This morning I want to preach two sermons from the book of Hebrews. I want to read first from Numbers chapter 15. I'll read the verses 32 to 36. And then we'll turn to the book of Hebrews and read the first chapter through the second chapter, verse 4. So a few verses from Hebrews chapter, Numbers rather, chapter While the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation. They put him in custody because it had not been made clear what should be done to him. The Lord said to Moses, The man shall be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. with stones outside the camp. And all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, as the Lord commanded Moses." And then we turn to the New Testament book of Hebrews, the first chapter of Hebrews through chapter 2, verse 4. Again, this is the infallible Word of God. that is read for instruction and edification. Long ago at many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purifications for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. For to which of the angels did God ever say, you are my son, today I have begotten you? Or again, I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, let all eight God's angels worship him. Of the angels, he says, He makes his angels' winds and his ministers' a flame of fire. But of the Son he says, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. And you, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain. They will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end. To which of the angels has he ever said, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet? Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation? Therefore, we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts, by gifts of the Holy Spirit, distributed according to his will. There we end our reading of God's Word. Amid all the news stories of this week, the news stories of the conversation or the joke that was told in the England changing room during the halftime talk in the match with Poland, the news of the sale of the violin that was on the Titanic for 900,000 pounds. Among all these great earth-shattering stories that were flooded across our television screens and newspapers this week, There was one that did stand out for me anyway, personally. And that news story came as a result of a speech that was given at the National Children and Adult Services Conference on Friday. You probably weren't aware that it was taking place, were you? Neither was I. But at that conference, the Health Secretary of the Westminster Government Jeremy Hunt spoke about a concern which he has and which he believed our nation should have. He spoke of a forgotten million living among us who because of our neglect of them are to our national shame. He was speaking about the lonely elderly people who live in our communities up and down the United Kingdom and he was addressing the fact that these people who never see another human being from one week to another, these people who are left to their own devices should be to our shame. Neglect of them is shameful. I don't agree with much that comes out of our government these days, but I do think that that statement is one worth consideration. We don't like neglect. Neglect doesn't engender within us a sense of positivity. It doesn't engage us with a warm feeling. We have, in recent years, heard a number of stories of parents, fathers and mothers who have neglected their infant children. We don't tend to laugh at those stories. They don't draw from us smiles of humour. We think of a two-year-old who is left in their cot, who dies of starvation, surrounded by empty vodka bottles dirty nappies and a mother who can barely pronounce her own name. Neglect doesn't engender within us a great sense of joy. This passage of God's Word is written to Christians to warn them about neglect. It doesn't counsel us to be careful about our neglect of animals if we were so inclined to do so, or of a child, as disturbing as that may be, or of an elderly person, which is shameful. It speaks of a neglect of something that is even more disturbing if such a thing can be the case. It speaks of the neglect of the believer of the great salvation that they have received. It's written to Jewish Christians. They were people who had been converted but who were still worshipping in the temple or had been worshipping in the temple and who looked forward to the mass conversion of their fellow Jews who thought that they lived at a time when the Jesus Christ the Messiah would be revealed in all his glory and majesty and that many of the Jews would turn from their old ways of Judaism and they would embrace by faith this Messiah who had come and who by the grace of God they had come to believe in. But time had passed, months had become years, and the Messiah had not returned. Many of the Jews were continuing to reject openly the idea that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. In fact, the Jewish leaders had become increasingly hostile towards Jews who professed that they believed in Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah. The Church had also changed. It was no longer solely constituted by Jews. Now there were masses of Gentiles who had been converted And Jews were being asked to meet and worship with the Gentiles, not in a synagogue as had been their previous practice on their own, but in churches and houses. And so they were being asked to leave aside what we would understand Judaism to be today and to embrace this new way of thinking and living. which they believed in the power of Jesus Christ, but which would bring them into confrontation, more confrontation with their family and friends, and with the increasingly volatile Roman authorities. And so for many of them they were at a crossroads. The choice was, do I continue to walk with Jesus Christ, do I continue to believe in Jesus Christ? Do I continue to think about Jesus Christ? Do I continue to seek to think about how Jesus Christ should change my thoughts and my words and how following after Jesus Christ should have an impact on my decisions and my choices? Should I continue to believe in Jesus Christ knowing that that will take me increasingly into what