Okay, that's good, everybody's here. Let me give you a little update to the Passion for Prisoners ministry. I want you to know that there was a, what we call a TDOC, a TDOC group. TDOC means the It means something. Tidak means to be disciple makers of Christ. To be disciple makers of Christ. And we call it Tidak. So there's some things about these men that have really impressed me. that not only do they have a sense of godliness about them. You say, well, we're talking about inmates, aren't we? Well, because they're inmates doesn't mean they're not godly. It doesn't mean that they don't have a walk of godliness. But there's something about them that has really caught my attention, and that is that they have a hall of shame. Now, I didn't say a hall of fame. I said a hall of shame. Now, the hall of shame that they have is that they're an inmate. They can never, ever get rid of that. They will always be an inmate. No matter where they go, no matter what they're caught up with, they will always be an inmate. Now that's, you say, well, what's the purpose of sharing that? It's because that hall of shame has caused them to be humble. And humility is a very key factor in our walk with Christ. In fact, I must be very honest with you that it has really stirred my heart to really to the place of realizing that I too have a hall of shame. And I suppose that we can all say, well, we all have a hall of shame, I suppose. But my hall of shame is pride. I have fought with this thing all my life and I'm still fighting it. And so this hall of shame that I am struggling with is something whereby I am hoping and praying this. I repent of that, that God takes that pride and he turns it around and he humbles me with it. It's an amazing thing how that God does things whereby when we repent of our sins, God utilizes it and ministers to our hearts and humbles us with it. And so I can say that I am not as humble as I like to be, but I know that God is not through with me yet. And I think that I had several more years to go. And you say, well, no, you're 72, so you only have a few more years. No, no, I have plenty more years. I'm still vibrant. So don't count me out yet. So I want you to understand that there is a pendulum of swinging that I want to bring you to from these men who have a walk of humility to a place and passage in scripture that it is just the exact opposite. That there is not a hall of shame, there is not a place of humility, there is in fact a dull of hearing. A dull of hearing. I'd like you to open your Bibles to the chapter five Hebrews, chapter five of Hebrews and verse 11. And let me just read these verses till we get to 14. Consider him, to consider him, that's Jesus Christ. 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 articles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Father, we ask you that in the name of Jesus, that you would take this and that you would bless and that you would give me freedom to speak. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. I want to take you back to the beginning of Hebrews. Because see, the book of Hebrews is all about glorifying Christ. The book of Hebrews is that Jesus Christ is greater than anyone and than anything. And what I want you to see here in the passage of scripture of verse three, chapter one, And he says, he is the radiance, that is Jesus, is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his nature and upholds all things by the word of his power. When he had made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. We are talking about Jesus Christ. Now he goes on in verse four, he says, having become much better than the angels, he has inherited a more excellent name than they. How has he inherited a name that is more excellent than they? It's through humility. Jesus humbled himself even to the place that he came from the lofty heights of heaven. He came and was birthed from a virgin. He became the God man. And by being the God-man, he had to humble himself to even be amongst us people, sinners. He knew no sin. So he humbled himself and he said that even he did not have a place to lay his head. The birds have nests and the foxes have holes, Jesus had no place to lay his head. He humbled himself even to the place where at the garden of Gethsemane, he said, Lord, not this cup, may it pass from me. But in loud cries and with his heart burdened, he gave his heart to Christ. Christ gave his heart to the Father. Christ submitted himself to the Father. He humbled himself because he knew what was going to be in the cup. He knew what he was going to have to face, so he went deeper in his humility. And yet he went deeper even still in his humility in that he had to stand before a Sanhedrin and say, he claims to be God, what more do you have to say? And so they spit on his face and they plucked his beard and yet he went deeper in humility and he gave his back to the cat of nine tails to where his back was with ribbons of the flesh but yet he went deeper in his humility and he went to the cross and there on the cross he gave his hands and he gave his feet to put nails in but yet he went deeper in his humility and when he went deeper in his humility as he hung upon the cross he took upon himself he took upon himself the sin that was ours. He who knew no sin became sin for us. And so he went deeper in his humility and took the wrath of God upon him. In the depths of his very being, he went deeper in humility. That is the example that we have before us is that the Christ who humbled himself to the pits of his soul, so that we may understand and have an example before us as to what it means to humble ourselves. But see, we not only have that as an understanding, is that Jesus Christ is far greater than the angels. Because he says, which one of you, which one of the angels did I say that You're my son in whom I am well pleased. He did not say that to any of the angels because Jesus Christ is far greater than the angels. But see, Jesus Christ is far greater than Moses. And see, the angels and Moses are the Jewish people. They think that they're the highest and regarded them as the highest. but Jesus Christ is far greater than Moses because it says that Moses built the house, but Jesus owns the