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All right, well, beautiful singing. If I have not met you, my name is Aaron, and I’m the preaching pastor here. I’m glad you’re with us this cool fall morning.
So if you have a Bible with you, if you’d open up to the book of Hebrews. The text for study comes from Hebrews 5:11 through 6:12. If you don’t have a Bible with you, no problem. There are Bibles scattered throughout the pews. The Book of Hebrews, the text I’m reading for you, is on page 582 of those pew Bibles. As you’re opening up those Bibles, keep them open. We do a style of preaching here called expository preaching. All I’m going to do is kind of walk us through the text and try to help explain what the text says today. Our goal for today is just to let God’s word speak.
Okay, so let me read Hebrews 5:11 through 6:1. Just the first part of 6:1. As mentioned, the sermon will go through 6:12, but for this time here, I’m just going to read 5:11 through 6:1. Please hear the words of the Lord.
The scripture says about this: “We have much to say, and it’s 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.”
Okay, so that’s God’s word for us this morning. Would you please pray with me?
Lord, thank you for gathering us together today to be here, to be under the teaching of your word. Lord, please, I pray that you’d help me to be a good communicator of this passage. Please keep me from error, Lord. If I do err, please keep the listeners from hearing it. We just want truth this morning. I pray that your truth would rule and reign. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
You know this: when we care about someone, we love someone, if we see them headed in a really bad direction, we know we don’t say nothing. Rather, we say something. We try to warn the loved one of the dangers ahead. We plead with them to change course. We try to give them instructions on how to be on a better, safer, healthier path. If we saw a loved one headed in a very bad direction and we said nothing, if we made no pleas to them, really, how can we say that we love them? Our love compels us to say something, even if it’s something hard to say.
I’ve heard others use the phrase “difficult grace,” meaning that although it’s the best thing for someone to hear, to receive up front, it might be difficult to hear. Maybe as an illustration, there’s a child headed towards a busy intersection with cars speeding up and down the street. We would clearly say something to the child. We would passionately cry out to the child to stop. We’d warn them of the dangers ahead. We would rebuke the child for where they are headed. We would plead with the child to change course.
We do these things not to shame, guilt, or belittle the child. Rather, we do these things to protect the child because we love the child. We want to be a grace in the child’s life, even though from the moment it might be a difficult grace for that child to understand.
Now, I share that with you this morning to hopefully get our minds right as we come to our passage of scripture—one that is filled with difficult graces through warnings, rebukes, and pleas to the readers to change course. This is another warning with more instructions and more rebukes in the book of Hebrews. These are warnings and rebukes given not to be cruel, not to shame, not to belittle, not to guilt, not to be judgmental. They’re given to be a grace in the life of the readers, even though up front it might feel like a difficult grace to receive.
Yes, friends, there comes a time when grace is an encouragement, but other times a difficult grace is actually what we need to hear. Even though it’s hard, it’s still a grace.
If you’ve been with us studying Hebrews, you know that this is not the first warning, the first rebuke, the first instruction, or the first difficult grace we’ve come across in our study. The writer of Hebrews has given these warnings to his readers time and time again. The writer continues to plead with the readers to change course, to head in a different direction because they’re headed in a bad place.
Thus, he continues to warn them, plead with them, and try to help them change course. This text today is actually the most talked-about warning of this letter, which I’ll explain more in just a bit.
For those who have not been with our study, if you don’t know the ongoing warnings, let me give you a little bit of context. The first readers, to whom the letters were written, were Jewish Christians who were on a path that was leading them to potentially walk away from the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and to go back to the Old Testament Jewish faith. They were entertaining this path because of an increase in persecution for their faith. They were suffering for Jesus, and as they were suffering, they began to wonder if Jesus was actually worth the suffering. They questioned whether it was better for them to leave Jesus and go in a different direction.
For the writer of Hebrews, he obviously did not want to see these early Christians do that. He did not want them to walk away from the faith. He didn’t want to see them hurt in this way. He didn’t want them to head down a path of destruction that comes when we reject Jesus Christ.
