Let's take our Bibles and turn
to the book of Hebrews, chapter 5. Hebrews, chapter 5. Let's read. We considered last
week, chapter 10. I'd like to just read, I mean,
verse 10, Hebrews 5, verse 10. I'd like to just read that 10th
verse, and I want to read verses 11 and 12. I'd like to preach
out of verses 11 and 12. Let's read, and then we'll ask
the Lord's blessing. Called of God and high priest
after the order of Melchizedek, of whom we have many things to
say and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. 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." Let's
pray together. This evening as we call upon
You, we realize that, Lord, You said that in the hour of our
need we can come boldly to the throne of grace by the Lord Jesus
Christ, that we can come with assurance in Him, that we can
come realizing our need. Father, how we need you. We need you to teach us. Teach
us. Teach us by the Spirit of God. Teach us, Lord Jesus, of yourself. Help us according to your blessed
goodness and grace and mercy. Lord, we ask and we knock and
we seek You said if we knocked, it would be open. If we sought
it, we would find. If we asked, it would be given
unto us. And Lord, taking You at Your
Word, we ask You tonight, would You bless this Word to our hearts?
Lord, help us. Help us to worship. Help us to
hear. Help us to see. Lord, rejoice
our hearts. Thank you for the privilege to
be here. Thank you for maintaining this assembly. Thank you, Lord,
for teaching all these many years. We ask these things for Christ's
sake. Amen. You know, when I read verse 11
and 12, Paul is talking to a group of Hebrews. And what
he tells them seems to be kind of a stain. And obviously,
he said it under the inspiration of the Spirit of God. You know, the last time we We
studied this particular book. We studied the necessity, the importance, and the difference
between the order of Melchizedek and the order of Aaron. I wanted
to take what the Apostle Paul said, called of God and high
priest after the order of Melchizedek. Well, it naturally would enter
your mind If he's after that order, well, what was the significance
between that order and the other order? The order of Aaron. And we realize that there was
a definite difference. This is what we looked at last
time. There was a definite difference between the order of Melchizedek
and the order of Aaron. And both of these men set forth the glory of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Melchizedek gloriously set forth
the eternality of our great High Priest. He is an eternal priest.
This is what is said of Melchizedek. Without father, without mother,
without descent, neither beginning of days nor end of life, but
made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest continually. Now we know that we have a high
priest. We have a great high priest right
now. He ever liveth. He's alive right
now. That's what the order of Melchizedek
set forth. Now the order of Aaron set forth
the glorious days of our Lord's humiliation. Aaron actually,
that order, the Aaronic order, the priesthood, he actually sacrificed
the animals. You saw in that order of Aaron
that there was an actual sacrifice. Blood was really shed. They took that animal and that
animal His throat was cut and the blood flowed. And our Lord actually laid down
His life. He actually put away the guilt,
the penalty, satisfied God's law. Every jot and every tittle
of God's law for obedience and death was set forth. Now when the Lord Jesus Christ
died, that right there gloriously fulfilled the order of Aaron. It was over. Aaron's order started
and stopped. The Lord Jesus Christ in the
days of his humiliation started and stopped. That's the order
of Aaron. He actually died. He actually
shed his blood. But the order of Melchizedek,
he ever lived it. You see what I'm saying? You
had to show both. They had to both be there. And
whenever our precious Lord fulfilled the order of Aaron, he cried
from the cross, it's finished. Christ was the end of the law
for righteousness. No more shedding of blood for
those animals. It was over. It was over. At His resurrection, in that
glorious resurrection, the marvelous display of His eternal priesthood
was set forth after the order of Melchizedek. He ever liveth. He's alive. Both of those men
gloriously set forth our Lord Jesus Christ, the Great High
Priest. Hebrews 9.24 says, For Christ
is not entered into the holy places made with hands. You see, Aaron did. Aaron went in to that holy place
made with hands. They constructed a tent. There
was a place. Aaron would go in, the Great
High Priest, one day a year. from the day of atonement, not
without blood. And He would go in. The blood
of that animal was sprinkled on the mercy seat. And there
was the day setting forth the atonement of God, the Lord Jesus
Christ He entered into. Not without blood. He entered
in with His own blood. The blood of His own precious
sacrifice. For Christ is not entered into
the holy places made with hands. which are the figures of the
true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence
of God for us." You see, Aaron and Melchizedek, two absolutely
necessary orders that set forth the glorious person of our great
High Priest. Now, with the resurrection of
the Lord Jesus Christ, and the order of Aaron set aside. It ended. The Apostle Paul, by
the Spirit of God's teaching, I know he was perceptive of these
Hebrews. But these Hebrews that obviously
Paul recognized a problem. that they were having. He realized
these Hebrews, though converted, and let me just read this for
you. I just wanted to show you this.