house. He's far greater than Moses. Jesus Christ is far greater than Joshua in that Joshua brought them into the land of promise and he was giving them rest, but that rest is not an eternal rest. Jesus Christ is far greater than Joshua in that he gives them an eternal rest. Jesus Christ is far greater than Aaron who has his priestly service. which is a foreshadow of Christ himself. So Jesus Christ is far greater than Aaron. And Jesus Christ is far greater than Melchizedek. Even though Melchizedek is a shadow or a typology of who Christ should be, he is far greater than Melchizedek. So we come to verse 10 of Hebrews 5, and the writer of the book of Hebrews is exasperated. He says, I want to tell you more about Melchizedek. I want to tell you more about who Christ is. I want to tell you more about who Christ is and that he is the great high priest. I want to tell you more about that. But you are hard of hearing. You're dull of hearing, I should say. Now the word dull is the word notros and what that means is no push. No push. So this is a serious accusation about the church that they do not have a push. They don't have a push in going forward, but they're going backward. Now, I want to share with you three individuals that I can see in this passage of scripture. Three individuals. The first person that is dull of hearing is a person who has, well, let me first give you the three points that I want to cover so I don't get lost here. the cause of dull of hearing, the consequence of dull of hearing, and the constantly maintaining the word of God so you would not become dull of hearing. So the cause, the first cause is that person who is dull of hearing has, this person was vibrant in his walk with Christ. He, she, pushed through the word of God, pushed through to righteousness, enjoyed the walk that they had with Christ, but something happened. Something happened. And the something that happened was that there was no push. They entered into a plateau. Even though they were Christians, even though they had a walk with the Lord, but they came to a place of standstill. They came to a place in their walk that they, it was a plateau, whereby they no longer had this, the desire and hunger for the things that are of God. There wasn't a push anymore. There wasn't a push for righteousness. Jesus said, blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. These people have come to the place who are maybe guilty of what I am saying, have become satisfied with less than righteousness. have become satisfied with less than righteousness, have become satisfied with no longer pushing through and hungering after righteousness, have become dull of hearing. And so you say, well, I can't see how that would happen to me. Well, let me ask you something. Has church become routine to you? Have you, do you come to church with a routine type, an attitude to where you're saying, I'm just here. I'm not really hearing what Brother Jeff's saying. I'm not really picking up on the things that are being said. It's going over your head. It's not having a push for righteousness. It's entering into that area of no push, no zeal, no hunger, just no reading of books and no studying of the word of God and the devotion that this person had at one time was vibrant, it was filled with joy. It was something whereby they studied the word of God and their devotion was sweet and understandable of who God was and they studied to know Christ. They studied to understand who he was. And my, I just now noticed that I didn't turn this thing on. Sorry about that. Okay, we're gonna have to go all the way back from the beginning and I'll start all over again. So therefore we have a person who is in present tense, dull of hearing. Present tense is that he has come to the place in his walk where he's no longer hungering and thirsting after righteousness. There's no longer hunger. There's no more than push. There's no longer the desire. No pushing for righteousness. Now, you may ask, well, what are we talking about when we say righteousness? What is it that we need to know about righteousness? Let me share five things about what it means to be in righteousness. Five points of practical righteousness. I'm not talking about the imputed righteousness that cannot be improved upon. I'm talking about the five points of righteousness. And I want to share these things with you so that you may understand why some people get to the plateau. Sometimes it's that you become complacent, but others may be because of sin and not wanting to confess sin. And you enter into this plateau and you get bogged down into this plateau. The first is the walk of integrity, being honest in all your affairs with people, being honest to tell the truth about who you are and being honest not to hide things from people that you know you need to share with them, being honest. having a walk of integrity. A man who, in a woman who has a walk of integrity, people know them because they trust in them. They have gained that walk. Then there's the walk of obedience to the truth of God's word. That again is an area that must be maintained. Walking out the truth. Sometimes we can become lazy and not walk out the truth. The walking out the truth is paramount. When you hear a message from this pulpit and you do not walk it out, then you are slipping in your walk. You are slipping away from the truth of God's word because you must walk out the truth. When you studied the word of God, you must walk out the truth. Anytime the truth is presented to you, you must walk it out. So you must have a walk of obedience. You must have a walk in purity of heart. A purity of heart is one who is unmixed with the world. It is a holy living. It is a righteousness that is based on holy living. The fifth area is the walk of humility, humility. These are points of how we can have the righteousness that is a practical righteousness in our lives. And the fifth one is correcting. You must have a correction in your walk whereby you correct your thoughts, you correct your emotions, and you correct your actions. And so, therefore, when you are not walking in integrity, you correct that. When you're not walking in humility, you correct that. When you're not walking in obedience, you correct