Jesus Is Better - Part 3

You know, pastor uh approached me a few weeks ago about teaching in this series and um I was grateful that he provided an overall theme and an outline for my particular topic. And so, you know, I started pouring into um preparing for my lesson and the thoughts. And then lo and behold, last week, pastor just kind of trampled all over some of those ideas that I already had. And then to make it worse, he came back on Sunday and he just kind of lit on fire some thoughts that I had about, you know, the compassion of Jesus Christ. And so, um, I don't know if that's a sign from God that I need to get some new material or, uh, if it's just something that he wants to repeat so that we, uh, we hear it again and make sure that we learn the lessons from it.

So, I'm going to take it as a ladder. And since we've already had a study in Hebrews going on in our, uh, life classes and pastor still chose to, you know, have another series on on Wednesday night about Hebrews, then we're just going to dive in. If something tonight is kind of repeated from something that you've heard over the last few weeks, then again, just take it as the uh signal from God that we need to pay a little closer attention to what he's trying to get into our our minds and our hearts uh this month. So, this series uh we are discovering the authority of Jesus Christ. It's the power of the new covenant and the importance of the enduring faith. Some of the words that we're using, the big picture words are better, perfect, and eternal.

And by perfect we mean mature or complete. And so some of those words they describe the message of Hebrews itself. And then what Jesus accomplished through the new covenant was greater than anything that was available back under the old covenant. And the work that he accomplished on Calvary was a finished work and it was an eternal work. The key question that we're uh addressing in this series it is revolves around this question. And it says, "Why would you go back when Jesus has given you something better?" You know, the recipients of this epistle of Hebrews, um, they were first century Jewish Christians who, despite being believers in Christ, they were actually in the middle of being tempted to revert back to the old covenant and the old way and the old system as a way of avoiding persecution.

You know, they were deeply shaped by Jewish traditions, religious traditions. They were familiar with the Torah. You know, temple worship, Levitical priesthood and the sacrificial system was something that they had grown up with and they had been taught to expect that the Messiah was the promised king and the servant um that would bring them out of persecution that they had been in. Although Jesus had a different plan. You know, when Jesus was crucified and was rejected by Israel's leadership, some of these believers, they began to question whether they had made a mistake in following him. And those doubts only increased as they moved into the coming years and persecution be to become stronger. This letter assumes that they were facing severe persecution and possibly even social ostracism for their faith.

You know, in such circumstances, it was easy for them to think that returning to familiar Jewish practices would have seemed like a safer and more acceptable option. The author, though, warns them against this this regression. The letter exhorts them to hold fast to their confidence and grow in spiritual maturity rather than drifting back into these elementary teachings or old rituals. The author's goal was to keep them rooted firmly in the new covenant even under their pressure to abandon it. And it shows that the new covenant fulfilled in Christ is the only secure and complete way of salvation. And that returning to the old system is both spiritually dangerous and theologically unfounded. You know, consequently enough, um, this book was written around AD65 to AD67 is when they estimated to be written.

And not did they know that, just little did they know that just a few years later, the temple, the very symbol of that system that they were thinking about going back to, only three three years later in 70 AD would be destroyed. And so that system that they were used to, that symbol of that system would no longer be there. And that's why the author didn't know it at the time, but that's why he was encouraging them to continue to stay rooted and grounded in the new covenant. So, lesson one, pastor talked to us about chapters 1 and two of Hebrews. And in week one, he talked about Jesus is better. That was the subject, the title. And he spent time explaining why the man Jesus was better than the angels.

And the summary is that although angels are ministering spirits um and they're there for us to for to serve those that are inheriting the the salvation, Jesus is ultimately better than the angels. You know, long ago, God spoke through prophets, but now he has sent his son to speak to us. And in fact, the son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact expression of his nature. You know, we know this today because we understand that Jesus was God made manifest in the flesh. Um, as pastor described it, he actually made up a word for it. He said he degotted himself. Basically, he took off his royal robes and he wrapped himself in flesh so that he as our creator could step back into creation and redeem it back to himself.

