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  TIME TO GROW UP
  by Anton Bosch
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Summary: This sermon focuses on the importance of spiritual growth and
maturity, highlighting the need to move from being spiritual babes who
only desire milk to becoming mature believers who can handle solid food.
The writer emphasizes the necessity of using and exercising our
spiritual senses to discern between good and evil, as a sign of
maturity. The message urges believers to evaluate their spiritual
milestones and make the necessary adjustments to grow in Christ.

Topics: "Spiritual Growth", "Maturity in Faith"
Scripture References: Hebrews 5:14, 1 Corinthians 3:1, 1 Peter 2:2, Ephesians 4:13

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon focuses on the importance of spiritual growth and maturity,
highlighting the need to move from being spiritual babes who only desire
milk to becoming mature believers who can handle solid food. The writer
emphasizes the necessity of using and exercising our spiritual senses to
discern between good and evil, as a sign of maturity. The message urges
believers to evaluate their spiritual milestones and make the necessary
adjustments to grow in Christ.

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CONTENT
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Hebrews chapter 5 and I'm going to read from verse 8 through verse 14.
Hebrews chapter 5 reading from verses verse 8 through verse 14 that
we're going to deal with verses essentially verse 11b the second part of
verse 11 onwards. So let's read Hebrews 5 verse 8. Though he was a son
yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered and having been
perfected became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him
called by God as high priest according to the order of Melchizedek of
whom we have much to say and 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 first principles of the oracles of God and you've
come to need milk and not solid food for everyone who partakes only of
milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness for he is a babe. 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.
Now as we said last week chapter 6 from verse from chapter 5 verse 12
through the end of chapter 6 is in parentheses it's added in he's he's
thought continues from really from chapter 5 verse 9 or verse 10 the
first part of verse 10 and then it continues in chapter 7 verse 1 but he
has this piece in between and what he is saying is that it is it is hard
for me to speak about Melchizedek or about Jesus in the mail he's
Melchizedek priesthood because you are hard of hearing and he's now
going to deal with this issue of being spiritually immature the the
foundation of the faith and the the consequences of not growing in the
faith and that is chapter chapter 6 now I've written a book on these
exact verses from chapter 5 12 through chapter 6 verse 8 it is available
here for those who are online it is available on Amazon all over the
world Japan Europe America Australia called building blocks for solid
foundations and this deals with exactly what we're going to be dealing
with word-for-word going through those verses I I'm advertising or not
because I am I don't like to make business out of the things of God and
I make no money out of these I get about 20 cents a copy but it's it's
it's a very useful manual on the on the basics of the faith on solid
foundations and there are quite a few churches that use this as a manual
for their Sunday school or their Bible studies so for those who are
watching online that is available it's called building blocks for solid
foundations all right so let's get into the text in verse 11 is where we
left off last week of whom that is of Melchizedek but remember it's not
primarily it's not just about Melchizedek it's about Jesus after the
order of Melchizedek rather than the order of Aaron and he says we have
much to say concerning Melchizedek and Jesus but it is hard to explain
since you become dull of hearing it's it's not because it is hard to
explain it is because the hearers are dull of hearing for a preacher the
preacher can only go as fast as the congregation is able to assimilate
is able to understand and if the congregation is slow or the individual
is slow well then it's pointless going further it's hard to explain
complicated things to people who have not come up to speed when it comes
to technical things someone is someone who doesn't know the first thing
about a motor car to try and explain how the transmission works or how
the ignition works or how various parts work it's just impossible it's
it's hard how do you explain how these things work if the person doesn't
even have the fundamentals of mechanics or of electronics or of the
things that are the fundamentals the basics of that particular thing and
he is saying these guys don't even have the basics so he says how do I
speak about the deep things of God when you don't even understand the
basics and so they are hard to explain since you become dull of hearing
dull of hearing the word dull of hearing the the idea here is really I
think the most best modern translation for that and I haven't found a
translation that says that but in our colloquial language we speak about
someone who is slow I think it's the same here as it is in South Africa
when we say someone is slow what do we mean well we mean he's he's
mentally really not up to speed he's slow to understand he's he's slow
to comprehend and that's really the word that he is using they you are
slow of understanding you're slow of hearing and of course that is a
that is on them it's not on the preacher of course it's easy to say well
