Would you turn with me to Hebrews chapter 5, verse 11.
We are starting up our series, or restarting up our series in the book of Hebrews.
If you were with us last semester, you know that we worked through basically
almost the full first five chapters of the book of Hebrews.
And what we saw there is that the writer of the book of Hebrews was laying a foundation
of Jesus Christ as a supreme, unique, majestic Son of God
who had come down to be our high priest.
And that's where we ended last semester with this thought ringing in our ears
that Jesus has come to be our high priest.
And today we're going to pick up right where we left off in Hebrews chapter 5, verse 11.
It's page 1003 in your pew Bible if you want to turn there.
Let me read this for us.
We're going to read through chapter 6, verse 3.
Having just talked about Christ as our high priest, he says,
About this, we have much to say.
And it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing.
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.
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.
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,
and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
And this we will do if God permits.
If you're a fan of TV sitcoms, you might remember last spring as the time when the offbeat, mockumentary Arrested Development returned for a fourth season.
Anybody here an Arrested Development fan?
Uh-oh, true confessions, we're in church.
Put your hands down.
No, I'm kidding.
It was actually, well, I probably shouldn't say this.
It was actually an elder of Trinity at the time that let me borrow all three seasons of Arrested Development on DVD.
A great sign of our need of congregational sanctification.
Anyway, after being canceled seven years earlier by Fox, in May of last year, Netflix released the newly filmed fourth season all at once for online streaming.
And if you missed it, the show follows the dysfunctional Bluth family and their attempts to save the family business from bankruptcy and all sorts of legal trouble.
And as the title of the show suggests, nearly all of the adult characters in one way or another have failed to grow up.
There's Job, one of the brothers, who instead of helping to run the family business, rides a Segway and tries to make it as a magician.
Or an illusionist, as he's so apt to point out.
And then there's socially awkward Buster, another brother who pursues various scholarly pursuits like African drumming and anthropology while still living at home with his overbearing mom.
And then there's George Sr., the sort of paterfamilias who ends up in prison because he's suspected of fraud and thinks it's a good idea to hide large amounts of cash in the walls of the family's banana stand down on the pier.
Creating the unforgettable line, there's always money in the banana stand.
And what's fascinating is that the show actually grew in popularity over the seven years after it was canceled.
And of course, the show is incredibly funny if you like stupid humor and the mockumentary style was perhaps a bit ahead of its time.
But I think that the very idea of a family unable to grow up, being stuck in perpetual arrested development, I think has somehow resonated with our culture more and more.
There was something about the silly Bluth family that just maybe struck a chord closer and closer to home.
After all, for more than a decade, sociologists have been increasingly aware of a phenomenon that they're calling and have called emerging adulthood, right?
No longer are young adults moving smoothly from adolescence into traditional adulthood.
Things like getting married or having children or settling into a profession or owning a home.
All of these traditional cultural markers that made someone an adult are all being postponed.
Now someone in their mid to late 20s is just as likely to be single, living at home, struggling to find their life's purpose, having a hard time nailing down a job,
and most likely in their free time, streaming season four of Arrested Development on their parents' Netflix account.
Now I'm not going to say that the phenomenon of emerging adulthood is good or bad.
In some sense it just is.
But there does come a point when we realize that we can't remain children forever.
That we have to go on to maturity.
That at some point, it's time to grow up.
Now our text this morning from Hebrews is a challenge, a challenge spiritually to do just that.
The main point is right there in chapter 6, verse 1.
Let us go on to maturity.
This passage is telling us that it's possible for us as Christians to get stuck in a sort of spiritual Arrested Development.
To remain as children, as it were, and to never grow up.
But like a good pastor or teacher, like a good spiritual parent, Hebrews is here challenging us, chiding us to grow up and to go on to maturity.
As we said, he's getting ready to embark on one of the richest in-depth discussions of the high priesthood of Christ.
That will be for their eternal good and for their endurance and for their growth.
And yet he's afraid that they're not going to get it.
Now there are three points we need to see here in our text about this call to maturity.
And here's the outline of what I want us to do this morning.
First, we see what kind of maturity we ought to be seeking.