that. So there is an avenue whereby you repent and correct where you went astray. That is how we need to be able to see our lives. And some people may, are living in an area of sin, and they've given themselves over to that sin, and they are in that place where there's great problems in their lives. Well, what is the consequence of this person? It's regression. regression. You see, you either walking forward or you falling backward. There is no such thing as standing still with Christ. There's no such thing. It's either you pressing forward or you're falling backward. That's That's the way we walk with Christ. It's either we're walking, not walking, or we are walking. So there is regression in their walk. Now, notice what he says here in the 12th chapter. You need to be taught again the elementary principles of the articles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. That's regression. And it says in verse 13, for everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness. So the person who has been on a plateau, he's not going forward, he's going backward. He's regressing to the place of being a baby again. having to be retaught the elementary articles of God. Now, the word article is words. It means scripture. It means knowledge. It means the gospel. And I'll get to that in just a little bit. The second person that I want to talk to you about is the lost person. This person is one who, has been given opportunities to hear the gospel message of Christ, has again given opportunities to push through to Christ, but they haven't. Now, the writer of Hebrews gives three warnings. I want to take you back to these three warnings. so that you see the warnings that have been given to a person who has lost. The writer wants you to see how important it is for you to see what happens when someone has lost. Now, the first warning that we have is found in the second chapter, verses one to four. For this reason, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, least we drift away from it. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable and every transgression and disobedience received just recompense, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? after it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard." What is taking place with the person who's lost is that he's right there. He's right there. And he just needs to push through to know Christ as his Savior. But instead of pushing through, He drifts away. He drifts away and the call of repentance has become very faint in his years. Well, the second warning is found in the third chapter, third chapter, verse 12. Take care, brethren. At least there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart and falling away from the living God. Now, notice that he says falling away from the living God. What he's saying is that you're falling away out of unbelief. It's unbelief that that person is not repenting of. and belief. You see, God will give you the faith, but you got to come through, push through to believe in him. Notice verse 15, chapter 13. While it is said, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as when they provoke me. Do not harden your hearts. Now notice over in 4.7, chapter four, verse seven. In 4.7, it says, He again fixes a certain day today, saying through David, after so long a time, just as has been said before, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Do not harden your hearts. Now there may be some in this congregation right now who have hardened your hearts. You've heard the gospel message over and over and over and over again, and you become dull of hearing. And it's not moving on you. And you're not stirred because you become dull of hearing. There is no push. There's no push. And so this third person may be saying within their heart, and pride comes into them, and it says, oh, I just don't have the time right now. Maybe some other time I will believe, but not right now. Oh, there's many other things that I would like to do, but I cannot listen to you right now. I cannot hear what you're saying right now. And so we have this person who is a person who is through pride, will not receive faith. He becomes dull of hearing. And so here's the consequence of being dull of hearing. The fires of hell are licking at your feet. Hell's fires are licking at your feet and they are drawing you downward. And hell has a place for you. And you may say, well, I put it off, I put it off, I put it off, I put it off. But see, there is going to be a time you're going to put it off too many times. And the call of salvation will not be heard by you anymore. Now is the day. Now is the day. And if you're under the sound of my voice, I am asking you to not put it off again. That you come to know Christ as your personal Savior. Well, there's a third person that I want you to see in here. And this is the person that hits us all, I'm afraid. This is a person who who has misplaced the art. You say, well, I don't understand what you're talking about. The word art is Ophilo, it means responsibility. Misplaced the responsibility. So what have they misplaced the responsibility? The responsibility is that you ought to be teachers by now. You ought to be teachers. Now, you may be thinking, oh, wait a minute, I am not a teacher. I do not teach Sunday school class. I do not teach anything. I am not a teacher. Now, I did not say anything to you about being a teacher of Sunday school. Now, did I? What I wanted to introduce to you is that the elementary principles of the articles of God is dealing with the gospel. You understand what I'm saying? It's dealing with the gospel. It's talking about sharing the gospel message of Jesus Christ. You ought to be teachers by now. You say, well, where is it in sharing the gospel that I'm a teacher? Jesus gives us the understanding of that that's found in Matthew 28, 19 to 20. Would you turn there with me for I want you to see that Jesus gave you a command. This is not an option. This is a command. Matthew 28, 19 to 20. In fact, if we looked at Matthew 28, 18, we will see that We'll see that I get to the passage in a second. In verse 18, Jesus said, Jesus came up and spoke to them all, all authority has been given to me in heaven and