you know the preacher you know he went over my head well maybe that's
not the preacher who went over your head maybe it's you who didn't who
not up to speed that that you know that is not at the place where you
ought to be spiritually in order to understand what is being said so he
says there are deep things I want to share with you but he says I can't
do that Paul's uses exactly the same words and will in the book of
Corinthians now because 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 so he is not saying by this for though by this time in other
words the people he knows the people he's writing to he's not writing
this to to to people who are babes in the sense that they've just newly
saved and so when someone is newly saved well you understand they don't
really know they you can you have to go slowly with them you have to go
step by step line upon line preceptor on precept until they understand
and then you're able to go a little deeper and a little faster but
clearly what he is the people he is writing to have had more than enough
time to have learned the fundamentals of the faith the basics of the
faith and yet they haven't and remember the background the reason that
they are thinking of forsaking Christ and going back to Judaism is
because they have big they are spiritually immature they may have
matured at one point but they have regressed possibly and so they don't
understand Jesus and how wonderful he is and so they're saying well you
know the persecution is too hard we rather would go back to to Judaism
where it's easier and so the the problem is that we'll see later on in
chapter 6 is this very very serious warning that if we fall away it
would be impossible to to renew such a one to repentance again and so
there's a real problem on the one hand there is a goal that we should
attain to there is a place where God wants us to be individually and
obviously it's different for each one each one grows at his own pace but
there is a place where God wants you to be right now each one of us he
and the question is have I attained to where he wants me to be or am I
slow am I way behind the program we know that many kids during covert
and because of distance learning and not being able to be in person have
fallen behind and so they they should be here but they're here and the
question is can they catch up now of course that's a serious thing when
it comes to our children's education it's even more serious when it
comes to our spiritual welfare when in fact we should be at a particular
point and we're not there where we're lagging behind and the problem as
I said if you're lagging behind the potential then of falling away
becomes real and and I know that this raises red flags for those who
believe that we're once we're saved we will always be saved we'll deal
with us in detail when we get to to the latter part or the middle part
of chapter 6 so he says at this point you should be at the level of a
teacher now he is not saying that we are all to be teachers we know this
the New Testament is very clear that in Ephesians chapter 4 in fact
we're going to look at a few verses later than verse 11 in in a moment
but verse 11 he gave some to be Apostle prophets evangelist pastors and
teachers so there are some who are teachers there are others who are
pastors and so on so not everybody is a teacher but we should be at a
point where we are able to teach others the foundations he's not
speaking here about teaching through the New Testament he's not here
saying that you need to be able to teach about the Trinity or about
election or about you know the complicated things of the faith but he
says that you need to be taught the first principles the basics so every
one of us must be able to teach the basics to other believers or to our
children and and of course that's a that's a test and the question is do
you even know what the basics are can you even recite them repentance
from dead works faith towards God and so on and we're going to spend
time and it's going to take us probably at least 10 weeks to get through
the section through the middle of chapter chapter 6 and so each
Christian must know the basics of the faith because if you don't have
that foundation and he calls it a foundation in chapter 6 verse 1 if
there is no foundation well then obviously you cannot build the building
you need to have the foundation before you can get anywhere and so you
ought to be teach able to teach these things but you have need that
someone teach you again so they had been taught but they didn't retain
it or they didn't learn it and I I'm not talking here about learning
things in an academic way this is more than an academic understanding
and being able to to in some traditions to have gone through catechism
and to pass the test and say well you know I know I know these things
this has to do with a practical outworking of these things in our lives
as we'll see in a moment so when you need to be teachers you need
someone to teach you again what are the first principles now immediately
again and this is something that that that I really really struggle with
personally is when people don't understand when people don't get it I
search my heart and I say God and at this point of my ministry where
I've come to almost the end of it I question myself and I say did I fail
as a teacher and I know there are other pastors who asked the same
question did I fail as a teacher to teach the Word of God because people
don't seem to get it and clearly what what the writer here is saying is
no it's not on the teacher it's on the learner who didn't learn the
lessons and that is and that's the problem it's you see it's easy
because we like to find someone else to blame oh well you know he didn't
