Become Dull Of Hearing
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
This evening I want us to turn our attention to warning of the Hebrew writer in Hebrews 5:8-14.
Often when I or others teach on these verse we focus on Hebrews 5:12-14 wherein it talks about the need to mature spiritually.
However, the previous verse set up the context of what had happened that led to them not being as “mature as they ought to be.”
In Hebrews 5:8-10 we read…
8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, 10 being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
The Hebrew writer wants to spend some time right here explaining why Jesus was a high priest “after the order of Melchizedek.
Jesus had been designated as such by God and not man which could only mean one thing…
Jesus was not of the lineage of Aaron like all the previous High Priests before him.
14 For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests.
However, the Hebrew writer could not continue teaching them this important lesson and we see why in the next verse.
11 About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.
Paying close attention to not just listening to God’s word but hearing the message is a theme throughout the scriptures.
24 And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you.”
19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger
15 For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
In our text here in Hebrews 5 the people are being admonished because of there severe laziness in their study of God’s word.
12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food
6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.
This evening I want us to take a moment and consider the dangers we face if we “Become Dull Of Hearing” God’s precious message.
What happens if we become dull of hearing…
We Are Hard To Teach
We Are Hard To Teach
We Focus On What We Want To Hear
We Focus On What We Want To Hear
There are many things in this life that can cause of to become dull of hearing because we are focusing on ourselves.
Sometimes it is our own prejudice keep us from hearing the truth.
Tell of when Bob’s grandson was adopted and he was black.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Sometimes our desires for this world keep us from hearing the truth.
Simply put we don’t want to do what the bible says so we say things like “I know it says that in the bible but…”
4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
Sometimes it is our own laziness in studying the bible that keeps us from hearing the truth.
We are ignorant about a topic we have not studied and believe what maybe we have always thought.
Tell what Larry Jones “taught about Premillennialism.”
15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
Summary
Summary
We can easily become dull of hearing God’s word and thus hard to teach when we focus on what we “want to hear” rather than what God’s word is saying.
By the way this is very easy to do, and we must guard against such.
The year it took me to see the truth on belief, faith, and faithfulness.
If we are dull of hearing…
We Fail To Become Teachers
We Fail To Become Teachers
This Isn’t Public But Private Teaching
This Isn’t Public But Private Teaching
There is a type of teaching that “not everyone should pursue and that is public teaching.
1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.
But every Christian is supposed to become a teacher of God’s word to those that need to hear the saving gospel they themselves know.
15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.”
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.
When we become dull of hearing and do not become the teachers for God we are supposed to be it is because…
We Are Unskilled In The Word
We Are Unskilled In The Word
Now God is perfect in his judgment and he knows how much knowledge of his word we ought to have at any given point.
But when we fail to reach where we “ought to be” in our knowledge of God’s word we end us staying unskilled in God’s word.
12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, 13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.
Far too many Christians never teach any person the gospel because they feel like they don’t know enough to teach somebody.
And instead of correcting this they continue in this state of spiritual infancy.
The church at Corinth was in this situation as well.
2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready
Summary
Summary
When we become dull of hearing as Christians we will inevitably not be the teachers God desires for us to be for all those he sent his son to come and die for.
God relies on us, he children, to teach the lost about him.
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
Lastly, and the most dangerous for us individually speaking is that if we are dull of hearing…
We Fail To Discern Good From Evil
We Fail To Discern Good From Evil
We Are Tossed To & Fro
We Are Tossed To & Fro
If we cannot discern between good and evil we cannot be faithful to God.
58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
If we cannot discern between good and evil we cannot determine what is moral and what is immoral.
9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! 21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight! 22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink, 23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right!
If we do not mature and cannot discern between good and evil we simply end up being tossed to and fro by Satan.
14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
Summary
Summary
v
Conclusion
Conclusion
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Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent
33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
32 Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
