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Hebrews chapter 5, please, the book of Hebrews chapter 5. As is our custom, we'll read the entire chapter, Hebrews chapter 5, starting in verse 1. If you don't have a Bible, if you'd raise your hand so that we can point and laugh. Just kidding. Hebrews chapter 5, verse 1, it says, for every high priest taken among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins, who can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way, for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity, and by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins. And no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest, but he that said unto him, Thou art my son, today have I begotten thee, as he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared, though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered, and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him, called of God and high priest after the order of Melchizedek, of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Brother Sean, can you pray for us? Amen, we're in Hebrews chapter 5, I didn't get a chance to finish up last week, and I kind of want to just kind of preach a standalone sermon for the last, let's see, verses 10 through 14, and the title of my sermon tonight is Getting Spiritually Mature, Getting Spiritually Mature. I'm going to ask God to bless the sermon, Lord we thank you so much for the time to study your word tonight, I pray Lord that you would help me and fill me with your Spirit as I begin to teach and preach your word, I pray that people would have ears to listen to what the Spirit says unto them tonight, and the Lord would be attentive to the word of God and that we would put it into practice in our lives, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Alright so, verse number 10, the Bible says, called of God an high priest after the order of Melchizedek, and so basically he brings up Melchizedek, Paul, and we kind of talked about this a little bit last week, but jumping into this sermon here, he was talking about how the priesthood, that Jesus Christ was a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, and then he's still, in verse 10 he's still talking about it, and it says of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered seeing your dull of hearing. So now Paul begins to kind of have a corrective passage with people here, and he's basically kind of calling them out here and saying, hey I'd like to talk to you a little bit more about the priesthood of Melchizedek, but I have a lot of things that I'd like to teach you about this, and he said but it's hard to be uttered seeing that you're dull of hearing, and so he's basically saying and explaining that these things are more strong meat, and so if you were paying attention during the reading of the chapter, he kind of gets on to them and says, basically you're supposed to be the teachers here, but you actually need to go back and learn the basic doctrines, and so the title of the sermon, like I said, is Getting Spiritually Mature. Now everybody starts out in the faith as a baby, so not everybody's a baby when they get saved. In fact, babies are already saved, and then there comes a point where the law, they hear and understand the law, and then they are sinners, and so a lot of people get saved after they understand that they're sinners, and the only way to be saved is salvation by faith alone, but depending on what age you are, you might be a certain age physically, like I was 25 years old when I got saved, but spiritually I was a newborn, and when we get saved, everybody starts at newborn, and we're supposed to progressively get better and older spiritually, wiser spiritually, and so there's two different types of life. When you're saved, there's two different types of life that you have. You have your physical life and your physical age, but you also have your spiritual life and your spiritual age, and those things can be completely different things. You could be an 85-year-old man that's been saved for 40 years but never read his Bible one time cover to cover, that person's still a baby. So the point of preaching the sermon tonight is I just want to kind of help us to understand that, yeah, and there's probably some babies in this room, and there's nothing wrong with being a baby spiritually, but you don't want to stay a baby, so I know that there's this weird fad in this world that we live in right now where people are identifying as whatever they want to be, like they're putting litter boxes in public school bathrooms and stuff like that, and that stuff is really happening, folks, I mean, it's weird, but there's some people that like to dress up like babies, and they're grown men with beards pretending to be babies, all right? We don't want to continue to be spiritual babies. We need to start to grow and to get fed, eat the Word of God, drink, sleep, eat the Word of God, and grow in our faith and become mature spiritually. And Paul's kind of explaining this, but the first thing he says is that, I have a lot of things that I want to teach you, but you're dull of hearing. So this is a negative comment that he's saying to them, and I'll just say this, it's truly frustrating when you preach to people about things, and you know they're not going to listen, you know that the person that's supposed to get it isn't getting it, that person's off in La La Land thinking about wherever they're going to eat afterwards, or they're just, you can just see it on their faces that they're checked out already, they don't want to hear it, they don't want to hear the Word of God, and that's kind of what Paul's talking about here, he's saying, you know, I've many things to say to you, but you're dull of hearing. So the first point of my sermon is that you're not spiritually mature if you don't want to listen to the Word of God. You are not, don't tell me you're spiritual, don't tell me you're mature spiritually if you don't even want to hear the Word of God. If you don't want to hear the God, it's not just hear, we're supposed to be hearers and doers. And obviously not everybody hears the first time and automatically does everything that the Bible says, because there are levels of growth in your Christianity. Some people, it takes a lot, some people get faith on something the first time they hear it, and I'm talking about applying the Word of God to your lives, changing things, getting rid of things and all that stuff, all the wickedness that's in our lives, it takes time to clean up your act, alright, you're saved, you're forgiven, but the flesh still dominates us, and we need to learn to dominate that flesh. But Paul's saying, hey, I would like to teach you some things, but you're not spiritually mature enough to listen to it. So my first point is, if you aren't listening, or if you just don't want to hear what the Bible has to say about a certain subject, then don't tell me you're spiritually mature. What does dull mean? Well, you might think, well, that sounds boring, that's what dull kind of means, but the actual definition of it is lacking interest or excitement. So if you're dull of hearing, it means that you just don't want to hear it, it's boring to you, you're not excited to hear that, and obviously there's some things about the Word of God that might not, some people are more excited about certain books of the Bible, some people are more excited about certain doctrines of the Bible, but you should never just say, you know what, that's boring, I don't want to hear that, because the whole Word of God, every Word of God is important, every doctrine is important, every teaching is important, and when you're just like, eh, I don't want to hear this, this doesn't interest me, then you're on dangerous ground, and Paul isn't like warning them, he's warning them of the danger of not being spiritually mature, but there is a bigger danger about not wanting to hear the Word of God. There is a bigger danger, let's turn to Numbers chapter 15, because woe unto us when we refuse to listen or we get bored of hearing the Word of God. I don't know, but I was excited to come to church tonight, because I've had a couple of days that were just like, eh, you know, maybe not the best days as a Christian, but I was just like, I just couldn't wait to get here so I could sing some songs, and you know, get in the Spirit, and I love coming to church, I love the Bible, I love hearing the Word of God, and I love talking about the Bible, I love talking about doctrine, I mean, I can talk about the Bible for long periods of time, so, and you all know that because you hear me preach all the time, it's like, when's this going to be over, so, I like the Word of God, but when's Pastor Thompson going to shut up, no, I'm