Good morning and welcome in everyone. Today, we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture, but before we do that, I wanted to tell you a little story.
Many of us have had the opportunity to be blessed with children in our lives. I hand delivered all of my children on our bed at home, and was able to watch as they took their very first breath. After 6 months, I really wanted to communicate with them, but they were so new to this world that they really did not understand very much. I needed to speak very simple and basic things to them, because at that age, it was all that they could handle. Eventually, children.grow up into adulthood, and once they reach that point, you can have more mature conversations with them. With a teenager for example, you might rebuke and reprimand them for certain behavior because they are old enough to receive and accept that type of information.
This reminds me of the Christian Life.
There are baby Christians and there are mature Christians. There are baby churches, and there are mature churches. All of them are in different stages of development, but the final goal is the same for everyone,…. to grow into Spiritual maturity. But sometimes the people that you would expect would act like mature and faithful Christians, end up acting like a bunch of disobedient children instead. Rather than walking in the teachings of the Holy Spirit, they begin to live the way that they did in their ignorance. They should be capable of digesting Spiritual meat, but in all actuality, they need to be given baby food all over again.
Hebrews 5 ¹² 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. ¹³ For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. ¹⁴ 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.
When we begin the Christian Life, we recognize the love that God has for us. We understand that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. The Bible speaks in many passages about the love that God has for us. Just as you care about a newborn child, God careth for us, and fills us up with His tender mercies. He cherishes us, like a nurse cherishes a child. These things are the milk of God’s Word, and the very beginning of the teachings of our faith. But to eventually mature into what God wants us to become, it will require a steady diet of Scriptural meat. I am unaware of any cafeteria that feeds their High School students baby food for lunch. The kids require much more than that to grow strong physically. Likewise, the church needs to grow up, and it’s not going to happen by nursing on milk for the rest of your life.
“Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,” Hebrews 6:1
The milk is knowing that God loves us, but strong meat is about obedience and submission to the commands of Christ. It is about repentance, and mortification of the sins of the flesh. Men who serve you Spiritual meat are a flame of fire, handing down discipline and correction from the heavens. Many people might claim to have been a Christian for over twenty years, but they still have not grown up to the point that they can swallow the strong meat of biblical Truth. Does a senior in high school really need somebody to hold their hand on the way to class? How foolish. Christians need to grow up, and it will only happen when they open up their ears to the corrections of scripture.
“See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:” Hebrews 12:25
What does the church need to do? Grow up, and take it like a man.
Hebrews 12 ⁵ And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: ⁶ For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. ⁷ If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? ⁸ But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. ⁹ Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? ¹⁰ For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. ¹¹ Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
It will continue to get worse each day as people turn their ears away from Scriptural discipline. When you give them a spoonful of strong meat, they just spit it out because they simply cannot handle the truth. They are like babies who never mature in their faith.
2 Timothy 4 ³ For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; ⁴ And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
Some people profess Christianity but they are not even Spiritual yet. Rather than accepting the truth and repenting of their sins, they continue to walk in them.
1 Corinthians 3 ¹ And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. ² I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
The sustenance of Christ is to do the will of God.
John 4 ³¹ In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. ³² But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. ³³ Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat? ³⁴ Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
The meat of God’s Word guides us on the path to Spiritual maturity. It instructs us how to obey and to do the will of God. Some people will never truly grow up, because the truth is, they are still on……
…….Baby Food
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching, tlkjbc where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms. We are not associated, nor affiliated with any other religious groups. You can get our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com or I suppose that you could find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Peace to you all, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody.♥️
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 