is a largely Gentile based church and all the things and the difficulties that it means for me as a Gentile or as a Jew having grown up having a perception of the Gentiles that they were unacceptable to God and all that's associated with that? and the loneliness of having to leave family and friends behind who will not like me for what I'm doing. And it had reached a point where some of these people were actually seriously beginning to think about going back to Judaism. In fact, we read in Hebrews chapter 10, the writer says to them, you know that some of you are actually in the habit of neglecting to meet together. He speaks to them and warns them with counsel concerning this desire. He said, Let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as the habit of some. but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day draws near. So this was just not something that was flipping into the church occasionally. There was within the constitution of the church, there was within the lives of these men and women serious conversations going on about could we, can we continue to walk in the way that we have set ourselves on. in response to God's love for us. And the writer here is writing to them to warn them. He's warning them. He's warning them concerning this very real and present danger in their life. The danger, chapter 2, verse 3, of neglecting the great salvation that they have received. I want to look at what he has to say very simply under three headings. The journey of the neglect, the consequences of the neglect, and the question of the neglect. First, the journey of the neglect. This danger is imminent This threat to their way of life is serious. This is not a hypothetical, theoretical discussion that the writer to the Hebrews is entering into. It's not a theological debate for those who are simply interested in the deeper things of the Christian life. He's writing here to warn those who are considering disengaging from the things of God, to stop and seriously consider what they're doing. And he causes them to think about how this has come about or how it could unfold. It's not that this will come roaring out of the heavens at them and clamor for their attention. No, it's much more quiet than that. It's much more subtle than that. It's much gentler than that. He speaks of the danger of just simply drifting away. It's a word that's used in a sense to describe the image of a boat that's tied up at a mooring. And a failure to pay close attention to how well the boat is tied up means that over time, as the tide comes in and goes out, because there isn't a secure tie on the rope to the metal mooring, the boat by its motion begins to tug on the rope. And over a period of time, that tugging causes the rope to begin to loosen. The strength of the ebb and the flow of the movement of the water is sufficient to overcome the resistance of the knot or the tie. on the mooring. That tugging moves it gently along. That tugging seizes it and squeezes it out of that knot. And over time what eventually happens is that that which was bound becomes unbound and the rope falls into the water and the boat begins to make its way gently away from the side of the banking. Secure and safe, it has now become vulnerable. And over time, that boat drifts out and becomes exposed to all the elements of the rocky shoreline. It's gradual. It's imperceptible. Looking at it, you would think that boat's securely tied But then you see the boat drifting away. And that's the danger you see of our lives. Nobody's going to come to your life and say to you, you must stop going to church. Nobody's going to come to you in your life and say, you must stop engaging in conversation with the people of God. That's not going to happen, not in our day at present. It may come at some time in the future because who knows what lies for our nation in the future. But what there can be is an imperceptible gentle drift in our lives. where we formally were well secured and bound to the things of God, things that would have held us tight, things that would have bound us into our relationship with God and with each other. Then what happens is, over a period of time, the friction is overweighed by the ebb and flow of family, of work, of hobby, of activity, Things that are in themselves not serious in terms of a threat to us and our walk with God. Things which in many ways are good and healthy, but which we give an inordinate amount of time to at the expense of our relationship with God. And where in the past that thing or those activities, if someone would have said to us, well, there'll come a day when you will not be at worship because of this, or you'll not be engaging in this activity because of that, or you will not read the Bible because of this, you'd have said, no, that's not going to happen in my life. I'm quite clear. I love the Lord with all my soul, with all my heart, and with all my mind. I understand that the means of grace are there to build me in my faith. Now the reality is that those things are impacting our thought processes and they are impacting our decisions and they are making changes to our choices in terms of what we do. Those in themselves good things have caused a drift in our lives that is gently taking us away. And you see where it begins. It begins with the hearing of the Word of God. Therefore, we must pay attention, closer attention to what we have heard. Closer attention to what we have heard. Jesus spoke to his disciples and said, Blessed are those who hear and obey. Paul writes to the church at Rome and says, faith comes by hearing the word of God. So there is in the process of hearing the word of God the means by which we are constantly being tied up to the mirroring of our relationship with God. And when We begin to disengage because we begin to stop hearing. Probably not through our not being physically here, but through a failure to actually hear when we are physically here. Through beginning to make assumptions about our Christian life, that we are steady and that all things are well, we begin to not engage mentally. We begin not to sit up and listen to it as the Word of God. It's just another part of our week. It's like going to the shops on a