Schroeder Moving Forward — Hebrews 5-6

0:00 The title of my message this morning is moving forward. And I'd like us to look at a passage of scripture in which the writer to the Hebrews and and my dear brother read this beautifully. I appreciate it very much. And and it's always good to have somebody else read the text, especially if you're not such a great outs... You know, reader out loud.

0:25 But this is this is a a a powerful a powerful passage. Of course, the word of god is powerful and sharper than any two edged sword. Right? So this is a this is an incredible passage, though. And I I personally believe this is a personal thing, I won't die for this.

0:42 If you put a nine millimeter to my head, loaded nine millimeter pistol to my head, and you said recant on this, I would recant. I would. But I believe Paul wrote Hebrews. And I don't see anybody going, that's like this stuff. I got good reasons for it, okay?

1:04 I got good reasons and we're going to see some parallels between this this section of which we're looking at and other sections of the New Testament that Paul wrote and I think there's a great parallel and I got reasons and I'm not going into the all those reasons why I think Paul wrote it but it doesn't matter to me. It doesn't really matter to me except in the sense that I believe when you look through this epistle it starts to make sense that Paul did write this anyway and remained anonymous. And some people say, well, you can't have an anonymous book. I mean, you can't have an anonymous book. I mean, you know, I mean, you just can't have that because then you don't know who the author is.

1:48 Well, wait a second, we know the gospel of John was written by John, right? But his name's never mentioned. He says the disciple whom the Lord loves. So this is not an unusual occurrence for somebody not to name themselves in an epistle or a gospel type of thing. It's not an unusual thing.

2:07 So so who cares? Right? Whoever wrote the epistle, it's it's inspired by god for sure. And it is... And he's going to tell us...

2:17 And he's gonna give us three exhortations that we need to heed in order for us to be godly Christians and to glorify god. Three exhortations and I like us to look at these. In chapter five verses 11 through 14, that's be the end of the chapter. Paul or the writer exhorts us to be circumspect, to be circumspect. He is exhorting us to be circumspect.

2:48 And then verses one through 12 of chapter six, he exhorts us to be consistent. He exhorts us to be consistent. In chapters, in chapter six thirteen through 20, he exhorts us to be confident. So when we look at this, we look at this this this section, you know, forget verse breaks, chapter breaks. That's a man made construct construct.

3:14 Verse breaks, chapter breaks. He's following the argument all the way through. The argument starts in verse 11 of chapter five. And that's just a marker for us to know where it is. But as the argument is starting and what he's going to do is he's going to exhort us.

3:30 And first of all, he's going to exhort us to be circumspect. He's asking us to look at ourselves. And this is the thing that is really tough for us to do sometimes because we have opinions of ourselves. And we don't want to take an honest appraisal of ourselves because we... It might rock the boat in what we think about ourselves.

3:52 That make sense? So, the the writer to the Hebrews is going to have us to do this. Now, these these these are Christians. He's writing to Christians. He's not writing to unsaved.

4:02 This is the letter to the Hebrews and one commentary said that it it is a church of which predominantly made up of Jewish Christians. Of Christians who are are who are formally Jews and they have that heritage and so they they they're being wooed if you please. They're being sought after to come back to the law. Stop being a Christian and start coming back to Moses. Start living the, you know, the the life as a as a Jew again.

4:35 You know, all the all the different things. And if you go through the epistle to the Hebrews, you start to really get the idea that Jesus is better than. The keyword for the epistle to the Hebrews is the word better. Jesus is better than the law. Jesus is better than Moses.

4:54 Jesus is better than and on and on and on and so the point of the writer is to show that Jesus is the complete. He completes the law. He completes all of the Old Testament sacrifice because it's founded in him. And they were just illustrations of what the Messiah would do. Ain't that cool?

5:16 But yet they're being they're being wooed to come back. They're being wooed to come back. So they're older Christians. They're not brand new. It's not like Paul writing to the Thessalonian church.

