Welcome to our program. Now today
I'm going to be preaching from the book of Hebrews chapter 5,
beginning at verse 11. And I'm going to be talking about
the Word of Righteousness. That's the title of the message
from Hebrews 5. I took that title from verse 13, where the apostle
wrote, For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the Word
of Righteousness. Now there he's talking about
a negative, because he's talking about people who profess to believe
the gospel, but who for some reason, a bad state of mind,
a bad attitude, lack of love for the word of God, refuse to
become skillful in the word of righteousness. Now the apostle
had been talking about the priesthood, the high priesthood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He had shown Christ to be the
one and only true priest of God. The high priest, eternal, and
all the other priests, for example, the priest of the Old Covenant,
the priest who were appointed by Moses through Aaron of the
tribe of Levi, who performed the duties of the Law of Moses
in the tabernacle, bringing the blood of animals into the Holy
of Holies, sprinkling that blood upon the mercy seat in the holiest
of all. For about 1,500 years, those
priests, daily and weekly and yearly, brought those sacrifices.
And that covenant, that old covenant, that earthly priesthood, was
not sufficient to bring about eternal life, eternal justification,
the cleansing of sins. But that priesthood, that earthly
priesthood, was typical. It was a type. In other words,
it was an object lesson, a foreshadowing of a greater priest, a greater
high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only one who can save
sinners eternally from our sins. Christ is our great high priest.
Last week I talked about how he is our qualified high priest,
and the Apostle concluded in verse 10, He talked about Christ
who is called of God and high priest after the order of Melchizedek. In other words, Christ's priesthood
was not of the order of Aaron and the Levitical priest. You
see, Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, was born of the tribe of Judah.
Well, under the Old Covenant law, he could not have been a
priest because you had to be born from the tribe of Levi.
in the line of Aaron, the first high priest to be a priest under
that old covenant. Well, Jesus of Nazareth was born
of the tribe of Judah, the kingly tribe. So therefore the question
arose, how could he be a high priest? How could he be qualified?
Well, his priesthood is not the earthly priesthood of Aaron and
Levi. His priesthood was after another order, a man named Melchizedek. Melchizedek was a man who appeared
unto Abraham back in Genesis when Abraham was returning from
the slaughter of the kings. He's recorded in Genesis 14.
And Melchizedek is a better type of Christ because there's no
recorded genealogy of Melchizedek, no beginning, no end. What Paul
is saying here that he had many things to say to these people
who profess to believe the gospel, who profess to know Christ, but
that he was hindered in saying these things concerning Melchizedek. And the reason he could not teach
certain ones of these great spiritual truths of the gospel of the high
priest of Christ is because they were dull of hearing. They had
lapsed into a bad state of mind. which hindered their growth in
grace. Now later on, in chapter 7, he's
going to talk more about Melchizedek. He's going to go on and speak
to those who are growing in grace and knowledge, who show evidence
of loving Christ and loving grace. He's going to talk about Melchizedek.
But before he does that, he issues a warning here, beginning in
Hebrews 5 and verse 11. And this warning is to those
who profess to believe the gospel but who refused to grow in the
truths of Christ and him crucified. Many of them, before this was
written, many of them had left the gospel totally. They professed
to believe it, and then later on, having refused to grow and
to go on into maturity, completeness and perfection, they had left
the gospel altogether. And that's dealt with in chapter
6. There's some controversial verses there which talk about
those who left the gospel. And many conclude from these
issues that the Bible teaches that a sinner can be saved and
then later on be lost. And that is not what these verses
teach. That is not what the Bible teaches.
That kind of teaching is opposed to the gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace in Christ. Once God saves you by His grace,
through Christ, based on His blood, through His blood and
His righteousness alone, you can never be lost again. Salvation
is eternal. It's not conditioned on the sinner,
and it's not conditioned on what I do or what I don't do. It is
totally conditioned on the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation, you
see, is by sovereign grace in Christ. Somebody said, do you
believe once saved, always saved? I always answer, it depends on
who saved you. If you saved yourself, first
of all, you're never saved to begin with. But whatever salvation
you enact, can be lost. But now if God saves you by His
grace through Christ, His blood and righteousness, you can never
be lost again. Now I know people will take that
truth and run with it and make every excuse and argue against
it. They say, well that means you can go out and sin as much
as you want to. It doesn't mean that because where salvation
is, eternal salvation, there is also the Spirit of Christ
the Spirit of grace. Believers are still sinners,
but they are sinners saved by the grace of God. God will not
and cannot charge them with their sin, because He charged them
to Christ. So, what does this say about
those who refuse to grow and who eventually leave the gospel? They profess to be saved, But
they leave it. What does the Bible say? Well,
it says simply this, they were never saved to begin with. 1 John chapter 2 deals with this
subject. They went out from us, John wrote. Had they been of us, they would
have no doubt remained with us. Now Paul is addressing this warning
to such people who have a profession of faith, but who refuse to grow. Now, let me tell you something.
