Let's direct our attention to Philippians chapter 3. I'm going to read from the same passage of scripture that we did last week, Philippians 3, 7 through 21. And today we're going to look at verses 15 and 16. So Philippians 3 verse 7, But what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed, I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead, not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended But one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, let us, as many as are mature, have this mind, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule. Let us be of the same mind. Brethren, join in following my example and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. For many walk of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their mind on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. who will transform our lowly body, that it may be conformed to his glorious body, according to the working by which he is even able to subdue all things to himself." So if you remember, or at least recall, back in verse 1 of this chapter, Paul says, finally, If you recall, when we got to that place, he made the point that as he has said a number of different things through this letter, as he wrote this letter, that he comes to this kind of concluding section by saying, finally. And he says, finally, my brethren rejoice in the Lord. And so that rejoice in the Lord is kind of like the point that he's going to drive home in all that he writes after that. And we noted that to rejoice in the Lord is to not have confidence in the flesh. It's not to rejoice or boast in me. It's not to find hope in me, but it is to rejoice in the Lord for everything. It is to truly rejoice out of thankfulness, out of brokenheartedness for the salvation that God has revealed to me and the promise that he will finish what he has begun. So then he goes on as he seeks to unfold or goes on to explain in different ways as to what it means to rejoice in the Lord. He even does that by way of warning. He warns them to watch out for false teachers who would seek to deceive them. He says, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation. And he warns them to not have confidence in the flesh. And he intimates that those who are the dogs, the mutilation, the evil workers are those who bring false teaching, false doctrine that would result in you having confidence in your flesh. That's the point that beware of those who would cause you, listen, think about this, to not rejoice in the Lord, to not rest in him, to not find all of your hope, comfort, sustenance, everything in God alone. So any teaching that would distract, obscure, redirect us away from that provision is what's in view here and would lead us to not truly rejoice in the Lord, rather that we would have confidence in the flesh. And then he goes on to say, if anyone has confidence in the flesh, I more so. He goes on to describe what his life looked like and what he highly regarded as an unbeliever, a religious, unrepentant, depraved, unregenerate man. He was very zealous for God, but not according to knowledge. For in his working, in his laboring, in his doing, he was seeking to establish his own righteousness. The Apostle Paul before conversion was all about himself. He was self-seeking. He was proud. He was stiff-necked. He was not somebody who was boasting in the Lord or rejoicing or resting in the Lord. Rather, he was boasting in himself. He was a boaster of himself. But he says, if I am going to look at the confidence that man might have in oneself, I more so. And he goes through that list of things that we've thought about a couple of times. Again, to draw our attention to the fact that after conversion, he says, those things that I once thought commended me to God, those things that were the basis of my confidence in myself, I now I now count them as a loss. I now count them as being harmful. But what now is precious to me are not those things, but it is the Lord Jesus Christ that I may be found in him not having my own righteousness, which is according to the law. but that my righteousness is now from God. God has given it to me and it is, I lay hold of it by faith. God has given the gift of faith by which I am righteous before God as I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul says, that I may attain to, he goes on to say, the resurrection from the dead. And he goes on to say last week, we said and noted that he says, not that I have already attained. He hasn't yet been perfected. He hasn't yet achieved that which is the goal of his life, which is the resurrection from the dead, whereby, as we just read at the end of chapter three, who will transform our lowly bodies that it may be conformed to his glorious body according to the working by which he is able to subdue even all things unto himself. And so this is the view, the mind, the regard, of the Apostle Paul as he is seeking to encourage this mature church in Philippi. He says, finally, brethren, rejoice in the Lord in this manner. Now as we come to verse 15 and 16, As he says this, so you can think about it this way, he says, finally, brother, rejoice in the Lord. And he says all that we just said. And then we come to this verse 15, it says, therefore. Right. Therefore, let us, as many as are mature, have this mind. This mind that that he just described. And if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal evenness to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that which we have already attained, let us walk. By the same rule, let us be of the same mind." That's what we're going to think about today. So, when he says, therefore, I've kind of made the point and drawn our attention to it. We should definitely connect what comes before with what it is he's now saying. And it's kind of like, we know what that means in normal English language. If we say something, we say, therefore, there's kind of a cause and effect, there's a relationship between these two things. And so as he has said what he has said, he