Well let's open to the book of Hebrews. We're going to be looking into Hebrews chapter 5, verse 11, through chapter 6, verse 3 this morning. But I want to begin reading in verse 8 of chapter 5 to give us some context. Hebrews 5.8, Although he was a son, he learned obedience from the things which he suffered. And having been made perfect, he became to all those who obey him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you've come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to or is not skillful in the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature who, because of practice, have trained their senses to discern good and evil. Therefore, leaving the elementary teaching or principles about the Christ, the Messiah, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. Father, we ask for understanding. We ask You would teach our minds and our hearts in Your Word this morning. And Lord, let this Word change us. Let this Word make us fruitful for Your kingdom and for Your glory. In Christ's name, Amen. The author of Hebrews, as we have seen, wrote to Jewish Christians who had made professions of faith in Christ. They'd come into the assembly of Christians. And the writer called this an exhortation. To exhort them to trust and believe in the promises of God. To persevere in the faith. That's his objective here. He was concerned they had become apathetic. They had become sluggish. And these were people who had been through layers of persecution. Not to martyrdom, but they'd lost property. They had demonstrated their concern for others. They'd made professions of faith. And yet, he was concerned that they were becoming apathetic, sluggish in the faith. And he warned them about the consequences of turning away from Christ. He began by reminding his readers who Jesus Christ is. That He's the eternal Son of God who's come in the flesh. That He is better than the prophets of old sent by God. That He's better than the angels. That He is above Moses in all things. And that He has brought a better rest than that rest to which Joshua delivered the sons of Jacob when he led them into the land of Canaan. Beginning in chapter 4, verse 16, he began to teach them about the greater priesthood of Christ. And in light of all these truths, the writer has warned and exhorted them, they must pay much closer attention to what they've heard. So they don't drift away from it. They must take heed. to guard against any one of them falling into an evil heart of unbelief that falls away from the living God. He warned them to fear the possibility of failing to enter into the rest that God has for His people. through unbelief and through disobedience to God. And he's warned them that if one continues in disobedience to God, he will, over time, become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. And he will fail to enter into God's rest, God's glory. He reminded them by the example of the Israelites in the wilderness. Who had heard God's voice when He spoke. Who saw His divine works. And who yet, when their moment of truth came, did not believe God. Finally, they became hardened in their disobedience. And as a result, God did not permit them to enter into the land of Canaan. And over the next 40 years, every one of them, over the age of 20, died in the wilderness. And look at God's words. As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. Several times in this letter already, the writer has repeated the warning of Psalm 95 in verse 7. Today, if you hear his voice, don't harden your heart. And he's exhorted them to encourage one another daily. I hope we hear this message. It's so important. Why? So they will not become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. So, to this point, the writers taught us that God has given us His Word, His very Word from heaven, through His Son, and now through His apostles, inspired by the Holy Spirit. That He's given us the encouragement of one another in the body of Christ. And He's given us prayer to help us to grow in the grace and the knowledge of Him. And to protect us from falling away, to protect us from apostasy. And we'll see what the danger of apostasy is next Lord's Day when we look into chapter 6, verses 4 and following. But in chapter 4, verse 14, the writer began to focus on the priesthood of Christ. Showing them and showing us that His is a better priesthood than any priesthood there ever was on earth. Including the priesthood of Aaron and his sons, which was ordained by God. And in light of the fact that we have this great high priest who's passed through the heavens. The writer exhorted them. Hold fast your confession. Persevere in the faith. Our confession is that which we believe. And what is that? That the eternal Son of God, the second person of the glorious Trinity, became a man and lived a sinless, righteous life in obedience to God. That He died for our sins. That He was raised on the third day, and that He has ascended back to His Father and now reigns over all things in heaven, on earth, visible and invisible. Our hope is in believing in and trusting in His sinless life, His atoning death for our sins. And in believing the promise of God, as Abraham did. Believing the promise of glory. Through faith in Him, He has imputed His righteousness to us, so that God looks upon us and sees a righteous person. And so, all that having been done, the writer exhorts us, while we live on this earth, to live in light of these truths, in light of the promise. He reminds us, as well, that in the Son of God, now incarnate, Jesus of Nazareth, we have a high priest at the right hand of the Father, an advocate for ourselves. One who intercedes with the Father on our