So That You Will Not Be Sluggish

If you'd open your Bible to Hebrews chapter 5, Hebrews chapter 5. I'm going to read a section starting at the end of chapter 5 and then end of chapter 6. And we're going to go from chapter 5, 11 down to chapter 6, verse 12. So we're kind of bridging a chapter break, but those aren't really original. Don't worry about that. We're just going to keep on reading because he keeps on going. with this thought and this argument and this exhortation. And I do believe that we need to hear this today. So would you like to stand with me, please, as we read from Hebrews 5, starting in verse 11. You can open your Bible or follow on the screen. Concerning him, now who's the him? Nope. Melchizedek. He's talking about Melchizedek. Okay, so concerning him, Melchizedek.

We have much to say, and it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God. And you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Therefore, leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit,

and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put him to open shame. For ground that drinks the rain, which often falls on it, and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God. But if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned. But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way. For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward his name in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Well, this is a long passage. Don't worry, we're not going to delve deep into the details of this. And it's one of those passages in the New Testament.

And in the book of Hebrews, that is pretty intense, right? Actually pretty terrifying. It gets more terrifying in the book of Hebrews if you go to chapter 10. I'm going to read actually some of that later in a little bit here. But it is a very, very stern, sobering warning to those people out there who don't know the Lord. No. No. This is a very stern warning to you. and to me, to us. All right? And so look what he says. Verse 11, chapter 5. Concerning him, again, this is Melchizedek. And he has started to talk about him. He's going to talk about him a little more. He's teaching. He's writing. And he says, concerning him, Melchizedek, we have much to say. And it's hard to explain. And we all say, yeah, it's hard to explain because we don't get this stuff. Melchizedek.

You know, he's talking about Jesus being the great high priest after the order of Melchizedek and all of that. And this is hard to understand because it's hard to understand. Right? Thank you. Is that what he says? This is hard to explain because it's hard to understand? Is that what he says? Why is it hard to understand? Hard to explain? Yeah, it's not. Okay, we have to keep saying this with the book of Hebrews. We have to say the author of the book of Hebrews because we don't know who it was. It's awkward. I think it's Apollos. Can I just say Apollos? It makes it easy. I think it's Apollos. Certainly not the Apostle Paul. Ask me later why I think that. I'm just going to say Apollos. Cut to the chase. Why does Apollos keep saying this? Or why does he say this? It's hard to explain. Not because it's difficult, but why?

It's not his problem. It's his hearer's problem. It's hard to explain because you have become dull of hearing. Now, any teacher, I mean, your parents know this with your kids. Anyone who teaches anything ever or has had to explain anything difficult or even not difficult, right? Anyone has ever had to explain something. And you get to the point and you know, okay, this isn't going well. Because I can see the eyes glaze over. I can see they're starting to fidget. They're starting to look away. They're starting to get out their phone. They're starting to wish they were a part of that conversation over there that they can kind of hear over there. And he just ended up saying, what's the use of this? I can't keep going because I'm not getting through to you because you're not listening to me. He's not even in their face. He's writing.

and he knows these people well enough, even as he's writing, he's not, you know, standing in front of them, looking at them, and he says, okay, I gotta stop. I gotta stop, because I know you people, and I know that you're actually not even listening anymore. Right? That's what he says. Concerning him, we have much to say, and it's hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. The word there is actually lazy. You've actually, he says, you've become lazy. Your ears are lazy. And it's not that what I'm saying is beyond you. It's that you're not paying attention. Okay? And he goes on, verse 12. For though by this time you ought to be teachers. Now who is he talking to? He's talking to Christians. Just to Christians. He's not singling out here the elders or something like that. He's saying to all the believers that by this time you ought to be teachers.

And this should be the aspiration of anyone who wants to be a mature Christian. I should be able to teach other people. You know, he's not talking about necessarily office or elder or pastor, that kind of stuff. But we should open our mouths and be filled with the word of the Lord and teach people. This is what is normal. But here's what he says. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you. That is something you don't want to hear. You know, you don't want to hear this. You don't want to hear that by this time you ought to be teaching, but I have to go back to the ABCs with you. And that's what he says. By this time you ought to be teachers. You need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God. That really means something like the ABCs, just the very basic, basic things about what God has said. You should be teaching, but you're not.