explain it very well well it's not up to just the teacher you have the
Word of God and we'll see that in a moment we'll come back to that idea
in a moment when it speaks about the milk of the Word each one of us has
the Word each one of us has the milk of the Word we can we can be taught
we are taught by teachers we thank God that that is God's order that he
provides teachers but he also teaches us through his spirit and through
his Word and so you need someone to teach you again the first principles
of the oracles of God of the voice of God now I'm not going to deal with
that part because I'm going to come to that next week in chapter 6 so
we're going to come back to that concept of first principles and you've
come to need milk and not solid food so now he's drawn two comparisons
and there's going to be at least three more you should be teachers but
you need to be taught you should need be eating solid food but you still
need milk and of course now he's drawing a picture of a physical baby
and we know that babies begin with milk and they progress to solid food
now of course the picture he's drawing here is of those because he says
you ought to be in other words he says you ought to be grown up and he's
going to use that term in a in a in the next verse you should be grown
up but you're still on the bottle now I can you imagine such a situation
you you hear somebody who's 30 years old 40 years old and and and they
just drink the bottle I'm not meaning the whiskey bottle I mean the baby
bottle milk and they've never progressed to there's something wrong
because associated with the idea of the bottle is they still in diapers
as well so so here's somebody who should be feeding others and and and
here's the idea because he's going to speak about being about being
babies babies need to grow up and it's a disaster if you have a baby and
it never grows but he says that as a baby progresses and and remember
that this this stage is in this in this in the development of a child
it's a big day for the parents when the child begins to eat its first
solid food or semi-solid food anyway been put in the blender and all
that and and then the maybe the next big milestone is is when the kid
begins to feed himself now most of it we know ends up on the face and on
the floor but they begin to feed themselves and and but that that's not
where it needs to stop the time comes when that child should become an
adult and begin to feed their own children and so instead of being grown
up and having your own children that you're feeding you're in still in
fact needing no never mind being fed you still need the bottle that's
what he's saying and of course that's a that's a terrible situation to
be in so you need milk and not solid food and obviously he's contrasting
because he's saying I can't give you solid food I can't speak to you
about the deep things of God because you don't have the basics you
haven't passed the the milk stage now verse 13 for everyone who partakes
only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness for he is a babe
he is spiritually immature remember that when it comes to our physical
growth there are very clear milestones when James and Michelle's new
baby is born they'll be taking it to the doctor every now and then and
there are certain milestones at this age it should be able to be it
should weigh so much it should be this big it should be able to do
certain things and as we go even as you go through school there are
certain milestones at at 10 or at I don't know what it is these days
five you should be able to they should be able to count I guess at three
they should be able to count at five they should be able to at least
recite the alphabet and be able to read basic stuff and and so there are
milestones by the time they're 18 there are certain a certain level that
they should have achieved both in physical and emotional and in
spiritual development and so and so it goes on now when it comes to
spiritual things we don't have milestones like that we can't say well
you know he's been saved for six months so at this point he should be at
this level he's been saved for a year he should be at this level because
each one grows spiritually at a different at a different pace at a
different rate but there are still general milestones if you will there
are so general ballpark a general ballpark where you should be at
certainly if you've been saved for ten years one expects a certain
maturity at that level if you've been saved for 20 years one one's
expecting a different level of maturity and so he's saying you should
have been grown up but you he is still a babe now for everyone who
partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness he is
untrained or in the word of righteousness so clearly we need to be
skilled in the word remember the idea of being a teacher means that you
are skilled you you can't have an unskilled teacher the problem is many
many Christians want to be teachers and set themselves up as teachers
but they're unskilled so they they're spiritually babes but they set
themselves up as teachers and and and many try and do this they do it on
the internet there are there are pastors who have big churches and big
ministries but when you listen to their preaching they are unskilled in
the word of righteousness you can hear they are spiritually immature
they don't understand the deeper things of God they have a very shallow
reading and understanding of the scriptures and so this is a terrible
place to be in so they're unskilled in the word of righteousness and
it's interesting he uses that word righteousness what does he mean by
righteousness and we you should know by now that there are two different
kinds of righteousness there is what we call a forensic or a accounting
