The Tragedy of Rejecting Full Revelation, Part 1
Hebrews 5:10-14
Turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 5. We are continuing in our study of Hebrews and moving quite rapidly up until this point. We'll get bogged down a little bit here, but there are only 13 chapters in our study, and Hebrews will come to an end really too soon, for it is, indeed, a rich book. We come to a passage that is a real theological battleground. There have been many varied and sundry interpretations of these verses. I would like to add mine to the lot...This has not when...been without great amounts of prayer in an effort to overcome my ignorance, to beseech the Holy Spirit to teach me where I cannot learn, so that I might see and understand; and I trust and pray God that we shall understand these verses. I want you to know that it's going to take your most undivided attention, even as this morning hour did, for you to comprehend; but, fortunately, we will review very carefully next week, both in the morning hour and in the evening hour, so that we'll be able to cover back over these areas.
Now, we're talking in...in chapter 5 at the end here, and to the beginning of chapter 6, about spiritual maturity...As I have repeated many times to you in our study of Hebrews, the theme of the epistle is the immeasurable superiority of Christianity over Judaism. The epistle, as it's title indicates, was written to Jews. A little community of Jews who had been led to Christ by some apostles or prophets of the first century church; and since some time has passed, this little community of Jews is not only composed of those believing Jews, but of some other Jews who were intellectually convinced, who had made a profession of faith in Christ, but who had lingered and never really received Jesus Christ. They had come all the way up to the edge. They believe in their minds, and that they had never made a commitment to Christ. They were like so many people who were in church, who will someday stand at the judgment seat, according to Matthew 7, and say, "Lord, Lord, it's us. We, the ones that cast out demons and did many wonderful works." And He will say unto them, "Depart from Me...what?...I never knew you."
There are those who have come up, and they have all the information. They have all the facts, but they've never committed their lives to Jesus Christ...And so there are really these two groups in view, and then in third distant view in the writing of Hebrews is a group of uncommitted Jews who are just being exposed to the new covenant altogether.
So the theme of Hebrews is the superiority of Christianity over Judaism. To the saved Jews, he is saying, "You've done the right thing. You don't need to go back. You don't need any of the trappings." To the intellectually convinced Jews who have not received Christ, he is saying, "Come on. Don't stand there in neglect. Don't let yourself get hard. Come on and receive Jesus Christ. Come all the way to salvation. Don't just...don't just get up to the edge and think it's right and believe it. Commit yourself to it." And to the third group, he's simply sharing with them the facts of the new covenant, that they might be exposed to the truth.
Now, as we study Hebrews from chapter to chapter, from passage to passage, from text to text, we must keep this in mind, that it is a contrast between Christianity and Judaism, or we will fall into error in our interpretation. We find that the Biblical writers, if we study the books carefully, have a basic idea. Remember in John, we saw that everywhere Jesus was presented as God, that was John's point; and you could look at any passage; and you could see, now, what in here is John trying to say concerning the deity of Christ.
As we come to this passage, we will say the same thing. What is it that the writer of Hebrews is saying regarding the superiority of Christianity over Judaism? That's the issue all the way through the Book of Hebrews. This is the key that unlocks every section of Hebrews, and to use any other key is forced entry. Now mark this in your minds. The Holy Spirit is not contrasting two kinds of Christianity in Hebrews. He is contrasting Judaism to Christianity. He is not contrasting an immature Christian with a mature Christian. He is contrasting an unsaved Jew in Judaism with a redeemed Jew in the new covenant. That's the basic principle of hermeneutics. He is contrasting the substance against the shadow, the pattern against the reality, the visible against the invisible, the facsimile against the genuine, the type against the anti-type, the picture against the actual.
And if you've been here in any of our studies, you know that the Old Testament are all pictures and types of what is fulfilled in Christ in the New Testament; and all the way through Hebrews, this is the contrast that is made, and this is the only basic hermeneutic...that word means principle of interpretation...that you need in Hebrews to see an overview. So the contrasts are between Christianity and Judaism.
Now if we assume that to be true, then we will assume that that will also be true as we come to chapter 5 verse 10. The emphasis is the superiority of the new covenant over the old covenant as seen in the fact that the new covenant has a better mediator. Now, the old covenant was mediated by whom? Angels, true, and it was mediated also by certain men of God, such as Moses, such as Aaron. We find that the new covenant is better, the one involving Jesus Christ, because Jesus is better than angels, better than prophets, better than Moses, better than Joshua, better than Aaron, better than Melchizedek, better than everybody and everything; and on the basis of the fact that Jesus is better than everything, the new covenant is better than the old; and what he's saying to the Jew is, "Let go of Judaism for Christianity. Let go of the pictures and the types and the...the shadows, and take the substance, the reality in Christ," you see. This the point of the book. Saying to that individual who is hanging onto the former patterns, "Let go, for Jesus is better than all."
