MUCH TO SAY AND HARD TO EXPLAIN

Christians Are Called to Grow

0:08 Speaker 1: When we are believers, when we are Christians, we don't just stand still.

0:13 Speaker 1: Nothing stands still as growth, whether it be a kitten or a human being.

0:20 Speaker 1: So it is in the realm of the Spirit we come from babes on to mature.

0:27 Speaker 1: Hebrews, chapter 5.

0:30 Speaker 1: This is a word to us as believers.

0:32 Speaker 1: We have much to say and it's hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.

0:44 Speaker 1: The author is saying that I've got a lot more to say about Jesus than what you've heard.

0:51 Speaker 1: I'd like to be able to explain it to you, but it's difficult to explain.

0:57 Speaker 1: If you are not mature or if you don't know the word, it's very difficult.

1:01 Speaker 1: Or if you don't know the word, it's very difficult.

1:06 Speaker 1: So that tells me when I read a passage like this in Hebrews 5, 11,.

1:11 Speaker 1: But they wouldn't listen to it, and the reason they wouldn't listen to it is because they didn't have an ear for it.

1:18 Speaker 1: They had no understanding.

1:21 Speaker 1: It was difficult to explain because nobody wants to listen.

1:28 Speaker 1: Now we can put that in any form that we want.

1:32 Speaker 1: It's the same when we see somebody that we say to ourselves you know what they need.

1:37 Speaker 1: They need Jesus in their life, they need to be born again, they need to be saved.

1:44 Speaker 1: They need to ask Jesus to forgive them of their sins.

1:47 Speaker 1: And you try to talk to them and they go say, no, not for me, I don't want to listen to that, let me get out of here.

1:53 Speaker 1: No.

1:53 Speaker 1: And we're thinking how can we tell people about Jesus?

1:57 Speaker 1: They don't want to listen, they don't have ears for that.

2:01 Speaker 1: But Christians should be hungry for maturity.

2:05 Speaker 1: Christians should be hungry and desiring to grow in the things of God and to mature.

The Danger of Being Dull of Hearing

2:12 Speaker 1: And as we grow and as we mature, I have to tell you, with that comes responsibilities.

2:20 Speaker 1: So I'm going to go to verse 12 of Hebrews 5.

2:24 Speaker 1: Disabilities so I'm going to go to verse 12 of Hebrews 5.

2:32 Speaker 1: For, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

2:47 Speaker 1: Let's talk about the milk, for everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, but he is an infant.

2:58 Speaker 1: Those are strong words, and we were to say to someone who has served the Lord for 50 years and they've never got beyond salvation messages when they themselves received, and for 50 years they've never been able to go beyond that, because that's all they want to hear.

3:23 Speaker 1: They met the Lord.

3:25 Speaker 1: It was wonderful and they parted there.

3:29 Speaker 1: But the writer is saying you have need of solid food.

3:33 Speaker 1: And if we're not mature and if we're not on a solid footing, and if we're not eating solid food and the word of the Lord, we are going to be shaken.

3:44 Speaker 1: And when we get shaken, who are we going to be able to talk to?

3:49 Speaker 1: Because believers have to have a desire to grow, just like you have to have a desire to be saved.

3:58 Speaker 1: You have to have a desire to be filled with the Spirit.

4:02 Speaker 1: The list goes on to receive so many of God's benefits and if we don't have that desire and we like it where we are, it's very difficult to help.

4:13 Speaker 1: He talks about solid food, he's talking about meat, and I believe that these areas are in the revelatory realm.

4:23 Speaker 1: I believe that these things are as we grow and mature.

4:28 Speaker 1: It's like the Lord will open another page.

4:30 Speaker 1: He'll move the curtain back, the cloud will lift and we'll be able to see Solid food.

4:39 Speaker 1: It's not for the infant, it's for the mature.

4:44 Speaker 1: Now that should shake us right to our roots.

4:51 Speaker 1: We have Christian friends.

4:52 Speaker 1: We know people who have no desire to move forward in God and the reason is they are unable to eat solid food because they are not mature.

5:06 Speaker 1: They're not moving forward.

5:08 Speaker 1: How do you get mature?

5:10 Speaker 1: You keep eating, you keep expanding, you keep pushing in to what God is dealing in your life.

Pressing On to Spiritual Maturity

5:18 Speaker 1: You have to keep pressing in and as you keep pressing in, you're going to start to eat what's around you and as you eat it you get strong in that and you mature in that.

5:32 Speaker 1: But you have to have a desire for these things.

5:36 Speaker 1: But solid food is for the mature who, because of practice, have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

5:48 Speaker 1: They are continually pressing in, they are maturing, they're beginning to see things.

5:56 Speaker 1: They learned new things as you grow and as you mature, you learn.

