HEBREWS 5:11-6:12 - Dullness, Deconstruction and Diligent Delight

Bethel Baptist Church

Christ And His Rivals • Sermon • Submitted 3 months ago • Presented 3 months ago • 43:08

Hebrews 5:11–6:12

Perseverance of the Saints

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Introduction

It seems like you can’t open a pop culture website or entertainment TV program or social media feed these days without hearing news of another high-profile Evangelical Christian that is announcing their “deconstruction” from the Christian faith. The phenomenon of “deconstruction”, as it applies to Christianity, is meant to describe “the process of systematically dissecting and often rejecting the beliefs you grew up with” (Alisa Childers), very often leading the “deconstructor” to “deconvert”—to stop identifying themselves as a Christian. (Many go on to call themselves “ex-vangelicals”). Notable examples of “exvangelicals” who have “deconstructed” include former pastor and author Josh Harris, Youtube stars Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal, Pastor John Piper’s son Abraham, Desiring God staff writer Paul Maxwell, dc Talk band member Kevin Max, and Hillsong songwriter Marty Sampson. (Josh Harris even created a “Deconstruction Starter Pack” that he will sell you for $275!) - https://www.newsweek.com/josh-harris-launches-course-deconstructing-faith-some-theologians-question-his-motives-1619263

And evidence exists to suggest that this trend is still growing--As of February 2022, there were 293,026 posts on Instagram using the hashtag #deconstruction. In January 2024, this number is higher than 420,000 posts. (Wikipedia). So what are we to make of this trend? The world around us looks at this growing number of “exvangelicals” as clear and convincing proof that Christianity is dying; that the hopelessly bigoted and ignorant beliefs of Christians simply cannot stand in the light of the scrutiny of modern science and reason, and that Christians will need to radically change their beliefs if they want to have any kind of relevance in the world we live in.

But all of the bluster and hype over high-profile Christians “deconstructing” their faith is very much like the scene at the climax of The Wizard of Oz, when Toto pulls the curtain away from Professor Marvel as he feverishly works the levers and cranks to make the Great and Powerful Oz spew fire and smoke. Because when it comes right down to it, the big bad monster of “deconstruction” is not some great unstoppable force that will mysteriously tear a person away from their faith. (In fact, the very term “deconstruction” was co-opted from the French philosopher Jaques (DAIRY-dah) to make it sound more sophisticated and intellectual.) The Biblical term for it is much simpler: apostasy. Our text this morning calls it “falling away”. And what the Scripture tells us this morning is that “falling away”, “apostasy”, “deconstruction” is not the result of careful, critical thinking or commitment to reasoning or intellectual rigor. It is just the opposite. Apostasy is not the result of thinking too hard about the Christian faith—it is the result of thinking far too little. Apostasy is the fruit of long-term, unchallenged intellectual and spiritual laziness.

This is why the author of Hebrews spends so much time in this letter exhorting his readers to pay attention to their faith, to hold fast to Christ, to not drift away from what they have been taught. If we want to understand the avalanche of “exvangelicals” walking away from following Christ today, all too often (not always, but very frequently) we have to look back to churches and ministries and preachers that walked away from faithfully preaching Christ twenty or thirty years ago. They created “Christians” who never truly engaged with the truth of the Scriptures because they were never presented with it, who were never given a real foundation for the faith they professed, who were fed the froth and bubble of “Christian-ish” emotionalism and self-esteem instead of the revealed glories of the crucified and risen Christ. A heart that has never been taught to treasure Christ and the salvation He purchased by His blood is a heart that is vulnerable to the false intellectualism of “deconstruction” from the faith. But what the author of Hebrews exhorts us here in our text this morning—what I want you to see here in these verses—is that

A heart of DILIGENT DELIGHT in Christ will not quickly FALL AWAY from Him

Notice the attitude of his readers that the author identifies in the first verse of our text:

Hebrews 5:11 (LSB)

Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.

