Transcript

Hebrews 5, would you turn there with me? We come to the end of chapter five and part two of a little mini series that I found at the end of this chapter called The Milky Way, the Milky Way. Tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to go ahead and introduce things the way I had planned to. Then I’m going to read the text.

I do not know of a truth and a message that needs to be more thundered today than the truth, and the message that professing evangelical Christianity today is is stuck in milk. And even a lot of the milk is not even 1% skim at best. A lot of it’s gone bad. It’s even bad. Milk. We want to stay with the basic foundational things of Christ in Christianity, and that’s good stuff. And we don’t want to be forced out of our comfort zone. We don’t want to be stretched and disciplined, diligent, learning of the deeper truths of God. And we even have a notion in the evangelical community today that if you try to go deeper, somehow that’s wrong and sinful and bad. The Word of God says right the opposite it’s sin not to grow deeper. God wants you to know all that he’s revealed of himself through Scripture. And that’s a pretty thick book. There’s a lot to learn about him. There are deeper and deeper and more marvelous and more wonderful dimensions and aspects and characteristics and attributes of all that he is, and all that he does. And our pilgrimage is to be a pilgrimage of unfolding those and digging out those, and glorying over those so that he is more wonderful to us. And we love him more, and we understand him better. But that’s right the opposite of what were you see in evangelical circles today? We just want to stay with the milk.Don’t challenge me. Don’t push me to go further.

Look at it with me. Hebrews 5, beginning in verse 12. We’ve already looked at verse 12, but I want to read it again for the flow of the context. He says, for though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you. The elementary or the first principles of the oracles of God, and you’ve 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’s an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who, because of practice, have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Chapter six. Therefore, leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity. Not lying again, I foundation of repentance from dead works and a faith toward God, of instruction about washings, and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgments.

Well, we continue with part two of the Milky Way, and I’ve entitled part two Going Beyond Milk, Going Beyond Milk. Now, Roman numeral one here. Notice there deplorably deficient intake of the word. This is what he’s going to point out there. Deplorably deficient intake of the word. It’s not that they didn’t receive the word, but what they would let come in and what they would grasp and what they would hold to, was a very shallow narrow part of the overall truth of God’s Word.

Now sub point A is the fact stated. He just gets to verse 13 if you will, and he just lays the fact out. First of all, he says, for every one who partakes only of milk — the word every one is important. Here he means all sorts, whether you’re a minister or a parrot or some governor or some statesman, some intellectual are some person with a sixth grade education, or a wealthy or poor, or a senior adult or young people, a student in school — you’re part of everyone, a university professor, all sorts. The point is, no one is exempt here and no one is excused, especially if they’ve been sitting under sound teaching. Now, there’s a notion that goes around in our in our pride that if you’re one of the intellectuals and, and you’ve got maybe an earned master’s degree or another doctorate degree, you don’t have to dig and study. You just are an intellectual elitist. And you can just grab the deep truth on your own. That’s not true. You’ve got to make an active decision to humble yourself to God’s method of growing deeper in God’s truth. If you’re going to learn more than just the milk of the word, it’s for everyone. You see, God is Lord and master of all, and all his students are to be under him and be instructed by him, and are bound to learn from him.

Now when he says, here in verse 13, everyone who partakes, what he’s pointing out is that milk has become their chosen food. Now milk is good, folks. Even strong men drink milk, but they don’t drink it alone, and they don’t make it their choice food. I had some milk with my cereal this morning, but I’m not going to have milk and cereal for lunch. It’s not my number one choice. It’s certainly not to be the sole diet, spiritually speaking. And these believers in the Hebrew church, you’ve got to remember, again, mixed in with the believers, are a lot of people who are unbelievers who’ve taken a lot of steps toward Christ and toward the faith. And intellectually, they believe some good things about Jesus, but are not yet truly converted. So Hebrews is a challenging book because you have both groups mixed in, and the writer writes to both groups. So to both groups involved, there’s some believers here and some unbelievers here. He says, here you’re just milk. Only folks. You’re not going any further.

