Okay. Book of Hebrews, chapter
5, and we'll be looking at verse 11 down through chapter 6 in
verse 3. The apostle says, Of whom we
have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye
are dull of hearing. For when the time ye ought to
be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again, which be
the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as
have need of milk, and not strong meat. For every one that useth
milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a
babe. But strong meat belongeth to
them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have
their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. The title of the message is The
Necessity of Growth. The Necessity of Growth. The Apostle Paul in his, or the
Apostle writing the book of Hebrews, He is explaining to them concerning
Christ's high priesthood. He says of our Lord Jesus Christ
in chapter 4 that He is the great high priest. He is the great
High Priest that is passed into the heavens, the Son of God.
And that we should hold fast our profession. For we have not
a High Priest that cannot be touched with the feelings of
our infirmities. He's talking about Christ's humanity. Christ's
humanity. He's talking about how that the
Lord Jesus Christ was tempted as we are. That He suffered in
His flesh. That he endured temptation. And
he did this as our great high priest. And that he was not a
high priest chosen by himself, but he was ordained a high priest
of God. He uses the priesthood of the
Old Testament in verse 1. He says, For a high priest is
taken from a man, is ordained. ordained for men in things pertaining
to God. In other words, God chooses His
High Priest. Jesus Christ is our chosen High
Priest, chosen of God. Even so, Christ glorified not
Himself to be made an High Priest. But he, God, said unto him, Thou
art my son, this day have I begotten thee. And he saith to him in
another place, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now who's this Melchizedek? Melchizedek
was both a king and a priest. He was a high priest of God.
And this whole man's life was to picture the Lord Jesus Christ. He was to picture the great high
priest. And that's what he's been doing
throughout this whole book of Hebrews. He's been showing how
that all of the Old Testament law and prophets pointed only
to Christ. The Old Testament law and prophets
pointed only to Jesus Christ. But now he says in verse 10,
called of God and high priest after the order of Melchizedek,
but he seems to have something in verse 11 changes. Something
the apostle kind of halts for a moment in this thought. And
he senses this by the Holy Spirit that his hearers are not quite
understanding. He says, of whom, talking about
how Melchizedek is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
says, of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered,
seeing you are dull of hearing. The Apostle Paul says, I want
to say a lot to you about this thing. I want to expound more
on this to you. But there's a problem. And it's
not the Apostle's understanding of the Scriptures. It is the
fact that his hearers are dull of hearing. They're dull. They don't understand these things.
He said, these things are hard, not because the Apostle lacks
understanding, but because they lack the ability to perceive
it, to hear it. Now, if there was any group of
people that should have known the Scriptures, it was the Hebrews,
the Jews. If there was anybody that should
have known the Scriptures, it was the Jews. Yet, instead of
being teachers, instead of them understanding that the whole
Scripture points to Christ, they were reverting back to legalism. They should have been teachers
of the Gentiles, but instead of being teachers, they need
to be taught again the basic principles of the gospel. And
he rebukes them and says, you need milk because you're babes.
Instead of strong meat, instead of me teaching you further things
concerning the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ, I've got
to stop and I've got to teach you the basic things again. I
gotta go back and teach you the basics. He said, this is because
you're babes and you're unskilled in the Word of God. Now what
does the Apostle mean by this rebuke? He's saying that they
were not sufficiently mature in spiritual growth. He's telling them they need to
grow up. They need to grow up. Therefore, the Apostle says in
verse 1 of chapter 6, he says, therefore, because you are babes,
because you're not skillful in the Word of God like you should
be, you've heard this message, you've heard the Gospel, you
should have been skillful to know that all of the Scriptures
point to Christ, but yet you are reverting back to legalism,
to do this, don't do this, taste this, don't taste that. That's regressing, that's not
growing. And he says, therefore, leaving the principles of the
doctrines of Christ, let us go on unto perfection. What is he saying? He's saying
let's grow up. Let's grow up. Just like a child is taught when
he is a little in elementary school, he is taught his ABCs. But I'll tell you what, if by
the time he's in third or fourth grade, if all he's reciting is
the alphabet, there's something wrong. There's something wrong. Because what do these letters
do? They build into words. And words
build into sentences. Sentences build into paragraphs.