kidding. But you're like, I'm not, but anyway, Numbers chapter 15 verse 29, the Bible says, You shall have one law for him that sinneth through ignorance, both for him that is born among the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them. So you know, a lot of times you'll see God say this in the Old Testament and in the law, saying, you know, you're not special, anybody that joins themselves to Israel is part of our group, and this is what the Jews lost sight of, but he said, there's one law for everybody, you know, they don't get special treatment, you don't get special treatment, it's kind of a picture of the Gentiles, you know, getting in on things, right, and a lot of the mixed multitude was Gentiles, so it wasn't just the children of Israel, but it was like, they called it the mixed multitude, right, but anyway, verse 30 says, But the soul that doeth ought presumptuously, whether he be born in the land, or a stranger, the same reproacheth the Lord, and that soul shall be cut off from among his people. That word presumptuously means arrogantly, insolently, willfully. So if you're sinning willfully, if you're defiant and say, I don't care what the Bible says, I'm just going to do whatever I want, that is presumptuously. It means in bold defiance of, or in violation of a known duty, or a violation of a commandment of God, to sin presumptuously. So it's something that you know is wrong, but you say, I don't care what the Bible says, I'm just going to do what I want. That is a warning to you, and like when you're, that's what I'm talking about, so if you're dull of hearing, if you don't want to hear what God has to say about a situation, you're trying to turn God off, you're wrong. It's a dangerous position to be putting yourself into, and when you're doing it on purpose, that's when you better watch out, because, you know, being dull of hearing is like, you know, maybe if you're just saying, well I'm just bored of hearing this, or whatever, but I mean, that's the word of God. It's the word of God. This is what we're supposed to eat, sleep, drink, breathe. This is supposed to be our life as a Christian, is to hear the word of God, to read the word of God, and to put these things into our life, and to, you know, go forth out into the fields and the harvest and try to reap, you know, some souls. Over here we got saved Christians, over here we got reprobates, and in the middle is this big harvest of people that we're fighting for the souls of. There's a battle going on, and there's a big group of people that could go one way or the other, and, you know, when we're just saying, I don't care what the Bible says, I'm just going to do whatever I want, I'm going to skip church, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, I'm going to just do the opposite of whatever it says, I'm not going to do this, I'm just tired of all this, you're in a bad position. Look at Proverbs chapter 13 verse 13. Proverbs chapter 13 verse 13. We shouldn't be dull of hearing. Now obviously everybody turns things off, and we kind of live in a commercial, you know, hey, Pastor Thompson, you've been preaching for 50 minutes, let's go to the commercial break. And you're like, hmm, and you just start thinking about stuff that doesn't matter, but that's just where we're programmed, we're trained, anybody that grew up watching television, they have a programming and then they put a commercial on, don't they? Because they want to program you to take a break and see what good things we can sell you or things that we can make you want and be covetous about so you can be even more wicked. Not only are they programming you with wicked television stuff, but then they're trying to make you covetous in between on the commercial breaks. Look at Proverbs 13 verse 13, it says, who so despiseth the word shall be destroyed, but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded. See the difference between wanting to keep the commandments, wanting to apply stuff to your life, but if you despise the word of God, and I would say this, that if you're like, I don't care what the Bible says, and you're a Christian, shame on you. The Bible says that who so despiseth the word shall be destroyed. Like do you want to be destroyed? I mean at least just claim ignorance or something, but like if you're presumptuously just doing the opposite of what the Bible says because you want to do you, well God wants to change your heart and your mind and wash you with the washing and the regeneration through the Holy Spirit, through reading the word of God, he wants to cleanse you when you come to this place. It's like our safe space, right? And I know that that's kind of a buzzword for liberals, that they can't handle the world so they've got to go pretend like they're a dog in their safe space or whatever. I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about this is our safe space from the world. The world, we shouldn't be doing the same things and dealing with the same things that the world is dealing with. This should be a place where that stuff doesn't go on. But obviously we're human, we're sinful, and we fail at a lot of things. But don't get the attitude where I'm not going to listen to the Bible or what the Bible says or I'm tired of pastor talking about this all the time. Well maybe pastor's talking about it all the time because you need to hear it and you're not hearing it. Maybe it's just for you. People are like, he's preaching about me right now. Yep, I am. I like that answer. Are you preaching about me? Yes. I'm just preaching to anybody, you know. Anybody that wants to hear it, look at verse 14, it says the law of the wise is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death. Good understanding giveth favor. When you understand what, what God expects of you. But the way of transgressors is hard. So the opposite of that, you know, if you're good understanding, you love the word of God, you're applying it, you're fearing God, you're going to be rewarded, you know, God considers you wise. But the opposite of that is that if you despise his word, and you know, the way of the transgressor is hard. Have you ever noticed how bad people look that are filled with sin? It's like it can affect your physical appearance. When someone drinks till they're blackout drunk every single day, you can see that in that person because it starts to change their appearance, their nose turns red and their eyes are yellow and you know, it's just it destroys you. Sin destroys you. And living a hard sinful life is going to destroy you not only spiritually, but physically. And I'm talking about Christians too, because Christians can backslide, the Bible talks about it a lot. But why do you think the Bible exhorts us to listen to the word of God, to apply the word of God, to keep the word of God, to be wise in our lives and to sin less so we can live a better life here on this earth? Obviously we have heaven to look forward to, the glorified bodies, but who wants to die here and have a miserable last 20 years? Or you're just can't get out of bed, you're always sick, you know, something's always wrong with you and you just die this like pining away death because you decided like I want to just live my life, I don't care if I'm a Christian or not, I'm going to do whatever I want now, but then you're like, I'll do it later. Oh, you mean when you're in bed, when you can't get out of bed? You're talking about that? That time? That's when you're going to do it? Oh, when you can't walk? When you can't, you know, when your physical abilities are gone because God's already beaten you up so badly because you refuse to listen to his word? Oh yeah, that's when you're going to do all this whole thing? When you're 90 years old? I don't think so. When you're 65 and you can't walk? I mean obviously there's some people that are in that shape, but there's some people that aren't. But I'm just saying that if you despise the word of God and you're dull of hearing, then you're in a bad spot. You need to listen and receive the word of God and just do what it says to the best of your ability. Number two tonight, to be spiritually mature you must get the basics first and then move on to the complex doctrines. If you're newly saved, why don't you learn what the Bible says about the easy things that we're supposed to know? Because it goes on later on here and talks about the first principles, and we'll talk about that later, but the first principles of the oracles of God are the first things that we should get as Christians. What do you get first? Salvation. And that doctrine for some people is super hard because they just won't believe. They refuse to believe that. But it is a real easy doctrine. We believe in this church in easy believism. And people will dog that out and try to