Well, my brothers and sisters, we come to a fascinating section of the book of Hebrews in chapter 5:11 down through 6:12. This is a passage that's quite complicated, intricate in detail, but it offers an opportunity to really see the depth of God's Word and the author's argument in this epistle we're studying—its intent and process. It's an excellent teaching text for understanding how we interpret the Bible, how to study God's Word, and the importance of sound hermeneutical principles. 

It is a bit of a controversial passage. When we get down into the first verses of chapter 6, we'll explore that a little bit, but some see this as referring to Christians. I think it's very clear that this passage does not refer to Christians, but it's one of these warning passages calling on those Hebrews who had not come to faith in Christ to go on to perfection, to go on to the sacrifice of the new covenant.

So, the challenge before me, as I see it, is to capture the main intent and focus of this passage all the while explaining it in a way that's easy and understandable for us, and fruitful for us. To be quite honest, I'm not sure that I'm up to this challenge, but we're going to, as always, trust the Holy Spirit to work out the details. I appeal to you again to study with me these next few weeks, to give attention to the messages, and to really strive to understand what the author is saying, because the reward will be great for your efforts.

When we come to any text in the Word of God, and especially a text like this, first we must start with the words. This is so important. We often start with preconceived notions. We often start with sermons we've heard or ideas we have, or we try to relate it to ourselves and make application to ourselves. We have to start with the words, with observation of what is here, what is written, and we must first see the words in their context. 

The context of what we have been studying—the author's intent in showing these Hebrews—is that Jesus is the great King and High Priest of God in the New Covenant. The first 11 verses of chapter 5 concern these truths, I think in an introductory way. We notice that in verse 11, the author expresses his desire to go deeper into these things, to teach about the priesthood of Melchizedek and how Jesus is a King and Priest in this line, rather than the line of Aaron according to the Law of Covenant.

If we look ahead to chapter 7, we see that the context there is set in the last verse of chapter 6, speaking of Jesus as the forerunner who has entered behind the veil for us, having become a High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Then in chapter 7, he goes on to explain this order of the priesthood of Melchizedek in more depth. 

He's showing that the High Priest of the New Covenant, Jesus, according to the order of Melchizedek, is greater than the High Priest of the Old Covenant, according to Aaron. And thus, His sacrifice and His covenant are better than the old. He will continue this argument all the way through chapter 10 with many teachings and warnings sprinkled in. 

So, we must see the importance of our first point—applying sound hermeneutics, methods of interpretation. We must pay attention to the words set in their context because the words make up the meaning. Before we read our text, I would remind you that the overall intent in this epistle is to encourage and reinforce the faith of the true believers and also to warn those who had come up to the point of faith in Christ, recognized the truth of His promises and the good news of the Gospel and the New Covenant as true, had even left Judaism or part of the fellowship, but had not gone on to faith in Christ, had not gone on to perfection. 

Now, the situation was that under pressure from the legalistic Jews, from their friends and family, they were in danger. They were considering going back. They had begun to turn away, drift past the safe harbor of grace, and turn back to law. This compromise of truth had begun to affect them. Their thinking had been affected, their understanding had been affected, to a point where they were unable to recognize truth. The author says they could not discern good and evil.

This epistle is not about distinguishing classes of Christians or sorting out spiritual and carnal acting believers like we might find in 1 Corinthians 3. Rather, it's an encouragement and assurance to those who believe and a warning to those who are not saved. This is what we've seen consistently throughout the book, and we should expect nothing different in the passages that lie ahead.

So, I'd like to begin, if you'd indulge me, just with a little observation. We're going to go through the text and observe what's here, and we're going to try to get off on the right foot here in our understanding and interpretation and application of this text. We read the text already, so I'll give you the four points on the outline. First, we're looking at hermeneutics. Second, hard of hearing. Third, handling the word. And fourth, holding fast. 