Now, here we come to chapter 5 and verse 11. We'll back up and consider verse 10 briefly, but basically in verse 11, to the third parenthetical warning in Hebrews. Now you know as well as I do if you've studied this, that the Book of Hebrews, as I just said, is written to show the...that...that Christianity's better than Judaism; but primarily it's written to Christians to show them, to give them confidence that they made the right move, see. But interspersed within Hebrews are certain warnings to these intellectually convinced non-Christians who are on the edge of decision but haven't come to Christ. Interspersed through this...this information that is given to these believing Jews to assure them that they've done the right thing in receiving Christ, for, you know, as soon as they received Christ, they were persecuted, and they were told to get back to Judaism, and so they were being pulled; and so he's writing to them saying, "Don't go back. You don't need those trappings. You stay right there. You've got it in Christ. You have a high priest. You have everything you need. A perfect sacrifice, the whole thing is all laid out." But periodically through the book, he gives very pointed warnings to those who've come all the way up in intellectual belief and never committed themselves.
In the first warning, for example, he simply said, "How shall we escape if we...what?...neglect so great salvation?" If you don't come, you're not gonna escape judgment. And then he said in the second warning, which was in chapter 3, he said, "Don't harden your hearts. You've come all the way up there. Now don't stop there and get a hard heart and depart from the living God with an evil heart of unbelief. You've come this far, come on all the way." So he's speaking to the intellectually convinced Jews.
Now, I believe there is no reason in the world to assume that the third warning won't follow the very same pattern as all the others. The beginning in chapter 5 verse 11, he is again speaking to the same group of individuals, only this time he is saying, "You better grow up to the mature truths of the new covenant. You better not fool around any longer with the ABCs of the old covenant, for you are in danger...verse 4 of chapter 6... of falling away after you've once been enlightened; and, if you do that, you can be lost eternally. Don't do that. You've come all the way up."
And then in 6:1 and 2, he says, "Then go on...you see...come on all the way lest you fall away and be lost eternally." And I see no reason that we should not assume that this is a very identical pattern to the other warnings. The question here then is not whether one is a baby Christian or a mature Christian. The pattern is whether one is still locked in Judaism, or whether one has come all the way to Christ.
Now notice verses 11 to 14. I'm going to read them. "Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered seeing you're dull of hearing. I can't you what I wanna tell you. For when for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God, and you've become such as of need of milk, and not of solid food. For every one that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he's a babe. But solid food belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their sense exercised to discern both good and evil."
Now, what he's saying here is...is just very simple. Some have said that this is talking to Christians, and he's saying to Christians, "You shouldn't be immature Christians. You should be grownup Christians." That's a good principle. That's terrific principle. That's a Biblical principle. I don't think that's what being taught in Hebrews chapter 5. I think he's talking here to Jews who are intellectually convinced, but still hanging onto Judaism and, incidentally, folks, Judaism is the ABCs of the new covenant, is it not? And he is saying to them, "Come on to maturity in the new covenant."
Now, I'm gonna try to defend that thesis, because it is a little foreign to most interpretations; but I think it's consistent. So we say then that the question is not a question of whether one's a baby Christian or a mature Christian. The issue is...is an evangelistic appeal. Come on to Christ. Come all the way. Many of these readers have professed to believe, but they're still hanging onto the patterns of Judaism. They wouldn't let go. They weren't saved, and they're in great danger, chapter 6 verse 4, of falling back and then finding it impossible to be renewed to salvation again. So when we're talking about maturity here, we're talking about the maturity of accepting Christ, you see, and coming into all the full-grown truths of the new covenant.
Now, for next three weeks, I'm gonna defend that... throughout this entire passage, because we're not gonna go very far tonight. I'm just...you've been bombed all week, and I'll just give you a little bit of an introduction; and then you'll love me more...
You see, now, the old covenant, the old covenant was the alphabet. The old covenant was the baby talk. The letters and the sounds, the child's vocabulary. You know, when you teach a child, you don't teach a child by giving him an encyclopedia. You show him pictures, right? Whenever you teach a child, you say, "Now look at the picture. This is a ball," and there's a ball. "This is a daddy, and this is a stick," and sometimes there's no difference. No, but, anyway...You show the child pictures, and you show him pictures all the way along, and then later on you give him full material. This is exactly what the Old Testament is. God spoke to them in pictures. "Here's a feast, and here's a sacrifice, and here's a certain kind of clothes, and here's a ceremonial washing, and here's a this, and here's a that," and it's all pictures of that full thing that's going to come. So the Old Testament is baby conversation. God's speaking in simple terms, in pictures.