5:27 The Thessalonian church was only two, three weeks youngest. The youngest they were were three weeks and the oldest they were were three months. Brand new Christians. Now, these guys are... These guys and the Hebrew Christians here, the epistle to the Hebrews, these guys are older.

5:46 But I wanna ask you a question. Maturity wise, I just celebrated March 22 was my 40 birthday. Is that right? Yeah. 40 birthday as a Christian.

6:05 Is it forty six years of growth and deepening or one year of growth 46 times. So a person might be a, I'm a Christian twenty years, but are you twenty years mature? This is what the writer to the Hebrews, Paul, whoever, is really trying to get at. What are you? Are you growing in Christ?

6:53 I think the person that is really mature does not think much of themselves. I got good illustration for that and that's John. John the the apostle. Arguably the closest to the lord Jesus and that fact in the gospel of John, he never says, he just says the disciple whom the lord loves. He never mentions himself and so in in the book of Revelation, he sees the risen Christ and he falls his feet as a dead man.

7:22 He was arguably the closest to the lord Jesus Christ. And yet, when he sees the risen Christ, he falls at his feet as dead. He doesn't think about how mature he is. He doesn't think in how he's really growing. He doesn't think about that.

7:39 All he's thinking about is when he compares himself to Jesus. It's you're on your face. You're on your face. I believe this and you might want to just jot this down. I don't know if you want to.

7:53 The closer you get to Jesus, the less you think of you. I think that is really true and that is maturity. That is maturity. You know that a person that is that when a person starts to spout and come across to you as really mature and, oh, yes, some... An incredible Christian and, you know, all this kind of stuff.

8:21 And you you... I just have to ask, okay, where... Are you pumping you? I mean, what are you talking about? It's the grace of god.

8:28 The the closer you get to him, the less you think of you. The writer to the Hebrews is going to emphasize this. He's going to emphasize our relationship with god and notice in verses 11 through 14, he's going to talk about in verses 11 through 13, he's going to talk about circumspect in regarding to our immaturity of whom you have many things to say. Verse 11, and hard to be uttered seeing that you are dull of hearing. That's not a compliment.

9:05 Narthros is the word. It's also used in chapter six verse 12. Be not slothful. You know, be not slothful. But the followers of them through who faith and patience inherit the promises.

9:17 The same word, it's the same word slothful and duller, the identical, same word, arthros. It's the same word it means to be sluggish. It means to be like, how's it going, you know? How's it going? You know, the Browns did not draft the cornerback.

9:34 To my knowledge, they didn't draft a cornerback or they got the number one pick of the draft and Merritt Miles Garrett, right? The guy runs a four five forty and he's like two seventy five. How would you like to be a quarterback and get blindsided by that guy? Right? If he ran a 12.5, they wouldn't draft him.

9:58 Why? Too slow. He's sluggish, dull, gets at the line, okay, I'm coming. Just stand there, don't move around, let me just hit you, okay? I want to feel good about myself.

10:13 You know, that kind of thing. You'd be sluggish and dull but how are we spiritually? Are we that way spiritually? The writer to the Hebrews says, don't you understand that you're dull, you're sluggish in terms of your spiritual growth? Don't you understand this?

10:29 And so he's he's he's addressing this and he and he even goes even further. He says, you're dull in hearing, sluggish in this. For when the time you ought to be teachers, so there there was a level of maturity here that they should have been teachers. For the time you should be teaching, notice what he says. He says that you you you should be teachers.

11:21 They eat like crazy, they just go crazy. They want milk, but they don't fit it. I didn't see the dentist or orthodontist come in and fit her with chompers, you know. Oh, you've such a cute little baby, here's put some teeth in. And then...

11:39 No way. They don't have that. They gotta grow into it because why? She's so immature. She's helpless.

11:46 A helpless. She needs milk. But people like my my grandson who's now three, he... In fact, Barb, he goes, Nana, he doesn't like touching stuff. Right?

12:00 Nana, would you feed me? And and Barb goes like this and goes and bit him. He he bit her, you know. Oh, that hurt. He did that, really.

