Sermon Tone Analysis

Hebrews 5:11-6:3

Elementary Principles

 

About this 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 need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God.

You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.

But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgement.

And this we will do if God permits.[1]

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irst Baptist Church of Dawson Creek drafted and adopted a statement of foundational Christian truths to guide members in matters of faith and practise.

Foundational truth is, well, foundational.

This is truth that underpins all that we teach and believe, but it is foundational and not comprehensive.

Though the foundations are necessary, they are nevertheless foundations that permit us to go on to more and to ever-greater truths.

Each Christian is to be advancing in the Faith, building on the Foundations of the Faith.

All teaching has some sort of foundation.

The instruction we receive will be either true or false.

Errant instruction will ensure eventual ruin and disaster.

Truthful teaching will permit us to grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, thus ensuring that we become ever more pleasing in the sight of our God.

Teaching truth is a primary responsibility of the church.

Elders are required to be able to teach [*1 Timothy 3:2*], to be able to give instruction in sound doctrine [*Titus 1:9*].

However, the responsibility to teach elementary doctrine extends to each confessing Christian.

What is trumpeted from the pulpit is to be echoed through the words and through the lives of each member of the congregation.

The whole of the labours of the church as the collective Body of Christ may be described by the requirement to teach.

Christians are to be lifelong learners; and they are to be lifelong teachers.

Someone is watching the way you live your life, and the impact of your life is either adorning the doctrine of God our Saviour [see *Titus 2:10*], or it is disgracing His Name.

Either people are being challenged to consider Christ as Lord through the way you live, or they are being confirmed in their rejection of the Faith because of your life.

Each of us, through the life we live and through our daily activity, are likely to be the only Bible that most people ever read.

The unknown author of the book we have received as the *Letter to the Hebrews* registered frustration at the lack of maturity displayed among the people to whom he wrote.

I have frequently commented that it does not matter how long you have been on the journey, but it does matter how far you have come.

The expectation that an elder is to be able to teach [*1 Timothy 3:2*] is a mark of maturity incumbent upon each Christian.

Drink Your Milk — You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.

But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

The goal of Christ’s Spirit for His people is their growth.

Peter concludes his second missive with the admonition for believers to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ [*2 Peter 3:18*].

It is indisputable that in order for a child to grow, that child must have sufficient rest, adequate exercise, nurture and protection, and especially does the child require proper nutrition.

This is the reason Peter urges us, like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation [*1 Peter 2:2, 3*].

The Shepherd’s Psalm may be viewed as a primer on pastoral responsibility.

Though the Psalm is a study of Christ’s role as the Great Shepherd over the flock, the model for each undershepherd is the Great Shepherd.

The Psalm states that the flock is refreshed through rest.

The Lord makes His flock lie down in green pastures [*Psalm 23:2*].

He restores the soul of His people [*Psalm 23:3**a*].

He moves the flock to pasturage for their benefit, leading the flock in paths of righteousness [*Psalm** 23:3b*.

He nurtures His flock, anointing each head with oil [*Psalm 23:5*].

He protects His people, His rod and staff comforts the flock [*Psalm 23:4*].

The flock lies down in green pastures and walks beside still waters, not simply in order to rest, but also to enjoy the rich fare found in the green pastures.

No shepherd, and certainly not the Great Shepherd, labours with the flock without expectation of growth.

The flock of God, and each individual member of that flock, is expected to grow.

Especially is each member expected to grow in grace and knowledge of Christ the Lord.

What is not readily seen in many of our translations is that the concern expressed in our text is not an issue of stunted growth, but it is an instance of regression.

One translation pointedly states, you have gone back to needing milk, not solid food [*verse 12*].[2]

That is a literal representation of the Greek underlying the translation.

A baby does not become dependent upon milk; a baby is born with the need for milk.

The only person who would */become/* dependent upon milk is one who is regressing.

The author is addressing people who are regressing into spiritual infancy!

