Turn back to Hebrews chapter
5. I want to pick up in verse 11,
Hebrews chapter 5. And I'm going to go down through
the first three verses of chapter 6. He gives us six things that
we must be grounded in in order to keep from becoming dull of
hearing. I want you to look at verse 11 of verse 10. Let me use verse
10. He speaks here, he says that
he's called of God and high priest, that is the Lord Jesus Christ,
is called of God and high priest after the order of Melchizedek,
of whom we have many things to say. You know, Christ is the wisdom
of God. All the wisdom of God, the riches
of God is bound up in that man. And there are many things we
can say. We haven't scratched the surface, I'm telling you.
We have not scratched the surface of the glory and the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ. If we could just get a hold of
his priesthood, Oh, I'll tell you what that would do for us
if we could just really, really lay a hold of it. And he says
here, of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered. Why is that? Seeing ye are dull
of hearing. It's hard to teach a class of
people or of children who are not interested anymore in the
subject. That's what's going on. That's
what he said. And really, the translation,
the better translation of this is this. Seeing ye have become,
ye have become dull of hearing. There was a time they were really,
really interested. There was a time they were quick
to hear. There was a time when Paul, speaking
to these Hebrews, I mean, they were up on the edge of their
seat and they were listening. And since they had the Scriptures,
no doubt they searched the Scriptures. And they knew the Scriptures
being the Hebrews. And when Paul spoke and the Lord revealed the
gospel to them, they could see that Passover lamb and they could
see Christ and they could see that he is the Passover land. They understood it. They understood
those types and they related them to Christ and how He's the
fulfillment of all those types. And they were really interested.
Do you remember when you very first heard the gospel? I mean
when it came to you in power. When you heard it. The interest
you had. It grasped you. It had a hold
of you. Does it still do that now? Does it still have a real effect
on your heart and your affections? Well, here Paul is telling those
Hebrews, he says, you have become dull of hearing. You have become disinterested. Can you believe this? This is
what he's saying here. You know, James said, be quick
to hear. Slow to speak. But quick to hear
what God has to say. Is the Lord speaking this morning?
Did the Lord speak this morning through the Bible class? Is He
speaking this morning as I stand here speaking, read to you the
Word of God? Is the God of heaven and earth
the creator of all things? Is He speaking to us this morning?
Be quick to hear. Be interested. Give it as much
as is possible. Give it your undivided attention.
Because he says up here in verse 3, and this is what we do if
God permits. He may not permit. You know,
sometimes enough is enough. My mother would say that. Now,
boys, that's enough. That's enough. Sometimes the
Lord said, all right, that's enough. That's enough. He can come and remove the candlestick.
It's enough. If he permits. He's sovereign. We heard that this morning. He's
sovereign. We pray he'll keep the gospel here. Stay interested. Stay interested. When we lose
our interest, when we lose a real keen interest in the gospel,
it's because something else has taken our interest. And that
can happen even to believers. That can happen to believers.
Something can take your attention. So that's what he's telling them
here. They had digressed That's what they did. They were going
backwards now. They had heard the gospel, they
were interested, they were excited, but something happened. I don't
know exactly what happened here, but something happened and they
started to regress. Started to regress. The preaching of the gospel was
not being received as before. It was not having that effect
on their heart that it had before. They were not embracing it like
they did before. Their affections had gone after
something else. They had become, they had become, this is a process,
through a slow process, Satan is subtle, and through a slow
process they had become not nearly as interested as they used to
be. And when the gospel was preached, it just didn't have the same
effect on their hearts because something else was having an
effect on them. Probably other false prophets
were in among them and causing trouble and stirring up things
and things like that. But they had become disinterested.
And he says here, for when for the time you ought to be teachers,
you've been in this long enough, you sat under the gospel long
enough that you should be teachers. You have need now 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." You know what he's saying here?
You should by this time be teachers, but instead you have become babes
again. You have become babes again.
Now listen. Babies are cute. Babies are cute. There was a time I had no doubt,
Gary, you were a cute baby, but you wouldn't make one now. Not at this age. We're not cute
babies at this age. And that's what he's saying.
