of us.
[00:27:08] Because, man, I'm concerned that too many men are neglecting the spiritual meat, the diet that is necessary, and the regular spiritual exercise that is required for spiritual growth in the Lord. Let me remind you what Paul says to Timothy in First Timothy, chapter four. And it's no coincidence that this comes in the context with sound doctrine, with being able to have nothing to do with irreverent silly myths. Right? He calls him to the good doctrine that he has followed. And here's what he says, rather, train yourself for godliness.
[00:27:48] For while bodily training is of some value.
[00:27:52] Some value, right. That's okay. It's okay to care about your physical health.
[00:27:58] But even better, even better, godliness is of value in every way as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
[00:28:11] Man, we have a real problem with spiritual infancy in the church.
[00:28:16] That is making the church more impotent than it needs to be. In our land, in our world, you cannot get strong on a diet of milk alone.
[00:28:28] And Paul uses the same analogy in First Corinthians 3, verse 1 and 2. I'll put it on the screen here. He says, but, bro, I brothers could not address you as spiritual people.
[00:28:38] This is not just a contemporary problem. This is an ancient problem. This has always been an issue in the life of the church. Spiritual laziness. Why?
[00:28:47] But as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ, I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you're not ready.
[00:28:58] So my question, men, for us is simple, is, are you ready?
[00:29:01] Are you ready for the solid food for the meat of the Word of God?
[00:29:05] I want to just give you really quickly three marks of an all milk D. Okay? This, this is in many ways framed in the negative, this passage. So I kind of want to carry that into here. And. And you can kind of think of it like this. What are marks of being spiritually immature and therefore showing that there's a deficiency in my spiritual diet? I'm not getting the right amount of calories, spiritually speaking, I'm not getting the right amounts of protein in my diet. Well, here's the first one. You're not discerning. We're gonna take these in reverse order from the text.
[00:29:36] You're not discerning look what he says in verse 14. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. You don't have your powers of discernment trained. That's what he says through that kind of repetitive, constant practice. There it is. There's the consistency, right, that we talked about with physical exercise. Here's what he does. He takes this picture of discipline, an athletic kind of metaphor of training, and he imposes it upon the Christian life. And he says, if you're not doing this with regularity and consistency, you will never be the mature man of God that God is calling you to be.
[00:30:19] You don't know how to discern truth from error. And again, there's an intellectual component here. You don't understand sound and you can't distinguish it from false doctrine. You're like the child in Ephesians, chapter four, right, who is tossed to and fro by every wind and wave of doctrine. You are just always being knocked around.
[00:30:45] You know, Pastor Robbie and I were talking in the back room. He's like, you're the kind of person who could pick up the shack and say, well, this is just like the Bible.
[00:30:56] You're just kind of sucked away in the undertow into an ocean of confusion and error.
[00:31:05] And the result of the kind of intellectual lack of discernment is that you are morally deficient in your ability to discern what is good and evil, what is right and wrong, what is honoring to the Lord and dishonoring to the Lord, what is good for your soul and what is destructive to your soul, what advances the kingdom of God and what becomes an obstacle to the kingdom of God.
[00:31:30] It's. It's really Romans 12, isn't it? 1 and 2.
[00:31:35] Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, right? And. And the goal is that you may be able to test and approve that you may able to discern what is the will of God.
[00:31:50] Your powers of discernment are untrained by constant neglect.
[00:31:56] And you can't live the way you're supposed to because you're not thinking the way you're supposed to. And that's the result of this. Secondly, you're not learning.
[00:32:04] You're not learning. Look at verse 13.
[00:32:08] For everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child unskilled in the word righteousness.
[00:32:23] That's another way of saying the understanding of the word of God, the application of the Word of God. In other words, what he's telling these believers is they are careless because they're ignorant.
[00:32:37] His truth is a word of righteousness.
[00:32:40] And those who master its message, they learn how to distinguish good from evil.
[00:32:47] And this doesn't come to anybody without a significant degree of intentionality and effort. Nobody, man, nobody gets spiritually mature by accident.
[00:33:01] The spiritual faculties have to be trained. That word is where we get in the Greek. It's where we get the English word gymnasium from. Again, I love that. I love the athletic metaphors. It, like, connects with my heart on a very deep level. And I think it's so, so helpful to see the kind of effort that is required, the kind of discipline that is needed.