12:09 That was just last week. Boom. Bit him. Bit my wife. Well, you got this because you need food.

12:17 You need to... You have those things there to chew the food to really get it and mature. These guys were not doing that. They said, well, you're just going back to the first principles of the word of God. You need to go on.

12:33 You need to mature. You need to have this. You ought to be teachers, but you can't. You're not there. You're not mature enough.

12:41 For everyone that uses milk is unskillful or without experience in the word of righteousness for he is a babe. You're still a baby. So you might be 20 years old in the lord but how are you spiritually? How are you spiritually? Folks, this is the thing.

13:01 I was telling... I forget whom. I was I was telling... Yeah, that's right, Carl. I was telling Carl about an incident I had last week in which I walked and I went into an area and these people, they had lost their mother.

13:20 She died at the age of 43 in her sleep. And I was there, the police were there, and the Lord allowed me to minister. But I thought to myself as I'm standing there looking at the incredible despair of individuals in their eyes and in their faces and the loud wailing, I mean it was wailing crying, I thought, how? How poignant it is that we, as Christians who know the truth, live for him. Because there's nothing in this world, the NFL draft, cars, education, there's nothing in this world that compares to Jesus Christ.

14:12 And then why would we go after, in our heart's affection, things other than him? Only one life till soon be passed. Only what we do for Jesus will last. See, only thing. So, I want my life wherever he leads me, wherever he guides me, whatever profession he puts me in, and whatever, whatever that is, I wanted to be the will of god for my life because I know one thing that when I and they call the ambulance for me and the rescue squad comes in and I'm I'm already with the lord.

14:55 I want my life to count. Let that be the testimony because that's the only thing that matters. And this is exactly what he is saying. He is saying here, you know, you're not growing. You're you're you're still a babe.

15:41 If you... And you you know you're... See, one of the things that's interesting to me about our culture at this time of our of our history as a nation, as individuals and this kind of thing, but our culture is teaching us to live just for the now. And the and the convictions of people, they're like out the door, they don't have any. And we don't know how to live.

16:07 I'm talking about Christians. I mean, I'm... How do we live? It is really existential. I feel good.

16:12 I feel I should do this. I wanted to. Wait a second. What does it say? How do I live?

16:20 And the thing like even in the whole aspect of how why should we break bread? Because the word of god says so. Simple. It's not hard. Why do we meet the way we meet?

16:33 Why don't we have this? Why don't we have this guy? Why don't because the word of god is clear. And I live by this. I don't live by my my culture.

16:44 I don't want to I don't want definitely don't want to live by my culture. I don't want to live by my feelings. I want to live by objective truth and being obedient to it. As the spirit of God takes it to my mind and to my heart and feeds me and teaches me what to do. You'll never go wrong.

17:05 You'll never go wrong if it's paramount in our lives. The word of God is paramount in our lives and we seek to obey it. Not only to know it, but to obey it with a full heart. And so he's telling us to be circumspect regarding our immaturity. And, you know, it's it's amazing.

17:23 If you were to look at first Corinthians chapter three, first Corinthians chapter one, you see the parallel. I can't speak to you, he says to the Corinthians, it's it's spiritual. I have to speak to you as babes. You are carnal, fleshly. I can't speak to you as mature.

17:43 And this is the same thing. He is saying the same thing to us. If my granddaughter, Gracie, and she, you know, we hone her, she's this big, but if she's 12 years old and she's still this big, something's wrong. But how are we spiritually, we might be tall and, you know, whatever and balding or whatever, but how are we spiritually? Are we still...

18:13 Pretty good. You know, still... That's pretty good, isn't it? Yeah, thank you. I took that course.

18:21 And you think to yourself, this an incredible, if my little granddaughter remains that way, we're taking her down to Detroit Children's Hospital. What's the problem? Why so small? How are we spiritually? And then he tells us this, he tells us to be consistent.

18:46 Not only does he tell us, you know, to be circumspect, but he tells us to... He exhorts us to be consistent. Look at verses one through 12. And he's telling us to be consistent in our direction. Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection, which is really maturity.