In fact, I have to go back to square one and start again and go back to A, B, C, D, E, G. That's what I got to get back to here because you're not listening. And he says, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. Now, who needs milk? Babies. Now, all of you kids who are a little bit older, all right, do you ever like it to have your mom or dad call you a baby? You junior high boys, do you ever like your dad to call you a baby? No. We don't like to be called babies. How about you grown men? This is what he's saying. You're babies. And you can't even handle the food I want to dish out to you. Verse 13. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern.

good and evil. So there's a contrast, right? You've got your baby, you've got your mature man, your mature Christian. And the baby only drinks milk, but the mature one eats solid food, you know? He can chew it. And this is what he's talking about. The word of righteousness. We want what would be milk. Milk is completely easy to digest. You don't have to do anything, basically. It gets into you. There it is. You know, there's nothing hard here. Very simple, very basic, very easy. But he talks about solid food, and he talks about it as the word of righteousness. That has hard edges. That's crunchy, you know. That's meaty. That takes some teeth. It's hard-edged. Solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

So what is he talking about here? Now let me just say, there are, in my church, and I'm going to assume that your church and my church are basically the same. Same kind of mix of people, all right? And there are many people in my church who never, they're lazy, and so they don't read. They don't think, okay? They're not ready to do any hard work, like what it is to cut into a steak. put it in your mouth. You can't just like drink a steak, right? You got to do something. There's work to be done. You got to cut it. Now, hopefully not too hard, you know, but you got to cut it. You got to chew it. Once it gets into your body, it doesn't just go right through you. Your body's got to do something with it, you know, to make it useful, right? That's what solid food is. And so it takes work. And I know that there have to be people in this church because there are people in my church.

Who just don't want to have to do that stuff. There are others here, I suspect, who love to do that. And yet, it's all up here. Okay? It's all about ideas. It's all about, you know, kind of esoteric, high, you know, ideas. But what does he say? Look at verse 14. Solid food is for the mature who because of practice... have their senses trained to discern good and evil. What is he talking about? He's talking about ethical. He's talking about your life. He's not just talking about doctrine. You can have incredible knowledge of doctrine and be a baby. Do you hear me? This is ethical. This is applied. This is wisdom. This is the word of righteousness. This is having your senses trained to discern good and evil. Okay?

This is serious business. This isn't just flying, flitting around up here discussing the latest theological controversies and all that kind of stuff. This is your life. And so some of you, I'm guessing, just don't even want to deal with any of that. You don't want to read. You don't want to think. Some of you, oh, love to think and read, but it's not what he's talking about here. All right? Does that make sense? He's talking about applied. training your senses to know good and evil. So I want to exhort you, before we move on to chapter 6, don't be a baby. Don't be a baby. Men and women alike, don't be a baby. It is the sin of young men to want to be lazy. I see a lot of young men here. Praise God. It's the sin of old men to think they're too tired for that. But this is what God says to us. Now, go to chapter 6. He just keeps on going.

He says, therefore, leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, where he's saying, okay, we're going to try to move, we're going to try to push through the ABCs here and get on to something a little more substantial, okay? Leaving the elementary teaching about the Messiah, the Christ, let us press on to maturity. Don't be babies. Now it's time to grow up. Not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. Now just think about this. He's telling us what the ABCs are. He's telling us what the elementary principles are. What are they? Well, they're foundational things. Do you see that? Look, we're going to move beyond this.

We need to move beyond these foundational things. What foundational things? Well, you know, repentance, faith. You think, oh, that's not foundational. That's very, very serious and very deep. Oh, yes, of course it is. Listen, so two days a week I work for a home builder down in Bloomington, right? And so we build houses. How important are foundations to houses? You know? Foundations are very, very important to get right. And we've had jobs where we've had to come in and just had problems at every stage because why? The foundation's off. That's something that's very hard to fix. It's hard to retrofit a foundation. Foundations are important. They set the whole course for the rest of the building.