[00:33:23] He says they failed to give themselves. Think about this, man, and I want you to consider your own life right now. They have failed to give themselves to a regular, methodical and painstaking study of the teachings of God's Word and to rightly consider its relevance for everyday living.
[00:33:43] Men, our spiritual life should be such that we are learning to take responsibility for our growth.
[00:33:53] You can't blame anybody else. You can't make excuses. You need to begin to take responsibility if you're going to make any progress. We must be developing an appetite for grace, for knowledge, for understanding, and for applying the truth of God to our lives. We must embrace what Peter says, second Peter 3:18, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We must embrace what he says in chapter one, verse five, that we need to be making every effort to supplement our faith with all kinds of virtues that are forged and formed by an ongoing commitment to an appetite, an appetite for an intake of the word of God.
[00:34:42] As a pastor, I just. I need to tell you, I'm so encouraged on one level by the amount of men who are just hungry to grow. I think this room, and to all of you who are sitting in a simulcast location, I mean, this conference is evidence that the spirit of God is working powerfully in the lives of men across this country, in our churches. Amen.
[00:35:04] That is an incredibly encouraging sign. As a pastor, I love seeing how God is firing men up and stirring up their hearts to want to pursue him in a variety of different ways. I mean, I'm constantly seeing men who are like, I just wanna grow. What do I need to do? Would you help me? Can we read something? Can I study something? Can you point me towards resources? Anything that's gonna help me become the kind of man I need to be. And men, that's the kind of Appetite that needs to characterize your life.
[00:35:32] I'm so encouraged by that. And some of you, that's you in here. And I just wanna say to you, I praise God for you. God is so pleased with that attitude. He's so pleased with that heart. And you will be so blessed if that is your deepest desire. It is to know God, to know His Word and to live daily for him.
[00:35:53] Man, I gotta tell you, on the other hand, I'm constantly discouraged by the amount of men I talk to who are just not reading the Word, who are not praying, not serving, not involved in spiritual relationships, not involved in anything spiritual. Not leading their families or discipling their kids or talking to their wife for the things of the Lord, you know? And as a wise man once said, that is dumb.
[00:36:31] That's dumb. It's not just dumb, man. It is dumb. It is so dumb. But here's why it's dumb. Because it's dangerous. Dangerous.
[00:36:38] It's so dangerous.
[00:36:40] It is so dangerous for you not to go to the only source of life as much as you can, and to drink deeply from the wells of the waters of God's word. It is dangerous for you. Why? Why? Because if that's not forming who you are becoming, something else will be.
[00:36:58] It's dangerous. It's dangerous to not give yourself to what is life giving to what is trans. Transformative.
[00:37:07] Austin Phelps says that we may lay it down as an elemental principle of religion, that no large growth in holiness was ever gained by one who did not take time to be often alone with God.
[00:37:21] Then you're either drawing near to God or you're falling away from Him.
[00:37:26] So let me just ask you. What are you spending your time doing?
[00:37:29] What are you giving yourself to?
[00:37:33] Why? You don't understand.
[00:37:35] I'm too busy.
[00:37:38] I don't have enough time. Listen, I can't find any time in my schedule. You don't find time. You gotta make time.
[00:37:43] And if you're too busy, you're too busy. You're too busy for God. You're too busy.
[00:37:50] Wow.
[00:37:53] I'm not a reader.
[00:37:54] If I hear that one more time, I'm gonna pull my hair.
[00:37:58] I'm not a reader. I don't care.
[00:38:01] I don't listen. Unless you are illiterate or blind and don't know Braille.
[00:38:10] Listen to me.
[00:38:11] God wrote a book.
[00:38:14] God wrote a book.
[00:38:16] You have to become a reader. You have to force yourself to become a. I'm not saying it's not. Not hard sometimes, but you have to become a reader. A voracious reader, at least, at the very least of the word of God, you got a hunger for it. Why listen to Jesus, right? Man does not live on bread alone, but on every what word that proceeds from the mouth of God. This is the God breathed word of God.
[00:38:46] This man is what we desperately need. No more excuses. Let's get after it. Let's give you one more kind of sign of spiritual deficiency. An all milk diet. You're not teaching.
[00:38:56] Isn't this so fascinating? Look at what he 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, solid food.
[00:39:10] And if you're a new believer, listen, milk is okay, okay. It's essential for you.
[00:39:18] But if you've been in the church, I don't want to put a time stamp on this, but if you're a believer and if you've been living your life in the church for any significant length of time and you are not on solid food, there's something wrong.