Well, we've been discussing the importance here of sound hermeneutics for biblical interpretation and the need to start with the words in their context, considering the author's intent, the flow of the passage, as well as the audience and their understanding of what he's writing. So, let's do some observation and see what we find in the words.

Verse 11 sort of switches gears for us here. He's been writing about Melchizedek and how Jesus is a high priest in this order and not in the Order of Aaron. Then he says, "I'd like to tell you a lot more about this. I'd like to teach you many things about Melchizedek, but you have become dull of hearing." 

Well, this is an interesting phrase, "dull of hearing." It literally means no push. They were sluggish. They were non-progressing. It speaks of a process that was going on in their lives. As we said, these folks had come to an understanding, had been enlightened by the gospel truth. The Holy Spirit was drawing them, working on them, to a point where they'd even left the temple and come into the fellowship of believers.

They'd had some understanding, some intellectual agreement with the gospel, and were attracted to it. But this phrase speaks of a process of going the other way. I want you to listen to Weiss' comment on this. He says, "Their inability to apprehend was not a natural, inherent, pardonable weakness, but a culpable incapacity which was the result of a past neglect of and gradual working away from the New Testament truth. It was the hardening of the heart against the drawing of the Spirit, spoken of in chapter 3. It was a deterioration of spiritual apprehension on the part of these unsaved Hebrews who had been recipients of the pre-salvation ministry of the Holy Spirit, who had been leading them step by step toward faith in the New Testament sacrifice and Messiah." 

The use of the perfect tense, Weiss says, tells us that the process had gone on to a point of completion with finished results. Their neglect had done its work, and they were, as a result, in a settled state of spiritual stupidity, end quote. 

I know that was a mouthful, but I hope you could follow the logic there. The point is that they, because they did not hold fast to the truth, because they were compromising and listening to those who taught things contrary to the Word, to the truths about Jesus, and were not fastening their attention on Him, they had become dull of hearing. They had become, it says, it's a process due to the compromise of the truth.

This text is not about us, my friends, but there's a principal lesson right here that we really need to learn. We can never compromise the truth, lest we find ourselves on a slippery slope to error and confusion, and we see it all the time in the church today. We need to go to the Word, see what God says, trust Him, and believe Him, regardless of anything else.

So, we're just observing the words to get a feel for the flow of the text. What we see first is that the people to which he writes have become spiritually stupid—dull of hearing, unable to discern good and evil, truth and error. In verse 12, he makes a statement: "By now, with the amount of revelation you've had, with what you've known and been exposed to, by now you ought to be teachers. But rather, you need to go back and be taught the first principles of the oracles, or the Word of God." 

The words here speak of the basic building blocks—the ABCs, the first principles—and the oracles of God, I believe, refers to the Old Testament. We see that in Romans 3 at verse 1, where he says, "What advantage then has the Jew or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way, chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God." 

To Israel, to the Jews, were committed the Old Testament scriptures, the first principles of the oracles of God in the Old Testament—the law, the sacrifices, the covenants, the pictures, the shadows. You see, their problem was that they could not discern spiritual truth about the New Covenant because they did not have a clear understanding of the Old Covenant, the law, these pictures and shadows, really the purpose of the law. 

We're going to come back to that and build on this truth, but let's continue in our observation. In chapter 6 at verse 1, we have the key exhortation that centers the passage. He says, "Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of the Christ, let us go on to perfection." 

So we have to ask, what are the elementary principles of the Christ? The first things, the building blocks, the foundation. Some would immediately say the gospel. But that's not what he's talking about. That's a response from a 21st-century Christian New Covenant understanding. That's not the mind of these Hebrews. 

The Jewish mind, the Hebrew understanding of the elementary principles of the Christ, would immediately draw them to the Old Testament and promises of God of deliverance, of looking forward to the promise of Messiah. You see, they were like the disciples in the life and ministry of Christ found in the Gospels. They did not understand New Covenant truth. They did not understand the death, burial, and resurrection—the suffering Messiah. They were focused on the political deliverer, the kingdom to come. 