behalf. One who, because He is now not only divine but human, who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin, can sympathize with our weaknesses. And because this is true, we can now do something the writer has told us that the sons of Jacob could never do under the old covenant. We can draw near with confidence to the throne of grace. We can draw near to God. And that's the invitation we saw in verse 16 of chapter 4. Well, two weeks ago, We saw that Jesus, the Son of God, had been designated by the Father as a priest. And it's an interesting choice of words here, isn't it? A priest according to the order of Melchizedek. This was prophesied in the psalm. Melchizedek was this mysterious figure that we meet in Genesis chapter 14. He was called both a king and a priest, king of peace, king of righteousness. And he met Abraham and blessed him when Abraham returned from his victory over Kedurlamar and these kings of the east who had taken not only the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, but also his son Lot or his nephew Lot hostage. Now God had spoken in the psalm. And He said that the king whom He would set on His right hand would be a priest as well. He would be a priest according to the order of Melchizedek. And then the writer of Hebrews stops. in verse 11 of chapter 5. He pauses in his teaching on the priesthood of Christ and he says this, Concerning Him, Christ, our High Priest, we have much to say, but it's hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. they'd become dull of hearing. Some view the passage that begins here in verse 11 through the end of chapter 6 as a kind of parenthesis. I think that's probably right. A temporary interruption in his teaching on Christ's priesthood. In this passage, the exhortation is very pastoral. He's concerned about their apathy. About their lack of hunger for the Word of God. What if some or many of those who had received this exhortation were not paying close attention to what they had heard? What if they weren't? What if they were falling away? And that's the writer's concern. It's clear he had a great concern about the spiritual condition of his readers. He was concerned about the possibility of their continuing to remain apathetic and eventually backsliding and even turning away completely from Christ. He was concerned they weren't growing in the faith with their spiritual immaturity, with their lack of spiritual commitment. And that's why he wrote this exhortation to them. So here in verse 11, he pauses. Though he has much to say concerning Christ's priesthood, he pauses because they have become dull of hearing, and he has something to say to them. So what's he mean by all this? Let's look what he says here in verses 12 through 14. He says, by this time you ought to be teachers, but You have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God. You've come to need milk again and not solid food." And then he says, one who partakes only of milk isn't accustomed to, is unskilled in the word of righteousness. He's an infant. Solid food is for the mature believer who because of practice has his senses trained to discern good and evil. So he's saying there's more to teach them about Christ and his priesthood, including some things that are difficult to explain. But their own lack of growth had limited their ability to hear not only the writer, but the voice of God. The Lord, you know, speaks to us quite clearly. His word is called the light of the world. But the brightness of His Word, Calvin says, becomes dim to us through our own darkness, our dullness of mind, our lust for the things of this world, our own laziness. And what do we do? We go about applying our minds to so many things other than to God's truth. So for these people, perhaps doubt had crept in. Perhaps they'd begun to lose sight of the fact that the old covenant system and all that it foreshadowed had now been fulfilled in Christ and had been rendered obsolete. Certainly there was a danger of them falling back into Judaism. But the greater danger was their apathy at this point in time. And he says, look at these words, by this time you ought to be teachers. What does this mean? This means these were not new converts. These were people who'd been in the churches. He did not mean that all should be ministers. But He did mean that they should have, by that time, been able to explain their faith to others. How are we going to share the gospel? How are we going to share the Word of God if we don't know what the Word of God says? All Christians are called to be salt and light in this world. To go and make disciples. But it seems they had failed to grasp and certainly had failed to build on the elementary principles of the Christian faith. Verse 12, look what he says. You have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God. You've come to need milk and not solid food. It's as though he was saying you must be taught the alphabet all over again. You've lost sight of why you became a Christian in the first place. Folks, we must continue the process of learning about God and coming to know God throughout our entire life. This isn't something we do in an instant and then set aside. This is a life's work. This is the Christian's life work, is to know God better. Every wise man knows he's far from a perfect knowledge, but we still must seek to progress in our learning. That's the point here. We must move beyond the elementary principles. And it seems as though the writer here was goading them to rouse them from their apathy and their laziness. And there's a great lesson for us here. And it's this. Doctrine matters. Doctrine matters. We must know what we believe. We must know what