So, as the open opening of Hebrew declares, Jesus is superior to the angels and we know that his name is the only name in which we can find salvation. Pastor also talked about how God was not surprised by sin. In fact, he had planned for it from the foundation of the world. You know, it's so amazing to me that God loved us so much from the beginning of the world. Before we were ever created, he created a proactive plan to put it in place to ensure that we had a path back to him to restore a relationship even though he knew we were going to fail. He progressively revealed that plan to mankind starting with the people of Israel by the giving of the law.

But we understand that the law itself was not perfect and it couldn't complete the finished work of redemption that Jesus Christ fulfilled on the cross. We understand that the purpose of Calvary was not just for a single redemptive event, but rather it's a lifelong it's for a lifelong relationship. We learned that angels minister, but Jesus saves and that Jesus willingly became lower than the angels to be humble to the death of the cross. He became man because man needed redemption and we could not do it on our own. He came to take our place. He came to pay the price of sin which was death. And he understands us and he empathizes with us because he experienced the limitations of human feelings and emotions and rejection.

He defeated death by entering into death itself. And his resurrection conquers the power of death. And it gives us power over the devil. on that fear that the devil tries to use us by scaring us with the threat of death. We no longer have that because we have the hope of eternal life. The new covenant that Jesus established is superior to the old covenant of the Old Testament and it brought with it the promise of everlasting life. That's the better promise. The writer of Hebrews also sprinkles in multiple warnings into his text and is geared towards that second generation of Christians as well as us today. The first of these warnings was to pay attention to the things that you have heard lest at any time you let them slip.

He reminds us that if disobedience of the law had consequences, you know, back then, how can we expect to escape consequences if we neglect the great salvation that he's given to us through Jesus Christ? Pastor, close out lesson one with a reminder of the danger of spiritual drift. You know, if we're not consistently and deliberately taking advantage of this privilege of a restored relationship with God Almighty, then we're likely to begin to neglect this great salvation. And when someone slips, it rarely begins with outright rebellion. Instead, it starts with neglect. Moving into week two, pastor talked about don't look back, refusing to go backwards. You know, last week he he told us about chapters three and four of Hebrews. And in the beginning of chapter 3, the writer continues to address this preeminence of Christ.

And not that he was not only that he was better than the angels, but he was also better than Moses. He says that Moses was a faithful servant and a testimony of the deliverer that was to come. But Jesus was a buer of the house. Moses was only a servant in the house. Jesus was the builder of the house. And he says that we, the body of Christ, the church, the bride, we are that house. The kingdom that Jesus was building was an entity or a vehicle that would ultimately lead to the better promise, which is eternal life. But there was a caveat for us to stay a part of that house. It says we must hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope until the end.

You know, with this warning, the writer reminds us that we must be faithful and continue development of a mature relationship through the power of the Holy Ghost rather than retreating backwards into traditions and rituals that may seem more comfortable. It's certainly important how we begin our spiritual journey. There's a right way to begin your spiritual journey, but it's also important that you continue equally important to finish strong. You can start well, but if you don't finish well, then it's all for not. Pastor used the example of life Lot's wife and how she was lost even in the middle of being saved. She was in the middle of des of deliverance and her desire to look back cost her life. The writer of Hebrews uses the example of the children of Israel and how their unbelief and rebellion kept them from entering into the promise and the rest that he had planned.

He warns that an evil heart of unbelief and a lack of understanding of God's ways cause us to depart from the living God. He exhorts the brethren to take heed and exhort one another daily, lest you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. that deceitfulness causes hardening of the heart. And so we must pay attention to the voice of God so that we can hold the beginning of our confidence steadfastly to the end. Pastor also talked about how we must fight temptation to look back into our past. That temptation draws us back to return to things that are more comfortable or more familiar. You see, spiritual growth stretches us and it makes us uncomfortable sometimes. And when we get uncomfortable, then we often like to, you know, revert back to something that is a little more uh not maybe not as stressful, maybe not as demanding of us.

And it's not always sin, as pastor said, that is the temptation. Sometimes it's just a a desire to return to something easier, a place where we can just relax. He said sometimes that the greatest obstacle to moving forward is not what's in front of us. Sometimes it's what we're unwilling to leave behind. The reward for continually continuing steadfastly in faith is that we can enter into his rest. God rested on the seventh day of creation and that indicated that his the completeness of his work. He had finished his work. Um and we can rest in that completed work of Jesus Christ. We can re rest in the redemptive completed work of Jesus Christ. Because of that work, Jesus as our high priest has given us access to the throne of grace and we can obtain mercy and grace in our time of need.