is now saying, therefore, let us, the people of God, those who are in Philippi that he's writing to, those of us today who are reading this centuries later, and he includes himself, let us, he's bringing an exhortation now. Let us, as many as are mature, have this mind. Now, the first thing I want to do is we think about this statement or this mind. We've already defined what the mind is, but I want to think about what this statement about as many as are mature, because we could he could have written let us let us therefore have this mind. But he he adds this qualifier that says as many as are mature. So Paul speaks about Christian maturity, and this is very important to understand. Well, the Bible does speak about Christian growth, growing in grace and knowledge. We're going to look at a passage a little bit later that has that phrase, growing in grace and knowledge. So it is important to understand what this means, because it is twisted. This definition of being mature or growing or having grown In progressing, any of these terms, progressing can be understood in a bunch of different ways. And that false teachers will always twist that because they can't understand it in any other way except according to themselves and the way we naturally think about progression and who gets the credit for the progression, right? But first, let's think about what the definition of maturity is, just in general. The definition of maturity is brought to its end, or finished, wanting nothing necessary to completeness. So Paul defines Christian maturity as having this mind. He says, therefore as many as are mature have this mind about you. So what does it mean to have this mind? It means that way of thinking, that pattern of thinking, or that regard for Things having to do with God and with life and with myself. This way of thinking, this mind. If you remember earlier on in Philippians, in chapter 2, Paul speaks about having this mind in us that was in Christ Jesus. So he's thinking about how we are to think about ourselves and our lives in this world. How we are to conduct ourselves as we have this mind. We think about things in a certain way and according to some principle, which in this case is the truth of the gospel that God has mercifully revealed to us. So Paul is saying to be mature, to be complete, lacking nothing is to have this mind that he just got done describing, which is to say that we do not have confidence in the flesh. We do not boast in the flesh. We don't look to ourselves. To be mature as a Christian is to trust in God alone. To find all of our hope and comfort in Him. It is to look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. way to describe our Christian life as being mature. As you live your life, as we think about progressing through our Christian life, you know, day one, year one, year 10, year 20, 30, 40, right? If God carries and you live that long, 40 years as a Christian, you are on day 40, year 40, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith, just like you were on day one or day five. Now this runs against the way that people tend to think about the Christian life of sanctification. People tend to think about it and preach, when I say people I mean false religion, tends to talk about or to give this idea that Christian progression is that as we go through our life, we are becoming more and more righteous. Like if you live long enough, the idea goes that you might become almost perfect. and that when you're 40 years into your Christian walk, you just don't struggle with 80% of the sins that you struggled with on day one. That's totally different than what Paul is saying here. Because what Paul is advocating is that Christian maturity has everything to do with the understanding in my 40th year as a Christian, that I have nothing in myself and that I have absolutely no confidence in my flesh before God, and that all of my confidence is grounded in the Lord Jesus Christ, my Savior, my righteousness, my sanctification, my wisdom. He is my life. I am in Him, Paul says. I am found in Him. The Apostle Paul, talk about maturity, right? At the end of his life, if you can say it this way, is more convinced than at the beginning of his Christian life that he has nothing good in himself. He is finding more precious the righteousness of Christ in which he stands, and that's what it means to be mature, that we are found in him more and more and more, fighting against the flesh which would cause us to have confidence in our flesh. This is a constant battle. And Paul says, as many of us as are mature. Have this mind. Well, if you're already mature and you already are there, then why say so, Paul? Why? Why? Why bring this admonishment? Because it's a constant battle, it's a constant struggle. The old man never is put to death completely until the day that we are conformed to the glorious image of Christ. Until the day of the resurrection, you will never not face a day when you will have to fight against your sin. You will have to fight every single day of your Christian life against the tendency that we have to have confidence in our flesh, to find something in us. And along with that, every day of our life, as we dwell together individually and corporately as a church, we will never face a day in our corporate life together as God's people. where we will not be bombarded with the fine sounding arguments of this world in a false religion, which would seek to convince us that we should, in some little way, have confidence in our flesh. And so what Paul is doing is he is seeking to direct us to not have confidence in our flesh. And he is describing the Christian walk as one where we are seeking this more and more. If we want to talk about progressing, if we want to talk about maturity is to be found more and more in what Christ has done. So we never what this means is, is that we should never, ever in our Christian life where the church would never get to the point of saying, well, you know, we all know that Jesus died on the cross. We all