Second, why we should be seeking it.
And last, how we go after it.
So what kind of maturity?
Why we should be going after it?
And then lastly, how do we do it?
So first then, what kind of maturity are we talking about here?
What exactly are we to grow up in?
And the nanotext is actually pretty specific.
It's not just a general kind of spiritual maturity he's talking about.
And you see this in verse 11.
You see that he wants to explain something to them, but he's afraid they won't understand it because they become dull of hearing or sluggish.
In other words, he's afraid their minds aren't sharp and ready to understand what he's going to explain.
So that means what we're talking about here is growing up in our knowledge, grasping something with our minds.
And then he goes on to tell us what kind of knowledge.
And he uses a couple of phrases to describe it.
And in each case, he's saying this is something where you're only at the elementary level, but you need to go on.
And what is it?
In verse 12, how does he describe it?
The oracles of God.
Now, an oracle is just something that's spoken.
This is a common way of referring to the scriptures.
He says you're at a basic level, but you need to become more advanced.
And then in verse 13, he calls it the word of righteousness.
That is the message about God's transforming, saving justice.
You're unskilled, he says, but you need to become more and more proficient.
And then in 6.1, he calls it the doctrine of Christ, the teaching about Christ.
You're just elementary, he says, but you need to go on to maturity.
So how do we sum this up?
I think like this.
This passage is telling us that every Christian ought to make it their business to diligently study the things of God.
To be ever increasing in their knowledge of the Christian faith.
To be making it our diligent business to be growing in the knowledge of the things of God.
Or you might call it our knowledge of Christian theology.
Theology just means the study of God.
Or you might call it Christian doctrine.
Doctrine are things that are taught and things that are believed.
This is the kind of maturity that he wants us to pursue.
Maturity in our grasp, our knowledge of Christian faith, doctrine, theology.
Now clarify.
This knowledge that we're being challenged to pursue here isn't something that's disconnected from the central gospel message.
It's not as if he's saying that, oh, the gospel is sort of the mere ABC.
And then you sort of leave it behind and move on to something else when you want to get really mature.
You know, you'll start, I don't know, going into all weird sort of esoteric stuff.
No.
You know, when he says in verse 6-1, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ.
He doesn't mean leave it behind for something else altogether.
But to go deeper into it.
It's more like a math teacher telling their class, okay, let's leave algebra 1 and go on to algebra 2.
And of course, when you get to algebra 2, you're not forgetting all the stuff you learned in algebra 1.
But you're expanding it.
You're going deeper.
You're unpacking its implications.
You're seeing more and more and more of what the subject has to hold.
And that's what a diligent study of the things of God of Christian doctrine is meant to do.
It's meant to take you deeper and deeper into what you've come to know in the gospel.
Now consider the gospel, the central message of Christianity of the Bible.
Let's just consider it for a second.
That there is one true and living God who is holy, just, and good.
And that this God created everything to display his beauty and grace and perfections.
And that he made you and I, human beings, in his image to especially know him and enjoy him and glorify him.
But we've rebelled against our good and just God and have gone our own way.
And because God is perfectly just and good, he condemns us to eternal death because of our sin.
And will one day come and judge righteously all the earth.
But in his great mercy and in his great grace and with the great love with which he loved us,
God sent his son, Jesus Christ, who is fully God from all eternity.
And he came and became fully human in the incarnation.
And on the cross, he died in the place of sinners as their substitute, taking the penalty they deserve.
And on the third day, God raised him from the dead to prove that the full payment for sin had been paid.
And that everyone who turns from their sin and trusts in him, who takes him by faith as their Lord and Savior,
will have their sins forgiven and be brought into the family of God
and be made a part of God's new creation work in the world.
Friends, that is the gospel.
And when the writer of the book of Hebrews is telling us to go on in maturity in our Christian knowledge,
how could he possibly be telling us to leave that behind?
There wasn't a sentence of that that was scratching the surface of the depths of its riches.
Thomas Goodwin, the 17th century pastor and theologian, once said,
The things of the gospel are depths.
The things of the gospel are the deep things of God.
Too often we're like the Hebrews.
