chapter 5, and I want to begin
reading at verse 10, and read down through chapter 6 and verse
1. Speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ,
that He's the author of our salvation. He saves us with that eternal
salvation, all of those who believe Him. In verse 10, called of God,
that high priest, after the order of Melchizedek, of whom we have
many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are
dull of hearing. For when for the time you ought
to be teachers, you 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 of strong For everyone that
useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he
is a beggar. 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. Therefore,
leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go
on into perfection. not laying again the foundation
of repentance from dead works and of faith towards God." Let's
entitle this little study tonight, The Need for Progress. That's
what we see in this passage, a need for progress. One of the
phrases that we see in the book of Hebrews is to hold fast. That's a phrase that he often
uses in this book, hold fast. in chapter 3 and verse 6, but
Christ, as the Son over His own house, whose house are we, if
we hold fast the confidence, hold fast the confidence in Him,
and the rejoicing of hope firm unto the end, then just down
below that, He said, we're made partakers of Christ, if we hold
the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. Hold
your confidence steadfast, hold fast. And then chapter 4 and
verse 14, seeing then that we have a great high priest that
is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast
our profession of him. And then in chapter 10 verse
23, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering
for he is faithful. So we find that phrase hold fast,
but when he says hold fast, he doesn't mean just to stand still
and do nothing. This phrase here that we often
meet with, let us go on, let us go on. The Christian life
is a life of progression. It's a life of advancement. Peter
calls it a growth in grace and in knowledge. And in the twelfth
chapter of this book it says, Let us lay aside every weight,
and the sin that easily besets us, and let us run with patience
the race that is set before us. And then, just down below that,
he says, Wherefore, lift up the hands which hang down, and the
feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet. If you're
going to run a race, you want to run a straight race, don't
you? You want to make straight the paths for your feet. And
he says in chapter 13 and verse 13, Let us go forth, therefore,
unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. And then in chapter
6 and verse 12, it says, Be not slothful, but followers of them
who through faith and patience inherit the promise. So all these
things tell us that the Christian life is one of progress. It's
one of advancement. It's one of going forth, going
outside the camp. Follow Him, be a follower, hold
Him fast. And our text says here in chapter
6 and verse 1, let us go on, let us go on. And you know that's
one of the themes of the book of Hebrews. I think if we understand
that, we realize so many passages in here is to encourage them,
even sometimes to put a goad in their backsides to goad them
on. It's almost sometimes like a
whip that's snapped at you. Let us go on. Let us go on. And that's the message in this
passage here. You know the Scripture teaches
that everywhere, doesn't it? It teaches that everywhere that
we never stand still. There is a sense in which we
stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. But this is progress. It's going on. It's going forward. And look in Philippians chapter
3. This is the language that Paul uses in his epistle to Philippians
chapter 3. Look here, now he says, it's
on page 1280, Philippians chapter 3, and begin here around verse
7. He's speaking of how zealous he was,
how religious he was before the Lord saved him. And then he says
here in verse 7, But what things were gained to me in all my former
religion? Those I counted lost for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all
things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do
count them but done, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him,
not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, But that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith, that I may know Him and the power of His
resurrection." Paul said, I know Him, but I want to know Him better.
The power of His resurrection. The power that He has seated
at the right hand of God, ruling all things. His power in me,
Christ in us. the hope of glory. I want to
know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship
of His sufferings being made conformable unto His death, if
by any means I may attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
Not as though I had already attained, neither were already perfect.
But look at this, but I follow after, I follow after, that if
I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ.
Brethren, I kept not myself to have apprehended, but this one
thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, reaching
forth unto those things which are before, I press towards the
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
The Hebrew writer says, let us go on. And Paul says, let us
reach forth. Let us press. You've seen these
runners run in a race. We've all seen them. And boy,
they're just... I mean, they're coming to the finish line and
they're side by side. And what does one do? He reaches
out, don't he? He reaches out to get across
that finish line first. And that's what Paul said. I'm
running with all my might. I'm reaching out. Reaching out
for the finish line to be like Christ, to be with Christ, and
to be resurrected in that new body. So that's the way He says
it, let us go on. Look back now at our text again.