say, oh, you're easy believism, one, two, three, repeat after me. Anybody that goes to this church knows even though we believe in easy believism, we're not one, two, three, repeat after me. We've had that accusation multiple times, and I've got someone saved in front of a pastor that was, some other pastor was saying, look, watch what they do. And then I just went through like, I wasn't doing it on purpose, it's just what I do. When I give the gospel, I give a lot of scripture, and I'm not going to pray with someone that I don't think is listening, or I'm not going to pray with someone that doesn't get it. I'm not just trying to get out there and ramrod people into making decisions. It's like, yeah, I got all these people saved even though they didn't understand anything I was saying. They're just like, yep, yep, yep, let's pray. We don't do that. You have to discern things. But the easy doctrines are what? Salvation by faith alone. Baptism. I mean, that's the first thing you should do after you get saved, is get baptized. Just watch what the New Testament says. I mean, what did Philip do? He got the eunuch saved and then he baptized him. He's like, here's water, what's stopping me from getting baptized? What does hinder me to be baptized? He's like, you've got to believe in Jesus with all your heart. He's like, done. He's like, okay, let's go. And then he baptized them, right? Obviously that's the condensed version, but Paul got the Philippian jailer saved. What did he do? He went over and preached to everybody in his house. Everybody in his house got saved, and then they all got baptized that night. That's what the scriptures teach. Now, baptism doesn't save your soul, as in wash away your sins like a lot of churches teach. And we don't believe that for a second. I'm just saying that we need to get down the first things about Christianity before we try to jump into some really super complicated stuff. And this is the example that Paul's teaching us. Look at verse 12. So, the point number two is, to be spiritually mature, you must get the basics first, and then move on to complex doctrines. Now, Hebrews 5, 12 says this. For when, for the time, you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk, and not strong meat. So he's continuing to reprove these people, and say, look, for the time, he's talking about for how old you are, for how long you've professed this faith or whatever, he says, for the time. And I was just explaining this, that you could be 50 years old and a spiritual baby. He's saying, for the time, you ought to be teachers. You've been saved for so long, you should be teaching other people this stuff. You have need that one teach you again. You don't know what you're talking about. You don't even know the basics yet, and you're off trying to explain the Nephilim doctrine or something, which isn't true, by the way. Obviously, Nephilim means giants, okay? There's giants in the earth in those days, but they weren't 500 foot, megatall angels that were the offspring of the sons of God that just happened to be demons, right? I mean, what a weird doctrine. What a strange doctrine. The sons of God are saved people. But anyway, I'm not preaching about that, but it is just a weird, bizarre teaching that kind of goes around, and a lot of Christians actually believe it. And it's just a far out, really bizarre belief of doctrine. But that's why you gotta get the first principles down first, and then you build upon that foundation of solid belief in the easy things first. What does it say? You need someone to teach you again, which be the first principles. What does that mean? Well, it's the first things that you need to learn as a Christian. Salvation by faith alone. Eternal security. Baptism. Church attendance. Reading the Bible. Prayer. You know, the things that just really set the bedrock for the Christian life, and allow you to build upon that faith so that you can grow up and become spiritually mature. But a lot of people, a lot of babies, just jump into other stuff before learning all the doctrine. It's like they can explain somewhat of the rapture, but they can't explain why we baptize people. That's a problem. Children don't just come out of the womb chomping steaks down, do they? I mean, did anybody feed their babies ribeyes when they first were born? Anybody? How about T-bone steak? Did you put it in a blender for them, and then put it in a bottle with some water or something? That sounds gross. But I'm just saying, babies eat specific food. What is it? It's milk, isn't it? That's the first thing, is you gotta have the milk, and then you can move on after a year or so, and start eating a little bit of solid foods. You start to mix it together. And so, basically Paul's given us this picture for us to understand the first things first. What is first? The first principles of the oracles of God, talking about the word of God. What does the Bible teach? What are the first and easy things for us to get? If you wanna be spiritually mature, if you're a new Christian and you're still learning stuff, obviously you can still learn from the preaching, but a lot of the times, God is not gonna teach you some of the complicated things until you've already gotten the other things down pat first. You shouldn't go in a reverse order. God is a God of order. He said, let everything be done decently and in order. Everything in the church should be done decently and in order. And God doesn't want us to put things before the order that he wants us to do them. It's like, in Acts it says, and they that gladly received his word were what? Who knows what it is? They that gladly received his word were baptized. Doesn't say they that gladly received his word had the Lord's Supper. Why? Because he wants you to get baptized first, that's why. Don't worry about it. Just do what it says, do what the Bible says. Just quit trying to circumvent and end around things and just learn the first things first. Why? Because God said to do it that way. Paul the Apostle, our faith is based upon Jesus Christ, the chief cornerstone, and then it's built upon the prophets and the apostles. And so when the Apostle Paul is sitting here telling us, quit trying to learn all this complicated stuff, I want you to learn it, but you're dull of hearing. You don't even want to hear the first principles. You don't even want to hear the easy stuff. You don't even know what you're talking about. Why don't you learn the first things first, and then I'll teach you the other doctrine later. Now that's not to say that you're not gonna come to this church and be a babe in Christ and hear some complicated stuff, and maybe you will get some of it. But I'm just saying, don't just put off all that stuff that you're supposed to know first, and then just go after the steak when you need to drink your milk first. You need to have your peas, your ground up peas or whatever. You need to have your mush bananas. Then you need to have your yams or whatever. Whatever people feed the baby food, I know things have changed since I was, now we had Gerber baby food or whatever. My wife's gonna be like, I didn't use that or whatever, but I remember jars, okay, I remember jars. Those little spoons with the kind of plastic coating on them, do they still have those? Anyway, so, but the Bible's telling us, and the Apostle Paul's telling us here, that we need to grab hold of the first things first, and it says, are become such as need of milk and not strong meat. So he's basically saying that people that do this, you need to go back and learn the first things first. So again, the spiritual comparison is between what babies eat and what grown ups eat. And then applies this to Christians. Everybody knows that babies drink milk first. Everybody knows that they go to softer foods and they work their way up. And I'll just use this kind of illustration to kind of help us out. And I'm still not sure how I feel about this, but I kind of feel like I'm on the right side of this. When I was a kid, when the adults were having barbecued steak or pan fried oysters, or really expensive, more exotic food, and obviously steak is not cheap, and when you have a good steak, and a two dollar steak, it's like, you know. But if you get a good steak, you savor that thing. As an adult, your taste buds are fully developed, and you know the difference between a good steak and a bad steak. When you're a kid, you have no clue. Because kids have, their taste buds aren't as developed. They think that McDonald's, if they could have McDonald's every single day, they would do it. If they could have cookies for breakfast every day, would they do it? Mommy, why can't I have ice cream? Because you need some nutrition. I know it tastes good, but ice cream isn't exactly the best breakfast of champions of the