Let me show you how Paul, because what he's about to say to them
is something that I've even thought to myself. These Hebrews were
acting as we all do. I've entitled this message, A
Loving Rebuke. A Loving Rebuke. But these Hebrews
were acting just like unbelievers. They were doing some things that
just, you think, wow. But let me show you what the
Apostle Paul, look at Hebrews 6, verses 8 and 9. This is 8 and a few verses after
that. Paul said to these men, But that
which beareth thorns and briars is rejected, and is nigh unto
cursing, whose end is to be burned. But, beloved, we are persuaded
better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though
we thus speak. For God is not unrighteous to
forget your work and labor of love which you have shewed toward
His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister,
and we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence
to the full assurance of hope unto the end." Paul is talking
to these Hebrews with some assurance. He said, you've manifested the
evidence of believers. So knowing that he's speaking
to these Hebrews, these men that Paul has got some confidence
in, He realized that they were doing something as soon as he
had told them in verse 10 that the Lord Jesus Christ called
or announced or set forth to be a high priest. Called, announced of God and
high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Paul perceived something
in those Hebrews that he was going to have to rebuke them
over. He told them in that next verse,
you know, dull of hearing. What had happened? These Hebrews
had been in a long secession. Their fathers and their fathers'
fathers and their fathers' fathers and back, back, back had witnessed
the sacrifice of those animals in that Aaronic order. And they saw that high priest
and Aaron. He died and his sons took over
and he died. And all of the beautiful breastplate
and the shoulders and the miter and everything and the shedding.
And God Almighty had given those things. God gave those things.
The Lord set those things down. God had given that law. And they
had watched that and watched that and watched that 1,500 years. And all that they had witnessed
and seen, they grew up on. That giving of the law, that
foundational teaching, when I say that foundational teaching, This
is what happened. God gave this law. And here was
the foundation that was set forth. God gave the law, gave those
sacrifices, and in that, they knew. Here was the foundation. God Almighty was saying, there is going to be a Lamb.
The Messiah is going to come. And he's going to have to die.
He's going to have to die under God's judgment. The law is going
to have to be satisfied. There was some foundational teaching
there. The law was never given to justify
man. Never given to justify man. Here
was the foundational teaching of it, but it did not justify. You know what the law was to
do. The Scripture sets forth that the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.
And these Hebrews had sat and watched and watched and watched
and watched. And they saw, saw, saw the order
of Aaron, the order of Aaron, the order of Aaron. and the respect. And when Christ died, it was
over. from Malachi until John the Baptist
came 400 years and what it had degenerated to and how the high
priests at that time, how disrespectful they were and stuff. What happened
was 400 years passed. The Lord Jesus Christ comes into
this world and He fulfills everything that the Aaronic order of the
priesthood had set forth in shadow and type. And whenever he died
and he said it's finished, that law was fulfilled, that law was
honored, and now our great high priest put away all of those
ceremonies and shadows and type, he came out of that ground Paul
says now he is announced of God, called of God. Now he's a high
priest after the order of Melchizedek. Days of his humiliation are over. One time they took him and they
pulled his beard and they spit on him and they laughed at him
and they ridiculed him and they nailed him across all according
to the eternal purpose of God Almighty, but it's over. Over. No more. No more. That one that they ridiculed
now, they're going to stand before him as the judge. No more. No more Order of Aaron. No more. No more pictures. No more tithes.
It's over. Now, with that in mind, Paul
now says in verse 11, speaking of Christ, called of God and
high priest, after the order of Melchizedek. Now the Aaronic
order is over, of whom now we have many things to say and hard
to be uttered, seeing you are dull of hearing." Hard to be
uttered. Not that the Apostle didn't understand
what he was saying. That's not what he was saying.
But it's because the Hebrews In being dull of hearing, it
actually, the word dull of hearing means lazy. Lazy, lazy in heart. Lazy in thought. Lazy in respect. The very opposite of diligence. Lazy. The reason I entitled this
A Loving Rebuke is I thought as the Apostle spoke to the Hebrews
there, he told them, I've got many things to say, but you're
dull of hearing. Here's the loving rebuke. Let
me just start right up here in the pulpit. I have a nature about me that
resists everything that I know is so. Turn over to the Song of Solomon.
Now listen to this. Listen to this. Think about the
loving kindness of Almighty God that would send the Apostle Paul
to this group of Hebrews and tell them that. I've got a lot
of things to say to you, but you're dull of hearing. You know
what this does. Whenever a believer hears something
like this, you're dull of hearing. You know what a believer says? I'm in total agreement. I'm here
right here. That's me. That's me right here.
