Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

Text:

The text for the sermon this morning is a sort of intermission from what the writer of Hebrews had been discussing. Just when the writer begins to get into some deeper matters, he takes a step back to note that his readers really need to grow up in their faith. He had been writing to them about Jesus Christ being the fulfillment of the Law and the priesthood and about how this mysterious Melchizedek foreshadowed Christ. But then it appears the writers stopped to scold his readers for being immature in their faith.

Read Hebrews 5:11-6:3

A man was telling his neighbor, “I just bought a new hearing aid. It cost me four thousand dollars, but it’s state of the art. It’s perfect.” “Really,” answered the neighbor. “What kind is it?” The man looks at his watch and says, “Twelve thirty.”

The writer of Hebrews recognized a problem in his readers, that they were becoming dull of hearing. I don’t think he was saying they needed hearing aids. He was saying they had become bored with the Word of God. And their boredom of the Word of God was a hindrance to their spiritual growth. So the writer was pointing this out to them so that they would recognize it and correct it before the problem grew worse.

It’s hard to say why they were becoming dull of hearing. It could be they weren’t giving enough attention to God’s Word. It could be they were given plenty of time to God’s Word, but their hearts weren’t in it. We don’t know the reason, but it seems to have something to do with not paying close enough attention to God’s Word (Hebrews 2:1).

But I think we can identify with their condition. Have you ever found yourself becoming dull of hearing? You come to church, but the experience just seems dull and routine? You read your Bible, but don’t get excited about it or refreshed? What ends up happening is that we stop growing in our faith. And there’s no such thing as plateau; we’re either growing in our faith, or shrinking. And if we continue shrinking in our faith, we eventually stop reading God’s Word, stop praying, stop worshiping with the church, and practicing our faith at all. That’s not a good place to be. Salvation is by grace through faith alone. But the Bible is clear that genuine faith in Christ is a faith that works for Christ. So we need to be very careful not to become dull of hearing.

So why do we sometimes become dull of hearing? I think we often get caught up with our lives. We often forget the greatness of the gospel.

So what’s the solution to this problem? It’s simple. You go back to the basics (v. 12). If you find yourself becoming dull of hearing, bored with church, bored with the Bible, you need a fresh reminder of the gospel. We are sinful. God is holy. God sent His Son to die for our sins. Therefore, we have eternal life when we trust in Jesus.

As a newborn craves milk, we will always need the gospel. The gospel is called milk several times in the New Testament because it is so basic to our spiritual lives. The text names several other teachings that are foundational to our faith (6:1-2). I don’t think it’s saying we should ever stop meditating on these foundational truths. It’s saying that we should gain a deeper understanding of them. We should move leave the “elementary” study of these doctrines so that we dig deeper. And we should not be content with simply knowing the basics, but we should desire to move onto a more mature, complete faith. How do we do that?

To move to maturity, we must practice our faith (v. 13-14). The distinction between those who drink milk only and those who also consume solid food doesn’t seem to be which doctrines they learn, but the depth of their study and the application of what they learn. We cannot be content to simply come to church and be reminded once a week of what we believe. We can’t mature in our faith if we expect others to feed us milk all the time. We need to grow up! We need to be in the Word ourselves. And we need to be living it out every day of our lives.

By constantly practicing our faith, we’ll learn to distinguish good from evil. We need to be in God’s Word. It tells us what is good and evil. We don’t get to decide. And yet, there are many evils today that are not mentioned in the Bible. We need to be able to discern good from evil in modern day things. Should we read those new books that everyone is reading? Should we visit those websites on the internet? Should we watch that movie that everyone is talking about? Who should we vote for? Should we support anti-Christian organizations by buying their products? These are not always easy questions. But as we mature in Christ, we can more easy discern right from wrong.

We need to mature in our faith so that we’re able to discern God’s will for us in every situation. Being mature in your faith means that you shouldn’t have to wait for your pastor to approve or condemn whatever decisions you’re considering. Being mature in your faith involves study, and prayer, and contemplation on your specific desires and comparing them with the Word of God, and searching for God’s will for your life. Now, obviously, we live in community with one another, so we should be able to discuss our plans with one another, and ask each other for wisdom. But becoming spiritually mature means making your own choices, based on the Word of God, and learning to lean not on your pastor, but on your Savior, and on the Holy Spirit as your guide. We get there by resting in the gospel, and practicing our faith. But there’s one more key element in becoming mature in our faith.

As I was thinking through this passage, I wondered why it was even here. Hebrews is all about Christ’s glory and greatness. Why take even a moment to chastise his readers in their immature faith? But I don’t think that’s completely what’s going on. After all, there’s a lot of deep stuff in the first 5 chapters of Hebrews. And the writer continues with the topic of Christ and Melchizedek at the end of chapter 6.

I don’t think he was scolding them so much, but rather lovingly nudging them in the right direction.. And he was reminding them of the awesome wonder of God’s Word (v. 12). Like Paul, his goal was for their joy (2 Corinthians 1:24). Sometimes we need to get really honest with each other. We need to point out sin or even give warnings about possible dangers. But our goal is never to be pious or judgmental, but to encourage one another toward that which brings us the most joy: Christ.

Because Christ is great and glorious, and if anything gets in the way of us seeing Him for who He is, we need to repent of it and turn back to Christ with all our heart.