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Be wary of growing dull of hearing! A call to Christian maturity.
The Word of God has asked Him to bless our time. I ask once again the presence of your spirit that we indeed, Father, this evening as we look at a text that is difficult in its exhortation, convicting our hearts to be pliable in your hands, that you might bring conviction where needed, encouragement where needed as well.
Verses are weighty issues of human and our Savior, His perfection and His becoming the source of eternal salvation to those who obey Him. 14, we have somewhat of an excursus, somewhat of an aside for just a moment, for it seems that the writer needs to bring some correction to those that he is addressing.
Up to this point, there really hasn't been anything other than exhortation to all believers to press forward, but here in verses 11 through 14, we have somewhat of a rebuke, somewhat of an expression of concern.
So beginning in verse 11, the writer says concerning this subject, it's either this subject or concerning whom, it can be taken either way, we have much to say to you, but it is difficult because for you again to teach you of the oracles of God, not solid food for everyone is, but solid food is for the mature, the complete, the ones through discipline have trained their senses to be able to discern between good and evil from the word of God.
This as I after six, unfortunate that Hebrews six is probably one of the most well-known texts in all of the book of Hebrews because of verses four through six, which really are not a central aspect of the argument of the book, but it could continue right on into that because the writer here seems to bring some correction to the congregation.
There seems to be a problem that has developed in the congregation. Now that doesn't mean that we've been wrong all along in saying that this is a book that is meant to, in essence, encourage believers who have been put under pressure to go back to the old ways, but there is a sense in which a person who would succumb to those pressures is demonstrating a certain immaturity on their own part.
In fact, if they were already teachers, if they understood the word of righteousness, then they would be able to see the very same things that this writer is expressing to them anyways. And so, truly, it is the case that those who are subject to the danger of apostasy within the Christian congregation are very frequently those who have become stunted in their spiritual growth, and that is what we see in these words.
He begins by saying there's so much more that I could say, and I sort of wish that he had. It would be wonderful if there's these places in the New Testament, for example, when Paul writes the Thessalonians, you have no need that I should tell you these things.
Ah, but if he just had so many of the books lining Christian bookshelves, would never have been written. Well, then again, they might have anyways. But so many of the things that are sort of teased there, well, I have already explained all these things to you, and you wanna go, but please, sir, could you do it again?
We'd like to hear them. He says I have many things that I'd like to say to you, either concerning this subject of Jesus as the Melchizedek priest, or about the person of Jesus as the Melchizedek priest.
You can take it either way. But he says it is difficult to explain it to you. It is hard to interpret for you, literally. And it's not because the subject itself is beyond explanation, and it's not because the writer finds some lack of ability in and of himself.
I know I certainly feel that when I'm trying to go after the book of Hebrews. Almost every section I go, wow, why did I go here? Can we go back to John? This would be a little bit easier. That's not really what's behind it.
He says the reason that it's difficult to explain these greater things is because some type of a process has taken place amongst the congregation, and they have become dull of hearing. Now it seems, you'll notice in verse 11, you have become dull of hearing, and the very same verb, the very same form appears in the next verse when it says, you have come to have need of milk.
Both would seem to indicate that this was a process that took place over time. That it hasn't always been the case. And as we look, for example, at the book of Revelation, we look at the letters written to the churches, we see there hints where a church can start off well, but then it starts to go a little bit off track, not completely, but there's a little loss of balance, there becomes some apathy or lukewarmness, and it depends on which church and exactly how it manifests itself, but evidently, in this congregation, something has been taking place to where a dullness of hearing, now this dullness of hearing, sometimes I really do wonder, hearing test, but a dullness of hearing here is not just they're having trouble hearing, they didn't have a nice microphone system back then, instead it's a much more subtle and dangerous thing.
A dullness of hearing means you're hearing the words, not being joined with faith, in what only exists within the church, and seemingly afflicts people who have regular, not that these people were not hearing, excitement, the great privilege of being exposed from people who were eyewitnesses of the events of Jesus' ministry, and yet, it is the tendency of, who daily saw the pillar, who saw miracles, the truth is being explained to them, it was being presented to them, but they have become dull, sometimes we'll all have to admit it, you'll be sitting right where you're sitting right now, and you'll hear something said, and you'll start a thought process in your mind, and three minutes later, all of a sudden, you tune back in, and all of a sudden, you tune back in, and all that stuff that was between time, it was just noise, just words, and this time, in every single person in the congregation, that they should have become elders, that it should be just an congregation filled with elders, to teach others what was being proclaimed to them, in the congregation, in listening to, and applying, and understanding, and remembering, is presented to you in this place, so that, if the opportunity arises, it should not be some shockingly amazing thing, we could take what we have been taught, that we should have to be able to say these things to other people, that we should have a grasp, now that's what it takes, to be able to teach, Golden Gate, and we did an intensive jam term class, where you started at nine o 'clock, the more you got done at five o 'clock in the afternoon, so hours, and hours of teaching, in-depth grasp, and understanding of the subject, I started teaching, I had to take some very difficult science classes, and I had one professor, his specialty was limnology, limnology is the study of inland lakes and streams, so when it came to anything in that field, he was right there, you could tell when he was teaching, he didn't have a bunch of books open and stuff like that, it was coming from here, and he was passionate about it, he was confident, and you