That's right. Oh, how I need. Lord, help me. Help me. A believer is not going
to take offense at that. Listen to Psalm of Solomon. Chapter
5, verse 1, 2, 3, I'm coming to my garden. This is the Lord
speaking. I'm coming to my garden, my sister,
my spouse. I've gathered my myrrh with my
spice. I've eaten my honeycomb with
my honey. I've drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends. Drink. Yea, drink abundantly, O beloved. Now think of the kindness of
those words from our Lord. to his bride, and listen to our
response from the Word of God. I sleep, but my heart waketh. It is the voice of my Beloved
that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove,
my undefiled, for my head is filled with you, and my locks
with the drops of the night. Listen to these words. This is
what we say. I've put off my coat. How shall
I put it on? I've washed my feet. How shall
I defile them?" You know what she was doing. She was trying to give him excuses
for not fellowshipping. You know only a believer will
agree with you on that. Only a believer. I'm telling
you, it matters not how faithful we would desire to be. And believers
do desire to be faithful. Oh, but there is an old nature
in me that resists everything that's right and honorable, that
wars against the law of my mind, that fights against me, strives
against that which is right and good. Paul says, I see in me
That is, in my flesh there dwells no good thing." Listen to the
Apostle Paul. He spoke to the church at Galatia.
He said, Galatians 5, 7, he said, you did run well. Who did hinder
you? Drive you back is what that means.
That you should not obey the truth. Oh, the sadness of a slowful
heart. But listen. This is the most
wonderful thought that I could possibly think. If my conscience condemned me,
God's greater than my conscience. Turn with me to Matthew 25. Look
at this. I'm going to tell you something,
y'all. I've been studying on this. I'm like Brother Henry. I didn't
come up with this off the top of my head tonight. I've been
looking at this for about two or three weeks. And I'm telling
you, I read these words and the glory of the Lord that would
be honest with a man and teach him something of his need of
Christ. Let's receive the rebuke as it is given from the Spirit
of God. But just realize that the grace
of God was that God wasn't silent to us. That He told us what we
are. Doesn't it make you just want
to say, Lord, I'm so sorry. Lord, I'm so sorry. Look at Matthew 25, verse 1. Then shall the kingdom of heaven
be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps and went
forth to meet the bridegroom, and five of them were wise and
five were foolish. They that were foolish took their
lamps, took their profession, but took
no oil with them, no spirit. But the wise took oil in their
vessels with their lamps, and while the bridegroom tarried
They all slumbered and slept, all ten of them. You know the
wise and the unwise, they all slumbered. At midnight there
was a cry made, Behold the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him.
Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And
the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil, for our
lamps are gone out. But the wise answered saying,
Not so. Lest there be not enough for
us and you, but you go rather to them that sell and buy for
yourselves. And while they went to buy, the
bridegroom came, and they that were ready went in with him to
the marriage, and the door was shut." Let me tell you what's so wonderfully
precious about that. All ten of them slumbered. But there was a cry made. And
those that God Almighty had prepared and had oil, they were ready
to meet the bridegroom. They went in. And while the others
went looking for something to do, the door was shut. But I'm going to tell you something.
Those five wise ones that slumbered just like the five foolish of
themselves. They didn't have anything to
brag in. They were slumbering just like the others were. Do
you know the only difference between the ten? It was the grace
of God. That was all. Paul said in 1
Timothy 6.12, Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal
life whereunto thou art also called and hast professed a good
profession before many witnesses. Listen to Hebrews 12.1. Let us
lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset
us, which I believe is unbelief. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.
Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy
that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame,
sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Oh, may we all make much of the
means of God's grace. The means of grace. I've mentioned
this before. The hearing of the Gospel. Make
much of the hearing of the Gospel. Make much of the study of Scriptures. And prayer. When you pray, Lord,
help me. Direct my heart. Lord, I'm so... Dull. Dull of hearing. You know,
there's nothing that's different between these fellows and any
of us. Dull of hearing. Paul said in
verse 12, for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need
that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the
oracles of God, and become such as have need of milk and not
of strong meat. Obviously, based on the words
of the Apostle, many of them had been converted. I don't know
how long, but very possibly some had even been converted on the
day of Pentecost. I found that somewhere around
30 years. How long had some of us sat under the Gospel? He said, for the time, you ought
to be teachers. I know that not all men are called
to stand in pulpits. But I'll tell you this, we're
all such that are teachers. Examples. We teach in our home. We teach. Examples. Teach by example. Let
people watch. How do you handle it? I was thinking
about Brother Tommy. He's so weak. I tell you, I'll call him up. I call him up and think I'm going
to try to be an encouragement to him. And I get off the phone
so convicted. I'm thinking, what an evidence
of the sufficiency of God's grace just to talk to him. Here he