Where there is spiritual life, there will be spiritual growth.
And where there is no growth, now, growth comes in different
degrees. The Bible talks about that in various ways. There's
different degrees of growth. We all don't grow at the same
pace. It's just like our children.
You know, we can see children growing up. One may get his growth
faster than another. Some may grow slowly. Some grow
at times in leaps and bounds. Others, it takes them a long,
slow, steady progress. But where there is life, there
will be growth. And where there's no growth,
spiritual growth, there's no spiritual life. Christ said that
in John 15. He talked about the branches.
He's the vine. We're the branches. And those
branches that bear not fruit, he cuts them off, they have no
life. There he's talking about the Jews who did not believe
the gospel. So where there's life from Christ,
there's going to be growth. Now, Paul writes here in Hebrews
chapter 5, he spoke of Melchizedek, and he says in verse 11, of whom
we have many things to say. I've got a lot of things to tell
you about Melchizedek, he says, and hard to be uttered. It's
difficult for me to say these things. Why? Why were they difficult? Is this some deep, complicated
doctrine that men just cannot grasp? No. He said, they're hard
to be uttered, seeing you are dull of hearing. They're difficult
for me to tell you, not because they're difficult to understand,
not because they're complicated to explain or proclaim, It's
because of their sad state of mind. They had lapsed into a
bad state of mind and it's called dull of hearing. Their hearing,
how they heard the Word of God, had been blocked, had been hindered
by their attitudes, by their fear, by their unbelief, by their
ignorance. You see that? You know, the Bible
says as much about how a person should hear the Word of God as
it says about what should be preached. Now, we know that we
have to be careful what we hear. In other words, what we want
to know is when a preacher stands and preaches, is he preaching
the Word of God? Genesis to Revelation. Is he
preaching Christ? Is he telling the truth about
God, who God is in His sovereignty, in His holiness, in His justice,
as well as His mercy, His love, and His grace? How God can be
just and justify the ungodly? That's the issue of salvation.
Is this person telling the truth about me, about man born of Adam? That we're dead by nature, we're
dead in trespasses and sins. That we're under sin, that sin
is all we are without God. that we cannot come to God on
our own, that He must draw us by His power, and that we must
seek the Lord, but He seeks us, and that we're dead in trespasses
and sins. Does He tell the truth about
salvation, how God saves sinners? Not by man's free will, or man's
choice, or man's goodness. It's not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Salvation
is of the Lord. Does he tell the truth about
Christ, who he is, the God-man mediator, the representative,
substitute, sin offering, the sacrifice for sinners, who stood
in their place, the place of his sheep, and kept the law perfectly. went to the cross of Calvary
for their sins and drank damnation dry, and sealed their salvation
by His finished work on the cross, established righteousness to
enable God to be just and justify who He is and what He did, why
He did it, for the glory of God and the salvation of His people,
and where He is now, seated at the right hand of the Father,
having purged our sins by His one offering, seated at the right
hand of the Father, making intercession for His people. All of these
things, you see, these are the issues of what we ought to hear.
Now, how should we hear them? Not in a dull state of mind,
not in unbelief, not in rejection and objection. We ought to hear
them willingly. We ought to receive these things
as they are the words of life. Peter was with our Lord and the
other disciples and the multitudes were going away from him. It's
recorded in John chapter 6. And when he saw the multitudes
go away, he turned to Peter and the disciples and he said, will
you go away also? And Peter said, to whom shall
we go? Thou hast the words of life.
What I'm preaching to you from God's word. If it is God's Word,
these are the words of life. These are the precious jewels
of the gospel. And see, it's not enough just
to hear the truth. The Bible says we must believe
it and we must love it. And these who profess to believe
the gospel, Paul had many things to say to them about Melchizedek,
who represented and typified and foreshadowed Christ. These
are the comforting things of Scripture which the people of
God feed upon. This is our life, our growth.