You should be teachers, but you act like a bunch of babies and
that's not cute. That's not cute. Look over in
1 Corinthians. The same problem was going on
over here in Corinth. In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul had this same problem, and
this problem arises in every congregation. Sooner or later,
sooner or later, it raises its ugly head. And I, brethren, could
not speak unto you as unto spiritual Paul said, I have many things
to say to you, many things to utter, but you're dull of hearing.
And he's saying the same thing to these Corinthians. And I,
brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as
unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. You're babes again.
You're not growing up, you're not maturing. You're saying,
I fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto you were not
able to bear it, neither yet now are you able. But you should
be. So you should be, you should
be able. You have need, he says back over here in Hebrews 3,
you have need that someone teach you again the first principles
of the oracles of God. Now, you know what he's saying
here? He's saying this, you have need that someone teach you again
your ABCs. That's like these kids here,
they go to school. Preschool, kindergarten, they
learn ABCs. They go to first grade, you've
got to teach them the ABCs again. Second grade, first thing a teacher
has to do, ABC. If you never learn and remember
the ABCs, you can never read or spell. And it's like going
all the way through school, all the way through the twelfth grade,
and every year, your senior year, The teacher says, all right,
A, B, C, D, E, and you have to learn that all over again. We
should not have to be learning all over every Sunday how God
saves sinners. We should know that. We should
know that. And that's what he's saying.
You have needed someone to teach you the first principles of the
oracles of God. And because of this, Because
you have become dull of hearing, you're having to learn these
things all over again from the very beginning. Without God's
safe centers, you are unskillful. Look in verse 13. For everyone
that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness,
for he is a babe. He's unskillful in what? What
is the word of righteousness? It's the gospel. You become unskillful
in the gospel. That's the word of righteousness.
And that word unskillful can be translated this way. You have
become, or you have no experience. You have become so dull of hearing,
you have no experience in the word of righteousness, in the
gospel. Because you keep letting these
things go. And you have to try, and he's
saying here, you've got to relearn them all over again. For everyone that uses milk is
unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he's obeyed. But strong meat
belongs to them that are of full age, even those who by reason
of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
They have no spirits because their senses, spiritual senses. are not being exercised. What
happens when you exercise? You strengthen your body, don't
you? Is that why you exercise? You exercise for the health of
your body. We read the Word of God. We study
the Word of God. We sit under the Word of God.
We hear the Gospel of God. As I read to you Sunday, David
said, I meditate. I meditate on your Word. In one place he said, I meditate
day and night. But it's like James said in one place, he says,
it's like the man who looks at himself in the mirror, then he
goes away and he forgets what he looked like. You sit here and you hear the
gospel. Here's the example, it's like
sitting here and hearing the gospel and you walk out and you don't
even think about it. You don't even think about it
again. The message, that's not exercising. Exercise what you
just heard. Think upon it. Meditate upon
it. Talk to one another about it. In reading the Word of God, when
we exercise our senses, he's talking about our spiritual senses,
our eyes, spiritual eyes, our ears, our taste, we are able
to discern when the gospel is preached and when it's not preached.
You're able to discern it. You're able to discern, now wait
a minute, hold on, something's wrong. See, I imagine there was
some false prophets who came in among them, and they were
stirring things up. And if they had really exercised
their spiritual senses, if they had been listening and not become
dull of hearing that something else had gotten their interest,
they'd say, hold on now, something's not right. Something's not right. Because he says here, Look, the
strong meat belongs to them that are of full age, that is mature. And the reason they're mature
is because they have their senses exercised, listen, to discern
both what? Good and evil. They're able to discern when
the gospel is being preached and when it's not. You're able
to discern the messenger that God sends and the one that's
a false messenger. You're able to discern it. Because you had
your senses exercised. But boy, if you become dull of
hearing, if you become dull of hearing, you won't be able to
discern it. It'll slip in and there'll be
a change made so subtle and you'll never detect it because you're
dull of hearing. Something else has your affection.
Something else really has your attention. And this just becomes
something we do on Sunday and Wednesday. Now, he gives us six
things here that we must be established in in order to keep from becoming
dull of hearing. Therefore, leaving the principles
of the doctrine of Christ, if you see over there it says, word
of the beginning, the ABCs, the doctrine of Christ, let us go
on to perfection. That word means maturity. Let
us grow up. Not laying again the foundation
of repentance. How many foundations do you lay
when you build a house? One. One. And this foundation is laid in
the very beginning when we believe the gospel. Christ is that foundation. We hear, we learn, we believe
Jesus Christ is the foundation. And we build on Him. not laying
again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith
toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of
hands, and of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we do if God permit."