day, okay? But you know, and so we have to teach our kids what's nutritious, what's healthy, and like, you know, there's these kids that grew up in my, like, the generation behind me, and I would see their parents just like, make special side dinners for their kids. We didn't do that at our house. You know worky, you know eat. You don't likey, you just go eat something, you know, you're gonna be hungry, you're gonna go to bed hungry. Sorry, we're not making you mac and cheese every single night for your dinner. And hey, I don't know if anybody does this or not, but when you start making separate dinners for your kids every single night, guess what? They're gonna be like that for the rest of their lives. They're gonna be picky, they're gonna be unthankful. It's like, eat those green beans, take three bites! You need that nutrition. And people, my mom made me eat three bites of the green beans, and you know what I did? I puked it all over the plate. But I still ate it! Maybe God made me puke, I don't know. Because I was refusing to listen. I just remember it, I was like three years old or something. I think I probably had the stomach flu, and my mom was like, take three bites. I was like, you know when you eat something you don't like, it's just, it makes you sick. That's probably what happened. But anyway, I'm just saying that, you know, our Heavenly Father understands what we need first too. So apply this spiritually. You're not gonna feed your kids candy bars for breakfast. I mean, hopefully. And then, we don't just cater to everything they want to eat. We need to help them to eat things that are good for them, and try new things. And yeah, maybe you never will like Brussels sprouts for your whole life. But you should at least try them and see whether you like them. Because they are good for you. And they are good if they're made right, okay? I'm not saying that Brussels sprouts are my favorite. I would say asparagus is my favorite. Who likes the asparagus in here? Can I get an amen? Amen on that. How about baked potatoes? Anybody like baked potatoes? I like baked potatoes. That's not a vegetable necessarily, but. What else do I like? I like avocados. Anybody like avocados? Who likes celery? With peanut butter? Better be Jif. No, I'm just kidding. But you know, the point, I mean, we're talking about food here. I'm not trying to make you all hungry. I'm just trying to help you understand that God has a spiritual diet for us. He says drink the milk first. You know, and bread, isn't bread pretty easy to eat too? Aren't we supposed to eat the bread every morning? That's what the picture was in the Old Testament. When they got the manna every morning, it was like coriander seed, and it was, you know, it was the color of delium or whatever and it was sweet to the taste. Sweet, it was like, to me, I just imagine it being like Texas Roadhouse sweet buns, you know, those little, and then they have the butter dip in them. You know what I'm talking about? I'm making everybody hungry, huh? But that's what I imagine manna to be like. I mean, I'm probably wrong. But that was, they could gather that every day because you know what? We need to wake up with the word of God. We need to have the word of God, which is the bread of life every single day. So obviously babies can't eat bread really, but that's one of the first things they could probably eat. It's solid, but it's also, you know, it's something that you can handle. We all have to work up to things that we can handle and eat. All babies have to grow up. I still like milk, you know? Because you should still like the milk, even though you've tried the strong meat. Obviously you've got to continue to study the word of God and read the word of God, and these doctrines will come over and over again as you read the Bible. But we need to learn the first things first. So why do we always tell people, hey, start in the book of John? Because John really is the easiest book in the Bible to read. It's the most easy to understand, and it kind of nails salvation down, doesn't it? It does. So that, I think, is one of the best ones to start. John, you know, a lot of people, if they can't afford to give away a whole Bible, they'll give away John and Romans. Why? Because they're just really great books for new Christians to start reading. So, you know, Paul is explaining this in a way to where they can understand it. Baptists understand food really well. Christians understand food really well. So, and we don't want to jump from the milk to the ribeye. That's just not how it works. You have to build up to that stuff. So, anyway, we don't want to continue to stay, like I said, we don't want to continue to stay babies. Babies grow up. But spiritual babies have to, you kind of have to go by what God says, which is to eat the, you know, eat that meat, and then work your way up to it. But what's it talking about? It's talking about reading the word of God. It's talking about applying the word of God. And that is the meat that it's talking about. That is the milk that it's talking about. It's talking about the Bible. And as Christians, the Bible should be our firm foundation and the thing that we hold in the highest regard. So, you know, if you're gonna grow as a Christian, you need to read the Bible. You need to study the Bible. You need to read the Bible. And, you know, it's gonna take about five times a year to really get a grasp on the times that it's talking about the ages of the kings and kind of the order of how the Bible comes to be because it's not always in chronological order. You know, it's broken up into different sections, so. But you won't understand that until you read the Bible multiple times and do some studying. So, but we don't want to stay in a state spiritually in any, you know, we always want to be striving to be better Christians, to be more mature. You don't want to stay a baby. You don't want to stay a spiritual toddler. Because spiritual toddlers, you know, they're really joyful. But if they're bad spiritual toddlers, then they're throwing fits and crying all the time, right? And fighting with other kids, you know? So, there's obviously spirit, you know, when you're comparing the two things, the physical and the spiritual, there's a lot of things that are similar. And, you know, like teenagers. You know, they kind of get where they start stinking and, you know, they're, you know what I'm talking about. They're awkward. They don't want to talk to parents. And it's just kind of something that teens go through. They challenge their parents' authority. They challenge concepts. They might even challenge the Bible. Or challenge their, you know, why do we believe this? And I would say this, that each real teenager, each real child in this room, you need to have your own walk with God. Your parents can't walk your walk for you. You have to be someone that walks with God yourself. And you might say, well, I'm just too young. No, you're not. You're not too young. If you're saved, then God will work with you at any age you are. And the younger you get saved, the more you can do for the Lord. And so you could actually match your real years. If you get saved at five, and then, you know, you're starting to read the Bible. Maybe you've read the Bible by the time you're 12, more than your parents did when they were 25. You can be, you can jump ahead. You can be an elder, considered an elder, and be young. You know, the Mormons like do it with a badge. They're elders. But really, they're zeroes, they're nothing. They're not even saved. So they're not, you know. But the Bible talks about us not, you know, let no man despise thy youth. If you're young, and yet you know the Bible really well, then you are considered an elder in God's eyes, spiritually. So we can jump ranks, and we can jump ages. It doesn't matter what age you are physically. You should strive to be the most mature Christian you can be at the earliest you can be. Why put it off? Why wait? You're like, well, I just wanna live my life and do this, I wanna do that, I wanna do this and that. You know what, there's nothing more fulfilling than a Christian life. If I died today, I could honestly say I've had a wonderful life. I've had a wonderful life. I'm saved. My children are saved. I have grandchildren. And I know that my children are gonna teach my grandchildren to be saved. And I go to a church, a great church, with a lot of spiritual people. I've seen people saved in my life. If I died, I'd be fine. I mean, my wife would probably be mad at me, but I'd be fine. Don't threaten me with a good time. If I'm going to heaven, I'm doing something good. Like, well, why did he die so young? Maybe God just wanted him because he liked him so much or something, he wanted him early, I don't know. Or it could be that you weren't