We can be confident in that rest. The writer urges us to labor and not allow unbelief to keep us from coming short of entering into this rest. And we do so by exposing oursel to the word of God, which is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. You know, God's word protects us from the thoughts and the intents of unbelief that can arise in our hearts. So, 12 minutes in and we're getting to tonight's lesson. Tonight's lesson, we're going to talk about growing up in Jesus, uh, commitment to spiritual maturity. And the writer ends chapter 4 with the introduction of the idea that Jesus as our high priest. uh and he brings us into this uh our study of today. Jesus was uh the high priest that he talked about.

And so as we move in chapters four, five and six, our thought for tonight or our title is growing up in Jesus, a commitment to spiritual maturity. The key scripture that we will get to eventually is Hebrews 6 and1 and it talks about moving past the foundational principles and doctrines that are uh and moving on to perfection or that word means maturity. So getting past some of the foundational principles and moving into some mature topics and growing to maturity. The theme is spiritual maturity and it's not optional. You know God expects us his children to continually grow in their relationship with him and he never intended us for to remain um as spiritual infant in infants. He expects us and he saved us for the purpose for us to grow into mature disciples.

So before we get to chapter 6 though, we're going to finish off um chapter 5 and he the author finishes his thoughts about Jesus as the high priest uh for several verses in chapter 5. And he explains how the Levitical priesthood was chosen to represent mankind to God. You know, these men, human men could understand and they could deal gently with other men uh that were bringing their sacrifices. the the ignorance and the going astray that they experienced as humans. Um because they were those high priests were also clothed in weakness because they were human. But because they were human, they also required sacrifices for their own sins. And this is where the author tells us again that Jesus is better because Jesus is our high priest.

He was not from the same line lineage of the Lev Levitical priesthood. And in fact, you know, he was declared to be a priest forever in the order of Melzdc. And like Melzdc, he was both a king and a priest. And as it was prophesied, Jesus was from the royal lineage of David. And in the end, he became the great high priest that could end the Levitical priesthood. Now, it's way above my pay grade to try to give you all the examples and the details between Mckz Melzdc and Jesus. So, I'm not even going to try that. In fact, chapter 7 and 8, uh, next week, pastor will be back and he can take care of that. So, I'm going to defer to him and I'm not going to steal any of his thunder.

Not that I could. Um, I'll stay on safe ground and we'll start back with Hebrews 15 or 4 and 15. And it says for we do not have a high priest priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness but one who has been tempted in every way as we are without sin. The Greek word used in that uh that scripture is sympathio and it means to share the experience of another. So Jesus not only knows our pain but he has shared it. He has personally experienced it because he came um and robed himself in flesh. the mystery of the godhead. U I've read a few David Kaymanard books recently. Um and he describes that the mystery of the godhead is not so much the fact that you know there's only one God or that Jesus is the incarnation of God himself.

He talks about instead the real mystery is about the complexity surrounding the inner workings of the human and the divine sides of Jesus himself. You know perhaps this is one of the thing that the things that the author of Hebrews says is a hard thing um that he needs to discuss about God. But knowing this hard things, it's like how the almighty God himself can understand and sympathize with our worries and our stresses and our pains and our fears as well as be the perfect eternal sacrifice from our sin. Sometimes we feel like God is just far away. How can he understand us? That's the complexity of who God was and why he came to God and came to earth uh as a man to redeem our our our humanness back to him.

You see, we have the luxury of thousands of years of scholarly study on these topics. But these second generation apostolics in the book of Hebrews, they didn't even have the New Testament completed yet. You know, so it's easy to see how they might question their new faith in the face of the Roman Empire, Neero, who was thought to have, you know, been responsible for the deaths of the Apostle Peter and Paul. And he was known for his brutal tor to torture of Christians, you know, not to mention that they were disliked by their own people and they were being pressured by the traditional Jewish religious authorities to return back to the temple sacrifices, the old system, and the covenant laws. and they saw them as a divisive, you know, submersive minority movement within the Jewish community.

