Message Twelve

Let Us Be Brought On to Maturity

Scripture Reading: Heb. 6:1-8, 19-20; Phil. 3:12-15

1. To be transformed is to be metabolically changed in our natural life, whereas to be matured is to be filled with the divine life that changes us—Heb. 6:1:
   1. The last stage of transformation is maturity, the fullness of life:
      1. God’s eternal purpose can only be accomplished through our transformation and maturity.
      2. Maturity is a matter of having the divine life imparted into us again and again until we have the fullness of life—John 10:10b; 2 Cor. 5:4b.
   2. The fullness of life is blessing, which is the overflow of life into others—Gen. 47:7, 10; 49:28; 1 John 5:16:
      1. God will sovereignly use persons, things, and events to empty us of everything that has filled us and to take away every preoccupation so that we may have an increased capacity to be filled with God—Luke 1:53; Matt. 5:6.
      2. Everything that happens to us is under God’s sovereignty for our transformation and maturity; nothing is accidental:
         1. A mature believer has learned that God is merciful and all-sufficient to meet his needs in every kind of situation— Gen. 43:14; 17:1; Phil. 1:19-21a; 4:11-12.
         2. His trust and rest are altogether in the mercy of his all-sufficient God, no longer in himself or in his ability—Rom. 9:16.
2. The book of Hebrews is a book on maturity, and in order to be brought on to maturity we need to cross the river:
   1. Just as the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea and the Jordan River, we must cross river after river:
      1. The water of the Red Sea is a type of the aspect of Christ’s death which ends the power of the world, whereas the water of the Jordan represents the aspect of Christ’s death which brings our old man to an end—Josh. 4:8-9, 20.
      2. All of our difficulties are dealt with on the other side of and in the Jordan River.
      3. When we cross the river out of the wilderness of our soul into Christ as our good land, our Sabbath rest in our spirit, we are one with Him to deal with His difficulty and care for His interests, fighting the spiritual warfare so that we may fully express Him and reign with Him in the church life for the building up of the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem:
         1. If we are in ourselves or are individualistic, or if we are trying to be holy, spiritual, or victorious, we are immature.
         2. Real maturity is not only in our spirit but also in the church life—Eph. 4:11-13.
         3. A mature believer knows and cares for the Body of Christ, being Body-conscious and Body-centered—1 Cor. 12:16, 18-19, 21, 24.
   2. We need to intensively flee (cf. Acts 14:6) for refuge to enter within the veil, to enter into the Holy of Holies, where the Lord as the Forerunner is enthroned in glory—Heb. 6:18-20:
      1. This signifies that we must be in our spirit, where experientially the practical Holy of Holies is today.
      2. The Lord Jesus as the Forerunner fled everything to enter into the presence of God within the veil.
      3. We need to follow Him to flee from everything other than Christ and the church life into our spirit.
      4. This fleeing is a real river crossing.
3. We need to go on, to be brought on, to maturity by forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, pursuing toward the fullest enjoyment and gaining of Christ for the uttermost enjoyment of Christ in the millennial kingdom—Phil. 3:12-15:
   1. If believers fall away and turn back, there is no need for them to lay the foundation of their Christian life again (Heb. 6:1); there is only the need to go on, to be brought on, to perfection, to maturity.
   2. Our Christian life is a building project and a race; if we fall away after we have begun, we do not need to go back to the beginning and start again; we only need to go on from where we fell.
   3. The believers should be like the earth which drinks the rain which often comes upon it and brings forth proper vegetation, instead of like the earth bringing forth thorns and thistles, which is disapproved and near a curse, whose end is to be burned—Heb. 6:7-8:
      1. The rain refers to the five categories of good things mentioned in Hebrews 6:4-5, and bringing forth vegetation is an illustration of being brought on to maturity.
      2. The believers, as the earth, are tilled for God’s sake that they might bring forth Christ, as the vegetation, to maturity to partake of blessing from God—cf. S. S. 4:12-15.
      3. The thorns and thistles refer to the traditional things of the Hebrew believers’ old religion.
      4. The earth could never be burned, but what it brings forth could be burned; the believers could never be burned, but all that they bring forth that is not according to God’s economy will be burned—1 Cor. 3:9, 12-13.
4. The Lord wants to bring us on to maturity, but we must willingly cooperate with His gracious work:
   1. We need to share with Christ in His attainments—Heb. 1:9; 3:14.
   2. We need to be diligent to enter into the remaining Sabbath rest—Heb. 4:9, 11.
   3. We need to come forward to the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace—Heb. 4:16.
   4. We need to feed on the solid food to enjoy Christ as our High Priest according to the order of Melchisedec—Heb. 5:9-10, 14.