Let us go on. And this let us go on here has
to do with spiritual maturity. He says in verse 1, Therefore
leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go
on unto perfection. And that word perfection doesn't
mean sinless perfection. There's no way in this world.
no matter how we strive for it, and we should strive never to
sin against God again. But there's no way that we should
deceive ourselves to think that we're going to reach a state
of spiritual perfection in this lifetime. But this word here,
perfection, means spiritual maturity. It means to grow up, to mature
into a full Christian. When you read the Scripture,
you'll see different stages of growth in the Bible. John talks
about little children, doesn't he? And he talks about young
men, and he talks about fathers. Listen to I John chapter 2. I
have written unto you, little children, because your sins are
forgiven you for His namesake. I have written unto you, young
men, because you have overcome the wicked one. And I have written
unto you, fathers, for you have known Him, that is, from the
beginning. young men and father. And the problem with these Jewish
believers, these Hebrew believers, they were spiritually digressing.
They had ceased to grow and they had digressed into their childhood.
What did he tell them? You become babes again, didn't
you? You become babes. Look what he says again in chapter
5 and verse 12. They reverted back to their spiritual
childhood. Of whom, in verse 11, we have
many things to say, it is hard to be uttered, Signor Deleuze,
for when for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need
that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the
sayings or commandments of God, the word of God, and are become
such as have need of milk and not of strong meat. For everyone
that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness,
for he is a babe." He's a babe. Now the Bible has a lot of good
things to say about babies. Infants, little children. The
disciples were wanting to know who was the greatest in the kingdom
of heaven. And the Lord called a little
child and set that little child right down in the midst of His
apostles and Himself. And He looked at His apostles
and He said, except you be converted and become as this little child,
you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. And he says, he that
humbles himself and becomes this little child, he's a helpless,
humble little child. He's the greatest in the kingdom
of heaven, just like that child. And Peter talked about his newborn
babes, didn't he? Desire the sense of milk of the
word. All of us love newborn babies. We just can't wait to
see a newborn baby. If we know a mother that's had
a baby, a lot of times we'll take her to the hospital. If
you're in the Dishman family and some Dishman has a baby,
the delivery room is going to be full of Dishman. They love
newborn babies. We love to see their tiny bodies.
We love to see their little hands and their little feet and think
about their little organs and their little mind. They live
mainly by intellect, don't they? They don't have much understanding.
Not intellect, but instinct. They live by instinct. When they
get hungry, what do they do? They just suck away on their
mother's breast. You don't have to teach them that, they do that.
When they get sleepy, what do they do? They go to sleep. When
they get wet, they cry. And Peter says, as newborn babes
desire the milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby. So
there's a lot of good things about babies, new creatures in
the Lord Jesus Christ. But you know the Bible has some
things negative to say about babies too. I want you to look
at two or three places. Look in 1 Corinthians 3. What Paul says here about the
Corinthians being like babies, spiritual babies. We don't know
how old, spiritually speaking, these Corinthians were, but they
were acting like babies. They were acting like little
children. All of us have seen little children sit around on
the floor and they'll start fussing over a toy. We've seen three
or four be on the floor And somebody will get one of them toys. That's
my toy. I want it back. You know, they've got all their
toys piled up around them. No other kid's got a toy. But
every time another kid wants a toy, that's mine. Mommy, tell
Johnny to quit touching me. Johnny's touching me again. Daddy,
tell him to quit. You know, they just fussed on
you. Little children do that sometimes. That's what was happening
in Corinthian church. And look how Paul deals with
them in verse 1 of 1 Corinthians chapter 3. And our brethren could
not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto
babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk and
not with meat, for hitherto you weren't able to bear it, neither
yet now are you able. For are you not yet carnal? For
whereas there is among you envy and strife and division, Are
you not carnal and walk as men? And look what they were thinking
and saying. For while one saith, I am of Paul, and another, I
am of Apollos, are you not carnal? And this is what they were doing.