You know, today we in modern America, as modern North American Christians, we face uh little persecution, especially compared to the Hebrew audience. But even with the benefit of time and even with these historical examples, sometimes we lose the actual awe of the fact that the almighty god chose to come to earth and robe himself in flesh for the purpose of restoring a relationship with mankind. He wants us to know that he understands our struggles and our weaknesses. And that's why he came to give us direct access to the power to help us overcome sin. How does he understand you say? Well, first he was fully human. Through the incarnation, Jesus took on human nature. He hungered and he thirsted and he retired and he felt grief, betrayal, and even death.

This allowed him to identify with our physical, our emotional, and our spiritual struggles. You know, my wife jokingly says that uh if he really wanted to understand us, he would have came as a woman. That way, he could experience child birth and hot flashes. Yeah. And my reply is that there are some things that even God can't fully understand. But he was both fully human and fully divine. Though he was human, he was sinless and perfectly obedient. And this enabled him to be the first perfect high priest before God. He was tempted in all points. He suffered temptation just like we did. We do. But he resisted. That means he knows the pull of sin and he knows the cost of resisting it in your life.

He's shared in our suffering. He's experienced deep anguish as described in Luke chapter 22 in the garden of Gethsemane. And on the cross, he endured the full weight of human sin. The first few verses of Hebrews chapter 5 tells us that the man Jesus feared what was before him. But he learned obedience through the suffering and that allowed him to be made perfect and mature and become the author of eternal salvation. Why does this matter? It matters because Jesus has been touched with the feeling of our infirmities and therefore he can empathize. He can truly understand our emotions and our frustrations and our temptations. He can also intercede for us. Those verses in chapter 5 also say as a high priest he offers prayers and petitions for us.

He can also comfort us. His compassion is not theoretical. It is grounded in real experience, lived experience. So he understands our circumstances and our situations. We can be confident that when we bring our struggles to him that we are approaching a high priest who has been where we are. He's felt what we feel. He remains perfect before God. This means that he can be we can be honest with him about our pain and our failures and our hopes and we can know that he will meet us with both understanding and with grace. Jesus's perfect and completed work on Calvary gives us the privilege of entering boldly into the throne room where we can find that mercy and grace in our time of need. Let's take a minute, just a second right now to just thank him for that finished work of Calvary.

Thank you, Jesus, for the opportunity that you've given us through your sacrifice to be able to return into a relationship with you. We give you praise and honor for that. Now in chapter 5 11 the writer's tone changes towards the audience and it says of whom and that who he's referring to there is Jesus the one that he's just been talking about the high priest. It says, "Of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered, seeing you are dull of hearing." You know, in the King James, this doesn't sound so bad, right? Maybe he's just saying that the audience is old and they need a hearing aid. But if you look it up in a more modern translation, it says, "We have a great deal to say about this, and it's difficult to explain since you have become too lazy to understand."

Ouch. You know that he doesn't really even stop there. The next verse says, "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the ordinances of God, the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food." So, he's calling them a bunch of babies. You know, it's not bad at times. There's a time to be a babe in Christ. And it's there are times when it's not appropriate to be shoving complex spiritual principles on new converts. But first Peter tells us as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that we may grow thereby. This indicates that milk is not bad but it has a purpose and that's to create growth in us.

And as new Christians we must ingest the the the nutrients in that milk and um we do that for the purpose of growth. And so just like children progress from milk to cereal to solid foods, we as Christians must also progress in our knowledge and understanding of spiritual principles. You know, Hebrews um 5:13 tells us that if we don't progress and we continue to desire milk, then we lack spiritual maturity when we've had time to know better. It says, "For everyone that uses milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe." If you never progress from the basics, then you're just a spoiled child. I have two grandchildren now. They're all under three years old. Well, I have three technically, but um there are two that are preschool age.

Um and their favorite word is snack. In fact, I think Sloan's first word might have been snack. And if we're not careful, we can become like little spiritual three-year-olds who only want a snack from the word of God, not instead of a full meal. Yeah, we bounce around from our devotionals to our podcast to our reels of our favorite preachers that give us that sugary high of a snack, but we never ourselves become skilled in the word of righteousness. Verse 14 offers us a clue of how to become mature Christians. It says, "Strong meat belongs to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." This tells me that it's not just enough to hear the God's word, but we must put it to use and we must exercise the truth and the principles of God's word so that we can navigate the decisions of good and evil in our everyday lives.

