Time to Grow Up
Hebrews 5:12-6:3
Salvation is a life changing event. When a person receives the gift of salvation the Bible states that they have become a new creation and have been born again. 1 Corinthians likens the life of a born-again believer to laying a foundation and then building upon that foundation. The writer of Hebrews is concerned with the fact that those to whom he had written had not started building on that foundation but were remaining infantile in their faith. He tells them it’s time to grow up.
I. There are four levels of spiritual development in almost every congregation.
A. Those who have no foundation – (the Unsaved)
1. These are those who are unsaved and are deceived into believing that they are OK.
a. Their false hopes are based on the following based lies:
• They are not bad that they are basically a good person. These people usually compare their "goodness" to other people’s "goodness," rather than to God’s measuring stick - Jesus Christ. - Romans 3:10 “...There is none righteous, no, not one”
• They do good works: they give to charity & feed the poor. They feel that God will accept them for their good deeds and humanitarianism. - Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
• They belong to a church. They have baptized, confirmed, taken communion, and may have even become deacons or hold leadership positions in a church. – Matthew 15:8-9 “These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men”
• They have prayed some rote prayer and now everything is ok. They prayed what is known as the “sinner’s prayer”. They did so without a full recognition of who they are and Who God is; they missed an important element of salvation – REPENTANCE. - Turning from self and sin giving God the ownership of your life. Romans 10:9 “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord (Kurios – owner) and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
b. They are deceived and unless they turn to Christ they will hear the fateful words of Matthew 7:23 “And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me...”
2. Those who are unsaved and know that they are lost.
a. These are those who know that if they died today they would go to hell, but are willing to gamble on tomorrow. Like Agrippa they are waiting for a more convenient time. But they may find themselves echoing the words of Jeremiah 8:20 “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”
b. These are those who know that they are lost and could care less. They are described in Psalms 10:4-“In his pride, the wicked does not seek Him. In all his thoughts, there is no room for God.”
c. These are those who are under the conviction of the Holy Spirit and need to listen and respond to God’s call.
B. Those who have a foundation but have never started to build on that foundation ( the Saved but shallow)
1. These are those who have accepted Christ but have never developed a spiritual appetite.
a. Satisfied with a smidgeon of God.
b. Hebrews 5:11b-13 “…you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, 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 only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.”
c. Dull = they were spiritually slothful and lazy in their Christian lives.
d. The insightful Puritan writer Thomas Brooks wrote that “A lazy Christian will always lack four things: comfort, content, confidence and assurance... (adding that) an idle life and a holy heart are a contradiction.” - copied
e. Someone else said “If you’re not making time daily to spend in God’s Word and in prayer, you’re not growing, you’re shrinking!”
f. 1 Peter 2:2 “As new born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby.”
g. Bob DeWaay writes that “Babies are wonderful, so are baby Christians if one means those who have recently come to the faith. The author of Hebrews, however, is speaking of babes of a different variety. These "babes" are in a state of perpetual infancy. They lack the interest and ability to understand Biblical teaching of any complexity and consequently lack discernment. Geriatric spiritual babies love to be entertained and amused like their counterparts in the nursery…” – Bob DeWaay, The Danger of Perpetual Infancy
2. It is important to note: it’s not that baby Christians don’t go to church or listen to preaching. It’s that they only want teaching and preaching that makes them feel good and that does not require them to go deeper with Christ or any commitment. - adapted
C. Those who have a foundation and started building but stopped due to distractions (the Saved but stunted in their spiritual development)
1. These are individuals who have accepted Christ and at one time were growing in Christ but have allowed Satan to sidetrack them stopping their progress in Christ.
2. Galatians 5:7 “Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?”
3. Matthew 13:5-6 “Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away”.
4. Those who started well but have been stunted by influences of family and friends
a. Matthew 16:23 (LEB) Jesus “said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a cause for stumbling to me, because you are not intent on the things of God, but the things of people!” Peter rebuked the Lord for Christ stating that He had to carry out the will of God by going to Jerusalem, be crucified and then on the third day be raised to life. Peter insisted that such a thing would never happen to Jesus. Christ rebuked Peter for being a stumbling block.
b. Often times when we are going on our spiritual growth friends and family will say things that make us turn from where we need to be heading or stop us dead in our tracks.
5. Those who started well but have been tripped by fellow believers.
a. Some months after his conversion Stuart Hamblen said: "My greatest stumbling block has not been my old cronies out in the world but the skeptical Christians waiting and watching for me to stumble." "Nothing in the world is more beautiful than a new Christian before he has gotten around some old Christians." - copied
b. Romans 14:21 “It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak.”
6. Those who started well but have been seduced by the world’s tinsel
a. 2 Timothy 4:10 “For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world”
b. James 4:4 “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
D. Those who have a foundation and are busy building for the Lord.
1. These are those who love the Lord, His Word, and His family.
a. Jeremiah 15:16 “Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.”
b. Thomas Guthrie warned “If you find yourself loving any pleasure more than your prayers, any book better than the Bible, any house better than the house of the Lord, any table better than the Lord’s table, any persons better than Christ, or any indulgence better than the hope of heaven—be alarmed” – copied
2. They exercise and put to use their spiritual gifts and are building for God and His body.
a. Hebrews 5:14 “solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those WHO BY REASON OF USE have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”
b. Every person has a spiritual gift and it is only when every person uses their spiritual gift that the church body matures and operates to its potential. - Delbert Young, “Growing Up in Spiritual Gifts”
c. I read of a principal in a high school who had an administrative post to fill. He promoted one of his teachers with ten years of teaching experience to the job. When the announcement was made, another teacher in this school came to him terribly upset. She said, “Why did you put that teacher in this position? He has only had ten years of experience, and I’ve had twenty-five years. Yet you passed me over in favor of him.” And the principal said, “I’m sorry; you’re wrong. You haven’t had twenty years of experience. You have had one year’s experience twenty-five times.” - unknown
d. The mark of spiritual maturity is not how much you understand, but how much you use. – copied
II. We are called to grow up.
A. Hebrews 6:1 “Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God”
B. Leave the rudiments
1. Hebrews 6:1 “Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection”
2. It’s time to move from pabulum to substance
3. 1 Corinthians 13:11 “When I was a child, I spoke as a child; I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”
4. It’s time to move from the basics of the faith to application of faith.
C. Press on to Maturity
1. To progress toward Christian maturity requires a radical realignment of our priorities, changing over from what we want to what God wants
2. Philippians 3:12-14 (Paraphrased) “Not that I have already reached the goal or am already fully mature but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.”
D. Don’t lay foundations again
1. Go forward not back.
2. The Song writer penned –
I’m pressing on the upward way,
New heights I’m gaining ev’ry day;
Still praying as I onward bound,
“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”
My heart has no desire to stay
Where doubts arise and fears dismay;
Though some may dwell where these abound,
My pray’r, my aim is higher ground. - copied
3. When Pablo Casals reached 95, a young reporter threw him a question: “Mr. Casals, you are 95 and the greatest cellist that ever lived. Why do you still practice six hours a day?” And Mr. Casals answered, “Because I think I’m making progress.” Our goal is to make spiritual progress every day of our life. – adapted from Dr. Maxwell Maltz, cited in Bits & Pieces, June 24, 1993
4. It’s time to grow up!
