 In Hebrews chapter 6, beginning at verse 1, reading to verse 3, the writer writes, therefore leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment, and this we will do if God permits. Now as we begin this passage, I was sharing with you this morning in our morning services, those of you who are with us, that chapter 6 really contains a lot of information that moves on from milk into the meat of the word, and that's the desire of the writer here. He wants them to leave the elementary principles, he wants them to grow beyond the basics, and so his desire is for them to proceed into spiritual maturity. In chapter 5, he had been speaking to them in verses 12 through 14, and he had given them an exhortation, as you remember, he had said in verse 12, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God, you've come to need milk and not solid food. So he had given to them an exhortation, actually even a mild rebuke, because he said, by now in your spiritual life, seeing that you've been Christians long enough, you should have been proceeding beyond where you are at this moment. He says, I want you to grow up, I want you to grow spiritually, and to move into things that are beyond the basic things. And yet, when we get into chapter 6, he starts to review those basic things that he had already taught them, and things that they ought to already know. You see, he had said to them, by now you ought to be teachers, and yet you need to have communicated to you the basics. By now you ought to be able to communicate in a more thorough manner. By now you ought to be able to say the things that are beyond the first principles. You should have matured past the basics, because now you're only able to understand spiritual truths on the most simple level. That's why he had said you've come to need milk and not solid food. As I mentioned to you, this was a pattern of regression. You've returned to bottle feeding because you're not progressing in maturity. You need basic truth, which he refers to as the milk of the Word. Because everyone who partakes only in milk is unskilled. In other words, they're inexperienced. These are people who are spiritual infants, who cannot digest the things that are called meat, because you are inexperienced, you're unskillful, and you're unprepared. And therefore you need to grow up. You need to spend time in the Word of God. You need to give him opportunity to work in you. And that was his exhortation. You need to take the things that God has given to you, to practice and learn by experience the truth of what Scripture has to say. That way you're capable of communicating not just things from your head, but also from your life. You're able to communicate things from two levels, the level of the intellect and the level of the spiritual person who has experienced the things of God. And that's what he wants to do. He wants to encourage them to go on, and therefore they're going to need to be obedient to the things that God has already taught them in order that they might advance. And so by the time you get to chapter six, that's what he's starting to do here. In chapter six he says you need to leave the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ. We need to forsake or put away. We need to let alone disregard or put off. We need to be separated from the basics. In other words, I want you to move on beyond your spiritual infancy and press on into maturity in Jesus Christ. That's what he's saying in verse one when he says, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection. Now, I've had people in the past who asked me, do you think you can be perfect this side of heaven? And the answer is yes, I think so, but Marie would say no. I don't think I can be perfect. She's taught me that. Basically, there are those, though, who believe in sinless perfection, who actually believe that this side of heaven you can become perfect. And they refer to scriptures like this and say, listen, he's saying to move on to perfection. Well, the fact is that word perfection doesn't speak in the way that you and I think, not in terms like we use today. Perfection speaks of maturity. It speaks of advancing spiritually. He's saying, in other words, let us press on beyond the basics and grow up in the things of Christ. Not that you can be perfect this side of heaven because you can't. The apostle Paul made it very clear that he had yet to apprehend that which he had been apprehended for. He says, I just press on. I move forward. I continue on because this side of heaven you aren't going to be perfect. So what he's encouraging us to is maturity. So let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God. Let us move on. Let us grow up. Let us do the things that God has called us to do. Let us leave childhood and let us become mature. Now, obviously, this isn't something that is personal effort. What it is is personal surrender. It's personal surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ because when he says, let us go on, it literally is saying, let us be carried along into maturity. And so it's the Lord who moves us towards maturity as we yield ourselves to him. If you take notes, Philippians chapter 2, verse 13, says it is God who works in you both to will and to do his good pleasure. It's God who's working in us, not only to do but to be willing to do that which brings pleasure to him. I have a certain