They were fussing with each other, envying one another, causing
divisions one with another. And you know what was wrong with
them? They weren't growing. They weren't growing. We don't
know how long, how old they were spiritually, But Paul said, you're
still babies. You're still babies. And one
of the ways that we know they were still babies, they hadn't
come, they hadn't grown to the place that they appreciated the
peace of God that was among them. They had peace with God, but
they didn't understand they needed to endeavor to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bonds of peace. That's easy lost, isn't
it? And they had all these gifts
and all these good preachers, and they had all of this strife
and division among them. And Paul said, you've not matured
as Christians. You're not young men. You're
not fathers. You're babes. And he rebukes
them for that. It'd be sad to see a 25-year-old
person that was acting like a baby. And we've seen them that way.
You've seen a 30-year-old person just start crying because he
didn't get his way and complaining like a little baby. It's the
same way with, Steve don't punch water like that. Did he call
you a baby? Oh, I thought he was calling
you a baby. I said that he punched water. I'm sorry, Steve. But
you know, you've seen people that way. I was talking about
Terrence. I'm sorry, Steve. I got that
started. I'll not bother you anymore. We've all seen people,
haven't we, that should be young men. But they're still babies, and
you can tell it by their attitude. But something else here in verses
1 and 2 of 1 Corinthians 3, here's something else about babies.
That's not a good thing. They don't have any capacity.
They don't have any intellectual capacity. Look what he said,
I could not speak unto you as spiritual, but as unto carnal,
even as unto babes in Christ, I have fed you with milk and
not with meat. For hitherto you were not able
to bear it, neither yet now are you able." You know, babies have
no capacity to understand it. The Lord told His disciples,
He said, I have many things to say to you, but you can't bear
it now. You're babies, and babies don't
have intellectual capacity. That's why we shouldn't stay
babies. That's why we have to grow. That's why we have to go
on into spiritual maturity. I remember not long after the
Lord saved me, I started reading John Bunyan's works, and I found
a book that he had written on reprobation asserted. It deals
with, since God has elected a great host out of Adam's race, what
about the rest? And he went into that in detail
and answered questions all about reprobation and election. And
as I began to read that book, I did not understand a thing
that man was saying. I got so confused It would have been like
some math professor bending over a baby's crib and saying the
square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the square of the
other two sides. And what would the baby say? Duh, duh, duh.
You wouldn't know it. I felt the same way when I tried
to read Bunyan's book. But you know what it is? After,
I don't know, five or ten years, I went back and that book made
perfect sense. Why? When I read it the first
time, I was a baby. I wasn't able to grasp it. I
wasn't able to bear what he was saying. But when I read back
and read it again, I had grown in grace and in knowledge. I
had gone forth in some maturity. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 14,
20, Brethren, be not children, be not babes in understanding,
howbeit in malice be children. That's another good thing about
children. They can play with each other and have a little
fuss, but they get right back together, don't they? I'll get
your mother's neck and play. In malice be children, but in
understanding be men." The trouble with the Corinthians,
they weren't growing. They were still little babies.
But you know, the Hebrews had probably a worse problem than
that. They had grown. Some of them
were young men spiritually, some of them were fathers spiritually,
but now they had reverted back to their childhood. You have
need that one teach you what you used to know. And now you've
become such that needs milk again and not a strong need. You've
become babies. You've reverted back to your
childhood. He said, for the time you ought
to be teachers. Now, not public teachers. If
he was speaking about public teachers as Wayne teaches and
as I teach, then he wouldn't have been even talking about
the women. Because we know that God don't call women to preach
publicly as we are teaching tonight. I suffer not a woman to teach
or to usher authority over a man. I have a friend of mine, a neighbor
of mine, he's a dear friend. And we talk about a lot of things,
but he goes to a huge Methodist church. And he has three pastors. And all three of them are women.
And he was talking to me the other night about it. And he
said, you know, I don't like that too much. I said, don't
like it? You ought to be ashamed. You ought to be ashamed to go
there. The Lord hasn't called those women to preach to you.
