The Danger of Spiritual Immaturity: The Encouragement Hebrews 6:9-12 (Part 2) As we finish the last section on the danger of spiritual immaturity it may help us to reexamine quickly the ground we have covered since chapter 5, verse 12. In 5:12-14 we saw the author’s rebuke concerning the danger of spiritual immaturity. He had noted that some were having a hard time hearing the Word of God because they were neglecting their responsibility to go onto maturity. In 6:1-3 we saw the author’s exhortation in the danger of spiritual maturity. He told them to press onto maturity. They needed to become mature and leave behind the elementary principles and become entrenched in the deep thinking of the Word of God. They were find Jesus as the separating difference between true Christianity and religion. And then in the warning found in verses 4-8 the author says there is a real possibility that someone could go through the motions of Christianity but not be a Christian. They could say and do but not participate in it in the sense of having been born again. But now we see the encouragement the author gives to these to whom he is writing. If you remember when we looked at the first part of this passage we understood the author of Hebrews had seen evidence of his readers’ conversion. Their genuine love for one another, their commitment to the name of Jesus Christ and their service in His name all pointed to the fact these people were authentic Christians. And so his encouragement begins. III. The Encouragement in Their Conversion In the final section of this passage we see the encouragement in their conversion. The author noted the evidence of their conversion and now encourages them to continue in what they are doing. He describes for them a picture of those who are truly saved. Those who have been saved by Christ continue steadfastly in their faith. Those who fall away show they had never really become partakers of Christ. And the author doesn’t want the people to think that this steadfastness, this perseverance comes without a cost or struggle. The unfortunate aspect in much of today’s pop Christianity is it is perceived as being without struggle. There is a consensus among this group that if it is difficult then they are doing something wrong. They think if they are going through trials perhaps their faith is not strong enough or if they have to struggle against sin they are not living the Christian life the way it should be lived. The Scripture makes it clear we must endure many trials before we enter the kingdom of God and the flesh wars against the Spirit in battle. These difficulties will plague us until we enter the presence of our Savior away from sin entirely. Only then will the battle be over. Only then will the difficulties and hardships end. But in the meantime we are to continue to encounter and overcome these difficulties by faith in the Son of God who loves us and gave Himself for us. And the difficulties you have will be different from the ones I have but this in no way means that you or I are more or less spiritual because you have to mortify one aspect of your flesh and I another. The truth is our sinful nature was crucified when we believed in Christ. The new man, Christ, lives in us so we can live the righteous life He desires but we are to continue to put this truth into practice. We are to put to death the deeds of the body and live in the power of the resurrection. This crucifying our flesh is a painful process. For every time we believe God’s Word concerning the fact we have died with Christ our flesh tries whatever it can to extricate itself from the cross. It pleads with us not to allow it to languish on that cross any longer. It makes excuses to us why we should allow it off the cross and back into our mindset. The Scripture tells us the battle starts in the mind as we have said before when dealing with other passages of Scripture. This is why we must take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. If we do not give ground at this point then the temptation can go no further. What we must understand is our sinful nature is dead. If you have placed your trust in Christ as Savior it has been crucified on the cross with Him. And we now live by the power of the Son of God who lives in us. This is where our victory is. This is our position. If we do not take advantage of it our flesh will not be crucified in practice. But when we recognize this truth and place our flesh on the cross it will be painful. It will cry out to us in agony. It will make ten thousand justifications to us why we are being too dogmatic against it living any longer in us. Some find a way around this struggle. They give in. Those who give in, the author says, will not claim the promises. I remember a cigarette ad many years ago that showed an individual with a black eye. And the ad remarked, I’d rather fight than switch. The truth of the Christian life is that we are in a spiritual battle. And although the battle is against our sinful nature, called the flesh, it is not a physical battle. And if we’d rather not fight against the flesh we might as well say we’ve switched. Or we might better say we were never on Christ’s side to begin with. I am saying all this by way of introduction because there are many who give up the fight against the sin nature and succumb to the lies fed to them. They live in greater and greater disobedience to the Word of God and finally find themselves in what the Scripture describes as apostate. The author of Hebrews describes the state of the true believer. The true believer will not give in to the lies of the world, the flesh or the devil in his or her struggle against sin. The true believer will continue in the fight looking to the rewards of the next life instead of the passing pleasures of sin. In verses 11-12 we see three characteristics of the believer in which the author of Hebrews encourages them to continue and thereby prove themselves to be true Christians. A. Show diligence The first characteristic the author encourages them to continue in is to show diligence. In verse 11 he says, and we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end. These believers were to show diligence in their Christian life. This word is used two places in the New Testament to describe someone who is hurrying to get somewhere. Their diligence is seen in how quickly they want to accomplish their task. In the same way the author calls for immediate and continuous action so that (as he says in verse 12) you will not grow sluggish. Have you ever noticed in your life that when you allow yourself to get lazy you find yourself being lazy that much easier the next time? You sleep in 10 minutes one day and before you know it you are sleeping in a half hour. If we will not exercise diligence in our Christian life we will find spiritual sluggishness growing to immense proportions. Let us not procrastinate in our opportunity to grow spiritually but let us set off with diligence in our quest to be Christ-like. Why? Do you remember the story of Jesus’ disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane? They experienced firsthand the error of procrastination when they ought to have been diligent. In the garden Jesus told them to pray so they might overcome temptation. But Peter and his friends took the time as an opportunity to snooze; after all they were very tired (Didn’t they deserve to rest?). But this short three-hour nap led them to forsake the Lord and caused Peter to deny Him. There is no time to put our spiritual growth in second place while we finish our degrees or get into place in the corporation. We cannot afford to say, After I’ve accomplished all these things then will I set my heart to work on my relationship with God and set my heart on His Word. It will only lead us to become sluggish and spiritually dull. In Psalm 90, Moses says, Teach us to number our days so that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. We have very few days in this life to serve Christ. And it is what we do in this life that counts for eternity. Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, said we are to make the most of the time. There is no better time, than now, to grow in our relationship with the Lord. . If as Moses says we have 70, maybe 80 years to live then you only have 25,568 days (taking into account leap years). If you are 20, you only have 18,263 days left to serve the Lord here. If you are 30 you only have 14,610 days left. If you are 50 you only have 7,305 days. Now the real point is not to count the actual number of our days but to see we really have very little time in this life and we need to apply our hearts to wisdom that we may diligently grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior. I think Solomon said it best in Ecclesiastes, Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, I have no delight in them. True delight comes in really knowing God. The more I find myself changed by the knowledge of God the more I find delight in who God is. It is those who already think they know it all that eventually find a proud and hardened heart does not bring joy in the things of God but only futility. Someone who is not willing to continue diligently to grow in the knowledge of God will not find the joy of discovering God. We must show diligence. We cannot put it off or make excuses for why we are not reading the Scripture or serving the Lord now. This will only lead us to become sluggish and dull of hearing. The author of Hebrews encourages us to be diligent in our walk with Christ and so show that our conversion is genuine. B. Experience full assurance The next characteristic in which the author encourages them to continue is to experience full assurance. In verse 11 we see this encouragement. He says, And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end. A believer who is seeking and serving the Lord has a benefit those Christians who merely profess their Christianity do not have. It is the benefit of the full assurance of their salvation. When a Christian is walking in obedience to Christ they have a joy in the full assurance of their salvation. The apostle Paul used this word in Colossians 2. He said the Colossians ought to experience all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself. There is a vast resource of riches in God’s economy from having the knowledge of a full assurance of salvation. The Christian who is living in a disobedient fashion cannot experience this. No Christian who is living in willful disobedience can have this. A person who does not wish to live an obedient life to Christ cannot not at the same time claim a connection with Him. Now, without minimizing the dangerous effects of sin, this doesn’t mean we are perfect. But it means if we are saved we will have a heart to please God and do His will. And it means if we sin God will be convicting us of the sin and His Spirit will work within us to get it right and overcome it. And as the Spirit of God works in our spirit to correct us and give us victory over our sin this offers us assurance we are God’s children. The Scripture says, The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. And as His Spirit continues to work in us and as we continue to desire Him and serve Him we have this full assurance of our salvation in Him. This is what the author of Hebrews is describing. Now we do not earn our salvation. The author is not calling us to somehow attain it by our effort but he is calling us to live out our salvation. As we discussed in the beginning part of this section, if our salvation is genuine it will evidence itself in good works. Good works don’t proceed from our corrupt nature to produce salvation but flow out of our redeemed nature as an offering of praise to the God who saved and changed us. And In the same way that we do not earn our salvation we do not earn our assurance of salvation. We don’t check some chart that determines whether we are saved or not and so feel good about our security in Christ. Our assurance finds itself in our trust in the Lord Jesus to save us from our sin. And it is this trust that should produce in us our desire to please our Savior. C. Inherit the promises The third characteristic in which the author encourages them to continue is to inherit the promises. In verse 12 he says they should not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promise. This describes the heart of real faith. Real faith inherits the promises. Real faith finds its expression in patience. Real faith doesn’t fail but endures through thick and thin because it sees the end product. Real faith sees that Jesus is faithful and will complete what He started. Real faith sees that Jesus can always be trusted even in the difficult situations of this life. Real faith can rejoice in persecution because it believes Jesus’ word when He said, Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Real faith can persevere in trials because it believes the Scripture when it says, Count it all joy when you endure various trials knowing that the trial of your faith works patience. But let patience have its perfect work so you may perfect and complete lacking nothing. And real faith looks to the heroes of Scripture who have gone before us and have inherited the promises. This is where rubber meets road. Perhaps some do not continue in the faith because their faith was not faith in the Christ of the Bible. They do not, through patience, inherit the promises because they were not looking at the right promises. Many who claim to be Christians have embraced an I want the world to love me mentality. And they are sorely disappointed when they begin to experience persecution. And subsequently they leave what they thought was the faith. But can we expect to follow a man who was hated by the world and still think we can have the world love us? Listen to Jesus’ words in John 15. He said there, If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Why do we read these words and still try do everything to keep the world from thinking less of us. We try to act like the world and talk like the world and not go too far in the matters of holiness. We try to straddle the fence in issues of morality and gray matters. And a church