responsibility. I work out my own salvation with fear and trembling. That is my responsibility because I'm the only one who can live my life. But it is God who works in me both to will, which means both to have the desire, both to will and to do. Not only to have the desire but to able to perform that which I desire. It's all of God. So on the one hand, I can move on to spiritual maturity because I'm being carried by the Lord into it. I have my role, or that which I do. I discipline myself under godliness. But I rely totally on him to bring me to spiritual maturity. And so what he's saying in verse 1 is this, by now you ought to be teachers but you need to be taught once again the first principles of Christ. I am encouraging you to move beyond the milk. I'm encouraging you to put into practice the things that God has taught you so that you can begin to digest the deeper truths of God. And that's what we're going to do. He said we're going to leave the discussion of elementary principles or the basics, the very basic things of Christ. He says because we don't want to lay again the foundations that you've already had laid into your life. And yet he goes on to speak concerning the basic things. He begins to speak concerning those foundations. And I want you to see them. Now when he says not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith, he's not saying foundation are not important. Of course foundations are important. He's saying but let's press on and build the rest of the structure. Now what are the foundations he's writing about? What is it that they're to be advancing from? Well one, he begins with the first basic, repentance from dead works and faith towards God. Now when he speaks of repentance from dead works, our things that are done that are without force or power. The point he's making is you need to remember that good works that you perform will not save you. That there's not a single thing that I can do to force God to be obligated to allow me entrance into heaven. That is a very basic thing. That's a basic thing for all Christians to understand and to know that you cannot save yourself. The first thing that every believer has been taught is you can't save yourself. That's basic to the Gospel. And so he's saying I want you to go beyond good works because good works can be dead works. Good works demonstrate that you've been saved but good works are not going to save you. So being saved by faith is a Bible basic that all believers must understand. And yet I've encountered many people over my lifetime who don't understand that. Who belong to systems of Christian thought that encourage them to basically work for their salvation. Who actually believe that justification is a doctrine that really works along with human effort. And the Bible doesn't teach that at all. This is something that people like us in this church probably take for granted. I'm assuming that every believer in this room can already speak forcefully about how it's useless to try and work your way into heaven. But that hasn't always been true. As a matter of fact, that is a doctrine that was hidden from the eyes of the church for centuries. I'm reading... I read a devotional that is a historic devotion, meaning that every day that I read, you know, whether it's today or yesterday or whatever, is going to give to me an insight into the history of the church on that date. And so as I've been reading through this particular devotion, I ran across William Tyndale and something that he had done on a certain date. But as I was reading that, I thought I would use that as an illustration to you, because most of you have heard the name William Tyndale, but perhaps don't know much about him. And so this gives to you an illustration as to how God has in his word taught us that we are to repent from dead works, and yet the church seems to have forgotten that, and in a certain period of its history actually would put to death individuals who said that you're saved by grace and by faith. They actually would put you to death. William Tyndale being an example of that. And so let me read to you what I prepared concerning him. William Tyndale was born around 1494 and educated at Oxford and later at Cambridge University in England. He entered the priesthood but left it and became a tutor for a wealthy family. As he studied the Greek New Testament, he became convinced that people needed God's word in their own language. After attempting to get permission from the Bishop of London to translate the Bible into English, he left for Belgium and translated the New Testament and parts of the Old Testament into English. His first English New Testament was printed in Germany in 1525. His English Bibles were smuggled into England and the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London attacked him fiercely. On June 18th, 1528, Cardinal Thomas Woolsey ordered that he be arrested and brought back to England on charges of heresy. After seven years, he was tracked down, arrested and spent 18 months in a dungeon before his trial. Among his charges were that he maintained that faith alone justifies and that to believe in the forgiveness of sins and to embrace the mercy offered in the gospel was enough for salvation. For these beliefs, he was condemned for heresy, strangled to death, and his body was burned. What you take as common knowledge, what we in this church