Growing in Faith

Introduction

This section of Hebrews is a warning. It is a call for the people of God not to be lazy and not to forget that Jesus has died and gone to Heaven, and that He is in the heavenly places and is going to bring us with Him.

He wants the readers to be encouraged to grow to spiritual maturity. And there are some things that he says we will need if we are going to grow the way we ought to grow.

Hebrews 5:12-6:20

I. A Healthy Diet

It’s the old expression. “Garbage in, garbage out.” When we have a poor diet, we are going to have poor health.

The same is true if we were to just survive on our mother’s milk as we outgrew it. There is no possible way that a functioning adult could survive solely on milk. There comes a time when we need solid foods.

And the writer here is telling the Hebrews that they are immature believers. He says that they still need milk and cannot handle solid foods. The reason for that is they don’t even understand fully what Jesus did for them. That is the milk of the word, understanding the life and testimony of the Lord Jesus.

What is the mark of a Christian that is on the milk?

v. 12 says that they are unable to teach, “by this time you ought to be teachers.”

v. 13 says that they understand spiritual things from earth’s perspective. “you are partakers only of milk.” This simply means that they do not understand their position in Heaven. They show up, they go home, and they think that all of God’s blessings are here on earth. An immature Christian looks up to Heaven, a spiritual Christian looks down from Heaven.

v. 14 says that they are “unskilled in the word of righteousness.” This means that they cannot apply the truth of the Bible to their daily life.

Basketball Camp

It makes me think of this basketball camp. Those kids know the game of basketball, they love the game of basketball, but they all have different levels of skill and understanding of how to play.

Some cannot dribble and pass or even stay in bounds.

Some can dribble and pass but they can’t run plays because they don’t know how.

Others can dribble and pass and run plays, but they have to be told what to do, they can’t do it on their own.

A mature ball player knows how to play on another level.

Immature Christians know how to stay in bounds and they may even understand the concept of righteousness, but they still largely unskilled in performing the Christian life.

-Warren Wiersbe described this kind of Christian as someone in between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Saved, but living like they’ve been defeated.

What does a healthy diet require?

A. It Requires a Teacher

Hebrews 5:12 NKJV

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.

The ministry of teaching is a solemn ministry. It cannot be done by just anyone. It has to be done by someone who is mature enough to be looking from Heaven down to earth instead of from earth up to Heaven. How can a man teach you about the things of God if he has not first been where God is? I have never personally been to Heaven. However, I am teaching the doctrines of men who have not only have a heavenly perspective, but they have had a heavenly encounter. They are called the Apostles and they gazed upon Jesus as He ascended into the Heavens.

So it is not my authority by which I teach, but the authority of the Apostles, under the authority of the Lord Jesus, under the authority of God the Father. That’s what v. 12 is referring to when it says “oracles” of God, it is talking about the Scriptures. The bottom line is that we cannot grow unless someone teaches us the “first principles of the Scripture”.

The first principles of the oracles of God are those things found in Hebrews 6:1

1. Repentance from Dead Works and of faith towards God.

These Hebrews are still trying to be justified by the law. Christians today still try to impress God by the work that they do. But Christianity is not a religion of intellect or performance, it is a religion of the heart. And so what happens is you can become like those whitewashed tombs and have just enough skill to look the part and blend in, but your heart be full of sin and impurity.

-Adrian Rogers frequently said of pulpits and seminaries that men are walking around with Bibles under their arms and sin in their heart. That many people today are going to hell with a Bible under their arm because it never got into their heart.

The issue is they never repented of their sin, asked God to give them a new heart, and then obeyed God in faith. Now, you may be saved and you may not be going to Hell, but you’re not good at repentance. You don’t repent instantly, you don’t repent intently, and you don’t repent insistently. You just sin and expect the grace of God to watch over you without confession.

