Spiritual Maturity Is Not Optional if You Want Spiritual Victory

0 (22s): I was lost, but he brought me a book. Here's the book. thank you. 0 (3m 15s): That we are your children and that we get to wish like you, we love you, father. We thank you. 0 (3m 43s): . 0 (7m 2s): Thank you, Jesus. Thank you. That you say thank you for stopping that you are here. 0 (7m 34s): so that's 1 (11m 24s): Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Lord king of Kings. We worship you. We are gathered because of you only because of you. Jesus. Do we have the capacity, the access, the ability that desire for death worship you in spirit and in truth. God refresh us in that revelation. Lord God, that truth your word, Lord, help us never to get far from that truth, Lord God, but to keep it in our sites and build our lives upon it. Lord, thank you God. 1 (12m 5s): Holy God. Thank you for what you're doing today, Lord for you will do today as before we just avail ourselves to you. Holy God. You're king oh king Lord king. Lord. Help us to live as though you're the king submitted humble, grateful worshipful dependent Lord. Thank you, Lord God. As we get into your word today and Hebrews chapter six, God, we want to grow in our understanding of the word and our understanding of you. 1 (12m 48s): We want to take steps forward, build upon a foundation of truth and grace Lord, but beyond the foundation, Lord God, we want to build something of glory for you, Lord out of our lives. And so Lord give us the grace and the wisdom to do that. Help us. We pray. Lord. We love you Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Go and say hello to your neighbor. We'll come back just a moment here, neighbor. Thanks Barry. Love you buddy. 0 (13m 48s): so 1 (15m 2s): It's refreshing to just watch the people of God connect and fellowship together and just smile and love on each other. So I didn't want to interrupt that. It's it's good. It's part of God's plan. That's why God tells us not to forsake the gathering together of the saints. We need each other. We needed that encouragement, that connection, that love that, that is shared. We need that. And we're going to see a lot of people potentially this Christmas season that we don't see for a while and that we don't see typically during the, the year. And, and so take that a little bit of that with you and just bless people with that fellowship and watch what God will do. 1 (15m 50s): We're in Hebrews chapter six and we titled the message today. Spiritual maturity is not optional. If you want spiritual victory, spiritual maturity is not optional. If you want a spiritual victory, the two go hand in hand, a little five-year-old boy was in his kindergarten, his Sunday school class. And they were in the class talking about the creation, how God created the heavens and the earth and sort of guy Johnny was particularly intrigued by the fact that he was created from one of Adam's ribs. And a few days later, a little Johnny was in his bedroom and he was laying down kind of rubbing, you know, holding his side. 1 (16m 36s): And his mom said, Johnny, what's going on? And he said that my side really hurts. I feel like I'm going to have a wife. Sometimes we just don't understand spiritual truth. We hear something and we'd go in all the wrong directions. And spiritual maturity is not optional. If we want spiritual victory, the end of Hebrews five, the writer wrote about spiritual maturity to his readers. You wrote to the Jews who had read it then. And he writes to us now he called the people and he was kind of car. She called them spiritually Dole, spiritually Dolan. 1 (17m 19s): He said, you don't just, you just don't seem to listen. They had been believers long enough that they should be teaching others, but instead they needed others to teach them again. The basics of the faith, the writer said that they're like infants still on milk. They'd never pressed on and desired spiritual meat, graduating to solid food because of their stunted growth, because of there's tons of growth. They lack the skill needed to know the difference between right and wrong. Did you hear that because of their stunted growth, they lack the skills needed to know the difference between right and wrong. 1 (18m 6s): And that's why we say spiritual maturity is not optional. If you want spiritual victory, maturity and victory go hand in hand, but maturity, spiritual maturity helps us to know the difference between right and wrong helps us to discern in the moment in the crucible, in the difficulty in the temptation helps us to understand the difference between right and wrong and then choose the right path. And Hebrews chapter six, we're going to be covering verses one through 12 today, just about half the chapter. It'll pick it up next time. The writer says in Hebrews six one. So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. 1 (18m 50s): Let's go on instead and become mature in our understanding. That's really what we're called to do. As believers, as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ to move forward into mature understanding Jesus said, go and make disciples. Jesus said, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit, teaching them to obey all the things that I've commanded. He goes on. Surely we don't need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil really means dead works. Remember he's speaking to Jews who had converted to Christianity. 1 (19m 30s): They believe that Jesus was the Messiah. There was completely Jews, spiritual Jews are completed Jews. And so he's saying, Hey, we need to move from dead works and place our faith in God. Surely we don't need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds that works in placing our faith in God. Number one, spiritual maturity develops as we repent from dead worse and put our faith solely in God. Spiritual maturity develops as we repent from dead works and put our faith solely in God. Dead works are the works we do to gain God's favor. 