The following is a sermon transcript from our Sunday Service at The Rock Church in Mount Laurel, New Jersey. Each week, we gather to worship, learn from God’s Word, and grow together. This transcript is provided as a free resource to encourage and equip you in your walk with Christ. While you’re welcome to read and share this content for personal use, we kindly ask that it not be redistributed or published elsewhere without prior written consent from The Rock Church.
Introduction
Now, let’s open God’s Word together. Imagine someone whose diet is almost entirely junk food, fast food. It’s Dunkin’ Donuts for breakfast. Got to get that Coolotta. McDonald’s for lunch. Five Guys for dinner. Love me some Five Guys. Five Guys. No vegetables, no fruit, no exercise, no concern for sleep or health. And then one day they say, I don’t understand why I feel so weak. Why don’t I have any energy? Why am I so unhealthy? You’d probably smile and think, well, look at what you’ve been feeding your body. You’re living on junk food. You’re neglecting the habits that produce strength. Bad health doesn’t happen overnight. It’s the result of poor habits. It slowly declines through daily neglect.
The author of Hebrews says the same thing can happen to our souls. These Jewish believers, they weren’t openly rejecting Christ, but under the pressure of persecution. They were becoming spiritually sluggish and increasingly tempted to return to what was familiar and to what was comfortable. Something had happened. They had become, as verse 11 says, dull of hearing. Their ears had grown dull. Their hearts had grown cold. They could still hear the words, but they were no longer truly listening to Christ. And it’s not because Christ had failed them, but because they had stopped growing through the ordinary means that God had appointed.
And that raises an important question that I think every one of us needs to answer, especially if you’re a believer. How do Christians actually grow? How do they grow in the faith? Many people assume that spiritual maturity comes by trying harder. Simply learning more or discovering some deeper spiritual secret. Hebrews gives a very different answer.
But before we answer that question, don’t miss what’s happening in this book. The author has just spent the last several verses showing us the glory of Jesus Christ as our perfectly qualified high priest. And he’s about to say even more. In fact, verse 11 begins, “…about this I have much to say.” In other words, the problem isn’t that the author has run out of things, truth, to teach. The problem is that they continually become slow to hear. They weren’t ready to feast on more of Christ. Because their hearts had grown dull toward him. And that’s really the tragedy of it. Because the deeper mysteries, the deeper things of Hebrews aren’t the hidden mysteries. They’re the deeper glories of Christ.
Spiritual maturity is not measured by how much you know apart from Christ. But by how deeply you know Christ himself, how much you treasure him, how you’ve seen him working.
And here’s the lesson for us, if you’re taking note. The big idea. We grow in grace by continually knowing Christ more deeply and trusting him more fully. And here’s how the author answers that question.
Dull hearts stop listening to Christ. Certainly the warning. Another warning.
Immature hearts look inward instead of upward.
And lastly, mature hearts continually feed on Christ.
Point 1: Dull Hearts Stop Listening to Christ
Hebrews 5:11
So let’s unpack this together, the problem for these believers and really what that means for us today. Read with me verse 11 as we see and learn about dull hearts that stop listening to Christ. It’s Hebrews chapter 5 and verse 11. We read together
about this. We have much to say. And it’s hard to explain why. Since you have become dull of hearing
about this, about Melchizedek, about the greater priesthood of Jesus Christ, about all the wonderful ways that Melchizedek points us to Jesus. But there’s a problem. What’s that? It’s not a problem with their intellect. It’s not a problem with their knowledge. It’s a problem with their heart. It’s that same issue that all of us as believers face at one point or another. And the author is not saying it’s too hard for him to explain. No, it’s too hard for the people to hear what he’s about to say about this Melchizedek.
But what happened to them? How did they start out their Christian faith with great fervor and zeal only to now be, as the writer calls it, dull of hearing or sluggish in spirit? In other words, how have you replaced Christ’s voice with other voices? You remember when you first became a Christian. You couldn’t wait to go to church, to read your Bible, to pray, to serve. It was like you couldn’t get enough, feeding on Christ more and more. But what happens over time? We start listening to other voices. You know, the constant entertainment, the social media, the podcast, the politics. The list is endless. And all these things aren’t bad in and of themselves. We want to listen to what’s going on in the world. Certainly fine.