Paragraphs build into ideas and thoughts. You see how the progression...
Now, do we cease to use ABCs? How can we communicate in writing
or speech if we cease to use those things? We use them all
the time. I'm using them now. When I wrote this message, I
had to know my ABCs to write this message. All the alphabet is here. But
I tell you, it's more than just the alphabet, isn't it? I've
grown. I've grown up. I've learned. I've been educated.
I understand. And that's what He's telling
us to do spiritually. Spiritually grow. One of the classic evidences
of life is growth. Isn't that right? If something's
alive, it's going to grow. And if it does not grow, most
likely it's dead. Is that not a basic principle
of life? Growth is a basic principle of
life. And if you're not growing, it
is because most likely you're dead. You're dead. This is why
the apostle is so concerned about these Hebrew believers because
they had not made progress. They had not progressed in spiritual
growth. But rather they have recessed,
regressed back to the point of legalism and turning back to
the law of Moses. And instead of growing in the
grace and knowledge of Christ as the sum and substance of the
Scripture, and such who revert back to legalism and law, rather
than seeing Christ as the freedom and fulfillment of the law, most
likely that leads to apostasy. That leads to apostasy. Do you
see that when a person is not growing in the grace and knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ, but is reverting back to using the
Scriptures unskillfully, If I were to take this book and
I were to go back to Deuteronomy and I start reading the dietary
law to you and tell you this is how you should eat, what have
I done? I've regressed. I've went backward
because the law speaks only of Jesus Christ. If I'm not teaching
Jesus Christ out of Deuteronomy, I have regressed. I'm not using
the scriptures skillfully. You see, all of those scriptures
speak of Christ. And so what we must do is grow
in the grace and knowledge of Christ. And that's what I want
to deal with mostly. Not this matter of apostasy,
but rather spiritual growth and its necessity. As I've said before,
if there is life, there must be growth. But there are some,
like these Hebrews, that are just content with being alive.
Have you met believers or professors of faith that are just content
with being alive? Well, I believe I'm going to
heaven and I don't need to know anything else. Just don't say
anything else to me, that's all I need. If that's your contentment,
I'm scared for you. If that's how you feel about
spiritual things, I really fear for you. Because if there's no
growth, there's no life. And I'll tell you, if anybody
is just content with being a babe in Christ, I'll tell you, their
life is full of misery and lack of joy and peace and contentment
in this world. They're stagnant believers, and
they're miserable. They're miserable. If you are
stagnant in your spiritual growth, I guarantee you this, you, if
you are a believer, you will be miserable. You will be miserable. These kind of believers are like
Lot. They were vexed daily. Lot was
vexed daily in that city of Sodom. But yet he didn't go anywhere.
He didn't leave. These kind of believers are very
sickly and unhealthy believers. But Jesus Christ, He came into
the world that we might have life and have it more abundantly. Do you see? Christ came that
we might have life and have it abundantly. Not that we would
be stagnant, but that we would grow in the grace and knowledge
of Christ. There's a great danger in those
who desire only to live and not to grow. These kind of people,
it's hard to tell. It's hard to tell whether they're
alive or they're dead. They're kind of like on life
support. You have somebody on life support,
it's hard to tell whether the machine is breathing or they're
breathing. You don't know. Isn't it that way with a lot
of people who profess faith in Christ? It's hard to tell. They
can take the gospel or leave the gospel. They can be here
or not be here. It don't matter to them. The Apostle says to those babes,
leaving the first principles of the doctrines of Christ, let
us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation. The Holy
Spirit is encouraging all of us who profess faith in Christ,
who have faith in Christ, that we should grow in spiritual maturity
by leaving the principle of the doctrine of Christ. Now what
does that mean? What does that mean that we leave the principle
of the doctrines of Christ? Well, it does not mean that we're
to forget the basics of the doctrine. That's not what it's saying.
We're not to forget the basics of the doctrine of Christ like
false religion. Listen to me. False religion
today has a saying, they believe everybody knows the gospel. So
what do they do? They go on from the gospel and
teach you how to live. They go on from the principles
of the gospel and they say, well, everybody knows about Jesus dying
for sins and everything else. What we're going to do now is
we're going to go on, we're going to go on to maturity and tell
you how to have relationships, how to have financial peace,
how to do this, how to do that. Friends, that's apostasy. That's not spiritual growth.