So throughout this letter, out of love and concern, he pleads with his readers to persevere in the faith, often giving pleadings tied to warnings and rebukes with real consequences for not hearing and heeding whatever instructions he was giving them. This is not to shame, guilt, or belittle his readers. Rather, this is done out of love, as he gives a difficult grace to grab their attention and keep them on the right path.
Okay, so that is the introduction. If you want to look back with me at our text starting in verse 11 of chapter 5, we read this: “In this we have much to say.” This seems to refer to the Old Testament priesthood, which we were talking about last time. Last time, we said that Jesus is our great high priest for his people—a great high priest who can sympathize with his people in all of our weaknesses, yet without sin. Because Jesus is our great high priest who can sympathize with us, we can go to him, and we can continue to go to him at his throne with boldness in times of need, trusting that as we go to him and continue to go to him, in his goodness, he will pour out mercy and grace on us that is actually there to help us.
Our text last time, from a few weeks back, said that Jesus is able to do this because he’s the one who came from the order of Melchizedek, which made him not simply our great high priest but also our great king—the one who eternally fills these roles as priest and king. He’s able to do that because he is the one who died and rose again.
In our text today, the author wrote that he had much to say about these truths, which, by the way, he will say more about when we get to chapter 7 in our study. But for now, the writer had to hit pause from saying more about this. You see, in the text, first, he had to give a bit of a rebuke to his first readers—a difficult grace. He’s saying this not to be cruel, not to shame, not to give a guilt trip. Rather, he gave this difficult grace in love—a rebuke that is meant to be like ice water running down their backs to wake them up from their slumber.
In the text, the author told his first readers that he paused from sharing more about Jesus being the great high priest because all the things he wanted to explain he couldn’t do. In large part, we see in the text that it was because they were becoming dull of hearing. These first Christians were not responding to the message of Jesus as they should have been responding, or perhaps once were responding. They were dull—maybe becoming a little hard-hearted, maybe a little apathetic—where they were hearing the truths of scripture time and time again, yet they were not applying them. They were a little lukewarm.
Now, it’s hard to know exactly why they became dull of hearing or why they were a little apathetic towards the things of Christ, whether they were not applying God’s word to their hearts. But it seems natural to conclude that this dullness of hearing was brought on by the persecution. For me, this week, I wondered if the persecution put the early Christians in some type of survival mode, where they were trying to stay under the radar of their faith. They didn’t want to make waves; they didn’t want to bring unnecessary attention to themselves. They were hoping to just get by unnoticed. Because of that, they did not respond to the teaching of scripture in ways that caused their faith to grow and become vibrant. They were trying to do the least amount possible, hoping they wouldn’t out themselves in their faith.
In short, I wonder if they were trying to hide their light under a basket—not to be seen. Or, in our language we use here as a church, they were simply not setting their hearts to grow. This is what verse 12 points out—a further challenge, a further rebuke to them in the text.
“For though by this time you ought to have grown to the point that you are now teachers of the faith, where you are coming alongside others to help them grow, helping communicate God’s word and helping others apply that word, at this point, it’s dull hearing, maybe some apathetic hearts, maybe wanting to stay under the radar.”
The text tells us they still need someone to teach them simple, basic principles concerning the oracles of God. They were still drinking spiritual milk rather than having grown to the point where they were eating solid food.
In short, the author of Hebrews is rebuking his first readers for still acting like children—who still needed so much time and attention, who still needed so much help, encouragement, and instruction. Children who are not growing, who are not maturing, who are not able to do things on their own in their faith. In some ways—not always, we’ll see—but in just a bit, but in some ways, they were almost more like spiritual takers rather than spiritual givers.
This illustration here makes me think of an adult—a grown man or woman—who should be old enough to eat solid food but is still acting like a spiritual infant. Spiritual children need someone to feed them, like milk from a bottle. That’s not good for the first readers, but what’s good is for them to grow, to mature.
This is really the desire we are to have in our Christian faith, right? For the glory of God, for the good of others, for our own good and joy, we want to grow. We want to continue to grow. That’s the love and rebuke here in the text—a rebuke, a challenge, a difficult grace to grow.
Verse 13 says, “For everyone who lives on milk, who is spiritually immature, who is not growing in ways or able to help others teach, they are unskilled in the word of righteousness since he is still a child.”