Whether it's going to be straight, whether it's going to stand up, whether it's going to sink, whether it's going to crack and fall over. Foundations are very important. This is not to diminish the foundations. But foundations are not an end of themselves, in themselves. Okay? Foundations have a point. Does that make sense? The point of the foundation is to build something on it. So if you spend all of your time thinking, oh, the foundation, the foundation, let's... Okay, that's a beautiful foundation. Let's polish it. Let's come back and look at that foundation. Let's work on it a little more. The people all behind us are saying, we've got to build something on that. How can Dan come and wire the darn house if there's not a house? The foundation exists for a purpose. It's not an end in itself. Foundations are very important, but they're meant to be built on. So this is what he's saying.

We're not going to lay the foundation again of repentance from dead works. Faith toward God. What else? Well, instruction about washings and laying on of hands. People are going to argue about what this is. I think he's talking about baptism and entry into the church type things. Coming into the church, like initiation. Coming into the visible church. So you've got repentance and faith. You've got becoming a member of the church. What else? Resurrection from the dead and eternal judgment. This is Apostles' Creed stuff. Okay? The Apostles' Creed that we just recited together is not the pinnacle, it's the foundation. We believe in God the Father. We believe in Jesus Christ. We believe in repentance. We believe in faith. We believe in baptism. We believe in the resurrection of the dead. We believe that Jesus Christ will come back to judge the quick and the dead. This is foundation stuff.

That yes, you have to get right. But you have to also then move beyond it and do something with it. Right? And he says in verse 3, and this we will do if God permits. Now look at verse 4. For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come and then have fallen away, it is impossible. to renew them again to repentance. Where did that come from? Where did that come from? What is he talking about? He's talking about apostasy. Apostasy is just one of these words we use. The word he uses here is fallen away. An apostate is someone who has fallen away, who was here but has fallen away. How does he get from Is he grinding the gears here? Is this like a weird, awkward transition from don't be babies, grow up, get beyond the foundational stuff, to don't be an apostate, you know? Is that what just happened? Is it jarring? No. It's as smooth as silk, okay? They're perfectly connected. He didn't just wander off until, you know, I forgot what I was talking about. I guess I'm going to talk about apostasy now, right?

He's moving right on. And here's his point. If you're a baby, and if you never get beyond these foundational basic things, guess what? You are in danger of being an apostate. Look at how he describes the people. Verse 4. In the case of those who have once been enlightened. Let's take these one at a time. Once been enlightened. What does that mean? Well, again, I'm not going to delve into all the details and all the arguments for what people think about this. All right? I think it means, this is a word and language that was used in the early church for baptism. Okay? So I think he's actually talking about people who've been baptized when he says once been enlightened. That's the language they used. So think about this. In the case of those who have once been enlightened, you're baptized. You're a member of a church. And, what's the next one? Have tasted of the heavenly gift.

What do you think that's talking about? I think it's talking about communion. This is the language that the early church used for that. You've been enlightened, you've been baptized, you're taking communion, okay? He goes on, and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit. What does that mean? Well, I think actually it means not necessarily being regenerate, because there's a problem if he's talking about people who are regenerate, but he's talking about... the fellowship of the Holy Spirit that we have inside the church. He might even be talking about ordination or both. In other words, he could be talking about men who are in office, who are elders or pastors or deacons, all right? Made partakers of the Holy Spirit, have tasted the good word of God, that's what you're doing right now, unless you're dull of hearing, and the powers of the age to come. What is that?

This is written in the days of the apostles when there were miracles and things going on. He talks about that early in chapter 2. So it could be that kind of thing. We're here together in the church and we see things happening that you can't explain by normal means. That can happen with miracles. It can happen with people being changed. The Holy Spirit is working in the context of the church. You've tasted the powers of the world to come. So who's he talking about? Who's he talking to? He's talking to you. He's talking to you. He's talking to church members. He's talking to people who profess faith, who've been baptized, who take communion, who hear the preaching, partake in the fellowship of the church, who have been around when people have changed and repented of their sins and have seen it. Maybe even your elders, right? He's talking to us. Do you remember what Jesus says?

In Matthew 7, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? And in your name cast out demons, and in your name perform many miracles. Right? Think of Judas. Did all of those things. And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Just because you're a member of a church, just because you take communion, just because you're an elder or a pastor or a deacon does not exempt you from these warnings, okay? And then he says this. In the case of those who have once been enlightened and so on, and then verse 6, and then have fallen away. Then have fallen away. So this is apostasy. This is apostasy.