19:14 Let us go on, grow up. Do you ever have somebody tell you that? Well, you just grow up. Just grow up. And then here's the here's another phrase for people telling you just to grow up.

19:27 Get over it. Right? That means really grow up. And so he's saying, therefore, leaving leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to maturity, perfection. Not laying again.

19:42 Don't lay this again. It's already been done. Laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and faith toward God. And by the way, this is this is a encapsulated view. This is like looking in a magnifying glass of the whole solific action.

19:59 In other words, I'm born again. I've had to have a changed mind about myself and my sin and I I turn and receive Jesus Christ as my personal savior. Don't keep trusting Christ all the time. My wife trusted Christ six times. Well, the first time it took, right?

20:23 First time it took. The first sincere time, it took. But she just wanted to make sure. Leave those principles. Let's go on.

20:32 You're already a Christian. Move on. Let's grow in Christ. Let's do this. Let's move on.

20:57 You're not only your knowledge of these things. You should know these things. One of the things that's amazing to me and this is why we started Tepsy and this is one of the reasons why, you know, in our assembly, we try to teach the word of god to young folk. We try to... The younger, doesn't matter.

21:16 We want to teach the word of God because it is the only thing that will feed the soul and only thing that will help them to mature as a Christian. And that's what we want. We're not here as a social club. We're here that every one of us would grow in Christ and be more like Jesus Christ. And that's what predestination is all about.

21:40 In Romans chapter eight, to be conformed to the image of his son. That's what I want. I want to be conformed to the image of his son. I just don't want an... I I want to know I'm going to heaven when I die.

21:56 No questions about it, but I want to grow as a Christian. I want to grow as a Christian, so I want to leave these things and God will... I want to be taught these things. These are elementary issues. And then he's going to talk about the greatest issue of says, so for it is impossible for those, right?

22:15 Notice the litany here though. These verses have been been interpreted whole bunches of different ways but let's get what where I think the word of god is really saying here. He's saying, for it is impossible for those who are once enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the holy spirit and have tasted the good word of god and the powers of the age to come. If they fall away to renew them again to repentance seeing they crucify to themselves the son of god afresh and put him to open shame. What is this saying?

22:47 Is this saying that you can lose your salvation? No. Not saying that at all and I've had this many times, many even on the street, I've had this. Many times, people have come up and said to me, look at this, you can lose your salvation. In fact, you're looking at a guy who used to hold to that position and use that those verses to say that you can lose your salvation.

23:13 See? But I didn't realize what it was really saying. In context, The context is maturity. Go on to maturity, right? For it is impossible and then you've got a list.

23:26 So, if we were to look at this grammatically, we would look forward as impossible for those who are once enlightened and have tasted heavenly gift and made partakers the boom, boom, boom, to renew them again to repentance. What's impossible? What is impossible? It says it is impossible for what? To renew them again to repentance.

23:49 You can't get saved again. It's not bolstering or proving eternal insecurity, it's proving eternal security. Because you notice the you notice the words here. He's talking in terms of of he's talking in terms of maturing all the way through from verse 11 all the way through now. Why would he shift gears?

24:17 He's asking us, and notice the words, he's asking us to mature. So you forget these first principles, this, this, this, this, this, you cannot get saved again. Why? Because it's impossible. What?

24:30 If you've already done this, I'm gonna give you a roll encapsulate. If you've already done this to come back again, to get saved again, you can't do it. Why? Because you're already born again. You're already born again and it's really an interesting words, for it is impossible for those who once were once and that's an interesting word.

24:52 It means once for all time. Enlighten. This word has has has endued as I think it was AT Robertson says, it is endued with the Holy Spirit. Enlightened. And though and as tasted, this means to experience and it's an interesting word.

25:14 It's an identical word to Hebrews chapter two verse nine which says that Jesus Christ tasted death for every man. So, if somebody says, though this tasting is just like a little I just got a little smattering, smattering of it, then, is Jesus when he died, tasted death for every man? Was that little smattering of it too? Because it's the identical word. These people, the language here in the Greek anyway, is telling us that they were born again.