Then he amplifies this whole thing out a little bit further. Under B sub point B is the tragic result. Notice how he says this to us. For everyone who partakes only of milk, he is is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, not accustomed. I think the King James uses the word unskillful are not skilled. That’s a good translation. The word accustomed could be translated that way. You don’t have the skill. You’re not skilled or experienced in hearing and heeding the Word of God as it is taught to you. You see, you’ve got to go beyond just what you did in school, where you say, I’m going to learn what I need to learn. I’m going to put it on a test because I want a degree. The degree is not the issue. Knowing God is the issue. And so there has to be some skill developed so that you know how to properly hear God’s Word and heed that word in your heart and in your life. He said, but those who just stay on milk, there’s a tragic result of that, a compliment to that, a negative compliment. And that is it shows you’re not skilled, or experienced in hearing and heeding the word. You have little exercise and therefore little skill in receiving God’s truth. When the word goes forth, as preached or taught, you must discipline in yourself, or exercise, if you will, to diligently hear it and humbly heed the truth preached. This produces a skill necessary to grasp and cherish deeper truths.

Sitting right here under my voice today, some of you are skilled and growing in the skill. Some of you are hardened, you’re like you were 30 years ago. It’s just a shallow intellectual thing to you. You haven’t opened up your heart. You haven’t developed the skill of a spiritual man to receive the preaching of the Word of God. And thus you just going to be a milk bottle baby until he puts you in the grave and you’ll answer at the judgment seat of Christ for that sin. You see, we have this thing going on that well, it’s kind of an optional thing to get serious, and it’s kind of an optional thing to grow deeper. As long as you believe on Jesus, you get your ticket punched, you going to heaven? Nothing else matters. Wrong! That’s not what God’s Word says. You are saved that you might glorify him by learning more about him. And he has so ordained that a chief part of learning about him is sitting under sound preaching of his word.

King David had this skill that these guys did not have, and it brought him deeper wisdom and deeper understanding of God and of God’s ways. Psalm 119:98-100. He says, thy commandment made me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever mine. I have more insight than all my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, because I’ve observed thy precepts. Do you see what David said, a relatively young man. He said, I’m wiser than my enemies. I have more insight than my teachers, and I understand more than the aged. And, you know, I’ve seen that that is true in God’s church. We have men and women in their early 20s that have more biblical, true spiritual wisdom and understanding than some men and women in their 60s and 70s that have been Christians 30 and 40 years longer. Because even though they’re younger, they developed early on the skill of properly hearing and heeding the Word of God and see that skill. It’s almost like plowing a field and tilling a field so that the seed can take root. You got to have this discipline to exercise in your life. So the seed of God’s truth can really flourish in your life. And as you take in some, God is so designed so that now you are enabled to take it even more, and build and build, and build more and more great truths of God in your heart and mind and understanding. That’s the way he wants it to be. But the tragic result is if you just stay on milk, you’re not skilled, you’re unaccustomed to the word of righteousness.

Now why does he call it the word of righteousness? I think he wants to drive home a point of the great value and the worth of the Word of God. It is the Word of God, of course he’s referring to, but he calls it the word of righteousness. Well, Psalm 19:9 says, His word is righteous all together, is righteous all together. The author of the Bible is righteous. The subject matter of the Bible is righteousness. That is, the Bible defines and explains and reveals all aspects of what righteousness is. And it was written to make men righteous. The Word of God is that tool, that element, that powerful force that God has ordained will make people righteous in his sight. And the point that he is making is if you remain a baby and you don’t have skill and learning to hear and heed the Word of God, that is, to know the word and to love it more deeply. You’re holding in contempt the very word of righteousness. The only thing that can make a man’s soul right in the eyes of a holy, just God. He’s trying to show you the tragic result, the seriousness, how deep the sin is. If you stay on just milk.

So I’ve said this to you before. Whatever you fathers do. Because, fathers, you are the prophet of your household. You’re the pastor of your home. You’re the priest of your children. Whatever you do, make sure you get your children, your grandchildren under the sound Bible preaching and teaching. I’ve said this before. I drived two hours to get under sound preaching. If I had to, I’d drive two hours because the Word of God says it’s that important.