1 (20m 14s): We have God's favor because of what Christ accomplished. He went to the cross, taking the penalty for our sin upon himself, paying the penalty so that we might be the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. So we have favor with God because of Jesus. Not because of what we do. Dead works are the things we do in hopes that God will see us and then receive us based on the work we do. Now, there's a place for good works. And we're going to talk about that, but it's not to gain the favor of God or the acceptance of God. That favor and acceptance is solely because of what Jesus did on the cross. He was born. That's what we're celebrating this week. We're celebrating the birth of the Lord. 1 (20m 56s): Jesus Christ. See the incarnation came. We just were seeing about, he came as a child to bring a message to live among us, to become like us, to relate to us, to teach us ultimately to die for us and then to be resurrected and be seated at the right hand of the father. And continue that work from there did works are the teachings. We are the things we do in hopes that God will see us and receive us based on the work we do. That's why it's called dead works. Did worser called dead because that is precisely what they are. They're dead. They don't accomplish what they hope to be, do or accomplish what people hope they would accomplish. 1 (21m 42s): They don't give us favor with God. The blessing of the Lord, Jesus Christ gives us favor with God dead. Things don't produce anything. The Bible tells us faith without works is dead. Why? Because dead things don't produce anything. James, 2 26 in the new living translation says just as the body is dead without breath. So also faith is dead without good works. So there's a place for good works. It reflects our new life in Christ. It declares that we are new in Christ, but those words don't Krantz has access to the father. 1 (22m 24s): Jesus does dead faith doesn't result in salvation because dead faith isn't faith at all dead faith is faith without works. Dead. Faith doesn't result in salvation because it's dead. Dead works. Don't result in salvation either because salvation is a gift of God's grace, not of works. Lest anyone should boast Ephesians two, eight and nine in the ESP says for by grace, you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing it is the gift of God. Not, not a result of work so that no one may boast. 1 (23m 4s): So spiritual maturity develops as we repent from dead works and put our faith solely in God. It changes our whole motivation. When we're putting our face solely in God, we're saying, God, I trust you for my salvation for my new life. But out of that new born again, life experience, I'm going to be living for you and doing good works for you. Demonstrating my faith by my good work so that my faith isn't dead because faith without works is dead good work. So the result of a genuine faith, let me say that again. Good works are the result of a genuine faith. We do good because we are in Christ. We follow his example in his earthly and ministry. 1 (23m 46s): Jesus went around doing good works. Supernatural works in power by the spirit of God. We're empowered by that same spirit. And so we have the capacity by God's grace to do good works from the motivation to bless God and to bless others is we're called to love God and love others. And so out of that, commandment out of that, that call by God. We do good works because he's good. And we want to reflect him and live a life of good works, demonstrating our faith. We do good works because we are in Christ. Dead works are just that. They're dead. Dead works again. It's all about motivation. What are, why are we doing what we're doing? 1 (24m 26s): Dead works are just that they're dead. They don't help us in our relationship with God because they're motivated to gain access or favor from God access to God favor from God. So that doesn't help us because essentially we're saying, Hey, forget about the finished work of Christ on the cross. I'm going to do my own thing. Well, the reason Christ came to die on the cross is because we couldn't do our own thing. We can't do enough good in our own righteousness and our own good works to get grant or to gain access to the father. So Jesus came. And so when we say we're going to try to gain favor from the father by doing our good works. We're essentially saying that the cross wasn't good enough. 1 (25m 6s): Jesus wasn't good enough. Dead works are just out there dead. They don't help us in our relationship with God. If anything, they take away from a genuine relationship with God, right? Cause they shifts the focus again, because the only way we can have a relationship with God is because Jesus made it possible. This is why we celebrate Jesus every Sunday, but especially at Christmas and on Easter because of what Jesus made possible through his shed. Blood on the cross, let's move on Hebrews six, two, you don't need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. 1 (25m 50s): And so the author writes about four different things, kind of foundational things you don't need further instructions about these things. One commentator wrote when we consider the rudiments or the basics, one by one, this that we see in verse two, it is remarkable how little in the list is distinctive of Christianity for practically. Every item could have its place in a fairly Orthodox Jewish community. Each of them indeed acquires a new significance in a Christian context. But the impression we get is that existing Jewish beliefs and practices were used as a foundation on which to build the Christian faith. 1 (26m 31s): And so these, this prince, these things are important. They're part of our foundation and our heritage, but we must move on. These four things listed in verse two are the foundation. We need to understand them, but beyond the foundation, what goes on top of a foundation? Imagine building a building, he put the foundation in and then just leave it there. What good is that foundation? If there's nothing built upon it, or you build a foundation because you want to build a building, right? You'd get the foundation laid so that you can build something on top of it. And that's really what our lives are meant to be doing. 