We fail to sharpen our minds so that we can plumb the depths of this great good news.
We fail to see that what we have as Christians in the gospel is like an ever-radiant jewel
that as you turn it and turn it and turn it,
more and more brilliance and light and wonders come as the light shines in.
Or to use the metaphor in the second half of 6.1,
it's like the foundation of a building.
And when you're ready to build the first and second stories of a building,
you don't just sort of leave the foundation behind,
laying in the field, and then build somewhere else.
No!
You take your start from that foundation.
You follow its lines up.
And friends, the gospel is solid and secure and deep enough
to propel us to the heights of God.
Real Christian maturity.
Real growth and understanding in Christian doctrine
will always be following those foundation lines
of gazing into the jewel of the great work of redemption
that God has wrought in Christ.
Paul says in Corinthians 2.2, he says,
he endeavored to know nothing among them
except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
And that's because Christ crucified, the heart of the gospel,
is the wisdom of God and the power of God
and the glory of God.
And Peter says that the things of the gospel
are things into which even angels long and desire to look.
And John in Revelation tells us that at the center of the new heavens
and the new earth, that in the middle of heaven's praise,
where there is ceaseless delight and joy,
stands the Lamb, Jesus Christ crucified and risen.
You see, friends, Thomas Goodwin was right.
The things of the gospel are the deep things of God.
And it is the duty of all of us to apply our minds to know it more and more and deeper and deeper.
So before we move on, let's hear the challenge of Hebrews this morning.
Ask yourself, am I making it my business to diligently study the things of God?
Am I making efforts to grow in my knowledge of Christian truth?
Or if I'm honest, am I unskilled?
Have I not progressed beyond the basic principles?
Have I even become dull of hearing?
When I think about how I invest my time,
does any of my concentrated effort go toward growing in my Christian knowledge?
Or am I still, as it were, sort of skiing down the bunny slope
and taking the T-bar to the top?
When, friends, what God is calling us to
is to get into the gondola
and go to the top
where there's fresh powder
and views like you could never imagine.
How could we be content
with just staying on the bunny slope
when that's before us?
Let's go on to maturity.
Let's make it our business
to diligently study the things of God.
Every one of us.
You'll notice here that he's not just talking to the teachers
and the pastors in the midst of the congregation.
He's talking to all of them,
young and old, male and female,
those who have formal education and those who don't.
It's addressed to the whole church.
Now let's ask the question, why?
Why should this be our diligent pursuit?
Well, I think the text points us to three reasons
why we ought to be doing this.
First, it's our nature.
He says in verse 12,
by this time, you ought to be teachers.
By this time,
you ought to have grown up.
You see, he's pointing us to the fact
that it's a natural trajectory in the Christian life
that as time passes,
our knowledge should be increasing
and increasing such
that we could even eventually instruct others.
You see, when the Holy Spirit
does a work of conversion in us,
when we come to faith in Christ,
a whole new principle gets planted within us.
A principle that is a desire within us
to want to grow and learn
and feast on God's word.
You see this in the early church in Acts.
The earliest disciples,
what were they doing
when Peter preaches that first message
and then Luke turns
and starts describing the church?
What's the first thing he says?
He says they devoted themselves
to the apostles' teaching.
It was just part of their nature
as disciples.
And after all, the word disciple,
what does it mean?
A student, a learner.
To be a Christian by nature,
by the nature that the Holy Spirit puts in us,
means that we are to seek deeper knowledge
of the things of God,
to learn and to grow.
Isn't that true of the other callings
that we have in our lives?
If your profession is to be a doctor,
don't you want to naturally excel
in the knowledge of medicine
and the human body?
You're always learning.
Or if you're in business,
you want to keep learning
whatever field that you're in,
whatever aspect of the commercial world
that you're in,
you keep learning and growing and studying.
If your profession is to be an auto mechanic,
you keep learning and growing
and studying how cars work.
If your profession is to be a stay-at-home parent,
then you're wanting to excel
in the knowledge of raising kids
and in child development
and all those great things.
It's just in the nature
of our everyday callings
that we seek to know more and more about it.
How much more ought that to be the case
with our calling to follow Christ?