righteousness in the sense that we are accounted righteous because of
what Jesus did at the cross of Calvary so when God looks at us he says
he is righteous not because we are inherently not because we are of
ourselves righteous but because he declares us righteous he makes us
righteous by what he has done and and I suppose that that's part of what
he has in mind but clearly that's that's not the main idea because what
what does that have to do with the whole issue of growth he's dealing
with the issue of growth if I'm saved I'm righteous if I've been saved
for 20 years I'm righteous if I am a spiritual babe I'm righteous if I
am a spiritual giant I'm still righteous so that has nothing to do with
spiritual growth so clearly he's speaking about the second form of
righteousness which is a practical righteousness a real righteousness in
other words the way that our lives the way we live our lives so here
he's now talking about fruit so not about the theory of their all the
idea the theology that I'm righteous because of Christ but here he's
talking about how do I live my life do I live my life in a righteous way
am I practically righteous in my decisions in my actions in my reactions
in the way that I do things and of course again here is a sign of
spiritual maturity we expect of we expect of children physical children
to be somewhat unruly and naughty and undisciplined that is just the
nature of a child to be rebellious but we expect of an adult to have
outgrown those and to act in a mature way to make wise decisions to to
not just pull out a gun on the freeway and shoot somebody because they
they cut you off and of course we see this happening all the time and
what is that a sign of it's a sign of immaturity it's a sign of someone
who has never grown up emotionally and so there's a need then for us to
grow into this righteousness so as much as physically or in the natural
a child needs to learn to act in a in an upright way in a good way to be
a good citizen to be a good a good family member and those kinds of
things the same is true of a of a Christian young Christians make a mess
they do the wrong thing they say the wrong things they get themselves
into all sorts of trouble but as we grow one of the signs of maturity is
that we make wise decisions spiritually that we that we check what we
say children just say anything I think we all remember that show what
was the show kids say the most darndest things or whatever it was yeah
and and and we think it's cute because it's a kid but if an adult says
the same thing it's not funny at all it's sad when an adult says the
things that we think are cute in a kid and so the same is true of us
spiritually as new Christians there are there are things that we say
there are things that we do that goes with being spiritually immature
but we need to come to a place where the where righteousness becomes a
practical outworking where our speech is seasoned with salt where our
actions and our reactions are marked by maturity and by the fruit of the
Spirit love joy peace and so on all right so in everyone who partakes
only of milk is in the word of righteousness for he is a babe now I want
to look at a few other scriptures and we'll come back to Corinthians so
back to Hebrew so in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 1st Corinthians chapter 3
verse 1 and I brethren could not speak to you as to spiritual people
people as in italics so originally it just just said as to spiritual can
you see the similarity between Hebrews Hebrews says I wanted to speak to
you about the deep things of Melchizedek but I couldn't because you're
slow of hearing Paul writes to the Corinthians the same thing he says I
could not speak to you as to spiritual but as to carnal as to babes in
Christ so Paul is writing to a totally different group of people the
Corinthians and the Hebrews are two different ethnic groups and so they
clearly not the same church the same group of people but the same
problem existed in both these groups and the same problem exists in most
churches today as well and so I could not speak to you as to spiritual
but as to carnal now here's a word which is not included in Hebrews but
you'll see that he says as to babes in Christ so so here's another
another word carnal so we should be teachers we need to be taught again
we should be grown up but we are babes we we should be spiritual but we
are carnal I remember that word carnal and we don't have time to get
into it in great detail but it is soulish that's the literal word
soulish in other words you are controlled by your fleshly nature and
your fleshly desires the guy who pulls out a gun on the freeway and
shoots someone who cut him off he is acting carnally in a sense he's
acting according to his base nature he's the he's lowest aspects of his
of the human nature now he says and of course those who are carnal we
normally say well you know people who continue in sin are carnal they
are fleshly they are soulish yes that is true but it is and that deals
with the issue of righteousness that we've just seen practical
righteousness but this this goes beyond just that that this has to do
with the way we understand things do we understand things from a human
point of view or do we understand things from a godly point of view from
a carnal versus a spiritual point of view are our reactions for fleshly
carnal human or our reactions spiritual or godly and so I could not
speak to you as the spiritual but as to carnal as to babes in Christ I
fed you with milk can you see exactly the same ideas I fed you with milk
and not with solid food for until now you were not able to receive it
and even now you are still not able exactly what the writer to the
Hebrew says he says I wanted to speak to you about these things but you