earth. Why would he say that? Why would he preface that with what he's fixing to say? Because what he's saying is that all authority that God has given to me, I'm giving to you. This is the authority that I am giving to you. What authority is that? Well, verse 19 tells you, go therefore and make disciples. Now, in order for you to make a disciple, you have to be evangelistic. Is that not correct? So you're gonna have to share the gospel message of Jesus Christ And to share the gospel, you must be ready to share the gospel. We can find all kinds of excuses as to why we will not share the gospel. Sometimes we have the excuse that I'm busy. I've got a job that keeps me busy. And then when I get off, I really don't have time to go share the gospel. But you do have the time. You have the time on your job. When you sit down to lunch and someone is sitting by you and you're entering into a conversation and there is the prompting of the Spirit of God to speak to that person about the gospel message of Jesus Christ. And what do you do? Do you do it? Do you take it? No, the promptings of the Spirit of God is so that you will take that gospel and share it with them. But, you get up, You shake his hand and you say, it's really been good talking to you. And you walk away and you're thinking to yourself, man, I should have shared the gospel with that person. And yet that time keeps coming. There's opportunities that keep coming. And the spirit of God keeps talking to you until you begin to be deaf to the promptings of the spirit of God. You know you need to share the gospel. You know that you're in situations. You know that you're sitting with somebody. You know that there's an opportunity that's there, but you don't push through. You don't push through. And that is of grave importance to Christ because the main thing must be the main thing. The main thing must be the main thing. The gospel message of Jesus Christ is the most important for us to do because Jesus Christ said so. He has given us that command. He did not give us a choice. He did not say it's okay if you don't want to share the gospel message. I understand that you're afraid. I understand that fear grabs you. I understand those things. No, Jesus is not saying those things. No, he's not. He is holding us accountable to share the gospel message of Jesus Christ. And he records every time that you have had an opportunity to share the gospel and you walked away from it. And you'll answer to him for it. You'll answer to him for it. We must be disciple makers. There is people in this church right now that needs a disciple maker. They need somebody to come alongside of them and help them grow in the Lord. Is that right? We need that. And I speak to myself as well. I need to make myself available to be disciple maker. Make a disciple maker. Be a disciple maker. You know guys, I can never tell you what greater joy it is to do God's work, God's way, and God's timing. There is no other joy than that. There's nothing more exhilarating than to share Christ with somebody and that person comes to know Christ. Man, you cannot get a better high than that. You can't get a better high. The fourth person, and this I will close with, the fourth person is, constantly maintaining the word of God in his life. Notice what it says, 514 Hebrews. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is those who by reason of use have their senses exercised and discern both good and evil. Now the word exercise is gymnasio and we get our word, anybody know? We get our word gymnasium from, gymnasio. What do you do in the gymnasium? Do you go there and just sit down? You go there to work out, right? You go there to work out. So therefore, he's saying that we go to the gymnasium to work out. Work out what? Work the Word of God out. We're working the Word of God out. So once we are working the Word of God out, we become strong in the Lord. and we begin to discern both good and evil. Now, when we discern both good and evil, I want you to understand that that is gonna turn around and it's going to be a tester of your life. It's gonna test you whether or not you know good from evil. You sit down with a business deal with a man and that guy has given you one heck of a deal. The only problem is you got to compromise God's word. So you need to know between good and evil. You need the tester is, or am I going to make the decision what's right? Or am I going to make the decision that's wrong? Is money going to be the key factor? In conclusion, let me give you three applications that we need to be able to look at. And these three dealing with those three persons who have become dull of hearing. You must not be complacent. You can become content. You be content. But see, there is no complacency in Christ. If you ever come to complacency in your walk, and you're no longer pushing through to righteousness, you're gonna regress. And see, the problem is not only will you regress, but there is the danger of apostasy. The danger of apostasy. And so when I say apostasy, you say, well, Demas was one who worked with Paul. He worked with Paul and yet, He went to the world. He apostatized. Secondly, if you do not know Christ, if Christ is not in you and you are not in Christ, you must know that now is the day of salvation. And I ask you with all my heart, please, Come to Christ. No, run to Christ. Run to Christ. And thirdly, you must have the push, the responsibility to share the gospel message of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, it's my desire to see those that are guilty of any one of these three areas, that they would repent and they would turn from their ways and they would go to Christ. Father, may we not succumb to being dull of hearing. That is a huge, horrible mistake. And Father, I pray that as we look at the elementary principles of the articles of God, we must be sure about where we are at. We must know what the scriptures say. We must know the doctrinal truths of God's word. We must know the gospel. We must be willing and ready to share it. Oh, Father, fix our hearts and minds on that. Let us be a vibrant church that continues to be a vibrant church and sharing the gospel message of Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.