He has been writing (as we saw last week) about the superior priesthood of Christ compared with the priesthood of Aaron—and he interrupts himself in the middle of his teaching to warn his readers that they are becoming “dull of hearing”. Starting here and going through Hebrews 6:3, we are able to discern

I. The sorry ROOTS of apostasy (Hebrews 5:11-6:3)

Look at Hebrews 5:11-14:

Hebrews 5:11–14 (LSB)

Concerning him 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 both good and evil.

This is the first warning sign of apostasy described later in this passage--

A mind BORED with Biblical TEACHING (5:11-14)

This is what our author means when he warns that they have become “dull of hearing”—the idea is that they have become sluggish, lazy, uninterested. They have stopped paying attention to what is being taught; they don’t want to think anymore.

It is instructive to note that our writer says that “by this time, you ought to be teaching this material; instead, you need to go back to kindergarten!”

Hebrews 5:12 (LSB)

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.

He is warning here that this is a condition that can actually develop in your hearing--you can go from being a careful and diligent hearer to a dull and lazy hearer: “you have come to need milk...” You used to eat solid food, but are regressing back to baby food.

This is something that we can easily see in the broad pattern of teaching and preaching in the Evangelical Church over the past 40 years or so—it’s even reflected in the music that is sung in worship. A generation ago everyone knew the hymn that we sang earlier in our worship: “Crown Him the Son of God / before the worlds began / And ye who tread where He hath trod / crown Him the Son of Man / who every grief hath known / that wrings the human breast / and takes and bears Him for His own that all in Him may rest.”

Compare the theological and doctrinal richness of that hymn—the deity of Christ, His eternal existence, His incarnation and flesh-and-blood identification with fallen humanity, His obedient suffering on the Cross, the Sabbath rest He offers to all who come to Him in repentant faith—compare all of that in one verse of that hymn with the chorus of a currently popular worship song “Goodness of God”:

Your goodness is running, it's running after me / Your goodness is running, it's running after me / With my life laid down, I'm surrendered now, / I give You everything / Your goodness is running, it keeps running after me.

Now, before you say, “Well, that’s just a matter of musical taste...”—consider that the question of “taste” is exactly what the writer of Hebrews is getting at. He is saying, “You have a taste for milk, when you should have a taste for meat!” Of course it’s gloriously true that God’s goodness will follow His children all the days of their life, and that we are to surrender to Him—but you cannot deny that one of those songs does far more to nourish you in the excellencies of Christ.

The fact is that so many modern worship songs were written that way (and far too many sermons are written that way today) precisely because the people hearing and singing them are too easily bored with Biblical teaching. There are far too many Christians today who come to the banqueting table of corporate worship and turn away the filet mignon and ask for a bowl of Rice Krispies instead… And far too many teachers and preachers indulge that immaturity, because they want growth and numbers and visibility. As one preacher put it, “Far too many pastors are building their ministries on the bones of unconverted church members” (Paul Washer). If Rice Krispies is all they want, then that’s all they give them--and they starve them.

Because—look in verse 14 again—a mind bored by biblical teaching; that won’t sit still to diligently learn and grow and develop its understanding of the faith is a mind that finds itself at the mercy of evil masquerading as good:

Hebrews 5:14 (LSB)

But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern both good and evil.

This is one of the main roots of “deconstruction” of so many Evangelicals today—they cannot discern good from evil—right from wrong—because they were never fed anything but baby food. All they had been fed was the Rice Krispies of “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so”. Which is gloriously true--but if that is all you have ever learned, then when someone comes along and twists the word “love” to mean that you must affirm sexual abominations, or that science has disproved the Bible’s account of creation, so “What else is it wrong about??”—then you have no defense against those attacks.

