Lord, we thank You for this time to be together around Your table. We thank You that we have a testimony that Jesus Christ is alive. He has risen from the dead, and He has redeemed us.
Lord, we bless You today and pray that You would continue to meet us as we share around Your Word, in Jesus’ name.
That song did not have anything specifically to do with my message. I just love that song.
You know, the hymns are really good. A lot of them were used when they were written because, I know you are not going to believe this, but they did not have the internet and iTunes and so forth to get music from. But they also shared the gospel through these songs.
I would like to encourage whoever is up to it to look for all the references in that hymn. That is Scripture through and through—a hymn. So it is really good.
Anyway, as we begin today, let us read a couple of verses from Hebrews 6.
Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.
—Hebrews 6:1
And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end,
so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.—Hebrews 6:11-12
This verse, Hebrews 6:1, is translated by Darby. Instead of saying, “Let us press on to maturity,” he says, “Let us press on to full growth.” And that is what I wanted to talk about today: pressing on to full growth.
I have an outline to hand out, so you will not forget what the message is.
While the outline is being passed out, since I spoke a couple of times on Hebrews, what were the first two outlines? What were they? What did they say?
Okay, what was the first one? You always answer the questions. Let somebody else. You are like Horshack—“Ooh, ooh, ooh, Mr. Kotter, Mr. Kotter.”
Jim shows great enthusiasm. We are proud of him. What was the first one?
Okay, and what was the second one?
Okay. And this one today is pressing on to full growth.
You know, we know that Hebrews is a book of exhortation. And, you know, I have said it before: I think in this day and age people despise exhortation.
We have had conversations with people about disciplining children: “Oh, that is mean. That is punishment.”
And I just want you to know that I think exhortation is wonderful for a believer. Where would we be except the Lord exhorted us? So these are good exhortations.
Let us do just a couple of minutes of review. To whom was this book written? You can tell by the title: Hebrews.
It was written to early believers who were Jewish. You know, most of the early church—the first church—was Jewish, and these were Jewish believers.
What was the occasion for that? What was going on?
They were being persecuted. Christians were being persecuted. What was about to come upon them? The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple.
Because they had come out of this religious form, they were tempted to go back into that and to look to that form of Judaism for their spiritual satisfaction.
And this author says, “No, no.” Even though there is so much Jewishness in this letter, what he is saying is that he is calling them back to the Lord Jesus, calling them back first to a living faith in a living God.
And I think he would have that same word for us today: not to allow us to be settled in just teaching and good things, but to call us back to faith in Himself.
You know, think about the scribes and the Pharisees, and we heard about John the Baptist. They came out to see what was going on. They were externalists. Their faith was in religious understanding.
I think there is a great message for us today: we need teaching, we need understanding, but first of all, we need living faith in a living God.
And I wonder if this chapter, Hebrews 6, is an expansion—an expression—of entering His rest. I believe we enter His rest by pressing on to maturity.
It is a moving from peace with God to being possessors of the peace of God: faith in God.
You know, the way this author addresses this moving into faith is by drawing our attention back to Jesus Christ. This book is about Jesus, cover to cover.
The first verse of the book says:
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,
in these last days has spoken to us in His Son,
whom He appointed heir of all things,
through whom also He made the world.—Hebrews 1:1-2
Through His Son—He is still speaking to us through His Son.
The last couple of verses, Hebrews 13:20-21, say:
Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord,
equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ,
to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.—Hebrews 13:20-21
This book is about Christ through and through and is calling us back to Himself.
Press on to full growth. We said before that maturity can be thought of in a couple of different ways, and I think “full growth” explains it so much better. So we press on to full growth.
I have four points for those of you taking notes:
We know that God had a great purpose in redeeming man back to Himself. First of all, He had a purpose in creating man: that he might rule, have dominion, and rule over it.
But we know we had the problem of the fall, and that ruling and that place was lost. But Jesus was sent forth to redeem man to the Father for His purpose.
So what is full growth?
You know, I think we need to think about what full growth is, because we get tainted and confused by the world’s idea of full growth, or maturity.
We often think of strong physical growth. We are obsessed—in a good way. This country understands exercising. But in a bad way, it gets carried away sometimes.
We praise great athletes—professional baseball, professional football. I wonder how much of the television time is spent on professional sports. Quite a bit.
So that is not the maturity we are talking about—not physical success.
What about intellectual success? We place great value on intellectual success. And I do not want to confuse spiritual growth with intellectual growth. They can go together, but it is spiritual first.
I was riding behind a lady in a Mercedes the other day. I do not know if she was my age or what, but I looked and she had college decals on the back of her car. She had Brown University. She had Harvard.