know that he has died for the sins of his people. We all know that he was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. We all know this, so let's move beyond that to talking about how we should live. Do this, don't do that. Do this, don't do that. As if the law would ever produce righteousness in anyone. As if the law would ever cause us to stop having confidence in our flesh. The law will never produce that in a Christian. What produces the understanding that we are to have and cannot and do not have anything to boast in our flesh is the gospel. The gospel is what uncovers us. The gospel is a revelation of righteousness. It is that to which we are to look every single day of our Christian life to the very end. Christ is, looking unto Jesus, the author from day one and the finisher. He will finish what he has begun. As we look to him by faith, we are found in him and we are and will attain to the resurrection through him. Now, this exhortation to maturity or to to understand that we are to be looking unto him and looking unto his righteousness and believing in him is not specific to the Philippian letter. If we could turn to Colossians chapter two. This is another place that, again, the Colossian church was, if you want to call it a mature church, it didn't face a lot of the difficulties that a church like Corinth did. But in Colossians 2 and verse 4, we read some of these passages. He says, Now this I say, lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words. By the way, false doctrine is persuasive. to our flesh. It is persuasive because it holds out a way for me to think about myself that makes me feel good about myself. That causes me to have some kind of standing before God and before other people. So, false doctrine is always persuasive. It always sounds good to the natural ear. And so we need to be on guard against it. And that's what Paul's doing. He's calling them to be on guard, as we read on here in Colossians 2. For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. Beware, lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him. who is the head of all principality and power. You are complete in Him. You are mature. You are the very completeness of Christ. You are righteous in Him. It's like we have to continue to be told and reminded that we are complete. That we can rest. We are to diligently enter His rest, as it says in Hebrews. Rest from what? Rest from our own works. Rest from boasting in the flesh. Resting from working to gain favor from God, or the approval of men. So Paul, obviously, in Colossians, is very concerned as he writes to this church. He brackets this statement that as we have received Christ, so we are to walk in Him. How did we receive Christ? How does a person receive Christ? Well, by grace. We receive Christ as we come to see our total unworthiness before him. We come to believe in him, knowing that he is righteous. We know that his righteousness is ours and that we could do nothing to present ourselves to God. We received him with unworthy, trembling hands, knowing that God has had mercy on me. knowing that if God did not show mercy on me, I would be lost forever and condemned. That's how I received Christ, at the beginning of my Christian life, my Christian walk, however you want to describe it. So Paul says to the Colossians, as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. In other words, You don't change what you come to know. You don't change what it is that you look to, what it is that you hope in, what it is that you believe in all the rest of the days of your life. Right. So we believe in and look to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the author and finisher of our faith every single day of our life. And in some ways, we could say this, that we may be tempted to say, well, we always talk about that. We always think about Christ and his work. Should we really be talking about something else? And that's where all the stuff that false teachers want to direct us to, and that's what he goes on to actually say in Colossians, they were being beguiled by all this stuff. that was being brought to them through the taking delight in false humility, worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up in his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head who is Christ. That's what false teaching does. It seeks to distract us and to turn us away from the head, from the Lord Jesus Christ. So just as we have been just as we have received him as we began our Christian life when we were born again. So we are to walk in him. So that's that's another place in the scriptures where we see this sort of admonition given to the people of God as they journey in this Christian life on this Christian walk through this life to the to our heavenly home. Now. As that is a definition of maturity, what goes along with that is that we are not to put up with these deceiving doctrines. It's not just to say, well, I know what I am to do. But Paul is by example, as he writes to the Philippians, as he writes to the Colossians, as he writes to all of them, as he writes, he says, this is the truth and this is not the truth. And he doesn't put up with the truth, excuse me, with the lie. He doesn't put up with the lie. He calls it out and he calls the lie a lie. And he says, you should run from this lie. That's what he said to the Philippians. Beware of the dog. Beware of the circumcision. Beware of the evil workers. So Christian maturity is marked by not just having no confidence in the flesh, but it is to disdain and to come against that which would come against the liberty and the freedom that we have in Christ. So we do say, we do teach, we do declare what the gospel is and what it isn't. If it is precious to us, we say what it isn't and we defend it and we take a stand as those who are bondservants of Christ. We are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe. And so we know that the truth has set us free and that it is our life, day one, all the way to the end of our Christian