That's why, in Matthew 16, when Jesus said, "I'm going to go up to Jerusalem and the Gentiles are going to crucify me," Peter said, "No, may it never be!" And Jesus replied, "Get behind me, Satan. You are mindful of the things of men, not the things of God." They didn't understand. This was their problem. 

So, the call here—once we have discerned and understood the foundation, the pictures, the shadows, and all that they point to in Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross—is let's leave those elementary principles. Let's leave those pictures. 

Listen now, this is important. The word for "leave" here means to utterly forsake and leave behind. Let me ask you, when are we to utterly forsake and leave behind the gospel? We never get past the gospel, my friends. We only come to a deeper understanding of it. 

So what we have here in 6:1 is a call to utterly forsake and leave behind the pictures and shadows—the Old Covenant—and go on to the substance, the completion—the perfection—in Christ. Then we see a warning. If they do not do this, if they turn back to the old, if they leave Jesus and go back to Judaism, then they're doomed because those sacrifices can never take away sins. Jesus is the only way. Apart from him, apart from going on to perfection, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. 

So this is serious. There was a danger, and the author is warning, exhorting these Hebrews to go on to Jesus, go on to the new covenant sacrifice and faith in Him. This is the heart of the passage, and really the book of Hebrews. 

Now just observe with me verses 7 and 8 of chapter 6, because we have an illustration, and sometimes we pass over these illustrations, wondering, "What's that mean? How's that fit in?" This is really important to see. 

Verse 7: "For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and briars, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned." 

What is the meaning of this illustration? How does it fit into the flow of the text? How does it help us understand and interpret rightly? This is a picture of these Hebrews. They had received much rain, many blessings, much revelation from God—all through their history in the Old Testament, the law and the sacrifices—and then Jesus, the fulfillment. 

The gospel came to them, and they were taught by the Holy Spirit and by those who had been with Jesus. They had tasted the heavenly gift, but they had not, as Jesus said, taken and eaten, consumed fully. They had not gone on to perfection in faith and bore fruit. 

You see, God's intention in all this blessing, in all this revelation, was for them to believe and then to bear fruit like the good soil of the earth. But rather, they were like the rocky soil that sprang up, made a profession of faith, but they were not bearing fruit. They were withering and in danger because they had no root. 

You see, the illustration fits perfectly if we understand the intent of the text. One last point of observation: verse 9. Here we see an important contrast. It's called an adversative. He shifts gears, gives a word of contrast to encourage those who had believed. "But," he says, "we are confident of better things concerning you. Yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner." 

This is harsh warning—frightening language. We see the author encouraging those who had believed. Though we warn so severely, for those of you who have believed, we have confidence in you because you are bearing fruit, and we see the things that accompany salvation. 

So, my friends, because this is where we start—with the words. I pray that you have, through simple observation, a feel for the text, for the intent, for the flow, and that this will allow us to go in the right direction with our interpretation. If we go in the wrong direction here, we've got some serious problems when we get down into verses 3 and 4 of chapter 6.

If we start with the words, with sound hermeneutical principles, and just attempt to see what it says, to cut the pieces straight and let the meaning come through—the context, the flow—then we will come to the right conclusions. If our heart's desire is to know what God says, we have a promise in John 7:17: we will know concerning the doctrine, if it is from Him.

Well, the first conclusion we saw back up in 5:11 is that these people to whom he writes had become dull of hearing. We said that this means they had been through a process allowing them to come to this condition of spiritual numbness—inability to discern good and evil, truth and error. The process was because of a lack of focus, of attention to New Testament truth, and a failure to understand the basic principles of the law of covenant, their purpose, and their fulfillment in Christ.

This is so instructive for us, my brothers and sisters, because the same issues plague the Christian church today, particularly those who claim the name of Christ but deny Him by their teaching. It's a basic misunderstanding of the intent and purpose of the first principles of the Word of God—the law, the sacrifices, the old covenant—and thus, as the author here, we have to go back and teach these things to those who may claim the name of Christ but have missed the whole gospel message.