were slow of hearing dull of hearing and so Paul says to the Corinthians
you you don't you're not able to understand verse 3 in fact most of
chapter 3 of Corinthians deals with this and we're only going to look at
these first three verses for you are still carnal and and here's the
proof of their carnality for where there are envy strife and division
among you are you not carnal and behaving like mere men so there was
there was apartheid amongst them a party spirit I am of Paul some said
I'm of a polis I'm of Peter he says because there is these divisions and
those divisions result in strife and envy and remember the envy here we
dealt with us in the book of Corinthians and notes a long time ago the
envy here is not over somebody's new motor car the envy here is over
someone's spiritual attributes or where someone else is in in their
spiritual growth and and particularly what happens is when someone
outgrows us so somebody gets saved we've been saved for a long time
somebody new gets saved and they they grow beyond us and we say well you
know who's this Johnny come lately you know I've been around for 20
years and you know and and we become envious of other spiritual gifts we
become envious of other spiritual growth and so with and and of course
this party spirit finds itself in churches as well where people group
together and there are certain groups of people who were associate
together will only talk amongst themselves will only socialize among
themselves and they don't socialize with anyone else or talk to anyone
else that it's the same carnality it's the same fleshly things I'm not
going to allow my kids to pray with somebody else's kids in the
congregation because we we we're different we're better we whatever it
is this is the same carnality where there is any form of division in the
church whether it's based on ethnicity whether it's based on economic
status whether it's based on education it doesn't matter what it is but
whether it's based on on theology doesn't matter what it's based on if
there is division and strife and envy amongst Christians it's a sign of
carnality Paul says that's end of the story there's no if but so maybes
spiritual people are not carnal in and carnal and spiritual people don't
entertain these fleshly forms of division and we've dealt with this in
great detail we know there are things we must divide on heresy we cannot
tolerate that there are things that that that does result in divisions
but if when it's outside of that there is no room for division in the
body of Christ because that is simply a sign of carnality now Peter in
1st Peter 2 and you should remember this because it wasn't so long ago
we were in Peter says the same thing therefore laying aside all malice
deceit hypocrisy envy and all evil speaking so remember Paul's bid that
the signs of carnality is envy division and strife well Peter has a
slightly different list but you can see it's the same idea malice deceit
hypocrisy envy same word as in Paul's list and evil speaking strife so
he says we need to lay these things aside as newborn babes desire the
pure milk of the word so you can see again he's associating these
divisions and arguments amongst the Christians with being carnal with
being new new babies now what he says we need to do is we need to grow
that desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby you know
one of the one of the things is that when we have children and the
children don't make the milestones we get very worried and even if they
just miss the milestone by a fraction and the doctor or the nurse says
well you know they they should be weighing so much and they're weighing
one pound too much or one pound too little we get ourselves into a state
when the kid doesn't start talking when they should be talking when they
doesn't don't start walking when we when they should be able to walk we
get we get very very worried and and yet Christians can go years and
years and years and miss every milestone in the book and we just say
well that's just the way it is and the problem is it's not just we're
not I'm not talking about as judging one another but judging ourselves
and and you know there are certain because here's the thing you alone
know where you ought to be right now I have an idea but nobody else has
but only you and God knows where you ought to be in your on your
milestones and and if you're not making those milestones you ought to
get worried and that's the point that Paul is making in Hebrews Peter is
making the point here and the writer to the Hebrews is making exactly
the same point and that is that you're not making the milestones you're
not growing you're not where you ought to be and if you're not there
what you need to do is fix the problem if the doctor says your kid is
overweight well then you've got to fix it change the diet if the kids
underweight fix it change the diet do something that will remedy the
problem and here Peter says here's the answer it is the milk of the word
that is the answer the pure or the unadulterated milk of the word now
said to you before what you're getting from the pulpit here is not the
pure milk of the word and I'm not suggesting that what I'm preaching is
contaminated with poison but it is watered down because I'm taking 45
minutes to deal with four verses so can you does it take 45 minutes to
read four verses no obviously not so I'm putting a lot of water with it
to make it palatable to make it understandable but at the end of the day
the only pure unadulterated milk of the word is the word itself is the
word no preaching is the unadulterated word because by definition
preaching contains I don't know 10% of the word and 90% of my words and