1 (27m 11s): Building a found building on that foundation of truth, building a life that glorifies God, it honors the Lord. We need to have the foundation. We don't get away from the foundation. The foundation is essential. You don't even really see that foundation in a building, but you know, if it's not there, right? You know, if the foundation is not there because you try to build anything without, without a foundation. And as soon as there's, there's an earthquake or a storm, everything begins to fall apart. All right? So we need to have the foundation in our lives because if we don't have the foundation in our lives, these things that will impact your in just a moment. Then as soon as the storm hits our lives and everything will fall apart, our faith was shaking. 1 (27m 57s): We won't continue to believe God or trust God or worship God, we won't do any of those things because our foundation is shaken and we'll fall apart. This is the reason potentially that the Jewish people were were waffling. They, they, they, they, they had, they were trying to commingle their, their old life and their new life. They understood truth, but they understood it incompletely. And they wanted to move forward with that foundation. But under misunderstanding that foundation and not wanting to give their lives fully to Jesus, they begin to waffle and waiver. 1 (28m 37s): Maybe you're here today where you're saying, man, I want to go to church. And I know I need that foundation, but I also don't want to give up my old life. I'm not sure I want to do that. I mean, I don't want to get radical about Jesus. I, I, I know I need the foundation and I need all of that and I need fire insurance and that sort of thing, but I don't want to get radical about Jesus. And so there's this attempt to commingle. This is what the author is addressing here. This co-mingling of the old life, the old religious system that a lot of these Jews were entrenched in. They recognize that it was incomplete and that Jesus was the Messiah. So they moved to Jesus began to worship Jesus declaring him as God. But then they begin to waffle and then begin to lose their faith in God. 1 (29m 22s): And they begin to backslide as it were. And so they had maybe the foundation where they misunderstood the foundation. So we're going to look at the foundations and, and, and talk about those and unpack him and just see what God will speak to us about the foundation. So again, these four things, listen to verse two are the foundation. We need to understand the foundation so that we can build a building. We need to have that foundation solidly in place so that we can build a building on top of that. And so God willing, verse three, Hebrews six, we will move forward to further understanding. Again, further understanding applies a building on the foundation. It requires something of us. This faith requires something of us. 1 (30m 4s): That's why Jesus, when he called the disciples, he said, come follow me. I'll make you fishers of men. In other words, you're going to have to abandon that old, old way of living. Remember what happened after the crucifixion and the burial of Christ disciples said, Hey, I'm going to go fishing, right? I'm going to go back to the old life, right? 'cause they, they, they were shaking in their understanding and shaking in their faith. And what did Jesus do? He went after them, right? And then when they saw Jesus and fresh, they followed him. Number two, spiritual maturity develops as we move forward to further understanding, further understanding beyond the rudimentary teaching concerning baptism, the laying on of hands, the resurrection from the dead and the final judgment to be thorough today, though, let's briefly recap these teachings that the writer of Hebrews is challenging his readers to move from. 1 (30m 59s): He's not telling his readers to forget about them because you can't ever forget about the foundation. It's essential, but he's saying from the foundation, you must build, you must build something. There must be something evidence, fruit of your faith. So he doesn't want them to forget about the foundation, but to move forward, to move from, to build onto, with further understanding. So let's unpack these four things, baptisms and notice the word is plural. The word in the Greek for baptisms, there is about T's most. It's not a hard word to remember, but it refers to ceremonial cleansing. 1 (31m 41s): It. Doesn't refer to the baptism that we read about when the believers of God get baptized in the faith. It's referring to a, a washing, a purification effected by means of water. So the people being tempted to slip back into Judaism and dead works, or maybe trying to commingled Judaism and Christianity, there it is again, but there's a difference between ceremonial washings prescribed by the mosaic law and Christian baptism. So they're using baptism baptisms in the plural. Speaking about ceremonial washings. Remember the religious leaders approached Jesus and said, Hey, we're, we're confused or offended that your disciples don't wash their hands. 1 (32m 28s): They don't follow this. The ritual of ceremonial hand washing before they eat. And Jesus challenged them and said, Hey, it's not what goes into a man that him, but what comes out of him, defiles him. And he's talking about all of the wretched things that are in a man's heart. So he said, Hey, it's not so much important that we be that we're careful about what goes into us, but it's what comes out of us. Some of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So there's a difference. There's the ceremonial hand washing was a traditional man. It was mosaic law. It was something that was external. What God was wanting to do through baptism was transformational. It was internal. It was the whole being God. 1 (33m 10s): The difference between ceremonial hand cleaning and baptism was completely different. But yet they're trying to, co-mingle the two trying to maybe get along with both camps. Have you ever tried to do that? You want to get along with the world, but you also want to get along with the church. This is what they're trying to do. They're trying to hold on to their old life and their new life and trying to co-mingle that you don't mix. It's like oil and water ceremonial washing. Doesn't do what baptism does. Let's look at first, Peter three 18 through 21. It says Christ died once for our sins and innocent person died for those who are guilty. 