When He's telling us to leave the principles of the doctrines,
what He's telling us to do is to build on those principles. To build on those basic, fundamental
ABCs of the gospel. We're to build on those and to
grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. Believers are encouraged
not to go away from grace to works, but rather to build on
the foundation of grace in Christ. Therefore, the apostle, the apostle is commending
us to grow in these graces. Now let me ask you this, who
among us does not need to grow in the grace of God? Who? Is there anybody that's spiritually
mature? Have you made it? If so, you
may boast, because the Apostle Paul himself said that he had
not attained unto perfection. And so we all need to grow in
grace, in the graces of the Holy Spirit. Faith, love, joy, meekness,
temperance, patience. We need to grow in these graces.
And so, the Apostle here lays out six.
six fundamental truths that every believer should build on so as
to grow. Let's look at these six fundamental
truths together that every one of us should know and every one
of us should build on. The first one here is the foundation
of repentance from dead works. This is mentioned first because
it's first in our experience, in the experience of the believer.
We first of all see that God is holy and we are sinners. We see God demands holy perfection,
absolute obedience to His law. Who shall ascend unto the hill
of the Lord and who shall stand in the holy place? He that hath
clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul
unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. Now who among us has got clean
hands and a pure heart? Who among Adam's race has clean
hands and a pure heart, and has not sworn in vanity, not put
his soul out to sin? Is this not the first principle
of grace that God requires of us what we cannot provide? Do
you not know that? We see that all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. We see that there is no soundness
in us, that from the top of our head to the sole of our foot
is nothing but This is the first principle of grace, is it not?
Repentance from your own self-righteousness. That's the first aspect of grace.
If you've never experienced repentance from dead works, then you're
dead. You're not alive. This is the first principle.
This is A. In the ABCs, this is first. A. Repentance from
dead works. We see that all of our past deeds,
all of our past religion are counted as dumb and useless to
commend us to God. All of our works are useless. Therefore, we repent from all
self-righteousness and self-salvation. Now, you who believe on Christ,
Have you ever stopped repenting from dead works? No. No. Matter of fact, the more
I grow in the grace and knowledge of God, the more I see my depravity,
the more I see my uselessness, my inability to please God. That's growing. growing on that. We grow in the grace and knowledge
of God. We grow more to understand our
lack of righteousness. Not the labor of my hands could
fulfill the law's demands. Could my zeal, no respite, no
Could my tears forever flow? These, for sin, could not atone. Thou must save, and thou alone. Is that not what you're growing
in? Have you grown in that? Yes. Yes, we do. Believers do. Second of all, let us see that
we are to grow in faith towards God. That's the second one he
said. Repentance from dead works, and this is the B, faith towards
God. When God the Holy Spirit quickened
us and brought us down to our knees to repent from our dead
work, we were like that Gentile woman. She had come begging the
Lord to heal her daughter, and the Lord said, Is it meat that
I give the children's bread to dogs? And what did she do? Repented
from dead work. She said truth. That's true. I am a dog." That's what she
said. But she, in faith, said to him,
but even the dogs received the crumbs from the master's table.
She believed him to be the master. Faith towards God. Isn't that
to be? Isn't that when we saw our sin,
then we turn from ourself and we turn to faith in Christ? Let
me ask you, believer, have you stopped turning in faith to Christ?