What a great person, you know, to have all those stickers on her Mercedes. And then she had Wake Forest. I do not know how that got in there, but it is almost up there.
Of course, we see Virginia Tech all the time, ad nauseam. But anyway, it is not physical. It is not intellectual. It is spiritual maturity.
You know, spiritual maturity is a theme that the New Testament is full of. Think about it. Where can you think of this theme of spiritual maturity?
We already read Hebrews 13:20-21:
Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord,
equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ,
to whom be the glory forever and ever.—Hebrews 13:20-21
So God is after spiritual maturity in His people.
James 1:2-4 is a great passage. This is from the Amplified. If you can never figure out how to say something, you just look through all the Bible verses that agree with you. So this is a good one.
Consider it nothing but joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you fall into various trials.
Be assured that the testing of your faith through experience produces endurance, leading to spiritual maturity and inner peace.
And let endurance have its perfect result and do a thorough work, so that you may be perfect and completely developed in your faith, lacking in nothing.—James 1:2-4
So I believe that this shows that our elder brother James had some idea of what spiritual maturity was. He said, “Spiritual maturity and inner peace.”
He would certainly agree with the exhortation in Hebrews 4 to enter His rest.
Paul has a big theme of spiritual maturity. Look at Colossians 1:28:
We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom,
so that we may present every man complete in Christ.—Colossians 1:28
Or mature, or full grown. So the end of Paul’s ministry—the end of proclaiming Christ—was so that every man, every Christian, every believer, might be full grown.
This is a little longer passage, but I think it is really instructive of the kind of burden we have had lately in the assembly: Ephesians 4:10-16, Paul’s perspective on spiritual growth.
He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.
And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,
for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;
until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man,
to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine,
by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;
but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ,
from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies,
according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.—Ephesians 4:10-16
Spiritual maturity—the mature man—is the fullness of Christ.
Fullness, mature, grow up: into the Head, even Christ. From Him, the whole body is fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part.
A mature man represents the fullness of Christ, the Head. And it is Christ that we supply as a joint in the body. It is the life of Christ, and that life causes the growth of the body—not a teaching, but a spiritual reality.
The body of Christ is an expression of Christ and His people.
I think it is good that, as we think about spiritual maturity as the fullness of Christ, we make sure that we do not confuse it with full knowledge of doctrine and teaching.
Bible teaching is essential, but Christian maturity—spiritual maturity—is not the accumulation of knowledge.
If it is all right, I would like to quote Brother Kong on this issue. He says:
Spiritual maturity means that the life of Christ, or the measure of Christ, is increased within us. That is growth. In other words, it is not just a growth in our minds. Our mind is stocked with teachings and doctrines, and somehow we think we have grown. No, that is not the meaning of growth here. The point is whether Christ has increased in you.
Spiritual growth.
How many people know, if I say Dr. Merle Unger?
Jim does. Kenny does.
When we were first saved, Sharon and I came up through Campus Crusade ministry. I know you have figured that out. One of the things that ministry did was really spend time with you after you got saved on assurance and fundamental things.
And they talked about how you should have a library. You should have a spiritual library. How many people think about that?
Who are all the young people here? All the young people, raise your hands.
How many of you have a spiritual library? Everybody raise your hands, Steve, do not we? Except your wife.
How many people think about having a library? You ever think about what kind of things should be in your library?
Our library does not teach us. We do not lay hold of everything in the library, but the library leads us to Christ.
When you start reading a new book or studying a new book of the Bible, it is a good thing to read some background on it. Figure out where it came from. Get somebody trustworthy.
Merle Unger is one. One of the things we had was Unger’s Bible Handbook. How many people have Unger’s Bible Handbook? How many people refer to it?
Okay. It is a good book. He is very good. It is still in print, and it is good to have things like that.
I keep hearing that the younger generation does not read. Is that true? Young people, raise your hand.
They read. They read short things.
Unger’s Bible Handbook is short things. So if you want that, get a Bible handbook. Mac will be going crazy looking for it—it is still in print.
But you need to sit and read. I have a little problem sitting still.
It is hard for me to sit and read. I know you will not believe it. But I need to do it.
We all need to do it: to wait on the Lord and to see what He is saying through His Word.
Anyway, let me tell you what Unger said. Stop rambling.
He is talking about spiritual growth, and specifically, this came out of his section on Hebrews:
Perhaps the writer had in mind advancing to the experiential knowledge of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection beyond the historical facts to one’s position and possession in Christ. God can only allow such blessing as believers trust Him in faith and allow Him to work in them. Pressing on is the Christian’s working out God’s inwrought salvation.
Pressing on is the Christian’s working out God’s inwrought salvation.