I'm sure you have loved ones in that boat—who claim to be Christians, who claim to believe, but they don't understand the gospel. They're striving through religious works and good deeds to earn their own righteousness. 

I'd like for you to turn over to Romans 3:19. I just want to look at a couple of clear passages on the purpose and intent of the law. Paul says in Romans 3:19, "Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God." 

"Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." It's a clear statement. Why did God give the law? To show us our sin. 

Now turn over to Galatians 3 with me, please. Galatians 3:18 is a more extended passage here. He's speaking of Abraham and the promise. Galatians 3:18 says, "For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise. But God gave it to Abraham by promise." 

"What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made, and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator." 

Now, the vast majority of those who call themselves Christians today are trying to establish their own righteousness through the works of the law—through sacraments, through good works, sacrifice, giving, etc. This was the problem for Israel, but in Galatians 3, he tells us that the law was a tutor—it was a schoolmaster—meant to lead us to faith in Christ, to show us our sin, to show us our need, and to bring us to Him that we might believe and receive His righteousness.

One more passage—Romans 9:30. Just to make this clear. Romans 9:30, and we'll follow this down to 10:4. "What shall we say then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith. But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why?" 

"Why is it that religious men today who add works to faith in Jesus, who add sacraments, who add baptism—all these different things, good deeds—why is it they have not attained righteousness? Because they did not seek it by faith but, as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written, 'Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whoever believes on him will not be put to shame.'"

"Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God. We know some very religious people; we love them. They have a tremendous zeal—more zealous than a lot of Christians we know. But their zeal is not according to knowledge." 

"For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." 

My friends, men all around us in our communities, our workplaces, our families have become dull of hearing, spiritually undiscerning, sluggish because they have not understood the elementary principles of the Word of God. They have not understood the purpose of the law. It's so abundantly clear from the Word of God that the purpose of the law, represented in the Ten Commandments, was not given for us to keep to earn our own righteousness. Quite the opposite, it was to show us our inherent sinfulness—how far short we fall and how great a need we have for a Savior. 

It was meant to lead us to faith in that Savior. To receive His righteousness by faith in the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the fulfillment of the new covenant. 

Galatians 3:20 says, "Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not, for if there had been a law given which would have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law." 

"If a man could keep a law, if he could be good enough, if he could be perfect and be righteous, righteousness would have come through the law," Paul says, "but the Scripture has confined all under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe." 

What good news that is! It's so clear, my friends, yet until a man understands these things, until he realizes his sin and his need, the purpose of the law, he cannot come to faith. He cannot go on to perfection and come into the blessings of the new covenant relationship with God. 

As long as a man persists in establishing his own righteousness through religion, works, rituals—rather than through faith in Jesus alone and His final, one-time, propitiatory sacrifice on the cross—he cannot be saved. There's no other sacrifice for sins. 

This is the message to these Hebrews, and it's a needed message in our world today. We, as believers, need to be clear in our minds about these things if we're going to be effective witnesses. 

We see a great need for an application of sound hermeneutical principles in our study, especially in chapters like this. We see that these Hebrews had become hard of hearing, and next, we see that their difficulty was in handling the Word. 

Look at verse 12 in our text, please. He says, "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first 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 unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." 

We need to see this sort of as a slap in the face to the Jews here because they've had the Word; they've had the Law all through their history. What the author is saying to them is, "You don't understand; you don't know the Word." 

Jesus said the same thing to the Pharisees. The Jewish people certainly had received ample revelation from God throughout their history in the Old Testament and in Revelation in the Gospel for these particular Jews and the teaching of the ones who had been with Jesus. Revelation was not their problem. 