Now, lemme give you an overview of the passage very quickly. In 5:11 through 6:3, the Holy Spirit says, "Grow up from the...the ABCs of Judaism, and come all the way to maturity. Leave the milk of the Old Testament. Come to the solid food of the new covenant. Come to Christ. Leave Judaism." That's exactly what he's saying. Then in 6:4, he says, "If you don't, you're in serious danger of coming all the way up, hearing all of the truth, then falling away, and being lost forever." Because, my friends, if a man hears all the truth of Jesus Christ, considers it carefully, and walks away, he's hopeless. What else can God do once he's known the truth?...
And, finally, in verse 9, he turns to Christians and says, "But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you and things which accompany salvation." And, at that point, he turns to Christians and lays on them the need to grow spiritually and to make sure they, too, don't fall back into old patterns. So the passage, then, is directed primarily as a warning to the unsaved. Now, someone is bound to ask me, "Do you think that the passage has anything to do with Christians?" Well, in an indirect sense, very definitely. If spiritual ignorance and fooling around with the ABCs is a serious problem for an unsaved person, how much more serious would it be for a Christian? How much more tragic for a Christian who never really grows up to fully understand the new covenant. But the direct issue is to the unsaved. Each warning in Hebrews is directed to the intellectually convinced who are on the edge of decision, but haven't yet responded to Christ. So we believe it to be a warning to them.
Now, let's begin, first of all, I'm looking at the non-Christian. We'll divide the passage into two sections - the non-Christian from 5:11 to 6:8, and the Christian from 6:9 to 12. The non-Christian in the first section; the Christian starting at verse 9 of chapter 6. The first part dealing with the non-Christian; and we'll divide that section up a little bit. Don't worry about the outline. I'll have it all printed for you next week.
But in talking to the non-Christian, he first...he first talks about the problem. Then he gives the solution. Then he gives the power for the solution. Then he gives the warning. Then he gives the illustration. All that is here, but we'll just get to the problem; and you'll have to come next week, or you'll never know how to solve the problem.
All right, the Holy Spirit has just begun, now stay with me on this. It won't be long, but I want you to get it. The Holy Spirit has just begun to discuss the real heart of this epistle; and the heart of this epistle is the priesthood of Christ, is it not? Because the centrality of the whole Judaistic system was a great high priest. They had to have a high priest in their contact with God; and that's exactly what the writer says in Hebrews 4:14, "We have a great High Priest. Ours is Christ. He's greater than any other high priest." And then he's gonna get into talking about the priesthood of Christ; but this is heavy stuff. You get into talking about the high priesthood of Jesus Christ and, unless these people are plugged in, they're gonna get lost in the fog, you see.
The first thing he said is, "Now, I want you to understand that Jesus is a greater priest than Aaron," and Aaron was the greatest high priest that ever lived in the Levitical system; and he is saying, "Jesus is greater than Aaron," to prove that Christianity's greater than Judaism. Now only is He greater than Aaron, he then says, and remember this one, he says in verse 6, brings it up, "That Jesus is a Priest after the order of Melchizedek." Now, this is a very unusual guy that pops up way back in Genesis. Now, he wants to go into explaining the relation between Jesus and Melchizedek, and you're already saying, "Oh, that's difficult to understand." You're right, but it's really simple if you understand Jesus Christ, if you know Him, and love Him as your Savior. When we get into that in chapter 7, you'll just breeze right through it. It's not that hard.
But he wants to do is, "I wanna talk to you," in effect, the Spirit is saying, "about Jesus' priesthood and about how it is that He's a priest after the order of Melchizedek." Notice verse 10, "Called of God and high priest after the order of Melchizedek." Now, I'd like to talk to you about that, people, but, verse 11, "Of whom..." To whom does that refer? Right back to Melchizedek. "Of whom we have many things to say." I've got a lot to tell you about Melchizedek. I've got a lot to tell you about how Jesus is a priest like Melchizedek, "Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered seeing ye are dull of hearing." See? I would so like to tell you about Melchizedek, but you're dull of hearing; and that's the problem. He can't tell them what he wants to tell them knowing they'll understand it, because they're dull of hearing. He feels it very important to convince the Jews that Jesus is a priest greater than Aaron, that He is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. This is a fantastic subject, a thrilling subject. The whole comparison to Melchizedek and the priesthood of Christ is rich and meaningful, but it can't be understood by...by these intellectually convinced ones, because they're dull of hearing...