It is the very air that we breathe spiritually. And he said, I've
got a lot of great things to tell you about Christ, who he
is and what he did, why he did it, where he is now. The comfort
and the assurance and the peace that we who know him have through
his blood to cleanse us from all our sins and his righteousness
that clothes us and justifies us before a holy God. how he
preserves us, how he guides us, how he keeps us. I have many
things to say to you, but they're difficult for me to tell you
because you're dull of hearing. Don't be dull of hearing. Listen,
and listen well. Heed the things of the Spirit
of God. Now, he goes on in verse 12, and he goes on to admonish
them, to correct them. He says, for when for the time
you ought to be teachers, By now, he said, you ought to be
so knowledgeable in your growth and in your progress, you ought
to be so knowledgeable that you can teach the Word of God. He
says, but you 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. Now what he's saying
here is this, you've been in this thing, you've heard me preach
the gospel, you've heard others preach the gospel, and by this
time you ought to be knowledgeable so that you could teach it, that
you could explain it, you could proclaim it. Now this doesn't
mean that every believer is going to hold an office in the church
of a teacher. Not every believer has the skills
and the gifts to stand before men and to proclaim and teach
the Word of God. But what he's saying is this,
at this stage of your life and in your growth, you ought to
know enough that you can tell somebody the gospel. You can
tell somebody who Christ is. You can tell somebody the very
ground of salvation and how God saves sinners. But he says you
are in such a bad state of mind and a bad attitude and lack of
growth and grace and knowledge that I have to teach you over
again the first principles of the oracles of God." Now, what
are the first principles of the oracles of God? Well, I want
you to see this in several applications. Usually, well, just about always,
when the Bible talks about the oracles of God, oracle means
the Word of God. And what he's referring to here
are the things of the Old Testament. the things of the old covenant,
the law of Moses, which was given to the nation Israel, under which
they lived as a nation for nearly 1500 years. And the issue of
this passage here is this. Everything about that old covenant,
the oracles of God, when you talk about the Ten Commandments,
when you talk about the ceremonial law, the law of sacrifice, the
tabernacle, the altar, all those laws, the dietary laws, the laws
of feast days, the scapegoat, the cities of refuge, all of
those, even the kingdom, the throne, the scepter, all those
elements that made up the old covenant, the law of Moses, every
one of those things pictured, typified, and foreshadowed the
person, the offices, and the mediatorial work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That whole covenant was a schoolmaster
or a tutor to lead sinners to Christ. Now, when Christ came
to this earth and finished the work that the Father had given
Him to do, He fulfilled all of the old covenant. He satisfied
all the law. He abolished, by way of fulfillment,
all of those types and shadows and pictures of the Old Covenant
so that they were no longer needed. You see, it would be the difference
like if someone that you love, you wives, you love your husbands,
and you husbands, you love your wives. Let's say that you're
away from them for a time, and you've got a picture. And you're
just looking at that picture and admiring that picture, and
that picture brings up some great memories. And it wells up in
your soul and in your heart, that one you love, there's a
picture. And here you are sitting and looking at the picture, and
then all of a sudden, the one who's pictured there, your husband
or your wife, walks through the door. What do you do? Do you
just sit there and stare at the picture? And put your arms around
the picture? No, you put the picture away
and you embrace your loved one. You don't need the picture now.
You have your loved one right before you. And that's what that
old covenant was. It was a picture. It was a shadow. But now Christ has come and you
don't need the pictures anymore. You don't need the shadows. You
might look at that picture every now and then. We go back to the
Old Testament and preach gospel messages. but we preach them
as fulfilled in Christ." Romans 10.4, Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. And what Paul
is saying here to these who are dull of hearing, who refuse to
grow, don't go back and hang on to those first principles
that were given in the Old Covenant, embrace Christ. Look to Him. Don't ever think that your righteousness
comes from the law. It comes from Christ, who is
our righteousness. He satisfied law and justice.
He drank damnation dried by His finished work. He shed His blood
as payment for sins. Don't go back to the blood of
animals. They were only a picture. Christ is the Lamb of God who
takes away the sins of the world. Don't go back to that earthly
priesthood. We have a great high priest,
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Son of the living God, who's
passed through into the heavens, into the very holiest of all,
by His blood, a new and living way, which He consecrated for
us through the veil. Don't go back to that Old Testament
tabernacle or that temple. We have Christ. Everything in
that tabernacle and temple typified Christ. We have Him, whom to
know is life eternal. Listen, the Ten Commandments,
why were the Ten Commandments given? To expose our sins, to
show us how much of a sinner we really are, and to show us
that it's impossible for us to be saved based upon our best
efforts to keep the law. It was given to show us our need
of God's grace in Christ. You see, salvation is not by
my keeping the Ten Commandments. Salvation is in the one who kept
the Ten Commandments for me, the Lord Jesus Christ. He was
made sin. My sins were charged to Him.