have embraced and lived freely with and actually evangelized people with, cost William Tyndale his life. And it isn't something that is just infrequent through the history of the church when people began to rediscover the truth of grace and mercy, which is a Bible basic, they were persecuted unto the death. And so here, as we look at this, the writer of Hebrews is simply making it clear that we are to repent from dead works for it's by grace that you are saved through faith and not of yourselves and that not of yourselves. It's a gift of God and not by works that man should boast. Paul said in Ephesians 2, 8, and 9. And so what we have is one, a knowledge in Bible basics that I cannot save myself. And yet I'm telling you, because the heart of man is desperately wicked, we have a tendency of thinking that we can. We have a tendency of saying that person went to heaven because they're a good person. And we have a tendency of thinking that if you just try hard, you're going to enter into the kingdom of God. But the writer of Hebrews says that's not going to cut it. That's not how it works. You have to repent from dead works because no matter how hard you try, it's just not good enough. God's demand for entrance into heaven is perfection. And not a human being on the face of the earth outside of Jesus Christ ever met his demand. And so he's letting us know one is that we need to move past yes, we need to move past that particular doctrine of dead works. The second basic is the doctrine of baptism. Now the word baptism literally speaks of washings. And so he's saying you need to get beyond the elementary washings that you find in the Jewish religion in their ceremonial washings. You might find it interesting, but if you go to Israel even to this day, you will go into a certain house. It's called the burnt house. And as you enter into the burnt house, they will give you a tour of this house there in Jerusalem. And you'll come to what is called the ritual bath in Mikva. And that's where the people would do the ritual bathing as they were purifying themselves and they would do that through water. They would be washed in order that they could make offerings and involve themselves in a variety of religious things. And so they all had their ritual washings. Jesus spoke about that if you take notes in Mark chapter 7 in verses 3 and 4. He said, the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing as the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. They observe many other traditions, such as a washing of cups, pictures, and kettles. They got that from the Old Testament, the washings. Now it says you need to get past the ceremonial washings in the Jewish religion. Second, you need to get past the baptisms, the original baptisms that we have received as believers. One of those original baptisms is the baptism of John. When you study the New Testament, you'll discover that baptism is done in various forms. There are different kinds. You have John's baptism. John the Baptist actually baptized people with the baptism of repentance. And as he would come and baptize people, he would point them to Jesus Christ. You also have the baptisms that were administered by Jesus' disciples. Jesus' disciples would baptize followers of Jesus Christ. Jesus himself not doing that, but his followers would do that. His apostles would baptize followers. They would usually move past the elementary doctrine of Christian baptism. All of these are basic things. Once again, Christian baptism answers in a sense to the Jewish right of circumcision. The child was circumcised to give an outer emblem of identification with the nation of Israel. When you're water baptized, it's an outer demonstration of an interchange called regeneration. When you are water baptized, you are demonstrating through an action that you have been washed by the blood of Jesus Christ. And so when we have baptisms here in the fellowship, I take time to instruct you in that to remind you that it's not the washing of your flesh that is saving you. And so you have to be reminded. And that's what he's saying here. He's saying this is something to remind you, but we've got to get past that. You get past the repentance from dead works. You get past the elementary reality of baptism. In our day we have those who will argue with you hammer and tong then unless a person is water baptized, they cannot be saved. I remember teaching a home Bible study many years ago now where a young lady was going to a particular Christian church and she, after the Bible study, spoke to me and said, listen, she said, I go to this church and they state that unless I am water baptized, I can't enter into the kingdom of heaven. And so that mentality is still present in the church today. The baptism doesn't save you. The washing of regeneration saves you. The born-again experience that you have through Jesus Christ saves you. And so what happens is you go and you identify with him. Romans chapter six tells us that we are dead, buried, and made alive in Jesus Christ. So when you enter into the water, that's a picture of your death and your burial. But when you come out of the water, that is a picture of your resurrection and your identification with Jesus Christ and your life. So he says, repent. He says, we've got to move on past the very basic things. We've got to move on past the repentance from dead