Now, it's gonna be especially hard, because they're not saved. The Bible says, "The natural man understandeth not the things of God." To not know God and to try to understand the mysteries of God is impossible. So he's saying to you, "I can't get this stuff across to you at this point, because you're dull of hearing.
Now, I want you to see what the word dull of hearing refers to, or the phrase. Dull comes from nothras. It means, well, it really comes from two Greek words. One is no, and the other is to push. It means no push. No push. Slow, sluggish is the indication. One writer used it to speak of the numbed limbs of a sick lion, whatever that is. Somebody else it was stupidity. It's...it's thick, you know? Intellectual thick, you understand? It's just slow, sluggish, stupid, numbness in terms of apprehending truth...
So he says, "You people have a problem. You are stupid."...And we use that not in a derisive sense, but in a definitive sense, dictionary sense. You are sluggish, and that makes it very difficult to teach you. You have become intellectually lazy; and if I'm gonna give you rich, deep truth that's going to have to come into your mind when it's keen and alert, you're gonna have to be awake; but you have been lulled to sleep by neglect and the hardening of your heart.
You see, somebody hears the Gospel, and it stirs them, and it's fresh, and it's exciting, and they don't commit themselves to Christ, the longer they hear it, the more sluggish they get. True? And that the easier it is to say no and to say no, and pretty soon they're very dull of hearing, and they can sit there. It's water off a duck's back, and the rich stuff doesn't get 'em anymore, because they've neglected it so long...
It often happens this way, and he really wants to teach them, and I like this. I admire somebody who wants to teach the heavy stuff. That's part of it. You know, and it's so easy to do this. I thought about it even in studying for this message. I thought, "Well, I can dodge all of this," because it's difficult, and I don't really have to get into an exposition of all this. They won't even know it's there in most cases if I don't; and it's easy to rationalize and to figure that people won't get it all anyway, but that's a tragedy, because the Lord has said that we are to teach His Word, and the Apostle Paul, in looking at his own ministry said, "I have not failed to declare unto you the whole counsel of God," and to miss one part of it is to miss something that God wrote for us, so we wouldn't do that.
So we never teach the me...the lethargy of the lazy mind. We never teach, either, to meet the prejudice of the shut mind. We teach, as Paul declared, "The whole counsel of God, for God gave it to us to be learned." So he says, "I'm gonna teach it, but you're dull of hearing." Then he says this, notice it, in the indication of verse 11, "Ye are dull," is the Greek "Ye are become dull." They weren't always so. They weren't always so sluggish. Over in chapter 6 verse 4, it says, "You were once enlightened." At one time, the light came on. They understood the Gospel. They were really hep to the thing. They understood it. They read it. It looked good. Their hearts were stirred. They were excited. They were eager. They came to the edge of salvation. Then chapter 2 verse 4, they began to neglect. Chapter 3 verse 15, their hearts began to be hard. Chapter 6 verse 11, they're getting sluggish and slow and stupid. Chapter 6 verse 6, they have fallen away, and that's the end of the tragedy.
At one time they were excited about it. They received the pre-salvation ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit leading them step-by-step up to faith in Jesus Christ. They got it all the way up to the edge; and then they neglected it; and then they just stood around; and they felt the pressure of their...the Judaistic friends pulling on them, pulling on them, persecution was threatened; and they were handing on the edge; and the literal meaning of the Greek is that they arrived at a settled state of spiritual stupidity. So far as their ability to apprehend the New Testament and the fullness of Christ's priesthood was concerned; and if they didn't move on to salvation, if they didn't sharpen their senses and move on, they would fall away and be lost forever...And that's what he speaks of.
Now notice verse 12, "For when for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God, and you are become such as have need of milk, and not of solid food." Now notice the little phrase for the time...For the time, because of the length of time in which they were under instruction by teachers teaching New Testament truth, they knew enough that they should be teaching it, but they hadn't even accepted it yet.
Notice chapter 6 verse 7 defines this problem. "For the earth is an illustration which drinketh in the rain that cometh often on it and bringeth forth herbs fit for them by whom it is tilled, receiveth blessing from God. But that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected and near unto cursing, whose end is to be burned." And it's the same earth, you know, that gets the same rain; but some brings forth herbs; other brings forth thorns and briars; and he's saying, "You're like earth that has soaked it up and soaked it up, and you oughta be bringing forth herbs; and, instead, you're not," and that's a disaster. "For the time you oughta be teachers," they knew enough to teach the thing they hadn't even yet committed themselves to...