2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." That word perfect there does not mean that any of us will be perfect by reading the Word of God. That means if we read the Word of God and we will listen and we will do what the Word of God said, that that will eventually make us complete Christians with the with the thought of maturity. But I want to make sure that you all know that the Bible says that every word in here is used for reproof, for correction, and for instruction. Because a lot of times what we like to do is we like to take the parts that make us feel good, We like to take the parts that, if we're good at something, we like to read about the parts in the Bible that really commend us for what we do right. What does it say? How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel? Oh yeah, that's great, I preach the gospel and my feet are beautiful. You can't just pick and choose out of this Word what you're going to follow and what you're not going to follow. Okay? You can't, well you can, but it's on you if we read something in this Bible, if any of the men that get up here behind this pulpit and preach and teach the Word of God, if what any of us says comes straight out of the Word of God, and it offends you, then that's on you. That's not on me. That's not on anybody else. Now, if it's my opinion, if I just stand up here and give you my opinions, I would hope somebody would set me down. Because I'm not up here to give you my opinions on anything. I don't think any of the rest of these men are either. I'm up here to tell you what the Word of God says. And then if that falls on the wrong side of you, then you deal with it. Now, that might sound harsh, but We're living in a day and age where we have safe zones. We have to make sure that everybody feels good about yourself. You know what? There's a lot of times when I read this Bible and I know that I'm not doing what I need to do and I don't feel real good about myself. And then it's up to me, it's up to all of us to, you know, I think a lot of times we come into church and we listen to what the preacher or the teacher says, but do we really listen with the intent of, I'm not only going to listen to what they say, I'm going to apply what they say to my life. That's when we start, and if you want to grow as a Christian, if you want to become, like it says right here in 2 Timothy, I'll turn back there, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. If you want to be that man or that woman, you need to not only listen to what the Word of God says, but you need to apply what the Word of God says to your life. That's how you grow. Okay? Now, having said that, turn over to Hebrews chapter 5. We ended the last lesson on Hebrews in chapter 5 and verse 10. And this is talking about Jesus Christ and the fact that God said that thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Like I say, we'll get into Melchizedek when we get to chapter 7. But the last verse that we read, called of God and high priest after the order of Melchizedek. And we'll pick tonight's lesson up in verse 11. of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing." Now this verse right here could be talking about one or two people. It could be talking about Melchizedek, or it could be talking about Jesus Christ. You can put either one of those in there. OK? What Paul is saying here, there's a lot of things that I would like to be able to tell you about Melchizedek. There are a lot of things that I would like to be able to tell you about Jesus Christ. But I can't tell those to you now because you are dull of hearing. Now, look, Paul is getting ready to lay the smack down on these people. OK? He said, I'd love to be able to talk to you about the things that a mature Christian can talk about. I would love to be able to talk about those things with you. But I cannot because ye are dull of hearing. Turn over to Proverbs 28. 28th chapter of Proverbs. The 28th chapter, 9th verse of Proverbs says this, He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination. Now, in Proverbs, it's talking about the law, but we can apply that verse to the Word of God, and we can say, the person that turns away from what the Word of God says, his prayer shall be an abomination. I had to teach a lesson one night over in the high school class because I had several questions, does God hear a lost person's prayer? And the answer to that is no. Is that because God can't? No, it's because God chooses not to. That's why God doesn't hear a lost person's prayer. You hear all kinds of people saying, oh well, I've got a child sick, or I've got this going on in my life, and I'm really praying. Well, you know what? You can pray all you want to, but unless you've got the mediator that can take your prayer to God, it's not doing you a lick of good. David said that if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. Now that's David. David's saying, if I've got sin in my life, until I get that sin out of the way, God's not going to listen to me. But we're talking about hearers here and people who choose not to. Look over at Matthew chapter 13. Now Matthew chapter 13, this is right after Jesus had told them the parable of the sower. Okay, we've heard a lot of messages preached on the parable of the sower. I would say that there are many people in here that have studied on the parable of the sower. But if you look over in Matthew chapter 13, His disciples said, hey, you know what? Why are you talking to those people in parables? Why are you talking to them that way? And look at what it says in verse 11. And He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance. But whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away, even that he hath. Now, verse 13 is the one that that I want you to look at. Therefore speak out to them in parables, because they seeing see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. So what is Jesus saying right here? Jesus is telling His disciples, they see me, but they really don't see me for who I am. They listen to the words that are coming out of my mouth, but they really don't listen with the intent of hearing the words that come out of my mouth. They don't listen to what I'm saying to try to gain understanding of what I say. Why did the Pharisees listen to Jesus? All