You know, the purpose of coming to church on Sundays and Wednesdays is not just to hear pastor preach, you know, something that kind of peaks our our intellect. Instead, like James said, it's for us to become doers of the word if we expect to grow into spiritual maturity. It's not enough to amen pastor when he says prayer and fasting ought to be parts of our everyday life. We must actually pray and fast. We wonder sometimes why we repeatedly struggle with the same temptations or doubts in our faith. Well, perhaps it's because we fail to exercise the basic principles of the doctrine. So, how can we expect to have the strength and maturity that would help us to discern good and evil? You know, I had a little bit of a personal example with this um even preparing for this lesson.

You know, I'd been working on it for several days and I my method is I just kind of write down random thoughts that, you know, I'll figure out if I'm going to use them or not. And so, I had done that. Um and honestly, it was Monday morning and I was getting a little panicked because I was kind of stuck and I kind of began to feel that doubt that Satan likes to put in front of us. It's like, well, you don't really know what you're doing, you know. And so, Monday morning, I came into the office and it was pretty quiet and uh there were a couple people out. And so, I actually took the opportunity to walk over to the prayer room. Um, and in that little 10-minute time when I actually spent time praying, you know, a novel concept, right?

It's not like I hadn't prayed about this lesson before because I had been. But in that time of my need, you know, actually doing the word and going and saying, "God, I don't have this. I need your help with this. Um, I need you to reveal to me what it is that you would have me to say." And so after that 10 minutes of worshiping in the spirit, I walked back to my desk and I sat down and I wrote for about two hours. And so we can depend on the basic spiritual principles if we actually activate them in our lives. Spiritual growth is brought about by actually mixing faith with the promises of the word and using that to guide the actions of our daily lives.

So 30 minutes in and we are actually to the key verse that we're going to talk about tonight and that's Hebrews chapter 6 1 verse one and it says therefore and as pastor or somebody said previously when it says therefore you need to ask what is there for and so it's because of this reason what reason you say the fact that we are expected to progressively become mature Christians through the exercising of our faith. And he says, "Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on unto perfection or go on into maturity, not laying again the foundations." And then he lists several things about uh foundational principles that during that period of time, you know, repentance from dead works and faith towards God, doctrine of baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection from the dead, and eternal judgment.

Now, how many of you have teenagers? If you do, you've probably said the words, "How many times do we have to talk about this?" Right? I know I said that quite a bit. Well, it's that kind of feeling that I get from the writer here that he's like, "It's time for you to learn these lessons and become a responsible adult and move on to mature topics." Now, I'm not going to spend a lot of time and try to explain all of the uh intricate details and discuss the the connections between the old historical uh covenant and the new traditions of the New Testament and the overlapping significance. So I'm not going to dive into each one of those particular uh principles that he listed, but instead I'm going to reference the overriding principle that there are some foundational aspects of our work walk with God that we should have thoroughly ingrained and settled in our belief system without questions.

We should not be like teenagers that need to be reminded to pick up their dirty clothes or put their dirty dishes in the dishwasher or even take a shower every day. Pastor should not have to constantly preach to us about the benefits of daily study of the word of God or regular prayer. In fact, he shouldn't even have to hold our hand through some of the basics about uh faith in God during difficult trials or have to remind us that our lazy attitudes toward spiritual pursuits compared to our passions of our fleshly lust might one day haunt us in eternal judgment. All of those things should be settled in our mind. You know, in today's modern Christian church, depression, fear, anxiety, and worry seem to be the snares of the enemy that keep us in this cyclical pattern of having to be reminded like teenagers of some of the basic spiritual principles.

Things like God loves us and we can have faith in him and we can put our trust in him to provide for our needs. Things like we we will if we search his word, he will provide answers to us for our everyday worries. But like pastor talked about with the children of Israel, our faith must be mixed with the word of God. And when it's mixed with the word of God, then it should produce obedience in our lives. This is what the author of Hebrews is talking about when he says put to use or exercise. Mature Christians don't just hear, they do. God wants us to establish these foundational truths in our mindsets and he expects us to move to maturity and ultimately generate value in the kingdom of God.