Friends, this is the greatest calling
that any human being could have.
To be a child of God.
To be an ambassador of the King.
That's the privilege of every believer.
And that means it's the privilege
of each and every one of us
and the natural impulse in us
to want to grow in our knowledge
of the things of God.
It's not just for pastors.
It's not just for elders.
It's for all of us.
If you're a Christian
and you're not going after
an increase in this kind of knowledge,
then friends,
you're actually living out of line
with your nature.
And don't think this is just for people
with a high IQ.
Maybe some of you are sitting there thinking,
man, we're just talking about
head knowledge and book learning.
I mean, is this just for the smart people around?
No.
It's for all of us.
You see, friends,
God is faithful to his children.
He will grant you rich insights
into his word.
He promises to faithfully reward your study.
Wasn't it Jesus that taught us to ask
and it will be given to you
and to seek and you will find
and the knock and the door
will be open to you.
Of course, a sharp intellect
is a great gift of God
and a means that he can use
and something that we should steward well
if we find that God has given it to us.
But each and every Christian
has something even better
than a sharp intellect.
God's Holy Spirit within you.
The natural mind can't even
really grasp these things.
And yet, God pours his own self into you
so that you can know him.
It's God, the Holy Spirit,
who brought us to faith
and he'll work in us
to cause us to grow
in our knowledge of the faith.
And that is the deposit
that each and every one of us has.
So it's in our nature
as Christians
to pursue this kind of maturity.
That's why we should go after it.
But there's a second reason
that we see here.
The second reason
why we should go after
this kind of maturity
is actually,
I struggle to find a word for this,
but I'm going to say
it's our protection.
Now, here's what I mean by this.
In verse 14,
he says that this sort of maturity
is such that we come
to distinguish good from evil.
And that means two things.
On the one hand,
it means that an increasing knowledge
of Christian doctrine
helps us to live life well.
Christian theology was always meant
to be practical in its outflow.
Doctrine is meant for life.
You see this over and over again
in the pastoral epistles
in 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus.
Paul speaks again and again
of sound doctrine.
And by that,
he doesn't just mean true doctrine.
He means the kind of doctrine
that brings soundness,
that brings health,
that brings rightness
to our lives.
It's actually kind of funny
that we don't see it this way.
We often see theology
as very impractical, don't we?
But imagine trying to set off
on an expedition
through a mountain range
without a map,
without any sort of GPS
or map to guide you.
Of course, you know
that would be incredibly foolish.
After all, what is a map?
It's a description
of what's real.
It's a way of helping us
to grasp and understand
what's before us
and to put it in perspective
so that we know how to proceed.
And because maps
are incredibly, you know,
descriptive of what's real,
that means they're practical
and they're useful.
Friends, don't you see
that if in Scripture
we have the description
of what's ultimately real,
and if Christian theology
is helping us
to understand this
better and better,
then surely it's one
of the most practical,
the most practical thing
we could ever learn.
Because it's not just a map
for this or that city
or this or that mountain range.
It's the very description
of existence and reality itself.
That's what Paul means
when he says that,
when he says in 2 Timothy 3.16
that all Scripture
is God-breathed and useful,
not just inspired,
but eminently practical
and useful.
Have you ever seen old maps
from like, you know,
the 13th, 14th century?
You know, they're kind of funny,
aren't they?
Because you can usually tell
that whatever perspective
they're drawn from, right?
You look at an old map
and you see sort of Western Europe
and it's all incredibly defined
and you think,
oh, that could, you know,
that could be any old map.
And then you sort of go over
and there's some white parts
and then there's this sort of blob.
You're like, oh,
that must be North America.
I don't know.
It looked like a turkey
or whatever, you know,
they've sort of drawn it as.
And of course,
now we have satellites
that can give us a perspective
like no one would have imagined
in the 1400s, you know?
It gives us the perspective
to know reality rightly.
And don't you see, friends,
that's why Scripture
is eminently useful.
Because if it's God's Word,
then its perspective
is not limited.
It doesn't have the confines
or the skewed perspective
of every other life map
that we try to use.