So why does this dullness begin? Not merely because other voices are loud, but because they slowly become more believable than Christ’s voice. Jesus says, I am enough. The world says, you need more. Jesus says, “Draw near,” and the world says, “Stay busy.” Jesus says, “Seek first my kingdom.” The world says, “Man, there’s no time to do that, to be bothered by things of heaven.” You see, that’s the battle. Hebrews isn’t simply warning against noise. It’s warning against competing voices. The battle is taking place in our hearts every day. Every believer knows it. It even happens in churches, wandering off into political action committees or culture wars, entering into battles that are fine for the world, but not for the church.
And here’s what it looks like for each of us. One willingly neglected Lord’s Day, one prayerless week, another distracted heart and compromise after another. You could be hearing every word that I’m saying this morning and not be listening to the words of Christ from his word. The cares of the world become so overwhelming that they crowd out the riches of Christ’s heart for you. Until his voice becomes a little more than background noise.
Thomas Watson wisely observed, ‘’Til sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet.’’ When the world tastes sweeter than Christ, our hearts have already become wandering and drifting. Maybe suffering has crushed you. Maybe unanswered prayer discouraged you. Maybe disappointment with other Christians has left you cynical. Or maybe life has just become too busy. Whatever the cause, your heart slowly stopped listening to Christ. And the frightening part is that you often don’t realize it until your love for Christ has already grown cold. This is why Hebrews repeatedly warns against drifting, neglecting worship, and falling away. And it calls the church… To faithfully shepherd one another.
You ever worked with your hands for several weeks? Eventually a callus forms. At first the skin is tender, every scrape hurts, but over time, repeated friction makes it less thick and less sensitive. The skin isn’t dead. It just doesn’t feel like what it once did. And the same thing can happen to our hearts. We hear God’s word week after week. We sing the same gospel. We confess the same sins. But if we stop responding in faith and obedience, our hearts develop spiritual calluses. We still hear the sermon, but it no longer pierces us. We know the truth, but it no longer stirs our hearts. And that’s what Hebrews means by becoming dull of hearing. A dull heart eventually becomes a hard heart. And that’s why the warnings in Hebrews, they really become increasingly serious as the book unfolds.
Listen carefully. If we stop listening to Christ through His Word, we will stop treasuring Christ. Nobody wakes up one morning and decides, well, it sounds like a good day to just drift from the Lord. It happens one competing voice at a time. And when our hearts stop listening to Christ, they don’t remain neutral. They begin looking somewhere else for life, hope, and confidence.
Point 2: Immature Hearts Look Inward Instead of Upward
Hebrews 5:12–13
That’s exactly what the author exposes next as we consider together that immature hearts look inward instead of upwards.
So let’s look again. Let’s read verses 12 to 13.
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.
These are not new believers. They’ve been walking with the Lord for some time, and the author’s not saying that they should be in the position of a teacher. No, but they should be able to teach one another about the riches of Christ. And it’s not saying you need to be a better Christian. No, that would be all about your performance. How much you pray, how much you study, how much you serve. If I do more, I’ll be better and more mature. But you’re missing it. It’s all about beholding Christ’s performance. It’s all about what he’s done and who he is. And the more occupied you are with Christ, guess what? The less occupied you will be with yourself. This wretched man. I’m tired of thinking about myself. That is what changes everything.
It’s precisely the danger that Paul saw in Galatia. When he asked the church there a question, sounds remarkably similar. To that of Hebrews. Galatians 4 verse 9. How can you turn back again? And that’s exactly what’s happening here. Instead of moving forward into the riches of Christ, they’re drifting backward into spiritual infancy. Isn’t that what immature hearts always do? They stop looking upward to Christ. And they begin looking inward at themselves. As they say over again, preoccupied with performance. Am I doing enough? Why am I still struggling the same way? Oh, maybe if I prayed more. Maybe if I read more. Maybe if I just worked a little harder.
And before long, your relationship with Christ… Fades into the background, and your spiritual life becomes centered on yourself. What does that actually look like? Well, when the immature believer falls into sin, he immediately thinks, well, God wants to get rid of me now. God is done with me. Now, the mature believer knows his sin displeases God. But it doesn’t reverse his right standing, his right relationship. And instead of running from Christ in terror, he runs to Christ in confession. And knowing that he has a high priest, a great high priest who is interceding for him, the immature believer suffers and asks this question, where is God? Well, the mature believer suffers too, but he remembers that Christ learned obedience through suffering and sympathizes with us in every way, in all our weaknesses. The immature believer battles temptation by making promises. Lord, I’ll do better next time. The mature believer battles temptation by drawing near to the throne of grace for mercy and grace in time of need.
