BOOK OF HEBREWS
MATURITY
DR. JIM DIXON
JULY 8, 1984
HEBREWS 5:11
He is a father. He has a son, but whenever he thinks of his son, he weeps. He can remember holding his son in his arms. He can remember giving his son piggyback rides through the house. He can remember taking his son to baseball games, sharing a hotdog, playing football in the park. He could remember helping his son with his schoolwork. He had great dreams for his son, goals and aspirations, but the dreams are shattered now, and the goals have long since been abandoned. It was in junior high school when his son began to take drugs because marijuana at first. Then he took amphetamines and speed began to fall in with the wrong crowd. His personality began to change, and he became lethargic yet hostile. He couldn’t hold a job. His father got him dozens of jobs, but the son would lose them within a week.
He simply wouldn’t show up for work. And as the days and weeks and months passed, the son began to exhibit psychotic behavior. He became nocturnal. He slept by day. He lived by night, and he began to develop symptoms of paranoia. He refused to sleep on beds. He always thought something, or someone was under the bed. He slept on the floor, but he thought radiation was emanating from the ground. He ceased to take care of his personal hygiene. He’d go six months without taking a shower. Today that son is in a mental care facility seeking psychological rehabilitation and from a human point of view, the hope is dim, and the father grieves. I know that story is true because that father and his wife are good friends of Barb and myself, and unfortunately it is not a rare story. There are thousands and millions of parents in this world who grieve for their children.
The Bible says children are a blessing of the Lord, the fruit of the His reward. Blessed is the man who has his quiver full of them, and yet sometimes it seems as though our children are a curse. God is a father. He has many children in this world. The Bible says everybody who believes in Jesus Christ as Lord and savior of life is born into the family of God. We become sons and daughters of God through faith in Jesus Christ and when we are born into the family of God, God has dreams for us. He has goals and aspirations for us. He wants us to be conformed to the image of his son and he has a great work for you in this world, but when we grow up and yet never mature, when we do not turn out, God grieves and His grief is far deeper than any earthly parent. In our passage of scripture for today, God tells us three qualities that we must seek as Christians if we’re going to become the mature and live lives that are pleasing in his sight. First of all, in our passage of scripture for today, we are told that if we would be mature children of God, we must become skilled in the word of righteousness.
The author of Hebrews says everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness. Solid food is for the mature. The mature are those who are becoming skilled in God’s word. Historians tell us that one of the most mysterious documents and manuscripts in the world is called the Voynich Manuscript. It was written many centuries ago, some think more than a millennia ago. The Voynich Manuscript is more than 204 pages in link. It has multicolored, illustrated drawings. No one knows who wrote it. Indeed, no one can understand it for it is written in an unknown language and it is written in an unknown with an unknown alphabet. In the year 1912, Wilfred Voynich acquired the ancient manuscript from an Italian monastery. He made copies of it, and he circulated it throughout the world asking scientists Ologists linguist to interpret this ancient document. Nine years later in the year 1921, a professor, the University of Pennsylvania named Dr. William Romaine Newbold said that he unlocked the key. He was able to translate the Voynich Manuscript. He said that the document was 700 years old that had been written by a man named Roger Bacon, who was a Franciscan friar, a scientist, and an inventor, and he said that the Voynich Manuscript proved that Roger Bacon had actually invented the microscope and the telescope 400 years before its time.
Professor Neal died in the year 1926 and in the years that followed, that scientist proved that his translation was false. He hadn’t really unlocked the key to the Voynich Manuscript. He had not consistently rendered the meaning of that ancient alphabet. And so the document remained a mystery in this world. In 1960, a man named Hans Krause, a New York collector, acquired the document. He was offered $160,000 for it and yet he gave it to Yale University and today the Voynich Manuscript remains a great mystery in the historical archives of Yale University. For some people, they believe that the Voynich Manuscript contains great wisdom just waiting to be released to the world. Others believe that perhaps it is a hoax. Of course, there are some who believe it was written by extraterrestrials that it came from another world. Incredible. As it may sound, there is one ancient document that has come from another world.
It is longer than 204 pages. It sometimes has multicolored illustrated drawings. It was written long before the voyage manuscript was ever written. It is 2,000 to 3,500 years old. It has many writers but only one author and the author is God and that ancient manuscript, that ancient document is called the Bible. It has been translated into thousands of languages and yet tragically, millions of people in this world have never read it. For them it is as much a mystery as the voyage manuscript because they do not read it. They do not study it. They are not skilled in the word. Now that’s all right for the world, at least it’s understandable. But for us as Christians, we are called to be skilled in this document, skilled in this manuscript, skilled in this book, we are to know the Bible, the word of God.