life. It is that by which we live, in which we hope, and it is in that that we boast and have our confidence. And so the Apostle Paul would seek to stir those who are mature to that end, that we would be progressing, if you want to put it that way, and describing it that way, progressing toward that that understanding more fully, experiencing it more poignantly in our life day to day. So we already talked about the wrong view of Christian maturity in one respect, where there's this idea of becoming outwardly moral. We've actually run into people throughout the years, there's one guy, this is long ago, who actually felt, he believed that he could be righteous for days on end and not sin. I remember talking to that guy, and it was like, where are you coming from? And this idea that as I'm sanctified, I'm getting rid of more and more of sin, and that pretty soon in my Christian life, it's hard for me to figure out where there's sin anymore. Because I've been perfected so much. Even though I might give God all the credit. We have an example in Luke 18. of a man who thought just this way. I want to read verses 8 to 14. Jesus also spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves. That they were righteous and despised others, and that's what happens when you trust in yourself. That's what happens when you have confidence in the flesh. You despise other people because you think you're better than them. You think the difference between you and them is in you. So then he tells this parable. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers. And even as this tax collector, I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. And the tax collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven. would beat his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted. So the Pharisee who God through Jesus is using as an example of somebody who trusted himself. Is thanking God. Mind you. He is thanking God that he's not like other men. Now, that's important for us to understand and listen to this and understand this and kind of reason through this a little bit. Because what this man is basically thinking as he thanks God that he's not like other men is he's attributing his good work, which is described here as someone who, what does he say? Exhaustion is unjust, twice a week, he raises his eyes. He gives tithes. He fasts twice a week. He gives tithes. He does these things and he thanks God for that. He's thanking God. He's apparently ascribing something from God in terms of these things that he does. So he's giving God the credit. God gets all the credit. Have we heard that before? God gets all the credit. It's the Spirit's work in us. I thank God I'm not like other men. I thank God I'm not like that tax collector. Listen to what he's saying. The tax collector can barely raise his eyes and he's crying out to God, beating his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me as a sinner. Well, tax collector, what you need to do is get up. You need to progress through your life so you're like me. You know? Stop crying out to God for mercy. You need to get on with the Christian life. The Pharisee, even though he gave God all the credit, even though he may have said, the Spirit was working in me, saw himself in distinction from other people whom he ultimately looked down on with a proud heart and wagging his head slapping his tongue in complete disdain for Christ. Because what he saw as the difference between himself and that poor tax collector who couldn't even raise his eyes before God in a sense, knowing that he was thoroughly sinful before a holy and righteous God, crying out for mercy. The difference in the eyes and the mind and the heart of this Pharisee was in himself, even though he with words gave gave God the credit. This is a man who saw himself as having progressed, as having matured. The Apostle Paul, when he writes to the Philippians, as he describes, if anyone wanted to have confidence, boast and boast, I got more, right? He described the man that he was as an unregenerate man who was all about serving God with all kinds of zeal. But it was not according to knowledge. It was not according to the truth. Because what he was doing was seeking to establish his own righteousness before God. And he was not submitted to the righteousness of God. So this is the way of all false religion. This is the way of what it means to progress in false religion. And this is appealing to us. We in our flesh like this. We like to be told that we can progress and that we can think that we've arrived to the gold level status. And if you work a little hard, you can reach the platinum status. Right. And that's why titles are very important to people who are into this. You can flatter somebody with a title. You can call on the education director of the church and you're flattering that person to their demise. And boy, don't we like titles. Don't we like to be flattered in our religious walk, in our progress in this life. It's appealing to the flesh. What the Gospel does is it keeps on illuminating the truth about who we are. It continues to expose us each and every day of our lives that yeah, while we're saved by grace, we still sin before God, and that sin cost Jesus Christ His life. And we're reminded of what our sin truly deserves before a holy God. And we are humbled over and over and over again and how precious his mercy is to us. And we are on our face before God, just like that tax collector, beating our chest, crying out to God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Paul says, I am the chief of sinners. When people saw him and his outward character and conduct as a saved man, they probably would not have made that assessment about him. because he lived according to the truth and he sought to put away evil and to desire what is righteous. But in his mind, in his heart, he knew his own thoughts better than anyone else. Just like you know your own thoughts better than I know your thoughts. But God knows all of our thoughts. He knows the sin that