I want to thank every one of you for your prayers this week. Brother Smith, I want you to come on and close the service however you feel led. Brother, we're glad to have you. Amen. It's certainly been good to be with y'all at Antioch this week. See, and I love the church here. We love you people. You know, there's a great danger out of a Bible study, I think anyways, of them being just dry and dead and cold, you know, and academic. But I'm thankful for the sweet spirit of the Lord we felt this week. And that ain't about me teaching. That's got to do with the church. That's on there. The people seeking the knowledge and the fellowship of the Lord. And I'm thankful for what we've been able to feel here in this service. Love your pastor, Brother Justin. It's always good to be with you anytime we're together. One lesson tonight, I'm not gonna try to wear us out. We've had a long week. Just one thought on how every Christian should know how to grow. And if that, and I'll say that that is, and I've said it tonight and this week too, that might be the most overlooked aspect of the Christian life in our churches today. that we put a whole lot of emphasis on getting people saved, and thank God we do. I mean, that's the important thing. But after that, we sort of just quit on them. We sort of just cast them out there and yon, yon. Every child of God has got the duty, the ability, and the expectation to grow. The Old Testament, excuse me, the New Testament writers expected us, expected the children of God to grow and progress in the knowledge and the growth of the Lord. It's our duty. Peter writes to us about adding to our faith. Paul writes to us in several different times to be a growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Savior Jesus Christ. He was harshly condemning the church at Cardinal in the first book for not growing. Whoever wrote Hebrews here, which may be foul, may not be foul, whoever wrote Hebrews here is the same Same condemnation, hard on these folks for their lack of growth. So let's look at our main text. We've really got two or three main texts tonight, but the first one's gonna come out of Hebrews 5, verse 11. Now, the writer has been writing to him about deep things of the law and how Christ has fulfilled that. Now look at what he says to him. Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be of, seeing you are dull of hearing. For when the time, you ought to be teachers, you 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 strong meat. For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a baby. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. They had not grown. He couldn't take them very far because they hadn't grown. And that's the truth in that, that even if you don't grow, you're not going to get very far spiritually. You're not going to get very far spiritually. You just ain't going to get very far at all without Christian growth. The Christian life ideally has a constant amount of growth. We ought to be growing every day. But there are times when we grow rapidly. Usually those are the bad times. But every day we should be striving and trying to make continuous gains. And when I say grow, I mean our knowledge, I mean our faith, I mean our wisdom, I mean our boldness, I guess you could say that, our confidence. We ought to grow in all of those areas and we ought to progress. And we never reach a state where we can stop growing. Amen. I want to say that again. We never reach a state where we can stop growing. I don't care how many gray hairs you've got on your head. Yeah. I don't know how many you're missing on your head either over there. I don't care how long you've been doing this thing. You never get to the place where you can stop. You don't know at all. You don't. I stand before you with a pretty good education, seminary level, graduate level stuff. I didn't scratch the surface. He is unknowable. You can know the Lord in just pieces, just a little bit, but you cannot comprehend the greatness and the depth of the almighty God. Tell me what Paul wrote about Romans, or wrote in Romans. O the depths and riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how one searches on His judgments and His ways, past finding out. Amen. We ought to strive to know all we can, but we will never know all about Him until we see Him as He is one day in the next life. The flesh is always gonna have work to do. You're never gonna be the place where your flesh don't need you to work on. Paul said, I die daily. Paul was an old man when he wrote that. He was still struggling with the flesh. There will never come a point in your life where you're done growing in your separation, growing in your knowledge. Grow it in your wisdom. Those times are never gonna be done with you. Paul wrote too in the second book of Corinthians that he's learning that in his weakness, he is made strong. The grace of God is sufficient. There's never a time you're not gonna be learning more about the grace of God. What today throws at you, the weakness of today, the grace will be there for the next time. You grow in the grace and your confidence and your faith. I like what he wrote in Philippians 3.13. There's always gain to make. Now this is one of the prison letters. Paul is in prison