the time, trying to catch him up. We read about time after time after time where they would come and they'd ask him this question, or they'd ask him this question, or they would specifically invite him to their house to eat just so they could put somebody in front of him to see what he would do. Hey, it's the Sabbath, we'll ask him to come to our house and we'll have this lame fella come in here and we'll see if he'll heal that lame fella on the Sabbath. It was with no intent to understand what Jesus was saying. It was no intent to try to apply what Jesus Christ was telling them that they needed to do for salvation. They had no intention of applying that to their life. They just heard. And you know what? If we're not careful, if we're not careful, we can be just like these people that Paul is writing to, that we can come in, we can fill a pew, We can see somebody, we can see everybody here, but do we really see everybody here? And we can come and we can sit down and we can listen to a message, you know, and we might hear something here, might hear something there, you know, oh, amen! And then we go back to thinking about something else, and are we really listening with the mindset that, look, I know that there are people in here that would rather hear this man preach than anybody in America. And I'm sure that there are people in here that would rather hear this man preach than anybody in America. I don't know about me. I don't know about Gregor. I'm just kidding. I didn't mean that the way it sounded. Please do, because I need it. The point is, is you hear people all the time, and I get it, and he gets it, and everybody, you'll have people come up, hey, who's preaching Sunday night? Who's preaching Sunday morning? Who's teaching Wednesday night? Well, because I really like to hear this one, and if they're preaching Sunday night, then I'm going to come. You know what? It don't matter who gets back here and preaches on Sunday night. Because if we come into the church house, and God showed me this a long time ago, because I used to do the exact same thing, like, well, you know what? If this one's preaching, I mean, I'll go, and I'll sit down there, and I'll hear, but I won't listen. I'll view people, but I won't see people. And that's not the way church is supposed to be. That's not the way we're supposed to approach worship in the church that God has given us. I firmly believe that any time a man gets behind this pulpit right here, if their heart is right, there's something in what that man says for each and every one of us. Now, that doesn't mean that you're going to get up and jump up and run the aisle throughout the whole sermon and all that. That's not what I'm talking about. But I firmly believe that if that man of God gets up and his heart is right to bring the Word of God, then everybody else in here, your heart ought to be right to receive the Word of God and say, you know what, maybe I'm not getting what he's saying right now, but you keep listening and God will show you something like, man, I need to apply that to my life. I mean, that's how we ought to approach church. Each and every one of us. And if you don't approach it that way, you're wrong. Now, like I said, all this in here is for reproof, it's for instruction. Every word in here. Paul's not just writing this because he feels like stepping on toes. No, Paul is trying to win these people to Christ. Okay? But sometimes you've got to rub the cat fur the other way, right? Isn't that what you say? Look what it says here in verse 12. For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. Now, let's back up here to the beginning of verse 12. For when for the time ye ought to be teachers. What's Paul telling them? You have heard this your whole life. How many times just during this study of Hebrews have we gone back and referenced Psalms? Proverbs. Exodus, Genesis, everything that Paul is telling these people, he is taking them back to the Old Testament to say, here's where it was, here is where it has come to fulfillment. And so what Paul is saying, I've already told you all this stuff, but you know what? You should have already known it. You should have already seen it. It should be you that are doing the teaching. But now, because you have not listened, and I say you, this is what Paul is telling the Hebrews, but he's saying because you have not listened to what God has put forth to you, because you have not applied, because you have not tried to understand what Jesus Christ did for you, now I'm having to go back and I'm having to explain to you the elementary parts of salvation. How many of you can take somebody in the Word of God? We've asked this before. How many of you can take somebody in the Word of God and show them how to be saved? How many of you could quote the Bible without having to take a person in the Bible and quote verses to that person and tell them how to be saved? If you can, that's what you're supposed to do. Okay? Now, let's ask this question. Please don't raise your hand. How many of you don't know a thing more about the Bible than what you did the day you walked the aisle? Now we'll hear crickets. The Bible says over in 2 Timothy also, study to show thyself approved. Does it not? It's not just, and look, I don't have an axe to grind, this is what the Bible says. Okay? This is what the Bible says, so I'm going to teach it the way the Bible says. Study to show thyself approved unto God. That's not just talking about to the preachers. That's not just talking to the deacons. That's not just talking to the ones who go back and teach your children. and your grandchildren, that's talking to every single one of us. Study to show thyself approved unto God. A workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Because you know what? A lot of times people don't study because they're afraid they won't understand it. I don't understand all those thee, thou, thine, you know, shoe and all this stuff. You know what? Everybody started out the same way. And there's a reason, look, I'm not a biblical scholar, and I don't think any of these other men would claim to be biblical scholars either, but there's a reason that our phone numbers are in those bulletins. To where if you have a question about something and about, hey, you know what, I was studying