I suffer not a woman to teach or usher authority over a man. Then how could a woman get up
and teach? But you know, there's a place for a woman, and there's
a place for those who don't teach publicly. In the assembly, there's
a place for them to teach. We need teachers, don't we? We
need teachers in our workplaces. We need teachers in our homes,
in our neighborhoods. We need teachers everywhere.
I've had people come to me and say, would you go and talk to
my lost loved one? And I say, have you talked to
them? They say, no. I say, why not? They say, I don't
know how. I don't have anything to say. You don't know how? I
just don't feel like I know enough. I don't know enough either. All
I've got is what you've got, the Bible. Sometimes I wonder, brothers
and sisters, why you want the pastor to come and talk to your
loved ones when you won't talk to them. You know, we all ought to be
teachers, that's what I'm saying. We all ought to be teachers. Especially if we've been on the
way a while, we ought to be reading the Word where we can teach others.
And these should have been teachers, but they had need to be taught
again themselves. You remember when he was a great
man, the first time we heard of Apollos, he was mighty in
the Scriptures, but he only knew the baptism of John. I don't
know if he went around telling everybody you've got to be baptized,
you know. I don't know what he was preaching, but that's all
I knew. And a man and his wife by the name of Priscilla and
Aquila got him aside and the Bible says they taught him the
way of the Lord more fully. And I can't believe that Aquila
did all the talking. I bet you Priscilla did her part
of the talking. I bet she did a lot of the talking
and teaching that great man Apollos, which became a mighty preacher.
So women can teach, can't they? Just not publicly as we teach
here in the assembly. But they can teach. They can
teach. But here they reverted back where
none of them could teach. None of them. Me and our women.
Not only could these Hebrew Christians not teach others, but they had
to be re-taught the basic truths of Christ, of the Gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He makes a phrase here I thought
was pretty interesting in the fifth chapter of Hebrews, and
here in the twelfth verse, and compare it to verse one of chapter
six, When for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need
that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the
oracles of God. That's obviously the Old Testament.
We don't know if they at this time had any New Testament epistle. But these were Jewish people,
and they were very well acquainted with what the oracles of God
was. You dealt with this, Wayne, in Romans chapter 3. What advantage
has the Jew? Much every way. One of the ways,
cheaply was, committed to them the oracles of God. God gave
them His Word and the priesthood and the ceremonial law. And then
in chapter 6 and verse 1, look at this. Wherefore leave in the
principles of the doctrine of Christ. Now, what he said here,
the oracles of God and the principles of the doctrine of Christ, you
know those are the same thing. Those are the same thing. What's
called in the Old Testament the oracles of God is also the doctrine
of Christ. We don't have to come to the
New Testament to find the doctrine of Christ. It's all in the Old
Testament as well. And somebody has said the New
Testament is just a revelation of what the Old Testament concealed. The Old Testament concealed what
the New Testament revealed. And what does the Old Testament
reveal? Christ. You remember those two people
on the road to Emmaus, Cleophas and his brother? And Christ had
risen from the dead and they didn't know it? And He was walking
along by them and they were so sad. Finally, He opened their
understanding and began to preach unto them the things that's written
in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets concerning Himself. He began at Genesis all the way
through Malachi and preached Himself. What's the Old Testament
about? Himself. It's the doctrine of
Christ. It's set forth sometime in promises. It's set forth in predictions. It's set forth in plain truth
of His coming. But it's all about Him, isn't
it? Somebody's coming. And it tells us how He's going
to get here. He's going to be born of a virgin. It tells us
what He's going to do when He gets here. That He's going to
grow up as a tender plant. That He's going to suffer. He's
going to be pierced. And he's even going to be buried
and raised again. All of that and more we find
in the Old Testament Scripture. And the Lord Jesus preached it
to those two men on the road to Emmaus. And yet he comes right
back here and speaks to these Jewish believers and said, you
have need that one teach you again. You have need that one
teach you again. I guess I could give you sort
of an illustration of that. Can you imagine those two men
on the road to a mess, a year later, after Christ had taught
him himself, can you imagine a year later, Cleophas going
up to the other brother that was with him and saying, now,
brother, that goat that they brought to the priest, and he
put his hands on him and transferred the sins of Israel to the head
of that goat and led him off into wilderness. Now, what does
that mean again? Who does that represent? I forgot
who that represents. Can you imagine that? And the
brothers say, Cleophas, Cleophas, I have to teach you that? You
forgot that? You've become so dull of hearing?
