Dullness of Hearing

Temple Baptist Church - 2-20-2019

Hebrews 5:11-14

Introduction:

A.  Tonight, we come to the third of five Warning Section of Hebrews.  We have seen:

1.  The Danger of Drifting – 2:1-4 

2.  The Danger of Doubting – 3:7-13

3.  The Danger of Dullness of Hearing – 5:11-14 

B.  God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason.  I fear that we all use our mouth more than our ears at times.

C.  There is an old saying, “You hear but you don’t listen.”  Unfortunately, we find this principle throughout the Bible.  I will just give a few examples.

1.  Speaking of Israel - Zechariah 7:11  But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.

2.  Speaking of God haters - Acts 7:57  Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,

3.  Speaking of mankind in general - Matthew 11:15  He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

4.  Speaking of those who hear the gospel - Romans 10:17  So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

5.  Speaking of those who do not want salvation - Acts 28:26-27  Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive:  (27)  For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

D.  Tonight, we will look at the latter of these groups: saved people who, for whatever reason, do not want to hear the Word of God.

E.  These are believers who “cherry pick” what they want to hear instead of hearing “all the counsel of God” that Paul spoke of.

1.  Verse 11.  Dullness of hearing tends to silence the pulpit.  The Bible has much to say, so much to hear, so much to learn. 

a.  It is hard for a preacher to preach when he knows that there are some who will not receive it.  I call it “when the icicles start coming down the walls.”

b.  Preachers are like anyone else, they want what they have to say to be received.  So many pulpits across America have been silenced by dull hearers.

2.  Verse 12.  Dullness of hearing causes stunted spiritual growth.

a.  The spiritual growth of the child of God should be a steady growth.  As we check the height and weight of our children to make sure that the are growing properly, so should we check ourselves.

b.  Churches become spiritual daycare centers instead of spiritual outreach centers.

3.  Verse 12.  Dullness of hearing causes a serious lack of church workers. 

a.  A healthy church needs each member to carry his or her weight in the work.  There was once the 80/20 rule.  Twenty percent of the people did the work of the church.  I am sure that rule still holds true unless the twenty percent has dropped.

b.  There is a serious lack of spiritually qualified teachers in churches.  Notice that I did not say a lack of teachers, just qualified ones.  People who have a good handle on the Word of God and can relay its message to others.

4.  Verse 12.  Dullness of hearing causes the preachers to feed with more milk than meat. 

a.  There needs to be a biblical mixture of both milk—the first principles of the oracles of God—and meat—going on to perfection or spiritual maturity.

b.  The word “again” means again and again.  Most spiritual children who are not growing properly are so because they do not want to grow up.  Spiritual “Peter Pans.”

5.  Verse 13.  Dullness of hearing creates an adverse atmosphere for the church.

a.  These believers “use” milk, not drink milk.  They want the preaching to be light and shallow spiritually because they are satisfied to remain babes in Christ.

b.  This is one of the greatest reasons for people to bounce from one church to another.  They are “Buffet Believers” who pick and choose what they enjoy hearing.  Messages geared to salvation instead of sanctification.

6.  Verse 14.  Dullness of hearing cause a lack of discernment.

a.  Mature believers enjoy drinking a little milk every now and then but also love to be fed a “STEAK DINNER” also.  The word “belongeth” shows us that meat is not only important but wanted.

b.  Mature believers have their senses exercises to discern both good and evil.

c.  Weaker believers who use milk and do not desire strong meat, continue to live more in the realm of worldliness than godliness.

Conclusion:  These verses lead into the so-called controversial portion of scripture in chapter 6, which we will look at next week.  Desire meat and gratefully drink the milk and our spiritually perception will be right.