works. We need to move on past the doctrine of baptism. This is something that you have to understand deeply. You need to understand that you've been washed by God. You need to understand that God is given to you in new heart. If you take notes, Ezekiel 3625, I will cleanse you from all your impurities from your idols. This washing of regeneration comes through faith in Jesus Christ. And so when I repented from dead works and asked Christ to come into my life, I identified with him in water baptism, symbolizing my death, burial, and new life in him. So we move past that. The third basic doctrine he has is the lane on of hands. Now, in the New Testament, lane on of hands could occur when a person made an offering. You can see that in Leviticus in chapter 1 verses 2 through 4. And what would happen is if I were making an offering, I would lay my hand on that offering and in doing so, I was identifying with it, because it was a portrait of taking my place. In the New Testament, we're identified with Jesus Christ. Not by our laying hands on him, but by his laying hands on us as we have received him. And the Holy Spirit brings us into his body and empowers us to serve him. And so when I have repented from dead works, I've identified with Christ in Christian baptism and I also have been apprehended by him, and now filled by his Holy Spirit, my life is going to move on into maturity. He then moves on into the fourth basic, the resurrection from the dead. In the Old Testament, resurrection wasn't clearly portrayed. You can go from Genesis to Malachi and you will find intimations in some of the books that give to you an insight that they apprehended to a degree that this life was not all there is. You can see it in the oldest book of the Old Testament, the book of Job, in Job 19 verse 26, where he said after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. So he had a certain knowledge that this life wasn't all there is. You see it in Psalm 16 verse 10 which says, you will not abandon me to the grave nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You see it in Isaiah 26 verse 19, your dead shall live together with my dead body and all arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust for your dew is like the dew of herbs and the earth shall cast out the dead. You see intimations of that but in the New Testament you see it fulfilled. Jesus Christ is the first to be resurrected never to die again and resurrection is demonstrated to us in that doctrine through him. The doctrine of the resurrection is the core of the gospel and the doctrine of all biblical preaching. I remember a theology class that I had many years ago as a Bible student. Our professor asked the question, does it matter? Does it matter if Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead? What if Jesus Christ was resurrected just a spirit being and not physically resurrected? Does it matter? And so the class was drawn into his discussion related to that. I'd ask you the same question not asking you to respond out loud but the question would be asked does it matter? Does the doctrine of resurrection does the doctrine that Jesus Christ died was buried but rose alive in the same body who was crucified in three days prior, does that matter? And the answer is yes because the preaching of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the heart of the gospel. It's the center of all biblical preaching. When you look in the book of Acts from the first preaching that you find in Acts chapter 2 all the way through the book they preach the message of the gospel. They center their attention on the resurrection of Jesus Christ and human responsibility for his death. And so resurrection in the Old Testament is alluded to but not directly taught. It's not in other words something that you find a full on doctrine or teaching about but you do see it spoken of. It's in the New Testament that you see resurrection fully displayed and that's when Jesus Christ on the third day rose from the dead. And Paul made it very clear that that's the heart of the gospel. In the New Testament, verse 15 verses 1 through 4 Paul said, I declare to you the gospel which I preach to you, which also you received and in which you stand by which you are also saved if you hold fast that word which I preach to you unless you believe in vain for I delivered to you first of all that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was saved and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. Does it matter? Absolutely. It is the heart of the gospel. And so I repent from these dead works and I receive water baptism and a variety of things like that and I hold fast to the doctrine of resurrection. Is resurrection true? That's something that every one of us in this room has to embrace on a personal level. I've told you this before, but I've conducted quite a number of funerals of course. I'm a minister and I've been ministering for many years now and I have conducted quite a number of funerals and I can also tell you this the overwhelming majority of the funerals that I did when I first began conducting funerals were for people who were not Christians and you want to talk about a very awkward time giving a funeral message to a group of people who have no hope and the person who died has no hope is a very difficult thing to do. I remember the very first funeral that I officiated