God said. We are called to love God But we can only truly love one whom we truly know. In order to love God, we must know Him. And we can only come to know Him in the Scripture. Yes, we can know of His great power in creation. But to truly know Him, we must meet Him in Scripture. The people to whom this exhortation was originally addressed, they didn't have the great advantages that we have. Some of the Scriptures might not have even been written, much less copied and distributed. Certainly there wasn't any widespread distribution of any of the Scriptures at this point. And yet the writer rebukes them for their failure to learn the teachings of God. He'd hinted at this before, hadn't he? We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard. So the point is this. How are you going to share Christ and the Christian faith with others if you haven't learned the truths of Scripture and are not living them yourself? We say, come to Jesus. Why? Well, we have to know how to answer that question. And the other questions that so many who are of the world still have. Richard Phillips, in his excellent commentary on Hebrews, said this. We are living in a time when most church members are immensely ignorant of the Bible and its doctrines. Now just think about that. He says, evangelicals heartily agree that the Bible is true, but they simply don't take the time to learn what it teaches. Now Phillips cites a 1999 Gallup survey, just 20 years ago. You'll be shocked at what he found in this survey. Most professing Christians could not list in the survey half of the Ten Commandments. or cite the names of the four Gospels, or explain what is meant by the term justification. More than half didn't know who Abraham was or what Paul wrote about in the book of Romans. Phillips is asked if the Bible says God helps those who help themselves. A statement I trust we know was made by Benjamin Franklin. Eighty percent of self-described evangelical Christians said yes. Now some say this circumstance is largely the fault of those in the pulpits, a product of shallow preaching that's often more focused on the customs and things of this world than on the Word of God. I'll leave that determination to others. But clearly this circumstance is also the result of professing Christians failing or refusing to immerse themselves daily in the only truth that can save them from eternal fire, the Word of God. Philip says it's no wonder then that the secular culture is unimpressed by teachings in which we ourselves are so disinterested. This is pretty much the circumstance the writer of Hebrews was looking at. And he's showing us here that every professing believer in Christ ought to know and be able to explain the truths, the doctrines of the Christian faith to others. And what do we do? We set it aside and say, well that's for the preachers. That's for so-and-so. That's for so-and-so. Yes, our ministry might be something other than preaching. For most, that's the case. That's not a basis on which to say, I don't need to know and learn the Scriptures. And the only way one can become able to explain the doctrines of the Christian faith to others is by diligent attendance to the preaching and the teaching of the Word of God, and by diligent attendance to the daily reading and study of the Word of God. There isn't some third way. It's truly amazing how many things professing Christians find more important and more interesting than the Word of God. How is one to grow in Christ if he has so many things that are more important to him? And we see what's happening here in this congregation of Hebrew Christians. And by the way, the writer isn't speaking merely of head knowledge. He's speaking of lives that reflect what we say we believe. If the unbelieving don't see Christ in us, His love, His compassion, they're not going to be moved to come to Him. So the writer here minces no words, does he? And he makes a comparison between milk and solid food that was commonplace in the early church. It was also a common in Greek philosophy between infants still in need of milk and the mature who are able to take solid food. Now Paul, he makes the same comparison in 1st Corinthians chapter 3. Verse 1, And I, brethren, could not speak to you as spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you're not able, because you're still fleshly. There's jealousy and strife among you. If that's the case, are you not fleshly? Are you not walking like mere men? The distinction that Paul made was that the people in Corinth were still living in the flesh, were still of the flesh, living according to the flesh. And that was why they could not receive solid food. The writer of Hebrews chastises his readers for failing to grow in the knowledge of God, as they should. Paul and Peter both frequently urge their readers to grow. Grow in the grace and knowledge of Him who has called you. And in Colossians chapter 1, verses 9 through 11, Paul shows the important relationship You may be asking, why is this so important that I know the Scripture so well? Look at Colossians 1, 9 through 11. He shows the important relationship between the knowledge of God and the things of God, on the one hand, and the fruit we bear in our lives. For this reason also, he says, Since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Why? So that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. There's a great connection between our knowledge of Him and our walk with Him. to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God." Ephesians 4, Paul told his readers that God sent apostles and pastors and others in the early church to equip the saints to serve and help build the church. By doing what? By