It was their unwillingness to receive the truth, to acknowledge the truth, to believe it and take it for themselves—to rightly divide, handle the Word of God. The author here says they have no discernment because they're not even saved. They have to go back to the first principles of the Old Testament to understand the purpose of the Law and their need for Christ. 

They could only handle milk; they could not eat the solid food of the Gospel. They were unskilled, it says, in the Word of Righteousness. 

The bottom line is this, my friends: a man must be willing to know. He must be willing to understand and receive the truth. If he's not willing, he'll never see it. 

This is so hard for me to understand sometimes. Why won't men come to Christ? Why won't they see the clear truth, the abundantly clear truth of the Gospel in the Word of God? It's not a problem with the revelation of God and His Word. It's not a problem that He hasn't given enough revelation. It's a problem in the heart of man. 

These Hebrews were succumbing to the cares of the world, the pressure of their loved ones and the community to forsake Christ and go back to Judaism. I'm sure they thought they had it all figured out. They knew the truth, and they thought going back to the temple was the right thing to do. 

It seemed reasonable. I just want to mention one thing here; there might be some confusion or objection because he calls them babes and says they can only handle milk. But this is just an illustration. It's one that's used quite often in the Scriptures. 

Paul calls the Corinthians babes in 1 Corinthians 3. He says, "I could only give you milk," that they were still carnal, acting like mere men. This is an illustration as well. We could say that Paul says we should not want milk, right? We should not be babes. 

It's interesting—the word that Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 3, same word in our text, nepeos, has the idea in these texts of a child that is not grown as it should. So it's not an infant but someone who is of age who has not grown properly. 

It's used to denote those who should have grown but are still immature such as in Romans 2:20 in 1 Corinthians 3 as well, and Hebrews 5. But it does not necessarily indicate salvation. Peter uses the illustration in 1 Peter 2. He uses the word brephos there; it means an infant, a newborn. 

Here we see Peter exhorting the believers to do what? To desire the pure milk of the Word like a baby desires milk. I say all this to say that just because the author here calls them babes and speaks of milk does not mean he's talking about Christians. 

It's an illustration. It speaks of how they should have grown, but they've got to go back and learn the first principles. They're spiritually sluggish, they've become dull of hearing. He's warning them, telling them their need for understanding, and then he follows this in 6:1 with a tremendous exhortation. 

Look at chapter 6, verse 1. "Therefore," he says, "because of this truth, because of this condition, because you've come to this point through this process of compromise and you're considering leaving, here's what you need to leave: leave the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ and go on to perfection." 

Now this verse makes it very clear who he is addressing in this passage. The first word we must consider is translated "leaving." This is a very clear word; it's used 147 times in the New Testament—used often in the Gospels. It's used of Jesus sending away the multitudes. 

In Romans 1, it's used of the man leaving the natural use of the woman and engaging in that which is shameful. In 1 Corinthians 7, it's used of a man putting away his wife. It's often translated "leaving" or "let alone." The very essence of the word is a separation. 

It means to go away from, to completely separate oneself from. It's even used of our sins being forgiven in Romans 4:7. The Expositor's Greek Testament translates it here in Hebrews 6:1, "let us abandon." 

We see it's a complete separation from a putting away and moving on to another thing. Now, let's put our minds to this and think this through in the context, in the flow of the text, with the author's intent and the audience in mind. 

What is he talking about when he says the elementary principles of Christ? The knee-jerk reaction for us, with our mindset, is to say the gospel. But this is completely foreign to the whole passage. 

Let me ask you this: When is it ever taught that we are to abandon, to separate ourselves from, to leave behind the gospel and to go on to what? What is perfection? 

Some would say it’s Christian maturity here. Okay, then we're going to get there to Christian maturity without the gospel? No, it makes perfect sense to see the elementary principles as all those Old Testament doctrines, teachings that were pictures, shadows of the substance to come in Christ. 

In fact, he's going to list them next week in our text, so we'll see that. The call here is for the unsaved Hebrews to go on to perfection—to Christ, the new covenant sacrifice. 