However, in verse 14 of our passage, “solid food is for the mature, those who eat it, those who are growing.” It is they who have the powers of discernment, which is a really good thing, to be trained by constant practice, constantly applying God’s word. They will distinguish between good and evil.
Now, let me give you a few thoughts here.
First, this rebuke for being dull of hearing, for not growing to the point of being able to teach others, has an applied warning. Perhaps they’re not growing in the faith because they actually were not truly in the faith. One of the truths we see in scripture is that when someone comes to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, they have tasted the salvation of God—salvation from sin, salvation to eternal life—where God will give us all of his love, joy, and peace.
This happens because God has placed his spirit inside of us. God takes out a heart of stone that’s dead in sin and replaces it with a heart of flesh. In this heart of flesh, the spirit of God actually lives inside and dwells in the heart. As the spirit of God starts to grow the heart of flesh, it becomes more and more like Jesus.
In scripture, this refers to the process of sanctification, right? This process of growing in godliness and holiness, obedience, joyful obedience to Jesus—a process that comes by hearing, responding, and applying God’s word. If there is a dullness of hearing, if there’s no evidence of any growth, the warning of this rebuke that one has to consider is that maybe they have not come to faith or perhaps the spirit of God is actually not dwelling in their hearts, or perhaps they still have a heart of stone that’s dead towards God—still dead in sin.
Friends, that’s a warning here in verses 12 through 14—that perhaps they were not growing in the faith because they’re not yet in the faith.
Now, unfortunately, we’re never going to be perfect in our sanctification. There are going to be times when we’re dull of hearing in ways that we need to apply God’s word. The sense here in the text is that the author is concerned by some lack of evidence of sanctification that he’s seen—that maybe they weren’t in the faith through normal sanctification. By now, they should have been at the point of being teachers.
Second, let me just back up here and address teachers and how they should have been teachers at this point in the faith. For the sake of clarity, this is not referring to a specific teaching role, like a pastor or elder, who has been entrusted with that role in the church. We see in the scriptures that the pastors are to minister the word of God to the church through public preaching and teaching.
The writer of Hebrews is not talking about that specific office in church life. He’s not saying they all should have been like pastors at this point. Rather, the author is referring to a call that all Christians have—a call to go and make disciples, to teach others the scriptures. All Christians are to be involved in coming alongside others to disciple and teach others in the faith, to help them grow in God’s word. That’s what the writer of Hebrews is getting at.
He was challenging and rebuking his first readers for not actively helping make disciples of Jesus Christ. In our text, you can sense that some of the first Christians were simply taking discipleship from others, taking teaching from others, but never in turn actively helping to disciple others.
This teaching through discipleship can happen in many ways. If you’re curious about what that looks like here at Red Village Church, perhaps you’re looking for avenues for your own personal growth in this area. Let me just give you two of the most common places we see this teaching take place in our church—two common places where we always need help.
First, it’s through mentoring relationships—where people in the church family come alongside others in the church who are younger in the faith to help guide and care for them, helping them to mature. This can be a little more formal mentoring where books are read and studies are gone through, or it can be more relational mentoring where you let younger people in the faith into your life to hopefully be an example for them, to follow your aim and conduct in life. That’s a great way by which we all can be involved in teaching others through mentoring.
Second, the other common way this takes place in our church is through leading small groups—something we prayed for this morning. The hope is that our small groups are multiplying, where there are new groups, new leaders, and new hosts that are always raising up to create more groups, allowing more people to get involved and be taught.
For those of us who were here a few weeks back, remember how we went through Acts 8? We talked about how we need to meet the part about small group multiplication. By the way, on this note, we could really use a few more small groups. If you’re looking for a way to grow and help others through teaching, please talk to me.
Okay, back to our text.
Third, let me just address the powers of discernment that can distinguish between good and evil.
A lot of this context seems to specifically refer to the pull that some had to go back to the Old Testament faith. Those who are able to discern God’s word will discern right from wrong, good from evil. Those who are being trained by God’s word know that with the coming of Jesus Christ, the Old Testament has been fulfilled, including the Old Testament priesthood we talked about a couple of weeks back.