The sorry roots of apostasy are seen in a mind that is bored with Biblical teaching, and it is seen in

A life not FOUNDED on Biblical TRUTH (6:1-3)

Look at verses 1-3 of Chapter 6:

Hebrews 6:1–3 (LSB)

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 teaching 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, it’s important to keep straight here that the author is not saying to “leave the elementary teaching about Christ” behind—the next phrase makes that clear: these “elementary principles of Christ” are meant to be the foundation of our maturity in Christ. We are not to abandon repentance and faith or walk away from biblical truth about baptism (“washings”) or holiness (“laying on of hands”) or of our hope in the resurrection and of our eternal reward. These things are meant to be the foundation—but they are meant to be the bedrock on which we build our maturity in Christ; they are the assurances of our salvation that then support our growth and development as believers. This is why the author says “This we will do, if God permits”—God willing he will continue to help them to press on to maturity in Christ. He is telling them, “Yes—you have a good foundation here; now build on it!”

A good solid foundation will not do you any good if you do not build on it. And while there are so many “exvangelicals” who walked away from the faith because they were never fed anything but baby food, there are also many who really were given all of the foundational glories of faith in Christ—they were faithfully taught about repentance and faith and the hope of eternal life in Christ, they sat under faithful teachers and pastors and parents who diligently equipped them with the bricks and mortar and tools they needed to pour a good footer and lay the blocks and put in the French drains—but they wound up building their house in the dirt next to it. As we read earlier in our worship together:

Matthew 7:26–27 (LSB)

“And everyone hearing these words of Mine and not doing them, may be compared to a foolish man who built his house on the sand. “And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”

So many church people believe that they have all the spiritual maturity in Christ they need because they walked down an aisle and prayed a sinner’s prayer; that they got baptized when they were thirteen, that they believe in life after death and that they will go to Heaven when they die. All of these things—repentance and faith, baptism, hope of eternal life in heaven—they are all part of the elementary building blocks of faith in Christ—but if all they are is “Christian sentences” all arranged just so in your head and they have never worked their way down into your heart to become the very bedrock of who you are in Christ and govern your life in every way—then the day may very well come when the floods of doubt and winds of uncertainty will slam against your house, and your falling away will be great.

Beloved, guard against the sorry roots of apostasy by cultivating a heart of diligent delight in Christ and His work. The writer of Hebrews goes on in the next four verses to warn his readers of the bitter harvest that comes from those sorry roots—in Hebrews 6:4-8 we find

II. The sad REVEALING of apostasy (Hebrews 6:4-8)

Look with me at verses 4-6 of our text:

Hebrews 6:4–6 (LSB)

For in the case of those once having been enlightened and having tasted of the heavenly gift and having become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and having tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and 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.

The sorry roots of dullness and laziness in hearing and of never building a life on the sure foundation of the Gospel bears the bitter fruit of apostasy—the apostate

REJECTS his RELATIONSHIP with God (vv. 4-6)

The imagery here, and the way that the author describes this falling away is shocking to us because it describes someone who has had an intimate relationship with God. They have been “enlightened”—they have learned real truth from God’s Word and His people. They have “tasted” the heavenly gift—they have “tasted and seen that God is good” (Psalm 34:8). In some way, they have even participated in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit! And yet—after being given all of that—after having a front row seat for the blessings and promises of God for eternal salvation—they respond with “No thank you!”

They know what they are rejecting. They have seen everything that God does for His children; they have experienced a degree of it themselves--they know all about Christianity and the promises of God, and still reject it. The author of Hebrews says that there is no coming back from that: “…having fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance...” (v. 6). There is nothing new they can learn about the promises of God in the Gospel that can turn their hearts back. They have said in their hearts, “Christ is not a Savior; He is not God; He is not King; He is nothing to me. Let him die on that Cross where He belongs...”