All right, look at verse 13. He amplifies this tragic result a little bit further at the end of 13 when he says, for he is an infant. Everyone who partakes only of milk is not skilled. It’s obvious. It shows, he’s not skilled or he’s going deeper right now in the word of righteousness. And he’s just an infant. You know, the word infant here, litters literally is a word that means one that cannot speak. It’s a little baby is not yet able to speak. And look at the spiritual parallel here. A person that’s just on milk is not able to give a good, solid biblical explanation of their faith in Jesus Christ. I mean, a good biblical now, not not a human understanding, not just the surface milk, but but but a baby can’t articulate it. And and you’re a baby if you cannot at least give something of the great godward, God centered aspect of sovereign grace that led you to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Can’t speak of it. Infants can’t speak. You know, it’s a disgrace to one who’s grown in years to still be a baby. That’s what he’s saying here.

And this proves something that and that is that it’s not just time and opportunity that makes one wise and knowledgeable, but it’s good use of time and experience that makes one knowledgeable. I’ve seen believers, people say, well, I’ve been studying the Bible for 50 years, and they don’t have any more wisdom than some 10th grade students in the church. It’s the way they use their time and experience what they make of it. And I’m going to tell you where the key is — humility. That spirit of humility to receive the word with a humble spirit, with a repentant heart to say, God, you’re right and I’m wrong, no matter how strongly it contradicts my preconceived notions. And when you have that humility to receive the word, God enables you to grow deeper and learn more and grasp more truths. It’s not just time an experience, it’s how you receive it. Matter of fact, it’s not a part of the explicit teaching of this text. But I have known far too many people pastoring in one church for 25 years who grew mean and hard and ugly and bitter and and venomous because truth went out, truth went out, truth went out. And they kept hardening and hardening and hardening.

Now, in the secular world, a person that stays under the word and still remains at milk level — he’s a dunce. A dunce. To be old is to be wise and honored, but to be old and still obey. He takes the honor away and brings reproach upon the individual. A young babe is no disgrace, but an old babe is a disgrace. So he shows us something of the great tragic result of staying on milk when you ought to have gone further.

Roman numeral number two. Next he points out something of the normal standard they should have reached by now. This isn’t deep. This isn’t just for the extraordinary. This isn’t just for the group that wants to go further. This is the normal standard. Let me remind you what the doctor Havner used to tell us all the time. He said, in our churches we are so subnormal. If any of us starts acting normal, everybody thinks we’re abnormal. Well, that is such a true statement. Now he starts here with the word solid food, verse 14. But solid food. You could put the word meat there. I like the sound of that. But meat, red meat. I ate a steak last night. Red meat. But you know what? You can’t give a steak to a little bitty baby. They won’t take it. They won’t like it. They can’t chew it. They can’t digest it. They’re not ready for it. So he wants to make a contrast. Meat or solid food contrasted with milk.

Milk is the plain and easy to teach and easy to understand things. Solid food is collecting the deep and profound mysteries of the text that unfold the great glories and the depth and the dimensions of our God. Scripture says his ways are beyond finding out you’ll never exhaust them, but you ought to be digging in the meat for them and rejoicing in them. Let me give you some examples. For example, for one to teach that there’s one God and only one God, but yet he exists in three distinct persons, thus the Trinity — to teach that generally that’s milk. We all basically receive that. But to show how each person of the Trinity is distinct, how they relate to each other, and how they individually and uniquely relate to their creatures — that’s meat or solid food.

To teach that Jesus is both God and man and our Savior, we generally accept that — that’s milk. But to teach the dimensions and the details of the works or the ministries of Jesus as God, and also the ministries and the details of the ministries and activities of Jesus as man. The Bible teaches all that. Now that’s some meat. The glorious things he accomplished as God that were essential to his redemptive work and glorious things He could only accomplish this man that was essential to his redemptive work. Digging into those and glorying in the wisdom of God to save us in such a wonderful way, that’s meat.

To teach that salvation is a free gift of grace for all those who have faith in Christ. Wonderfully true. And that’s milk, by the way, we don’t ever leave out the milk. We just don’t stay with milk. Amen. We’ll never stop teaching milk. A good pastor has that rascal that struggled, always give out some milk and always give out some meat because you got people at all places. But anyway, to teach that Jesus is… that our salvation is by grace. It’s a free gift to all those who have faith in Jesus. That’s that’s milk. But to teach the purposes and the parts of sovereign grace, these are all Bible words foreknowledge, predestination, justification, election, quickening of the spirit, sanctification and glorification, and all the multifaceted, glorious truths connected to each one of those great sovereign grace headings. That’s meat. Meat. And that’s particularly the area in our present day where if you get on that meat, they’ll just cry, and say — no, take me back to the milk. It’s like weaning a baby off a mother’s breast. God commands you, expects you, instructs you to get into some of the meat. Why? Because we want to walk around intellectually like we’re so superior and we have more knowledge than others — no — so that we might be humbled at the greatness of our God. And you know what humbles me? Every time I get it figured out in my mind, he rebukes me and I have to change my thinking again. He gives me a different dimension and a different understanding, and I think, Hallelujah! You’re God I’m not.