2. Baptism and the Laying on of Hands

Both of these things have to do with the local assembly. First, I want address the “laying on of hands.” This means that we are sharing in the blessing of something or that we are setting someone apart. Therefore, when we pray over someone, that is why we lay our hands on them, because we are actively sharing the blessings of God, whether that be peace or encouragement with them. In the same way, we lay hands on a person being set apart or ordained for an office such as a deacon or a pastor.

If I needed you to right now, could you prove to me by the Scripture that I need to be baptized after I’m saved? What about that I need to be immersed in water for baptism?

Many still associate baptism with salvation, but baptism is not salvation, baptism is obedience. It is an expression or a picture of the repentance and faith towards God that we just talked about. That we were once in sin, that we were buried with Christ, and that now we walk in the newness of life.

Romans 6:1–11 NKJV

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Baptism doesn’t save, but baptism reveals a wonderful heavenly truth, and it is a basic Christian doctrine and ordinance that we must understand if we want to move onto the meat of the word.

3. The Resurrection of the Dead and the Final Judgement

The mature believer accepts and lives in light of the resurrection. And the mature believer also lives warning the lost about the final judgement.

The Christian will not be judged in that sense. The Christian’s works will be judged, but not their person. However, the person, the evil doer will be judged. And I think that we all in this room understand that very basic doctrine of the faith.

These Hebrews didn’t, and so it is said that they are still on the milk and that they cannot yet teach people the Scripture, even though they should have been able to by now.

So a teacher must know these things and skillfully live in them. They must be living a repentant lifestyle, they must be active in walking in that transformed life and blessing others in prayer, and they must understand their resurrection and be actively warning others of the coming judgement.

Hebrews 5:12 NKJV

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.

In other words, they have been Christians for a while, and they have been taught these things over and over, but they have made no effort to progress in their faith and understanding of the Scriptures. They are still stuck debating and understanding the basic tenants of the faith.

B. It Requires Dedication

Hebrews 5:13 NKJV

For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.

To become skilled in something, it requires dedication and discipline. No one wakes up a super Christian. It takes someone to teach us, but it also takes some drive and determination. A heart that says, “I want to know the things of God.”

But knowing the things of God is not an easy thing to do because it always comes with testing and trial. It always comes with a challenge.

Hebrews 6:11–12 NKJV

And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

He writes this because he knows that they are going to have to be dedicated to learning the deep things of God. He knows that they are going to be discouraged, he know that they already are discouraged.

There again is that need for a teacher or for an example. To imitate those who had the faith and the patience to live for God.

The Diet is the Hardest Part

In a worldly sense, we know that the majority reason why we are unhealthy is because our diet is unhealthy.

We also know that the reason we eat unhealthily is because all the unhealthy food taste good and all the healthy food tastes ok.

If you wanted to have one of those competition bodies, you’d need to be 100% dedicated to eating a consistent and healthy diet of planned and perfectly executed foods.

The Christian life is no different. It takes a real dedication to read and study the word of God. Of all the preaching that we do, it almost sounds like we’re saying, “Just pick up your Bible and read it and obey it, it’s just that easy!” But it’s not. It takes practice, it takes dedication, it takes sacrifice, and it takes a heart that is abandoned of any other cause.

If we want to maintain a healthy diet of the word, if we want off the milk and onto the meat of the word, we are going to have be dedicated to study, understand and apply it.

C. It Requires Understanding

Hebrews 5:14 NKJV

But 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.

Someone with the gift of discernment isn’t a cosmic critic. A person with discernment is a person who can rightly apply the Word of God and test whether something is moral or immoral. They are a person so dedicated to eating that healthy diet, they make it seem easy.

Understanding is more than just practical knowledge, it is lived knowledge. If you will listen closely in Sunday School classes and In Discipleship Training classes, they are usually full of people trying to teach others how much they know instead of listening and in real time applying what they are learning to their life.

1. The Spiritual Discipline of Bible Study

When it comes to studying our Bible, we can do all kinds of box checking. We can read just to say that we did. Or we can read and walk away with nothing. The reason that we do this is because we are not taking our time to digest the meat. We are simply trying to keep our quota of daily intake.