So you see,
the more and more we grow
in our knowledge
of Christian doctrine,
the more equipped we are
to live life well.
It's our protection
in that sense.
It keeps us from foolish living.
It keeps us from stumbling
into error.
And it allows us
to live life well.
But it's also our protection
in this sense.
A second sense.
Growing in the knowledge
of the things of God
also is a protection
to help us distinguish
good from evil
when it comes to
false gospels
and false teaching.
When something comes to you
masquerading
as true Christian belief,
when you hear a preacher
on TV or online,
or when you read something
on a blog or a magazine,
or when you talk to a friend
about something
they've been reading
or hearing,
friends, all of us
need to have our powers
of discernment sharp
to be able to distinguish
true gospels
from false gospels,
true biblical beliefs
from false ones.
And again,
you and I both know
this isn't just a job
of pastors, right?
In fact,
in your everyday life
out in the world,
you probably encountered
just as much weird
and wacky stuff
as I do.
We all need to be growing
in our discernment.
Otherwise,
Paul says in Ephesians,
we'll just be blown
and tossed
by every wind
of doctrine.
And you know,
what's very interesting
in the New Testament
is that it's not just
pastors,
although they are
especially held
accountable for this,
but it's not just pastors
that are held accountable
for the doctrinal purity
of the church.
It's the whole congregation.
Think about the book
of Galatians.
A false teaching
has crept into the church.
And who does Paul write to
in that letter?
Who does he issue
his challenges to?
Not just the teachers,
the whole congregation.
He says,
all of you
are responsible
to guard
the doctrinal purity
of your congregation.
All of you
have a share in this
to make sure
that we're staying
rooted and grounded
in what's life-giving
and true
and beautiful.
So you see,
an increasing knowledge
of Christian doctrine
then is our protection.
It doesn't just protect us
in our own personal lives
from foolishness
and disaster,
but it protects
the life of the church
and keeps it healthy.
Okay,
so why should we
pursue this maturity?
Because it's our nature,
because it's our protection.
But lastly then,
we should make it
our business
to increase
in this kind of knowledge.
Because frankly,
friends,
it's our joy.
You see that
in the metaphor
of milk
and solid food,
don't you?
He says,
children are just fit
for milk,
he says.
But,
solid food
is for the mature.
Now,
of course,
milk is a wonderful thing,
right?
It's refreshing,
it's got some protein
in there,
my kids love it,
I think they could probably
actually live on milk
if we let them.
But imagine,
imagine a friend
takes you downtown
to a nice restaurant.
Imagine your favorite restaurant,
whatever it is,
Heirloom,
Union League,
Barcelona,
whatever.
And you sit down
and your friend says,
hey,
let me treat tonight,
order anything on the menu.
And you look at the menu
and the waiter comes
and you say,
you know what,
I think I'll just have
a glass of milk,
thanks.
How absurd.
Just imagine
what you're missing out on.
You see, friends,
God in the gospel
is inviting us
to a feast,
to solid food
that will satisfy you
and delight you
the way only
real solid food can.
God wants us
to grow up,
as it were,
so we can start
digging in,
so we can taste
and see
that the Lord
is good.
How many of us
are trying to find
soul satisfaction
in so many other things?
Trying to find
our heart's delight
in work
or in relationships
or in human approval?
And of course,
we know that
when we start sinking
into those things,
it never works
and nothing tastes.
And then how often
do we come
to God's table,
to God who is
the fountain of delights
and we're just
content with milk
when he could
serve up for us
the very thing
that would feed
and satisfy
our souls.
God has given you
a mind at all
is so that you
can know him,
so that you
can behold him
and know him
and love him
and be awestruck
at the wonder
of who he is.
just like our mouths
are made
to eventually
grow up
and eat solid food,
our minds
were given to us
so that we might
grow up
and start enjoying
the knowledge
of God.
And you know,
sometimes we think
as if our increase
in the knowledge
of Christian doctrine
and theology
will somehow
sort of
hinder our ability
to enjoy God.
Don't we sometimes think
that, ah, if I get caught up
in those dusty books,
if I just spend
all my time thinking,
my heart gets sort of
taken away, right?