That’s why I don’t like the strict cold of Calvinism though. Calvin was a great Bible expositor and was good on points. His… by the way, Calvin didn’t write the five points of Calvinism, If you’ve heard that. Somebody else did that. And though there’s much truth in that, every system of theology like that eventually falls apart. God’s too big for any system. We just keep digging and unfolding, and you gain great respect for those great old scholars like Calvin and many others. But none of them had the corner on who God is and all that he’s done. But God doesn’t say, and here’s what people think. Well, since it’s kind of controversial and it makes people uncomfortable, let’s just stay in the milk. If I do, I’m disobeying God. I have to dig in there and unfold layer after layer and paradox after seeming paradox after seeming paradox and glorious truth after glorious truth.

Now he says here in verse 14, but solid food contrasted with milk. So what we’ve been talking about is for the mature. The word mature here, of course, is not the word for sinless perfection. It means full grown as compared to being a baby. It’s for the full grown. You could say the complete. 1 Corinthians 2:6 is a good cross-reference. Paul says to the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 2:6, yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature. Here’s his point. Our theology, particularly for Paul, you could say the great doctrines of sovereign grace. It makes sense to the mature. They can grasp it. They get it. A wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away.

Have you noticed? Now listen to me. As you grow deeper as a Christian, you have to think in a way that’s illogical to the very where you thought learning and thinking was supposed to function. Have you noticed that it’s quite the opposite. And so if you’re full of yourself and think you’ve got good mental abilities and you’re an intellectual and and and you can kind of grasp the thing, I want to tell you something, you get no further than a first grade boy in Sunday school. It’s not discerned just with the human intellect. The human intellect needs to be deeply involved. But it’s bigger than that. You can’t find it out by yourself. Only if God reveals it. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Now that one of those deep truths right there. Man walks around, cock full of himself, strutting with his pride as if he’s got the little contract worked out in his mind. He can just whip it out and call on Jesus, get his soul saved any time he wants to go to heaven. He’s got the world by the tail. That’s not true. You better study your Bibles. There’s deeper things to understand about conversion than just that.

Philippians 3:15. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, you could say, mature, have this attitude, and if anything, you have a different attitude. God will reveal that also to you. Now the point of the text is when he says, here, but solid food is for the mature. It means solid food belongs to the mature. It is due them. It fits the mature. So many today cannot receive solid food because they have so little practice, or exercise. Back up in verse 13. We talked about that in hearing and heeding the word of righteousness. That is, they harden themselves to anything but milk, and oftentimes it’s not even good milk. It’s been diluted down. It’s got some worldly stuff in it. Their idea of good preaching is milk, even watered down milk packaged in the creative skills of a good communicator. To them, good preaching is not passionate spiritual unfolding of God’s deeper truths, but rather a man that can serve them their milk creatively, cleverly and humorously. And that’s flesh. It’s man centered.

We got a lot of young preachers in our church. Let me give you a quote by Doctor Reginald Barnard. Doctor Barnard was my contemporary theology professor at the seminary, and Doctor Barnard was from England. He used to tell us, you guys don’t speak English. You speak American. He also didn’t like a lot of what Americans called great preaching. He said it wasn’t. And here’s a point he pointed out, and you know, it’s amazing how you hear something when you’re 20 and you kind of thought, yeah, that’s true. And then when you get 40, it’s true, true, true. Here’s what he said. He said, boys, it’s impossible to say Jesus is Lord and I’m witty at the same time. in your preaching. Did you hear that? It’s impossible to say Jesus is Lord and I’m clever are witty at the same time.

