1 Timothy 4: 1,6 “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons…… In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, {constantly} nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following.”
Dear Friends, I have been very careful to guard my immediate family and my church family from these dangers through study and prayer. In the course of my studies recently I have been studying the Book of Hebrews. In the end of Chapter 5 and the first verse of Chapter 6, I found 3 characteristics of a mature Christian. Please consider what the Word says; the only defense against the apostasy is for all of us to “press on to maturity” Heb.6:1. Your brother in Christ,
Mike Let us press on to maturity! Heb 5:11-6:1 “Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 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. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.” It seems to me that there are 3 characteristics of maturity that the writer emphasizes. First in verse 12, the writer states that maturity takes time “For though by this time you ought to be teachers”. The second characteristic is found in verse 13 “For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness” and third in verse 14 “who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil”. Let’s take a look at all three. Characteristic #1 “For though by this time you ought to be teachers”. Verse 12 It takes time to mature at anything. Life, sports, wisdom, the accumulation of knowledge and expertise all take time. Some progress faster then others but no one becomes a concert pianist the first time he touches a keyboard nor does a person immediately know how to fly an F-16 the first time he lays eyes on one. Maturity takes time. In the selection of elders, one of the qualifications is that they not be a new convert. Why? Because maturity takes time. The church in America almost completely ignores this instruction. It chooses its leaders from the crop of recently graduated bible school scholars. It picks as it’s youth leader not the wise old grey haired elder but the coolest, many times just saved or newly saved young person who has not had the time to mature. The results are disastrous as churches are being led by immature and untested leaders. False doctrine abounds as the untested and immature fall for each new program. Excitement and entertainment take the place of wisdom and many young lives are ruined by bad decisions based on immaturity. We need to allow our future leaders and elders to mature and season over time. We need to train them and encourage them and expose them to as much as their maturity allows. We need to stop putting the immature in places that they are not prepared to serve and instead disciple them until they are ready. We need to consider that maturity takes time and we need to evaluate our own maturity on the basis of the amount of time we have spent with Christ in His word and in prayer and in practical experience of allowing Him to live His life in us. Characteristic #2 “For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness” verse 13. Everything necessary for life and godliness has been provided for us. Through Christ, His Word and the ministry of the Holy Spirit, we have everything we need to be victorious in this life. But we need to know the Word to know His will in order to obey His desires and commands. One Sunday when I was pastoring an institutional church, I gave a quiz. After passing out paper and pencil, I asked the congregation to write the 10 commandments, list the fruit of the Spirit and to list at least 10 gifts of the Spirit. The results were catastrophic! Very few could answer parts of the questions and no one could answer all of them. If you don’t know what God thinks about coveting or using His name in vain, how can you obey commands you don’t even know. The Lord has provided a multitude of gifts we are able to use to grow the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. How do you use them if you don’t even know what they are? Since we are predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son and His Son was the embodiment of the fruit of the Spirit, how do we allow the fruit to grow if we don’t even know what the fruit is? I asked a church leader if he believed in the Trinity. He responded “Yes absolutely”. When I asked him why he believed in the Trinity and asked him to show me in scripture where it was taught, he couldn’t do it! Why? Because he was not accustomed to the word of righteousness! (By the way, I believe in the Trinity and would be happy to show you why from the scriptures). Study to show yourself approved a workman who need not be ashamed rightly dividing the word of God! Do not be complacent in your study of God’s Word; devote yourself to the study and reading of the Good News. Teach your kids when they come in and when they go out, when they stand and when they sit. Read and study privately; read with your wife and pray with her. Listen when the Word is being taught. In order to grow in Him, you have to study and pray and read His Word. The mature Christian knows, loves, studies and prays God’s Word. In the way of personal encouragement, my wife and I have several different ways to study. We both begin the day with a daily memorization scripture. We use the tear off daily verse calendar. We both do private devotions during the day and we meet together every night to read and study and pray. Often times during the day we get together or talk on the phone to pray and seek God’s will for particular situations. Other times the Lord gives us special times where we can study for hours(like today). Characteristic #3 “who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil” The mature Christian has trained his senses and submitted them to the will and the word of God. Decisions are not made on the basis of what seems right but on the basis of what the Lord’s Word says. Each decision is soaked in prayer and is submitted to the express will of God found in his Word. This type of discipline (the word “disciple” comes from discipline) only comes from training and constantly submitting our will to His. When decisions are to be made, we tend to put our finger in the wind and go with the majority or whichever way the wind is blowing. But God’s ways are never man’s ways; His ways and thoughts are higher. The “church” is virtually untrained in this discipline. Often the ruling council is composed of men who have distinguished themselves in business. Instead of decisions being made on the basis of God’s Word, the business model is applied and practiced. Evil is allowed into the fellowship on the basis of what will attract more crowds and more money. A classical example of this is the user friendly churches that are growing like weeds in America. Can you imagine Jesus or Paul or Peter inquiring of the crowd what they would like to hear before speaking? Or taking surveys to determine what subjects would offend the crowd? Or eliminating certain words like blood or repent or the cross from their messages? In summary Maturity in a Christian is defined by these three things; senses trained to discern good and evil, being accustomed to the word of righteousness and having spent time learning and doing both. We need to allow the Lord to examine us in these three areas and see if we are babes or mature men and women in Christ. If we find ourselves not growing in these areas we need to repent and ask the Lord to change us. The apostasy continues to grow because of immature leaders leading their sheep in the wrong direction, blind leaders leading their followers to destruction. Anglicans and Episcopalians have a biblical mandate to separate themselves from leaders who recognize same sex unions and ordain as leaders men and women who can not discern evil from good. Charismatics have a biblical mandate to separate themselves from leaders whose lack of discernment brought them in to the so called laughing revival. User friendly churches should be abandoned for bible friendly churches. Let us press on to maturity! |