I mean, am I the only one
who sort of
has heard that?
No.
It's so boring.
It will just kill
my relationship.
But friends,
don't you see how silly
that is when you step back
and think about it?
The way that God
has constituted us
as humans
is that yes,
there is head knowledge
and there is heart knowledge.
There's speculative knowledge.
There's intellect
and there is experiential knowledge
and knowing something
in the depth of your bones
and tasting it.
Of course.
But the way God
has made us
is that the pathway
to the heart
is through our heads.
The things that we know
are then the things
that we can really enjoy.
It's like building a fire,
isn't it?
You see,
growing in our knowledge
of the faith
is like stacking wood
for a bonfire.
fire,
and once the Holy Spirit
lights the flame,
then we'll be glad
that we learned
as much as we possibly could.
And we'll want to keep
throwing logs
onto the fire
as it gets brighter
and brighter
and hotter
and hotter.
as we stand
and wonder
of God's perfections,
of His work
on the cross,
of the things
that He's doing
in us
and through us
by His Spirit.
How often do we think
our relationship
with God
has grown cold
when in reality
we haven't been
putting any fuel
into the furnace?
No, friends,
we should delight
in learning
more and more
about God,
not so our heads
can be puffed up,
but so that our hearts
can burn brighter
and truer
with love for Him.
You see, friends,
you pursue
this kind of maturity,
this increasing knowledge
of the faith,
and it's ultimately
for your joy
in God.
So let's wrap up then.
We've seen what,
we've seen why,
let's end with how.
How do we pursue
this kind of maturity?
How do we grow up
in this way?
And three basic things,
three sort of headings.
The first is
the diligent study
of God's Word.
This is evident
from the passage,
isn't it?
The very thing
He's rebuking them for
is that they're still
mere babes
in their understanding
of God's Word
and the Gospel.
So if we're going
to remedy this,
we have to do it
to devote ourselves
to diligent study
of the Word.
And for starters,
that means taking advantage
of any opportunity
where the Word of God
is being opened
and taught rightly.
You're obviously here
for our 10 o'clock service.
This is a good place
to start.
You're here,
but think about it.
How can you make
even better use
of this time?
Let me suggest
two very simple things.
One,
take the sermon card
in the pew home with you.
We just printed them
out this week.
They're fresh
off the presses.
Take it home with you.
Read the upcoming
sermon text
at least once
in the week
before the service.
And start asking yourself
as you read the passage
that's coming up,
what does it reveal
about God?
What does it reveal
God has,
what God has done
for us in Christ?
And what would it mean
to live in response
to those things?
And then,
during the service,
or right after
our services,
mark down
one or two things
that God is teaching you.
Maybe it's a truth
about Him
that's become
especially real
to your heart.
Maybe it's a question
you have,
a line for further inquiry.
Maybe it's an action
you need to take.
Maybe it's a sin
you need to confess
to God
and to someone
that you've wronged.
I guarantee you
that you will get
more out of these services
by doing those
two simple things.
It will only take you
not a lot of time.
But of course,
if you start doing that,
why stop with
the 10 o'clock service,
right?
Why not come
at 9 o'clock
to Sunday school?
I mean,
think about it.
We got a new class
starting up next week.
It's about walking
in the Spirit.
I mean,
how many of you
think you're proficient
and experts
at walking in the Spirit?
None of us.
Come and learn
about this most
central topic.
It's vital to your life.
I mean,
most of us
have to be at work
earlier than 9 a.m.,
right?
How many of you
have to be in the office
before 9 a.m.?
Okay,
you all have
awesome offices.
I'm going to go work
where you work.
It's nice.
Man,
what a lazy culture.
No,
and not only
does it start
at 9 o'clock,
there's child care
next door
for all ages.
I mean,
if you've got little kids,
that's practically
a date,
right?
It's like a TED Talk
for your soul.
Show up at 9.
And of course,
once you fill up
on Sunday mornings,
here's a crazy thought.
why not come back
on Sunday nights
when we dig
into another
passage of Scripture?
There's even a Q&A time
after the sermon
on Sunday nights
so you can try
to stump the preacher.