It can be a humorous thing when little children are not skilled in the Bible and when they misunderstand it. 15 years ago, questions were asked of sunny school children in Southern California. They were amazed to find that many of the children thought the Apostle Peter was a rabbit, amazed to find that many of the children thought Adam was Hoss Cartwright’s brother. Yes, they thought an epistle was the wife of an apostle. They thought adultery was the sin of growing old. They said that their favorite story was the story about the multitude that loafs and fishes and it’s cute.
It’s cute when little children are unskilled in the word, but when we as adults take the name of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and we’re born into His family, we are called to maturity. We’re called to be skilled in the word according to Logei International, a ministry to the Spanish speaking people of the world, there are 250,000 Spanish speaking Protestant ministers. Among the Spanish speaking peoples of Latin America are those 250,000 ministers. 176,000 of them are not able to pass the simplest of Bible examinations and yet they’re seeking to minister to 30 million newborn Christians. The problem of biblical illiteracy is not unique to the Spanish world. It is a global problem.
Surveys here in the United States indicate that the average Christian in this country is able to list no more than three of the 10 Commandments and the average Protestant minister in the United States of America is able to list no more than seven of the 10 Commandments, and yet the 10 Commandments are the very basis of the Judeo-Christian value system, and it is simply elementary to the teachings of the word of God itself. As Christians, we are called to be skilled in the word. The Bible says that the word of God is a light unto our path and a lamp unto our feet. Unfortunately, many Christians in the world today walk this world with no light, no lamp as though they were in darkness. The Bible says, study to show yourself approved as workmen who need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Unfortunately, many Christians in the world today do not rightly divide the word of truth.
They’re not skilled in the scriptures and they’re easily led astray. The Bible says all scripture is inspired of God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training and righteousness that the man or woman of God might be perfect and complete equipped for every good work. If we would be mature, if we would be mature children of God, sons and daughters of Jesus Christ, then we must seek to be skilled in the word students of the Bible. Secondly, God wants us to understand that if we would be mature children of God, then we must be able to distinguish good from evil. The author of Hebrews says solid food is for the mature for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil. We live in a world that cannot distinguish good from evil, but a mature Christian is one who can.
Two hundred years before Christ, Qin Shi Huang ruled the Chinese empire. I mentioned emperor Qin in a sermon more than a year ago it was emperor Qin who united the Chinese people. It was Qin who founded the Qin Dynasty. It was Qin who built the Epang Palace, 70 miles in length with more than 12,000 rooms and he needed most of them because he had more than 10,000 wives, one for every day that he ruled. It was Qin who built the great Wall of China more than 1500 miles in length, 30 feet high, surrounding his kingdom. He built it to protect him in this world. It was Qin who built a subterranean world in his death for over which he could rule for eternal ages, a world in his burial chamber of subterranean rivers and lakes with miniature cities and he might rule that world forever. It was Qin who made exact clay replicas of each individual member of his imperial army, and he took those clay replicas into his burial chamber that they might protect him in eternity For all of these things, Qin Shi Huang is famous, but he did many other things that are remarkable in which our little known he created a security system in the palace that was centuries ahead of its time.
You see, Emperor Qin was afraid of assassination, and he bragged that he could rule a people that he had never seen. He never left the palace. It was large enough he didn’t need to, and he built a security system into the gates of the Epang Palace. He built the gates of the Epang Palace of magnetic iron so that nobody could go through those gates in battle armor or even with a sword without being encumbered and discovered it was a means of detecting good and evil, friend and foe. He built the modern prototype of the modern airport metal detector. The Bible tells us that every person in this world needs a detector, not a metal detector, but a sin detector to guard the gates of the human soul from invasion by sin. And the Bible tells us that every person in this world has such a detector, and it is called the Spirit.
It is called the Spirit. The spirit of man is meant to be able to commune with the Spirit of God. It is meant to be able to distinguish between good and evil. It is meant to be able to discern God’s will, but the Bible tells us that the spirit of man is dead through centuries of sin. It is now dead and is no longer able to distinguish good from evil. Therefore, the people of this world give themselves up to licentiousness. But the Bible tells us that when we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, He actually sends His Spirit into us, and our spirits are rekindled. They come to life, and they begin to be able to distinguish good from evil again.