teaching them the things of God. We cannot, we must not set aside the teaching of Scripture. We must not set aside our own learning what God has said to us. And the writer here tells his readers they still need someone to teach them the elementary principles of the oracles of God. This is a mark of spiritual infants. And if that's the case, that means they are still unaccustomed to the word of righteousness. The King James, unskillful in the word of righteousness. And this phrase refers not merely to the gospel itself, although it includes that, but to that completeness of knowledge that Paul is always writing about. The completeness of knowledge to a growth, to a mature man that leads to perfection. As though he had said that those who are satisfied as though he had said that those who are satisfied that they know all they need to know, that they know all they want to know, preclude themselves from a genuine knowledge of Christ. And that the doctrine of the gospel is unfruitful in them because they never reach the goal or don't even truly pursue it. They refuse solid doctrine. Settling for what they think of as a basic knowledge of Christ. And then stopping there. These Jewish Christians, to whom this exhortation was addressed, had reached a plateau. We hear a lot about plateaus these days. Leveling off. Flattening curves. The life of the Christian should never be a flattening of the curve. It should always be on an upward climb in terms of our lives and in terms of our knowledge of God. These people had reached a plateau. And they seemed satisfied with the point they had reached. But Paul shows that the ultimate objective isn't to get to a certain level and stay there. but to admonish and teach every man that each may become complete in Christ." Colossians 128, we proclaim Him admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom so that we may present every man complete in Christ. So we're not all called to be preachers and teachers. But we are all called to be hearers and learners and readers. For the writer of Hebrews, it's a matter of great consequence that we know the God who created us and who saved us. And we can only learn about Him and come to know Him more deeply in the word He has spoken to us. I want to remind us again about the people to whom this word of exhortation was sent. These were not new converts. These were people who'd been in the church for some time. They had helped care for others. They'd lost their own property and suffered great hardship. That's who he's talking to here. Chapter 10, verse 32, look what he says to them. Remember the former days when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated. For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting These weren't people who just come in off the street. These were people who had suffered for their faith. They had come to Christ at great cost to themselves. And yet, even with this, they were in danger of falling away. A danger. They would become apostate if they did not cling mightily to God's truth and feed themselves with God's truth. With all they'd learned and all they'd been through, they should have been stronger in the faith. They should have been more firmly rooted. They should have been less prone to backsliding and apathy. What was missing? The feeding of this Word. Perhaps they didn't actually need to be taught the basics again, but their behavior and their attitudes made it seem as if they did. What's clear is they had become spiritually lethargic, spiritually sluggish. And folks, this can lead to apostasy. Just like disobedience hardening your heart. And the writer Here he relates the depth of our knowledge of God to our ability to discern good and evil, and to therefore live in a way that reflects good and not evil. The possibility of the falling away of professing Christians, people in the churches, is the primary concern of the writer of Hebrews. That's who this letter's written to, people in the churches, professing believers. And he says immature believers are much more easily led astray than mature believers. The whole idea that Paul shows us in Ephesians 4 about the application of the purpose of biblical teaching is to join us together so we may grow to this complete man he speaks of and not be like children tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. And that requires solid food. But solid food is for the mature who, because of practice, have their senses trained to discern good and evil. See, being a Christian is not a membership in a group or a social club. It's become that way in some places. Being a Christian is a way of life that is practiced. It is a way of life that is directed by God Himself. When we know His will, when we live in obedience to Him, our senses are trained to discern good and evil. He teaches us. We learn. Our senses are trained. This is in direct contrast with what? With the deceitfulness of sin. You can follow that path, and you sin after sin, and each sin gets easier than the one before, and you become hardened. Hardened against the faith, hardened against other Christians. And by both learning the things of God and obedience to Him, we train our senses to discern good and evil, and we grow in Christ. I came across this proverb this week. And it's so, so applicable here. Proverbs 2, beginning in verse 1. I'm going to read 11 verses. I encourage you, maybe later, finish reading it. It's a wonderful, wonderful teaching. Proverbs 2, 1, My son, if you will receive My words, and treasure My commandments within you. Make your ear attentive to wisdom, incline your heart to understanding. For if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding. If you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures, then you will discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom. From His mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice. And He preserves the way of His godly ones. then you will discern righteousness, and justice, and equity, and every good course. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will guard you. Understanding will watch over you. I don't know if that proverb doesn't move you to want to read more of what God has said. I don't know what will. And you know, the truth is, as with the Hebrew Christians who were the recipients of this letter, there are many in the church today who have little appetite for this solid food. One commentator says this, The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind. Modern evangelicals have not pursued the knowledge of God in Scripture or sought a mind shaped by the Word of God. Phillips paraphrases this for us. In other words, theology today bores Christians. Which is another way of saying We are bored with God himself. Except, Phillips goes on, as he feeds our worldly consumer needs. Pretty harsh words. Pretty harsh words. But this is precisely what the writer of Hebrews, under the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit, was saying to his readers. And it's what he's saying to us. far too many of us are satisfied with a shallow knowledge of God. And this places one in a very precarious and even dangerous position. We're seeing three marks of spiritual immaturity put before us. A shallowness of understanding of Christian doctrine. to an inability to express what you believe and why you believe it, as it is set forth not in your own imaginings but in Scripture. Remember, Peter admonished his readers. Be prepared to give a defense for the reason, for the hope that is in you. Be prepared. He wrote that to people in five churches. Certainly this is what every husband and father is called to in Scripture. to be the spiritual leader in the home. How can he do this if he himself is spiritually immature? Titus 2, 3 and following, the older women are called to be the teachers and encouragers and examples of the younger women in the faith. We all need to learn and know what Scripture says. We don't have to be experts. We don't have to take tests. But we must know the doctrines of Scripture. We should have an appetite for this. We must know these things in order to impart them to others. And the third mark of spiritual immaturity is where one is of little service or help to others in Christ's church. That wasn't their problem in this letter. It wasn't the problem of these Jewish Christians. It was a shallowness of understanding and a lack of hunger for the Word of God. Now it's interesting that after chastising them that they were too dull of hearing to be taught the deeper things. We see in chapter 6 that the writer does move on from elementary things. Therefore, he says, verse 1, leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith towards God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. And he says this we'll do if God permits. Now the author has just told them they're not ready for solid food. So it's something of a surprise to most of us that he's going to move on to some solid food. He says, let's press on to maturity. He judged, apparently, that no good purpose was going to be served by going over the elementary teachings about Christ again. Apparently they were able to recite those back to him. But the implication seems to be here that the solid food and appreciation of what is involved in Christ's priesthood is the very thing that's going to help them to mature in the faith. They're not looking into these things. He's going to bring them into these things and explain them to them. Their minds needed to be stretched. And he was about to do it. This teaching on the priesthood of Christ was calculated to take them from their immaturity and stretch them. As one writer says, as nothing else could. So he's not going to lay again a foundation. And we've got six things here of which they're here, so I'm going to cover them. They kind of are apart from the flow of thought here. But he says he's not laying again the foundation. And then he lists these six things. And these six items, repentance from dead work, faith towards God, washings, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. seem to be practices incorporated from Judaism into the early days of the church for a time. Many believe that these items refer to a catechism that was commonly used in the early days of the church. Others believe that this list of six things refers to actually some Old Testament practices. Six Old Testament beliefs and practices. We know in the early days of the church, some practices had been established. One of those was a catechumen would come in and be examined. Have to make a confession of faith and be examined as to what he believed. Early church writings reveal that the pastor would question a new convert on certain basic points. And he would have to be examined on these things before he was admitted to be baptized. Now a foundation, for example, of repentance from dead works and faith toward God. You notice that's not faith toward Christ. It's faith toward God. And repentance is clearly both a New Testament and an Old Testament concept. The Jews of the Old Testament knew God had called them repeatedly to repent of their sins and believe Him as Abraham had. Faith in God. But so did the early Christians. instruction about washings and the laying on of hands. Well, it's unknown precisely what the author had in mind here. Some say water baptism, but it's more likely that the writer