6:02 Speaker 1: But if we're dull of hearing meaning if we don't want to hear what God's got to offer the problem with that is we remain an infant our entire Christian life.

6:15 Speaker 1: So we need to know that.

6:19 Speaker 1: Does the Bible speak about this?

6:20 Speaker 1: Does it address this?

6:21 Speaker 1: Does it tell us what to do?

6:23 Speaker 1: Yes, about this?

6:26 Speaker 1: Does it address this?

6:27 Speaker 1: Does it tell us what to do?

6:28 Speaker 1: Yes, when we go on into the sixth chapter of Hebrews, beginning at the first verse we are told how we deal with this sort of thing.

6:34 Speaker 1: Therefore, leaving the elementary teaching about Christ, let us press on to maturity.

6:45 Speaker 1: So, if we go back up into Hebrews, chapter 5, verse 14, solid food is for the mature.

6:57 Speaker 1: And here it says therefore, leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity.

7:07 Speaker 1: And he says this is how you're going to do it Not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and a faith toward God.

7:21 Speaker 1: You already know the gospel message.

7:26 Speaker 1: I'm talking about your personal growth.

7:29 Speaker 1: I'm not talking about your evangelism.

7:30 Speaker 1: I'm not talking about your evangelism.

7:31 Speaker 1: I'm not talking about somebody that you're going to witness to.

7:35 Speaker 1: I'm talking about your spiritual growth.

7:39 Speaker 1: So of instruction, about washings, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, eternal judgment, and this we will do if God permits, and if God speaks to the dead, eternal judgment, and this we will do if God permits, and if God speaks to the minister or speaks to you, that you are to go over this again for some reason, or depending on the group of people that I'm talking to, I have to.

8:06 Speaker 1: As a minister, I have to discern who is in the house, who's sitting before me.

8:12 Speaker 1: I have to, as a minister.

8:12 Speaker 1: I have to discern who is in the house, who's sitting before me.

8:13 Speaker 1: I have to discern that and I have a responsibility.

8:17 Speaker 1: Am I going to talk to them as infants or am I going to talk to them as mature?

8:24 Speaker 1: There's nothing wrong with being an infant when you've just come into the kingdom.

8:29 Speaker 1: We all go through this process.

8:31 Speaker 1: We're all infants.

8:34 Speaker 1: We have to learn these things.

8:36 Speaker 1: We need to know about elementary teaching.

8:41 Speaker 1: God brings the warning in here In the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the power of the age to come and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put him to open shame.

The Warning Against Falling Away

9:11 Speaker 1: This is quite a warning and that's what this chapter is talking about the danger or the pairing of those who draw back.

9:20 Speaker 1: I believe that one of the signs that should be very concerning to any believer is when we become dull of hearing, spoken of in Hebrews 5.11,.

9:39 Speaker 1: Since you have become dull of hearing, and that's why this writer was addressing, I would think that once a person develops or sees that they're no longer interested in progressing in God, they're no longer hungry or the hunger is leaving them.

9:59 Speaker 1: And hear this if we find ourselves not hungry for the Word of God, we are in great danger.

10:08 Speaker 1: God, we are in great danger.

10:09 Speaker 1: And the problem is, if we fall away, it's this thing of being able to come back to the Lord.

10:16 Speaker 1: It's impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify to themselves the Son of God and put him to open.

10:27 Speaker 1: Shame for the ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation and useful to those for whose sake it is tilled, receive a blessing from God.

10:39 Speaker 1: But it's implying.

10:41 Speaker 1: But if that ground, if you don't till it, if you don't water it, if you don't keep the weeds out, if you let it be overgrowing, what happens is it yields thorns and thistles and it's worthless.

10:59 Speaker 1: So what the writer is saying in a nice way be careful you don't become worthless and close to being cursed and it ends up being burned.

11:14 Speaker 1: Beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, things that accompany salvation.

11:20 Speaker 1: Though we are speaking in this way, even though I've addressed it this way, even though I've warned, even though I'm telling you I'm expecting better things than this.

11:33 Speaker 1: Here's the hope.

11:37 Speaker 1: God is not unjust so as to forget your worth and the love which you have shown toward his name.

11:43 Speaker 1: And having ministered, and in still ministering, to the saints, we desire that each one of you show the same deluge so as to realize the full assurance of the hope until the end, so that you will not be fluggish but imitators of those who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises.

12:05 Speaker 1: Don't let it go to that point.

12:07 Speaker 1: Be very careful.

12:10 Speaker 1: Hebrews, chapter 6, and I want us to look at verse 4.

12:16 Speaker 1: Once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift, that salvation, I categorize this as the 30-fold realm.

12:28 Speaker 1: Born again, you're a babe in Christ and we thank God for those.

