sermonette: By Reason of Use

Maturing Beyond Spiritual Childhood
Bill Cherry
Given 17-Oct-03; Sermon #FT03-11s; 16 minutes

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Greetings to you all. Please turn to Hebrews chapter 5. We'll begin the sermon by reading in verse 11, the last phrase. Seeing you are dull of hearing. For when a time that 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 need milk and not strong meat. These were stinging words that Paul wrote to the Hebrew Christians, or I guess Paul, I think Paul did, wrote to the Hebrew Christians. And he was trying to shake them from their spiritual lethargy, and he called them spiritually retarded, babies, dull of hearing. They need to be taught again what the first principles were. And what are these first principles? What was he talking about and how would it affect their spiritual condition? Well, today The purpose of this sermon, Ned, is to show you how applying these first principles can help us to grow spiritually. Now I want you to meet Clarence. I met him last night. But he's a Hebrew Christian. And He should be a teacher. He knows the Bible. He's heard it for years. And there is a time that he should be a teacher, but Something's missing. There is a missing ingredient. So Clarence is not a teacher, and if he had that missing ingredient, he would be a teacher. But he's a spiritual babe. And he needs milk. And he doesn't, he's not able to use strong meat. Now look at verse 13. It tells you some more about Clarence. Everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the words of righteousness. So he's unskillful in the use of God's word. Because he only uses milk. And he uses God's word to look at others and see their sins. And consider himself righteous, and he doesn't need to study much further. So his ears are dull of hearing. And uh. Verse 14 can tell us a little bit more about Clarence. It says, but strong meat belongs to them that are full of age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil. Well, Clarence does not apply the first principles to God's word when he uses it. And so he doesn't exercise his senses and use it with the knowledge or with the understanding that God gives us through knowing the first principles. And notice as it says in verse. Verse 12, he has, he knew the first principles, but he has become a spiritual baby. Now, um, I'm going to let Clarence rest a little bit. And He probably will not hear the rest of the service because his ears are dull. Uh, but this little, the phrase caught me in verse 14 and, and in my sermonette. I said, well, that's the same thing Satan said to Eve. You will be like gods, and you will know good and evil. So his solution was, disobey God, disobey, do it your way. And Experience life. As you want to, and then you'll be like God, then you can say what's good, and you can say what's evil. But this is God's solution. Look at God's word through the first principles. And By reason of use over and over again, applying these words, you will experience joy of doing it right, consequences of doing it wrong, and you'll have your senses exercised to know good and evil, and you over a period of time, will learn. But what are these first principles? And where can we find them? Well, some of you may be ahead of me. Please turn to Matthew 22. And this is one place that got that. Well, we could not have any more greater authority than Jesus, God Himself through the tongue of Jesus, but Matthew 22. And verse 35. And then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question tempting him, saying, Master. What is the great commandment of the law? And Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord your God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind. This is a first in great commandment. And The second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang. All the law and the prophets. Now the man was a lawyer and he was trying to catch Jesus and trap Jesus. So his motive in using the word was not a skillful use of the word. It was to trap Christ and to make him Look foolish in the eyes of the other people. And so Jesus, almost as if he, he added, he answered his question, but he added the second commandment, Love your neighbor as yourself, because this was one thing the Pharisees did not really do. They bound heavy burdens on people, and they wouldn't lift their fingers to help. So this was a characteristic of the lawyers. And so, as if to say Now he included everything. He said all the law and all the prophets are summed up in these two principles, love God, love your neighbor. So those are the two principles. Now let's look at Jesus's example. Jesus said, I and the Father are one. The words I speak are not mine, but my father's who sent me. I do not do my works of my own. I do the works that my father gave me to do. He prayed often. Great time he spent in communication with God. He loved God with all his heart and his soul, and his mind. He knew God's word thoroughly. In fact, he was God's word. And he had compassion on all humanity. Even compassion when he rebuked them. But his way was to apply these first two principles, love God with all your heart and, and love. your neighbor as yourself. And because he did, his senses were exercised. He suffered the abuse of words and grumblings and oppositions. He suffered physical hardships. He suffered many things, and as we've heard in this feast, he prayed, Abba, Father, let this cup pass from me. And he felt the weight of what he was going to do, and he knew he was to sacrifice his life for all humanity, and he was willing to do this, and he said, not my will but yours be done. And he learned through his suffering, as we are told in this same chapter of Hebrews. He learned obedience through his suffering, and that's what we are called to do, to learn obedience through our suffering, and many of us are suffering, and even maybe not physically but spiritually inside as I've heard it expressed. sorrow of heart, and we have things that really touch us deeply and we are suffering. But we can consider our suffering as we have heard at this feast. Our suffering is an investment. If we do it correctly and if we do it with the right principles, then we are giving a light to others, and they can see what we do. We are learning things that are going to carry over from the resurrection, and we can be a part of the bride of Christ with our wedding garments on, able to help other people learn this beautiful and wonderful way of life. But what about us? See, I've talked about us. If we love God with all our heart and all our minds and our neighbor as ourselves. Won't we be animated on fire with a passion for God, with a passion for understanding His way and His way of life? Won't we set up a daily appointment to talk with him in prayer and to study his word and find out as much as we can about him and will not we love our neighbor where we want to apply these principles? How can we use God's word to teach us better to love our neighbor and the physical human beings which are around us. Well, please turn to Psalm 1. And we will Read the 1st 3 verses. But this to me is what I think a man would do or describes a man who uses God's word skillfully. And a man who loves God with all his heart and loves his neighbor as himself. Blessed is a man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. Nor stands in the way of sinners. Nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law does he meditate day and night. And I love this because it is a promise. If we do these things, He shall be like a tree. Planted by the rivers of waters. That brings forth his fruit in due season. His leaf shall not wither. And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. And what a promise and what something to look to, and when we suffer, we might not think that this is happening, but we know that this is a promise of God and it doesn't happen on our schedule. Because we understand God's word and we understand His idea of what is good and what is evil. Now I want to paraphrase this and try to relate it to some of the things we've heard and some of the conditions that we are in. Blessed and happy is a man who walks not in the council of the rich and famous of this Babylonian society. Who does not adopt the customs and speech and fashions of this adulterous, self-seeking, pleasure-seeking culture. Who does not scorn and judge God by his circumstances in life or the actions and what he observes in the lives of other people. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and he reads it, and applies the first principles of the oracles of God in the way that he uses God's word. His ears will not be dull of hearing. But with each new truth and old truth which is reviewed before him. It will be a fresh treasure to him and will give him better insight into the character and mind of God and help him to see his own sins and mature spiritually. In time He will bring forth fruit, which reflects his love for God and his fellow man. Now, God wants us to apply the first principles in our lives. And Through their use. become like him. Now I want you to do this, you know that in sermons sometimes I sing, and I'm going to sing, but I want you to sing with me, and while you're seated here without any accompaniment, I want you to sing the first verse of Psalm one, and I want you to think about the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly and the promises that God gives to him for applying the first principles. OK, ah, less and happy is a man who does never walk astray, nor with the ungodly man stand in sinner's way. All he does prospers well, but the wicked are not so. They are chaff before. wind And to and fro.