1 (33m 54s): Christ did this to bring you to God. When his body was put to death and his spirit was made alive first, 19 Christ then preached to the spirits that were being kept in prison. It's a whole nother sermon that we'll get to. Eventually they had disobeyed God while Noah was building the boat, but God had been patient with them. Eight people went into the boat and were brought safely through the flood. Those flood waters were like baptism that now saves you. But baptism is more than just washing your body or ceremonially cleaning. It means turning to God with a clear conscience because Jesus Christ was raised from the dead Christ is now in heaven, where he sits at the right side of God, all angels authorities and powers are under his control. 1 (34m 41s): So baptism reflects something of transformation that's happened in our lives. It's a declaration that we understand that Jesus died for us and has adopted us. And we are identifying as followers of the Lord. Jesus Christ. The significance is incredible. And so if you're here today and you know, Jesus, but you've never been baptized, you've never made that public declaration of your faith through the waters of baptism. You need to get baptized, not for salvation, but out of obedience, Jesus was baptized, right? John baptized him in the Jordan and he modeled that for us. 1 (35m 23s): So maybe that's going to be the thing that kind of decides for you or helps you decide or helps you to make the break, because maybe you've been a little incognito about your faith in Jesus Christ. Nobody maybe knows that you're a Christian, it's your workplace, or maybe even in your neighborhood or among your family members. Baptism is a public declaration. Ceremonial hand cleaning was just something that everybody did. If you were a Jew, right? Baptism indicated that you were now a follower of the Lord. Jesus Christ, Hebrews nine 10 says for the old system deals only with food and drinks and various cleansing ceremonies, physical regulations that were in effect only until a better system could be established. 1 (36m 15s): So the better system is Jesus. Jesus is the better system because he instituted a new covenants, baptism and water is part of that new covenant that God has called us into. So that's baptism or baptisms. Next is laying on of hands. We demonstrated that just this morning when we laid hands on Daniel and praying for them. So it's something that we see in the scripture. And it's something that we practice as the church. And it's something that was a foundational. And we'll see why in the early church. And, and to this day we lay hands number one to a point leaders, right? 1 (36m 55s): First time of the fire, 22 says, do not be hasty and laying on of hands nor take part in the sins of others, keeping yourself pure. So what that means in the context of that is when you're declaring a person to be a leader or announcing a person to be a leader, you lay your hands on them, kind of annointing them declaring them to be a leader. So this is one of the ways in which we use the laying on of hands for, for healing, the sick in mark, one 40 through 42, a man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. If you're willing, you can heal me and make me clean. He said, move with compassion. Jesus reached out and touched him. 1 (37m 36s): Now there's plenty of examples of Jesus healing people by just speaking it. But then there's other examples of Jesus laying his hands on people and healing them. Jesus reached out and touched him. I am willing. He said, be healed instantly. The leprosy disappeared. And the man was healed. So a lot of us need to remember that God has called us to lay our hands on people so that we might pray for them. So they might get healed. I was at work years ago and I'm in front of mine, was sick at work. And he was in the middle of everybody. And I said, Hey, can I pray for you? And I put my hands on him to pray for him. And I'm just agreed for God's healing and just did it in front of everybody. 1 (38m 18s): It didn't matter. It doesn't matter. Was it Andrew Annis this week? And we were, I was praying with a brother just in Johnny's Andrew, Andrew, and he's a brother and a gal that I just met. And we were holding hands, laying hands on each other. We were agreeing together. So the laying on of hands, it speaks of community. It speaks of agreements and acts nine. Remember on, on the road to amass, Saul of Tarsus got knocked off his, his horse and or his donkey or whatever he was riding or on the road. He got blinded. So, and, and I S went and found Saul acts nine 17. He laid his hands on him and says, brother saw the Lord. 1 (38m 59s): Jesus, who appeared to you on the road has sent me so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the holy spirit. So two things happen there and an isolate his hands on him and he received his sight and he was filled with the holy spirit. So that's another reason that we lay hands on somebody for the receiving of the holy spirit. We see that throughout the new Testament for the receiving of the holy spirit acts eight, 18 and 19. When Simon saw that the spirit was given, when the apostles laid their hands on people, he offered them money to buy this power. Let me have this power to, he explained so that I, so that when I lay my hands on people, they will receive the holy spirit. So Simon was misled in his understanding, but he saw something that happened that transpired when the apostles laid, the disciples, laid their hands on people, they received the holy spirit. 