Thus, with maturity, they should have been able to discern that there’s nothing for them to go back to in terms of Old Testament structures. Christ is better. He’s superior. He’s the fulfillment of all that which went before them, and they should have been able to discern that.
By the way, any and all discernment we have ultimately takes us here. It helps us see how things line up with Christ, with his word, with his wisdom, with his priesthood, and with his kingly reign. The more mature we are in the faith, the more we understand and apply God’s word, the more attuned we become to Jesus. We live with a Christ-like manner where we see and continue to see that Jesus is simply better than all things. He is worth leaving all things in order to have.
Keep going.
Verse 1 of chapter 6: “Therefore.”
Therefore, because of all that was just mentioned, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and let us go on to maturity, which is the instruction of this passage—to mature, to do what God would have us do. That’s what’s best. That’s what’s right. It’s best for us to grow, to set our hearts to a vibrant walk with Christ.
The author is not saying that when it comes to leaving the elementary doctrine, somehow we outgrow the simple yet profound truths of our faith. Somehow, as we leave the elementary doctrine, they become unimportant or irrelevant to us. Rather, I think the author is communicating here is an encouragement to quit talking around the elementary doctrine but to actually put these things into practice—to more fully live them out.
The Testament book of James, which we went through this summer, tells us that faith without works is dead. I think that’s a concern for the writer of Hebrews. He’s not seeing their doctrine, their faith put into action. Perhaps it’s just a lot of talk without much obedience, without much application.
In the text, the writer gives a few examples of doctrine that they were not moving on into maturity with. I think these come to us in three pairs. If you want to look back at the passage, the first pair we see in the text is not laying the foundation of repentance from dead works and faith toward God. This is the starting point of how one becomes a Christian—repentance and faith toward Jesus Christ.
We turn from sin and return to Jesus Christ by faith, trusting and believing that he died for us and rose again from the dead. That’s where salvation from sin is found. That’s where salvation to God’s eternal life is entered into. It is through faith—repentance and faith in Jesus Christ—which, by the way, is what mature Christian life looks like. We grow in ways that we’re quicker to repent of sin and respond in faith.
The second pair in our text, verse 2, is the instructions about washing and laying on of hands. Now, it’s hard to know what the author had in mind with either of these. The washing—perhaps he’s picking up on some Old Testament symbolism of washing—or perhaps he’s speaking about Christian baptism, which we are to do after we come to faith in Christ. I tend to think that’s what he’s referring to.
Perhaps the writer felt that he had to keep talking about baptism to these people, but yet that he kept pushing it off. Laying on of hands perhaps has to do with praying for healing or blessing, which at times in scripture involves prayers prayed when people lay hands on an individual as they pray for that person.
However, what seems more likely is that this laying on of hands refers to a practice we see in the New Testament, where people lay hands and pray over someone, praying that God would indeed pour his spirit on them—praying that God would give them faith to believe and enter into salvation.
The third pair in our text encourages them to grow and mature in is the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. These obviously speak about end times when Christ will return to judge the living and the dead. For those who have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who received forgiveness of sin, they will enter into his eternal joy in heaven. But those who have not had faith—who reject Jesus Christ, who do not see their need for him, who are still dead in sin—they will be met with eternal judgment.
For the writer of Hebrews, by now, his first readers not only should have been familiar with these foundational truths of the Christian faith, but they should have been connecting the dots on how these foundational truths and teachings were to be worked out in their faith—in ways that they’re growing in them, persevering in them, and helping teach others about them.
Maybe just for a visual of what the author is getting at here: picture trying to teach someone the basic rules of a game. You thoroughly go through all the rules, then ask the person, “Okay, do you understand the rules?” To which they say yes. You might even take a step forward and ask, “Could you please communicate back to me all of the rules to ensure that you do understand what I’m saying?” They are able to do so.
However, then as the game starts, they do something far different than the expectation of the rules that were given. They just don’t follow the rules. It’s not that the rules stop being important on how to properly play the game. It’s just that at this point, you want to stop having to explain them over and over as if you were talking to someone who just started. They should know how to play the game.