[00:39:34] That's a lot of grace, a lot of grace.
[00:39:38] But we need to hear what God says here to us.
[00:39:44] Now, here he's not talking about technical teachers in the life of the church. So I don't want you to get the wrong idea. He's not saying that everybody needs to become a public teacher in the life of the church. What he's getting at here is that everybody who's a believer, who's got the milk down and progressing onto the meat of God's word, needs to be teaching somebody. This is just talking about discipleship, right, men?
[00:40:07] We need to be making disciples. And this is the Great Commission, right? Go therefore unto all nations and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you. This is what he's after.
[00:40:23] And so I just want to encourage some of you. You need to be looking first in your home, men. You gotta be teaching your kids. That is the priority discipleship relationship that the Lord has given you. You need to be leading your family in these things. And then you need to begin to look outwards. So I wanna say that to you, all of you men, you need to be teaching. But if you're not discerning and learning, you cannot be teaching.
[00:40:44] It's been said like this, right? You cannot teach what you do not know and you cannot lead where you will not go.
[00:40:51] But let me speak to a group of you that God is calling to teach in a more Formal capacity in the life of the church.
[00:40:58] Some of you, God is calling to step up as you grow up.
[00:41:04] God is calling. Listen, there is. I mean, it's an unbelievable reality we're facing in the life of the church. And I think by all available metrics, at least in Canada, there is a massive shortage of men who are going into ministry. Did you realize that? An incredible shortage of men going into ministry. I would say there's equally an incredible shortage of men who are ready to step into an eldering position in the life of the church.
[00:41:31] There seems to be a kind of spiritual adolescence that has consumed the life of the church where men aren't stepping up to leave. They're not aspiring to the office of the overseer, to the that the Lord may be calling them to. So some of you men, you need to hear this. What God is wanting to do in your life is he was wanting to raise you up and to grow you up so he can use you in the life of the church in some more significant leadership ways. The church needs men to step up and lead. They need mature, godly men. Some of you, God is going to call to serve on an elder team. Some God is calling into the ministry.
[00:42:06] Even from this room. I believe right now, there are men in this room that God is going to call into formal ministry to give their life to lead the church.
[00:42:20] Some of you will be sent out as church planters, be led to go and to serve the Lord in different cities, in different places, maybe different countries.
[00:42:32] But man, I want you to know this. The call into any kind of ministry never happens apart from the pursuit of maturity.
[00:42:41] Never.
[00:42:45] If you're not discerning, learning and teaching, you're not maturing.
[00:42:50] And we must ask ourselves some frank questions. Do I know the elementary truths well enough to help others? Am I hard to teach because I become spiritually lazy in my own life? Am I a growing, learning Christian? Am I moving from milk?
[00:43:08] In just a few more minutes, we're going to round the bend. Like I said, this is going to be a real short point. If you want to grow immaturity, listen, you need to move from boyhood to manhood.
[00:43:17] And that's what we see in chapter six, verses one through three.
[00:43:24] The church is full of spiritually weak boys who need to become spiritually strong men.
[00:43:31] And we rightly decry our culture promoting perpetual adolescence.
[00:43:36] You know, man boys.
[00:43:39] But do we decry it in the church? And do we tolerate it in our own lives?
[00:43:46] Here we're being told that we must leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity.
[00:43:53] And what the author does here is he gives us three pairs. We're not going to explore them, but all of these seem to connect to the original decision point.
[00:44:02] You'll notice what he says just really, really quickly here. He says we need to move on from not laying a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward Christ. That's so basic. That's Gospel one of one. We don't earn our salvation. Jesus Christ has accomplished everything for us. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
[00:44:25] And then notice the similar kind of idea of an instructions about washings and the laying of hands. And then he goes on, that's the next pair. Washings and laying, laying on of hands. And I think what he's saying here is he's thinking about all of baptism here, of all of these Old Testament cleansings and rituals that are brought to fulfillment in New Testament baptism. And so again, symbolizing that initial entry point into the Christian life. That's the point. And also the laying on of hands. I think this refers to places like Acts 8, 9, 19 points in the Bible where you're seeing again evidence that the Spirit of God has come, salvation has happened, the moment of salvation is here. And the Spirit then comes and indwells and fills believers and they become a part of the spiritual temple of God. And then the last kind of pair that he gives us has to do with a future reality, the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. And how often does God use these two things? The reality that we are all going to die and, and we will all be raised again one day to stand before the judge of the universe. And what awaits for us is an eternal reality, eternal life in the presence of the King or eternal judgment, where we pay for our sins forever and ever and ever. And how often has that been the very thing that pushes people over the edge into believing in Jesus. There's more to this life. There's more to this life. There's more to this life.