being the best, whatever it is. I'm just saying that, I don't know what I'm saying. Don't be a spiritually rebellious punk teenager, though. Because this is what Christians can do. They learn too much too fast, and then they know more than everybody else does because they've read their Bible more. Just because you've read your Bible more does not make you more spiritual. When you read your Bible and apply it and change things, and you understand a spiritual mature person isn't gonna read the Bible 20 times and then look down on everybody else for it. Because if you're actually mature, you're gonna be like, well, I've been where they're at. I know where they're at. And maybe I wasn't there at that same age, or maybe I learned things faster, but a spiritual person isn't gonna take the things that they know and use it to damage other Christians. This is what the holier-than-thou's do. They forget where they came from. And they like to say how wicked their life was. But now look at me. You're just a sinner saved by grace. And when you have that attitude, the Bible says it's like smoke in God's nose. It really irritates him. And nobody likes smoke in their face. And God really gets irritated with holier-than-thou's that want to just lord over how, you know. And again, you think you've matured if you're being a spiritually rebellious punk teenager, or you're a holier-than-thou. You've achieved higher than even the most mature Christian. If you think you're better than other people, you're wrong. And you're not mature. You're immature. You're still a baby, or something worse. So, and it's not bad to be a baby. It's just if you're saved for 20 years and you've never read the Bible cover to cover, you're still a baby. And then you need to get your rear-ending gear and get some Bible reading done and get some smarts and get spiritual. Because how could you say you're spiritual if you've never read the Bible and you've been saved for 20 years? That's just a stretch for me. It's like you just never had the time. You got time. Seven and a half minutes in the morning, seven and a half minutes at night. Or you go on a Bible reading marathon and get it done in 18 hours. The New Testament. How many hours did it take you to read it, Brother Sean? And were you in fast forward at all? Were you in 1.25 speed? You didn't do the speeds? Oh, you didn't do the audio, okay. So you just read it just like whoosh, whoosh. And some people read faster than others. But you can read the Bible, the whole New Testament, in 12 to 18 hours. It just depends. If you do double speed, I mean maybe faster. I don't know about how much you're gonna retain. I don't know. But look, we don't wanna stay where we're at. Paul said, I press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. I press. That means you put pressure on yourself to meet God's will, what God wants for your life. And he doesn't want you to stay a spiritual baby for the rest of your life. He wants you to grow and mature. And that for the time, you should be teachers, but you're still a baby. This isn't like a positive thing that Paul's saying. He's like, I wanna talk to you about Melchizedek, but you're dull of hearing. But then he goes on in chapter seven and talks about Melchizedek anyway. He's like, well even though you're not gonna listen to it, maybe somebody else will listen to it in 2023. You know, and we'll learn about Melchizedek. Not everybody's gonna be dull of hearing. Some of these people that whoever he was talking to were dull of hearing, but he wasn't. So, spiritually you might be a rebellious teenage punk or an inexperienced young adult or mature or an elder. You could be all different facets of life spiritually. But like I said, you can't really diagnose where someone's at spiritually just by looking at them. You can diagnose someone's age and maybe guess their age, but you can't diagnose where they're at spiritually unless you hear them talk. What do they talk about? Well, if they're only talking about their new car all the time, do you think they're spiritual? I'm not saying never talk about cars, but like what is your main, what drives you? What is most important to you? You know, are the things of God more important than anything else you got going on in your life? That's a mature Christian. I'm not saying don't have hobbies. Hobbies are fine, but just don't get carried away with it because anything can be in a high place in your life. You know, Solomon set up the high places and those were up for hundreds and hundreds of years until they were finally ripped down. But Solomon had his high places. What was it? Women. That was his high place. We can all have spiritual high places that we need to rip down in our lives and you're never gonna get there if you're spiritually immature. So anyway, let's see, let's turn to Luke chapter 12. I know I've been rambling on for a long time here, but Luke chapter number 12. So the goal of a Christian should be to be a mature Christian and get that by eating your spiritual food, AKA the Bible, Bible preaching, doing good deeds, serving the Lord, and you also get there through experience in life. What do you mean? Is this spiritual lifestyle evangelism or something? No, it's you go through things in your life as a Christian that help you come out on the other end better for it, like Job. It wasn't fun going through it, but Job came out like gold and he's still talked about every week in pulpits all across this world because of the great man he was, because of the trials that he went through. So do you think that Job was more spiritual after he went through all that stuff? He was already really spiritual, wasn't he? Had he not been spiritual at all, do you think that he would have came out on the other end the way he did? No, he wouldn't have. So sometimes the experiences in our life teach us valuable lessons, and when you put all this stuff together, then you're gonna end up becoming a more spiritual Christian. And being in a church like this puts you at an even greater responsibility because you're getting fed and taught at a different level than most churches are teaching. Most Baptist churches on Sunday morning you're getting the salvation message every single 11 a.m. service, the altar call to have all the saved people get saved again. Maybe you weren't really saved. Brandon, do you really know if you were saved when you were saved? You need to come up to this old-fashioned altar and figure that out in front of everybody. I mean, that's kind of what you're getting. You're getting a very shallow sermon. You're getting shallow teaching. They're not letting it rip. Baptist churches are not, I mean, when I first started going to Baptist churches, I would go to camps, and my face was a skeleton after I was done because my face was ripped so hard. Those are the types of things that build you up. They build, you get torn down so that you can get built back up. It's kind of what happens with the Word of God. It's like God just says like, this is what you're doing wrong. You're doing this wrong. You're not right. You're not obeying your parents. You're not cleaning your room. Whatever it is, you're not doing something right, but then God encourages us to do right and helps us to right the ship and says, hey, there's forgiveness for these things. Here's some tools to help you fix your life, get right with God, and move forward. But if you're in a church like this, God is gonna hold you to a higher standard because you are learning at a higher rate than most churches are. You're being implored to read the Bible all the time. You're being encouraged to pray all the time. You're being encouraged to do good works and to go soul-winding and to help each other out in all different ways and shapes and forms. You're exhorted to do a lot of things, and it's not just me. You all do the same things with each other. You help each other. I don't say, hey, would you mind helping so-and-so out? I might say that, but most of the time, somebody's already offered. And so when you go to a church like this and you're implored to follow the Word of God and you're implored to read the Word of God, you're implored to pray to God, you're implored to sing the songs that are pleasing to the Lord, to worship Him in spirit and truth, God's gonna hold you to a higher standard. And you're like, well, then maybe I need to leave because I'm just not that spiritual. No, maybe you just need to get with the program. Amen. And stop trying to resist all the time. Stop trying to be the spiritual teenager that's just like, well, I like all this God stuff, but I just have all this other stuff to do. Let me take a selfie real quick or whatever. What is that app, the Chinese spyware app? TikTok, yeah. I wanna get on my TikTok so the Chinese can spy on me everything I'm