Through neglect and through deliberate hardening of their hearts, they had arrived at a place where they were only capable of handling milk.

Strong food would ensure spiritual dyspepsia.

Whatever brought the writer to this point of frustration?

What teaching was so difficult to understand that he became exasperated with the people of God?

He was trying to teach the doctrine that presents Jesus as our great High Priest [*Hebrews 5:1-10*].

The Priesthood of Christ is far more than mere ceremony, entailing His intercession on our behalf, the presentation of His perfect sacrifice for us despite our helpless condition, and communicating the mind of the Father to our hearts.

The Priesthood of Christ the Lord lies at the heart of His position as God’s Messiah.

When the writer says his readers have become dull of hearing [*verse 11*], the term actually means that they had grown lazy.

They simply gave up the hard work of training themselves.

Laziness led to ignorance.

They surrendered reading the Word and they no longer meditated in the Word and they ceased praying.

Laziness has consequences!

It is not a pastor’s responsibility to make people learn.

It is the pastor’s responsibility to carefully study the Word, discovering what God meant in a given portion of the Word, and then make the appropriate application.

It is the responsibility of his listeners to actually put into practise what is taught.

It is the responsibility of each Christian to constantly study the Word so that they will continue to grow.

If you are not studying the Word, it is impossible for you to be progressing in the Word.

If you are not studying the Word of God—discovering the will of God and applying what you learn in your life—you are regressing.

There is no possibility of standing still in the Christian life.

When you cease strenuous study of the Word of God, instead of being spiritually mature you will become spiritually infantile.

You will become a pupil when you should be a teacher.

You will become a Christian in need of help when you should be a help to others.

Tragically, Christendom is full of regressed Christians—Christians who were once growing in the Faith and excited in the warm glow of newfound faith, but who have now become dull of hearing—sluggish and lazy—as they eschew the hard work of study and following after the Lord Christ.

This condition of spiritual infantilism is more common than we would like to believe.

Paul said something similar to the Corinthian Christians in *1 Corinthians 3:2, 3*.

I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it.

And *even now* you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh.

For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?  *Even now*—despite time and anticipated growth in Christ—the Corinthians had attitudes that should not be found among Christians.

Let me remind you of what it means to be fleshly, to be worldly, to be ungodly.

Jealousy or strife reveals a spirit identified as worldly.

Jealousy is from the Greek term *zêlos*, from which we get our English word “zeal.”

However, when used as it is here, it speaks of envy.

Strife translates a Greek term that spoke of discord or quarrelling.

Paul teaches, the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions (irreverence, a lack of self-control, spiritual rootlessness, preoccupation with self-love, a changeable nature, gossiping, addiction to alcohol or drugs—all marks of the worldly life [*Titus 2:1-10*]), and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works [*Titus 2:11-14*].

In the Galatian letter, Paul identifies other works of the flesh.

The life that is characterised by these works, or even by some of these works, is a life that is fleshly.

The works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these [*Galatians 5:19-21*].

The tragedy of this list is that the infantile Christian slips back into just such actions, and even seeks to involve others in participating in such actions, thus justifying his or her own rebellion against grace through fleshly practises.

Spiritual ignorance results in carelessness.

People who have not mastered the ABCs of the Christian life (basic principles) cannot hope to enrich the lives of others.

Their own lives are too insecure to communicate confidence and assurance to those requiring those precious commodities.

What is far worse is that such people are actually a detriment to outsiders who are seeking the truth.

Those needing help are denied the help they might otherwise receive, all because of infantile Christianity.

Believers are to be skilled in the word of righteousness [*verse 13*].

Moreover, they are to have their powers of discernment trained by constant practise to distinguish good from evil [*verse 14*].

The word of righteousness has been variously interpreted as “‘right speech,’ ‘moral teaching,’ ‘general teachings of Christianity,’ or ‘the theological instructions on Christ as the believer’s righteousness.’”