He explains that the Greek tense and grammatical construction in this verse demands that the abandoning or leaving behind is a prerequisite to going on to perfection. So again, I say: Shall we abandon the gospel to go on to spiritual maturity? No, but it's clear that these Hebrews needed to utterly forsake, abandon, leave the old covenant and its sacrifices and its pictures in order to go on to faith in Christ—to salvation in Him.

The words here compare the sacrifices of the high priests. Remember that in our context in chapters 5 to 10, the overriding theme is the high priests. He's contrasting the old with the new—Aaron with Melchizedek, the sacrifice of animals, the blood of bulls and goats with Jesus—perfect sacrifice of Himself.

What the author is saying here is to leave the Old Covenant sacrifices and go on to perfect New Covenant sacrifice, which is Jesus Christ. Now think about that for today. 

What's the message we need to bring to our religious friends? By religious, by definition, means that they're participating in a system of works and rites to try to please God. What's the message we need to tell them? 

It's similar to when I went to India, one of the great problems there, you know, Augustine told me that they had 350 million gods—one for every American. Do you go and preach Jesus to them? They're like, "Right on, we'll add Jesus, that's no problem," right? 

They would have Jesus there, maybe a statue, a bunch of other statues, all these things going on. You can't add Jesus. You can't add Jesus to your religious rituals; you can't add Jesus to your good works; you can't add Jesus to your false gods. 

The idea is that you have to, as Paul says to the Thessalonians, "abandon the idols to serve the living God." You have to repent; you have to turn from what you were trusting in and turn solely to Jesus Christ. And that's true for every man today. 

I'd like for you to look at how the author reinforces these truths in the next chapter as we close here. I just want to look at some verses in chapter 7. If you look at 7:11, he's now going on to talk more about Melchizedek as he wanted to explain. 

7:11 says, "And it's yet far more evident if in the likeness of Melchizedek there arises another priest who has come not according to the law of a fleshly commandment but according to the power of an endless life, for he testifies, 'You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.'" 

"For on the one hand," look at this message, verse 18, "there's an annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and unprofitableness, for the law made nothing perfect." 

"On the other hand, there's the bringing in of a better hope through which we draw near to God. And inasmuch as he was not made priest without an oath—for they have become priests without an oath—but he with an oath by him who said to him, 'The Lord has sworn and will not relent, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.'" 

"By so much more, Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant." Also, "There were many priests because they were prevented by death from continuing, but he, because he continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood." 

"Therefore, he is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them. For such a high priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens, who does not need, daily, as those high priests to offer up sacrifices first for his own sins and then for the people's. For this he did once for all when he offered up himself."

In this Jewish argument, it's all about the priesthood, the high priest, and the sacrifice. The clear conclusion one must draw is that the old covenant high priest and his sacrifices were completely inferior to the new covenant high priest and his one-time complete and perfect sacrifice, which accomplished our salvation. 

It is truly a better covenant built on better promises, and one can only enter into this covenant, this relationship with God, by faith alone in Jesus alone. And that is, my friends, why they must abandon; they must forsake, leave behind the old and go on to the perfect—to Jesus—and hold fast to him.

What a profound text we're considering together, my friends, and so fascinating to take our Gentile minds and attempt to shift into a Jewish context and thinking, to see the flawless argument of the Holy Spirit, to warn and exhort these Hebrews to go on to perfection in Jesus Christ. 

Let's close in prayer. Father, we're so thankful that you're patient with us, that you continue to teach us. We just struggle to wrap our minds around these great truths. I just pray that you would guide us, Lord, and help us to understand and to ever increase in our knowledge of Jesus—how great he is, how complete a sacrifice, how sufficient a Savior—not just to justify us, to bring us into a right relationship with you, but to sanctify and glorify us as well, and to bring us to heaven to spend eternity with you. Thank you, Father. All we can say is thank you in light of your grace and mercy. In Jesus' name, we pray.