doing all the time. Oh, I know, you're full of it, Pastor Thompson. Hey, man, I've been diving down a deep hole this week. I'm pretty depressed about it. The Snowden Files. Man, I intentionally stayed away from all that stuff for a long time because I didn't wanna know. But now that I know what I know, I can't un-know it. Your phones are spying on you, folks. Your computers are spying on you. I mean, the NSA has their hands and fingers in every single thing, and he blew the lid off of it. He's like in Russia right now. He's in Russia because he can't come here because the Espionage Act, he would get thrown in prison or probably put to death. I don't know if they'd put people to death anymore. Maybe they'd give him a sex change operation or something. Who knows what they would do? But these people are spying on us. And if you think that TikTok is a good app, it's like, you think the weather balloon's a big deal? How about the Chinese just straight up spying on you through your TikTok app? But all they're doing is just doing little dances. Ha ha ha. It's stupid. Like, well, you boomer. All you go, I don't know. Now I just give up. It's like, whatever, they know everything, so who cares? What are we gonna do about it? I don't know what that has to do with the sermon, but anyway, I was just like, oh, man. But God holds us to a higher standard of this church. Why? Look at Luke 12, 47. It says, and that servant which knew his Lord's will and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. So the person that goes to a church like this that learns at the rate that you're learning at this church, but then you don't apply it, you don't prepare yourself, you don't do according to his will, what's the Bible say? You're gonna be beaten with many stripes. You're like, well, I just need to get out now so that I don't get beaten with many, it's too late. You already know stuff. It's too late for you. Too late, not reprobate. Not reprobate. You know, you already got the teachings. You're like, well, I gotta get out before it gets too much. Look, the moment you wanted to be so new IFB was the moment that you should realize you're gonna be held to a higher standard. I'm not saying there's no other good churches in the world. There is. I'm just saying that churches like this church, like First Works Baptist Church, like Faithful Word Baptist Church, like Verity Baptist Church, like Steadfast Baptist Church, you're getting a high level of teaching. You're getting a high level of works that you can do, and when you are in halfway and not wanting to grow spiritually, you're gonna get the smack down. That's what it says, right? Shall be beaten with many stripes. Who likes to get beaten in here? Anybody? Like, hey, just give me my beating now, you know? No, nobody likes to get beaten with many stripes. It's like, okay, okay, I get it, I get it, I get it. You know those people that spank too much? They're just like, I don't know. Maybe that's just me. I shouldn't judge other people's spankings, but I feel like a few good swats will get the job done just as much as 30 okay ones. I don't know. But apparently Jesus is siding with the many stripes people. I must be wrong. See, let the word of God change your mind as it's being preached. But anyway, it says in Luke 12, 48, it says, But he that knew not and did commit things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes, for unto whomsoever much is given of him shall be much required. So if you're at some church and you don't know any better, the pastor's not teaching you, the pastor's not prompting you to do good works and all that stuff, yeah, you might not get beaten much, but you're also not getting as much responsibility. And I think it's good to get a lot of responsibility. Who likes to be the person at work that nobody wants to work with, nobody wants to task them with anything because you know it's not gonna get done or they don't understand very well or whatever. Nobody likes to be that person. Don't you wanna be someone that's more mature that God wants to use because he knows you know a lot and you can help other people, you can get the job done. That's what this is talking about. Much is given, much knowledge, much information, much maturity, whatever it might be, much talent, much skill. You know, of him shall be much required. For to him, for to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. The more you know, the more you do, the more like, and it's just kind of helping us to understand like in a humanistic, in a humanistic setting, someone that is committed to a lot of tasks to do or they've gotten a hard job to do, it's because that person thinks that they know that they can do it because they got the knowledge, they got the smarts, they got the work ethic. That's what you're gonna get at a church like this but don't cringe away from it because you've already gotten the knowledge and some of the responsibility. Well, don't get beaten, you know. You don't wanna be the one that gets beaten. You don't wanna be the bad example of the church. You know, everybody can do something for the Lord. You could at least be a bad example, right? But God's not gonna just let you jump the line and allow you to understand the more complicated doctrines of the Bible. He's just not gonna, that's not how he operates. And I've seen over and over again, people just plunge into all this stuff that they are, you know, it's just too high for them at that point. There's things that I'm still figuring out about the Bible. I've been saved for a long time. I've read the Bible scores of times. I've read the Bible a lot of times but there's still stuff I learn every time I read it because God's just kind of peeling back the layer. And you know, if he knows, maybe you've read something the same time multiple times and you're like, that's really weird. I never noticed that before. You know why you never noticed? Because God didn't let you notice it. So he's gonna let you notice more the more grown up you are. But he's not gonna stuff a ribeye in your mouth when you're a new Christian. It's just not gonna happen. It's just not how he does it. So again, the more complicated, strong meats of the word, that's stuff that you have to work up to. And that's a fact. Look back at Hebrews 5, 13. Hebrews 5, 13. It says, in Hebrews 5, 13, it says, for everyone that useth milk is, what does it say? Unskillful in the word of righteousness. For he is a babe. So if you're just able to digest the milk, you can't get the higher things of the word of God, then you're still a baby. It doesn't mean that you're bad. It just means you're still a baby. I mean, nobody would go around and say, look at these bad babies. They're bad because they're babies! Look at these babies! They're bad! I mean, maybe some of them are, but at times. But they're not bad just because they're babies, right? So if you use the milk, you're a baby, but you know what, babies grow up. You can't stop humans from growing. They're gonna grow, they're gonna get older, they eat food, they drink milk. No matter what, they're gonna get older. When they're 20, they're gonna look 20 or whatever, for the most part, except for Brother Ramon. He still looks like he's 30 and he's 50. But most people look their age, right? So turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. And this portion of scripture here is used to say a lot of things, but I think it fits with the sermon. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Now this is obviously a very famous chapter in the Bible, 1 Corinthians chapter 13, and it's obviously the Apostle Paul writing to the church at Corinth, a church that has a lot of problems. I would say it's probably the most problematic church in the whole Bible. I mean, obviously Laodicea is right there with him, or whatever, but Laodicea, there's not a book called The Book of the Laodiceans. We just kind of get a blurb about them. The Corinthians church gets two whole books, and then one that wasn't the word of God, it was just another rebuking letter or whatever. It's like, you know, cause Paul said the third time I'm writing unto you, and it's 2 Corinthians. So obviously that other letter wasn't scripture, but this helps us to understand kind of what I'm talking about tonight. 