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The Book of Hebrews: Message
Thirty Nine
By Dr. Michael
Guido, D.D.
An explorer
visited a village of pygmies in Africa. His most
unforgettable experience was listening to a 3-foot
high pygmy father lecture his 2-foot high pygmy son,
demanding, "When are you going to grow up?"
The writer of the book of Hebrews lectures on the
same subject to the Christians in his care. He said
in chapter 5, verses 11 through 14, "There is
much more I would like to say along these lines, but
you don't seem to listen, so it's hard to make you
understand. You have been Christians a long time now,
and you ought to be teaching others, but instead you
have dropped back to the place where you need someone
to teach you all over again the very first principles
in God's You are like babies who can drink only milk,
not old enough for solid Word. food. And when a
person is still living on milk it shows he isn't very
far along in the Christian life, and doesn't know
much about the difference between right and wrong. He
is still a baby-Christian. You will never be able to
eat solid spiritual food and understand the deeper
things of God's Word until you become better
Christians and learn right from wrong by practicing
doing right."
These
Christians were indolent, not industrious. That's the
meaning of the expression, you're "dull of
hearing," that's found in Hebrews 5:11. And
there are many who are following in their train. When
our Lord said, "Come unto Me...and I will give
you rest," He wasn't promising a life of
laziness. It's true that when you come to Christ you
do find rest for your soul, but not rigor mortis for
your body. There was a little girl who was born and
bred in the city and was well acquainted with nursery
rhymes. When she visited a farm for the first time,
she was carried away with three little pigs.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, "just look at
those pigs. Why are they lying around? Shouldn't they
be going to the market or doing something?" I
often feel that way when I go into churches for
evangelistic crusades. I remember reading in the
Bible how that the early Christians were constantly
working and witnessing for the Lord, and I wonder why
so many present-day Christians are like the three
little pigs on the farm - just lying around and doing
nothing.
These
Christians were going into disgrace, not growing in
grace. If you're not going up, you're going down. If
you're not going forward, you're going backward.
There's no standing still. If you're not a better
Christian, you're a worse Christian. There must be
continual advance or there'll be certain decay.
Disintegration always commences as soon as growth
ceases. Tell me - are you growing in grace or going
into disgrace? Like a trumpeter on the battlefield
who spends his last breath in sounding an advance,
the apostle Peter exclaimed with his last words in
the book that bears his name: "Grow in grace,
and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ."
These
Christians were disappointers, not gratifiers. Only a
grower is a gratifier. A babe is a beautiful thing.
What gladness he brings. But if he remains a babe
what grief he brings! So it is with baby-Christians.
What grief they bring God because they don't grow.
They can't walk by themselves. They always have to be
propped up. You get them going for a while, and you
think, "Praise the Lord, they're going at
last." But before long they're down again. They
can't feed themselves, they have to be fed. They
can't pray for themselves, they have to be prayed
for. And they're not happy unless they're the center
of interest. That's why so many pastors don't have
time to win the lost to the Lord. They're too busy
going around to the baby-Christians with a nursing
bottle. Oh, stop being a baby-Christian.
These
Christians were useless, not useful. Instead of
teaching others, they had to be taught. Some time ago
a man displayed on television a machine that he had
invented. It had over 750 gears and moving parts. But
it didn't do anything but run! Haven't you seen a lot
of Christian s just like that? When asked to sing in
the choir, or teach in the Sunday School or work in
the church, they're always too busy. And what are
they doing? Nothing! They're running - just like a
baby - from Christ and His cause.
There was a
chaplain whom the Lord was using in the salvation of
many soldiers. One day a skeptic heard about the
converts, and he asked the man of God, "Do these
converts stand?" "Oh, no," said the
Christian. "They go on." My friend - don't
be a kindergarten Christian - go on growing in grace,
by searching the Scriptures daily, by praying
constantly, by keeping away from every kind of evil.
copyright 2000 Guido Evangelistic
Association
All Scripture verses are
quoted from the New King James Version.
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the book of Hebrews.
This series of messages on the
books of the Bible were originally written for
broadcast on Dr. Guido's radio program, "The
Sower." They are collected and reprinted here
for your enjoyment and spiritual edification.