We're going to leave, he says, therefore, leaving the principles
of the word or the ABCs of the doctrine of Christ. Let us grow
up. Let us grow up not trying to
relearn the ABCs every time we show up. But the first thing
he mentions, let's look at these. First he says, repentance from
dead works. What is repentance? Repentance
is a change of mind. It's a turning from and a turning
to. And here he says, Repentance
from dead works. Repentance that is a turning
away from a change of mind of the way we used to think about
God. And the way we thought about
salvation and the way we thought that how God saved sinners. I
used to believe. I mean, back when I was about
19, 20 years old, I used to believe that God wanted to save everybody.
I believe that Christ died for everybody. He was going to save
everybody, and salvation was an offer. That's not it. That's
dead works. That's dead works, that I could
do something to impress God, that I could do something to
advance to my status in the kingdom of God. That's dead works. Anything
that adds to or takes away from the Lord Jesus Christ is dead
works, and we repent of that, and we hold on and cling to Christ
and Christ alone. His wisdom, His righteousness,
His sanctification, His redemption, He's all in all to us, and anything
and everything outside of that is dead works. Is Christ all at all? Is he? Well, everything else
we repent of. Everything else we repent of.
Now, listen, I don't need to lay that foundation again. I
don't need to come back. But, you know, no, no, it's not
so. No, no. Christ is all my salvation. He's all I need. In him, you
are complete. I don't need anything else or
anyone else. And I don't need to lay that
foundation again. That's it. That's it. And if someone comes bringing
another message, I'm going to say stop. No. That's exercising your senses,
your spiritual senses, your eyes, your hearing, your taste. You
have a taste for the gospel now. that you did not have before
God saved you. You can say, well, that's a bad
taste in my mouth. That's because it's not sheep
food. It's not sheep food. Anything we do to add or take
away is dead works and we repent of it. We want nothing to do
with it. It's Christ and Christ alone.
And then he says, faith toward God. Repentance, the foundation of
repentance from dead works and faith toward God. You cannot
have, it is impossible to have true repentance apart from faith. You can't have it. You can't have it. What are you
repenting for? It's a false repentance. When we see Him, they will mourn
when they look on Him whom they pierced. When we see Him, it creates repentance. They go together. One's never without the other.
And faith toward God. Do you know what faith toward
God is? It's really nothing more than
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God. When I look to Christ,
and I see him as he is, I see him as the God-man, and I believe on him, I trust
him, I trust him. That is faith toward God, because
he is God. Repentance and faith toward God.
And then there's the doctrine of baptism, whether it be by
the baptism by water, immersion, which the only baptism there
is when we're baptized is to be immersed, or the baptism of
the Holy Spirit. It speaks of that. But here's
what it's speaking of. It speaks of the doctrine of
baptism. It's identification. It's being
identified with Christ. It's speaking of union. That's
what it's speaking of. Being one with Christ. When one
is baptized, that person is confessing that the only way of salvation,
the only hope that person has is the Lord Jesus Christ. They're
confessing their faith in His person, His blood, His righteousness,
in Him alone. It's union. It is identification. That's what it is. Christ is
my all and in all. That's what it is. You know, when we confess our
sins, you know, Scripture tells us to confess our sins. It's
not me standing up here telling you what I've done. It's not
me standing up here telling you how bad I've been in the past.
Or now? What a wretch I am. I mean, that's
not really a true confession of sin, is being baptized. That's confessing the death,
burial, and resurrection, your union and oneness with Christ.
That's a true confession of it. Right there. And then he has here the laying on of hands. Now Paul did this. Paul laid
on, put his hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost.
Back then, that happened back at that time. But this also refers
to something else. The laying on of hands. You remember
the priest in the Old Testament. He would lay his hands on the
sacrifice. He would lay his hands on the
sacrifice. Here's what it typified when he did this. It typified
the transference of the guilt of Israel to that sacrifice. Substitution. That's what it
showed. Substitution. He bore our sins in his body
on the tree. He was made to be sin for us
who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. Our sins were really, truly transferred
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we don't need to lay that
foundation again. He is our substitute. He put
away our sins. We are one with Christ. We've
been baptized into Christ by the Holy Spirit. We follow Him
in baptism, in the ordinance. We show our union with Christ.