Immature teenagers, they're a major drain on a family, right? They cost a lot to maintain. You know, they eat the house, everything in the house. They demand a lot of stuff. They don't produce any value. and they just they just cause a lot of aggravation and drama, right? You've been if you've had teenagers, you know, right? The same is true in church context. If we never mature beyond the basic principles of the kingdom of God, we're just a bunch of stinky, needy teenagers. So, you might ask, what does spiritual maturity look like? You know, there's so much that we could delve into with regards to this topic of spiritual maturity and such as the progressive development of the fruits of the spirit. And if I remember correctly, pastor did a great job of talking about that a few weeks ago uh when he talked about um the once- saved always saved concept and that, you know, it's not just about a single experience of salvation, but you must progress through uh the fruits of the spirit and develop maturity in your life.

Um he also preached a sermon recently about Matthew 25. Very impactful sermon about the kingdom of heaven and the talents that the master gave uh to his servants. And he said to them, "Occupy until I return." And pastor described that how that word occupy meant to do business until I return. You know in the business world the idea is to create value and it's to turn a profit and based on the outcome of the parable we can conclude that the master expects his servants to provide value to the kingdom. As pastor taught the goal was not just to maintain what we've been given but the expectation is to create growth in the kingdom. This idea and this concept has really resonated in me personally uh lately and it's caused me to really evaluate am I bringing value to the kingdom.

Mature Christians understand that if we spend our time seeking first the kingdom of God, then the other things that often produce so much worry and frustration in our lives will be added unto us. That's a basic foundational principle. In Romans, it tells us that the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy. These attributes are the currency or the value of the kingdom of God. And what better way to bring value into the kingdom of God than to be a witness to someone and bring them into a life of righteousness that then produces peace and joy in their lives. We know that the heartbeat of Jesus was to be about his father's business, and that was to seek and to save those that are lost.

Jesus often used the imagery of sheep, especially in the parable of the good shepherd where he left the 90 and nine and went to find the one lost sheep. This story emphasizes how much heaven rejoices over the repentance of one lost sinner. In Matthew chapter 9, it describes how Jesus was having compassion on the multitude that of people that he saw. He said, "Because they fainted and they were scattered abroad like sheep without a shepherd." The very next verse says, "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray for the Lord of the harvest to send laborers." Compassion for sheep without a shepherd, directly connected to a great harvest if there are mature laborers. In John chapter 21, we know that Jesus's last instructions to Peter was for Peter to feed his sheep.

Peter's completion of this assignment was the proof of his love for Jesus. Based on these few examples, I think it's safe to say that God expects us as m mature Christians in our relationship with him. He expects us to be mature for the purpose of expanding the kingdom of God. We do this by using the power of the Holy Ghost for its intended purpose, and that is for us to be witnesses to the lost. It's not just about our own personal salvation. The reason that he gave us the Holy Ghost was to be witnesses. But we can't do that if we're stuck in spiritual mindset of a selfish toddler or even a needy teenager. We need to move on into perfection. We need to move on in to maturity.

Another parable that um came to mind uh as I was thinking about this is the parable of the wise and the foolish version. As pastor often says, he asked a lot of questions when he's reading the scripture. And this is the one that I've asked questions about because I'm a very logical person and I like things to be in order, but this particular story never really lined up in my head. Yeah, we know it's about a bridegroom that comes and he's going to prepare a place and he's going to come back and get his bride and and u he was going to return. Where I get a little confused is applying the moral of the story because you know we're always taught that we are the bride of Christ, right?

But the story doesn't say that the bride wasn't ready to meet the groom. It focuses instead on the 10 virgins which are assumed to be the bride's maids. And so as this story rolled around in my head this week and trying to make sense of it, how does it apply to spiritual maturity, I began to kind of pull back from some of the finer details and I looked at it more broadly and I looked it up a little bit and it says the in the historical Jewish traditions of it was the bridesmaid's duty to carry the lamps that would light the way for the bride, the groom, and the guest to the marriage ceremony at the celebration. So, everyone in the story was meant to be at the marriage supper.