Simply means to fall away, to rebel, to turn away, to go the other direction. This is not backsliding. There's a difference between apostasy and backsliding. Judas was an apostate. Peter was not. But he backslid. He sinned very seriously against the Lord. But he wasn't an apostate. There's a difference. Apostasy. is a process. It's not an event. An apostate doesn't wake up one morning and just say, you know what? I'm done. I'm done. It's not how it works. Apostasy is a process. Where does it begin? Or where does Apollo say it begins? Being dull of hearing. Yeah, being lazy. That's what he says. That's his argument. You're dull of hearing.

you should be grown up by now, you should be teaching, you should be mature, but you're not. You're stunted in your growth and your babies and all you can handle is milk and you're in danger of being an apostate. That's what he says. That's where it begins, right? Your laziness, your dullness of hearing, your refusal to grow up leads to unbelief, leads to disobedience, leads to falling away. This is a process. Just like growing up is a process, this is like the opposite. And here's what he says about them. And then verse 6, and then having fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance. Since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put him to open shame, it is impossible to renew them to repentance. This is one of the differences between an apostate and a backslider. Backslider's Peter.

When Peter was confronted with the word of God from the Lord himself, what did Peter do? There was life in him, so he repented. Right? But this is the man, the woman, the child, the young person, who has hardened his heart so severely that he's just gone. Why? Why is it impossible to renew that man to repentance? Verse 6. Since they again crucified to themselves the Son of God and put him to open shame. Think about this. Have you ever known someone? Have you ever known an apostate? Not a backslider, but an apostate. Someone who previously was a member of the church, maybe even a pastor, right? Maybe even an elder, maybe even a deacon. They were in it deep. And over a process of time, they come to the place where they say, I'm done with this. Have you ever known an apostate? Apostates...

have an ax to grind, right? Against Jesus, against the truth, against the Lord himself. Jesus is useless to the apostate. I tried that. Didn't work for me. What is that saying about Jesus? He's not real, or if he is, he's powerless, or he's mean. A lot of you read and hear apostates talking, it's often about God being mean, you know. I was a Christian once. I used to be very religious, but now I see that the whole thing is a man-made fraud. You know, there's an ax to grind. The apostate isn't just indifferent to Jesus, he hates Jesus. He would just as soon crucify him again and mock and ridicule and disdain and despise him. That's exactly what he says. Since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put him to open shame. This is very serious. Do you think God takes that lightly?

I told you I was going to read from Hebrews 10, so if you have your Bible open, it's not going to be on the screen. Flip over to Hebrews 10, verse 26. The warnings to us in Hebrews get more and more intense the further you go. And if you thought 6 was intense, wait until you get to 10. Look at verse 26, chapter 10, verse 26. For if we go on sinning willfully, deliberately, In the face of all the light that you have, because you're sitting here in the church, you're baptized, you're taking communion, you've seen God at work, you hear the word of God, you have the benefit of the fellowship of God's people and the Holy Spirit around you, and you keep on sinning against all of that. If we go on sinning willfully, after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.

a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Notice what he says here. How much severer punishment. Don't think the New Testament is softer than the Old Testament. He says it's worse. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God? and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the spirit of grace. For we know him who has said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. He's not talking about pagans. He's not talking about atheists. He's talking about us. He's talking about you. You're here. You've come to the knowledge of the truth.

Don't think that you can walk away from this and walk away from the Lord, trample him underfoot. But it's the New Covenant. It's the New Testament. That ups the ante. It doesn't lower it. Because you've sinned against the light. He goes on, verse 7, to give a little illustration. And it's the perfect illustration for us, for our children, for you children, for all of us who've grown up in the church. Verse 7. For ground that drinks the rain, which often falls on it. Every time you hear the word of God, this is the rain falling on you, right? And you're there, you're soaking it in. Every time, kids, every time you hear the Bible read, every time you have devotions at home, every time you have any input of godliness in your life, you're just the land soaking up the rain, right? For ground that drinks the rain, which often falls on it.