I think, in a sense, that’s what the writer of Hebrews is rebuking his readers for. They knew all these elementary teachings. In a sense, they knew the practical working that these teachings would have on their life, their faith. Yet, as you looked at their lives, they were still children in the faith. Their lives were not matching up.
You can almost feel this righteous frustration from the author towards these immature readers—like, “Why are we still going over these same basic elementary truths that we did at the start?” In his rebuke, he’s giving them a difficult grace for them to hear. He gave this difficult grace because he didn’t want to just leave them in their immaturity.
He put ice-cold water down their backs to wake them up.
Let me continue with verse 3.
Even though the author is frustrated with his readers for not growing, even though he’s trying to wake them up from their slumber and dull hearing, he still understood that any growth we have is ultimately because of God’s work in our life, which, by the way, is an encouraging grace. While we can and should faithfully position ourselves to grow in the Christian faith by taking steps of faith to get outside of our comfort zone as we apply God’s word, our glorious hope is that God is the one who actually gives the increase.
Verse 3: “And we will be able to leave these elementary doctrines.” This we’ll do if God permits.
Friends, that’s really what sanctification is. It’s us working out our salvation with fear and trembling—putting ourselves in positions to do so under the encouraging grace that faithful is he, faithful is the Lord who began the good work in us, who will complete that good work at the coming of Christ Jesus.
Keep going.
Verse 4. This is the most talked-about warning in Hebrews. Follow along with me:
“For it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up in contempt.”
There’s a lot going on with this warning, so let me try to walk us through this again. I want to help you think through what I just read. As I do that, I want to say again, this is the most talked-about passage in Hebrews and one of the most talked-about passages in scripture. It’s so talked about because it’s hard for us to know how to best interpret it.
Now, I have no doubt the first readers understood this passage clearly. They understood this warning clearly. But for us, it’s a little harder for us to understand and grasp. As I give you my thoughts here, I do so with humility, and I invite you to take time yourself this week to prayerfully think through this warning that I just read for you.
To help us think through this, I have a few points.
First, let’s remind ourselves of the context of the letter to the Hebrews. I think this is really important. With all warnings, especially this one, the original readers—Jewish Christians—were entertaining the idea of walking away from Jesus Christ to become apostates. The warning of Hebrews, including this one here, is a warning against doing that.
The writer of Hebrews clearly had concern and care for his first readers. Throughout this incredible letter, he is doing all he can to plead with them to hold fast to Jesus Christ, to hold fast to the faith, trusting that in the end—we’ll see next week—Christ is the one actually holding fast to us.
So, friends, there’s a lot going on in this passage—lots to think through. But this is actually the most important, primary thing for us to see: this is a warning. This is a plea for us to hold fast to Jesus Christ. Don’t lose that, okay? That’s the most important thing about this warning.
Second, I think it’s important to see that the writer of Hebrews is communicating to his readers, assuming they are Christians in the text—Christians who have been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come.
None of us can look into each other’s hearts to see if you are actually a genuine believer or if the spirit of God is dwelling inside. But as the writer of Hebrews wrote, he did so with the assumption that they are Christians—Christians who share a heavenly calling and who share in Christ with the caveat that they must hold fast to their confession to the end, that they must persevere in their faith.
Because he wrote as if they were believers, he actually trusted that they would respond, that they would hear and heed this warning—doing so in our text—not wanting to shame Jesus Christ or hold him in contempt—the one who was crucified for them.
This actually leads to the third point. This is why the warning is so talked about in church history. The question is: if this was written as a warning to assumed Christians, does this passage then teach that a person at one point could be a Christian, where they have the spirit of God living inside and enjoy a heart of flesh, only for another point to walk away from the faith, lose the spirit of God, and return to having a heart of stone?
In short, the question is: can someone lose their salvation?
No. As a church, we don’t believe that can happen. We think scripture is abundantly clear in many places that once a person comes to faith in Jesus Christ, where they’ve been given the spirit, where they are saved, they always will be saved because the spirit is sealed in their hearts. God saves them; God seals them with the spirit. God will keep them all the way to the end, where nothing will ever separate them from the love of God that he has for them in his salvation.