1 (39m 51s): Let me see the same thing. When the apostle Paul in acts 19, then when Paul laid his hands on them, the holy spirit came on them and they spoke in other tongues and prophesied. So there's the holy spirit came upon these people as a result of the laying on of hands. There's some kind of something happened. Supernaturally. When we lay our hands on people, people begin to speak in tongues and prophesied. They're filled with the holy spirit and the fruit of the spirit. They begin to live out of the, that new life where one person is filled with the holy spirit, more promised that salvation that will be filled with the holy spirit. We're also told to be continually filled with the holy spirit, because we constantly need to be filled with the holy spirit. So maybe you're here today and you need somebody to lay hands on you that you might be filled with the holy spirit again. 1 (40m 35s): Or maybe you just ask the Lord, God come. But if you don't have the faith of the grace upon you to believe that God will do that, come forward at the end of service, and we'll pray over you. We'll lay hands on you and pray that the Lord fills you with his holy spirit. Then all the fruit that he desires and is designed to come out of, you will begin to flow out of you. A lot of us are working in our natural manner, natural strength. I'm trying to do the work and the will of God. And what we really need is the holy spirit. We're frustrated because our lives are fruitless. We're trying to do all of these things in our own strength. And we, what we need is we need the power of the holy spirit. We need the power of the holy spirit. Earlier this week, I had thrown my back out and, and it was just hurting for days. 1 (41m 25s): And, and then I got a cold on Thursday and, and I'm talking to my elders. And two, two of the elders and their wives were both have been to the hospital and been sick and been dealing with all kinds of stuff. And I recognized that we were under a spiritual attack. And so we just began to pray. I reached out to some people and we just began to pray. And, and I took a COVID test yesterday. Cause I was thinking, man, if I got COVID, I can't go to church. I can't do it. You know, puts me out for the, to the end of the year. And I don't want that. So I took a COVID test and thankfully it came back negative. And so I just knew is I said, okay, Lord, I'm not feeling good in my back's thrashed. 1 (42m 10s): And I got this cold, am I supposed to press on? I felt like the Lord said, yeah, press on. So I just knew that the holy spirit was going to do something to, to restore me by this morning. And I'm feeling better this morning. I'm all doped up on medication, but I'm feeling better, got a cough drop in my mouth, you know? But so sometimes the Lord calls us when we're not feeling up to it physically to do the stuff that he wants us to do spiritually. And he will empower us to do that. He'll give us the grace to do that. So don't just give up if you're feeling weak or in capable in your natural man, press and say, Lord, what do you want me to do? 1 (42m 52s): And, and how do I trust you to move forward and just see what the Lord will do? Maybe you just feel inadequate and you say, Lord, I don't feel adequate for the, what you've called me to do or for the life that you called me to lead. Well, good. That's actually a good, humble thing. Place to be. None of us should feel adequate in our own man and our own strength. None of us should feel that way. We never approach ministry with, from our own adequacy. We always approach ministry from a place of brokenness and dependence and contrition and humility, approaching everything that God calls us to do with gentleness, with just a humble dependence on him and just leave the fruit up to him. 1 (43m 36s): So if you're feeling inadequate, don't give up, just ask the holy spirit to fill you. And when you do the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. All of those things and the spirit of God will work through you and a power. The power of God will begin to flow through you in ways that you don't even understand. You'll say stuff that you never thought you could say or thought you would say or thought, you know, that you'll say things that were never in your mind to say the things maybe you don't even understand that you're saying you'll begin to pray with a greater level of faith and confidence. You'll be able to act with greater obedience, all of those things. So that's baptism and laying on of hands. 1 (44m 16s): And there's the resurrection of the dead. We need to understand the resurrection of the dead. I'm never going to get through this message today. The resurrection of the dead first Corinthians 15 22, 12 through 23, just unpacks the, and then you can go to second Corinthians chapter five. I'll read a little bit from that as well, but we need to understand what happens after we die. It's part of the foundation of our understanding and faith that gives us confidence to live in the here and now for Jesus. We need to understand what God has in store for us. So let's just read some verses a scripture in first Corinthians chapter 15. But tell me this. 1 (44m 57s): Since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead for if there is no resurrection of the dead then Christ has not raised either has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, then boy, all of our preaching is useless and your faith is useless and we apostles will be lying about God for, we have said that God raised Christ from the grave, but they can't be sure if there's no resurrection of the dead. And if there's no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised in your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. And in that case, all who have died, believing in Christ are lost. 1 (45m 37s): And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, that we are meant to be petty pitied. We are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. But in fact, Christ has been, he has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. Verse 21. So you see just as death came into the world through a man and we're getting to the good stuff. Well, it's all good stuff. Now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam. Everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life, but there is an order to the resurrection. 