He says in verse 14, but solid food is for the mature who because of practice. Now, the word practice here could be easily translated habit. The mature who’s solid food fits them. They want it, they grasp it. Matter of fact, they can’t do without it. In matter of fact, once they start tasting solid food and the milk of the word, they just can’t go back to the bottle. Oh, they take a glass of milk every now and then with the corn bread. But basically they’re they’re in the meat now. They’ve tasted it. I remember seeing a documentary about the tigers over in India after they have a typhoon come through. Those poor people live in all the lowlands. The dead bodies are strung all over, many of them in the trees. And the tigers began eating the flesh of humans. And they say, once that tiger starts with that taste of flesh, he never goes back to a wild game again. He starts looking for humans to eat. Well, so it is with the maturing saint who’s growing in his skill to hear and heed the word, and it’s nourishing his soul and deeper truths are unfolding. It’s contradicting what he naturally thought, but he’s starting to rejoice in repenting of his natural inclinations and conclusions and receiving God’s truth. And the meat is so good, he’s got to have more of it and more of it and more of it. It’s a beautiful thing. That’s the habit. That’s what he means here when he says the word practice, who because of habit have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

Let me, let me outline the habit here of how you hear and heed the Word of God in three points. Can I do that? These are not on the screen. You might want to jot these now. This is the habit of the mature believer who’s learning to enjoy meat and therefore is pleasing to God on the right track. Number one, he has the habit of denying the cravings of his flesh. Did you hear that? He has the habit of denying the cravings of the flesh. Now I mean in the context of hearing the Word of God. What I mean is this you sit in the service, your flesh says, this is the way it is. This is the way I understand it. This is the way I’m comfortable with it. The old flesh craves for natural wisdom. But you are in the habit of rebuking the flesh inclinations, the flesh dispositions, the fleshly viewpoints and receiving God’s truth. If you’re not in the habit of rebuking yourself and humbling yourself, you’re not one who’s going to enjoy solid food. Because about the first thing you get when you get solid food is repent. Your thinking, your viewpoint. Your conclusion is at least partially wrong, if not all wrong. Amen. Am I the only one? It’s true for all of us. It’s a life time process, folks. You’ll never get to the point where you can come in here and sit down. If I’m really preaching to you the meat of the word, and you can just kind of lay back me, relax, think about the ballgame. Tennessee beat Florida, this, whatever you know, and it’s never going to work. You’ll have to be disciplined with that habit of consciously repenting of and refuting the flesh craving of what you think is truth, right, good, bad, etc. and receiving God’s truth as it’s preached.

Number two. You will humbly hear, heed and deepen. Humbly you’ll hear, heed and deepen, which is what he’s trying to get us to do. That’s that’s the habit, the habit of denying the cravings of the flesh, the habit of hearing with the humble spirit and heeding and therefore deepening and understanding of God and His truth. And then thirdly, the habit of yielding to the Spirit’s leading and the means God’s ordained. Yielding to the Spirit’s leading in the means that God has ordained. Here’s what I mean by that. God has ordained the means of preaching, and you don’t need to fight against the preaching and struggle against the preaching and undermine the preaching. You just say God’s ordained preaching and he even rejoice at using imperfect preachers. I mean He can use Balaam’s donkey if he wants to. And so I’m going to rejoice in God’s means of using preachers. Also, one of God’s means is reading the Word of God. Also, one of God’s means is studying the Word of God. Also, one of God’s means is memorizing and meditating on the Word of God. Also, one of God’s means is getting in a small group so there can be fellowship, encouragement, and accountability about the application of the Word of God. And by the way, we have all that right here in this church if you want it. The biblical means God has ordained to deepen us. That’s the habit that he says the mature man will have.

And then he gives some results of this, he says, continuing in verse 14. And they have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Now the word senses here doesn’t mean like eyes, ears and nose. It has a deeper and broader meaning of the understanding or the judging, or the conceiving part of your heart. Your judgment is trained, if you will. You know what the word trained. The original Greek word means for trained here. It means exercise naked. It does. The ancient Greeks, the ones who are real diligent and disciplined for the Olympics. They take off all those flowing garments and they literally exercise naked. They’re also pagans, of course, but that’s what this is exactly what this word means. And he used that word because he knew how rugged, highly serious and disciplined those Olympic athletes were. And he wanted to bring that over into the spiritual context so that we would understand something of how we can mature for our judgment, our discernment, if you will, our judging, discerning ability. We can train it to where it’s strong and accurate. So that we know the difference between good and evil. So it’s that ability that comes out of the mature when they hear a teaching, or when they read a book, or when they hear a preacher, they’ll know that’s true, but that’s false. Senses matured and trained to discern good and evil.