You know, make no mistake, God is always going to have a bride, the church itself, and you need to make sure that you're part of that bride. But the focus of this story is not on the bride. Instead, Jesus said the lesson that we needed to focus on regarding the kingdom of heaven is the responsibilities of the bridesmaids, the virgins. Their responsibility was to light the way for other guests to join the marriage supper. This story warns us that 50% of the chosen bridesmaids were not ready to complete their assigned duty and ultimately they missed the marriage supper. They were chosen. They were part of the wedding party. They had jobs to do. They were part of the festivities. They heard the announcement that the bridegroom was coming.

But only then was it too late and it was revealed that they were not prepared. They were all in the place where they needed to be. They all seemed to have the qualifications to be there. Yet at the most important time, it was revealed that something was missing. They were not prepared and ultimately they missed out on their purpose. It's a staggering statistic, 50%. People often think that the memorial of the story is somehow centered around sleeping and not watching for the bridegroom. But no, all 10 of the virgins were sleeping. It was just a natural part of life. All 10 of them heard the proclamation, "The bridegroom cometh." But only then was it revealed that the five foolish virgins had begin had been neglecting the critical task of keeping their oil filled during the everyday waking part of their lives.

This is where their immaturity or their foolishness was revealed. Perhaps it was because they were distracted or maybe they were just too lazy to go buy more oil. Regardless, they were not prepared to complete their assigned duty in the wedding party and ultimately they were kept out of the separate out of the celebration. God, help us today to not make the mistake of thinking that just because we're in the wedding party that everything is okay. Help us to realize that our de duty as mature Christians is to light the way for others to join the marriage supper of the lamb. There is a danger in not continuing to progress into spiritual maturity. As pastor often says, if you're moving if you're not moving forward, then you're moving backwards.

And that's what the writer of Hebrews in chapter 6:es 4-8 uh seems to be warning about the dangers of falling away. In these verses, the writer begins another refrain of warning to the readers and he tells of the perils of apostasy and the danger of falling away. Given the placement of these uh this warning, we can assume that is a warning to those that fall to fail to progress spiritually or maturity towards maturity. The New King James says, Hebrews chapter 6:4, it says, "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have become 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, go back to the beginning.

If they fall away, it's impossible to renew them again to repentance since they crucify again for themselves the son of God and put him to open shame. And then it says, "For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated receives blessings from God. But if it bears thorns and briars, it's rejected and it's near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned. You know what this tells me? It tells me that if your attitude about church and spiritual things is one that's prickly and sticky and resembles briars and thorns, then and you're not yielding beneficial fruit, beneficial herbs, then perhaps you should pay attention to this warning. You say, "Well, Pastor Jason, I still believe the foundational spiritual truths."

And besides, that scripture is just referring to repbates that completely turn their back on God. But I think if we take a little bit closer look, we actually see that the piece of ground that he's talking about has the rain of the spirit falling on it. What happens after that, it can potentially bring forth two different results. In the context of the author, I think what he's telling us is that if we have progressed on towards spiritual perfection or spiritual maturity, the ones that have done this are the ones that are being blessed by God. But if our maturation process has been stunted by thorns and by briars, then perhaps those struggles and trials that we repeatedly face, maybe they're not so much from the devil, but possibly they're a rejection or they're a warning from God himself that we're what we're producing is not of value and it's in danger of being cursed and will eventually be burned up.

I know you probably say, "Wow, Pastor Jason, you're being a little harsh on Wednesday night." Well, we are talking about strong meat and not milk from the word. You see, when we fail to continue our maturation process and maturing spiritually, we start to return to old comfortable patterns of lifestyle. And then it says, "We crucify the son of God aresh and bring him open shame." This is where we must be very careful because the text says it's impossible to renew them again. You know, the biggest trick of the devil is when he can get a mature Christian to begin to compromise on their long-held beliefs. And the text says, "If they shall fall away," the author is warning about spiritual apostasy. And you say, "What is apostasy?"