However, within that, we also believe that those who are truly saved persevere. They persevere in ways that they keep going on in the faith. They persevere in ways that they hear and respond to these real warnings of scripture. They feel the water running down their back, and they respond to the warning. Including the warning of our passage today, if they are tempted to go down a path leading them away from Christ, the author assumes that because of the spirit that dwells inside, they will respond in ways that put them back on the right path.
Friends, this warning is a gracious means—although perhaps a difficult grace—that God is using to preserve his people to the end.
So yes, the writer is assuming they are Christians, and yes, he’s assuming because of that, they’re going to hear this warning—knowing that God uses warnings as means to cause us to persevere, to keep us in the faith.
To further advocate what I’m getting at here: when a person comes to faith in Jesus Christ, God uses the means of his word—the preached word, the message of the gospel. He uses that means to open up our eyes so that we see and believe. Without hearing the gospel, we cannot believe in Jesus Christ. We need that means.
Likewise, God uses means, including warnings, to keep us, grow us, and preserve us in the faith all the way to the end. This is a real warning—a warning that God will use to keep his people.
By the way, on this note, if one does not hear or heed this warning, if they keep going down the path away from Jesus Christ, the implication is that they actually are not in the faith. They have no shame in seeing our Lord crucified over and over again as they hold him in contempt.
There’s a lot more we can say here, but to summarize the warning in verses 4 through 6: this is a real warning, and how our hearts hear and heed this warning indicates whether one is or is not actually in the faith.
Keep going.
Verse 7. To illustrate this warning, the author gives an illustration of land. Verse 7 says, “For the land has drunk the rain that often falls on it and produces a crop useful for those for whose sake it is cultivated; it receives a blessing from God. But if that same land bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless. It is near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.”
This further states that for those who have the spirit, it’s like fertile land—with a fertile heart, a heart of flesh that will bear fruit as it receives the watering of God’s word. But for those who do not have the spirit, it’s like a land that bears thorns and thistles that choke out God’s word—that’s worthless—a faith of no value.
By the way, I think this illustration seems to be picking up on a parable that Jesus spoke about, often referred to as the parable of the sower. If you remember that one, it discusses all the different types of ground a seed might fall in. I won’t go through that parable, but let me mention it’s found in Matthew 13, Mark 4, and Luke 8 if you want to look that up later.
Finally, where we’ll end today starts in verse 9, which is actually another encouraging grace. So on the back end of all the rebukes and warnings—the difficult grace—we see the passage end with an encouraging grace, which underscores that the author loved his first readers. He wanted what was best for them.
Say it again: there’s no shame, there’s no guilt. He’s not trying to belittle them. Rather, his desire is for them to grow in the grace of God—to persevere, to mature.
He wrote this in the text: “Though we speak in this way”—meaning the rebukes, the warnings, the difficult words of grace—”yet in your case, beloved, we do this because we feel sure of better things that belong to your salvation.”
I’ll say it again: we don’t do this to condemn you, to shame you, or to beat you down. We do this for better things. We do this because we love you, and we see God’s hand on you.
Just verse 10: “For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you’ve shown for his name in serving the saints as you still do.”
Yes, we want to see you grow because we see, more importantly, that God sees you are doing good things. You actually are serving. You’re not just simply spiritual takers; you are giving. But we just see so much more potential for God to grow you and use you in greater ways for your good, for the good of others, and for the glory of God—which, by the way, is always the best.
Friends, it’s always best for us to have a growing, vibrant, mature faith—which at times means we actually need to be rebuked, warned, pushed out of our comfort zone, and challenged on the path we’re entertaining going down.
Verse 11: “And we desire each of you to show the same earnestness, to have the full assurance of hope to the end so that you may not be sluggish.” That’s not good. “So that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises.”
Over the years, I’ve done a fair amount of coaching, and the ones that typically challenge me the most—those I’ve coached—are probably the hardest. They are the ones with the highest ceiling, the highest potential. I want to see a player really grow to maximize their potential.
In our passage today, it almost feels like that to me. Yes, he’s hard. He’s challenging his first readers. But say it again: he does it because he loves them. He does it because he actually sees them doing good things. He holds them in regard, and he can see just potential—how God was at work in them, how they are committed to serving others.
