We'll be looking in the book
of Hebrews if you would like to turn there. Hebrews chapter five. I've titled this message Growing
in Grace. Growing in Grace. A man asked me one time in the
foyer out here, he said, what does the Christian life look
like? He said, what does growing in grace look like? This man
really wasn't interested in anything I was gonna say, but the Lord
gave me these words to say to him, and I still stand by this. Growing in grace looks like a
bunch of dead dog sinners begging for another crumb from the master's
table. Needing him more and more and
more. Desiring him, depending upon
him, relying upon him more and more because you see less and
less of self. We don't see our self getting
better. That man was talking about progressive sanctification
is what he was getting around to tell you. That's not true.
Christ is our sanctification, isn't he? He's our sanctification. Well, like that man, the Pharisees
loved to see something, and we have plenty of Pharisees alive
and well today. They may not dress the same as
Pharisees did in Bible times, but you can usually spot them
pretty easily by the way that they dress, the way that they
conduct themselves, their piety, their self-righteousness. It
oozes out of them, doesn't it? They think they're something
when in all truth, they're nothing. They want to see signs, and that's
what the natural man wants to see, growing in grace. Whenever
you say, what is growing in grace? What does it look like? They
want to see evidence, some outward evidence of some kind that I'm
growing. I want to see the Lord's people
just look to Christ. The Lord's people just rest in
Christ. He's the seeing Him. That's where growth comes from,
is Him. Never going to see ourself, and
it's interesting how the Lord does this, because it's opposite
of our flesh. The flesh sees we start out as
a baby, and we grow stronger, and eventually we die. Well,
Paul said, I die daily. I die daily. We never get past
seeing ourself as a babe, do we? We never say, well, I'm no
longer a babe. I'm about seven or eight years old spiritually
now. I can walk. I can run. I can do it. You'll
never hear a preacher talk like that that's a gospel preacher.
Why? Because the message is Christ. The message is look to him. Don't
look at yourself and examine and say, well, how do I know
if I'm growing in grace? Let me look at this evidence.
I'm not doing this, or I am doing that, or I've got this down pat.
No, that's not it, is it? Growing in grace is down. It's
not up. The way up is down. We see more
of him. We see less of ourself more and
more. We see his beauty, not our own beauty. We see how ugly
we are by nature, our sin, our condition, and we see him high
and lifted up. That's what Isaiah did. Isaiah
grew in grace, didn't he? He said, Lord, these people have
unclean lips. They're, they're, they're doing
all these things. They're not hearing your word.
They're, they're blasphemous. They're all this. And then it
says in the year Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high lifted up.
You know, Isaiah didn't say anything else about those individuals
any longer. He didn't say, well, at least
I'm not as bad as them. He said, no, I'm a man of unclean
lips and I dwell among a people with unclean lips. We're the
same, aren't we? We're sinners, sinners that need
a savior. We never grow past that. We never grow past that. We see
it more and we see it more. We wrestle with the flesh more
and more. Somebody made mention about the
problems that they have whenever we were in false religion. We
didn't have a lot of problems. We didn't have the problems that
we do now. It seems like one thing right after another. That's
the chastenings of the Lord causing us to do what? Flee to Christ. Flee to Christ. I can't fix the
circumstance I'm in, but he can. He's the one that sent it. Growing
in grace looks like sinners fleeing to Christ over and over and over
as all their need, all their righteousness. The more we see of Christ, the
less we see of self. Isn't that true? Can't look at
yourself and look at Christ at the same time. Not possible. If you're looking at yourself,
you're not looking at Christ. And if you're looking at the
Lord Jesus Christ, you're not looking at yourself. The more
we see of his grace, the more dependent we become of it, become
needful of it. The more he makes us needy, and
the more he feels that need as only he can, the more needy we
become of it. The more needy we become, the
more He feels that need, and the more needy we become. Because
He's the need. He's the need. That's what growing
in grace is. Needing Him more. Seeking Him
more. Why did you come to service this
morning? You had to, didn't you? I had to be here. I had to hear
about him, his finished work. I had to hear about his gospel.
I had to hear how he saved sinners. I had to hear that my sin had
been paid for, and it's not by works of righteousness that we
have done, but according to his mercy. I had to hear that it's
by grace you're saved, through faith in that not of yourself.