Come on,
come.
We can sharpen
one another
and keep our edge
as we engage
the Word of God.
You see,
the place to start,
too often we jump
straight to,
you know,
do your quiet time.
But you know,
the place to start
is to start availing
yourself of the opportunities
when God's Word
is being opened
and being taught
so you can come
and be prepared to come.
But of course,
second,
once we're availing
ourselves of those
opportunities,
start reading the Word
on your own.
I know many of you
are doing this
and it's so encouraging
to me when I meet
with many of you
and you're telling me
about how you're reading
the Word on your own.
Keep up the good work,
brothers and sisters.
But if you haven't
started this,
start
there are plenty
of reading plans
out there
if you need structure
or you can just start
by reading the New Testament.
It's not rocket science.
Just get in
and start reading.
But of course,
where we do need
some guidance sometimes
is that we shouldn't
just be reading it
but we should be
taking it in.
We need to be making
observations
about what we read,
making connections,
asking questions,
sharpening our minds
for the task.
When we read,
we ought to be asking
things like,
what's the flow
of thought here?
What ideas or words
are repeated?
What's the main theme?
What's the main idea
of this section?
How does it fit
in the context of the book?
How does it fit
in the context
of the whole Bible?
What's unfamiliar?
What don't I understand?
What's confusing?
And then, friends,
once you get an insight,
once you get a question answered,
mark it down
and meditate
on what you've read.
I remember reading
an old Puritan
on that practice
of biblical meditation
and he used
this awesome illustration.
I couldn't forget it
because it was so graphic.
Living in agricultural culture,
right?
He said,
you know,
when you get the manure
for your fields,
you've got to spread it around.
And he says,
it's the same way
with reading the word.
When you get something,
you've got to spread it around.
I know it's a little graphic.
We live in a city.
We don't like manure.
But that's it, friends.
You need to take it in
and you need to start
spreading it around,
thinking on it,
mulling it over,
going deep with it.
And then remember
that maturity means
the ability to distinguish
good from evil.
Theology is meant
to flow into practice.
Start asking yourselves questions.
This is probably
one of the most important questions
you can ask
as you're reading the Bible.
Why is God showing me this today?
Why do I need to hear this right now?
Is there a command I need to obey?
Is there an example
I need to follow?
Is there a warning
that I need to heed?
A promise I need to take heart?
A truth about God
that I've just seemed to forgot
that I need to remember?
And again, write it down.
Begin logging the things
that God is teaching you.
And you know,
while we're thinking about
diligently studying God's Word,
let me recommend to you
reading good Christian books.
This is another way
of engaging God's Word.
If you want a recommendation,
that's why we've got
the bookstall downstairs.
Or talk to one of the pastors.
Or talk to your small group leader.
Ask them for a good book
that will help you grow
in your knowledge
of the things of God.
If you want just one
quick recommendation,
let me recommend to all of you,
J.I. Packer's Knowing God.
If you haven't read that book,
or if it's been a while
since you've read it,
get a copy and read it
and mark it up
and find a friend
to read it with.
You will be blessed by it.
The point in reading
good Christian books
is to learn from brothers
and sisters who are
further along than we are,
who can help us see things
in the Word that we might not
see for ourselves.
And of course, I know,
I know,
finding the time
is always the great hurdle
in reading Scripture
for ourselves
and digging into
good Christian literature.
But you know,
I'm sure,
I kind of did a little
experiment this week
as I was getting ready
for this sermon.
I'm sure that if each of us
looked through our day,
we could probably identify
15 to 20 minutes
that we could start redirecting
towards these kind of practices.
Just think of how easy it is
to spend 15 or 20 minutes
playing Candy Crush
on your iPhone
or Clash of Clans.
Any Clash of Clanners
out there?
Nope.
Okay, I'm the only one.
All right.
I mean, it's easy, right?
You're waiting for the bus.
You know,
you just come home from work.
You're on your coffee break.
Whatever.
Why not get a good book to read?
Why not get the Bible
on your device?
Greg talked about that last week.
Of course, it's not wrong
to play a game on your phone.
It's not wrong to do
a little bit of diversion
now and then.