You forgot that that's Christ? That gold is Christ? Or the other
brother come to Cleophas and say, Cleophas, do we have any
scriptures at all to tell us exactly how Christ came into
this world? Hear how He took our humanity? Did He say anything about His
birth? And He said, My dear brother,
have you never heard Isaiah 7, 14? A virgin shall conceive and
be with child. Have you forgotten? Do I have
to teach you that again? I think that's what the Apostle
Paul here is saying, that you become such as need to be taught
the very beginnings, the principles, the doctrine, the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. What happened to these Hebrew
Christians that they had reverted back to babes and needed to be
re-taught even the fundamental truths of the gospel? Look in
chapter 5 again and look in verse 11. Here's what had happened
to them, we're told, what had happened to them. Here's why
they got in the state that they reverted back to babies. Of whom
we have many things to say about Christ, being a priest after
the order of Melchizedek. And they are hard to be uttered,
seeing you are dull of hearing." This word dull is used two times
like this in the whole New Testament. And the second time it is used
is in chapter 6 and verse 12. Look at this. Be not slothful. The word means sluggish. Be not
sluggish. but followers of them who through
faith and patience inherit the promises." The reason why they
couldn't even encourage themselves hardly, and they couldn't be
encouraged to teach anyone else, they had become neglectful. They
had become lazy. They had become lazy, sluggish,
dull in their hearing God's Word. Didn't hear it read? quit reading
themselves, quit hearing them preach, and they became dull. They became lazy in their spirits. We can get lazy and our understanding
can become dull, and then it's difficult even to encourage ourselves,
and we sure can't encourage and teach others. Listen to this
word. Let the word of Christ dwell
in you. Let it dwell in you richly. Read it and read it and read
it. Read books about it and about
him and listen to the preacher. Let it dwell in you richly in
all wisdom. And then what's the very next
line say? Teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs. Singing with grace in your heart
to the Lord. Why? Why were they not to the point
that they could teach others? Well, they ceased to teach themselves.
They teach to hear the Word themselves. It's a dangerous thing to quit
hearing, brothers and sisters. It's a very dangerous thing to
quit hearing. The book of Hebrews said, We ought to give the more
earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time
we should let them slip. Well, that happens, doesn't it?
Have you ever found out in your experience that what you read
slips from you so easy? Slips so easy. And that's something
we've got to take heed. We have to be replenished, don't
we? And the way we're replenished is reading more, reading more,
reading, reading, reading. Today, if you will, hear His
voice. How do we hear His voice? Not
audibly. Beware of me if I get up here
and say, the Lord just told me so. He speaks through His Word,
doesn't He? What Christ has to say, He's
already said. What more could He say than to
you He has said? He said it in His Word. He says
it in His Word. Today, if you will hear His voice,
harden not your heart. See that ye refuse not Him that
speaketh, Hebrews chapter 12. For if they escape not who refuse
Him that speak on earth, Moses, How shall we escape if we turn
away from Him, Christ, who speaks from heaven? So hear Him in His
Word. Hear Him in a good song. Hear
Him in a message. Hear Him in good books. Hear
Him. Hear. Don't become dull of hearing. But not only have they become
dull in hearing, I doubt seriously if they were missing too many
worship services. Some of them are, no doubt. But you know,
sometimes we can come to the worship service and never hear
Him. We can read a chapter and never
hear Him. And He goes on here in verse 14 of chapter 5. It
says, "...Strong meat belongeth to them that are of the full
age, even those who by reason of use..." They use the Word. They get it inside them, they
use it. "...and to have their senses," their spiritual senses,
"...exercised." to discern both good and evil. They exercise. How do you exercise the Word
of God? I'll tell you one way to do it
is by meditating. If we just read it and that's
it, then it'll probably slip from us. But we take it in and
we think upon it. We meditate upon it. David said
day and night, don't we? Blessed are those who walk not
in the way of the ungodly, setteth in the seat of scorners, nor
stands in the way of sinners, but his delight is in the law
of the Lord, the gospel of the Lord, the word of the Lord, and
in that law does he meditate. He exercises his spiritual senses
when he does that. And he says as we do this, look
at this, we're able to discern between good and evil. We're
able to discern those things that honor God as opposed to
those things that don't honor Him. We're able to discern between
truth and a lie. We're able to discern between
a good attitude and a bad attitude. Between good practice and bad
practice. But that takes growth, doesn't
it? That takes growth. So he gives us a solution here
in chapter 6 in verse 1. Look what he says. Leaving the
beginnings of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on into maturity. Let us grow up, not land again
the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith
towards God. When he says you're leaving the
beginnings of the doctrine of Christ, the principles of the
doctrine He's not saying that we leave them as you and I think
of leaving. He's not talking about casting
them away or despising them or laying them aside. That would
be silly, wouldn't it? We don't take any truths of Christ and
cast them aside or forget about them. The foundational truths of Christ
and Him crucified are just that. They're foundational truths.