Now a mature Christian is one who has become skilled in distinguishing good from evil. This doesn’t mean that they simply are able to identify evil and identify good. It means that they are able to apply righteousness to those things. They’re able to cultivate the good in their life and in the world and they’re able to conquer evil in their life and in the world. To distinguish good from evil means to grow in righteousness. It means to grow in sanctification and that’s what a mature Christian strives for. You see, it’s possible to be skilled in the word and still not mature if we are not becoming righteous, if we are not becoming sanctified, if we are not becoming holy, if we do not distinguish good from evil.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians and Corinth, and he told them that the spiritual babes, the spiritually immature were in the flesh. He told them that the spiritually mature were in the spirit. Now Paul says the works of the flesh are plain: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, anger, selfishness, enmity, strife, drunkenness, carousing and the like. Paul says, I warn you now, as I’ve warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But Paul says the fruit of the spirit is playing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. To distinguish good from evil simply means that we are able to cultivate the fruit of the spirit and we are able to fight against the works of the flesh. There are two dangers in the Christian life. One danger is that we do not distinguish evil. We do not fight against immorality and impurity and licentiousness. We give ourselves over to licentiousness. And when we do that, we do not grow, and God grieves. But the other danger in the Christian life is that we do not distinguish good. We do not cultivate the fruit of the spirit in our life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness.
You see, there are many Christians in this world who are able to distinguish evil and even fight against evil and maybe even conquer evil, but they do not cultivate the good. They have a long list of dos and don’ts, but they’re not able to cultivate love, joy, mercy, and peace. And when we do that, we become like the Pharisees. And Jesus warned that they strained out gnats. They knew all the details of the law, but they swallowed camels because they ignored love, mercy and grace. You a mature Christian doesn’t simply pull weeds in this world, but a mature Christian plants, flowers. You pull the weeds from your life, and you plant flowers where once the weeds were (the weeds are sin). They are the works of the flesh, but the flowers of the fruit of the spirit, it is the good.
When I was growing up, Saturdays were very special. My brothers and I pulled weeds on Saturday. We did it almost every Saturday with my father. My parents tried to make it fun. My mother would start off by making waffles in the morning and she had a great waffle mix and she made hot maple syrup and ice-cold milk we had, she had to make that, and we had those waffles, but we always knew that beyond the waffles, there were the weeds.
And we’d go out with my father on the upper level, and it was a large field up there with weeds from one end to the other. And for three hours virtually every Saturday we just pulled weeds. Now it really didn’t make a whole lot of sense because we never planted anything where the weeds were. We just pulled weeds. And days passed into weeks and weeks to months. And when we reached one end of the lot, the other end was beginning to grow weeds again. And it was just a never-ending process. And I’m sure my dad was trying to teach us the discipline of work. But you see in the kingdom of God, work always has a purpose. We don’t simply pull weeds to be pulling weeds. We pull weeds in order to plant flowers, to plant trees and shrubs. As Christians we’re called to fight evil, but for a purpose that we might plant love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.
And we should never forget that the highest good, the highest manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit is love. That’s why Paul says if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I’m a noisy gong or a clinging symbol. And if I have prophetic powers and I understand all knowledge and all mysteries, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but have no love, I’m nothing. If I give away all that I have to the poor and deliver my body to be burned but have no love, I accomplish nothing. For love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous or boastful. It is not arrogant or rude. Love does not seek its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. Love does not rejoice in the wrong, but love rejoices in the right.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and love endures all things. If it’s really love, it never ends. And that is the highest expression of good in this world. All the commandments of God are fulfilled in this, that we love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind. We love our neighbor as ourselves. And so if we would be mature in Jesus Christ, we must learn to fight the evil, pull the weeds, but plant the flowers, the fruit of the spirit. Thirdly, and finally God tells us that if we would be mature children of God, then we must enter into ministry. The author of Hebrews says, though, by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of God’s word. You see, we begin to become mature when we reach that point in our Christian life, when we not only are able to receive ministry, but we are able to give ministry and that is the mark of a mature Christian, that we are able to reproduce the love of Jesus Christ in this world and in the lives of other people.
There was a story told of two Hindu men; they were unusual. One was named George, the other was named Harry. They were driving along in the car. That was a horrible accident and Harry died. George was devastated because they were such good friends and the days and the weeks and the months and the years passed, and George just couldn’t take it anymore. He had to talk to Harry. He had to know what Harry was doing, whether he had attained celestial bliss or whether he had been reincarnated on earth in some other form as the Hindus thought. And so he went to a Hindu medium, and he asked that Harry be conjured up, that he might speak to him. And it was done, and George and Harry were able to talk.