here. Probably doesn't live more than three or four years after he writes this, if that long. And he writes to that church, Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended. But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Near the end of his life, with all he had done, and all he had seen, and all he had accomplished, Paul said, I forget those things that are behind me because there's something more for me. Thank God there's something more for you. If you're still alive in this world today, there's something else. There's something new. There's something to gain. That's why the scripture tells us the Word of God is living. It's quick. and powerful. Quit means lifting. So whatever your situation, whatever your day, whatever your age, that Word of God is a living Word of God that can apply to your situation today. And there's something new in it. I read a book, and I might read it two or three times, and I'm done with that book. It has nothing else left for me. But thank God, the same passage of Scripture. For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. That ain't ever got old, has it? Because there's something more in that. You see, it's a living Word. There's always gain to make. There's always something more. There's always growth to do. We have not attained yet. So we have to make a conscious effort to grow as a child of God every single day. There's still room for it. Now, I think realizing you gotta grow is probably the first part of that battle. Realize you need to grow. I don't mean to be offensive. I'm trying not to be, but you need to grow. I need to grow. From the littlest, newest, youngest Christians saved today, they need to grow to the one that's been saved the longest, you still need to grow. Realizing that, being aware of the growth in your life will help you. Everybody oughta know how to grow. So how do we do it? Well, first thing, you've got to remove the harmful substances. Can I call it that way? We're talking about a living organism. You get bored again. A new man on the inside. And if I want to grow something that is living, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to keep anything toxic and potentially poisonous out of that thing's way. I'm going to spray the tomato crop with Roundup. That'll kill it. I'm not going to put a bunch of salt on top of it, poison it. I'm going to remove that stuff. Keep it away. Amen. If you want to grow, get the bad stuff, get the sins that are poisons and toxic out of your life. Get them out of the way and that will help you grow. Notice how Peter ties this together. And there's nothing in the word of God about accident. First Peter chapter two, the second verse talks to them about growth, but look at what it says before growth. Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babies, the desire of the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby. Before you can grow, the toxic weights of sin have got to be laid aside. That means take them off. That's like taking off a coat and laying it down. Take it and lay it aside in your life that you may be able to grow. Because as long as they are there, You will not grow as a child of God. I told you about Paul just criticizing the church at Corinth for their lack of growth. Look at what their problem was. I didn't write this down. This is the third chapter of the book of 1 Corinthians, verse number 1. And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as spiritual, but as unto calm, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk and not with meat, for you were hitherto not able to bear. Neither yet now are ye able, for ye are yet calm. That's what carnal means, that they were seeking the things of this world. and the toxic things of the flesh were preventing their Christian growth. So I've had to feed you with milk, you're saved, you're trying, but you are not growing because you cannot turn loose of the flesh. And until you can do that, you're not gonna grow as a child. You can't do it. To grow, and this is not positive, this is not pleasant, but you gotta be willing to work. We are saved by grace through faith, not of works. but we grow by works." Amen. There is hard, hard, hard work to growing as a child of God. It's effort. It's labor. The writer here, and I'll go back to our first Hebrews chapter 11, he calls them dull of hearing. Seeing ye are dull of hearing. Dull is the same word that's used for laziness or slothfulness. He said you're lazy about hearing. You're slothful in your hearing. I've got a theory, and I think I can back it up with the Word of God. God doesn't use a lazy person. I don't think you'll find that in the Bible. Think about it. When God first spoke to these men, we find in the Scripture. Noah built the ark, right? 