over. I was a young assisting pastor and the man who died was a hardened gambler and all of his friends who showed up for the funeral were prostitutes and gamblers. I still remember that very well. Growing up I heard the term lady in red and some of you are old enough to know what that term means. It's a book of a prostitute. She's a lady in red or a red light lady. I heard that but can you imagine my very first funeral that I did in a group of about 60, 40 to 60 people and I'm looking out there and there are women who were prostitutes who were dressed in red with ruby red lipstick and bleach blonde hair and their faces were painted up and painted ladies and all. I remember as I was there giving this funeral thinking my, my, my, my, this is not your typical church group. This is different and you give a message and the message you give has to center on the reality of Jesus Christ and what he can do in somebody's life and I've given a lot of messages over the years in funerals and many of the funerals were for people who didn't know the Lord and I've always asked God to give me strength and give me wisdom and capability to communicate clearly the hope to these people who are alive that they could embrace and leave with today because this person in the casket is already settled he's already going to come before God in the state that he died in. There's no second chance for this person and so I will speak to the living and that's what I'll even say in my funerals. Funerals are not for the dead, they're for the living and so I speak to them because I'm here to bring comfort to you and an acknowledgement of this person's life and the recognition of the things that he did and all but in reality this is really for you. I can remember doing a particular funeral on one occasion for a 17-year-old girl who had died in a tragic accident and as I was giving the funeral I looked out at the congregation that was made up of all high school aged kids and I was always beginning to share with them and I looked into the back of the funeral home the chapel there and these little girls these young girls were giggling and talking to one another during the funeral and I thought within myself they don't understand the depth of what they're experiencing right now there and I had my notes all printed out and I was reading from my notes and I remember just folding them up and closing them, putting them in my Bible and just speaking from my heart to them and sharing with them because they needed to hear the gospel clearly they needed to hear that there's hope for them and they needed to understand these things and so over the years, over 27-28 years now I've had many opportunities to do many funerals and I've shared just like I am right now with people about what God can do I can remember doing a funeral for my uncle who was very, very dear to me and he had died of cancer and I had watched him wither away until he died he was a 200-pound man very muscular, a truck driver all of his life a very powerful man he used to talk really loudly he had a real deep voice because he spoke with such roughness and I was timid and I can still remember him in that way and then I was asked by my aunt to please come and see him in the hospital and when I went to the hospital as he was dying there he was a shell of the man that I used to know he weighed 120 pounds or so and his skin was yellow and just pressed against his skull and I remember walking into that room and seeing my uncle there and he had gone through chemotherapy and a variety of means to try and stop the cancer and he's now bald and his mustache is gone and I stood next to him and my aunt, whom I love very much said, Ray, you know your nephew David is here and she looks at me and she says, David, she says talk to him like a Rosalis which made me laugh because Rosalis is a loudmouth I mean, my uncle was a loudmouth and he scared me but she says, talk to him like a Rosalis and I knew what she meant she meant raise your voice and speak to him and I remember as I spoke to my uncle there and ministered to him and quoted John 14 that Jesus had prepared a place for him and then he died and three days later speaking at his funeral and standing in front of a congregation of people, many of whom were my cousins whom I'd never even met when I was 14 years old my mom and I began to count cousins on both sides of the family we stopped at about 300 or 400 I mean, I have hundreds and hundreds of cousins you know, all over the place that I have never even met many of them and so I have this room full of people who are related to me by blood and by name but I don't know them but they don't know me either and I remember standing up there and saying you don't know me, I'm Frank and Bonnie's son David and I've done that so many times to tell them how to get saved and get right with God but then the day comes when you're standing there at the casket of your own father and you're looking into his face as I have done and the spirit of God begins to speak to you and minister to you and I still remember looking there at the face of my dad when we were getting ready to bury him and I still remember looking in the face of my dad and saying to myself do you believe in resurrection? Do you believe in resurrection? Do you believe in resurrection? Do you? Because if the dead are not raised this is the last time you're going to look