But notice what Paul says, back again, Galatians 4 and 9. Now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, Even before he tells them not to go backward, he reminds them that Christianity begins not with our pursuit of God, but with his gracious pursuit of us.
Mature believers don’t rest in how well they know Christ. They rest in the wonderful truth that they are known by Christ. And because they’re known and loved by Him, they keep looking upward instead of inward. The Baptist Confession says it this way, everyone Christ has redeemed receives every benefit of His saving work. Every single one. He continually intercedes for them, strengthens their faith by His Word and His Spirit, lovingly rules their hearts. And by his almighty power, he keeps them safe all the way until the end.
Brothers and sisters, that’s why mature believers aren’t consumed by constant introspection. They look to a Savior who is still at work in them. He isn’t finished with them. He’s still interceding. He’s still strengthening. He’s still keeping.
But now it’s as though the author is saying, do I have to start all over again? About this I have much to say. Do I have to show you once more how all of Scripture points to Christ? Here in Hebrews, immaturity looks like this. Shows itself sluggish hearing, but the root problem is the same. Instead of growing into the fullness of Christ, into maturity in Christ, they’ve become occupied with something else. It doesn’t always look dramatic. Sometimes it looks like endless self-examination. So much so that you become sick. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t examine ourselves in light of God’s Word. We certainly do. We just refuse to make our performance the ground of the Lord’s acceptance of us. It could also look like constant discouragement by measuring your standing with God by how well you perform this week. Looking inward instead of upward. Be encouraged. Christ perfectly preserves his people. And he ordinarily does so by feeding and strengthening them through the word and the spirit.
You see, the author wants to take these believers into the deeper realm.
Understanding of Christ, priesthood for them. That’s what he’s talking about. That’s where he wants to take them. That’s where he wants to unfold this wonders of Melchizedek. Man, who is this guy? This is incredible how it relates to Christ. He wants to dive right into that, but he has to pause. And that’s what these verses are about. They’re not ready. Not because they’re unintelligent, but because they’ve remained spiritual infants. They’re still living on the ABCs of the Christian faith instead of growing into the riches of Christ.
So what is that word of righteousness? It’s that glorious message that centers on Christ finished and righteous saving work. In other words, it’s the riches of the gospel of Christ. An immature believer knows that Christ died for sinners, but a mature believer is increasingly learning what that means for every area of his life. The gospel is not merely the door through which we enter into the Christian life. No, the gospel is the house in which we live every day.
We learn to fight temptation. How? By resting in Christ’s finished work. You think it’s because you don’t try hard enough. I think it’s because our hearts have not been transformed enough by the finished work of Christ. We learn to face guilt. How do you face it when you feel guilty? Trusting Christ, his once and for all sacrifice. All of your sin has been paid for on the cross. He did it in one act. When you’re guilty, you go to that act and you say, Lord, you paid for my guilt and my shame. You learn to endure suffering. Not by complaining, not by trying harder or setting your mind, keeping your mind busy, but by remembering Christ, who does what for you? Sympathizes with your weakness. That’s how you endure suffering.
How do we learn to pray? We learn to pray because Christ continually intercedes for us. When we don’t know how to pray, the Word says that He teaches us. All that we’re required to do is come to Jesus. And he’ll do it. We learn to draw near because Christ has opened the door. He’s opened the way into God’s presence. He’s prepared the way. He went before us through the heavens, seated at the right hand of the Father. Now we come how? Boldly into the throne of grace to find our mercy and grace.
The gospel never allows us to separate what Christ has done from how we are to live now. Never to separate the two. The deeper you understand Christ, the more your life begins to resemble Christ. What you believe about Jesus will always shape how you live before him. If all we see… Is that Jesus died for me. But we never grow to understand what his finished work means for us in how we live now. Then guess what happens? We remain spiritual infants. Without that deeper understanding, the Christian life is solely centered on your performance. Did you do enough? Did you give enough? Did you pray enough? Did you serve enough? It’s crushing guilt after failure. When you don’t meet the standard. And then when you are successful, what happens then? Oh, pride. Look at me. I’m performing well. Oh, poor you little other Christians who can’t perform as well as me. That’s the life of a spiritual child.