What did Paul say there in Philippians? “That I might know Him.” Kenny shared on that: “That I might know Him.”
So that is really what the Lord is calling us to. With a great shaking coming, with the hidden longing to return, He is calling us to spiritual growth that we might know Him.
Number two: what about the elementary things?
Hebrews 6 says:
Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity,
not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,
of instruction about washings and laying on of hands,
and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.
And this we will do if God permits.—Hebrews 6:1-3
You know, sometimes we think this discussion of elementary things kind of despises them. It does not at all. The elementary things are very, very important.
Our foundation in Christ will be something that will hold us and support us all our days. So we need to be clear what that is.
I was going to share a few things about it, but you know, my wife is probably the only one who realizes this: I love to watch construction projects. I love to watch things being built.
Oh, Tom knew it too. But anyway, really, since I was a kid, I loved to go and see when they were building a house. I actually took a couple of little blocks of wood home with me from some of those construction sites.
It is great watching it, but how does a house start?
I have been fortunate to be associated with a brother for quite a few years who is a structural engineer. He will tell you that I often ask him questions about what they are doing with a building and how it works.
But I think he would also tell you there is nothing more critical than the foundation.
If we do not have a strong foundation, we will get blown around. The foundation digs down to solid, strong soil, and it is built up from there.
In our old neighborhood, they often build a new house on an old foundation, which I do not understand. They are going to save a few bucks.
Our spiritual house is built on a new foundation every day.
We talk about external things versus internal things. This passage, when Nicodemus came to the Lord that night in John 3, is one of my favorites.
Nicodemus came, and he was going to have a lot of questions about teaching and so forth. And the Lord Jesus did not talk to him about that. What did He do? “You must be born again.”
This is something different. You must be born again. And I just want to say how important it is for us to know that we are born again.
We need to know that we know that we are born again, particularly the really young people here—and some of the older people. Our faith is not an accumulation of teaching. It is new life, new life.
And so we need to know that we are born again.
The second point of elementary teaching is that we need to know that the blood has cleansed us and defends us from every accusation.
It is so important to keep short accounts because, if we do not take the blood and exercise the blood, we will go under quickly.
So we need to know that the blood has totally defeated the enemy and that it answers for all our sins.
The third thing that may be an elementary thing: do we know we have been called to eternal life, and that we are free from hell and eternal judgment?
We can easily be drawn back into that, to think, “What is the hymn? ‘The sky, not the grave, is our goal.’”
Yes, I think it is It Is Well with My Soul. Anyway, it says in there, “The sky, not the grave, is our goal.”
So we need to know that these elementary things are important, but they are a foundation. They are a foundation. They are not the sum total of God’s purpose.
In our country, we often think that the gospel—being born again, being saved—is God’s purpose. It is part of God’s purpose, a huge part of God’s purpose, but He has called us to go forward.
Okay, number three: how do we press on to full growth? Why is it so important?
First of all, in anything, we always need to be pressing on, moving forward. If we stop, what happens?
Everything else moves forward, and we just get eaten alive and shrink back. We always need to be pressing forward in gaining Christ.
One of the greatest wonders of the business world in recent history is the Model T Ford. Henry Ford made the Model T and transformed the whole world of business process and mass production.
But if he were still building a Ford Model T, where would he be? Nowhere. There is nowhere on earth that he could sell it.
So we need to be moving forward. Always think about pursuing and moving forward.
We need to be pressing on—pressing on to gain Christ, pressing on to know Him—or we will drift. We will drift and be taken off course.
Actually, not only for the Lord but for us personally, if we are not pressing on, we will drift and waste our life. We will be eaten alive. So we need to press on.
So we talked about Paul earlier. We talked about how important pressing on to gain Christ was to him, and it is so important.
Paul said in Philippians 3:7-8:
But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord,
for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ.—Philippians 3:7-8
We are often tempted to think that gaining Christ is human effort. Instead of great effort, I think the greatest thing it requires is giving up. We gain Christ by great giving up—letting go.
We are not passive, but we are actively resting in the Lord.
I had something here by Sparks. We need to be careful that we do not confuse spiritual maturity in pursuing Christ with great human effort. It is a counterfeit.
We talked about athletics and intellectualism, but Brother Sparks shared something I want to share with you:
There are a lot of God’s people who have the idea—who certainly convey the impression—that they think spiritual growth, spiritual increase, spiritual advance, and spiritual maturity are marked by a tremendous intensity, a strenuousness, a strain which they carry about in their voice and in their appearance.
The impression that they make is that the Christian life is a strenuous business, and the more intense you are, the more spiritual you are. Let me say at once that that is a very great mistake indeed.