The apostate knows what he is rejecting when he falls away from Christ. He rejects his relationship with God, and verses 7-8 go on to say that the apostate

SQUANDERS his BLESSINGS from God (vv. 7-8)

Hebrews 6:7–8 (LSB)

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 unfit and close to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

The author of Hebrews is clearly borrowing here from the Old Testament prophet’s warning to Israel in Isaiah 5, where he uses the same imagery of a well-watered vineyard that produces nothing but thorns and briars instead of good fruit:

Isaiah 5:7 (LSB)

For the vineyard of Yahweh of hosts is the house of Israel And the men of Judah His delightful plant. Thus He hoped for justice, but behold, bloodshed; For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.

The warning here is clear to the readers of Hebrews—do not squander the blessings of YHWH that have rained down on you by responding with the thorns and thistles of rejection and unbelief. It is a terrible thing to sit under the faithful outpouring of God’s blessings in the midst of His covenant people, and to throw it all away by producing the worthless crop of apathy, unbelief and rebellion.

These verses are often cited as evidence that it is possible for a genuine Christian to lose his salvation; that saying that someone who is a “partaker of the Holy Spirit” indicates that regeneration has actually taken place and the individual in view in these verses has been truly born again, and yet falls away.

But the consistent witness of Scripture says clearly that a genuine Christian cannot fall away. We read this over and over again in the New Testament. Jesus says in John 10--

John 10:27–29 (LSB)

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish—ever; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

The Apostle Paul declares in Romans 8--

Romans 8:35; 38-39 (LSB)

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction, or turmoil, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?… For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And Philippians 1:6

Philippians 1:6 (LSB)

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

And the Apostle Peter declares in his first epistle that believers have been “born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

1 Peter 1:4–5 (LSB)

to obtain an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, having been kept in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In short—salvation is not yours to lose, Christian—your salvation is not like a set of car keys you can misplace somewhere: Your salvation is being kept in the hand of God Himself.

And so if Hebrews 6 is not describing a regenerated person losing their salvation, what is going on here? How can someone who has been a “partaker of the Holy Spirit” still be lost? I think the best example in the Scriptures we have is of one of the Apostles themselves—Judas Iscariot. He was an intimate friend of Christ (Jesus offered him bread on the night he betrayed Him); he was granted the power of the Holy Spirit to cast out demons and heal sickness and preach with Apostolic authority (Mark 3; Matthew 10). He spent three years living and working and eating and laughing with the Incarnate Son of God, being enlightened and tasting the heavenly gift and partaking of the Holy Spirit—and in the end selling Jesus out for a bag of silver.

Judas threw it all away; he sat under all Christ’s teaching with dullness of mind; he was given everything he needed for a foundation of faith but built on sand instead. He heard the word of truth, the Good News of salvation in Christ, but never believed. He may have partaken of some of the benefits of the Holy Spirit, but was never sealed by the Holy Spirit for salvation. He rejected his relationship with Christ and squandered the blessings he had received from God, died in his unbelief, and was damned to eternal torment in Hell.

The apostasy of “deconstruction” is born of laziness regarding spiritual things and squandering the good foundation of the Gospel in order to build your life on the shifting sands of this world’s friendship. But the writer of Hebrews does not leave this dark topic without setting forth a great and comforting hope—and so neither should this sermon! Because in verses 9-12 he offers his readers (and us)

III. A sure REASSURANCE against apostasy (Hebrews 6:9-12)

Hebrews 6:9 (LSB)

But we are convinced about you, beloved, of things that are better and that belong to salvation, though we are speaking in this way.

The writer of Hebrews doesn’t see apostasy in his readers—what he sees gives him confidence that they belong to Christ by faith. He doesn’t see deconstruction in their lives; he sees their diligent delight in Christ! He has laid out the warning signs of deconstruction in the previous verses; now he reassures his readers that they belong to Christ, that they will not be lost; they will not fall away. The first proof that he offers in verse 10 is that they possess

A love for CHRIST that drives a love for CHRISTIANS (v. 10; cp. Hebrews 10:32-33)

Hebrews 6:10 (LSB)

For God is not unrighteous so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and continuing to minister to the saints.