And Paul says something remarkably similar in Ephesians chapter 4. He tells believers that God desires that we no longer remain spiritual children. But that we grow up, he says. How do we grow up? Well, he says, in every way into Christ. Brothers and sisters, that is spiritual maturity. It’s not accumulating more Bible knowledge, more Greek words in Hebrew, more understanding of mysteries and secondary doctrines. It’s not mastering theological vocabulary. It’s not becoming more religious. It’s growing deeper into Christ himself.
So if dull hearts stop listening to Christ and immature hearts keep looking inward, that’s a sign if you’re always looking inward, caution flag instead of looking to Christ.
Point 3: Mature Hearts Continually Feed on Christ
Hebrews 5:14
What does a mature heart actually look like? Some of you, I’ve been beating you up here. That’s not my intention. Verse 14 gives us the answer. It isn’t someone who has finally arrived. It’s someone who has learned to keep feeding on Christ. So let’s read verse 14 together as we consider that last point. That mature hearts continually feed on Christ. Verse 14, we read together.
Solid food is for the mature heart. For those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
Solid food. Strong meat of the word. At first it seems like the hidden doctrines, the difficult theology, the deep mysteries reserved for only those that are mature in their faith. But is that what this verse is saying? Not at all. The solid food, the solid food is everything the author wants to tell them about Christ. His better priesthood. His perfect obedience, His once and for all sacrifice, His continual intercession. So where does Christ ordinarily feed His people? He gathers His church together under the preaching of His word. That’s actually what Hebrews is. I don’t know if you noticed that or knew it. The entire letter is a sermon. Proclaiming Christ to God’s people. The author doesn’t say, hey man, just go home. Go home with your Bible and your dictionary and your study material and go ahead and figure out Melchizedek all on your own. No, he’s preaching Christ to them.
That’s why the Lord’s Day is central to the Christian life. Sunday after Sunday, Christ feeds his sheep through the ordinary ministry of his word.
Now, does that mean that personal Bible study is not important? Not at all. You missed it. Personal Bible reading is one of God’s wonderful gifts for our growth. But it’s never meant to be a replacement for the gathered worship of God’s people. Think of it like this. The public ministry of the word is the primary meal. Your personal Bible, I’ll say meditation better than reading, is your nourishment throughout the week. God intends for us to do both. But he’s especially promised to nourish his people, his church, when we gather together and we hear Christ proclaimed. There are two common errors. Just me, my Bible, and the Holy Spirit, and I’m good. Or, I just need Sunday, and I’ll be fine. Either one leaves the believer feeling malnourished.
Now the next question we have to ask is, who is this mature believer? I don’t understand. What is he like? Is he the smartest? Is he the one that is the oldest? Well, you know what? He must be the seminary graduate, the one that knows all the Greek and the Hebrew. Let me be clear. There is a world of difference between intellectual ability and spiritual maturity. A person may know many facts about Christ, many scriptures, and yet know very little of the treasure of the communion with Christ. The goal of Hebrews, the goal of this author to God’s people, isn’t that we would have bigger heads. It’s that our hearts would delight more deeply in Christ.
The author says the mature believer has his powers of discernment trained. That word train describes repeated exercise. Think of an athlete. Strength is inbuilt and by one workout. It comes through countless days, weeks, months of faithful, consistent training. And spiritual maturity… Developed similarly, week after week, day after day, Christ trains our spiritual senses as we do what? Continually feed on him. But let’s be honest. Training our spiritual senses, man, that takes some intentional effort. It’s much easier to let the world think for us than set our minds on Christ. And that’s why these habits, they don’t develop accidentally. Christ trains his people as they continually feed on him through the ordinary means that he has appointed.
It becomes very easy for us, wouldn’t you say, to let our phones, our feeds, our favorite voices, just do all the thinking for us. But spiritual maturity, it doesn’t happen that way. It doesn’t happen overnight. Christ forms mature believers through ordinary, repeated habits of grace. A regular diet of God’s Word. Especially as Christ is proclaimed from all of Scripture, preparing our hearts before the Lord’s Day. Saturday night becomes preparation instead of recovery. Sunday morning becomes anticipation rather than obligation. You’re not merely coming to attend a meeting. You’re coming to meet with Christ. Come expecting Christ will feed you. That’s how Christ trains his people, through continual exposure to himself by the ordinary means that he has appointed. And over time, something remarkable begins to happen. Christ doesn’t simply fill our minds with more information. He trains our spiritual senses.