that seeks to imitate the world is really an enigma, a puzzle. We are trying to attract the world with the world by being seeker sensitive and wonder why the church is lacking in power. When God brought about a great work of conversions in the early church it happened for the very reason that the church was different. It offered something the world didn’t have. It brought transformation to the hearts of people. There transformed hearts made them people who wanted to be like God and not like the world. Remember when Ananias and Sapphira lied to God about what they gave to the church and God killed both of them before Peter? This technique probably wouldn’t be listed in any of the church growth manuals for how to raise a crowd. But what did the Scripture say happened? It said, none of the rest dared to associate with them; however, the people held them in high esteem. And all the more believers in the Lord multitudes of men and women, were constantly added to the Lord. People who would have been flippant about a commitment to God didn’t dare associate themselves with the church but yet still more people came to know the Lord. What God was doing by this in the early church was to purify it and keep it focused on Him. But in today’s Christianity we might apologize for the fact God killed a person for lying. Doesn’t it seem rather harsh, we might ask. But perhaps we might ask a better question, a question that really honors God. Doesn’t the Creator have the right to do what He wants with His creatures? And which would you rather see, God’s work in our midst as we speak clearly of His truth to transform us or would you rather live in spiritual mediocrity as we seek to dance with the world in this sorry compromise? When we try to market the church and bring people in by changing the way we present the Gospel we lose those who would have truly been converted and gain a bunch of people who are truly flippant in their attitude toward God. They have no holy awe of God. They do not take the things of God seriously and we have missed the real work of God in our midst. But when the people of God get serious with Him and put off their sin and seek His face then He will truly begin to show His power. What is the point of this? We cannot inherit the promises of God and His kingdom if we are consistently seeking the acceptance of the world. And we must remember the promises we are to inherit are not to be received on this side of heaven. Listen to the author’s words about how patient faith inherits the promises of God. In chapter 11 he said, All these died in faith (Abel, Noah, Abraham, Sarah), without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them. Friends, if we seek acceptance from the world we are not exercising biblical faith for biblical faith finds it acceptance and hope in the God of Scripture. But biblical faith maintains its focus for the long haul. Faith and patience inherit the promises. People who are setting their minds upon where they have been instead of the promise of where God wants to take them have opportunity to return. But why should we allow ourselves to return to the house of slavery? When Israel was in the desert they complained the food they had in Egypt was much better than the food they were eating in freedom. They missed the forest for the trees. They might have had better food but it was bought at the price of bitter slavery. Do we do the same thing when complain about the struggles we now have as Christians? I never had difficulties like this before I was a Christian. Anyone can swim down stream but God calls us to swim upstream. Things may have seemed better when we were floating downstream as a dead man. We were going with the flow. We didn’t fight against our sin nature we indulged it. But now that we have been freed from Satan’s bondage he vehemently, fervently seeks to assail us because we have defected from his side. When we complain in this way about our lives we forget that we were slaves in that land. We forget that Satan had us exactly where he wanted us. Why return to bondage? Why not enter the promised land of victory God has given us by faith. Oh there will still be battles in this land but it is a land flowing with milk and honey. God has granted us the power to overcome sin and live in full joy even in the midst of difficulties when we are right with Him. Why should we go back into bondage when by faith and patience we can inherit the promises? Have you taken the time to look at the promises God has for you who believe? There is the promise of life and godliness in Christ. There is the promise of persecution in Christ. There is the promise of joy in Christ. There is the promise of the Spirit of Christ dwelling in you. There is the promise of peace in Christ. There is the promise of justification, being declared not guilty in Christ. There is the promise of tribulations and perseverance in Christ. There is the promise of being dead to sin and alive to righteousness in Christ. There is the promise of deliverance from the bondage of sin. There is the promise of being absent from the body and present with the Lord There is the promise of having the mind of Christ. There is the promise of the Spirit’s demonstration of power. There is the promise of the defeat of temptation. There is the promise of a resurrection body awaiting us There is a promise of God’s comfort in our distress There is a promise of liberty in Jesus There is the promise of being transformed from glory to glory into the image of the Lord. There is the promise of God’s grace of sufficient power in our weakness. There is the promise we are the children of God There is the promise we can walk in the Spirit There is the promise of the sealing of God’s Spirit There is the promise of the free gift of salvation in Christ There is the promise of being a new creation in Christ There is the promise of being able to stand against the tricks of the devil There is the promise God will complete the work He began in you. There is the promise that to live is Christ and to die is gain. There is the promise that it has been given unto us to suffer for His name sake There is the promise Christ will transform our lowly bodies into conformity with His glorious body. There is the promise that we can rejoice in Christ There is the promise that the peace of God surpassing all understanding will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus There is the promise that the God of peace will be with us There is the promise that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And if I would go past the book of Philippians I could mention many more. Will we by faith and patience inherit the promises or will we give up, give in and go home? Let us be victorious in the battle. Let us inherit the promises. The author of Hebrews encourages us to go on in our faith without compromise. For only without compromise can we show diligence, have full assurance and inherit the promises God has given to us. Let us therefore press on!
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 11:41:03 +0000
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