Notice where this love for the saints originates—God remembers the work and love which they have shown for His Name—their delight and love and rejoicing in Him as their Savior is what animates and empowers and drives their love for those that are called by His Name. Incipient apostasy very often manifests itself in an attitude that says “I don’t need other Christians in order to be a believer; in fact, other Christians get on my nerves...” But genuine faith is seen in a love for Christ that means loving everyone who bears the Name of Christ! You delight to worship together; you delight to serve one another; you delight to lay down your life for one another. The author will go on in Chapter 10 to point to how these believers willingly allowed their own homes to be plundered by the Romans because they were willing to identify with Christians who had been thrown into prison (Heb 10:32-35), writing that such behavior was a source of great confidence for them that they were truly regenerate; truly born again. Your reassurance against apostasy, beloved, is found in the fact that your love for Christ drives your love for Christians.

And in verses 11-12 we find the second great assurance that we have against the threat of apostasy:

A diligence to IMITATE the example of the FAITHFUL (vv. 11-12; cp. Hebrews 11)

Hebrews 6:11–12 (LSB)

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 may not become dull, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

You have reassurance of the genuineness of your faith, Christian, when you find yourself delighting in the faithfulness of those who have gone before you. When you look to the examples of the saints that have led the way—their faith, their patience, their godliness—and you say, “When I grow up, I want to be just like him!” A few pages along from our text, in Hebrews 11, we find the famous “Hall of Fame of Faith”, where the writer uses all of his considerable talent with words to paint a gloriously compelling portrait of the giants of faithful diligence throughout the Scriptures, and concludes with the exhortation in Hebrews 12:1:

Hebrews 12:1 (LSB)

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, laying aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

Don’t give up; don’t abandon the race; don’t be turned aside from pursuing that kind of patient faithfulness in your life. Seek out godly mentors who will disciple you, find a brother or sister in Christ that you can look up to and imitate; commit yourself to reading biographies of faithful Christians who have gone before you in decades or centuries past. Not to idolize or put on some kind of pedestal, not for some kind of weird Christian hero-worship—look at the way they battled sin and the way they sought repentance right along with the way they modeled faithful endurance. Incipient apostasy will never find a Christian “good enough” to emulate; incipient apostasy is always tinged with the pride that says “Nobody has Christianity figured out as well as I do...”

But a heart that is diligent to find that same full assurance of the hope that those believers had; the soul that drinks in the rain of God’s blessings out of a holy desire to bear good fruit for His glory; the mind that is always seeking greater maturity in faith, building on the foundation stones of the Gospel of grace; an intellect that isn’t bored by the things of God but delights in the learning that affords a clearer vision of its blessed Savior—these things are your great confidence, Christian!

A heart of diligent delight in Christ will not quickly fall away from Him. The writer of Hebrews has filled these verses with solemn warnings of the very real danger of apostasy—it really is possible to live as a good, upstanding church member who enjoys blessings of living in the midst of God’s New Covenant people and not belong to that people at all. Have these words from Hebrews 6 beset you with anxiety this morning? Have these solemn warnings of inspired Scripture made you tremble for your own soul because you see in them the patterns and roots that will lead to shipwreck of the faith you profess but do not possess? Then your course of action is plain this morning: Look to Jesus Christ. Do you doubt that you are saved? Then take the advice Martin Luther offered to those who doubted they belonged to the elect: “Then say your prayers, man, and you may conclude that you are!” Come and talk to me after the service; pull one of the elders aside so that we might be able to encourage you in your repentance and show you from the Scriptures that you really can have the full assurance of hope to inherit the promise of eternal life when you come—and welcome!—to Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION:

1 Timothy 1:17 (LSB)

Now to the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

FOR FURTHER REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

Write down something you learned from this morning’s message that is new to you, or an insight that you had for the first time about the text? Write down a question that you have about the passage that you want to study further or ask for help with: Write down something that you need to do in your life this week in response to what God has shown you from His Word today:

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