25:44 It is impossible to come back. So if we're going to say that somebody can lose their salvation using these verses, you never can get saved again. You're done. You're cooked. Sin once, you're history.

26:00 You're gonna burn in the lake of fire forever because it's impossible to renew them again to repentance. Right? So it's not saying that. It's saying that you are saved. You can't get saved again.

26:17 Let's move on to maturity. Let's stop constantly getting saved. I I, you know, my spiritual roots, when I first got saved, I believed you could lose your salvation using this particular thing. So I... And I was really weird because when I first started preaching in the open air, I'll never forget coming down from the West Side Of Cleveland into the Terminal Tower and going onto the street in Public Square.

26:48 And I remember meditating on John three:three, you must be born again. It dawned on me, Simple. It says it doesn't say you must be born again and again and again and again and again. And I had in my mind, theologically speaking, a yo yo. You got it?

27:09 Now, you don't. You got it? Now, you don't. I said, that's yo yo salvation. No way.

27:16 It says, you must be born again. You're his and let's move on. Let's grow in Christ and so he's telling us in terms of being consistent, let's be consistent in our direction. I'm his and he is mine. I am a child of god.

28:01 We see this in the spring around here, don't we? By whom it is tilled. Receive the blessing from god but that which beareth thorns and briars. Does this sound like first Corinthians chapter three? Wood, hay, stubble?

28:16 Notice it's not the field that gets burnt, it's the things in the field. What are the fruits that we're producing? The same, almost identical to first Corinthians chapter three. This is why I think Paul had this in mind. He had this...

28:30 He wrote this. One of the one of the reasons because of the parallels between this and first Corinthians. He's telling us to move on and what are we producing in terms of briars and thistles and thorns? Let me tell you something. I...

28:45 We bought a new piece of property. We sold our own. We got a new building, etcetera. You know about this. And so we're...

28:51 Yeah. I've got this... I got a river that comes behind my... A a creek, right? But it goes down and I have to weed whip that thing.

28:59 Oh, I'm gonna tell you something, those thistles and briars, they're all over the place and they hurt. They're not one of my thing. I weed whacked those puppies. They didn't... They're starting to sprout a little bit.

29:12 Right down, man. I don't want them around because they get on my pants, they get on my shoelaces, they hurt, and they... You know, I'm going, ah, bink, ow, man, thistles and briars and that kind of stuff. Are we prickly to other Christians? Are we producing as Christians thistles, briars?

29:34 And it's not a blessing. It's not a blessing. It is it is really problem. And these these Christians were doing this and thus the illustration. And these Christians were being this way and he says, but that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected as near unto cursing, whose end is to be burned, not to lose their salvation in any way, shape, or form because the the field's not burned, it is the thistles and briars.

30:04 But beloved, we are persuaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation though thus we speak. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward his name and that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. You do minister. Listen, the book of Proverbs, if you turn there, just Proverbs chapter 24 Proverbs 24, you're going to see something that I think that is... Well, the parallel is staggering actually.

30:40 And you look at verses 30 through 34. It says, I went by a field of the slothful and by the vineyard of a man void of understanding. And low, it was all grown over with thorns and nettles, had covered the face thereof and the stone wall thereof was broken down and I saw and considered it well and I looked upon it and received instruction. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty come like one that travels, and thy want like an armored man.

31:20 Is this about us? You know, I taught a class at Emmaus Bible College on personal evangelism for five to seven years. Know, they would just bring me in. It would be a two week thing and I'm gone, right? My opening salvo, I don't know if I ever told you this.

31:40 My opening thing... Did I tell you this? My opening thing was this, I borrowed $10 and they had a big lectern in Emmaus. And I put the $10 right on the lectern. I said, my name is Chris Schroders, personal evangelism.

31:58 How you doing? I got $10 here. Boom. And I said, that $10 is for anyone who will come up here first, stand on the podium, and cluck like a chicken for one minute. I will time you.