Now, the goal is not just collecting information and facts from the Bible, not talking about that, not just knowledge of the storyline and the narrative and whose son was who and who died at what age, and all that stuff that typically builds… breeds pride rather. It’s that discernment to be able to discern between something that’s evil, though it has a veneer of good on the outside and that which is truly good through and through. And that’s why you don’t want to be a baby. Because a baby, you pick up anything and put it in its mouth. Good things and harmful things. But the mature man only puts what is good into his mouth. That’s the picture he’s giving us here. It’s like the disciplined, skillful musician. The disciplined, skillful musician can hear another person play, or singing, and just a little bit they know if they’re skilled in their music. The disciplined and skilled jeweler can look at stones and know quite quickly if it’s the genuine true thing, or just some colored worthless rock.

In Romans 16:17, notice what he says. He says, now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching you’ve learned, and turn away from them. He says they’re going to be false teachers come across your way and charlatans, and they’re going to use the name Jesus, and they’re going to use the Bible. They’re going to quote scriptures, but you to have discernment, to know the difference between the genuine through and through and that that has a veneer of good on the outside, but is evil on the inside. Philippians 1:9-10. And this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ, and also what he said in real knowledge, and all discerned the maturity needed. Brothers and sisters, this is a day where the child of God needs to mature, discernment. A lot of things and a lot of people, and a lot of books and a lot of stuff that uses the label Christian and uses the name Jesus, and throws scripture around — is not good stuff. But you’re not going to be able to discern the difference if you don’t have that practice, that skill of deepening your understanding in the Word of God.

Roman numeral three. I’m just going to hit it and run. All right. The milk that they love, they’re talking about the particular Hebrew church because of their Jewish cultural background. There was a particular flavor of milk they loved, just like in the cultural Bible Belt South. There’s a particular flavor of milk doctrine we love. For them — I’m not going to study it — but for them, the things of Christ that paralleled a lot of their Old Testament truth were the things that were quickest and easiest to grasp, and they were more comfortable with those things. Now you list some of those things, if you will. Look at the end of verse one of chapter six, repentance from dead works. In other words, they rather easily grasp the Christian concept of repentance because they had repentance in their old Jewish religion. So that wasn’t that hard. Faith toward God, which includes Christ, of course. Well, their Old Testament covenant, their Old Testament religion, taught faith in God, so that wasn’t much of a stretch. They were comfortable with that. Instructions about washings. The Jews had bowls in their homes, and they’d had a ceremonial wash for this and that. They had wash basins in the temple, and the priest went to wash and cleanse. So Christian baptism was not that far off, and they were fairly comfortable with that. Laying on of hands, verse two tells us that a lot of ordinances in the Old Testament were they laid hands, they lay their hands on the sacrifice at the temple, and in effect impute their sin on the sacrifice. So in the Christian practice of laying on hands during prayer, or when the apostles in the early church laid on hands to impart the Holy Spirit, that wasn’t too big of a stretch for them, the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment that was a part of the Old Testament covenant. So the Christian teaching on that wasn’t very far off.

So say, now, let’s see what he’s pointing out, the things that are comfortable with them in their present thinking that Christianity lined up with, they were okay with. But don’t stretch me out of my comfort zone. Don’t make me think outside of what I grew up thinking and learning. That’s basically where they were and basically where we are. Isn’t it amazing? There’s just nothing new under the sun. Baptist flesh is just like Jew flesh. Hey man, we’re the same way. We’ve got our bad. This southern milk and we’re very comfortable with it. Whatever you do, don’t mess us up with the truth. Generally speaking, that spirit is out there now.

Conclusions for practical application. I’ll not spend long here, but number one, expect initial shock of deeper truths. Expect it. You’re sitting here. Brother Jeff teaches you something out of the word, and you’re going, oh, I don’t know if that’s right. Good. That’s a good sign that God’s showing you something deeper. That doesn’t mean that I can’t be wrong. And you’re always welcome. I don’t come down here screaming my face, okay, don’t do that. But you’re always welcome to say, pastor, did you mean this? I don’t know if I understand that. I mean, do all that I can to explain and share with you, but expect initial shock and discomfort.