my words really may be helpful but they not really what's going to make
you grow it's the word itself that's going to make you grow and so
desire the pure milk of the word notice that word desire now one of the
things about carnal Christians is that they desire all sorts of stuff
except the word they desire entertainment they desire or whatever the
world has to offer but not the word we need to desire the pure milk of
the word and of course it's not and and I'm sure we've all seen when
when feeding time comes for the baby and you you present the bottle the
hands go out and the hands grab that bottle and they and they pull it
into their mouth because this is sustenance this is what is good for me
they know instinctively that that is good for them when you see little
birds in the nest and the mother brings the food immediately they all
come up and their mouths are open they're desiring that food and there
needs to be a desire for the pure milk of the word because that is how
we grow Ephesians chapter 4 says the same thing remember I quoted verses
11 and 12 when you send it on high gave gifts to men some to be apostle
prophets evangelists and teachers until we all come to the unity of the
faith what did he say was the sign of carnality division here he's
saying until we come to the unity of the faith the positive side of of
division the opposite and of the knowledge of the Son of God what what
is the writer to the Hebrews say I can't speak to you in depth about
Jesus because you are carnal but he says and Paul says we need to come
to the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man we're going to come
to that word in a moment in the book of Hebrews to a perfect or a
complete or a mature man to the measure of the stature of the fullness
of Christ I'm not going to analyze these verses in detail but verse 14
that we should no longer be children so you see exactly the same idea we
need to become a complete mature man no longer being children here he's
giving another sign of being spiritual children when that we should no
longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of
doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful
plotting immature Christians are blown about they are blown about
according to this verse by every wind of doctrine today they latch on to
this preacher and tomorrow they want to that book and tomorrow it's this
idea and the next day it's another idea and so they are blown around by
everything that's going on on the internet every YouTube preacher that's
out there and again I you know I've warned over and over I'm gonna warn
it one again it's so easy to to get caught listening to the wrong kinds
of preachers sometimes and I'm doing it less and less because I'm
finding it really not beneficial but a lot of time in the evenings I
will listen to messages being preached on on YouTube and I was I will
select who I want to listen to and I listen in my shop while I'm doing
something else but when that video has come to the end YouTube will key
up or line up the next guy and because I'm busy or I you know I get
caught up and you start and you but this guy's talking nonsense but if
you're not being discerning you'll keep listening and you say I was not
it's not a big deal it is a big deal because nothing that goes into this
thick skull unfortunately just disappears it's sticks there and while we
may be slow of learning and the problem is being slow of learning is
that we can't put it into practice but it's still there and all of these
false ideas get lodged in our minds and the devil uses that and so they
are tossed to and fro I you know there is not a week that I don't get an
email from somebody somewhere in the world saying you know I found this
preacher and I think he's wonderful what do you think and most of the
time the answer is bad news no I don't think he's great at all I think
he's terrible because his doctrine is not right but they're tossed to
and fro instability but this is not just spiritual or theological spirit
instability it's emotional instability that's what happens to children
we all know what children do one moment they're laughing their heads off
and everything is wonderful and literally just like that the next minute
they're crying that's just the nature of children and I'm not saying
that's bad that's fine for children but it becomes a problem when we're
an adult and we're emotionally unstable and of course for a Christian
who should be spiritually and emotionally stable this is this is a real
problem all right let's get back to Hebrews as we begin to draw to a
close I hope all right verse 13 for everyone who partakes only of milk
is unskilled in the word of righteousness for he is a babe we need to
grow by the milk of the word now verse 14 but solid food belongs to
those who are of full age solid food belongs to those who are full age
you can't give a one-week-old baby a t-bone steak it just doesn't work
it's not like they don't know what to do with it and if you force it
down their throats you will hurt them but solid food belongs to those
who are a full age that is those who by reason of use have their senses
exercised to discern both good and evil all right so here is another
definition of being of full age that is those who by reason of use have
their senses exercised you see one of the problems of modern babies is
that we have these carry things that we put them in and they sit in that
thing all day and then we wonder why they don't crawl when they should
crawl and don't walk when they should walk and why their backs are soft
they can't sit up because they have not used the muscles we've allowed
them to sit in that carrier all the time but we become stronger
physically by using the muscles and as we get older we use them less and