12:37 Speaker 1: And we thank God that we will continue to bring people into the kingdom and we will try to reach out and we will try to bring them on up into deeper things of God.

12:47 Speaker 1: And when it says you have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, I see this as 60-fold.

Entering the Glory Through the Rent Veil

13:03 Speaker 1: And then verse 5, you've tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come.

13:09 Speaker 1: I look at this as maturity, I look at this as a mature son.

13:15 Speaker 1: I look at this as there's powers that I'm going to be able to tap into as a mature son, that I can't tap into as an infant.

13:28 Speaker 1: There's something waiting for us and we're moving forward and we're not going to allow the enemy to rob us in any way.

13:39 Speaker 1: In 2nd Timothy, chapter 1, verses 13 and 14, hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

13:56 Speaker 1: Hold those.

13:58 Speaker 1: You don't give that up.

13:59 Speaker 1: You don't turn your back and say he's salvation.

14:03 Speaker 1: I've moved on from there.

14:04 Speaker 1: No, you bring salvation with you, that good thing which was committed unto thee.

14:10 Speaker 1: Keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.

14:13 Speaker 1: You keep developing, you keep moving forward.

14:19 Speaker 1: When the veil is rent in the temple, jesus will bring us, and that veil is rent in the temple.

14:25 Speaker 1: Jesus was on the cross and that veil was rent in tune.

14:30 Speaker 1: We were permitted to enter in to another world.

14:36 Speaker 1: Sometimes people say that's going to be only reserved for us when we get to heaven, to be only reserved for us.

14:45 Speaker 1: When we get to heaven, that veil is rent and I believe that we can walk through it.

14:52 Speaker 1: Right now you get people who aren't saved.

14:54 Speaker 1: You get them into church and the altar call is given.

14:57 Speaker 1: I've seen this many times.

14:59 Speaker 1: As soon as they start asking anybody what's come to Jesus, I see them get up and they rush right out the door.

15:04 Speaker 1: They come in on faith, they go out on faith.

15:08 Speaker 1: They don't want to hear it.

15:10 Speaker 1: They're dull of hearing and we're thinking oh, someday, oh Lord, someday, bring them in.

15:17 Speaker 1: We'll start praying for them and we believe that God will answer prayer.

15:20 Speaker 1: But isn't it sin?

15:22 Speaker 1: They choose not to listen.

15:26 Speaker 1: Don't be like that.

15:29 Speaker 1: Don't be like that.

15:32 Speaker 1: When God begins to send, he'll show you things in Scripture and you will pay another price if you move from 60 to 100 fold, if you start moving up into maturity and in sonship.

15:45 Speaker 1: But the problem is, everybody thinks they're mature, no matter where they're at.

15:48 Speaker 1: They're 22 years of age and they're mature and they believe in salvation and they've accepted Jesus and they say I'm mature.

15:56 Speaker 1: But the fact is, you're a mature individual, but you're obeyed spiritually.

16:02 Speaker 1: You're an infant.

16:03 Speaker 1: You come into adolescence when you're walking in the things of the Spirit.

16:08 Speaker 1: Jesus opened up a new and living way to us Hebrews 10, 20.

16:17 Speaker 1: By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil.

16:25 Speaker 1: That is to say, I've got the new way, I'm a new man in Christ.

Embracing the Shekinah Glory

16:32 Speaker 1: What about the way?

16:35 Speaker 1: Well, people are very quick to talk about the new man, the new creature.

16:40 Speaker 1: What about the way the W-A-Y, what about the way?

16:47 Speaker 1: There's a way.

16:48 Speaker 1: What about the way Jesus is the new and living way?

16:58 Speaker 1: In the Old Testament we read about when the temple was dedicated.

17:02 Speaker 1: Solomon dedicated the temple.

17:04 Speaker 1: Something came down there like a cloud, just came.

17:09 Speaker 1: It just started to form right inside the temple and it was the glory of God being manifested and they called it the Shekinah glory.

17:19 Speaker 1: The Shekinah S-H-E-K-I-N-A-H.

17:25 Speaker 1: It means that which dwells With the veil being split.

17:31 Speaker 1: Does it mean that we could live in the Shekinah?

17:36 Speaker 1: That is what should be a hunger that we have Shekinah on ending is all I long for.

17:46 Speaker 1: The priests couldn't stand to minister because of the cloud, and the glory filled the house of the Lord.

17:53 Speaker 1: I believe there's a people that's going to be able to stand and minister in the glory.

17:57 Speaker 1: I believe we have to.

17:59 Speaker 1: I believe that whenever the glory of God falls upon us, I don't believe that we should be shirking back.

18:05 Speaker 1: We should be embracing it, and I want us to do that we're going to embrace the glory.

18:10 Speaker 1: We're going to search this out, we're going to ascend.

18:13 Speaker 1: This is a great day which we're alive you.