32:21 You think these guys were in the NFL combine. They were running and diving. No girls were doing this, you know. But the guys are going, boom. I'm thinking, man, somebody's gonna get a concussion here.

32:32 This is really... And we're talking multiple... We're talking 10 or 15 guys doing this for $10. Right? Finally, one guy, he shuts them all off.

32:42 He stands up, gets up, standing up on this big lectern, you know, big pulpit type of thing. And he goes, and he thinks he's done. He goes, I said fifteen seconds. You got forty five to go. He goes, Yeah.

33:05 Yeah. And he did the whole thing. They're cheering. They're going crazy. That's fantastic.

33:12 That's him. He goes back and he's looking really $10. I just fleeced Schroeder. Well, you fleece somebody I borrowed it from. Okay.

33:23 Yeah. I wait till it all dies down and I say to them, I said it's amazing what we'll do for money, what we will not do for Jesus Christ. And that was our opening thing for personal evangelism. But it's also true in terms of our growth as Christians. We will not put the time in.

34:13 We don't see that as we seek the face of God, it is quiet. We are looking at the word. We are asking him to speak to our hearts and to help us to grow and help us to be obedient to the word. Because we don't see the end result of that. I want to ask you a question, okay?

34:34 How is your personal quiet time? How is it? Most people that I have talked to that have had problems, you know what it comes back to? They're not having a quiet time. Oh, haven't.

34:55 And it doesn't matter the problem. I'll ask the question. After they spill their guts and everything's going on and I say to them, I said, how is your personal quiet time? And generally speaking, it's non existent. Or it's ten minutes.

35:11 It's five minutes. How is it? Listen, you're never going to grow as a Christian. You'll never take in the spiritual food that he wants if you don't sit at the table. Never going to do it.

35:25 You've got to sit down. I love to eat. Look at me. Way, way. Right?

35:32 An expanding ministry. I don't get this way because I hate to eat. I love to eat. It's a spiritual axiom as well. The more you seek the face of God, the more you wanna seek the face God.

35:52 The less you seek the face of God, the less you wanna seek the face of God. He's telling us that we are immature. He's telling these Hebrew Christians we're immature and he doesn't, you know, it's not... You know, we're persuaded better things of you, but how's it going? A guy named doctor John Herman once said, you are what you have been becoming.

36:18 You are what you have been becoming. So how's it going with you? Can you turn this around in your own life? Absolutely. Starts today.

36:31 Seek the face of God. Spend time with him. All that thrills my soul is Jesus. He is more than life to me, right? We've sung that song.

36:48 We've sung that song but is it reality in our lives? The more you seek his face, the more you'll sing that song. The more it'll mean something to you and to me, it really will. And then he tells us to be confident. He exhorts us to be confident.

37:07 And why? Because he's telling us in verses 13 through 20, he's telling us that everything that we do in terms of even our growth, even in our growth, he is telling us that it all rests with him. These two immutable facts, god's promise and god himself. You can't beat this. Does god want this in your life?

37:40 Absolutely. Do you want this in your life? A Christian is going to say, yeah. Yeah. Christian will say, yeah, man.

37:51 I want this. Absolutely. And maybe you're a little kind of lethargic. Maybe this this whole thing on the dullness and lethargy is really maybe true in your life. Well, you can you can shake yourself out of that.

38:05 By the spirit of god will help you to do this. And he's... It's all rests with him. This is the this is the incredible thing about the Christian life. This is what's so beautiful about it.

38:52 What a waste of time today, Even though I've gone over, what a waste of time if we're not serious about having him take our lives and use them for his glory and letting him mature us and grow us. What a waste of time this was today. Father, we just do pray that you would help us to live for you. We thank you for your grace that never ever fails. And we ask you, Lord, that you would just teach us what it means and how to grow in you and how to produce fruit.

39:31 And not only that, but fall deeper in love with you. Give us all that we need, and you have already done that. You have already given us all that we need. We ask you that you would help us to avail ourselves of this. Help us to see our need and help us to come to you to meet it.

39:52 And we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.