Beginning with verse 10 of Hebrews 5, we'll just start
reading. Speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ,
he says, he's called of God and high priests after the order
of Melchizedek, of whom we have many things to say. It's hard
to be uttered, seeing you're dull of hearing. when 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 there become such as have need of milk and not of
strong meat. For everyone that useth milk
is unskillful, has no experience in the word of righteousness.
He is obeyed. Strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age
or mature, those by reason of use have their senses exercised
to discern both good and evil. Therefore, we don't. Leaving
the principle, the beginning of the doctrine of Christ, let's
go on under perfection, maturity, growth, not laying again the
foundation of repentance from dead works, faith toward God,
doctrine of baptism, laying on of hands, resurrection of the
dead, and eternal judgment. And this will we do if God permit. For it is impossible for those
who were once enlightened, have tasted of the heavenly gift,
were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good
word of God, the powers of the world to come, if they shall
fall away, to renew them again unto repentance. See, and they
crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, put him to open This passage is another one that
is hard to deal with, though not pleasant, very needful, very
needful for all of us. It gives us a rebuke which Paul
told Timothy, preach the word, reprove, rebuke, exhort with
all longsuffering, consider yourself. Because you're no better, no
different than they are. But rebuke is needed. Warning. This warns us about this falling
away. It gives an encouragement. Encouragement and ends with an
exhortation. So, we need all this. Verse 10,
he said, speaking of Christ, the high priest after the order
of Melchizedek, In verse 11 he says, we have many things to
say. The first ten chapters of Hebrews
is about the High Priest, Christ our High Priest. It must be important. It is. We must have a mediator,
a High Priest, one who goes to God for us, and that's Christ.
And he's one like Melchizedek, of whom there are many things
to say, and we'll deal with that in chapter 7. And it's hard to
teach. It's hard to understand. It's
hard to teach, let alone hear it. Especially if you are dull
of hearing. This is what he says. It's hard
enough to teach, but it's impossible to hear. if you're having a hard
time listening. And he says in verse 12, he says
to them and us, you ought to be teachers. After so long a
time, babes should grow up into young men, and young men into
fathers, women, and ought to know these things, be able to
even teach them without being told again. But he says, There's
a dullness of hearing. And it's so serious, he goes
on. I never knew the connection between
chapter 6 there. He talks about it's impossible
for those who were once enlightened, if they fall away, to renew them
again. The connection is that if this
dullness of hearing continues, then there's danger of falling
away and never hearing. That's the connection. That's
the warning. You've got the rebuke of dull
of hearing, and then there's the warning. It could be a sign
that a person is falling away. Years ago, there was a man who
attended here four years. He was here before I got here
and attended here at least eight or nine years or more. since
I've been here, sat on the back row back there. He was very punctual
and he attended every single Sunday morning service he was
here. Never came on Sunday evening,
back when we had Sunday evening services. Never, not one time
did I ever see him. Wednesday night, never saw him,
ever, the whole time I was here. And we always take the Lord's
table, you know, used to either on Sunday night, now it's Wednesday
night. That's just the way we do it.
And we announce it ahead of time. I never saw the man take the
Lord's table, ever. And that's bad. But he left. For good, he left. And I went and talked to him
and asked him why. And he said, I couldn't hear
you. He started hearing. And he sat
on the back row. And I said, why don't you move
up a little bit? I'll try to talk louder. No,
I didn't tell him that. I'm not going to try. I'm not
going to beg him to come back. The Lord hadn't given him enough
love for the gospel. move up a little bit in order
to hear it, he left. He's gone. He's dead
now. He died. I don't know the state
of his soul, but I have serious doubts. He really did not hear, did he?
He really could not hear, and he really did not hear. He did
not hear. Not just with his ears, but he
just didn't here in the gospel. So there's that danger. Hearing
God's Word is everything. Everything. Hearing Christ's
voice. Christ said, My sheep hear My
voice. Though it's a preacher, though
it's a man, no, Christ said, I speak through My Word and they'll
hear My voice. I speak to them. It's everything. They hear and hear and hear and
hear. This is how you know We're God's
sheep. If you continue to hear, if you
stop hearing, then we're not His sheep though. Faith. Faith is life. The just shall
live by faith. We walk by faith. Faith gives
us peace. We're talking about believing
God, believing Christ, looking to Him. Faith gives us assurance. Faith gives us comfort in the
midst of troubles and trials. Faith gives us hope to go on,
live on. Faith lets us rest, be still. Faith gives us joy in the midst
of sorrow and so forth. And faith cometh by hearing. So this is everything. Growth cometh by hearing. This book starts out, Hebrews,
starts out by telling us who spoke. God. It's under time. God, for that
matter, spoke unto the Father by the prophet. At the last day,
he came down here and spoke. God spoke. It's vital. in whom we live and move and
have our being, vital that we hear what he said. And this book
starts that way and keeps going saying we ought to give them
more earnest heed lest at any time we let this thing slip.