1 Corinthians 13, 9, it says, For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. So basically we know in part, and I guess if you apply this to being a new Christian, you know some stuff, you know enough to get you saved, you know enough to, you know some good stuff, and it says we prophesy in part, but that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away, but we're gonna know him for what, you know we're gonna know Jesus, we're gonna know all this doctrine, when we get our glorified bodies, things are gonna change for us, we're gonna know a lot of stuff. We're gonna have the mind of Christ, and actually we do have the mind of Christ now, but like we're gonna know a lot more things when we have a body that matches our spirit, as far as like we're a spirit, a total packaged spiritual being at that time, an immortal, that's what we'll be. Look what it says in verse 11, it says when I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, and that's normal, but when I became a man, I put away childish things, so apply this spiritually, it's like yeah, I once was a spiritual, you know I was a child spiritually, I spake as a child spiritually, and that's kind of how things go, you mature in the faith however much you put on yourself, to learn, when you become a full age though, when you become a mature Christian, you put away the childish things, and what does that mean? Well a lot of times you apply this to toys, like I talk about how I had a cigar box, and I put all my GI Joes in it, and I was like, bye GI Joe, and like I just never play with toys again after that, I don't even want to tell you how old I was, I think I've told you before, but I don't want to tell you it's too embarrassing, 14, but anyway, I wasn't really playing with them that much anyway but I was like a late bloomer, so when I put my toys away for the last time, it was a sad, I've never forgotten it, but I never picked up those toys and played with them again, because I grew to a point where it's like those things are for babies or for kids, for young kids, so I mean it just helps us get the picture, when you mature, when you move past childhood and the faith, and you become that man or that spiritual adult, you put away the childish things, well what other types of things do children do? They cry a lot, don't they? Well some kids cry more than others, but they cry about things that normally people don't cry about. They get tired easier than you do as an adult, don't they? A lot of times your kids will fall asleep in church, a lot of times the adults will fall asleep in church too, but it's just what it is, but I'm just saying that kids, they don't have the long, you'll think well they can play for long periods of time, but when they crash and burn, they crash and burn, don't they? They fight more than other people. Kids are fighting over things and getting into bickering things and stuff. So basically what Paul's saying here is that, hey once you become mature, stay mature, don't go back to the childish things that you used to do when you were a young Christian. And as adults, we don't, I talked about people that want to dress up like baby dolls or whatever, and pretend that they're babies. Nobody thinks you're a baby, they think you're weird. That's what they think. So the last point, and I'm gonna go through this really fast because I gotta be done quick, but the last point tonight is, the spiritual mature Christian is a discerning Christian. And I get that from verse number 14 where it says, but strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age. So the people that are mature, right? Even those who by reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. So what's the end? Well you want to become the mature Christian, the strong meat belongs to those that are of full age. The ones that have teeth. The ones that can bite and chew things. And I kind of brought this up earlier and I didn't really make the full point, but when I was a kid, the parents would eat hot, I mean the parents would give us hot dogs while they ate steak. And I'm like, that's not fair. But kids don't enjoy steak like adults do, do they? The strong meat belongs to the full grown people. Kids eat your hot dogs. Have your mac and cheese. Please. But we should make special dinners, okay. I know. But that's not doing something that they ask you to do, that's doing something that you want them to do. That's a different story, isn't it? Like you eat the hot dogs. They're Costco dogs, quit whining. But anyway, we just digest things differently as adults and we taste things differently. Kids' palate is just, they just think things are good that aren't. It's true, you know it's true. So, but don't be a, don't be like a baby that can't, if you grow up and someone made a special dinner for you every night and it was mac and cheese, and I keep saying that, corn dogs. Chicken dinos or whatever. If you just are catered to everything, you're not gonna have a real palette for real food later on. But when it says discern, it says that by reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. So when you use this book more, when you grow up spiritually, you're gonna be able to discern both good and evil. That's the point. What's good for you? What's bad for you? What's good for your kids? What's bad for your kids? What's good for your marriage? What's bad for your marriage? What's good for your spiritual life? What's bad for your spiritual life? The Bible's gonna tell us those things, but if you don't get to the point where you're fully mature, you're not gonna understand all this stuff. You're not gonna be able to discern both good and evil. So what does it mean to discern? It means to discover by intellect or to distinguish between something or to have knowledge of, to judge. Like, well, Christians aren't supposed to judge. Didn't you read that verse in Matthew 7? That's a sermon for another time. But when the Bible says, have their senses exercised to discern, that means that we're supposed to be able to understand what's good and what's bad for us, what's good for us. The commandments are good. The things that God tells us to do, the positive things, that's always good. But it also, isn't there a lot of bad in this book, too? Things to not do. Examples of things that people did that ended up ruining their lives. So I'm gonna go through some verses. You can write them down. I'm just gonna read them really fast because I gotta be done here. But Ecclesiastes 8.5 says, Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing, and a wise man's heart discerneth between time and judgment. So the person that keeps the commandment doesn't have to fear evil because evil's not gonna come upon you for no reason unless you're being persecuted by an enemy. But God's not gonna put any evil on you. So, a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment. First Corinthians chapter 12, 10 says, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another diverse kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. This is talking about gifts that God gives. The discerning of spirits. This is the one that everybody thinks that they have. And like, if you've never read the Bible, one time, how are you the discerning of spirits? Now, I'm not saying that God doesn't give people special gifts. I know he does. But if you don't exercise those gifts, like say someone's gifted at baseball. You just got in there the first time you hit a home run. You're Brandon, okay? I don't know if that really happened, but some people are just gifted athletes. And no matter how much you try, you're never gonna be as good as they are if they just practice normally. Because they're freaks of nature when it comes to being able to be super athletic. I'm sorry, Brandon. I should've asked you if I could say that. But I'm just saying that God does give you gifts, but like, if you do have a gift to play baseball and you never practice, do you think you're gonna be as good as someone that works really hard, that isn't talented? Probably not. I mean, there are nuances to playing baseball. It's a very complicated game. There's a lot of strategy involved in it. People don't realize this, they just see people running around on bases, but there's all kinds of strategy in baseball, and it's a very hard sport to play. If you hit three out of 10 balls and you're hitting 300, you hit 30% of the time, you're like one of the best players in the league. And most people would say, that's a fail. You only hit three out of 10, but that's like all stars. So my point is, is that to be the discerner of spirits, you need to be able to discern from the book, because didn't the Bible say by reason of use their senses are exercised to discern both good and evil? How are you gonna understand a spirit that's evil if you don't even know what the Bible says? Like, come on. That is ridiculous to think that you're the discerner of spirits. Like, come on, man. This is what everybody says there. I think I have the gift of discerning of spirits. And the Nephilim are real, it's like, no, you don't know the discerner of spirits. Tyodoke is Jesus, not a discerner of spirits. Unless you believe in him, you cannot be saved. It's like, what in the world? Anyway, Hebrews chapter four, verse 12 says, for the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. How