Well, no, absolutely not. There's a lot of times I don't
understand things. And there's a lot of times I'm
confused. But I'll tell you this, every
time I am, I say with the apostles, Lord, to whom shall I go? Thou
hast the words of eternal life. I don't understand, Lord, but
I know this. You're all my hope. And I'll tell you, when God presses
us, is that not where we go? In all our trials and difficulties,
is that not what the Lord is doing? Causing us to grow in
faith. We grow in faith because Jesus
Christ is the only way to God. Isn't that right? Do you believe
that? Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man
comes to God but by Me. This faith believes on Christ
as all our righteousness. Have you ever stopped believing
Christ to be your righteousness? If I have any righteousness at
all, it must be by the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I believe that by Adam came sin,
and by his disobedience many became sinners. Even so, by the
obedience of Christ came righteousness. This is the foundational truth
of our salvation, faith in Christ. Behold, the man upon the cross,
my sins upon his shoulders. Ashamed I hear my mocking voice
call out among the scoffers. It was my sin that nailed him
there until it was accomplished. His dying breath had brought
me life and I know it is finished. I know. I know by faith. I know. Is this not the foundation
of our salvation, even faith in Christ alone? Yes, and surely
I know this. I believe, Lord help my unbelief. Is that not still your cry? Lord,
that I might grow in grace and faith. Now when you ask that, do you
know what you're going to get? trouble, difficulties, trials,
because that's how our faith grows. And thirdly, look at this. He says, not only repentance
from dead works, faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms. Now let us take note that the
apostle uses the plural baptisms. He doesn't use the plural doctrines.
He uses the doctrine of baptism, singular doctrine, but multiple
baptisms. Now, truly there is only one
doctrine of baptisms But there are many doctrines
today about baptism, isn't it right? Some people believe in
baptismal regeneration. Some people believe that the
water has some kind of power to save. That's a lie. That's
not the truth. That's not the doctrine. The
doctrine of baptisms has to do with both physical and spiritual
baptism. When we come to faith in Christ,
when we come to faith in Christ, our Lord Jesus Christ commands
us to be baptized. He said, go you into all the
world and preach the gospel to every creature, baptizing them
in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
So in our experience, this would be C, wouldn't it? Baptism. Repentance, faith, baptism. Obedience. Obedience. And then
as we plunge into the water, the physical baptism, we know
this, that it is a picture of what has happened to us spiritually. That's what baptism is. It's
a picture. The Lord's table, we take of that once a month,
and that is a picture of the Lord's death. But baptism, baptism
is a picture of what has happened to us inside. What God has done
for us. So when we are physically immersed
in the water, in the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit, we know that baptism, physical baptism, does
not save. But all who have life obey this
because it pictures a spiritual truth. A spiritual truth. And you know that baptism is
the only confession of faith? You know, the coming down to
the front, that's not a confession of faith. If you believe on Christ,
I'm not going to ask you to come down here to the front, because
that's not a confession of faith. Confession of faith is only in
baptism. It's only in baptism. And the confession of our faith
in the physical representation of our spiritual union, redemption,
and resurrection with Christ. As we are physically baptized,
we are confessing our union with Christ. Our union with Christ. And as we are immersed in the
water, what we are confessing is that when Christ was immersed
under the justice and the wrath of God, we were in union with
Him. We were one with Him. We confess
that when He died for sin, we died in Him. We were with Him
when He performed righteousness unto God, and we were in Him
when He died for our sins. When you are immersed in the
water, Can you see the person? When a person is immersed in
the water, do you see the person? No. You no longer see the person.
That's the same as we are in Christ. I am nothing. He's everything. I'm immersed in Him. My whole
salvation is dependent upon Him. And as we come up out of the
water, we are confessing that we are raised with Him. So then,
believer, baptism is a wonderful thing, and it pictures we have
died to sin. This is a truth. Likewise, reckon
yourselves to be indeed dead, indeed to sin, but alive unto
God. Why? Because we were baptized
when Christ died. Now then, let me ask you this.
Can we know too much about our union with Christ? Do you know
too much? Can you not grow in that knowledge
and understanding? Is there not room for you to
grow? Maybe some of you are far more in tune to this than I am. But I'll tell you, I need to
grow in it. I need to understand it more. to understand the truth that
as much as Christ is dead to sin, I too am dead to sin. How much is Christ dead to sin? Completely. So am I. As He is, John said, so are we
in this present world. We have His righteousness. Can we not grow in that understanding?