I had to hear it again. We're here, H-E-R-E, to hear,
H-E-A-R, aren't we? Had to be here. Had to be here. that need will grow more and
more as you grow in grace. Doesn't get smaller and smaller.
He becomes the one thing needful more and more and more. Now here
in our text, the writer of Hebrews is conveying that he is writing
to babes. He's writing to babes. Let's
read our text before I go much farther here. Hebrews 5, we'll
read 11 through the end of the chapter. And he's talking about
the Lord being Melchizedek, and he says, of whom we have many
things to say and hard to be uttered, seeing you are dull
of hearing. For when, for the time you ought
to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again to be
the first principles of the oracles of God and are which become such
as have need of milk and not strong meat. For everyone 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. He's implying here that they
can't handle, they can't handle the oracles, the mysteries of
the Lord being Melchizedek. He has to feed them milk. They
can't stomach the glorious truth of Melchizedek, the Lord Jesus
Christ. They're babes, they're babes,
they have not grown. Now he gives us insight a little
bit as to what it means or what it is to have grown. And he tells
us in verse 14 at the end, those who have their senses exercised
to discern both good and evil. So if I can discern good and
evil, that may show that the Lord has given grace to grow. What does that mean though? Does
that mean I see evil around me? Do I see the evil in your life?
Do I see the good in me? No, that's not it at all. No,
he's saying to discern the evil inside yourself, to be able to
see less and less of self, to see the depravity that it just
keeps getting darker, doesn't it? The sin keeps getting more.
That's what he's saying, to discern that evil and realize there is
no good in us. Not one thing good. We don't
look around in the world to find evil, to find wickedness. We
don't go to a certain place to say, well, at least I don't do
that. No, the evil's here, isn't it? It's on the inside. It's
the heart that's deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
The Lord causes his sheep to discern that, to see that, grows
them in grace. What does that mean? That means
he causes them to cry out more and more to him. They discern
that he is the good that they must have, more and more. He
makes it more predominant, a more predominant need, doesn't he? If the Lord reveals to us that
we are sin, we will have some understanding of good and evil.
some understanding. We'll never know, but we'll be
made like him, so we'll know then, but we won't remember this
world then, so we won't know then either how bad our sin really
is, what it really cost him to put him away when he died, what
he really went through on the cross of Calvary, the agony that
he endured for his people, what he suffered for us. We won't,
we look through a glass darkly on that, don't we? We see some
of it, we see a little bit of our sin, You got to think about. When the Lord starts revealing
that sin, what is it that it causes you to do? Do you boast
in your sin? Do you brag and say, well, I'm
just a sinner? No, Lord, have mercy on me, the
sinner. Lord, have mercy on me. I see
my sin again. Lord, save me. In myself, the songwriter said,
in myself I find no merit, in myself I see no good. I must
have the precious lamb and his redeeming blood. It's true, isn't
it? It's true. This is what it means
to grow in grace, not getting better, not intellectually growing
or arriving at a different place of understanding of biblical
facts. That's not growing in grace.
You could have the whole Bible memorized and still not grow
in grace. Growing in grace is seeing the
dust that we are, seeing the sin pollution that is in us,
that's coursing through our veins, not having time to judge others.
I have a lot of family members, and some of you do too, probably
know, and you may have peers that you have been experienced
with, that they have this attitude of being better than others.
And we were guilty of that in false religion. We had a, apparently
in false religion, we had a feather in our hat that nobody else had.
You know, that was the attitude. We knew something. We were, we
had, we were something that, and it was all just pride. It
was all self-righteousness, but going around these individuals,
they, They see themselves as having
grown, of having matured. They say that, well, I'm a mature
Christian, they call it. Somebody says that, they're not
a mature Christian, I promise you that. That's just, no believer
is going to say those words. It's, I mean, it's not, what
do we say? I can't see anything good in
me. I can't see maturity in me. No,
Lord, don't leave me to myself now. Lord, I know if you don't
send your spirit right now and take these words coming out of
my mouth and wash them in your precious blood and disperse them
according to your will, where this is in vain, nothing good
can come from me. Growing in grace is seeing less
and less of yourself. and more and more of our Savior.