into the face of your father Do you believe in resurrection? I remember that very very very well Do you? See I've preached at a lot of funerals I've given comfort to a lot of people who have lost their children to grandparents I've been there for a lot of people but that was the first time I actually had to answer that question for me Do I believe in resurrection? I've buried my uncles I've seen my grandmother buried I've seen numerous aunts buried but do you believe in resurrection? That's an elementary principle of our faith the resurrection from the dead is what the New Testament alluded to in the New Testament revealed and it's what gives us hope and it's the heart of the gospel and so he's saying listen we're leaving the discussion of elementary principles of Christ we want to go on to maturity so I don't want to lay again the foundation of repentance from dead works and faith toward God of doctrine of baptisms of laying out of hands and of eternal judgment again the doctrine of eternal judgment in the Old Testament is rather vague it's alluded to again you see it in Ecclesiastes chapter 12 verses 13 and 14 now all has been heard here is the conclusion of the matter fear God and keep His commandments for this is the whole duty of man for God will bring every deed into judgment and every hidden thing whether it is good or evil you see it in Daniel chapter 12 verse 2 multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake some to everlasting life others to shame and everlasting contempt so you see that there is a time that we stand before God it's revealed in the Old Testament and we give an explanation if you will an account of our life you do see that in the Old Testament some are raised for life and some are raised for judgment again in the New Testament you get the picture of final judgment again you might find this interesting I mentioned it recently Jesus spoke more about final judgment in terms of condemnation than He ever did any other subject Jesus spoke concerning the reality of eternal judgment and what occurs without Him because He wanted to save people from entering into condemnation and so if you study the Gospels for example Mark chapter 9 verses 43 through 50 you see it very clearly there you see it in other passages in 2nd Thessalonians chapters 1 and 2 you can see various references to these kinds of things but in Revelation chapter 20 you get a picture let's turn our Bibles there I want to take you there Revelation chapter 20 and I want to show you what we see there in that passage concerning judgment in Revelation chapter 20 verse 11 John writes the books the sea gave up the dead who are in it and death and Hades delivered up the dead who are in them they were judged each one according to His works then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire this is the second death anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire without going into a great detailed explanation as a matter of fact as I was preparing to study and going over my notes the night I said before that should be said about this I can't go there I can't take the time to do that not tonight just wanted to give you some basics he's basically saying that there is a place of judgment if your name is not found in the Lamb's book of life then you enter into the lake of fire often people will say that you enter into hell the lake of fire is the proper way of explaining that the lake of fire does exist it is a place where Satan calls profit and all those who reject Christ will ultimately stay it is a place of final judgment it is a place that they will not get out of now I've had people say I find it amazing but I can actually say this who have said well you know I'm going to hell but it's alright because all my friends are going there too and we'll have a party for forever you know they don't understand that when the Lord Jesus Christ spoke of that place he spoke of it in terms like where the worm dies it's not, it's a place of weeping it's a place of gnashing of teeth it's a place of outer darkness it's a place where people would just do anything to get out of but they're there for eternity the lake of fire the place of absence of fellowship with God forever and if a person doesn't have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ according to Revelation 2011 through 15 if their names are not written in the Lamb's book of life their ultimate is the lake of fire and so again he is saying to us that he wants to pass by this the judgment, the eternal judgment he's saying because these are things that you already know you know that you repent from dead works, you know that you turn your faith to Jesus Christ you know that you have baptism that demonstrates the newness of life you know you're identified and apprehended by Christ and you know that there is a resurrection of the dead where you will enter into the seeing of God and at his right hand you will enjoy his pleasures forever more you also know that those who reject Christ have a place of eternal judgment these are all basic things basic Christian doctrine and so he's saying I want to leave this I want to move you on into spiritual maturity and that's why in verse 3 he says in this we will do if God permits I want to move you past this because you see the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ gives to the believer eternal hope the knowledge