A spiritual person will read the text. They will examine the text, ask questions. Maybe the next day they will study to find those answers. Then, (if you miss this step, you’ve missed the point) they will apply it to their life and live it. After that is done, they will make spiritual progress. And only then are they ready to teach it to someone else, and not a moment before.

A person with no understanding and no interest in applying the word of God to their heart can never be a good teacher.

II. An Active Lifestyle

There is always a lot of confusion here in Hebrews 6 and it all centers around v. 4-6, which some take as teaching that you can abandon the faith and then you can never be resaved after you abandon the faith. That is otherwise known as apostacy. However the word for apostacy is not used in this passage at all. v. 6 speaks of “falling to the side” not abandonment.

Second, this passage is talking specifically to believers, not to people who almost believed.

What these opening verses of chapter six are talking about is spiritual progress, the same subject that it taking place at the end of chapter 5.

To make Spiritual progress, we are going to need an active lifestyle…

A. Actively Apply the Basics

Hebrews 6:1–3 NKJV

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, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits.

We listed those basic things once so we don’t need to repeat them, but a mature believer that is making progress in their faith are going to be actively applying what the Bible calls the “elementary principles of Christ.”

It means that they will be intentionally, intently, and insistently, repenting of their sin. It means that they will have already applied the principles of baptism and of laying on of hands to their life, living a life consistent with their new life. And they are going to be active in looking for the return of Jesus and compelling others to prepare for His return as well.

B. Actively Make Progress in Salvation

Hebrews 6:4–6 NKJV

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.

The major part of our salvation is to have assurance. The writer is not trying to say that we can lose our salvation, but he is saying that Christians who live in open sin are bringing Jesus Christ shame. It is as if they are crucifying Him all over again because of their lifestyle.

In the Greek, there are two words that are highly important here. (1) is the word “since they crucify again.” (2) is the word “put to an open shame.” Both of these words are verbs, and they are both “active present participles.” Which means that they both end in -ing. So it literally reads that it is “impossible (v. 4) to renew them again to repentance, since they are crucifying for themselves the Son of God while putting Him in open shame.” This is what is called being a disgrace to grace. It means that they are embarrassing the Lord Jesus just as He was embarrassed on that cross, and they cannot genuinely repent (apply the basics) until they make the conscious choice to abstain from a life of sinfulness.

When we live in sin, we hinder our progress in salvation.

2 Peter 1:5–9 NKJV

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.

These things listed here are the building blocks of salvation. That we live in diligently to live in faith, in virtue (genuine hunger for God), knowledge (understanding on a personal level), self-control, perseverance, godliness, and brotherly kindness (love for the church). If these things abound in us (v. 8), we will bear much fruit.

C. Actively Produce Godly Fruit

Hebrews 6:7–10 NKJV

For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned. But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.

The key verses here are v. 9-10. The writer explains in v. 7-8 that some will bear thorns and they will be “burned” which means Hell, but in v. 9 he says that in the beloved (church of the Lord Jesus), there are better things coming than burning.

He goes on to say in v. 10 that God will not forget the fruit that we produce as He rains His blessings down on us. However, he wants to remind us not to stop at simply doing good works for Jesus Christ but to come to full maturity in Jesus Christ.

No doubt, Peter and James and John had all kinds of spiritual fruit being produced by them when Jesus was on the earth and healing the sick. They were managing the crowds, they were talking with the people, they were taking care of their Lord…but imagine if they would have stopped there? Peter was rebuked by the Lord and was then restored by Him. John was with the others fighting over who was the greatest in the kingdom of God. The reason that they carried on like that, and the reason that we carry on like that is because we do our work and say, “that’s good enough!” But God wants us to move past simple works and move towards fully trusting in Him.