do you discern the thoughts and intents of the heart? Well, the Bible does that. And so the Bible's gonna teach you how to discern the thoughts and intents of other people's hearts, the thoughts and intents of your hearts, and it's a discerner. That means it's a judge. Isn't discerning mean judge? It's gonna help you discern or judge between things. That's what the word of God does for you. And 2 Samuel chapter 14, verse 17, you have Joab is sending this old lady to try to trick David so he could bring Absalom home. That's a long story short. But David, do you think that he was a spiritual baby when he was the king of Israel, or do you think he was probably a mature Christian? I mean, he was a man after God's own heart, man after God's own heart, so he probably was very spiritually mature. And he gets this baloney story, and he realizes, you know, he's like, is this not the words of Joab? It's like, this lady's coming to him, and he's trying to con him, and he understands because God has given him that he probably was the discerner of spirits, right? But he definitely discerned this spirit. In 2 Samuel chapter 14, 17, he said, then thine handmaid said, the word of my lord the king shall now be comfortable, for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad. Therefore, the lord thy God will be with thee. See, you want God to be with you, you want to be a mature Christian, you know, David wrote parts of the Bible. David understood the Bible. David read the Bible. David was the king of Israel, a man after God's own heart, and she discerned because of his discerning that God was with him, and that he was able to discern both good and bad, because all he did is said, isn't this the word of Joab or whatever? Whatever he said, I forgot what it was. But anyway, 1 Kings 3, 9 says, give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad. For who is able to judge this thy so great a people? That's the words of Solomon. What did he ask for? He asked for an understanding heart to judge, that he could discern or judge between good and bad. Ezekiel chapter 44, verse 23 says, and they shall teach my people the difference between holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean. And in controversy they shall stand in judgment, and they shall judge it according to my judgments. They shall keep my laws and my statutes in all mine assemblies, and they shall hallow my Sabbaths. So, you know, he's talking about the teachers of the word of God here, and what are we supposed to teach the difference between the holy and the profane? The difference between unclean and clean. To discern between those things. So, what does it mean to be a spiritual Christian? Well, at the end of this chapter, it says by the reason of use, you have your senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Last verse, Jonah chapter four, verse 11. Actually, it's not the last verse. I'm a big fat liar. Jonah chapter four, verse 11 says, and should not I spare Nineveh that great city wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle. It's important for us to be spiritually mature because there's a lot of people out there that don't know their left hand from their right. They don't understand the difference between good and evil. Someone has to go and preach to them and tell them, hey, your whole world's gonna be overthrown when you drop down into hell because you're not saved. Can I show you what the Bible says it takes to be saved? And when we understand and we go and teach people the difference between right and wrong, the difference between what the Bible says and what the world says, or what some other stupid religion in the world says, we are a mature Christian. Going soul-winding, learning how to go soul-winding, you're like, yeah, it's really basic, but it's really not basic. You might start out basic, but then after you do it for a long time, then you understand how to discern between when someone doesn't wanna hear what you have to say and when someone does wanna hear what you have to say. And that takes hours of work and preparation and reading people and so on and so forth. And if you've been saved for a long time and you're still a spiritual baby, well, I would say it's time to quit being a spiritual baby and grow up. So the goal of the sermon was just to exhort you to grow spiritually. Maybe you're kind of in a stage where you're just not really that spiritual. Well, kick yourself in the pants or skirt or whatever and get back in the fight. Get back into the fight so that you can help people, so you can help yourself, because you don't wanna go around being the person that's always the most beaten in the church. It's like he's not gonna take a real whip, folks. He's gonna whip your life. He's gonna whip your car. He's gonna whip your washing machine. He's gonna whip your phone bill or he's gonna whip your gas bill or your... God can just let the destructor come and just mess up your life. You're like, yeah, I don't gotta tithe. Tithing's not really taught in the New Testament. Well, maybe that's why everything you got's breaking down. Maybe that's why you're poor. If you're not gonna just listen to what the God's Word says, then why is he gonna bless your life? Doesn't make sense. And you're just like, you think that you're fooling God or you think that he just takes your interpretation of what the Bible says? No, you learn his interpretation of the Bible. That's what the whole point of discerning the Scriptures is. So you can know what God wants for your life, not what you want for God. Because God is the one that dictates to us how we're supposed to live our life, how we're supposed to grow up. And he says, read the Bible. He says, go to church. He says, listen to the preaching. He says, apply the preaching. Apply the Word of God to your life and then you're gonna grow up and be a mature Christian. And you're gonna help other people and your own life. And don't get offended by any of this stuff because you know what the Bible says? Great peace of they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them. We gotta stop being spiritual babies and letting everything offend us. But also the flip side of that is we gotta stop offending others when we don't need to. We should love each other and be there for each other. This is not a place to, you know, grind your axes. So, 1 Corinthians 16, 13 says, watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit ye like men, be strong. It's like one of the last things Paul says to the Corinthians. We have a lack of men that are strong in this world right now. And we got a lot of strong men in this room. We gotta set the example. Don't be a spiritual man in skinny jeans, okay? Put on some big boy pants, put some dickies on, put some wranglers on or something that's, you know, a little more loose fitting. Stop cutting off the testosterone. Nobody wants to see you in skinny jeans anyway, bruh. Whether you're trying to get your bird legs, you know, perfect or whatever. Skipping leg degs so it can be even more skinny. It's like, what's wrong with you? Quit ye like men, you know why? Because that's what men do, be strong. Doesn't say be an effeminate flower, be strong. So we should let sermons like this just kind of mold us, help us to get spiritually mature. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for the great chapter here and the great admonition by the Apostle Paul to help us to get spiritually mature, to help us put it in our minds that, Lord, it's something that we need to do. It's not something we can just put off. We can't put off our spiritual growth. I pray you, Lord, anybody in here that's, you know, maybe they're kind of just stuck right now and not as spiritual as they once were, not as zealous as they once were. The Lord, you just turn that around in them and Lord, help us to always strive to reach that mark that we press towards that mark for the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Amen. All right, our last song is song 404, Amazing Grace. Song number 404, Amazing Grace. ["Amazing Grace"] Song 404, Amazing Grace. Let's sing it out together on the first. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. Was blind, but now I see. Twas grace that taught my heart to fear and graced my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear. The hour I first believed. Through many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come. Twas grace that brought me here. Be safe thus far and grace will lead me home. When we've been there 10,000 years Bright shining as the sun We've no less days to sing God's praise Than when we first begun. Amen. Good singing. Brother Robert, would you close your water prayer? Thank you, Josh. Really great thanks to you, Lord, and great work. You have to grow and be well, Lord. Amen.