Seeing the need that he is the need more and more. We don't have time to stick our
nose up at others, do we? We see sin in ourself. We see
how disgusting we are. Someone said to me recently,
did you hear about what so and so did in our family? And I said,
I don't need to know. I don't need to know. They said,
well, I can't believe they did this, and I can't believe they
did that. We knew the depravity that we really are. We're capable
of anything, aren't we? We see that. That's growing in
grace. People don't see that. This is
a gift from the Lord to see that you're depraved, to see that
you have a need, to see grace is your need of Christ, that
he would save you because of what you are. I need to be saved
from myself. Can you relate to that? I don't
need to just be safe from my sin, I need to be safe from myself. Left to myself, I would never
choose the Lord, I would never come to him. I need to be safe
from myself. We don't have time to concern
ourselves with other people's sin, ours is much too great. Truth is, growing in grace is
the revelation that you are the chief sinner. That's growing
in grace. That's growing in grace, realizing
the Lord causing you and me to realize we are the chief sinner.
Paul describes it this way. He starts out in Ephesians three
by saying, I'm the less, I am less than the least of the saints. Then he goes on later on and
he says, I'm not worthy to be counted among the brethren. And
then finally, at the very end of his life, you know what he
called himself? He said, Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners of whom I am chief. Whom I am chief. That's growing
in grace. That's growing in grace. It's down, isn't it? It's less
and less of me and more and more of him. I must decrease. He must increase. That's what
John said. Growing in grace looks like a
dead dog's center becoming more and more needful of the master's
crumbs. Desiring milk, yes, but no matter
what mystery the Lord unfolds before us, no matter what we
see in his word or how he reveals his truth, we just say truth,
Lord, you're right. Truth, Lord. The babes that he's
referring to here, the Hebrews, they can't handle the mysteries
of Melchizedek because they're They're too much for them. They
have too many questions. They cause too many alarms. But
if I tell you that Melchizedek was a representation, he had
neither father nor mother. He had a beginning of days nor
end of life. So he's timeless. He's ageless.
Who is that? That's God. That's the Lord Jesus
Christ, isn't it? They couldn't have handled that.
But what do we say to that? Truth, Lord. Yeah, I believe
that you physically manifested yourself in that form. And we
bow to it. And our only hope is that you're
our prophet, our priest, and our king. That's our only hope.
We just see more of him, don't we? Whatever he reveals, we say
truth. We're not given a desire, growing
in grace, to hear about ourself. If somebody wants to hear about
themselves, they're not growing in grace. When Rebecca was coming back,
it was a four-week journey. All the miles they had to go
on the camel, Rebecca was being brought back to Isaac. Never
saw Isaac. They didn't have pictures back
then. So what was the servant's job to do? Well, it would have
been to tell her about Isaac. And can you imagine her mind
wandering as they're on the camels? day to day they're traveling
and then in the evenings they pop up the tent and they have
a fire there. What do you think she's wondering? Tell me about Isaac. Tell me
about his eyes. Tell me about his skin. Tell
me about his ways. Tell me about his hair. Tell
me about his smell. She couldn't get enough information
about Isaac, could she? Why? because she was gonna marry
him. The Lord had actually, it says
that he loved her whenever he saw her. Can you imagine, she
got off the camel when she saw him afar off and she covered
her face. That's a picture of us, the half's not been told.
When we see our Lord, oh, we gotta cover our face, don't we?
Not unto us, O Lord, unto thee be all glory and honor and praise.
That's growing in grace. Tell me about Isaac. Tell me
more about the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't tell me about me. She didn't
look at the servant and say, do you think I'm good enough
for him? Do you think I'm, he was, she was already going. That
wasn't the issue, was it? No, we know good and well, we're
not good enough. He's made us accepted in the beloved. It's
all by his grace, all by his work. We don't want to hear about our
good choices, but we want to be Growing in grace is being
completely dependent on his choice to redeem, completely dependent
on his electing sovereign grace. Growing in grace is being given
a heart that says, not my will, but thine be done, and bowing
to him. Growing in grace is believing
him in all things, trusting his word, his purpose, his power.
We don't trust in ourself anymore, do we? Now when it comes to salvation,
we don't add to or take away the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's all our hope is his finished work. We have no confidence in the
flesh. Do you have any confidence in
your flesh? No confidence in the flesh. I'm gonna let myself
down if I give him the opportunity, I'll let myself down. Lord's
people are made to know and believe that if he doesn't do all the
choosing, all the saving, all the calling and all the keeping,
we're doomed. We're doomed. But the good news is he did all
the choosing, all the saving, all the calling. He does all
the keeping by his power. Causes us to believe that more
and more having that need more and more to see him. That's called
growing in grace. Now, once this foundation is
established, it's all Him, by grace, through faith, we're able
to look at all of Scripture now and see that it's all about Him.