We are one with Him. We are identified with Him. We believe on Him. We repent
of everything else besides Him. Now that's the foundation. And if you've become dull of
hearing, disinterested, When someone else comes along and
they put a little twist on it, you're not going to recognize
it. You're not going to discern it. And then here's another one.
The resurrection of the dead. You know, when the apostles over
in the book of Acts, when they went throughout preaching, and
Paul and his epistles, they always spoke of the resurrection of
Christ. When we speak of the resurrection
of the dead, The first one we speak of is the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is the resurrection. He is the resurrection. He said,
I am the resurrection and the life. He rose from the dead. Our first here, the resurrection
of the dead is Christ coming out of that grave, ascending
back to the Father. When those women went to that
tomb that early that morning, Daniel said, He's not here. He's risen. He's risen. And all His people were risen
in Him. But then there is also our spiritual
resurrection in Him and regeneration and the new birth. You must be
born again. And when that happens, we have
a real spiritual resurrection. We experience it. Then there's
the final resurrection of our bodies. Someday we all have to die. But one day, one day, the Lord
teaches us. that those graves are going to
open. And we are going to be united with a new body, a glorified
body. It will look like this one, and
it will be flesh and bone, just like, it will be solid, just
like this one. It will be a real body. And we're going to have this
because of Christ, who is our resurrection. And we don't need
to lay that foundation again. That's the foundation. You see,
you notice the whole foundation of this is all laid on Christ. Every bit of it has to do with
him. Every bit of it. Even this last one. And of eternal judgment. He doesn't
just say of judgment, does he? There's something here to this.
He says eternal judgment. We'll talk about eternal judgment.
We don't need to lay this foundation, but here's the foundation. He
calls it eternal judgment. When was Christ slain? He said, well, two thousand years
ago on Calvary, He was slain. The Word of God says, that he
was slain from the foundation of the world. Before time was ever created,
judgment took place. Before the first second was created,
before the first day was created, judgment took place. Nathan said
to David, after he had sinned with Bathsheba, you're not going
to die God has put away your sin. When did he do that? I do believe in eternal justification. He justified us in Christ before
the world began, or he couldn't have anything to do with us now.
Eternal judgment. Christ is a lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. We sang in our bulletin, all
these once were sinners, defiled in its sight, now arrayed in
pure garments, their voices unite. When did this all happen? After it's all over with. We're gathered around that throne,
and the whole throne of heaven is singing. What are we singing
about? To Him who loved us and washed
us from our sins. Worthy is the Lamb. Here's the
song of the redeemed. Now, eternal judgment, slain
before the foundation of the world. When it's all over, when He plants
one foot on the sea, One on the shore. And He declares, time
shall be no more. Our song will be this, worthy
is the Lamb that was slain to redeem us. Worthy is the Lamb
that was slain. Eternal judgment. Of course,
we deal with time. But God doesn't deal with time. He's got us in time, but He's
not in it. With God, when it was done, it
was done. We speak of before, now, and
after, but with God, it's eternal. It's always present. Always present. Worthy is the lamb that was slain. Now, if I have to always, always be
learning the ABCs of the gospel, How God saves sinners. If I have
to always be learning it, it's because I have become dull of
hearing. I have become disinterested.
Something else has taken my mind, taken my affections, and I can get turned around.
I pray. I do pray. That the Lord keep us from becoming
dull of hearing, disinterested, disinterested to the point that
we can't discern good and evil. To the point we really can't
discern a good message from a bad message. You can't discern it. And that comes from, and he's
speaking here to people who believe the gospel. He's writing to the
church here, among the Hebrews. Yeah, it can happen. It can happen. There's a lot of things that
can take our interest, and we become disinterested, unaffected. You hear the gospel, it just
kind of, you know, it just won't have an effect on you anymore.
And you just kind of leave. You go about your business. Things
out there have your affection more than this has. That's what
happens when you become dull of hearing. It can be a slow
process. I pray God keep us from becoming
dull of hearing. And as he says here, this will
we do. This will go on to maturity. This will we do. If God permits. We are at His mercy. We are at
His mercy.