He wants to push them to continue to grow, to continue to persevere, to continue to become more and more like Christ—to grow and mature, to be teachers—even though they were suffering through hardships.
By the way, I hope this is true for us as a church—that we actually love each other in these ways—that we’re actively speaking, loving difficult graces into each other’s lives if needed. If we become dull of hearing, if we’re not growing in the ways we should as a church, we should lovingly push each other into maturity, whatever challenges life might throw at us.
Now, as I close, I want to quickly point out some things from our text concerning the evidence of God’s grace on his people in this passage. If you’ve been around Red Village for any amount of time, you know we talk about the evidence of God’s grace pretty often.
As I close, I thought it would be good for us to talk about the difficult and encouraging grace of God that we see in this passage.
First, friends, it’s an evidence of grace to hear God’s word naturally with hearts of sin. Our hearts cannot and will not hear God’s word. We know that even after we come to faith, there are times we might become dull of hearing. So, friends, every time you hear God’s voice through his word—whether it be for the first time, which perhaps, maybe some will be true of you today—that today, for the first time, you actually will trust in Jesus as the one who died and rose again for you to give you salvation—or perhaps you hear it for the next time, which is my assumption for most of us here.
Every time we hear God’s word, we hear his voice—whether it be through encouragement, a rebuke, or whatever it may be. As we hear it through God’s word, friends, that’s a grace in our life.
Second, it’s an evidence of grace to grow into maturity. There are many ways that God is growing us into maturity, but often, mature faith comes through hard, difficult, challenging situations. It’s not usually the mountaintop; it’s often the valley.
Perhaps even persecution is what God uses to mature us because all these hard, difficult things cause us to be more and more dependent upon the Lord. If it’s not difficult, challenging situations that God has growing us, often he also grows us into maturity through rebukes—through warnings—to try to move us out of our apathy, to grow us out of our comfort zone, where we start to serve others in ways we’re teaching others what it means to follow Jesus.
Friend, if you see God’s grace growing you, that’s an evidence of his grace on you. Only he can give the increase.
Third, it’s an evidence of God’s grace if you’re able to discern good from evil—where you are able to more and more discern the surpassing worth of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is just better, superior, and worth leaving all things behind in order to have.
That really is at the heart of discernment—to see how glorious and better Jesus is. I think when we’re tempted to think that when we’re a mature believer, it just means we can point out things that are wrong—which, no doubt, is part of the equation. I actually think the more mature believers I know are not concerned about what’s wrong, but they’re so attuned to picking up that which is right—that which is good concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.
Fourth, it’s an evidence of grace to receive warnings and rebukes—which is very much tied to hearing God’s word. Even today, if you feel some conviction in your heart that’s compelling you to repentance in faith, whatever conviction you’re hearing, friends, that’s a grace in your life.
It’s an evidence of grace that God is at work in ways that he’s keeping you—persevering you—a grace that you must hear and heed.
One more: it’s an evidence of God’s grace to serve other people—to serve others for their good, for our own good, and for the glory of God.
However it might be that you’re serving, at times the service of God sometimes just doesn’t seem that important. Friends, our text reminds us that any service to God is not gone unseen. God is not unjust to see your service. Rather, he sees all of our good works, and he honors them, which hopefully compels us in our text to be earnest in doing them—whatever they may be, whether they’re big or small—that we do them with great patience as we wait for our Lord’s return and the inheritance that awaits his people.
Friends, however God’s grace comes to you—whether it’s through encouragement that keeps us moving down the right path or a warning, a rebuke to wake us up to return to the right path—whether it’s encouraging or whether it’s difficult, it’s all grace. It’s all there for our good, to grow us, to mature us, to keep us, to preserve us, and to use us in ways that always lead us to the Lord Jesus Christ, who, keep saying it, is better—superior.
Revelation Church, however God’s grace may be coming to you this morning, may you receive it for your good, for the good of others, and ultimately for the glory of God.
Let’s pray.
Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for the grace that’s in it. Lord, I do pray that you would help us today to hear what the spirit is saying. Help us, by faith, to respond. However it is that you would wish us to respond, I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.