Every mystery revealed is Him. Everything, what did He tell
the Pharisees? Search the Scriptures, for in
them you think you have eternal life, but they are they which
speak of Me. We now see Him on every page, don't we? We now
see that it's all about Him. That's what growing in grace
does, is it causes us to see him, not self. Growing in grace
never examines self, never looks at self, never tries to find
evidence of anything in self. Growing in grace looks to the
Lord Jesus Christ. We've been made to know it's
not about us. It's about him. You know, our flesh hates that.
It's not about us. It's not about me. It's about
him. It's about his glory. It's the love that he had for
his father. And it's the love the father had for his people.
If it hadn't been for his love and his grace, we would be hopeless,
helpless. But what did that love accomplish?
It accomplished the salvation of the Lord's people. We believe
that. We cling to that. That's our
only hope is that he chose Although our flesh hates that
it's not about us, we say with the Seraphimician woman, truth,
Lord, I am a dog. But can I have the crumbs off
of your table? Can I be your dog? Is that not
what you ever seen a dog? I use dog as an analogy quite
a bit. Some of you have pets. And that dog could be in a dead
sleep. And as soon as that refrigerator
opens up, that dog comes running every single time. The cabinet
door, I get a bag of potato chips or something and open them up.
As soon as it goes poof, that dog's right there, every time,
without fail. Is it not true that whenever
our glorious master, if we know he's going to be feeding, we
know that he said, two or three are gathered in my name, there
will I be in the midst. Do we not have to come running? Do we not have to come running
for that one more morsel, that one more crumb? Lord, I need
one more drop of living water. I need one more morsel of the
bread of life. Lord, I need the day's manna.
I need you. I need to be filled by you. I need to see your face. How
do we come to him as a dog, as a dog, as a sinner, Lord have
mercy on me, the sinner. And did you know you will never
read in the scripture where the Lord turned away a dog, where
the Lord turned away a sinner, where the Lord turned away somebody
that was needy of him. Do you know why? He created the
need. He created the need. And then
he fills it with his person, with his truth, growing in grace is growing and
understanding that he is all he is all these babes could not
understand Apparently he is all, they didn't, he was writing to
some, perhaps they were dealing with the law still, perhaps they
were dabbling in other things, and these were Hebrew, so they
were, would have been, he talks a lot about the priesthood because
of where they would have still done ceremonies and whatever
else, and he's trying to explain it to them, but it's like, you
can't handle the mysteries of Melchizedek, you're babes. You're
babes, what's the mystery of Melchizedek? We can just say
it this way, Christ is all. It doesn't matter what the, We're
gonna look at Melchizedek when we get into chapter seven, Lord
willing. He goes into great detail about it. But the point is, whatever
his truth is, the Lord's people just bow to that. He does the
saving, the calling, the keeping. Whatever his truth is, his people
just bow to that more and more. We grow in hope. Hope that he
finished the work given to him. We believe he did. We know he
did. And we hope in that work. We hope that he successfully
redeemed. Not hope as in you hope for something
to happen. No, this is a blessed hope. This
is a lively hope. This is a sure hope, the scripture
says. It's not a guess. I hope he makes
it. No, no, no, no. We believe he
was successful and we hope in his success. It's our only hope.
We grow in that hope as we grow in grace, we grow in need. The
more he shows us our sin, the more we see we can't do anything
about it. You ever looked at somebody and said, you're a sinner
and you can't fix it. That's exactly what I'm telling
you this morning. You're a sinner and you can't fix it. And boy,
you tell somebody that and they'll get mad. I've had people get
mad at me, but it's the truth, isn't it? I'm a sinner and I
can't fix it. You mean there's nothing you can do to fix it?
There's nothing I can do to fix it and eternity in hell would
not pay for one sin. But the Lord Jesus Christ can.
The Lord Jesus Christ put away the sin of his people on the
cross of Calvary, they're gone. They're gone. We're gonna hear
about eternal judgment the second hour, but at the judgment day,
there's no sin to bring into account against the Lord's people.
They're gone. They're the righteousness of God in Christ. This is the
hope that we grow in. He's the sweet balm that heals
the deepest wound. You believe that, don't you?