George said, Harry, what are you doing? Harry said, you’re not going to believe this George, but all I do is eat, sleep and make love, eat sleep and make love. George was just stunned. He said, my goodness Harry, what a lifestyle. He said, “Are you the king of some oil rich nation? Are you a millionaire on the Riviera? Harry said, no, actually George, I’m a rabbit in Kansas.
Now that’s pretty bad. Scientists and zoologists tell us that rabbits are able to reproduce every two months. Rabbits are able to have offspring every two months, six times a year. And they’re able to have as many as nine offspring at any one time. So theoretically in the course of a year a rabbit could have 50 children, 50 offspring. And you see there is one similarity between a rabbit and a mature Christian. And that similarity is they reproduce mature Christians reproduce and they reproduce spiritually. We’re able to reproduce the love of Jesus Christ and other people if we’re mature able to produce, reproduce his life and other Christians. Do you realize in other people, do you realize that God has actually given us as Christians the privilege by the power of the Holy Spirit? He has given us the privilege of leading another person to rebirth through faith in Jesus Christ.
He has given us the privilege of reproducing the life that has come into us in some other person and seeing that person born into the family of God. That’s why Jesus said, go into all the worlds and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit teaching, them to observe all things that I have commanded you. There’s an ancient story that tells us that Jesus died, rose from the dead, ascended into heaven and there in heaven he went into the throne room of heaven to present himself before the Father and the angel Gabriel came into the throne room. The angel Gabriel was a great angel, high and lifted up. And when he saw the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Gabriel wept, for Jesus, still bore the marks of His crucifix, of His crucifixion on His resurrected body, the marks of the nails in His hands and in His feet and the spear that was thrust in His side. Gabriel said, Lord, how could You love mankind so much? Do they understand how You love them? Do the people of earth understand what You’ve done for them? Do they understand the offer of salvation that You have given to them? The Lord Jesus said, no. Only a few understand—Peter, James and John, a few others to whom I’ve entrusted My gospel. They will share it with others and they in turn with others and generation to generation and eventually the entire earth will know what I have done and the salvation that is offered by My death and by My life. Gabriel didn’t like the plan. He was doubtful. He was skeptical. He said, Lord, what if Peter, James and John grow tired? What if they grow weary? What if Christians and some future generations cease to tell the gospel and the good news to this world? Do you have any other plans?
And Jesus just smiled. He said, “Gabriel, they will not fail. And there is no other plan. A mature Christian knows that there is no other plan, for it is the plan of God. That through the saints, through the people of Jesus Christ, through the children of God’s sons and daughters, we might go into the world and share the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, that we might share His love, that we might give water to the thirsty food, to the hungry clothing, to the naked, that we might visit those who are sick and imprison in His name and for his sake, that we might share the good news of salvation and eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. In the Book of Acts, the first chapter, we’re told that our Lord Jesus Christ, just before he ascended into heaven, was standing on the Mount of Olives with his disciples.
They said, Lord, when will you establish Your kingdom on earth? Jesus said, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father has determined by his hand, but you shall be my witnesses. You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea, in Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth. And the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ then ascended into heaven. He will one day come again. But until then, our task is simply to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. What does it mean to be mature in Jesus Christ? It means to be skilled in the word of God. It means to be able to distinguish good from evil, to cultivate the fruit of the spirit and to fight the work of the flesh, to pull weeds and plant flowers. And it means to enter into ministry, to share the love of Christ with a dying world. Shall we pray?
Lord Jesus, You are the Son of God from eternity, pass to eternity. Future. What is Yours by nature? You offer to us through adoption that through faith in You, Your father might become our father and we might indeed be sons and daughters of God. Lord Jesus, help us to grow into maturity that we might indeed be skilled in the word that we might be sound doctrinally, that we might know Your truth, that we would not be let astray, Lord Jesus, help us to distinguish good from evil, not simply theoretically, but practically in our lives, that we might grow in righteousness, that we might be a positive influence in this world. Lord, help us to pull weeds and plant flowers. Help us to deny immorality and impurity to fight against it by Your power and help us to cultivate the fruit of the spirit and above all else. Lord Jesus, help us to learn to love Lord. We would enter into ministry in this world that we might share Your love with a hurting world. Help us to be faithful, that we might be Your men and woman he head to foot. We might serve You in Your great kingdom until You come again. We pray these things, Lord Jesus, and Your great and matchless name, amen.