[00:45:56] That's the milk.
[00:45:58] That's the milk.
[00:46:01] And these six doctrines in three categories are elementary doctrines. They're the starting point. They're the foundation that we need to drive the stake into the ground and say this we are committed to. We believe with all of our heart. They must be known, believed, settled convictions. And in order to go on into maturity, you must now have an appetite to move beyond the milk into the solid food.
[00:46:25] To go into the depths and wonders and riches of God's word.
[00:46:32] You need to move, in other words, from boyhood to manhood.
[00:46:37] And I want to land here with just three simple questions as we apply this to our lives. And maybe you can commit these to prayer even in this moment.
[00:46:46] Three questions to ask and answer to move from immaturity to maturity.
[00:46:51] First, what needs to go?
[00:46:55] I think a lot of you dealt with this in the last session. And so I won't go into this in detail. I just simply say, men, what in your life needs to go in order for you to become the mature man that God is calling you to be?
[00:47:08] And maybe it's sin that you're very aware of right now and you just, you need to repent of it and lay it down at the foot of Jesus right now. Maybe, maybe it's something that is morally neutral but is consuming your life. Maybe it's a hobby or an activity or something in your life that's just become a massive distraction, eating up so much of your time that you are not giving anything to the Lord.
[00:47:33] What needs to go? Secondly, who needs to know?
[00:47:37] And then we just kind of draw back into the first message you heard last night by Brian Laritz.
[00:47:42] And I want you to think about, listen, somebody you need to be talking to about the kind of changes you need to make in your life. You cannot do this on an island. Men, one of the keys to your spiritual growth and maturity is going to be you reaching out to brothers in Christ who love you, who care for you, who will come alongside you, who will hold you accountable in this pursuit. Do you need to tell somebody right now? Maybe it's your spouse, maybe it's the person sitting beside you. Maybe it's a small group leader or a pastor who needs to go, who needs to know. And lastly, how will I begin to grow?
[00:48:19] What's your plan?
[00:48:23] What's your plan moving forward? To get into God's word, to increase the intake, to spend more time meditating upon the Scriptures, memorizing the word of God, thinking deeply about how it applies to your life. What's the next book you're going to pick up or commentary you're going to open theology study? You're going to start. What areas of your life are you going to start fighting for? Greater holiness in Christ likeness? What action will you take today, men? The church today cannot be filled with baby boys consumed with worldly pleasures and worldly treasures.
[00:48:59] There is an urgent need, an urgent need for the church to be filled.
[00:49:07] Let me say this again, men. There is an urgent need for the church to be filled with mature men. Of God who are consumed with eternal pleasures and eternal treasures.
[00:49:23] The bar for being a Christian is right here. It's low.
[00:49:27] The entry. Entry point is super low.
[00:49:30] But the bar for mature man. My desire is not to make the bar of entry into the faith any higher than what the Bible does.
[00:49:40] My desire is to hold the bar of maturity exactly where the Bible places it.
[00:49:45] And to call you men to strive with the strength of his might, with all of his grace, with all of his mercy, to press on, to believe that it will be worth it to experience more of him, to be more like him and to be used more.
[00:50:03] So let me close with this final question. Are you hungry? Are you hungry to grow?
[00:50:09] If you are, put away the milk, get the serrated steak knife out, start digging into the solid food, and by the grace of God, let us go on to maturity. God, we pray. We pray for this, Lord. We pray that we would be the kind of men that you are calling us to be.
[00:50:28] God, our faith cannot rest upon the high of a conference. As sweet as this has been, Lord, there must be a consistency, a steadiness to our faith, a daily seeking you, God. We must be a people, a group of men who are moving beyond the milk, digging into the meat, who are moving, Lord, from spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity. We believe, oh God, that we cannot do this in our own strength. But Lord, you, your power that's at work within a spirit of God, you can move in might in these moments.
[00:51:08] And so we surrender ourselves to you.
[00:51:12] We declare to you, King Jesus, we are all in for you.
[00:51:16] We are fully committed to you and Jesus, we want more of you.
[00:51:24] Use us now. We pray as we go from this place. Use us, Lord, for the advancement of your kingdom and your glory. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