something, what's this mean? I mean, what good are any of us if we don't have the time to sit here and try to help somebody while they're studying the Word of God? Why should you have to do that? Because I can't go to work for you. I can't go to your job. I can't go, I can't, I'm not going to go to your family get-togethers at Christmas. I'm not going to go to your family get-togethers for Thanksgiving or for your birthday parties. So when that comes up, on the chance that maybe just somebody will come up to you and say, hey, I'm going through a rough time. I see you happy all the time because of the salvation you have. What's this all about? Now are you read up enough in the Word of God that you can tell them why? Can you tell somebody why you have that joy in your heart? Can you tell them how they can get that joy? Or is it, hold on a second, let me call my pastor and see if he'll answer and he can lead you to Jesus. It's not just our job to lead people to Jesus. It's everybody in here. It's all of our jobs to lead people to Jesus. And you will never truly start growing as a Christian unless you get in and you study the Word of God. That's experience speaking right there. I don't have time. Don't give me that. I don't buy that for one second. Because if you can watch Fixer Upper, you can study the Bible. If you watch Gas Monkey, We were talking about that yesterday. He said, man, I was watching the gas pump and I don't even remember what he said. That's why I said it. But you know, think about all the things that we do to occupy our time. How much TV do you watch? How long do you spend reading the paper? How long do you spend playing on your phone? Or on your iPad? Or your tablet or whatever? Or how much time do you spend at the ball field or at whatever it is? Don't tell me that we don't have time to sit down and get in God's Word for a little bit. Because I don't buy that. I find it's all about priorities. Is me studying the Word of God, is that a priority for me? Or is it not a priority? Because we do what we do in this life, what our priorities are. Right? I mean, you know, my first priority in the morning is to roll out of bed. Number one. Second priority is trying to keep from stepping on toys when I go upstairs to wake the kids up. Look, that's the priority is I got to get the kids up to go to school. That's a priority. So what do I do? I go get them up. I don't go fix breakfast first. I go get the kids up. That's my main priority. My priority is get to work. So really when it comes down to studying the Word of God, is we need to really sit down and take inventory. What do I do with my time? Because really what you're doing is when When you're putting things in front of studying the Word of God, what you're telling God is, is, God, I don't have time for you. Now it's going to hurt tonight, but like I say, that's what it says here. That's what Paul is telling these people. He's saying, you should be so knowledgeable in, it's called the principles here in chapter 12 where he talks about the principles. He said, you should be so knowledgeable in the fundamentals of salvation. Because it's all been played out in front of you. But you heard and you didn't listen, and so now we're having to go over these elementary things again, and I'm having to explain this stuff to you. And it shouldn't be that way. You should already be to that maturity level where I shouldn't have to explain these things to you. Okay? That's what Paul's saying. If it fits, you wear it. Verse 13. For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. Unskillful means ignorant or inexperienced. Turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. This will tell you a lot of times why people don't study the word of God. Why people don't know, why people can't lead other people to Christ, why people don't know how things should be done in the church, how people don't know how to handle certain situations that come in their life, or they handle those situations wrong, is because they've never got in the Word. Can I tell you something? There's not a situation that you will go through in life that the answer to it is not in this book. There's not one. Okay? 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 1, And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal. What's carnal mean? Anybody know? Worldly. I have fed you, this is verse 2, I have fed you with milk and not with meat. For hitherto you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal, for whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men? Why do people And this goes right along with what Paul is telling the Hebrews here. Why do people not get in the Word of God? Why do people not grow in their salvation? Why do people not grow in grace the way that they should? And the majority of times it's because there's more focus put on the worldly things than what is put on godly things. If you look at somebody, and I'm sure that you probably know somebody, maybe they say that they've been saved for 20 or 30 years, and it's kind of like, man, I just don't see that person growing as a Christian. And the majority of the time, it's because that person wants to be here, out in the world for a little while, wants to come back in. The Bible says the double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways. This kind of throws down the gauntlet, really, that do you want to grow as a Christian? Do you want to be a fit vessel that God can use for His glory? Or are you just satisfied being a sponge? That's what it comes down to. Look at verse 14. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age. That's not talking about chronological age. That's talking about spiritual age and maturity. Even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. If you look back, and you don't have to turn there, but I will read it to you. 2 Timothy chapter 2. This is where, when you hear us quote this, this is where this comes from. Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. What's the big deal about growing, right? Well, you know what? I really like coming to church. I really have fun when I come to church. That's fine. I'm glad you enjoy coming to church. I'm glad that you get a blessing when you come to church. Okay? But the reason that we come to church as Christians is, number one, to lift up our brothers and sisters. Well, actually, number one, it's to praise God. Number two is to lift up our brothers and sisters. Number three, it's to hear the Word of God and see how it applies to our life. Why is that important? Look at verse 16. But shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness. Why is it important to know the Word of God? I tell the high school kids and the young adults, this all the time, is that everybody's got their own way of salvation now. You know, when your kids are outside of the house, when they're in school, when they're at college, when they're on the job site, everybody in this world, and they've all got a different way to salvation, and they're trying to get your child, they're trying to get your grandchild to go along with that. When you go to work, or wherever, your coworkers are trying to get you to go along with that. You know what, God don't care if you drink. God don't care about that. God don't care if we go down here. God don't care if we tell this joke. God doesn't care. Look, God's a loving God. God just wants you to be happy. Now, we sit there and laugh about that, right? Because I wouldn't fall for that. There's people that fall for it every single day. They do. I see how happy that person is. You might see how happy they are on the inside, but you don't see how that, or on the outside, you don't see how that person is on the inside. And just something little like that is what Satan will try to use to get his foot in the door. And unless you know what the Word of God says, Well, no, you know what? They're right. I think, yeah, I read where Jesus drank wine. Yeah. And you know, He ran them people out of that temple there. He made that whip and He whooped them, so it must be okay for me to go out and get in fights, because Jesus did. And He drank wine, so it must be okay for me to go down to Thames and have a cold beer every now and then. You know, because I see how happy that person is, but that must be okay. You know what, if you don't know what the Word of God says about that, it's easy to get pulled into that. The Bible says even in Proverbs, before Jesus was even born, wine is a mocker, strong drink is a raging, and any man that is deceived thereby is not wise. You go over in the New Testament, it says, do not give thyself into drunkenness. It goes on to say that drunkards will not see the kingdom of heaven. Okay? Now, when that person is trying to get you, you know what, that one cold beer is not going to hurt you. Okay? Just remember that. Drunkards won't see the kingdom of heaven. And then it goes back to priorities. Am I more worried about serving the flesh or am I more worried about serving God and doing what God wants me to do? Okay? Anybody have any questions? Anybody have any comments? Okay. We will move on to, we'll start chapter six for a little bit. Now, Hebrews chapter 1 through 5, the principles of Jesus Christ and Paul's appeal to the Hebrews to show them that Jesus is better. Okay? Everything that we've read in chapters 1 through 5 has the main theme of Jesus is better. Okay? Now, we're going to start out in chapter 6 and we're kind of going to move away from, well, We're going to move into some other things, and things that don't necessarily pertain to salvation, but things that pertain to growing as a Christian. OK? And that's what we should be doing. Look at verse 1. Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection. So Paul is saying here, OK, I just got done telling you that. Now, we're going to leave the basics of salvation because that's what Paul laid out to them in the first five chapters. That it's by and through Jesus Christ. Jesus is better than the angels. Jesus is better than Moses. Jesus is better than Abraham. Jesus is better than any high priest that's ever walked. Jesus is better. Okay? Now let's go on to what Paul says is perfection or completion or maturity. And actually what that means is it's almost the Word is a I think the word is teleos, but it has the connotation of a fruit ripening. Okay? Now, we all can identify with that. How many of you like eating unripened bananas? Awful. Well, okay, Darlene does. There's not very many people that like eating green bananas. Matter of fact, you buy them green at Wal-Mart because you know they're going to sit on the counter for a couple of days and then after that they turn yellow and then they're good for eating. But the word perfection here is the same way. A fruit that is ripened. A fruit that is full. A fruit that is perfect. That's what this word perfection means. Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith towards God. Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works. We can't obtain repentance by the law. It has to be from the heart. The law can't save us. Not laying the foundation of repentance of dead works, and of faith towards God. Because this is what Paul was saying. Here's the things that are elementary in our faith. Okay? The first one, at the end of verse 1. Faith towards God, or faith in God. Look, if you've been going to church here, You better at some point in time, or probably every time you come in this church house, you better hear that faith in Jesus Christ is what saves you. Plus and minus, nothing else. Okay? And that's what Paul is saying here. That's elementary. Then look what else he says. In verse 2, "...of the doctrine of baptisms, and laying on of hands, and of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment." Paul is saying these are all elementary aspects of salvation. That your salvation starts with your faith in God. And then when you accept that salvation, the first act of obedience is to go and be baptized as a symbol to the world that the old man is dead and the new man has been brought up to walk in the newness of life. Alright? And then he talks about laying on the hands and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. And then in verse 3, Paul says, And this we will do, or this will we do, if God permit. We'll read one more verse and then I'll let you guys read over this and you can come back in a couple of weeks and you can say what you think you got out of it. Actually, we'll read verse 4 through 6. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame." Now, we will end with that right there.