Well, that's turning your back on something that you previously believed or that you previously professed. You might say, "Pastor Jason, I would never do that." No, not all at once. But as it was previously mentioned in Hebrews, if we are not paying attention to the things we have heard and hold fast, then we begin to slip. So you're saying, is this renewal, this renewal from this state is impossible? Is that because God can't renew us? No, it's impossible because often those that fall away think they're still okay. They're just looking for something a little easier. And like immature children, they don't want the full responsibility of what God is asking of them. You know, as pastor has said many times, if your inner voice is saying things like, "Well, I'm not sure that's necessary today, or is that really a heaven or hell issue?

or I just don't share that conviction, then maybe we should take heed and we should return to asking the questions, what does the word of God say? You know, just like the children of Israel and even that second generation of of Christians uh in Hebrews, we often contemplate returning to something that's familiar and possibly something that requires less of a of a commitment from us. Yeah. The children of Israel were happy that they were out of bondage in Egypt. But it didn't really take them very long to start slipping backwards because shortly thereafter they rejected the opportunity to hear the direct voice of God and instead they said, "Moses, you go talk to God and then you come back and tell us what he said."

Not long after that, as pastor described last week, they didn't even have enough faith to be obedient to cross over the river into the promised land. And ultimately they found themselves wandering in a desert and desiring to return to Egypt. The New Testament Christians and Hebrews, they weren't thinking about abandoning God altogether, but instead they were tempted to return to the familiar forms of worship that they had practiced before the full revelation of the truth. They were hoping to do this just for the relief of persecution. You know, we often hear that this apostolic apostolic lifestyle is just too hard. But be careful. If you move your family towards a belief system that is seemingly easier, you may soon find that that temple is going to be destroyed and along with it the safety and security of your family's eternal destination.

God, help us to pay attention and help us to hold fast and to keep us from slipping. In conclusion, the author once again returns back from his stern voice of warning and he returns back to a more encouraging tone to close out chapter 6. The author expresses his confidence in the believers and he encourages them that God would not overlook their faithfulness and their acts of love in their ministry to other saints. He challenges them to continue to show diligence of their hope until the end. And he admonishes them to not be lazy, but rather to be imitators of those who inherit the promise through faith and perseverance. Hebrews chapter 6 18-20. It says he then closes the chapter with a reminder of how God was faithful to keep his promises to Abraham.

And because God does not lie, we can also have this same hope in times when we need a refuge. It says that because of the completed work of the high priest of Jesus, we can take strong consolation in this hope and it can become our anchor for our soul. You know, the process of maturing sometimes is not easy. It's difficult and we often make mistakes along the way. But the author reminds us that Jesus Christ, our high priest, has rent the veil, and that gives us access to a a sure and a steadfast relationship with the almighty God of the universe. A mature Christian has a proven understanding of the value of this relationship, and he knows that it creates an anchor for his soul.

I want to close tonight with uh one last thought-provoking question. In Matthew chapter 4 17 it records the very first thing that Jesus preached and those were simple very simple sermon. It said repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. When Jesus first came his ministry focus was to preach to to the children of Israel God's people. And this call to repentance was to move them from an old ritualistic form of relationship into a vibrant, empowered, redemptive experience. I wonder if Jesus were to step into 2026 today, would his message to the apostolic be church be the same? Would he say, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand." Would he find us mired in immature ritualistic patterns of worship void of the real p power that his sacrifice of his life imparted to his people?

Would he find us doing our part to bring value to the kingdom of God? Or would we be in danger of the outcome of the unprofitable servant who just maintained the gift that he was given? Don't let us be found in need of repentance. I trust that our prayer each day is for God to help us continue toward spiritual maturity and make us productive Christians that will bring value to the kingdom. Let's stand. God, we thank you for the reminder tonight from the book of Hebrews that uh it's our responsibility to begin to or continue to be developed as mature Christians. Lord, we can put our trust in the work that you have done that gives us access to you. That gives us the ability to overcome sin.

We have the ability to grow in spiritual maturity. Lord, help us to ever be seeking the opportunity to bring value to your kingdom, to share your light with others, to bring people into the kingdom of God. For this is truly the time when the kingdom of God is at hand, the last days. Let us be mature Christians. Help us to accomplish your goal, your heartbeat, and your purpose in this world today. We thank you for your love. We ask that you keep your hand on us for the remainder of this week and bring us back on Sunday to hear your word once again.