and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God. When the beans come up, and the tomatoes come up, and the corn comes up, and the farmer brings it all in, that's what that land was made for, it's what that rain was for, it's blessing, and it's blessed. But what? Verse 8. But if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed. And it ends up being burned. The land is getting the same rain. It's not that this land over here never had rain, right? It has all the same influences coming down. You're in the same worship services, right? You're in the same home. You have the word of God coming to you all the time. And some of you will bear fruit, and some of you won't. And you'll bear thorns and thistles instead. And you won't get a blessing.

you will be cursed and you will be burned. Not a blessing, but burned. That's what he says. This is the perfect little illustration, lesson, allegory for us. For our children, this should scare us. This should sober us. What kind of fruit are you bearing? He turns a corner in verse 9. But beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you. Things that accompany salvation, though we're speaking this way. Now he's not just taking it all away. He's not saying, ah, just kidding. He's not just trying to make us forget everything he just said, but he is a pastor and he loves his people and he knows that there are actually tender consciences sitting there listening to him. Some people listening to him aren't all of hearing. And there's actually fruit. The rain has come down on them and they have borne fruit. What kind of fruit? Verse 10.

For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward his name and having ministered and still ministering to the saints. The rain has fallen on some of you and there's fruit. And it's obvious. You love God's people and you love him and you work and you minister and you serve. Right? There's always both. That doesn't take away the warning. That actually intensifies the warning. because it gives you something you can look at, and you can look at yourself and say, where is it? Does that describe me? Labor, love, serving. Verse 11, and we desire that each of you, that each one of you, show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. What is he doing?

He's coming back to write what he started with. He started with, you're lazy. You're dull of hearing. I can't even keep going because you're not even listening to me. It's not because my problem, it's your problem. Right? You're lazy. Laziness leads to apostasy. Falling away. Where there's no hope for you. Where you'll be cast off. No repentance and cursed and burned. That's where laziness leads to. The spiritual laziness. But he says in verse 11, we don't want that for you. We desire that each one of you show the same what? What's the opposite of laziness? Diligence. We don't want you to be lazy. We want you to be diligent. We don't want you to be sluggish. Doll of hearing. Sluggish. Lazy. We desire that each one of you show the same diligence. So as to realize the full assurance of hope for how long?

Until the end. This is the opposite of the apostate. This is the one who perseveres. Where does that perseverance come from? What does he say? Does it come from letting go and letting God? Just let go and let God. Right? Is that what he says? No. We desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end. This is work. It's not for the lazy, it's not for the faint of heart, it's not for the dull, it's not for the sluggish, it's not for babies. We want you to do this, he says, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who, through faith and patience, through faith and patience, it's not what babies are good at, it's what men should be good at, what adults, what women should be good at, faith and patience.

So that you'll not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises, the blessings, all the things that God has promised. This is not let go and let God. This is work. Now, so what are my final exhortations to you? Don't be lazy. Don't be a baby. Do the work of getting past the ABCs. There are hard edges to this, like I said. This is the word of righteousness. That's a hard-edged thing. This is training your senses to have discernment, to know between good and evil. This is not geeking out on theology for theology's sake. All right? I know some of you. It's not that. But it's becoming useful. Don't be a baby. Don't be sluggish. Don't be lazy.

Because if you're lazy and dull and sluggish and immature, you very well may fall away. That's what's at stake. That's what the Holy Spirit says. You don't want to fall away. Now, one last word to the young folks here, okay? You are the land that has received constant rain. You're here. You're in church. You're in a home, I'm assuming, where God's word is honored. You hear it all the time. That is a great blessing to you, unless you harden your heart and bear thorns and thistles, and then it's a great curse to you. Don't take anything for granted, young people, kids. Don't take anything for, in other words, just because you're in the church and in a Christian home doesn't mean you can check out and coast. Be lazy, be sluggish, be dull of hearing.

Not worry about all that stuff. Oh yeah, I'm a Christian. Yeah, I'm baptized. I take communion. I come to church. I hear the preaching. That's all the things he said about these people. None of us are like immune or exempt or unable to be these people, the people who fall away. May God have mercy on us. Parents, don't get, you don't take anything for granted either with your kids. Press them with these kinds of warnings. Press them. Let's pray.