Let slip means let it slide. Let it slide. Don't let it just
slide. Can't let this slide or our foot may slide. That's how
serious it is. He says, Hebrews 4, let us fear
coming short of this rest. He said the Jews, the Israelites,
wandered for 40 years and they didn't get in. They didn't go
in. They missed it. And this book then ends, chapter
11 of Hebrews, gives a bunch of examples of people just like
us, same problem, same world, who died in faith. So there are
people who live like Enoch 365 years and walk with God. You can't walk with God unless
you hear His voice. Walk with God. O Webner is hard
to hear. And I take him out. He doesn't walk with me. When
he goes ahead of me, it's hopeless because he can't hear me. Come
back, come back." He can't hear me anymore. And so what I have
to do is keep him beside me, tell him to stay beside me. You
can't walk with God unless you hear Him. You can't walk by faith
unless you hear it. One time the Lord told the disciples,
He said, let these sayings sink down deep in your ears. He said,
now listen to me. The Son of Man goeth, and he
went on to tell them. And so peace and joy and everything
cometh by hearing. That's how important it is. And
if we're dull of hearing, we lack peace, we'll miss peace,
we'll miss joy, we'll miss assurance, our faith will be weak, we'll
be tossed to and fro, we'll be like babies. Dullness of hearing. Here are a few causes of it.
And we're all the same. I'm no different. Dullness of hearing. You've seen
it in your children. You parents have seen it in your children.
Everybody's seen it in people you talk to. You talk to them
and you have something that you feel is vital that they hear
it and they're not listening to you. They're dull of hearing
it. How'd you look at Irene, John? I bet she feels the same way.
He's not listening to me. Every wife thinks that. He's
not listening to me. But anyway, you look at them
and it may be something vital that they hear. Son, are you
listening to me? Yeah, Dad. Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh.
Can I go now? And the word you're saying, it's
just biding their time until they can get going. You may be
saying something to save their life. This is words of life. I really believe that just some
time ago, a quick trying to just bring a good sermon and try to
bring a message from God's Word is vital, that we need. It's life or death. Life or death. It don't always work out that
way, but most of the time. Here are some causes of dullness
of hearing. Whatever we don't have that we
need is because we ask not. Every good and perfect gift comes
from above. The hearing ear and the seeing
eye is of the Lord. Nobody will ever hear his voice
unless God says, listen, hear me, unless God gives an ear.
No one will see his glory unless God gives eyes to see it. They're
blind. They're deaf. Nobody will start
thanking God, praying, because they're dumb. They can't speak. It's a spiritual thing. God must give that. He gives
it to everyone that asks. Ask, and you shall receive. Ask. Hearing ears of the Lord. The Lord told the disciples one
time, He said, the Spirit is willing. What God creates, a new man is
willing, but the flesh is so weak. I'm glad he said that,
aren't you? I'm sure glad. That makes me
feel better. He knows our brain. He was made
flesh. He grew weary. He grew tired. Yes, he did. He was made flesh,
and the flesh is weak. Flesh is easily distracted in
it. So weak, easily distracted. Thoughts and cares, a little
bird, like the fowls of the air come down, just take away the
word. So easily distracted. The same voice over and over
again will finally lull us to sleep, doesn't it? A man can
scream. Preachers years ago used to do
a lot of screaming, didn't they? In fact, Dad will tell you, you
weren't preaching unless you were hoarse after it was over
with. Right, Mom? You remember. Barnard used to
scream. And after a while, though, it's like
a freight train beside your house, isn't it? At first, it scares
you to death. Boy, you're listening, but a
little while, you fall flat asleep. Sound of a freight train. Same voice often lulls us to
sleep. Age, age takes its toll. Pain, pain will keep us from
here. Sickness and so forth keep us
from here. The flesh is weak, and that explains
it. So that's all the more reason
to ask that without him, this flesh is going to is going to
keep us from here. Without him, we can do nothing.
We can't hear. So he says you have not, because
you have not. Now, there's a time to sleep.
He giveth his beloved sleep. Sleep is a wonderful thing. But
this is not the time. Now, right now, when the Gospels
preach, it's high time, Scripture says, to awake out of sleep.