1 (46m 18s): Christ was raised as the first of the harvest that all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back, he's coming back, who I'm ready for that? Boy, I tell you, I'm ready for that. 42 through 44 first Corinthians says, well, let's go into 35 years, but someone may ask, how will the dead be raised? What kind of bodies will they have? And this is something that we talk about in Memorial services all the time, but maybe it's something we should be talking about when people are still alive as well. What a foolish question. When you put a seed into the ground, imagine of literal seed, put it into the ground. 1 (47m 1s): It doesn't grow into a plant unless it dies first, right? And what you put into the ground is not the plant that will grow, but only a bare seed of wheat or whatever you are planting. Then God gives it the new body. He wants it to have a different plant grows from each kind of seed. So we are essentially a seed that will be planted and God will give us a new body resurrected and new life in the same way. Verse 42, jumping out of verse 42. It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live for ever. 1 (47m 43s): Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength. They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies will solve a body, but there'd be spiritual bodies. That'd be like Christ's body will have a natural human body. We're not going to be spirit bodies. That's a contradiction in terms, spirit bodies, where we're going to be spiritual bodies in heaven for just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies. 1 (48m 24s): So you're going to have a body in heaven. You'll be recognizable in heaven. If you die as a hundred year old, you'll probably have some would say that you'll have your body, the body of your most, your best life part of your life. Maybe when you were 35 or 40 or 52. I hope I don't have my 52 year old body. I want my 35 year old body could still run marathons and didn't hurt. And that'd be all right. I don't want to live for eternity in this broken thing, but I want my eternal body, my resurrected body. 1 (49m 9s): And then I will be happy, happy, happy to live forever and ever. Amen. Now let's look at eternal judgment. The last on the list of Hebrew six, there are two judgments. There's the Believer's judgment. And as we've been kind of alluding to this all along about building on that foundation, we will actually stand before the Lord, the believers judgment and give an account for our lives, whether we built on that foundation or not. And then we will receive rewards or not based on what we have built by God's grace in his strength for his glory, right? 1 (49m 49s): Doing it in our strength for our glory. We're doing it in God's strength for his glory, the believers judgment where believers will stand before the Lord to give an account for our lives. Our fruit will be judged. And then interesting. Second Corinthians five 10 says for, we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body. So this is speaking to believers in second Corinthians, chapter five, speaking to believers, people who have come to faith in Christ, in Christ, we will stand before the Lord and give an account for lives. So we get saved. 1 (50m 30s): What have we done? And what's the fruit of our salvation. What's the fruit of our faith. What have we done with our faith in Jesus Christ that we'll get judged and we will receive whatever we deserve, not heaven or hell, because that's already decided by Christ, right? We're saved by grace through faith, but our works and the fruit of our lives will be judged. And we see that throughout the scripture, in the old, the new Testament, we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this early body. There's two judgments, the believers judgment, and then the final judgment or the great white throne judgment. 1 (51m 12s): This is for an believers we see in revelation, chapter 20, there's a judgment for an believers. These are people who have not excepted received the grace of the Lord. Jesus Christ. You're in one or two camps as a human being, you are a believer or you are an unbeliever. You are in Christ, or you are out of price outside of Christ. You're in Christ. You have eternal life. If you're outside of Christ, you do not. You will spend eternity in one or two places, either heaven or hell, depending on your decisions here in the earth. 1 (51m 53s): Revelation 2011 through 15 says, and I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it, the earth and the sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide. I saw the dead, both great and small standing before God's throne in the books, the books were opened, including the book of life and the dead were judged. According to what they had done as recorded in the books, the sea gave up its dead and death and the grave gave up their dead and all were judged according to their deeds, then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. 1 (52m 34s): This lake of fire is the second death. Anyone whose name was not found recorded in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. So those are the two judgments, the believers judgment, where God will open up the books and read and evaluate and judge our life work. And there's the unbelievers judgment. Spiritual maturity develops as we move forward to further understanding. So we need to understand that those things, that's the foundation that allows us to build a solid life for Christ. 1 (53m 16s): So we, we, we drive around the only time you see a foundation without a building is because somebody ran out of resource, right? Something got shut down, somehow your resource by the king of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He will give you the resource, the strength that you need to build upon your life, but you got to do it his way. And according to his plans with his foundation, you don't want to get to heaven with just foundation, get to heaven. Great. But you don't want just a foundation. You want to have built something with your life. 1 (53m 56s): Spiritual maturity develops as we move forward to further understanding, I might stop right there. What time is it? Hmm, just take a look real quick here. Hang with me another five minutes or so. And we'll get through the rest of this. So again, spiritual maturity develops as we move forward to further understanding, meaning we need to understand this truth and then go on and the maturation process and grow in knowledge and application knowledge and application. So it's not just about learning information. It's about the application of that truth that we see in the rest of the Bible. 