But friends,
the reality is
growth in this kind of maturity
is going to take some effort.
In fact, in verse 14,
did you notice how he describes it
in verse 14?
Training by constant practice.
It's an athletic imagery.
It's going to take some sweat
and hard work
to get into a new routine.
It's going to feel difficult
at times.
Just like training
for an athletic event.
At times,
you're going to want to stop
and just do something else.
But just like athletes,
you need to keep your eyes
on the fact
that it's worth it.
The joy of knowing God
is before you, friends.
Of sitting down at his table
and feasting on solid food.
The joy of looking to Jesus
and running the race
with endurance.
Friends,
this is the path
of eternal satisfaction.
And just like a good workout
makes us feel more alive.
Don't you feel better
after you've been
on the stupid treadmill
for 20 minutes?
So hard spent time
in the Word
will make us feel more alive
to God.
I guarantee it.
So how do we get
this kind of maturity?
We devote ourselves
to studying the Word.
I said there's three things.
The last two are going to be quick.
Second,
we have to study the Word
in community.
Notice how the author says,
let us go to maturity.
And this we will do
if God permits.
Our growth is a community project.
And that's why
it is important
if at all possible
to be gathering together
in smaller groups
that you can meet with
to regularly discuss
the things of God.
Maybe it's a midweek small group
like you can find
on the back of the bulletin.
Maybe it's a standing date
that you have
with a few Christian friends
where you're committed
to talking about the Word.
Whatever it is,
you won't grow in maturity
without it.
It's like a rowing team, right?
You put one guy out there
in one of those boats
and he's only going to be able
to row so fast.
But you get a whole team
in one of those long, thin boats
and you get them in unison
and they're gliding
across the water.
It's the same
in our life together with God.
We need to get into a boat together
and it takes a little work
to get into unison.
I get it.
But once you hit a stride,
oh friends,
the deeper and deeper you'll go.
But second,
we also need to put
what we're learning to use.
By this time,
you ought to be teachers,
he says.
Are you seeking ways
to share what you're learning
with others?
Every educational theorist
will tell you
that one of the best ways
to learn
is by having to teach it
to other people.
And you especially learn best,
I found,
when you have to teach it
to other people
who aren't necessarily like you,
who are at a different age
or from a different walk of life.
Friends,
I can assure you
that if you jump in
to the children's church rotation
or the youth ministry
Sunday school rotation,
even once a month,
God will use it
to grow you in maturity
in your knowledge
of Christian doctrine.
It's easy to make
simple things complex,
but take the complex
and deep things of God
and make them simple
and you will grow like fire.
But even if you don't
get involved there,
are you looking for ways
to be building
into other Christians,
to be doing good
to them spiritually?
Is there even just
one person right now
that you could be
intentionally taking the time
to meet with,
to talk about spiritual things?
It doesn't have to be forced.
You can talk about
other stuff too.
That's okay.
But be intentional
about asking one or two
just good questions
about what you're reading
in the Word,
what God's teaching you
in your life
so that you can encourage
one another
and grow in your maturity.
So in order to start
moving forward
in this kind of depth
of the knowledge of God,
we have to be devoted
to the Word
and we have to be doing it
in community.
But lastly,
we have to do it
in dependence on God.
Do you see how
the passage ends?
He says,
this we will do,
that is go on to maturity,
if God permits.
At the end of the day,
our knowledge of God
comes from God
and it depends upon Him.
We are dependent upon Him,
you see.
We can't learn anything
about God
unless He reveals it to us.
But you see,
that doesn't put us
in a helpless state
because God has given us
His Holy Spirit
and He wants us to know Him.
From the cross of Christ
flows the Spirit of Christ
for all who believe
and the Spirit will help us
overcome our inertia
and our dullness of hearing
and He'll help us
to make
and even find the time
to devote to the Word
and commit to community.
He'll help us.
We can depend on Him
and we ought to be
prayerfully dependent on Him
as we move forward.
So let us pray.
Let us depend on Him.
And as Paul promised elsewhere,
He who began a good work in you
will carry it on to completion
at the day of Jesus Christ.
Let's pray.