is conceived and born in the old man in our hearts every single day. And if we're truthful about ourselves, we are sinning against God a lot of the day. That doesn't mean that we sin, that grace may increase. But what it means is that we have this body of death such that we cry out with the Apostle Paul, who will save me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ, my Lord. And so we find the precious reality of Jesus Christ all the more precious. We should as we progress and mature as believers. We hunger and thirst after His perfections, not ours. And when we have done all that we can do, we are yet unprofitable servants, not seeking to find any confidence in our flesh whatsoever. There's another way that's false, and again, it's good to help us to understand what progression or maturity means by way of what it isn't. And there's another popular way of describing, unfortunately, Christian maturity, and that is something like this, that I start out my life as a Christian, believing in the idea that I had something to do with my salvation, at least according to the words that I speak. You know, I say something like this, that Jesus died for everyone, and I am the reason, ultimately, that I'm saved. That I accepted Jesus, or I walk up to the front of the church, or I raise my hand in the back of the church, right? It's something I did, that God looked out, he saw 100 people, he saw 5 of them do it, therefore they're saved, and the other 95 are lost. And they had better do the same thing before they die, otherwise they're going to perish. That's where many think Christian living begins, with this idea that I have accepted Jesus as my personal Savior. That is the way that 99% of Christianity today thinks about the beginning of Christian life. And then if you're fortunate enough and you might run across somebody that's reformed and they'll sit there and they'll bring you under their wing and they'll give you a couple books and they'll talk to you about how what they have come to know is far more precious than what you have come to know. Although they understand because they were there too. But they have progressed. They have matured, you see. They have matured through the Christian life, and God has revealed these things to us people called reformed folks. Right. This idea, we're all familiar with this. Sadly, we've seen this in our own experience recently, giving over to this idea that people can be born in a lie. And by the way. There's a subtle way to get around this as well. where somebody will say, well, some people, when they say that they're the reason for their salvation, that they really don't believe that. They just say that. But in their heart, they really don't believe that. Well, they actually do believe that. And if you try to convince them that they don't believe that, they'll get really mad at you. And they'll say, well, no, I actually do believe that. Why are you telling me I don't believe that? And they will make for certain if you bother to deal with that issue. Now, see, what we do is, in our cowardness, is we don't deal with it. We say it takes time. And so we toss the pamphlets and the books after years and years, hoping that maybe they'll come our way. But if you bother to deal with that issue and talk to somebody who's saying what they will say, and ascribing the reason for their salvation, they will make it perfectly clear to you what they believe. But that's what, unfortunately, that's where toleration sets in. And so we figure out this clever way to remove the offense of the cross. We figure out this way through the fine sounding arguments of religious reformed men and how it is that we can get around the offense of the Lord Jesus Christ and that there is only one way to God and that is through Him. And that no one is established before God truly except that it comes through the cross of Christ and the truth of who He is. And unless you believe on Him, the true Christ, you are not saved. You're really playing church. And if you play church until the day that you meet your maker, you will be cast into the lake of fire. And by God's grace, as we meet these kinds of statements, these kinds of sentiments, these kinds of teachings, these ideas that get floated out there, which people say, oh, that's interesting. I think I'll chew on that for a while and we'll see where it leads me. We are, as those who are mature, those who are Growing in grace and knowledge, we are to put those away, we are to come against them, and we are to warn those who may find themselves giving ear and giving heed to those things. Let's turn to Hebrews chapter 5. There's a couple of examples in the scriptures, many, but there's a couple of examples of what it means to not have confidence in the flesh as we think about progressing through the Christian life. Hebrews chapter 5, beginning in verse 12. Now mind you, the Hebrew Christians, if we think about the letter that was written to the Hebrew Christians, how can you sum it up? There's a real simple way to sum up the significance of the letter that was written to the Hebrew Christians. It speaks about Christ, his efficiency, his sufficiency, his effectiveness as the great high priest, as the lamb that was slain for his people. If there's any book in the Bible that speaks directly, pulling together the types and shadows of the Old Testament, pulling them all together, it is the book of Hebrews. And the reason that Paul is doing that, as he writes to the Hebrew Christians, is because they were facing persecution and they were facing trials and they were tempted to turn and to go back to Egypt. They were tempted to go back to the ways of Hebraism because they were facing the persecution of their brethren, according to the national heritage. If you're not sure, if you question that, all you have to do is look at the end of chapter 10, starting in verse 22, 23. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. For he who is promised is faithful." Now listen to these words and think about what the Apostle Paul is saying to these Christian believers who are facing trials and persecutions. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another in so much the more as you see the day approaching. For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment do you suppose will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing and insulted the spirit of grace. For we know him who said, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. And again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But recall the former days in which after you were illuminated, meaning after they became Christians, you endured a great struggle with sufferings. partly while you were made a spectacle, both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated. For you had compassion on me and my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. Therefore, do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith. But if anyone draws back, draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul. So the temptation of the Hebrew Christians was to draw back to perdition. Perdition. It was to ultimately turn away from the Lord Jesus Christ. And then, of course, in chapter 11, he goes on to speak about faith. He defines what faith is and he draws their attention to this great cloud of witnesses in the Old Testament who had the same faith that they have. And then, of course, in the first part of chapter 12, he says, therefore. Right, since we are surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. That kind of describes just this in a summary of what was the context of this letter landing in the hands of the Hebrew Christians of the time. So back to Hebrews, chapter five, verse 12, he says, for though by this time you ought to be teachers. You need someone to teach you again the first 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 unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, meaning of maturity. That in those, excuse me, yeah, is those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Let me read that again. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." So Paul is admonishing and rebuking the Hebrew Christians because of their lack of progress. He said, you should be teachers by now. So what is their lack of progress? Well, it's this context. Right. He goes on, as we just read from Hebrews chapter 10. They need to run with with endurance, the race that is set before them. Their temptation was to turn back. So they started to give heed to the false teaching, to all that fine sounding stuff that was rooted in the Jewish tradition that was distracting them away from the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom God has now spoken in these latter times. They were being directed away from the Lord who is our great high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Who is the fullness and the substance of the Passover lamb. He is the fullness and the substance of all the priestly service. All that was inadequate with the ceremonies and the law and the priesthood and the sacrifices which had to be repeated over and over again. Paul is drawing their attention to the Lord Jesus Christ who is that sacrifice that was offered once for all. And that as He has offered Himself, He has sat down at the right hand of God. This is what Paul is driving them to all throughout this letter. They're being distracted from this. They're being turned away from this. The Lord Jesus Christ in all of His glory was being obscured from their spiritual view. They were not progressing. They were going the wrong way in a sense. They needed to be slapped up alongside the head spiritually and said, wake up. It is in him that you have all of your hope and in all of your confidence. If you go over to chapter six in Hebrews. In verse 11, I'm skipping a little bit here, but he says, and we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end. You see that same diligence to enter that full assurance to the very end of your Christian life as you progress, as you mature. That you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises. For when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, saying, Surely, blessing, I will bless you, and multiplying, I will multiply you. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise, for men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them, an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, in which enters the presence behind the veil where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek." And Exon describes Melchizedek and his significance of this priesthood, which Christ is the answer to that. And so anyway, this is a this is one of several places that I was going to direct us to for the sake of time. I'm not going to look at First Corinthians three. You can note it if you want to look at it. Paul is obviously there's many rebukes brought to the Corinthians. And when we're not finding all of our confidence and hope in Christ and we're rather looking to ourselves in our hearts and our minds, it will start to look like things. In the case of the Corinthians, it was division. It was how they were using each other. It was sexual immorality. It was taking each other to court and not getting along. It was looking to the different apostles and saying, well, I'm with Paul, I'm with Cephas, and I'm with this guy. You know, this division and all this confusion. And what Paul does, interestingly, as he rebukes the Corinthian church is he starts out in the very beginning of that letter and he lays the foundation of the gospel to them. Not because they didn't know it, but he knows that this is the answer and from which the power comes to right people's mind, to cause them to be of the right mind. So we're not going to have time to look into that, but that's another place that you can go to think about the rebuke that comes the admonition that comes by scripture when Christians like you and I were finding themselves in a situation where they needed to be directed to a proper progress, right? To