Yes. Is that not our desire? Would
that not bring you comfort, peace, assurance to know this? Yes. Then we should grow in it. We should continue to grow in
the grace and knowledge of Christ that He sees us as righteous. Number four, we grow in the fundamental
doctrine of laying on of hands. Now, this doctrine, laying on
of hands, we know the Lord Jesus Christ and the apostles, when
they touched people, they imparted gifts unto them. The Lord Jesus
imparted healing. The apostles imparted the gifts
of the Holy Spirit to those they laid hands on. But we know that
that is past. We know that that's not the doctrine
that's being mentioned here. but rather it is the matter of
being identified with someone. Identification. In the Old Testament,
the great day of atonement, you remember that the high priest
laid his hands upon the animal and he imputed, he confessed
the sins of the people upon the animal Even so, this is how God imputed
our sins. He laid them on His Son. He transferred them to His Son. And now that His Son has taken
our sins away, His Son has laid His hands on us and imputed to
us His righteousness. Do you not know that the Lord
Jesus Christ identifies with you as His brother? as His children, He identifies with you. He has
laid His hands on you and imparted His Holy Spirit. Is that not a basic principle?
That salvation is of the Lord? That the Lord now identifies
with us being a man? He identifies with us? He has
laid His hands on us and He has saved us. Can you wrap your minds
around that? Or do you still got room to grow
in that? Do you need to grow? Believer, are you troubled? Are
you weak and weary? Then behold how the Savior is
a man that is touched with the feelings of your infirmities. I thought about it this week,
how the Lord was tempted. We don't dare say that very much,
do we? But the Scripture says it. He could not sin and yet
He was tempted. His temptation was far greater
than ours because He couldn't sin. Can you imagine spending
40 days and 40 nights without bread? Having the power to turn
the stones to bread, but yet he did not, he could not, because
he could not sin. He must have obeyed God and waited
for God. Do you see how much more he endured?
How much you think of your temptations. It doesn't take very much for
us to be tempted. You push on us a little bit and we break.
Our Lord Jesus was pressed without measure until blood came out
of His pores. Your Savior can identify with
you. He understands more than you know. Can we not grow in
that understanding? Do we not need that? Yes. Yes, we do. And fifth, the doctrine
of resurrection from the dead. Because Jesus Christ is raised
from the dead, we who believe have a great assurance of our
acceptance with God. Do you need assurance? Who among us does not need that
assurance? If you need assurance, then look
at the empty tomb. Is it empty? Is He raised? If He's raised, then your hope
is secure. Paul said that if Christ be not
raised, then your hope is vain. We're preaching a false gospel,
and we're all going to die in our sins if Christ is in the
tomb. But that's not true. Christ is
raised from the dead. God has accepted His offering,
and I am accepted in Him. I'm accepted. You not need assurance? Look
in the empty tomb. Do you need hope? Oh, man. This world is a very miserable
place for us, isn't it? I tell you, I need hope of a
resurrection. One day this body is going to
fall on the ground and my soul is going to be with God, but
that's not it. One day my body will be raised incorruptible.
Why? Because his body was raised incorruptible. And lastly, the doctrine of the
eternal judgment of God. We who believe on Jesus Christ,
we have escaped the judgment of God. Not by the skin of our
teeth. No. Because Christ has already
paid for our sins. The judgment of God has passed.
But who knows more of the judgment of God than you? You who believe. You who have seen the holiness
of God, repented from your dead works, believed on God, baptized
according in obedience with Christ, Knowing that He's raised from
the dead and has laid His hands on you, you know the judgment
of God is coming. Should that not move us to witness? Paul said, knowing therefore
the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. Which among us does not need
to grow in our witness? Who doesn't need to grow? Who
has mastered witnessing? Who? Not me. I need to grow. Which of these graces do we not
need to grow in? And look at verse 3, And this
we will do, if God permit. Here we see both the sovereignty
of God and the responsibility of man. This we will do. Who among us does not want to
grow in grace? Those who do not want to grow
in these graces, but leave these graces and go on to something
else, that's apostasy. But we who know these truths
desire to grow in them. Which of these truths have I
not preached? Which of these truths have you
not heard? Which of these truths have you not believed? Let's grow up in these truths. And we will, if God permits. Who causes our growth? It is
God. But do we throw our hands in
the air and say, well, if God's going to want me to grow, I guess
I'll just grow. Is that how we grow? No. We grow through hearing
the preaching of the gospel, through study. We grow through
prayer and earnest supplications to God. You want assurance? These are six principles that
you can rest on, grow on. And I pray that God would help
us do that. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed in prayer.