D. Actively Asses our Focus

Hebrews 6:11–12 NKJV

And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

We already know God is doing His part to show diligence, and prayerfully our teachers are doing their part to show diligence, what we have to make sure is that we are focusing on our part to show diligence. The Christian life is a life that is both dependent on the Lord on dependent on the people of God. Whenever God wants a miracle to take place, He always accomplishes it through His people. The Red Sea didn’t part until Moses placed his staff in. The Midianites weren’t defeated until Gideon went out to fight them. The church wasn’t built until Peter was faithful to preach the Word of God. It always happens in the strength of God through God’s people.

The point is that we cannot be lazy in our pursuit of godliness. That we need to actively asses our focus of spiritual things to make sure that we have not neglected to do what God has asked us to do and who He has asked us to be.

Proverbs 24:30–34 NKJV

I went by the field of the lazy man, And by the vineyard of the man devoid of understanding; And there it was, all overgrown with thorns; Its surface was covered with nettles; Its stone wall was broken down. When I saw it, I considered it well; I looked on it and received instruction: A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest; So shall your poverty come like a prowler, And your need like an armed man.

I want you to remember something…that a crisis is only a crisis when we are not prepared for it. If we are not actively assessing our focus on the spiritual things, if we become lazy in our pursuit of godliness, then the trials of life will always be a crisis.

III. An Overwhelming Assurance

We need to get it into our hearts and in our minds that we aren’t living for nothing, but that we are living to the praise and the honor of a holy God. And when we begin to rest in that truth, we will have in our life an overwhelming assurance. This assurance makes us realize that we aren’t living in fear of judgement, but that we are living as God’s people.

A. Patient Endurance

Hebrews 6:13–15 NKJV

For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

Abraham never saw the blessings of many nations. He never saw Jacob (Israel) become the father of a great nation. And yet Abraham patiently endured by faith. He knew what God said, and though he failed many times, he continued to repent and to walk by faith.

The reason that we do not progress in our spiritual life is because we simply do not operate by faith.

Do You Ever Get Discouraged?

I’ve had people ask me if I get discouraged if people don’t come to the altar, or if I get discouraged whenever some don’t respond to the message. My answer is that I do not get discouraged.

I do not know what goes on in the hearts of the people when I preach the word, but I do know that the Bible says that His word won’t return void. I do know that the Bible says to “preach the word in season and out of season.” I do know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

So, you could say that every message I preach I preach in faith. I don’t know the outcome, but I just know that God is doing His part and that I am doing my part!

We have to endure by faith just as Abraham endured. And when we endure in the progression of our own spiritual maturity, we can be confident that we are eventually going to find the rest that God has to offer.

Sometimes we can sit in church and hear the mature saints tell stories and listen to them talk about the goodness of God and have no clue what they’re talking about. But if you, today, right now being to patiently endure and walk in faith knowing that God is working for you, one day you will enter into that maturity. One day you will look back and realize that you obtained that promise of rest.

B. Eternal Refuge

Hebrews 6:16–18 NKJV

For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.

When we need rest from the long journey, we have a High Priest we know as the Lord Jesus we can rest in.

We don’t know the power of praise and we don’t know the power of prayer. What we’ve done is we’ve reduced it all to fan fare and emotionalism. But it’s neither of those things. Praise and prayer go hand in hand because they both involve having a humble heart as we approach the throne of grace.

Do you ever wish that you could experience the presence of God in your life? Tell me about your prayer and your praise.

Ephesians 5:18–20 NKJV

And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

When you are filled with the Holy Spirit of God it means that you’re in a spirit of thankfulness and that you are speaking those psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. When we do that, we aren’t stuck looking to Heaven from earth…but we are finally in Heaven gazing at the glory of the Lord our eternal refuge.

C. An Anchored Soul

Hebrews 6:19–20 NKJV

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

Our hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus blood and righteousness. When darkness seems to hide His face, I rest on His unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale, my anchor, holds within the veil.

There is Jesus, behind the veil of the heavens, interceding for you, to give you a hope for the future.

Conclusion

Whether it is for our church or in our lives, we are going to need a healthy diet, an active lifestyle, and an overwhelming assurance. We always need to remember that we are anchored to the Lord in Heaven, and He is pulling us back to shore!