Stop Reading Your Bible

…being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. About this we have much to say, and

it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. (Hebrews 5:10-11 ESV)

“dull”- sluggish, W.E. Vine’s Dict. Of N.T. Words

Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what

lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize

of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way,

and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.

(Philippians 3:13-15 ESV)

How shall we help this, i.e., being dull of hearing?

STOP READING THE BIBLEFOR YOURSELF ALONE

God has a goal, and a time limit…

…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,

(Hebrews 5:11-12 ESV)

God’s goal is the ability to speak truth

(equipping, building, and maturing) …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. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way

into him who is the head, into Christ, (Ephesians 4:14-15 ESV)

for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living

waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no

water. (Jeremiah 2:13 ESV)

Jer. 2:13- God is a spring of living water

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a

drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” (John

4:10 ESV)

Jer. 2:13- God is a spring of living water

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let

him come to me and drink. (John 7:37 ESV)

Jn. 4:10; 7:37- Jesus is a spring of living waterJer. 2:13- God is a spring of living water

Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living

water.’” (John 7:38 ESV)

Jn. 7:38- God’s people should be springs alsoJn. 4:10; 7:37- Jesus is a spring of living waterJer. 2:13- God is a spring of living water

…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, (Hebrews 5:11-12 ESV)

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

judgment. (Hebrews 6:1-2 ESV)

“To whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message? Those

who are weaned from the milk, those taken from the breast? For it is precept upon

precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.”

(Isaiah 28:9-10 ESV)

Babes need orders, precepts, read line after line

…to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature

manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, (Ephesians 4:12-13 ESV)

Bible classes “equip” one the same way that a batting cage equips a ball player

But why should we move on?

• There is danger in falling away

And this we will do if God permits. For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been

enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the

goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying

once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. (Hebrews 6:3-6 ESV)

But why should we move on?

• There is danger in falling away• Danger in that it’s impossible to renew

For it is impossible…to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once

again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.

(Hebrews 6:6 ESV)

But why should we move on?

• There is danger in falling away• Danger in that it’s impossible to renew• Danger in being found worthless to God

For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it

is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to

being cursed, and its end is to be burned. Heb. 6:7-8

But why should we move on?

• There is danger in falling away• Danger in that it’s impossible to renew• Danger in being found worthless to God• Danger in losing hope

Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things

that belong to salvation. (Hebrews 6:9 ESV)