And hopefully this will do that. Here are some causes. If we sow
to the flesh, causes of dullness of hearing, we ask not, Lord,
dig my ear. Dig my ear. Let me hear today.
Here's a cause. If we sow to the flesh, we feed
the flesh, then the flesh will overcome us. We come to worship.
We're coming to worship this morning. We know we're coming
to worship, and I'm helping you. It's helping me in coming to
worship. And on the way, if we're hearing
and listening to the world and things around us, that's what's
going to be on our mind. And it's hard to get out of your
head. I know, I know. It's hard to
get out of your head. That's why Scripture tells us
things like this. Speak into yourselves in psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs. That's why it says that. We did
that this morning there with me. We started singing on the
way over here. One of the songs we're going to sing. It helps.
It really does. Gets your mind on things above. Gets it off this stuff below. There's plenty of time, too much
time, to think about this stuff. Wish you could get it out of
your head, don't you? This is the time. And read the Word. Today, everyone's all sitting,
old brother Stan there, poor Stan, I feel sorry for him, he
worked midnight last night. Man, I've been there and done
that. It is hard to come in here Sunday morning after you work
midnight. I tell you, it's hard. I bet he's asking. I know, been
there. Read the Word, sing a hymn, take
a... Talk of these things. Read the
bulletin. That's what the bulletin is good
for. If it's good for anything, it's good for that. Start our
mind thinking on these things. Read the text we're about to
work on or look at. The illness of hearing is a form
of hardness of heart. That's what it is. It's a form
of hardness of heart. If we're not careful, that gets
real hard. Supplements, things that they
tell me are good for your cholesterol, because high cholesterol will
lead to hardening of the arteries. That's what they used to call
it, blockage, hardening of the arteries. That's what they say
my granddad died from, hardening of the arteries. Well, I take
supplements to prevent hardening of the arteries. I don't know
if they can do any good or not. One time I asked my dad, my cholesterol
was sky high, and I asked him a few years ago, I said, what's
your cholesterol? He was like 80 years old at the
time. He said, I don't know, never checked it. So I thought, well, you know,
why am I worrying about it? Anyway, I take supplements, and
there are things that have proven to help with it, and sure enough,
oatmeal. God makes it and bring it down.
He won't give me a day more in my life, I know that, but are
there things we can do to help us keep us from getting hard-hearted? Yes, there are. Look at verse
7 of chapter 6. Verse 7 says, The earth which drinketh in the
rain that cometh oft upon it, bringeth forth herbs, meat for
them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God." The rain.
God says, my word, he said, hearken unto me, I bring you good doctrine.
He said, my word is like the rain that falls. It will soften
your heart. It will soften the heart. Again, faith cometh by hearing.
Then there's a warning. Chapter 6, verse 4, it's impossible,
he said, Those who were once enlightened, tasted the heavenly
gift, partakers or participants, anyway, around where the Holy
Ghost is present, tasted the good word of God, seemed to have
an interest, powers of the world to come, spiritual, eternal thing. If they fall away, to renew them
again under repentance, see, and they crucify to themselves
the Son of God afresh, put Him to an open shame. And so here's the warning about
falling away, which dullness of hearing could
lead to. He says, those who fall away
crucify Christ to themselves. Now, I started thinking about
that and put him to open shame. Those that crucified Christ the
first time, Everybody was convicted by what
Christ said. Everybody, even the Pharisees.
Though they didn't repent, they were convicted. Their consciences smoked them. And so, they crucified him because
they didn't want to hear what he had to say anymore. And they
thought, if we could get him out of here, We won't have to listen to that
anymore, and we can go on and do what we've always done. Do what we want to do. We can
just silence him. We can do what we want to do
without our conscience bothering us. And I know for a fact that there
are those who leave the gospel who are relieved, finally relieved,
that they don't have to hear it anymore. I know that. I know that for
a fact. And do what they really loved,
what they loved all along. Read the article in the bulletin, that quote by
I forget who it was now, but on repentance. Anyway, our Lord
said, they put Christ to an open shame. You're not going to worship
anymore? No. Why not? I don't need that. And what we
tell our children, who we might have brought to hear it, What
we're telling them is, you don't need God. You don't need to thank
God. What we're telling the world
is, I really don't believe there's a God. And Christ who came, we
really don't need His blood. We really don't need His redemption.