What he means by leaving them is we don't believe these truths,
we don't hear these truths, and then stay there. Let me tell you like this. Some
of you have one or two of these illustrations. I think it's good.
I think it's good. I think we can understand this.
Some people call this the ABCs. Christ and His Gospel, when we
first hear it, these beginnings of Christ and His Gospel, it's
like the ABCs. When you start teaching your
little children the ABCs, you know, I remember when we were
a kid, we used to sing A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and we learned
the alphabets that way. But when you learn your alphabets,
you don't forget them. You don't go on and throw them
behind you and say, man, we'll never need that. You use the
alphabet, don't you? You use it to spell by. and to
read by. If somebody comes up and says,
can you spell cat? You don't say A-B-C-D-E-F-G. That'd be silly, wouldn't it? You build upon those A-B-C's. You say, how do you spell cat?
C-A-T. I know my A-B-C's. And we learn
to count when we learn to count. Some little year old child, the
parents learn them to count to 10. Then two or three months,
they count to 20. And then 100. And then once they
get the way that goes, they can just keep on counting. And then
you learn, as old Jethro used to say, decipher. You learn how
to decipher. If you're working somewhere in
a restaurant or a grocery store and somebody comes in and they
give you $5 and they've got 50 cents coming back, you know how
to make change, don't you? You don't say, one, two, three,
four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. No, you say, he gave
me $5, he owes me 450, here's 50 cents back. See what I'm saying?
You build upon knowing your numbers. And Paul talks about a foundation,
doesn't he? And he doesn't say we leave the
foundation. But what do we do with the foundation?
We don't just get on it and stand, do we? You saw somebody out there
with a nice big foundation and he just stood there? He went
by next week and he's standing there? Went by next week and
he's still just standing there? You say, man, something's wrong
with that guy. He laid a foundation to build upon. And Paul says,
I have laid the foundation and let every man take heed how He
builds their own. For no other foundation can no
man lay, which is what? Which is Christ Jesus. Christ
and Him crucified. And when that foundation of faith
is laid in our hearts, then we build upon Him. We go on. We don't stop where we began. We go on to maturity. And if we don't, and we remain
babes, then we ain't going to help ourselves much, we ain't
going to help other people much. If we don't grow, if we don't
grow, then people's going to know it after a while. Do you
know it? People are going to know it. It's so evident you
can't hide it. It's by your attitude. If we
get mad, we lose our temper, we want to fuss and divide everybody,
what does that tell you about somebody? They're babes. But
you take somebody that's learned to be patient, he's long-suffering,
he's kind and forgiving. Boy, he's just like a rock. He's
not wavered and tossed as some child to and fro by every wind
of doctrine. That guy has grown. That woman
has grown in maturity. They went on to spiritual maturity. And that's what we'll deal with
next week. It's not only encouraging them
to grow, But boy, there's a danger. There's a warning to them that
if they don't grow, if they have gone backwards instead of forwards,
there's a danger there of apostasy that He warns them against. And
that's what we'll look at next week, the Lord's Will.