100 years. Abraham was a wealthy merchant selling stuff and doing stuff over there in the land of Ur. Moses was tending sheep, was he not, when the burning earth appeared to him? Gideon was out threshing wheat, right? Elisha was plowing oxen. Remember that one? David was keeping his father's sheep when the Lord come to him. What were the disciples doing? God don't call a lazy person. And I know God don't use a lazy person. Because if you're too lazy to do something, you're too lazy to obey what God's told you to do. He may tell you to do it, but if you are lazy and don't do it, you can't grow as a lazy person. I think about the parables. Y'all remember the scripture about the man that built on the sand and the one that built on the rock? Now if you read that in the book of Luke, Luke's the only one that says this. He says he dug deep. He dug deep. One old boy just put it up on the sand so it didn't matter. One old boy put the labor in. He put the time in to get to the rock is the Lord Jesus Christ. He put the time in to get everything out of the way and get down to where the Lord Jesus was. Labor there. Amen. It's an effort to grow. You have to crucify the flesh. You have to get the mind in line. You have to discipline yourself. And spend time in the word of God, seeking his face. You talked about prayer. You've got to spend time praying. And praying is a hard language. You get that, brother? But it ain't a one-way street. It's not just, listen, Lord, give me this. Lord, give me this. Lord, give me this. Lord, this is my problem. A whole lot of prayer is just listening. and spending time in fellowship with God where He can speak to you, where you can know Him, where you can learn about Him. It's laying aside the weight of this world and spending time with Jesus. That'll grow you. That'll grow you. Word of God, prayer life, time with the Lord, preaching, teaching, singing, those things grow our spiritual man. Amen? Seek the spiritual things. Put the labor in, and put the labor in seeking those spiritual things. Now, I think y'all know the spiritual. I hope we know the spiritual things. I mean, I don't think I gotta differentiate them, but I want you to ponder how much time we spend on physical things. versus how much time we spend on spiritual things. Amen. I was listening to some of the messages you got up, Brother Cook preached. One of them is on there about the inner man. Listen to that one. And he, Brother Cook, makes a statement that the inner man and the outer man, whichever one you feed the most is going to be the strongest. And that's about as plain as it is. If you spend your time serving and feeding and pleasing the Carl out of flesh, that old fellow's gonna be strong. But if you spend the time on spiritual things, the desire, the milk of the word of God, the bread of heaven. Jesus described himself as things that nourish us, didn't he? The bread of life, the water, the spiritual things. I think that's why He said, He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life. It's not talking about physically, but those spiritual things that nourish the inner man. When we nourish the inner man with spiritual things, that man grows, and that man develops, and that man gets bigger. And that's what I'm talking about. It's growing the inner man through spiritual nourishment and spiritual things. And not to duplicate too much from Wednesday night, but this text mentions it too. Exercise, look at the 14th verse. But strong meek belong to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. We mentioned it, and I'll mention it again, the way you grow a spiritual gift is to use that spiritual gift. The way you grow the inner man is to use the inner man to do things spiritually. We understand physical exercise, right? And I'll make the statement, and y'all don't have to like it. But we made a god out of high school athletics. Yes, indeed. And travel ball stuff. We made a god out of it. Yes, indeed. There's a theory, and I guess it's right, that if you want to be an elite-level athlete, you've got to put 10,000 hours into doing that thing. So a kid's got to put 10,000 hours into pitching the ball, 10,000 hours in the back, to get to that elite level. And mind you, there's people that do that. There's people that put that much time and effort and exercise in that physical thing. Yep. Because it works. I mean, if you got any kind of ability, it'll make you a whole lot better. But spiritually, I wonder how much time we put into exercising. Think about it. Now, you can exercise. We can always imagine going after that one. Witnessing is a spiritual exercise. Amen. Amen. Testify to spiritual exercises. Pray to spiritual exercises. How much time do you spend Exercising the spiritual versus exercising the hour. God bless you, brother. Why, Paul said, Bobby, exercise profits a little bit. It has a little bit of profit to it. Yeah. But it don't make a whole big a difference as far as exercising the spiritual. Amen. What he says, strong meat, growth, the mature Christian is the one who by exercise has grown himself to get to that point. Amen. The rest of the little babies are on milk. You ever pastored a bunch of little babies? I've pastored a bunch of little babies. But you can't do nothing but worry about the basics. Because they can't get along. They can't understand the big stuff. But thank God the people that are a little bit deeper and mature, you can move them forward. Because you can't fight a bunch of this baby stuff. You can handle the strong, big, spiritual stuff and move them forward. What's the difference? That's what this man's talking about. He wants them to be the mature folks who've exercised their spiritual gifts and grown the inner man and not the outer man. Yes. And let me briefly