that compounds the problem and so our muscles get stronger by use and
and we all see these guys you pump iron in the in the gym their muscles
are really big because the more you use it the stronger it becomes the
same is true of our minds the less we use our minds the flabbier and the
weaker our minds become the less we are able to think clearly so we must
challenge our minds by reading and by thinking and by developing our
minds the moment we stop doing that our minds go backward but the is
true spiritually if we don't flex our spiritual muscles by doing things
you see you can't you can't develop your physical muscles by watching
workout videos I mean that does no good you've actually got to take the
weights or do the physical exercise and and Christians think that the
same thing is true spiritually and I can you know I'm watching all these
spiritual movie videos I'm watching all these preachers and and stuff
and and I'm going to grow no you won't grow until you put that into
practice until you use those those spiritual muscles if you will those
are by reason of use have their senses exercised and so that's one of
the problems in modern Christianity is that we have a Christianity is a
spectator sport and that's why why fancy preachers are paid high
salaries because we can just sit there and and watch them and they'll do
their mental gymnastics and they'll preach and they'll do the stuff and
I can just sit there and be entertained and and I go home and I say well
you know I'm growing no you're not growing you will only grow when you
begin to put into practice what the preacher has said and that's why we
emphasize the need for us to be doers of the word and not just hearers
hearing doesn't grow you it's putting into practice that grows you and
that makes you stronger who by reason of use have their senses exercised
to discern both good and evil now remember in Ephesians he said a sign
of immaturity is that they are tossed to and fro by everyone do the
doctrine and my deceitful preachers so why are people swayed by false
doctrine because they don't know the difference between good and evil
between right doctrine and bad doctrine it's a sign of immaturity babies
don't know the first thing about the difference between wolf poison and
formula even if it's labeled you have a bottle and it says poison you
have a bottle that says formula and you put it there and they've said
let the baby choose and folk adults try and give children too many
choices sometimes choose the baby has no clue but when we grow up we
begin to learn no this is not good for me unfortunately when you look at
me I've said some things I still haven't learned so they're not good for
me but we should begin to learn to read the label and say well this this
stuff's not good for me oh this is healthy this is good for me that
comes with maturity and the same is true spiritually as we learn as we
have our senses exercised we're able to discern and we were able to say
no this is not right this is not good this is good let me shun the evil
let me leave that behind let me grab hold of that which is that which is
good and so we need to we need to grow now he's going to deal with the
foundation and I said that we would come to the word perfect and I'll
I'll come back to that word next week so the question I have to ask then
is how's your milestones how's your milestones you know where you ought
to be are you where you ought to be and if you're not you need to make
some kind of adjustment so that you may be where you should be don't be
like the Corinthians don't be like the Hebrews that this writer is
writing to but maybe be those who are growing and that are able to be to
feed others able to stand on our own feet able to make wise decisions
able to act and react in a in a godly way father we thank you for your
word we thank you Lord that even though these are hard words that the
writer has written and that I've had to speak Lord yet I see that Paul
writes exactly the same things that Peter writes the same things and all
these things are not are not popular Lord it's not comfortable for a
mother to take a baby into to to the doctor and to be told that the
child is is not making the grade and Lord is not comfortable for us to
look at our own development and acknowledge that we're not making the
grade we're slow we're retarded in a sense where we're just not getting
where we ought to be it's even worse Lord when we get to understand that
in fact we are actually regressing going back rather than moving forward
Lord I pray that you'd help us that we may have that we may have the
honesty with ourselves to evaluate where we're at and Lord that we may
recognize the areas in which there is no growth where there is no
development and Lord that we may make the correct take the corrective
action that is necessary that we might be able to grow into that full
mature man in Christ woman in Christ so Lord I pray that you'd help us
help us to be honest with ourselves help us Lord not to just see our
face in the mirror and go away but Lord help us to make to make the
corrections that we need to make that we might be able to be those who
are growing and going forward rather than people like these Hebrews who
are going backwards and we're even in jeopardy of falling away from the
faith and so Lord I pray that you'd help us in Jesus name go with us now
Lord and keep us protect us bring us together again safely on Sunday we
remember again those who are sick and we pray that you would that you
would touch them and heal them we pray in Jesus name

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/dpdaGqY7X3Q.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/anton-bosch/time-to-grow-up/
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