We don't need that stuff. What they're saying is, without
saying it out loud, bringing Christ to open shame, what they're
saying is, Jesus Christ is a liar. Christ said, I'm the way, I'm
the truth, I'm the life. Everything he said was Sam. He said, no man comes to the
Father but by me. He said, my words are life. You
need to listen to what I'm saying. And for somebody to go away,
and I don't want to hear that anymore, is to put Christ to
shame. Is to say, I know what he said,
but it's not true. So God says. I'm done with you." That's what
God said. He ought to be done with all
of us, starting with me, for the lack of appreciation for
all the times that we are dull of hearing and don't give God
a thought. He ought to be done with us.
He's merciful, so merciful. But there's the warning. And
it happens. And you talk to people that have
left, and they're not coming back. They're not coming back. And here's an encouragement though. Oh, look at this. I'm glad this
is there. Verse 9. Beloved, we're persuaded better
things of you. Chapter 6, verse 9. Beloved,
we're persuaded better things of you, things that accompany
salvation, even though we speak, even though we rebuke and warn
and reprove. We're persuaded better things
of you. You know what gives me great encouragement here? Some
of you have been sitting and listening to this poor preacher,
the same voice, poor preacher. He's not any better whatsoever. Maybe worse. You still come up later and say,
that was wonderful. And it's the same message, hadn't
changed a bit, hopefully it's got a little nicer maybe or something,
I don't know. But it's the same message, same
gospel and you hear it again. And again and again, same voice,
and yet you're not completely low to sleep sometimes, not completely,
and you haven't left, and you come back and you say, oh, that's
great, let's do it again. I think, maybe the Lord's not
through with me and not through with them, but there are some
that sheep are hearing His voice, even though it's through a mighty
poor under-shepherd. Proof of life is to have hunger
and thirst after the gospel. Proof of life, physical life,
is to eat and drink, to have hunger and thirst. You lose that.
Brother Tommy has no appetite now. He's almost ready to leave
here. His appetite is gone. He has
no appetite whatsoever. Well, same with spiritual things. A person loses that appetite.
They're sick, real sick. We're dead. So it's proof of life. Our Lord
said, blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness.
The Gospel. Hymn. I love milk. I still drink a lot of milk. I love it. I never grow tired
of milk. I don't think. I put Nestle's
Quickie in there. I've liked that since I was a
boy. I still like it. It's good for you. I've got good
bones. Where's Laura? I've got good
bones. Good teeth and so forth. That's what God made, the strength.
But this is the milk of the Word. And the same milk, what we cut
our teeth on, Brother John, God's sovereign. God elected the people.
Man's depraved, but God's merciful and quickens the dead. We won't
ever leave that, will we? We'll never get past the foundation. Love to hear that, don't we?
But you go on. I love green beans now. There was a time I didn't like
them, wasn't there, Mom? I remember just like yesterday,
they were forcing me to eat my green beans. Little boy, and
I forced them down, but they didn't stay down. And dad turned
to mom and said, don't ever make him eat green beans again. But
you know, now I love them. Nobody forces me to eat them.
I love them. Love them. I could eat a whole meal just
from green beans as long as it had fat back in it. Don't you? Oh my, what we're looking at,
I really do love it. I really do love it. It's hard
to understand, but boy, it's wonderful. I can even eat leftovers. Sometimes
they even taste better to me. I've been feeding you all leftovers
ever since I've been here. We must be alive. I am persuaded
of better things, of things that accompany salvation. Life must
be alive if the gospel is still your necessary food. If it ceases
to be, something bad will happen. And then lastly, there is an
exhortation, verses 11 and 12. We desire that every one of you
do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope of
the end, that you be not slothful, but followers of them who through
faith and patience inherit the promise. And we could jump on
over to chapter 11 where it says, chapter 12, with a whole cloud
of witnesses, a whole lot of people just like us, gone through
everything we've ever gone through and some more and longer. And
they died in faith, not looking at this world, but
seeing Him that was afar off, embracing, confessing, walking,
sojourning, and so forth. So the Lord's grace is sufficient. It is sufficient. He tells us.
He gives us hope and help. He gives us helps to go on. Our kind Heavenly Father has
given us a wonderful, wonderful help. And what we're doing now
is such a help. So, he says, show the same diligence
as you did in the beginning. You remember how anxious you
were to hear the word in the beginning? He says, be that way. Be that
way until the end. Hold fast. the beginning of your
conference. He'll hold it steadfast to the
end. So beware dullness of hearing
and warning. It could lead to falling away.
Encouragement. Thank God if you still love this
gospel. That's proof of life. And exhortation. Be diligent. Add to your faith
diligence. So forth. Okay. Thank you.