Listen to how the author continues. To distinguish good from evil. Beholding Christ’s mercy trains us to put away harsh anger and respond patiently toward one another. Not simply with information, but with discernment.
Think about someone who has eaten healthy for years. What happens? Their taste actually changes. They begin enjoying foods they once disliked. And they can immediately tell when something is artificial. Why? Because years of healthy eating has trained their palate. Hebrews says something similar has happened spiritually. Years of feeding on Christ train your spiritual palate. You begin to recognize what actually nourishes your soul versus what merely tastes good for a moment.
Brothers and sisters, there’s a lot of spiritual junk food out there. Some of it is obvious. False teaching, prosperity gospel, self-help religion. But some of it is a little more subtle. It’s sermons that give you principles, but not Christ. Books that tell you how to improve yourself, how to be happier and love yourself more, but never points you to your great high priest. Or endless opinions that stir up fear in you rather than deepen your confidence in Christ. Even good things can become spiritual junk food when they leave us occupied with ourselves rather than Christ.
Mature believers don’t simply ask, “Is this interesting?” or “Oh, is this popular?” They ask, “Does this help me know Christ more deeply? Does this lead me to trust Christ more fully?” Does this magnify my great high priest?
As I already said, there’s a lot of spiritual junk food in the world. Don’t settle for substitutes. Christ himself is the feast. The deeper things aren’t the hidden mysteries. They’re the deeper glories of Christ. And that’s what Hebrews wants for every one of us. Not bigger heads. But bigger hearts for Christ. Not merely biblical information, but deeper communion with our Savior.
So the author has shown us what keeps us from growing, what spiritual immaturity looks like, and now he’s shown us where true maturity is found.
Conclusion and Application
So let me leave you with one final encouragement. It’s the same question that I asked in the beginning. How do Christians actually grow spiritually? Not by trying harder, not by becoming more religious, not by discovering some hidden spiritual secret. We grow in grace by continually knowing Christ more deeply and trusting him more fully. We grow as we keep listening to his voice rather than competing voices. We grow as we keep looking upward to Christ instead of inward to ourselves. We grow as we continually feed on him through the ordinary means that he’s given his church.
Remember where this whole section began. The author wanted to tell them more about Christ. See at 11? About this I have much to say. More about his priesthood. More about his glory. More about his sufficiency. But they had become dull of hearing. Don’t let that happen to you. Don’t let that spiritual junk food come into your life when Christ has set a feast before you. Come every Lord’s Day hungry for Christ. Open your Bible during the week hungry for Christ. Come to Him in prayer hungry for Christ. Because the more you behold Christ, the more you’ll become like Christ. The more occupied you are with Christ, the less occupied you will be with yourself.
And we know that one day faith will become sight. The Christ that we’ve listened to, the Christ that we’ve trusted, the Christ upon whom we have been fed. We will see him face to face. But until that day, keep feeding on Christ because he is himself the feast.
And so Hebrews has held up a mirror to our hearts this morning. We’ve all heard the voice of the world more than the voice of Christ. We’ve all looked inward instead of upward. We’ve all settled at times for the spiritual junk food rather than the feast of Christ. But the answer isn’t to promise that we’ll do better next time. The answer is to come. To come honestly before our gracious high priest. So let’s humble ourselves now. As we come before the Lord and confess our sins together.
So I’m going to lead you in a prayer as we do just that, and then we’ll receive the wonders of the glory of our assurance of salvation. Let’s pray together.
Closing Prayer
Merciful Father, we confess that our hearts are often slow to hear your Son. We’ve listened to many voices while neglecting the voice of Christ. We’ve allowed the cares of this world, our fears, our ambitions, and our distractions to crowd out our love for him. Too often we have looked inward, trusting our own performance, rather than resting in Christ’s finished work. We confess our that we’ve neglected the ordinary means you’ve graciously given for our growth. Forgive us for our dullness of heart. Renew us in a deeper hunger for Christ. Give us ears that gladly hear his voice, hearts that delight in his glory, and lives that increasingly reflect his likeness. We ask all this in the name of our great high priest, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Amen.
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