And He finished those sins. He paid for those sins. He died,
was buried, and rose again the third day for my justification,
and I received His righteousness. Salvation is not based on works
of righteousness that I've done or will do. Salvation is based
upon His righteousness which He accomplished. And that's enough
to save me and to secure me into heaven's glory. So Paul is saying,
you ought to know better than that. You ought to know these
things about Christ and his fulfillment. I ought not have to go back and
teach you the first principles of the oracles of God. What that
tabernacle means. What that priesthood means. What
the blood of animals and the scapegoats. Somebody said, well,
what about the Sabbath? Do we keep a Sabbath day? Absolutely
not. The picture's gone. Christ is
our Sabbath. You remember that in Hebrews
chapter 4? There is a Sabbath rest that remaineth unto the
people of God. It's not a day, it's a person.
It's the Lord Jesus Christ who did the work and rested, and
we by faith enter into his rest. Don't bring that up again. You
should know better than that. That's what he's telling those
people. But he says, you are such as have need of milk and
not strong meat. In other words, I can't give
you this nourishing adult food because you're just like a baby
who has not grown, you have need of milk. Now listen to me. Peter
wrote in the book of 1 Peter chapter 2 to the church, he said,
desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. And that's a good thing. It's
a good thing for believers to desire the sincere milk of the
Word of God. But not in order to stay babies
and infants, but that we may grow. These people here needed
milk, and the necessity was born out of a bad attitude. They couldn't
take the strong meat. And that's what he's saying here.
Don't stay. Listen. Take the milk of the
Word of God, But grow with it. Grow in grace and knowledge.
Understand these great truths of salvation by grace in Christ
and the particulars and the implications of it. Don't stay as an infant. Now, in verse 13, he says this,
For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of
righteousness, for he is a babe. Now, in the Bible, there's sometimes
a good sense in which we are babes. We're all children of
God. Babes in Christ, innocent in that way, and we're to seek
to be innocent rather, but we're totally dependent upon our Heavenly
Father for our whole existence spiritually. But here, being
a babe is bad because it means not growing. An unskillfulness
in the word of righteousness. That's the gospel. The word of
righteousness is the word of Christ. For Christ is our righteousness. He's our wisdom. He's our righteousness. He's our holiness. and he's our
redemption. So he says, you're using milk
because you don't know any better, and you're unskillful in the
word of righteousness, and to stay that way means lack of growth
and lack of spiritual life. The word of righteousness, the
Bible says, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation,
for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. And that word
is the gospel, it's the word of God, it's all that pertains
to his word. Now look at verse 14, he says
this, But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age. That of full age means mature.
Sometimes it's translated perfect, and it has to do with complete,
being mature. Even those who by reason of use
have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. How
does one become skillful in the word of righteousness? what is
called spiritual exercise, using the Word, immersing yourself
in the Word, leaning upon the Word, learning the Word, listening
to the Word, fellowshipping with God's people, praying to God,
using that, having your senses, that's your eyes and your ears,
your heart, your understanding, your mind, exercised so that
you can know the difference between good and evil. Somebody says,
well, I know the difference between good and evil. Listen to me now.
There are some natural conscience thoughts that we have whereby
we know the difference between good and evil. But when it comes
to these spiritual matters of life and death, we by nature
don't know the difference. We have to be taught by the Word
of God. You see, good and evil is measured
by the standard of God's glory in Christ. And here's what it
says, simply this. Without Christ everything I am
and everything I do is evil with Christ With Christ by his power
in his goodness done through me I can be an instrument of
God's power and grace and We must exercise ourselves in the
word of righteousness Using using this this word becoming skillful
in this work Paul told Timothy. He says study to show thyself
approved a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, approved unto
God." All of these things. So this Word of Righteousness,
this is a beautiful Word. It's the Word of Christ. It speaks
of His person. It speaks of His finished work.
It speaks of complete and total salvation through Him, through
His blood and His righteousness alone. And it's the only hope
for eternal sinners. Do you love the Word of God?
Do you love his word of righteousness? Say, not mine, but Christ's.