is. He's so weak. I remember talking
to Tommy Robbins. He's just such a strong voice. I talked to him. His voice is
so weak and frail. He'll tell me. He'll say, Marvin,
I'm doing fine. I'm doing fine. The Lord's given
me. The heart's settled in my heart. He said, I'm ready. I
talk to the people and I think to myself, what a teacher. What an example. Paul said, for
when you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach
you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of
God. That first establishment of God's
Word, the beginning of God. For these Hebrews, those that
sat and watched that Aaronic, the order, the law, they ought
to have seen, they should have seen that that law was a schoolmaster. It didn't justify, it didn't
bring them to God, it was their schoolmaster. And he should have
seen that, known that, and known that when Christ came into this
world and fulfilled it, that it was over and it was done away
with. Paul said you have no need to
go back and learn those things again. It's like you haven't
matured in them. That's what he was saying. But let me ask you this. For
us, Paul says, You've become. There's a word that strikes the
realization of that dullness that's found in all of us. He
said you've become such as have need of milk. Passed from one
state into another. But I'll tell you this, there's
a great difference in studying the Scriptures, hungering after
Christ, laying hold of His Word, thirsting after Him, and seeing
yourself needy and frail and in yourself helpless. There's a great difference in
studying God's Word and seeing that need and finding yourself
lazy toward it. not wanting to see. They were dull of hearing, but
even being told of the dullness of their hearing, I think how
faithful Almighty God was. I looked at this one. I thought
this Scripture fit here. Proverbs 27.6. Faithful are the
wounds of a friend. but the kisses of an enemy are
deceitful. Isn't it marvelous to see the
kindness of our God that will send His Word and tell us what
we are and reprove us, teach us? You know, when our fellowship
and communion with Him is hindered because of our ingratitude and
neglect of the means of His grace, How graciously does He draw us
back? How familiar are we to this psalm,
number 17, in our hymn book? Prone to wander, Lord, I feel
it. Prone to leave the God I love.
Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above. That's the answer of a believer.
A believer that sees something by God's Word of their own frailty. Lord, stir my heart within me
and cause me. Lord, as you caused the prodigal,
that boy that left his father's house and went out and spent
all of that money on righteous living, just dull of hearing. Oh, I'm telling you how Sweet the thought of those blessed
words concerning that boy. And he came to himself. He came to himself. And he thought
back. He said, you know, the servants
in my daddy's house, boy, they've got it better than I do. I'm
going to go back. I'm going to go back. I'm going
to tell my daddy. I've sinned against heaven. All sin is against
God. Can a man rub God? Well, you
know, a man does anything toward anybody who does it against God
because all sin is against God. I've sinned against heaven, against
you. I'm not worthy to be called your son. And I'm telling you,
boy, I go back and I read that story and I just cannot hardly
read it heart just breaking. This is Daddy. He went over and
kissed him. Bring this boy some shoes. You
put a robe on this boy. I've got a son. I've got three
daughters and a son. And I'm telling you, if one of
them, if there was rift between me and any of my kids, and one
of them came to me I said, Dad, I'm just not worthy to be called
your son anymore. I'm not worthy to be called your
daughter anymore. Now I can enter into that. He
fell on his neck and kissed him. He said, you cover this boy up. You get some shoes on me. This
is my Son. These Hebrews here, they were
dull of hearing, but Almighty God was gracious to them. Taught them. It was a rebuke. I know it was, but I'm telling
you, the rebuke of a loving Father. The rebuke of one that loves
you. How sweet that is. The assurance
of every believer is this, I know whom I believe. I'm persuaded
that he's able to keep that which I've committed unto him against
that day. In spite of me? In spite of me.
In spite of what I thought? Yeah, in spite of what I thought.
Done? Yeah. Said? Yeah. You're in need. teach you again
the first principles of the oracles of God. I'm going to stop right
there. Next time, Lord willing, I'm
going to pick up where it says, and are become such as have need
of milk and not of strong meat. And then go ahead on into 13
and 14. They needed some instruction. They needed to go back and hear
the first articles, the first principles of the articles of
God. And even when you get into the
first verse of chapter 6, therefore, leaving the principles of the
doctrines of Christ, we'll go on into perfection, into maturity,
and all the blessed truth and assurance of that. But as we
read these words tonight, They were a rebuke. There's no doubt about it. Let
me ask you this. Is there anyone sitting here
that wouldn't admit, any that knows the Lord, that wouldn't
admit, you know, that's the best thing for me? You know, I told
you what Gabe told me one time after he's grown. He said, you
know what, Dad? The best thing you ever did for
me is whip me. Look at that right there for
those Hebrews. Do you know that that was a loving
chastisement? Whom the Lord loves, He chastens.
Is there any of us that don't need to be reminded? But you
know what this does for a believer. It breaks their heart. They'll
say, you know what? That's me. That's me. That's
me. I don't have to look any farther
than this pulpit right here. That's me. But the thing that
just amazes me is that God would tell me that and give me a heart
to call upon Him in my hour of need. Come boldly to the throne
of grace that we may find help in our hour of need. May the
Lord add His blessing to our hearts and bless our hearts for
Christ's sake. Amen.