could ask questions, and the answer would be quick and understandable, despite how complex, he had been asked to teach a subject, you wanna find out if you really know the doctrine of the Trinity, teach the kids that subject, one thing to teach other adults that have the same technical language, what's being said is, there needs to be a process in the Christian life of maturity, coming to understand, seeing the harmony, and the scope of the Christian faith, so that each one of us is able to express the grasp, and understanding that is ours to others, now, not everyone's called to be able to have the gift of teaching, and be able to simplify it down to a certain level, but there needs to be able to be this maturity, being able to be teachers, if not, to grow, you again have need for someone to teach you building blocks, the ABCs of the oracles of God, the word of God is how we would normally put it, here, oracles, plural, the very sayings of God that he has revealed over time, you're having to go back to the basics again, now, was this simply because of the movements come along that have distracted from the real core of the faith, and gotten people all excited about certain things over here, and then, when the movement cools off, there's a refresh yourself on, we're not told, are given a very familiar example here, tells us that, well, I'm gonna get out the box, and all of a sudden, the Cheerios are rolling down the aisles of the church, because we're starting to get to a little bit of solid food there, there's supposed to be some development, but if we saw somebody coming in, and he's 12 or 13 years old, and mom still has a bottle, we all go, that's not right, something's gone wrong there, there's supposed to be a process of maturity going on here, but something isn't right, so he says, everyone who's partaking of milk, he is unskilled, he lacks capacity at the word of righteousness, and of course, again, whenever we encounter a phrase like this, there's all sorts of discussion, does that mean the word about righteousness, does that mean righteousness in the moral sense of behavior, or in this context, is it the revelation of how God brings about righteousness, his own righteousness, and how he brings about righteousness, but I think that would be it here, because we're right in the middle of discussion of the high priest, eternal salvation, et cetera, et cetera, and he's saying, there's much more I'd like to tell you about this, but I can't, because he'd become dull of hearing, his assertion is, they're unskilled, we've all seen this situation in the past, I can tell you, soul-shaking, frightening, helpless feeling, I'd be so scared, novice, the first morning, I remember it to this day, it's burned, Summer went with Josh alone, and I think Summer was saying the same thing, oh Lord, I hope to see my parents again someday, there is a, if again, there should not be, amongst believers, a natural growth in grace that gives us a facility with the gospel, something that's difficult for us to do, to talk about the very fundamentals of the faith, how we have peace with God, and yet, in our day and age, there is a, just for the advance, grossly in, major, the basis for super-Christians, worship salvation system, a rank heresy, Jesus first, don't really, heresy aside from Moses' teaching, and I was extremely concerned to see that at times, we'd be covering three chapters of Romans, I was trying to at least familiarize the people with a meaningful outline of this, he told me, you know, he fully understood, that's, he said, what you need to do, is you need, as I stopped teaching, you can't build when you just keep doing a few dribbles of milk, every mindset amongst people, that somehow, the sheep of Christ will be offended, if you dare say, you know what, grow, glorify Christ by growing in the grace and knowledge of him, there's so much here, keep growing, don't become apathetic, don't become accepting of where you are now, that's gonna allow the sheep of Christ to be offended, and so he says, everyone who partakes of milk, experienced the solid food, who become, so solid food is for the mature, they form here, cryptos in, and then you put the final word that the article's modifying, so it becomes like bookends, it's a very common thing to do in the Greek language, so literally it says, the ones discipline through practice, having their senses trained, senses that they have trained over the years, this discipline is the word for which we get a gymnasium, so it's talking about that training, that kind of physical training that a person does at a gym, you might know something about that, at a gym, and so it is not something you do just once, any kind of advancement in that way, it has to be something you do on a regular basis, to exercise, to train, and these are people who have, they practice discipline, it is not just something that just happens to them, they make the specific personal decision, I am going to pursue a goal, and the pursuit of my goal is the ability to discern good and evil, want to be able to discern, to judge, it's a very certain term used in debate, to judge between right and wrong, and here, not just once in their life, but as desire to be a mature Christian, I desire to train myself to regularly discipline myself, so that I might have the faculty and ability to be a discerning person, and if there is anything that can be said, and part of me feels terrible for them, because clearly they're not in a place where there's anyone standing up and giving guidance, and giving consistent preaching from the word of God, and the result is, well, but at the same time, if they were but reading, I'd just get so far off, and those that are, Wednesday night as well, are already showing a seriousness, and so maybe anyone is the warning that is here, and we need to remember the warnings in the book of Hebrews of exhorting believers to proper behavior and glory, people say, well, we hear these words, and we go, I'm teaching, but when the opportunity arises, with my children, my wife, my family, like the opportunity arises, I want to be able to speak in danger, should there not be some lack of, is there not more preaching to try to make it, he had to do more study of it, you want to consider it more, it's not just something, mind is off someplace else, and you should do that, and so solid food, be a teacher, you conform to the image of Christ, we see its consistency, its harmony, its beauty, and the greatest step of maturity is being able to take these things, and apply them to our lives as we experience all of the things that God brings into our lives, that doesn't come from a program at church, doesn't come from 40 days of anything, comes from this consistent application via the spirit of God, of his truth, each and every time we stop, we dawdle along the pilgrim road, we become fascinated with the things of the world once again, rather than pressing forward toward the celestial, we become complacent, we become apathetic, when we think we've reached a position that's good enough, you have given us such a rich source in your word.