mention just a couple of dangers of not growing. One of the dangers of not growing is you're a target for the devil. The scripture says that the Satan is as a roaring lion, walking to and fro, seeking whom he may devour. Now, who do you reckon the devil is looking after? He's like a predator. He's looking after the weak ones. He ain't looking at them. He wants the lions on the nature show. They don't go after the big old strong individual. They go after the weak, sickly one. He's done got man left to hurt. That's the one that's a target. When you do not grow your spiritual man, the inner man becomes weak. The inner man becomes a target for the devil, and he looks for the opportunity to devour your life. Amen. Yep. When you do not grow the inner man, you set yourself up for ruin and failure. Talk about the peril of the sand, right? One of them built his house in the sand. did no effort, didn't grow, didn't dig, didn't get close to the rock whatsoever. But the scripture says that a flood happened, the wind flew, the rain fell, and the waves beat upon the house. And the one on the sand, fell and crumbled, but the long rock stayed. It ain't a question if a storm is coming in your life, it's a question of when. And if you've got any prayer surviving the storms of life and coming through as a child of God, you will grow and get as strong as you can and get as close to the rock as you can. Amen. It absolutely hinders the efforts of the church. Think about it. If you can't, the preacher asked you tonight to go after one soul for this year. Go after one soul. But if you're too big of a little baby to even be able to take care of yourself, spiritually now, how are you gonna go win somebody else? If we got a bunch of immature people on a bunch of milk who are not mature enough to do these hard things because they've got grown into it, what's up? It's tough to pastor, tough to be effective when Christians do not grow. That's why it's so important. How do you get better with your spiritual gift? You teach it. You teach, you do these things where you can become better at it. Get better at it, where you can more effectively serve the Lord. And together, the church can grow together when the members start growing. That's critically important to grow as a child of God. Amen. For your benefit, And for the church's benefit, we must grow and give it all diligence to grow. Yes. Come on, preacher, I'm done now. I love you, brother. That sure was good. God bless your heart. I love you, brother Smith. I appreciate this Bible study tonight. If all babies stayed babies, would we have more babies? Nope, sure wouldn't. Somebody got to do some growing. Amen, I appreciate the study tonight. Appreciate the truth of God's Word and the scripture he used tonight. Certainly I thought of it like this. How many times we've heard this? We've read it. It's been quoted, been preached. Some of these verses sung about in songs. But yet we know what it says, but we don't practice what we know. The doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. We're to practice the word of God. And many times in life we'll see these verses and read them and they sound good and we agree with them. Most people I pastor agree with the Bible. They'll nod their head and say, yeah, that's true. That's right. But they live contrary to what they say is true. And our lives are Certainly, I'll say deficient. In America today, in Baptist churches, our witness is deficient, testimony is deficient. The reason for that is we're not growing properly, we're not growing correctly, not taking the correct stuff in. People's trying to, you can't feed a kid a bunch of substitutes and expect him to turn out to be healthy, that's not gonna work. I know when Kimberly became a child and our first child, Peyton, she was getting information from family members and outsiders. Some of them brought us books on how to raise the kid, nurse the kid, all that stuff. And one brought us a book on how to discipline the kid. And I thought, well, we've done got a book on all that. It's called the Bible. But a lot of people's putting things in kids today and it's not working. You feed a kid Happy Meals all their life and they're gonna be deficient. Physically. And if that's all they're getting at church is a bunch of substitutes and fun stuff, they're gonna be deficient. And we need the truth. We need to grow. That's why we need Sunday school. That's why we need a pastor. Everybody needs a pastor. If you believe in the visible church, you need to believe that everybody needs a pastor. And the Lord set up a visible local church. Everybody needs a pastor to work on you a little while. A man told me one time, Brother Smith, he said, I don't believe you have to holler and scream all the time telling people how to live. That's what he told me. I said, sir, do you understand that two-thirds of the New Testament is written to Christians, teaching them how to live? Yes, you need to be told how to live. Amen. You need some old preacher working you over real good, preaching the devil out of you every Sunday. That's what you need. That's what I need. We need the church. We need discipline in our lives. We need nutrition from the word of God, spiritual nutrition. We need these things. is a