that Jesus Christ conquered sin, the grave and Satan and was resurrected gives to us hope I'm not afraid of eternal condemnation because Jesus took that condemnation on my behalf he has taken what was not his which is my sin and given to me that which was not mine which is his righteousness he's imputed that to me by faith so when I received Christ as my Lord and my savior I was able to say beyond a shadow of a doubt that I know that I have passed from death unto life in John 5 24 Jesus said I tell you the truth whoever hears my word and believes in him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned but he has passed from death unto life and that's something that I have it's a guarantee it's a guarantee because of what he's done for me it's a guarantee that causes me every day to have a certain amount of joy a joy it's something that God gives to me I mean I can tell you truthfully I do this quite often and I'm sure all of you do too like I there are times and it happens quite often with me to be honest with y'all I'll be driving with my wife Marie we're gonna get some coffee or do something escaping from the kids or whatever and I will say to her I'll go you know what God has been good to me I'm amazed absolutely amazed at how good God is I'm amazed at that and I tell her that I say think about that baby I think about that I mean when I met Marie I was a college student I'm teaching Bible studies in my brother's apartment an apartment that couldn't hold more than 10 or 12 people in the front room at any given time and there we are having Bible studies and as I'm teaching here comes some girl walking in I'm just starting to teach my brother I've been teaching him for a month and a half here comes some girl walking in walks past me my brother says David this is Marie and I look at her and I say hi how are you and she says fine and she sits down next to Joanie her roommate and I'm just sitting in this little chair and giving a Bible study the phone rings she goes and answers it because it's for her she says oh I'm not doing anything and she comes and whispers to Joanie giggling and says oh so-and-so wants me to go out next week and she's giggling and I don't know this girl from Eve and as I'm looking at her I'm thinking you're going to giggle about me like that someday I don't even know why that came into my mind it's the truth but it did and afterwards at the end of the Bible study we're talking and she asked me some questions she was a college student she says to me what's your sign because that was the big ice breaker at that time only the cool chicks said that what's your sign and I look at her and I say the fish and she says oh you're a Pisces and I said I'm no ichthuse I don't go for the astrology stuff at all you know and we have this interesting conversation and I ask her when did you become a Christian and she says I've always been a Christian you aren't born born again there's gotta be a time when you receive Christ and so I look at her and the Lord says to me she's lying and I said I know and I'm serious I heard the voice of the Lord she's lying and I said I know and she didn't come to the Bible study the next week because she went out with that creep and then then she comes and starts going to the Bible study and then one day after a study she came to she's in the kitchen and I'm sitting there in this little chair that I used to teach from and I look at her and she's standing next to the refrigerator and I said Marie and she looks at me she's only 12 steps away I mean she's just right there in a teeny little apartment I said Marie and she looks at me and I said I drink root beer like that I wanted to see what she'd do with that I drink root beer she says so what and I said I don't think you heard me I said I drink root beer I just wanted I used to play you know when I was just playing with her and she brings me a root beer with ice here you go your highness I said good girl thank you just messing with the girl but the Lord would just he just right away I could see she's a sweet sweet gal my sister Madeline the next week leads her to Christ and then about a month or so later I begin to date her and then as we begin to date no longer is she seated there on the couch she now sits at my feet leaning against the chair as I teach the word of God and she's been doing that ever since sitting at the feet of her husband who's also her pastor but I think about this and I think how amazing God has been how good he is you know I want to progress in spiritual maturity I don't want to have to be taught the basic things over and over and over again because I'm not progressing and here we have the writer of Hebrews saying listen you guys I want you to be teachers but you're still children he says we need to progress past the milk so I can bring you to the advanced doctrines of Christ so that you can be used by God in a deeper and mightier way so let's move away from the repentance from dead works and of faith towards God etc and I want to do that and I will do that if God permits some of you are immature some who are receiving this letter are unsaved only God can bring these things to your understanding and therefore I will move you past basics if God permits if you're right with God and if you have a heart to do that and that's what we're going to be doing as we pick up next time in verse 4 advancing beyond basics