On to Maturity, Part 2

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. In Hebrews 5, 11-14, the author calls believers to maturity. He says, God birthed us into his family with the expectation that we would grow up. Pastor Rich shares from the text what that maturity in Christ looks like, pointing out that Bible knowledge, intelligence, and how long someone has been saved don't lead to maturity in and of themselves. Let's listen to this message titled, On to Maturity. This is the second part of the sermon, which was first preached on July 1, 2022.

Christ. That is God's intent for every believer to be able to grow to that level, where you can say to another who has not been in Christ as long as you have, you can confidently and adequately say to them, follow me as I follow Christ. It's what the apostle Paul said, be imitators of me as I imitate Christ. Now, it's not always just formal instruction. There's a formal sense where you're doing it in a class like, for example, what I'm doing right now is formal instruction of the word of God. And the Sunday school classes, the Bible study classes that you just came out of that is formal instruction of the word of God.

But that's not all that the writer of Hebrews is talking about. One who can confidently and accurately communicate truth to another in a way that glorifies Christ and draws them to God, because there's an informal sense of that. And the informal sense is communicating truth at life, in life, during life, doing life. What does that mean? Well, it means at work.

It means at home. I, as a husband and a father, maturing in Christ ought to have reached a point, now that I have been in Christ for 37 years, I ought to have reached a point where I can, to my family, communicate truth confidently and accurately in a way that glorifies Christ and draws them Godward. That's maturity. That's spiritual maturity. And so it is with everyone who is born into the family of God, expected to grow up. So whether it happens at home, whether it happens in the context of relationships at work, whether it happens in the context of relationships in leisure, at the ballpark, at the swimming pool, that you manifest Christ, you can confidently and communicate truth that magnifies Christ and draws them Godward. That is spiritual maturity.

But here's the problem. He's saying, listen, Hebrews, this isn't what's happening in your life. You are still at the basic level. You still need milk. Look at the end of verse 12. By this time, you ought to be teachers and you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes of only milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.

So he's saying, listen, you need milk. You're still meeting the first principles. You're still at a very basic understanding in your faith. You're therefore unskilled. You're unaccustomed to what it means to live by faith.

And so it means several things. First of all, it means that they're inexperienced. They're inexperienced at living by faith.

They're not accustomed to it. For example, I have six kids and four of them are now driving a vehicle. And I have been the one who has had to sit in the passenger's seat as they're learning, singing nearer my God to thee. And when they first get in there, are they expert drivers? Do they handle corners well? Can they park perfectly? Are they aware of all of their surroundings? No.

Why? Because they're not accustomed to it. And so they need the practice, and they need me sitting in the seat next to them to give them instruction. But as they become used to it, as they're accustomed to it, they become skilled at it.

And that's the idea here. These Hebrews were not skilled at the Word of God. They were unskilled in the Word of God. They were still needing basic stuff.

They were still trying to grasp the Gospel and what was happening in their lives with the lack of experience, the lack of exercise of the truth. There was not enough nourishment and exercise to grow up on, which he says, you're still babies. What happens to a baby? You bring a baby home from the hospital, and it needs to be fed. But is that all that happens? No, the baby is expected to grow up, but you give it nourishment.

And eventually the baby learns to walk, and it needs to learn, it needs to practice, it needs that exercise. The unfortunate thing was, is that for the Hebrews, though they knew truth, truth was not producing transformation in their lives. And this is what keeps a person at an infancy stage in their walk of faith, truth without transformation. For example, some of the religious leaders of Jesus' day came to him. They were called the Sadducees. They were kind of of a different sect than the Pharisees, but they were religious leaders nonetheless. And they had the whole Torah memorized, the Torah, the Pentateuch, first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.

They had it all memorized. They came to Jesus and they asked him a question. Jesus, they didn't believe in the resurrection, and this was their challenge. Jesus, of course, was teaching the resurrection. They came to him.

They say, okay, Jesus, we have a question for you. This woman marries a man and the man dies. They didn't have any children. The Law of Moses says that his brother should rise up and marry the woman to offer him children in his name, his brother, children in his brother's name. That second brother dies. She marries the third. The third brother dies. And on and on is seven.

And finally the woman dies. And then they asked Jesus, whose wife is she going to be in heaven? Do you remember Jesus' answer? Now remember, these guys had Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, Deuteronomy memorized. What was Jesus' answer to them? You err not knowing the Scriptures or the power of God. Wow. These spiritual leaders who had the first five books of the Bible memorized, and Jesus said, you err not knowing the Scriptures.

Wow. What does that tell us? Truth without transformation is spiritual infancy. It's like you have the truth. You say, okay, I have the truth, and we can come to church and get truth, truth, truth, truth, truth, and information.

But you don't do anything with it. You know what that's like? That's like you have to cross a desert, and you know it's going to take you three or four days to cross this desert. You say, okay, I've got enough water to get me across the desert.

I can make it. And you have this backpack of water on you, and you're going across the desert, and you have no way of getting that water to your mouth. That doesn't make any sense, does it? And so it is with gaining truth that doesn't transform. And this is what the writer of Hebrews is challenging his readers with. You have truth, but it has not transformed you.

You're not going on to maturity. And folks, unfortunately, I see that happening, particularly in the Western church, particularly in the American church. We're so used to just being bottle fed with truth that we come and we consume truth, but it's like water through a pipe, and there's no real nourishment there, and there's no transformation from it. And so church becomes like, you come to church, oh, just fill my tank so I can make it through the rest of the week.

And I come back next week, and I'll just be dry and parched, and I need more water in my tank so I can make it. And church becomes a pep rally. And we're not really consuming and applying and living and engaging the profound truths of the word of God that he has revealed to us for our good, for our transformation, and for his glory. Truth needs to transform us. And so it's like the writer of Hebrews is asking, is telling his readers, your faith is still in the kindergarten. Now listen, there are those who are new in the faith, and they're still young, and they're still learning, and they still need that nourishment. But he says, by this time you ought to be teachers, and that tells us a lot. That means over time you're expected to grow, you're expected to mature into that definition of maturity that we had given. He says, by this time you ought to be on the solid food, you ought to be enjoying the prime rib of scripture.

There is a maturity there, and you have your senses exercised. In other words, there is something definitely substantive to your faith, and the truth that you are getting, there is substance there, and you have to chew it. You're not just being bottle-fed the basics of the Christian faith and the basics of God's revealed truth, but you have to chew it. And when you have to chew it, it means you have to study it, you have to meditate, you have to devote your mind to it, which by the way is the first warning of the book of Hebrews. But when you have to chew it, the book of Hebrews, to devote your mind to God's truth. What we have in Psalm 1, it's a great Psalm, isn't it? Blessed is the man who meditates in his law day and night, and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season. That's not just a nice thing to quote in scripture. It is a truth of growing up and being productive. Any farmer that plants a fruit tree does not plant the tree so that it just becomes a sapling.

He plants it so that the tree grows up and eventually bears fruit and reproduces. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's word the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace, weekdays at 10 a.m.