We all know that the people who represent the greatest measure of real spiritual life, who have attained unto some of the fullness of Christ, who do represent spiritual maturity, are very restful people. There is a restfulness about them. There is no strain in look, in manner, in voice, or in the impression that they give.
They are people who know something of inward rest, and you feel rested by being with them—reassured, comforted, and quieted. You feel that they have strength in which you want to take refuge. They are as a shadow of a great rock. If there is one thing about a great rock, it is the embodiment of spiritual rest.
Spiritual maturity is not tremendous intensity, strenuousness, strain, and so forth. It is rest in Christ.
And simply, one of the simplest ways to explain spiritual maturity is Psalm 46:10:
Cease striving and know that I am God.
—Psalm 46:10
Letting go and letting God. One of the translations even has a footnote on letting go and letting God. I thought that was trite for so many years, but it really is: letting go and letting God.
Matthew 16:24-25 is another explanation of rest:
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”—Matthew 16:24-25
Giving up—giving up our own ambition and our striving.
The gateway to spiritual maturity is through the cross: being done with our self-life to allow the Christ-life to flourish. Paul said, “For me to live is Christ.”
Just another note here: in Hebrews, there is a great development about our High Priest.
As we think about going on in maturity, seeking the Lord, and going through things where the Lord deals with our self-life—trials that bring increase—we might get discouraged.
But we have a great High Priest.
So we have an open way to God through the High Priest: to tell Him about it, to seek His face, and to ask Him about it.
One of the things it says is:
He has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
—Hebrews 4:15
He is an eternal High Priest whose office is based on the power of an indestructible life.
We are partakers of the Christ-life. We are able to approach Him and say, “Lord, I want to go on with You, but I am having trouble here.”
By His expressed grace, He will lead us into full growth if we will just cooperate.
Okay, number four: why is spiritual maturity so important?
First of all, spiritual maturity is important because it is God’s will and His plan.
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God,
to those who are called according to His purpose.
For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son,
so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.—Romans 8:28-29
God had a purpose to bring many sons to maturity—to raise up full-grown sons. Paul elsewhere talks about heirs, ready to take responsibility for the Lord.
The second place that we talk about why spiritual maturity is so important is Revelation 19:7. It speaks about there being a great rejoicing:
For the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.
—Revelation 19:7
The way the bride makes herself ready is to press on to full maturity. It might be costly, but if we want the Lord to return, like we say, He is coming for a bride who has made herself ready.
So spiritual maturity is very important.
There are numerous other reasons, but I want to go through one last reason why it is so important.
You know, we have prayed and prayed for the next generation. I myself do not have a clear, exact cutoff.
I think the next generation also speaks to the spiritual generation—to all of us taking the place that God has called us to. But particularly, I know it is the young people. We talk about passing the torch of the testimony.
What is the torch, or the testimony?
There is no reason to pass the torch of the testimony unless it has what? Light. Fire.
We are not passing a baton. I know we talked about a baton; a baton is fine. But think of the torch of the testimony.
What is the testimony that is burning brightly? The testimony of Jesus is Jesus in His people. That is the torch. That is the light: the life of Christ.
We talked about it. It is the power of an indestructible life in His people—not just getting to know about Him, but getting to know Him.
We who are in Christ will issue forth spiritual fruit that displays the testimony of Jesus.
The only thing that we pass on that will endure is Jesus Christ in us. And the only reason to pass a torch is to pass on the light or the fire that is in it.
It is the power of an indestructible life burning in a people. That is our testimony, and that is why spiritual maturity is so important.
So what have we been talking about in these times looking at Hebrews? Hebrews was written in a time like ours—not unlike ours. Things were really stirred up.
It was the early church. They were being persecuted. There was great warfare coming upon God’s people.
And what was the Lord’s call to His people? Do not drift. Do not drift.
It is so easy to drift. It is so easy to drift.
You know, if we drift, sometimes we drift and get in a real problem because we get too far away from shore. Unless someone rescues us, we are stuck.
So, brothers and sisters, do not drift.
Enter His rest. Let go and let God. Trust Him to do it all. Might He be our all in all.
And finally, press on to full growth. Full growth is not an accumulation of spiritual knowledge, but it is the gaining of Christ.
Pressing on does not require great effort, but great giving up. And as Paul said, “That I might know Him.”
Lord, we thank You for leaving us Your Word. Even though sometimes Hebrews seems elaborate and complicated in its appeal to its Hebrew audience, we thank You that there are simple lessons here to call us back to Yourself.
Now I just pray for myself and pray for all of us that this would be a day when we do not despise the day of small things, but we would be after gaining Christ. In Jesus’ name.