Let Us Go On To Maturity

Sermon Transcript

I love being a dad to young kids. I love it now and I loved it when they were very young. In fact, one of the very few notifications that I allow on my phone is the daily google photos notification because it gives me the opportunity to look back on phases in our children’s lives that Andrea and I loved so much. Because I love being a dad to young children, there are times when I wish I could freeze time and keep them from growing up. But, of course, that’s not what I ultimately want. As wonderful as my young children are, it wouldn’t be healthy for them to remain immature forever. We love the young years, but even more we want them to mature into wise adults who live significant lives in the way that God defines greatness. We love the young years, but we want them to mature. Our Heavenly Father feels similarly toward us. The Bible says that God throws a party in heaven when one sinner repents and believes in Jesus. The Almighty Creator God rejoices with the exuberance of a new dad when one sinner is born again through Christ. Therefore, it’s only appropriate to conclude that God delights in those early days, weeks, and months of our infancy in Christ, when we are learning the basics of the gospel and laying the foundation for the life of faith. But like any good dad, our Heavenly Father doesn’t want us to remain immature. He wants us to grow up and be full of goodness, filled with all knowledge of him, and be able to instruct one another in the application of the gospel to everyday life. Our Heavenly Father wants us to mature. And maturity is serious. Andrea and I pour out our lives to intentionally lead our children toward maturity. It’s a delight, but it’s serious. As you probably noticed from the Scripture reading, our passage is an intense warning, probably the most intense warning in all of Hebrews. In other words, maturity, growing up in Christ isn’t optional, rather it’s the necessary result of genuine faith in Jesus. It’s that serious. The heart of the passage is found right in Hebrews 6:1 – “Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God…” That brings us to the big idea of our passage this morning: Let us go on to maturity. The author says “let us” because we mature together and maturity is necessary for everyone who professes faith in Christ, the author included. Let us go on to maturity. To help us go on to maturity we are going to take in three parts: 1. The face of immaturity (5:11-6:3) 2. The danger of immaturity (6:4-8) 3. The blessing of maturity (6:9-12).

THE FACE OF IMMATURITY

When your child is first born, it’s critical that the child begin to gain weight. And in that sense, physical maturity is pretty objective. However, when it comes to maturing as a follower of Jesus, it can be a little more difficult to discern immaturity. Therefore, the author of Hebrews begins our passage by helping us define spiritual immaturity and discern what it looks like. He begins with the face of immaturity because to go on to maturity we have to know what immaturity looks like. Before we go any further, I want to encourage you: open your heart. It’s scary to let God’s word expose immaturity in us. And when immaturity is exposed, we’re tempted to despair or deflect. The Holy Spirit convicts us to conform us to Christ. The Devil accuses to shame. If the face of immaturity describes you, don’t deflect the conviction or despair over it because the Spirit convicts us to conform you to Christ. Don’t despair or deflect.

Ok – let’s begin with a definition. Hebrews 5:11 helps us define immaturity – About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. “About this” refers to the previous passages in which the author has been explaining that Jesus Christ is our high priest – our sympathetic and resurrected representative before God – who fulfills the priestly office from the OT such that He is the only priest we need to draw near to God now and forever. The author has a lot more to say about how the whole of the Bible points toward and is fulfilled in Christ. “Hard to explain” means that Hebrews were struggling to apprehend and apply the truth that Christ is our great high priest – the one who fulfills the OT. “Dull” is the same word translated later in our passage “sluggish.” They were struggling to grasp the doctrine of Christ our High Priest because they had become sluggish, lazy, and inattentive toward the things of God. In other words, their doctrinal immaturity was a moral problem, not an intellectual one. They didn’t apprehend and apply the centrality of Christ in all of Scripture because they were sluggish, not stupid. It’s easy to see that immaturity is moral, not intellectual when we pay attention to our children. If your three year old can memorize every character from Thomas the Tank Engine, then they can remember to take their dish to the sink after one ask. Their problem isn’t that they aren’t smart enough to grasp your instruction, their problem is, as Paul Tripp says, “they’re little self-appointed self-sovereigns.” In the same way, our immaturity in grasping how the whole Bible, including the OT priesthood, is fulfilled in Jesus Christ isn’t an intellectual problem – we grasp all kinds of complex things – it’s a moral problem. The reason we don’t grasp the basic message of the Bible and its fulfillment in Christ is that we’ve become sluggish and slack toward the things of God. That brings us to a definition of “spiritual immaturity”: Slowness to apprehend, apply, and pass on the basic message of the Bible and its fulfillment in Christ because of sluggishness toward the things of God. Honest question: does that, more or less, describe where you are right now? Devotion to sound doctrine isn’t a personality thing. According to the Bible, it’s a maturity thing. Again, let the Holy Spirit in. He convicts to conform.

We’ve covered the definition of immaturity, but immaturity is a little like football. I can define football for you, but to understand it, it really helps to see it. Similarly, though a definition of spiritual immaturity is helpful, to really understand it, it helps to see it. Our passage provides us with a few snapshots of the face of immaturity. Let’s look at them quickly. Snap shot one: The immature person is still learning the basics of God’s word, when you should be able to teach those basics to others by now. Hebrews 5:12 – For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food… The basic principles of the oracles of God refers to the overall message of the Bible fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Diagnostic question two: Can you teach a non-Christian or disciple a young Christian in the overall message of the Bible – creation, fall, redemption promised in the OT, redemption accomplished through Christ, and new creation to come for all who believe? If no, you’re immature. We aren’t all called to be official teachers, but we are all called to teach one another: Romans 15:14 – I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another. The Holy Spirit convicts to conform. Snapshot two: the immature person still struggles to discern good from evil according to God’s word. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Do you struggle to discern good from evil according to God’s word, particularly when it puts you on the wrong side of history or culture right now? That’s the face of immaturity. The Holy Spirit convicts to conform. Snapshot three: The immature person needs to constantly relearn the gospel, but the mature person loves to be reminded of the gospel and always go deeper into it. Hebrews 6:1-3 – Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, [2] and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. [3] And this we will do if God permits. The list of things here all refer to the basics of the gospel. When we receive the good news of Jesus, we turn from our own dead works, and we trust in the One true and living God through His Son Jesus Christ, receive baptism, and look forward to eternal life rather than eternal judgment. The immature person keeps laying that foundation rather than going on to the maturity of applying all of Christ to all of life. Is that you?