Psalm 50, verse 21. These things you have done. And I kept silent. You thought I was just like you. And so that’s your problem. You think God thinks like you think. You think God’s conclusions are logical according to what you call logical. You think God would do things in a “fair way or equitable way” according to “what you think is fair and equitable”. But God does not. He is sovereign. He is not one slight bit influenced by how you feel. He’s who he is, and he gives us the incredible joy of learning the real truth of the universe, and that is who he is. So expect some shock. Isaiah 55:8-9 and by the way, this has to do with how fully God forgives and how deeply he shows mercy. The Jews were having a hard time with grasping that God was so forgiving. You know why? Because they’re not very forgiving and you’re not very forgiving. And I’m not very forgiving. And we think God’s like us. He’s not. When he forgives, he fully forgives and get over it. If you don’t think like that or that doesn’t seem right to you. Let God be God, and every man be a liar. That’s what he’s saying in the context of Isaiah 55. He says, my thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not your ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. So expect some shock. If God’s going to show you a deeper truths.

Number two fight the ever present temptation to not hear, heed and deepen. I mean, it’s there every single week, every week, every week, every week. Something is going to try to keep your attention late into Saturday night so that you can’t start.. so that you will not get your heart and mind ready to be disciplined and skillful at receiving the Word of God. You have to fight it every week. Fight it every week. You had to fight. Did I tell you you had to fight it every week? You had to come in here and sit down. And when you sit down, choir and you’re about to sing, you got to pray to God. God forgive me. I didn’t do all I should do to get my heart ready to receive the word today. But wherever you are, just fight it. Fight that temptation. It’s always going to be there. Just like a baby being weaned from the mother’s breast. It fights it and fights it and fights it because it wants the milk. But later on, if you’ll go through the war of weaning that child, it’ll thank you for the for the meat. Will, it not.

1 Corinthians 2:14 is a verse attached to this and will not read it, but to we’re going to number three. Don’t expect a lot of Christians to rejoice with you. Man, my pastor preached some truths are we were studying this morning. I mean, it’s, it’s totally different than when I thought, man, let me tell you about this. And they look at you saying, that’s not right. I don’t believe that. Expect that. Now, I’m convinced this church is an exception. There are a lot of brothers and a lot of sisters who will rejoice with you. But I’m talking about generally out there in the workplace, young people in the school, as you grasp deeper truths and you share them, don’t expect too many people to be excited about it.

Let me give you this quick story. I was at a conference some time ago, and a an older gentleman who’s a godly, godly man came up and he said when he was in college, he was talking about how God does neat things. He said, when I was in college, I was in a math class, and the professor came in and started doing one of those one hour math problems. I mean, it takes the whole class and he begin to work out the math problem, you know, just fills a whole board. And he took about ten minutes into it. I saw that he started wrong. I don’t know nothing about math, but you know what? I’m talking about. He started with the wrong premise. So no matter how long he worked, he wasn’t going to get the answer. He said. So I raised my hand. I said, professor, that’s not going to work. And he said, you know what he did? He rebuked me and ridiculed me in front of that whole class. Like, who are you to correct me? So he said, I just shut my mouth. 15 minutes later, he’s got the board full and the answer is wrong. And he looked at me back there and he said, you got five minutes to tell me what’s wrong. So I said, he said it wasn’t hard. It took some time, but he said went up there and corrected the very first premise and then the whole problem worked. Now here’s what this man said. Now, do you think God was really interested in vindicating me in a math class? He said that wasn’t the point God was doing. He saw what God was doing was this I’m going to show some men some things before I show others, and you’ve got to be willing to believe it and stand on it until the others get it. I believe that’s true of some churches. God’s going to show you a more true way to serve and walk with God, to be a true church before other churches aren’t getting it yet. But you’ve got to take the ridicule until he pulls the veil back. But folks it’s got to start somewhere. Amen. And that’s the way God does it. Look at God’s work. He started with Moses and he started with Joshua, and he started with Peter, and he started with Paul and the apostles. And it spreads from there.