Saturday. It's like going to our hobby or activity on a Tuesday evening. It's like having the family around for that day in the week. Well, we go to church on a Sunday and we sit down and we sing praise and we hear God's Word. But you see, we need to be like the Thessalonians. For Paul writes to the church of Thessalonians and commends them for hearing the word of God, not as the word of men, but as the words of God. The words of God. And this is the critical, critical point. It's having the humility to actually hear God's word as God's word. When you actually stop and think about how God has revealed himself to us, how that he who is infinite and eternal, he who is the creator, condescended to communicate to us using words that we can actually understand. That's a phenomenal thing. God is incomprehensible. in His greatness. Who of us can understand what infinity means? Who of us can understand what perfection of wisdom is? Who of us can truly grasp what it means to be everywhere all the time? Who of us can comprehend the idea of knowing everything that there is to be knowing about everything, whether in the past, the present or the future? God is beyond our comprehension. God is beyond our understanding. Our pea-like sized brains cannot, cannot in any way embrace What there is to be known by God and God in His mercy and His love to mankind has revealed Himself in words. That we can understand His character, that we can understand His attributes, that we can be informed about His works, and that we can understand something of His being. It's through the words of God to us revealed as He has exhaled them that we can, through hearing them proclaimed and read, come to an understanding of the greatness of God. And when we don't hear, when we don't listen, When we don't register, then we're cutting ourselves off from the one source, the one source of truth that there is given by God, whereby we can understand and know Him. And this drift, where our family takes precedence over the things of God, where our work takes precedence over the things of God, where our school or college life takes precedence over the things of God, where our hobby takes precedence over the things of God, where our love for the things in our lives which are good and important takes precedence over the Word of God, that drift begins when we mentally begin to disengage from hearing God's Word. That's why he calls those whom he is writing to, to pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away. I want this morning to ask you one simple question. Are you hearing God through his word? Be honest. Is the drift in your life, if there is a drift in your life, when you actually stop and think about it, is it because you have stopped listening? You've stopped hearing. Even your personal reading isn't speaking to you anymore because you're not listening. You're sitting in worship, Sabbath morning or Sabbath evening, but you're not really listening. You're not asking the Spirit of God to help you to hear. You've reached the point where you think it's just about you understanding it. You think you've reached the point where you will just listen to what I have to say and if there's something of value in it then you'll take it on board and if there's not then you'll leave it. Do you not see the danger in that? Do you not see the threat in that to your life, spiritual? Do you not understand how this cancer of deafness, this malignancy of non-hearing, whether in your reading or whether in your hearing, poses a real and present danger to your spiritual life? You see, when the Word of God comes to you and speaks to you, it comes as a living truth. It is the Word that convicts and converts. It's the Word that revives your soul. Do you think you're going to get reviving of your soul somewhere else? How can you, when God has revealed it's through His Word that the reviving of your soul comes? How can you become wiser if you will not listen to what you read and what you hear? And I'm not asking you to listen to me. I'm asking you to understand that there's a need for you to prayerfully ask God the Holy Spirit to open your ears to hear what God is actually saying. That the word that is proclaimed will penetrate into your heart and into your mind and that it will exercise the purpose for which it is sent forth. That God who knows you, that God who understands you, that God who sees you and hears you, Not just externally, but internally. That He knows your needs, real and deep and spiritual. That if you will exercise that gift of asking God, the Holy Spirit, to speak to you through the Word as it's preached or whether it's read in your own hearing, or whether you prepare it for Bible study during the week, whatever it is, that if you would ask God to receive this Word as His Word to you, The impact of that on your life is potential and huge. It's not just about informing you. It's not about enabling you to answer questions better. It's not about giving you a sense of grasping this. It's about actually bringing to you counsel and light and life and energy and hope and passion. So those things that are causing you to drift, those important things that are necessary in your life, will be put back into their rightful place and you will have the opportunity to say, no, I am getting this boat of my life which is drifting out the harbour towards the rocks of destruction and I'm going to make my way back, and I'm going to tie myself up again to the mooring that's there, and I'm going to hold on to that. I'm still going to involve my life in the other things, but when it comes to making the primary choices in my life, the primary choices in my life, they are going to be centered through and around this great salvation that I have received in Jesus Christ. this great salvation that I have received in Jesus Christ. And if you think this morning that your boat is well mirrored, and it is well mirrored, then take heed for the first signs of the rope slackening Take real close heed to that. And don't take for granted the blessings you presently have. Pay close attention. Pay detailed attention to what you are hearing in order to prevent you from drifting away. Tonight I look at the other points.