hope in Christ alone and to have no confidence in the flesh. Now just to close, I want to just comment on the last two things. Back in Philippians 3, in verse 15, he says, Therefore, let us, as many as are mature, have this mind, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal evenness to you. Now, one point that we can make from this very clearly is that God will bring correction, and only God brings correction in our thinking. He is the one that would cause the Corinthians or the Hebrews to stop trusting in themselves or to be caught up in the fine-sounding arguments that distracted them from Christ and from their spiritual life in Him. God is the one that brings that. We don't. Even me speaking to you or Paul speaking to the Corinthians or to the Hebrews is not going to bring any kind of correction. God is the one who reveals these things to his people. So we can be thankful if we are in our Christian lives, we might be sluggish and we might be in great need of diligence. And as we would see that as God would reveal that to us, it is his doing. He is the one that produces that by the power of the gospel that is proclaimed to that individual. God is the one that reveals the truth to his people. And he does that over and over and over again in our lives. He does it at the beginning of our Christian life and he uses the same truth over and over again to reveal, to shine a bright light on our sin and what our need truly is. Just as you received Christ, so walk in him. So God will reveal even this to you. He's talking to believers. He's not talking. He's not. That statement is not intended for unbelievers. He's talking to those who are in need of this admonition. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained and we talked about and Paul earlier says that I have not yet attained. And we said that the definition of that is the resurrection from the dead. So Paul is certainly not contradicting what he just said. He's not saying, I've achieved 40% of my resurrection from the dead here. And actually the word degree is in italics, it's not even in the original. So what he's basically saying is, nevertheless, to that which we have attained, what is it that we have already attained? Because previously he was talking about that which he has not yet attained, which is the resurrection. So what is it on our journey through this life longing for that day when we will attain to the resurrection of the dead? What is it that we now have already attained? We've attained faith. We have attained to the hope of the resurrection. We have attained the knowledge that comes through the revelation of God through the spirit of the truth of the gospel. All that we just talked about, we have already attained. And it is through that that God sanctifies us. It is through that that He causes us to continue on the straight path to heaven. So Paul says, to the degree that we have already attained that, let us walk by the same rule. Let us, together as God's people, encourage each other and walk according to this that I have laid out for you. let us be of the same mind. So he's repeating what he's already said, stressing the importance, the absolute importance of this truth and this reality as we are together as God's people in the church, that we are to be of the same mind about these things as God's people. I'm going to finish by reading 2 Peter, in 2 Peter chapter 3. Mind you, in the preceding chapter, there is a great warning about false teachers. And Second Peter, chapter two is a parallel to Jude, but you can look at the differences. But in chapter three, he says, Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder. that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, knowing this first, that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation." So they're denying the resurrection from the dead, and they're denying the promises of God, and they're praying on the struggles that God's people have, where we say, Lord, come quickly, and we don't see that necessarily in our day-to-day, that answer to that always, right? So they're praying on the flesh by introducing false doctrine. But he goes on in verse 5, For this they willfully forget, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth, which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promises, as some count slackness. but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness? looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace without spot and blameless, and considering that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation, as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of things in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures. You, brethren beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you fall You fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be glory, both now and forever. Amen. I said at the beginning that we would read this because the statement about growing, progressing, maturing is something that is in the Scriptures. And we are called to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Looking unto Him, the author and finisher of our faith, not having any confidence in our flesh, finding all of our confidence, hope, righteousness, sanctification, and eternal life in Him. And brethren, that's what it means to mature. That's what it means to be mature as a Christian. That's what it means to be complete in every good work. That's what it means to progress. We can say that about ourselves today, but tomorrow we need to be diligent, to not be sluggish. We need to enter that rest again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next year, the next five years until the day we are with him. We need to be mindful of these things, we need to be reminded of these things, we need to be stirred up. And our coming together in church and fellowship and interacting is one of the ways in which God keeps us on that path and in that mind. And we are called, as Paul in closing calls the Philippians, to be of this mind. Let's pray.