had in mind the practice of washing that was carried over for a time from Jewish practice. In the apostolic age, the laying on of hands was a practice of calling men to ministry in the early church. It was also a means by the apostles to impart the Holy Spirit to a new believer. And it was a practice spoken of by James in connection with prayers for the sick. Resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. Well, these beliefs were also known in the Old Testament. But now that the Christ had come, these truths would take on a much deeper and wider meaning. that the Christ would return. That there will be a resurrection of all men, some to eternal life and some to eternal judgment. Now the reason I point these things out is because we see a very Judaistic flavor in many of these foundational practices in early Christianity. And these six are at least likely based in part on such practices. This shouldn't surprise us. Judaism was the only practice of religion that was known to these early Jewish Christians. And in truth, remember the church was born of the Jews. Christ was a Jew. All of the apostles were Jews. And Jesus declared salvation is from the Jews. And the Holy Spirit inspired the teachings and writings of the apostles, Jewish men. And as that happened, the Christian church began to take on its own identity. So they had all these foundational practices. What's the writer's point? The writer's point is this. Once that foundation is laid, the builder does not continue building the foundation. You don't build the foundation and go back the next day and build the foundation again. What do you do? You move on and you build on the foundation. They weren't doing that. The builder goes on with his work. He builds the house on top of the foundation. Growing in the faith is no different. We have the first principles as the foundation, but the higher doctrine, which helps to build the building, which is his whole church, has to follow, has to follow. So they'd heard the gospel, had declared their belief in Christ, and the true believer, the true believer will build on that faith. That's the message. By growing in the knowledge of divine truth, that's the means, which teaches him and helps him to know God and to live in obedience to God. What controls our thoughts also will control our behavior. Having the knowledge of God's Word direct our minds, one writer says, is the key to righteous living. Who's directing your mind? Is it the stuff on the TV? In the movies? On the phone? Or is the Word of God directing your mind? Remember what Paul said. We looked at it earlier. Colossians 1, 9, and 10. Knowledge of God's Word leads us to spiritual wisdom and understanding and to living according to God's will. Paul, Romans 12, 2. He exhorts us, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You can only get direction from God where He's given it to us. And so the key to our perseverance in the faith, which in the end is what this letter of Hebrews is all about, is not some emotional experience. It's not some formula. It's not some one-time decision. It's not some program. It's solid grounding in the teachings and the doctrines of the Word of God. Look at Matthew 7.24, our Lord's words. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house. And yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. On the other hand, everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. Rains came, floods came, winds blew, slammed against that house, and it fell. And great was its fall. What's the writer shown us this morning? The Word of God is food for the souls of men. The Word is to be esteemed, valued, sought after as our daily food. To go without being fed by the Word of God is to place yourself in a state of spiritual famine. Those aren't my words. Those are the words of the great Puritan preacher, John Owen. Spiritual food will be of no benefit to us, folks, unless it is digested, eaten, consumed. It's evidence of a healthy condition of the soul to have an appetite for this spiritual food. That's evidence of the condition of a healthy soul. And conversely, folks, it's a sign that one is in serious danger to have no appetite for this food. And finally, what we've seen here, without this spiritual food, we will become dull of hearing, as the first recipients of this Word had become. The point is this, if you're standing still, you're going backwards. If you're standing still, you're going backwards. If you reach the plateau, you're falling. And with all that he'd written, the writer says, let's press on to maturity. The underlying message of this exhortation is to hold fast to the truths you have learned and proclaimed and press on to maturity through the knowledge of God in His Word. This is the lifelong journey of the true disciple of Jesus Christ. We're not going to reach full maturity until one day when He calls us home. But in the meantime, during our sojourn here on this earth, we must diligently seek to grow in earnest pursuit of becoming a mature man in Christ. Paul wrote it this way, Philippians 3.12, Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Jesus Christ. Brethren, I don't regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Oh may we hear Him this morning. Let us pray. Oh Father, may this Word stir our hearts to a greater appetite to know You in Your Word. To seek the knowledge of You. To seek to know and to do Your will. to equip ourselves for not only the building of the church that You have given us. For which You have blessed us. But also Lord, that we may reach the lost and have been equipped to be prepared to give a defense for the reason, for the hope that's in us in Christ Jesus our Lord.