Number four, be thankful, but never proud. It’s all grace. Be thankful, but never proud. It’s all grace. One of the things I learned from C.J. Mahoney’s teaching on humility. He’s got a book on humility. That’s a great book. And one of the things he says in there, he gives you practical things. He says, at the end of your day, pray and say, God, everything I did good today. I give you all the credit. I don’t take any credit. I go for it. I pass it off to you right now. And I’ve started praying that with one of my girls as I put her in bed at night and we pray, God, whatever we did good today, whatever we accomplished, we give you all the credit. You know what? I need that extra exercise to keep the pride knocked down. And let me say this to you. When God shows you deeper truths, it must make you more humble or you’re in the flesh and you’re just gaining a bunch of head knowledge and you’re worse off for knowing it. When you learn those great doctrines of grace, all the truths associated with foreknowledge and predestination and election and justification and sanctification, the sealing of the spirit, progressive sanctification, positional sanctification, ultimate glorification, as those doctrines become real to you, it humbles you about the greatness and glory of God. Always strive after humility.

Number five remember he’s infinite. You’re not going to get done. You’re not going to get through. You’re just going to keep striving and digging for more meat and learning more and digging for more and learning more. Even when you get to heaven, you’ll be perfect, but not infinite. With a perfect mind and a perfect understanding, you’ll be taking in his infinite wonders and glories and beauties and be experiencing exquisite pleasures of his wonders and glories and beauties for all eternity, with a perfect body and perfect senses to enjoy him. You now be infinite, the perfect, and you’ll always be learning of him. Isn’t that a great way to spend eternity? You thought you were going to be bored. I mean, you can only bass fish so much. Whatever you think you’re going to do in heaven.

Number six embracing deeper truths requires the Holy Spirit’s illumination. It requires the Holy Spirit. It’s just not keen intellect. Matter of fact, most of the time God doesn’t reveal much to those who are deeply intellectual. He just doesn’t. Read 1 Corinthians. He makes it very clear I’ve chosen the foolish things of the world. He says, to confound the wise. God just delights in doing it that way for his own glory. Simple men can grasp deep spiritual truths if they’ll just work at being skillful at hearing the Word of God. And some of us with earned graduate degrees and doctorate degrees, you just better be glad God let you in on it. You don’t get many like you, not because you’re difficult, but because he don’t choose many like that. That’s one of the clearest teachings in the Word of God. You ought to be more humble. Those of us who have graduate degrees that have found God and love him. Listen to Matthew 11:25. Jesus is praying about the results of his ministry. Some are rejecting him, and some are grasping the deeper truth that he is truly the Messiah. And Jesus says, I thank the old father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent, and have revealed them to babes. Now this is a different kind of baby than our text. He means what the world would say were shallow, are unintelligent, or babes in their understanding. And notice Jesus gifts God the Father all the responsibility and credit for those who do not see it, and for those who do see it. “Pastor, I don’t know if I agree with that understanding…” You better get over it and let God be God. Bow your face before him and worship him as the Almighty, sovereign God. So what I’m saying, these things are spiritually discerned. It’s more than just the intellect. There’s so many things that I cannot intellectually tell you how they flow and fit together, but I know they’re all true. I know it’s the whole purpose of the whole council of God. It’s like notes on a page. As such, I’m not a musician. I can I can know the melody in my heart. And it’s very real. Though I couldn’t write it out to show you on the page. And that’s the way deeper truths are. God uses the intellect greatly. Yes, but it’s beyond that. In the heart of man. He brings forth a true note. And you know it’s true. The Amen of the spirit says it’s true, though just intellectually, and on paper you can’t make it work out.

Spurgeon said it this way. Notice what he said to his church. He said, I have endeavored in my ministry to preach to you not a part of the truth, but the whole counsel of God. But I cannot harmonize it, nor am I anxious to do so. I am sure all truth is harmonious, and to my ear the harmony is clear enough. But I cannot give you a complete score of the music or mark the harmonies on the gamut. I must leave the chief musician to do that. Is that not a good quote? As I preach to you the whole counsel of God, there are difficulties, seemingly paradoxes and even seemingly contradictions. And though I can’t put the score on the page, the harmony is real in my heart and I can’t make it real to you. The chief musician has to do that. May he do it in our hearts for his glory. And you must go beyond milk for God’s glory.