You see how deep the stain is. You see how deep the wound is,
but you have the utmost confidence in the blood of Christ to wash
it away, to heal it. I believe he could do that. I
know he can. He's given faith to believe it.
And it's my only hope. Matter of fact, his blood is
a double cure, isn't it? He said, tell them they receive
double. They received double for their
sin. I didn't just take it away, but
I made them the righteousness of God in Christ. We received
the double cure by his blood alone. He's made to his people
as all our need. That's what growing in grace
is. Him being more and more our need,
ever more fervently, ever more often. We grow in our dependence upon
him, don't we? Are you dependent on the Lord Jesus Christ? Completely. Completely. Yes. Yes. I like how Paul refers to the
house of Stephanas. He said they addicted themselves
to the ministry of the saints. They addicted themselves. Are
you addicted to this gospel? Yes. Yes. Growing in grace is the Lord
making us more and more selfless. Selfless. Looking to him alone. Serving him out of love, out
of necessity. Why do we go to church every time the doors are
open? I have to. I get to. I've got to hear about
him. I've got to hear about Isaac.
This gospel is our only hope. Hearing it. Causes that hope
to grow. Hearing it causes us. to rest. Is there any other place that
you have to rest? And I'm not talking about your
couch. I'm talking about to rest your
soul. Rest your soul to have peace and rest. They're they're
so underrated, aren't they? They're so you can't find it.
You can't find rest for your soul. You can't find peace for
your soul anywhere else but God's gospel. He's growing you in grace. That's what he's doing. He's
causing you to be dependent upon his glorious news. The Lord calls us to grow. That's
the prayer, isn't it? Lord, I want to grow. I want
to. I want to be fruitful unto the
Lord, but if I am to be, he's the one that's going to have
to do it. He's the vine, we're the branches. May we never examine
ourself to see if we're growing in grace. May we look unto him,
trusting that he will grow his people according to his will.
Believe him. Believe him. Never see ourself
any more than a babe. We never will. The Lord said,
suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them
not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. We never get past
being a little child, his little child. But he grows his people,
he does. We don't see it. You won't, you'll
never be able to examine yourself and see that you're growing.
You'll just, can you say right now you love it more than you
used to? The more you see of your sin, is it not true that
you fall in love with this gospel more and more and more? It's,
that's, yes. You need it more and more and
more. Why is that? He's growing, that's called growth.
Less of me and more of him, that's growth. He describes being babes here
in Hebrews 5, but he says this, Colossians, Paul says this, as
you have received Christ, so walk you therein. How did you
receive him? As a dead dog sinner, as a child. As a babe, newborn
babe, desiring the sincere milk of the word that we may grow
thereby, as you received him, walk therein. Just keep looking
to Christ, brethren. Keep looking to Christ. He'll
give that which is needful. He will give growth at his appointed
time. Growing in grace is believing
his word. Growing in grace. is believing
his mysteries, no matter how unbelievable they are. Did you
know that if you believe God right now, it's a gift of grace?
There's plenty of people that are atheists, plenty of people
that are Scientologyists, Scientologists, so many different religions all
over the world. Why do you believe God's gospel? Did you wake up
one morning and make a decision? I think I'm gonna start believing
this gospel. Do you believe? Because God said,
believe. He gave faith to believe it. Otherwise, you and I would
be searching. They're looking at the vastness
of space right now, and they're saying, well, we think it's bigger
than we thought it was before. I could have told them that.
You didn't have to spend a billion dollars to get a bigger telescope.
I could have told you that. But what does faith do? Faith
believes God. We're not looking for the mysteries
of a super outer space something, are we? We're looking to Christ. I like stars. I like to look
at the glorious creation of our Savior, but not as our hope and
salvation. No, we enjoy these things. And
in the flesh, he's made it for his people, the beautiful earth
that we have. But I can't find hope in the
earth. It's not Mother Nature that's going to save me. She
don't exist. It's a figment of people's imagination.
No, I need God to save me. I see my sin. I can't find anything
else outside of this glorious gospel, and we won't. That gives
peace to the soul, that gives rest to the soul, that feeds,
feeds the Lord's people. Lord calls us to grow in that.
Let's pray. Father, thank you that you supply
all things that you require for your people, cause us to grow
in your grace and in the knowledge of Christ, in his name, amen. Let's take a break.