1 (54m 37s): Back to Hebrews six, four, it's impossible, verse four for it's impossible to bring back to repentance. Those who are once enlightened. Remember these people are beginning to backslide a bit. Those who've experienced the good things. These are believers who are beginning to backslide. It's impossible to bring back to repentance. Those who were once enlightened, they receive the light of Christ. Those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the holy spirit who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come and who then turn away from God. It's impossible to bring such people back to repentance, but by rejecting the son of God, they themselves are nailing into the cross once again, and holding up, holding him up to public shame. 1 (55m 23s): So again, this verse is speaking to believers. People have had a real encounter based on the scripture, based on the context. These are people who have had a real encounter with Jesus based on the text and the context of the whole of Hebrews and this chapter. These are people who've known. God, see this verse is speaking about, believe these verses are speaking about believers who have turned away from God who potentially have become apostate. And so there's a warning. The writer's giving to these people who are beginning to backslide, wanting to commingle their old life with their new life, because it's a slippery slope that will cause them to fall away from the Lord. 1 (56m 4s): Altogether. Apostate is a person who renounces religious belief. So this first is speaking of two Jews who are potentially rejecting the finished work of Christ on the cross, and then are returning to a system of law and of dead works. Part of that system of law and dead works is sacrifice the sacrificial system, the animal sacrifices that are part of the old covenant. So they would, as part of that, going back to the Jewish way of doing things, they would go back to animal sacrifices there by rejecting what Jesus has done as the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He, he was crucified and gave his life as the final once for all finished and done sacrifice on the cross. 1 (56m 46s): And so by rejecting Jesus and going back to the old system that becoming a POS state falling away from the Lord. And, and this is what the scripture says about them. These people, speaking of the Jews would re would return to religious Jewish practices. Maybe it's like the people of Israel wandering through the wilderness. They been delivered out of Egypt. They are wandering through the wilderness. They continually complain against the Lord. They're rebelling against the Lord. They're building idols in to worship rejecting God is their leader and Lord and guide and king. And so he made them wander in the wilderness until that whole generation died off before they entered into the promised land. 1 (57m 31s): So these people, speaking of the Jews would return to Jewish religious practices like animal sacrifices to make it Tillman for their sands. You imagine. So it's a slap in the face to Christ because they're rejecting the sacrifice of the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. They're rejecting the savior of the world. The Messiah, John 1 29 through 34 says the next day, John, this is John. The baptizer saw Jesus coming toward him and said, look, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. John recognized that he was sent as a 4runner to identify, to prepare the way for Jesus. And then to identify him. He is the one I was talking about when I said, man, coming after me, who was far greater than I am free, existed long before me. And I did not recognize him as the Messiah, but I have been baptizing with water so that he might be revealed to Israel. 1 (58m 18s): Then John testified, I saw the holy spirit, descending like a dove from heaven and resting upon him. I didn't know he was the one, but when God sent me to baptize with water, he told me the one on whom you see the spirit descend and rest is the one who will baptize with the holy spirit. I saw this happen to Jesus. So I testify that he is the chosen one of God. So John, this Jewish man declared that Jesus was the Messiah, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and these people who had once believed that are now rejecting that and going back to their old way of living. How does a person know if they're an apostate, maybe you're here today and you're worried that you might be an apostate. Maybe you've committed a sin, done something, and you feel like you might be an apostate. 1 (58m 60s): Maybe you've committed the unpardonable sin. If you're worried, if you're worried, if you're here today and you're worried that you might have sinned this way, you're probably, haven't why, because an apostate, somebody hardened their heart toward the things of God. And God can only cause people to come to a place of repentance through the good work of his spirit in their hearts, through a tender heart, through a broken heart, a contract hearts. So if you're feeling maybe on, maybe I've committed the unpardonable sin, you haven't because your heart is to confess your sin to the Lord and repents and apostate. It has a hard persistently unrepentant, heart Titus one 12 through 16. 1 (59m 43s): Speaking of the people of Korea, maybe this is a good example for us. We just studied Titus verse 12. It says even one of their own men at profit from creed has said about them. The people of Crete are all liars, cruel animals and lazy gluttons. This is true. So reprimand them sternly to make them strong in the faith. They must stop listening to Jewish myths and the commands of people have turned away from the truth. That's what's essentially happening here in Hebrews. Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure, but nothing is pure to those who are corrupted unbelieving because their minds and conscience are corrupted. Such people claim. They know God, but they deny him by the way they live. They are detestable and disobedient worthless for doing anything good. 1 (1h 0m 26s): So Hebrews six helps us as we wrap this up here with a helpful picture for us, verse seven, when the ground soaks up the falling rain and bears a good crop for the farmer, it has God's blessing. But if, and this again speaks of the building upon the foundation, but if a field bears, thorns and thistles, it is useless. The farmer will soon condemn the field and burn it. So it's a picture for us. If the field produces good things, it has God's blessings. But if the field bears thorns and thistles, it will be burned up. 1 (1h 1m 8s): Speaking of the final judgment, you will know a person by their fruit at the end of it all, we'll stand before the Lord and God will judge our fruit. So this passage is not speaking to someone who has fallen into sin, but has repented. It's not what this passage is. Speaking to a repentant person has a tender heart and unrepentant person. Their heart is very hard and unreachable Proverbs 24 16 says that godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again. But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked, the godly matrix, seven times number. 1 (1h 1m 50s): When Jesus speaking to Peter about forgiveness, he said, how much, how, how many times do I need to forgive? 70 times seven, essentially Jesus saying like me over and over again, my grace is sufficient. So if you're have struggled in your faith, struggle with sin, but have repented and continue to repent. Then this verse is not speaking to you. Hm I'll just read the last few verses here. Dear friends, even though we're talking this way, we really don't believe it applies to you. 1 (1h 2m 31s): Isn't that good news. He makes a point. The writer makes a point and then encourages them. We are confident that you are meant for better things. Things that come with salvation, the life of fruitfulness for God is not on Jassy will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers, as you still do. Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts in order to make certain that you, what you hope for will come true. Then you will not become spiritually Dole and indifferent. That's what he's calling these people out of, challenging them to move from. 1 (1h 3m 14s): Then you will not become spiritually Dolan indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God's promises because of their faith and endurance, faith and endurance. We're saved by grace through faith. That faith is demonstrated by our Endurant by our good works. We're saved solely by the grace of God, but that grace is demonstrated by our faith. And that faith is demonstrated by our good works, our endurance, our ability to trust God and believe God all the days for our lives. Spiritual maturity is not optional. If you want spiritual victory, number one, spiritual maturity develops as we repent from dead works and put our faith solely in God. 1 (1h 3m 55s): It's invite the worship team forward. We're going to sing another song here in number two, spiritual maturity develops as we move forward to further understanding and number three, spiritual maturity develops. When we refuse, when we refuse to give up, when we refuse to give up, I was talking to someone earlier this week about 1 0 2 and all of the challenges and hurdles one or two is our new worship center that will hopefully be hoping to March drywall starts this week. Good things are happening. But he said, Hey, you know how how's it been the pro I said, I said, when you just refuse to give up and continue to trust, God, God always comes through. 1 (1h 4m 41s): And so that is true for our lives. As believers in Christ, we need to not give a brief fuse to give, continue to move forward, continue to repent and move forward as a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and then watch what God will do. Right? All the promises of God require patience endure. It requires that we wait on God and trust his timing and not our own that we don't, that we refuse to give up. Where have you given up, have you given up on your walk with the Lord? Have you given up on your marriage, have you given up on your kids, have you given up on your influence, your fruitfulness. 1 (1h 5m 26s): Don't give up, don't give up, let's go and stand up and worship. Lord. We refuse to give up. We refuse to give up Lord. So God, as I stretch out my hands and pray over us, Lord God, I just pray for endurance in Jesus name, strong faith in Jesus name, God that we would build on that foundation, that we would make sure that foundation is in place. And that we believe that the truth about who you are and about, about the di the proper doctrines that we're to build our lives and ministries upon Lord God, that we would move beyond that Lord. 1 (1h 6m 9s): Now that we would put those in place and then build in Jesus' name that we build in Jesus' name, we would build and not grow weary that we would never give up. So Lord help us to worship today in spirit and in truth. And as we worship, Lord God, let it be a declaration that says, God, I'm never giving up. Things may get difficult, but I'm not giving up. There's going to be 20, 22 is going to be a good year or because we haven't quit. We haven't given up corporately as a church and individually, If you need prayer during this last set of worship, be people down here who will be praying for you. 1 (1h 6m 50s): I'm not going to pray for you, cause I don't want to get too close to you with my cold, but there's others. You need people to lay hands on you so that you might be healed or filled with the holy spirits said you might be encouraged that you might receive from God, what you need then come on forward and people will pray for you. Let's worship. 0 (1h 7m 17s): the 3 (1h 11m 4s): starting today. We will praise your name. We thank you that we were here at church today, or sitting at home and watching that'd be thank you. That your presence you were with us everywhere. Somebody love you in Jesus name. We pray.