Honest question: When you see the face of immaturity, do you see yourself? Should you be further along in your growth in Christ than you are? If so, don’t panic. Instead, receive the call of the Holy Spirit through Hebrews 6:1 – Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity…And this we will do if God permits. If the Holy Spirit is convicting you, then let’s go on to maturity together. Let’s leave behind being slack and sluggish toward the centrality of Christ in all of Scripture and let’s go on to maturity together. One great way to do that together is to join Gospel For Life – the class is about all of Christ in all of Scripture for all of life. Four more sessions. Start next Sunday. Additionally, start devouring your Bible, starting talking to your Father, be present with your Citygroup, dig into Hebrews, and let’s go on to apprehend and apply the gospel of Jesus Christ from all of Scripture to all of life. Transition: “That’s not me.”

THE DANGER OF IMMATURITY

Maturity in apprehending and applying Christ from all the Scriptures to all of life is not for a certain type of person who is theologically inclined. How do we know that? Because our passage teaches that immaturity is dangerous. To make it plain: our passage teaches that if you remain immature, you’re a prime target for apostasy, falling away from Christ, displaying that your faith was never genuine. In other words, immaturity is deadly dangerous. That’s why we go on to maturity. Hebrews 6:4-6 – For it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, whose have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. What is God saying to us, Citylight Church? He is urging us to go on to maturity because if we do not go onto maturity, then we will be prime targets for falling away, permanently denying Christ, with no hope to return. God is saying, “Immaturity isn’t neutral. If you remain immature that will lead you to ultimately deny Christ, fall away, with no hope of being restored to everlasting life.”

This warning raises a thorny theological question that we have to answer. Since God promises that everyone who comes to Christ will never be cast out, but raised up on the last day, why does he warn us to mature, lest we fall away? I mean Jesus himself said in John 6:37, 39 – “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out…but raise him up on the last day.” Since that is true – all that the Father predestined to give to the Son will come to him and never be cast out or fall away – why does God warn us about the eternal danger of falling away? I believe the answer to that important question is found in what is called the doctrine of perseverance of the saints. The doctrine of perseverance of the saints says that genuine believers in Jesus Christ “will and must persevere in faith and the obediences which comes from faith.” Now we can begin to see why the letter to the Hebrews is full of both promises that God will keep all true believers in Christ persevering in faith and the obediences which come from faith and why Hebrews is full of warnings that we must persevere in faith or we will be lost forever. The promises assure us that we will persevere and the warnings encourage us that we must persevere. God uses both promises and warnings to keep his elect persevering in faith and the obediences that come from faith, until the very end. In the verses we just read God is warning us that we must persevere, and that warning will effectively keep all true believers persevering. It’s an effective warning for the elect. Apply to non-Christian. Admit the mystery.

How should we respond to the warning? Heed it! Heed it. If we do not go on to maturity in apprehending, applying, and passing on the centrality of Christ in all of Scripture to all of life, if we remain immature, then we will eventually fall away, deny Christ, showing that our faith was never genuine. Heed the warning, turn to Jesus Christ as your only hope in life and in death, and go on to maturity by devoting yourself to apprehending and applying and passing on all of Christ in all of scripture to all of life. Warnings keep us holding onto the promise of Christ. Heed it. Transition: Warning and assurance go together as God’s effective means of keeping his saints persevering. Therefore, it’s no surprise that after warning us, he turns, finally, to assure us.

THE BLESSING OF MATURITY

After warning us that we must persevere in faith and the obediences that come from faith, God now assures us that we will. Hebrews 6:9 – Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things – things that belong to salvation. I love that. To go onto maturity we need both warnings and promises. Warning: you must go on to maturity if you’re going to make it to the end with your faith in Jesus intact. Promise: You will go on to maturity. The assurance and the warning work together to help us go on to maturity.

What is it that makes the author of Hebrews so sure of better things in the case of his readers? He already sees evidence of maturity in them! Hebrews 6:10 – For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. The blessing of going on to maturity is that when we go on to maturity and show our faith through works of love, others see it and assure us that Christ is in us. The blessing of maturity is that growing maturity causes us to feel a greater assurance that we truly belong to Christ.

Hebrews 6:11-12 – And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promise. The blessing of going on to maturity is assurance. The more that you put off being sluggish and slack toward the things of God, the more that you seek to apprehend and apply all of Christ in all the Scriptures to all of life, the more that you pass the oracles of God onto others, the more that you imitate those who are persevering and pressing onto maturity, and the more that you patiently trust in God’s promise to forgive you and raise you with Christ forever, the more assurance you’ll experience. That’s the blessing of maturity. Go on to it.

GOSPEL & RESPONSE

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, that’s not the voice of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit doesn’t overwhelm, he convicts so that we’ll come to Christ for comfort and be conformed to his likeness. So remember, we don’t go on to maturity to get God to hear us. We go on to maturity because God heard Christ and we are in Him. Illustration: Phillies game registered 111db when Bryce Harper hit HR in game one of NLCS 10/16. You trying to get God to hear you because of your good deeds is like whispering to your neighbor at that moment and expecting Bryce Harper to hear you.